Hello everybody!

Kouglof is a delicious Alsatian specialty which I have always enjoyed eating while I was leaving in France. My family is from a small village near Soufflenheim, a town very well known for their traditional Alsatian pottery.

My grandma and even my mom have at home various potteries from this town, especially a baekeoffe and a kouglof dish! Kouglof has a similar shape than a bundt but a bit higher and is a delicious treat to have for breakfast or even as a snack.

Kouglof is basically a brioche which is flavored with raisins soaked in kirsch (a cherry liquor) and brushed with a flavorful syrup. It’s deliciously buttery, sweet and fluffy…which makes it the most comforting pastry to me.

Kouglof is a bit time consuming as there are many steps and you will have to wait a couple of hours to let the dough rise, so you will need some cooking skills and patience. However, I really recommend trying this fantastic specialty! Even one slice is worth all of the effort!

Let’s start baking!

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 400 g flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 g yeast
• 100 g sugar
• 200 ml milk
• 150 g butter

Filling:

• 70 g zante currant raisins
• 70 g golden raisins
• 40 ml kirsch
• 50 ml water
• A couple almonds

Syrup:

• 100 ml water
• 100 g sugar
• 2 tbsp kirsch
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• lemon zest

Preparation:

1-The night before, soak the raisins in a mix of water and kirsch. If you forgot or don’t have the time, let the raisins soak for at least 1h.

2- The next day, let the butter at room temperature until it gets soft and warm up half of the milk. Add the yeast to the milk and let it sit for 15 min.

2- In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar, salt, eggs and the rest of the milk. Mix well until smooth.

3- Add in the flour and then the milk with yeast. Mix well and add the butter. Knead until the butter is well incorporated into the dough. The dough will still be sticky but it’s normal. Cover the bowl and let it rise in a warm place for 1h.

4- After 1h, strain the raisins and add them to the dough. Knead for 10 min, cover and let it rise again for 1h.

5- After 1h, butter the kouglof pan and add almonds at the bottom (I placed them on each stripe). Then add the dough in the pan. Cover and let it rise one more hour. Preheat the oven at 355 F.

6- Place the kouglof in the oven and bake it for 40 min. In the mean time, prepare the syrup.

7- For the syrup, simply add all the ingredients in a pot and wait until it boils. After the syrup starts boiling, cook for 5 min. Then let it cool down.

8- Take the kouglof out of the oven and let it cool down. Remove the kouglof from the pan and brush the syrup all over. Let the syrup dry and dust the kouglof with icing sugar.

Kouglof is a classic Alsatian recipe that takes a bit of time to make but the result is so worth it! I love eating it for breakfast and it’s one of my favorite childhood treats.

I hope you will enjoy this recipe! Let me know in the comment section what you think about this recipe and if you liked it.

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