A few years ago, a woman from Toronto asked me if I had heard of shritzlach, a Yiddish word for currant cakes. She told me that Mimi Sheraton had written about them in her book 1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die. I had not heard of them, but immediately started digging on the internet and in cookbooks. I found that these oblong, buttery, scone-like sweet rolls brimming with blueberries and topped with streusel were popular in Southwest Poland among Jews and gentiles alike. The Jews called them shritzlach or yagedes, meaning blueberries in Yiddish, while the gentiles called them jagodzianki, also blueberries, in Polish.
Shritzlach
April 02, 2021
Ingredients
- 1tablespoon yeast
- 7tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, divided
- 2large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
- 2heaping tablespoons sour cream
- 2 ½cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose unbleached flour, divided, plus flour for kneading
- ¼teaspoon salt
- ¾cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
- 1 ½cups blueberries (about)
- 2tablespoons chopped candied ginger
Yield: 12 blueberry buns
Preparation
- Step 1
Put the yeast and 1/4 cup of warm water in the stand mixer with a paddle. Stir in 4 tablespoons of the butter, 2 whole eggs, and the sour cream. Add 2 1/2 cups of the flour, the salt, and 3/4 cup of the sugar, mixing well. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for about 2 hours until the dough doubles in volume.
- Step 2
To make the streusel, using the tips of your fingers blend the remaining 3 tablespoons of flour and remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar with the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter and set aside in a bowl.
- Step 3
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Step 4
Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough to a circle about 1/8-inch thick, adding more flour if the dough sticks. Cut into 12 three-inch rounds and press a small handful of blueberries (at least 12) into the dough with a little crystallized ginger, and, if you like, sprinkle with a little sugar. Then, cradling the circle of dough in one hand use your second hand to pinch the dough closed into a 3-by-5-inch oblong shape. Repeat with the remaining dough and blueberries. Put the buns on the baking sheets.
- Step 5
Brush the buns with the remaining egg yolk, pat a bit of streusel on top of the buns, and bake for about 25 minutes or until golden. Don’t worry if some of the juices boil over. That is part of the buns’ charm. Serve warm or at room temperature.