I got all excited the other day when I heard that we might be having ten people over for dinner instead of six. I thought: well, why not make a really big bee sting cake out of a full recipe of brioche dough? Seemed a little risky but I decided to go for it out of curiosity. I was both alarmed and impressed when it emerged from the oven as a 16-inch-wide, 6-inch-tall behemoth.
READ ONLovers of pastry will notice that bee sting cake bears a striking resemblance to tarte Tropézienne. That makes sense since tarte Tropézienne is really a German cake adapted to French resort town living. What are the differences? The bee sting cake filling isn’t as rich, being more custard-y than buttercream-y. Then there’s the matter of the topping: a caramel and sliced almond combo that gives the appearance of a mass of bees on a honeycomb. Here’s what you need:
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Imagine a mouthful buttery, fluffy brioche. Its cottony texture is interspersed with a creamy-decadent bittersweet chocolate swirl. Notes of cinnamon fly high overhead while bits of crunchy baked streusel dot the terrain. That’s what a big bite of chocolate babka tastes like, friends. I can’t sell it any harder than that.
There’s word on the street that babka takes a lot of time and effort to make. Which isn’t true. You can have the whole thing done in about four hours and have a cooled loaf waiting for you by tea time. Trust me, this isn’t hard. Start by assembling your ingredients. Next, grease a standard 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan and place a piece of parchment in it like so. Grease a little more.
READ ONThat’s an excellent question, reader Margaret, for in fact there are several kinda of babkas out there. I’m making the Jewish version which originated in Eastern Europe and is almost certainly a relative of potica, another rolled bread baked in a loaf. There are at least two other varieties, however. One is a bundt-style version that’s more like a brioche cake, sometimes made with raisins and occasionally iced. Those babkas often look like this, and it’s said that the name “babka” — which literally means “grandmother” in Polish — is actually a reference to a grandmother’s skirts. That’s the story at anyway.
READ ONReader Mark writes:
Love the discussion of mixing! My question is, why do you get big holes in muffins when you mix the batter a lot? That seems to be contrary to what you wrote earlier this week, that more mixing usually means smaller holes.
Great question, Mark! I did indeed write that, yet also mentioned that the world of mixing is a wide one, and the same rules don’t apply to everything. Mixing a lot does yield a smaller crumb in the case of cake layers and brioche, both of which are quite high in fat. Muffins are quite a bit leaner than either one of those, which means
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Eating kugelhopf is a little like traveling in time. You’re reminded of what “cake” was like before it became the ultra-rich, ultra-sweet, ultra-moist sort of device that it is now. I’m not complaining about modern cake, mind you. I’m just saying that “cake” as it was defined a few hundred years ago is a beautiful thing. I served this as the closer for Mrs. Pastry’s birthday party the other night, complete with candles, and it was a hit. A sweet white dessert wine positively makes this, as it blends elegantly with the toasty-sweet crust, tender buttery interior and tangy rum-soaked raisins. Talk about a grownup cake, I want one for my birthday!
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Where does kugelhopf come from? The Holy Roman Empire. That term isn’t terribly helpful since at its height the Holy Roman Empire comprised everything from Belgium to the Czech Republic, Northern Italy up through Switzerland, Austria and Germany to Western Poland. That’s a big area, can we get any more specific? Well we know that kugelhopf, which is German word, is made from brioche. That’s a French word for a Viennese bread that was probably first invented in Poland. Does that help any? Nah, not really.
READ ONToday is the first day I’ve felt close to normal in over a week. My doctor warned me I’d feel sick until Monday and be exhausted ’til Thursday, and his prediction was pretty much spot-on. I’ll be back after it tomorrow morning, thankful that even though I had the world’s longest bout of flu, at […]
READ ONI’ll be starting with Gaston Lenôtres famous Kugelhopf recipe, though I’m not ruling out that I’ll change it a bit, since one or two very interesting ideas came in from reader Regine last week and I intend to explore them. For now here’s the starting point.
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) rum
3.5 ounces (1/2 cup) sugar
3.25 ounces (1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon) water
4.5 ounces (generous 1/2 cup) raisins
3.5 ounces (1 cup) slivered almonds
14-16 ounces brioche dough, chilled and ready
egg wash
powdered sugar for dusting
melted butter for the top of the cake
orange flower water, or a few drops of the extract of your choice
…but I wanted you to know I finally solved the sausage problem. I ordered a 2″ French garlic sausage for my sausage-in-brioche and at last got the proportion of meat to bread that I wanted. I know you were staying up nights worrying about that. So rest easy knowing the encased meat crisis is over.
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