Valašský Frgál is a Czech sweet specialty made nowhere else in the world. Wallachian frgál tastes a bit like butter and smells like rum and could be filled with pears, tvaroh, poppy seeds, plum butter, blueberries, and other fruit fillings.
What Is Wallachian Frgál?
Frgál is a special kind of kolach, made from thinly rolled out yeasted dough, filled with sweet fillings. The streusel topping is sprinkled on the top, called „posypka“ in Wallachia.
Commonly, the filling and streusel layer is taller than the dough itself. After taking frgál out of the oven, the surface is splashed with butter mixed with rum.
Frgál is round about 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter and is traditionally baked in an Eastern Moravian region known as Valašsko (Wallachia).
Origin of Frgál
Like many other delicacies, frgál was originally a mistake.
When a clumsy cook failed at making kolach, she got angry and called it an frgál, a word in the Wallachian dialect used to represent flawed products.
Other names of this pie include „lopaťák“ or „pecák“.
Lopaťák comes from the Czech word lopata (shovel), which meant a kolach sized as a shovel. Pecák comes from the word pec (wood-fired oven) used to bake pies and other pastry.
Yeast Dough
Frgál is prepared from the yeasted dough, which is rich in fat, so it takes longer than other doughs to rise. Yeasted dough for frgál takes at least an hour and a half to get ripe enough.
Before leavening, split the dough into 2 buns. Each will be about ¾ lb (330 g) in weight, which is how much you need for a single frgál.
Lay down the leavened dough onto baking paper and roll it out into a thin 12-inch circle. Raise the rim a bit so the filling does not come out.
Filling
Frgály are most commonly filled with a jam from dried pears, plum butter, poppy seeds, or quark. There are other options to fill the frgály, such as blueberries.
Because we live at the foot of the Jizera mountains, we pick blueberries in the forest, where they grow in abundance. I used the first blueberries I picked this year as frgály filling.
Pronunciation
I recorded a short audio clip on pronouncing the Czech word frgál. The first word in the audio is "frgál", the last is "valašský frgál", which means Wallachian frgál.
More Czech desserts:
- Buchtičky s vanilkovým krémem – small yeasted buns with vanilla sauce
- Míša řezy – Czech black & white sheet cake
- České koláče – authentic recipe for Czech kolache
Wallachian Frgál with Blueberries
Ingredients
Yeasted dough for 2 frgály:
- 2 and ⅔ cups (350 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (120 ml) milk (lukewarm)
- 2 tsp active dry yeast (or 30 g fresh yeast)
- ¾ st (85 g) butter
- 1 egg yolk
- ⅔ cup (80 g) powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- lemon zest (grated from ½ lemon)
Streusel:
- 1 and ¼ stick (140 g) butter
- ¾ cup (140 g) granulated sugar
- 1 and ¼ cups (160 g) all-purpose flour
Filling:
- 3 cups fresh blueberries
- granulated sugar (to sweeten blueberries)
Butter mixture:
- 2 sticks (226 g) butter (unsalted)
- 3 Tbsp brown rum
Plus, you’ll need:
- 1 egg (beaten, to brush edges of frgál)
Instructions
- Sift flour into a mixing bowl, and make a little well in the middle. Pour ⅔ of the warm milk, a spoon of sugar, and yeast in it. Mix the middle with a fork, add some flour from the sides. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.
- Melt the butter in a small pot, add it to a bowl with flour and yeast (the butter must be warm, not hot!).
- Add the rest of the lukewarm milk, sugar, a pinch of salt, and grated lemon zest.
- First, mix the dough with a fork, then knead with your hands or in a kitchen robot for about 10 minutes. The dough will be non-sticky and smooth. Add some flour if the dough is too sticky while kneading.
- Split the finished dough into two buns, cover with a clean towel and let it rise for 1,5 hours in a warm place.
- Meanwhile, prepare the streusel – mix the sugar, flour, and butter and form the streusel using your fingers.
- Place the leavened bun on baking paper and roll it out into a circle about 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter. If the dough sticks, you can sprinkle the baking paper with a little flour.
