Deutscher Butterkuchen - German Buttercake
Butterkuchen is a classic German cake that you can find in any German bakery, often eaten in afternoon with a cup of coffee. Whenever I feel homesick here in the American diaspora or get invited over to a German friend's house for Kaffee und Kuchen I bring a Butterkuchen. A sheetcake full of butter and topped with sugar it can often be dry. But this recipe makes a quick and delicously moist cake.
400g flour
1 tsp salt
100 g sugar (or more depending on your taste)
2-3 packages of vanilla sugar
225 g butter
125 ml milk
40 g fresh yeast or 4 tsp instant
some slivered almonds
Mix flour with salt in a bowl. Melt 125 g of butter with 3 Tbsp of sugar. Add 125 ml of cold milk and the yeast. (Milk has to be cold, otherwise the dough will become sticky). Stir and add to the flour. Knead with hook for about 5 min or until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl. Spread the dough out on a greased baking sheet ( the recipe is for a German size 15x18 in) and let rise in a warm oven (120 F) for 40 min. Take the cake out, increase temperature to 400 F and dimple the risen dough all over with your index finger. Use the rest of the butter and put it in little pieces in the dimples. Sprinkle the sugar over the dough.( How much depends on your sweet tooth. And don't worry if you can't get the vanilla sugar. I see it sometimes in specialty stores but it is not absolutely necessary). Scatter a few slivered almonds on top if you like. Bake at 400 F for about 10 min. It is ready when the edges and the top begin to colour. Don't leave it in too long or it will become dry.
Comments
What type of flour do you use cake or AP or ?
although being German, I am not at all familiar with this Kuchen. I have looked high and low for a potato sheet cake recipe. During WWII my Thueringer grandmother made the most delicious almost paper thin, crunchy potato cake, if some margarine was available, it was brushed on the cake fresh out of the oven and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. Who needed real cream and real butter, this was such a treat :)
Dr Oetker's book, "Backen Macht Freude"? [For English-only speakers, the title would/might be "The Joy of Baking".] It was my mother's 'baking bible' when I was a kid and we were always amazed by her fabulous baking skills. (It's what got me interested in baking when I was still a pre-school toddler...)
My grandma was a Schwaebisch German, but was born in the mostly-Hungarian-speaking part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so HER baking skills (and those of her several sisters and aunts) were even GREATER than my mom's, I discovered, when I was about 8 years old.
It's funny, though, that neither of us has heard of "Butterkuchen" before. (I'm very interested in that—and in your Grandma's "Kartoffelkuchen", too!)
Thank you for reading this and best wishes.
PS: let us know if you find the potato sheet-cake recipe! I'll do a search as well.
Best,
copyu
PS: I found a great site with dozens of Kartoffelkuchen recipes:
http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/1205981226331140/Kartoffelkuchen.html
Most are savory recipes with bacon and onions, but the sweet ones sound heavenly!
my "Backen Macht Freude" and its sister the meat and potato cookbook disappeared. I am sure it was in a box lost during my umpteen moves back and forth across the Atlantic.
The Kartoffelkuchen recipe has to be made with the most basic ingredients, I might even try some - gasp - lard ! Not sure if we even had that during those bad times. Your search is much appreciated and I will read all the recipes :)
Best,
anna
I use AP flour.
Anna, I never heard of a potatoe sheet cake - sounds delicious though. I have a German cookbook from 1948 and it has a "Kartoffelkuchen auf Hefeteig" but it seems to be a savoury dish. It's probably not what you're looking for.
Kirsten
for searching. Problem is, are my taste buds the same as 60+ years ago or had the surrounding ambiance (warm kitchen, loving grandma and grandpa) a lot to do with it .....
Best,
anna
Baked the Butterkuchen as per the recipe, except the slivered almond department in our kitchen was out of stock. Additionally, after sprinkling on the vanilla sugar I sprinkled cinnamon on one edge of the cake. Both sides were a big hit and my bride of 25 years said she would marry me all over again if I keep the Butterkuchen coming! Kind of like a two-fer.
By the way, a quick search for "how to make vanilla sugar" brought up numerous sites with easy instructions; either with vanilla extract, which takes a few minutes, or with beans, which takes a couple of months to age.
Will be making this again.
Michael
(it looks very yummy)! I am not familiar with Butterkuchen either, but the pictures reminded me of my Grandma's Streuselkuchen-probably only because it also is a thin yeast cake-way less butter and sugar, though. (at least in the cake part-it pretty much all shows up again in the Streusel). Thanks for posting this.....I will have to make Streuselkuchen first and then try this!
Christina
using spelt (Dinkel) or kamut flour to replace the AP. If I half the recipe, it fits my oven pan size 11" x 11" ! And I have Vanilla sugar! This reminds me of both butter & sugar bread and cinnamon toast. Old time family favorites.
Mini
Yes, this is defintely comfort food! I bet it tastes good with cinnamon. Glad your wife liked it so much, Michael!
Streuselkuchen - I bake that too! I often make it with fruit, whatever is in season. Though cherry might be my favourite.
And Mini, interesting idea to use spelt flour. I just got some for making D. Snyders Rubauld flour mix recipe. Never thought of using it in cake. Maybe I should try it ...
Kirsten
After reading your description, and your responders replies my "must bake" list is now longer than I'm comfortable with. I'm afraid all other chores (except feeding the dogs) will have to wait until I've caught up.
Sounds too delicious not to try!
David G.
I love that name! Very descriptive. As you can see it's very easy to make at home. All the best,
Kirsten
I don't know if there IS such a thing as "original Streuselkuchen".
The 'Streusel' part refers to the sprinkled topping made of flour, butter and sugar (and sometimes, also, with cinnamon, vanilla sugar, or even chopped or ground nuts...there are probably many other variations I've never heard of.)
The only 'original' Streusel coffee-cake might be a fairly light, but enriched yeasted dough; that is, a yeasted cake recipe that you like with butter/eggs/milk and probably a little bit of sugar in the dough or batter. (I would try the Butterkuchen recipe of the original post, though, with Streusel instead of slivered almonds.)
However, Streusel makes a great topping for semi-sweet buns (yeasted or baking-powder recipes), "Danish" pastries, with or without fruit, fruit tarts, even blueberry and cherry 'pies' (instead of using a top crust.)
I hope this is helpful. Maybe Christina will pitch in here...
Best,
copyu
Pitching in...........I did a search and came up with a Wikipedia entry about Streuselkuchen(wow, am so glad I did it, too,since it turns out that it was very common to bake in the region my grandmother is from). It says that it consists of a thin sweetened yeast dough that was then topped with the Streuselmixture. Here's the link:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streuselkuchen
Hope this helps,
Christina
...makes me hungry looking at that photo...
copyu