Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Kugelhopf (TWD)


This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl: Kugelhopf. I had never heard of Kugelhopf before. It's part bread, part cake. Dorie explains that it is similar to brioche, but not as rich because there's less butter in it. What's left out of the dough, however, is made up for in the end - as the cake is soaked with melted butter and sprinkled with sugar after it's baked.


Apparently, there are special Kugelhopf pans available. They're called turk's heads or turbans, due to their slender shape and curves. I don't have room for another pan in my kitchen, so I used my Bundt pan instead. I have a 10-15 cup Bundt pan while this recipe calls for an 8-9 cup pan. Consequently, my Kugelhopf ended up more short and squat and not so much slender and curvy ;)


I have a 6 quart KitchenAid stand mixer, so my dough hook had some difficulty mixing the dough thoroughly. So I used the paddle attachment initially to mix everything up, then switched to the dough hook for the last ten minute knead. Instead of raisins, I used orange flavored cranberries from Trader Joe's, just because that's what I had on hand.


The dough was incredibly sticky to work with. When it came time to flop the dough to deflate it, it wasn't like the brioche dough we had previously made - it stuck all over my fingers.


If you're going to make this recipe, make sure you allow plenty of time. The dough needs to rise for at least 1.5 hours (mine took 2 hours to double in size), then you need to deflate it every 30 minutes for 2 hours. Then, it requires a final rest in the refrigerator overnight, followed by 2-3 more hours of rising at room temperature in the pan. Look at all those nice little bubbles that rose up...


The Kugelhopf was just okay, but not great in my opinion. (My husband actually said, "Honey, I love you, but that just isn't good.") I think I was expecting something sweeter, and this had a very mild, buttery flavor. Soaking it in butter and drizzling sugar over it definitely made it better - it would have been drab otherwise. Perhaps I would have liked it better with (gasp) more butter? :) The dried fruit was very good in it, but there wasn't nearly enough - I would recommend doubling the amount.


Thanks Yolanda, for choosing this week's recipe. It was an interesting experience making and tasting Kugelhopf for the first time. When it comes to such a long, drawn out process, however, I think I would much rather have brioche (or cinnamon rolls) than Kugelhopf, so I probably won't be making this again. If you would like the recipe, you can find it here. Make sure you visit the TWD Blog Roll to see what everyone else thought of this buttery treat.

*Recipe notes:
- I would recommend doubling the amount of dried fruit in this.
- I used skim milk instead of whole milk.
- I used salted butter and cut the amount of salt in the recipe in half.
- I also used salted butter to soak the cake - the salty taste of the butter combined with the drizzled sugar was fantastic!
- For more recipe tips, click here.

36 comments:

  1. Ahh, so sorry that you didn't like the Kugelhopf too much - here's to the next TWD treat being PERFECT!!

    By the way, I tried to comment on your previous post, but my comment wouldn't go through :-( Just letting you know that I'm still a loyal reader, trying to comment!!! Haha ;-)

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  2. I agree with you - it needed a little more "oomph", although I actually liked the blandish flavor. Yours looks beautiful!

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  3. Great job! It does look really pretty in that last picture.

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  4. This looks really delicious, I must try it soon!

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  5. moi aussi je recommande de doubler les raisins secs:)
    ton kougelhopf est très réussi :)

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  6. Even if it wasn't all that you would have liked in taste it certainly looked good!

    I liked the shot of the bubbles, very cool! How come I never think if things like that?!
    ~ingrid

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  7. great blog here,Do you have a good Red Velvet Cake recipe.. I want to make it, but I would like to use one that someone recommends. I tried to make one once, but it turned out kinda dry.

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  8. You and I had the same experience.

    I used my 6 qt. KA, and should have used my 5 qt.

    My pan was huge, so it didn't rise.

    I'm going to make French Toast with my leftovers.

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  9. Looks great! I agree that there needed to be more 'add-ins' to add some flavor.

