Sweet bread man

This is a traditional German bake, which you can buy at a bakery only during this time of the year. Every november, we have a celebration, which is called St. Martin. Part of the celebration is to walk around the area you live in, with a handy crafted lantern and sing songs about the holy Martin, who shared part of his coat with a poor man. The walk through the village usually ends at a big fire. There the kids watch the scene acted out and at the end of it, every kid gets a sweet bread man. These are such a delicious bake and I was always looking forward to eating these, when I was a kid. This is just soo delicious and a perfect reward for a long walk, in the cold, on a late november afternoon. The dough is basically my babka dough, shaped into a person and decorated.

Here is what you need:

Recipe for 10 delicious sweet bread men

•  20 g of fresh yeast or 1 package of dried yeast
•  250 ml of milk
•  75 g of sugar
•  1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

1. Mix for a minute and then get the remaining ingredients ready!

• 550 g of flour and 
• 65 g of soft butter 
• 1 egg
• 10 grams of sugar beet syrup or honey
• 1/2 tsp of orange zest (optional)
• one pinch of salt
• (+1 egg yolk +1 Tbsp of milk – for step 3 )

2. Mix everything together and knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Cover it up with a clean cloth and let it rise for 90 minutes ( or longer) in a warm place.  Once the dough has doubled in size- you can continue to work with it. I have actually prepared this the night before I wanted to make these and stored the dough in the fridge overnight or longer. It does not harm the dough to slowly rise and to combine all the delicious flavors altogether. The longer the dough has time to proof, the fluffier the end result will be.

Roll out the dough and take a gingerbread-man-mould or you simply cut the shape of the man onto the dough. Transfer to a baking sheet and let the dough rise for another couple of minutes on the baking sheet.

Preheat your oven to 170°C.

3. Separate an egg, take the egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of milk, mix that together and spread it onto the sweet bread man for a wonderful glaze. Depending on the decorations- you can add almonds or raisins before baking, or chocolate morsels after baking. The decorations can be used as eyes or as buttons for the sweet bread man. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Check the color! If it brownes too much – put another baking sheet on top. You can check if the bread roll men are done by knocking on the bottom of it. The sound should be hollow.

Wait a little bit, until the sweet bread men have entirely cooled down and enjoy these.

Let me know, if you have tried these and if you liked them.

Love and happiness,

Sue