The famous ‘beigli’ – advice from an award-winning pastry chef on how to bake the perfect Hungarian Christmas poppy seed or walnut-roll

With love on the road to success

"Life is uncertain, start with dessert!" – readns a sign in a pastry shop in Buda. And it's right: what could be more uncertain around Christmas than beigli? Fortunately, all our questions can be answered accurately here, as the pastry shop keeps scoring high in the Bejgli of the Year competition almost every year. But let's not get ahead of ourselves!

The café opened in 2008, owned by two friends, Zsuzsa Kiss Károlyné and Bernadett Nagyné Haán. The two ladies have been friends for decades, having attended catering college together. Before opening the café, they both taught pastry at the Szamos Mátyás Vocational High School. Their friendship is enduring and they work in harmony.

Their first pastry shop was not big, but it was filled with heart. But after a while, the 32 square metres became too small: as they won more and more prizes, their popularity grew. 

In 2013, the confectionery won the prestigious Cake of Hungary competition with its Milotai Honey Nut Cake. The media made their name known, and as Zsuzsa Kiss Károlyné says, they were put on the stage of Budapest's confectioners. 

But the reason for the increase in sales is not only that, she says, the customers can feel the love they put into their sweets. Their clientele has expanded and their success has continued ever since. 

As they became more popular locally, they decided to expand their business: they bought the hairdresser's shop next door and turned it into a café. Riding on the wave of success, they have grown enormously, and have also entered the Hungarian Confectioners' Association's Bejgli of the Year competition with more confidence.

This year, Zsuzsa Károlyné Kiss entered the competition for the third time and has never come home without a place. Two years ago she came third in the poppy seed roll category, last year she also won bronze for her poppy seed roll and silver for her walnut-filled one, and was awarded the Elemér Auguszt special prize, which goes to the pastry chef with the highest number of placings. This year, she again took third place in the walnut bejgli competition. 

These achievements seem even more impressive knowing that the judges rank the pastries on a blind test basis.

If anyone, it's Zsuzsa Kiss Károlyné, who can answer any question about baking beigli, although she modestly admits that every success is the result of teamwork, as they test and taste the bejgli entered for the competition together. She believes that the jury appreciates the taste created in their pastry shop and the fact that the filling of the rolls is not over-seasoned. She also shares some useful tips with the readers of Képmás. We enter the workshop, where a cross above the doorway marks that we are entering an almost sacramental space.

How to make the perfect beigli

Many people get stuck when they are confronted with the selection of flour in the shop. Zsuzsa simplifies the formula: for baking beigli, BL 55 flour is the best. She mixes the flour dry with the fat, butter, and a little lard (the latter increases the crumbliness of the dough and keeps the sweetness fresh for longer). This is necessary to ensure that the flour granules are surrounded by fat so that the liquid added later cannot reach the grains. This prevents the flour from becoming paste-like.

Before kneading the dough, we should divide the amount of milk needed. In one part, Zsuzsa dissolves the salt, which is essential because without it the dough will not brown sufficiently. She also mixes the egg yolks with the salted milk. The yeast is added to the other half of the milk. 

Then put the flour, mixed with the fat, into the bowl, add the salted-sugar-egg yolk milk, mix it slightly, and add the other half of the milk with the yeast, says Mrs Kiss. Knead the dough. Next, measure out the dough: 23 decagrams are needed to make one beigli-roll. Roll the dough into dumplings and place them in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

Zsuzsa Kiss Károlyné adds two types of walnuts to the walnut beigli, plain and roasted, with bigger pieces of the latter to give the customer a variety of textures. 

The nuts should be of very good quality, she suggests, the ones they use at the Major come from Zala county. Lemon, and orange peel, as well as vanilla, are also used in the filling. Zsuzsa mixes the nut filling with water.
 

The secret to the poppy seed version, the pastry chef tells us, is to grind the poppy seeds as finely as possible, as the finer you grind them, the more the flavours come out. They always use Hungarian poppy seeds mixed with milk, which blends better with the flavour of the poppy seeds. In both fillings, she also adds honey, raisins, and peeled chopped apple cubes. Of course, she always adjusts the product a little, thanks to constant development and the incorporation of new knowledge. So the long-used recipe for beigli is constantly being refined.

Once the dough has rested, she stretches it into a rectangle and places the filling on top.  For one roll you need 30 decagrams of filling. Zsuzsa also rolls out the dough between two sheets of foil until it is almost the size of the dough. This step is also crucial, as this way she doesn't press the filling over the dough. This is because if we flatten the filling on top of the dough, the dough may thin out, become damaged, and crack more easily during baking. 

Stroking is the most important

The next essential step is to roll up the beigli: Zsuzsa folds in the two edges to a centimetre, and then rolls up the dough very loosely. Don't squeeze it tightly, just as loosely as you can, let it roll under its own weight, the pastry chef warns. 

Many people know, correctly, that you need to make evenly spaced holes along the body and sides of the beigli-dough with a fork or toothpick before baking, but the key is when and how. 

In fact, the beigli has to be brushed with a beaten egg mixture twice (two yolks are beaten with a whole egg to make a homogeneous mixture). "First, brush the top and the sides of the beigli with the mixture and then let it dry. Then you have to brush it again and wait for the egg to dry again. Then you can make the little holes. If you don't wait till the egg mixture is completely dry, then it can block the holes and the steam cannot evaporate," explains Mrs Kiss. 

Zsuzsa starts the baking at 200 degrees Celsius, then after 8 minutes lowers the temperature to 180 degrees Celsius, where the dough is baked for 14 more minutes. It is worth noting that the bakery uses high-powered industrial ovens, which allow the baking temperature to be adjusted precisely. Therefore, Zsuzsa Kiss Károlyné advises setting the temperature a little higher in the home oven - which is less accurate - and perhaps bake a little longer until the pastry is light brown. (You can buy a thermometer suitable for exact measurements from kitchen appliance shops.)

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Photo: Tamás Velkei

Many people get discouraged when looking in the oven they see that their beigli has burst. To avoid this, it is necessary to make the dough as well as the filling with the same consistency. When I ask how we can tell, Zsuzsa says that they check it by touch.  

"I stroke every beigli when I put it on the plate, and by doing so, I also bless them," says Mrs Kiss. 

She adds that humility is very important when baking beigli (and in the pastry profession in general), if we are impatient, or in a hurry, and don't give the dough the right respect, that will result in disaster. 

With Christmas fast approaching, everyone's calendar getting full, so we also ask how much time before the big day you can make the beigli. The experienced pastry chef says it's safe to bake it up to 3-4 days before Christmas and store it wrapped in the fridge. But be careful, Zsuzsa warns, not to wrap the beigli in foil until they are completely cold.