A recipe was recently posted in response to a request for "Hunza"
Bread. I am curious as to the validilty of its origin as a purported
Hungarian sweet bread. Perhaps it came from one of the surrounding
countries and was erroneously attributed to Hungary.
My background is primarily Hungarian, having two grandparents who came to
America from Hungary, and all four of my husband's grandparents also came
here from Hungary. We grew up in a Hungarian Reformed Church, founded in
the early 1900s, where all the celebrations involved food from the "Old
Country".
The sweet yeast bread made with golden raisins is called Kalacs, which,
according to George Lang, comes from the Slavic Kolac, which in turn comes
from Kolo, meaning circle. Most European breads were made in shapes that
held significance for specific religious celebrations during the year. The
bread lovingly baked by the older ladies at church at Easter time was
always called Kalacs. It might also be spelled Kolach in some cookbooks,
which is an Americanized version of the word, perhaps since that is how it
is pronounced.
The ingredients in the recipe that was posted last week seem fairly
appropriate for Kalacs except for one big difference: margarine. No
self-respecting Hungarian would use anything but real butter in their
baking and cooking!!
Carolyn