Flódni / Hungarian Sweet

Hungarian-Jewish sweet with five sweet cake layers and four different fillings: apple, walnut, poppy seed and plum jam.

(Originally from https://zserbo.com/desserts/flodni/)

Dry or semi-dry (kosher) white wine is an essential ingredient as it’s added to the dough as well as to the apple, walnut and poppy seed fillings. The recipe calls for plum jam, but it can be replaced with apricot jam. The only thing you have to pay attention to is that the jam must be very thick in order not to flow out of the layers. As you can see in the recipe, sugar is not overdosed because flódni should be sourish-sweet, but feel free to add a little more sugar if you want.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 500 g (~4 cups) flour
• 250 g (~1 cup) cold butter
• 100 g (~3/4 cup) powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• 100 ml (~7 tbsp) dry/semi-dry white wine
• pinch of salt

Put all the ingredients into the food processor and quickly knead into a smooth dough. Wrap the dough and place in the fridge overnight.

For the apple filling

• 1 kg (~2 1/4 lb) apple, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 150 ml (~2/3 cup) dry/semi-dry white wine
• 1 tbsp breadcrumbs

Cook sliced apples with honey, sugar, spices and wine until tender. When it’s done, strain the wine off the apple filling through a sieve into a bowl (don’t discard this liquid because it will be used for the walnut filling). Add one tablespoon of breadcrumbs to the apples, mix up and let it cool completely.

For the walnut filling

• 250 g (~2 2/3 cups) ground walnuts
• 100 g (~1/2 cup) sugar
• 30 g (~1/4 cup) raisins
• 30 g (~1 oz) dark chocolate
• 150 ml (~2/3 cup) dry/semi-dry white wine (if the liquid strained off is not enough, add some more wine)

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Leave it to rest until cool.

For the poppy seed filling

• 250 g (~2 cups) ground poppy seeds
• grated zest of an orange
• 150 ml (~2/3 cup) apricot jam
• 30 g (~2 1/2 tbsp) sugar
• 30 g (~1/4 cup) raisins
• 50 ml (~3 1/2 tbsp) dry/semi-dry white wine

Combine ground poppy seeds, orange zest, sugar, raisins and wine in a saucepan. Over low heat cook, stirring often, until hot and sugar dissolves. Let it cool.

For the jam filling

• 200 ml (~3/4 cup) plum jam
• 1 egg for the egg wash

All the fillings have to be completely cool!

Method

Grease a baking pan (30×34 cm) with butter. Preheat the oven to 175ºC / 347°F.

Cut the dough into 5 equal parts. On a lightly floured surface roll them out into thin rectangles. Place the first cake layer into the baking pan. Spread the walnut filling on the top evenly. Now come the second layer and the poppy seed filling. Put the third layer of cake onto the poppy seed filling and spoon the apple filling on. Transfer the fourth rectangle onto the apple filling and spread with plum jam. Cover with the last cake layer, brush top with beaten egg and poke holes all over the top with a fork.

Bake for 50-60 minutes. Cool completely before slicing.