Everybody loves Natalie’s potato salad and the boys have all wanted the recipe, but it was never written down. Finally, I had Natalie make the salad and I stopped her at each step, measuring as we went. Forcing her to add the seasonings from measuring spoons rather than shakers was not pleasant, but I finally got the recipe down for posterity. (I have also adjusted this recipe a few times as the written-down amounts weren’t quite right. Make sure you taste as you add the seasonings! Here it is — enjoy!
Mom’s Nut Roll (Dios)
Helen Kun Karney
circa 1925
My paternal Grandmother, Helen Kun Karney, immigrated to the United States at the tender age of 16, in 1901. She married my grandfather, Steven Karney in 1904; they both came from the same town in Hungary, Battyan. Dios (‘dee-oshe) or Nut Roll is a Hungarian Christmas tradition, and I’ll never know if she carried a hand-written recipe with her on the boat from Europe, or if she created it from memory, but the recipe remains over 100 years later.
Grandma Karney’s recipe was passed on to me through my mother who used it to make the nut roll I remember so well. Although, I’m sure I watched my mother make it (and probably licked the bowl that contained the sugar and walnut filling,) I had never prepared it on my own until recently. I still use the same Wearever #918 aluminum pan that my mother used, and it perfectly holds the four rolls that that this timeless recipe makes. I recently purchased a second pan on Ebay. They haven’t been made in a long time, but if you can find one on Ebay, it will last for many generations. Nutroll freezes well, so while you are at it, make a couple of batches.
Mom’s Nut Roll (Dios) – Vegan Version
My grandmother certainly had no concept of Veganism in her day. But, times change and I have a number of friends who became Vegan this year, some of whom I have gifted at Christmas with nut roll and Kifli. I always like a challenge, so I decided to see if I could make both of these traditional Hungarian recipes in Vegan form. I made a batch of the cookies in Vegan form and my wife said they were better than what I made last year. So I made two batches of Vegan Kifli and two batches of Vegan nut roll. I had my oldest son taste both without telling him about the change and he though I really outdid myself this year. So, I was happy that the recipe worked and worked well.
I won’t publish the whole recipe here, just the Vegan substitutions and a few other notes. Refer to the original recipe for the technique, because it is the same for Vegan as the normal recipe.
Substitutions:
Use margarine or vegan butter in place of the butter, same amount.
I used the same egg replacement for the egg whites as the egg yolks. Mix two tablespoons of ground Chia and Flax seeds (I used Raw Organics “Real Cold Milled Organic Golden Flax Seed & Organic Chia Seed”) with 6 Tablespoons of hot water and let it sit for about five minutes until thickened. Make one batch for the dough and another for the filling.
The sour cream was a little more complicated. Start with a cup of raw cashews (Trader Joes has these at a good price) and cover with boiling water. Let soak for at least 30 minutes and then drain. Put them in a food processor with 1 Tablespoon of cider vinegar and 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. Blend to form a thick paste and then add water, 1 Tablespoon at a time and blend until the desired consistency is reached. You’ll need to add 3 to six Tablespoons.
Technique:
Everything else is the same. Remember to keep the dough on the soft side. If it is too dry, it will be hard to roll and the final nut roll will be dry.
Kifli – Hungarian Cookies
Kifli is another Hungarian Christmas tradition that I remember well, and they were always my favorite of the Christmas cookies. Growing up, we called them Kiffles, which is the anglicized version of Kifli.
I had never made them until long after my mother was gone, and reclaiming the recipe was not easy as my mother had about 10 different recipes from my aunts and other relatives. She had one labeled “My own special recipe”, that had graham cracker crumbs in at and some other things not in the other recipes, and I’m sure were not in the Kifli that I remember.
After a few years of experimentation with the different recipes and many failures, I finally settled on this one which produces Kifli closest to what I recall, and adjusted the recipe slightly in December 2014.
Kifli – Hungarian Cookies – Vegan Version
I don’t think my mother knew what a Vegan was and I’m sure making Vegan cookies never crossed her mind, although she was very health conscious in her cooking in her later years. But, times change and I have a number of friends who became Vegan this year, some of whom I have gifted at Christmas with nut roll and Kifli. I always like a challenge, so I decided to see if I could make both of these traditional Hungarian recipes in Vegan form. I made a batch of the cookies in Vegan form and my wife said they were better than what I made last year. So I made two batches of Vegan Kifli and two batches of Vegan nut roll. I had my oldest son taste both without telling him about the change and he though I really outdid myself this year. So, I was happy that the recipe worked and worked well.
I won’t publish the whole Vegan Kifli recipe here, just the Vegan substitutions and a few other notes. Refer to the original recipe for the technique, because it is the same for Vegan as the normal recipe.
Substitutions:
Use margarine or vegan butter in place of the butter, same amount.
Use almond milk in place of the milk.
To replace the two eggs, mix two tablespoons of ground Chia and Flax seeds (I used Raw Organics “Real Cold Milled Organic Golden Flax Seed & Organic Chia Seed”) with 6 Tablespoons of hot water and let it sit for about five minutes until thickened.
The sour cream was a little more complicated. Start with a cup of raw cashews (Trader Joes has these at a good price) and cover with boiling water. Let soak for at least 30 minutes and then drain. Put them in a food processor with 1 Tablespoon of cider vinegar and 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. Blend to form a thick paste and then add water, 1 Tablespoon at a time and blend until the desired consistency is reached. You’ll need to add 3 to six Tablespoons.
Technique:
Everything else is the pretty much the same. Remember to keep the dough on the soft side. If it is too dry, it will be hard to roll. The only difference is that these cookies do not brown like the non-vegan recipe. So bake them for 20 minutes and adjust the baking time for your later batches if necessary. When I was baking multiple trays of cookies, I set the oven to convection cooking.