Kalacs (Hungarian Sweet Bread) Recipe 

Kalacs is Hungarian sweet bread, usually braided. It is good served with tea or coffee and best with warm chocolate milk. The following Kalacs is filled with sweet chestnut and red bean puree but it is common to find Kalacs filled with poppy seed and walnut puree.

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Steps

1. Combine 2 cups flour and the yeast in a large mixing bowl.
   
2. Heat milk, butter, sugar, salt in a pan until the butter is melted (about 115°F).
   
3. Add the milk mixture to the flour and yeast. Mix well, add the egg and beat well.
   
4. Add remainder of flour. Knead, if you wish, or don't knead, just make sure that everything is well mixed.
   
5. Transfer to a greased bowl. Cover and put in warm place to rise for 1 hour to 1-1/2 hrs. The size of the dough should about double.
   
6. While the dough is rising, prepare filling (if you make it from scratch, see recipe below, but if you have the sweetened chestnut puree already, then it's easy)
   
7. After dough has risen, put it out onto a floured bread board and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes.
   
8. Divide the dough into two halves.
   
9. Pat out or roll out each half with a rolling pin to about 1/4 inch thickness.
   
10. Spread half the filling on the dough and roll the dough up like a jelly roll. Tuck the ends over to close the loaf. Repeat with the second half of the dough and the rest of the filling.
    
11. Place each loaf in a greased loaf pan and let rise about 30 minutes. Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes until lightly browned.
    

Things You'll Need

• 3-1/2 Cups Flour
  
• 1 Package Active dry yeast
  
• 1-1/4 Cups Milk
  
• 1/4 Cup Butter
  
• 1/4 Cup Sugar
  
• 1/2 tsp Salt
  
• 1 Egg
  
• Filling (See below)
  
• Filling using ground Poppy Seeds (common filling):
  
• 1-1/2 Cups Poppy seed ground
  
• 1 Cup Sugar
  
• 1 Orange rind grated
  
• 1/2 Cup Raisins
  
• 1/2 Cup Milk
  
• Combine ingredients in saucepan and cook over low heat until thick enough to easily spread on unbaked dough.
  
• OR
  
• Poppy Seeds filling:
  
• 2/3 cups poppy seeds (grind well);
  
• 5 tbsp sugar;
  
• 1/2 tbsp honey;
  
• 1/4 tsp + 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind;
  
• 1/2 tbsp +1/4 tbsp+1/4 tbsp apricot jam
  
• OR
  
• Walnut puree filling:
  
• 1 2/3 cup of walnut (grind well);
  
• 1/2 cup sugar;
  
• 2-3 tsp of grated lemon rind;
  
• 1/4 cup water
  
• Grind the walnuts and poppy seeds separately.
  
• Mix the ingredients for the two fillings separately in medium saucepans and let them simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from the stove and allow to cool.
  

Sources and Citations

• http://indorecipe.com/recipe.php?recipeid=2079
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make Kalacs (Hungarian Sweet Bread). All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.