Sweet Yeast Buns – Journey From A Polish Kitchen

Yeast Buns with Polish Custard & Dark Fruit

This is a variation on my post Kołaczyki which means little wheels from the word koła which means wheels.

This uses my favourite Basic sweet yeast dough.

The buns are filled with budyń – Polish custard and dark forest fruits.

I used frozen blackberries.

A few reminders when using yeast in baking

Learn to be patient – you cannot control the timings exactly with yeast, it depends on the temperature of the room and the flour used and other variables.
Do yeast baking on a day you are planning to be in & have other things to do, but ones you can break off from when needed.
Heat the milk so it is at body temperature – use the finger test – too hot and you will kill the yeast – too cold is okay – it will just take longer.
Older Polish recipes use fresh yeast.
I have used dried yeast and have had very good results.

Ingredients – for the dough

Leaven – Starter

100g plain flour
15g dried yeast
125ml milk

Rest of ingredients

3 egg yolks
60g sugar
50g melted butter or block margarine
400g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2-3 drops of vanilla essence
125ml milk

Method

Warm the milk slightly – so it is just warm to the touch – and add the yeast and mix together.
Put the flour in to a bowl and add the milk and yeast mix it all together and leave it covered until it is double in size.
*
Melt the butter and leave it to cool.
*
Whisk the yolks and sugar until they are pale and fluffy.
*
Grease 2 baking sheets – You should get around 14 buns. – invite people round!
I think these are best on the day they are made – start early in the morning.
Into a large bowl put: the flour and the salt, the yeast starter, the yolk mixture, the zest of a lemon, the vanilla essence and the milk.
Mix it all together so that you get a soft dough that comes away from the side of the bowl – you do not have to knead it.
*
Then work in the melted butter (this is the hardest part) until it is all incorporated and you have a uniform shiny dough.
Cover the dough with a cloth and leave this to rise until it is double in size.

*
Onto a floured surface place the dough and form it into a rectangle and then roll this out until it is around 2cm thick.
Using a 8cm diameter cutter cut out circles of dough and place them on the greased baking sheets, leaving room for the dough to rise.
Gather together the left over dough and repeat the process.

*
Cover the trays and leave the circles to rise and double in size.
Pre heat the oven to GM5 – 190ºC
Use a clean napkin or tea towel and cover the base of a tumbler.
Use the covered tumbler and press down on the centre of each circle to form an indentation into which you will put the filling.
*
Add the budyń to each bun.
Top with the fruit.
Bake for 20-25 minutes
Can dust with icing sugar

INGREDIENTS for budyń
500ml of milk (full fat is best)
1 tablespoon of butter
3 tablespoons of granulated sugar
2-3 drops of vanilla essence or 2 bay leaves (fresh are nice if you have then)
3 tablespoons of potato starch(or you can use cornflour)
3 egg yolks
METHOD
Put 300ml of the milk into a saucepan.
Add the butter, sugar and the vanilla or the bay leaves.
Heat gently till the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved.
Stirring all the time.
Bring this to the boil for a few seconds then take of the heat.
*
Blend the rest of the milk with the egg yolks and potato flour.
Add some of the boiled milk mixture and stir well.
Add this to the rest of the boiled milk mixture and stir well.
Heat gently, stirring all the time until the mixture thickens.
Leave to cool completely before using.

INGREDIENT for fruit

Around 250g of forest fruits – they can be frozen and left to defrost.
1 – 2 tablespoon of granulated sugar – to taste.
1 tablespoonful of water.

Best on day of baking!

Mincemeat Yeast Buns

I have been doing a lot of yeast baking recently and posted recipes for cinnamon buns and for poppy seed yeast buns, which were very soft and fluffy.

I still had a little mincemeat left over from Christmas and thought why not use some of this. The resulting buns are reminiscent of English Chelsea Buns.

This English fruit mix would be recognised in Poland as bakalie -Balkan mix.

