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Dessert

Kugelhopf

A yeasted cake with raisins and almonds baked in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Kugelhopf

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the sponge

  1. In a small bowl, soften the yeast with a little milk and add ¼ of the flour to make a sponge.

Make the dough

  1. In a larger bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and salt with a wooden spoon.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing in flour by spoonfuls until combined.

  3. Incorporate the risen sponge into the dough, then add the raisins and a little milk.

Shape and bake

  1. Grease one large or two small molds and place peeled, split almonds at the bottom.

  2. Fill the molds halfway with dough and let it rise until it is 1 inch above the mold.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until well baked.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the dough together as it rises and bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps create a soft crumb.
Eggs
Add structure, richness, and moisture, helping the dough set as it bakes.
Compressed yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it an airy texture.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the baked cake.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise to the mold rim. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse or lose its shape in the oven.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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