In my previous post about flódni, I said it would soon become all too apparent that Vienna, far from being a culinary fortress, was, as the focal-point of a large land empire for many centuries, very susceptible to outside influences. To take just one example, Bohemia, which today makes up the westernmost half of the Czech Republic, gave the Viennese kitchen Marillenknödel, Topfengolatsche, Palatschicken, Mohnnudeln, and -- the subject of this week's post -- Buchteln, sweet yeast buns filled with either plum or apricot marmalade, baked together in a pan such that they need to be torn apart and separated before serving. Buchteln (singular Buchtel, which comes from the Czech word buchta) began showing up on Viennese dinner tables during the Beidermeier period 1815-1848, a time when economic expansion led to the creation of a new middle class and many women from Bohemia found work as cooks and domestic workers in the imperial capital, thus bringing their desserts with them. (Though today made from all-purpose flour, Buchteln, interestingly enough, were originally made from rye flour, which sounds terrible.)
The Buchteln pictured above were actually made by my own fair hand from a recipe that comes from a local bistro, Gasthaus Wolf, written by Dani Huber, who says her method of making Buchteln was inspired by her grandmother's. The great challenge of making these buns is found in the assembly: How best to get the jam inside? Well, first, take pieces of the uncooked yeast dough the size of -- what else? -- an apricot and form it into flat rounds. Then what I do -- and I don't know if this is the best method but it works -- is form the thumb and forefinger of your left hand (or right hand, if you're left-handed, I suppose) into a circle, rest the dough on top, and then add a spoonful of apricot jam to the centre of the dough. The theory here is that your left hand forms a kind of cone as a support for the dough. Then, you can use your dominant hand to pinch the dough together around the marmalade, making (with any luck) a sealed ball with the jam firmly ensconced inside. One essential truth about Buchteln, however: No matter how much jam you add, it's never enough. As delicious as they can be, there's a reason they're usually served with custard.
