Hi Everyone, hope all my lovely readers in the North East fared well through that huge storm the other day. I watched it on the Weather Network radar and it looked absolutely brutal.
I have one more thing to ask of you lovely readers (in fact, my friend Smidge from Just a Smidgen also requested it). Kindly link your Gravatar to your blog, otherwise we have no way of knowing where you came from and we cannot comment on your blog. It’s in Gravatar.com, you’ll have to sign in and Edit your Public Profile, update your link to your blog in My Links. Thank goodness Smidge asked me to do this because believe it or not mine WASN’T linked! Thanks Smidge!
A friend dated a guy with whom we became close. They broke up, so we asked her if she would mind if we kept him; she said not at all. So we did. He came for dinner a few weeks ago and I made a Hungarian themed dinner party; Hungarian Cheese Sticks (Sajtos Rud), Celeriac Velouté with Caramelized Onion Focaccia Croutons (recipe to come), Chicken Paprikas with Nokedli (I updated the nokedli part as Barb mentioned to me that her’s didn’t turn out), a nice Hungarian Cucumber salad (recipe to come) and Krémes. I was looking for a new dessert that would finish off the evening in style so I ‘traveled’ all the way to British Columbia to my good Hungarian friend Zsuzsa’s blog and found these wonderfully delicious Custard Squares. She spoke very highly of the recipe so I knew they would not disappoint. They are labour intensive but well worth the effort. They totally remind me of Mille Feuille that was my favourite when I was a child. The pastry is fantastically flaky.
I divided the recipe into a third of the original as I didn’t need quite as many. JT said I should have made the entire batch (that’s a testament to how good they are!). Thank you Zsuzsa for a tremendous dessert. I turned the most of the measurements into weight because it was easier to divide into 3 that way! You should get yourself a digital kitchen scale (I have this one), it is essential for baking.
Hungarian Custard Squares (Krémes)
Makes 8 squares in a 5″ x 9″ loaf pan (if you want more, please see Zsuzsa’s original recipe, she has excellent photos on the process of making the pastry too).
Custard Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup skim milk
- 1/3 vanilla pod
- 3 eggs separated
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 6 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 pk gelatin
- 1 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp sugar
- dash of lemon juice
Pastry Ingredients:
- 72 g all purpose flour
- 76 g butter
- 1 tbsp and 1 tsp cold water
- 1 tsp vinegar
- pinch of salt
Pastry Directions:
- Heat the milk in a saucepan or microwave, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, and add the bean pod to the milk. Cover, remove from heat and allow the vanilla to infuse for one hour. Set aside.
- Next make the flaky pastry. In a food processor with metal blades, combine the flour and chilled butter until it resembles a fine crumble. Add the salt and pulse to distribute. Combine the vinegar and the water and stream into the processor until a dough ball forms.
- Generously flour a board and roll out the pastry into a rectangle and divide into 4 equal parts. Stack the four rectangles on top of one another and chill for twenty minutes.
- Once chilled, separate each part and roll the dough into 4 very thin rectangles, roughly bigger than your loaf pan. Place in the bottom of your loaf pan, allowing the dough to form creases to fit into the pan. Repeat for the second rectangle, this will be the top. Bake in a preheated 400° F oven for 14-18 minutes keeping watch as the pastry burns easily.
- When the pastry is golden brown, remove pan from the oven and immediately cut pastry into 8 squares (4 by 2). Wait a few minutes and carefully remove the squares and set them aside in the same order as they were in the pan, set aside.
- Repeat with the other two rectangles and bake, this is the bottom layer (do not cut this layer). Allow to cool, and remove from the pan, and put a good layer of plastic wrap into the pan with a generous amount coming up the side (this will help you lift it out). Return the bottom layer into the bottom of the pan, smoothing out the side of the plastic wrap.
- Next make the custard layer.
Custard Directions:
- In a medium sized bowl beat the egg yolks and 2 tbsp sugar for 8 minutes (they will become thick and pale). Add the vanilla
- In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and gelatine. Gradually add the flour mixture to the beaten egg yolks and continue to beat until smooth.
