Sweet Cheese Buns (Poale-n brau)

These beautiful Sweet Cheese Buns are loaded with golden raisins and a creamy ricotta cheese filling, encompassed by an irresistibly delicious bun.

I love cheese pies, cheese pastries, so much in fact, that I have many variations of these recipes on the blog, most of them being on the savory side, but I wanted to add a sweeter adaption to my repertoire! This is another one of those Romanian recipes that I love.

These little cheese buns are called “Poale-n Brau” in Romanian, which I couldn’t even translate if I wanted too! Something to do with waist, or hem or lap, I don’t think there’s a way to properly translate this. No matter what they’re called, they’re delicious.

Sweet Cheese Buns

I struggled with what to call them in English but sweet cheese buns is what I settled on. A combination of golden raisins and creamy, dreamy ricotta spiked with a fresh zest of lemon fill these flaky delights!

Although they are a bit of work to make, there will be an abundance of baked goods to go around, making it all worth it. You can share with your loved ones or keep them all to yourself.

Ingredient Notes

• Cheese – We are using ricotta cheese for that extra creamy and decadent filling.
• Flour – Regular all-purpose flour is your best friend when making these buns.
• Eggs – The eggs are going to help make our buns airy and fluffy.
• Sugar – We need a little bit of sweetness to balance the flavor of these cheese buns, granulated is fine.
• Water – Make sure it’s lukewarm! The best temperature of the water should be anywhere from 95 degrees to 105 degrees for this.
• Vegetable Oil – Substitute canola, sunflower, or safflower oil.
• Lemon – We want the zest from one fresh lemon to add a nice bright hint of citrus flavor to these pastries!
• Yeast – I chose to use fresh yeast for this recipe, but feel free to substitute with 1 package of active dry yeast!
• Raisins – I used golden raisins, you can use your preference!
  • Optional: You don’t have to do this, but you can soak the raisins in some rum for about 1 hour, just for some extra flavor!

How to Make Sweet Cheese Buns

Prep the Dough:

1. Dissolve Yeast: In a big bowl, add the flour and form a well in the middle. Crumble up the fresh yeast and add it in the well. Pour the water over the yeast and stir it up until the yeast dissolves. If using active yeast, activate in a bowl with the lukewarm water and a tsp of the sugar.
2. Mix Dough: Add the oil, 1/2 cup of the sugar, 2 eggs and half the lemon zest to the well. Using your hands mix everything together and continue kneading the dough for about 10 minutes. Alternatively you can do this in your stand mixer and mix on medium low until the dough is smooth and comes clean from the sides of the bowl.
3. Let Rise: Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it up with a clean towel, or plastic wrap and let it double in size, in a warm place.
4. Make Cheese Mixture: While the dough is rising, we can make the cheese mixture. In a medium bowl, add the ricotta cheese, raisins, remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 egg, remaining lemon zest and mix it all together. Place the cheese mixture in the fridge while the dough is rising.

Shaping and Baking:

1. Preheat Oven: Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. Roll and Cut Dough: After the dough has doubled in size, roll it out in a long rectangular so that it’s about 1/4 inch in thickness. Using a pastry cutter cut it into squares that are 3″ x 3″.
3. Roll it Out: Take each square and roll it up until it’s 6″ x 6″, it will be quite thin, but don’t worry as it will rise quite a bit more.
4. Assemble: Place 2 tsp of the cheese mixture in the center of each square. Fold over each corner of the square over to the middle and pinch in the middle to make the dough stick. Now fold each newly formed corner over to the middle again and pinch it in the middle. Make sure you pinch it well, otherwise the dough will open up. Repeat with remaining dough and cheese mixture.
5. Egg Wash: Brush the cheese buns with egg wash and let them sit out for another 10 minutes so they rise a bit more.
6. Bake: Bake in the oven for about 30 or 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Finish and Serve: Cool on wire racks and sprinkle with powdered sugar if preferred.

FAQs & Expert Tips

FAQs

Tips

1. Before starting, ensure that your yeast is active!
2. Make sure to brush the dough with egg wash before baking. This adds shine and will enhance the golden color of the buns.
3. If you’d like, you can add your preference of mix-ins to the filling before baking. You can also top it with slivered almonds or a dusting of powdered sugar!

Storing Sweet Cheese Buns

These sweet cheese buns will stay fresh for up to 3 days, covered and stored at room temperature, but will keep for an additional week in the refrigerator, covered with foil, plastic wrap or in a plastic bag or airtight container.

Freezing

Wrap these sweet cheese buns tightly with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap, or place in heavy-duty freezer bag/airtight container. This will allow them to stay fresh for up to 1 month.

Let defrost at room temperature for about 2 to 3 hours when ready to serve or simply pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

More Delicious Recipes To Try

• Apple Pie Bites
• Cheese Pastries
• Skillet Chicken Pot Pie
• Nutella Raisin Bread