Savor Street Food Favorite Hungarian Lángos (Fried Bread) (2024)

Lángos is a classic Hungarian fried bread, sold everywhere by street carts and vendors. It can be topped with a variety of ingredients but is usually eaten as is. Fluffy and light, this favorite fair food is made from yeasted dough and often with additional mashed potatoes to make krumplis lángos (potato lángos).

Traditionally, when Hungarian people used to bake bread in communal brick ovens, they'd save a piece of dough and bake it off in the morning for breakfast. This piece of breakfast bread gradually evolved into a deep-fried snack like those found in other countries that share cultural backgrounds with Hungary like Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Austria.

These popular snacks are usually served rubbed with garlic, sprinkled with salt, and with some combination of sour cream, onions, kefir, sausage, eggs, yogurt, cheese, ham, or bacon. Our flavorful recipe uses the potato addition and serves it with garlic and salt. This wonderful bread is a great accompaniment to soups, like korhelyleves, and wonderful to enjoy on its own. Eat the lángos freshly made, as it will get mushy when cold; if you made too much dough and don't need to fry many discs, you can keep the dough in the refrigerator for up to a week.

What You'll Need to Make This Hungarian Fried Lángos Recipe

A Handy Dandy Potato Masher

A Zippy Stand Mixer

A Sturdy Frying Pan

"The lángos bread was delicious and easy to prepare. I used a stand mixer, but kneading by hand would be easy as well. This is an excellent bread to serve with goulash or chicken paprikash. The recipe makes four generous breads that could probably serve up to 8 people." — Diana Rattray

Savor Street Food Favorite Hungarian Lángos (Fried Bread) (4)

A Note From Our Recipe Tester

Ingredients

1 cup freshly mashed and warm russet potato, from about 1 medium potato
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast(rapid-rise or bread machine yeast)
1 teaspoon sugar
See Also
Lángos - Chewy Bread Rounds
1 3/4 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 cup milk
Canola oil, for frying
2 cloves garlic, halved

Steps to Make It

Make the Dough

Gather the ingredients.
Place the freshly mashed warm potato alongside the yeast, sugar, flour, oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and milk in a big mixing bowl or stand mixer.
Using the paddle attachment, combine the ingredients until they are well moistened. If mixing by hand, start the process by mixing with a wooden spoon.
Switch to the dough hook and kneadfor 5 to 7 minutes or until smooth and elastic. If mixing by hand, give yourself an extra 5 minutes of working the dough, until it's smooth and not sticking to your hands.
Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour.
Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Shape each piece into a smooth ball and place it on a lightly floured board. Cover and let rest another 20 minutes.

Fry the Dough

In a large skillet, heat an inch of canola oil to 350 F.
Flatten and stretch each dough ball to a disc 8 inches in diameter. Make 1 or more slits in the center of the stretched dough with a sharp knife. The slits are traditional but also keep the dough from puffing up in the middle.
Fry one lángos at a time for about 2 minutes per side or until golden. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot, rubbed with a cutgarlic clove and sprinkled with salt to taste.

Tips

Make sure to use a large, deep skillet so there will be plenty of room in the pan for an 8-inch round of dough.Slide the dough into the hot oil carefully.
To cook the bread evenly, you will have to cut the slits in the dough; otherwise, the bread will bubble up around the edges and parts of the loaf will not brown.
Pat the top of each lángos with another paper towel to soak up as much excess oil as possible.
For the cup of mashed potato, you can microwave 1 medium russet potato until cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes, turning the potato halfway through cooking. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the potato flesh and mash with a potato masher or fork. Measure out 1 cup of potato for the recipe.

Toppings for Lángos

After rubbing each bread with garlic and sprinkling it with salt, a savory variation would include topping it with:

Sour cream and chopped dill
Shredded Emmenthal or Gruyère cheese
Sausage and mushroom
Fried cabbage and ham
Hungarian peppers
Hard-boiled eggs and braised vegetables
Roasted eggplant

For a sweet version of lángos, you can skip the garlic and salt and top it with:

Confectioners' sugar
Jelly or fruit compote
Cinnamon sugar

How to Store and Freeze Lángos

Lángos are best served fresh and warm. If you have leftover bread, store it in a zip-close bag for a day or two or freeze it for up to 6 months.
To reheat from frozen, place the lángos directly on the rack of a preheated 425 F oven and heat for about 5 to 10 minutes, until hot.

Where Is Lángos From?

The exact origins of this bread are uncertain. Some reports indicate the snack became part of the Hungarian cuisine many centuries ago when it was introduced by the Turks during their occupation. Others indicate that lángos has Roman roots because of its similarity to flatbread or focaccia.

Tasty Hungarian Dishes

Hungarian Food
Potato Recipes
Breads

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
456	Calories
23g	Fat
55g	Carbs
9g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories	456
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 23g	29%
Saturated Fat 2g	10%
Cholesterol 2mg	1%
Sodium 418mg	18%
Total Carbohydrate 55g	20%
Dietary Fiber 3g	11%
Total Sugars 3g
Protein 9g
Vitamin C 5mg	23%
Calcium 55mg	4%
Iron 3mg	17%
Potassium 353mg	8%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Recipe Tags:

Potato
appetizer
eastern european
winter

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