January 3

As far back as I can remember (or at least when I was around 10ish when I really became conscious of just how good food is) my mom’s best friend, Aunt Karen made Hungarian Nut Loaf at Christmas time. Hungarian Nut Loaf is a sweet bread with a pecan filling.

When we began the moving years of my life, she gave the recipe to my mother, and mom made it at Christmas time, and now, for the last 18 years, I have made this lovely, buttery, sinful item every year for Christmas too.

This year was no different.

This recipe is extremely simple, and uses the most basic of ingredients, flour, sugar, milk, butter, yeast, salt, eggs and pecans. That is it. I bet you have all of that in your pantry right now. Go check. I’ll wait.

See, I knew you had it all. You can make this to, and live in bliss for at least 3 days, which at that time it will totally be consumed, and you will cry.

To 2 cups of 105-110º milk, add 2 tablespoons of sugar.

and 3 tablespoons of yeast.

Whisk, and let sit for an hour to proof. While it is proofing, go fold some laundry, read a blog, wash your hair, knit, clean your bathtub, or read a book on exercise. You will need it after this.

It will be at this point in time that you are going to wish to own a strong mixer. A Kitchen Aid, Bosch, Viking will all do nicely. If you have something else, it will work, but it will have the workout of it’s life. It will be the equivalent of running the New York marathon, without training.

In your mixing bowl, add 8 cups of flour.

One pound of room temperature butter, we aren’t finished with the butter either, peoples. Not even close.

1 cup sugar, we aren’t finished with the sugar either.

and 2 tsp. salt.

Go back to your sponging yeast and add 5 egg yolks. This recipe is full of carbs, and cholesterol. That is why it is only made a Christmas time. That, and I would eat way to much of it, have to give up some chocolate, and work out more. That just isn’t going to happen, so once a year works for me.

Now we are going to bring the two parties together and let them dance.

Don’t they look good together? No? Well, they are out of practice. Give them a bit of time together, about 3-5 minutes.

While the dough is busy getting happy together, you are going to want to volunteer one of your sweet children to chop 1 pound of pecans. See the dough. I think it is doing the tango.

This dough is sticky, but that is ok. We like sticky!

Divide your dough into 4 equal portions. Cover, and refrigerate for either 8 hours or over night. I am an overnight kind of gal. I always have been.

See how nicely they have risen.

Before you do anything else, you are going to want to make the filling. Dump your pecans in a bowl, and add 1 cup of sugar. I told you we weren’t finished with the sugar. Mix this well.

Flour your board rather generously. Even though the dough is cold, it is sticky. You don’t want it to absorb any flour, but it will stick.

Roll it out in a nice rectanglish type shape.

Take 1/4 of your filling and dump it on. Not getting it to the edges. If you take it to the edges, filling will spill out and be wasted. This filling is wonderful, and we don’t want to waste it.

Roll it up.

Put 2 loaves on a parchmented pan. I took my board knife and cut the edges off. They don’t have any filling in them anyway, so it isn’t a loss. Bake these for 40 minutes at 325º.

Next we are going to take another stick of butter. We still aren’t finished with the butter. You might want to check out 2 books on exercising, or purchase a treadmill, or some weights or something.

(I feel like Paula Deene when I make this) Butter the tops of your loaves and move to a cooling rack.

Hello baby!

Come to mamma!

Mmmmmmmmm..mmmmmmmmm…

Now, go forth and make this wonderful Christmas bread. Your husband will thank you. Your children will thank you, and your cardiologist …well, we don’t have to tell him, do we?

Hungarian Nut Loaf

• 2 cups milk, (105-110º)
• 2 tbsp. suagr
• 3 tbsp. yeast
• 5 egg yolks
• 8 c. flour
• 1 pound butter~~no substituting
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 tsp. salt

Filling

• 1 pound pecans, chopped
• 1 cup sugar

Combine milk, sugar, and yeast. Let ripen (sponge) for one hour. Add eggs. Put rest of dough ingredients into mixing bowl. Add yeast mixture. Using your dough hook, combine till all flour is incorporated. Divide dough into 4 portions. Refrigerate overnight. Roll out onto floured board. Spread on filling and roll up. Place on large ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 40 minutes at 325º. Brush with butter while loaves are warm. Best eaten warm with butter.