• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

www.WeekendBakery.com

Weekend Bakery

The place for the ambitious home baker

  • Home
  • Webshop
    • Rijsmandjes
    • Brood bakken
      • Mixen & Mengen
      • Snijden, rollen, schrapen
      • Rijzen & Bakken
    • Broodbak sets
    • Uitstekers
      • Uitsteker sets
      • Speciale XL uitstekers
      • Dieren
      • Bloemen en planten
      • Transport
      • Vormen
      • Lente & zomer
      • Kerst & Feest
      • Halloween
      • Overig
    • Zoet bakken
      • Baking Love
      • Bakgereedschap
      • Papieren bakvormen
      • Bakvormen
      • Speculaasvormen en koekstempels
      • In de keuken
      • Serveren
      • Houten lepels, spatels, schepjes…
  • Recipes
    • Best bread recipes
    • Sweet baking
    • Nederlandse recepten
    • Bread baking tips
    • Bread movies
    • WKB projects
    • Article index
  • Info
    • Contact Us
    • Baking Conversion Tools
    • Why Home Baking
    • Baking Glossary
    • Article Index
    • Bread Scoring with the Lame / Brood insnijden met de Lame
    • Send Us Your Loaf
    • Your Loaves!
  • About us
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Holiday Baking / Holiday baking: Cranberry rondo’s

Holiday baking: Cranberry rondo’s

4 Comments Holiday Baking, Sweet baking Holiday baking, Patisserie

The combination of almond paste and custard for the filling is divine!

Klik hier voor de Nederlandse versie
This is my Christmas version of the famous Dutch ‘appelrondo’s’ (apple round cakes). They are fun to make and nobody will mind eating them, I can promise you.

Outside the Holiday month each in season fruit will do well in this recipe, the apples of course, but blue-, black-, goos- or raspberry are delish options too. You can also choose to bake without the fruit and add it fresh later. No end of choices!

I added a hint of speculaas spices in the dough which works very well. You can also use pumpkin spice or mixed spice, or leave it out if you prefer. Adding a teaspoon of lemon zest to the dough is also a very tasty option.

I dust the rondo’s with some sugar, but you can also brush them with some warm jam to give them a festive and patisserie shop worthy shine.

Enjoy!

Cranberry round cakes / cranberry rondo's
Cranberry round cakes / cranberrie rondo's
Cranberry round cakes / cranberrie rondo's
Cranberry round cakes / cranberrie rondo's
Cranberry round cakes / cranberrie rondo's

IMG_4562

Ingredients for the cranberry rondo’s

makes 10 rondo cakes

200 g pastry flour / all purpose flour

7 g baking powder (1.5 tsps)

few pinches of salt

optional: 1/2 tsp speculaas spices (see recipe)

125 g butter at room temperature

125 g soft light brown (muscovado) sugar

20 g buttermilk (or milk with yoghurt)

100 g almond paste (see recipe)

150 g crème pâtissière / pastry cream (see recipe)

about 100 g fresh cranberries, 5 cranberries per rondo

vanilla sugar for sprinkling on cranberries

Preparing in advance
For the filling you need to make a mixture of almond paste and crème pâtissière. You can find the recipe for almond paste here. Our favorite recipe for the crème pâtissière can be found here. You will not need all of it, so you can make half or just make the recipe and use the rest for other pastry projects or store it in the freezer.

Making cranberry round cakes / rondo's
Making cranberry round cakes / rondo's
Making cranberry round cakes / rondo's
Making cranberry round cakes / rondo's
Making cranberry round cakes / rondo's


The almond paste and creme pat need to be combined to a smooth consistency. For this it is important to loosen the almond paste first by kneading it a bit with your fingers or mashing it with a fork, maybe adding a few teaspoons of egg yolk to make it smoother. Now you can whisk the creme and paste together with a hand mixer on medium speed until blended into one smooth consistency.
Scoop into a piping bag or leave it in the bowl and put in the fridge until needed.
IMG_4581
Making the dough
Sift the flour with the baking powder, salt and optional spices. Add the butter to the sugar and combine. Add the buttermilk and beat until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and quickly knead into a ball. Press the ball into a disc shape, cover with clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Making it one day in advance will work fine too, as long as you use the right (low gluten) flour.

