Hi everyone – I’d really like to cut the recipe in half – the best idea I’ve had for baking half a batch is to use a muffin pan. I think you can do this with brioche, so maybe it would work? Does anyone with experience with Kugelhopf or that type of a dough know if this is worth a try?
Who is going to use a traditional Kugelhopf pan? I am so tempted to buy one!
I was thinking I’d use my bundt pan instead of going out and buying a Kugelhopf pan. Has anyone done this before and know how it would effect cooking time?
I bought one to use. I don’t own any sort of bundt pan, so I decided to get one.
I just mixed up my dough. I made half of a batch. The problem was…. the amount of dough was too small to work very well using my Kitchenaid with the dough hook. The hook only mixed the top bit of dough.
I have a DeLonghi mixer that I don’t use often, but I can raise or lower the hook slightly and that worked better, but still not the greatest.
This might be a recipe that it’s worth making a whole batch of, just to make it easier. You could always stick half of the dough in the freezer for later use.
I made half the recipe. My mixer didn’t really have a problem. Just turn it up higher than the recipe recommends.
I baked the dough in little brioche molds.
I liked it, but I thought the recipe majorly needed more salt. Or maybe I accidentally forgot to add it?
I made this last Friday and used my bundt pan – it turned out fine. I don’t think this recipe can be halved easily, but a cleverer cook than me can probably make it work. You could always make the whole batch and either freeze the dough or freeze half the finished product for later consumption. There aren’t a lot of pricey or exotic ingredients in this recipe, so that’s a plus.
Read the directions all the way through and don’t wait until the last minute (aka: Monday night) to make this – it takes a while to get it all the way up to the baking stage. I ran out of time after the mixing in of the raisins so I chunked it into the fridge at that point and left it until the next day when I had more time to deal with it. Beacuse I did mine differently, after completing the intermediate steps, it took like 5 hours or so to ultimately rise to the top of the pan. It baked up nicely though, with a fine crumb.
I used my KitchenAid too…When I was adding in the pieces of butter, I switched back to the paddle attachment, then back to the dough hook for the major mixing. (I found that the dough hook just pushed the butter chunks around!)
Lisa, I’m glad to hear your dough took forever to rise after being in the fridge overnight – so did mine! In spite of not being very tall mine was delicious.
Im going to go out today and see if I can find a Kugelhopf tin. No idea why, because I cant see myself using it that often. I bought a bundt tin the other day so if I cant find one i’ll just use that. Its a shame this cake starts to stale so quickly too. How on earth will we eat it all in one day?
ok, suggestions on something to use other than raisins! I was thinking maybe dried cranberries or chocolate chips?
I would think you could use any dried fruit.
It looks like I won’t have time to make it before Tuesday, but I do have a yeast question (yeast scares the dickens out of me!) We have active dry yeast in the packets, and also instant yeast. Has anyone had experience with the instant yeast? Would I be crazy to try it, especially given my lack of yeast experience?
Dorie doesn’t say anything about freezing this, so I think I’m going to go out on the highways and byways to give it away!
Nancy
Raisins? What else could we use? Dried cranberries?Dorie loves her raisins, doesn’t she ;)
Toasting this sounds nice though, and if I decide to make this, I’ll just use a regular bundt pan.
tammy–i used dried cherries…will bake my kugelhopf tomorrow, so i haven’t tasted it yet. i often sub raisins with cherries tho, and it’s great. your other two thoughts sounds like they’d work fine.
i made 1/2 recipe, too. my mixer is in storage, so i had to do it by hand with wooden spoon. was not looking forward to it, but for a 1/2 recipe, it was actually pretty easy. i couldn’t find a kugelhopf pan the right size for 1/2 recipe in stores (except on-line and i won’t get it fast enough)…my small bundt is in transit from australia and i refuse to buy another. long story short, i’m baking mine in a 1/2 sized loaf pan. hopefully it will turn out fine.
ha! I had the page on idle so I didn’t see it was already asked. Chocolate chips also came to mind.
I’m reading online for other suggestions and I see some recipes have almonds and citrus zest added. I even saw a chocolate swirl version. Of course these are not any of Dorie’s suggestions, does it matter?
Does this help with the yeast question? This was my conversation with PJ Hamel from KAF.
Ok, once and for all, I’m going to learn the difference between active dry/instant/rapid rise yeasts. I know that active dry needs to be activated in a liquid. Are instant and rapid rise essentially the same things?
Jules, all three are different. RapidRise is Fleichmann’s brand name for an active dry yeast that works very quickly, but also gives up the ghost more quickly than the other two. It’s a sprinter, not a marathoner. Active dry is a slower-acting yeast, but lasts longer. It’s prepared by being dried at a high temperature, which kills a lot of the cells. the dead cells collect around and surround the live ones, which is why it needs to be dissolved before using; to slough off the dead cells. Instant yeast (a.k.a. bread machine yeast) Is dried at a lower temperature, resulting in more cells remaining alive. Thus it doesn’t need to be dissolved. It acts quickly, but also stays strong for the long haul, which is why I like it the best: it’s easy to use, and strong. I prefer SAF Red instant yeast, which is what we use here in the test kitchen and have for many, many years. Hope that helps- PJH
Nancy – I’ve read two schools of thought on instant yeast. Rose Levy Beranbaum gives all sorts of complicated formulas for converting amounts of active dry to instant, and King Arthur says all they use is instant, use the same amounts, it doesn’t matter, it all works out in the end. I made one loaf of bread according to the KA theory and it rose very fast and high and had a lot of holes.
BUT I’m under the impression from what I read tthat with a long slow rise like this one it’s likely to work better just substituting one for the other…something about instant starting faster and then slowing down, and active doing the opposite. Does this make sense? Hope this helps (a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing!)
Audrey
I’m pondering making mine plain — without any dried fruit? Do you think that will be too bland and boring? Otherwise I think that I might go the chocolate chip route.
I gave in and ordered a silicone kugelhopf pan but I love the idea of making it in muffin tins.
I’ve heard that you need to use a bit less instant yeast than active dry yeast — it’s because of those dry dead yeast cells in the active dry yeast. I don’t recall the exact conversion at the moment.
I bought a Kugelhopf tin today! It was $25 Australian so I thought, what the hell. I doubt i’ll ever use it again though.
I’m making mine either today or tomorrow and am going to use my mini bundt pan that I HAD to have and have never used.
Just baked mine. I added mini chocolate chips and kept the raisins. They taste yummy with butter and cherry preserves.
I used some small individual jello type molds, maybe somewhere in between the size of a mini muffin tin and a regular muffin tin. I filled them around 3/4 full (I was guessing). They rose to the top and then I put them in the oven, where they rose maybe 1/2 inch more. I baked for 10 minutes, then added the aluminum foil tent and baked for 10 minutes more and they were done.
They wanted to stick a bit around the tops…. should have buttered that part better.
