Although my mum is from Moldova (Romanian side) she grew up in a town in Transylvania. As a young woman, she learned from her father how to cook - he was a great cook - but mostly from her work colleagues. Hence, many of her recipes are Transylvanian, including the Christmas walnut roll cake, which is different from the Moldovan one.
Enjoy!
transylvanian walnut roll cake
makes 2 rolls
Ingredients
For the dough:
350g all purpose flour, sifted
1 egg, room temperature
1 ½ tbsp sour cream
60g granulated sugar
125g full fat milk, room temperature
½ tsp dry yeast
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
½ lemon’s zest
1 pinch of salt
For the filling, mixed together:
200g ground walnuts
100g granulated sugar
For finishing the rolls:
1 beaten egg
Method
Mix the dough ingredients and knead until elastic, approx. 10-15 minutes. Let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume, 1-2 hours.
Divide the dough in two, then start working one by one. Dust the part you are not using with flour and cover with a kitchen towel until ready to use.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle shape, ½ cm thick, then lay half of the filling on it, leaving some space at the far edge from the starting point of rolling for better sealing.
Start to roll the dough with the walnut mixture and when you reach the end, press lightly so that it doesn’t unravel, then tuck the edges of the cake log under it.
Put it on a baking tray with baking paper on it, cover with a cloth and leave it to rise until doubled in volume, 1-2 hours. Repeat the same operation with the second dough, but leave space between the cakes as they will rise.
Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius.
Brush the walnut cakes with the beaten egg, put the tray in the middle rack of the preheated oven and bake for 30-45 minutes. Check if they are baked enough by inserting a toothpick into them. If it comes out dry, take them out and let them cool on a rack.
Tips & cheats
You can also fill the roll with poppy seeds:
1 cup ground poppy seeds
1/2 cup milk
100g granulated sugar
On a low heat and in a pot with the lid on, let the ingredients simmer until you have a soft paste. Let it cool before filling the dough.
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