Langoše

A Hungarian delicacy that became a Halloween tradition in my home!

Langoše have nothing to do with Halloween. The truth is, in my childhood they used to be part of my summer holidays when they were sold on the beaches in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava where we used to spend our holidays.

Nearly forgotten, years later we made them at home and fell in love again. And so it happened that one time we made them on Halloween and I made a scary face on them with the ketchup. And a new tradition was born.

Welcome to the world of Langoše! You can get them at all sorts of markets these days, most famously the Christmas ones in Prague, but they taste nothing like a home-made version (and they’re much healthier too as they’re not fried in the same oil as hundreds of others). Also, Czechs don’t seem to know, it’s not either ketchup or garlic. But rather garlic, ketchup and cheese as a topping! ;)

Makes about 8-10 langoše:
500 g fine flour
20g fresh yeast (or 10g dried yeast)
40 ml milk of choice
1/4 tsp of sugar
1 tsp salt
high quality vegetable oil for frying

For the topping:

minced garlic mixed with hot water and salt
ketchup (ideally homemade)
(vegan) cheese of choice but it does taste the best with white cheddar!

Put all the flour into a large bowl and make a well. Crumble the yeast and put it in the well together with sugar, salt and a bit of lukewarm milk and let the yeast prove. Once proven, mix with the rest of the (lukewarm) milk until you get a smooth dough. Leave the dough to rise for about 25 - 30 minutes.

To make the minced garlic “sauce”, mince about 4 cloves of garlic and pour over with a little bit of boiling water, just enough so you can spread it on your langoš but the water still has the garlicky taste. Add some salt and adjust to taste.

Then make about 8 pieces from the dough, and shape them into small buns, then put them on floured plates and leave them to rise for further 15-20 minutes. Once they’re ready, pull each of the buns with your hands (like a pizza dough) and make them as flat as possible. Do only one at a time! As they do have a tendency to shrink back. Once you have a desired size and thickness, put them on a pan with hot oil - there should be enough oil for the langoše to float in it! Leave just for a few minutes until golden and flip.

Take it off the pan when ready and with a paper towel suck out as much of the remaining oil from the langoš as possible. Then top with first the minced garlic, then ketchup and finally the shredded cheese!