Gugelhupf. With new-world twist.

A couple of days ago, the weather turned cold and bad and I had a craving for traditional cake made with yeast. Then, I browsed through my pantry and my collection of cook books and found just the right things: a packet of dried yeast, candied lemon peel and dried fruit. And this is what it looked like when I was ready:





(see here for a better picture: Gugelhupf)

Now you might think: so, what's the new-world twist? oh, I felt creative that day and put in pecans and dried cranberries...

Here's the recipe:

GUGELHUPF / KUGELHOPF / BUNDT CAKE

500 g flour
125 ml / 1/2 cup milk, body temperature
100 g sugar
1 packed dried yeast
2 eggs
100 g / 1 stick butter, room temperature
lemon peel
50 g shaved almonds
50 g pecans, chopped
100 g raisins
100 g dried lemon and orange peel, mixed
50 g dried cranberries
3 tbs rum

Put flour in mixing bowl, make a dip and pour in the sugar, the tepid milk and the yeast to "wake up" the yeast. Add the eggs, the butter cut into pieces and the lemon peel and mix/knead until the dough doesn't stick anymore to the bowl (do that either by hand or with the dough hook of your food processor). That takes about 10 minutes. Cover and let it rest/rise in a warm place until it reaches the double size (if you have the time, place it in the fridge for 24 hours - the taste will be much finer).

Cover the dried fruit with rum and put it in the microwave for 3 minutes and let cool (saves you soaking them over night). Knead the fruit and the nuts into the dough until they are evenly distributed and put it into a greased bundt cake pan (mine is made out of silicon). Bake for 1 hour at 190°C, remove the cake from the pan and sprinkle with powder sugar. Enjoy!