Baking, Christmas

Christmas swirls with marzipan and gingerbread filling

Christmas swirls with marzipan and gingerbread filling

It’s finally Christmas time, and few things create that festive feeling like the smell of freshly baked sweet buns in the kitchen. These soft Christmas swirls with marzipan and gingerbread spices are developed by Det søte liv, and are sure to become a firm favourite with both children and adults.

The recipe is made using Probaker, our unique stand mixer with a dough hook that is especially well suited for light and airy yeasted doughs. The large 7-litre mixing bowl makes it easy to prepare a big batch for Christmas guests, and the excellent kneading performance ensures extra soft and fluffy swirls – just the way we like them for Christmas.

Recipe, video and photos: Det søte liv.

Ingredients

This recipe makes about 15 delicious Christmas swirls

Yeasted dough

  • 1 kg plain flour
  • 200 g sugar
  • 2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 500 ml whole milk
  • 50 g yeast
  • 1 egg
  • 150 g butter

Filling

  • 100 g real marzipan (see tips)
  • 200 g soft butter
  • 100 g soft light brown sugar
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 1 tsp ground cloves

For brushing and decoration

  • 1 egg
  • Pearl sugar

How to make Christmas swirls with marzipan and gingerbread filling

  1. Yeasted dough
    Put the flour, sugar and spices into the mixing bowl. Use milk at room temperature (see tips) and dissolve the yeast in the milk. Lightly beat the egg and add it to the milk mixture. Pour everything into the mixing bowl and knead the dough gently for about 5 minutes.

    Add the butter in small cubes. Knead gently for another 5 minutes. Check that the dough has become elastic and can be stretched without tearing (this checks the gluten structure), but be careful not to over-knead the dough (see tips). Leave the dough to prove in a warm place for 1 hour.
  2. Filling
    Grate the marzipan on a grater. Put the soft butter into a bowl together with the brown sugar, gingerbread spices and grated marzipan. Stir until you have a smooth, even cream.
  3. Shaping and baking
    Turn the proved dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle and spread the filling evenly over the surface.

    Fold the dough in half so the rectangle becomes double in thickness. Gently roll over the dough to even it out, then trim the edges. Cut the dough into strips (about 3 cm wide), twist each strip and roll it up into a swirl.

    Place the swirls on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Leave to prove again for 20 minutes. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar.

    Bake the buns in the middle of the oven at 220°C for 10–15 minutes, until golden and baked through.

Tips:

  • Det søte liv recommends using a good stand mixer such as Probaker when making this dough. It makes kneading easy, even though the soft butter is added at the end. The finished dough should not be sticky. You can find this lovely stand mixer here.
  • Make sure the milk is not too warm, especially if you are using a powerful stand mixer like Probaker. When the butter is kneaded into the dough at the end, the dough will need a longer kneading time, and this alone will warm it up.
  • Be careful not to knead for longer than stated in the recipe, otherwise the dough can “collapse” and become too soft.
  • For the filling, you should use real marzipan (marzipan with at least 50% almonds). Marzipan for moulding figures does not tolerate baking particularly well.
  • Instead of shaping the buns as described, you can make classic swirls by rolling out the dough, spreading over the filling and rolling it up into a log, then slicing the log into rounds.
  • All yeasted bakes taste best on the day they are made. Any leftovers can be frozen and reheated in the oven whenever the craving strikes.

Product used in this recipe:

Wilfa Probaker

Wilfa Probaker

Probaker kneads dough gently and efficiently for a smooth, elastic dough and light, fluffy Christmas swirls. → Read more

Watch how to make it here

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