Megnificent Eats

Growing up in Leaf Rapids I had a friend whose parents emigrated from Hungary. I developed a friendship with her mother while working as a summer student at the mine. Her mom was a teacher before she came to Canada but she didn't speak English so didn't work until her children were older and when she eventually went back to work, sadly, it wasn't as a teacher. I always imagined what a lovely and kind teacher Maria would have been.

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Maria made two desserts of note, Neger Szelet, a cake for which I have always had the recipe, and cookies for which I not only did not have a recipe, I didn't even know what they were called. I spent decades thinking about these cookies and once the internet revolutionized access to recipes I spent hours looking for a recipe online to no avail. I eventually reached out to Livia, Maria's daughter, for the recipe. Although she didn't have a recipe, at least she knew what they were called! I quickly found a recipe for Habos Dios Csiga (which translates to foamy snails) and thanks to Google translate I finally had an English recipe to try.

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I served the first batch Christmas of 2025 to rave reviews.

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

450 g of flour
250 g butter – cold
4 egg yolks beaten with a fork
3 tablespoons sugar + 1 tsp for yeast
20 g yeast (7 tsp or 2 tbsp + 1 tsp)
½ c milk
2 tablespoons of sour cream
pinch of salt

Filling:

4 egg whites
300 g icing sugar (3 cups)
100 g ground walnuts

Icing

SAUCE

toppings

dressing

INSTRUCTIONS

Dough

Activate the yeast with 1tsp sugar in ½ c warm milk.
With a pastry blender, cut the very cold better into already combined flour, sugar, and salt. I typically cut the butter into cubes with a sharp knife then finish with the pastry blender.
Combine the yeast mixture,egg yolk and sour cream, and then add to the dry ingredients and knead into a dough.
Divide the dough into three pieces and place in the refrigerator while making the filling.

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Filling

Beat egg whites till stiff in a double boiler, gradually add icing sugar. Add ground nuts at the end.

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Building the cookies

Roll one piece of dough into a rectangle then trim the sides so that they are squared off to about 15”x 9” (incorporate left over dough into next ball).
Cover with one third of the cream (I leave a ¼” at the far edge with no filling just so none “gushes out” when it’s rolled).Roll and cut in to 1”slices.
Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, let rest about 20 mins and bake at 350 F for 15-20 mins. You want then nicely browned but not at all dark.
Remove from oven, let cool 5 mins then sprinkle with icing sugar.
Let these cool before serving – they are better cold so the meringue sets up.