Kugelhopf with Almonds

Makes

15

Ingredients

185 ml milk

200 g unsalted butter

90 g caster sugar

30 ml brandy

zest of 2 oranges

25 g compressed fresh yeast

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

450 g baker’s flour

3 g salt

2 eggs

70 g raisins

30 g almonds

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Kugelhopf is a very traditional yeasted cake enjoyed throughout much of Europe, though it originated in Austria. You need to have a tall, decorative wavy ring mould to make an authentic kugelhopf. When you remove the baked cake from the mould, it has a regal ring shape, like a crown — and inside you’ll find a bready, mildly sweet, vanilla-flavoured cake dotted with raisins and decorated with roasted almonds. I think it’s a perfect breakfast cake, but you can eat it all day really — all year round! It makes great toast, if it lasts the day.

method

Put the milk in a saucepan and warm to body temperature. Add the butter and sugar and continue to cook until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and add the brandy, orange zest, yeast and vanilla seeds.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and make a well in the centre. With the mixer on low, slowly add the milk mixture. Increase the speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing for 6 minutes, until the dough is silky smooth and elastic. Add the raisins and mix briefly to combine.

Grease a 10 x 23 x 8 cm deep (4 x 9 x 31/4 inch) kugelhopf mould and put the almonds in the bottom of the tin. Add the dough and press evenly into the mould. Set aside in a warm, damp, place for 2 hours, or until it comes three-quarters of the way up the tin.

Preheat the oven to 160ºC (315ºF).

Bake the kugelhopf for 50 minutes, placing a tray over the tin halfway through baking. To check that it is cooked, pierce with a knife, if it comes out clean remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack.

note

Your cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.