When I was (much, much) younger, I worked for my father. Every Saturday he would stop by a local bakery and pick up a kuchen or two to bring in to the office. I loved that kuchen so I began searching for a recipe to make it at home.
This was pre-Internet so searching for a recipe meant looking through all my cookbooks. I already had a good start on my collection even then. It meant trips to the bookstore and libraries. All the recipes I could find were some variation on a quick bread sort of thing. These weren't the same in taste or in texture, I wanted a yeast dough kuchen.
Finally I found it. It was over 20 years ago so I don't remember the source of the recipe. The recipe is for butter or cheese kuchen. If you prefer fruit, then I guess the only change you would need to make would be to get a can of fruit pie filling and pour that over the dough before baking.
If you want to have it for breakfast you need to get up very, very early or make it the night before...it's going to take at least 3 hours.
Kuchen:
1/2 c. milk
4 Tbls. butter
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. yeast
1/4 c. warm water
2 eggs
3 1/2 c. flour
Butter Topping:
1 stick butter, (1/2 c.) softened
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. chopped pecans (optional)
Cheese Topping:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Mix together milk, butter, sugar and salt. Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Add yeast mixture to the milk mixture. Beat in eggs and then beat in flour.
Cover and put in a warm place for one to 1 1/2 hours. Turn out on a floured board and roll to fit a large greased cookie sheet or two greased 9" cake pans. Pinch the edges to form sides.
Put in a warm place again for 45 minutes to one hour. Meanwhile, choose either topping. Mix the topping ingredients well and pour on crust after the second rising. Bake at 350 degrees fro 25 to 30 minutes.
Posted by marybeth at January 12, 2005 04:46 AM Food , FoodEvery year for Christmas my mother has made Krens Kuchen, for this the dough is rolled out in a rectangle and then melted butter is brushed on followed by brown sugar, cinnamon, chopped pecans, and dried fruit (this varies from a variety including raisens and dates to candied cherries or citron). Once filled the dough is pinched closed along the length forming a tube. Bend the tube to form a cresent and place on a baking sheet pinched seam to the bottom. After baking a simble butter frosting is applyed while the loaves are still warm to form a nice glaze.
Posted by Dave at January 13, 2005 01:00 AMIf you have her recipe, it sounds like an excellent one to share for a future Carnival of the Recipes.
Posted by marybeth at January 13, 2005 05:35 PM