TRDELNIK RECIPE (CZECH WALNUT CINNAMON PASTRY)

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It's a traditional Czech pastry dough, wrapped around a stick, rolled in cinnamon-walnut and sugar mixture and baked to a crispy perfection. Doesn't it sound amazing? Let's get cooking!

INGREDIENTS
  • 480 grams (16.95 oz) all-purspose flour
  • 5 tablespoons flour
  • 150 ml (7/8 cup) milk
  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • olive oil, for greasing trdlo sticks

For the topping
  • 1 cup walnuts
  • 5 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

INSTRUCTIONS
  1. In a large bowl, combine sifted flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, yeast and salt.
  2. In a medium bowl or large glass, whisk together 2 egg yolks, milk and melted butter.
  3. Combine dry and liquid ingredients and mix well. The dough will be quite dense.
  4. Form the dough into a ball, place it in a bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm place until it almost doubles in volume.
  5. Meanwhile, roll old magazines into a stick and secure it with a cooking twine. Tightly cover each stick with aluminum foil and tuck edges inside of a magazine.
  6. Place walnuts into a tightly closed zip-lock bag and pound it with a rolling pin until walnuts are nicely chopped. Transfer the walnuts into a medium bowl and combine them with sugar and cinnamon.
  7. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy.
  8. Preheat the oven to 390 F.
  9. When the dough increased in size, on a lightly floured surface roll it into a disk approximately 2-3 millimiters width.
  10. Using a small knife, slice the disk lengthwise into 10-15 mm thick strips (thickness doesn't matter much).
  11. Grease each trdlo stick with olive oil. Tightly wrap strips of dough around trdlo sticks making sure each strip slightly overlaps each other.
  12. Each trdlo stick should fit up to 3 trdelnik pastries with 1 inch distance between them.
  13. Brush each trdelnik with egg white and generously coat into a walnut and sugar mixture.
  14. Place trdlo sticks on a rimmed baking dish making sure pastry doesn't touch the bottom or sides of a dish.
  15. Bake trdelnik for 15-20 minutes until it's golden on each side.
  16. Remove trdelnik from the oven and slowly slide off the trdlo stick.