Dough: 220g (1 3/4 cups) all purpose flour, 120g (one stick) butter, 100g (0.8 cups) powdered sugar, 1 egg, 2 yolks, 4 tsp baking powder, 2 heaping tbsp cocoa
Custard: 500g (1.5 cups) farmers cheese, 4 tbsp corn starch, 1 egg, 3 yolks, 4dl (1 2/3 cups) milk, 1dl (~1/3 cup) oil, 100g (0.8 cups) powdered sugar, 1 packet of vanilla sugar, fruit or berries (optional)
Meringue: 5 egg whites, 5 tbsp powdered sugar
Prep Time: About 30 minutes, and then 30+15 minutes for baking at 390F

The ingredients you will need to make this cake. In addition, you will also need corn starch and vanilla sugar, which I forgot to include in this line up.

Make the Dough

First, get your stove going by preheating it to 390F. Then combine all the ingredients to make the dough. I weighed the ingredients on a kitchen scale. This will give you a more precise measurement than going by volume alone, since the density of powdery substances like flour or powdered sugar can vary quite a bit. I also sifted the flour; this should make it less lumpy and help it blend better.

You will need several egg yolks for this recipe. Don’t forget to save the whites, you will need them later. To separate the yolk from the white, crack the egg in the middle so you get two shell cups. Then gently toss the yolk from one half to the other. The yolk will stay in the cup, but the white will drip down to the bowl. Mix the ingredients together by hand until you get a smooth mixture with the consistency of play dough. Place the dough in the fridge while you go about making the custard.

Make the Custard

Combine the ingredients to make the cheese custard filling. The original recipe called for one packet of Zlatý Klas (Golden Corn Ear). I believe this is the same as corn starch so that’s what I used. I didn’t know how big the standard package of Zlatý Klas is so I used 4 tablespoons of starch. The resulting mixture was a bit thin, sort of like a pancake batter. The original recipe specifically called this out, saying that you shouldn’t worry about it being too thin. Well – the filling in the center of the cake was still liquid when the cake was done baking! But it subsequently solidified in the fridge so I am not quite sure if I did this step correctly. In other words, feel free to experiment. Whisk the custard until you start seeing bubbles. You will also need a packet of vanilla sugar. You can usually find these in European grocery stores, or you can make your own.

Fill and Bake the Cake

Next dust a board with flour and roll the cake out to the size of you baking pan. I used the 9×13 one, but a slightly smaller one would probably be even better. I rolled the dough out directly on the granite counter top in my new apartment, it’s awesome! Brush oil over the pan and dust it with flour. Then, roll the dough onto the rolling pin, and transfer it like this to the pan. Make sure it nicely fills the bottom by spreading it with your fingers if needed.

Then pour the filling over the dough. Add berries or other fruit if you like. Stick the cake in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Prepare Egg Whites “Snow”

While the cake is baking, prepare the meringue, which in Slovak is called snow (sneh). Add 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar to the 5 egg whites you should have lying around. Beat or use a blender until you get stiff peaks. Try not to each much along the way – this stuff is really delicious!

Finish Baking

Take the cake out after about 30 minutes and top with the egg white “snow”. I ended up with a fairly thin layer so it’s possible that the original recipe poster used a smaller baking pan. Bake for additional 15 minutes until the top turns brown.

Take out of the oven and let cool off completely. Then cut the cake with a wet knife. Top with powdered sugar. Enjoy! By the way, this cake tasted MUCH better the next day after sitting in the fridge overnight.

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Such fancy pastries are called zákusky. This is opposed to koláče, which generally refers to simpler, home-made baked cakes and sweet breads. There are so many types of zákusky that you could probably create a website dedicated just to them. One of my favorites are fruit and jelly slices. The other one is kremesh (krémeš or as we called it in my family, krémeška). Here is a recipe for this napoleon-like pastry.

In theory, making kremesh extremely simple. Baked store-bought puff pastry sheet, make vanilla pudding, add whipped cream, top with chocolate, done! However, the first time I tried to make it, the result was anything but spectacular. The cream burned in parts and at the same time was too thin, and just oozed out from between the pastry sheets. This second time I used a different recipe and a double boiler with much more success. This recipe is adopted from dobre-jedlo.sk.

Custard: 3 cups milk, 2 yolks, 3/4 cups (80g) corn starch, 1 packet of vanilla sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 1 packet of vanilla pudding, 1.5 cups (150g) powdered sugar, 2 sticks margarine or butter, shot of rum
Cream: 2 whites, 3 cups heavy cream, pinch baking soda, 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
Chocolate: 3 squares unsweetened baker’s chocolate, equal volume butter, tablespoon sugar
Dough: One sheet puff pastry dough (found in the freezer section of your grocery store), defrosted

Before we get going, take out one sheet of frozen puff pastry out of the freezer and let defrost.