I just made it today – the full recipe was still almost too little for my KA to work with. I half-filled my mini brioche molds (didn’t use all of the dough, I stuck that back in the fridge for later), let them rise until they just hit the top, and then put them in the oven. They rose over an inch above the edge! I baked them 15 min uncovered and an additional 10 covered – haven’t tried them yet, but they smell wonderful. Probably could have filled the molds a bit less though, for prettier loaves.
I’m just making this now… is the dough quite ‘runny’? As in, not like a traditional dough? If you try to pick my dough up, its like a really thick batter.
I am in the middle of making this. Is the dough supposed to be REALLY stretchy, and kind of sticky? Bria, mine started out runny, but after 10 minutes in the KA it looks more stretchy/sticky. It’s now in the oven (oven is off) “rising.” I’m going to give it an hour and a half, but I’ll be shocked if it actually rises much. Yeast is not my friend.
This was SO not the cake for me.
To Cathy and Bria: my dough/batter was also very thin, like a cross between a very wet bread dough and a thick cake batter.
I didn’t have the special pan so I made it in a 10-15 cup bundt pan, so mine was wider and flatter than the cake pictured. Maybe it would have been better in the specialty pan, but I wasn’t very impressed. The taste was similar to a sweet roll, but I found the texture to be too dry and in general, the cake wasn’t very interesting. I even used raspberry-flavored cherries and added lemon zest, and it still didn’t have much flavor. It was a lot of time for a blah finished product.
Oh well…on to the next.
Ok well thats good to know about the dough being thin and sticky! After 1.5 hours mine had doubled in size (its very warm here right now). And ive got it in the fridge now. I’ve bashed it down a few times now and it seems to be a bit more dough like than after the first rise. Will be baking this tomorrow after it has rested in the fridge over night.
I’m going to go beat on mine a little bit now. I checked on it a little while ago (after maybe an hour and a half?) and it didn’t seem like it doubled. I am committed and all but just don’t see myself staying up all night to do this. Thanks for the info on your batter, Elizabeth. Good luck, Bria!
I started mine today too, it’s spending the night in the fridge, and will be baked up sometime in the morning. I went with cranberries instead of raisins. My dough was really wet and sticky too, wasn’t sure if it was all supposed to climb the hook, mine didn’t, so I moved on to let it rise.
It rose up fine, I was surprised because I was sure I had killed the yeast since my milk cooled fast, and the yeast wasn’t dissolving. I placed it in the warm oven to warm it back up, and made the best of it. We’ll see how it bakes in the bundt pan.
As far as the texture of the dough, once it’s been beaten it should act like melted mozzarella – you know, sorta oozy. It’ll stay like that and be a bit sticky until it goes in the fridge. Then it’ll firm up, but still be quite stretchy thanks to all the gluten development going on. It behaved a lot like the brioche dough from earlier. Oh, and don’t skip the butter / sugar coating – you know those doughnut muffins? Yeah. Awesome.
Caitlin, that is just about a perfect description of this dough (at least it certainly describes mine). Oh, and you better believe that I am doing all of this for the butter/sugar coating!
I don’t bake a whole lot; I have a weight problem and hubby is a diabetic and there are only the two of us in our house. But by golly I so enjoy looking at all of your efforts (mainly the pics) and I’m sorry this is not a comment or question about Kugelhopf (which I LOVE), but you all collectively bring so much happiness those outside your circle as well. Just wanted to thank you all. Happy baking.
Im in the middle of the last waiting step. Im hoping my dough will rise. So far I followed the recipe exactly except I did not keep it in the fridge overnight. I added cinnamon chips only. Oh I hope it turns out..Im kinda nervous!
Michelle- Cinnamon chips sound like a nice addition (I wish I could find them!)
Mine did okay in the bundt pan and rose well but I didn’t love the texture. I think I would have liked it better I had made it into little “rolls” in a cupcake pan since I liked the bottom of the cake/bread best, where it had been exposed while baking.
Sure was pretty, though!
My Kugelhopf is about a 1 quart size. instead of using the total dough, I scaled out 1lb. of dough. The rest are for minis. With a cool apartment, the dough was slow to rise. Into the UNheated oven and up it went. Back in the fridge to bake later.
Mine flopped. It didn’t even rise to double after the fridge. I should’ve skipped the fridge and baked it then. I bet that cooled down milk killed the yeast. I baked it anyways (came to 1/2 way up the bundt pan, after 4 hrs in a warm place!). It wasn’t so bad, it’s just not what’s pictured, lol. I thought about doing another, but don’t feel like wasting all that time and ingredients again. :(
The Kugelhopf took forever to double in size! It nearly took 4 hours for me. Now it’s in the fridge, but after I slapped it down, the dough deflated like crazy. I think that’s supposed to happen, but I hope it will rise up tomorrow.
Rachelle that is exactly what happened to me! I left mine in the fridge overnight but I think that was a mistake. By morning, the dough was very firm so I was unable to put it into the tin very well. It didnt rise much in the oven either. The texture seems fine but it just isnt very tall. My tin is 9.5 inches but that shouldnt really affect it I dont think.
Im actually going to make it again and not chill it overnight.
Anne I have loads of cinnamon chips in my freezer if you want to stop by and get some..HA! I seriously could not find them anywhere in town. This summer I was at a Grocery Outlet in Lake Tahoe and found them for 1.25 a bag. I grabbed about 20 of them! I have a good recipe for cinnmon chip cookies and a cinnamon chip bundt cake.
They really taste good in the Kugelhopf. I was glad to get this recipe behind me..it was stressful! Mine did rise..slowly…and it tasted fine. My two teenage daughters love it!
I took my dough out of the fridge and it doesn’t seem to be rising at all. It’s been almost 3 hours. Now it just feels kinda tough. I think I’m going to put it over the heater.
Hey Steph, do you have a range stove? If so, try putting your oven on the lowest possible temp, and then setting the pan on top of the stove. The tiny bit of heat that radiates from the oven should help your dough rise. I just did that myself and am seeing results!
Ok, reading all these comments has made me nervous! Not going to be able to get this started til tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck. Not sure what to put in it – not a super raisin fan Hmmm… Toffee? And am definitely going to do it in cupcake pan – love the crusts.
Any ideas?
Tnaia
I’m about to get started on it – I think I’ll end up chilling the dough overnight, but I thought I’d chill it in the pan, since there have been a lot of comments about the chilled dough being hard to work with. Then tomorrow morning I’ll take it out and it can have as much time as it needs to rise (and hopefully it WILL rise!)
Jill
Well, this was my first week! I baked the rugelach last Tuesday, posted a blog about it, and then forgot I was supposed to post here on Tuesday as well. Oh, well, first week! I called what I made Election Day Rugelach. It was a nice name to mean that I was in and out of the kitchen trying to watch the elections too much. It tasted good, but didn’t look so nice. The booboos were leaving the dough in the fridge for 2 days instead of one (poor planing), underworking the dough a little, and not chopping finely enough.
