Milk-loaf wreath filled with walnuts

How can we get a milk-loaf, which can be served on numerous holidays not just on Easter?

A bejegyzés magyar nyelven itt olvasható.

One slice of milk-loaf.

Everybody is looking for a good recipe before Easter... Recipes made with raisins or a good and easy braided milk-loaf probably something with boiled eggs??? These are the most popular recipes around Easter but… what can we do if someone would like to do something untraditional? If someone is tired of the common tastes and wants to try something new? Well, don’t worry because you will find here that you have been looking for! Now, I would like to share an extra-soft milk-loaf recipe, which taste is attractive because of the walnut filling, orange and spices!J

I found this recipe probably 4-5 years ago in a Hungarian woman magazine (Nők Lapja). Originally, it is my favorite cookbook author’s (Mari Lajos) recipe, but she made it in a Bundt pan. Her recipes are perfect, and I love them! I have many cookbooks from Mari Lajos, but I’ve found the best recipes in this magazine!

Originally, this milk-loaf was filled with nuts and the dough was a simple yeast cake…. At this time I modified the recipe over and the result was excellent! Our Finnish friend Niina, said this to me when she tasted it: “Ildikó, this is the best Hungarian milk-loaf that I’ve eaten in my life! (Niina lived a few years in Hungary, so she had experience with yeast cakes!) Let’s see the recipe than!

Ingredients:

The dough:

300 g flour

10 ml milk

2 eggs

50 g icing sugar (I used my home made vanilla sugar. You can find the recipe here.)

80 g melted butter

30 g fresh yeast

1 pinch of salt

Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

The filling:

120 g walnuts (minced)

6 tbs milk

50 g golden raisins

80 g brown sugar (or icing sugar)

Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange

2 tbs rum, or 1 tbs rum aroma

30 g butter

Covering the freshly baked milk-loaf:

20 g butter

Preparations:

The golden raisins should be soaked in milk, which can be tasted a few drop of rum aroma, one night before using. The point of soaking is that the milk has to cover the raisins totally. You should grind the walnuts. At this time, you don’t have to toast the walnuts because their taste will be good without toasting too.

 

The raisins and the minced walnuts.

Making the dough:

First I heated up the milk (35-40°C) and mixed it with 1 tbs sugar and with fresh yeast. I sifted the dry ingredients (flour, salt and sugar) to a high-walled bowl then I added the eggs and the seeds of vanilla bean. (Don’t forget to sift the flour, because it is extremely important to get nice and spongy dough!)

I melted the butter then I leave it cool down. After the milk and yeast mixture became foamy I added this and the melted butter to the other ingredients then I started to assemble the dough with a tablespoons.

Making the dough.

The filling:

While the dough is leavening you can get the filling.

I mixed the minced walnut with the milk in a smaller pot then I added the brown sugar and the raisins soaked into milk. The mixture was heated for 12-minutes on low level then I turned off the stove and added the butter and the zest of orange and lemon. I let the butter melt in the mixture then I waited until the filling cooled down.

Making the milk-loaf:

I kneaded the leavened dough once again, then I rolled it out for a thin rectangle. It will be maximum 4-5 mm thin, it is impossible to roll in thinner, and it is not required too. I covered the dough with the filling in small parts then I spread it equally with  wet tablespoons. (It’s easier to add the filling in small parts, than add it as  one large filling heap and spread it.)

Filling the dough.

I winded up the dough not so tight because the yeast cake will grow a lot! I put the dough to a baking tray covering with baking paper, where I pinched the ends of the dough tightly. I leave the dough for a few minutes in the baking tray then I sting it a few times.

(Most of us like blurring the surface of the milk-loaf with eggs, but I don’t like it. If you want the pastry more blurred with egg then blur it with 1 whole mixed egg!)

Before baking.

Tip:

You can bake this milk-loaf in a special 2 in 1 springform with Bundt mold, which can be opened and closed with a button on the side. My opinion is that a general Bundt pan is not so good for this cookie, but this opening mold is perfect for it! Using this springform and Bundt pan has many other advantages. If you make your cookie in this pan the pastry will grow during baking not spreading, and the hole in the middle will remain big too. (Unfortunately, I left this mold in Hungary, so I made it on a baking tray.)

Springform with bundt mold.

Baking:

I few minutes later I put the milk-loaf to the COLD oven, which temperature was turned 170°C. The dough will spend there 50-55 minutes. It’s worth to put water in a can or a glass to the oven because the steam helps rising the dough and keeps it soft and moist, so it won’t dry out so much. If the milk-loaf is done you can bestrew it a little bit of icing sugar.

Baking.

It’s good to know about yeast cakes that preparing this kind of pastry takes longer than making a quick pie or a biscuit, but these leavened pastries are more delicious!

You can serve this milk-loaf on several occasions, like family holidays, Xmas, Easter etc. Everybody will love this pastry, so don’t hesitate, let’s start to make it!

When the milk-loaf is still hot, you can grease it with butter!