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  10. Hmmmmmm....salted butter...sooooo good! Great idea!

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  11. Yours looks very curvy indeed! :) I agree that more fruit is needed.

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  12. I just had to adjust my thinking and not think of it as dessert, but more like a breakfast bread treat and then I liked it a lot in that context. Yours looks really pretty anyway! Proof that not everything has to be slender and long to be gorgeous! ;)

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  13. I like how shiny it is! Even without the proper pan looks great!

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  14. I agree that this needed more fruit. Orange cranberries sound yummy--I've never tried those. And brushing the kugelhopf with salted butter sounds delicious as well. Thanks for the great ideas!

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  15. Your kugelhopf look perfect. YUM!

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  16. This looks amazing. I will make my second attempt this evening because I threw my first one out because I never got it to rise well.

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  17. Yours kugelhopf or whatever it is called, is the best one I have seen so far. Awesome blossom job! :)

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  18. Your Kugelhopf look great! Glad the recipe woried for you but I agree, it didn't have the taste I was looking for (or for all the work).

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  19. Love that bubble dough picture! Your kugelhopf looks great. I wasn't a fan myself and probably won't make it again but at least I can cross it off my list right? Ready for rice pudding next week!
    Clara @ iheartfood4thought

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  20. I 've never had this bread either, but maybe it would be good as toast??? Another excuse to put more butter and some jam on it!

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  21. Looks perfect to me! Great job!

    -DTW
    [www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com]

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  22. Lovely shots of your cake! But now you've got me thinking about Trader Joe's again ... ;)

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  23. Looks great! I agree with needing more dried fruit.

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  24. Yeah, I probably wont be making it again either. I did make mine into bread pudding though and that was tasty!

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  25. what a lovely, moist cake... must taste so good...:)

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  26. I would think that part cake part bread would be really good! The texture and the flavor. Hmmm I hate when things are so much work and they don't turn out as great as you thought they would.

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  27. Glad you made it. It seems like a challenge, well worth trying though!

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  28. Your comments referring to salt makes me wonder if sea salt mixed with the sugar (maybe coarse) would be tasty. I don't know. I guess we really are Americans who love their southern cinnamon rolls, Yeah? No problem by me. I thought it was okay. My experience totally requiring a "rematch." I agree that a lot more interesting fruits/nuts (I know you don't care for nuts) maybe a little spice would be more to our liking here on this side of the pond. Great Work!
    AmyRuth

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  29. Beutiful, beautiful, beautiful, Jaime... there is no other word!
    Okay, well... other than Bravissimo! there.

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  30. Your cake looks beautiful. I like the cranberry addition.

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  31. I've seen a lot of Kugelhopf in my day (well, okay, just since Tuesday), but I'd have to say yours looks the most beautiful! Not too many liked it. At least your tried it. I opted out this week. Rice pudding, anyone?

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  32. The crust and crumb look so beautiful. Is that a nordic pan?

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  33. WOW! The crumb on that is GORGEOUS! I want some!!

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  34. I have the 6 quart Kitchenaid too. How do you like yours? My mom has a 4.5 or 5 quart one and it wasn't quite big enough for a couple things I made and I thought hey the bigger the better. But actually I find the 6 quart doesn't do a very good job of creaming butter and sugar (unless there's a ton in there). Do you have any problems with it? I guess because sometimes I half recipes so there's such a small amount of butter and sugar in there but still, it's frustrating!! There are so many places in the bowl that the paddle just doesn't get to. Anyway enough of my ranting.. ;)

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  35. eat me, delicious - i really like my 6qt KA mixer. i probably could have just gotten a 5qt and it would have been fine, but there was just a ridiculous sale on the 6qt so that's how i ended up with it. i don't halve a lot of recipes, so i don't have a huge problem w/the paddle not creaming the butter well enough. if you do, you might want to try getting the sideswiper - it might eliminate that problem for you (http://www.frutproducts.com/)

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