For St. Martin’s Day on November 11th, children in the South-West receive Martinsbrezel. It is a sweet yeast pastry in the typical pretzel form. (More about the history of the pretzel here.)
In the West, bakeries are busy baking Weckmänner or Stutenkerle. Just like the Zuckerbrezel it is made from a sweet yeast dough, but instead of pretzel shape it is a little man. The pastry also goes by the names of Weckmännchen, Klausenmann, Hefekerl, Dambedei, Grittibänz, Grättimaa, Ditz, Martinsweck, Pumann, Bubbelai, or Krampus.
In the North and South-West, Stutenkerle are sold for St. Nicholas Day on December 6th.
Here is map where in Germany the dough man is called what.
Making a Martinsbrezel
I used the recipe from Preppie and me. My pretzels didn’t look as pretty but they tasted really good. Below, I ‘translated’ the recipe into American measurements.
Ingredients for 8 Martinsbrezeln:
- 250 ml milk (a little more than 8 oz)
- 1 1/4 tsp dry yeast
- 1/2 c sugar
- 7 tbsp butter
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 1/4 c flour
Coating
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/4 c sugar
- 2 packs of vanilla sugar (If you don’t have the Dr. Oetker vanilla sugar, you can make it with 1 vanilla bean, scraped, and 2 c sugar. Keep bean buried in sugar for 1-2 weeks in an air tight container.)
Preparation (2.5 hours, Active time: ca 1 hour):
- Warm butter
- Add flour into bowl
- Put yeast into a hollow in the flour
- Pour some milk into the flour hollow so the yeast can dissolve
- Add the rest of the ingredients and knead the dough (by hand or with mixer with dough hooks)
- Cover dough and put in a warm place to rise (about an hour), I put the bowl into a warmed oven.
- Divide the dough into 8 even parts
- Roll strands of dough about 20 inches
- Form the rolls into pretzels, winding them twice in the middle and attaching the ends underneath
- Put the pretzels on parchment paper on your cookie sheet
- Let the pretzels rise again (cover with moist kitchen towel and put in the warmed oven)
- Bake pretzels at 410 F for 8-10 minutes
- Mix the sugar and vanilla sugar on a plate
- Once the pretzels are done brush them with the melted butter and dip them in the vanilla sugar mix
Making a Stutenkerl or Weckmann
For the Stutenkerl, I used the recipe by Christina at Christina macht was. I included the recipe with American measurements.
Ingredients for 6 Stutenkerle
- 7 tbsp butter, melted
- 250 ml milk (a little more than 8 oz)
- generous 1/3 c sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp dry yeast
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 1/4 c flour
- 1 egg
Coating and Extras
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp milk
- raisins, cranberries for eyes
- 6 clay pipes
Preparation (about 1.5-2 hours, active time 30 minutes):
- Soften the butter
- Warm the milk and sugar, add the yeast
- In a bowl mix flour, egg, vanilla, and salt
- Add the milk
- Mix dough with dough hook mixer
- Add warm butter
- Cover the bowl and let dough rise (30 minutes)
- On a flowered surface divide dough into six even pieces
- Form the man, use a dough scraper to make arms and legs
- Add the clay pipe if you have one
- Put the Stutenkerle on a cookie sheet with parchment paper, cover and let rise again for about 20 minutes
- Use raisins to make a face and buttons
- Preheat oven to 390 F
- Mix egg and milk, and brush the mixture onto the men
- Bake for 20 minutes (if you don’t want to make 6 big Kerle but smaller ones, reduce baking time)
My Martinsbrezel and my Stutenkerle
Let me know how your baking went.
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