What Do You Get When You Cross a Croissant with a Cinnamon Roll?: Franzbrötchen (Cinnamon-Sugar Buns)
After acquiring a pound of fresh yeast, I remembered that Luisa Weiss has quite a few recipes in Classic German Baking that are written for fresh yeast. Or to be specific, she has some recipes that call for instant yeast, some where she gives directions for using either instant or fresh yeast (for instance, the poppy-seed braid and poppy-seed crescent rolls), and some where Weiss says fresh yeast is preferred. I decided to try her recipe for "Franzbrötchen (Cinnamon-Sugar Buns)," where the headnote indicates that she prefers to make them with fresh yeast since it gives the rolls added moisture, oven spring, and flavor -- but Weiss does provide a measurement for using instant yeast if you like.
These rolls are made with a yeasted, laminated Danish dough -- Weiss calls them "a flaky, buttery cross between croissants and squashed cinnamon rolls." The method is involved and takes some time. To make the dough, you crumble fresh yeast into lukewarm milk, add a pinch of sugar and some flour, and set the mixture aside for half an hour. In another bowl, you whisk together more flour, sugar, and salt; make a well in the middle; add eggs, room temperature high-fat butter, and the yeast mixture; and stir everything together and knead the mixture by hand until it forms a smooth ball. I let the dough rise for a couple of hours until doubled.
I rolled out the dough into a square, encased a block of cold high-fat butter, made a letter fold, and chilled the dough for 20 minutes. After resting the dough in the fridge, I rolled it out and repeated the letter fold/chilling/rolling process two more times. After the final chill, I divided the dough in half and rolled out each portion into a square that I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, rolled up, and cut into six rolls. While each roll was still on its side, I pressed down in the middle of the roll with the handle of a wooden spoon, pushing out the sides. Then I flattened the rolls with the palm of my hand before letting them rise for another 20 minutes.
Even before baking, I could tell that my rolls were not going to look like the one pictured in the cookbook. The finished shape of these rolls is quite unusual -- you can see a picture Weiss included in her online collection of photos for her cookbook, here. Her rolls resemble a croissant in that the sides of the rolls have been substantially pushed out to form a tapered crescent shape. I'm not sure if I cut my rolls too narrow, but as you can see in the photo below, my rolls were not nearly as elongated. Still, I thought they looked attractive enough. And I did achieve lots of flaky laminated layers of butter and dough.
These rolls were quite good and as Weiss explains in the recipe headnote, they had three distinct textures: the chewy middle section, the flakier outer section, and the crisp and caramelized bottom. The overall flavor was not very cinnamon-y; I would call these closer to a croissant than a cinnamon roll. And while the rolls were delicious when freshly baked, they deteriorated quickly and had a very short half life. Even after just a few hours, they had declined markedly and lost their flakiness. Weiss does say that they should be eaten the day they are made and recommends reheating the rolls in a 350 degree oven for five minutes to refresh them if you keep them for a day or two. I tried this, but they never regained their original luster.
I actually would like to try making these again, to see if I can get a better shape. The shape is not just about aesthetics. Squashing down the center of the rolls is what creates the zones of distinct textures. But I'm not making these again unless I have a houseful of guests waiting to eat them right after they're baked!
Recipe: "Franzbrötchen (Cinnamon-Sugar Buns)" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss, recipe available here at Food52.
These rolls are made with a yeasted, laminated Danish dough -- Weiss calls them "a flaky, buttery cross between croissants and squashed cinnamon rolls." The method is involved and takes some time. To make the dough, you crumble fresh yeast into lukewarm milk, add a pinch of sugar and some flour, and set the mixture aside for half an hour. In another bowl, you whisk together more flour, sugar, and salt; make a well in the middle; add eggs, room temperature high-fat butter, and the yeast mixture; and stir everything together and knead the mixture by hand until it forms a smooth ball. I let the dough rise for a couple of hours until doubled.
I rolled out the dough into a square, encased a block of cold high-fat butter, made a letter fold, and chilled the dough for 20 minutes. After resting the dough in the fridge, I rolled it out and repeated the letter fold/chilling/rolling process two more times. After the final chill, I divided the dough in half and rolled out each portion into a square that I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, rolled up, and cut into six rolls. While each roll was still on its side, I pressed down in the middle of the roll with the handle of a wooden spoon, pushing out the sides. Then I flattened the rolls with the palm of my hand before letting them rise for another 20 minutes.
I actually would like to try making these again, to see if I can get a better shape. The shape is not just about aesthetics. Squashing down the center of the rolls is what creates the zones of distinct textures. But I'm not making these again unless I have a houseful of guests waiting to eat them right after they're baked!
Recipe: "Franzbrötchen (Cinnamon-Sugar Buns)" from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss, recipe available here at Food52.
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