Central Europe · Volume 20, Lard, Bryndza and a Court Cuisine That Passed Overhead
Medovník
Bohemia and Moravia
Illustration
- Time
- Hands on 1 hour · Waiting 48 hours
- Researched
- 27 sources cited
Bohemia and Moravia. A honey and cream layer cake, at its best when made a day ahead and allowed to mature.
As tradition built it
Serves 10 to 12. About 1 hour active, plus 24 to 48 hours maturing.
Ingredients
- 100 g butter
- 120 g sugar
- 120 g honey
- 500 to 600 g plain flour
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- as needed cream, for the filling
- as needed syrup, for the filling
Method
- Melt the butter, sugar and honey together over a water bath until the sugar dissolves.
- Work in the egg and bicarbonate of soda, then the flour, to a firm, workable dough.
- Divide into portions, roll each roughly 4 mm thick.
- Bake each layer 4 to 6 minutes at 170 to 180°C, kept pale gold rather than dark.
- Stack the layers with syrup and cream filling between each.
- Mature in the fridge a minimum of 12 hours, ideally 24 to 48, before serving.
What a modern chef changes
A dehydrator used to control the layers' final texture precisely, and a cultured cream filling
Rung 5
Method
- Finish drying each baked layer briefly in a dehydrator at 60°C rather than relying on the oven bake alone, giving a more even, controllable crispness across every layer before the maturing stage softens them back toward the finished cake's characteristic texture.
- Culture the filling cream lightly with a small measure of soured cream or crème fraîche, extending this chapter's general rung 5 argument, that fermentation here is controllable technique, into the dessert register: a gently cultured filling cuts the honey's sweetness with a real, checkable sourness rather than sugar alone.
- Extend the maturing time to a full 48 hours as standard, not an optional maximum, since the flavour and texture genuinely continue developing across that window and a rushed 12-hour version is a real, tasteable step down.