Kougelhopf

As tradition built it

Makes one large cake. About 1 hour active, 3 to 4 hours proving, 40 to 45 minutes baking.

Ingredients

• 500 g strong flour
• 15 g fresh yeast
• 150 ml warm milk
• 100 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150 g soft butter
• 100 g raisins, soaked in a little kirsch
• a few, to line whole almonds, for the mould
• a little, to dust icing sugar, to finish

Method

1. Bloom the yeast in the warm milk with a spoonful of the sugar, about 15 minutes.
2. Combine with the flour, remaining sugar, eggs and a pinch of salt, knead well, then work in the soft butter gradually.
3. Fold in the drained raisins.
4. First proof, covered, 1.5 to 2 hours, until doubled.
5. Press whole almonds into the base of a terracotta kougelhopf mould, never washed, only wiped clean after use.
6. Knock back the dough, shape and place in the mould.
7. Second proof to the rim of the mould.
8. Bake at 180°C for 40 to 45 minutes, until deeply golden and a skewer comes out clean.
9. Dust generously with icing sugar once cool.

What a modern chef changes

The proof given its full, unhurried time, and the raisins made to earn their place.

Rung 1, applied by analogy to yeast rather than lactic fermentation.

Method

1. Do not rush either proof. A yeasted dough denied its full rise bakes dense and tight rather than the open, tender crumb a properly proved kougelhopf should have, exactly the same discipline this chapter asks of a choucroute ferment.
2. Macerate the raisins properly in kirsch for several hours, not a token soak, so they plump and carry real spirit flavour into the crumb rather than sitting as dry specks.
3. Use a genuine terracotta mould, never washed, for the specific, slow heat transfer and easy release the dish depends on; a metal bundt tin gives a different, less even bake.