2020-08-13 / test@t

Austrian Christmas Kugloff

Kugloff is a yeast cake popular during the Christmas and Easter season. Distributed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France. In different countries it is called differently: kugloff, kugelhof, googelhopf, babovka, grandma. Kugloff is a corrugated crown with a delicate butter-cream aroma and has an absolutely amazing delicate and porous crumb. Freshly baked kugloff is soaked in spicy syrup, and in my version, each brioche is still filled with mango mashed potatoes with peach pieces. This is delicious! These baked goods require a so-called "strong flour" with a high gluten (gluten) content. Manitoba flour is ideal, which allows for long proofing of the dough. I took Italian type 00 flour from soft wheat, the crumb turned out to be very porous, soft and airy. It is better to take live yeast. The presence of a stationary mixer with a hook attachment makes life much easier. Kneading by hand will be quite laborious. Cooking times are indicated without proving times.

Ingredients

for starter: manitoba flour 180 g
water 100 g
fresh yeast 1.5 g
for kuglof: 210 g
sugar 55 g
honey 20 g
salt 7 g
water 40 g
egg yolks 75 g
fresh yeast 50 g
butter 260 g
vanilla in pods 2 pcs.
zest of one orange 1 pc.
for syrup: water 400 g
sugar 200 g
rum 50 g
for mango-peach compote: mango puree 150 g
sugar 40 g
pectin 3 g
canned peaches 40 g

STEP-BY-STEP COOKING RECIPE

Step 1

Making a starter. Combine flour, water and yeast, stir until smooth and firm.

Step 2

Gather the dough into a ball and transfer to a container with a lid. Leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight.

Step 3

The next day, we proceed directly to preparing the dough for the kuglof. Mix flour, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl, add honey.

Step 4

Then add the starter, divided into small pieces, water and egg yolks. Stir at 1–2 mixer speeds using the hook attachment until a gluten window forms (see explanation in next step).

Step 5

A little explanation on the gluten box topic. The gluten window test can determine if gluten has developed well. Pinch off a piece of dough, roll it lightly in your palms and stretch it with the fingers of both hands, simulating a window. You should have a thin film that won't tear. If it breaks, you need to knead more.

Step 6

Add yeast and slowly start adding butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces. As soon as the dough picks up oil, add the next portion.

Step 7

After adding all the oil, knead the dough again until the gluten window forms. The dough should be smooth, shiny and elastic.

Step 8

Finally, add the vanilla seeds and zest. If during kneading the dough heats up above 24 ° C, take it out and chill in the freezer to 18-19 ° C and then continue kneading.

Step 9

A properly kneaded dough should be very elastic. The better the gluten is, the more elastic the dough. Such a dough better retains carbon dioxide, which is formed during the fermentation process, and at the exit we get a surprisingly delicate and porous crumb.

Step 10

After complete kneading, wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate overnight or for at least 8 hours.

Step 11

After the allotted time, remove the dough from the refrigerator, divide into portions depending on the form you are using. I put 40 g of dough in each cell. Roll the dough into balls, leave for 10 minutes.

Step 12

Place in a buttered baking dish. Cover the molds with the dough with foil and leave to rise for 1.5-2 hours until the pieces are doubled.

Step 13

We bake the kuglof for 30-40 minutes at 160 ° C. Readiness can be checked with a wooden skewer.

Step 14

Cooking syrup for impregnation. Bring water with sugar and vanilla pods to a boil, cool to 60 ° C, add rum.

Step 15

Soak the kugloff completely in warm syrup, put it on the wire rack so that the excess syrup stacks. Then roll the kugloff in fine sugar.

Step 16

Cooking mango-peach compote. Heat the mango puree (I bought ready-made) to 40-50 ° С, add the pectin mixed with sugar, stir and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for 1-2 minutes, remove from heat and add the peach cubes.

Step 17