Switzerland is not only known for its unique “Swiss Cheese” and luxury watches. No, our geographical neighbours are also the talk of the town when it comes to chocolate. So, it is easy to understand why the favourite pastry of our dough technologist Sebastian Then is of Swiss origin.
No one has ever been born a master - or have they?
Sebastian has been a dough technologist at FRITSCH for almost 9 years. It all started for him with the fragrance wafting through the air from the bakery in his home town in Lower Franconia. That made each trip to the bakery a true highlight for the youngster. “I’m going to be a baker!” he finally declared to his parents when he was 12 years old. That ambition never changed. And so, in that very same bakery in his home town, the passionate pastry fan started his apprenticeship. He completed it as the best in Bavaria. Even before he went into military service, he completed a second apprenticeship as confectioner, again as the best in the state of Bavaria. And where did this auspicious resume take him? After acing the master’s exam in Munich at the top of his class, he went straight on to a monastery. To bake in the monastic bakery, of course. To our fortune, Sebastian then applied to FRITSCH, where he was immediately hired for his outstanding talent and experience. Since then, we have been proud to have him as one of our dough technologists.
It’s no surprise that the baking expert also invents his own products. Instead of the basic triangular shape for a croissant, he uses punched rectangles over which he applies a chocolate grid pattern.
Inspired by Swiss chocolate
"Schwizer Röllchen" (Swiss rolls), as Sebastian calls these filled pastries, aren’t necessarily to be found in Switzerland at all. The technologist merely allowed himself to be a little inspired by the neighbouring country. There is a Swiss producer that wraps chocolate bars into croissants. “There’s got to be a way to make it look even more creative,” he thought, and added the unmistakable pattern to the croissant dough. The chocolate bar inside the dough, however, is indeed made by said famous Swiss chocolate brand. Thus the master baker combines Swiss tradition with his own style – to produce a delicate pastry that can shine with its unique appearance and inimitable flavour.
The confectioner likes working with handcrafting machines best. To make his Röllchen, he uses the ROLLFIX prime first to produce the dough sheet. To process the dough sheet after this, he then uses the MULTIFLEX M 700 or MULTIFLEX L 700 combined with the CSV compact coiler.
“The challenge is to apply the chocolate decoration grid neatly to the croissant dough. It is also very important to position the bar by hand on the punched rectangles before they are wrapped. You need a bit of technical skill.", Sebastian tells us why he likes these Röllchen so much.
Can it be savoury too?
This pastry doesn’t even have to be sweet to be a tasty treat. Sebastian also enjoys it spicy! “You can make the whole thing with a spicy croissant dough, for example, and use a cheese shortcrust coloured red with paprika as decoration. For the filling, you then use Berner sausage,” the master baker says with passion.
When asked which pastry the dough technologist doesn’t like at all, we get a very quick and clear answer: “Vegan croissants. A croissant without butter is no croissant to me,” he says with a laugh. This is clearly evident in the Schwizer Röllchen, which couldn’t be any less vegan: the flaky pastry namely has a proud 33% butter folded into it.
The trained master baker and confectioner has been working as a dough technologist at FRITSCH for almost 9 years. After his mandatory military service and three years of working in various bakeries he successfully passed his masters examination in Munich as the best in his class. Before entering the World of Bakery, he was working as a baker in the Münsterschwarzach Abbey.
“The challenge is to apply the chocolate decoration grid neatly to the croissant dough. It is also very important to position the bar by hand on the punched rectangles before they are wrapped. You need a bit of technical skill.”
Sebastian Then, dough technologist at FRITSCH