What is Kürtőskalács?

Kürtőskalács is the name given to a food product. The original product is sweet. The inside of the dough is light and fluffy, whereas the outside is crispy and crunchy. 

Risen yeast dough is wrapped around a special cooking roll, painted lightly with butter or cooking oil, then coated in sugar. After the dough has risen on the cooking roll, it is baked either inside a specialist Kürtőskalács oven or above a flame on a charcoal or gas grill. After baking and once the sugar has caramelised, a topping such as nuts or cinnamon sugar is sprinkled onto the wet melted sugar.

What other names is the product Kürtőskalács known as?
The word Kürtőskalács is Hungarian, but similar words such as Kurtosh, Kurtos kalacs, Kotosh, Kurtosh Kalach have been used to describe the product. Alternative Hungarian names such as dorongfánk (spit-donut) or botratekercs (stick roll) or botfánk (stick-donut) were also mentioned in the 19th century.

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the product is called Trdelnik, Trdlo or Trozkol and in Austria and Germany, Baumstriezel.

The Hungarian name Kürtős kalács, translates in English to Horn Cake, however, as most of the European names are difficult to pronounce, the most common name used by international vendors is Chimney cake or Chimney roll.

Where does Kürtőskalács originate from? 
Baking dough, wrapped around spits, dates back to the medieval times, however the first known recipe of Kürtőskalács originates from Transylvania and was included in the 1784 cookbook of Countess Mária Mikes of Zabola.

Today, Transylvania is part of Romania, however it was once part of the Austro / Hungarian empire and during this period, the popularity of the product grew as it was often prepared at weddings and other special occasions. 

What is Kürtőskalács made of?
There are lots of different recipes for Kürtőskalács, however, after over a decade of working with the product, we believe we have the best recipes out there.

Our recipes do not include any eggs as eggs can be problematic regarding allergies and food preparation regulations.

The dough produced using our recipes can be used for the sweet and the savoury product. You do not have to make separate doughs, which reduces waste.

Included in our Kürtőskalács recipes is our own Kurtos kalacs mix. We produce concentrated mixes, which you add your own flour to as well as complete mixes, which includes the flour. The complete mixes are especially useful to customers which don’t have a compatible flour in their own country.

As well as our Premium original mixes, which are prepared with cow’s milk powder, we are now proud to offer two vegan mixes, which are prepared with coconut milk powder.

How is Kürtőskalács made?
Ingredients are placed into a mixing bowl, then kneaded in a commercial kneading machine for 10 minutes. 

The dough is then removed from the mixing bowl and by hand, made into a neat ball. This ball is then placed into a plastic container and painted lightly with cooking oil, to prevent the dough from drying out. 

The dough is then left to rise for around 1 hour in a temperature of around 25 degrees centigrade. Its important that the container the dough is placed inside, allows room for dough expansion.  

Once risen (doubled in size) the dough is then split into Kurtos size portions. The size of the portion depends on what size cooking roll will be used and what type of product you wish to make (either sweet or savoury).

The dough portions are rolled into a sausage shape, placed into a plastic box, painted lightly with oil and left to rise for the second time.

Once the dough portion has risen, it is rolled out, into a long strip, then wrapped around the kurtos cooking roll. The cooking roll is then rolled onto the worksurface, so that the strips of dough join.

The dough is then painted lightly with oil and the sugar is applied. The dough is then left again, for the third time to rise.

Once risen, the cooking rolls are placed into the oven or onto the grill. Baking time is 5-6 minutes for the traditional stand chimney shape product and around 4-5 minutes for the cone shape product.

At the end of the baking period and once the sugar caramelizes, the baked product is removed from the baking machine and a topping is applied. The dry topping will stick to the wet caramelized sugar.

The baked kurtos is then removed from the cooking roll. The Kürtőskalács will continue to steam, this is because the inside of the product is continuing to bake.The baked Kürtőskalács can then be placed into a serving bag and given to the customer.

Dober Kürtős – The Chimney cake, Chimney cones, Trdelnik, & Baumstriezel experts