29 | 52 Gooseberry Apricot Cake

Do you like gooseberries?

I do. But only if they are small and sweet :)

Not if they are big and not very sweet and with a very thick skin.

Like the ones I bought last week...

So I thought that baking those gooseberries would make them better or at least edible.

Note to self: if gooseberries don't taste good 'raw' then they also don't taste good 'baked'.

Gooseberry Apricot Cake

Adapted from Edeka

For the yeast base

250 g (2 cups) flour

40 g (1/4 cup minus 1 tablespoon) sugar

pinch of salt

zest of 1 lemon

20 g (0.7 oz) fresh yeast (or one pack dry yeast)

125 ml (1/2 cup) milk

1 egg

For the filling

400 g (14 oz) gooseberries

500 g (18 oz) apricots

For the glaze

150 g (3/4 cup minus 1 tablespoon) butter, room temperature

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

4 eggs

50 g (1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon) flour

pinch of salt

125 g (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) heavy cream

• For the yeast base, sift flour into a bowl and make a dent in the middle. Sprinkle sugar, salt, and lemon zest onto flour rim. Dissolve the yeast in a bit of milk and pour into the flour dent. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.
• Knead yeast with flour, the remaining milk, and the egg. Cover again and let rise for another 15 minutes.
• Butter a round springform pan and distribute yeast base evenly on bottom of pan. Let rise for another 15 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 200ºC (400ºF).
• Wash and dry the gooseberries and apricots. Cut apricots in pieces.
• For the glaze, beat together butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time. Add flour, salt, and heavy cream.
• Distribute gooseberries and apricots evenly on yeast base. Pour glaze over fruit and bake for 45 minutes.
• Let cool completely before serving.

My modifications:

I used fresh apricots (the original recipe calls for canned apricots).

The taste:

I didn't like it. And I'm not sure that it was only those gooseberries that spoiled it for me.... But try for yourselves - maybe you'll like it!

Any gooseberry baking recipes we should know about?

 

14 | 52 Italian Easter Bread (aka Sweet Yeast Wreaths, aka Easter Nests)

I know. Easter is over.

(I hope y'all had a good one!)

But these little wreaths are just called 'Easter'. They can, in fact, be made any time.

They're also called 'Italian' while I am not so sure that they are only that.

And they're called 'Bread'. When clearly they are wreaths.

So again - don't let the name fool you. Make them any time. And call them whatever you want. 
I would go with 'Sweet Yeast Wreath'. Or, if you want to keep the Easter theme: 'Easter Nests'. 

Italian Easter Bread (aka Sweet Yeast Wreaths, aka Easter Nests)

From The Italian Dish via Seeded at the Table

Makes 4-6 wreaths

1 package dry yeast

300 ml (1 1/4 cups) milk

76 g (1/3 cup) butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

500 g (4 cups) flour

1 egg combined with 1 tablespoon of water

6 raw (dyed) eggs (optional if it is not Easter)

sprinkles/pearl sugar (optional)

• Combine yeast, warm milk, butter, eggs, sugar, and about half of the flour in large bowl. Using your dough hook, knead until smooth. Add more flour until you get a firm dough (it might be a bit more or a bit less than 4 cups) and knead until it is nice and smooth. Cover and let rise for 1 hour. 
• Divide into 8 or 12 pieces, roll each piece into a thick rope, 'braid' two ropes together and form a circle/wreath/nest, pinching the ends together.
• Place wreaths on baking sheet with lined parchment paper. Cover and let rise for about another hour. 
• Brush each wreath with beaten egg combined with 1 tablespoon of water. Put on sprinkles or pearl sugar, if you are using them. Place 1 raw egg into the middle of each wreath, carefully pressing it down.
• Bake at 175ºC (350ºF) for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool on rack.

My modifications:

I used whole wheat flour for 1/3 of those 4 cups of flour. I didn't intend to but then ran out of the regular flour.... And a bit of whole wheat never hurts, right? It just made the dough a bit darker.

I also didn't dye the eggs. And I omitted the sprinkles.

Because I had enough things to do on Easter Sunday morning as it was, I made the dough the night before and let it rise in the fridge overnight.

The taste:

Good. But for my taste, they are too sweet to eat with anything savory (like cheese or lunch meats) but not sweet enough to really be a sweet bread. They are somewhere in-between and that bothered me a tiny bit. I wouldn't make them again like this. Either sweeter or not sweet at all.

