Traditional Lithuanian bacon buns - lasineciai
A traditional Christmas time treat in many homes is lasineciai - very tasty Lithuanian Bacon Buns.
A lot of cooks enjoy making these year 'round, not just during the Christmas period because they are a family favorite. During the Christmas season, these special bites of heaven are passed around in Lithuanian homes, accompanied with the word - "Linksmu Kaledu" which means Merry Christmas everyone!
This particular recipe includes making your own dough, but you can always use frozen bread dough to speed things up and cut down on the labor, if you want.
Those Lithuanian bacon buns can be eaten hot or at room temperature or can even be reheated in the oven.
Success with Bacon Buns:
- Semi-frozen bacon is way easier to chop into pieces that refrigerated;
- Use a good quality, meaty bacon like you find at a butcher shop or farmers’ market if at all possible;
- If you will use frozen bread dough to make these, you will find they will not be the same texture and taste as the scratch-made dough in this recipe which is rich and sweeter than the frozen;
- As you make successive batches and get more proficient, you may find you prefer to pinch off balls of dough, flatten, fill, and shape rather than use a cutter;
A lot of cooks enjoy making these year 'round, not just during the Christmas period because they are a family favorite. During the Christmas season, these special bites of heaven are passed around in Lithuanian homes, accompanied with the word - "Linksmu Kaledu" which means Merry Christmas everyone!
This particular recipe includes making your own dough, but you can always use frozen bread dough to speed things up and cut down on the labor, if you want.
Those Lithuanian bacon buns can be eaten hot or at room temperature or can even be reheated in the oven.
Success with Bacon Buns:
- Semi-frozen bacon is way easier to chop into pieces that refrigerated;
- Use a good quality, meaty bacon like you find at a butcher shop or farmers’ market if at all possible;
- If you will use frozen bread dough to make these, you will find they will not be the same texture and taste as the scratch-made dough in this recipe which is rich and sweeter than the frozen;
- As you make successive batches and get more proficient, you may find you prefer to pinch off balls of dough, flatten, fill, and shape rather than use a cutter;
Ingredients
- good quality bacon: 3/4 pund (cut into 1/4 inch pieces)
- onions: 1-medium sized (finely chopped)
- whole milk: 1 cup (1 cup - 236 ml)
- unsalted butter: 1/4 pound
- white sugar: 1/4 cup
- salt: 1/2 teaspoon salt
- active dry east: 1 package (or 2 1/4 teaspoons from a jar of yeast)
- eggs: 3 large (room temperature; beaten)
- all-purpose flour: 3 cups
- egg yols: 1 (beaten with 1 Tablespoon water)
For dough:
For egg wash:
- 1. Firstly, I put bacon and onion in frying pan, added water to barely cover. With lid on, simmered until water evaporates watching closely. Placed filling in refrigerator to cool completely. Do not brown the bacon.
- 2. Scalded milk. Whisked in butter, sugar, and salt. Cooled to lukewarm (110-115 F degrees). Whisked in the yeast. Placed this mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer or other large bowl.
- 3. Added the beaten eggs and flour and beated vigorously with wooden spoon or mixer’s paddle attachment until smooth.
- 4. Lightly greased top of dough, covered bowl with towel and let rise until doubled in warm spot.
- 5. Punched down dough and I allowed it to rise until doubled one more time. Turned dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Cutted in half and worked with one half of dough at a time, while keeping other half covered.
- 6. Rolled dough about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. Cut out 3 inch circles of dough with a round cutter.
- 7. Placed a tablespoon or a little more of cooled bacon mixture in center of circle. Folded over and pinched edges of dough together to completely cover the filling.
- 8. Shaped into a ball or torpedo shape and placed seam side down on parchment lined baking sheet leaving space between buns to rise and expand.
- 9. Repeated the same process with other half of dough; re-roll scraps.
- 10. Covered rolls lightly with greased plastic wrap and let rise until almost doubled.
- 11. Pre-heated oven to 375 F (~190 C). Brushed rolls with prepared egg wash.
- 12. Baked 20-25 minutes until golden brown. You can brush with butter when removed from oven if desired.
- 13. These buns c be served hot, at room temperature or reheated in the oven. Enjoy!
- 14. Note: I found one more recipe (Latvian version of similar buns) on YouTube that our family really loved. Attached it for you as well, if you would like to try it.
Recipe Directions
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