I “discovered” this breakfast pastry on a recent trip to Northern Germany while staying in Hamburg. We stayed in Hamburg for a few days to shake off jet lag before heading to a family wedding in Freiburg on the Elbe.
I had read about Franzbrötchen on-line but I hadn’t run into them during my trips to Germany. I don’t even recall them from my trip as a kid in 1976.
We tried our share of this pastry at breakfast every day. I knew when I got home that I needed to try and make them. The pictures here are from my second attempt.
The great thing about Franzbrötchen is that the can be made an served within about 90 minutes.
Franzbrötchen
Ingredients
For the yeast dough
- 275 ml Milk
- 70 g Butter
- 14 g Yeast, Dry Active
- 75 g Sugar
- 5 ml Vanilla Extract
- 1 pinch Salt
For the filling
- 100 g Butter, very soft
- 100 g Sugar
- 3 tsp Cinnamon
- 2 tbsp Milk/Cream
Instructions
- Heat milk and butter in a sauce pan until the butter is just melted. Watch the temperature of the milk, once it reaches 105° F, remove 1/4 cup and reserve.
- Add the yeast to the reserved milk and stir.
- Put the flour, sugar, and salt into the bowl of a mixer. Fit the mixer with the dough hook.
- Once the yeast has proofed, add the yeast, vanilla, and milk to the flour.
- Following your mixer instructions start the mixer and knead until the flour has just been absorbed.
- Knead for another 5 minutes.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer. Cover and set in a warm are for 30 minutes. The dough should have risen at least a bit.
- Warm the oven to 355°F and move a rack to the middle level.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and put onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times.
- Roll out into a 60 cm by 28 cm rectangle. Trim the edges of dough so that it is the right size.
- For the filling, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and soften butter together. It should be a nice paste.
- Using an off set spatula, evenly spread the filling to the edges, leaving a 1 cm strip at the very top without any filling. Brush the 1cm strip with some water.
- Starting with the bottom long end, roll the dough into a nice roll.
- Pinch the seam together and position the log so that the seam is down.
- Trim the ends of the log.
- Using a knife, cut off pieces that have a trapezoidal shape. Not a full triangle but a triangle with a flat top.
- Using the handle of a round spatula, press down in the middle of the triangle.
- Move the Franzbrötchen to a baking sheet, 6 to a sheet. Cover with a cloth and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Brush the Franzbrötchen with milk or cream and bake for 15 - 20 minute until golden brown. Turn the pan after 15 minutes.
- Cool for 20 minutes and serve.
Notes
Adapted from a German recipe: Klassisch Franzbrötchen from Einfach Backen
Bakers Notes:
- part of the delight of this pastry is the cinnamon sugar filling that leaks out during baking and crystallizes around the pastry
- we like lots of cinnamon, when I added more than 50% extra cinnamon to the filling, the leaked out cinnamon sugar on the pan wasn’t as good.
- I have used both regular all purpose flour and bread flour with the same great results