Traditional Czech Buchty
Updated: Oct 9
There are certain foods that immediately taste like childhood, and for me, Czech buchty are one of them.
My Czech babi used to make these for me growing up. Well, technically, sometimes she instructed my Czech grandpa to make them for me.
My babi was a woman who knew exactly what she wanted, and more importantly, she knew how to get the men in her life to do it for her. 😂
And honestly, I have to respect that.
Whether they were made by her or by my grandpa under her careful supervision, those soft, buttery, jam-filled buns were always such a treat.
Buchty are soft, pillowy little yeasted buns baked snugly together in a pan, traditionally filled with sweetened tvaroh, plum jam, apricot jam, or poppy seeds.
And like most Czech baking, they aren't aggressively sweet. The dough is buttery and soft, the filling does most of the talking, and a ridiculous amount of powdered sugar on top finishes the job.
I still love making them the way I remember eating them as a child, with a mixture of fillings. Sometimes cheese, sometimes apricot or plum jam, and sometimes both.
Every buchta is a little surprise, and that's half the fun.
One of my favourite combinations is sweetened tvaroh with apricot jam. The slightly tart apricot is perfect against the rich yeasted dough and creamy cheese filling.
And there is one very important step you shouldn't skip: butter between every single buchta.
As you place the filled buns into the baking dish, brush the sides generously with melted butter. They bake together into one beautiful pan but still pull apart into individual soft buns.
Makes approximately 20–24 buchty.
Ingredients
For the Dough
4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (240 ml) milk, warmed to about 100–105°F (38–40°C)
2¼ tsp (7 g) active dry yeast
⅓ cup (65 g) granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
⅓ cup (75 g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
½ tsp salt
For the Sweet Cheese Filling
500 g dry cottage cheese or traditional Czech tvaroh
1 large egg
¾ cup icing sugar (approximately 90 g), or to taste
Zest of 1 lemon
For the Jam Filling
¾–1 cup thick apricot jam, plum jam (povidla), or a combination of both
Important: Use a thick jam that holds its shape on a spoon. Thin, runny jams will leak out during baking.
For Assembly & Finishing
¼–⅓ cup melted butter, as needed
Powdered sugar, for generous dusting
A Little Talk About Tvaroh (And Finding It in Canada)
Traditional Czech buchty are often filled with tvaroh, a slightly tangy fresh cheese commonly used in Czech and Slovak baking.
Unfortunately, finding it in Canada can be a challenge. European delis sometimes carry it, but it's often expensive or unavailable.
My solution? Dairyland 0.3% dry cottage cheese, sold in a blue container here in Canada.
And I cannot stress this enough: DRY cottage cheese.
Regular cottage cheese contains too much moisture, especially when blended, and can turn your beautiful cheese filling into a runny disaster.
Ask me how I know. 😂
Dry cottage cheese has a firmer texture and works beautifully as a substitute for tvaroh. Just mix it by hand with your sugar, egg, and lemon zest.
Sexy Slovak Tip: If you can't find dry cottage cheese, firm farmer's cheese or quark are good alternatives. Whatever you use, the filling should be thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon.
Because nobody wants their filling escaping before they've even taken a bite.
Directions
1. Activate the Yeast
Pour about ½ cup of the warm milk into a small bowl.
Add the yeast, 1 teaspoon of the measured sugar, and 1 tablespoon of the measured flour.
Stir gently and leave for 5–10 minutes, until the mixture becomes foamy.
If your yeast doesn't foam, don't continue with it.
Your buchty deserve better.
2. Make the Dough
Add the remaining flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest to the bowl of a stand mixer.
Add the activated yeast mixture, remaining warm milk, egg yolks, vanilla, and melted butter.
Using the dough hook, knead on KitchenAid Speed 2 for approximately 7–9 minutes.
The finished dough should be smooth, elastic, and very soft. It may still feel slightly tacky.
Don't keep adding flour just because the dough isn't completely dry.
A soft dough is exactly what gives you those beautiful fluffy buchty.
3. First Rise
Shape the dough roughly into a ball and place it into a lightly greased bowl.
Cover and leave somewhere warm for approximately 60–90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Rising time will depend on how warm your kitchen is, so watch the dough rather than the clock.
4. Prepare the Sweet Cheese Filling
While the dough is rising, prepare your cheese filling.
In a mixing bowl, combine:
500 g dry cottage cheese
1 large egg
¾ cup icing sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Mix by hand until everything is evenly combined.
You want a thick, creamy filling that holds its shape when spooned.
Do not add milk or any additional liquid.
I recommend mixing by hand rather than putting everything into a food processor. Overprocessing cottage cheese can release moisture and make your filling much thinner than you intended.
If the filling feels too soft, refrigerate it while your dough rises.
5. Prepare Your Jam
Choose your favourite thick jam.
My personal favourites are:
Apricot jam: Slightly tart, fruity, and absolutely delicious with sweetened cheese.
