Regional German food: A Franzbrötchen is a North German sweet pastry from Hamburg, baked with butter and cinnamon. Sometimes other ingredients such as chocolate, raisins or seeds are used. It’s usually eaten for breakfast, but may appear with coffee and cake in the afternoon. Originally, it could only be found around Hamburg — today, it’s also sold in Bremen, Berlin, and elsewhere. The dough uses flour, butter, yeast, milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt. The filling is a mix of sugar and cinnamon. Several times in succession, the dough is folded, rolled out thinly, and coated with butter. On baking, it rises and sugar and cinnamon are slightly caramelized.
The Franzbrötchen was probably named after the French croissant, which became popular in Germany after Napoleon’s troops had occupied Hamburg from 1806-1814. A different story says that they produced a longish Franzbrot (German for ‘French bread’), which resembled the baguette. Legend has it that a baker in Hamburg had once seared such a Franzbrot in a pan of fat, which is considered the origin of the contemporary Franzbrötchen.