Búrkifli – Walnut and poppy seed crescents

by | Apr 1, 2022 | Breads, buns & biscuits

Búrkifli is a crescent shaped Hungarian bakery product, that is made from puff pastry and filled with ground walnuts or poppy seeds. Puff pastry is usually an ingredient you buy in the grocery store freezer section, it’s not that kind of thing you’d make yourself. However, homemade puff pastry is worth the time and effort, it’s much more delicious than the store-bought sheets.

Making homemade all-butter puff pastry is not as difficult as you might think. It only takes 5 ingredients and will be ready in about 1,5 hour. Similar to plunder dough puff pastry is folded several times to layer butter within the dough and create flaky layers. Between two foldings the dough sits in the fridge chilling for 15 minutes.

Búrkifli - Walnut and poppy seed crescents
Búrkifli – Walnut and poppy seed crescents – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

For the puff pastry:

  • 450 + 50 g (~3 2/3 cups + 1/3 cup) flour
  • 450 + 50 g (~2 cups + 3 1/2 tbsp) butter, diced
  • 250 ml (~1 cup) cold water
  • 10 g (~2/3 tbsp) salt
  • 1 tsp vinegar

For the walnut filling:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 150 g (~1 cup + 2 tbsp) powdered sugar
  • 150 g (~1 3/4 cups) ground walnuts
  • 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
  • zest of a lemon

For the poppy seed filling:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 150 g (~1 cup + 2 tbsp) powdered sugar
  • 150 g (~5 1/4 oz) ground poppy seeds
  • 2-3 tbsp apricot jam

For the egg wash:

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1-2 tbsp milk

In a bowl quickly combine 450 grams (~2 cups) of butter and 50 grams (~1/3 cup) of flour. Form a block and put in the fridge.

Rub 50 grams (~3 1/2 tablespoons) of butter into 450 grams (~3 2/3 cups) of flour, then add salt, vinegar and cold water, and knead until smooth.

On a floured surface roll out the dough into a rectangle shape, place the butter pad in the middle and boundle it up by folding the edges of the dough over it. Roll out the dough again, then fold the left third of the dough to the centre, then fold the right third over that.

Homemade puff pastry - folding
Homemade puff pastry - folding
Homemade puff pastry - folding
Homemade puff pastry - folding

Rotate the dough 90 degrees. Roll out and fold 1/4 of the dough to the middle both on the left and right side, then fold them over each other.

Homemade puff pastry - folding
Homemade puff pastry - folding

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 15 minutes. Repeat folding 3 times in the same way, with a 15 minute resting time between each section.

After you have finished folding, you can leave the wrapped dough in the fridge overnight or you can use it immediately (keep it cold while preparing the fillings).

For the walnut filling beat egg whites and powdered sugar until very stiff. Gently fold in the ground walnuts, breadcrumbs and lemon zest.

For the poppy seed filling beat egg whites and sugar until very stiff, then fold in ground poppy seeds and apricot jam.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 392°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Divide the dough in two equal parts. Roll out the first piece of dough into a thin oblong (meanwhile keep the other piece cold) and cut into 10 cm / 4 inch wide strips. Scoop the filling in the middle of the strips, roll up and cut into 12-15 cm / 5-6 inch long pieces.

Filling and cutting
Filling and cutting – photos: zserbo.com

Bend each piece into a crescent shape and place onto the prepared baking sheets. Brush the crescents with the egg yolk-milk mixture, and bake them for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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