Rolling in Budapest Cultural information in English … Hear everything first hand

The cake is one of the oldest and most popular baked goods in the Hungarian-inhabited areas, but also in many other nations. The origin of the name is derived from the Latin word focus – fire. Although at first its sound not similar to that used in Hungaria, but when we think of the fried dough of Italian bakeries – the Latin focacea – it sounds more familiar. To this day, Italians call focaccia the flatter, smaller variety of bread. The Hungarian language took the name South Slavic pogača (which originally meant pie). In most European countries, “cake” baking sounds familiar. “Pogatschen” for the Germans, “poğaça” for the Turks,”hogaza” for the Spanish, and “fougasse” for the French.

From time travel, let’s just jump back to the present … Hungarians make typical cakes for the coming Xmas feasts, but the Pogács – Scone is popular to bake anytime throughout the 365 days of the year.  It is also a national yummy with wide spread of stuffings. There are so many varieties of  fillings of the “Pogácsa” – “Scone” with different flavors such as: cheese, potato, goose cracklings, sour cream, cottage cheese, sheep’s cheese, crumbly, cabbage, butter, different seeds, onion, green spice, and of course there can be different variations of them, regardless of the variety. In addition to the traditional flavors, may  find at different regions different fillings …  broccoli, chili, wild onion (especially in the town Orfű), bean (City of Sopron).

After a hearty heavy soup …  let’s say the “goulash soup” Scone with Pork or Goose chopped cracklings Tepertős Pogácsa is really heavenly!

Here is a reminder to the Gyulás heavy soup receipt: https://rollinginbudapest.com/2020/05/06/a-1000-year-history-cuisine-of-hungary/ along another receipt of beloved chesse scone – sajtós pogácsa.

Receipt to the Traditional Hungarian Scone Pork or Goose cracklings  –  Sertés vagy Liba Tepertős pogácsa

Preparation time cca. 2 hours. Cooking time ½ an hour up 1 hour.

Ingredients: 60ml /4 tbsp milk, 1 tsp dried yeast, 250g pork or goose chopped cracklings, 500g plain flour – plus extra for dusting, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt, 2 tbsp grated parmesan or as taste, 1 tbsp caraway seeds, 120g unsalted butter, 120 ml soured cream,  2 eggs beaten, to cover the scone with beaten egg and a drop of water, to glaze.

Preparation: Gently heat the milk in a pan until it is lukewarm, then pour it into a jug and stir in the yeast. Leave it for 15 mins or so to get working and froth up. Meanwhile, heat a heavy-based pan with the already fried craklings a bits until crisp and golden. Remove them from the pan and leave to cool. Sift the flour into a bowl and mix with the baking powder and salt. Stir in the parmesan or other cheese and caraway seeds. Put the butter in a small pan over a gentle heat and allow it to melt until it is just liquid. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the soured cream and add the beaten eggs – make sure the butter isn’t too hot or the eggs will scramble. Add the cooled crispy cracklings and stir in the yeasty milk. Pour the buttery egg and chopped mixture into a large bowl, then add the flour and other dry ingredients, for a short time, until everything is combined. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for 5 mins or so until elastic. You can do this with a mixer and a dough hook as you like. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave it in a draught-free place for about an 1½ hours until it has doubled in size.

Baking: Turn the dough out again and knock it back with your knuckles. Dust the dough with flour and roll it out to about 4 cm in thick  length.

Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F. Place on the a baking tray a baking sheet. Then place and leave  the pogácsa  scone to rest for another 10 mins before putting into the oven.  Brush the scone with the beaten egg and water to glaze and bake them for 25–30 mins until top just begins to turn golden.

© Aggie Reiter