Himmelsleiter, Ladder to Heaven

Himmelsleiter, otherwise known as Ladder to Heaven are little pillowy pieces of heaven for sure.  Each row represents a rung on the ladder. These are not very sweet and are a perfect roll to eat with a cup of coffee or tea.  They would also make a good dinner roll.

They freeze well and are easily reheated.

This recipe comes from a small town in northern Austria.

The Recipe:

Ingredients

• 7 tablespoons (105 ml) warm milk
• 3 ½ tablespoons (50 g) sugar
• 2 ¼ teaspoons (7 g) active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons (40 g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 4 ½ tablespoons (70 g) sour cream, stirred
• 1 ½ (9 g) teaspoons fine salt
• 400 g/14 oz (about 3 cups) white bread flour
  
  
• Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Mix milk and sugar in a large bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk and let it activate until it forms a creamy layer on top of the water, about 5-10 minutes.
2. Add whipping cream, butter, vanilla, egg and egg yolk, sour cream and salt. Stir well.
3. Add half the flour and stir with a sturdy cooking spoon until the batter is smooth, about 1 minute.
4. Stir in the rest of the flour. Make sure you mixed in the flour thoroughly and that there is no flour sticking to the bottom of the bowl. The dough is quite sticky and almost impossible to knead by hand. Refrain from adding more flour or the Himmelsleiter will get firm.
5. Work your dough with the spoon for 5 minutes; try to fold the edges towards the center, while turning the bowl clockwise.
6. Let the dough rise, covered at warm room temperature until almost doubled in volume (about 1 to 1.5 hours) or put it in the fridge to rise overnight.
7. Place the dough onto a floured surface, lightly flour the top, and roll dough into a rectangular shape with one side 15 inch long and 1/2 inch thick. Flip and flour the dough while rolling to make sure it doesn’t stick to the counter.
8. Cut the dough into stripes (15-inch x 1/2 inch). Roll each strip into an S-shape, leaving about 6 inch unrolled (straight) in the middle part.
9. Place the rolled pastries one next to each other onto a baking sheet, leaving about 3/4 inch space between them.
10. Cover the dough and let rise until puffy, about 30-45.
11. Bake them in the preheated oven at 350 °F until they get yellowish/golden, about 15-20 minutes. They shouldn't be too brown.
12. Let them cool on the baking sheet. Dust with confectioners’ sugar.

I added 1 tsp. of ground cardamom to mine for added flavor.

These are very soft and fluffy.

You can make the dough the day before and let it gently rise in a bowl overnight in the fridge.  Just form the dough into rolls in the morning, let them rise and bake as directed above.