Easter Honey Kuchen
- Step One
- 3/4 cup milk (2% or whole, don't use skim)
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt (1.5 if using Kosher salt)
- 2 packets active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup lukewarm water
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- Step Two
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- blanched almonds
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (for the glaze)
- 3/4 cup your favorite honey
- Scald milk and add butter, sugar and salt. Mix well and let cool.
- In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes. Then add the beaten eggs, 2 cups of the flour and the cooled milk mixture. Mix well. Add as much of the remaining flour as you need in order to form a soft dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Place the dough in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm place for an hour.
- Melt the butter (not too hot, you don't want to cook your egg yolks). Add in the sugar, egg yolks and lemon zest. Mix well.
- Once the dough has risen, beat the butter/egg/zest mixture into the dough by hand, using a punching - pulling motion. This is the aforementioned arm workout :). Continue until the dough is smooth and shiny.
- Grease one large bundt/tube pan or two smaller fluted bundt pans. If using the two smaller pans, line the bottom of each pan with a blanched almond in each "section." Divide the dough evenly between the pans. Cover and let rise again for 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 320. Bake at 320 for 1 hour for one loaf or 30-35 minutes for 2 loaves. Invert onto a cooling rack.
- Mix the 3 TBS of melted butter and the honey together. Brush this glaze all over the bread.
milk, unsalted butter, sugar, salt, packets active dry yeast, water, eggs, flour, unsalted butter, sugar, egg yolks, lemon zest, blanched almonds, unsalted butter, your favorite honey
Taken from food52.com/recipes/16068-easter-honey-kuchen (may not work)