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Buns and Platz

Memories of Saturdays growing up, always remind me of how my Mom would cook a big pot of soup, bake a batch of fresh buns and usually she would take part of the dough to make a platz or, as we called it, Streuselkuchen. My husband's side of the family called it Riebelplatz. Our middle daughter, as a pre-schooler, announced one day, "Mommy, it's easy to make Lieberplatz . . . all you need is dough, plums and crumbs!"
Now that I'm not baking for a family on a regular basis, and we don't eat a lot of white buns, I have taken part of the dough to make cinnamon buns as well. We have been pleasantly surprised how yummy they turn out even with less sweetness. So I'll leave you with a variety of goodies to try with one dough.

Ingredients for dough:

  • ½ cup butter
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 3 eggs
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup oil
  • 2 cups very warm water
  • 10-11 cups flour
  • 2 tablespoons instant yeast


Method:
  1. In small pot, melt butter and heat milk until warm.
  2. In large mixer bowl, beat eggs, adding the sugar and then the oil.
  3. Stir in all liquids – warm water, milk and butter
  4. Add 4 – 5 cups flour and instant yeast, mixing well
  5. Switching to dough (hook) attachment on mixer, add the rest of the flour, one cup at a time.
  6. Turn dough into a larger bowl to rise, giving it a few more punches if needed.
  7. Cover with a tea towel and plastic bag and rise about 1 – ½ hours
To make plain buns:
  1. Use about ½ of the dough to make 15-18 buns. Shape into buns by taking a handful of dough at a time and squeezing bun shapes between thumb and forefinger. 
  2. Place on greased cookie sheet, cover with tea towel and plastic and let rise 1 hour. 
  3. Bake at 400° F for 20 min. Cool on wire racks.
Note: I slice the buns before freezing them. This makes it easy to make sandwiches quickly when they are still frozen, especially when I did school lunches.

To make Cinnamon Buns:
  1. With greased hands, pinch off a large piece of the rest of the dough and roll out on floured surface. 
  2. Spread with about 2 Tbsp melted butter and 1 cup brown sugar mixed with 1-2 tsp cinnamon.
  3. Roll up jellyroll style and cut into 1” slices. Place on greased or parchment paper lined pan.
  4. Cover and let rise 1 hour and then bake at 350° F for 20 min or until golden.
  5. To ice: mix about 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, 1 Tbsp soft marg or butter and enough milk to make a nice spreading or drizzle consistency.


To make Platz:
Ingredients:
  • fruit, jam or pie filling
  • 3 tablespoons butter, room temp
  • ½ cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Method:
  1. Grease any shape of small - medium pan you like. You can use a round spring-form pan, a 9x13" pan or a cookie sheet. Spread or pat your left over dough into pan by hand. It will rise some, so it doesn’t have to be high – about ½ - 1 inch – some prefer a flat platz and some a high platz. Let it rest about 20 – 30 min.
  2. Spread with cut up fruit, such as plums or apricots and sprinkle with just a couple of Tbsp of sugar. I used canned cherry pie filling. My mom often just spread it with just a beaten egg for moisture, then topped it with crumbs.
  3. For Crumbs: Mix butter into flour and sugar with pastry cutter. Squeeze a handful at a time and sprinkle on fruit or jam. If you find the crumb mixture too dry, mix in a Tbsp of cream, and then squeeze into crumbs as you drop onto the fruit.
  4. Let rise about ½ hour. Bake at 375° F for about 30 min. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. This is one of our favorite Sunday morning breakfast treats. To keep crumbs crunchy, don’t cover. If you freeze it, uncover to thaw.

This recipe can also be used for Zwieback or pizza crust. (not pictured)

30 comments:

  1. This looks delicious! And the dough is beautiful. I've never seen dough rise so nicely!

    Erin
    http://homeswheremyheartis.blogspot.com

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  2. That all looks so delicious Anneliese! I have fond memories of those Tuesday mornings long ago when you would teach us young moms kitchen and mothering skills. I'm glad to see you are sharing your gifts online now. I can't wait to try this recipe out sometime soon!

    Karen

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  3. Next baking day I am trying the Platz,I love multi purpose doughs.

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  4. Oh my goodness! I can't stop licking my monitor! I'll be back!

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  5. ok. its me again. I continued on through the blog and the poem or essay at the bottom is one of the most beautiful pieces I've ever read. I am so trying many of these recipes (without alteration, see my blog for clarification...) THANK YOU!

