Vanilla-apricot jam buns (Buchteln)
We’re getting our Austria on with these buns; one of us is contemplating a visit and the wish-list itinerary is quickly filling up with Schloss Schönbrunn, sausage, strudel, Strauss, the Christmas Markets at Spittelberg, sachertorte, the Secession Building, and everything to do with Sisi. And schnitzel. All the ’S’ things, basically. (Actually, the way our Vienna stint is shaping up, it’s going to be nothing more than a sweets crawl with a few Klimts, Lipizzaner horses, Boy Sopranos and Freud haunts jammed between cake stops). We didn’t know about buchteln, but as avowed fans of sweet, butter-enriched buns and of apricot jam, the idea of them baked together had us fizzing – we are in love with this Viennese concept.
To prime our digestive parts we thought we’d give buchteln a dry run at home, and found them fabulous. Buchteln means ‘little pillows’ or ‘buns’, and while the word coming from the old Bavarian dialect, they’re a feature of Czech and Bavarian cuisine too. Buchteln can be filled with plum or rosehip jam instead of apricot, and sometimes a poppy seed mixture or curd cheese are used. We love how you can bake them straight in a frypan (we used our trusty MAKO blackened carbon steel sear pan), and the way they moosh together in the oven. (If you don’t have a well-seasoned carbon steel or cast iron pan, use a 30cm round baking dish and not a stainless steel or pan with a man-made non-stick surface).
To serve these, just dust them with icing sugar (SO pretty!), then break them apart while still warm. In Vienna, they often serve them with vanilla custard, apparently, but we’ll report back. They’re tender, gorgeously fragranced with vanilla, with that awesome spurt of sweet jam inside. Wunderbar. The recipe is straightforward but just watch when you fill your buns that you don’t get any jam around the edges or they will be impossible to seal closed. Maybe form the dough into a 1cm bigger circle than you really need, so you have lots of real estate for enclosing the jam. But honestly, you’ll get the gist. Even if you bugger a few up, they’ll taste great.
MAKES 15
250ml (1 cup) milk
2½ tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
125g softened butter, chopped, plus extra, for greasing
600g (4 cups) plain flour, approximately
110g (½ cup) caster sugar
3 tsp instant dried yeast
1 tsp salt
240g apricot jam, approximately
1 large egg yolk, for glazing
Icing sugar, for dusting
Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it is lukewarm. Add the vanilla and eggs, then use a fork to combine well. Add the butter, then stand until the butter is almost melted.
Place the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the milk mixture, then using the dough hook, mix on a medium speed until everything is combined well and a soft dough forms, adding a little extra flour if it seems too wet. Continue kneading with the dough hook for another 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and stand in a draft-free place for 1 hour 20 minutes or until doubled in size.
Grease the base and side of a 30cm frying pan or round baking dish well with butter.
Use your fist to deflate the dough, then turn it out onto a work surface. Divide it into 15 even-sized pieces. Working with one piece at a time, use your hand to press each out into a circle about 10cm across. Place a teaspoonful of jam in the centre, then bring the edges together to form a rough ball, Turn the stuffed dough over so the seam side is down, then use your hand to roll it into an even, tight ball. Repeat with the remaining dough and jam, placing the balls into the greased pan as you go and leaving a little space between each one to allow for spreading.
Combine the egg yolk and 2 tsp of water in a small bowl, then brush the mixture over the tops of the buns. Loosely cover the pan with a slightly damp tea towel, then stand for about 40 minutes or until risen. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the buns for 30-35 minutes or until puffy and golden, then cool in the pan. Dust lightly with icing sugar, then serve.
