North American bakeries popularized it as a tiny cake bar, just a bit larger than a petit four, some of them so removed from the original I would not recognize it in the showcase without the label “dobas”. One more time, dobos has a candy top, stefania is the same only with bitter cocoa powder over the buttercream top.
Using the authentic dobos recipe for the cake with chocolate-walnut icing is a twist on this iconic Hungarian. I debated calling it stefania, but since the majority knows it as dobos, I too did the unthinkable. I cut a sheet cake into three, made a long rectangle cake and called it… a dobos well walnut dobos to be precise. I shudder at the thought of further complicating the dobos issue, but then again it was very good.
Walnut Dobos
Cake:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup potato starch
9 egg whites
1 cup sugar
9 egg yolks
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Chocolate-Walnut Buttercream:
3/4 cup soft unsalted butter – must be unsalted!
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1/3 cup cocoa, sifted
1/8 cup whipping cream
1 cup finely ground walnuts
• Line a full size baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• In a bowl sift together the flour and potato starch.
• Add the grated lemon zest and set aside.
• In a beater bowl beat the egg whites to soft peeks.
• Add 1/2 cup sugar and beat to stiff glossy peaks.
• Gently transfer to a clean bowl.
• Add the egg yolks and 1/2 cup of the sugar to the beater bowl and beat on high speed for 5 minutes.
• Gradually add the flour and potato mix to the yolk mixture.
• Stir some of the beaten egg white into the egg yolk mixture.
• Gently fold in the remaining whites.
• Spread the batter on the parchment lined sheet pan.
• Bake at 375F until light golden.
• Remove pan from the oven, loosen the edge and place on wire rack for 5 minutes.
• Slice the cake crosswise into 3 equal parts.
• When the cake is cooled down somewhat peel off the parchment paper.
• While the cake cools to room temperature make the chocolate-walnut buttercream.
• Beat the butter with an electric beater until fluffy.
• Gradually add the sifted icing sugar.
• Beat on high for 4 minutes or until fluffy.
• Add the cream and beat it for 2 more minutes.
• Add the sifted cocoa and beat to combine.
• Add the ground walnuts and beat to combine.
• Spread each layer evenly with the buttercream and stack them on top of one another.
• Leaving the sides of the cake bare, chill for half an hour before slicing.
