My all time favourite hungarian Easter/Christmas dessert! Sweet yeast dough, walnut, apricot preserves/jam and chocolate glaze. I can't even explain...
I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter with way too much food. I had an amazing holiday, we went hiking to a beautiful place with tons of flowers and I ate as much as I could. So it was perfection.
I know this is more traditional at christmas time but who cares? We always make it at Easter too. I wanted to share this recipe at Christmas, but I wasn’t satisfied with the photos. Thank God I didn't shared those photos, they are awful compared to these.
There is nothing better on an afternoon, than a slice of gerbeaud. It is a hungarian dessert. It has thin layers of sweet yeast dough and there are walnuts and apricot preserves (or jam but traditionally it is made with home made preserves) between them. On the top there is a layer of chocolate. I have a gerbeaud pull-apart bread recipe and in that post there is some more information about this dessert.
This recipe makes a 13x9 inches or 35x25 cm rectangle sheet of gerbeaud slices. But they are quite short so I like to make double-decker gerbeaud slices. I just cut the uneven edges to make a perfect rectangle. Then I got perfectly even stripes. I put one stripe onto another one, then I cut the double-decker stripes into slices. At the end I have around 20 double-decker slices. Those are even better because they have everthing doubled, even more chocolate. And you know, the more, the better.
This is definitely not the fastest recipe but not complicated at all. Every minute worth it because it’s unbelievably delicious! Seriously what could be wrong in it? Sweet but not too heavy yeast dough, fruity apricot preserves and crunchy walnut. On the top it has a thin layer of chocolate glaze.
I don’t think I could say anything else. Just go and bake some, you won’t regret it!
Gerbeaud
Prep Time: 45 min. Baking Time: 15 min. Total Time: 2 hours Portions: 20 double-decker or 40 simple slices
Ingredients:
For the dough:
10g compressed fresh yeast or 3.5 g/ 1 teaspoon dry yeast
100ml milk
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
350g all-purpose flour
200g butter or margarine
50g granulated sugar
1 egg
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
For the filling:
300g finely chopped walnuts
120g granulated sugar
500-750g apricot preserves/jam (it depends how runny is your preserves)
For the chocolate glaze:
8 tablespoons cocoa powder (sweetend not the super dark one)
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1-2 tablespoons water
50g butter
1 tablespoon egg white
Directions:
In a small microwave safe bowl warm your milk up (make sure it’s not too hot or it will kill the yeast, but warm enough). Add the 1 tablespoon sugar and the yeast. Cover it with a paper towel and let it rise somwhere warm. It takes around 10-15 minutes.
To a large bowl add the flour, the salt and the baking powder. Mix them then with a fork, crumble the butter into the flour. You can use your hands too.
When it feels like wet sand add the yeast mixture, the 50g sugar, the egg. Knead it with your hands for a few minutes or until it comes together. Cut the dough into three equal parts.
On a well flured surface roll out every ball into a 13x9 inches or 35x25 cm rectangle. (I used a 14x10 inches baking sheet but the dough rises a little bit so I rolled it one inch smaller).
Layer the first rectangle into the 14x10 inches baking sheet. Cover it with half of the jam, the walnut and the sugar evenly. Put on the second layer and cover it with the other half of the fillings. On top of that add the last layer of dough.
Let it rise for an hour at room temperature.
Preheat your oven to 355 F or 180 C. With a fork make small wholes so the dough doesn’t puff up. Bake it for 12-15 minutes or until the top and the edges are set and golden brown.
While you let it cool down completely, make your glaze. Into a small sauce pan add the cocoa powder, the sugar, and a few tablsepoons of water. Mix until smooth and start heating it up on a low heat.
When it’s thickened, stir in the butter. Let it cool down a little bit then add the egg white. Mix until corporated. Cover the top with the glaze evenly and let it set before cutting slices.
If you want to make the double-decker ones cut the edges of your gerbeaud to make an even rectangle. Then cut around 2 inch or 3 cm wide strips. Carefully lift one strip and put it onto an another strip. Cut these double-decker strips into slices around 4 inch or 10 cm long.
