Chef Klaus
Bayerische Breze
The Bavarian pretzel lives by its lye bath: a pale dough goes in, a dark glossy Breze comes out, with thin arms, a proud belly, and salt that bites clean.
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Rosinenbrötchen
Created by
The German bakery raisin roll lives by one small piece of discipline: soak the fruit first, or it steals moisture from the crumb and scorches at the crust.
Breads
German
Weeknight
Make Ahead
Comfort Food
35 min
Active Time
18 min cook•2 hr 35 min total
Yield10 rolls
Rosinenbrötchen are bakery food for breakfast, school bags, and the Sunday coffee table. Not feast food exactly, but the kind of sweet roll that makes a plain morning feel looked after. In the Rhineland and Westphalia you see them as Rosinenbrötchen, in Swabia and Baden more often as Rosinenweckle or Rosinenwecken. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders, and here the argument is usually shape, name, and sweetness, not the soul of the dough.
I make them from a soft milk dough with butter, egg, and enough sugar to tell you it isn't a plain Brötchen. The raisins decide whether the roll works. Soak them first in warm water, tea, or apple juice, then drain them well, because dry raisins pull water out of the dough and turn into hard bitter spots at the surface. Plumped fruit bakes tender inside the crumb. That's the whole lesson.
Keep the dough soft. A stiff dough gives you neat little stones, and nobody needs that on Sunday. Knead until it stretches, let it rise until it looks alive, and add the raisins late so they stay whole instead of being torn into the dough. Das braucht seine Zeit, not a heroic amount, just enough for yeast to do its work.
Brush with egg and milk, bake until pale gold, and let the rolls cool before you split one with butter. Warm butter disappearing into a fresh Rosinenbrötchen is a proper German breakfast. Schön ist, was schmeckt.
Raisins reached German baking through long-distance Mediterranean trade well before they became everyday pantry goods; in the Middle Ages and early modern period they marked richer feast breads, Stollen, and sweet holiday loaves more than weekday rolls. The shift toward ordinary sweet yeast rolls belongs to the nineteenth century, when beet sugar became cheaper after Franz Carl Achard opened the first beet-sugar factory in Silesia in 1801 and commercial baker's yeast made enriched doughs more reliable. Regional names still show the split: Brötchen dominates much of the north and west, while Wecken and Weckle are southern and southwestern words for a small roll.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
sultanas or raisins
Quantity
120g
warm water, black tea, or apple juice
Quantity
150ml
for soaking
plain flour or German Type 550 flour
Quantity
500g
instant yeast or fresh yeast
Quantity
7g instant / 21g fresh
whole milk
Quantity
220ml
lukewarm
sugar
Quantity
70g
large egg
Quantity
1
at room temperature
unsalted butter
Quantity
75g
softened
fine salt
Quantity
8g
lemon zest (optional)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
finely grated
egg yolk and milk
Quantity
1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon milk
beaten together for glazing
soft butter (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| sultanas or raisins | 120g |
| warm water, black tea, or apple juicefor soaking | 150ml |
| plain flour or German Type 550 flour | 500g |
| instant yeast or fresh yeast | 7g instant / 21g fresh |
| whole milklukewarm | 220ml |
| sugar | 70g |
| large eggat room temperature | 1 |
| unsalted buttersoftened | 75g |
| fine salt | 8g |
| lemon zest (optional)finely grated | 1 teaspoon |
| egg yolk and milkbeaten together for glazing | 1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon milk |
| soft butter (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Large mixing bowl or stand mixer with dough hook
- •Digital scale
- •Baking sheet lined with parchment
- •Pastry brush
- •Wire cooling rack
Instructions
- 1
Plump the raisins
Put the sultanas or raisins in a bowl and cover them with the warm water, tea, or apple juice for 20 minutes. Drain them well and pat them dry. Dry fruit pulls moisture out of the dough and burns where it touches the oven heat; plumped fruit stays tender and sweet inside the crumb.
Tea gives a quiet bakery bitterness, apple juice gives a little fruit sweetness. Both are honest. What matters is that the fruit goes into the dough swollen, not thirsty. - 2
Mix the dough
Put the flour in a bowl with the yeast, sugar, salt, and lemon zest if using. Add the lukewarm milk and egg, then mix until no dry flour remains. Lukewarm means warm to the finger, not hot; too much heat weakens the yeast before it has earned its keep.
- 3
Knead in butter
Knead the dough for 5 minutes, then work in the softened butter a little at a time and keep kneading until the dough turns smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky, about 8 to 10 minutes by hand or 6 to 8 minutes in a mixer. Butter coats flour and slows gluten if it goes in too early, so build the dough first and enrich it after.
- 4
Add the raisins
Flatten the dough slightly, scatter over the drained raisins, and fold and knead just until they are evenly spread. Add them late because the fruit tears under a long knead, smears sugar into the dough, and leaves dark streaks instead of clean pockets of raisin.
- 5
Let it rise
Cover the bowl and let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled, about 60 to 75 minutes. Don't chase speed with a hot spot. Slow, steady yeast gives a finer crumb, while too much warmth pushes the butter out and leaves the dough greasy.
- 6
Shape the rolls
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 10 pieces, about 95g each. Shape each piece into a tight round by pulling the edges underneath, then roll it under your palm until the top is smooth. A taut skin holds the rise upward in the oven; a loose shape spreads flat and sulks.
- 7
Proof and glaze
Set the rolls on a lined baking sheet with space between them, cover loosely, and let them rise until puffy and soft to the touch, 35 to 45 minutes. Brush with the egg yolk and milk glaze just before baking. The glaze gives colour and a soft shine, and it goes on late so it doesn't dry into a skin.
- 8
Bake and cool
Bake at 190C for 16 to 18 minutes, until the rolls are pale gold, glossy, and sound light when lifted. If exposed raisins darken too fast, tuck them in next time rather than blaming the oven. Cool on a rack for at least 20 minutes before splitting, because the crumb finishes setting as it cools and cuts clean instead of tearing.
Chef Tips
- •Use sultanas if you want the softer bakery bite. Dark raisins work too, but they have a stronger skin and need the soak even more.
- •Type 550 flour is the German bakery choice for this sort of roll. Plain flour is close enough; strong bread flour can make the crumb too chewy if you knead it hard.
- •Don't drown the dough in flour while shaping. A little tack is correct for an enriched milk dough, and too much bench flour makes the finished roll dry.
- •For a Sunday finish, split one while barely warm and spread it with good butter. Jam is allowed. A knife scraped over cold supermarket margarine is not an improvement.
- •Leftover rolls are for bread pudding, Arme Ritter, or sliced and toasted. Weggeworfen wird nichts.
Advance Preparation
- •For breakfast, mix and knead the dough the evening before, let it rise 30 minutes at room temperature, then refrigerate it covered overnight. Shape it cold in the morning and give the rolls 60 to 75 minutes to proof before baking.
- •The raisins can be soaked, drained, and refrigerated a day ahead. Pat them dry before adding them, because wet fruit loosens the dough and makes shaping miserable.
- •Baked Rosinenbrötchen keep one day in a bread box. Freeze extras the day they are baked, then thaw and warm briefly at 150C so the crumb softens again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 roll (about 105g)
Calories
305 calories
Total Fat
8 g
Saturated Fat
5 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
55 mg
Sodium
335 mg
Total Carbohydrates
51 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
17 g
Protein
8 g
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