- Around the edges, make a rim and roll it in. You’ll need about ½-1 inch (1-2.5 cm) of dough for the rim.
- Brush the edge of the dough with a beaten egg.
- Place blueberries evenly on the dough, sweeten them with sugar to your liking. How much sugar you pour over bases on the sourness of blueberries.
- Sprinkle with streusel liberally and let the frgál rise for 15 minutes.
- Transfer the frgál using baking paper carefully on the baking tray and bake it in the preheated oven to 340 °C (170 °C) for 20 minutes.
- Melt the butter for final splashing in a pot and mix it with rum.
- Once you take the frgál out of the oven, splash its surface with the butter & rum mixture.
- Bake the 2nd frgál as described above.
Notes
- Th
- e edge of the frgál is finished before the center is done. That’s because a layer of streusel and filling covers the center, and it takes longer for it to get baked. Take care, so the rims aren’t golden brown, but the center is still raw. Hold on baking the frgál for 20 minutes.However, if you notice the edges browning too quickly, loosely cover the frgál with aluminum foil.
- The recipe makes 2 frgály in size 12 inches, please remember to divide the streusel/filling/splashing in two while making frgály (I mean not to splash 1 frgál with all butter&rum mixture).
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chart
Matt Erdman
Hello Petra,
My mother's family immigrated to the United States from what is now Czechoslovakia in the 1800's. We still have family in Bílov. When I was young, my grandmother made frygály, which she called kolache. Since she passed away in the nineties, I've continued to make these traditional desserts for my family on holidays, but I've never been able to get the crust right; it always rises too much or too little. Thank you for posting your recipe. Every year there is more information online, and that's how I found out that this style of pastry is called a frygál. With help from you and others, I will eventually make this dessert as well as my grandma did.
Best of luck with your online venture!
-Matt
Petra | Cook Like Czechs
Ahoj Matt,
thank you very much for you comment, as I checked Bílov is a nice town in the North Moravia. Have you ever been there?
Once I had a holiday near there with my family and the surrounding is pretty impressive – both wonderful nature and industrial feeling (Ostrava above all). Especially my boys loved it! 🙂
About frgály: This is a specialty of Moravian housewives, we in the Bohemian part of the Czech Republic can only be envious. We only make kolaches here, which are smaller and not so „rum-smelling“ like a real frgál.
Frgál is bigger than the normal kolach and is about 12 inches in diameter. The dough is very thin, but there is plenty of filling on it.
Crossing my fingers that your next try will turn out exactly how your grandmother used to bake.
Enjoy your Christmas time,
many greetings from the Czech Republic, Petra 🙂
Beck
Petra, I am going to make this on the recommendation of a Czech friend from the Olomouc area. What would be the best oven temperature to make sure the dough cooks evenly on the edges and under the filling?
Děkuji!
Petra
Hello Beck, thank you for your comment! The temperature in the oven for frgál is just fine about 340 °F (170 °C), I added this important detail to the recipe (I’m sorry I omitted this information). I also added a note on browning the edges of frgál while it is baking: "However, if you notice the edges browning too quickly, loosely cover the frgál with aluminum foil." Written at the bottom of the recipe. Please, don’t forget to splash the frgál liberally with the butter&rum mixture immediately after taking the cake out of the oven, this is where the magic lies. Wishing you lot of success with Wallachian Frgál, dobrou chuť and many greeting from the Czech Republic, Petra
Anthony Machacek
Just you know, Valacien frugal is not made with blueberries but with dry pears filling
Petra Kupská
Ahoj Anthony, thank you for your comment. You are right, Wallachian frgals are often filled with dried pears (called pracharanda in Czech). However, it is not the only type of frgal-filling. Poppy seed, tvaroh (farmers’ cheese), and plum fillings are also popular. Blueberries are less common, but they are certainly one of the fruits that can be used. It also depends on the region where the frgals are baked and the season - fresh wild blueberries can be picked until about mid-summer when they grow abundantly in the Czech forests.