Kugelhopf

I’ve been making kugelhopf/gugelhopf for years. It’s an enriched leavened dough, like a plain brioche or pannetone, always made in a ring shaped (toroidal) mould. I like it as a simple, but rather different, type of coffee cake.

From Saveur.

• 85g raisins
• 2 tbs kirsch
• 80g + 330g bread flour
• 7g dried yeast
• 240ml milk
• 16g caster sugar - maybe more?
• 6g salt (linked recipe says 18g, seems a lot!)
• 1 large egg
• 185g butter
• 50g whole almonds (optional)

Soak the raisins in kirsch plus 2 tbs hot water for 30 minutes. Drain.

I do all this in a stand mixer, but it’s easy enough to do it all by hand. Combine 80g of flour with the yeast and milk. Let the mixture stand for 15 minutes. Add the remaining flour, sugar, and salt, and mix until combined. Add the egg, and mix in, then add the butter and knead until smooth and shiny (several minutes). Add the drained raisins and knead for a further two more minutes until well distributed.

Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled; approx 1.5 hours.

Shape, cover and allow to rise; approx 45 minutes.

Soak the almonds in hot water for one minute, then drain. Grease a bundt pan, and place the almonds in the grooves; this is just for decoration, so skip if you’d rather. Make a hole in the dough, keeping an even doughnut shape, and place in the pan. Cover, let rise another 45 mins.

Set oven to 205C fan. Put the pan in the oven, then lower temperature to 175C. Bake until golden, approx 45-50 minutes. It may need longer than this, so check carefully when taking out of the oven. If the cake has risen high above the pan, which will depend on the size of your pan, cut it evenly with a bread knife to level off.

Allow to cool. Dust lightly with icing sugar, serve in even slices with coffee, and maybe some whipped cream and a little compote.