These Hungarian hollow Chimney Cakes or Funnel Cakes are graciously brought to our kitchens by Aparna from My Diverse Kitchen.  These are famously known to be Hungary’s oldest pastry.  Aparna has all the history about these on her site.

I liked the idea of filling these with whipped cream and a dribble of thick chunky cherry compote but realistically I couldn’t bring myself to heap that on these. They were perfect “plain” with our coffee.

Yield: 10-12 cakes

140 grams all-purpose flour
245 grams white whole wheat flour, next time reverse these amounts
20 grams flax meal
1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
20 grams sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
70 grams melted butter
250 grams lukewarm milk, try to use all with white whole wheat
Melted butter for brushing, and more sugar for sprinkling
Powdered cinnamon or anything else you would like to flavour your Chimney Cakes with.
Moulds to shape the chimney cakes

I mixed and kneaded this by hand. Easy. My mistake was not listening to “soft, smooth and elastic”. I started with half the warm milk and it all went together. Then even though I recognized it needed ALL the milk, the dough was fighting me to add more.

Shape into a ball and place in a well-oiled bowl, turning it to coat on all sides. Cover loosely and let it rise for about 2 hours until it is double in size.

Lightly knead the dough and divide into two. Work with one portion at a time. Lightly dust your working surface with flour. Roll the dough out into a rectangle just under 1/2 cm thick. Cut into 1 cm wide strips lengthwise.

I used large sugar cones wrapped in foil for the form.
Tightly wrap the dough strips around the mould without gaps between strips, slightly stretching the dough to keep it thin. This is fiddly but not difficult.
Lightly roll the wrapped mould on the counter and press the dough on the mould.

Brush the shaped mould lightly with melted butter. Dredge with sugar or cinnamon sugar to coat completely. Place upright on a baking tray.

Bake them at 190C (375F) for about 20 minutes till done, golden brown and sugar has caramelized. Take out of the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes. Using the blunt edge of a knife, slide the pastry off the mould. Let it cool.
Repeat with remaining dough. The pastry should be crunchy on the caramelized sugar outside and soft on the inside. Serve warm with coffee, tea or hot chocolate.

These are fun to crunch. Because I didn’t get all the liquid kneaded in, I didn’t get any soft bread texture. They were still fun and excellent with morning coffee!

Be sure to check out Aparna’s site. I love the pull apart “spring” photo she got!