For years I have been searching for ANY recipe that resembles the Latvian caraway buns my grandmother used to pick up at a Latvian bakery and bring over to our house when I was a kid. I had pretty much given up when I came across this recipe for Ķimeņmaizītes.
I could not believe it. It really sounded like them so I put the recipe through Google translator and cobbled together my own version. This is not a direct translation and it is far from perfect but I will keep working on it.
Making The Dough
I would have stayed as 100% true to the original recipe as possible but it called for fresh yeast and that just was not going to happen.
Combine 1 tbsp dried old fashioned yeast, 1/2 cup of lukewarm milk and 1 tsp of sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes.
I ended up using my mixer but if you do not have one put 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt into a large bowl.
Mix in two eggs, adding one at a time until well incorporated.
Add 1 cup of melted and slightly cooled butter.
Then add your starter.
The dough looked so weird!!! It reminded me more of pâte à choux than bread dough.
Knead for 10 minutes and then shape into a disc on a floured board.
Put into a bowl and let rest covered with a clean tea towel for 1 hour. I know, looks weird!
After an hour I took it out of the bowl, kneaded it into a smoother disc, put it back into the bowl covered and let sit for another hour.
I cut that disc into 12 segments. You can roll it out into a log and make the buns like the recipe originally calls for if you prefer.
Roll into buns and put on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Baking The Dough
Give the buns two inches of space, indent with your finger, brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with coarse salt and caraway seeds.
Add a tiny dollop of butter to the middle of the dough and bake in a preheated 375F oven until golden brown.
This took around 20 minutes for me and the bottoms burned so next time I would bake them at 350F.
When they come out of the oven cover with a clean tea towel until cooled.
Foodie Results
Well they are not exactly the same as my Grandma’s Latvian buns but pretty damn close!
Next time I will add way more caraway seeds, I was a little too stingy and so many fell off. You really want the caraway to flavour the entire bun if possible.
The original recipe said that it would make a few dozen of these buns and I only had one dozen. Perhaps I need to cut the dough into smaller pieces and bake them for a shorter period of time?
Unlocking the secrets of a family recipe is not easy, especially when the recipe is in another language but it is worth it. I am one step closer to finding that special flavour of the past.
But it’s exciting that the flavour is so close even the first time you tried the recipe! A couple more attempts and I bet you will have it perfect by then!
There is nothing so evocative of memory as a beloved flavour from childhood. Proust was right!
It is so true Debra!!! A taste of my childhood, wow, absolutely incredible and I’m going to keep working on it. At the bakery they would come out so super dark and now I know it is because of all that butter, LOL.
I LOVE it. Wish I could reach in and grab one, or two, or three ….
I wish you could have some over tea with me!
Oh my gosh!!!! I would LOVE that.
Oh my! I have been looking for these for about 30 years. There used to be a Latvian bakery in Toronto and my Grandma would always bring these home. Alas the bakery closed and I was never to eat one again, but have never stopped looking! Will definitely give these a try!
Tanya, I bet my mom and Grandma went to the same bakery! Oh they were so good. Mine are good, not as good as theirs, but I will continue working on the recipe to get it down pat. I hope you like these in the meantime!
Hi,
my Mum, and Auntie, ( both of Latvian origin) used to make these, and Latvian “piraagi”, -different to Russian and Polish Pirogi, but from historically similar roots a few hundred year ago.
Anyways the Caraway buns were melt in your mouth.
Both of them used to keep a Sourdough type starter in the fridge, they would never use modern yeast, or self raising flour. This starter was different to the one for their Rye sourdough bread, which was really sour to taste, while this was sweet, had a very soft pleasant fragrance. If there was to be no cooking for the usual two week rotation the starter was fed a honey sugar mix, and after it grew to near twice the size, half was kept for future cooking, and us kids could tax the rest- old fashion yeast probiotic by modern terms.
This was in late 1950s-60s
Hi Jānis! Oh interesting! A sourdough starter, I had not heard that. Yes, these are traditionally very sweet and beautifully fragranced. Wow, that is absolutely fascinating, thank you for sharing that intel with us Jānis.
My Latvian mother, aunt and grandmother always made these beautiful caraway buns from the leftover dough after a piragi bake. Very simple to make. And always super delicious, especially with a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
Svieks!
Leftover dough? Never enough. Not only would my mother bake the caraway buns but if we were particularly good……a little extra butter, sugar, cinnamon on there was another treat!
Just recently made some “come back tomorrow “ meat pancakes (crepes) with cranberry sauce mmmmmm.
Sveiks!
http://www.garsigalatvija.lv/galas-pankukas-jeb-komm-morgen-wieder/
Hi, I just tried your recipe. They look good, have great flavor, but have a dry texture. I don’t know what they are supposed to be like as I’ve never had them before. My Grandma never made these that I can remember. My dough was pretty wet in the mixer. How long do you let it mix? I had to add so much flour when kneading it. That’s probably why they are so dry. A little guidance please…
Oh that’s weird that the dough was wet but the buns were dry! They are a little dry in general in comparison to other buns which is why I slathered it with butter when I was a kid. Maybe you could add an additional egg yolk for moisture and richness and hold back a little on the milk?
Thank you for your response! I’m going to try these again today to see if I get better results this time. I wanted to enter them in our County Fair next weekend. Wish me luck!!
Oh I wish you a TON of good luck!!! Go kick foodie ass! And please let me know how it goes OK?