Buchty

Ingredients

• Flour600 g
• Warm milk300 ml
• Dry yeast10 g
• Sugar80 g
• Butter150 g
• Egg yolks3
• Plum jam300 g
• Curd cheese250 g
• Lemon zest1
• Icing sugar40 g
• Salt1 tsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Dissolve the yeast with a spoon of sugar in the warm milk and leave it fifteen minutes, until it foams.

   17 min

2. 2

   Knead a dough from the flour, sponge, yolks, remaining sugar, zest, salt and half the butter.

   18 min

3. 3

   Let it rise somewhere warm for an hour, until doubled.

   62 min

4. 4

   Divide it into twelve balls and flatten each into a disc on your palm.

   12 min

5. 5

   Put a spoon of jam or curd in each, seal the seam and turn them seam down.

   15 min

6. 6

   Dip each bun in melted butter and pack them touching in a tin.

   10 min

7. 7

   Prove them forty minutes, bake at 180 °C for thirty-five minutes and dust them with icing sugar.

   78 min

About the dish

The buns are packed touching rather than spaced. Their sides fuse and the middle stays soft and white — that is how buchty are recognised.

Each bun is dipped in melted butter before it goes in. That separates them just enough that after baking they pull apart rather than needing a knife.

The dough is made with a sponge and two rises. Quick yeast dough gives a dense bun, and buchty should be airy right to the middle.

Worth knowing

• — Seal the seam carefully and set it downwards. An open seam lets the jam out and it burns between the buns.
• — Choose a tin that fits: the buns should stand packed and support each other. In a roomy one they spread sideways instead of rising.
• — Buchty are eaten warm, pulled apart by hand. In Slovakia they are not cut with a knife, and that is part of the serving rather than carelessness.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

380 kcal

Protein

9 g

Fat

14 g

Carbs

56 g

More from Slovakia

• Bryndzové halušky — Potato dumplings with sheep's brynza and bacon crackling. Slovakia's national dish.
• Kapustnica — A soup of sauerkraut with smoked meat, sausage and dried mushrooms. The Slovak Christmas table.
• Zemiakové placky — Thin potato pancakes with garlic and marjoram, fried crisp.