TWD - Kugelhopf

 

This week's recipe was chosen by Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl.  You can find the recipe on her site or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Kugelhopf.

Another something that I've never made before.  Thanks, Dorie, for rounding out my baking education!

I made the dough Sunday night - no pictures, sorry.  At first, I thought I was doing something wrong.  The dough didn't seem to want to come together for the longest time - it had little masses of thicker sections that didn't want to mix in with the looser sections - I kept looking at the recipe to see if I'd missed something all those twenty times I read and reread the instructions.  But no, I was doing everything Dorie said to do. 

So I kept on.  Once all the butter was incorporated and I ran the mixer for another ten minutes at a higher speed, things started looking up.  And mixing up.  By the time the ten minutes were up, I had a lovely soft sticky dough.  It smelled yummy.  I mixed the raisins in and let it rise til doubled, then slapped it down (as Dorie recommends - by lifting the edges of the dough and letting them slap back down against the bowl), covered it and put it in the fridge.  I checked on it a few times and slapped the dough down and finally said goodnight to it.

This morning I looked at my pans and decided to use this bundt pan for my kugelhopf.  I had a taller, thinner pan - I think it's an old gelatin mold tin, actually - but it was too small to use.  So I went with this fancy bundt pan.  If I remember right, my parents gave this to me years ago for either Christmas or my birthday.  I use it every now and then, but I've found that if it's not greased properly (even thought it's a non-stick), sections of whatever cake I'm making will stick to the pan and I'll end up with an ugly mess on my cake plate.

Anyway.

I took my time and brushed a generous layer of butter throughout all the hills and valleys of my pan.  No way was I going to ruin my very first kugelhopf with a poor lube job. 

 

Then I got my dough out and scraped that into the pan.  I didn't think much about how to put it in, to be honest.  In retrospect, I guess I could have rolled it into a thick rope and twisted it around the center...but I didn't do that.  I just made a hole in the center of the dough and plopped it onto the pan.  I know.  Real professional-like.

 

I buttered one side of a piece of foil and set that over my pan and placed it on the oven.  The house was kind of cold, so I turned the oven on so that the little bit of heat fanned out at the back of the stovetop would heat things up just enough to encourage the dough to rise.

About...three hours later, here's what I had:

 

Lovely.  Not quite up to the top, but close enough for me.

Half an hour later, after baking according to Dorie's directions, I inverted the pan and took a look at the nearly finished product.

 

Hello, Gorgeous!

I was actually a bit awed when I saw this.  It's so pretty.  Granted, it's not tall and turban-like.  But still.  It's rather pretty.

I painted the surface with half a stick of melted butter.

 

And then I sprinkled it with some granulated sugar. 

 

Okay, I didn't just sprinkle.  I kind of hurled sugar by the handful at the sides, too.  Didn't want to miss a spot.

 

Ta-da!  Here it is, cooled to room temp and just about ready for the eating.

 

But before the eating, there is the picture-taking.

 

 

I couldn't bring myself to cut into it yet.  I needed to share the moment with someone.

So I brought Julia home from preschool.

 

She offered to help.  Kind of.  But not really.

 

 

At long last, I cut a slice - and Julia decided she wasn't hungry at the moment. 

So, (heavy sigh), I had to eat it myself.

 

Eventually.

 

Julia wasn't done yet.

 

HEY!  PUT THAT BACK!  I'M NOT DONE!

 

Thank you.

 

Such a light, moist, soft, beautiful crumb. 

 

Smelled pretty good too.  Not sweet, really.  Neither bready or cakey.  Not midway between them either.  It was...beyond them both.

 

Okay, just one more. 

 

Okay, now the rundown of likes and dislikes.  I'll start with the dislikes.

...

(hm hmmm hmmm hm hm...dum de dum de dum...)

...

Now for the likes.

Julia - "I like your new bread cake Mama!"

Alex - (after his usual careful consideration, he nods) "...Not bad..." (in between bites of kugelhopf, his fingers plucking out the raisins and popping them into his mouth quickly, so they don't escape.)

Bill - "MMMmmm!  That's good!  Mmm...moist...and buttery...and light...MMM!  I like it!"

And as for me?  I thought it was lovely.  Deceptively light - it doesn't scream "BUTTER!!!" at you.  And that can be a dangerous thing.

But more dangerous than that, to me, is that crispy, sugary crust.

If left to my own devices, I would pick the whole crust off, bit by bit, and eat it all by myself.

Good thing the schools are closed today and I won't be left unsupervised.

To see what all the other TWD bakers did - supervised or not - check out the incredibly huge blog list and find out. 

Comments

[Mari]

Im with you about the sugary crust, it was fabulous! Its nice to have a respite from super sweet, super rich desserts, as well. Im so glad that Ive overcome my fear of yeast, TWD has really helped with that.

