Gundel Palacsinta

This traditional Hungarian dessert was among the top 10 in the desserts category in a 2010 online vote to find the nation’s favorite dishes. It was invented by famous Hungarian cook Károly Gundel (1883-1956). This is a translation of a recipe submitted to tutireceptek.hu by user Rekus.

Ingredients:
For the pancakes:
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
Rind of 1 lemon, grated
1/3 cup soda water
1 pinch salt
1 cup sunflower oil for frying

For the walnut filling:
1 cup cream
4 tablespoons rum
100 grams sugar
125 grams ground walnut
125 grams coarsely ground walnut
50 grams raisins
1 heaping tablespoon ground cinnamon

For the chocolate sauce:
100 grams semi-sweet chocolate
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
4 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
2 teaspoon cocoa powder
3 tablespoon rum
40 grams butter
Powdered sugar

Method:
Mix the eggs, milk, vanilla sugar, lemon skin and a pinch of salt in a 2-liter bowl with a whisk. Add flour and mix until smooth. Add soda water to make the batter the consistency of a thin sour cream. Let it sit for half an hour. Oil a 200-millimeter pancake pan, heat it and put in 1/3 of a cup of batter. Tilt the pan around to spread the batter evenly. Fry each pancake for 20 seconds then turn over and fry the other side for the same amount of time. Make eight pancakes. For the filling, mix cream and sugar, bring to a boil, then add other ingredients while stirring. Cook over a very low heat for 2-3 minutes. If it is very thick, add a bit more cream. Spread the filling on the pancakes and roll them up. For the chocolate sauce, melt chocolate with milk in a half-liter pot over slow steam. Once this is done, remove from heat, quickly mix in egg yolks with a whisk, add sugar, vanilla sugar, cocoa powder, butter and rum and heat over steam while stirring for five minutes. Remove from heat and if it is too thick, add milk. Heat 20 grams of butter in a pancake pan, place 4 rolled up and filled pancakes inside and roast both sides on medium heat until light brown. Keep these pancakes warm while roasting the other four pancakes. Once they are baked, serve them on warm plates, and pour chocolate sauce on half of them, and sprinkle the other half with powdered sugar.