Hungarian Delight

Ingredients / half-recipe in parentheses

4 cups flour (260 grams)
3½ teaspoons baking powder (1¾ teaspoons)
1 cup vegetable shortening or unsalted butter (113 grams butter, or 56 grams butter + 50 grams shortening)
½ pint sour cream (113 grams)
¼ teaspoon salt (1/8 teaspoon)
1 cup sugar (100 grams)
3 egg yolks (1½ yolks)
grated rind of 1 lemon (½ lemon)
1 jar apricot preserves (first filling) (200-220 grams)
3 egg whites (stiffly beaten; for second filling) (1½ whites)
½ cup sugar (for second filling) (50 grams)
1 cup ground walnuts (for second filling) (55-60 grams)
1 jar prune lekvar (200-220 grams)

Instructions

Cut the shortening into the flour, adding baking powder, salt, sugar, and the lemon rind. Add egg yolks and sour cream. Mix well.
Make four equal balls, one for each layer. Roll out first ball and line well into greased 10x15x1 inch pan. Spread with apricot preserves.
Roll out second ball, place over apricot filling and spread with nut filling.
Roll out third ball, place over nut filling and spread with lekvar.
Roll out fourth ball and place over lekvar. Bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes.

Notes

5 December 2025: I made this today for the first time. I made half of the original recipe in a 9” x 9” pan lined with Reynolds pan lining paper (quantities for half recipe are in parentheses above). I used butter instead of shortening. Each ball of dough weighed 152 grams. The dough was challenging to work with at first; it was crumbly and wouldn’t hold together. But then I realized that it needed to be kneaded into a smooth dough. Once I did that, it rolled out well. The next challenge was to roll them to the correct size to fit as perfect layers inside the pan. I ended up making a “template” out of paper towels so I could size it correctly. No problem cutting off a small amount from one edge and adding it to another side if necessary, but it was best to roll it out as precisely as possible. Then I carefully draped each layer of dough atop the filling below. I beat the egg whites using the hand mixer in a small, straight sided bowl. I topped the final pastry later with an egg wash made from the remaining half-egg and baked it for 35 minutes on rack 2.

24 December 2025: I made this again today, using half shortening and half butter instead of all butter. The dough was much harder to work with, as it kept breaking apart when I tried to layer it into the pan regardless of how much I kneaded it. I also thought it tasted bland compared to the butter. The top layer did come out a bit “flakier” but to me the inner layers seemed about the same texture as when made with all butter. Like last time, I put an egg wash on the top and baked it on rack 2 for 35 minutes.