Even though a Linzer torte is technically an Austrian confection, named after the city of Linz, Austria, our Hungarian grandma always made one for the family at Christmas. It was a softly textured yet dense almond cake, that could be layered with apricot or raspberry preserves, and sometimes even chocolate. My grandma would make maybe a dozen different cakes, cookies, and other desserts for the holidays, all out of her tiny galley style kitchen that had light pink enamel kitchen cabinets. She worked so hard! She gardened, bowled, grew her own vegetables, picked and canned, washed her own laundry by hand, and made noodles from scratch. You bet she could eat all those desserts without the guilt.

Now that there’s flatbread, I try to recreate less guilt-inducing versions of my family’s desserts, especially since I have a washing machine, I don’t bowl, and my garden is not so great these days. Oh, well. (Grandma didn’t have a laptop computer, either, to distract her.)

Back to the flatbread dessert: I think we all know how hard it is to quell a sugar craving. It can be really, really bad when it hits, and one of my tricks is to make something that doesn’t count so badly against you. Flatbread certainly helps when the afternoon sugar craving hits. This quick little dessert roll up makes efficient use of small quantities of rich ingredients to pack a big punch! It shares well, too.

I know that, were my grandma still alive, I could make this for her and she would love it, even though I didn’t roll up the dough by hand. Tea would be poured, and we’d have a great conversation. Explaining to her what a computer was would take up half the day, for sure!

Amy at Flatout