mix, mix… stir, stir

It’s fun to say and even more fun to eat. Kugelhopf is a buttery-rich bread along the lines of brioche, that is studded with dried fruit and often nuts. The traditional dusting of powdered sugar in addition to baking it in a fancy shape pushes this bread very much toward the cake world.

photo by David Peterman

I didn’t happen to have a true Kugelhopf pan, which is similar to a Bundt pan but taller and narrower with a shape somewhat like a spiraled turban. I can attest that there is no need to purchase a Kugelhopf pan to make Kugelhopf, a Bundt pan, mini Bundt pans, standard loaf pan or muffin tins will work just fine.

Originally an Alsatian bread, it is made all over Europe and as the bread has traveled, the spelling of the name has morphed. I have run across Kugelupf, Gugelhopf, Gugelhupf, Kougelhopf, and Koeglof, but because this is Tuesdays with Dorie, I will stick with Kugelhopf as Dorie uses in her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The most difficult thing about this bread, like many yeasted breads, is time. Dorie’s recipe calls for three risings that take about seven hours. Knowing I couldn’t fit that into my schedule the day I wanted to make this I made a few adjustments in the process. One option she gives is resting the dough in the refrigerator overnight, which with any bread is a great way to develop flavor. As a compromise I mixed up a sponge of 1/3 the yeast, the milk, and enough flour to form a thick, but still very liquid batter. After letting it sit at room temperature for three hours it got nice and bubbly and then I put that in the refrigerator to ferment the rest of the day and evening. Right before going to bed I pulled the sponge out of the refrigerator and let it sit overnight in a very cool part of the house. I needed to start the bread first thing in the morning and I didn’t want the sponge to be refrigerator-cold. It seems to have worked just fine. I then finished mixing, let the dough rise twice in a warm spot, molded it, and let it rise a final time in the mold and baked it. My “speedy” version still took all morning with the bread coming out of the oven about noon.

On the flavor front Dorie calls for plump raisins and I just couldn’t leave well enough alone, so I veered off here as well. I used golden raisins soaked overnight in dark rum and added a teaspoon of mahleb to the dough.  I also sprinkled a few slivered almonds in the mold before adding the dough which added a really nice crunch and flavor to the bread. Once these come out of the oven, Dorie takes things one step beyond simply dusting with powdered sugar and first paints the bread with melted butter then sprinkling on the powdered sugar. This makes such a nice sweet almost crispy glaze over the bread.

photo by David Peterman

I used a heavy metal pan of mini-Bundt molds to bake my Kugelhopf, but had more dough than the molds could accommodate, so I pulled out my silicone Cannell mold to finish off the dough. This is the only silicone baking pan I have and must admit that I don’t have much experience baking with it. The criticism I frequently hear of silicone pans is they don’t brown well. This was true for one side of my Kugelhopf buns. Each little bun had a very blond side that faced to the inside of the pan and a nicely browned side that was on the outer edge of the pan. Not the end of the world, but interesting to observe. The little Kugelhopfs were a great nibbling size.

Overall I was thrilled with the results and besides taking a fair amount of time, it’s not a difficult bread to make. If you feel like creating your own Kugelhoph you can find Dorie’s recipe on Yolanda’s post at All Purpose Girl. Thanks Yolanda for selecting the recipe for this week; I now know how to make Kugelhopf!

Tags: Mahleb, Tuesdays with Dorie

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 12:54 pm and is filed under Tuesdays with Dorie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.