Cuca

As tradition built it

Cuca

Makes one large cuca, serves 8 to 10. About 1 hour including proving, plus baking.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 1 tbsp dried yeast
• a pinch pinch of salt
• 150g (¾ cup) sugar
• 240ml (1 cup) warm water
• 2 eggs
• 100g butter, softened
• about 450g (3 cups) plain flour
• 2 large apples, or 2 to 3 bananas fruit of choice (apple or banana are the most common), sliced

For the streusel

• 100g each equal parts butter and plain flour, rubbed together to a coarse crumb

Method

1. Combine the yeast, salt, sugar and warm water, then beat in the eggs.
2. Work in enough flour that the dough comes together and no longer sticks to the hands, roughly 3 cups. Rest, covered, for 10 minutes.
3. Work in the softened butter and any remaining flour, then prove, covered, for about 45 minutes, until doubled.
4. Press the dough out flat and low into a wide tin rather than a tall loaf tin, matching the low, flat profile that distinguishes the gaúcho version from the German original.
5. Arrange the sliced fruit generously over the surface, then scatter the streusel crumb thickly over the top.
6. Bake at 200°C for about 45 minutes, until deeply golden.

Notes

The dough ratios above come from current Brazilian home practice rather than an archival source; this chapter found no scholarly quantified historical recipe to check them against.

What a modern chef changes

Precision fermentation and a fruit filling reduced rather than left raw.

Rung 2.

Method

1. Prove the dough in a sous vide bath set to 28°C, sealed loosely in a bowl under cling film rather than left to the vagaries of a kitchen's ambient temperature, for a more consistent, repeatable rise.
2. Reduce the fruit to a thick compote first, cooked down with a little sugar until jammy and passed through a chinois to remove any fibrous pieces, rather than laying raw slices onto the dough, so the topping sets rather than weeping liquid into the crumb during baking.
3. Blitz the streusel in a food processor to an even, sandy crumb rather than rubbing it by hand, for a more consistent bake across the whole surface.