Kalacs (Hungarian Sweet Bread)

No Hungarian Easter is complete without Kalacs!  This sweet, egg bread is filled with walnuts, or poppy seeds (if that's how you roll but I never understood the whole poppy seed thing).  The smell of this baking filled my grandmother's house during the holiday.  But there is no reason to limit making Kalacs to a particular season. It also makes a great addition to a brunch menu or just as an accompaniment to your coffee or tea!

This specific recipe is taken from my family's cookbook, compiled in 1999.  I made some minor edits to the attached page.  For a couple more traditional dishes, see:

Dobos Torte
Chicken Paprikas

Step 1: Ingredients and Tools

Dough
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
8 cups flour
1 1/2 pkg dry yeast
1 pint lukewarm milk

Walnut Filling
2 lbs walnuts (0.9 kgs), finely ground
3 cups sugar
Grated rind of one lemon
1 cup butter, melted

Materials and Tools
Mixer
Food processor/chopper/coffee grinder - to grind nuts
Grater
Rolling pin
Baking Sheet
Saucepan
Foil or parchment paper
Measuring cups/spoons
Mixing bowls

Comments

[minerug]

Made this today =). Delicious! The bread bit was nice and soft, while the walnut filling was just awesome!

[annahowardshaw]

That is awesome! So glad you enjoyed it...and that my directions were clear enough : )

[minerug]

Yeap! I added a touch of cinnamon to the walnut mix which turned out to be a good idea :)

[abmat]

You could use the same recipe to make kiflis another Hungarian pastry. Instead of making a log. cut the dough into 4x4 inch squares. add a spoonful of filling to the center of each square. roll up the pastries from a corner to the one opposite. bend the roll into a crescent then brush and bake the same as the kalacs.

[annahowardshaw]

That's in the family cookbook too : )

That was on my list but I didn't get to it. Maybe someday...

Thanks!

[smirnoff04]

This looks absolutely delicious! Just to be clear, this recipe as written is for 5 loaves? I wonder if even one would make it to make freezer before getting eaten. ;)

Thanks for the recipe, Anna.

[johnp9]

Great recipe. We've never made enough to make it into the freezer. Very Eastern European, similar to a Polish Makowiec. An 8 cup flour recipe makes about two loaves. We usually make ours with poppy seed filling or almond filling and a powdered sugar/water glaze. Using a can or can and a half of "Poppy Seed Filling" spread generously works quite well for each loaf. I've seen recipes for homemade poppy seed filling that has almonds and walnuts in it. For the poppy seed, I think it's more of a combination of the smell, texture and flavor of the poppy seed that I like over the almond filling. Also, I think the strain of Poppy plants in Eastern Europe is different than what we are using in the US.

[ChrysN]

Yummm, my mom makes something like this with poppy seeds, sometimes just with nuts, it is so good.