Pastry shop gingerbread house

Merry Christmas!

I hope you had a nice year in 2019, mine was quite eventful, I didn't have time to bake a lot, or explore new recipes as I was studying graphic design besides working, and doing my driving license. :) 

But for Christmas, I can not resist, I am baking a LOT! :D

I started of course with gingerbread cookies, and my tradition to bake a gingerbread house for Hungary's biggest gingerbread village in Budapest. It is a free exchibition, held in the Bálna shopping mall, and volunteers like me bake the houses. Each year it is getting bigger, many families bake, and besides the adorable houses, famous and creative buildings are built as well, like the Big Ben, our Chain Bridge, Star Wars space ships, or in 2016 I baked the Gru's house. (Check previous years' review posts here) It will be open in January untill the end of February.

So, this year I baked a pastry shop with many happy customers. :) 

The recipe was the same I used in all of my previous gingerbread cookies recipes.

Let's see the steps, and the final photos below!

Nero

Hi Dears,

Today, I brought You little, sweet sandvich-looking darlings, that you can find in all of the traditional confectioneries in Hungary. 

When I was a trainee in one of them, for almost half a year, I filled thousands of these with jam. The fun part (which I think is the fun part) is to create the shells with the decorating bag, was always the professional's job, as that was the part where the neros could go wrong. Each and every neros should be the same size to look beautiful in a plate.

The other big challenge while baking it, is actually the baking time. One second you see them unbaked, in the next second they are burned. 

If you ask any confectioners which product burns the most, they would answer the neros.  

However, the customers love them, and so do we.

Why? After you fill them with jam, give them 2-3 hours (in the confectioneries they even give them 2-3 days to let them soften) and you will have the softest, and the tastiest  little sweet sandwiches of the World. 

I don't really know why we have the 'Macaron craziness' everywhere, when we have a much more delicious sweet, yes if you like the colors, you can color this sponge, too. And yes you can use any kind of filling for this sweet, too, like ganache, cream, etc..

So, Neros I am cheering for You, to win over Macarons!!!

Baking projects, life updates...

Hello Dears,

Long time, no see, right?

But now, I have lot's of projects to show You!!!

Well, some of them you may had seen on our FB  page, but let's see them all..

Lot's of baking projects, cakes, competition, celebrations, a vacation and a new job!

Visiting the SÜTI. Home-made-style cakes, shop & manufactury

Hi Dears, 

It's time to introduce a really nice little Cake Shop & manufacture the SÜTI.  

I have visited it yesterday, and tried one of it's cakes...

Visiting the Ice cream Exhibition

Hello! 

Spring is finally here, that means ice cream season starts as well. :) 

And to start it in a glamorous way the biggest ice cream exhibition was held for 3 days in Budapest. 

As a confectioner trainee I felt it's my duty to be there.

(And let's face it who wouldn't have gone to taste the new ice cream creations of the year? :D )  So I visited it with my fiancé. 

I brought You my little review of the event and more than 30 tasteful pictures of it! 

Chocolate bread - Christmas style

Hi Dears, 

Christmas is almost here...

I don't know how You feel about it, but for me, December pasted really fast.

This used to be my favorite month of the Year , as I love preparing for the Holidays. 

I always create something hand.made for my family.

 Usually, a painted postcard, or a necklace, or I decorate a wooden box with napkin. Last year I edited photos and placed them on magic mugs. Do you know them? They are so funny, from the outside they look simple, 1 color-mug, but when you pour hot liquid in them, the pictures will be shown. 

This year, as I'm in the confectioner industry I will create many.many cookies and sweets and pack them nicely.

But now, I brought You a special Christmas dessert. 

This time, here in Hungary the Fruit-bread is really popular, which tastes like a pound cake with dry fruits in it, just the shape is different. 

My family doesn't like dry fruits. What do they like? Chocolate of course!

 So, I created a special version of the sweet bread.

Confectionery studies - 7th week

Hello! :)

Last week we studied a bunch of Puff pastries. It means, that the pastries has many layers when they baked. We can reach that, if we use folding Technics, and two different dough.

The main ingredients for the dough (in portions): 1 flour, 1 butter, 0.5 water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp vinegar.

Beigli

Hello Dears, 

I brought You a real Christmas treat, the walnut Beiglis, that is one of the most popular dessert here, in Hungary  in winter. 

The dough and the stuffing is the same as the Walnut crescents, the "Pozsonyi kifli" dough, just the way of rolling is different.

Let's see how...

Confectionery studies - 4th week

Hi! 

This week we made Sweet bread, pound cake and many more. :)

Walnut crescent ~ Pozsonyi kifli

Hi Dears, 

As I promised I brought this tasty walnut crescent recipe, that we learnt in school. 

The shining is not as beautiful as it was supposed to be. (It should be fragmented as the beiglis, you can reach it, if you lubricate the top of them with egg yolk a few times, and you should wait until it dries, then lubricate again. I didn't wait enough,because I baked them late in the evening, and I just couldn't wait. :D ) 

So, let's move on, I think they are still beauties. :)

3 cakes with one sponge

Hello Dears! 

I hope You enjoyed the summer, to finish it nicely I brought not just one, but 3 cakes for You! :)

As for us, we had our late-summer vacation last week, for 4 days.