- Remove the vanilla pods from the vanilla infused milk and gradually add the vanilla infused milk to the bowl with the eggs and the flour.
- Over a simmering bain-marie cook the custard stirring it constantly until it reaches 80°C or 176° F with a candy thermometer (be careful as it can burn easily). As soon as it reaches 80° C remove immediately from the heat stir in the butter and set aside to cool.
- While the custard is cooling whip the egg whites until soft peaks form, add the lemon juice and continue beating until almost stiff. Add 2 tbsp sugar and beat until shiny and stiff. You are trying to beat the sugar into the egg whites so they are no longer grainy (this takes several minutes).
- Once the custard has cooled, press it through a fine sieve (my custard got a bit lumpy because I didn’t stir well enough as it was cooking)
- Take about 1/3 of the egg whites and fold it into the custard to loosen it up. Then fold the remaining egg whites into the custard very slowly
- Pour this custard onto the bottom layer of the pastry and even out using a spatula, pushing it into the corners and sides. Add the top layer of pastry in the same order that you removed it from the pan, leaving a little space between each one to allow your knife to slide through to make the squares. Refrigerate until the custard has set.
- Once set, using the plastic wrap, lift the pastry dessert out of the pan onto a cutting board. Generously sprinkle with icing sugar. Using a wet knife, slice the custard into 8 equal squares, using your top pastry as your guide.
- Serve cold, perhaps with a dollop of whipping cream.
[…] made a pumpkin version — I knew I had to make this unusual dessert. We loved the Hungarian Custard Squares (Krémes Szelet) so I suspected that this recipe would be a winner too. I used Liz’s recipe but I halved […]
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Oh deliciousness, come to mamma! Nagyon finom!
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Koszonom szépen Lizzy. Ez nem volt nagyon édes, egy nagyon finom izlés. Welcome to my blog.
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[…] pastry on the top and bottom and a light and fluffy vanilla filling inside. I first saw them on Eva’s fab blog Kitcheninspirations and I loved the way that they stood up so tall and proud yet looked delicate and whisper light. The […]
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MMM! Your custrad squares look amazing & I love the little black spots of the infused vanilla! Yummy!
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Thanks so much Sophie, they were rather tasty without being too sweet, typical for a traditional European dessert.
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Yummmm! Your custard squares look amazing!
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Now that I’ve finally made my tamales, I feel like I could take on any challenge. And I’ve been practicing with the coffee cakes. 🙂 I’m thinking that the 4 day Easter break is a good time to give these a try.
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Thanks Maria, I look forward to hearing of your success. It’s not an overly sweet dessert, but you can drizzle caramel on top to sweeten it up. I may make it again for my family Easter in Mid-April too!
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Eva there was a lump in my throat when I saw this post. I started experimenting with kremes after the Christmas of 2005 when our son brought up a tray from a Hungarian deli in Vancouver. [We have videos] It was a treat after so many years of kremes deprivation, [I ended up chucking the trifle] but still it wasn’t the real McCoy. I remembered kremes well and I knew the Vancouver kremes could have been better. The pastry was a little on the heavy side and the custard was doughy. Kremes just happens to be one of those amazing confections that pastry chefs never fully share with the public. My cookbooks all produced runny kremes and the Hungarian Net only had kremes recipes with cooked pudding mix. Yuk. Until the day I posted the recipe we either ate kremes pudding [haha] or we fed the gulls at the city dump. There were long stretches of inactivity, because after awhile we got sick of the thought of kremes. Many a hens laid eggs in vain during the days of my kremes experiments. Eva, I tend to agree with your hubby, make the full recipe next time – it will go. Sometimes you just have to indulge and one must share with the world when one makes kremes. Many things I make leave the house almost as soon as they can be boxed up. It isn’t a business, I just give it away. Thank you for making my recipe, dear friend you made my day! And your kremes looks amazing, no bakery could have done better.
