Croats love their dough. We eat bread every day and dough cakes are a part of our everyday life. We like it sweet, salty, with vegetables, jam, and meat in any way we can. Bakeries are everywhere, almost every village has one, and when we don’t buy bread we bake. Usually, I avoid making too many cakes and bakes during the week, but on Sunday, I usually make something sweet. Lately, I like to bake old recipes but in a way that we prefer.

“Buhtle” are one of the Croatian favorite buns. Although they originated from Austria, we love them and often eat them. This sweet yeast dough is filled with many different fillings, but the most popular ones are jam and chocolate. “The buhtle” are quite big so this Sunday, instead of making the original ones I decided to make mini buhtle. The tiny ones have less dough and more filling, which is precisely how we like them.

Recipe

• 700gr/24.6oz all-purpose flour(type 550)
• 1 package of dry yeast (7gr/0.24oz)
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 125gr/4.4oz margarine or butter
• 250ml/8.4oz of milk

Knead the dough using dry ingredients, and then add the eggs, butter, and milk. Once the dough is done leave it to rest for a couple of hours or overnight.

I use dry yeast in all my recipes and prefer it because I can prepare my dough in the evening and leave it to rise slowly during the night without the worry of the dough turning sour or overrising. If the dough starts to rise too fast, I just place it in the refrigerator and take it out in the morning. I leave it for an hour at room temperature and it is ready for use.

Kneading and filling

Once the dough has risen, it is time to make the buns. I make the buns the easiest possible away. I roll the dough into a thin sheet and cut it into pieces with a pizza cutter.

The already cut pieces are then filled with filling and sealed and rolled into a small ball. When making chocolate filling I just cut the chocolate into pieces and roll the dough around the chocolate. And when making the jam version, I roll the squares with a rolling pin first, then add the jam, make a small pouch and then roll them into a ball. This way the filling is trapped in the middle.

Once the buns are done, place them on the baking tray and leave them at least 30 minutes to rise again.

Baking

Baking is simple. Preheat the oven to 180°C/356°F and place the buns inside. After 10 minutes cover the top of the buns with baking paper and bake another 20 minutes. The baking paper will stop the buns from overbaking at the top. Once the buns are baked, take them out of the tray, roll them into a big tablecloth, and leave them to cool down inside the cloth. This way the buns will be extra soft.

“Buhtle” are the best when eaten warm with a glass of milk, coffee, or tea. They are perfect after lunch or as a sweet breakfast. The chocolate will harden once the buns get cold, but you can warm the buns for 10 seconds in the microwave, and they will be perfect again.