What's your favorite Easter brunch (baking) recipe?

1 | 52 Neujahrsbrezel / New Year's Pretzel

Happy New Year!

Yes, I know, 2015 is one week old already but still.

Happy New Year!

And yes: surprise! 52 Cakes is back! Whoo-hoo!

Okay, enough with the exclamation marks now. Let's get back to the baking business.

The truth is, I missed this space. And the crazy baking.

I did bake, of course. But not that much. And it always felt different. Meaningless, even. Knowing that I would just share the cakes/bakes with whoever was eating the results with me.

So. Let's get the baking party started again. You in?

I know. It ain't pretty.

1 | 52 Neujahrsbrezel / New Year's Pretzel

There can't be anything more logical than to start the year with a Neujahrsbretzel.

I have to admit that I didn't even know there was such a thing. But then I saw it in a bakery's window in town and on somebody's Instagram stream (from Germany).

Of course I had to give it a try. And it's supposed to bring you luck. Sounds good, right?

From Rezeptschachtel

For 2 Brezeln/pretzels:

20 g (a little less than 1 oz) fresh yeast

200 ml (1 cup minus 2 tablespoons) milk, lukewarm

500 g (4 cups) flour

50 g (1/4 cup) sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1 egg

80 g (3/4 stick) butter, softened

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 sachet vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon lemon peel, grated

1 egg yolk for brushing

coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)

• Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk. Combine flour and sugar in a big bowl. Pour yeast-milk-mix into the middle of the flour-sugar-mix, stirring in a little bit of the flour-mix with a fork, making a yeast sponge. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.
• Add remaining ingredients (except for the egg yolk) and knead 10 minutes with your mixer (and dough hook). Let rise for another 45 minutes.
• Knead dough again quickly with your hands and divide into 2 equal parts. Roll each to about a 1 meter/3 feet long roll, being a bit thicker in the middle. Form a pretzel from each roll, put both on a baking sheet. Let rise again until they doubled in size.
• Stir egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water and a pinch of salt and brush pretzels with it. Sprinkle coarse sugar on top, if you wish. 
• Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven at 210°C (410°F).

My modifications:

I didn't have any coarse sugar at hand so I left it out. But other than that - no modifications.

The taste:

A good start of the New Year! Not too sweet and not dry at all. It reminded us of Italian Panettone but without the raisins, chocolate chips, or other additions.

Speaking of additions though: I think some raisins would have even made this better. So if you like raisins - why not give it a try and add a handful?

Do you have a special recipe that you always make for New Year's?

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?

47/52 Cinnamon Rolls

I love Joy the Baker.
Who couldn't love her and all her baking and cooking and blogging and podcasting.

I bought her cook book right after it was published but haven't made any of the recipes yet.
This had to be changed so I finally made something this week:

Giant Cinnamon Rolls with Buttermilk Glaze

Adapted from the Joy the Baker Cookbook by Joy Wilson

Dough:

1 package (1/4 oz / 7 g)active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon plus 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar

150 ml (1/2 cup) milk, room temperature

2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

420 g (2 3/4 cups) flour plus 100 g (3/4 cup) for kneading

3/4 teaspoon salt

114 g (1 stick) butter, softened

Filling:

115 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar

100 g (1/2 cup) packed brown sugar

70 g (1/2 cup) finely chopped pecans

40 g (1/4 cup) raisins (optional)

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch ground cloves

3 tablespoons maple syrup

114 g (1 stick) butter, melted

Glaze:

280 g (2 cups) powdered sugar

60 ml (1/4 cup) buttermilk

For the dough, combine yeast and 1/2 teaspoon of the granulated sugar in your stand mixer bowl. Heat 60 ml (1/4 cup) water so that it feels warm to the touch (not too hot). Add to the yeast-sugar, stir to combine, let sit for about 10 minutes until foamy.

Add remaining 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar, milk, brown sugar, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. Whisk until combined, then put the bowl in your mixer. Add the 420 g (2 3/4 cups) flour and the salt and mix with the dough hook on medium speed until the dough starts to come together. Turn to medium-high and knead for about 4 minutes. Add softened butter and knead for another 6 minutes. The dough will be wet and sticky. Place dough on a floured surface and using your hands, knead 40 g (1/3 cup) flour into the dough. Set to rest in a large greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Make the filling while the dough rises: combine sugars, pecans, raisins (if you want), cinnamon, salt, and cloves. Stir in maple syrup and set aside.

