Opilý František is a delicious Czech dessert made usually for Christmas and its name could be translated as “drunk Francis”. Another name is Izidor and the history of this dessert goes back to the Middle Ages.
Opilý František used to be prepared for festive occasions in the Middle Ages and now it’s mostly (although not exclusively) a Christmas dessert. As the name suggests, there’s alcohol involved, therefore, it’s not a dessert for children. It combines the taste and sweet fragrance of Czech rum with walnuts and chocolate.
Czech rum isn’t an actual rum as it is made from potatoes and it cannot be called “rum” due to an EU-regulation. You can find it under the names like “Tuzemák” or “Božkov” in the stores, however, people still call it rum. It has a very typical sweet fragrance and is used in various types of (not only) Christmas cookies.
Replacing Czech rum isn’t easy but if you don’t live in the Czech Republic and cannot get your hands on any, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make opilý František. Just use any other alcohol with sweet fragrance or other types of rum, and for the alcohol-free version, mix the walnuts with some jam just like in Miletínské modlitbičky, or you can use just rum aroma.
Opilý František consists of three layers – cacao biscuit, walnut-rum and chocolate. Some people like to add also a cacao-butter cream but I don’t, so this recipe will be the usual three layers.
Table of Contents
Opilý František – Recipe
What you’ll need
Biscuit
- 120 g/4.2 oz of semi-coarse flour (see Czech Flour Guide), can be replaced with plain flour
- 220 g/7.8 oz of unsalted butter, softened
- 200 g/7.1 oz of powder sugar
- 1/2 tsp of baking powder
- 6 eggs
- 2 tbsp of cacao powder
- pinch of salt
- grease and coarse flour to coat the baking tray
Filling
- 700 g/24,6 of walnuts
- 300 ml/10.2 fl oz of Czech rum
- 400 g/14.2 oz of powder sugar
- optional: 100 g/3.5 oz of jam
Topping
- 300 g of dark chocolate
- 90 g of unsalted butter
Tip: Instead of dark chocolate, you can also use your favorite Czech chocolate bar such as Milena or Ledové kaštany.
How to make Opilý František
Biscuit
Separate the egg whites and yolks, whisk the whites until they are firm and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the yolks, flour, butter, powder sugar, baking powder, salt and cacao. If you have a kitchen robot, it can do the work for you until this point. Mix until everything is well combined.
Now you’ll have to continue by hand. Add the whisked egg whites gradually (in 3 to 4 parts).
Grease your baking tray and coat it with coarse flour to prevent the biscuit from sticking to the tray.
Pour the batter onto the tray. I am using a large tray and it might seem that I don’t have enough batter to cover the whole tray but believe me, it’s enough. This is supposed to be a finger-bite dessert and it will raise a little during the baking, so I’m spreading it in a thin layer.
Preheat the oven to 175°C and bake for 20 minutes.
If you look at the edges of the biscuit, they will separate a little from the tray when the biscuit is done.
Walnut filling
Blend your walnuts fine, mix them with powder sugar and rum. You can play with the amounts a little here, just make sure the mixture isn’t too liquid.
When the biscuit is completely cool, spread the walnut mixture on it. Some recipes tell you to smear the biscuit with a thin layer of jam first but I don’t do that. Now it’s very important to let the dessert chill a lot, preferably in a cold basement and for at least several hours, although a whole day is better. The walnut mixture needs to be very cold when you add the chocolate layer.
Chocolate topping
Melt the chocolate with butter in a water bath, you can reserve about 3 tbsp for decoration or use the whole mixture right away. Let it cool down a little. Spread the chocolate layer on top and let it set completely. What you see in the picture is what happens when the chocolate is still too warm – I let mine cool down but not enough and a little of the walnuts mixed in (not too many though). It’s not a big deal but also not ideal, so you can let it set and add another layer of chocolate or leave it like this.
At the end, if you’ve reserved some chocolate, drizzle it on top for decoration.
At this point, even if I wait for quite some time, the chocolate topping usually mixes a little with the walnut layer, that it why the walnut layer is quite thin in the photos but the amount is still there.
Cutting
Prepare a sharp knife and a glass of hot water. Put the knife in the hot water before cutting the dessert. You can cut any shapes, traditionally, that would be small rectangles. You can also cut it when the chocolate isn’t completely solid yet but make sure it isn’t liquid and I recommend using the hot water trick anyway.
