IngredientsBaking
Hagelzuckerpearl sugar
Sugar in grains a few millimetres across. The size is the whole trick: by the time a grain that big has melted, the cake is out of the oven.
It goes on the dough before baking, on Hefezopf, Streuselkuchen and Butterkuchen. It does not dissolve, it stays white and it crunches.
In Mexikoin Mexico
You will not find the German packet here. The thing itself is easy enough to get.
Baking supply shops sell decorating sugar crystals, which are essentially the same grain. Otherwise Mercado Libre.
Ersatzwhat to use
Crush sugar cubes coarsely. Cubes in a cloth, rolling pin over the top, until the pieces are about the size of a grain of rice.
Sift the fine dust off and keep it for something else. It melts at once and leaves brown patches on the tray.
Vorsichtcareful
With ordinary granulated sugar the effect is gone. It melts into the crust and you neither see nor hear it.
Piloncillo is no good here either: too soft, it caramelises instead of staying a grain.