Alsatian Kugelhopf/Elsaesser Gugelhopf

Posted in cake by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

Happy Friday!

I was thinking of making a Gugelhopf for quiet a while, one with a yeast dough and only raisins in it. I used the recipe for a Alsatian Kugelhopf from my Betty Bossi’s Backstube book. Even though Gugelhopf has its origin in Austria, this seems to be a very traditional cake in Alsace, France. One small village even has a festival each summer to celebrate the Kugelhopf:)

I slightly adapted the recipe, using instant yeast, because I can not find fresh yeast here. And I sweetened it with honey.

Alsatian Kugelhopf / Elsaesser Gugelhopf

Ingredients:

500 g unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp instant yeast
120 g honey or sugar
180 ml milk (200 ml if using sugar)
1 tsp salt
200 g butter, soft, cut in small pieces
2 eggs
125 g raisins
2 tbsp Rum or Kirsch

-In a small bowl, mix together the raisins and the Rum. Set aside.

-In a large bowl mix together the flour, yeast and salt.

-In a small saucepan heat up the milk on medium/low heat, do not boil. Remove from heat. Stir in the honey. Making sure the milk is only lukewarm before adding to the flour. Add the butter. Whisk the eggs before adding to the flour mixture. Knead until soft dough forms.

-Cover and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, for about an hour.

-Grease and flour a 2 l bundt/Gugelhopf form.

-Incorporate the raisins, knead the dough again, then fill into the prepared bundt form. Let rise again. The dough should “spill” slightly over the top.

-Bake in a 350F/180C preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Let cool before taking out of form.

-Dust with icing sugar.

-Serve freshly baked, but also tastes amazing the following days!

This would make a perfect treat for Sunday brunch or afternoon tea!

Enjoy! Have a wonderful weekend!

Ursula

You can find me on Instagram: littleswisslittlecanadian

10Jan2018

Sweet Almond Buns

Posted in cake by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

Hi there, happy Wednesday!

I was planning on making my Almond Croissants, using up some almonds I have left from Christmas baking, and I like to try out some new recipes or just play with ingredients a little. For this recipe I used only white Spelt flour and used coconut oil instead of butter. The yeast dough turned out pretty nice, maybe a little to soft to work with. After rolling it out and spreading with the nut filling, it was a little tricky to roll it up and did not stay nicely in shape, thaaats when I had to improvise a little and just turned them into little knots/buns, lol:)

Anyways…they are delicious. The dairy-free yeast dough is really nice and soft.

Sweet Almond Buns

Sweet yeast dough and almond filling:

Please refer to the following link for recipe and instructions.

Almond Croissants

Using: 300 g white Spelt flour, instead of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted, instead of butter

(I should mention again that I write down milk in my recipes but I usually use cashew, almond or coconut milk.)

-Once you rolled them into croissants, form them into little knots/buns.

These are dairy-free and refined sugar-free.

Enjoy!

Ursula

You can find me on Instagram: littleswisslittlecanadian

4Nov2017

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

Posted in cake by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

I got the inspiration for these sticky buns from the October 2017 edition of the Canadian Living magazine. I’ve been waiting impatiently to try them. A pretty sticky bun situation, with an apple and pecan filling and sticky caramel made with apple juice and sugar.

As always I’ve made these completely refined sugar free, but I will write down the original ingredients as well. These are best enjoyed freshly baked and still warm.

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

Yields: 12 buns

Dough:

3 cups all-purpose flour, I used white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar, I used honey
11/2 tsp quick-rising (instant) dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
2/3 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

Glaze and Filling:

4 apples
1 cup brown sugar, I used coconut sugar
1/4 cup butter, cubed
2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup apple butter*
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger

To make the dough:

-In a large bowl mix together flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, add milk and heat until warm, (not hot). Pour milk mixture into flour mixture, add egg. Stir until combined. Turn onto floured work surface and knead dough until soft and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease all over then cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.

Glaze and Filling: Line a 13- x 9-inch baking dish with parchment paper.

-Meanwhile (optional peel) grate apples to measure 4 cups; strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl, pressing on solids with back of spoon to extract juice. Reserve grated apple.

-In a small saucepan, bring apple juice and brown sugar to boil over medium-high heat until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add butter; cook, stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Reserving 3 tbsp, spread remaining glaze evenly over bottom of prepared pan; sprinkle with 1 cup of the pecans, In a bowl stir together apple butter, reserved 3 tbsp glaze, cinnamon and ginger.

Assembly:

-Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

-On a slightly floured surface roll out dough to a 16-x 12-inch rectangle. Leaving 1/2-inch border on 1 long edge, spread apple butter mixture evenly over dough; sprinkle reserved apple and pecans over top. Starting at the long edge opposite border, tightly roll up dough, pinching seams to seal.

-With a serrated knife, cut into 12 buns; arrange, cut side up, in prepared pan. Cover with a damp tea towel; let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

-Bake until golden brown and buns sound hollow when gently tapped, 30-35 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before serving.

*I’ve made these without the apple butter, because I did not have any at the time.

-Also I found the sticky buns were not really sticky after baking, maybe it depends how much juice you’ll get from the apples. I’ve made an additional simple maple glaze: In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of maple syrup and 1 tsp cinnamon to a boil, then reduce to low heat, stirring until slightly thickens; add the butter, stir until melted, remove from heat and pour over baked buns.

Enjoy!

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Ursula

30Jun2017

Canada Day Baked Maple Custard Doughnuts

Posted in cake by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

Happy 150th Birthday Canada, July 1st 2017!!

