Crescent Rolls of Saint Martin

Here we have a pastry that is traditionally prepared in the Czech Republic during November when we celebrate the day of Saint Martin. His feats is on 11th November, the day when 80 years old Christian was buried. Crescent rolls of Saint Martin are usually prepared from yeast dough but I have chosen different recipe that uses curd cheese (or ricotta). They are equally soft and smooth and preparation takes less time. You can choose the filling that you prefer more – from plum jam, minced walnuts and hazel nut or poppy seeds.

dough:
440 g flour
1 raising powder
250 g curd cheese or ricotta or czech tvaroh
1 egg
7 spoons of water
7 spoons of melted butter
1 egg white
powdered sugar

poppy seed filling:
300 g ground poppy seeds
100 g sugar
250 ml milk
2 spoons of butter
1 spoon of honey

First prepare the filling. In the small casserole combine ground oily poppy seeds, milk and butter. Heat it up and cook on mild fire for about 5 minutes. Then add honey and sugar. Mix well and let it cool down.
In a large bowl mix flour and raising powder. Add curd cheese (ricotta or tvaroh), 1 egg, water and tepid melted butter. Knead well to have a compact smooth dough. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts. On floured surface roll each small part into flat circle and divide it further into 4 quarters that would have shape of triangles. With a spoon put the poppy seed filling on the wide edge of the triangle and then carefully roll the dough from its wider part toward sharp end. Move the crescent rolls on the tray lined with baking paper. Cover the rolls with clean kitchen cloth and leave for 30 minutes to grow. After that remove the cloth and grease the rolls with whisk egg white. Bake tin preheat oven at 170°C until the edges start to turn golden brown. When the crescent rolls get cold dust them with powdered sugar. Bon appétit!

Poppy seed cake (makovec)

In the Czech Republic, compared to many western European countries, you can buy poppy seeds in any supermarket and they are often used as an ingredient in many tasty foods. Poppy seed are highly nutritious and contain oil with delicious aroma, therefore they have culinary use as decorative garnish, spice or thickener especially in baked goods and deserts. Poppy seeds have long been used as a folk remedy to aid sleeping, promote fertility and wealth, and even to provide supposed magical powers of invisibility. Well, the magical powers of poppy are not used in cuisine but it has been proved that poppy seeds can really help with diarrhea, abdominal pain, cough, and insomnia. My Slovakian grannie used to warm up a cup of milk with little bit of honey and poppy seeds to help when somebody could not fall asleep. Moreover, in central Europe we have lot of recipes for delicious cakes and breads containing poppy seeds. In countries of former Austro-Hungarian Empire it is very popular to serve sweet nut roll filled with poppy seed paste. It is called makovec in Czech, makovnik in Slovak, makowiec in Polish or Mohnstollen in German and you can try to prepare it according to following recipe 🙂

Dough
300 g flour
150 ml milk
1 egg
4 soupspoons of icing sugar
50 g unsalted butter
20 g fresh yeast
pitch of salt

Filing
200 g ground poppy seeds
150 g icing sugar
130 ml milk

yolk of 1 egg for brushing the surface of the roll

First warm up the milk, so it does not get too hot and you can still touch it, dissolve 2 spoons of sugar, 2 spoons of flour and all the yeast in it. Let it stay until the volume of yeast mixture doubles. Meanwhile in a large bowl combine the rest of the sugar and flour with one egg and melted but not hot butter, then add yeast mixture and knead well to have sticky thick dough. Form a ball from it, sprinkle with little bit of flour and cover the bowl with clear dish towel. Keep the dough in a warm place to let it grow for approximately 1 hour. Then move the dough onto well floured work surface and roll it into thin rectangle shape layer. In the separate bowl mix ground poppy seeds, icing sugar and milk. Then spread this mixture on the surface of the rolled dough and carefully roll it up. Move the whole roll on the baking tin with baking paper. Grease the surface of the roll with whisked egg, that gives it a nice shine. Then perforate the roll on few places with a fork to avoid cracks during baking. Finally put in the pre-heated oven on 170°C, bake for about 20 min and then lower the temperature to 120°C and continue baking for 10 more minutes until the surface start to turn golden brown. When the cake is ready and cold sprinkle it with icing sugar for decoration. Bon appetite!

Peach and ricotta tart

Here is another recipe for fruit cake that can be prepared anytime during the year. Not too sweet, not too fat and common in many Czech families.

Sweet pastry

4 yolks
1 glass of icing sugar
1/2 glass of vegetable oil
2 glasses of flour
1 baking powder
½ glass of milk
meringue from 4 egg whites
zest from one lemon
canned peaches cut to slices

Ricotta filling

In a bowl simply mix well 500 g of ricotta (czech tvaroh) with 2 yolks, 100 g of vanilla sugar, 1 glass of milk and mix well until sugar gets dissolved. The slowly add meringue from 2 egg whites.

