Kugelhopf
It’s a soft and butter enriched yeasted bread (similar to brioche and originating from Southern Germany and Austria), studded with rum soaked raisins and decorated with almonds.
It’s a dream to have freshly baked and still slightly warm, but toasted on the following day, smeared with butter and topped with a bitter orange marmalade or thinly sliced smoked cheese perhaps is even better!
Ingredients:
- about 50 g of raisins
- 20 ml of dark rum
- 260-265 g of plain flour sifted
- 10 g of fresh yeast
- 125 ml of whole milk, slightly warmed up
- 35 ml of tepid water
- 40 g of sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 teaspoon of fine salt
- 65 g of unsalted butter, softened (plus more for greasing)
- about 15 whole almonds to lay inside the bundt cake tin
- icing sugar for decoration
Soak the raisins in the rum for a minimum of 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
Prepare a yeast starter:
Crumble the yeast in a small bowl, add half the quantity of the sugar and pour in some milk. Stir gently until the yeast dissolves, then dust with some flour (about one tablespoon).
Cover and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes or so. The mixture should turn foamy, meaning, that the yeast is activated.
Sift the flour into the bowl of a standing mixer. Add the remaining sugar and make a well.
Pour in the yeast mixture and the remaining milk. Start working the dough on a lower speed with a dough hook attached.
Next add the lightly beaten egg, and after that the water and the salt. Work the dough for a few minutes until it results in a uniform and elastic consistency.
Now gradually add the butter, making sure that each portion of the butter is well mixed with the dough before adding the next one.
Once you’ve finished with the butter work the dough for a further 5-8 minutes on a higher speed.
It should turn silky smooth, shiny and elastic. The dough will be quite wet and sticky. If you find it too wet however, add a teaspoon of flour.
At the very end add the raisins and let the mixer stir all the ingredients for about a minute.
Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm spot for about 1 hr or until it doubles in size.
Generously brush the kugelhopf mould or a bundt cake tin with butter.
Neatly arrange the almonds on the bottom of the tin. Knock back the risen dough and drop it into the mould in large spoonfuls.
Even out slightly the surface, cover again with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for about 2 hours, or until the dough has risen almost to the top of the tin.
Preheat the oven to 170 C / 150 C Fan and bake the kugelhopf for about 35 minutes (it usually takes me 35- 40 minutes in a static oven), or until golden brown (inserted skewer should come out clean). If it browns too fast, cover the tin loosely with a sheet of aluminium foil.
Leave to cool in the mould for 20 minutes before turning it onto a wire rack to cool down completely.
Dust with icing sugar before serving.
Kugelhopf is best enjoyed on the day of baking, but it can last for a couple of days wrapped in foil or kept in a bread bin, in which case I would suggest toasting it before eating.
