292246 Tue Mar 18 15:59:31 -0800 2003 22 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1594483 Okay, I'm finally in the mood to get back into baking and my mom is going senile and has completely blocked out her past life as a supermom-baking-fanatic. My dad is Jewish and when they got married my mom learned everything there was to know about Jewish baking and cooking. She made the best matzo balls in our family. Her blintzes and latkes were the best I've ever had. After my parents divorced, she tossed out all of our family recipes, stopped cooking and started getting takeout from White Castle... So I've been having daydreams lately about making this pastry that we made when I was little. It was long streudel shape. But it wasn't as flakey as streudel, more of a sweet yeasty flavor, with an almost bready texture. I remember letting the dough rise a few times and then rolling it out and filling it with a poppyseed mixture or prunes. We'd make a few slits on the top, sprinkle a few poppy seeds and bake it. What I really liked about it was that it wasn't terribly sweet or buttery. I've never found anything like it at a Jewish bakery, though my aunt made the same pastry and the recipe apparently came from my great-grandmother, who came from the Ukraine. I think it may have been associated with purim...I remember we made a special trip to the market to get the poppyseeds and it seems that it was early in the spring. Does this sound familiar to anyone out there? Could it be a different type of streudel? Tue Mar 18 15:59:31 -0800 2003 0 butterfly 1 1594484 Yeah, definitely. I used to buy that by the piece in the East Village, where it was just called poppyseed cake. Sorry I don't know the real name. Tue Mar 18 16:04:19 -0800 2003 1594483 0 lucia 1 1594487 The pastry you are describing does not sound Jewish to me, but rather the traditional Hungarian "Beigli" which is generally filled with poppyseed (makos) or nut (dios).(Although I am sure that Hungarian Jews prepare this recipe at Purim and other Holiday; Hungarians generally make this bread at Christmas and Easter.) Do a search in Google for Hungarian Beigli and Recipe and you will come up with many recipes. I am pretty sure this is what you are looking for. http://homepage.interaccess.com/~june4/walnutstrudel.html Link: http://homepage.interaccess.com/~june4/moon.html Tue Mar 18 16:18:51 -0800 2003 1594483 0 jjm 2 1594525 Thanks--I'll definitely try the recipe. It sounds very similar--except I remember letting the dough for our version rise and I think it may have been longer and bigger--about a foot long and maybe four or five inches across. I forgot about the walnuts. Tue Mar 18 22:26:26 -0800 2003 1594487 0 butterfly 1 1594503 Definitely Hungarian. My grandmother-in-law makes them. We call them Nut and poppyseed rolls. They're all over the place in Bathlehem, PA. Tue Mar 18 17:59:25 -0800 2003 1594483 0 Brian 2 4655945 "nut roll"=Polish Xmas treat that we used to swim in every year. Love the stuff, made my very much non-Jewish (Polish, Catholic) mother's side of the family. Tue May 05 10:09:05 -0700 2009 1594503 12135 John Manzo 1 1594506 There's post on the Kosher board referring to "kindel", which sounds just like what you've described here. Could that be it? Tue Mar 18 18:47:52 -0800 2003 1594483 0 LBQT 2 1594537 That does sound very similar to our poppyseed pastry...unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to find a recipe for it online... Wed Mar 19 10:44:18 -0800 2003 1594506 0 butterfly 3 1594550 Here's a link to a recipe from the Jewish Food Archives. I think this is it. Link: http://www.jewish-food.org/recipes/purbeigl.htm Wed Mar 19 13:36:23 -0800 2003 1594537 0 LBQT 4 1594565 Anotehr recipe , this one for the Nut Roll. Link: http://www.netkuchnia.com/forum/topic.asp?tid=15&fid=9 Wed Mar 19 14:56:54 -0800 2003 1594550 0 jjm323 5 1594575 Thanks very much! I'm definitely going to try these. I know our version didn't have potatoes, but they might make it even better... Thanks again! Wed Mar 19 16:39:10 -0800 2003 1594565 0 butterfly 4 1595414 I finally got a chance to try this recipe... It turned out completely differently from our version, but it was great! For this recipe, I found that the "kindel" worked better than the large roll. And it made great yeasty hammentachen, as well. I think I might try making half of the dough recipe next time, that recipe yielded more dough than I knew what to do with--I was baking