Dalamánky are bread buns that are typical for their distinctive caraway aroma.
These bread buns are very popular in the Czech Republic and you’ll like them if you’re a fan of the Caraway Seed Bread. Unlike this bread, however, they don’t require much kneading (and they’re very dense) and they’re much smaller. The dough traditionally has a lot of caraway seeds and is sprinkled with caraway seeds and large-grain salt.
The word dalamánek (pl. dalamánky) comes from the French Pain d’Allemagne (“German bread”), a name given to the buns by French soldiers who settled in Prague in 1741 – 1743.
Dalamánky – Recipe
Supplies
Dough
- 1 cup of fine rye flour (hladká žitná)
- 0,5 cup of fine wheat flour (hladká)
- 1,5 cup of semi-coarse flour (see Czech Flour Guide)
- 3 tsp of salt
- 1/2 tsp of dried yeast
- 1 tsp of caraway seeds
- 1 tsp of vinegar
- 1,5 cup of cold water
Sprinkle with
- large-grain salt
- caraway seeds
How to make Dalamánky
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, caraway seeds and yeast, stir. Add vinegar and water and knead dough fast, it will be very sticky. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 12 hours.
Cover your working table with flour, transfer dough onto the table, divide it into 8 equal small loafs. Transfer the loafs onto your baking tray (with a sheet of baking paper) and let them raise for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/392°F. Right before sprinkling them (or even after), I like to shaping them again because as the dough is still a little too “liquid”, the dalamánky are sometimes too flat after these 20 minutes and I don’t recommend fixing their texture by adding more flour. Sprinkle with large-grain salt and caraway seeds and bake for 20 minutes.
Dalamánky should be light brown on top…
And brown at the bottom.
