German Nussschnecken | German Baking Classics

These German Nussschnecken are another German Baking Classic. Of which they are so many, so try out some of my other recipes, too! For example you could also make a Bienenstich “Bee Sting” Cake or a Traditional Black Forest Gâteau!

German Nussschnecken aren´t very time-consuming or hard to make and are the perfect treat for a Sunday breakfast or afternoon tea or coffee (known as “Kaffee und Kuchen” in Germany. Nussschnecken are a typical sweet pastry I mentioned you might find in my post about the traditional German breakfast.

The recipe for the dough for the Nusszopf, which I turned into Nussschnecken was originally taken from Sally´s Blog. I absolutely love her recipes, so why not check them out, too?

What exactly are Nussschnecken?

Nussschnecken literally translates to “Nut Snails”, due to their swirled appearance which resembles a snail’s house. Obviously, I realise that it doesn’t sound too appealing – but trust me, they taste amazing!

As I said, it is a German Baking Classic that you can find in most German bakeries. There are a few variations of this pastry using different fillings than nuts. They could be filled with poppy seeds (“Mohnschnecken”), cinnamon (“Zimtschnecken”) or even Quark (“Quarkschnecken”) instead. I have yet to attempt Quarkschnecken, another favourite of mine, but you can also find Zimtschnecken (Cinnamon Buns) and Mohnschnecken (Poppy Seed Buns) recipes on my blog.

How do you make German Nussschnecken?

The basic recipe is the same as for my German Nusszopf “Nut Plait” recipe. Instead of making it into a plait however, the dough is shaped into individual buns.

The dough tastes best when made using fresh yeast, unfortunately though I have had difficulty finding it in the UK. Luckily, a bit of dried fast action yeast will also do the trick.

When making the dough, you start by combining the flour, a little sugar, yeast, salt, egg and milk. Mix, and then you add the butter to bring all the ingredients together into a smooth dough. The butter isn´t added until the end, because you want to avoid it immediately touching the yeast. If it does it can prevent the yeast from doing its job properly and making the dough rise.

For the filling, I use hazelnuts (the Germans love hazelnuts, they use them in everything), but you could probably also use other nuts for it, almonds, for example. In order to give the Nusschnecken a more interesting texture, I use a 50-50 mix of ground and chopped nuts.

The recipe requires splitting an egg into two portions, I have included a tip below on how to do that.

Why not double-up?

If you are feeding a crowd though and want to make a bigger batch of Nussschnecken, then feel free to double the recipe (if you do use 1 sachet (7g) of dried fast-action yeast).

Or use half of the dough to make Nussschnecken and the other half to try this German Nusszopf recipe!

German Nussschnecken | German Baking Classics

Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 8):

FOR THE DOUGH

• 250g plain white flour
• 40g sugar
• 4g dried fast action yeast (or half a cube of fresh yeast, if you can find it)
• Pinch of salt
• ½ medium egg
• 125ml look warm milk
• 40g softened butter

FOR THE NUT FILLING

• ½ medium egg
• 50g ground hazelnuts
• 50g chopped hazelnuts
• 1.5tbsp / 25g sugar
• 1tbsp / 10g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1-1.5 tbsp milk

FOR THE LEMON ICING

• 50g icing sugar
• Lemon juice or water

Method:

1. Place the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl and mix. Then create a little well in the middle. Add you half egg and milk (heat in the microwave for 30-40 seconds) to the well. Start beating with the dough hook attachment of your electric mixer or start mixing with a wooden spoon.
2. Once the dough is starting to come together, add in the softened butter. Continue to beat until the dough comes together into a ball.
3. Tip onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for a few minutes until it is smooth. To  shape into a ball, tense the sides of the dough by pulling bits of dough into the middle. Turn so that the end bits of the dough are on your surface and form into a ball by cupping the dough in your hands and turning it.
4. Return your dough ball to the bowl and cover with a dishtowel. Leave to rise in a warm place for 30-60 minutes, or until doubled in size.
5. Whilst the dough is proving, make the filling. Place all the ingredients with a tablespoon of milk into a bowl and mix. You want the mixture to be moist, but not wet. Add a bit more milk if you need it.
6. Once the dough has double in size and you are ready to put on the filling, line a baking tray with baking paper and preheat the oven to 200°C.
7. Lightly dust the surface with flour. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, roughly 0.5cm thick and 40x30cm in size.
8. Spoon on dollops of the filling and then spread the filling evenly over the dough. Then, roll up the dough from the longer side into a sausage. You can pull the dough slightly at the ends to make it neat.
9. Push together the sausage from both ends to make it a bit thicker, if necessary. Place on the baking tray. With a large knife cut the dough-sausage into slices, about 2-3 centimetres thick.
10. Lay them cut-side up onto a baking tray with plenty of room between them. They will spread whilst baking in the oven and are not meant to touch whilst baking.
11. Bake the Nussschnecken in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. If necessarily, cover them with tinfoil after about 10 minutes to prevent the top and exposed filling from burning.
12. Remove the Nussschnecken from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
13. To make the icing, slowly add small amounts of lemon juice to the icing sugar and mix well. Keep adding lemon juice until the icing reaches a smooth, thick consistency. If it´s too runny, add more icing sugar.
14. Spread the icing over the slightly cooled buns and leave to set.

Recipe Tips

How to divide an egg in two: Crack your egg into a pre-weighed bowl. Whisk the egg so that the yolk and egg white are combined. Re-weigh your bowl and see what the difference is (a medium egg weighs roughly 50g). Simply calculate how much half of the egg weighs and weigh that amount into a second bowl. And there you have it – a half medium egg in each bowl.