Francoise Payard |

The kugelhopf had a beautiful rise in the oven

I hope you read the post about the brioche in our May 12^th post? This is the second part of that post. Just to refresh your memory, the purpose of this post is to show how a minor difference in mixing method can deliver a totally different result. In the first report we showed you the method where the butter was added the last to the dough. The brioche dough (or kugelhopf) that is pictured above was prepared with the butter incorporated into the ingredients right at the beginning of the preparation of the dough.

All in all, both cakes are wonderful and both are best eaten fresh, right after taken out from the oven. If you would walk into my home while the brioche was in the oven, I guarantee you, you would not want to leave before tasting a slice. The aroma of yeast dough baking in the oven is intoxicating, exhilarating and adrenaline stimulating.

Many of us shy away from baking yeast-leavened dough in our home, because we are frightened by people who rather buy ready-made stuff, then worry about how the cake will come out? Or how much work is involved? Etc. Let me assure you that once you will try to prepare your own home made, brioche, croissant, sticky buns, biegly, etc. you will never want to go back to store-bought ones. (Perhaps occasionally, if you are near to a top quality bakery, like Francoise Payard or the Levaine Bakery, both in New York City). There is no substitute to the feeling of looking and tasting your own creations. It may take more time to prepare than a sponge cake, or a pound cake, but definitely not more work (the time is the rising time of the dough) and it is worth every minute of it.

Chocolate Kugelhopf Using Brioche Dough

Ingredients for the dough

1 teaspoon (4g) and ¼ cup (1.75g) bakers’ sugar
1 tablespoon (0.33 oz./9g) active dry yeast
1 cup (237 ml) warm water (Temp: 110F/43C); it is advisable to measure the temperature of the water because too cold water kills the yeast
4 cups (20 oz./500 g) bread flour
2 cups (16 oz./454 g) unsalted butter, tempered
5 large egg yolks (3.25 oz./9 g)
3 large egg whites (3 oz./85g)
1 3/4 teaspoon (10.5g/0.35 oz.) salt
1 whole egg for egg wash (extra water cooking pray)

Ingredients for the filling