TWD: Kugelhopf

I had mixed emotions when I learned that this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Kugelhopf. One one hand, it is one of my favorite recipes in Baking: From My Home to Yours. I've already made it a few times and absolutely love it. As a matter of fact, Dorie's Kugelhopf recipe was one of the main reasons that I bought the book in the first place. On the other hand, making this Kugelhopf is a very long, drawn out process, taking a good two days from start to finish. For me, it is an undertaking reserved for special occasions. I toyed with the thought of skipping this week, but my love of this tender, sweet, raisin-studded bread with its golden, buttery crust got the better of me. That, and the fact that I will already have to miss the next one or two weeks because I'll be traveling, spurred me on and I decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did!

For those unfamiliar with it, Kugelhopf is a high, fluted, circular yeast-based sweet bread, similar to brioche. It is widely recognized as an Alsatian specialty, however, some believe that it originated in Vienna. Wherever it came from, it is wildly popular the world over. How could it not be?

Kugelhopf is traditionally baked in a special circular pan, originally made of enameled pottery, similar to a bundt pan. I actually have one of those and I wish I'd used it when making my recipe this time. Instead, I used a nonstick metal Kugelhopf pan that I picked up recently. I didn't like it nearly as much.

I spent most of my weekend working on this recipe. There is a hell of a lot of waiting involved! Ordinarily, this would have driven me nuts, but since I was housebound because of my injured foot, I really didn't mind it all that much. Having the heady aroma of freshly baked bread wafting through the house helped take my mind off the fact that my foot looked like a big football and felt like a bus ran over it!

My thanks go out to Yolanda of The All Purpose Girl for choosing one of my favorite Dorie recipes. If you'd like to try this one for yourself, you can find the recipe on her site. Also, check out the TWD blogroll to see lots more Kugelhopfs.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go look for that last piece of Kugelhopf that I hid under the Brussels sprouts and have it with a nice hot cup of coffee!