“Madártej” is the best dessert, the best sweet treat, the most wonderful mood lifter, the greatest treasure found in the refrigerator. In hot weather, because it’s hot, and in cold weather, because we always love it.
Madártej is among those dishes on which the frugal decades of history have left ugly marks, precisely in the form of flour, and more flour. It’s a shame to put flour in madártej if you have eggs; it’s a sin and otherwise unnecessary. The flour makes it heavy, lumpy, and takes away the essence, the light texture.
Not to mention pudding powders, which are also entirely unnecessary when making madártej, although they do it differently, they spoil the real essence of the dish, just like flour.
According to the oldest Hungarian cookbooks, all you need for madártej is milk, sugar, and eggs. Maybe a little vanilla or raisins, but the latter is already extremely divisive.
Ingredients
for 4 servings
– 7 eggs
– 1 liter of milk
– 7 tablespoons of sugar
– 1 vanilla bean
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Instructions
1. Separate the egg yolks from the whites, and mix 5 tablespoons of sugar with the yolks.
2. Heat the milk with the vanilla bean, and if you like, you can add raisins. When the milk is heated, pour it in a thin stream while continuously stirring into the egg yolks. Then, return the mixture to the saucepan. Remove the vanilla bean, slice it lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds. Put the bean back into the mixture.
3. Heat the mixture over very low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens slightly, but do not let it come to a boil. When the consistency starts to change, remove it from the heat and pour it into a large glass bowl.
4. In the sink, pour very cold water and place the bowl in it to cool.
5. While it cools, prepare the egg white dumplings. Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff peaks form. Boil water, add a pinch of salt, and use a spoon to scoop dumplings from the beaten egg whites into the boiling water. Cook them for two minutes, then remove them with a slotted spoon onto a paper towel or kitchen cloth to drain excess water.
6. Once the madártej has cooled, add the dumplings to it, and let it all cool in the refrigerator.
