Happy Easter everyone!


When I was visiting my parents for Easter last year, I picked up this recipe for an Easter-Almond Ring in a supermarket leaflet. I cut the recipe out and took it with me on my way back to Dresden. I put it onto the wall in our kitchen, because I wanted to try it out soon.

In this case, soon is one year later. I modified the recipe a bit and I changed the shape. I wasn’t very interested in the ring, I wanted to make some individual servings and found a great way to shape my baked goods over here. It’s in German, but you just have to follow the pictures if you want to shape e. g. your next batch of cinnamon rolls like this, too.

Oster-Mandelöhrchen (makes 12)
Easter Almond Ears (Öhrchen actually means “little ears”)

300 g (2 1/2 cup) all purpose flour
125 ml (1/2 cup) warm soy milk
150 g (3/4 cup) sugar, divided
1 package active dry yeast
80 g ( 1/3 cup) margarine, divided
zest and juice of one organic lemon
200 g (2 cup) ground almonds*
6 tablespoons soy milk
50 g (about 10 deglet noor)chopped dates**
*I had only 100 g of almonds, so I used 100g (2 cups) breadcrumbs from a sweet bread. Worked totally fine!
**I didn’t have the raisins the recipe called for
The recipe provided the additional ingredients for a sugar icing, but I skipped that.

In a bowl mix together flour, yeast, soy milk and 50 g (1/4 cup) sugar. Let proof for 15 minutes. Add salt and 50g (3 1/2 tablespoons) margarine. Knead for a couple of minutes until your dough is smooth and elastic. Put back into the bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour.
In a second bowl combine lemon peel and juice, almonds, remaining sugar and margarine, the remaining 6 tablespoons milk and dates. Stir until the mixture is well combined.
To form the dough into ears, roll out a rectangle, spread the almond mixture on top and roll into a log shape. (Start with the longer side of the rectangle). Then click the link mentioned above and follow the steps in the pictures.
Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it and preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) . Bake the ears for 20 minutes until golden brown.

And now have a look at these Kahlua Rolls. Another great recipe from Celine.
Mine look completely different from Celine’s, but they were a huge hit! I am definitely going to make these again. They freeze well and are a wonderful snack. And of course they satisfy every sweet tooth.