A beautiful smell of home. Buchteln, Buchty or sweet sugar rolls. Nicely risen yeast dough, served with Applemus, vanilla sauce or pears. In the countries I come from they are traditionally filled with a mixture from poppy, plum marmalade or quark with raisins. I like them generously sprinkled with icing sugar. Just like that, the fresher, the tastier – Sugar Buchteln.
The secret of the best taste is well-kneaded and risen dough and the lard. Of course, you can substitute the lard with a good butter, however, the taste is different. The lard gives the extra, the juiciness, the crispiness.
The rule of baking is to preheat the oven well, thereafter, reduce the temperature, so they get beautifully shocked inside and baked into perfection. Trust me!
I normally eat this kind of bread for breakfast. However, I just couldn’t resist and eat them straight away from the oven. The smell reminds me my childhood when my grandmother used to make them upon our request, which means very often. Let them cool down a bit and tear apart. So yummy!
Sugar Buchteln are suitable for kids 2 plus, because of a possible egg white intolerance. They make wonderful breakfast or an afternoon snack with milk.
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + 1,5 hour of rising the dough
Shopping List
20g of fresh yeast
1 cup of lukewarm milk
1 teaspoon + 120g of raw sugar
400g of universal flour, sifted
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
A pinch of sea salt
50 g butter, melted
1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk
3 knobs of lard/butter
Instructions
First, activate the yeast. In a coffee mug pour lukewarm milk. Sprinkle with yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Mix.
Sprinkle with some flour and let it rise in a warm place for about 15 minutes until it gets bubbly. Meanwhile, in a large and wide mixing bowl place sugar, flour, lemon zest, salt, butter and eggs.
Next, make a well in the middle and add the yeast with little bit of milk.
Start kneading the dough with a wooden spatula and add milk accordingly. Beat the air out of the dough and knead it into a smooth, elastic and sticky texture, for about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with some flour and cover with a clean cloth. Let it double its size for about 1,5 hour in a warm place. Knead twice in between.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Prepare your working board and mold the dough. Sieve with the flour and roll out with hands into a long snake, thick around 5 cm. If the dough gets too long, you can divide it into 2 parts.
Cut every 2 cm and start rolling balls. Use a bit of flour and create a small ball. Mold the balls into greased baking tray. I made 15 balls for the tray of 35×25 cm (14×10 inch). Place them nicely next to each other.
Cover with the cloth and let them rise in a warm place for 10 more minutes.
Melt the lard and brush them generously over the tops and sides of Buchteln. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes until they are golden on the top and baked through in the middle.
Once they are ready, brush them again with lard and let them cool down on a rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with homemade marmalades or Apfelmus. Enjoy with a cup of hot chocolate or coffee.
Makes 15 medium Buchteln.
