Recipe: Sweet Bun Dough

A versatile, one-size-fits-all dough for a myriad of uses. I’ve mostly used this for Potica, an Eastern European holiday bread rolled finely with a sweetened walnut or poppy seed filling, but try it out for cardamom buns, cinnamon rolls, and more.

Dough (for 2 loaves):

340g bread flour

200g high-extraction all-purpose or white all-purpose flour

6g yeast

1 teaspoon salt

60g sugar

340g milk

113g butter (1 stick)

2 eggs

Melt the butter and milk together over low heat, and let come back down to just above room temperature. Meanwhile, whisk together the rest of the ingredients except the eggs until combined. To the cooled milk and butter mixture, whisk in the eggs, then slowly pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. If using a mixer, knead for about 4 minutes until smooth and pliable. If mixing by hand, incorporate all ingredients until no dry spots remain; it will feel quite sticky at first, so let it sit for 5 minutes if it’s too difficult to work with. Once the dough has cohered into a more workable mass, knead by hand for about 3 - 4 minutes until smooth, shiny, and cohesive. Let dough rest for a half hour, then use wet hands to stretch and fold the sides of the dough to develop strength: you’re not trying to knead aggressively here, but simply to pull upward on each side of the dough and lay it back into the center of the bowl to facilitate structural development. Let rest 30 minutes and fold once more. Chill dough in fridge until ready to use.

Shape into buns, a braid, potica, or a loaf, and let proof until very airy and soft to the touch, and bake around 400 degrees until browned.

Optional Potica filling:

380g walnuts

165g sugar

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

100g milk

80g butter

1 egg

splash of vanilla extract or whiskey

Grind walnuts, sugar, salt, cocoa powder, and cinnamon together in a blender until the walnuts are reduced o a fine powder—don’t overdo it, as you may end up with walnut butter. Transfer to a large bowl. Bring milk and butter to a simmer and pour over the walnut mixture, stirring to incorporate. When cool, whisk in the egg and the vanilla or whiskey.

To assemble potica: roll chilled dough as thin as you can across a big table. Spread the walnut filling over it so it covers all the dough except the 1/2” around the edges. Roll into a giant log, as if making cinnamon rolls, and cut into pieces whose length will snugly fit into a loaf pan. Place two to three logs in each well-oiled loaf pan: I like to put two on the bottom and stack one on top, like a pyramid. You should be able to get 2 large loaves or 3 small loaves out of this. Proof about 2 to 3 hours, and bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes.