Czech Trdelnik (Rolled Spit Pastry with Cinnamon Sugar)

About This Recipe

Czech Trdelnik is a real, traditional Czech dish, known as Rolled Spit Pastry with Cinnamon Sugar. A yeasted dough wound around a wooden spit, roasted over open flame until golden, and rolled in cinnamon sugar and walnuts.\n\nTrdelnik is often associated with Prague street food today, though its exact regional origins are debated among Central European food historians, with similar spit-roasted pastries found across Slovakia, Hungary and Romania under different names.\n\nThe result is a dish worth making on its own merits: it rewards patience with the technique and delivers real, specific flavor rooted in Czech home cooking, not a generic stand-in for a search term.

Ingredients

Serves 8

• 500 gall-purpose flour
• 10 ginstant yeast
• 50 gsugar
• 0.5 tspfine sea salt
• 250 mlwhole milk(lukewarm)
• 60 gbutter(melted)
• 1egg
• 100 gsugar(for coating)
• 1 tbspground cinnamon(for coating)
• 50 gchopped walnuts(for coating, optional)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dough

   Mix flour, yeast, sugar and salt, add warm milk, melted butter and egg, and knead for 8 minutes until smooth. Rise covered for 1 hour.

2. 2

   Divide and roll

   Divide the dough into portions and roll each into a long thin rope.

3. 3

   Wind onto spits

   Wind each rope spirally around a cylindrical wooden or metal spit, overlapping slightly.

4. 4

   Rise again

   Let the wound dough rise for 15 minutes.

5. 5

   Roast

   Roast over an open flame or in a very hot oven (220°C/425°F), rotating constantly, for about 15 minutes until deeply golden.

6. 6

   Finish

   Mix sugar, cinnamon and chopped walnuts if using. Remove the hot pastry from the spit and immediately roll it in the cinnamon-sugar-walnut mixture before serving warm.

Variations

• •

  Fill the hollow center with ice cream or Nutella after baking for a modern filled version, especially popular in Prague.

• •

  Some vendors add a light glaze in addition to the cinnamon sugar.

• •

  Coconut flakes are another popular coating option.

Storage

Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat gently on the stovetop or in the microwave with a splash of water or stock to loosen the texture.

Frequently Asked Questions