Kevin
My Kugelhoph is rising in the bundt pan now. It is rising really well. It is a really warm fall day here in NC, so I’m having NO problems with it rising. I put in dried cherries instead of raisins into the dough. I was going to add mini chocolate chips too, but I forgot. : ( Oh well, maybe next time. I should be baking it within the next few hours.!!
i’m making this now and it never crawled up my dough hook so I finally stopped beating it. It is almost runny. It rose, then when I tried to slap it, it fell again to a gooey substance. I now have it in the refrigerator. Maybe I should have skipped this week??
So, I just thought I would weigh in real quick. I made mine last Wednesday and it turned out fantastic. I used instant yeast because it is what I had on hand. Since there was no raisins happening at my house this time either, and I didn’t want to be a broken record for subbing chocolate again I actually subbed cinnamon chips. I just used my regular bundt pan since I didn’t want to spend the money on the other pan unless I knew I would like this.
Now that I know, I hope I can find a good deal because it would be fun to have the ‘real’ pan.
Did anyone find a bitter taste to the Kupelhopf? Thanks for the advice happytummy. I ended up putting the pan ontop of my toaster oven
I’ve found that when I am having rising difficulty, if I set my oven to 200, once it reaches 200 I leave it there for 10 minutes and then I turn it off and put my item in the oven, it will rise very well.
I thought it was extremely bland. I was very disappointed.
My dough is in the refrig right now for the overnight rest. I made it in my KA and it took forever to get to the stage where it crawled up the dough hook. I didn’t time it, but it was probably close to 30 minutes. I think maybe I wasn’t mixing at a high enough speed? I’m worried I may have developed way too much gluten and cake will be very dense.
Hmm…it’s sounding like there are lots of troubles with this recipe. I haven’t started mine yet, I’m planning on getting it going tomorrow, or Monday night (having the Tuesday off for a holiday really gives me more options this week!). I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences so far, hopefully I can take what you’ve all learned and apply it successfully in my attempt.
I’m starting work on this Sunday night! I’m going to plump up the raisins (I originally wrote ‘my raisins’ and laughed my head off! haha) by soaking it in hot water or giving it a quick boil.
The steps sound so time consuming though! I can only start at 10pm. Bummer!!!
Holly, yours might be the only fully positive report – a ray of hope!! And, lol, I’m always subbing dried cherries for the raisins, it seems. I might do golden raisins with currants.
Steph:
no problem on the tip–glad it you got it to work out! And yes, I did find a bitter taste to the Kugelhopf. I attributed it to the yeast…I felt like I could taste it.
Pinkstripes:
My dough actually never crawled up the hook. I kept waiting and waiting, and probably got up to 15 minutes before I got worried and just stopped. I too thought maybe the speed wasn’t high enough, but I have a Kitchenaid Professional 600, and the manual says never to go past Speed 2. Anyway, it worked out in the end–hope the long mixing didn’t hurt your bread!
Mine never crawled up the hook or started to pull away from the sides. I let it go for 25 minutes. So, I moved on to let it rise. To double, it took almost 4 hours in a very warm spot. I left it in the fridge overnight. Its on its 2nd rise right now. Im ready for it to take a good 4 hours again. ;)
My add-in of choice this week has been left over Halloween candy. And this was no exception. A fun size bar of snickers, butterfinger, Nestle crunch, Baby Ruth and a fun size pack of m&ms were all harmed in the making of this kuglehopf.
Ill let you know how it turns out.
Holly- I bet it was delicious with the cinnamon chips! I kick myself remembering that I used to pass by them all the time when we lived in Utah (I had no idea!) Maybe I’ll try mail order, lol.
As for letting it rise, this time it was actually kind of cool outside (normally I just set the bowl on the patio and it does fine) so I just turned the oven on to the lowest setting for a few minutes until it felt like a nice summer day in there and then I put the pan in the oven with the door cracked to rise in the warmth. That might offend a serious bread maker but it always works for me if my kitchen is too cool. : )
I was looking though my baking supplies and I discovered I actually have Kugelhopf tin, in fact I have had it ages already I just didn’t know it was meant for baking Kugelhopf, I used it to bake loafs :).
Unfortunately I left it at my parents’ house so I bought yesterday one silicon pan, my first silicon dish, so I have no idea how this one will work out but I guess I’ll find out soon.
I am thinking dried cherries might be good substitute for raisins.
Mine is on its second rise and I really don’t see it rising to the top of the pan. Maybe I’d have better luck if I made this in the summer? I guess I’ll have to wait and see…
Okay.. mine didnt rise to the top of the pan or even halfway. But, it almost doubled. I think I would double it to make it in a regular bundt pan. There just isnt enough dough to fill it. My oldest even said “Jeez, thats kind of small Mom”. However, lack of size was made up for by the taste. I loved it. The baby loves it. My oldest loves it. Leftover Halloween candy is a winner.
Ohh, I forgot to log off from WordPress, so only bunny picture appeared next to my comment…. I’m sorry.
I mixed the dough and put it into fridge to rise, I guess I’ll see in the morning what is the result, so far so good :).
I agree with Kristen – this is so bland! I baked mine in a muffin tin and they came out very nice. They’re tender and airy, but there is no flavor outside of the raisins and the butter and sugar on the outside. I’m happy it turned out, but it was a lot of work for a bland end result.
Thanks for all the comments, everyone! I’m going to start mine this evening and bake it tomorrow. I think I will try adding in some vanilla and orange zest.
My cake is on its first rise. Thanks for the tips about using the oven for that! I came here to see if I was the only one who was having problems (there was no climbing, more like spelunking, on my dough hook while mixing), so the oven tip came just in time. This is my first official attempt at a TWD recipe. I tried the Pumpkin Muffins and didn’t much like them, so I was a little disheartened to have this not look successful either. Happily I had success with the Carmel Peanut Brownie Cake a few weeks back, or I’d be wondering what the heck was going on! I’m hoping this turns out okay! :-)
Right now mine is going through the slap-down phase in the fridge, and so far, no problems. It took 90 minutes for the first rise, and it’s still rising during refrigeration. In the morning I’ll set it out for the final rise before I head off to a meeting and then bake it upon my return. I’m curious how it is going to turn out, especially flavor-wise.
Made mine today and just tried the first piece. It’s delicious! Very delicate texture and flavor. I am very happy with this as my first try with TWD!
Baked mine off today. It took awhile for the second rise…I stuck in the kugelhopf pan and sat it on the counter while I was working in the kitchen on other stuff. When it looked done, I stuck it in the oven. In the end, it tasted great! It’s not sweet and is the perfect breakfast bread. I’m sure it would taste great as toast, like Dorie suggests, with jam or even French toast.
I used instant yeast, and the dough came together beautifully. Climbed the hook in less than 10 minutes, doubled in 70 minutes. I put it on the stovetop – my vent hood has halogen lights and it’s really toasty there. The dough bowl is in the fridge and I’m roasting some pumpkin while I wait to slap the dough around more.