Combine the milk, yolks, corn starch, flour, vanilla sugar, and powdered sugar. Whisk well together and then cook using a double boiler until the cream thickens. This basically means you place the small pot in another larger pot containing boiling water. This will keep the pot to the 212F. Otherwise, cook on very low heat and keep stirring continuously so the cream doesn’t burn.

However, when I made the cream using the ingredients above, the cream was way too thin. The original recipe on dobre-jedlo.sk called for two packets of “Zlatý Klas”. I have never seen this in the US, but to the best of my knowledge, it is corn starch, perhaps modified with some coloring and vanilla flavor. The recipe also didn’t specify how big the packets should be, but from the image they appear to be 40g each. Yet, with that amount, the resulting cream was too milky and too pale in color compared to the photograph. So to make my life easier, I just put in one packet of vanilla pudding. The cream is basically is nothing else than vanilla pudding: milk, corn starch, sugar, and vanilla flavor. Bring to boil, stirring, and let stiffen. Let the cream cool in a cold place or the fridge.

I used store bought puff pastry to make the top and bottom dough layer. Of course, feel free to make your own puff pastry dough if you want. But otherwise, just take one sheet and roll it to 11×7 inches, which is the size of the baking pan I used. Take the baking pan, turn it upside down, and place wax paper on top of . Cut away any paper that sticks over the edges (this will keep it from burning). Place the dough on top, and poke generously with a fork. This is to keep the dough from puffing up. Bake in an oven preheated to 400F for 10-15 minutes, until light light brown. Decrease temperature and let sit in the oven for few more minutes to crisp the dough up.

While the custard is cooling down, and the baking is done, prepare the whipped cream. I combined the egg whites with heavy cream, sugar and baking soda. Whip until stiff.

Next whip two sticks of butter or margarine. Work the cream into the butter, but only once the cream is cold. Otherwise the butter will melt. Also add a shot of rum if you like (I didn’t because I didn’t have any).

Cut the puff pastry in half. Top one half with the cream. Try to make it as even as possible. Then top the cream with the whipped cream. Don’t forget to eat anything that falls off the sides… Top with the other pastry sheet.

Next melt chocolate. This is simple, just melt 3 squares of dark, unsweetened chocolate, with about the same volume of butter, and a spoonful of powdered sugar. Heat on low heat, stirring. Take off the heat when bits of solid chocolate still remain. These will melt from the liquid and doing this will result in harder (more tempered) chocolate layer. Cover the top pastry layer with the chocolate.

Place in the fridge for several hours, best overnight. Well I couldn’t wait that long, I ended up cutting the krémeš after only about 3 hours. Cutting is bit tricky, especially if you want to make the pieces look pastry-shop like. Make sure to clean your knife between each slice. It also helps to do this in a cold place, otherwise if you do it in a 90F heat we had here in D.C., the chocolate will start melting and will smudge up the yellow cream. Make sure to cut the bottom pastry layer too.

And that’s it. Enjoy! If you want to see how these look when done professionally, click here or here.

Sometimes the top is simply sprinkled with powdered sugar instead of chocolate. And check out honey slices if you like sweets.

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In making this recipe I used the frozen puff pastry dough from my local Giant. You will need to let this dough defrost for at least 20 minutes. This is also a good time to preheat your oven to 400F. The dough comes folded into three sections. As it is defrosting, carefully unfold it to make a flat sheet. For some reason, one third of the dough I was using was really stiff and non stretchy – perhaps it suffered a bad freezer burn. I tried to wet it, and roll it with a pin, but to no avail. I eventually ended up forming dough into a ball and rolling it out flat as shown below.

(By the way, that link above directs a different Giant chain. While searching for the dough link, I found out that there are actually two chains of grocery stores called “Giant” operating in Virgina, Giant-Landover, the one I shop in, and Giant-Carlisle, a sister company. Interesting!)

Ingredients: puff pastry dough, 4 small Gala apples, 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, melted butter, powdered sugar for topping
Prep Time: About 30 minutes of work, another 20 minutes for baking

Here are the ingredients you will need to make an apple strudel: puff pastry dough, apples, and cinnamon. You will also need sugar and butter.

Peel the apples and grate them using a coarse grater. I used 4 smallish Gala apples. Squeeze the grated apples with your hand and drain out the juice. Add sugar and cinnamon and mix well.

Roll the dough out into a long rectangle. Transfer it carefully onto a tablecloth (obrus) or a large dishtowel. I dusted the towel first with flour, but this may not be necessary. Then place your hand underneath the dough and using your fingers gently stretch the dough out as much as you can before it breaks. It will become semitransparent. Do this from inside out and all the way around.

