German Plum Rolls

5 from 1 vote

Light and fluffy yeasted dough, rolled with a tart and rich plum butter, and topped with a vanilla custard, these German Plum Rolls are the end of summer cinnamon roll.

Prep Time1 35

Cook Time2 30

Proofing time1 5

Total Time1 4 10

Course: Afternoon Kaffee, Breakfast, Dessert

Cuisine: German

Keyword: cherries, schnecken, Streusel

Servings:

Calories: 752kcal

Ingredients

Plum Butter

900 grams plums with pits, approximately 350 grams plum jam
150 grams granulated sugar

Vanilla Pudding

50 grams granulated sugar
10 grams corn starch or arrow root starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
200 milliliters whole milk
50 milliliters heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
20 grams butter

Dough

350 grams all purpose flour
50 grams granulated sugar
12 grams instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
150 milliliters milk lukewarm
80 grams butter soft
1 egg room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Extras

60 grams butter very soft
50 grams powdered sugar

Instructions

Pflaumenmus (Plum Butter)

The night before you plan to make these bars (or up to 5 days in advance), you need to macerate the plums so they can be cooked into a plum butter the next day.
To macerate the plums, rinse and dry them. Then remove any stems and cut in half lengthwise around the pit to remove it. Place all of the pitted plums into a large pot or bowl. I used a coated cast iron dutch oven which works perfectly but don't use one that isn't coated as the sugar and acid will be too much for the exposed iron.
Pour in the granulated sugar and stir to combine. Optionally add in two teaspoons of cinnamon at this time.
Cover the pot or bowl and leave it to sit at room temperature overnight.
Place a small plate in your freezer, this will be used to test the plum butter.
When you are ready to cook the plum butter the next day, remove the cover and place the pot with the macerated plums (if they were in a bowl, transfer them to a pot at this step) over the lowest heat possible.
You want to cook this plum butter low and slow, stirring frequently to prevent the sugar from burning. This takes about an hour but could be a little less or more depending on how many plums you're cooking.
Continue cooking until the mixture has thickened to the point where you don't really see any plum juices running around.
To test the doneness of the pflaumenmus, take the plate out of the freezer and spoon 1 tablespoon of it onto the plate. Allow it to sit for 30 seconds to a minute. Then, when you wipe the jam off with your finger it should wrinkle and be quite thick.
Once cooked, remove from the heat and pour the plum butter into an airtight container and store in the fridge until ready to use.

Pudding

In a small sauce pot, whisk together the cornstarch, sugar, and salt.
Pour in the milk, heavy cream, and egg yolk and whisk again.
Place the pot over medium heat and whisk. Continue to whisk until the mixture thickens and just starts to bubble and thicken.
Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract until the butter has fully melted.
Pour into a large shallow dish to cool. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on the surface to prevent it from forming a skin.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer add in the flour, sugar, and yeast, then whisk to combine.
Add in the warm milk, butter, egg, salt, and vanilla.
Use the dough hook attachment to knead the dough on medium speed until just combined and then turn it down to low and knead until smooth and the sides of the mixing bowl are clean.
Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a lid or plastic and place somewhere warm to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 350 F and arrange two racks so that they divide the oven into thirds.

Assemble

Line one baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Once doubled in size, lightly sprinkle the dough with flour and punch out the air from the dough. I recommend not re-kneading it because this will tighten the gluten making it difficult to roll out but just be sure to smoosh out all of the air.
Lightly flour your work surface and pat the dough into a skinny rectangle. Gently roll the dough out to approximately 30 cm x 50 cm. I recommend rolling the short end closest to you a little thinner so the center isn't too thick.
Spread 30 grams of the very soft butter over the entire surface of the dough. I recommend doing this with a pastry brush or an offset spatula.
Spoon the plum butter over the thin butter layer and use an offset spatula or a rubber spatula to spread it over the whole surface of the dough, all the way to the edges.
Starting with the short side closest to you, roll the dough up tight but not too tight that all of the jam squeezes out.
Use a knife and ruler to mark the log into 6 even slices.
Use the same sharp knife to cut the roll into slices. Lay each of the slices onto the lined baking sheet. Tuck about a 1/2" of the end of the swirl under each roll.
Gently press down on top of each slice, it will be a little messy, but this helps to give them their characteristic large swirl.
Tuck about a 1/2" of the end of the swirl under each roll.
Gently press down on top of each slice, it will be a little messy, but this helps to give them their characteristic large swirl.
Press the center of the swirl down to make a little well. Spoon about 2-3 tablespoons of the vanilla custard into the center well.
Leave the rolls to proof for about 20 minutes, they should look like they have grown slightly and are a little puffy.
Once proofed, bake the rolls for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes until golden brown.

Finishing

Once baked and slightly golden brown, take the baking sheet out of the oven and place on a wire cooling rack.
Immediately brush the browned dough with 30 more grams of butter. Then leave them to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving dusting with powdered sugar.
Last but not least, fill a piping bag with the remaining pudding and pipe it into the center where the baked pudding is. Careful not to push the tip of the bag too far down so that it doesn't squeeze out of the bottom.

Notes

Tips for making Plum rolls

To prevent clumps in your pudding, make sure to whisk the cornstarch in with the sugar before adding the wet!
While cooking the pudding, whisk constantly, if you walk away the cornstarch could start to clump leaving you with a clumpy pudding.
Don't forget to lay plastic wrap on the surface of the pudding while it chills to prevent it from forming a skin.
When making the plum butter, don't leave it alone on the stove for more than five minutes as the sugars will burn if not stirred regularly.
Store bought plum butter can be used instead!
In order for the dough to grow as fast as possible, the ingredients for the dough should be luke warm or room temperature. The colder the ingredients, the longer the dough will take to rise.
As with most yeasted doughs, be sure to knead to dough until it is smooth. For me this took about 20 minutes on low speed.
When rolling out the dough, don't press too hard that you tear the dough - it should be a gentle, even amount of pressure and use a little flour so the dough doesn't stick. If the dough keeps shrinking back, let it rest for a few minutes to relax the gluten and then roll again.
In order for the rolls to grow as quickly as possible, make sure the jam is at room temperature or slightly warm.
Cutting through the roll to create the slices can get a little messy. For best results use a thin sharp knife to saw through the roll and cut the slices. Alternatively, you could roll the dough out, spread the jam over it, and then cut it into the strips first and then roll each strip individually.

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