It was short but we filled it with very-many adventures. :) 

It rained for two days, but we still could go sight-seeing, and to bathhouses, and we even took a little fairy train ride in the forest, so it was super joyful.

When we arrived back home, a birthday party was ahead of us, with 3 birthdays to celebrate, so I jumped in a baking project again.

As we hold it as a pic-nic party in the Margaret-island, I tried to prepare them to be easily take-aways. 

I used one main mixture, and as a last touch I flavored them differently. :) 

Let's see how...

Our vacation at Lake Balaton

Hi Dears,

I was wondering how much You know about the Hungarian sea? :)

Here, I think most of us, from the little ones to the grandpas, and grandmas, everyone loves going to Lake Balaton for a week, or just some days, every summer. 

A summer without Balaton is like a wasted year, it's like a nonsense for the Hungarians. 

Of course if a family can afford going further, like to a real sea, to Italy or Croatia is another thing, but to go there by the motorway , it crosses the area of Lake Balaton as well, so they can have a rest there, too. :) 

This year we spent here just 3 days, but it was a real refreshment for us.

Gastro programs - March

Hello Dears,

I hope You are fine. :)

Today I brought You some great gastronomic programs, opportunities to explore the Hungarian cuisine if You are here / or if You would like to come in the future. 

So what to do & where to eat in March?

CheeseCake with Greengage jam

Hi! :) 

Spring is nearly here, Yay! :D 

I like the beautiful colors and the fragrances of spring, that's why I made something as sparkling and colorful as the season will be. (Hopefully soon :))

So, about this cake. This is my first ever Cheese Cake, in the mean of the American Cheese Cake.

 I realised that there are some very differences in the dairy products in the two countries: there are no cream cheeses here in Hungary than in the US that they usually use for this. (If we do have, it must be in just a few and rare stores) However, it's hard to explain what we got instead. We have for example 'túró', which I usually call cottage cheese/curd/or quark. 

But it's not the same, just similar.

Or we have "tejföl", which I call sour cream/cream fraiche, but we use these English words to explain more products in the same time, however these are different, and  has more words for them in Hungarian. Like "tejszín" is a different product, and possibly it is like heavy sour cream... ? 

So, back to the cake, to create the American type of cheese, I used cottage cheese (túró) with plain cream cheese. 

And to decorate the top I used my self-made jam, that I made in the summer. :D

Hortobágyi pancake

Hello! 

I hope You are having a fabulous weekend. :) So did I.

Let me suggest a good reading activity:

 I've recently started the new Bridget Jones...

*spoiler alert* 

But not actually, as it was all written in the reviews that she became a widow.. Which I didn't like at all, but the book is hilarious, and as we should expect: funny. :) 

The other thing I did,  was looking for jobs, as You might have seen it on twitter, where I started the #100happydays challenge. Well, nearly, I couldn't post every day, but I'm trying. :) 

I posted about this deliciousness as well, I cooked it for my love for Valentine's. 

It was super tasty, as it regularly is. It's one of my specialities. Besides, it's one of the most well known dish of Hungary. 

You should definitely try it! 

Potato Pasta

Hello Dears! :) 

To continue the Hungarian main courses list on the new page here, I brought an easy dish with the use of the Hungarian paprika as well. 

This is one of the easiest  and the less expensive dish of all, so that's why it's one of the most popular. And we love it, it taste so good.

 (Only it's full of carbohydrate  so if You're on a diet, this one is not for You...)

Gulyás soup

Hello! I missed You so much. :) 

I was so busy these days, I couldn't reach my laptop to post the recipes... 

But it doesn't mean that I haven't done a thing. In the contrary! :D

I have at least 6 dishes to post to You. And Voilá! 

Here's my first main course post to this page, and to be loyal to our national tastes, I decided to start with the most famous soup of Hungary, the Gulyás. 

Yes, it's a spicy soup  with the Hungarian red paprika and it's not a stew. :) 

To reach the original taste we have to make it in a cauldron. We made this with a bunch of friends, it's so fun cooking together in the garden. :)

 The recipe is enough for  at least 12 people! :D 

Gastro-programs for June! :)

Hey Guys! We are nearly at the beginning of SUMMER, 

(although the weather has another opinion),

 even some of us has reached his/her Vacation time! :) 

/not me, I still have 1 exam left../ 

But if You're coming here this month, or if You are just interested in our country, I'm sharing some

really enjoyable gastro-programs,

 to You! :) 

So, be prepared, there will be beers, strawberries, strudels... See below ;)

Little Potato Pie

Hello! :) This time I brought You a real Hungarian speciality, a salty, little potato pie, "Krumplis Laska" or "Lepényke".

That is a typical dish in 'Palóc' folk region where my mother and her relatives are endemic. :) It's in the North of Hungary, and in the South of Slovakia. 

My mother was happy, when she got her first piece of it, because the last time she had this, her grandmother made it a long time ago... 

Although the preparation is a bit longer than expected (I guess I started with too large amount of ingredients) , however the taste worth the time to make it. :) 

Gastro-programs in Spring

Hey Guys! :)  I hope You all enjoy the week-end, unfortunately the weather makes that a little bit harder...


But spring Will come, someday, but the programs and festivals are surely coming! :)

Here are a bunch of them for You. If You come here to visit our little country, You should pop in to one or two gastronomic festivals, too, to feel the spirit. :)