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!

Ten minutes of summer on a plate, well more like four minutes. So far this Strawberry Tart is the first sign of summer I have seen in the Northwest. It has been day after day of cool, gray, and rainy in these parts. Thankfully California is growing strawberries and shipping them North so we can have a little taste of what will hopefully be here at some point.

The delicious result of this week’s Tuesday’s with Dorie selection by Marie of A Year in Oak Cottage!  You can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspans Baking: From My Home to Yours I did play a bit with this assignment, beginning by making small tarts for individual servings. To better accomodate the small tart shell, I decided to slice and layer the berries. The it’s-what-I-have-on-hand syndrome was employed a few times as well, starting with using Rosemary Rhubarb Jelly rather than the suggested strawberry jam, which would have required a trip to the store. Of course strawberry and rhubarb are happy old friends so the flavors worked wonderfully and I was pleased to utilize a bit of my last jar of this precious jelly for such a fancy application. Thankfully it is rhubarb season so I can do some canning soon and re-stock my pantry to hold me for another year.

The next thing I know I am rooting around in my spice drawer and come up with a container of Grains of Paradise. Perfect! A little more floral and complex in flavor with less heat than black pepper. It fits into just about any application calling for black pepper, but I especially like to use it in dishes that have delicate flavors and in garnishing. When crushed, the seeds are creamy white on the inside making a beautifully speckled garnish. 

I played a bit in the spice drawer while making the crust as well. I added 1/2 teaspoon of Mahleb (see previous post) which added a warm nutty flavor that is not exactly identifiable, but just that little flavor of something in the background. Having read other baker’s posts about the crust being a bit hard and cookie-like I thought that could be troublesome with the smaller sized tarts making them rather difficult to eat. I didn’t want my tart shooting across the room when I try to dig my fork in for my first bite of summer. I replaced 2 tablespoons of flour with cornstarch and the crust was delightfully delicate and crumbly.

I was not lucky enough to be able to use brilliantly fresh local berries, so I employed a little trick I learned from Teller, yes, of Penn and Teller. Last year I had the good fortune to win a fundraising auction for brunch at his home. He made a wonderful brunch and shared the great tip of adding a splash of rose water to strawberries if they aren’t quite as ripe as you would like them to be. The rose water brought the most beautiful aroma to my berries which further fueled my delusions of summer for a brief, but delicious moment.

And for my husband, who does not share a love for strawberries, these tarts held rich chocolate pudding just fine!

This intriguing spice seems to go by many aliases, which only adds to the exoticism and thrill of discovering a new spice from a far away land. I came across this spice a few weeks ago at my local spice shop, World Spice. They had just received a shipment which apparently took months to get and despite having no idea what it was, I knew I needed to get some and start playing in the kitchen. 

Mahleb is the dried pit of a small sour cherry that grows wild in the Middle East and Southern Europe. It is commonly used in baking celebration breads and pastries such as the braided Greek Easter bread known as Tsoureki, Turkish kandil rings,  Arab Ma’amool, and Chorek, which are Armenian sweet rolls.

Mahleb has a slightly floral scent that dances between almonds and cherries. It is a nutty warm flavor with a slight bitter note.  Not having any link to the cultures and traditional applications of mahleb, I decided to play around with it in some of the things I like to bake.  It seems to play the role of an amalgamater quite well by adding a warm flavor that is difficult to pin down. Now granted, someone who grew up eating baked goods flavored with Mahleb might be able to identify it easily, but to me it is a little nutty, almondy, sweet, and a hint of floral, but not one distinct flavor.

I added 1/2 teaspoon to madeleine batter, 1 teaspoon to a shortbread recipe using 2 1/4 cups of flour, 3 teaspoons to a loaf of brioche/challah style bread, and 1/2 teaspoon to a tart crust. The mahleb never overwhelmed, it just added a nice background flavor much like vanilla but not as familiar. It will be my secret ingredient anytime I want to add a little flavor intrigue to a batter or dough. Pancakes, layer cakes, scones…nothing will be safe! In addition to sweet applications, I have seen reference to using mahleb in savory applications, so I still have much experimenting to do.

The pits are rather soft and easy to chew, which makes them very easy to grind in a coffee grinder/spice grinder. When ground it is a beautiful pale yellow color and a very light fluffy texture. Like all spices, it is best to buy them whole and grind as needed.