Kringel - Baking Challenge

Last year, I took part in my very first Fresh From the Oven Baking Challenge. I now help administer the blog and compile the roundup roughly every second month. 

The website is here:   http://www.freshoven.blogspot.com/ 

The first challenge recipe I took on was for an Estonian Kringel.  The recipe that was used is the recipe from the Hairy Biker's "Mum's Know Best" cook book.  The recipe below is exactly as it is written in the cookbook.

Dough

40g fresh yeast

1tbsp sugar

250ml milk, lukewarm

2 egg yolks

50g butter, melted

600-700g flour


Filling

100g butter, softened

3 handfuls of raisins

10 tsp sugar


Topping

150g dark chocolate (at least 50% cocoa solids)

75g butter


Mix the yeast and sugar in a bowl. Add the lukewarm milk and egg yolks, then mix in the flour and melted butter and knead well. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200°c/Gas 6. Dust your work surface with flour. Take the dough out of the bow, knock it back and roll out to a thickness of 1cm. Spread the softened butter evenly over the rolled sheet of pastry, then sprinkle with raisins and finally sugar.

Roll up the dough like a swiss roll and cut it in half with a sharp knife. Starting from the uncut end, plait the dough, lifting each half over the other in turn. Finally, shape the plaited bread into a B shape and transfer to a buttered baking tray. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden.

In the meantime, prepare the chocolate topping by melting the chocolate and butter in a bowl over boiling water. Once out of the oven, let the bread cool down a bit, place on a serving plate and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

Cheese Kringel

To make a savoury version, leave out the raisins and sugar and sprinkle the Kringel with grated cheddar instead. Add more grated cheese on top instead of the chocolate sauce.

Here is my Kringel