Despite the name ("kapuśniaczek" in Polish it can mean small drops of rain as well) and the situation outside the window, today's entry isn't about the weather.

I received this recipe for yeasty buns stuffed with sauerkraut from the good ghost of our house. Miss Ania – called grandma by our children – has brought us a lot of dainties like Russian dumplings, cakes and small buns with sauerkraut. You can prepare a vegetarian version with sauerkraut and onion as the filling, or a meat version with sausages or bacon. They are tasty hot with borscht, but I like them cold. you may sprinkle the top of the buns with your favourite seasoning: poppy seeds, sesame seeds or caraway seeds.

Ingredients:
stuffing:
0.5 kg of sauerkraut
1 big onion
2 tablespoons of butter
1 bay leaf
2 allspices
2 pepper seeds
1 teaspoon of caraway seeds
200g of sausages or bacon
dough:
0.5kg of flour
5dag of food yeast
1 tablespoon of sugar
0.25ml of milk
a pinch of salt
100g of butter
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

Stew the sauerkraut for one hour with the bay leaf, allspices, pepper seeds and caraway seeds. Dice the onion and fry it in butter. If you would like to add sausage or bacon, dice them and fry lightly. Add the onion and/or the meat to the sauerkraut and mix it in thoroughly. Put the sauerkraut on the cutting board and chop finely. Leave to cool down.

To make leaven: crumble the food yeast, sprinkle it with the sugar and mix with 100ml of lukewarm milk. Leave the mixture to rise. Melt the butter in a pan. Leave to cool down. Sift the flour into a bowl. Add one egg and one egg yolk, the pinch of salt, yeast and melted butter. Knead the dough until it peels back from your hands. Put the dough into a bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place.

Heat the oven up to 200C. Cover a baking tray with baking paper. After one hour, remove the dough and put it on a pastry board, sprinkle with the flour and knead the dough. Roll the dough out. Cut rings from the pastry with a glass. Put a tablespoon of the stuffing onto the centre of each ring. Glue each bun together and put it onto the baking paper with the seam of the dough facing down. Smooth the top of the buns with egg white and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Bake them for 25 minutes.

Enjoy your meal!