Crackling scones – a Hungarian classic

Crackling scones – a Hungarian classic

Friends, as this is a super old-school recipe I will give you first a small history lesson 🙂

According to historians scones (or “pogácsa” in Hungarian) are one of the oldest biscuits that were already baked in the time of the Hungarian conquest. Scones are small, round biscuits popular mainly in the Carpathian Basin and on the Balkans. The word “pogácsa” is coming from the South Slavic languages (in Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia the name is “pogača”). 

In Hungary, scones are typically served as a welcome snack. Cheese, crackling, and curd cheese are the most liked flavors. Crackling scones are made of folded yeast dough, which contains fat and ground or finely chopped cracklings. Folding is not as difficult as you might think, it’s rather time-consuming than challenging. The dough is usualy folded at least three times, taking a 30-minute break between two foldings.

Cracklings

Cracklings are very popular in Hungary (and other Middle European countries) and every butcher is selling them. On another hand, buying them somewhere else might be a bit tricky. I got them from my brother which is making them from time-to-time at home. You can try to search in good butcheries or make them at home. I am sure there is plenty of recipes available on the internet. 🙂

Crackling scones – a Hungarian classic

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

• 500g of flour
• 150ml of warm milk
• 25g fresh yeast (2 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 egg (yolk separated from the white)
• 60g sour cream
• 100g of butter
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 250g ground cracklings
• 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon of sea salt flakes

[/ingredients]

[directions title=”Directions”]

1. In lukewarm milk dissolve the yeasts with a half teaspoon of sugar. Sift the flour into a bowl add the egg yolk, sour cream, salt and activated yeasts, and knead into a smooth and firm dough.
2. On a floured surface roll out the dough into a 5mm thin rectangle. Smear the butter on top of the dough and spread the ground cracklings evenly. Fold up the dough and cover with a kitchen towel. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
3. After 30 minutes roll the dough out again into 5mm rectangle and fold. Repeat this step at least 2 more times.
4. Once you folded the dough at least 3 times, roll it out to the 1,5cm thin dough and cut out a circle shape scones. For cutting, I used a metal ring.
5. Place the scones on a baking sheet, smear with beaten egg white and sprinkle with cumin seeds and sea salt flakes.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 220°C for about 20 minutes.
7. Crackling scones taste the best with a cold beer 🙂 Enjoy 🙂

[/directions]

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