Franzbrötchen facts for kids
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| Type | Pastry |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Germany |
| Main ingredients | Butter, cinnamon |
A Franzbrötchen is a super yummy, sweet pastry from Germany! It's made with lots of butter and cinnamon, kind of like a cinnamon roll. Sometimes, bakers add other tasty things like chocolate or raisins to them.
You'll find this special pastry mostly in northern Germany, especially in the city of Hamburg. People usually eat Franzbrötchen for breakfast. But they are also perfect to enjoy with coffee and cake later in the day. The name "Franzbrötchen" sounds a bit like "French bread," and it was probably inspired by French pastries. While it started in Hamburg, you can now find Franzbrötchen in other German cities like Bremen and Berlin too!
How Franzbrötchen Are Made
Making a Franzbrötchen involves a few fun steps! The dough is made from flour, butter, yeast, milk, sugar, and a tiny bit of salt. The yummy filling is a mix of sugar and cinnamon.
First, the dough is folded and rolled out many times. Each time, it gets a layer of butter spread on it. This makes the pastry flaky and delicious. Once the dough is super thin, it's lightly wet with water. Then, the sugar and cinnamon mix is sprinkled all over it. Finally, the dough is rolled up tightly.
To get the Franzbrötchen's special shape, the long roll of dough is cut into slices. Each slice is about four centimeters thick. Then, the middle of each piece is pressed down with a spoon handle. This makes the filling squeeze out a little on the sides. When the Franzbrötchen bakes, the yeast dough puffs up. The sugar and cinnamon on the outside turn a little bit crispy and golden. Because of the butter and caramelized sugar, Franzbrötchen are often a little sticky and wonderfully sweet! Some Franzbrötchen have extra ingredients like raisins, seeds, chocolate sprinkles, or pumpkin seeds.
The Story of Franzbrötchen
The name Franzbrötchen probably comes from French pastries. One popular idea is that it was inspired by the croissant. Croissants are also made from flaky pastry. They became popular in Germany after Napoleon's soldiers took over Hamburg between 1806 and 1814.
Another old story says that people in Hamburg used to make a long "Franzbrot," which means "French bread." This bread looked a lot like a French baguette. The legend goes that a baker in Hamburg once fried one of these long Franzbrots in a pan with fat. This might have been the very first Franzbrötchen, leading to the tasty pastry we know today!
