Grafschafter New Year's Cake

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• ¼ liter of water
• 150 g rock sugar (Grümmel)
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 110 g butter (sweet cream butter)
• 2 m.-sized eggs
• 250 g wheat flour
• n. B. Anise, optional

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Rest time approx. 5 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 6 hours

traditional pastries from the County of Bentheim, for which each house has its own recipe

Heat the water in a saucepan, add the sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt, and bring to a boil. The rock candy should dissolve completely. Then add the butter and let it melt. The water should no longer be boiling, so turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove if necessary. Sift the flour into a bowl, make a well, and add the two eggs. Now gradually add the water-butter mixture in about five portions and beat vigorously with a whisk. There should be no lumps of flour, which is helped by sifting the flour beforehand. The flour must now cool and stand for at least five hours to allow the flour to swell. For example, you can prepare the dough at lunchtime and bake the New Year’s cakes in the evening. A so-called croissant machine (known in Low German as a “Joahrskokeniesen”) is required for baking. The recipe given here yields approximately 30 pieces. Depending on the type of “iron” (i.e., the croissant machine), the New Year’s cakes will be slightly thinner or thicker, so the exact number cannot be specified. The goal is to bake them as thinly as possible. Traditionally, New Year’s cakes are rolled up immediately after baking, while they are still hot, preferably in a cone shape. However, they can also be folded twice or left completely unshaped. For storage, place them in a tin, which will keep for up to a year. You can, of course, use other fats, such as margarine or sour cream butter, but in my experience, they taste best and turn out best with sweet cream butter. Instead of sugar candy, you can also use regular household sugar, which makes the New Year’s cakes lighter in color. We prefer the brownish sugar candy for New Year’s cakes. New Year’s cakes also taste very good when anise seeds are added to the batter. This can be done directly before baking, for example, you can first bake one half without anise, then stir in the anise and bake the rest with anise – this way you have two varieties at once.