30*52 Bacon Gugelhopf

For some people, bacon is the answer to everything.

I'm not one of them. Please don't be mad.

But when my hubby (very randomly) mentioned wanting a typical Alsatian bacon gugelhopf, I thought I would make it for him.

Bacon Gugelhopf

Adapted from kochbar.de

500 g flour

1 cube (42 g) fresh yeast

250 ml milk, room temperature

160 g butter, room temperature

1 egg

1 1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

150 g walnuts

250 g bacon, in cubes

• Dissolve yeast in 100 ml milk. Put flour into a mixing bowl, make a small dent in the middle and fill with yeast-milk. Cover for about 15 minutes until yeast-milk starts to bubble.
• Add remaining milk, butter, egg, sugar, and salt and knead to a smooth dough. Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes.
• Chop walnuts roughly. Fry bacon in a pan, strain and drain off fat (but keep it!), let cool.
• Add nuts and bacon, plus a bit of the bacon fat to the dough and knead once more. Put dough into prepared gugelhopf pan and bake at 200°C (390°F) in the bottom half of the oven for 40-50 minutes.

My modifications:

I just now realized that I only used half of the yeast - oh my... And you know what? It is totally fine. In fact, I think I would only use half a cube next time as well.

I didn't pan-fry the walnuts because I just couldn't be bothered (and I don't think it usually makes such a difference anyway).

I don't own a gugelhopf pan anymore. I used to have a silicone one but nothing turned out well when I used it so I threw it away. Using the wreath part of a round springform pan is totally fine as well, it's just technically not a gugelhopf anymore but I guess a 'regular' cake.

The taste:

As I said, I'm not the biggest bacon person. But this is so good!

It is very moist, which I love, and the walnuts are so yummy! I can imagine that this would be great with walnuts and dried tomatoes (no bacon then). Or hazelnuts and dried apricots! Oh yes, I will definitely try both of those ideas!

Have you ever accidentally used the wrong amount of ingredients and it turned out really bad because of it?

29*52 Gooseberry Sheet Cake

Gooseberries. I really like them.

But I don't think I ever baked anything with them.

Let's change that, alright?

Gooseberry Sheet Cake

Adapted from lecker.de

Dough:

250 g flour

2 tablespoons sugar

pintch of salt

125 ml milk

1/2 cube (20 g) fresh yeast

1 egg

Filling:

500 g fresh gooseberries

150 g butter, room temperature

75 g sugar

4 eggs

50 g flour

125 g heavy cream

• Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl and make a dent in the middle. Warm up milk, crumble yeast into it and dissolve. Pour yeast-milk into flour dent, cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes. Add the egg and mix, using your dough hook. Let rise for another 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
• Put dough onto prepared baking sheet (30x40 cm/12x16in), let rise for another 10 minutes.
• Distribute gooseberries evenly on dough.
• Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, then add flour and cream. Pour over gooseberries and bake for 30-35 minutes.

My modifications:
I used half flour, half ground almonds for the dough because I ran out of flour. (Yes, these things happen...). The dough was very fluffy (definitely not for rolling out) but I think that would have been the case if I had used only flour as well.

I used fresh gooseberries instead of canned ones.

The taste:

Good. But a bit too eggy - it does have an omelett taste and I just don't like that in a cake.

Also, the filling was way too fluid so it flowed underneath the yeast dough so that that cake looks more like: omelett - gooseberries - yeast dough. Very bizarre!

So all in all I would say it is edible but did not at all turn out as I thought.

Did anything you baked ever come out upside down?

28*52 Potato Bread & Potato Flat Bread Pizza

When flipping through the pages of the magazine of a supermarket, I noticed this recipe for potato bread. I thought it might be nice not only as bread but as smaller potato "flat bread pizzas".
With a salad. For dinner.

So that's what I made.

Potato Bread & Potato Flat Bread Pizza

Adapted from Tegut

For 2 breads or 1 bread and 2 bigger flat bread pizzas or 4 bigger flat bread pizzas or - you get the idea...

