Classroom lesson · Food · 🇨🇿 Czechia

Trdelník

A warm rolled pastry cooked over an open flame

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Trdelník is a sweet pastry made by wrapping a long strip of dough in a spiral around a wooden or metal spit, then slowly rotating it over a fire or heated drum until it is golden and crisp on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. It is then rolled in cinnamon sugar and walnuts. Walking through Czech towns in winter, you can often smell trdelník cooking before you see it.

Tell me more

The pastry dough is similar to a sweet bread dough — flour, yeast, butter, sugar and egg. Long strips are rolled thin and then wound in a tight spiral around the spit, overlapping slightly so the heat seals them together. The rotation over the heat means every side cooks evenly.

When it slides off the spit, a trdelník is a hollow tube, slightly crispy outside and soft inside. The traditional coating is a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, sometimes with ground walnuts pressed into the outside. The smell of cinnamon and caramelising sugar is one of the most welcoming scents at Czech Christmas markets.

Trdelník is especially associated with markets and festivals. In Prague's Old Town Square and in cities like Brno, stalls set up with rows of spits turning over heat, and you can watch your pastry cook while you wait. It is best eaten warm, straight from the spit.

Food historians believe the dish originally came from Slovakia and Transylvania (now Romania) before becoming popular across Czechia. Today it is one of the most recognisable Czech street foods and is enjoyed all year round, not just at Christmas.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

01What other foods can you think of that are cooked by rotating over heat? What does this way of cooking do to food?
02Street food and market food often smell wonderful. Why do you think smells are such a big part of the experience?
03If you were running a food stall at a school fair, what would you cook and why?

Try this

Classroom activity

Draw a step-by-step comic strip showing how a trdelník is made: mixing the dough, rolling it thin, winding it around the spit, cooking it over heat, sliding it off and rolling it in cinnamon sugar. Use at least five panels and add one interesting fact as a caption for each step.

Trdelník

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Discussion prompts

Classroom activity

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