Monday, February 18, 2008

Streuselkuchen (German Crumble Cake)




My late aunt Jenny's legendary recipe! Everyone in my family loves this cake, and now even my chinese and turkish grad students are ardent fans.

Base cake layer:
300 gr white flour
40 gr sugar
62 gr softened butter
1 small organic egg, at room temperature
1 TB fresh active yeast,
1/3 cp luke warm milk

Mix the yeast with a tablespoon of sugar and the lukewarm milk, and let sit for 15 min until the yeast got all bubbly. In a large stand mixer with a dough hook, add the sieved flour, the rest of the sugar, and mix it. Add the bubbly yeast mixture, and mix everything on low speed. Incrementally add the melted butter and the egg. Mix first on low, then on high speed until the dough forms a ball (can take up to 10 min). If too crumbly, add a bit of milk. If too doughy, add a bit of flour.

Once ball is formed, let rest in a bowl in warm room temperature for 30 min.



Crumbles:
300 gr white flour
125 gr sugar
125 gr butter, softened
1 egg
1 pck vanilla sugar (Dr. Oetker)
3 drops almond extract
dash of salt

In the stand mixer, mix all ingredients well. It should automatically form crumbles.



Once the base layer dough has rested (it does not extend much in size), spread it out on a prepared, PAM-sprayed 9 X 13 cookie sheet. Spread out evenly, and the make small holes with a fork all over the dough layer. Brush it with lukewarm milk, and then distribute the crumbles on top.



Let the cake rise in the oven at 150F (50C) for 45 min. Then, bake at 400-425F for 20-30 min.