Golden walnut dumplings – Aranygaluska

by | Jan 18, 2016 | Desserts

Aranygaluska is a Hungarian Jewish dessert, generally baked for Purim. The name aranygaluska literally means “golden dumpling” and by the 1880s, this dessert was being referred to in Hungarian literature. Hungarians who immigrated to the US brought this dish with them, which became popular nation-wide when Hungarian and Hungarian Jewish bakeries began selling it in the middle of the 20th century.

The recipe for aranygaluska, which was referred to “Hungarian Coffee Cake”, was published in the United States in 1972, by Betty Crocker. Nancy Regan popularized this dessert when she served it in the White House for Christmas.

Golden walnut dumplings / Aranygaluska
Golden walnut dumplings – Aranygaluska – photo: zserbo.com

Aranygaluska is often confused with monkey bread, in which the balls of dough are not dipped in ground walnuts and sugar, but only in butter. Aranygaluska consist of balls of yeast dough that are dipped in melted butter, and then rolled in a mixture of sugar and ground walnuts, assembled into layers before being baked till golden. It’s usually served with vanilla custard, but Jews eat it with white wine apple sauce.

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2 Comments

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.