Tuesdays With Dorie - Kugelhopf

I'm having a hard time writing this post as I have mixed feelings about my kugelhopf. Yolanda, of The All-Purpose Girl, chose the kugelhopf for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie and I was so happy about it. I've wanted to try making one for a while now and we all know having an excuse to buy a new pan is always fun. I looked for a kugelhopf pan everywhere and finally found one last Saturday. I was even happier as my Mom was visiting and I would be able to share it with her.


Saturday night, I made the kugelhopf dough with my KitchenAid (really, I couldn't deny my best friend its little happy dance!), put it in the fridge, slapped it down a few times and went to bed. On Sunday morning I let it rise to the top of the pan, baked it, soaked it in butter (butter!) sprinkled sugar over it and then it was all we could do to wait for it to cool to room temperature before digging in. It was simply fabulous. Light, airy, buttery, delicious. Only problem is I got no pics. Not one. It was raining, I had no light and no desire to wait for it! So I decided to make another kugelhopf. I gave the remainder of the first one to Mom so she could take some to my Dad so, really, what was stopping me?

Martin suggested I add some orange zest and a few more golden raisins and I agreed it would be a nice addition. So, Sunday night, I started on another batch of dough. Easy-peasy, right? Oh, no, not easy at all. The dough just wouldn't come together in my KitchenAid. It was slippery, like there wasn't enough flour. I'm thinking now that maybe my butter was too soft. Could it be? Anyways, I added a few tablespoons of flour to get the dough together. Then it just climbed up around the top part of the hook and didn't slap the sides of the bowl at all. I just stopped the mixer, kneaded it by hand a few minutes and put it in a bowl to rise. The first rise went fine, the dough was then refrigerated and slapped down a few times and let to rest in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I put it in the pan, left it to rise and... it didn't. Well, it did, a little but not nearly as much as my first. And then it didn't rise AT ALL in the oven. Not one bit! That's never happened before, never. Hmpf. Anyhoo, I ended up with a way shorter second kugelhopf.

It tastes fine, although it's not as light and airy as the first (probably because of those few tablespoons of flour I added). The orange zest is a great idea though, I'm keeping that. I haven't said my last word. I have the pan, I'll be baking another kugelhopf sometime soon. If you'd like to make a kugelhopf, Yolanda has the recipe on her blog. And please, if you do try it, come back and tell me how it went, OK? In the meantime, check out the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie gang, they all made the kugelhopf too. I for one can't wait to see everyone's!