I let my raisins sit overnight in 1/3 cup of cinnamon liquor to add a cinnamontaste to them, I also used 3 tablespoons of leftover cinnamonsugar I still had in the cupboard instead the regular sugar. Now waiting for the first rise to happen so I can jam them in the fridge. Will be baking tomorrow… A bit last-minute…
Forgot to mention: divided the dough into two bowls. Added raisins/cranberries to one bowl and mini chocolate chips to the other bowl
Mine turned out great–it does remind me quite a bit of the brioche dough. Next time I’ll add more raisins, and I think a bit of nutmeg in the dough would be nice. It’s definitely not very sweet, but that’s okay with me. And I toasted some for breakfast this morning–excellent with jam on it. No need for butter! =)
My kugelhopf didn’t present any problems. I am just not sure if 6 hours to make a cake is worth it. Although it tasted fine and looked impressive, it was just so-so. I had a piece for breakfast and it tasted like a cross between a buttery croissant and challah. I agree with most that it needed some more flavour. Perhaps, vanilla or soak the raisins in kirsch brandy. I like the idea of nutmeg suggested by Di. Good luck to all!
I had no idea it would rise so high! My pan is overflowing, after I cleverly put it in a ‘smaller pan’.
This is probably a little late, but to those whose dough didn’t crawl up – this is a very runny dough, so I turned my KA up to 4 and it still took the full 10 minutes to climb. Think of it like a cake batter, and beat the heck out of it! I let mine rise on top of my oven set to “Warm” and it only took 1.5 hrs for that third rise too. But yes – more flavors needed! Unless you use really good butter – a cultured European-style butter would be fabulous in this.
My second kugelhopf is doing the final rise now — my first one flopped — probably my own fault, and I decided this morning to give it one more try. Wish me luck :)
My dough is in the refrigerator now. I mixed it up last night. I mixed it by hand because I don’t have a stand mixer. My arm is still a bit sore…
And a word of advice — I thought it might be a good idea to put on some disposable gloves and knead the dough (actually it’s more like a batter) by hand. DON’T DO THIS! Picture me holding out my messy hands while my sweet husband patiently scraped off as much of the sticky, sticky, sticky stuff as he could. At least after he was done, I could toss the gloves into the trash. I ended up stirring the dough with a large silicone “spoonula.” It was a lot of work.
Well I’m glad to see I’m not the only ones having problems. My dough sat overnight last night and was clumpy when I pulled it out this morning. I guess my fridge is too cold. It’s been about 4 hours and it’s risen about 1/2 way up the pan. So we’re making progress… just very slowly.
Mine took a little over 2 hours on the second rise. It nearly doubled but I wish I’d let it rise for a little while longer, as it did not rise at all while it baked. I undercooked it by a minute or two, but at least it’s not dry :) I added a pinch of cardamom and soaked the raisins in orange juice. The flavor is subtle but very good. A good experience for my first yeast baking. I’m glad I used instant yeast. Thanks for all of the help!
Oh, Nancy! I was just going to write the same thing! The first time I thought I messed it up so I did it again, let it rise 2.5 hours, almost to the top, looked great, but did not rise at all while baking! That is what happened the first time around (but I had made an error when adding ingredients so figured that was why) — I wonder why ours didn’t rise at all in the oven?!?
Nancy and Andrea, I had the completely opposite experience! How funny. Mine did not rise at all, really, after being in the fridge overnight but rose considerably as soon as it went in the oven. It never rose high enough but it still tasted fine.
I just want to say….
blarg!
I actually made 2 of these. The first one was perfect, IMO, beginner’s luck I guess. But I couldn’t get pics so I made another one. The second one, I had trouble with from the moment the dough was in the mixer to the moment I baked it. It didn’t rise to the top of the pan before baking and it didn’t rise at all while it baked. I made a few changes in the second one but I never thought it would make such a difference. Maybe this is one of those recipes that can’t be tweaked much.
Love all the comments on here! Glad to see I am not the only one that was having issues. I thought I killed my yeast with too hot milk. But, it eventually rose. Unfortunately my “unmolding” didn’t go so smoothly. It came out of the pan in pieces but both my kiddos LOVED it. I think hubs will too. It turned out really light.
I’m nervous about mine. My pan was pretty large so I didn’t make the dough go all the way to the top. I’m in the last 10 minutes of baking. Wish me luck!
This is only my 2nd week and I have a couple questions that I didn’t see in the rules.
*How much if any creative leeway do we have with a recipe?
*Do I only post on my blog or somewhere on TWD page?
Thank you
Amber
Amber – You have complete creative leeway. You’re free to use the recipe just as inspiration and really not follow it at all. Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody does that all the time.
You just post on your blog.
Is anyone else done? I can’t wait to see the others’ entries! My entry with a lot of pictures is up, finally. *phew!*
Eunice, your cake looks so delicious! I hope mine turns out as lovely. I like the brown sugar on top.
Right now I’m in the last rise.
Earlier this morning, I took the pan out of the fridge and have it on the radiator. I can’t say it’s doubled, but I’ll give it another hour.
You’ve all got me worried about blandness, so I think I’ll add lemon juice to the butter wash.
I can’t wait to see everyone’s pics!
I’m still not added to the list of bakers, but this is my second recipe with TWD. My kugelhopf turned out really well. Fortunately, I didn’t have the problems with the rising that others ran into.
Eunice, I loved your Kewl-gehopf!
Congratulations!!! This recipe was a great challenge!!
Thanks again for sharing!
Thanks Clivia! I can’t wait to see your pictures!
Actually…I just realised I’m going to have to manually check out the blog roll. Phwoar, 300 blogs is not a walk in the park haha!
Im trying go by and look and comment on everyones. Im only on C’s right now but everyone did a wonderful job.
Amber, here’s a quote from a blog post by Laurie back on June 22:
“This group is baking its way through Baking: From My Home to Yours. It feels silly to have to say it, but we are using the recipes FROM the book. While adaptations are welcome, we would still prefer that you generally stick to the recipe. I have had a lot of emails come in on this topic. So, I want to be as clear as possible on a rule that can be very gray. Tweaking/Adapting the recipe is one thing, using an entirely different recipe is something else. You guys are smart, I think you know the difference here.”
I didn’t use a mixer for mixing my dough, I used wooden spoon but I guess the result is still pretty good.
At least I had no problems with rising and taste was also good.
I think after two attempts I could possibly master the third Kugelhopf and it’s rising.! Great learning experience
Just wanted to say this was my first time ever in baking kugelhopf and eating it. it was good, but not good enough to bake it often. It takes way too much time for me!
I agree, Marlene. Still, it was fun to have the experience. I think next time I’ll try a rich brioche or perhaps a pannetone. Something really “over the top!” At least now I know how to make this sort of rich bread!
So here I am finally, the slacker. Anyways, I have to say that I LOVED this. That being said, I realized that this was really more of a bread than a cake when Dorie related this to brioche. I still don’t understand the “not as rich” part when she references brioche because after that butter soak I don’t notice too much of a difference in the taste.
One thing I did do differently is I used brown butter for the soak and it was très délicieux! Also I was EXTREMELY liberal with the sprinkling of sugar after the soak so I had a nice sugar crust when I was done.
This is another recipe that I probably would have never tried on my own, so thanks again to this great group for another tasty discovery!