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  6. Each one of these looks delicious.Might I add another idea.I take marble sized pieces of dough,make small buns,put into 9x13 pan,let rise.Just before putting them into the oven I pour on a mixture of brown sugar,cocoa,and cream.We call them Midnight buns,they are super good.
    Blessings,Ruth

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    Replies
    1. Ruth, I've eaten your midnight buns and that is one yummy recipe! Add the details so others can try it?

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  7. These sound so delicious! When I was a young girl in Newfoundland, my mom would bake homemade bread every Saturday to go with our baked beans and ham. In the early afternoon when the bread was kneaded for the last time, she would pinch small portion off and flatten them out into about 3" rounds. They would be then fried and served with butter and honey or molasses. We called them "toutins". They were great!

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  8. I had a college friend who made cinnamon buns with a molasses-and-spice filler. He might have thinned the molasses a little; I don't recall. They were awesome.

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  9. Now this brings back memories...of Saturday baking at my mom-in-law's place! I had never heard of making platz from bun dough...before I met her. Your photos look wonderful!

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  10. I saw your post this morning and had to make it. My Platz is baking right now. It smells so delicious! The dough turned out perfect. Thank you for the great recipe! LOVE your site.

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  11. Anneliese. .your dough and your buns and other goodies look just fantastic. What a great post.

    What a treat to read a comment from a young mom you taught years ago.

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  12. Karen (ourthreesons), so nice to put a face to your name! Thank you!

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  13. Now I see, you've been giving cooking lessons for years. I thought I saw a natural teacher in your posts.

    I would love to take your cooking classes. (Wait: I am! Right here on MGCC).

    anon1

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  14. I'm sure that taste good and all but you could prolly save some time and just buy you some Pillsbury Hot Rolls instead. They fill yo tummy.

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  15. I adore your site. What a great thing you have done for us home cooks out there. Keep up the amazing work!

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  16. These recipes bring back so many memories. My mother's mother always made platz and it was oh so good. We made zwiebach every Saturday, we pronounced it differently that it is spelled.

    Love your blog.

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  17. Yesterday I made a loaf of bread and cinnamon rolls using this recipe. I halved it and mixed it in my breadmaker..watching carefully to get the right amount of flour to make a soft dough. Yummy! I'll be using it again. Thanks.

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  18. we called it streuselkuchen too. usually just plain, but sometimes Mom would spread some crushed pineapple first, then the crumbs. the same dough made Butterkuchen too---pats of butter all over the dough then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I can smell it now.

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  19. This recipe IS perfect! It is a nice soft dough. I was amazed at how much it rose. I made the most perfect looking buns and refrigerated the leftover dough for the Platz made later. Thank you! It is definitely a keeper!

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  20. I just finished making the platz and used a half recipe for the dough. I patted it into a parchment paper lined cookie sheet 12" x17" and made pie fill using frozen sour cherries and it sure turned out good! I would prefer it to be thinner because the edges are about 1 1/2 thick and there isn't much filling on the edges.
    Next time I'll try a larger pan.
    Thank you for sharing your recipe...I love your website...it inspires me to keep the tradition of home-cooking.

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  21. I am in China visiting my little brother and family. They love my homemade buns and cinnamon buns, but alas I forgot my recipe. So...I went on your blog and made everyone happy with fresh buns and cinnamon buns. Bless you, dear Anneliese for your every encouraging and inspiring blog.

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  22. this woudl also make terrific cheese buns! In the same way that you make cinamon buns, just use cheese instead!

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  23. I made these buns today, and they were the best buns I have ever made in my 20 years of attempting to make buns like my Mom's. Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. Clare, thank you for such a nice comment! It makes me happy when a recipe turns out well for someone else.

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  24. the picture of the rising dough!!! i have the very same yellow bowl that my oma Driedger used for her buns.. its the only bowl that works for buns..im so glad to have it. it makes me think she is helping me when i make them

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  25. Made this today and they all turned out beautiful :)Thank you for sharing your beautiful pictures, stories and recipes.

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  26. Just to let you know, Mennonite "platz" is NOT streuselkuchen. True streuselkuchen comes out of Silesia, Poland and just has the crumbs/dough, not the addition of jam/fruit. It's more elegant, and not as sweet as platz.

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  27. This is really the best dough I have ever made. Thank you for the recipe. Now, a cultural question for those of us who live beside Mennonites in the F. Valley here, we are all confused, are Mennonites Germans? I've heard you are all actually Dutch in origin. . .did you just pick up the German along the way in Europe? coz culturally as a group you behave differently than my own Grandmother's Polish-German family. Thank you for clarifying this for us.

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