Hungarian Almond Roll

This Hungarian almond roll is made with a simple brioche style dough filled with a sweet almond and dried fruit filling. 

You will love a slice of this almond roll for breakfast with your morning coffee. It's also delicious as a mid afternoon snack. 

This recipe was originally published in Sunset Magazine in December 2001, with the title, "Gigi's Hungarian Almond Roll." The author describes how her friend Gigi's mother, who was from Hungary, always served this nut roll during the holidays. Gigi shared this recipe with the author. 

This bread is a wonderful sweet treat. 

The original recipe calls for raisins. I substituted dried blueberries, my favorite dried fruit. They are so amazing and nutritious. They are more pricey than raisins, but they are so delicious. I've used them in oatmeal cookies, granola bars, and cinnamon swirl blueberry bread, wherever raisins might be the norm. 

Not to dismiss raisins of course! You can use raisins, dates (chopped), dried mangos, dried sour cherries, apricots, or cranberries, or any combination of all of these dried fruits. 

For the almonds, while the original recipe calls for grinding your own in a food processor, I happened to have some almond meal in the freezer, so I used that. If you want a more visible swirl, be sure to use unblanced almonds or almond meal so that the skins add some color. 

Otherwise, the flavor is pretty much the same. 

How to make the brioche dough:

The dough is pretty easy to make. It will seem super sticky but will actually be pretty easy to handle. 

I made mine in the bowl of a 5-quart stand mixer. Because it's such a small amount of dough, using a larger mixer won't work very well because the dough hook can't engage the dough. 

I used an osmotolerant yeast, SAF Gold, which is great for sweet doughs. If you don't have it, SAF Red is my second favorite for this kind of dough. If you are just an occasional yeast baker, Red Star Platinum is my third favorite. 

Just add all of the ingredients to the bowl and knead it for 5 minutes on medium speed until you have a cohesive dough. I added an extra tablespoon of flour. I was tempted to add more because the dough seemed sticky, but it was actually super easy to handle. 

I used a small dough rising bucket so I could monitor the dough. 

I placed the dough in a warm spot in my house for about an hour, until it had almost doubled in size. Once the dough has almost doubled, you can use it immediately, or chill it for an hour or two until you are ready to shape the roll. This will make the dough easier to handle. 

Just like with Potica, an eastern European holiday nut bread, I used a well floured couche to roll out the dough. I keep my couche in the freezer and drag it out whenever I make baguettes, rolls, or breads that require support while proofing. 

If you're really concerned about sticking, you can make a 50/50 mixture of wheat and rice flour to sprinkle over the couche. Rice flour is like Teflon to bread dough when it comes to sticking. 

How to make the almond and blueberry filling:

Sauté ground almonds, the blueberries, sugar, milk, a pinch of salt, and some lemon or orange zest until the mixture forms a trail when you drag a spoon through it. Take it off heat and add some vanilla. 

Let the mixture cool while your dough is rising. 

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are baking Gigi's Hungarian Roll and our host is Feeding my Enthusiasms. 

After the recipe, be sure to check out everyone's creative recipe variations. 

Hungarian Almond Roll

Yield: 24 slices

Author: Karen's Kitchen Stories

This Hungarian almond roll is made with a simple brioche style dough filled with a sweet almond and dried fruit filling.

Ingredients

For the Dough

• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 90 grams (6 tablespoons) lukewarm water
• 50 grams (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 2 large egg yolks, room temperature, divided
• 85 grams (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 188 grams (1 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon milk

For the Filling

• 145 grams (1 cup whole almonds) ground almonds 
• 110 grams (3/4 cup) dried blueberries
• 150 grams (3/4 cup) sugar
• 180 grams (3/4 cup) milk
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I used vanilla bean paste)

Instructions

To Make the Dough

1. Add the yeast, water, sugar, 1 of the egg yolks, butter, salt, and flour to the bowl of a stand mixer, mix with the dough hook on medium for 5 mintutes, until the dough is cohesive. 
2. If it is too sticky, add an additional tablespoon of flour. 
3. Let the dough rise, covered, in a warm spot, until almost doubled, about an hour. 
4. In the meantime, whisk together the other egg yolk with the tablespoon of milk and set aside for brushing the loaf before baking. 

To Make the Filling

1. Add the almond flour, blueberries, sugar, milk, salt, and lemon zest. 
2. Cook over medium high heat until a spoon dragged through the mixture leaves a trail. 
3. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. 
4. Let cool. 

To Assemble and bake the Bread

1. When the dough is ready, form it into a ball and pat it into a square on a floured cloth. 
2. Roll it out into a 15 inch square.
3. Spread the filling over the dough evenly with an offset spatula. 
4. Using the cloth, begin rolling the dough into a log. Finish rolling it with your hands and transfer it to a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until puffy, about 45 minutes. 
5. Heat your oven to 325 degrees F. 
6. Brush the loaf with the egg wash and bake for 45 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for about an hour. Cut into 1/4 inch slices to serve. 

Nutrition Facts

Calories

99.10

Fat (grams)

3.61

Sat. Fat (grams)

2.01

Carbs (grams)

15.25

Fiber (grams)

0.44

Net carbs

14.81

Sugar (grams)

8.83

Protein (grams)

1.69

Sodium (milligrams)

2958.74

Cholesterol (grams)

30.85

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2021/06/hungarian-almond-roll.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

blueberries, bread, almond roll

Bread

Hungarian

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Check out the rest of the Babes' Almond Rolls:

My Diverse Kitchen

Judy's Gross Eats

Bread Experience

A Messy Kitchen

Feeding My Enthusiasms