Tuesdays with Dorie 
Hi everyone – I’d really like to cut the recipe in half – the best idea I’ve had for baking half a batch is to use a muffin pan. I think you can do this with brioche, so maybe it would work? Does anyone with experience with Kugelhopf or that type of a dough know if this is worth a try?
Who is going to use a traditional Kugelhopf pan? I am so tempted to buy one!
I was thinking I’d use my bundt pan instead of going out and buying a Kugelhopf pan. Has anyone done this before and know how it would effect cooking time?
I bought one to use. I don’t own any sort of bundt pan, so I decided to get one.
I just mixed up my dough. I made half of a batch. The problem was…. the amount of dough was too small to work very well using my Kitchenaid with the dough hook. The hook only mixed the top bit of dough.
I have a DeLonghi mixer that I don’t use often, but I can raise or lower the hook slightly and that worked better, but still not the greatest.
This might be a recipe that it’s worth making a whole batch of, just to make it easier. You could always stick half of the dough in the freezer for later use.
I made half the recipe. My mixer didn’t really have a problem. Just turn it up higher than the recipe recommends.
I baked the dough in little brioche molds.
I liked it, but I thought the recipe majorly needed more salt. Or maybe I accidentally forgot to add it?
I made this last Friday and used my bundt pan – it turned out fine. I don’t think this recipe can be halved easily, but a cleverer cook than me can probably make it work. You could always make the whole batch and either freeze the dough or freeze half the finished product for later consumption. There aren’t a lot of pricey or exotic ingredients in this recipe, so that’s a plus.
Read the directions all the way through and don’t wait until the last minute (aka: Monday night) to make this – it takes a while to get it all the way up to the baking stage. I ran out of time after the mixing in of the raisins so I chunked it into the fridge at that point and left it until the next day when I had more time to deal with it. Beacuse I did mine differently, after completing the intermediate steps, it took like 5 hours or so to ultimately rise to the top of the pan. It baked up nicely though, with a fine crumb.
I used my KitchenAid too…When I was adding in the pieces of butter, I switched back to the paddle attachment, then back to the dough hook for the major mixing. (I found that the dough hook just pushed the butter chunks around!)
Lisa, I’m glad to hear your dough took forever to rise after being in the fridge overnight – so did mine! In spite of not being very tall mine was delicious.
Im going to go out today and see if I can find a Kugelhopf tin. No idea why, because I cant see myself using it that often. I bought a bundt tin the other day so if I cant find one i’ll just use that. Its a shame this cake starts to stale so quickly too. How on earth will we eat it all in one day?
ok, suggestions on something to use other than raisins! I was thinking maybe dried cranberries or chocolate chips?
I would think you could use any dried fruit.
It looks like I won’t have time to make it before Tuesday, but I do have a yeast question (yeast scares the dickens out of me!) We have active dry yeast in the packets, and also instant yeast. Has anyone had experience with the instant yeast? Would I be crazy to try it, especially given my lack of yeast experience?
Dorie doesn’t say anything about freezing this, so I think I’m going to go out on the highways and byways to give it away!
Nancy
Raisins? What else could we use? Dried cranberries?Dorie loves her raisins, doesn’t she ;)
Toasting this sounds nice though, and if I decide to make this, I’ll just use a regular bundt pan.
tammy–i used dried cherries…will bake my kugelhopf tomorrow, so i haven’t tasted it yet. i often sub raisins with cherries tho, and it’s great. your other two thoughts sounds like they’d work fine.
i made 1/2 recipe, too. my mixer is in storage, so i had to do it by hand with wooden spoon. was not looking forward to it, but for a 1/2 recipe, it was actually pretty easy. i couldn’t find a kugelhopf pan the right size for 1/2 recipe in stores (except on-line and i won’t get it fast enough)…my small bundt is in transit from australia and i refuse to buy another. long story short, i’m baking mine in a 1/2 sized loaf pan. hopefully it will turn out fine.
ha! I had the page on idle so I didn’t see it was already asked. Chocolate chips also came to mind.
I’m reading online for other suggestions and I see some recipes have almonds and citrus zest added. I even saw a chocolate swirl version. Of course these are not any of Dorie’s suggestions, does it matter?
Does this help with the yeast question? This was my conversation with PJ Hamel from KAF.
Ok, once and for all, I’m going to learn the difference between active dry/instant/rapid rise yeasts. I know that active dry needs to be activated in a liquid. Are instant and rapid rise essentially the same things?
Jules, all three are different. RapidRise is Fleichmann’s brand name for an active dry yeast that works very quickly, but also gives up the ghost more quickly than the other two. It’s a sprinter, not a marathoner. Active dry is a slower-acting yeast, but lasts longer. It’s prepared by being dried at a high temperature, which kills a lot of the cells. the dead cells collect around and surround the live ones, which is why it needs to be dissolved before using; to slough off the dead cells. Instant yeast (a.k.a. bread machine yeast) Is dried at a lower temperature, resulting in more cells remaining alive. Thus it doesn’t need to be dissolved. It acts quickly, but also stays strong for the long haul, which is why I like it the best: it’s easy to use, and strong. I prefer SAF Red instant yeast, which is what we use here in the test kitchen and have for many, many years. Hope that helps- PJH
Nancy – I’ve read two schools of thought on instant yeast. Rose Levy Beranbaum gives all sorts of complicated formulas for converting amounts of active dry to instant, and King Arthur says all they use is instant, use the same amounts, it doesn’t matter, it all works out in the end. I made one loaf of bread according to the KA theory and it rose very fast and high and had a lot of holes.
BUT I’m under the impression from what I read tthat with a long slow rise like this one it’s likely to work better just substituting one for the other…something about instant starting faster and then slowing down, and active doing the opposite. Does this make sense? Hope this helps (a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing!)
Audrey
I’m pondering making mine plain — without any dried fruit? Do you think that will be too bland and boring? Otherwise I think that I might go the chocolate chip route.
I gave in and ordered a silicone kugelhopf pan but I love the idea of making it in muffin tins.
I’ve heard that you need to use a bit less instant yeast than active dry yeast — it’s because of those dry dead yeast cells in the active dry yeast. I don’t recall the exact conversion at the moment.
I bought a Kugelhopf tin today! It was $25 Australian so I thought, what the hell. I doubt i’ll ever use it again though.
I’m making mine either today or tomorrow and am going to use my mini bundt pan that I HAD to have and have never used.
Just baked mine. I added mini chocolate chips and kept the raisins. They taste yummy with butter and cherry preserves.
I used some small individual jello type molds, maybe somewhere in between the size of a mini muffin tin and a regular muffin tin. I filled them around 3/4 full (I was guessing). They rose to the top and then I put them in the oven, where they rose maybe 1/2 inch more. I baked for 10 minutes, then added the aluminum foil tent and baked for 10 minutes more and they were done.
They wanted to stick a bit around the tops…. should have buttered that part better.
