Hungarian Coffee Cake

This pull-apart yeasted cake with cinnamon and berry jam is heaven sent.

Dough

• 2 ¼ tsp dry active yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup water or warm milk
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ½ cup or 1 stick melted butter
• ½ cup honey
• ¼ cup sugar
• 4–5 cups flour

Topping

• ½ cup or 1 stick melted butter
• 3 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1 ½–2 cups ground walnuts
• 1 ½–2 cups brown sugar
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• ¼–⅓ cup jam (some recipes call for apricot but I used a mixed berry jam)

Instructions

1. Put your yeast in a small bowl with 1 tsp sugar. Pour in a cup of warm milk or water and whisk together. Let it sit for the next 5-10 minutes until it foams.
2. In a large bowl or mixing bowl if you’ll be using a stand mixer, whisk together your eggs, salt, sugar, honey and melted butter. (Make sure your melted butter has cooled to at least room temperature before mixing it with the eggs.)
3. Once your yeast is activated (foamy), dump it into your mixing bowl and start working in your flour. Continue adding your flour in stages until a ball starts to form. Then, drop the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. Place your kneaded dough into a lightly oiled pot and leave it in a warm environment to rise for the next 60-90 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, start making your topping. Throw the walnuts into a food processor and run it until very fine. Mix that with your brown sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt. Melt a stick or ½ cup butter into a second bowl.
5. Take some of your melted butter and grease your pan. Then, generously layer the bottom with your cinnamon-sugar-walnut-mix.
6. Once your dough has risen, preheat your oven to 360°F (180°C). Punch the dough out onto your working surface. At this point, there are two methods to make your dumplings. You can either roll the dough out until it’s about a ½ inch thick or eyeball it. I’m on team “eyeball it” and use my dough cutter to cut off golf ball-sized dumplings. However you do it, roll your dumpling into a ball and drop it into your bowl of melted butter. Then drop your butter-coated dumpling into your cinnamon-sugar-walnut mix, covering it on all sides. Place the dumpling into your pan and repeat, leaving a little space between each one.
7. After you complete the bottom layer, place a dollop of jam on each dumpling. Don’t overdo it with the jam or it’ll seep out of the sides of your springform pan, burn in the bottom of your oven, and ooze out when you remove the spring.
8. Using a 9-inch or 23-centimeter pan, you’ll only have two layers of dumplings. After you complete your second layer, coat the dish with whatever butter you have left followed by the rest of your topping mix. Throw it immediately into the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden.
9. Remove the aranygaluska from the oven and let it cool off for a good 15 minutes before removing the ring.