'Parené buchty' (Steam Dumplings)

I decided to tell you about my favorite typical Slovak food called 'parené buchty' (steam dumplings). I have got lots of memories connected with this food. I remember the days when I was a child and I stayed in the kitchen with my grandma and my mum preparing this food.

When I was six we all used to live in a big family house and everytime my mum said she was going to cook this food I was the first person who was waiting in the kitchen to help her. I have always been a big lover of sweet dishes, cakes and chocolate. Somebody once said - the best things in life are sweet so eat your desert first - I totally agree with that!

So, unsurprisingly, I´m going to show you how to cook really delicious and sweet dish. It takes around sixty minutes to cook this meal. We need yeast, flour, milk, sugar a bit of salt, powdered sugar, cocoa, butter and jam. The best option is to use a jam made of plums but it´s not a rule. Of course you can use any flavour.

Preheat 400ml of milk and soak some yeast for 10 minutes or so. Then add 30 grams of sugar and mix together. After that, add 500 grams of flour and a bit of salt and stir the mixture until it´s smooth. Put it in a warm place and leave it for a while.

Once the dough is ready, spread it on the table and cut it into medium-sized squares. Put one full teaspoon of jam on each square and wrap so it becames a dumpling. Steam the dumplings and when they are ready, sprinkle cocoa with powdered sugar and melted butter on the top.

We have lots of dishes made of dough which are very similar to this one but this is my favorite. So this is will be the first thing I will eat when I go back to my country. I can highly recommend you to try this dish. Once you try it, you will never want to stop eating it!