Hungarian zserbó

Today I will be writing about this decadent Hungarian dessert, named after a famous confectionery by the name of Café Gerbeaud in the stunning capital city of Budapest. To be honest, I didn't know  much about this rich dessert, until I was browsing for some ideas for a rich treat, after a traditional Easter lunch. My boyfriend mentioned this dessert and I was immediately intrigued, since it was one of his favourite desserts growing up and I wanted him to savour once again a taste from his home country. 

Ingredients for the dough

• 350g of plain flour
• 180g of cold butter (finely grated)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
• 1 egg
• Two heaped teaspoons of yeast
• 100ml milk 
• 50g sugar

For the filling: 

• 200g of roasted walnuts
  
• 100g of icing sugar
• 400g of homemade apricot/peach jam

For the Chocolate glaze:

• 120g of 50% dark chocolate (roughly chopped)
  
• 55g of butter
• 50ml reduced fat cream

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix the grated butter and flour and the vanilla powder.
2. Add the yeast to the warm milk, together with 1 teaspoon of sugar to start the fermentation
3. Add the milk-yeast mixture to the bowl with the butter and flour. Add the egg and sugar and mix. Proceed onto kneading the dough until you have a thick cylinder.
4. Before attempting to roll out the dough, divide the thick cylinder into 4 equal parts, wrap in cling film and place inside the fridge for an hour (this will help you roll out the pastry without it crumbling)
5. While the dough is resting, proceed onto roasting the walnuts for 6 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius. Once they are roasted, grind the walnuts with the icing sugar to form a paste.
6. Start rolling out the dough balls, and place the first layer (dough ball) into a 9 inch square cake pan and add a thick layer of apricot jam. Add the crushed walnuts and repeat using all the available dough, as if assembling a lasagna, each time adding a pastry sheet and filling it with jam and apricots. You should end up with 4 layers of pastry.
7. Prick the last dough layer, cover with a warm kitchen towel and allow to proof for 1 hour.
8. Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for around 35 minutes until golden brown.
9. Let it cool in the pan before attempting to cover it with the chocolate glaze.

Chocolate glaze:

1. In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate together with the cream until melted and well combined.
2.  Quickly remove from the heat and add in the chopped butter to form a creamy chocolate mixture which will retain its shine.
   
3. Once the pastry is cool, add the chocolate using a scraper and spread all over. Let it set over the pastry at room temperature.
4. Proceed to slicing the dessert the following day once the glaze has completely set.
5. Last but not least, enjoy and savour every piece of this decadent dessert! 

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