Butterkuchen, Germans' Favorite Butter Cake

 

This cake is very popular in Rhine-Westphalia and northern Germany. It's the cake usually ordered in cafes to accompany coffee, what Germans call "kaffezeit" the afternoon moment when they head to the nearest café.

It belongs to a type of cakes covered with the so-called "streusel," a mixture of flour, butter, and sugar that you've probably eaten more than once without realizing it's a German invention.

Streusel is often enriched with nuts, as we'll do below, in this case, adding almonds (hence the name butterkuchen mit mandel, where mandel means almond).

It's typically baked in shallow trays.

INGREDIENTS:

• 500 grams (1.1 lb) of pastry flour
• 250 grams (0.55 lb) of butter
• 200 ml of whole milk (1 cup)
• 180 grams (6.3 oz) of sugar
• 100 grams (3.5 oz) of almonds (chopped or sliced)
• 1 extra-large egg
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar
• 40 grams (1.4 oz) of fresh yeast

First, warm the milk until it is tepid. Then add the crumbled yeast and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, 50 grams (1.8 oz) of sugar, 100 grams (3.5 oz) of melted butter (melted in the microwave, for example), the beaten egg, and the milk and yeast mixture. Mix well and knead until a smooth and homogeneous dough is formed.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and place it in a warm, dark, and draft-free place. In 1 hour, the dough should have doubled in volume.

After the time has passed, transfer the dough to the mold used for the butter cake. The mold is a shallow tray about 40 x 40 cm (15x15 inches), not very deep (around 2 cm, 1 inch). If you can't find this specific mold, use a baking dish that is at least the indicated size, filling it halfway. Grease the mold with melted butter to facilitate demolding (unless it's silicone, then it's not necessary).

Pour the dough into the mold and flatten it. Now, here's the crucial part: use the four fingers of your hand to make holes in the dough, touching the bottom of the tray. Make the holes evenly spaced throughout the dough. This step is crucial.

Cut the remaining butter (150 grams/5.3 oz) into small cubes and place them in each of the holes you made with your fingers. Then, sprinkle the sliced or chopped almonds over the entire surface, doing the same with the remaining 130 grams of sugar.

This mixture of almonds, sugar, and butter is the streusel for the cake. Let it rest for half an hour to allow the dough to rise again.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (392 F) and bake the cake for about 20 minutes or until visibly done.

Remove from the oven and cut directly from the tray if you do not want to demold it (many times it is served like that). If everything has gone well, the cake will be soft, and the surface crunchy with sugar and almonds.