Christmas Baking: Lærdalskling and Rákóczitúrós

Christmas as a holiday has many sides to it. For some, it is a holy day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. For others, it is a highly capitilistc holiday still celebrated, because of family traditions. Both of these groups of people celebrate Christmas similarly: exchanging gifts, spending time with their loved ones, and eating meals that they consider special. Ritualistic meals and feasts have been a part of how we celebrate great things. Though some argue, that it is more, that humans wanted to empty their storages (F. Parasecoli, 2005).

Societies throughout time had different meals and desserts they considered to be traditionally a Christmas food. Some meals that were reserved for Christmas evening only in one place were loved in the everyday cuisine in the other. 

I will be making two traditional desserts: lærdalskling lefse, a Norwegian crêpes-like dessert, and a Hungarian cake named after a famous figure during the revolutions in the 18th century in Hungary, rákóczitúrós. 


Lærdalskling lefse


In class we were given a recipe that I followed when making them on my own (Ryslett, K., 2025). However, the dough was already provided from the class itself, as there were leftovers from it that would have been thrown out otherwise. 


Ingredients (16 pieces)

   - 250g butter

    - 1l whole milk

    - Wheat flour

    - 1 cup semolina

    - Norwegian egg mixture: 15 eggs & 300ml whole milk

Ingredients and equipments
Photo: Ririko Sugi

    Equipment

        - Pan or hot plate

        - Clean cloths

        - Spray bottle with water 

        - Ridged rolling pin

        - Bowls



Instructions


Rolling out the lefse
Photo: Rita Lima

Mix the ingredients leaving out the egg mixture, until you get to a slightly sticky dough. Then, form the dough into small balls, and start rolling them out with a rolling pin. The rolling pin must have ridges in it, to give the lefse "freckles" (Ryslett, K., 2025). You must take care to cover everything in a mix of semolina and flour, so the lefse does not stick anywhere. When rolling it out, you should be very gentle with it, as the lefse will get thinner and thinner. Ideally, the lefse should be the size of the hot plate or pan you are using, however, the dough in use was almost a week old and lost its stretchiness. Transfer the lefse on the hot plate or pan and let it become ever so slightly brown on the bottom. After one side has cooked enough, take it off and to put the egg mixture (klin) on (Ryslett, K., 2025).


Brushing the egg mixture on
Photo: Ririko Sugi


Brush a generous amount of klin on the lefse and put it back on the hot plate until the klin starts drying up. This takes around 20 seconds. Afterwards transfer the lefse onto a clean cloth, cover it, and spray some water on it. 

Finished lærdalskling lefse
Photo: Ririko Sugi



After letting the lefse rest underneath the cloth, fold it neatly into a rectangle and enjoy it on Christmas eve.








It was very interesting to do something that feels so close to what I know, yet be very different from it. I had trouble understanding the recipe we were provided at times, but it managed to be quite intuitive in the end. 


Rákóczitúrós


Recipe in Russian
Photo: Galina Horváth

My mother received this recipe from her mother-in-law, long after keeping it a secret. My mother then translated the recipe to her mother tongue with the help of my father and it has been in our family cookbook for the past 20 years. Last year I brought myself to translate it to English, for two very simple reasons: to be able to more easily understand it because of my mother's handwriting, and because friends asked for the recipe. 






Ingredients

    Dough

        - 200g flour

        - 80g margarine

        - 1 egg & egg yolk

Seperated eggs 
Photo: Anna Horváth
        - a little bit of milk


    Filling

        - 500g cottage cheese

        - 250g sugar

        - 1 package vanilla sugar

        - 1 package vanilla pudding

        - 1 egg & 3 egg yolks 

        - 40g bitter

        - 10g sunflower seed oil

(Horváth, G., 2024)

Instructions


Dough in the form
Photo: Anna Horváth


Turn the oven on 220° celsius. Mix the dough and put it in the form. Mix the ingredients for the filling and pour it unto the dough, in the form. Put the cake in the oven for 25 minutes and while it is baking, beat the leftover egg whites with 4 tablespoons of sugar. Take the cake out of the oven and put the beaten egg whites on it carefully. 





Finished cake
Photo: Anna Horváth


During this step, my mother usually makes a certain shape in the egg whites to make it look pretty, but I have never suceeded at that. When finished, put the cake in the oven again for 5 more minutes, or until the egg whites start becoming golden brown. After taking the cake out of the oven, wait until it has cooled down, so the pudding sets. 



This is a dessert that holds a very special place in my heart and being able to make it on my own, and not only for christmas, makes it that much better. I cannot wait to get better at making the egg whites, but recently a friend told me that it takes to be a mom to actually get good at things like that. Nonetheless, I will definitely make more of these cakes, and perhaps one day change the recipe to fit more to my taste. 



References

            Horváth, G. (February 16, 2024). Personal communication.

            Parasecoli, Fabio. “Food: Identity and Diversity.” In Culinary Cultures of Europe: Identity, Diversity and Dialogue, edited by Darra Goldstein and Kathrin Merkle. Council of Europe, 2005.

Ryslett, K. (2025). Norwegian Food Culture: Session 4: Flour and Baking ERAMAK 101. University College Volda

Ryslett, K. (2025). Norwegian Food Culture: Lecture. University College Volda.



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