A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from a lady who is married to an American with Slovak roots. She asked about a ‘kiflick’ cake her husband’s aunt used to make when she was still alive.

I had never heard the word before, so I turned to Google for help and it suggested a few culinary websites (for the most part Croatian and Macedonian) that gave several recipes for ‘kiflicki’ – small rolls in the shape of crescents that looked like Slovak maslové rožky (butter rolls). In the Croatian and Macedonian recipes they were made with margarine or cheese, and in some cases with a sweet filling.

The recipe below is commonly used for Slovak plain butter rolls, but I’m also planning to make bryndza cheese rolls, and a few sweet filling variations.

Butter Rolls with Poppy Seeds

Makes 16

• 500 g bread flour
• 300 ml milk
• 21 g fresh yeast*
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 120 g butter
• 1 egg (yolk and white separated)
• a pinch of salt and sugar for the dough
• poppy seeds or sesame seeds to sprinkle 

*If you can’t get fresh yeast, use the dry or instant one (21 g fresh = 7 g instant)

Method:

1. Take the butter out of the fridge and let it soften.
2. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt. Make sure you stir it well into the flour, so the salt doesn’t come in direct contact with the yeast at the next stage.
3. Heat the milk over a low heat until warm. Add a little sugar and stir. Transfer half of the milk into a glass. Crumble the yeast into it and stir until it dissolves. Add a pinch of flour to kick-start fermentation and stir again. Cover the glass and leave in a warm place.
4. When the yeast has risen up to the brim, pour all the contents of the glass onto the flour. Add the remaining milk, the sugar, the egg yolk, and the softened butter cut into pieces. Knead by hand or in a food processor until you achieve a smooth, elastic dough. Cover with a dishtowel and leave to rest in a warm place for an hour.
5. When the dough has doubled in volume, transfer it onto a floured rolling board.
6. Divide the dough into halves and shape into two balls. Roll out each ball into a circle about 5 mm thick. With a pastry wheel, cut each circle into quarters, then each quarter into halves, so you’ll end up with eight equal segments. Roll them in starting from the outside, as seen in the photo below. Shape each roll into a crescent. Dust the board, the dough and your fingers each time the dough feels too sticky to work with.
7. Put the rolls on a baking tray (depending on the size, you’ll probably need two of them) lined with a piece of baking parchment. Glaze with the egg white and sprinkle with the poppy or sesame seeds.
8. Put in the oven preheated to 180ºC and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the rolls turn golden brown.
9. Serve warm or cold with homemade strawberry jam, nutella or vanilla cream.

We often eat butter rolls for breakfast, but they also make a nice snack or light supper, and they are perfect to start your Sunday with.