Plum Rolls Recipe (Zwetschgenschnecken)
The theme for our latest dinner club was German food. I wanted to make an authentic German dessert. Of course, my first thought was German chocolate cake. But I thought it would be too expected and wanted to find something else. I headed over to Allrecipes.com to find something tasty. I’m not sure how authentic these are, but they sure tasted great.
I’ve actually never had plums before so I didn’t know what to expect. I would say that if a peach and a cherry had a baby, it would be a plum.
The dough for the plum rolls is a cream cheese based dough (similar to the dough used here), which I’m a big fan of! I actually made the rolls at my house but baked them at the dinner club. We always watch a movie, so the rolls baked while we were watching the movie and then I served them hot with ice cream on top. Everyone ate these right up! The almonds add a great flavor and texture combination
German Plum Rolls (Zwetschgenschnecken) – from Allrecipes.com
1 cup chopped almonds
1 1/3 cups cream cheese – I used Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
1/2 cup milk – I used soymilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 pinch salt
5/8 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup baking powder
7/8 cup plum butter – you can find this near the preserves at your grocery store
1 3/4 pounds plums, pitted and diced
2 tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 10-inch springform pan.
Place a skillet over medium-high heat. Toast the almonds in the hot skillet until they turn brown; set aside to cool.
Combine the cream cheese, milk, oil, salt, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Mix in the flour and baking powder; knead together until smooth. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, and roll the dough into a 20-inch square. Spread the plum butter, plums, and toasted almonds over the dough. Roll the dough up tightly like a jelly roll. Cut into 12 even slices. Arrange rolls in prepared pan. Brush butter over top of the rolls.
Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, 40 to 55 minutes.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I always loved fig newtons too 🙂 I have never thought of making my own. Now I know where to find a great recipe 😉
I am going to have to make these. As well as making them with some blackberries.
These look amazing and waaaay better than the store bought brand.
My husband loves fig newtons – just added this to my ever growing list of things to make!
I liked Newtons until they messed with the recipe…Maybe this version will be yummier.
I love the idea of making these at home! I still buy Newtons from time to time…they’re so nice and wholesome.
You are so creative! My family loves Fig Newtons….can’t wait to make these!
My boyfriend and I were just talking about fig newtons this evening! I was saying how much I loved them but hadnt had them recently.. and heres a way to make them myself!
I moved to the US when I was 15 so I didn’t grow up eating fig newtons but I liked them at my very first bite. I’m sure the homemade version is so much more gourmet 😉 Your pics make it look like raspberry filling which I bet would be amazing!!
These bring me back to my childhood! Only, these look infinitely more delicious and decadent. The Blue-Eyed Bakers must make these soon!
They look fantastic, and I’ve never actually been that much of a Fig Newton fan. Love the polka dot background for the pics too.
I love fig newtons. Hopefully, I can find my figs around here so I can try these.
http://www.lindaslunacy.blogspot.com
Congratulations on making one of the top food blogs!
Jonathan
Gluten Free
I was always a fig newton-lover as a kid too! Glad I wasn’t the only one and these homemade ones look fantastic!
I did make these and loved them! I did just what you suggested and used a little less of dough for that amount of filling and just made some grape jam filled ones with the rest of the dough. They came out perfect! Thanks for sharing!
http://ouritaliankitchen.blogspot.com/2010/10/fig-newtons.html
When you say scoop out the seeds and pulp–I am assuming you mean, use the seeds and pulp and discard the skins? Recipe looks good. I’m planning to make these tomorrow!
When you say scoop out the seeds and pulp–I am assuming you mean, use the seeds and pulp and discard the skins? Recipe looks good. I’m planning to make these tomorrow!
When you say scoop out the seeds and pulp–I am assuming you mean, use the seeds and pulp and discard the skins? Recipe looks good. I’m planning to make these tomorrow!
When you say scoop out the seeds and pulp–I am assuming you mean, use the seeds and pulp and discard the skins? Recipe looks good. I’m planning to make these tomorrow!
When you say scoop out the seeds and pulp–I am assuming you mean, use the seeds and pulp and discard the skins? Recipe looks good. I’m planning to make these tomorrow!
When you say scoop out the seeds and pulp–I am assuming you mean, use the seeds and pulp and discard the skins? Recipe looks good. I’m planning to make these tomorrow!
Laurel, Mikey & Quinn – Yes, scoop out the flesh and seeds and discard the skins. Let me know how they turn out!
Thank you for posting this! Great recipe and I want to try with different fillings. I used strawberry for mine – yummy!
In response to the dough ratio, I made it the way you posted but ended up with very thin dough once it was rolled out to 12×16 inches. I think you should leave it doubled.
Hi, I want to make raspberry newtons and am finding it very hard to get an easy recipe online… think I could use this dough with raspberry jam?
beantownbaker — May 16th, 2013 @ 8:41 am
You could definitely use raspberry jam for the filling!
I made them with 3 different fillings: strawberry jam, blueberry pie filling and vanilla cream. All came out very tasty, and also last freezing nicely.
A few comments:
1. The dough was not easy to deal with, even after cooling. It was sticky and fell apart easily.
2. With the first roll I made, I sliced it to cookies and separated them on the baking pan before baking. All of the Jam oozed out. The other ones I sliced but didn’t move the pieces, and it came out well.
3. I think in order to taste like real newtons they lack some oats/cereal. Any Idea of how to add some to the dough?
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 1:10 pm
I would think you could grind up some oats and replace some of the flour with the ground up oats. If you try it, I’d love to hear how they turn out!