Gottschling Family Hunklich

Hunklich is a thin, flaky, buttery crust topped with tart black cherries that are surrounded by a mixture of sugar, sour cream, and egg yolks that’s folded into whipped egg whites.

Take a bite and you’ll first taste the thin crust and custard-like topping. The slightly sweet crust is moist but not soggy. The rich, sugary topping has a consistency somewhere between custard and scrambled eggs.

This initial flavor is sweet and pleasant, but incomplete. Then come the cherries. As you chew, tart, tangy cherries reveal themselves, their sour juice melding with rich sour cream and butter to create a balanced, creamy-but-sour, fruity taste that is light, refreshing and insidiously addictive.

My family loves the taste of cherries, and hunklich has long been our preferred showcase for this fruit, the recipe having been passed down through the Transylvania-Saxon side of my family (the Gottschlings) for generations.

In that time, we’ve learned that hunklich rewards patience, precision and planning in its preparation. Thoroughly draining the cherries before adding them to the mix is essential if you want to keep the crust from becoming soggy. Taking time to properly and carefully fold is the difference between a light fluffy egg topping and a dense, sodden mess.

I’ve also learned that it’s best made by hand, with help from good friends.

One of my fondest New Years Eve’s was spent with my sister and a few of each of our close friends at my house in Virginia. We all loved to cook, so as part of the festivities, we prepared the food for our New Year’s feast together: first my family’s traditional New Year’s dinner of pork roasted on a bed of apples, butter, and sauerkraut; then, for the vegetarians present, a meatless version of a Greek friend’s family pastitsio recipe, Greek lasagna with walnuts and spices replacing the traditional beef; and finally, for all to enjoy, my first attempt at hunklich.

I did not (and still do not) own an electric mixer. During the initial stages of the recipe, as we prepared in parallel the various parts of the recipe, this fact did not seem important. Then we arrived at whipping egg whites.

I know now that whipping egg whites with a mixer is a breeze, a task as light and airy as the result. Sans mixer, though, whipping egg whites can take quite a while, and requires real manual effort.

So, having no mixer, for the next 45 minutes everyone in attendance came to the kitchen, stood in a circle, and passed the bowl of egg whites around, talking and taking turns whipping.

It was a good group of people, and everyone participated, chatting, laughing and enjoying the company. The whipping broke the collective ice and provided common ground, making for great conversation both at the dinner table and afterward.

Making hunklich made that evening, and I heartily recommend homemade hunklich and a “broken” mixer any time you have an amiable but diverse group of people over for dinner.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of roll mix (with yeast)
• 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup of butter
• Sugar
• Salt
• Either 2 14 oz. cans of tart/sour cherries, drained, or fresh tart cherries
• 1 pint (16 oz.) of sour cream

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. If you are using canned cherries, empty the cans of cherries into a colander to start the cherries draining.
3. Melt 1/4 cup of butter.
4. Separate 2 egg yolks (saving the whites).
5. Beat 2 egg yolks, then mix together with the melted butter from step 2, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
6. Add lukewarm water to make one cup.
7. Dissolve yeast from roll mix (using a wisk) into the yolk mixture.
8. Add the yolk mixture to the roll mix, mix the dough to a common consistency, then roll the dough out to fit a large jelly roll pan (you can grease the pan or not, depending on your preference). Make sure that the dough is pressed up to the top of the edges of the pan. This should result in the dough being spread evenly and relatively thinly across the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
9. Place the well-drained cherries evenly on the dough.
10. Mix 4 egg yolks, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1 pint (16 oz.) of sour cream.
11. Beat 6 egg whites to froth.
12. Fold the yolk-sour cream mixture into the egg whites.
13. Pour the whole mess over the cherries.
14. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Serving Notes:

• Serve hunklich at room temperature or lower.
• Make sure to let it cool after taking it out of the oven.
• Hunklich’s flavors improve over time. If you can resist, it is worth letting it age so you can sample it over a couple of days.

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