Butterkuchen

The holes are flakes of butter that melted out, and the trade minimum is 30 parts butter to 100 of flour.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (milk).

Ingredients

• 500 g plain flour
• 7 g dried yeast
• 60 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 80 g butter, softened, for the dough
• 250 ml milk, warm
• 1 egg
• 180 g cold butter, in thin flakes
• 120 g granulated sugar
• 80 g flaked almonds, optional

Method

1. THE HOLES ARE FLAKES OF BUTTER THAT MELTED OUT, AND THE TRADE MINIMUM IS 30 PARTS BUTTER TO 100 OF FLOUR. The article gives the mechanism in its first lines -- FLAKES OF BUTTER, WHICH, AFTER BAKING, FORM THE CHARACTERISTIC HOLES, ARE DISTRIBUTED ON THE DOUGH -- and the rule a few lines later: IN GERMANY IN THE TRADE, AT LEAST 30 PARTS BUTTER, CLARIFIED BUTTER OR BUTTERFAT MUST BE USED TO 100 PARTS OF FLOUR.
2. SO THE DIMPLES ARE NOT PRESSED IN, THEY ARE LEFT BEHIND. Each flake sits in a hollow of its own making, melts down into the crumb and leaves the hollow full of buttery sugar. Rub the butter in and you have a plain sweet dough with no holes anywhere.
3. WHICH MEANS THE BUTTER MUST BE COLD AND IN SHEETS, NOT SOFT. Shave it off a cold block with a peeler. Softened, it spreads into a film and the whole surface sinks evenly.
4. AND 260 GRAMS IN ALL IS NOT GENEROSITY, IT IS THE FLOOR. Thirty parts to a hundred of flour is what the trade may call it by this name; less is a sugar cake.
5. MAKE A SOFT YEAST DOUGH AND PROVE IT ONCE IN THE BOWL. Eighty grams of butter in the dough itself is separate from the flakes and does a different job: it keeps the crumb tender under all that sugar.
6. PRESS IT INTO THE TRAY WITH YOUR FINGERTIPS, not a rolling pin, and leave the dimples your fingers make. They are where the flakes will sit.
7. SCATTER THE FLAKES AND THEN THE SUGAR, in that order. Sugar first and it dissolves into the dough instead of crusting on top.
8. PROVE IT AGAIN IN THE TRAY, uncovered, for half an hour, so the surface dries a little and the sugar stays where it is put.
9. TWO HUNDRED DEGREES FOR TWENTY MINUTES ONLY. High and short: the butter has to melt and the sugar caramelise before the crumb dries out.
10. CUT IT WARM IN SQUARES. The article records what it is for as well as what it is: served at weddings AND funerals, which is why it is also called FREUD-UND-LEID-KUCHEN, joy and sorrow cake, and BEERDIGUNGSKUCHEN, funeral cake.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Germany · All recipes