Ingredients
Dough
- 500 gplain flour
- 7 ginstant yeast
- 250 mlwarm milk
- 80 gsugar
- 80 gbutter, melted
- 2egg yolks
- 1 tspsalt
- zest of 1 lemon
Filling
- 300 gpowidl, thick plum butter
To finish
- 60 gbutter, melted
- icing sugar
- warm vanilla sauce
Directions
- Warm the milk to blood heat, whisk in the yeast with a spoonful of the sugar and leave it for 10 minutes until frothy.
- Mix it into the flour with the remaining sugar, the melted butter, egg yolks, salt and lemon zest, and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and silky.
- Cover and prove for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
- Divide into 12 pieces. Flatten each one, put a heaped teaspoon of powidl in the centre and pinch the dough firmly shut all the way around it.
- Seal them properly and set them seam side down. A badly sealed buchtel leaks its filling out and welds itself to the dish.
- Dip each bun in melted butter and pack them into a buttered baking dish in three rows of four, with their sides touching.
- The touching is the whole point of the dish: the sides stay pale and pull-apart soft while only the tops take colour, which is what makes a buchtel different from an ordinary bun.
- Prove for a further 30 minutes, until they have swelled to fill the dish completely.
- Bake at 180°C (355°F) for 30 to 35 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.
- Brush with the last of the melted butter and dust heavily with icing sugar.
- Serve warm, torn apart by hand rather than cut, with warm vanilla sauce poured over.
Technique
- Powidl is thick, slow-cooked, barely sweetened plum butter, not jam. Ordinary jam is far too loose and will run out through the seam.
- They came to Vienna from Bohemia and were sold late at night in the coffee houses. Café Hawelka still bakes them and still sells them after ten in the evening.
- Bake them the same day you eat them. They stale fast, though yesterday’s are excellent split and fried in butter.
Substitutions
- A very thick apricot jam or a prune purée, cooked down first until it holds its shape on a spoon.
- Ground poppy seed paste, which is the other traditional filling.
Variations
- Unfilled, baked plain and served swimming in vanilla sauce.
- With ground walnuts and honey.
- Wachauer Buchteln, made larger and baked in a wide shallow pan.
History
Sweet, yeasted buns, baked closely packed together in a pan so their sides touch and stay soft rather than developing a crust, traditionally filled with apricot jam or a poppy seed mixture and dusted with powdered sugar, documented in Austrian and wider Central European baking for generations. Their close, touching arrangement in the baking pan is considered essential to buchteln’s characteristic soft, pull-apart texture, distinguishing them from individually spaced, more fully crusted rolls, and this specific baking technique reflects a broader Central European pastry tradition found under related names and forms across neighboring countries with shared Habsburg imperial-era culinary history. Buchteln remain a traditional Austrian dessert and afternoon coffee accompaniment, closely tied to Viennese and wider Austrian café culture.
Frequently asked questions
What is Buchteln?
Buchteln is a dessert from Austria: soft yeast buns baked together and filled with plum jam. Sweet, yeasted buns, baked closely packed together in a pan so their sides touch and stay soft rather than developing a crust, traditionally filled with apricot jam or a poppy seed mixture and dusted with powdered sugar, documented in Austrian and wider Central European baking for generations. Their close, touching arrangement in the baking pan is considered essential to buchteln’s characteristic soft, pull-apart texture, distinguishing them from individually spaced, more fully crusted rolls, and this specific baking technique reflects a broader Central European pastry tradition found under related names and forms across neighboring countries with shared Habsburg imperial-era culinary history. Buchteln remain a traditional Austrian dessert and afternoon coffee accompaniment, closely tied to Viennese and wider Austrian café culture.
How long does Buchteln take to make?
Buchteln takes 30 min plus 1 hr 30 min rising of preparation and 35 min of cooking. The recipe makes 12 buns. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Buchteln?
Yes, within limits. A very thick apricot jam or a prune purée, cooked down first until it holds its shape on a spoon. Ground poppy seed paste, which is the other traditional filling.
What is the most important thing to get right in Buchteln?
The touching is the whole point of the dish: the sides stay pale and pull-apart soft while only the tops take colour, which is what makes a buchtel different from an ordinary bun.
