Frankfurter Kranz

The name is protected and it requires buttercream, so a margarine one must be called something else.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

For the ring

• 200 g butter, softened
• 200 g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 200 g plain flour
• 60 g cornflour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the buttercream and the brittle

• 500 ml milk
• 50 g cornflour
• 80 g sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 300 g butter, softened
• 150 g sugar, for the krokant
• 150 g flaked almonds or chopped hazelnuts
• 200 g red jam, strawberry or cherry
• glacé cherries, to finish

Method

1. THE NAME IS PROTECTED AND IT REQUIRES BUTTERCREAM, SO A MARGARINE ONE MUST BE CALLED SOMETHING ELSE. The article states it plainly: TODAY, THE NAME FRANKFURTER KRANZ IS PROTECTED, AND REQUIRES THE USE OF BUTTERCREAM -- ANY VARIATIONS, SUCH AS USING MARGARINE, OR A SUMMER VERSION USING ICE CREAM, HAVE TO BE LABELLED DIFFERENTLY.
2. SO THE BUTTER IS NOT A PREFERENCE, IT IS THE DEFINITION. Three hundred grams of it in the cream alone. Substitute and you have made a ring cake, which is a fine thing with a different name.
3. AND KROKANT IS THE OTHER NON-NEGOTIABLE: the article calls it A SIGNATURE INGREDIENT IN THE DISH. Caramel-covered brittle nuts, pressed all over the outside, and the reason the cake looks the way it does.
4. THE RING IS THE POINT OF THE SHAPE. The cake is baked IN A RING-SHAPED BAKING TIN, and the article explains why: its ROUND SHAPE AND THE SHEATH OF BRITTLE ARE INTENDED TO REPRESENT A GOLDEN CROWN, with the cherries as rubies, for Frankfurt as the coronation city of the Holy Roman Emperors.
5. SLICE IT INTO TWO OR THREE RINGS AND FILL IT, which is the article's own sequence -- SLICED HORIZONTALLY TO DIVIDE IT INTO TWO OR THREE RINGS, with THICK LAYERS OF BUTTERCREAM ICING between them, USUALLY WITH A LAYER OF RED JAM.
6. BAKE THE SPONGE FIRM, NOT LIGHT. The article's word is FIRM, and it has to be: a soft crumb collapses under that weight of cream.
7. COOK THE CUSTARD AND COOL IT COMPLETELY BEFORE IT MEETS THE BUTTER, and have both at room temperature. Cold custard into soft butter splits every time.
8. MAKE THE KROKANT BY CARAMELISING THE SUGAR AND STIRRING THE NUTS THROUGH, then tipping it onto paper to set hard and crushing it coarse. Fine crumbs go soft against the cream within an hour.
9. COAT THE OUTSIDE THICKLY AND PRESS THE BRITTLE ON COLD, working quickly, then chill the whole thing before cutting.
10. AND THE POST-WAR VERSION IS WORTH KNOWING. In the absence of butter the surface WAS OFTEN COATED WITH KOGEL MOGEL, sweetened egg yolk paste -- which under today's rule could not be sold under the name at all.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes