Kirsch-Rohrnudeln

A german version of the popular Pull Apart Buns but with a slight twist - they have fresh pitted cherries in them.  With its soft, springy texture, I am sure that they will be a hit with the kids.

Ingredients (yields 16 buns):
600 g flour (type 550) or plain flour (type 405)
80 g fine sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp salt
40 g butter, to be gently melted
250 ml warm water (straight from the tap)
1 cube à 42 g fresh yeast, to be crumbled

32 fresh cherries, to be washed, dried & pitted
2 tbsp castor sugar
1 egg yolk to be mixed with 1 tbsp fresh cream (for brushing top)
2 x 24 cm diameter pans

Glaze Ingredients (to be mixed together):
100 g icing sugar
about 1-2 tbsp water

Method:
In a mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, egg white, salt and melted butter.  In a small jug, mix warm water and crumbled yeast together.  Stir until yeast is dissolved and add to mixing bowl.  Knead dough until it leaves the sides of bowl.  Cover bowl with a damp cloth and leave aside to let dough rise to double its volume - it takes about an hour.

Punch dough down and divide into 16 portions of about 64 g each.  Flatten each portion and place two cherries on it.  Enclose cherries with dough and twist the top. Sprinkle castor sugar on the base of pan and arrange dough with pinch side down as shown.  You can also arrange them on a baking tray if preferred.

Leave to rise for about 30 minutes.  Then, glaze top of buns with egg yolk/cream mixture.

Bake in a preheated fan oven at 170° C for 25 minutes.  Once done, brush top with icing sugar/water mixture while still hot.  This is how the cross-section of a bun looks like:

Serve buns as they are or just sprinkled with icing sugar on top and serve with vanilla sauce.

Happy Baking!

Kirsch Wähe (Cherry-Custard Tart) & Mandeln Hefezopf (Almond Yeast Braid)

As today is Father's Day in Germany, I baked two different bakes using the same yeast bread recipe.  I used to have reservations whenever I handle fresh yeast dough but not anymore.  The most important thing to remember is that your yeast must be fresh (not old or expired).  If you wish to bake only the Cherry-Custard Tart, the dough recipe can be found at the end of this post.  Why not make both to please your family?

Ingredients:
600 g flour (type 550) or plain flour (type 405)
80 g fine sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp salt
40 g butter, to be gently melted
250 ml warm water (straight from the tap)
1 cube à 42 g fresh yeast, to be crumbled

Method:
In a mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, egg white, salt and melted butter.  In a small jug, mix warm water and crumbled yeast together.  Stir until yeast is dissolved and add to mixing bowl.  Knead dough until it leaves the sides of bowl.  Cover bowl with a damp cloth and leave aside to let dough rise to double its volume.

Take away a portion and weigh it to 350 g.  Through my experience, I will get a total of about 1040 to 1050 g.  Leave the rest in the bowl and cover.

Filling Ingredients for Cherry-Custard Tart:
400 g pitted fresh cherries (or preserved)
4 eggs
250 ml fresh cream
4 tbsp castor sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Method:
Preheat fan oven to a temperature of 170° C.  Grease a 28 cm diameter pie pan.  Roll out dough and bring the sides up a little.  Make sure that the edges are not too thick. Arrange pitted cherries on dough evenly as shown.

In a bowl, whisk eggs, fresh cream, castor sugar and cinnamon together.  Pour half of cream into pie pan.  Place pie pan on middle rack of hot oven and then, pour the remaining cream mixture.  This is to avoid unnecessary spilling when transporting the pie pan to the oven.  Bake for about 40 minutes.

Once done, sprinkle with icing sugar passed through a small sieve.  Below is a cross-section of the tart when cut.

Dough Ingredients (if you want to bake the tart only):

250 g plain flour

½ cube fresh yeast (ca. 20 g)

125 ml warm water (straight from the tap)

40 g fine sugar

a pinch of salt

70 g soft butter
Note:  Follow the same method as above.

Almond Hefezopf

Extra Ingredients for Almond Hefezopf:
10 g almond slices
1 egg yolk, to be mixed with 1 tbsp fresh cream

Glaze Ingredients (to be mixed together) for Almond Hefezopf:
100 g icing sugar
about 1-2 tbsp water

Method:
Divide remaining dough into 3 portions.  Roll each portion to a long shape of about 35 cm long.

Arrange each portion as shown below:

Place on a greased baking tray.  Brush with water and leave aside for about 30 minutes.

Then, brush with egg yolk/cream mixture and sprinkle with sliced almonds.

Bake in a preheated fan oven at a temperature of 170° C for about 25 minutes.  Once done, glaze with icing sugar/water mixture while it is still hot.

Bon Appetit!

Hot Cross Buns

Today is Good Friday (kindly note that we do not celebrate it), I baked these light & fluffy homemade buns for tea.  They are surprisingly easy to make and smell fragrant.  The following recipe yields 12 medium-sized buns and the ingredients many be halved to suit one's family.

Ingredients (yields 12 medium-sized buns):
600 g strong white bread flour or german flour type 550, to be sifted
55 g cold butter
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice, to be sifted
grated zest from one lemon
7 g dried yeast
80 g castor sugar
1 medium-size egg
325 to 330 ml fresh milk, to be gently warmed over low heat
100 g raisins
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp water
2-3 tbsp golden syrup or ahorn syrup for glaze, to be warmed gently

Method:
In a bowl, add flour, butter and mixed spice.  By using the tips of your fingers, rub butter into flour mixture to resemble breadcrumbs.  Add lemon zest, dried yeast and sugar.  Stir well.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.  Put on the kneading hook to your machine.  Add egg and knead for 1 minute before adding all the warm milk.  Knead over high speed for about 5 minutes or until the dough mixture leave the sides of the bowl.  Remove to a lightly greased (with butter) large bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave aside in a warm place for about 1 hour in order that the dough rises to double its volume.  In the meantime, add raisins to a sieve and run warm water over them. Drain and leave aside.

Transfer dough to a light floured worktop and knead in the raisins.  Return dough to mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and leave aside to rise for another 30 minutes.

Lightly grease a baking tray with butter.  Turn out dough on floured worktop and divide into 12 portions of about 106 g each.  Shape each portion into a ball and arrange on baking tray slightly apart. Cover with clean cloth and leave aside for another 45 minutes.

Preheat fan oven to a temperature of 200° C.  In a small bowl, mix together flour and water together to a smooth paste.  Transfer to a piping bag.  Cut the tip and pipe a cross on each bun.

Bake buns for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Once done, remove from oven and brush top with warm syrup immediately.

Serve warm or cold!  This is how the bun looks like when it is pulled apart.

Happy Baking!

Mandelzopf (Yeast Bread with Almond-Marzipan Filling)

Another variation of the classical Hefezopf (Yeast Bread).  This time, I added an Almond-Marzipan filling for a change.  The dough recipe belongs to my dear sister-in-law, Maria.  Normally, milk is used to make this kind of yeast bread but I added warm water taken directly from the tap. Furthermore, I added flour type 550 instead of the normal plain flour type 405 and I found the texture much softer and better.  One may halve the recipe if one wishes.

Ingredients:
600 g flour (type 550) or plain flour (type 405)
80 g fine sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp salt
40 g butter, to be gently melted
250 ml warm water (straight from the tap)
1 cube à 42 g fresh yeast, to be crumbled

Filling Ingredients:
100 g marzipan
100 g apricot jam
100 g chopped almonds
100 g raisins

Glaze Ingredients:
1 egg yolk, to be mixed with 1 tbsp fresh cream
100 g apricot jam, to be heated over low heat
100 g icing sugar
about 3 tbsp water
2 tbsp roasted almond slices

Method:
In a small bowl, mix marzipan and apricot jam until well blended.  Then, add chopped almonds and raisins.  Mix thoroughly.  If the mixture is too dry, add a little egg white in order that the mixture blends well.

In a mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, egg white, salt, melted butter, water and crumbled yeast.  Knead dough until it leaves the sides of bowl.  Cover bowl with a damp cloth and leave aside to let dough rise to double its volume.

Remove dough from bowl and knead on a floured worktop.  Roll out to a rectangular shape of 35 cm x 45 cm.  Add filling in the middle, about 8 cm in width.  By using a pizza cutter, cut as shown maintaining a width of 2 cm i.e. from top & bottom, towards filling and the dough strips.

Bring the top portion of dough over filling.  Carefully, bring the left strip over the filling and then, the right strip.  Repeat procedure until the end, then tuck the end part underneath as shown.

Leave to rise for about 30 minutes.  Then, brush with a mixture of egg yolk & milk all over.  Bake in a preheated fan oven at 160° C for about 25 to 30 minutes.  Once done, brush immediately with hot apricot jam and leave aside to cool down completely.

In a small bowl, mix icing sugar and water together.  Brush all over and sprinkle with the roasted almonds.

Bon Appetit!

Hefezöpfe (Yeast Braid) - Almond Hefezopf & Nutella-Almond Hefezopf

Our family's favourite and the following recipe belongs to my dear sister-in-law, Maria. Normally, milk is used to make this kind of yeast bread but this time, I added warm water taken directly from the tap. Furthermore, I added flour type 550 instead of the normal plain flour type 405 and I found the texture much softer and better.  Kindly note that I divided the dough into two in order to get two different types of bread.  Of course, you can bake one or the other according to your preference.

Ingredients:
600 g flour (type 550) or plain flour (type 405)
80 g fine sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp salt
40 g butter, to be gently melted
250 ml warm water (straight from the tap)
1 cube à 42 g fresh yeast, to be crumbled

Extra Ingredients for Almond Hefezopf:
10 g almond slices
1 egg yolk, to be mixed with 1 tbsp fresh cream

Extra Ingredients for Nutella-Almond Hefezopf (to be mixed together):
100 g Nutella
50 g chopped almonds

Glaze Ingredients (to be mixed together):
100 g icing sugar
about 1-2 tbsp water

Method:
In a mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, egg white, salt and melted butter.  In a small jug, mix warm water and crumbled yeast together.  Stir until yeast is dissolved and add to mixing bowl.  Knead dough until it leaves the sides of bowl.  Cover bowl with a damp cloth and leave aside to let dough rise to double its volume.

Divide dough into two portions.  Through my experience, I will get a total of about 1040 - 1050 g which I will divide into two.

Almond Hefezopf:
Divide dough into 3 portions à 170 g.  Roll each portion into a long shape of about 35 cm long.

Arrange each portion as shown below:

Place on a greased baking tray.  Brush with water and leave aside for about 20 to 30 minutes to rise.

Then, brush with egg yolk/cream mixture and sprinkle with sliced almonds.

Bake in a preheated fan oven at 160° - 170° C for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Once done, brush with glaze while still hot.

Nutella-Almond Zopf:
Roll out dough into a rectangular size of 26 cm x 33 cm.  Spread Nutella-almond mixture, making sure the edges are left free.

Start rolling from the long side.

Place rolled dough on a greased baking tray with the seams underneath.  From the middle, cut dough into two and then, braid by placing each portion over or under each other.

Repeat on the other side by cutting dough into two and repeat procedure.

Brush dough (not on filling) with egg yolk/cream mixture and leave to rise for about 20-30 minutes. Bake for about 25 minutes.  Once done, brush with glaze while still hot.

Bon Appetit!