Posts Tagged ‘sugar’

Bobalky (Opekance)

Ingredients: leavened dough or few days old bread rolls, ground poppy seeds, sugar, milk, butter
Prep Time: 5 minutes if you use old bread, about 2 hours otherwise

Integral part of the Christmas table in many Slovak families are little pieces of sweet bread known as bobaľky, opekance or pupáčky. They are typically topped with poppies (s makom), but some people eat them with farmer’s cheese (tvaroh) or even cabbage (kapusta). In this recipe I show you how to prepare this delicious desert.

Opekance are typically eaten as the third “course”. First, there is the prípitok, a shot of liquor. Then, the lady of the house (gazdina) passes around Christmas wafers (oblátky) with garlic (cesnak) and honey (med). Then come opekance followed by soup and the main meal. While garlic and honey are supposed to bring the person good health, poppies symbolize wealth. There is supposedly even a tradition which involves tossing them on the ceiling, but this is not something I am familiar with.

Although opekance are very traditional, they were not prepared in my family. I don’t remember ever having them while growing up. This is a shame, because they are delicious! So when I first decided to make them, I was not quite sure how they ought to taste. I found several recipes online, with some of them saying bobaľky should be baked few days ahead of time, and then allowed to completely dry up. They are then soaked in hot water until soft. This is the method I tried, and my first attempt ended up in a disaster. I left them in the water way too long, and they ended up soggy.

The good news is, none of this is necessary if you just want to prepare a tasty treat, and not stockpile them for winter. You prepare opekance from the same sweet leavened dough that is used for buchty or makovník. However (I have not tried this yet), I think you could get by just using few days old white bread, or bread rolls. Finally, you will need ground poppy seeds. You can find poppy seeds in most grocery stores, but finding a grinder is bit more complicated. However, most grocery stores sell poppy seed pie filling in the baking isle. You can use this instead, but the taste will be little different. The filling (at least the Solo brand I buy) tastes more like corn syrup than poppies.

Cutout a piece of dough (cesto) about the size of your palm and roll it into a cylinder about 3/4 inch thick. Using a knife or a similar circular dough cutting tool, cut slices about 1/4 inch thick. Place them onto a baking sheet (with the cut face down) and let rise for about 10 minutes. Preheat your oven.

Bake for about 15 minutes until they get golden brown. They’ll be just like freshly-baked sweet bread: crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Then combine, in a pot, ground poppy seeds (mletý mak), powdered sugar (práškový cukor), butter (masľo) and a bit milk (mlieko). Bring to boil and pour over the bread.

Mix together and enjoy. They were delicious!

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Bread Pie (Žemlovka)

Ingredients: 2lb apples (or other fruit), 1L (4 cups) milk, 4 eggs, 10 bread rolls, 1lb farmer’s cheese (about 2 cups), powdered sugar, handful of raisins, butter, bread crumbs for dusting the baking pan
Prep Time: 30 minutes + about 1 hour for baking

Here is the recipe for žemlovka. The word žemla means bread roll so the closest I could come up with when translating the name of this delicacy was “bread pie”. This probably is not a bad name, given that it’s made with pieces of bread instead of dough. This is the closest food item we have in Slovakia to the American apple pie. However, žemlovka doesn’t need to be made with apples. It’s also delicious with nectarines, plums or pears. But apple is the most common filling and so that’s how we prepared it today. I made this dish with the help of my mom and my grandma, who yesterday prepared the very delicious apple pancakes.

We made the pie with rožky, little baguette-like bread rolls. These are not sold in America, but any Italian-style white bread should work fine. But if you feel adventurous, you can bake your own bread rolls. It’s better if the bread is a day old, so its easier to cut.

Start by cutting apples (jablká) into few pieces and removing the pits and the seeds. Shred the apples using a food processor or a hand grater. Then add 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar (práškový cukor) and about a teaspoon of cinnamon (škorica).

Also add about a handful of raisins (hrozienka) and mix together. All this is done to taste so don’t worry if you deviate from these amounts. Next prepare the cheese filling by mixing the farmer’s cheese (tvaroh) with another 2 tablespoons (again to taste) of powdered sugar.

Now cut up the bread rolls (rožky) into circles about quarter inch thick. These will be soaked in a sauce prepared from 4 yolks, 1 quart of milk and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Save the whites, you will use them later.

Grease a deep baking pan well all around with butter. Then dust a thin layer of of finely ground bread crumbs (strúhanka) all around the pan. Then place about a handful of the sliced bread rolls in the egg sauce. Let them soak for few seconds, and then squeeze out much of the liquid. Place the rolls on the bottom of the baking pan to make the bottom layer. Do this with half of the bread rolls. Save the other half for later.

Then add a layer of the fruit mixture and then another of the cheese filling.

Finally, place the other half of rolls in the sauce. Let them soak up all the liquid. Then scoop them into the baking pan and make another bread layer. Then generously spread slices of butter (masľo) on this top layer. Bake in a preheat hot oven.

The baking time will vary depending on the size of your pie, but it will take about an hour. You want the top to be crunchy and golden brown. But if not sure, just take out a small spoonful and taste it. Once the pie is done, beat the egg whites (bielka) mixed with few spoons of powdered sugar into a stiff snow. Spread this evenly on the top.

Bake for another 10-or-so minutes. Let cool down before cutting.

One of the peculiarities of the Slovak kitchen is that we often eat sweet dishes for the main course (eg. plum dumplings or poppy seed noodles). Žemlovka is no exception. Although this dish resembles the apple pie, it is eaten as the main entrée, typically following some sour soup. From the picture above, you can see that this is exactly how we had this dish today. It followed a really delicious sour mushroom soup prepared by my aunt Soňa, who previously prepared the stuffed peppers.

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