Gundel Pancakes

Name: Gundel Pancakes
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Hungary
Ingredients: 150 g plain flour; 300 ml milk; 2 eggs; 1 pinch salt; 1 tbsp oil; 120 g ground walnuts; 60 g sugar; 40 g raisins; 1 orange, zested; 100 ml single cream; 120 g dark chocolate at 70 per cent; 20 g butter; Icing sugar

Local name: Gundel palacsinta

Hungarian crêpes filled with walnuts, raisins and orange zest, then covered in a glossy dark chocolate sauce.

Published on 23 July 2026·Updated on 10 September 2026

#crepes#walnuts#chocolate#orange#dessert

AI-generated image, not a photograph of the dish

Prep: 30 min
Cook: 25 min
Total: 55 min
Serves: 4
Difficulty: Medium

Method

Whisk the flour with the milk, eggs, salt and oil. Rest for 20 minutes.
Soak the raisins in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain them.
Heat 100 ml of milk with the sugar, pour it over the ground walnuts and stir in the raisins and orange zest.
Cook eight thin crêpes in a 20 cm pan. Spread each with filling and roll them up.
Bring the cream to a simmer, pour it over the chopped chocolate and whisk. Beat in the butter at the end.
Coat the pancakes in the warm sauce and dust with icing sugar as you serve.

Károly Gundel created this dessert at his Budapest restaurant in the 1930s. The butter goes into the sauce off the heat, which is what gives it the shine.

The techniques this recipe uses

Drain and rinse
Canning liquid clouds a sauce and salts it blind: rinse until the water runs clear.

Nutrition per serving

Calories: 834 kcal
Protein: 17.2 g
Fat: 53.1 g
Carbohydrate: 76.6 g
Fibre: 5.8 g

An estimate computed from the recipe quantities and the USDA food composition database. Real values vary with the products used.

Frequently asked questions

Why rest the crepe batter for 20 minutes?

The rest hydrates the flour and relaxes the gluten worked up by the whisk. The crepes then spread thinner and tear less when filled and rolled, which matters here because the filling is heavy.

My chocolate sauce looks dull. How do I get the shine?

The butter goes in at the end, off the heat, once the chocolate has melted into the hot cream. That final enrichment is what gives the gloss; added too early or over heat it does not do the same thing.

Can I make this without eggs?

It is hard here, because the two eggs give a very thin crepe the strength to carry a dense filling without splitting. The walnut, raisin and orange zest filling and the chocolate sauce are no trouble, and the sauce can be made with a plant cream.

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