800 g potatoes

salt

1/2 cube (21 g) fresh yeast

1 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons olive oil

700 g flour

Toppings

(I used for the flat bread pizzas, but possibilities are endless, of course)

parmesan, shredded

cooked potatoes, sliced

onions, in rings

raw ham/bacon, diced

• Peel potatoes, cut them into small pieces and cook in salt water. Drain, let cool a bit, and mash.
• Crumble yeast into 125 ml warm water, dissolve. Add honey and let sit for 5 minutes until starting to bubble. Mix potato mash, oil, 2 teaspoons salt, and yeast water. Add flour and knead until you have a smooth dough. It might seem a bit dry in the beginning but the longer you knead it, the smoother it gets, so don't add any more water. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
• For the bread: use half of the dough to form a bread. For the flat bread pizzas: use 1/4 of the total amount of dough to shape a pizza/flat bread. Cover and let rise for another 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 200 °C (390°F). 
• Put toppings on flat bread pizzas. Bake for 30 minutes (pizzas) or 45 minutes (bread).

My modifications:

Except for turning the bread into the flat bread pizzas - none. And I know they're not really pizzas (if only for the lack of tomato sauce) but I couldn't think of a better name. Suggestions are welcome though - just leave a comment below.

The taste:

Yummy! The dough is very fluffy on the inside but nice and crisp on the outside. Perfect!

And the flat bread pizzas with a nice salat make a great summer lunch or dinner.

Definitely a keeper!

Have you baked your own bread? Which kind?

27*52 Bienenstich (Bee's Sting)

Bee's Sting.

Doesn't sound like something you would want in your mouth?

In general, I would agree. But not when it comes to this traditional German cake.

It is my mom's birthday tomorrow and - surprisingly - she has been telling me that she would like this cake for a while now. Surprisingly so because she does neither like whipped cream nor (vanilla) pudding but both are in the filling.

Oh well - it's her birthday so her wish is my command :)

Bienenstich (Bee's Sting)

Adapted from Chefkoch.de  

Dough:

500 g flour

100 g sugar

1 cube (42 g) fresh yeast

250 ml milk, warm

1 egg

50 g butter, soft

pintch of salt

Filling:

2 sachets powder for vanilla pudding

750 ml milk

100 g sugar

1 egg yolk

200 g heavy cream

Topping:

100 g heavy cream

50 g butter

2 tablespoons honey

100 g sugar

200 g almonds, sliced

• Crumble yeast into flour, add 1 teaspoon sugar and a bit of milk and stir. Cover and let rest in a warm spot for 5 minutes until bubbles appear.
• Cook pudding with milk and sugar according to the directions on the package. Let cool a bit, stir in egg yolk. Let cool completely, stir occassionally.
• Knead yeast-flour-mix with the remaining sugar and milk, egg, butter, and salt. Let rise for 30 minutes.
• For the topping, bring cream, butter, honey, and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat, let cool a bit and stir in almonds.
• Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). For a lower cake, roll out dough onto a baking sheet. For a higher and round cake, put dough into a springform pan. Spread almond mix onto it, let rise for another 10 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes (or up to 30 minutes if you bake it in a springform pan). Let cool completely.
• Cut cake into half lenghtwise, take off the top part and set aside. Whip cream and add to the pudding. Spread cream onto the bottom cake. Cut the top into desired amount of slices before putting them back onto the cream filling to make cutting easier.

My modifications:

None. I baked it in a springform pan and got a very, very high cake. I cut out a bit in the middle to make it more manageable for eating.

The taste:

I'm not the biggest fan (never was) but it was good. The topping is the best part, if you ask me. The filling was yummy but started to liquify pretty quickly after taking it out of the fridge (as you can see below).

Maybe next time I would make a sheet of this cake with lots of the topping and no filling. Could be pretty good and more practical for summer.

What have you baked for somebody's birthday because they wished for it?