Subcribe
Recipe
See Ingredients

Finnish Cinnamon Buns

Make sure that all the ingredients are at room temperature. Dissolve the salt, sugar, cardamom and fresh yeast into the warmed up milk. Set aside approx. 200 ml flour. It should be added at the very end. Knead the dough for a while to improve elasticity. Finally, add the soft butter or margarine and continue kneading until the dough is smooth. Add the rest of the flour, if necessary. When making small buns, the dough can be softer than when making a twist. Place the dough into a bowl, tightly covered with plastic and allow to rise until doubled.

Divide the risen dough into two pieces. Roll out the dough into a flat rectangle, about 30×60 cm. Spread about half of the butter on the dough and sprinkle with half the sugar, and cinnamon according to your taste. Roll up the dough into a cylinder, leaving the seam against the work surface. Cut diagonal slices, sized 3 cm on the wider side and 1.5 cm on the narrower side. Lift the pieces onto the work surface, narrower side upwards. Press the middle all the way down to the work surface with your thumb. Place the cinnamon bun on a baking sheet and let it rise under a tea towel. Make more cinnamon buns from the remaining dough in the same way.

Brush the buns with egg and sprinkle with decorating sugar. Bake at 225°C/440F for about 10-15 minutes.

Recipe

Slovenian Cottage Cheese

Sirovi Štruklj is one of the most characteristic dishes, known all over Slovenia. Štruklji are made from different kinds of dough and can have a wide range of fillings; they can also be baked or cooked, sweet or savory. Until the 1930’s they used to be prepared at holidays and festivities and to celebrate the end of major farm work. The most special kind of štruklji, especially during spring and summer, is prepared with tarragon filling. Other widely known varieties are those with cottage cheese filling, walnut, apple and poppy seed štruklji, along with many others.

Recipe

Styrian Fried Chicken Salad

The reason why Styrian fried chicken in particular is so famous has a lot to do with the “Sulmtal Geflügel” (“Sulmtal poultry”), which is now undergoing something of a revival. Since the 17th century, this name has been given to the particularly fleshy capons and poulards which proved highly popular amongst the nobility of Europe. During the Habsburg Monarchy, this delicious poultry was even supplied to markets on the far side of the Alps, as far away as Trieste and Marburg.

Recipe

Cauliflower Croquettes

Meatballs of various types are an integral part of Romanian cuisine and the word chiftea (pl. chiftele) (pronounced /kif-te-a/ – /kif-te-le/) is clearly an indication of their Turkish origin, the word being a corruption of the Turkish kofte and related to the Middle Eastern kafta. In the Moldavian region of Romania they are also commonly known as parjoale (/pur-joa-le/) although these seem to be a little larger in size than the standard Romanian chiftea. Due to the preference for pork in the Romanian diet, these meatballs are most commonly composed of pork, perhaps in combination with some beef. Lamb chiftele are quite rare in Romanian cuisine. These cauliflower croquettes have a moist, light interior and, if cooked right, a crispy coating. Cauliflower is more usually pickled in Romanian or the whole florets are battered and fried.

Bun dough

  • 500 ml milk
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 200 ml caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp cardamom
  • 1.2 – 1.4 litres of plain white flour
  • 50 g fresh yeast
  • 200 g butter or margarine
  • 1 egg for glazing

For basting

  • Egg

Want to know more about Europe?

Sign up to our newsletter here: