The Franzbrötchen, it’s a real Hamburgensie. The Danish pastry with the full cinnamon-sugar drone should not be missing in any bakery in the Hanseatic city. And if Christian Hümbs has his way, it shouldn’t be missing anywhere anyway. Hümbs, also known as a juror on the TV show “Das Große Backen”, is an excellent pâtissier, but in his opinion nothing beats the Franzbrötchen. He eats it every day. His passion goes so far that he now also sells his variant of the specialty in his new adopted country, Switzerland. Now the recipe for Franzbrötchen à la Hümbs is finally available to bake at home – in his new baking book “Bake yourself around the world: 90 sweet recipes against wanderlust” and here.
Difficulty level: demandingPreparation: approx. 35 min. approx. 30 min. resting time Cooling timeBaking time: approx. 14 min.
For the Danish pastry: 500 g flour, plus a little more 5 g salt 45 g fresh yeast 230 g milk, cold Pulp of 1 vanilla pod 70 g sugar 85 g butter, room temperature For the sugar: 25 g sugar 9 g ground cinnamon (if possible from Vietnam)
Also:200 g butter for topping120 g nut butter, liquidpasting brushwooden cooking spoonpowdered sugar (to taste)
1. For the butter sheet, roll out 200 g of butter between two pieces of baking paper to form a 20 × 20 cm square.
2. For the Danish pastry, mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Crumble the yeast into the cold milk, add the sugar and stir until the yeast has dissolved. Add the milk mixture and room temperature butter to the flour and knead with the dough hook in the stand mixer on low speed for about 4 minutes and then on high speed for 6 minutes to form a smooth elastic dough. Form the dough into a ball, press flat, wrap in cling film and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
3. On a floured work surface, roll out the chilled dough from the center in all four directions into a rectangular sheet of even thickness, about 22 × 40 cm and remove excess flour. Place the sheet of butter in the middle of the sheet of dough and fold over the edges of the dough so that the butter is completely covered by the dough. Make sure that the butter and dough are about the same firm and that the dough above and below the butter is the same thickness. The dough should not have any openings or cracks from which fat could escape when rolling out.
4. Roll out the Danish pastry. The first step is a simple tour: Carefully roll out the packet of butter and dough into a rectangular sheet about 20 × 40 cm in size. Fold one third of the dough over the middle third and fold over the last third to create three layers of dough. Wrap the sheet of dough in cling film. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
5. Then repeat two simple tours, resulting in a total of three simple tours.
6. Roll out the dough into a long rectangle (4 mm thick). Spread the liquid nut butter evenly over the dough with a brush. Sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon mixture and roll up tightly from the long side. Cut into 4-5 cm wide pieces and press the roll down to the bottom with the floured handle of a cooking spoon. Place the Franzbrötchen on a baking tray lined with baking paper so that they are about 5 cm apart. Cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 °C. Bake the Franzbrötchen in the preheated oven (middle) for about 14 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet. Dust with powdered sugar if you like.
A recipe from the baking book by star pastry chef Christian Hümbs “Bake yourself around the world: 90 sweet recipes against wanderlust” has been published by DK Verlag, 224 pages, 24.95 euros.
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