How to Make Hungarian Rolls

Hungarian Roll Pastry

These sweet little nut filled pastries are another recipe that my mom used to make for the holidays.  They are made with a yeast dough, but the method is a little different than other doughs I’ve worked with in the past.  The keys to success are keeping everything cold (the dough gets sticky when it gets warm) and working gently with the dough.  Blend only until mixed, bake only until lightly browned.

Hungarian Roll Recipe

Dough
1 tablespoon dry yeast or 2 teaspoons SAF-INSTANT yeast
4 cups white all-purpose flour
1 pound butter (no substitutions, organic is great if you have it)

3 eggs
1cup full fat sour cream

Filling

1/2lb walnuts, chopped fine
3 egg whites
1cup sugar

powder sugar, for dusting

Directions

In a large bowl, mix flour and yeast, cut in butter with pastry blender.

Whisk together three eggs and sour cream, then add to dry mixture. Mix gently until dough just holds together.  Do not overmix, or your dough will get tough.

Form dough into large roll, divide dough evenly into 8 disks.  I like to hack the dough apart with my cutter/scraper.  (It’s great for cleaning off the counter after you’re done rolling, too.)

Place each disk between wax paper. Refrigerate overnight.

For filling, mix walnuts, egg whites and sugar.  Set aside.

Roll disk between wax paper with powdered sugar to about 12″- thinner than pie crust. (Sorry I missed photos of this!) Dusting your wax paper with flour will help keep the dough from sticking, as will keeping everything as cool as possible.

Cut into 8 wedges/triangles. Put about a teaspoon of filling on the wide end and roll up like crescent rolls.  Curl them fairly tight, as they like to straighten during cooking.  Place on well greased pan or pan lined with parchment or reusable parchment.  I prefer using air bake pans for these so they don’t overbrown.

Bake at 350 F for 10-15min, until just lightly browned. (On the airbake pans it takes around 15-16 minutes.)  Dust with powdered sugar while still warm.  (I like to use my Pampered Chef Sugar Shaker.)  Move to wire rack to cool.  Makes about 4 dozen.

As you can see from this cross section, these little treats bake up light and flaky with a tasty nut filling. 

With a cup of coffee or tea they are really quite sinfully delicious.  Once in a while mom would make these with poppyseed filling, too, but I suspect that might have been because she misjudged the amount of nut mixture per roll and ran a little short.  Whatever the reason, those were tasty, too.  I’m sure you could substitute honey for the sugar, too, and just use a bit less, to give these more of a baklava flavor.   I’m thinking of trying out a sour cream culture from Cultures for Health and using my own sour cream, but this time around I used commercial organic sour cream.

These rolls can be made ahead and frozen in layers stacked between waxed paper.  They store quite well – easily a month or more in the freezer and a week or two chilled or on the counter in a sealed container.  Mom always made them ahead so she didn’t have quite so much to do on the day of or the day before the event.

Thanks to my friend, Emma, for helping me get this recipe back (I had lost my copy).  My niece, Kira, helped roll out most of these Saturday night while I did the dishes, so a big thanks to her, too.    We had a nice visit (her brother helped make kolache earlier in the day).  Here’s my niece with her baby girl, Brit.

Do you do any special holiday baking?  I’d love to hear about your family traditions here or on the Facebook page.  If you think this recipe looks tasty, please pass it along.