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 tbsp salt
3 eggs
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup oil
2 cups very warm water
10-11 cups flour
2 Tbsp 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:

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. Place on greased cookie sheet, cover with tea towel and plastic and let rise 1 hour. Bake at 400 F for 20 min. Cool on wire racks.

Note: I always 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:

With greased hands, pinch off a large piece of the rest of the dough and roll out on floured surface. Spread with about 2 Tbsp melted butter and 1 cup brown sugar mixed with 1-2 tsp cinnamon. Roll up jellyroll style and cut into 1” slices. Place on greased or parchment paper lined pan. Cover and let rise 1 hour and then bake at 350 F for 20 min or until golden.

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 Tbsp butter, room temp
½ cup flour
1/2 cup sugar

Method:

1. Grease any size 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)