Pain aux raisins
The third classic of French viennoiserie alongside the croissant and pain au chocolat, and the one that contains pastry cream — which is what decides its success. The cream must be very thick and completely cold: a loose one escapes during baking and glues the spiral into a single mass. The rest is lamination, governed by one rule: butter and dough must be of similar firmness, or the butter cracks or soaks into the dough and the layers merge.
Your own work in that: 3 h 5 min.
- Dough 25 min
- Overnight in the fridge 480 min
- Pastry cream 30 min
- Lamination 145 min
- Shaping 40 min
- Proving 120 min
- Baking 44 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneKnead the dough and chill overnight
Knead the flour, cold milk with the yeast, sugar, salt, egg and soft butter for 8 minutes — briefly, since too much gluten fights the rolling later. Flatten into a rectangle, wrap and refrigerate 8 hours.
Ingredients: 500 g bread flour · 230 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 60 g sugar · 10 g salt · 50 g butter · 1 pcs egg
Soak the raisins in rum
Pour the rum over the raisins (you can warm it slightly), cover and leave for at least an hour, stirring now and then. Plumped raisins stay juicy and do not scorch in the oven; dry ones would draw moisture from the cream and dough and turn hard.
Ingredients: 400 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 90 g sugar · 45 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 150 g raisins · 3 tbsp rum
Cook a very thick pastry cream
Bring the milk to a boil with the split vanilla pod and its scraped seeds. Whisk the yolks with the sugar and cornflour, pour in half the hot milk in a thin stream, whisking all the time, tip everything back into the pan and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes past thickening. The cream should be very thick — a spoon leaves a trail. Remove the pod, transfer the cream to a bowl, cover with film touching the surface and chill for at least 2 hours (you can make it the day before).
Ingredients: 400 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 90 g sugar · 45 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 150 g raisins · 3 tbsp rum
Enclose the butter in the dough
Beat the cold butter into an 18 cm square between sheets of film. Roll the dough into a square of about 26 cm, set the butter on it diagonally and fold the corners of the dough into the centre like an envelope, pinching the seams. Butter and dough must be equally pliable — hard butter cracks and breaks through the dough.
Ingredients: 250 g butter
Butter and dough of equal firmness — or the butter cracks.Make three folds with chilling
Roll into a rectangle three times longer than wide and fold in three. Wrap and chill for 40 minutes, then turn 90° and repeat — three folds in all, with 40 minutes in the fridge after each. The timer counts one chill. Chilling is not optional: warm butter soaks into the dough and the baked pastry shows hardly any layers.
Ingredients: 250 g butter
Spread the cream and scatter raisins
Roll the dough into a rectangle of about 48 by 45 cm, about 5 mm thick. Spread the cold, stirred cream thinly, leaving a 2 cm clear strip along one of the long sides, and scatter over the drained raisins. The clear strip lets you seal the log.
Ingredients: 400 ml milk · 4 pcs egg yolks · 90 g sugar · 45 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla · 150 g raisins · 3 tbsp rum
A thin layer of cream, 2 cm left clear.Roll tightly and chill before cutting
Roll up tightly from the opposite long side, press the clear strip to seal and put the log in the freezer for 20 minutes. A cold log cuts into clean even spirals; a warm one squashes under the knife and the layers stick together.
Ingredients: 500 g bread flour · 230 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 60 g sugar · 10 g salt · 50 g butter · 1 pcs egg
A cold log cuts into clean spirals.Cut, prove and bake
Cut the log into 16 slices of 3 cm, tuck the loose end of each spiral underneath and lay them flat on two lined trays with space between. Leave for 2 hours at 24–26°C, until visibly puffed. Towards the end, heat the oven to 190°C. Brush with egg and bake one tray at a time for 22 minutes at 190°C (the timer counts one tray). Brush them while warm with an icing sugar and water glaze.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg · 80 g icing sugar · 2 tbsp water
Before you start
Kitchen temperature matters
Lamination succeeds in a cool kitchen. Above 24°C the butter softens faster than you can roll the dough — work in short bursts, returning the dough to the fridge every few minutes, or plan the bake for a cool morning.
How much cream
It is tempting to add more, but a thick layer escapes during baking and burns on the tray. A thin layer is enough — the cream should be present in every coil rather than form a thick layer of filling.
Freeze them shaped
Cut, unproved spirals freeze on a tray and then go into a bag. Take them out in the evening, thaw overnight in the fridge, give them 2 hours in the warm in the morning and bake — fresh pastry for breakfast with no early work.
