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 love blueberries in pancakes and waffles. They’ve gotta be good in cinnamon rolls too!
Yum! I have always wanted to make my own cinnamon rolls but have always been a tad nervous about he process!!! These look amazing with the blueberries!!
P.S. I found your blog today when you posted that you were from Boston on Tina’s blog! I am from just outside of Boston too!
these look amazing. I love cinnamon rolls, and this combo sounds great!
Can you tell me how to make the frosting?
I love the blueberry, I tried swapping them with raspberries and they were just as good if not better. Love the base recipe.
I made these today cheating with crescent roll dough. They were amazing!
Da bomb! Brilliant, as well as yummy:)
Thank you! I will make an impression at brunch tomorrow..lol
Made these for Easter breakfast (blueberry cinnamon rolls, hardboiled eggs, and thick sliced ham slices). What a delicious treat! I don’t know if I’ll ever go back “regular” cinnamon rolls again! I cut the recipe in half. Perfect amount for my husband, myself, and 3 teenaged boys. Honestly, I can’t say enough about this recipe. These rolls are worth every minute spent making them. To avoid having to get up so early, I saved the second rise for the morning. After slicing the rolls and placing them in the greased pan, I covered them tightly with plastic wrap and placed them in the fridge overnight. I took them out of the fridge and let them set at room temperature to rise for about an hour before placing them in the oven. They were perfect! Thanks so much!
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2014 @ 2:50 pm
So glad you enjoyed them!! I’ve done the second rise the next morning as well.
Forgot to mention that a step was left out of the recipe: it never tells you to sprinkle the rolled out dough with sugar and cinnamon mixture (& 2 T flour?).
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2014 @ 3:01 pm
Thanks for pointing this out. I updated the recipe to reflect this.
Hi there – I was wondering if this dough would be okay to freeze? I’m a novice when it comes to anything baking related!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:14 pm
I have blogged about freezing cinnamon rolls here: http://www.beantownbaker.com/2011/01/pumpkin-cinnamon-rolls.html I like to par-bake them, then freeze them, then finish baking them when you want them.
I found that the cinnamon was over powering. I will add 3 tsp next time 4 Tablespoons was way to much.
Is there any kneading involved???