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 am really very terrible at frosting/decorating cake :\ This came out way better than anything I could make!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:18 pm
Ha – I’m pretty bad too. That’s why I love putting stuff on the sides. Coconut does a good job of hiding my sloppy decorating skills.
Coconut and almond, you’ve already got me reeled in 🙂 two of my favorite flavors rolled into what looks like a moist, fluffy cake. YUM
This cake looks so beautiful and the texture is perfect! I love curd as a filling between cake layers but i never knew the trick for preventing it from seeping out – thanks!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:19 pm
Yea, it’s definitely very helpful. Even more so when you ACTUALLY do it 😉
We’ve all had those cake experiences. It looks like it turned out well in the end! And it sounds delicious!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
Glad to hear I’m not the only one. I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in thinking we all need to project that all of our baking/cooking endeavors are hugely successful…
Regardless of any kitchen mishaps, this cake looks divine! Layer cakes always look so special, and the addition of fruit here makes me swooooon!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:20 pm
I agree. Layer cakes always look special 🙂
Oh this looks amazing. And aren’t we all our own worst critics when we bake? I can’t tell you how many times I say something is terrible and my husband looks as me like I’m crazy.
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:21 pm
I agree. At the end of the day, it tasted delicious and no one knew about all the issues I had with the cake. I did want to keep it real on the blog and not give anyone any false sense that things are always easy for me…
I always shy away from layer cakes – yours always come out well, I need some more practice I think! Your “mistakes” are great learning points – did not know about the frosting damn, but it makes so much sense!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:23 pm
That’s why I wanted to talk about them. I definitely could have posted about this cake without mentioning any of the issues I had. I’m hoping they’ll help someone (myself included) to learn something for the next time they tackle a layer cake. Yours will definitely improve with practice. Mine surely are. I really want to make that coconut cake you just posted!
i’m always hard on myself too, but you wouldn’t know by the taste i’m sure! looks absolutely wonderful, not to mention i’m drooling over the flavor combo 🙂
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:24 pm
I agree, I think we all are. I wanted to keep it real with this post in case anyone else found it to be a difficult set of recipes…
Yum, your cake looks so delicious and I really love the sound of the blackberry lime curd!
beantownbaker — March 25th, 2013 @ 1:27 pm
Thanks!
I love coconut cake, and blackberries are my favorite fruit. Such a great idea to put them together. This cake is gorgeous! I would happily take a large slice . . . or maybe the whole thing 😉
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2013 @ 10:02 am
Then you would definitely love this cake!
Could anyone post the blackberry lime curd recipe? The link is no longer working.
Thanks!
beantownbaker — August 12th, 2013 @ 7:39 pm
Sorry about that. I updated the recipe link, but here it is as well: http://www.beantownbaker.com/2013/03/blackberry-lime-curd.html