Kugelhopf - lemon cranberry

Inspiration

My wife saw Yippee's stunning kouglof and she asked me to bake one. 

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/69728/20220117-le-cordon-bleu-lemony-kouglof-clas

Having no experience with this kind of bread, I chose a simpler instant-yeast-based version to see if I could pull it off.

Modifications

I modifed the recipe as follows

• used dried cranberries instead of raisins
• soaked cranberries in fresh lemon juice instead of liquor
• added fresh nutmeg and vanilla bean seeds
• used instant yeast (SAF red) instead of cake yeast, and adapted amount
• incorporared fruit using a spread and roll up method
• used silicone tube mould instead of a proper kugelhopf "flowerpot"

Recipe

adapted from: https://www.my-weekend-in-alsace.com/kugelhopf-recipe-kouglof/

INGREDIENTS

• 500g flour
• 10g instant dried yeast
• 200g milk, lukewarm
• 125g butter, softened
• 100g sugar (I food-processed to caster fine)
• 1/2 Tahitian vanilla bean seeds
• zest 1 small lemon (I would use a lot more)
• juice 1 small lemon (24g)
• 1.4g fresh ground nutmeg
• 80g dried Sultanas or cranberries (soak in the lemon's juice)
• 2 eggs, room temperature, beaten
• 50g almonds
• 10g salt
• tube pan (silicone worked fine)

METHOD

1. Set out eggs, milk, butter to come to room temp
2. Soak fruit in lemon juice or rum  
3. Add yeast to 100g of warm milk, add 100g of flour and mix and let rise
4. In separate bowl, mix 400g flour, eggs, 100g milk, sugar and salt for 10 minutes until doesn’t stick
5. Add butter, lemon zest, vanilla, nutmeg, doubled levain 
6. Cover and let rise one hour
7. Stretch dough into recranglemon work surface
8. Sprinkle dough evenly with fruit
9. Roll up dough into long cylinder
10. Roll cylinder in sliced almonds
11. Butter mould, coat with sliced almonds
12. Fit cylinder into mould and pinch ends together
13. Let dough rise second time, until above edge of mould.
14. Preheat oven 180°C (350f) 
15. Bake 40 minutes (note: for a tube pan, might want to reduce by 5 mins?)

Process

Here are the main parts of the recipe (except butter which was softening a bit in the microwave and missed the photoshoot... maybe the non-name butter was a little annoyed that I keep praising that butter I tasted once in Limerick...)

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Here's the dough after incorporating the above ingredients

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I stretched the dough out like you would with pizza and sprinkled the soaked cranberries over it.

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I rolled up the dough, then rolled it in sliced almonds

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I fit the dough into my silicone mould. I wasn't expecting the dough to fill all those soft grooves. I had no idea what it would look like.

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Surprise! The dough filled all those whirls and sharp edges just fine. Wow, I was surprised and delighted. The bread came out pretty easily... just used two hands to stretch the silicone here and there to free it up.

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Decent crumb on this one. It was WAY easier to slice next day with a smooth knife after spending overnight in a plastic bag. And it had more flavour.

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I'm a convert to brioche breads with inclusions. I can't really handle high fat croissants and kouign amman anymore. This bread was moist, light tasting, had a freshness from the lemon. And I love the lemon juice-soaked cranberries. Really wonderful flavour.

The vanilla and nutmeg and lemon zest didn't come through strongly so I would use a lot more in the future.

I would also put in more fruit... delicious and not cloying... fresh lemon juice plus dried cranberry is surprisingly balanced. And the juices left over would have made an amazing glaze or spread with the fruit.