Zserbó – Gerbeaud slice

A special treat for special occasions! Nutty, apricoty, sweet and just absolutely gorgeous. In my family, we can’t have Christmas without zserbó.

Level: Easy

Serves: 16

Prep: 30 minutes + 4 hours chilling time

Cook: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients:

Dough:

500 g flour

250g butter (chilled)

Yeast

½ tsp baking powder

100ml milk

100g natural yogurt

2 egg yolks

½ tsp salt

Filling:

300g walnuts

100g sugar

a sachet vanilla sugar

(optional)

600g apricot jam

Topping:

100g chocolate /20g cocoa

100g sugar

4 tbs hot water

30g butter

Preparation:

Sieve the flour in a bowl, cube the butter and work it in until resembles crumbs. Add yeast, baking powder, milk, yogurt, egg yolks and salt. Work it into a ball. Divide it into 4 pieces, cover it and put it into the fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven (175 degrees Celsius). Butter the sides and line the bottom of a (30cm x 22cm x 4cm) sheet pan.

Blitz the walnuts into fine crumbs. Mix the walnuts with vanilla sugar and sugar.

Take the dough out of the fridge one by one and roll it out to the shape and size of the pan (about 5mm thick). Pierce it with a fork. Roll the dough back onto the rolling pin for easy transportation, place it into the lined tray and cover it with the 1/3 of the jam (180g) and the walnut mix (140g). Cover it with the second sheet, jam and walnuts, the third sheet, jam and walnuts and then the fourth sheet. Bake it on a 175 degree Celsius for 40-45 minutes. Let it cool for 1 hour.

Put the chocolate (or cocoa powder), sugar and water in a pan. Cook it till thickens a bit, then add the butter and pour it over the cooled cake immediately.

Let it cool for 2 hours in the fridge. Slice them up and enjoy.