TWD: Kugelhopf

The recipe for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was kugelhopf, a yeast cake originating from Alsace or Austria, depending on who you ask. I had never heard of kugelhopf, but I was certainly up for the challenge. Kugelhopf is traditionally baked in a special swirly pan, similar to a bundt cake pan. I was oh-so-tempted to buy one for this occasion, but the only one I found was $36, which I found a bit expensive for such a superfluous kitchen item. I had the good sense to ask one of my co-workers if she owned a kugelhopf pan. She did, and she kindly lent it to me, along with a fantastic article by David Lebovitz about kugelhopf and Thanksgiving. In return, she was the recipient of some kugelhopf on Monday morning.






I had good intentions to start my kugelhopf dough on Saturday and bake it Sunday morning. Mr. Penpen was a bit taken aback when I told him at 3:30 PM on Saturday that I would not have time to both run and prepare the kugelhopf dough before we had to leave for a 7:30 movie. Somehow exercising (well, and a bit of television) won and I didn’t start the dough until Sunday morning. It was quite the process: I started around 9:00 AM Sunday morning, and we sliced into it around 5 PM. I don’t have a lot of experience working with yeast dough, so I was a bit nervous about the dough rising properly, but I actually didn’t have any problems—yay! I am glad I left the house to run errands for the final three-hour rise; otherwise I might have been tempted to constantly check the progress of the dough.

I would say the kugelhopf was well worth the wait, though. My cake turned out very fluffy and moist, and I loved the rich flavor the butter and sugar soak added. The recipe receives a 10 for D and a 5 for E (all it really required was patience), giving it a solid EDR of 2.



This week’s recipe was chosen by Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl. You can find the recipe on her site. Thanks for choosing such a great recipe! You can check out all the other bakers' blogs to see what they did here.