The dough is soft and rather hard to handle. After the first rising the dough is NOT knocked back but just used as it is to make a rectangular shape. Putting the buns into a deep foil lined roasting tin helps to let them rise into shape.

Ingredients

250g strong flour
250g plain flour
Half a tablespoon of dried yeast
50g butter
50g granulated sugar
1 egg
Around 330ml milk
*
Several tablespoons of mincemeat

Method

Line a roasting tin with foil taking it all up the sides.
Warm a little of the milk and add the yeast.
Leave for around 10 minutes.
Mix the flours together.
Rub the butter into the flour – like breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar.
Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture.
Add the beaten egg
Slowly add the milk – you might not need all of it.
Use a knife first to start to bring everything together
Then use your hands and form a soft dough ball.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for at least 5 minutes – even up to 10 minutes.
Place the dough into a bowl, cover (a disposable shower cap is good) and leave to rise until the dough has doubled in size.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board.
DO NOT KNOCK BACK THE DOUGH.
Using you fingers gently flatten and shape the dough into a rectangle.
Cover the dough with the mincemeat.
Roll into a log.
Slice into thick pieces.
Place the pieces into the tin.
Cover and leave to rise.
Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200°C
Once all the pieces are touching put in the hot oven.
Bake for around 20 mins – check and maybe cover after 15mins.
Drizzle with icing made with lemon juice and icing sugar or just dust with icing sugar
Leave to cool in the tin on a cake grid.

Poppy Seed Yeast Buns

I recently posted a recipe for cinnamon buns, which were very soft and fluffy.

I thought – Why not use the traditional sweet Polish poppy seed mixture instead of the cinnamon mixture? – and so I did.

A mixture of strong and plain flours is used making the dough softer and a little harder to handle. After the first rising the dough is NOT knocked back, just used as it is to make a rectangular shape. Putting the buns into a deep foil lined roasting tin helps to let them rise into shape.

Ingredients – Dough

250g strong flour
250g plain flour
Half a tablespoon of dried yeast
50g butter
50g granulated sugar
1 egg
Around 330ml milk

Method

Line a roasting tin with foil taking it all up the sides.
Warm a little of the milk and add the yeast.
Leave for around 10 minutes.
Mix the flours together.
Rub the butter into the flour – like breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar.
Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture.
Add the beaten egg.
Slowly add the milk – you might not need all of it.
Use a knife first to start to bring everything together
Then use your hands and form a soft dough ball.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for at least 5 minutes – even up to 10 minutes.
Place the dough into a bowl, cover (a disposable shower cap is good) and leave to rise until the dough has doubled in size.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board.
DO NOT KNOCK BACK THE DOUGH.
Using you fingers gently flatten and shape the dough into a rectangle.
Cover the dough with the poppy seed mixture.
Roll into a log.
Slice into thick pieces.
Place the pieces into the tin.
Cover and leave to rise.
Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200°C
Once all the pieces are touching put in the hot oven.
Bake for around 20 mins – check and maybe cover after 15mins.
Drizzle some icing made from lemon juice and icing sugar over these or just dust with icing sugar.
Leave to cool in the tin on a cake grid.

Ingredients – Poppy seed mix

180ml of milk (full fat or semi)
Around 100ml of runny honey (extra may be needed)
120g of poppy seeds *
50g of raisins
Strong Earl Grey tea
Grated zest of 1 lemon
*
* You can grind the poppy seeds – I used a little electric grinder.

Method

Make some strong Earl Grey tea.
Put the raisins in a small bowl and cover them with the hot tea and leave till they go cold.
Into a small saucepan put the poppy seeds and the milk.
Bring to the boil then lower the heat.
Simmer gently for around 20 minutes, stirring constantly.
Take care not to let the mixture burn.
Add the honey and continue heating and stirring.
Drain the raisins and add them to the mixture and mix them in.
Keep stirring and try and drive off any liquid left.
Taste for sweetness – you may want to add more honey.
Leave to go completely cold before using.
Add the grated lemon rind.
*
If this is too much filling – you can always freeze some.

