Vanilla Snails

Sift the flour into a large bowl.

Stir the lukewarm milk together with the fresh yeast until it has dissolved well.

Add the milk-yeast mixture, sugar, soft butter, salt, egg, finely grated lemon zest and the seeds from the vanilla pod to the flour and knead everything into a smooth, elastic dough.

Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 portions and shape each portion into a rope.

Roll each rope into a snail shape, forming small heads and antennae as you go.

Preheat the oven to 190 °C (top and bottom heat) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the vanilla snails on the sheet, cover them and let them rise for another 15 minutes.

Whisk the egg yolk with the cream.

Carefully brush the snails with half of the egg-yolk and cream mixture.

Bake the snails for about 20 minutes until they are golden yellow.

Remove the snails from the oven and, while still hot, brush them with the remaining egg-yolk and cream mixture.