Production
Nussgipfel Formula in Baker's Percent: Butter Puff Pastry with Nut Filling
The Nussgipfel is a German pastry made from butter puff pastry, filled with a nut paste and rolled in hazelnut brittle. This page gives the dough in baker's percent, the filling, the decoration per piece and the faults to watch.
The formula
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Per 500 g flour |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat flour (type 405) | 100 % | 500 g |
| Water | 50 % | 250 g |
| Butter in the dough | 40 % | 200 g |
| Salt | 2.4 % | 12 g |
| Lamination butter (for the turns) | 40 % | 200 g |
| Total | 232.4 % | 1,162 g |
The table gives the home recipe for a puff pastry made from 500 g of flour. The butter is 80 % of the flour (40 % in the dough and 40 % for the turns). The dough weighs 1,162 g, but a batch of 8 pieces needs only 800 to 1,000 g of it, which is about 345 to 430 g of flour. Per piece that is 100 to 125 g of dough.
The nut filling
The filling is calculated for 8 pieces, which is why it is high when you count it against all 500 g of flour (40 % hazelnuts, 20 % almonds, 12 % sugar, 0.6 % cinnamon and 32 % milk).
| Filling ingredient | For 8 pieces | Per piece |
|---|---|---|
| Hazelnuts, ground and roasted | 200 g | 25.0 g |
| Almonds, ground and blanched | 100 g | 12.5 g |
| Sugar | 60 g | 7.5 g |
| Cinnamon | 3 g | 0.4 g |
| Milk | 160 g | 20.0 g |
| Filling total (without citrus) | 523 g | 65.4 g |
The home recipe also takes the zest of one third of a lemon and one orange, and the juice of two oranges, without weights. The filling is about 65 g per piece without them.
Scaled to bakery batches
| Ingredient | 1 kg flour | 10 kg flour | 25 kg flour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat flour (type 405) | 1,000 g | 10,000 g | 25,000 g |
| Water | 500 g | 5,000 g | 12,500 g |
| Butter in the dough | 400 g | 4,000 g | 10,000 g |
| Salt | 24 g | 240 g | 600 g |
| Lamination butter (for the turns) | 400 g | 4,000 g | 10,000 g |
| Dough | 2,324 g | 23,240 g | 58,100 g |
How the numbers are calculated
- Add the percentages. 100 + 50 + 40 + 2.4 + 40 = 232.4 %. Total dough weight is always flour weight × 2.324.
- From the dough you want to the flour you need. Flour = dough weight ÷ 2.324. For 100 pieces of 112.5 g you need 11,250 g of dough, so 11,250 ÷ 2.324 = 4,841 g of flour.
- From the flour to each ingredient. Ingredient = flour × percent ÷ 100. With 4,841 g of flour: water 2,420 g, butter in the dough 1,936 g, salt 116 g, lamination butter 1,936 g.
- Pieces from a batch. 10 kg of flour makes 23,240 g of dough. At 112.5 g per piece that is 206 pieces.
You can do the same with the baker's percentage calculator: enter the percentages above and tick flour and liquid.
Decoration
The decoration is part of the formula. Before baking, the pieces are sprayed with water and rolled in a brittle of chopped hazelnuts and sugar, in the ratio 1 to 1. After baking they get powdered sugar. In many bakeries this is forgotten in the costing, although the decoration is a large part of the piece.
| Decoration | Per piece | 100 pieces |
|---|---|---|
| Hazelnut brittle (hazelnuts : sugar = 1 : 1) | 20 g | 2,000 g |
| of which hazelnuts | 10 g | 1,000 g |
| of which sugar | 10 g | 1,000 g |
| Powdered sugar after baking | 5 g | 500 g |
| Water for spraying | a little | not weighed |
The amounts per piece, 20 g of brittle and 5 g of powdered sugar, come from the bakery. The split of the brittle into hazelnuts and sugar is a calculation from the 1 to 1 ratio.
In the bakery
- Lamination. Make the puff pastry with four double turns, with at least one hour of rest between the turns and a night in the cooler at the end. A croissant dough gets only three single turns, a puff pastry gets double turns.
- Proof. The home recipe lets the pieces proof for 30 minutes at room temperature before baking.
- Baking. 180 °C in a fan oven for 25 to 30 minutes, as in the home recipe. Use it as a starting point and check it in your own oven.
- Weight. A piece takes 100 to 125 g of dough, about 65 g of filling and 20 g of brittle, and then 5 g of powdered sugar after baking. These weights are calculated from the home recipe.
Things to watch
- The dough is laminated wrongly: the turns fail or the layers fuse. Give the turns and keep to the rests, and cut cleanly with a sharp knife.
- Wrong butter or fat: a lamination fat that is too soft or too hard does not work. Keep the fat at the same temperature as the dough.
- Filling too wet: the filling should not run out when the piece is rolled and baked. Weigh the milk and the citrus juice.
- Brittle falls off: the pieces have to be sprayed with water just before rolling them in the brittle.
- Proof too long or wrong baking programme: the pieces lose their layers, or they come out pale or too dark. Check the programme before each batch.
- Decoration forgotten in the costing: the brittle and the powdered sugar are real cost per piece.