This roll, the bejgli [‘bεjgli] is a Hungarian speciality. It is made mostly for Christmas or Easter. Traditionally it is filled with walnut or poppy seed filling, but nowadays new fillings are being experimented upon. Now I present the preparation of the traditional walnut-filled roll.

Preparation time: 180 minutes + 25 minutes baking

For how many rolls?:

Ingredients (2 rolls per recipe - half kilo each)

For the dough:
260 g / 9.1 oz plain flour
78 g / 2.75 oz butter
52 g / 1.8 oz animal fat
26 g / 0.9 oz castor sugar
a pinch of salt
4 g / 0.15 oz yeast
26 g / 0.9 oz egg yolk
52 g / 1.8 oz milk

For the walnut filling:
272 g / 9.5 oz ground walnut
136 g / 4.75 oz sugar
6 g / 0.2 oz ground cinnamon
81 g / 2.8 oz milk
vanilla sugar
1 lemon’s grated rind
1 orange’s grated rind
According to taste: chopped candied orange rind, candied ginger, raisins, ground cardamom or ground nutmeg.

For the greasing:
egg yolk
egg white

Preparation

1. You will need to preheat the oven to 200 C (392 F), but don’t start to preheat it now. Switch the oven on only when you are finished with the greasing.

2. In a bowl combine the flour, butter, animal fat, castor sugar and the pinch of salt.

3. In another bowl mix the yeast, milk and egg yolk.

4. To the flour-mixture add the milk-mixture and start to knead the dough.
Attention! Don’t knead the dough over! When it becomes homogeneous, and all the ingredients are well combined, stop kneading!

5. Roll out the dough, and divide it into 250g parts. Form round shapes of the parts, cover them with cling film, and leave them to rest in the fridge for one hour.

6. While the dough is in the fridge prepare the filling. In a bowl combine the walnut, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, lemon rind and the optional (candied) ingredients.

7. In a pot boil the milk with the sugar. Then pour the boiling milk over the nutmeg mixture and with a wooden spoon stir until it becomes totally homogeneous. When it cooled down, cover the pot with cling film and put in the fridge.

8. When the dough parts cooled down, roll them out to 21 x 28 cm (8,27 in x 11,02 in) rectangles. It is important that the thickness of the dough should be even!

9. Divide the filling to 250 g parts, too, and between two layers of cling film roll them out into 19 x 26 cm ( 7,48 in x 10,24 in ) rectangles of even thickness. First press the filling between the two layers of cling film with your hands into a square shape, then with a rolling pin roll it out to an even thickness.

10. From one side of the filling pull off the cling film, then with the help of the other cling film layer place the filling to the centre of the dough. Pull off this layer of cling film, too.

11. Fold the sides of the dough on the filling, and press down the dough to the level of the filling’s.

12. Repeat this act with one of the longer sides of the dough, and from this side roll up the dough closely. When finished, prick the rolls so that the steam can escape during baking.

13. Place the rolls on a baking tray and brush them thinly with egg yolk, then put them in a cool place to dry.

14. When the egg yolk is dried, brush the rolls with egg white, too. Leave them to dry totally in a cool place.

15. When the egg white is dried, put the rolls in the oven. Bake them for 15 minutes at 200 C (392 F) and after 10 minutes at 190 C (374 F). (So the rolls become ready in 25-30 minutes altogether.)

16. When you take the rolls out of the oven press the rolls together, then with the help of a knife or something flat level their sides and tips even.

17. When the rolls cooled down they can be sliced and served.