Gugelhupf

       Gugelhupf is a classical Austrian yeast dessert, which is usually served for breakfast, or accompanied with the afternoon tea, or coffee. Enjoy and share if you liked the recipe.         

Gugelhupf

Products:

• 250 ml milk
• 40 g yeast
• 100 g sugar
• 550 g white flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 190 g sultanas/ white raisins
• 25 ml rum 
• 125 g butter
• 75 g egg yolks (approximately 4 egg yolks)
• lemon zest
• butter and flour for the form
• powdered sugar

Preparation:

       Marinate the sultanas in the rum. Warm up the milk to 30 degrees and then dissolve the yeast and sugar. Stir and leave the yeast to activate. In another bowl sift the flour together with the salt. Meanwhile melt the butter and leave aside to cool down. Butter the mold and dust with flour. Add the milk and yeast mixture to the flour together with the cooled butter, the egg yolks, and the lemon zest. Mix until the dough is silky and smooth. Blend sultanas with a little bit of flour and then add them to the dough. Mix well. The next step is the proving of the dough. Shape the dough like this:  

         Then transfer it into the mold and carefully stick the two ends together. Make sure that the dough is distributed equally around the form.      

       Leave the dough to prove in a warm place till it takes up the whole volume of the form.      

      Bake at preheated to 200 C degrees oven, then transfer to a cooling rack and leave it to cool down.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar before you serve. 

Sablé Cookies

         Simple, elegant and irresistible. The perfect cookies for your afternoon coffee, or tea. What is better than home-made, freshly baked cookies? Try the recipe and I promise you will not regret it!        

Sablé Cookies

Products:

For the dough:

• 320 g butter 
• 160 g icing sugar
• 60 g egg white
• 1 vanilla stick 
• 500 гр white flour 

For the decoration:

• almonds
• apricot jam
• icing sugar

Preparation:

       Cut the butter into small cubes. Sift the flour and add the cold butter cubes. Rub the butter into the flour till you have no lumps. In another bowl beat the egg whites, gradually adding the sugar, till stiff peaks are formed. Scrape the vanilla beans and add them to the egg whites. Add the egg whites to the flour and butter and form a dough. Don't over knead the dough. Pack it in plastic film and put it in the fridge for at least and hour. After the dough has cooled down, roll it out on a slightly floured surface. Work fast because otherwise the dough will get warm and due to the high fat content it will become difficult to work with. Then, cut the cookies and put them in a baking tray, layed with baking paper. Put them back in the fridge for 15 minutes. 

       After you take the cookies out, press half of them in the middle with your thumb. Then fill them with a little bit of apricot jam with the help of a small teaspoon. Sprinkle the rest of the cookies with the almonds. 

       Bake the cookies at 200 degrees C till lightly coloured. Take them out of the oven and transfer them on a cooling rag to cool down.        

 Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving and enjoy your freshly baked cookies!

Savarin

       If you love desserts, soaked in sugar syrup I bet that you would like this recipe. The sugar syrup with rum and lemon enriches the dessert, gives sweet but balanced taste, and makes the dough melt in your mouth. In combination with the fresh fruit it is simply perfection!

Savarin 

Products:

For the dough:

• 145 ml milk
• 55 g yeast
• 25 g sugar
• 360 g white flour
• 5 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 125 g butter

For the syrup:

• 485 ml water
• 320 g sugar
• 30 g fresh lemon juice
• the zest of 1 lemon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 160 ml rum

For decoration:

• 500 ml whipped cream
• strawberries
• blueberries
• raspberries
• fresh mint
• icing sugar 

Preparation:

       Warm up the milk to 30 degrees C, or if you don't have a thermometer just till it is lightly warm to touch. Dissolve the fresh yeast in the milk and add the sugar. Stir and leave the yeast to rise. Before you start making the dough melt the butter and leave it to cool down. Moreover, sift the flour and butter and flour the forms.    

        Add the yeast mixture to the sifted flour. In a separate bowl mix the butter with the eggs and salt and then add them to the flour and yeast mixture. Mix to homogeneous mixture. Don't worry that the dough looks too liquid because it is supposed to be like this. The next step is to transfer the dough in a piping bag. Then, fill up the forms to 3/4 of their height. 

        Leave the dough to prove, filling the forms completely. Like this:       

       Transfer the forms in a baking tray and bake them in a warmed up to 200- 220 degrees oven for approximately 20 minutes.        

       Meanwhile, prepare the sugar syrup. Bring the water, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and cinnamon stick to boil. Leave on the stove for a couple of minutes. Then remove, add the rum, and stir. Leave to cool down. Take the savarins out of the forms while they are still warm and soak them in the syrup. Don't forget to turn them on both sides.

      Finish off the savarins with whipped cream, fresh fruit and mint. Sprinkle them with icing sugar just before you serve them.

Experiment and have fun!