Cinnamon Fruit Yeast Buns

These bułeczki – little yeast buns – are based on an English recipe for hot cross buns, which are made for Good Friday.

I love the addition of a chopped eating apple and grated orange rind.

These take most of the day to make – best done on a day you are in with other things to do in between.

Ingredients

330ml of milk (might need a little more)
50g butter
500g strong bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
75g caster sugar
7g sachet of dried yeast
1 egg beaten
75g sultanas
50g mixed peel
Grated rind of an orange
1 eating apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1 + 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
*
For the glaze
2 tablespoons of apricot jam

Method

Bring the milk to the boil.
Add the butter and leave till hand-warm.
Put the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a bowl.
Make a well in the centre, add the milk and butter and then the egg.
Mix with a wooden spoon.
Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a sticky dough.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for around 5 minutes.
Put the dough into an oiled bowl
Cover with a shower cap (very useful these!) or cloth.
Leave to rise until doubled in size.
*
In a bowl mix together the sultanas, mixed peel, orange rind, apple and cinnamon.
Add this mixture to the risen dough and knead until it is all well distributed.
Cover again and leave to rise until doubled in size.
*
Cover a large baking tray with greaseproof.
Divide the dough into 15 even pieces.
Roll each piece into a smooth ball on a lightly floured surface.
Arrange the balls on the baking tray with some room for expansion.
Cover loosely with a cloth and leave to prove – for around one hour.
*
Preheat the oven to GM7 – 220°C.
Bake for around 20 minutes until the buns are golden brown.
*
Gently heat the apricot jam in a small saucepan.
Brush the jam over the tops of the small buns.

Delicious on their own or buttered!

Rogaliki – Filled

Rogaliki – Crescent Rolls

Updated 11 January 2024.

Rogaliki means little horns and these rolls are made into a crescent shape which look like horns.

This amount of dough makes 16 rolls and you will need 2 greased baking sheets.

Many Polish yeast recipes make a rozczyn – a leaven in the form of a batter or starter to begin with – I have liked using this method very much.

Older Polish recipes use fresh yeast. I tend to use dried yeast and had very good results. I like using the little measured out sealed packets of dried yeast, which are sufficient for up to 500g of flour and are equivalent to 25g of fresh yeast.

I have two earlier post:

Bułeczki – bread ro lls

Here I made a bread roll version of rogaliki.

Kołaczyki – little wheels

Here I made a Basic sweet yeast dough – version 2.

Now this could be Basic sweet yeast dough version 3 – I keep refining the recipe and this now has to be the very best yet!

Ingredients

Leaven – Starter

150g plain flour
200ml warm milk
4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 pkt of dried yeast (= 1 tablespoon)

Rest of Ingredients

300g plain flour
100g butter
2 yolks
*
a little more milk might be needed
Egg white to glaze
Icing sugar to dust

Method

Mix the yeast and sugar into the hand hot milk.
Put the 150g of flour into a bowl and mix in the milk mixture until it is like double cream.
Cover the bowl and leave it to rise.
*
Rub the butter into the 300g of flour until it is like breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolks and the yeast starter.
Mix till you get a soft dough – you might need to add a tablespoon or so of milk – depends on the flour.
Knead the dough till you have a nice smooth ball.
Leave in a bowl, covered, to rise and double in size.
*
Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C
Grease two baking sheets.
*
Knead the risen dough lightly for a few minutes.
Divide the dough into two.
Roll the dough out to make a circle/oval.
With a knife or pizza cutter divide the dough into 8 (nearly) triangles.
Place a teaspoon of filling at the fat end.
Roll up the triangle from the fat end to get the horn shape.
You can curve it slightly.
Place them on a baking sheet – as far apart as possible.
Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Brush the tops with egg white.
Cover loosely and leave for about 15 minutes.
Bake for around 14 – 15 minutes.
*
Leave to cool slightly and then dust with icing sugar.