I was thinking of what kind of desserts are very typical to Canada. Each province and territory has its own specialty. From Nanaimo Bars, Saskatoon Berry Pie, Butter Tarts, Apple Pie, Tarte au Sucre, Wild Blueberry Pie, Beaver Tail (like Elephant ears), and many more. Anything with Maple Syrup comes into my mind of course!! A very popular Canadian Coffee Chain has these Maple Boston Doughnuts and these the are my favorites. I have not had a doughnut in years…really. But I’ve made baked jelly donuts or as we call them in Switzerland, “Berliner”. Of course a doughnut should be fried, but these taste really soft and yummy, are easy to make and are a little on the lighter side that way;)

My son was helping me forming the doughnuts. He is slowly getting better, but he is starting to get a bit bored, so this was something for him to do. You can form the donuts as big as you like, from doughnut hole shape to regular doughnut size. The dough, custard and glaze are sweetened/made with maple syrup to really get into the maple goodness, or Canadian spirit:)

Baked Maple Custard Doughnuts

Coconut Custard

Find the recipe here: Coconut Custard mini tarts with mixed berries

-You can use any non-dairy or regular milk for this recipe

-Sweetened with 1/3 cup of maple syrup

-Do not forget to make the custard ahead. It needs time to cool and set.

Dough

200 g unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp dry instant yeast
50 g butter
125 ml milk

-40 g butter melted

-Mix together flour, salt and yeast, add maple syrup.

-In a small saucepan mix together milk and butter and over low heat let the butter melt. Add to dry ingredients and mix well, then start kneading dough until forms a soft ball. Place back in bowl and cover with plastic wrap, let rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

-Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

-Form dough into desired doughnut shapes, place onto sheet, cover and let rise again for about 30-45 min.

-Brush doughnuts with melted butter. Bake in preheated 350/180C oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Maple glaze

1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp butter

-In a small saucepan mix maple syrup and butter together, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and let cook until thickens while stirring constantly.

-Dip or brush warm donuts with the maple glaze (as much as you like)

-I filled the warm doughnuts first, then glazed. Works well with a small round pastry tip.

-These taste best when freshly made!

Enjoy!

Happy Canada Day!

Ursula

Follow me on Instagram: @littleswisslittlecanadian

24Jun2017

Black Cherry Cinnamon Buns

Posted in cake by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

Happy weekend everyone!

Have I ever mentioned that I love cinnamon buns?! Well, there is just something about it, I can’t help it. In Switzerland we make cinnamon buns with a hazelnut filling, which is amazingly good;) Checking online you can find cinnamon buns with all kinds of fillings and crazy toppings! It is certainly a treat to be indulged once in a while only-wright?

My husband and I have some trouble digesting wheat products. I personally had to cut back on eating bread (sniff) and pasta. We seem to have less problems mixing white or whole wheat flour with a greater amount of spelt flour, especially for breads and quiches.

Summer is such a great time for many reasons but also for all the berries that are growing. We have strawberries, raspberries, red currants, black currants, gooseberries, cherries, plums and apples in our garden. For now everything is growing great, except the black currants, plums and cherries, (well, there is one cherry growing! LOL) because of frost.

These cherry cinnamon buns were so good. It definitely makes it easier and quicker using frozen pitted cherries. Soft dough and sweet fruity cherry filling-yum!

You can find the sweet yeast dough recipe here: Almond Croissants I just changed the flour ingredients to 100g spelt flour and 200g unbleached all-purpose flour.

Black Cherry Cinnamon Buns

Yields: about 8

Sweet yeast dough:

Almond Croissants

Black Cherry Filling:

300 g frozen black cherries
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cornstarch

-In a small saucepan mix all ingredients together and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.

-Remove from heat. Let cool completely.

-Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Grease a baking dish or line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

-On a floured surface roll out dough into a rectangle. Spread cherry filling evenly, leaving a 2 cm space from the outside. Roll up gently, this might get a bit messy, and cut into even rolls. Carefully place onto prepared dish or sheet. Cover and let rise again.

-Bake for about 30 minutes or golden brown.

-I glazed the still warm buns with a mix of honey and milk. You could use icing sugar mixed with milk. Use a traditional cinnamon bun icing if desired.

Recipe by: a little Swiss, a little Canadian

Enjoy!

Ursula

You can find me on Instagram: @littleswisslittlecanadian

28Apr2017

Almond Croissants

Posted in cake by a little Swiss, a little Canadian

These lovelies, called “Nussgipfeli”, are one of my favorite pastries to eat when I am in Switzerland. Usually made with a hazelnut filling, either using a puff pastry or a yeast dough, is so good. One of the most iconic Swiss treats.

Here usually you can find almond croissants. These are really yummy too. It is actually pretty easy to make. You can use a puff pastry or make a sweet yeast dough like I did.

I am very excited because I am going to visit my family in Switzerland for the next two weeks:)!! Looking forward to see everyone, but mostly my dad who did turn 70 this April. He was very sick last year, undergoing a major heart surgery and we are just happy and thankful to be able to celebrate this special birthday.

On the other side I have to admit I am also looking forward to all the good food;)

Almond Croissants

Yields: 8

Sweet yeast dough:

300 g unbleached white flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp honey or sugar
60 g butter
100 ml milk
1 tbsp instant yeast

-In a medium bowl mix together flour, salt, yeast and honey.

-In a saucepan warm/melt butter with the milk.

-Add butter and milk to the dry ingredients and mix well. Knead dough well until smooth ball forms. Place back into bowl then cover with plastic foil. Let rise until doubled in size.

Almond filling: