Skalický trdelník

01 / ABOUT THE DISH

About the dish

Skalický trdelník is a hollow, cylindrical pastry product made by winding the soft dough on a roller called 'trdlo' . This unusually shaped pastry is produced in the northwestern part of the Slovak Republic, near the border with the Czech Republic to the north and the Myjava River to the south. According to food historians, a Hungarian general was in the town of Skalica in the 18th century, on the border between Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and his companion was a Transylvanian cook who had a recipe for this delicacy. Once the dough is on the roller, it is coated with egg whites and sprinkled with walnuts, almonds or apricots, baked until golden and sprinkled with caster and vanilla sugar. On the exterior, the trdelnik is golden brown but remains yellow on the interior. The dough is soft and has an aroma of chopped nuts, apricots, and vanilla. Enjoy it on various street corners, squares and fairs in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, freshly baked and wrapped in paper. In Hungary, there is an almost-identical, slightly larger pastry known as kürtőskalács , but unlike Skalický trdelník, it is not protected under the EU law.