The tiered cake stand is by Laura Ashley & the tea plates are Las Palmas by Aynsley from the 1960s.

Option

You can use half plain flour & half spelt flour – this also gives good results.

Fillings

You can use a whole range of fillings with the easiest to prepare being jam (though sometimes this is the hardest to keep in the pastry!). Traditional Poppy seed mix and sweet cheese mix as in many of my previous posts are often used.

Here are just a few new ones ….

Prune Filling

Make some very strong Earl Grey tea.
Chop up around 200g of pitted prunes.
Place the prunes into a bowl and cover with the warm tea.
Leave for a few hours to plump up the prunes.
Add the grated rind of a lemon.
Simmer the prunes gently.
Keep stirring & heating to drive off the any liquid – you want a thick pulp.
Leave to go cold completely before using.

Walnut Filling

Grind 100g of chopped walnuts.
Add the nuts to around 3 tablespoons of apricot jam.
Mix well together.

Ground Almond Filling

100g of ground almond.
Add the nuts to around 3 tablespoons of apricot jam.
Mix well together

Date Filling

Chop 200g of dried dates.
Place in a small saucepan and cover with water – you can add a little lemon juice as well.
Heat gently and stir.
Cook until you have a soft pulp.

….. and of course you can try many more ……

Bułeczki – Sweet Yeast Buns

Bułeczki – this word can cause a little confusion as it can mean – little white bread rolls or a more sweet yeast bun.

This recipe has been used to make round buns with a filling – it can be used for a variety of sweet buns – all of which are very popular in Poland.

A few reminders when using yeast in baking

Learn to be patient – you cannot control the timings exactly with yeast, it depends on the temperature of the room and the flour used and other variables.
Do yeast baking on a day you are planning to be in & have other things to do, but ones you can break off from when needed.
Heat the milk so it is at body temperature – use the finger test – too hot and you will kill the yeast – too cold is okay – it will just take longer.
An egg glaze often burns too quickly – I have found an egg white or egg white & water glaze gives a better result.

The older Polish recipes use fresh yeast. I have used dried yeast and had very good results. (I have not tried using easy bake yeast for this recipe).

Basic sweet dough recipe

Ingredients

Yeast starter

25g fresh yeast or 15g dried yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
250ml milk – warmed
Rest of dough
3 yolks
100g granulated sugar

*******

500g plain flour
2-3 drops of vanilla essence
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon of salt

******

60g of melted butter

******

Egg or egg white to glaze (whole egg tends to brown very quickly).

Fillings

Jam – I used strawberry jam and also blackcurrant jam (made by my friend in Leeds) and I think the more tart blackcurrant jam goes better with the semi-sweet dough.

Mincemeat – I used my own mincemeat which is from the recipe by Delia Smith but without the chopped almonds. This of course in one way is very English, but it would be recognised in Poland if described as bakalie – which is a mixture made of dried fruits (often with figs or dates), nuts and honey.

Method

Mix the yeast, sugar and warmed milk together and leave it till it doubles in size.

IMG_20160222_120503215

Whisk the yolks and sugar together until the mixture is pale and thick.
Put the flour into a large bowl, add the yeast starter, the yolks & sugar mix, vanilla essence, lemon zest and the salt.
Combine everything together and knead it together until the dough leaves the side of the bowl clean.
Add the melted butter and mix it in and then knead it well until you get a glossy smooth dough.
Place it back in the bowl and cover with a cloth and leave it until it doubles in size.
Grease 1 or 2 baking sheets to hold 16 buns.
Knead the dough again lightly, then cut in to half and half again and so on to give 16 pieces.
Roll each piece into a smooth ball, then flatten it and roll it out into a circle.
Put a small spoonful of filling onto each circle and then draw the edges of the dough circle together and pinch the dough to seal in the filling.