Introduction: Lángos - Deep Fried Flatbread

About: Hi, I'm Éva from Hungary. I love baking, cooking, and gardening, not to mention the perfect combination: cooking using fruits and veggies from our garden. I often experiment with new ingredients and try to use…

This contest evokes so many childhood memories and recipes that I can hardly choose which one to share with you.

For me as a child Sunday mornings always meant sleeping as long as I wanted. Many times I was woken up by the scent of lángos (to be pronounced something like: lung-osh) that was brought home by my mum thanks to her early morning visits to the market.

Langos is a deep fried flatbread topped normally with garlic oil and/or sour cream and/ or shredded cheese, a classic Hungarian street food. It was a street food way before we even knew that such category "street food" existed, not to mention the thriving carrier it reached in the last couple of years.

Langos was always - and actually still is - sold mostly at markets, street vendors, beaches.

Basically it is a yeast-risen bread, pulled by fingers into a roundish form after the second rising. Nowadays you may eat it with any topping you can imagine. It's even sold sweet.

No kitchen experience is required, especially if you have a stand mixer on hand. All you need is time and patience but the result is worth every minute you spent waiting.

Step 1: Ingredients

Ingredients of the dough:

500 g flour

25 g fresh / 7 g dried yeast

150 ml lukewarm water

150 ml lukewarm milk

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

For the frying:

1 l vegetable oil

For the topping:

garlic oil (3 garlic cloves, 100ml sunflower oil)

sour cream

shredded cheese

salt

Step 2: Garlic Oil

Let's start with the garlic oil so that it will have sufficient time to infuse.

I have a special rough surface bowl for this purpose but using a Microplane works just as fine. Grate the garlic cloves, pour over some neutral tasting vegetable (eg.sunflower) oil, set it aside.

Step 3: Proof the Yeast

Pour the milk into a glass, add the sugar, 1 teaspoon flour and the fresh yeast torn into tiny bits. (If you are using dried yeast, just add it to the milk.) Mix it altogether and let it stand until bubbles start forming on top (approximately 8-10 minutes). You can see the difference in the photos.

Step 4: The Dough

Put the flour, salt and the yeast-mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer and start mixing it. What we are aiming at is a soft texture dough like that of ciabatta bread. Scrape the sides of the bowl and transfer the dough onto the lightly floured countertop. Knead with your hands for a couple of minutes: push the dough away from you with the palm of your hand than pull it back to the center, turn it 90 degrees and start all over until the dough is formed into a ball. Put it back into the mixer bowl, cover and let it stand in a warm place for about 30-60 minutes until it doubles in volume.

Step 5: Divide the Dough

Transfer the dough back on the countertop and divide it into roughly same size parts. I usually make 100 g batches, but this is not set in stone. Form them into balls, cover them and wait for another 15-20 minutes for the dough to rise once again. You will see that the surface of the balls turns shiny. One after the other flatten the dough balls then pull the edges apart into a more or less round shape. You can see the it is pretty thin, you can almost see through in the middle.

Step 6: Frying

Pour ample amount of vegetable oil in a frying pan, so that it stands 3-4 centimeters high, and start heating it on medium - high heat. I usually check the oil temperature by dropping a small piece of dough into it, if it comes to the surface straight away and you can see bubbles around (pic.1.) it's ready for frying. At this point, lower the heat a bit, then place the lángos into the oil. It's time to turn it over when you see the edges start turning golden brown (pic. 2.). Then fry it for another couple of minutes until the other side also turns golden brown. When it's ready, place it on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Step 7: Enjoy!

Pour over some garlic oil, cover with sour cream, add shredded cheese and a little salt if you wish. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Comfort Food Challenge

Participated in the
Comfort Food Challenge