Best Czech Pastries and Where To Try Them in Prague

By this point, everyone and their cat had found out that chimney cake isn’t a traditional Czech pastry, but what is? We are going to share our favorite Czech pastries that locals love!!

Buchta

This is something that every Czech child knows from the fairy tales where Hloupy Honza aka Stupid John carries buchty that his mother bakes for him. Buchta is a puffy yeast pastry with or without stuffing that should taste close to a cloud. Buchta is baked in a pan so there are multiple of them and they stick together to form seductive fluffy pillows. Buchta is also a slang word for a hot chick :D The pastry is easy to find, and a lot of coffee places make it a fresh pastry of the day.

Bábovka

Now you know that Buchta is a slang word for an attractive woman, while this other one is a word for the opposite - Baba, a hag. It is also a name of a wonderful Czech dessert called Bábovka. It is baked in a special circular bond dish with a hole in the middle. Bábovka can be plain, with cocoa powder, marble, with raisins, poppy seeds, or almonds. It is crumblier than buchta and also a bit sweeter. Bábovka used to be baked only for some important celebrations, and nowadays you can try a special one on Easter in the shape of a lamb. Same as buchta, it is not as difficult to prepare, so a lot of coffee places make it in the morning and sell it out by the end of the day.!

Strudel

This might be a surprise to you but strudel is also considered to be a Czech pastry. Strudel apparently evolved from Turkish baklava, then got to Austria-Hungary where it morphed into its present form, and then established itself in Bohemian lands. This pastry is the easiest to find because it is famous around the world and most old-school restaurants, like cafe Louver, have it.

Mákovec

Another Czech pastry you can try is mákovec aka poppy seed biscuit. Fun fact, the Czech Republic is one of the largest exporters of poppy seeds. Luckily, there is no shortage of poppy seeds here because you need a lot to bake mákovec. It also can have lemon icing on top which makes it sweeter.

Koláč

There is a Czech proverb “bez práce nejsou koláče” - without hard work, you won’t receive koláče. We have to talk about the most famous pastry that even made it all the way to Texas - koláče. It is made of puffy dough with sweet middle. There are many types of koláče stuffing: poppy seed, quark, jam, cream, fruit, and nuts.

Where to try traditional Czech pastries?!

Antonínovo pekařství - a chain of bakeries with a large selection of sweets and pastries.

Cafe 11 - a cozy cafe 1 min away from the Old Town Square that has a small selection of homemade pies and buchta!

Pekárna Kabát - a chain of kiosks all over Prague that has a wide selection of koláče and other pastries!

Staročeská pekárna - cukrárna - a bakery close to the Old Town Square with fresh pastries.

NÁŠ CHLÉB - a bakery chain for a koláče pitstop!

Pekařství Zoulek & syn Václavská pasáž - a small “grab-and-go” bakery. Try their Moravské koláče or Velké koláče.