French cuisine · Breakfast & Eggs

Pain aux Raisins

Laminated yeast dough pastry swirls with vanilla custard and raisins, brushed glossy with apricot jam after baking.

Ingredients · for 8 servings

• 400 g flour
• 1 packet dry yeast (7 g)
• 110 g sugar
• 200 ml lukewarm milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 200 g cold butter
• 100 g raisins
• 400 ml milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 40 g cornstarch
• 1 vanilla pod
• 3 tbsp apricot jam

Instructions

1. Mix the flour, dry yeast, 50 g of the sugar and salt, add the lukewarm milk and knead for 8 min. into a smooth dough; flatten it and chill for 1 hr., meanwhile soaking the raisins in warm water.
2. For the custard, bring 400 ml milk to a boil with the scraped-out vanilla seeds, whisk the egg yolks with 60 g of the remaining sugar and the cornstarch, stir in the hot milk and cook everything for 2 min., stirring, until thick; cover directly with plastic wrap and chill.
3. Pound the cold butter between sheets of parchment into a 15 × 15 cm slab, roll the dough out to 30 × 30 cm, enclose the butter in the center and give the dough three simple folds – chilling for 30 min. between each fold.
4. Roll the finished dough out into a 30 × 45 cm rectangle, spread the vanilla custard evenly over it, scatter the drained raisins on top and roll it up tightly from the long side.
5. Cut the roll into 16 slices of 2.5 cm, place them spaced apart on two baking sheets, flatten slightly and let rise covered for 45 min. until visibly puffed up.
6. Bake at 190°C (375°F) top/bottom heat for 18–20 min. until golden brown, brush immediately with the warmed, strained apricot jam and serve lukewarm on a wire rack.