I just made it today – the full recipe was still almost too little for my KA to work with. I half-filled my mini brioche molds (didn’t use all of the dough, I stuck that back in the fridge for later), let them rise until they just hit the top, and then put them in the oven. They rose over an inch above the edge! I baked them 15 min uncovered and an additional 10 covered – haven’t tried them yet, but they smell wonderful. Probably could have filled the molds a bit less though, for prettier loaves.
I’m just making this now… is the dough quite ‘runny’? As in, not like a traditional dough? If you try to pick my dough up, its like a really thick batter.
I am in the middle of making this. Is the dough supposed to be REALLY stretchy, and kind of sticky? Bria, mine started out runny, but after 10 minutes in the KA it looks more stretchy/sticky. It’s now in the oven (oven is off) “rising.” I’m going to give it an hour and a half, but I’ll be shocked if it actually rises much. Yeast is not my friend.
This was SO not the cake for me.
To Cathy and Bria: my dough/batter was also very thin, like a cross between a very wet bread dough and a thick cake batter.
I didn’t have the special pan so I made it in a 10-15 cup bundt pan, so mine was wider and flatter than the cake pictured. Maybe it would have been better in the specialty pan, but I wasn’t very impressed. The taste was similar to a sweet roll, but I found the texture to be too dry and in general, the cake wasn’t very interesting. I even used raspberry-flavored cherries and added lemon zest, and it still didn’t have much flavor. It was a lot of time for a blah finished product.
Oh well…on to the next.
Ok well thats good to know about the dough being thin and sticky! After 1.5 hours mine had doubled in size (its very warm here right now). And ive got it in the fridge now. I’ve bashed it down a few times now and it seems to be a bit more dough like than after the first rise. Will be baking this tomorrow after it has rested in the fridge over night.
I’m going to go beat on mine a little bit now. I checked on it a little while ago (after maybe an hour and a half?) and it didn’t seem like it doubled. I am committed and all but just don’t see myself staying up all night to do this. Thanks for the info on your batter, Elizabeth. Good luck, Bria!
I started mine today too, it’s spending the night in the fridge, and will be baked up sometime in the morning. I went with cranberries instead of raisins. My dough was really wet and sticky too, wasn’t sure if it was all supposed to climb the hook, mine didn’t, so I moved on to let it rise.
It rose up fine, I was surprised because I was sure I had killed the yeast since my milk cooled fast, and the yeast wasn’t dissolving. I placed it in the warm oven to warm it back up, and made the best of it. We’ll see how it bakes in the bundt pan.
As far as the texture of the dough, once it’s been beaten it should act like melted mozzarella – you know, sorta oozy. It’ll stay like that and be a bit sticky until it goes in the fridge. Then it’ll firm up, but still be quite stretchy thanks to all the gluten development going on. It behaved a lot like the brioche dough from earlier. Oh, and don’t skip the butter / sugar coating – you know those doughnut muffins? Yeah. Awesome.
Caitlin, that is just about a perfect description of this dough (at least it certainly describes mine). Oh, and you better believe that I am doing all of this for the butter/sugar coating!
I don’t bake a whole lot; I have a weight problem and hubby is a diabetic and there are only the two of us in our house. But by golly I so enjoy looking at all of your efforts (mainly the pics) and I’m sorry this is not a comment or question about Kugelhopf (which I LOVE), but you all collectively bring so much happiness those outside your circle as well. Just wanted to thank you all. Happy baking.
Im in the middle of the last waiting step. Im hoping my dough will rise. So far I followed the recipe exactly except I did not keep it in the fridge overnight. I added cinnamon chips only. Oh I hope it turns out..Im kinda nervous!
Michelle- Cinnamon chips sound like a nice addition (I wish I could find them!)
Mine did okay in the bundt pan and rose well but I didn’t love the texture. I think I would have liked it better I had made it into little “rolls” in a cupcake pan since I liked the bottom of the cake/bread best, where it had been exposed while baking.
Sure was pretty, though!
My Kugelhopf is about a 1 quart size. instead of using the total dough, I scaled out 1lb. of dough. The rest are for minis. With a cool apartment, the dough was slow to rise. Into the UNheated oven and up it went. Back in the fridge to bake later.
Mine flopped. It didn’t even rise to double after the fridge. I should’ve skipped the fridge and baked it then. I bet that cooled down milk killed the yeast. I baked it anyways (came to 1/2 way up the bundt pan, after 4 hrs in a warm place!). It wasn’t so bad, it’s just not what’s pictured, lol. I thought about doing another, but don’t feel like wasting all that time and ingredients again. :(
The Kugelhopf took forever to double in size! It nearly took 4 hours for me. Now it’s in the fridge, but after I slapped it down, the dough deflated like crazy. I think that’s supposed to happen, but I hope it will rise up tomorrow.
Rachelle that is exactly what happened to me! I left mine in the fridge overnight but I think that was a mistake. By morning, the dough was very firm so I was unable to put it into the tin very well. It didnt rise much in the oven either. The texture seems fine but it just isnt very tall. My tin is 9.5 inches but that shouldnt really affect it I dont think.
Im actually going to make it again and not chill it overnight.
Anne I have loads of cinnamon chips in my freezer if you want to stop by and get some..HA! I seriously could not find them anywhere in town. This summer I was at a Grocery Outlet in Lake Tahoe and found them for 1.25 a bag. I grabbed about 20 of them! I have a good recipe for cinnmon chip cookies and a cinnamon chip bundt cake.
They really taste good in the Kugelhopf. I was glad to get this recipe behind me..it was stressful! Mine did rise..slowly…and it tasted fine. My two teenage daughters love it!
I took my dough out of the fridge and it doesn’t seem to be rising at all. It’s been almost 3 hours. Now it just feels kinda tough. I think I’m going to put it over the heater.
Hey Steph, do you have a range stove? If so, try putting your oven on the lowest possible temp, and then setting the pan on top of the stove. The tiny bit of heat that radiates from the oven should help your dough rise. I just did that myself and am seeing results!
Ok, reading all these comments has made me nervous! Not going to be able to get this started til tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck. Not sure what to put in it – not a super raisin fan Hmmm… Toffee? And am definitely going to do it in cupcake pan – love the crusts.
Any ideas?
Tnaia
I’m about to get started on it – I think I’ll end up chilling the dough overnight, but I thought I’d chill it in the pan, since there have been a lot of comments about the chilled dough being hard to work with. Then tomorrow morning I’ll take it out and it can have as much time as it needs to rise (and hopefully it WILL rise!)
Jill
Well, this was my first week! I baked the rugelach last Tuesday, posted a blog about it, and then forgot I was supposed to post here on Tuesday as well. Oh, well, first week! I called what I made Election Day Rugelach. It was a nice name to mean that I was in and out of the kitchen trying to watch the elections too much. It tasted good, but didn’t look so nice. The booboos were leaving the dough in the fridge for 2 days instead of one (poor planing), underworking the dough a little, and not chopping finely enough.
