HUNGARIAN FESTIVAL ARIZONA

Some of our Hungarian pastries might be even more famous than our food. We offer a variety of them, most of them home-made, using traditional recipes we learned from our grandmothers.

Hungarian pastries are not always sweet. We offer both savory and sweet varieties at our Festival.

Pogácsa

The quintessential Hungarian pastry, pogácsa is a small, round salty bread type. One of the our oldest traditional food items, the “ancestor” of pogácsa was used by the Hungarian from the time of Árpád (years 800-900).

Pogácsa is present in our oldest folk-tales, the traditional Hungarian hero always leaves home with a piece of “hamuba sült pogácsa” (pogácsa baked in ashes), baked for him by his mother. This piece of bread, the pogácsa, has a great role in the whole story, indirectly saving the hero multiple times. The hero shares it with different animals, who in return help him in his quest and often save his life.

Given its long history, no wonder pogácsa is so popular, and it has many varieties. No one bakes it in ashes these days (as far as we know), however, over centuries we developed different varieties. We have pogácsa made with or without yeast, we have pogácsa made with cheese, butter, or sour cream, even some made with potatoes. We also have varieties of crumbly pogácsa and pogácsa with layers.

You can try at least one variety of pogácsa at our HunFest.

Lángos

As opposed to pogácsa that is made ot be kept for a long time, lángos is served hot and eaten right away.

Today lángos is deep fried, but originally it was baked at the very front of the traditional oven , on láng (flame), hence the name. It was made of the last piece of bread dough and baked on the flame to be served hot for breakfast on bread-making days.

Deep-frying lángos has its roots in Communist history. After the beginning of Communism, with not enough flour in the households, people stopped making bread at home, so no one made lángos either. However, after the 1956 revolution, very small businesses were allowed to sell street food, and they came up with deep-frying lángos since it was easier to set up a deep-fryer than an over in the street.

Deep-fried lángos became one of the most popular street food and fair-food in Hungary, and it still is today. Deep-fried and topped with sour cream and cheese, or other choices, you can find it at any fair, Festival, and sports events in Hungary and beyond, including at our HunFest.

Cookies and Cakes

Most of our famous cookies and cakes date from the mid-19th century, when Hungary’s pastry industry showcased a series of inventive creations, including the world-famous Dobos torta.

Linzer

This simple, but delicious cookie was created in Ruszwurm, one of the oldest patisseries of Hungary (opened in 1884, you can still find it in the area of the Buda Castle).  Named after a soldier in the 1848 revolution against Austria, Rudolf Linzer, the two layers of this cookie are stuck together with jam.

Zserbó

Zserbó, (Gerbeaud cake) is pone of the best known pastry in Hungary. Invented in 1884 by Hungarian confectioner Emil Gerbeaud, it is one of the most popular cakes everywhere Hungarians live. Chances are you will find it, or a variation of it, at our Festival, too. It is a layered cake, with apricot jam and ground walnuts between the layers, topped with dark chocolate glaze.

Krémes

Krémes is another extremely popular pastry found in basically every patisserie in Hungary and all Hungarian regions. The traditional krémes recipe dates from the end of the 16th century, although the original was different from the one we know and love today. The pastry we know today dates from the 19th century, and first appeared in a cookbook in 1840. It consists of two layers of crisp, flaky puff pastry with a large amount of smooth cream in between, dusted with powdered sugar.

Pastries at Our HunFest

Most of the pastries you’ll find at our Hungarian Heritage Festival are home-made, following recipes we learned from our mothers and grandmothers. Since every Hungarian household has a slightly different variation of the same basic recipe, be it pastry or meal, you might find different versions of the above classics, and many more – too many to list. Try as many as you like, or pick you favourites.