Schenecken (Crispy Butterhorns)
Schenecken (Crispy Butterhorns) is a traditional German recipe for a classic treat of dough pieces made with butter and cream cheese, filled with a nut and brown sugar mix, shaped into spirals and oven baked before cooling and serving. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic German version of: Crispy Butterhorns (Schenecken).
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
20 minutes
Total Time:
40 minutes
Makes:
65
Rating: 
Tags : Vegetarian RecipesCheese RecipesBaking RecipesCake RecipesGermany Recipes
Also known as rugelach or rugulach these crispy butterhorns are made throughout central Europe. They are known as schenecken in Germany (where this recipe comes from), they are called
butterhörner 'butterhorns' in Austria and Hungary and the Ashkenazi Jews know them as rugelach. In essence they are half way between a croissant and a biscuit (cookie). I also have an adaptation at the bottom of this recipe for cooking schenecken with mincemeat as an alternative to Christmas mince pies.
Ingredients:
200g butter, at room temperature
225g cream cheese, at room temperature (or you can use my
home-made cream cheese recipe to prepare your own)
2 tsp granulated sugar
240g plain flour
1 egg white, beaten with 1 tbsp water (for glazing)
granulated sugar, for sprinkling
For the Filling:
100g walnuts or 100g pecan nuts, finely chopped
100g brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Method:
In a bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until soft and fluffy.
Sift over the flour then mix into the other ingredients to from a soft dough. Divide this dough into 4 equal-sized pieces. Form each one into a ball, flatten slightly then cover each individually in greaseproof (waxed) paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes to chill.
In the meantime, prepare the filling. For this, simply mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
Once the dough has chilled, take the first piece and turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. With a rolling pin roll out into a circle about 22cm in diameter.
Brush the surface with the egg white and water glaze then sprinkle over 1/4 of the filling mixture.
Cut the dough into four wedges, then cut each wedge into four sections, so that you have 16 wedges in all. Now roll each wedge from the edge opposite the point into spirals. Curve each one into crescents, if desired.
Transfer to a lightly-greased baking tray then repeat this process with the remaining dough.
Once all the dough has been shaped, brush over their surfaces with the egg white glaze then sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar.
Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for about 10 minutes, or until just golden.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before serving or storing.
If, rather than the nut and brown sugar mix you combine 200g mincemeat with ground cinnamon and then spread this mixture evenly over the dough these make an excellent alternative to mince-pies at Christmas.
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