Recipe: Franzbrötchen (Pastry from Hamburg, Germany)

Franzbrötchen is a local pastry from Hamburg, Germany. One of the so-said origins of the Franzbrötchen goes back to the beginning of the 19th century when Napoleon’s (french) troops had occupied Hamburg, as it’s pretty similar to the french Croissant and a cinnamon roll. As it is with many recipes, there are always various methods and variations, some with long family history or some modern interpretations. Following a typical Recipe on how to make Franzbrötchen, one way. If you know other ways to make this sweet dish, usually eaten for breakfast or with a coffee in the afternoon, please share it below in the comments!

Ingredients for (about) 10 Franzbrötchen

dough

500g flour
40 g yeast
70 g sugar
250 ml lukewarm milk
70 g butter
1 pinch salt

filling

100 g cold butter
100 g sugar
1.5 teaspoon cinnamon

How to make Franzbrötchen as in Hamburg, Germany

First, you have to prepare a yeast dough. To speed the process up it is also possible to prepare Franzbrötchen with store-bought puff pastry. If you go for this, continue with the upcoming paragraph when it comes to filling the Pastry.
To prepare a typical German yeast dough you have to mix all the ingredients for the dough together, flour, yeast, sugar, medium-warm milk, butter and some salt. Mix it until it becomes a nice dough. Now roll the dough on a floured working surface in about the shape of a rectangle, it will be about the size of a baking sheet. Cut the cold Butter into multiple thin slices and place all of them on one-half of the rolled-out dough, and flip the other side over. Roll the dough again, to an approx. size of 50 x 30 cm. Take one-third of the dough from the narrow side towards the middle, beat the remaining third, so that three layers lie on top of each other. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

Now roll the dough to an approximate size of 80 x 40 cm and coat it gently with water. Mix cinnamon and sugar and spread the mix evenly over the dough. Roll the dough up from the long side and press down slightly. Cut the roll about every 4 cm and press it down in the middle with a spoon, so it looks about like a butterfly. If you have problems with this step, I can recommend this YouTube Tutorial. Place them on a baking sheet with sufficient distance and let them rest for 15 minutes. In the meantime, you can already pre-heat the oven to 200 °C, and bake the Franzbrötchen for about 25 minutes until golden.