The Pinze - a traditional Austrian milk bread recipe | Two Sisters Living Life (2024)

This post is dedicated to my favourite Easter sweet bread. The Pinze! The Pinze is a traditional Austrian milk bread recipe or better said a brioche dough recipe. What makes this brioche dough unique is the aniseeds flavour. I made these Easterly loafs with the tangzhong method which makes this sweet bread extra fluffy and soft. These Pinzen can’t be missed on any Easter brunch table.

The Pinze is my favourite Easter pastry in the world. Every year I’m looking forward with excitement for spring season to begin. because I know I’ll get these fluffy buttery brioche breads with their unique taste in every bakery in Austria. The only problem there is with Pinzen is that not every bakery makes them right. Most bake them to try. That’s why I developed this recipe. The Pinzen have their unique aniseeds flavour but are fluffy, soft and juicy.

The Pinze- a traditional Austrian Easter milk bread recipe

It all start with aniseeds.

The uniqueness of a Pinze is her flavour. And the flavour comes from aniseeds which get soaked in warm white wine overnight. That’s my first step which I prepare the day before starting with the original process of baking.

• I heat 120ml of white wine in the microwave for 30-40 seconds and mix the wine with 1 1/2 tsp of aniseeds.
• I let the seeds soak overnight.
• In the morning I strain the wine. I discard the seeds but I keep the flavoured wine 😉 .

The tangzhong method.

After straining the whine I mix the wine together with the milk and a small part of the flour and bring everything to a boil and begins to thicken to a slurry. Don’t forget to constantly stir everything. This is called a tangzhong. The tangzhong or water roux is a mixture of both liquid and flour that you stir and cook until the starches in the flour gelatinize and the mixture thickens.That way the starches can hold twice as much liquid than a normal yeast dough.

Not only does the starch in the flour absorb more liquid; since heating the starch with water creates structure, it’s able to hold onto that extra liquid throughout the kneading, baking, and cooling processes.

The advantages:

• Since there’s less free (unabsorbed) water in the dough,it’s less sticky and easier to knead
• Thebread or rolls may rise higher, due to more water creating more internal steam (which makes bread rise in the oven — along with the carbon dioxide given off by the yeast)
• Having retained more water during baking,bread and rollswill be moister, and will stay soft and fresh longer

The dough itself.

• At first I pour the tangzhong into the bowl of a stand mixer with the hook attached, and let it cool slightly.
• Secondly I added the rest of the dough ingredients to the bowl and start kneading it on low for 5 minutes.
• When the dough comes together I increase the speed to medium. I let it knead for another 10 minutes until the dough is elastic and won’t stick any longer to the side of the bowl.
• At last I cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until double in size at a warm place.

The rising of the dough.

After the brioche dough has risen for the first time I knead it for a couple of minutes and let it rise again until doubled. I repeat the kneading and rising process 4 times. Every rising will take shorter than the last one. Through this process the pores of my milk bread will get finer and smaller which is another characteristic feature of a Pinze.

The shaping and cutting.

After I deflated the brioche dough for the last time i cut the dough into 10 equal heavy parts. But you can also leave half the dough whole for one big loaf and only cut the other half into 5 equal parts.

The shaping.

I take every dough piece and start pulling the outer sides into the middle where i pinch them together. I do that for 2-3 times until the dough got some tension and is already shaped like a ball. After that I put the dough on the counter and bend my fingers around the dough ball and start circling it inside of my hand until its perfectly round in shape. Repeat this with every dough piece. Put the dough balls on a baking tray covered with baking sheet.Leave enough space between the doughs. I wouldn’t recommend more than 5 Pinzen on a baking tray. Let it rise one final time. Give them enough time to double in size. After that brush them with the egg wash.

The Cut – which makes The Pinze inimitable

You need for the 3 parts cut a scissors. I put one tip of the scissors upright about 1/3 deep into the dough and cut 3 times from the inside to the outside into the dough.

After giving every Pinze their signature cut, bake them in the preheated oven for about 20-30 minutes. depending on how the size and colouring is.

Make sure to give my favourite kind of brioche recipe a try. You won’t be disappointed . Promised 😉 ! However I love to bake the milk bread for Sunday mornings. I often prepare it the day before and let the formed dough balls rise in the fridge overnight. Brushing and Cutting them in the morning.

These fluffy goodnesses are best enjoyed with my delicious recipe for a decadent Vanilla and Rosemary flavoured Orange Jam. Make sure to check out the recipe.

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Sweet and fluffy hugs, yours truly Nina

Nina

Nina is a mom of 2, a passionate photographer and kitchen scientist. She is a very creative and chaotic person, thats why she needs to organize her life very much to not get lost on her way 😉.