As usual start the preparation of dough by mixing egg yolks with sugar and slowly add oil. Add sieved flour, baking powder and milk. To make the dough smoother and sponge softer, prepare meringue from yolk eggs and mix it gently into dough. Then pour the dough onto baking tray that has been greased with butter and sprinkled by flour. Decorate the surface of the cake with ricotta filling and on the top put slices of peaches. Bake for about 20 min at 170oC in a pre-heated oven, then decrease the temperature to 140oC and continue baking for 20 more minutes. Let it cool down and serve. Bon appétit!

Cheesy bites for champagne toast

Just before New Year’s Eve I would like to present you one exception between all the sweet deserts on this website. This savoury recipe is perfect to accompany champagne, beer, good dry wine during long night out with your friends. And it is so easy to prepare!

250 g margarine
250 g plain flour
250 g blue cheese
1 whole egg

For decoration:
Mixture of one yolk and 2 tea spoon of milk
Whole cumin, sweet paprika, walnuts, almonds

Combine all ingredients in good powerful food processor and mix well until you get smooth dough and you cannot feel big pieces of blue cheese or margarine. It is not necessary to leave the dough to rest in the fridge. As far as the dough has good consistency, you can directly start to roll it out and cut your favourite shapes. Place them on the baking tray lined with baking paper. In the small bowl whip egg yolk with small volume of milk, smear surface of all biscuits and decorate them with walnuts, with whole cumin, sweet paprika or almond. Bake in preheated oven at 160oC for about 10 min. Happy New Year and cheers!

Cherry-ricotta cake (Třešňovo-tvarohová bublanina)

This desert is typical for summer months when cherry trees are full of juicy red cherries and the sky is blue and sun warms up your skin. This recipe could be use for any other fruits, especially summer berries are delicious in combination with light sweet sponge and creamy ricotta. There is nothing better than to enjoy summer sunshine with piece of fruity “bublanina” and refreshing lemonade.

6 yolks
200 g caster sugar
1/2 glass of water
1/2 glass of vegetable oil
240 g baking flour
1 baking powder
thick meringue from 6 egg whites
250 g ricotta cheese
80 g icing sugar
one yolk
zest from one lemon
1/4 kg cherries
icing sugar sprinkle final cake

Riccota filling (tvarohová náplň)

In a bowl simply mix well 250 g of ricotta (czech tvaroh) with one yolk, 80 g of icing sugar, zest from one lemon and mix well until sugar gets dissolved. Use directly for decorating of store some hours in cold.

The preparation is very easy and will not take much of your time. As usual you start by mixing egg yolks with sugar and water until all the sugar gets completely dissolved. Continue mixing while adding oil little by little. Then add flour and baking powder and prepare homogenous thick dough. To make the dough smoother and sponge more soft, prepare meringue from yolk eggs and mix it gently into dough. Then pour the dough onto baking tray that has been greased with butter and sprinkled by flour. Decorate the surface of the cake with ricotta filling and on the top put washed cherries. Bake for about 40 min at 180oC in a pre-heated oven. Let the cake to cool down, sprinkle it with sieved icing sugar and enjoy your relaxing sweet summer moment!

Vánočka – Czech Christmas Bread

Vánočka is one of the main symbols of czech traditional Christmas. Vánočka was baked in 18th century as a gift of craftsmen for their nobility. There are many variants, the most common has almonds and raisins but could be also flavored  with hazelnuts, anise or fennel. A coins used to be baked inside of Vánočka and it would bring good luck to a person who found it.
There is lot of symbolism in the shape of Vánočka. Here I prepare much simplified version with only 2 layers each consists of 3-strand braid. Originally there were 3 layers. One made of 4 strands that symbolize earth, sun, water and air. The second layer consists of 3 strands that represent wisdom, will and sense and finally the top layer with only two strands that stand for knowledge and love. Baking the Vánočka was always considered as art that in the past involved lot of rituals and rather weird rules. As an example – woman baking Vánočka could have been dressed only in white, with white apron and hat. She could not speak during baking and while the dough was rising she had to keep jumping up and down to make the dough rise better. Burned and cracked Vánočka would then bring bad luck to the house.
I believe you would have success with this recipe (with no need to jump, really) and the aroma of Christmas would beautifully spread out through your house. Enjoy it!

500 g plain flour
100 g butter
80 g sugar
250 ml milk
50 g fresh yeast
3 egg yolks
50 g dark raisins
40 g sliced almonds
zest of one big lemon
pitch of salt
1 beaten egg to brush surface of Vánočka at the end
icing sugar and 2 tablespoons of sliced almonds to sprinkle Vánočka  at the end

