These cake rolls (Beigli) are made in almost every Hungarian family for Christmas and for Easter. The traditional recipe have one filling with poppy seed and the other with walnut. The filling can be altered with the addition of rum, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, coffee. The poppy seed roll and walnut roll are also common in other central and eastern European countries.
The biggest question is how to avoid it to crack! I just saw a trick in the comments that I would like to highlight:
I use a fork and poke holes along both sides, making parallel lines, about 2cm apart. This allows the steam to escape, which is the reason why beigli cracks.
There are of course many different variations on how to baka beigli, this is the refined recipe from my mother in law who is from Budapest and I think it is the best one you can find 🙂
The pictures are from earlier versions of the recipe where it was baked in higher temperature and for a shorter time. We have since discovered it becomes better to increase time in oven by 5 min and lower temperature to 180°C (356°F).
Here you can find this recipe in swedish.
Merry Christmas or as the Hungarians would say: Boldog Karácsonyi Ünnepeket! 
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Recipe: Beigli - the Hungarian Christmas cake
Ingredients
- 100 ml milk =0,42 US cups
- 50 g sugar =1,8 oz
- 25 g fresh yeast =0,9 oz (0,45 oz dry active yeast or 0,225 oz instant yeast)
- 500 g flour =1 pound and 1,8 oz
- 200 g butter =7 oz
- 2 eggs
Walnut filling (diós)
- 200 g ground walnuts =7 oz
- 150 g sugar =5,3 oz
- 2 tbsp apricot jam or orange marmelade
- 75 ml milk =0,32 US cups
- 100 ml raisins =0,42 US cups
Poppy seed filling (mákos)
- 200 g ground poppy seeds =7 oz
- 150 g sugar =5,3 oz
- 2 tbsp apricot jam or orange marmelade
- 75 ml milk =0,32 US cups
- 100 ml raisins =0,42 US cups
Brush with egg
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Heat the milk and sugar to around 37°C (100°F)
- Crumble the yeast together with the milk and let it stand until the mixture has risen
- Soften the butter and mix with the flour (use your hands)
- Arrange the flour mixture with a dent in the middle and pour in the yeast mixture and the eggs.
- Knead it all together
- Cover and let it rest for 1 hour.
- During this time you can mix the ingredients for the two fillings (but leave out the raisins for now)
- Split the dough in two parts
- Flatten each dough with a rolling pin to a square
- Use a spatula to spread out the filling except for 1 cm of the edges, then add the raisins
- Now fold the edges over the filling and press down on all four sides before rolling up the dough
- Poke some small holes with a fork on the top and on the sides to avoid it from cracking
- Brush with egg
- Bake in the oven at 180°C (356°F) for 35 min
- Let it cool under a towel
On Christmas Eve we usually have fish soup made from carp, stuffed cabbage and a pastry roll filled with poppy seed, or walnut. This Hungarian Christmas dessert is called Beigli.
This is the best recipe so far. I have tried so many beigli recipes and not one of them has worked. This one is perfect!
Thank you! I should probably say that this is the recipe of my mother in law who is from Budapest!
Merry Christmas!
Just wanted to say I’ve had one of these with almond paste filling also mmmgood
Did you replace the whole filling with just almond paste? Or did you replace just the walnut and sugar in the filling for almond paste?
I meant that I’ve eaten 2 or 3 of these with almond paste filling in the past,
and they were really good. With that being said I did not make them and,
I do not know the recipe sorry.
Hi
I have tried this with both the walnut and poppyseed they have both suffered some cracking the poppy is worse basically along the bottom all the way on both sides large long crack, other than that it’s a great recipe but any idea how to reduce cracking maybe my oven should be a bit cooler?
The one in this recipe is actually cracked all along the side but not on the photo side 😉
It is a gamble every time if it will come out nice or cracked. I don’t know if there’s a secret to avoid the cracks unfortunately. One of the most commonly things discussed between Hungarian grandmas when closing in on Christmas 😉
I use a fork and poke holes along both sides, making parallel lines, about 2cm apart. This allows the steam to escape, which is the reason why beigli cracks. My mother taught me this trick and it works beautifully every time.
Thanks! Will try this next time! I’ll also update the recipe with this trick!
Just a suggestion – maybe it needs to have a casserole dish half full of water (on bottom rack) when baking. This helps cheesecake from cracking – maybe it will also help the beigli. I have already tried 2 other recipes and I am now going to try this one as I wasn’t 100% happy with the other recipes. I think I will put some water on bottom of stove and see if it helps.
Good idea! Will try that this year too!
Please could you tell me is it plain flour or self raising.?
It is plain flour from wheat
Growing up my mom called these Kalach. Loved the walnut filling made with nuts, beaten egg whites and vanilla. Wonder why the name is different. Has any one had these shoe horn shaped bread topped with poppy seeds?
Kalach can mean a lot of different sweet breads. Here’s a basic recipe: http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/hungariandesserts/r/Hungarian-Basic-Sweet-Dough-Recipe-Kalacs-Recipe.htm
Not sure what you mean with the shoe horn shaped bread with poppy seeds.
They must be thinking of Makos Guba made with hungarian Kifli. Also very delicious.
My family also called this Kalach, and prepared the walnut filling with whipped egg whites (we used only egg yolks for the dough, along with evaporated milk instead of regular—results in an even richer dough), and a touch cinnamon and orange rind instead of vanilla. I have not yet found any recipes using egg whites instead of milk in the filling (walnut—we do use milk in the poppy seed filling), Wonder if our families were from the same region of Hungary?
Do you mean keifli?
No, it is not called Keifli. Beigli is the name of this walnut/poppy seed roll.
Maybe you were wondering about these? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kifli
No no I was answering a previous post
My mom made kiflis. She cut the rolled out dough into small triangles, put a little filling in the center and rolled them up into what looked like croissants. But kiflis don’t always have a filling in them. They are generally a breakfast food.
Can I substitute active dry yeast for fresh yeast? Would it still be 25 grams?
To substitute fresh yeast for active dry yeast, use a ratio of roughly 2:1. Meaning you should use around 0,5 ounces of active dry yeast instead of 25g fresh yeast.
Does this recipe require specifically bread flour? Or can I use all-purpose flour instead?
All-purpose flour works fine!
Thanks!
Can you covert measurements to American standards?
US measurements now added to each row!
While the dough is resting should it rise like a normal bread dough? I don’t think my yeast activated. I’m using instant yeast so cut the amount in half.
It will rise, but not as much as in a normal bread dough. If using instant yeast I think you should use 1/4 of the amount of fresh yeast
I have learned these tricks to avoid cracking.
1. Do not bloom the yeast, just dissolve in cold milk
2. Ler the dough rest in a cool place (I place it in fridge)
3.make sure the filling is not too wet, make it kind of thick. Water vapor trying to escape is what makes it crack)
After painting with egg poke lots of holes and let it rest at room temp. for half hr. before placing in owen.
Hope this helps. It has worked for me. Merry Christmas!
Hello! just tried… I hope to solve a misunderstanding of the quantities of the fillings! Each filling, walnuts or poppy seeds is for 2 roll compared with the quantities of dought ( so if you make both fillings you have to make dough for 4 rolls!).
I had to choose a filling for the two rolls, or double the ingredients for the dough to make 4 rolls, or divide the ingredients for each filling!
Anyway the taste was great… I’ll try it one more time soon,for sure!
Merry Christmas!
This is the closest recipe to my grandma’s. She used cream instead of milk. A little lemon zest in nut mixture.