Kouglof
Ingredients
- 500 g flour
- 25 g fresh baker's yeast
- 200 ml milk
- 125 g butter, softened
- 100 g sugar
- 80 g raisins
- 2 eggs
- 50 g whole almonds
- 10 g salt
The kouglof is the emblem of Alsace, baked in a fluted earthenware crown with a chimney down the middle that carries heat into the centre of the dough. It starts with a small starter — yeast, warm milk and a little flour left to bubble — which is worked into an enriched dough kneaded hard for ten minutes before the butter goes in. Two whole almonds are laid in each groove of the buttered mould before the dough goes on top, so they end up pressed decoratively into the crown, and the finished cake is dusted with icing sugar.
Method
Crumble the yeast into 100 ml of warm milk with 100 g of the flour and mix into a slightly soft starter. Leave it to rise in a warm place.
Soak the raisins in lukewarm water.
Knead the remaining flour with the eggs, the rest of the milk, the sugar and the salt vigorously for about 10 minutes, until the dough no longer sticks.
Work in the softened butter and the risen starter, then cover and let the dough rise for 1 hour in a warm place.
Knock the dough back and fold in the drained raisins.
Butter a kouglof mould, lay two almonds in each groove at the bottom, and drop in the dough.
Let it rise until it comes above the rim of the mould, then bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 40 minutes.
