Nuss-Striezel (braided walnut cake)
The walnut companion to Mohnstriezel, ground walnuts cooked into a thick, honey-sweetened filling rather than left dry and crumbly, rolled into the same braided yeast loaf. The honey is what keeps this filling moist enough to slice cleanly once cool.
Prep45 min
Cook35 min
Rest90 min
Oven180°C
Servings14
Christoph's walnut braid, the companion to Mohnstriezel, keeping the filling moist with honey rather than dry and crumbly.
Ingredients
Written for a 35 × 25 cm baking sheet
Units
Temperature
Servings
Yeast dough
- 400 g flour rounded
- 50 g sugar rounded
- 3 g fine salt rounded
- 7 g instant yeast rounded
- 180 ml milk, lukewarm rounded
- 60 g butter, melted and cooled rounded
- 1 egg rounded
Walnut filling
- 200 g walnuts rounded
- 180 ml milk rounded
- 60 g honey rounded
- 40 g sugar rounded
- 25 g butter rounded
- 3 g ground cinnamon rounded
To finish
- 1 egg, beaten, for glazing rounded
- 100 g icing sugar rounded
- 15 ml water rounded
Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.
Method
- Whisk the flour, sugar, salt and yeast together, then add the lukewarm milk, melted butter and egg. Knead by hand or with a dough hook for 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
- Cover and prove in a warm spot for 60 minutes, until roughly doubled.
- Grind the walnuts finely in a food processor, in short pulses, stopping before they turn to paste.
- Combine the ground walnuts, milk, honey, sugar, butter and cinnamon in a pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes, until thickened to a spreadable paste. Cool completely.
- Roll the risen dough out into a rectangle, about 40 by 30 cm. Spread the cooled walnut filling evenly over it, leaving a small border.
- Roll up tightly from the long edge into a log. Cut in half lengthwise and twist the two halves around each other, cut sides facing up, then form into a braid or a loose spiral on a lined baking sheet.
- Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. Brush with the beaten egg.
- Bake at 180°C for 30 to 35 minutes, until deep golden brown and hollow-sounding when tapped.
- Whisk the icing sugar and water together and drizzle over the braid once it has cooled slightly.
Method in the Thermomix
Written for a TM5 or TM6, 2.2 litre bowl. This covers milling and cooking the walnut filling; the dough, braiding and baking are the same as the hand method.
- Walnuts into the dry bowl. Grind 8 sec / speed 8, stopping before they turn oily and clump.
- Add the milk, honey, sugar, butter and cinnamon. Cook 5 min / 90 °C / speed 2, until thickened to a spreadable paste. Pour out and cool completely, then continue as in the hand method.
Notes
- Freshly ground walnuts make a real difference in a filling this simple. Pre-ground walnut meal has usually lost much of the oil that carries its flavour.
- Honey is what keeps this filling moist. A filling made with sugar alone dries out and crumbles when the braid is sliced; honey holds moisture in the way sugar cannot.
- Cool the filling fully before it goes onto the dough, for the same reason as in Mohnstriezel; warm filling softens the dough and makes it harder to roll tightly.
- It keeps for 3 days at room temperature, wrapped, and freezes well unglazed for up to 2 months.
Ingredient substitutions
- Walnuts can be hazelnuts, ground the same way, for a different but equally traditional filling.
- Honey can be golden syrup in the same quantity, though the flavour is less rounded.
- A splash of dark rum in the filling, added with the cinnamon, is a good traditional variation.
- For a poppy seed version instead, follow the filling method in Mohnstriezel and use the same dough and braiding technique.
From Christoph Mayer