well into the wee hours last night! I don't think our version had as much sugar in the dough and it definitely didn't have potato... I also remember it rising quite a bit more and the dough had a more stretchy quality... But I do think what I remember was a beigli recipe. I've got to work my through these other suggestions. Tue Jul 01 14:17:58 -0700 2003 1594550 0 butterfly 1 1594518 Your pastry is probably Hammmantashen. My spelling is proably way off as I did it phoneticly. Anyway, Google it with a few different spellings and I'm sure you'll come up with it. My husband is also Jewish, but we mostly eat Oriental food. Go figure!! Tue Mar 18 21:02:30 -0800 2003 1594483 0 Karolyn 2 1594526 It's not hammantaschen (though those are good, too!). This pastry is longer and more streudel shaped. And it doesn't have the buttery flavor of a hammantaschen... Tue Mar 18 22:28:53 -0800 2003 1594518 0 butterfly 1 1594520 After I read your message, I asked my parents. My father is Romanian, of Hungarian descent, and his mother made the cake you describe. My mother (from Slovakia) makes this. In fact, she recently made it with prune (lekvar) filling and we devoured it. Amazingly, they didn't know its name. But it is delicious. Tue Mar 18 21:14:26 -0800 2003 1594483 0 Clarissa 2 1594527 Hmm, very mysterious! I seem to remember it being vaguely referred to as poppyseed cake or nut rolls, but I know it must have a another name... Any chance your mom would give up her recipe? Tue Mar 18 22:30:35 -0800 2003 1594520 0 butterfly 3 1594529 I think recently she took a Marcy Goldman (Jewish baker) cookbook recipe for a babka, and converted it to the long, rolled up thing instead. I guess the not-too-sweet quality of babka dough translated well to the flat, rolled up cake. I don't know how my grandmother did it (little pinch of this, pinch of that, amazing Hungarian baker) but this is how my mother did it. I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I could try to get specifics. Although she used a babka recipe, it was not babka-like at all. I'm not a huge fan of babka, but I devoured this prune thing without even waiting for the accompanying coffee to be ready. Tue Mar 18 23:56:13 -0800 2003 1594527 0 Clarissa 1 1594524 It is definitely not Hamentashen which is always triangular... don't know the name. The poppy seed filling is called muhn. Tue Mar 18 22:05:08 -0800 2003 1594483 0 StriperGuy 2 4654612 yes I was also going to say muhn or mun. Try googling both those words. Mon May 04 20:05:28 -0700 2009 1594524 22559 smartie 1 1594541 Clarissa mentioned a Marcy Goldman book. Marcy, who is one of the most knowlegeable persons re: Jewish baking, wrote the fabulous book: "A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking." I've looked through it, but do not see a recipe that resembles the one you are describing. However, Marcy has a web site which includes a "Contact" link. Perhaps if you describe the recipe to her, she will be able to help you identify it and provide the exact recipe. Here's the web site link: Link: http://www.betterbaking.com/index2.html Wed Mar 19 11:40:37 -0800 2003 1594483 0 RGR 1 4654246 I worked at Lox & Mandel Kosher Bakery ware they made a "kindel" dough, we rolled it out long and spread a chocolate filling and sprikeled choc chips on it, rolled it up , cut pieces the length of the baking pan, washed it with egg wash and baked it till it was golden brown, they also made a nut kindel, egg wash the dough, sprinkle walnuts and bleached raisons and ciniman sugar, roll and bake the same way, the dough was mixed and cut into 12 pound peices, flattend and spotted with a margerin folded 3 times (book fold) and rolled and book folded 3 times like danish, we would also cut it into 3inch pieces, after it was baked we iced them with choc fudge softened. I think they were Hungrain Jews, or possibly Russian, hope this helps, the hungrain's made a "hungrain dough" that sounds more like your describing, it was a little dry and bread like, they filled it with poppy seed or nut filling, for this one i have a resipe Mon May 04 17:48:08 -0700 2009 1594483 289403 reddog213 2 4654590 could you please post the recipe? Thank you Mon May 04 19:55:15 -0700 2009 4654246 11290 jfood 3 4655987 We moved Diane in Bexley's recipe for this pastry to Home Cooking. You'll find it here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/617423#4655659 . Tue May 05 10:17:17 -0700 2009 4654590 2 The Chowhound Team