Preheat the oven at 175ºC / 350ºF.
Prepare a baking tray by covering it with a sheet of baking paper. Place baking rings on the paper, making sure to keep a small distance between the rings. We use rings with a diameter of 7 cm /2.8 inches.

Take the dough out of the fridge. Roll out into a 7 mm thick rectangle. Cut out 10 circles of 8 cm diameter each (so slightly bigger than the rings). Place the dough rings on top of the rings and carefully lower them to the bottom of the rings, creating a raised edge.

Pipe or spoon the almond paste /custard mixture onto the dough rings (25 grams for each rondo). Press 5 fresh cranberries in the filling and sprinkle on some vanilla sugar.

Bake the rondo’s in the preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

Take from the oven and immediately remove the baking rings, using a towel or cloth to lift them. Leave the rondo’s on the baking tray for a few minutes to firm up, then transfer to a rack and leave to cool completely.

Happy baking!

Holiday Baking, Sweet baking Holiday baking, Patisserie

Reader Interactions

Share Your Comments & Feedback Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please read our comment policy below before submitting your comment:

  • Only comment or ask a question about a recipe as shown on our website
  • We love to help you, but unfortunately we cannot answer every question personally

Comments

  1. Karen Stoeckle says

    October 23, 2022 at 13:18

    These look fabulous! Could I make them in small tart pans? I don’t have the rings.

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      October 26, 2022 at 16:11

      Yes, that would be possible. Maybe you have to experiment with the amount of dough and filling for each ‘rondo’ but a muffin pan could work too for instance. As long as the dough has support during baking.

      Reply
  2. elizabeth grieve says

    December 26, 2016 at 18:01

    Theses little cakes are absolutely divine Made them for friends visiting Now they are making them too Just wonder about making one large tart They will be a regular recipe to bake Thank you

    Reply
    • Weekend Bakers says

      December 31, 2016 at 10:52

      Hello again Elizabeth,
      Yes you could make one large tart, but we never do this, so we do not have the exact baking times for you. With a bit of trial and hopefully not much error and keeping an eye on the oven, something good should come out.

      Would be interested to get feedback if you try it of course.

      Happy baking!

      Reply

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Best bread recipes
  • Bread baking tips
  • Bread movies
  • Highlights
  • Holiday Baking
  • Nederlandse recepten & tips
  • Popular Recipes
  • Seasonal Favorites
  • Sweet baking
  • Uncategorized
  • WKB projects

Info

  • About Us
  • Article Index
  • Baking Conversion Tools
  • Baking Glossary
  • Bread Scoring with the Lame / Brood insnijden met de Lame
  • Contact Us
  • Send Us Your Loaf
  • Why Home Baking
  • Your loaves ’24 -’25
  • Your Loaves More 1 !
  • Your Loaves More 2 !
  • Your Loaves More 3 !
  • Your Loaves More 4 !
  • Your Loaves!

Seasonal Favorites

Ficelle with sourdough

Kouign-amann: Breton pastry with a hint of salty caramel!

Our version of Tartine style bread

Favorite flatbreads: Sourdough pita

San Francisco style sourdough bread

3 stage 70% Rye Bread with Raisins

Footer

Recent Articles

  • Our Sourdough Pizza Recipe
  • Wonderful Walnut Caramel Pie – The 2.0 Version
  • Fantastische Walnoten Karameltaart: Versie 2.0
  • Ons Zuurdesem Pizza Recept: Veel Smaak en Perfecte Bite!
  • Handy sourdough tips
  • Easter Raisin Buns with Pistachio filling
  • Making Pistache Paste
  • Het Panettone Project
  • The Joy of Baking – And how to find it!
  • Bakkersdozijn: Onze 12 plus 1 beste broodbak-tips!

Tags

almonds apples banneton boule Bread bread baking tips brioche butter cakes cheese chocolate christmas cinnamon Coffee Cookies couche cranberries crusty bread Dutch flatbread focaccia Holiday baking honey hybrid method Laminated dough lemon muesli muffins no knead pain rustique Patisserie pie pies & tarts pizza poolish preferment rye rye bread scones sourdough stretch&fold vanilla Viennoiserie walnuts yeast

Follow us on Social Media

  • Bluesky
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Favorites

  • De Zandhaas – Our local flour mill
  • The Fresh Loaf
  • The Perfect Loaf

All photos and text Copyright 2005-2025 by weekendbakery.com