Simply the best: mézes zserbó

For me, my mother’s mézes zserbó slice is the best dessert in the world. Just so simply. I can talk and write about a lot of different kinds of food- both savoury and sweet- with great enthusiasm but honestly I feel an extreme passion for mézes zserbó. My niece shares my devotion to it, so there is always a box of zserbó in the kitchen when she goes to visit my mother.
What is the secret of the honey zserbó? Maybe the vanilla cream which is spread between the layers, or the little bit crunchy-little bit friable sheets, or the dark chocolate glaze on the top? I don’t now exactly, but what I know is that I can eat a shameful quantity of it while I am considering these questions.
Last summer when the chief editor of Jamie Oliver Magazine Hungary asked me to write and photograph two recipes for them, I had no doubt what is going to be the one of them. I have set the table outside in the garden and arranged nicely the honey zserbó and the fruit cake I topped with strawberries. The sun was shining that day and the canvas -that we have hanged between the nut tree and two sour cherry trees to give us some shade- was flying up and down like a sail giving me therefore the challenge of the always changing lights. Finally I took the pictures and I was so glad to see them printed in the magazine one month later.

I remember this while I am spreading the cream between the layers and pouring the chocolate glaze over the top. I don’t need the thick wool cardigan any more, and finally I don’t feel cold while taking pictures after so many months! What a relief! Soon our garden will be dressed in green so we can hang the canvas between the fruit trees and I can set the garden table again. Until then, a few slices of zserbó will surely help me waiting. And if not, it was definitely worth to try.

My mother’s mézes zserbó slice
Ingredients:
500 g flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp sour cream
4 tbsp melted honey
150 g confectioner’s sugar
60 g butter
1/4 tsp baking soda

For the cream:
2 egg yolks
220 g sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp vanilla pudding mix
400 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 g butter or margarine cut into small pieces

For the chocolate glaze:
150 ml milk
2 heaped tsp Dutch cocoa powder
50 g butter
110 g dark chocolate
10 g confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 200 °C degrees. Mix flour, baking soda and butter first then add other ingredients and knead it to a smooth and flexible dough. Divide into 4 parts and roll each piece out to 25×20 cm on a lightly floured surface. Lay each piece on a baking pan with the bottom side up, lined with baking paper. This way you will be able to remove each sheet easily when ready. Bake each sheet for around 10 minutes until it gets a light brown colour. Lay each sheet on a wooden board and let them cool down on the top of each other (they won’t stick, don’t worry)
Let’s prepare the cream. Bring the half of the milk to boil in a saucepan. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until it gets foamy, then add flour, pudding mix and the other half of the milk. Add boiling milk while stirring continuously then put it back to heat and cook it by reduced heat until it thickens. Finally, add vanilla extract and let it cool down completely.
Using a kitchen mixer whip butter then mix with the vanilla sauce. Divide cream to three parts (approximately 260 g cream goes between each layer) and spread it over each layer. For the chocolate glaze bring milk to boil, add remaining ingredients and cook it at reduced heat until it thickens. Spread it over the top of the cake. Let it rest at cool temperature at least for a half day so the sheets soften a bit and it will be easy to cut.