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Wow, I am so flattered, Zsuzsa, thank you for your lovely words. Yes, I will indeed make the whole batch next time, it was so tasty, thank you for all your experimentation and posting the final great recipe. The dough is indeed quite unique and it turned out nice and flaky for me too a perfect contrast to the creamy custard.
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Thank you Eva for the WP information!
I am in love with your kreme squares. The 2nd from the last picture is absolutely delectable and I wish I could reach into the screen. They look perfect!
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Thank you Judy, that is indeed a lovely compliment from such an expert baker!
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Gosh, I’ll check this out. Not sure I even have a gravatar acct, but if I do, I want it linked to my blog. Excellent looking bars, Eva…and I checked out both your yummy Asian recipes…both fantastic as well!
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Thanks Liz, your comments definitely link back to your blog, but that’s automatic since you switched to WordPress. WordPress owns gravatar so you automatically have one.
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Hi Eva, I must admit to being very confused right now (which isn’t rare, but in this subject it usually is…). This whole gravatar thing… I didn’t have my site linked to my gravatar but have never had any problem with my URL showing up when you mouseover my name. I’ve linked it now… just in case, but from my point of view it seems to make no difference. That said, it could be because I log into wordpress.com (because I accidentally signed up one day when I went to leave a comment somewhere, as opposed to wordpress.org, which is the self-hosted version, like I use) to comment on your site. I configured wordpress.com to point to my site I think, and they pull in my gravatar, since it’s the same company which developed the two. Well, I’m not explaining it very well, but suffice to say I think I know what happened… maybe :s
I love the look of the custard squares – they seem quite light… I can see the lovely air bubbles in the custard and I bet it makes a very nice dessert (or tea-time snack!)
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Thanks Charles, yes I’ve had a similar experience, but I did notice on other blog hosts that I don’t link, unless I sign up (which is what I ended up doing with e-blogger because I comment on a few of those). Oh well, better safe than anonymous!
Thank you for your lovely words for this custard treat, is is quite lovely and light indeed.
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Gorgeous! I love this cake! You have made it so perfectly shaped as if it was from a professional baker. I have already told Zsuzsa that a similar cake exists also in Poland and is called ther “Napoleon cake” (I don’t know why…), but I have never prepared it. As you say, it looks so rich, but is really quite light thanks to the custard (and not whipped cream for example) and the thin pastry. I always keep on repeating that thin pastry (such as French puff pastry) makes quite light tarts because it’s so thin… The American-style pies must have 4x more carbs and calories and fat only because the crust is so thick…
Thank you, Eva, for the inspiration. Something tells me I will be making it soon…
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Of course… now that I think it was called “Napoleon cake” because of the French mille-feuille!
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Yes, that is definitely one of my favourite desserts!
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Thank you Sissi, I’m always so flattered with your compliments. It is indeed a very European pastry, satisfying and not too sweet or overindulgeant.
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I’ve never met a Hungarian dish that I didn’t instantly love. This is bookmarked Eva! 😀
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Now that’s a lovely thing to say Lorraine, thank you kindly. I’d love to see how you NQN it!
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Oh, Eva! WIth the name of “kreme” and a translation of “custard,” what can I say but YUM? Seriously. This would make such a lovely dessert for a dinner party or special event. And, by the way, that dinner you prepared certainly did sound special. It means so much to come to a home for dinner and see that the host(s) have put together such a wonderful meal. I’m sure it wasn’t lost on your guests.
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Thank you so much John, we don’t eat Hungarian food very often so I thoroughly enjoy cooking it as well as eating it when we do. The Krémes is indeed one of those keeper desserts.
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I’m sure your friend thoroughly enjoyed the dinner that you prepared from beginning to this lovely dessert that ended it.
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Thanks Karen, he enjoyed it so much he even asked for a doggy bag!
