Today, muffins, cupcakes, tiramisu, and donuts have taken over all store windows and restaurant menus. These are certainly delicious world desserts, but for now, we invite you to remember the authentic sweet dishes of Western Ukraine.
The linguistic borrowings and similarity of ornaments in the clothes of Western Ukrainians to their European neighbors have been known for a long time, and this assimilation did not bypass the culinary industry. Thus, the Magyars, Poles, Slovaks, and even Germans gave us many delicious recipes that are still popular in the Carpathians and nearby areas.
Gombovtsi
This Transcarpathian dish was borrowed from the Hungarians. Traditionally, it was based on potatoes, but today there are frequent versions of gombovtsi made from sour milk cheese or flour dough. Gombovtsi are relatives of dumplings and varenyky, and the cheese variation of this dish resembles lazy varenyky. We will dwell in more detail on authentic potato gombovtsi with plums or jam, which were served to the table by our distant ancestors.
Ingredients
1 kg of potatoes, 400 g of flour, 1-2 tbsp. of oil, 1 egg, cinnamon, 100 g of sugar, 100 g of breadcrumbs, 300 g of plums, 100 g of butter.
Cooking method
The potatoes should be thoroughly washed and boiled with their skins on. The potatoes should be peeled and rubbed through a sieve or ground with a blender or meat grinder while still hot. Add the sifted flour, egg, and oil to the cooled potatoes and knead the dough. Cut the rolled dough into pieces and make flatbreads. Place a pitted plum in the middle of each flatbread and bring the edges of the flatbread together to form a ball – a gombovets.
After dipping in boiling water, cook the gombowtsy over moderate heat for 10-15 minutes until they float to the surface. While the gombowtsy are cooking, prepare a sauce-gravy made from crackers and butter. Heat the butter until light brown, strain, and add the sugar and toasted crackers. Meanwhile, remove the already boiled gombowtsy from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate, pouring over the sauce. Serve hot.
Square
Plyatsok is another delicacy of Western Ukrainian origin. This is a delicious pastry that is something between a cake and a pastry. Mostly, plyatsok is a sweet dish that is prepared on a large baking sheet and cut into small square pieces. At least the name of this dish was given to us by the Poles, but the recipes themselves were already diversified and improved by the Galician Ukrainians. If gombowtsi is a dish, so to speak, for the weekend, then plyatsok is the king of the Western Ukrainian holiday feast. Housewives competed in skill, creating tall plyatsok cakes with various fillings - cream, fruit, marmalade, etc. Today, there are many different plyatsok recipes, but we found the one that seemed to us the most traditional and authentic.
Ingredients for the dough
3 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, extinguish with sour cream, 3 tbsp cocoa, 2 cups flour, 2 tbsp oil, a pinch of salt.
Ingredients for meringue
4 egg whites, 1 cup sugar, 100 g of coconut flakes, half a cup of toasted chopped nuts.
Ingredients for the cream
4 egg yolks, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, 800 g butter, 8 halves of white marshmallows, 300 g marmalade.
Cooking method
Beat the eggs, add sugar, oil and other ingredients. Beat the dough, it should have the consistency of thick sour cream. If desired, you can add cocoa to only half of the dough. Bake 2 cakes from the dough or one thick one, which is cut in half.
Beat the egg whites, gradually adding the sugar. Add the nuts and coconut flakes to the already beaten egg whites and mix carefully, without skipping. Form the meringue into a thin layer on a baking sheet, with a total area of two cakes. Dry in the oven at a low temperature until dry.
Boil the milk and add it to the egg yolks, beaten with sugar. Mix thoroughly so that the yolks do not cook. Bring the resulting mass to a boil over low heat, stirring. Add room temperature butter to the slightly cooled mass in small portions, whisking constantly.
Cut the marshmallows and marmalade into 1x1 cm or 0.5x0.5 cm pieces.
You need to assemble the pile of soil in the following order:
1st cake => cream => marshmallow layer => cream => 1 meringue => cream => 2 meringue => cream => thin layer of marmalade => cream => 2nd cake.
It is best to assemble the cake at least a day before eating it so that it has time to soak up the cream.
Rolls
Kyfliki is a festive, mainly Christmas, Western Ukrainian dish. We inherited the name, as well as the recipe, from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, for which we are very grateful.
At first glance, kifliki are very similar to bagels. But, firstly, bagels are prepared with different fillings, and for kifliki, the traditional ones are nuts or jam, and secondly, the Italian dessert has always been much less popular in Ukraine than traditional kifliki. So, keep the recipe for this delicious Transcarpathian cookie, sprinkled with powdered sugar and baked in the shape of a horseshoe.
Ingredients for the dough
500 g flour, 300 g margarine, 30 g butter, 4 egg yolks, three-quarters of a cup of sour cream, 2-3 tbsp sugar, a pinch of salt.
Ingredients for the filling
300 g walnuts, 4 egg whites, 2 tbsp. sugar. Powdered sugar for serving.
Cooking method
Grind the flour with 250 g of margarine, add sugar and salt. Add the yolks one at a time and knead the dough, gradually add sour cream and knead the dough well, divide it into 4 parts.
Roll each part to a thickness of 4-5 mm. Melt margarine with butter and grease each sheet of dough. Roll all the sheets into a roll, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for one hour.
Beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff and add the chopped nuts. Cut the dough rolls into 1 cm thick pieces. Roll each piece thinly and add the filling (about 1 tsp). Wrap each piece, forming a bun and pinching the edges on the sides, slightly bend the product, giving it the shape of a horseshoe.
It is better to bake the rolls without parchment paper at 180 C for 40-50 minutes until golden brown. Sprinkle the cold rolls with powdered sugar.
Flooded
Flodni is a traditional three-layered flatbread of Hungarian origin.
The dough for it is necessarily prepared with animal fat - chicken or goose fat. Of course, you can replace it with pork fat or butter, but the classic recipe is made with goose fat. Such pastries are very fragrant, tender and satisfying, and can be stored for a long time. Instead of applesauce, you can add plum or apricot jam to the filling.
Ingredients for the dough
250 g flour, 50 g powdered sugar, 80 g lard, 2 egg yolks (1 for the dough, 2 for greasing), 50 ml white wine (can be replaced with water), 0.5-1 tbsp milk, a pinch of salt.
Ingredients for apple filling
500 g apples, 1-2 tbsp. lemon juice, 3 tbsp. sugar, cinnamon.
For the poppy seed filling
100 g poppy seeds, 3 tbsp. sugar, 3 tbsp. water.
Ingredients for the nut filling
150 g walnuts, 100 g sugar, 50 ml water.
Cooking method
Mix the flour with sugar and salt, add the lard and grind. Mix the yolk with water and add to the flour mixture. Quickly knead the dough and put it in the cold, wrapped in cling film.
For the apple filling, core and peel the apples, cut them, place them in a saucepan, sprinkle with lemon juice, sprinkle with sugar, and place over low heat. Once the apples have released their juice and become soft, mash them into a puree, add cinnamon, and cool.
For the poppy seed filling, mix the washed poppy seeds with sugar, pass them through a meat grinder or grind them with a blender, or grind them in a food processor. Add water to the poppy seeds, put them on the fire for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Cool.
For the nut filling, finely chop the walnuts with sugar, add the mixture to a saucepan with water, and boil for 5-7 minutes until the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool.
While the fillings are cooling, take the dough out of the refrigerator and divide it into 4 parts. Use the first part, put the other three back in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough thinly to the size of the mold (the optimal size for this amount of ingredients is 20x15 cm, but everything is relative). Cover the baking sheet with parchment and lay out the first layer of dough, evenly spreading the surface with the nut filling.
Immediately roll out the second layer of dough, cover the nut layer with it and spread the apple filling on top of the dough. The apple puree should not be liquid, excess juice can be drained. You can sprinkle the apples on top with crushed butter crackers. Cover with the next layer of dough, on top of which spread the poppy seed filling. The last layer of dough should be made a slightly larger plane - adding about 1 cm on each side.
Grease the assembled flodni with egg yolk beaten with milk. The edges and surface can be decorated with patterns using a fork if desired. Bake the flodni at 200 C until golden brown. The dessert should be cooled in the mold, and then cut into square pieces.
Baniki
Banyky is another type of traditional Transcarpathian pastry - rolls made from yeast dough with various fillings: poppy seed, apple, cheese, or nut.
Ingredients for the dough
1 kg of flour, 2 cups of milk, 6 tbsp. of sugar, a pinch of salt, 2 eggs, 50 g of melted margarine, 30 g of fresh yeast (or the corresponding amount of dry yeast), 2-3 tbsp. of dry red wine.
Ingredients for the filling
500 g poppy seeds, 200 ml milk, sugar, honey – to taste (about a glass).
Cooking method
For the dough, you need to prepare the dough. To do this, in a large bowl, mix half of the warm milk, yeast, 1 tbsp. sugar and 2 tbsp. flour. Put the dough in a warm place for 20 minutes.
Sift the flour, beat the eggs with the remaining warm milk, sugar, salt and melted margarine.
In a clean container, mix the finished dough, beaten eggs, wine and half of the flour. Knead a soft dough, gradually adding the second part of the flour. You will have to knead for a long time - 20-30 minutes, until the dough starts to stick to your hands. You can check whether the dough is well-mixed by cutting it with a knife - when cutting, the knife should remain clean. The kneaded dough should be sprinkled with flour and covered with a towel or napkin and put in a warm place to rise for 1-2 hours. The dough should double in volume.
While the dough is rising, it's time to make the poppy seed filling. To do this, scald the poppy seeds with boiling water and boil for a few minutes, then leave them covered for 30 minutes to swell.
The already steamed poppy seeds should be ground in a food processor or blender, with sugar or honey as you prefer, and then poured over with milk. The milk should cover the poppy seeds by about 1.5 cm. The resulting mass should be boiled until thickened and cooled.
Carefully place the risen dough on a floured board or table, stretch the dough lengthwise and divide it into 4-5 parts. Roll each part into a rectangle about the thickness of a finger and the width of your baking sheet.
Fill the dough sheet with the filling, roll it up, pinch the sides and place it in a baking dish, which must first be thoroughly greased with oil. The surface of the buns should be greased with egg yolk and milk or oil. The first ones will be shiny, the second ones will not. Leave to rise for 20 minutes.
Bake the buns at 180°C for 1 hour. Check for doneness with a toothpick. If it comes out clean after piercing the dough and the buns themselves are already brown on top, you can take them out. Slice them as soon as they cool down.
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