Honey Slice Recipe (Mezes Lap Recept)

My grandma came to visit us recently and the biggest thing she brought with her was her recipes. In a two week stay, we baked about 5 times! I probably put on a bit of weight because of this but I think it was worth it.

We baked many different cakes and this is just one of them but probably my favourite out of all the ones we made. If I am not mistaken, then this recipe originates from Hungary (or it could be Romania...) and can be adapted for any filling but this is the traditional recipe. This recipe is quite tricky and I would advise to do it with someone else as 4 hands are better than one. If you need some help with it, feel free to email me.

Honey Slice Recipe:

Ingredients:

For the dough:
> 450g plain flour
> 150g icing sugar
> 1/2tsp baking powder
> 80g stork or any other margarine
> 3tbsp warmed/melted honey
> 1 egg
> 4-5 tbsp milk

For the filling:
> 500ml milk
> 100g semolina
> 250g butter, softened at room temperature
> 200g icing sugar
> 1tsp vanilla extract
> 1 egg yolk
> 200g half sweetened apricot jam (the jam needs to be slightly tart to balance the sweetness of the filling)

For the chocolate topping:
> 200g milk chocolate
> 100g butter

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Add all the dough items into a bowl and mix together by hand until it all holds together. Once the dough holds together, tip onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.

3. Roll the dough into a long sausage and divide equally into four pieces. It is very important that the pieces are exactly equal! Roll each quarter into another sausage. Roll each sausage into a rectangle of roughly 27x37cm on a well floured surface. Roll each dough one at a time. Butter a baking sheet and place the dough onto the baking sheet. Adjustments to the dough can be made on the baking sheet if necessary.
The best way to lift the dough onto the tray is to roll the dough onto the rolling pin and then roll it off onto the baking sheet.

4. Bake the sheet for no longer than 6 minutes. Mine were done after 5 minutes so you have to keep a very watchful eye over it as they can burn very quickly because of the honey in the mixture. While the dough is baking, roll out the next one. When baked, gently slide the baked dough onto a cooling rack.

5. Bake the four pieces of dough so that you have four baked sheets of basically all the same size. If they are not exactly the same then you can always trim them later.

6. Ok, this is the tricky part. Boil the milk. Once the milk is boiled, continuously whisk the milk and add the semolina at the same time. Whisk continuously so that there are no lumps and all the semolina has mixed with the milk. Keep the semolina mix on the stove until the mix boils, a big bubble should occur when the mixture has boiled.

7. Cool the semolina mixture until it is completely cool. I cannot stress how important it is for the mixture to be completely cool. When the mixture is completely cool, place the mixture into a mixing bowl. Beat the semolina with the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until it becomes a completely smooth mixture.

9. Now it is time to assemble everything together. If any sheets have broken, leave them for the middle and no-one will know! Place one sheet on the bottom and add half the semolina mixture. Spread the semolina evenly over the layer and add another sheet. Add the jam and smooth over completely. Add the third sheet and add the rest of the semolina mixture and smooth completely. Place the last sheet on top.

10. If you wish, place a weight on top of the cake so that it all smooths over, my grandma insisted this was necessary. Meanwhile make the chocolate topping. If you are brave enough then add the chocolate and butter and melt in a saucepan over a low heat until all the butter and chocolate has melted. Watch the chocolate very carefully until it is all melted. The other alternative is to melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie.

11. Pour the chocolate over the top slice and spread evenly over all corners of the slice. Leave the slice for at least 4 hours for the chocolate to cool and harden. If you have space in the fridge then you could put it in the fridge but I didn't have any space in the fridge so I just left it at room temperature.

12. Once the chocolate has completely harden, slice into finger slices.

Ta dah!

This is the golden colour that the sheets should have

An alternative is to use raspberry jam

~Bloglovin~