The scent of freshly baked pastries – warm and flaky, filled with sweet jam, creamy cottage cheese, or a hint of cinnamon – instantly evokes the comforts of home. It is the aroma of generations past, of grandmothers who fill kitchens and hearts alike with treats made to be shared. Sisters Helena Matkovičová and Anna Eglová did not think that one day their pastries, known as Závodské osúšky, would be added to UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
Puff-pastry buns in the shape of stars with various sweet fillings are a traditional treat at weddings in the village of Závod, in the Záhorie region of western Slovakia. The bakers of osúšky, Matkovičová and Eglová, who are both pensioners, had traditional Závod pastry at their own weddings. However, they revealed to The Slovak Spectator that nowadays osúšky are baked for almost any celebration, whether it is a birthday, a name day, or simply as a treat for the family.
"Now we bake them quite often, but in the past, they were purely wedding pastry," Eglová explains. However, the sisters have never baked osúšky for profit; it’s a hobby they’ve embraced, one they love and are happy to spend time on. Yet they have never turned anyone down: "When someone from the family came by, like my cousin, and she was having a wedding or christening and asked if we could bake them, of course we’d bake them – why not?" Eglová says, adding that more people started joining in over time.
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