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I love the texture of the custard inside. Definitely something to make though I need a recipe that doesn’t involve weighing the ingredients. I’ll probably end up making a larger size and sharing with my SIL. 🙂
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Thank you kindly Maria, I understand about the weighing, it’s not something we Canadians are used to. You’ll really enjoy the recipe, so making the larger batch is a good thing.
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I have to hold off until my SIL comes back from Florida to make it. 🙂
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Zsuzsa’s full recipe is in North American standards I think.
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Hi Eva, Thanks so much for the visit…so glad to meet you! Love your blog and can’t wait to do some browsing! Your custard squares are absolutely delicious looking!
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Welcome Kathy, and thank you. Like many European pastries this one is not overly sweet, but it does hit the spot. My friend even asked for a doggy bag!
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Is my blog linked? Another thing to check having just re-set my twitter password. It never stops! I love the custard squares. I make custard squares too but mine look a little different. I’ll have to study your recipe xx
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Thanks Charlie, yes your blog is definitely linked. I’d love to see your custard squares, I’ll go to your blog to check it out now.
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I am such a dessert person and I’ve never heard of this dish before. These custard squares just look amazing.
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Thank you kindly Kay, they are really quite tasty and not too sweet.
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I have never had this before, actually first time heard about this Hungarian dessert. It has such a beautiful and smooth crumb.
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Hi Angie, it’s quite lovely and not too sweet.
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Delicious pastry Eva! I love the pictures, and I could eat them right now. I am sure your new friend must be totally thrilled.
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Yes, it was quite a success, I’m sure I will make it again and again.
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I’m in love with these Krémes. I really enjoy making things I’ve never tried before. Your friend must have been very impressed and totally delighted with the meal and all your effort.
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Thank you kindly Maureen, it was a very tasty meal, unabashedly he even asked for a doggy bag!
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While typing instruction #5 you hit “r” instead of “4”.
I will try to figure out the Gravatar. Still trying to figure out the renaming of the photos. When you have a bit of free time if you could walk me through the procedures?
Your Hungarian Custard Squares looks so professionally made and presented, sounds like it is well worth the time and effort. Did you get a new camera?
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Hi Norma, thanks for your lovely words. Your not going to believe this but I have abandoned my Canon Rebel and am using my iPhone 4S with the Camera Awesome app! I will draw up some instructions but I don’t have your email, can you send it to me?
I don’t understand what you mean about hitting r instead.
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Your instruction #5 reads: “… Add “r” tbsp sugar and beat until shiny and stiff.” The number “4” is just above “r” on my keyboard so I assume it is the same for all keyboards.
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Thanks Norma, I corrected it.
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haha everyone’s talking about the gravatar, but I’m going to thank you instead for the WONDERFUL looking dessert recipe. love custrd, never thought you could have them in squares like this, and they look so wonderfully rich yet light at the same time! x
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Thanks Shuhan, it’s not terribly sweet which is quite lovely, and as you say it’s not rich even though its relatively creamy.
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Hello Eva, I most recently have become very aware of this issue as all of my comments were going into everyone’s spam inbox because I needed to update my gravatar after I moved to a self hosted site. This little Hungarian dessert looks so rich and delicious.
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Thanks Bam, I never linked the two, but that’s quite logical.
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Thank you for the gravatar information my friend 😀
Lovely recipe today as well, what a delicious treat tot ry!
Cheers
CCU
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Thanks CCU.
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Hi Eva! How are you? I didn’t know about the Gravatar thing, so much appreciated if for the advice.
Back to this recipe, I’ve had this when I was back home, some time ago. I had many variations of this recipe as well.
I just love your recipes so much and anyone that hasn’t tried this dessert, do it now! It’s one of the best desserts ever.
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Wow thanks for the lovely words Tudor. Other than a bad cold I’ve been fighting since the end of October, I’m OK; really looking forward to spring, for sure.
The custard is quite wonderful and it brought back some incredible memories of my childhood. Although the Hungarians love to sprinkle powdered sugar on everything, it’s not sickly sweet.
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