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Fried Bread Recipe – The Hungarian Langos

2 Comments / By Edi Baker - SunCakeMom / 25/01/2019

Craving for carbs fried in fat but not into desserts? Let’s make this fried bread topped with cheese and creme fraiche! Langos is the best!

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Not every flatbread is created equal. Sure enough, all are flat hence the name but amazingly there are so many variations of this humble dish that we would struggle to count them all.

Flatbread is with us since the beginning of times. First of them were made on hot stones near the fireplace without any additional leavening agent then as our species evolved so did the cooking techniques.

Wheat flour is such an amazing compound capable of creating so many different dish, thanks mainly to its gluten content. Not as without creativity in the kitchen, we would loathe a piece of pizza as the primitive part of our brain would love anything that is high in carbs.

Just have a look at parts of the world where wheat was not widely available like Asia or the Philippines. They have so many amazing dishes with rice that the gluten gutted Western world should embrace and unknowingly wish to have since the cradle.

Unfortunately, we aren’t really accustomed to those flavors and spices as much as to choose them over our well-known comfort food. It doesn’t help much that some of the ingredients could be a real underground quest to source, though.

We aren’t trying to make any Chinese now anyway but reaching back to the roots of Western civilization where our ancestors were forced to feed themselves with all means possible. Like the Roman soldiers who made flatbread using the campfire and their shields to fry it on.

Romans were not only great conquerors but apparently fearless culinary warriors as well, using techniques well ahead of their time. They used olive oil for deep frying food in the 5th century BC well before the Western world could afford it. Well, it is still a waste to fry in olive oil.

Our Yin and Yang ingredient, the cooking oil was discovered only in the 19th century. Or rather invented, given the amount of process and ingredients the industry uses to turn the humble sunflower seed into the thing, we use for deep frying.

At the same time our love-hate relationship began with deep frying traditional cooking, places were out phased in the households too.

Brick ovens or wood fed oven tops were no longer desirable kitchen equipment for the modern chefs thus many traditional food had to make the transition into modern life using what there was available.

We had cooking oil in abundance so there the dough went too, creating the most desirable fast foods ever existed. Nothing can be more satisfying than a deep-fried gluten bundled piece of joy camouflaged as humble food.

Croquettes, Fish and chips, Donuts, Mars bar! are all the children of the modern era where we are able to waste as much food as we please, using as much resource to provide for it as we please.

So why not throw some pizza into the frying pan and see what happens. Probably this was the thought process of the first person who ever throw flat bread into the hot oil and created the Hungarian Flat Bread called Lángos. Its name comes from the Hungarian word “láng” meaning fire that is supposed to be the part of the creating process in a brick oven. Since no-one has a brick oven nowadays except some culinary daredevils, people use cooking oil to make it.

This humble food traditionally served with garlic, sour cream and grated cheese, is the staple of Hungarian street food. Thanks to its likability, it’s spread around the surrounding countries during the years even as far as the UK.

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Lángos is spreading all over the world, like the sour cream on top. Nowadays people put every kind of topping imaginable on it, making it even more delightful but sometimes just a bit of salt and a tad of garlic a hungry mouth need.

Ingredients

(8 Servings)

Yogurt Fried Bread

4 cups / 500g Plain flour
½ cup / 125g Yogurt or quark
1 cup / 225g Water
1 teaspoon / 4g Fresh yeast
1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
½ teaspoon / 3g Baking soda (optional for added flavor and chewy interior)
4 cups / 1000ml Oil to fry
Topping (optional)
- 1 clove crushed Garlic soaked in a cup of water
- 8 oz / 200g Sour cream or Creme fraiche
- 1lb / 400g Grated cheese

How to make Langos fried bread

Knead flour, eggs, yogurt, water and crumbled fresh yeast. When it gets together sprinkle on the salt too and continue kneading. Also add baking soda for more chewy texture added flavor and deeper golden brown color.
Once the dough comes nicely together after about 10 minutes of kneading cover the dough and place it into a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C place.
Let it raise for about 30 – 45 minutes depending the temperature. It doesn’t need to double. More about how to bake with yeast in the KnowledgeBase.
Take the dough out into a floured surface, dived into 8.
Roll the dough into balls. Check out how to roll.
Place the dough balls into a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C place to rise for 30 – 60 minutes depending on the temperature. Cover them with a damp cloth so they don’t dry out.
Place a small dough-ball on a well-floured surface and roll them out. Alternatively skip this step and stretch by hand only.
Strew it a bit more with fingers and let the gravity help too.
Heat oil to 320°F – 350°F / 160°C – 180°C then place the flattened dough upside down into the frying pan. Temperature is paramount!
After about 30 seconds or until it’s golden brown, flip it over.
Take it out and let it drip. Repeat it with the rest of the dough-balls.
Apply topping and serve it immediately.

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Enjoy!

Note: Garlic topping should be prepared in advance or applied directly by rubbing a clove of garlic onto the surface of the bread. To make garlic topping, dice a clove of garlic up then put it in a cup. Add salt then after an hour add half a cup of water and let it sit for at least an hour. Apply the garlic sauce with a brush onto the surface of the bread.