Classic salty tea biscuits

by | Mar 11, 2022 | Breads, buns & biscuits

These salty tea biscuits are often served at parties and weddings in Hungary. They are heavy and dense, as neither yeast nor baking powder can be found in the dough, which is loaded with a considerable amount of butter. The dough needs to be cool in order to prevent butter from melting, and instead of fridge it’s chilled in the freezer. I used the recipe of Street Kitchen.

Classic salty tea biscuits
Classic salty tea biscuits – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

  • 500 g (~4 cups) flour
  • 2 level tsp salt
  • 280 g (~1 1/4 cups) butter
  • 60 g (~2 oz) sour cream
  • 50 ml (~3 1/3 tbsp) milk
  • 3 egg yolks
  • caraway seeds, sesame seeds or poppy seeds
  • 1 egg for brushing the top

Place flour in a bowl and stir in salt. Add butter, sour cream, milk and egg yolks, and quickly kneed into a smooth dough. On a floured surface roll out the dough into a 1-1,5 cm / 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Wrap in cling film and put it in the freezer for 30-35 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 392°F. Line 1-2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

After taking out the dough from the freezer, remove the plastic wrap and brush the top of the dough with beaten egg. Scatter caraway seeds, sesame seeds or poppy seeds all over it, then cut the dough into 1,5-2 cm / 1/2-3/4 inch squares. Place them on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

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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.

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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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