Raisin Snail Buns

This is a very traditional baked goodie found in every German bakery. I remember having them for our afternoon coffee when my dad came home from work.

Ingredients:

Baking sheet 

Parchment paper 

For the yeast dough:

125 ml milk

100 g (3/4 stick) butter or margarine

500 g all-purpose flour

1 package dry yeast

50 g sugar

1 package vanilla sugar or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

2 eggs

For the filling:

125 g raisins

Rum

100 g marzipan (optional)

For the topping:

4 tablespoons apricot jam 

2 tablespoons water

100 g (1 cup) powdered sugar

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice 

Preparation:

1. A day ahead, cover raisins with rum. Soak them until the dough is ready.

2. Cut or grate marzipan. Heat milk in a small pot, dissolve butter or margarine in milk.

3. Mix flour and dry yeast in a large bowl. Add all the remaining ingredients for the dough including the milk-butter mixture. Using the knead hooks of an electric hand mixer whisk until a smooth dough has formed. Cover the bowl with the dough and let the yeast rise until the dough has visibly increased in size.

4. Drain raisins. Roll out the yeast dough to a rectangle about 60x40 cm (24x16 inches). Spread raisins and grated marzipan over dough. Starting from the long edge roll the dough up. Cut slices of about 2 cm (1/2-3/4) inches wide. Put the slices on parchment paper. Cover the slices with a towel and let buns rise again until increased in size.

5. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F). Bake yeast buns for about 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F). 

6. In the meantime prepare the topping: Squeeze apricot jam through a fine mesh. Add water to jam and heat until a syrup has formed.

7. Remove buns from oven. Glaze the hot buns with the apricot syrup. Let buns cool down.

8. Mix powdered sugar with lemon juice. Whisk with a fork until smooth and no clumps of powdered sugar remain. Using a fork drizzle some of the powdered sugar mix onto the glazed buns. 

Comments: 

1. I used more raisins, too much, bakeries have become quite stingy, but if you like raisins you can use more for the filling.

2. I prefer to prepare my yeast dough the night before, then let it slowly rise overnight. The next day you can immediately roll it out, fill it, make the buns, and let those rise again. Giving the yeast a long time to rise makes the dough light and fluffy.