Hajtovány – Cheese buns

by | Oct 15, 2021 | Breads, buns & biscuits

Hajtovány is a popular savoury pastry made in many regions of Hungary. It has a simple yeasted dough that is filled with a butter-egg-cheese mixture (sometimes smoked ham is added too). I used Edam cheese in my cheese buns, but you can choose any other type of semi-hard cheeses like Cheddar, Colby, Gouda, and so on. Minimum effort, maximum pleasure.

Hajtovány - Cheese buns
Hajtovány – Cheese buns – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

For the dough:

  • 1 kg (~8 cups) flour
  • 500 ml (~2 cups + 2 tbsp) milk
  • 60 g fresh yeast (6 tsp dry yeast)
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 100 ml (~1/3 cup + 2 tbsp) oil
  • 1 tbsp salt

For the filling:

  • 200 g (~7 oz) butter
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 250 g (~8 3/4 oz) grated cheese
  • 1 egg for the egg wash

Dissolve yeast and sugar in lukewarm milk.

In a mixing bowl combine flour and salt, then add egg yolks, oil and activated yeast, and knead into a smooth dough. Cover and let it rise for 50-60 minutes.

Meanwhile make the filling. Soften the butter, add salt and egg, and mix together. Add grated cheese to the butter and mix until well combined.

After the dough has risen, punch down and on a floured surface divide it in half. Roll out the first dough ball into a thin oblong. Spread half of the filling on the dough evenly, roll it up and cut into 4-5 cm / 2 inch pieces. Place the buns on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat the process with the remaining piece of dough.

Cover the buns and allow them to rest for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 210°C / 410°F.

Brush the buns with beaten egg and bake them for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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