I am beside myself with excitement about our new cycling tour that goes from 
Copenhagen to Berlin! One reason is a food item you will undoubtedly encounter along the way — Franzbrötchen. Germans love their little pastries and Franzbrötchen includes two of my favorite ingredients, butter and cinnamon. Typically found in northern German you’ll discover plenty of samples as you cycle, particularly in and around Hamburg. There are varieties that include chocolate or raisins, too. As a native German, I proudly declare my love for an afternoon coffee with a piece of cake or pastry and I invite you to join me in this tradition!
In order to achieve exact results, I have left the measurements in Liters and Grams. For the latter, if you don’t have a kitchen scale use the conversion table here as a reference.
Ingredients:
70 g butter
¼ liter milk
70 g sugar
40 g yeast
500 g flour
Salt
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon lemon zest
200 g butter
200 g sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Melt 70 g of butter in warm milk together with 70 g sugar. Dissolve the fresh yeast in the mix.
Take the milk-yeast mixture and create a dough by kneading it together with the flour, a pinch of salt, the egg yolks and finely grated lemon zest. Then allow the dough to rise for about 30 minutes in a covered container in a warm place.
Prepare a lightly floured board or work space to knead the dough. Sprinkle some more flour on the dough and roll it out to a rectangular shape of about 16 by 12 inches.
Cut the 200 g of cold butter into slices and put the pieces on one half of the spread-out dough. Leave about a finger’s width around the edge of the dough uncovered. Fold the other half of the dough over the butter, press the edges together and then fold them underneath.
Flour the dough lightly and roll it out again to a rectangular shape of about 16 by 20 inches. Fold one flap of the dough to its middle and then the other half over it.
Prepare a cookie sheet with baking paper and set the dough on the paper. Put in in the fridge for about 15 minutes so it will become firm.
After the waiting time, flour the dough lightly and roll it out to a size of about 16 by 32 inches. Brush cold water thinly over the dough and sprinkle it with the sugar and cinnamon.
From the short end, start rolling the dough tightly, then cut the roll into 9 pieces. In order to create the typical Franzbrötchen shape, rub some flour onto a cooking spoon’s handle and press it onto the middle of the dough pieces, parallel to the cut ends.
Prepare two large cookie sheets with baking paper and place the dough pieces onto them with enough space between. While your oven is heating up to baking temperature, let the dough rise once again and then bake at 200 C (about 392 F) for about 15 minutes.
Adapted from http://www.marions-kochbuch.de/rezept/3018.htm