Zwetschgenbuchteln (Yeast Buns with Plums)
Soft, Pillowy Yeast Buns with Plums
Jump to RecipeSummer is coming to an end. With the days getting colder, some of my favorite fruits are coming into season. Among them are these small, oval plums called Zwetschgen, which are very popular in Germany around August and September. Growing up, my grandparents had a tree in their garden, and my brother and I would often help harvest them when we visited. We would end up with buckets full of these plums. They taste sweeter and juicier than the typical round plums you can get in the supermarket, especially when they’re fresh from the garden. Since we always had so many and they go bad before you even have a chance to eat them all, we would make different things out of them, like jam, cakes, or Knödel/dumplings (recipe coming soon).
However, this particular type of plums is not easy to find in Denmark. A few years ago, I found some on Ærø, a small island in the south of Fyn, where someone was selling bags of them from their own garden, and they tasted exactly like the ones from my grandparents’ garden. So, when I saw them at Lidl, I obviously had to buy some. While they didn’t taste quite as great as the ones from my grandparents’ garden, they were still perfect for making sweet yeast buns with a plum filling. I believe these are more common in Southern Germany or Austria, and you can fill them with different kinds of fruits or jams. Typically you use stone fruit like plums or apricots, which are also popular. Baking with fruit is a great way to use not-so-perfect fruit and adding sugar helps to bring out more of the flavor.
These buns are really easy to make and don’t need much time to prepare. They just need to rest for 1 1/2 hours in total. You simply create a yeast dough, fill it with the plums, and form individual buns. What’s typical for these kinds of buns is that they stick together while baking, so you can pull them apart, and they are fluffier because of that. They taste best fresh out of the oven when they are still warm. Since there isn’t much sugar in the dough, they perfectly pair with vanilla sauce or whipped cream—or even with a scoop of vanilla ice cream while they’re still hot. You can also easily freeze them once they have cooled down to keep them from drying out. So whichever way you choose, I hope you enjoy them.
Zwetschgenbuchteln (Yeast Buns with Plums)
Course: Dessert, Sweet, Buns16
servings30
minutes175
CelsiusSoft, pillowy yeast buns with plums. A traditional recipe from Southern Germany or Austria, perfect for those late summer days.
Ingredients
- For the dough
250ml milk
1/2 pack or 4g dry yeast
2 eggs
3 tbsp caster sugar
50g soft or melted butter
500g flour
1tsp vanilla extract or whatever vanilla you have available (optional)
Pinch of salt
- For the filling
16 Zwetschgen or small plums
8 tsp brown sugar or caster sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon (optional)
Directions
- Warm up the milk to a lukewarm temperature.
- Mix in the dry yeast until it’s dissolved and had some time to get connected with the milk.
- Add the other ingredients for the dough and mix until fully combined. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Add some flour if it sticks to your hands.
- Cover with a tea towel and let it rest in a warm place for about an hour or until it has doubled.
- In the meantime you can prepare the plums by removing the stone. If you are using bigger plums, you might want to cut them into bite size peaces.
- When the dough is done rising, roll it out into a 40 x 40 cm square and cut it into 16 squares.
- Take each square and fill it with a plum, half a teaspoon of sugar or brown sugar and optionally a sprinkle of cinnamon. Then fold the corners together over the plum so that you cover the whole plum in dough. Repeat this step for the remaining dough.
- Grease a baking pan or dish that’s about half the size of a baking sheet (ca. 20x30cm). Place the buns you just created with the folding end down into the pan, leaving a bit of space between them. They will still rise, but should also stick together when baking so that you can pull them apart.
- Cover the dough again with the tea towel and let it rise for another 30 minutes.
- Heat up the oven to 175 C/350 F and bake them for about 30-35 minutes until golden brown and cooked through on the bottom.
- You can serve them with whipped cream, vanilla sauce or ice cream. Or just enjoy them as they are. Since we are using yeast dough, they can get dry quickly, so keep them in an airtight container or freeze the leftovers. You can also warm them up a little before eating.
Notes
- These are best enjoyed fresh out of the oven. You can also keep them in an airtight container for a few days and optionally warm them up before eating. Or freeze them and simply heat up in the oven again.
- This recipe is originally made with these small oval shaped plums that are typically in season at the end of summer and beginning of autumn in Germany or Austria. If you can’t find those, you can also use other plums or stone fruit like apricots or peaches. You can also use jam instead of whole fruits. Then I would just leave out the extra sugar.
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