Buchty
Czech baked yeast buns filled with plum povidla, baked snugly together and dusted with sugar
Buchty are the soft, pillowy yeast buns that Czech grandmothers bake in a roasting tin on Saturday, filled with povidla (plum butter), jam or sweet quark and packed so close that they rise into each other and have to be torn apart. They are the Czech answer to a cinnamon bun: eaten warm with milky coffee, packed for train journeys and school trips, and famous from the fairy tale in which the hero sets off with a bag of his mother's buchty. Unlike open koláče, the filling is sealed inside. Chef's tip: brush the sides of each bun with melted butter before you pack them in, so they pull apart cleanly with soft, shiny walls.
- Total time
- 70 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 16
Ingredients
For the dough
For filling and finishing
Method
0/6 doneStep 1: Mix 1 ⅛ lb plain flour, ¼ oz fast-action dried yeast, 2 ⅛ oz caster sugar and ½ tsp salt. Add 1 cup whole milk, 1 egg and 2 ⅛ oz butter and knead for 8–10 minutes until smooth, elastic and barely sticky. Cover and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour until doubled.
70 minStep 2: Brush a 25 × 30 cm baking tin with a little 2 ⅛ oz butter.
Step 3: Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Flatten each into a 10 cm round, put a heaped teaspoon of 9 oz povidla, plum butter or thick jam in the middle and bring the edges up over the filling, pinching well to seal. A common mistake is overfilling, so the seams split and the filling burns on the tin.
Step 4: Dip the sides of each bun in the melted butter and set it seam-side down in the tin, close together in rows. Brush the tops with more butter, cover and leave for 30 minutes until puffy and touching.
30 minStep 5: Bake at 350°F (325°F fan) for 25–30 minutes until deep golden on top and a bun in the middle sounds hollow when tapped underneath.
28 minStep 6: Brush with the last of the butter while hot, cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then dust thickly with 2 tbsp icing sugar and tear apart to serve.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 230 kcal
- Protein
- 5 g
- Carbs
- 37 g
- Fat
- 8 g
- Fibre
- 1 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does buchty take?
- About 70 minutes in total: 40 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 16 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Can I make it ahead?
- Yes. It keeps well, so you can cook it earlier in the day or the day before and reheat it.
- What can I use instead of plain flour?
- Self-raising flour, same amount (then leave out the baking powder).
- What can I use instead of fast-action dried yeast?
- Fresh yeast, three times the weight.
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