Argentinian crescents are called medialunas, which translates as half moons. I would say they are a distant cousin of French croissants or the Italian cornettos. However, instead of creating a layer of butter seperately, which is then folded into the dough, we will add it directly to the dough. The whole laminating process, which means that the dough is rolled out and folded and then chilled, is kept to a minimum. We will only do it one round. I think this is the perfect compromise, it gives us some of those flaky layers, but does not require as many resting times as the traditional croissant. However, despite a reduction in resting times, this still is a yeast dough, which means that you will need time before you can finally bite into one. I have to admit, suddenly I had eaten three even though I only wanted to eat one…
It is World Bread Day again and this time I brought you some sweet pastry from Argentina, facturas argentinas! Facturas argentinas can be described as the typical sweet pastry you may have for breakfast or as a snack. All bakeries offer an abudance of different options, they are typically either filled with quince paste (dulce de membrillo), the caramel dulce de leche, or a custard cream. They come in different shapes and sizes, but what they all have in common is the same dough, rough puff pastry. Actually, it seems to be impossible to find the proper English translation. In German we say “Plunderteig”, which means it is a yeast dough, which usually has butter layers in between. The rough part in this version, however, comes from the fact that the butter is not worked into the dough as a single layer, but instead mixed into the yeast dough directly and later layered. It probably is described best as rough plunder.
Real Franzbrötchen with puff pastry. I am so excited to introduce this recipe to you today. Think of Franzbrötchen as the answer from Hamburg to the cinnamon-roll craze. I was fortunate enough to live in Hamburg for a couple of years and I can tell you, you will always have the scent of cinnamon present wherever you go. Regardless of whether a kiosk or a bakery, one thing you can definitely be sure of if you are in Hamburg is the fact that Franzbrötchen will be sold everywhere. I already introduced these cinnamon rolls here using a simple yeast dough. The lazy version.