Czech Trdelník Spiced Sugar Pastry

About This Recipe

Trdelník is a sweet, hollow pastry now closely associated with Prague's tourist streets, though its roots trace to a broader tradition found across parts of Central Europe. A soft, slightly enriched yeasted dough is rolled into a long rope, wound spiral-fashion around a wooden or metal roller, then cooked slowly over hot coals or in a rotating rotisserie-style oven until the outside turns golden and crisp while the inside stays soft and airy. Once cooked, the still-warm pastry is rolled immediately in a mixture of sugar, cinnamon and often chopped walnuts, which stick to the warm, slightly sticky surface and caramelize slightly into a fragrant, crackly coating. The hollow center, formed by the shape of the roller, is a signature feature, sometimes filled with soft serve ice cream, Nutella or fresh fruit at modern street stalls, though the plain cinnamon-sugar version remains the classic. Making trdelník at home without a special roller and rotisserie setup requires improvisation — wrapping the dough spiral around a well-oiled length of thick dowel or a heavy foil-wrapped rolling pin and baking it in a hot oven, rotating occasionally, to approximate the same crisp exterior and soft interior the traditional method produces.

Ingredients

Serves 6

• 3.5 cupsall-purpose flour
• 2.25 tspinstant yeast
• 0.33 cupsugar
• 0.5 tspfine sea salt
• 1 cupwarm milk
• 1egg
• 4 tbspbutter(melted and cooled)
• 0.75 cupsugar(for the coating)
• 2 tspground cinnamon(for the coating)
• 0.5 cupwalnuts(finely chopped, for the coating)
• 3 tbspbutter(melted, for brushing)

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the dough

   Combine flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add warm milk, egg and melted butter, mixing to a soft dough. Knead 8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover and let rise 1 hour until doubled.

2. 2

   Prepare the rollers

   Wrap 6 thick, oven-safe wooden dowels or heavy foil-wrapped rolling pins with a layer of oiled foil.

3. 3

   Roll and wrap the dough

   Divide dough into 6 pieces. Roll each into a long, thin rope, then wind it in a spiral around a prepared roller, pinching the ends to secure.

   Roll the dough rope thin and even — a rope that's too thick won't cook through properly before the outside browns.

4. 4

   Bake and rotate

   Brush each wrapped roller with melted butter and bake at 200°C (400°F), propped so the pastry doesn't touch the pan, rotating every 5 minutes, for 20 to 25 minutes until deep golden all over.

5. 5

   Coat while warm

   Mix sugar, cinnamon and chopped walnuts. Immediately after baking, brush the hot pastries with a little more melted butter and roll them in the sugar-cinnamon-walnut mixture.

6. 6

   Cool and remove

   Let cool slightly, then gently slide the pastry off the roller and serve warm.

Variations

• •

  Fill the hollow center with soft-serve ice cream or Nutella after baking, a popular modern street-vendor variation.

• •

  Skip the walnuts in the coating for a simpler, classic plain cinnamon-sugar version.

• •

  Add a pinch of vanilla to the dough for a subtly different flavor base.

Storage

Best eaten warm the day it's made; store leftovers loosely wrapped at room temperature for up to 1 day, though the texture softens and loses its signature crispness over time.

Frequently Asked Questions