[janice]

The Kugel is absolutely gorgeous. I can taste it from your description. Delicious. mhyg

[Di]

Your cake is gorgeous, and I love your pan! The only bad thing about my new pan is that since the cake was taller and the sides steeper, it was hard to get the sugar to stick well. And I managed to totally forget the powdered sugar... =)

[Molly W]

Your Kugelhopf looks wonderful, like Id love to have a piece right now with my coffee. I sure mine turns out as well.

[chocolatechic]

I struggled with this one.

Yours looks perfect!

[Kimberly]

Beautiful! I love your pan! My favorite part was the crust too.

[CB]

LOL @ lube job! I totally hurled the sugar at my kugelhopf too! It was too much fun. I didnt wanna miss any spot and sprinkling wasnt cutting it! HAHA. Love the close up of your sugar shot. Glad you and the family enjoyed the recipe!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

[Megan]

Well, when you make it look so good, its hard not to like it. I wish I had looked at the PQs and put something else in it.

[Kayte]

Oh, yours is just beautiful...absolutely gorgeous. I love all the swirls dusted with sugar...does that look magical or what? Christmas breakfast...it just says Christmas breakfast, doesnt it? Great post...I read every single word absolutely riveted to the spot. I poked the hole in the dough middle, too, as I didnt know what to do either. I also hurled the sugar at the sides, too...LOL. Some of us just need very specific instructions if Dorie expects us to get this right, dont you agree??? LOL. Love Julia...I have no pink at my house, so it is fun to see some pink! Great post.

[Ulrike]

I like your pan, it gives the cake in interesting shape.

[Eunice]

I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!

im already feeling all low and insecure now. LOL! just messing! i love love love your kugelhopf. i totally forgot about giving my kugelhopf a good sugar job!

[food librarian]

Oh, I love this! It turned out beautiful. Love that pan and your little girl is soooo cute. Thanks for all the wonderful photos too!

[Nancy (n.o.e.)]

Beautiful kugelhopf! We loved it here also. I so agree: not cake, not bread, not in between. Its so delicate and soft and moist, and just a bit sweet. Yum! Were having the last morsel for dessert tonight.
Nancy

[Holly @ PheMOMenon]

Hurled sugar you say!? I love it! I really like it in that pan to see all the gorgeous ridges that probably were perfect for some hurled sugar. Yum!

[pinkstipes]

I loved this recipe. Your kugelhopf looks perfectly golden and gorgeous. I love the bundt pan, so pretty.

[Kelly D]

Yours is absolutely gorgeous. Glad you liked it. It was a one time recipe for me.

[Steph]

Wow, that looks amazing! I like how you sprinkled it with sugar. Wish mine was as tasty as yours!

[Jessica]

So pretty! I like the idea of hurling sugar on something - glad you enjoyed this one!

[rainbowbrown]

Didnt that dough smell beautifully? Love your pans design.

[Natashya]

I have that Nordic Ware Bavarian pan too. So pretty.
You did wonderfully with this bread. It looks absolutely beautiful.

[Carol Peterman]

First Kugelhopf for me as well. I love having my baking experience expanded by this group. Your bread looks like a stunning success!

[Landa]

I love that we have the same pan. Your post was wonderful. Thanks for taking the time to do this one.

[Margaret]

It is BEAUTIFUL!!! Amazing how many of us used the same pan! I liked the butter/sugar crust too, but not cake too much. A handful of sugar makes the kugelhopf go down...! Looks yummy!!

[Fit Chick]

Beautiful Kugelhopf! And I love your pan, glad you liked the final result.

[judith]

Are you in the South? We luuuuv our butter in the South. Its looks quiet delicious.

[Jacque]

Oh my goodness, is that ever pretty! This recipe was all about the pan, it seems. Nice job!

[AmyRuth]

Wow, I think its beautiful and your sweet sugar helper is darling. Glad everyone enjoyed.
Happy Baking
AmyRuth

[Regine]

I made this 3 times already and I love it. But here are a few tricks. Buy a good quality thermometer and warm oven at 400 degrees for one or two minutes. Then use thermometer (mine has a part that stays out that shows the temperature) and wait till oven reaches 75-85. This may need a bit of patience and trial and errors. This is the best temperature for the yeast to grow in the amount of time shown in recipe. Another way is to boil water in microwave and then place dough next to boiled water and close the microwave. Also you want to beat dough with hook of mixer until dough clings to
hook, separates from walls of ball, and (most important) it passes
windowpane test. google it. This means that when you pull a piece of the dough with fingers on both hands it does not break and as you pull it forms a thin almost transparent (like a window) film. I prefer to do this before adding the butter. Be patient. It may take over 10-15 minutes. Make sure you redo windowpanes test again after all
Butter is added.