Top the dough with the apple mixture and also brush on some melted butter.

To roll the strudel, lift up one end of the tablecloth with both hands. Bring it over the dough so that the edge separates from the tablecloth and folds over. Continue doing this until you end up with a roll.

Then carefully using the tablecloth transfer the strudel onto a greased baking sheet. Generously brush with melted butter.

Bake in oven preheated to 400F for about 20 minutes. About half way through, brush gently on all sides with melted butter. Also brush on the bottom to keep it from sticking to the pan. Be careful not to tear the dough. And if it gets stuck in a place or two, use the brush to unstick it.

Wait for the strudel to cool down and the slice it into fairly thick pieces. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve with coffee and you got yourself a delicious breakfast.

For another apple and puff pastry recipe, check out “apples in a bathrobe“

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These old traditional circular baked goodies are popular at fairs (jarmoky). My hometown of Banská Bystrica is famous for a huge fair, Radvanský jarmok. This ancient fair is said to be the king of fairs. And for a good reason. It has been held in September for now over 340 years! It all started back in 1655 when then a village of Radvaň held its first market. Much has changed since then, the village has merged into the city to become one of its “suburbs”: Radvaň is now one of the two main residential parts (called sídlisko, the other is Sásová in the north end). The fair has also migrated to the center of town and is now held in conjunction with “Banská Bystrica Days“. But it is still a great place to find unique crafts and sample various culinary delicacies. In that article, in the second picture from the top, you can see another popular offering at Slovak fairs: gingerbread hearts. These are always lavishly decorated and sometimes even contain a mirror baked into the dough. Such hearts were given by boys to their loved ones, and in the past, mirrors were not as common as they are now so they were highly prized. That is at least the explanation I was given…

Ingredients: sweet leavened dough, your favorite toppings (plum jam, poppy seeds, walnuts, and farmer’s cheese are traditional)
Poppy seed / walnut filling: ground poppy seeds/walnuts, powdered sugar, milk
Tvaroh filling: farmer’s cheese, powdered sugar, raisins, egg
Prep time: 1 hour, plus few hours to the dough rise

Start by preparing the sweet leavened dough (click on the link for the recipe). While the dough is rising, prepare your favorite filling. Check out the poppy seed roll recipe for the poppy and walnut filling, and the tvaroh cake recipe for the farmer’s cheese filling. I also used plum jam (slivkový lekvár), which I found in a Russian grocery store under “plum butter”. You will also find steps for preparing these same fillings in the Christmas Eve cake recipe.

Once the dough is ready, transfer it onto a dusted board and roll out to about 4mm thick.

Then take a tall drinking glass and dust the rim with flour. Turn the glass upside down and use a twisting motion to cut out a circle. Then turn it the right side up and use the flat base to press out the edges. Or use a tablespoon, your fingers, or even a fancy kolache press. Spoon your favorite topping into the dimple.

Transfer the filled kolache onto a greased baking sheet. Brush the edges with egg yolk. Let rise while you preheat your oven the 400F. Bake for about 15 minutes until the edges turn light brown color. The poppy seed koláč went into the oven solo: my baking pan was filled with a nut roll, buchty and tvarožník. There was simply no room for it!

And that’s it, homemade koláče. Enjoy!

And for a slightly different version, checkout Alena’s recipe.

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Dough: 2 cups (250g) flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1-2 yolks, 2 tablespoons (60g) powdered sugar, half a stick (50g) unsalted butter, 4 tablespoons cream, 2 tablespoons white wine (or rum), 1/2 cup of milk
Topping: powdered sugar, half pocket vanilla sugar (optional)
Prep Time: 2 hours

Start by combining flour, butter, sugar, yolks, cream, milk, baking powder, salt, and the wine (or rum if you prefer). Mix together for 10 minutes until you get smooth elastic dough. Add more milk if needed. Form into a ball, dust with flour, and let rest in the fridge for an hour.

Roll the dough out to thickness of about 1/6th of an inch. It may help to cut the dough into two halves, especially if your board is on the smaller side. Using a dough cutting wheel or a knife, cut the dough into rectangles about 2×3 inches. Then cut two slots in each rectangle in direction parallel to the shorter edges. Loop one end piece through the slot closest to it.

Then repeat with the other end to make a dough bowtie.

You can also just cut the dough into thin strips which you roll around your finger. Fry all this goodness in oil that is not too hot – I kept mine just a tiny turn past low. Fry on both sides until the dough gets pinkish light brown.

Scoop the fried fánky with spatula onto a plate covered with paper towels. Use another paper towel to pat dry off the oil from the top. Then coat the fried dough in powdered sugar (I also mixed in half packet of vanilla sugar), just like funnel cakes. Happy Easter!

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