This wonderful jam-filled bread is a traditional Czech/ Slovak recipe. It was served to us at dinner as the meal and it is MUCH easier to make than I expected!!!
INGREDIENTS:
(these measurements are a little weird because they were converted from metric)
- 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/3 sticks of unsalted butter (room temperature!)
- 5 T sugar (divided)
- 1 1/2 cups of milk
- 2 (7g.) packets of dried yeast
- 1 pinch of salt
- 3 egg yolks and one full egg(at room temperature!)
- 2 T. lemon juice
- 1/2 t. vanilla
- 1 jar of fruit preserves (any flavor- we had prune, strawberry and apricot in Slovakia- I used red raspberry in this batch)
- 1 c. powdered sugar
DIRECTIONS:
- Set 3 eggs and butter out to come to room temperature.
- In a small bowl, warm milk to lukewarm in microwave. Add 1 T. of sugar and both packets of yeast to the milk and allow the yeast to rise for 10 minutes.
- While you are waiting: in a large bowl place flour, sugar and salt and blend well.
- Beat 3 egg yolks together in a small bowl and add vanilla.
- Dice butter.
- After 10 minutes beat the egg/ vanilla mixture into the yeast/ milk mixture and pour into flour. Mix until combined.
- Add room temperature, diced butter and blend.
- Add lemon juice and knead dough until smooth (took me about 4-5 minutes)
- Place dough in a ceramic or glass bowl, cover with a clean towel and place in a warm place (oven or microwave) for 1 hour. It should double in size.
- After one hour, punch dough and remove air. Divide into 24 equal parts.
- Roll each part out flat, place a scoop of preserves in the middle and then fold dough around preserves and seal by pressing dough together. Place in a lined (foil or parchment paper) pan (I used two 9 inch square cake pans) with the sealed side down.
- Cover pan with a clean towel and allow to rise for 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- Remove towel from pan and brush rolls with a beaten egg
- Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden.
- Cool on a wire rack
- Dust with powdered sugar and serve— enjoy (Dobrou Chut!!!!!)
My thoughts: This was my 1st time trying a recipe with yeast in it and I was POSITIVE it wouldn’t rise- but it worked perfectly! I searched the internet for a recipe for this and read many before I settled on this one– I did change several things as I went, but the basic recipe I used was from CzechUnderScope.com. I was thrilled with how they turned out- they tasted exactly as I remembered them from our trip. I hope you get a chance to try these- I’m excited to try this dough with some other things– cinnamon rolls maybe? YUM!
EASYBAKED 
That looks great. And I sure have enough jam. So glad to see this too, it’s not something I’d heard of.
When I was a young girl my Baba would ask me to gather the same ingredients you have in your sweet bread” She had arthritis and was unable to walk. From memory she would mix them up and I would bake them. When I saw this recipe it brought back such wonderful memories” Plan to make them for my siblings who have never experienced them thank you so much. One for the recipe and the memory of a time shared with my Baba. Pat Zaleski
Hi Pat 🙂 SO sorry it took me forever to reply to you- I took a two year break from blogging- but I’m back! There is nothing better than memories of cooking with family. I have recipes I remember making with my mom and my grandma that will forever make me smile and remember them 🙂 Thanks for sharing!!!
Fill with sweetened cheese filling and white raisins. Roll and put in bread pan for Bohemian cheese bread
Hi Nancy- thanks for the additional ideas!!! 🙂