Separate milk half and half into two small cooking pots. In one of them prepare start yeast culture – crumble the fresh yeast into warm milk (should not be hotter then 37oC!), add one tea spoon of sugar, pitch of salt and one large spoon of flour. Stir a bit and leave to rise in a warm place until yeast will at least double the volume.  Meanwhile warm up milk and butter in the second pot until butter gets completely dissolved. Then take it off the heat and add to big bowl with flour, rest of the sugar, 3 egg yolks, lemon zest, sliced almonds  and raisins. Finally add yeast and mix well. Harder you work the mass, better it will rise. When the dough is smooth and sticky, make a round loaf of it, dust with flour and leave it in the bowl covered with clean dish towel. Let it rise in a warm place for 2 hours until the dough doubles its volume.
Move the dough onto lightly floured board. Divide into 3 large pieces and 3 smaller pieces. Roll each piece into a strand about 40 cm long. On the tray with baking sheet braid 3 large pieces loosely and pitch ends together. Then braid 3 thinner pieces as and place them carefully on the top of large braid tucking the ends underneath.  Cover with a cloth and let rise half an hour more in a warm place.
Heat oven to 170oC. Brush Vánočka with beaten egg and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Finally, puncture Vánočka at both ends and in the middle with wooden skewers to prevent warping of the dough on one side during baking.  Bake 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 150oC and bake 20 min longer. Let cool completely before slicing. Dust with icing sugar if desired.

Buchty (Czech sweet filled buns)

This is one of the most traditional pastries of czech cuisine. Nothing really snob or posh, rather typical for working class people from country. However the delicate aroma of freshly baked tray of these buns and their delicious taste can make anybody addicted to them. Existence of this pastry is dated to 17th century when the effect of growing fermenting yeast was described and first used in a kitchen. At those times buchty were mainly cooked in a hot water instead of being baked in an oven as they are nowadays. Also before they were more often salty or served with melted butter on the top. Now when your dough grows well and you cut it in small squares, you fill them with sweet filling (like fruit marmalade, sweet curd cheese, sweet filling from poppy seeds or from nuts, thick plum jam, raisins soaked in rum or cooked apples with cinnamon), close them in a shape of small balls and bake them.

100 g margarine
100 g icing sugar
2 yolks
500 g flour
1/2 l milk
30 g fresh yeast
2 teaspoons of rum
lemon zest
your favorite filling: fruit marmalade, sweet curd cheese, sweet filling from poppy seeds or from nuts, thick plum jam, raisins soaked in rum or cooked apples with cinnamon
2 table spoons of vegetable oil for brushing the buns
icing sugar for dusting

In electric mixer whisk two yolks, sugar, rum and margarine until you get smooth cream. Combine it with flour and continue kneading manually. Then prepare start culture of yeast – in the warm (but not hot) milk crumble the yeast and one or two teaspoons of sugar. Stir up and let the yeast grow for about 5-10 minutes. When the volume doubles, mix it gently with the dough. Now knead well the dough until it is completely homogenous and a bit sticky. Shape the dough into ball, place it in a large bowl, sprinkle its surface with a bit of flour, and cover with clean dish towel. Let the dough grow in a worm place for about 1 hour until it at least double the size. Move the dough onto well floured work surface. Roll it until it is about 0.4 cm tall. Cut the dough into squares (~ 8 x 8 cm), make a shallow hole in the middle of each square and place a teaspoon of your favorite filling in the centre of the square. Then carefully fold and close each buchta in a way that filling would not leak out. Prepare baking tray, grease it with margarine and dust it with flour. Place buns next to each other in the rows on the tray, brush them with vegetable oil, cover with dish towel and let them rest for additional 20 min. Then finally bake in pre-heated oven for 20 minutes at 200oC. Remove from the oven when the surface gets golden-brown color, dust with icing sugar and enjoy!

Bábovka (Marble cake)

Mixing the light and chocolate batters creates the wonderful marbled effect that gives name to this simple sponge cake. The recipe I present here is for “bábovka”, a streaked and mottled cake made in a specific form with hole in the centre. This way tt is traditionally baked in the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and southern Germany. It has though many similar variants like italian “Panettone” or french “Baba au rhum”.
I love it because it is so simple, recalls my memories to my parent’s house and because while you bake it it brings to your house this beautifully sweet smell and feeling of warm homy atmosphere. And I should not forget to mention that “bábovka” was my first baking experience ever, at the age of 12…and after this “bábovka” adventure baking turned into big passion of mine.

RECIPE:

4 eggs
180 g caster sugar
4 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
1 dl of oil
2 dl milk
380 g flour
1.5 teaspoons of raising powder
zest from one bigger lemon
1 spoon of dark rum
handful of raisins
4 teaspoons of cacao powder
icing sugar

Fist whip well sugar and eggs until smooth and you do not feel crystals of sugar. Slowly add oil while mixing continuously. Then add flour, milk and raising powder and mix well to get rid of lumps. Finally grate a zest from a lemon, add rum and raisins to flavor your cake (or you prefer to use a zest from orange or chocolate sprinkles or walnuts).
Now you grease a baking tin with butter, dust it well with the flour and pour one half of the prepared dough into the tin. The second half of the dough leave in the bowl and stir the cocoa powder in it. Then you pour dark cacao dough over the first part of the batter in the tin. Bake in preheated oven for about an hour at 180oC. When the surface of the your cake starts to turn golden-brown, decrease the temperature to 150oC. Bake until an inserted wooden pick comes out dry and clean. Then leave the cake to cool and dust it with icing sugar before serving.