Easter pastries: Nusszopf and Palmbrezel

Dough:
1 kg wheat flour (type 550)

350 g milk, room temperature

150 g water

4 egg yolks

80 g sugar

1 vanilla pod

120 g butter, soft

22 g salt

60 g fresh yeast


Nut filling:

600 g hazelnuts, ground

150 g almonds, ground

180 g sugar

50 g sponge cake crumbs

5 g cinnamon

zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

400 g milk


Glaze:

120 g powdered sugar

1/2 lemon juice

2 egg whites

To prepare the dough, place all the ingredients in the food processor and mix on low speed 2. After approx. 2 minutes, increase the speed to level 3-4, depending on the food processor. Allow the dough to knead for approx. 8-10 minutes. Then remove the dough from the food processor, punch it down briefly and form a ball, cover with a tea towel and leave to stand at room temperature for 50 minutes (dough resting time).

For the icing, add the lemon juice and sugar to the egg whites and mix everything until there are no lumps. By now you should have decided on one of the two recipes - or simply bake both.


Nut plait

First you need to prepare the nut filling. To do this, roast the hazelnuts and almonds in a frying pan. Place the roasted nuts in a bowl with the sugar, cookie crumbs and cinnamon and mix everything well. Add the milk and lemon juice and zest to the nuts. Then mix everything again and leave to stand covered.

Sprinkle the worktop with flour. Weigh out 6 pieces of dough of 300 g each and roll out as rectangular as possible to approx. 3-4 mm. Mix the nut filling again and weigh out 6 portions of approx. 220 g each, then spread them over the 6 pieces. Then roll up each piece of dough tightly. Press the right end of the strand towards the center and press firmly, now place the left end through the loop and upwards, now take the right end, turn it away from you and finally pull the left end through the loop. Then place the braided plait on a tray, cover and leave to rise at room temperature for approx. 45 minutes. In the meantime, heat the monolith with deflector stone to 220°C indirect heat.

Once the braids have risen, bake them in the preheated monolith at 220°C for approx. 22-28 minutes on the third level. Finally, brush the hot nut plaits with the glaze using a brush.


Palm pretzels

Weigh out approx. 100 g of dough and roll out long strands of dough, 3 pieces at a time for one palm pretzel. Place 3 strands of dough next to each other on the table and start braiding. Always alternate the outer strand of dough over the middle one. When the plait is braided, place it lengthwise in front of you. Roll the ends of the dough tightly together. Cross the ends once and do the same a second time to create the classic pretzel shape. Then press the ends down firmly.

Place 3 palm pretzels on a baking tray, cover and leave to rise at room temperature for approx. 35-45 minutes. In the meantime, heat the monolith with deflector stone to 220°C indirect heat. Once the pretzels have risen, bake them in the preheated monolith for approx. 18-22 minutes on the third level. Brush the warm palm pretzels with the glaze and sprinkle with toasted almonds.