Traditional Hungarian Buns - Cocoa rolls

This weekend I decided to bake some good old fashioned Hungarian cocoa buns.

They are called "kalács" ( calatsch), and they typically involve some yeast, simple flour, eggs and butter or lard. Imagine something super soft that melts in your mouth and is usually stuffed with jam, cottage cheese or nuts. Yeah, they are awesome.

Cocoa buns, rolls - or how we call them, cocoa snails - are by far the most popular buns (or scones) in Hungary. They are an inevitable part of the elementary school years, as they are one of the most beloved breakfasts of kids. They are sold in every bakery (and we have a lot of them here in Hungary), but surprisingly, it is quite hard to find proper cocoa rolls nowadays. The filling usually consists of butter, cocoa powder and caster sugar, but I decided to add some home made apricot jam as well. And what a great choice it was!

For the dough (original recipe here) :

500 g flour

3 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2,5 g fresh yeast ( or a tablespoon of active dry yeast)

a pinch of salt

250 ml lukewarm milk

100 g melted butter

For the filling:

50 g melted butter
cocoa powder
caster sugar

apricot jam (optional)

Combine all ingredients for the dough until it forms a nice and soft ball. Knead it for 5 minutes, then let it sit for about an hour, or until doubled in size. After rising, put the dough on a floured surface and roll it to form a 30x40 centimeter rectangle around half a centimeters thick. Grease it with the melted butter, then spread a thin layer of apricot jam on top of the butter. Cover it with a thick layer of sifted cocoa powder and caster sugar, then, starting with a long end, roll the dough into a log and cut it into 2 cm slices. Place the buns in a pan covered with parchment paper, and let them rise for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Once the oven is warm, put the buns in and bake them for 20 minutes. Right after removing them from the oven, pour the mixture of 200ml of warm milk and a package of vanilla sugar on top - this will make them super soft, then sprinkle the buns with caster sugar. Enjoy! :-)

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Homemade Hungarian apple juice ( What the f. is juice? Pour me some apple drink, baby!)

This week we had our wine cellar renovated. It's not that it was in a bad condition, but instead of plastering, we wanted pure bricks on the ceiling, on the walls and even on the floor. 

Before the renovation started we had to empty the cellar, and we found a crate full of long forgotten homegrown apples. I baked some apple cakes, but almost 20 kilos of apples could make a lot of cakes ( and could also make us super fat), so I decided to prepare ( and preserve) some apple juice for my Dad, who loves apples and soft drinks. 

There's a saying that Hungarian apples are the best in the world - but they also say it about Hungarian women, therefore I am a bit sceptical. Nevertheless, I love all types of Hungarian apples and I believe they are truly extraordinary. Sweet, juicy, beautiful and delicious. Well. Not our apples. We have cider apples, which means that they are neither eaters nor cookers, and neither sweet, nor nice looking.  However, they make a wonderful apple juice (and great cider, of which we made 10 liters at the end of last summer).

For the apple juice, I peeled and cored 2,5 kilos of apples, and I cut them into bite size cubes. Right after cutting I put them in a large bowl filled with 3 liters of cold water, and mixed it with 0,3 kilos of caster sugar and a teaspoon of citric acid. I simmered the mixture for about 30 minutes, and once the apple chunks has softened, I pureed it with a hand blender. I found the texture just good enough, but if you find your juice too thick, you can still add some water to reach the desired consistency. 

After blending, I poured the juice into sterilized jars, and put the filled jars into my preserving machine. I got this machine from my man ( Peter) as a Christmas present, so today was its debut, and it performed just fine. I cannot wait until the fruit preserving season, as this machine will make it a lot easier ( and healthier!). But back to the topic. My jars sit in the machine at 80 degrees for twenty minutes, so I made sure that they can be kept for months, if necessary. In case you don't have a machine like this, you can use a bowl with simmering water, or you can choose to use some preservatives. 

And what about the apple juice or apple drink thing in the title? Well, I LOVE Dave Chapelle, and the grape juice skit is one of my all time favorites. So funny!

Clean house and a satisfied dog

I have to admit, I was a bit worried before adopting our dog, Saci ( Schatzi, a Hungarian nickname for Charlotte ). Besides the fact that she is 8 years old, she has to live in the house - a house we have been working on so hard for almost a year now. It's freshly painted ( white, of course), we have brand new pine wood floor, a 100-year old grand piano, and several beautiful pieces of furniture inherited from my man's grandparents. Moreover, almost everything is black and/or white - even the carpet in the living room, where both we and the dog spend most of our time.

