These old traditional circular baked goodies are popular at fairs (jarmoky). My hometown of Banská Bystrica is famous for a huge fair, Radvanský jarmok. This ancient fair is said to be the king of fairs. And for a good reason. It has been held in September for now over 340 years! It all started back in 1655 when then a village of Radvaň held its first market. Much has changed since then, the village has merged into the city to become one of its “suburbs”: Radvaň is now one of the two main residential parts (called sídlisko, the other is Sásová in the north end). The fair has also migrated to the center of town and is now held in conjunction with “Banská Bystrica Days“. But it is still a great place to find unique crafts and sample various culinary delicacies. In that article, in the second picture from the top, you can see another popular offering at Slovak fairs: gingerbread hearts. These are always lavishly decorated and sometimes even contain a mirror baked into the dough. Such hearts were given by boys to their loved ones, and in the past, mirrors were not as common as they are now so they were highly prized. That is at least the explanation I was given…

Ingredients: sweet leavened dough, your favorite toppings (plum jam, poppy seeds, walnuts, and farmer’s cheese are traditional)
Poppy seed / walnut filling: ground poppy seeds/walnuts, powdered sugar, milk
Tvaroh filling: farmer’s cheese, powdered sugar, raisins, egg
Prep time: 1 hour, plus few hours to the dough rise

Start by preparing the sweet leavened dough (click on the link for the recipe). While the dough is rising, prepare your favorite filling. Check out the poppy seed roll recipe for the poppy and walnut filling, and the tvaroh cake recipe for the farmer’s cheese filling. I also used plum jam (slivkový lekvár), which I found in a Russian grocery store under “plum butter”. You will also find steps for preparing these same fillings in the Christmas Eve cake recipe.

Once the dough is ready, transfer it onto a dusted board and roll out to about 4mm thick.

Then take a tall drinking glass and dust the rim with flour. Turn the glass upside down and use a twisting motion to cut out a circle. Then turn it the right side up and use the flat base to press out the edges. Or use a tablespoon, your fingers, or even a fancy kolache press. Spoon your favorite topping into the dimple.

Transfer the filled kolache onto a greased baking sheet. Brush the edges with egg yolk. Let rise while you preheat your oven the 400F. Bake for about 15 minutes until the edges turn light brown color. The poppy seed koláč went into the oven solo: my baking pan was filled with a nut roll, buchty and tvarožník. There was simply no room for it!

And that’s it, homemade koláče. Enjoy!

And for a slightly different version, checkout Alena’s recipe.

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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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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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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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Integral part of the Christmas table in many Slovak families are little pieces of sweet bread known as bobaľky, opekance or pupáčky. They are typically topped with poppies (s makom), but some people eat them with farmer’s cheese (tvaroh) or even cabbage (kapusta). In this recipe I show you how to prepare this delicious desert.

Opekance are typically eaten as the third “course”. First, there is the prípitok, a shot of liquor. Then, the lady of the house (gazdina) passes around Christmas wafers (oblátky) with garlic (cesnak) and honey (med). Then come opekance followed by soup and the main meal. While garlic and honey are supposed to bring the person good health, poppies symbolize wealth. There is supposedly even a tradition which involves tossing them on the ceiling, but this is not something I am familiar with.

Although opekance are very traditional, they were not prepared in my family. I don’t remember ever having them while growing up. This is a shame, because they are delicious! So when I first decided to make them, I was not quite sure how they ought to taste. I found several recipes online, with some of them saying bobaľky should be baked few days ahead of time, and then allowed to completely dry up. They are then soaked in hot water until soft. This is the method I tried, and my first attempt ended up in a disaster. I left them in the water way too long, and they ended up soggy.

The good news is, none of this is necessary if you just want to prepare a tasty treat, and not stockpile them for winter. You prepare opekance from the same sweet leavened dough that is used for buchty or makovník. However (I have not tried this yet), I think you could get by just using few days old white bread, or bread rolls. Finally, you will need ground poppy seeds. You can find poppy seeds in most grocery stores, but finding a grinder is bit more complicated. However, most grocery stores sell poppy seed pie filling in the baking isle. You can use this instead, but the taste will be little different. The filling (at least the Solo brand I buy) tastes more like corn syrup than poppies.

Cutout a piece of dough (cesto) about the size of your palm and roll it into a cylinder about 3/4 inch thick. Using a knife or a similar circular dough cutting tool, cut slices about 1/4 inch thick. Place them onto a baking sheet (with the cut face down) and let rise for about 10 minutes. Preheat your oven.

Bake for about 15 minutes until they get golden brown. They’ll be just like freshly-baked sweet bread: crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Then combine, in a pot, ground poppy seeds (mletý mak), powdered sugar (práškový cukor), butter (masľo) and a bit milk (mlieko). Bring to boil and pour over the bread.

Mix together and enjoy. They were delicious!

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