Ízes Bukta

Bukta is a light and mildly sweet dough filled with firm jam and baked snugly in the oven to be shared with friends around the table. The most traditional jam to use is the creamy, smooth aromatic prune jam szilvalekvár. It's not easy to get hold of it in the UK and I was lucky that my husband bought me something similar in France on his last trip. It would be equally tasty to use any other type of jam that is not too runny. Or even whole fruits like blackberries instead of jam would be delicious. I made mine with refined (white) spelt flour, but it's easy to replace it with plain flour. Spelt is healthier, lighter and more digestible and I really liked working with the spelt dough. Serve this warm or cool with some home made vanilla sauce or custard or cream.

500g white spelt flour (or ordinary white flour)

1 packet (7g) dried yeast

50g icing sugar

60g butter

300 ml milk

2 egg yolks

pinch of salt

creamy smooth prune jam for filling (or other jam of your choice)

butter for brushing

icing sugar for dusting

Start by heating up the milk with the butter until melted and almost boiling, then let it cool to lukewarm temperature. This process of scalding the milk will make your dough lighter and mixed with the melted butter, easier to work into the dry ingredients. Sift the flour, sugar, salt, yeast into a bowl and mix well. Add the egg yolks, warm buttery milk and mix with a wooden spoon or a dough hook until you get a smooth dough that comes away from the side of the dish. Cover and allow it to double in size in a warm place. This takes about an hour. Take the dough and gently knead it over on a floured surface. Roll out to about 1cm thickness and cut it up to 8cm squares. Put a teaspoon of jam on each one and roll them up into a ball or cylinder shape, tucking the sides in. Place them snug into a greased 23 cm cake tin and brush with melted butter. Preheat oven to 180C. Let them prove until the oven is warming up. Bake until they are cooked through and golden on top. In my oven this took about 40 minutes and I covered the top with tinfoil halfway through to stop it colour too much. Let it cool in the tin and dust with plenty of icing sugar. Serve with cream or warm vanilla sauce.