When the dough has doubled in size, put it onto a floured surface again and gently knead it until it is no longer sticky, adding flour as needed. Knead for about 2 minutes and let rise again for about 5 minutes. Roll it into a 25x50 cm (10x20 in) square and brush with half of the melted butter. Pour all of the filling onto the dough, spread evenly but leave a border at one of the short sides. From the short side, roll the dough into a tight roll. Pinch along the edge to seal. Place seam side down on a cutting board and cut into 8 equal slices.

Arrange slices in a greased 20x30 cm (9x13 in) baking pan. Each slice will have some room on all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours. (Refrigerate overnight if you want to bake them the next morning).

 

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F). Bake rolls in the upper third of the oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Drizzle with the remaining half of melted butter just after the rolls come out of the oven.

Make the icing while the rolls cool: whisk together powdered sugar and buttermilk until smooth. Drizzle over the warm rolls and serve.

My modifications:

I used almonds instead of pecans. And I did use raisins.

I used only 210 g (1 1/2 cups) powdered sugar for the glaze which was totally enough.

The taste:

Perfect for a yummy breakfast. Or as a snack any time of day.

But - and I'm almost afraid to criticize Joy - waaaaay too sweet. I love sweetness and sugar and everything but this is definitely too much. So next time I will omit the maple sirup, the sugar and half of the brown sugar. I think that will make it perfect.

What do you bake for breakfast?

27/52 Apple-Crumble-Cake

Oh yes, I do. I totally know what you are thinking.

Crumble cake? Again???

Yes, it's crumble cake again. But there's a very good reason for that.

It is my mom's birthday today (Happy Birthday, Mom!) and she asked if I would bake her a cake. Of course I would! (And she knew that, of course... It really was a rhetorical question...)

Since it is her birthday, I really wanted her to choose what she would like me to bake.
I narrowed it down to either chocolatey, fruity, or yeasty.
And she chose yeasty. And fruity.

So there you have it. My mom's wish. You can't complain about repetition anymore now, can you?

I used the basis of the Rhubarb-Crumble-Cake from 4 weeks ago, but left out all the fancy igredients in the crumbles. Topped with apples instead of rhubarb, and a little cinnamon on top.

(Due to the birthday-travel-preparation-hustle-and-bustle, there are very little pictures of the cake and none of its preparation. Apologies for that. I hope you understand.)

Apple-Crumble-Cake

Adapted from essen & trinken 5/2012

Cake

400 g (3.2 cup) flour

200 ml (0.8 cup) milk

25 g (0.9 oz) yeast, compressed

80 g (0.4 cup) sugar

1 egg

pinch of salt

80 g (3/4 stick or 2.8 oz) butter, room temperature

Topping

6 apples, peeled & core removed

lemon juice

Crumbles

150 g (1.2 cup) flour

50 g (0.4 cup) starch

150 g (3/4 cup) sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

150 g (1.3 stick or 5.3 oz) butter, cold

• For the yeast dough, put flour into a bowl. Warm up milk until lukewarm and dissolve yeast and sugar in it. Add milk-yeast-sugar, egg and a pinch of salt to flour and knead with your mixer until smooth. Add butter in pieces and knead for another 3 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
• For the crumbles, mix flour, starch, sugar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Add cold butter in pieces and knead with your hands until crumbly. Put in the fridge until later.
• Cut apples into wedges and sprinkle with a bit of lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown.
• Knead yeast dough with your hands, put into greased deep pan (30 x 40 cm/12 x 16 in) and spread evenly with your hands. Arrange apple pieces close-packed on top and crumble crumbles evenly over them.
• Bake on second lowest rack in preheated oven at 190°C (375°F) for 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for a bit.

My modifications:

Like I mentioned earlier, apples instead of rhubarb, only basic crumbles without the fancy ingredients.

The taste:

Good. Solid. Apples-cinnamon-crumbles - no further questions, right?

What would your mom wish for you to bake for her birthday? Or your dad for his?