Plum jam (povidla): Rich, traditional, and one of the most classic Czech buchty fillings.
The thicker the jam, the better.
If your jam runs off a spoon like syrup, it's probably going to run right out of your buchty in the oven.
You want something closer to a thick fruit preserve or fruit butter.
6. Divide the Dough
Generously butter a 9 × 13-inch baking dish.
Turn the risen dough onto a lightly floured work surface.
Divide into 20–24 approximately equal pieces.
If you want perfectly uniform buchty, weigh the entire dough and divide the weight by the number of buns you're making.
Or just eyeball it like our grandmothers probably did.
I'm sure they had better things to do than weigh 24 pieces of dough.
7. Fill the Buchty – The Fun Part!
Take one piece of dough and gently flatten it into a small circle.
Now you have three delicious options.
Option 1: Sweet Cheese Buchty
Place approximately 1 heaping teaspoon of your prepared cheese filling in the centre.
Option 2: Jam-Filled Buchty
Add approximately 1 heaping teaspoon of thick apricot or plum jam.
Option 3: Cheese AND Jam Buchty
My personal favourite!
Add a small spoonful of sweetened cheese and a little dollop of apricot or plum jam on top.
Just be careful not to overfill.
Pull the edges of the dough up and around the filling, pinching the seam together very firmly so everything is completely enclosed.
Turn the buchta over so the seam is underneath.
I love making a mixed pan with all three fillings.
Some have cheese, some have jam, and some have both.
Nobody knows exactly what they're getting until they take a bite, which is half the fun.
Just don't get too ambitious with the filling, or you'll end up donating half of it to the bottom of your baking dish.
8. Butter, Butter, Butter
This step matters.
Place each filled buchta into the prepared baking dish seam-side down.
As you add them to the pan, generously brush the sides of each buchta with melted butter.
The buns should sit fairly close together.
The butter keeps them from completely fusing together as they bake and gives you those traditional individual buns that pull apart beautifully.
Don't skip the butter between the buns.
Seriously.
9. Second Rise
Cover the baking dish and allow the buchty to rise again for approximately 25–35 minutes.
They should become visibly puffy and begin cuddling up against each other in the pan.
Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Before baking, lightly brush the tops with melted butter.
10. Bake
Bake for approximately 25–32 minutes, or until the tops are beautifully golden brown and the dough is baked through.
If they're browning too quickly, loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil for the final few minutes.
Remove from the oven and immediately brush the warm tops with another light coating of melted butter.
Because apparently we haven't used enough butter yet.
11. Finish
Allow the buchty to cool for at least 15–20 minutes.
Once they're warm rather than piping hot, dust generously with powdered sugar.
And when I say generously, I mean make it snow.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Other Traditional Buchty Fillings
While cheese, apricot, and plum jam are my favourites, there are plenty of other traditional fillings worth trying.
Poppy seed (maková náplň): A thick, sweetened ground-poppy-seed filling, often flavoured with a little lemon zest.
Plum butter (povidla): A deeply flavoured, thick plum preserve that is especially popular in Czech baking.
Sweet tvaroh: Traditional Czech fresh cheese mixed with sugar, egg, and lemon zest. Some families also add raisins.
And of course, you can combine fillings however you like.
There are no rules saying you have to make an entire pan of just one flavour.
Sexy Slovak Tips for Perfect Buchty
1. Thick jam is your best friend.
Apricot and plum are wonderful choices, but make sure you're using a thick preserve. Runny jam will find its way out of even the best-sealed dough.
2. Don't overfill your buchty.
I know it's tempting to squeeze in as much filling as possible, especially when you're combining cheese and jam. But a little restraint goes a long way.
3. Soft dough = soft buchty.
Don't dump extra flour into the dough just to make it easier to handle. Let your mixer do the work and embrace a slightly tacky dough.
4. Butter between EVERY bun.
This is what allows the buchty to pull apart beautifully after baking. It's one of those little traditional steps that makes all the difference.
5. Make a surprise pan!
Fill some with cheese, some with jam, and some with both. It's how I love serving them, and it makes every bite a little surprise.
A Little Taste of Childhood
For me, recipes like buchty are about so much more than baking.
They're about childhood memories, familiar flavours, and keeping a little piece of Czech and Slovak tradition alive, even when you're thousands of kilometres from home.
Whenever I make buchty, I think about my babi and grandpa in the kitchen. My babi knew how things should be done, and my grandpa knew better than to argue. 😂
And now, years later, here I am making the same little buns in my own kitchen in Canada.
Sometimes that means finding a Canadian substitute for an ingredient our grandmothers could buy at any grocery store.
It doesn't have to be complicated, expensive, or absolutely perfect.
It just has to taste like home.
Preferably with lots of butter and a ridiculous amount of powdered sugar.
Dobrou chuť! 🇨🇿❤️
With love, from the Sexy Slovak kitchen.
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