Kevin
My Kugelhoph is rising in the bundt pan now. It is rising really well. It is a really warm fall day here in NC, so I’m having NO problems with it rising. I put in dried cherries instead of raisins into the dough. I was going to add mini chocolate chips too, but I forgot. : ( Oh well, maybe next time. I should be baking it within the next few hours.!!
i’m making this now and it never crawled up my dough hook so I finally stopped beating it. It is almost runny. It rose, then when I tried to slap it, it fell again to a gooey substance. I now have it in the refrigerator. Maybe I should have skipped this week??
So, I just thought I would weigh in real quick. I made mine last Wednesday and it turned out fantastic. I used instant yeast because it is what I had on hand. Since there was no raisins happening at my house this time either, and I didn’t want to be a broken record for subbing chocolate again I actually subbed cinnamon chips. I just used my regular bundt pan since I didn’t want to spend the money on the other pan unless I knew I would like this.
Now that I know, I hope I can find a good deal because it would be fun to have the ‘real’ pan.
Did anyone find a bitter taste to the Kupelhopf? Thanks for the advice happytummy. I ended up putting the pan ontop of my toaster oven
I’ve found that when I am having rising difficulty, if I set my oven to 200, once it reaches 200 I leave it there for 10 minutes and then I turn it off and put my item in the oven, it will rise very well.
I thought it was extremely bland. I was very disappointed.
My dough is in the refrig right now for the overnight rest. I made it in my KA and it took forever to get to the stage where it crawled up the dough hook. I didn’t time it, but it was probably close to 30 minutes. I think maybe I wasn’t mixing at a high enough speed? I’m worried I may have developed way too much gluten and cake will be very dense.
Hmm…it’s sounding like there are lots of troubles with this recipe. I haven’t started mine yet, I’m planning on getting it going tomorrow, or Monday night (having the Tuesday off for a holiday really gives me more options this week!). I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences so far, hopefully I can take what you’ve all learned and apply it successfully in my attempt.
I’m starting work on this Sunday night! I’m going to plump up the raisins (I originally wrote ‘my raisins’ and laughed my head off! haha) by soaking it in hot water or giving it a quick boil.
The steps sound so time consuming though! I can only start at 10pm. Bummer!!!
Holly, yours might be the only fully positive report – a ray of hope!! And, lol, I’m always subbing dried cherries for the raisins, it seems. I might do golden raisins with currants.
Steph:
no problem on the tip–glad it you got it to work out! And yes, I did find a bitter taste to the Kugelhopf. I attributed it to the yeast…I felt like I could taste it.
Pinkstripes:
My dough actually never crawled up the hook. I kept waiting and waiting, and probably got up to 15 minutes before I got worried and just stopped. I too thought maybe the speed wasn’t high enough, but I have a Kitchenaid Professional 600, and the manual says never to go past Speed 2. Anyway, it worked out in the end–hope the long mixing didn’t hurt your bread!
Mine never crawled up the hook or started to pull away from the sides. I let it go for 25 minutes. So, I moved on to let it rise. To double, it took almost 4 hours in a very warm spot. I left it in the fridge overnight. Its on its 2nd rise right now. Im ready for it to take a good 4 hours again. ;)
My add-in of choice this week has been left over Halloween candy. And this was no exception. A fun size bar of snickers, butterfinger, Nestle crunch, Baby Ruth and a fun size pack of m&ms were all harmed in the making of this kuglehopf.
Ill let you know how it turns out.
Holly- I bet it was delicious with the cinnamon chips! I kick myself remembering that I used to pass by them all the time when we lived in Utah (I had no idea!) Maybe I’ll try mail order, lol.
As for letting it rise, this time it was actually kind of cool outside (normally I just set the bowl on the patio and it does fine) so I just turned the oven on to the lowest setting for a few minutes until it felt like a nice summer day in there and then I put the pan in the oven with the door cracked to rise in the warmth. That might offend a serious bread maker but it always works for me if my kitchen is too cool. : )
I was looking though my baking supplies and I discovered I actually have Kugelhopf tin, in fact I have had it ages already I just didn’t know it was meant for baking Kugelhopf, I used it to bake loafs :).
Unfortunately I left it at my parents’ house so I bought yesterday one silicon pan, my first silicon dish, so I have no idea how this one will work out but I guess I’ll find out soon.
I am thinking dried cherries might be good substitute for raisins.
Mine is on its second rise and I really don’t see it rising to the top of the pan. Maybe I’d have better luck if I made this in the summer? I guess I’ll have to wait and see…
Okay.. mine didnt rise to the top of the pan or even halfway. But, it almost doubled. I think I would double it to make it in a regular bundt pan. There just isnt enough dough to fill it. My oldest even said “Jeez, thats kind of small Mom”. However, lack of size was made up for by the taste. I loved it. The baby loves it. My oldest loves it. Leftover Halloween candy is a winner.
Ohh, I forgot to log off from WordPress, so only bunny picture appeared next to my comment…. I’m sorry.
I mixed the dough and put it into fridge to rise, I guess I’ll see in the morning what is the result, so far so good :).
I agree with Kristen – this is so bland! I baked mine in a muffin tin and they came out very nice. They’re tender and airy, but there is no flavor outside of the raisins and the butter and sugar on the outside. I’m happy it turned out, but it was a lot of work for a bland end result.
Thanks for all the comments, everyone! I’m going to start mine this evening and bake it tomorrow. I think I will try adding in some vanilla and orange zest.
My cake is on its first rise. Thanks for the tips about using the oven for that! I came here to see if I was the only one who was having problems (there was no climbing, more like spelunking, on my dough hook while mixing), so the oven tip came just in time. This is my first official attempt at a TWD recipe. I tried the Pumpkin Muffins and didn’t much like them, so I was a little disheartened to have this not look successful either. Happily I had success with the Carmel Peanut Brownie Cake a few weeks back, or I’d be wondering what the heck was going on! I’m hoping this turns out okay! :-)
Right now mine is going through the slap-down phase in the fridge, and so far, no problems. It took 90 minutes for the first rise, and it’s still rising during refrigeration. In the morning I’ll set it out for the final rise before I head off to a meeting and then bake it upon my return. I’m curious how it is going to turn out, especially flavor-wise.
Made mine today and just tried the first piece. It’s delicious! Very delicate texture and flavor. I am very happy with this as my first try with TWD!
Baked mine off today. It took awhile for the second rise…I stuck in the kugelhopf pan and sat it on the counter while I was working in the kitchen on other stuff. When it looked done, I stuck it in the oven. In the end, it tasted great! It’s not sweet and is the perfect breakfast bread. I’m sure it would taste great as toast, like Dorie suggests, with jam or even French toast.
I used instant yeast, and the dough came together beautifully. Climbed the hook in less than 10 minutes, doubled in 70 minutes. I put it on the stovetop – my vent hood has halogen lights and it’s really toasty there. The dough bowl is in the fridge and I’m roasting some pumpkin while I wait to slap the dough around more.
