Schnecken

Whenever I visit New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, I have to stop by William Greenberg Desserts on the Upper East Side, a renowned bakery that sells everything from babka to black and white cookies. But the thing I can't resist when I enter the shop are the schnecken, those sticky, irresistibly buttery, brioche rolls laden with cinnamon, pecans and raisins. I am in rapture with a copycat recipe I found from Lion's Bread website that mimics William Greenberg's schnecken perfectly.  The photo above are the ones I made, and the photo below is from the bakery's website. They are really identical in taste and appearance.

They do require quite a few steps and a good amount of time, but much of that is just giving the dough time to proof. These freeze beautifully and are great to have on hand for Christmas morning while everyone is opening gifts, so get a head start and make these soon. Start out by mixing the dough the night before and putting it in the refrigerator. The next day, mix the softened butter and brown sugar and place into cupcake tins.

Add the pecans (add raisins if you like, but there are raisins inside the dough so I didn't add any on the outside.)

Roll out the dough, spread with more of the butter and sugar mixture, then a layer of raisins.

Slice into twelve pieces and lay on top of the sugar/butter mixture in the cupcake tins.

Let them rise about 1/2 hour or so, then bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. Remove and flip onto a platter. These are delicious at any temperature, but fresh from the oven, they're addictive.

Schnecken

recipe from The Lion's Bread

THE DOUGH

• 12 tablespoons salted butter, 170g at room temperature
• ½ cup sugar, 60g
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sour cream, 120g
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast, 4g
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, 360g
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

THE GLAZE AND FILLING

• 16 tablespoons salted butter, 2 sticks, 226g
• 2 cups dark brown sugar, 426g loosely packed, divided
• 2 cups roughly chopped pecans
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 cup raisins

Instructions

1. Place the butter and sugar in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle and cream at low speed until smooth. Add the egg yolks, 1 at a time, then the sour cream, yeast, vinegar, and vanilla, mixing at medium speed for about 3 minutes, until well incorporated.

2. Replace the paddle with the dough hook and add the flour gradually, mixing at a low speed for about 10 minutes. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky. Remove the dough, dust the top with flour, and press it into a rectangle about 2 inches thick. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

3. The next day, place the 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) of room temperature butter in a large mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar and mix until smooth. Spoon the creamed butter-sugar mixture into the bottoms of a standard 12 well muffins tin. Use a pastry brush to coat the inside of the cups completely with the butter mixture.

4. Scatter the pecans generously over the butter-sugar mixture in the muffin cups. Set aside.

5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Flour your work surface generously and roll it out an into an 8-by-13-inch rectangle about ¼" thick.

   Sprinkle the dough with the 1 cups brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 1 cup raisins. Your lightly floured hands to gently press the raisins and sugar down into the dough. With the long side of the rectangle facing you, roll the dough up tightly into a log.

6. Trim the ends of the rolls slightly and cut the log into 12 slices, about 1 inch thick for the regular schnecken. Place each piece into the prepared muffin cups, cut side down, so that the swirls are face up. Press them down gently into the tins. Cover the baking pan loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and Let the schnecken rise for about 30 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 325° F. Place the muffin tin on top of a rimmed cookie sheet, to prevent any buttery spills in your oven. Bake the schnecken on the middle rack until golden, about 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, and invert onto a clean baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Allow to the schnecken to cool mostly, but they are amazing when enjoyed fresh from the oven!

8. Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

I know many of you may be "pumpkined out" by this time in the fall, but if you've still got some pumpkin in your cupboard or refrigerator, this is a delicious recipe to tuck away in the freezer for a special holiday breakfast treat. I had a lot of pumpkin stored in the freezer from last fall, when I cooked down and froze some pureed pumpkin I made from the blue pumpkin in my front porch display. But you could certainly use canned pumpkin if you like.

The dough is easy to make. Roll out to about 12" x 9"

After smearing it with the butter/cinnamon/sugar mixture, roll it up tightly.

Pinch the edges and flip it over to have the smooth side on top.

Cut into twelve slices and trim off the ends. 

I  smooshed the end pieces together and baked it separately in a small oven proof container, as the cook's special treat - hey, I needed to do some quality control, right?

Place the 12 sliced rolls in a baking dish. You could also choose to make two round pans with six rolls in each pan.

Let them rise until nearly doubled in size.

Bake and let cool a little before slathering on the glaze. Or freeze unglazed as I did, reheat slightly in the oven and glaze when ready to serve. 

Check out Ciao Chow Linda on Instagram here to find out what’s cooking in my kitchen each day (and more).

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

(recipe from thefarmersdaughter.com)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup water

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast 

1/4 cup white sugar (1 tablespoon for yeast mixture, 3 tablespoons in the rest of the dough)

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup butter

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (*important: don't add this all at once.  depending on your pumpkin puree thickness, and baking conditions, you may not need it all!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

filling:

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, softened

Directions:

In a small bowl, add water, a tablespoon of white sugar, and yeast.  Stir together and set aside to rise.

In a small saucepan, stir together pumpkin puree and butter on a medium heat, stirring constantly.  Allow to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl, add 2 1/4 cups of flour, remaining 3 tablespoons of white sugar, and salt.  Stir in yeast and egg, and mix well.  Add in pumpkin and butter mixture.  Add in remaining cup of flour, 1/2 cup at a time (*note: you may not need all of the flour depending on the consistency of your pumpkin puree - you want your dough to pull away from the bowl, but not to get too dry.  A little stickiness is good as long as you can still work with it!)  Stir well until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for 5 minutes until smooth (again....it's better if you're dough's a little sticky here, rather than adding too much flour).

Cover with a clean, damp cloth, and let rest for 10 minutes.

Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and soft butter.

Roll dough out into a 9x12 rectangle.

Spread butter-sugar mixture evenly across the dough.  Then, roll up the long side of the dough as tight as you can.  Pinch the seam where it ends, so that it doesn't come apart.  Use either a serrated knife to cut the roll into 12 even pieces, or you can use a piece of plain floss (slide it under the dough, bring it up, cross over each other, and cut).  

*Hint: I often trim the ends of the roll off and bake it in a mini pan to help the buns stay more even!

Arrange the twelve buns into a greased 9x13 pan.  Cover with a clean dish towel, and allow to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.  (I let mine rise for nearly two hours.)  I placed any extra bits or warped rolls into a greased muffin tin.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 18-20 minutes.  

Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan/pie dish.  Best served warm with a glaze/icing.

Glaze/Icing

1 1/2 cup icing sugar

3 tablespoons butter (softened)

1/2 cup maple syrup

directions:

In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients together and adjust to taste/desired thickness.  Drizzle or spread over cinnamon rolls.  I like to soften my butter a lot, so it spreads on easy, and then will firm up.