So yeah, I was worried a bit before she arrived. I read books, watched youtube videos and read some more books, trying to adapt some of the advices I believed worth adapting. But my biggest help came from Vilmos Csányi, a world-renowned Hungarian ethologist specialized in dogs. In one of his books, he emphasizes the importance of rules and rituals for dogs: rituals that do not only teach us to be more deliberate owners, but give our dogs tasks and a sense of achievement every time they perform right in a given situation.

So we created some rituals, the first one being: never go inside the living room without your paws being cleaned first. Every time when we arrive from a walk, or we just come back inside from the garden, Saci sits down in the kitchen and waits for her paws to be cleaned. Sometimes, when she is too excited she rushes in after the third, but overall, she enjoys it. Lately - since the last couple of days were quite rainy -, she even needs a full-body cleaning with a towel.She does not seem to like it that much, but she certainly likes it more than the thought of being washed in the bathtub.

Rule number two: She has her own spot on the carpet covered with a small blanket, where she usually sits when not lying on the sofa. Yeah, the sofa... Saci has an obsession for sofas, they are her safe havens. This means that she is not interested in sleeping on the carpet anyway, but in case we sit on the sofa, she sleeps at her blanket on the floor.

Rule number three: No dog in bed.

Rule number four: Long daily walks, tasks, games and a lot of love.

That's it. I know that we are lucky to have a dog like Saci, since only after 3 weeks of living together,  she acts she's been living with us for years. But believe me when I say: with some simple rules, tasks, weary muscles and a mind kept busy, you will end up with a perfect dog and a clean house at the same time.

The grand opening / A nagy nyitány

It's been a while since I first though about starting a blog. I had one years ago, but that was a blog of a girl, not of a woman.

So here I am, 32 years of age, a woman living with the man of her dreams and the most incredible dog ever, owner of a beautiful house on the countryside, a researcher working on her PhD, an enthusiastic (and little overweight) cook and passionate hobby photographer. All in one. It was about damn time to start this blog, right?

But why now? 10 months ago, our life has changed when we bought an old house in the middle of the Hungarian countryside. I have to admit, I was a bit afraid of moving from Budapest, but the village we moved to simply topped all of our expectations. It is Danube-Swabian village with a flourishing culture, with freshly cut grass in front of every house and without the need to always worry about wether I have locked the front gate or not. We have homegrown figs, pears, plums, peaches, apples, spices and most importantly, clean, fresh air - things I missed so dearly while living in the capital.

My goal with this blog is to show you the beauty of living in the countryside, the joy of cooking (and eating!) great Hungarian food, and to share my experiences in renovation, refurbishment, diy interior design and on sharing your house with a mud-loving dog. Whoa.

 So welcome on board, hope you will enjoy the ride!

Elég hosszú ideje gondolkodtam már azon, hogy indítok egy blogot. Évekkel ezelőtt vezettem egyet, de az egy kislány blogja volt, nem a nőé, aki most vagyok.

Most itt vagyok 32 évesen, álmaim férfijával és kutyájával egy háztartásban, egy csodás vidéki ház tulajdonosaként, a doktori disszertációját író egyetemi kutatóként, megszállott ( és kicsit túlsúlyos) hobbiszakácsként és elhivatott hobbi fotósként. Igen, ez mind egyben. Épp itt volt az ideje blogot indítanom, ugye? :-)

De hogy miért pont most? Nos, 10 hónappal ezelőtt gyökeresen megváltozott az életünk amikor a magyar Alföld közepén megvásároltunk egy öreg házat. Bevallom, kicsit féltem eljönni Budapestről, de a falu, ahová költöztünk, minden várakozásunkat felülmúlta. Képzeljetek el egy Duna-menti sváb falut még mindig élő hagyományokkal, minden ház előtt frissen vágott, 3,7 centiméteres fűvel, s olyan légkörrel és közbiztonsággal, ahol sosem kell aggódnom, bezártam -e a kaput kulcsra, vagy sem. Az udvarunkban terem füge, körte, alma, szilva, barack, sok-sok fűszernövény, s a levegő olyan friss, amilyenről a budapesti forgatagban álmodni sem mer az ember.

Úgyhogy ez a blog azért jött létre, hogy megmutassam a vidéki élet szépségeit, a magyar konyha remekeit, és hogy megosszam veletek a tapasztalataimat, melyekre a ház és bútorfelújítások során szert tettem az elmúlt időszakban. Hú, ez szép lesz.

Isten hozott mindenkit az én világomban, remélem tetszeni fog! :)