I let my raisins sit overnight in 1/3 cup of cinnamon liquor to add a cinnamontaste to them, I also used 3 tablespoons of leftover cinnamonsugar I still had in the cupboard instead the regular sugar. Now waiting for the first rise to happen so I can jam them in the fridge. Will be baking tomorrow… A bit last-minute…
Forgot to mention: divided the dough into two bowls. Added raisins/cranberries to one bowl and mini chocolate chips to the other bowl
Mine turned out great–it does remind me quite a bit of the brioche dough. Next time I’ll add more raisins, and I think a bit of nutmeg in the dough would be nice. It’s definitely not very sweet, but that’s okay with me. And I toasted some for breakfast this morning–excellent with jam on it. No need for butter! =)
My kugelhopf didn’t present any problems. I am just not sure if 6 hours to make a cake is worth it. Although it tasted fine and looked impressive, it was just so-so. I had a piece for breakfast and it tasted like a cross between a buttery croissant and challah. I agree with most that it needed some more flavour. Perhaps, vanilla or soak the raisins in kirsch brandy. I like the idea of nutmeg suggested by Di. Good luck to all!
I had no idea it would rise so high! My pan is overflowing, after I cleverly put it in a ‘smaller pan’.
This is probably a little late, but to those whose dough didn’t crawl up – this is a very runny dough, so I turned my KA up to 4 and it still took the full 10 minutes to climb. Think of it like a cake batter, and beat the heck out of it! I let mine rise on top of my oven set to “Warm” and it only took 1.5 hrs for that third rise too. But yes – more flavors needed! Unless you use really good butter – a cultured European-style butter would be fabulous in this.
My second kugelhopf is doing the final rise now — my first one flopped — probably my own fault, and I decided this morning to give it one more try. Wish me luck :)
My dough is in the refrigerator now. I mixed it up last night. I mixed it by hand because I don’t have a stand mixer. My arm is still a bit sore…
And a word of advice — I thought it might be a good idea to put on some disposable gloves and knead the dough (actually it’s more like a batter) by hand. DON’T DO THIS! Picture me holding out my messy hands while my sweet husband patiently scraped off as much of the sticky, sticky, sticky stuff as he could. At least after he was done, I could toss the gloves into the trash. I ended up stirring the dough with a large silicone “spoonula.” It was a lot of work.
Well I’m glad to see I’m not the only ones having problems. My dough sat overnight last night and was clumpy when I pulled it out this morning. I guess my fridge is too cold. It’s been about 4 hours and it’s risen about 1/2 way up the pan. So we’re making progress… just very slowly.
Mine took a little over 2 hours on the second rise. It nearly doubled but I wish I’d let it rise for a little while longer, as it did not rise at all while it baked. I undercooked it by a minute or two, but at least it’s not dry :) I added a pinch of cardamom and soaked the raisins in orange juice. The flavor is subtle but very good. A good experience for my first yeast baking. I’m glad I used instant yeast. Thanks for all of the help!
Oh, Nancy! I was just going to write the same thing! The first time I thought I messed it up so I did it again, let it rise 2.5 hours, almost to the top, looked great, but did not rise at all while baking! That is what happened the first time around (but I had made an error when adding ingredients so figured that was why) — I wonder why ours didn’t rise at all in the oven?!?
Nancy and Andrea, I had the completely opposite experience! How funny. Mine did not rise at all, really, after being in the fridge overnight but rose considerably as soon as it went in the oven. It never rose high enough but it still tasted fine.
I just want to say….
blarg!
I actually made 2 of these. The first one was perfect, IMO, beginner’s luck I guess. But I couldn’t get pics so I made another one. The second one, I had trouble with from the moment the dough was in the mixer to the moment I baked it. It didn’t rise to the top of the pan before baking and it didn’t rise at all while it baked. I made a few changes in the second one but I never thought it would make such a difference. Maybe this is one of those recipes that can’t be tweaked much.
Love all the comments on here! Glad to see I am not the only one that was having issues. I thought I killed my yeast with too hot milk. But, it eventually rose. Unfortunately my “unmolding” didn’t go so smoothly. It came out of the pan in pieces but both my kiddos LOVED it. I think hubs will too. It turned out really light.
I’m nervous about mine. My pan was pretty large so I didn’t make the dough go all the way to the top. I’m in the last 10 minutes of baking. Wish me luck!
This is only my 2nd week and I have a couple questions that I didn’t see in the rules.
*How much if any creative leeway do we have with a recipe?
*Do I only post on my blog or somewhere on TWD page?
Thank you
Amber
Amber – You have complete creative leeway. You’re free to use the recipe just as inspiration and really not follow it at all. Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody does that all the time.
You just post on your blog.
Is anyone else done? I can’t wait to see the others’ entries! My entry with a lot of pictures is up, finally. *phew!*
Eunice, your cake looks so delicious! I hope mine turns out as lovely. I like the brown sugar on top.
Right now I’m in the last rise.
Earlier this morning, I took the pan out of the fridge and have it on the radiator. I can’t say it’s doubled, but I’ll give it another hour.
You’ve all got me worried about blandness, so I think I’ll add lemon juice to the butter wash.
I can’t wait to see everyone’s pics!
I’m still not added to the list of bakers, but this is my second recipe with TWD. My kugelhopf turned out really well. Fortunately, I didn’t have the problems with the rising that others ran into.
Eunice, I loved your Kewl-gehopf!
Congratulations!!! This recipe was a great challenge!!
Thanks again for sharing!
Thanks Clivia! I can’t wait to see your pictures!
Actually…I just realised I’m going to have to manually check out the blog roll. Phwoar, 300 blogs is not a walk in the park haha!
Im trying go by and look and comment on everyones. Im only on C’s right now but everyone did a wonderful job.
Amber, here’s a quote from a blog post by Laurie back on June 22:
“This group is baking its way through Baking: From My Home to Yours. It feels silly to have to say it, but we are using the recipes FROM the book. While adaptations are welcome, we would still prefer that you generally stick to the recipe. I have had a lot of emails come in on this topic. So, I want to be as clear as possible on a rule that can be very gray. Tweaking/Adapting the recipe is one thing, using an entirely different recipe is something else. You guys are smart, I think you know the difference here.”
I didn’t use a mixer for mixing my dough, I used wooden spoon but I guess the result is still pretty good.
At least I had no problems with rising and taste was also good.
I think after two attempts I could possibly master the third Kugelhopf and it’s rising.! Great learning experience
Just wanted to say this was my first time ever in baking kugelhopf and eating it. it was good, but not good enough to bake it often. It takes way too much time for me!
I agree, Marlene. Still, it was fun to have the experience. I think next time I’ll try a rich brioche or perhaps a pannetone. Something really “over the top!” At least now I know how to make this sort of rich bread!
So here I am finally, the slacker. Anyways, I have to say that I LOVED this. That being said, I realized that this was really more of a bread than a cake when Dorie related this to brioche. I still don’t understand the “not as rich” part when she references brioche because after that butter soak I don’t notice too much of a difference in the taste.
One thing I did do differently is I used brown butter for the soak and it was très délicieux! Also I was EXTREMELY liberal with the sprinkling of sugar after the soak so I had a nice sugar crust when I was done.
This is another recipe that I probably would have never tried on my own, so thanks again to this great group for another tasty discovery!