Hořické trubičky

Appearance & taste

Hořické trubičky are wafer rolls 5 to 19 cm long with an inner diameter of 10 to 20 mm, rolled from wafers 0.9 to 1.2 mm thick. They are light beige and crisp, smell and taste of wafers and have a smooth, slightly porous surface.

They come filled, sprinkled, or sprinkled and filled, each without coating, with half or with full coating of cocoa glaze. The filling is a sweet, whipped, semi-solid fat cream, for example with cocoa, chocolate, coffee, dried nuts, nougat, cinnamon, yoghurt, cream, vanilla, egg liqueur, lemon or other fruit. According to the specification, the most popular are the sprinkled rolls with butter and honey. The name “Hořické trubičky” is the main element on the front of the packaging.

Production

The wafers are made from fine wheat flour, milk powder, vegetable oil, egg yolk powder, sugar and water. The weighed ingredients are made into a liquid batter, which is baked in an electric, semi-automatic baking carousel at 150 to 160 °C. After a resting period, the wafers are rolled by hand with a cylindrical form on a small hotplate. Because the baked wafers are of uneven thickness, a certain pressure has to be applied so that the diameter is even; according to the specification, this is the signature of the person doing the rolling.

For the filled varieties, the whipped fat cream is filled in by machine. The sprinkled rolls are made from two or one and a half wafers, which are brushed with melted butter and honey and, depending on the variety, sprinkled with sugar, ground nuts or almonds, cinnamon, vanilla or vanillin and cocoa. For the coating, the rolls are placed by hand on dipping grids and dipped in cocoa glaze at one or both ends or entirely.

Making the batter, baking, rolling, filling, coating and packaging take place directly at the producer’s premises, because the rolls are fragile and easily absorb moisture. In retail they may be sold unpackaged.

Origin & history

The area comprises 29 municipalities in the administrative area of Hořice, including Hořice, Miletín, Ostroměř, Holovousy and Cerekvice nad Bystřicí. According to the specification, the wafers owe their delicate, porous and crisp texture, which can nevertheless be rolled, not only to the traditional recipes but also to a low-gluten flour and to the local water, which is soft and low in minerals and comes from a depth of 100 m.

The rolls were first mentioned in 1812, when a family in the area baked them for family celebrations and as gifts. A confectioner who married into the family improved the recipe and in 1898 received a patent for an electric wafer iron. By then the rolls were already being made commercially and exported as far as Germany, England, Turkey, America and Shanghai. After nationalisation in 1949 they were made in state-owned enterprises; after the return to a market economy the producers of the association took up the tradition again, with the knowledge of former employees and local families. According to the specification, the recipe and method, including rolling by hand, have not changed since. In the Czech Republic the name was registered as a designation of origin in 1994.