Posts Tagged ‘leavened dough’

Raisin Bread (Vianočka)

Ingredients: leavened dough, raisins
Prep Time: about an hour

Another food item that can be prepared from the sweet leavened dough is vianočka. It is a sweet braided raisin bread that looks very much like the Jewish challah. It is often eaten for breakfast, topped with butter and jam (raspberry being my favorite). It is also often prepared for Easter and for Christmas. In fact, the name vianočka is derived from the Slovak word for Christmas, vianoce.

The trick in making this bread is in braiding the dough. I am sure that just about every Slovak babička (grandma) has her own way. Here I show you how my grandma makes it, by braiding four strands. The standard way is by braiding three strands so here is a slightly more advanced technique. Start by kneading the dough and lightly rolling it out to a rectangle about an inch thick. Cut it into six rectangles again about an thick. By the way, you should work raisins into the dough while kneading it. We didn’t do this, since my grandma also wanted to show me how to prepare buchty na pare. These dumplings are made out of the same leavened dough but do not contain raisins.

Take four of these braids and join them at one end. Add raisins if they were not already worked into the dough. Then fold the 2nd braid from the top to the bottom and the fourth one to the top.

Then take the first braid and move it to the bottom, underneath the bottom braid. Then take braid that’s on top and move it underneath the outer braids.

Then basically continue braiding until you run out of dough.

Tuck the ends together and place in your baking pan.

Now take the other two braids and twist them together. Place this “ponytail” on top of the bread. Brush on little bit of oil and let rest for about 15 minutes.

Finally bake on bottom of a preheated stove for about 20 minutes. Vianočka is also often brushed with egg yolk during baking to get a shinier crust. Slice and serve with hot chocolate.

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Baked Buns (Pečené Buchty)

Ingredients: leavened dough, thick jam or farmer’s cheese, raisins
Prep Time: 10 minutes to make the buns, 20 minutes to let the dough rest, 20 minutes for baking

Pečené buchty are tasty baked buns filled with a sweet surprise. It may be plum jam (slivkovký lekvár), farmer’s cheese (tvaroh), poppy seeds (mak) or even walnuts (orechy). Either way, they are delicious! They are somewhat analogous to the American cookies, in that they are something you can always count on when visiting grandparents.

I have tried baking buchty before. Although they ended up tasting great, the filling leaked out during baking. This happened for two reasons. First, I did not fill them correctly. I placed the filling in the middle and pinched the ends shut. In this recipe, I show you the proper way, as my grandma taught me. Secondly, the jam I used was too thin. It’s best to use thicker jams, such as those made out of plums.

You can make buchty out of dough mixed with a lemon zest, as was done in the previous recipe. However, this is not necessary. They’ll taste just fine if you use the same kysnuté cesto that is used in making of other sweet Slovak treats, such as a poppy seed roll, bobalky and buchty na pare. But, to get your buchty to come out soft, it’s important to brush on oil on the dough and fold over few times before rolling out.

Start by rolling out the dough. Add raisins (hrozienka) if you like. Cut the dough into rectangles slightly smaller than your palm. Place the filling (we used plum jam) towards one end. Fold over the side containing the filing.

Fold over once again to complete the bun. That’s it. This is much simpler than the pinching I tried previously. Place on a greased baking pan. Brush on more oil on top and let rest for 20 minutes.

Bake in a preheated oven for about 20 minutes. This is a much shorter time than what I had last time, which makes me think my grandma’s oven was burning quite hot. Basically, you want to bake them until the tops start turning brown. You can brush on little bit of oil or water on top after baking to soften the crust. Sprinkle with powdered sugar once they cool off. Enjoy with a cup of tea (čaj) or coffee (káva). But don’t eat too many, or you may turn into buchta yourself. See, buchta (the singular form of buchty) is a Slovak slang word for a larger-than-average girl.

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Steamed Sweet Dumplings (Buchty na Pare)

Ingredients: leavened dough, plum jam, butter, poppy seeds, ground walnuts, powdered sugar
Prep Time: 30 minutes (not counting time to prepare the dough)

I have a sweet tooth. This ought to be apparent to anyone by simply looking at the ratio of recipes in the Sweets category compared to the rest of the site. Unfortunately this is also apparent to my dentist. But it’s so hard not to like sweets, when Slovak cuisine is full of them. One of my favorites are sweet dumplings (buchty) on steam (na pare), which I show you how to prepare in this recipe. This is another dish I helped with at my grandma’s.

Start by rolling out the leavened dough to about 3 mm thin. Then using a knife or the circular dough cutting tool, cut out squares about 2×2 inches. Place a spoonful of thick plum jam (slivkový lekvár) in the middle. Pinch the dough together in one spot and work your way around accordion style to make the dumpling.

Alternatively, you can pinch together the diagonal ends. Form into a ball.

Place the dumplings aside, and fill a large pot with water. Make sure you have a lid for it. Then place a cloth over the top and tie it around with a string.

Then once the water is boiling place the dumplings on the cloth. Cover and let steam for about 12 minutes.

Carefully remove buchty from the steam and brush on melted butter. Then top with sweet ground poppy seeds or ground walnuts mixed with sugar.

Serve as main course for lunch or dinner. I particularly like this dish after a bowl of chicken noodle soup. Dobrú chuť!

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