Mini Kugelhupf
I’d lie if I’d say that I like working with yeasted dough. I’m not a huge fan of it, the kneading part is the one that scares me, but from time to time I do put my tiny mixer (not even close to a professional one) to work and make this kind of sweet yeasted dough. If I had a proper mixer I would probably be making yeasted dough more often as it makes kneading so much easier, but you never know what future holds, right?! I’ve had these pans for such a long time, Maya sent them to me after winning a baking giveaway and I’ve been avoiding them all this time thinking that they must be so hard to clean. But they’re non-stick and cleaning is piece of cake so you might see more of this in the future on my blog. My inspiration for this recipe was Wayne Gisslen’s Professional Baking book.
Kugelhupf, also known as Gugelhupf, Gugelhopf or Guglhupf is an Alsatian term for a marble cake or Bundt cake. It is quite common in countries like Germany, Austria, Croatia, Serbia or Poland. What’s special about this cake is the fact that is uses yeast instead of baking powder so the dough rises beautifully. Actually, I was surprised to see that the recipe is a mix of yeasted dough and a creaming method used to make butter cakes, you’ll see what I mean reading the recipe. What you get is a fluffy, airy, flaky cake, perfect with a cup of tea or a glass of milk. The dough is butter and moist, quite soft so you will need to grease your hands to be able to work with it, but even if it sticks to your hands at times, don’t be tempted to add more flour!
In terms of additions to the dough, I used raisins soaked in dark rum, but next time I’m thinking to add some candied orange peel, chocolate chips or some turkish delight pieces or even walnuts or hazelnuts. It’s a versatile recipe when it comes to how you flavor the cake and what you add into the dough and that’s a good thing for those of you who like to alter recipes.
Mini Kugelhupf
Ingredients
Sponge:
- 190 ml warm milk
- 24 g fresh yeast
- 190 g all-purpose flour (sifted)
Cake:
- 250 g butter (room temperature)
- 125 g white sugar
- 10 g salt
- 5 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 440 g all-purpose flour (sifted)
- 75 g raisins (chocolate chips, candied orange peel etc)
- 60 ml dark rum
- You will also need butter for the pan and a few almond slices to coat the pan
Instructions
Sponge:
- Mix the yeast with the warm milk until melted then stir in the flour.
- Sprinkle the sponge with A bit of flour and let it rise until it doubles its volume.
Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 180C.
- Soak the raisins in rum for a few hours, preferably overnight.
- Mix the butter with sugar until creamy and fluffy, at least 5 minutes.
- Stir in the eggs, one by one, then add the vanilla and lemon zest.
- Stir in the risen sponge and mix it well then add the flour.
- Using your dough paddles on your mixer, mix the dough for 15 minutes until it becomes stretchy and elastic.
- Fold in the raisins (drained).
- Let the dough rest and rise for 20 minutes.
- While the dough rises, butter the pan (pans in my case) and coat the bottom with almond slices.
- Oil your hands well to handle the dough easier and place the dough in your pans.
- Let the dough rise a second time for 30 minutes.
- Bake the mini kugelhupfs in the oven for 30 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. For a bigger cake, the baking time will be longer. I recommend trying it with a skewer.
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