24/52 Focaccia with Tomatoes and Rosemary

Time for some savory baking again. And summer baking.
Savory summer baking, so to say.

Sounds like Focaccia to me.

Serve with a salad and you have an excellent summer lunch or dinner. 

Or just eat it as a snack whenever you feel like it.

Focaccia with Tomatoes and Rosemary

Adapted from here

Dough

450 g (3.6 cups) flour

450 g (1.9 cup) water, lukewarm

2 teaspoons salt

pinch of sugar

42 g (1.5 oz) yeast, compressed

8-10 green olives, pitted and in slices

Topping

10 cherry tomatoes

rosemary

coarse sea salt

• Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. Mix all dough ingredients until smooth. Cover and let rise in fridge for 4-5 hours. Put dough into deep pan, cover again and let rise at room temperature for another 40-50 minutes.

• Cut tomatoes in halves and spread evenly onto dough. Sprinkle with rosemary and sea salt.

• Bake in preheated oven at 200°C (390°F) for 25 minutes. Let cool for about 20 minutes before cutting.

  

My modifications:

The original recipe used dry yeast, but I prefer the compressed yeast.

I also added olives because I like them in a Focaccia.

In the original recipe, 4 tablespoons of olive oil are drizzled over the dough before adding the tomatoes. For the sake of saving some calories, I omitted the oil completely. Traditionally, olive oil should be used though...

The taste:

5-10 more minutes in the oven and it would have been perfect! But except for being a bit underbaked, I loved it!

What's your favorite food for a light summer lunch or dinner?

23/52 Rhubarb-Crumble-Cake

You are absolutely right, I should be ashamed.
Ashamed for talking about strawberries and asparagus but totally neglecting rhubarb.

I guess I can only make it up to you (and rhubarb) by putting the spotlight on this very special plant today. And since crumbles are always good (and don't let anybody ever tell you otherwise), let's make Rhubarb-Crumble-Cake.

But watch out - those crumbles have some unexpected ingredients...

Rhubarb-Crumble-Cake

Adapted from essen & trinken 5/2012

Cake

400 g (3.2 cup) flour

200 ml (0.8 cup) milk

25 g (0.9 oz) yeast, compressed

80 g (0.4 cup) sugar

1 egg

pinch of salt

80 g (3/4 stick or 2.8 oz) butter, room temperature

Crumbles

2 twigs rosmary

50 g (2 tablespoons) candied ginger

150 g (1.2 cup) flour

50 g (0.4 cup) starch

100 g (1 cup) almonds, chopped

150 g (3/4 cup) sugar
pinch of salt

150 g (1.3 stick or 5.3 oz) butter, cold

Topping

1,2 kg (2.6 lb) rhubarb

50 g (1/4 cup) sugar

• For the yeast dough, put flour into a bowl. Warm up milk until lukewarm and dissolve yeast and sugar in it. Add milk-yeast-sugar, egg and a pinch of salt to flour and knead with your mixer until smooth. Add butter in pieces and knead for another 3 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

• For the crumbles, chop rosmary needles and ginger. Mix both with flour, starch, almonds, sugar and a pinch of salt. Add cold butter in pieces and knead with your hands until crumbly. Put in the fridge until later.

• Wash and peel rhubarb. Cut into 8 cm (3 in) long pieces.

• Knead yeast dough with your hands, put into greased deep pan (30 x 40 cm/12 x 16 in) and spread evenly with your hands. Arrange rhubarb pieces close-packed on top and sprinkle with sugar. Crumble crumbles evenly on top. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.

• Bake on second lowest rack in preheated oven at 190°C (375°F) for 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for a bit. Serve with powdered sugar on top and/or whipped cream.

My modifications:

I couldn't find any candied ginger, so I used 3 Gingerbons (see picture above) and a bit of ground ginger. 

The taste:

Like summer! And the crumbles are really special (in a good way)!

What is your favorite summer cake recipe?

14/52 Hefezopf

Hefezopf is just one of those things that somehow loses its identity when trying to translate it into English. But options could be Plaited Yeast Bun, Braided Yeast Bread, Twist,...
Or simply Yeast Braid, if you translated it literally.

Anyway, a Hefezopf should not be missing on any (Easter) brunch table.
It is so versatile because it is neither sweet nor salty, so you can top it with anything you like.
Like a slice of toast, if you will. Just so much better!

