Monday, September 4, 2006
A three-day weekend may mean sleeping late or going on picnics or walking around the lake to some people. To me, it means a chance to bake three breads. My Labor Day project was chocolate almond swirl kugelhopf.
To bake this bread, I needed either a kugelhopf pan or a rose bundt cake pan. For some reason, the frugal side of my nature, which is not usually very visible, came out for this pan purchase. I balked at the idea of paying full price for a decorative cake pan that I would might never use again, so I went to E-bay. Even on E-bay, the Nordicware rose bundt pans were not cheap, but eventually I got one for $10. NIB, as they say. And even from a non-smoking household.
When it arrived, I saw why it was so cheap. It was new and it was Nordicware, all right, but it wasn't the nice heavy cast aluminum pan; it was lightweight, thin-as-paper aluminum. So light that the rose petals and rose leaves weren't well defined, and my rose-shaped bread came out looking more like blob-shaped bread. It wasn't a case of false advertising, either, just of bad reading.
Still, although the uncut bread didn't look like much, once I started slicing it, it turned beautiful! The chocolate schmear(I like saying schmear almost as much as saying LaCloche), made with cake crumbs, almond paste, egg, butter, corn syrup, and chocolate, spread on the rolled-out dough easily, and I rolled the dough up without any mishaps. I even had time for a quick trip to Target while waiting for the dough to rise.
I promised myself I would eat only ONE PIECE of this very rich, chocolatey, delicious bread. But I ate two. And the night's not over yet. I plan to take the rest of this bread into work tomorrow, though, so temptation will be removed.
3 comments:
oh my gosh--i wished i worked where you did--your coworkers must adore you!
so did you need to bake a cake to get the cake crumbs?
it looks like you had a great weekend!
Well, of course, my co-workers have many reasons to adore me, but they were quite enthusiastic about this bread.
I just used a Sara Lee frozen pound cake for the crumbs, although I did think (for about 2 seconds) about baking a cake just for the crumbs.
i love kugelhopf! and yours looks beautiful. that swirl is gorgeous! and yes, i totally advocate spending the money on well-made, gorgeous pans. it's very worth it!you'll use it again...having it is the excuse to bake more.
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