With up to five layers of dough and four fillings, this Hungarian-Jewish dessert is best done when you have a large chunk of time. Why would you want to make such a thing? Good question. Here are some potential answers.
- You enjoy the rich flavors of poppy seed, walnut, apple and other fruit fillings.
- Impressing your significant other's Jewish mother.
- You like a good challenge.
- You appreciate different textures in your food.
- It changed your life in Budapest. (Me!)
You could definitely be flexible here and change up, remove or modify the fillings. This recipe was literally the first one I found in Google/Pinterest results since I had no idea what made a good flodni recipe. As it so happens, this recipe was poorly constructed and I've tried to reorganize it a bit for you so each filling is a separate recipe.
Scroll down to the bottom of the post to see a side-by-side comparison of my flodni and the one I fell in love with in the Easter markets of Budapest. I think I did pretty well!
Make the Dough
4 cups flour
1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tbsp. sugar
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes.
5 egg yolks
3⁄4-1 cup sweet white wine or cold water
Make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Sift together. Add the butter and mix until incorporated (I’m not sure what the author of this recipe meant here so I’m going to add in the directions as if it were a pie dough.) Use a handheld dough mixer to incorporate the butter into the flour mixture. Add the egg yolks and wine (or water) and mix until a dough forms. Replace the paddle with a dough hook and knead dough on medium speed until smooth, 5-6 minutes. (Sarah: If you are like me and don’t have this fancy contraption, just use your hands to knead the dough. I think it’s better anyway.) Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic; set aside to rest for 1 hour in the fridge.
Sarah: To be honest, I am not sold on the wine in the dough. I would actually use water if I were to do it again because the wine caused the dough to be very tough to roll out and my layers were thicker than I would have liked. Probably a challenge if you've never made your own dough before.
Poppy Seed Filling
4 oz. dried apricots, minced (If using food processor for this soak apricots in water for 30 seconds and pat dry.)
1 1⁄4 cups poppy seeds (Sarah: I reduced the amount of poppy seeds)
½ cup sweet white wine
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup apricot jam
Heat the apricots, poppy seeds, wine, sugar and jam over medium heat and cook, stirring, until hot, 4 minutes. Transfer the poppy seed filling to a small bowl; set aside. (Sarah: Because of how convoluted this recipe was, I doubled the wine by accident and cooked it a bit longer. Not a terrible idea to make sure there is no excess liquid. You could probably also buy poppy seed filling in a can like for hamantaschen. I get mine from Wal-Mart by the Solo brand. It is the only place I have ever found it.)
Apple Filling
¼ cup apricot jam
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1⁄8 tsp. ground cloves
3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and grated (Sarah: I reduced the amount of apples by 1 since I had leftover filling. I also used the food processor to grate the apples.)
Heat the remaining jam, cinnamon, cloves, and apples in a small saucepan over medium high heat and cook, stirring, until apples soften, 8-10 minutes. Transfer the apple filling to a small bowl; set aside.
Chocolate-Walnut Filling
¼ cup sweet white wine
6 tbsp. sugar
6 oz. walnuts, finely chopped
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, broken into chunks for melting (Sarah: You can also use dark chocolate.)
Heat the wine, sugar, walnuts and chocolate over medium-low heat and cook, stirring, until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Transfer the walnut filling to a small bowl; set aside. You want to keep the chocolate from burning onto the pan so keep it moving.
Prune Filling
4 oz. pitted prunes, minced (Sarah: Soak these in water for 30 seconds and pat dry.)
1 ½ cups water
4 tbsp. sugar
Heat the prunes and 1 1⁄2 cups water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and cook, stirring, until the prunes are soft and water is almost evaporated, 16-18 minutes. Add the remaining sugar and mash with a wooden spoon until smooth. Transfer the prune butter to a small bowl; set aside.
The recipe then calls for the following of “zest and juice of 1 lemon.” By this point I was so tired I skipped the zest and just squeezed half a lemon into the poppy seed filling.
“Stir the lemon juice into the poppy seed filling; divide the lemon zest between all 4 fillings, stirring to incorporate.”
Assembly
First, melt 4 tbsp butter in the microwave. Heat the oven to 350°. At this time you can also prepare the egg wash which will go on the top layer. Lightly whisk one egg and a splash of water in a small bowl and set aside.
Pan Lining: Line an 8" square baking pan with 2 overlapping sheets of parchment paper cut to 10" x 8". (Sarah: I was able to flip this entire thing onto a plate and then back over again but definitely put paper on the bottom at least.)
Divide the dough:
1. Divide the dough into thirds; set 1 third aside.
2. Cut 2 dough pieces in half and set aside.
3. Transfer the third dough piece to a floured work surface and roll to 1⁄8" thickness.
Line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with dough and let excess dough hang over the edges; trim dough to within 1" of pan and brush with butter. Transfer the poppy seed filling to the bottom layer of dough and smooth the top with spatula.
Roll 1 piece of the remaining dough to 1⁄8" thickness and trim to make an 8″ square. Top the poppy seed filling with dough and brush with butter. Transfer the apple mixture to top of dough and smooth with spatula.
Roll another piece of the remaining dough to 1⁄8" thickness and trim to make an 8" square. Top the apple filling with dough and brush with butter. Transfer the walnut mixture to top of dough and smooth with spatula.
Roll another piece of the remaining dough to 1⁄8" thickness and trim to make an 8" square; transfer the dough to top of walnut filling and brush with remaining butter. Transfer the prune mixture to top of dough and smooth with spatula; fold the overhanging dough onto the prune filling.
Roll the remaining dough piece to 1⁄8" thickness and trim to make an 8" square. Top the prune filling with dough, prick with a fork, and brush with the egg wash. Bake until the pastry is golden brown, 1 hour. Transfer to a rack and let cool 6 hours.
Using edges of parchment paper as handles, lift the pastry from pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut flodni into 1 1⁄2" squares and serve.