You can also fill it with a nut or poppy seed mixture but that transforms it to more of a cake, so I personally like the plain (bread-like) one better for breakfast or brunch.

Hefezopf

Adapted from recipe on package of Streich-Mühle's Zopfmehl (braid flour)

500 g (4 cups) Zopfflour (which is extra fine flour, in this case half wheat, half spelt)

20 g (1.8 oz) yeast

300 ml (1 1/3 cup) milk

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

50 g (3.5 tablespoons) butter

1 egg yolk

• Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk.
• Mix with flour, salt, sugar, and butter.
• Knead well until dough is smooth and elastic.
• Let rise in covered bowl for 1 hour (or overnight in the fridge - see below).

• Form 3 strings and braid. Note that the strings do not have to be equally thick but should be the same length.

• Brush with egg yolk.

• Bake in preheated oven at 200°C (390°F) for 40-55 minutes.

My modifications:

None.
But for the first time, I let the dough rise over night in the fridge. I was a bit sceptical but it worked really well. This is perfect for all yeast baking you want to do for breakfast because that 1 hour of dough-rising is just too much in the morning...

The taste:

Delicious.

Plain with just butter.

Or topped with jam, honey, chocolate spread, peanut butter.

But also with cheese, meat, veggies.

What do you bake for Easter? Or for any other brunch occasion?

4/52 Buchteln

It's totally ridiculous. And I didn't expect it.
But already now, in week 4 of this baking journey, I needed a little cake-break.

But don't worry, I still baked something. Buchteln, to be more precise.

Actually, maybe not precise enough for all my English-speaking readers.

Since I was not able to find a translation for Buchteln, I will do my best to describe them to you:

Originally from the border triangle of Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria. Yeast rolls. Dry and airy. Lightly sweet. Filled with plum butter. Or apricot jam. Or poppy seeds. Dusted with powdered sugar. Can be served with vanilla sauce.

I think you get the picture, right? If not, please read on and check out my pictures below.

I saw a recipe for Buchteln in a magazine recently and remembered that my husband talked about Buchteln a couple of times, telling me that his grandma in Croatia used to make them. I had never eaten them before today (similar sweet rolls, yes, but Buchteln, no) so I thought it was a good idea to make them. But then - and this makes me feel old - I totally forgot where I saw the recipe (I hope this happens to all of you as well... Please say yes...)! So I googled it and just chose a recipe that sounded good:

Buchteln

adapted from ARTE "Zu Tisch in..." (a TV series called "At the table in..."), that week it was Bohemia

For 16 pieces you need:
20 g (0.7 oz) fresh yeast
60 g (1/3 cup) sugar
350 g (2 3/4 cups) flour
200 ml (0.8 cup) milk, lukewarm
80 g (0.7 stick) butter, melted
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
zest of 1 lemon
pinch of salt

For the filling:
300 g (10.5 oz) plum butter (jam) or
300 g (10.5 oz) apricot jam or
poppy seeds

For finishing:

20 g (1.5 tablespoons) butter for the pan 

50 g (3.5 tablespoons) butter, melted, for brushing the Buchteln 

50 g (6 tablespoons) powdered sugar

• Crumble yeast into a cup, add 100 ml of the lukewarm milk, stir. Add 50-100 g flour to make a starter dough. Covere and let rise for about 30-45 minutes or until surface is bubbly.

• Mix egg yolks, melted butter and remaining milk. Add starter dough to this mixture.

• Mix with all other (dry) ingredients and knead until smooth and shiny. Let rise another 60 minutes.

• Preheat oven to 230 °C (440°F).

• Form dough to a long roll and cut off 16 slices. Put a bit of jam on each slice, form ball around jam and put balls, seam down, on a buttered pan.

• Brush with melted butter and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

•  Let cool a bit before dusting with powdered sugar.

My modifications:

I didn't bother making a long roll and cutting off slices to form the balls, I just plucked off pieces from the dough and that worked really well. 

And as you can see, I filled half with plum butter and the other half with apricot jam. I personally like the apricot ones better, my husband the plum ones.

These taste very good when they are still a bit warm. Bake them fresh on a Sunday morning (let the dough rise in the fridge over night). Or for your next tea party. Or pretty much whenever you like. You can't go wrong with these.

Anything special that you like to bake for a nice Sunday breakfast?