Quick yeast cake with cardamom

Description

Although not as spectacular on the outside, this soft yeast dough cake with a crunchy sugar-butter crust, decorated with almond petals, has an exquisite flavor of cardamom with a hint of lemon peel and walnut liqueur ... It uses rather unusual ingredients: cardamom is one of the most the most expensive spices in the world, and walnut liqueur, which is quite rare in our stores. But you can exclude these “flavoring additives” if you wish: the cake is tasty without them and is so easy to prepare that even a novice housewife can make it. I found the original recipe in Burda magazine No. 1 of 1990, but, as always, I changed it a little to suit myself.

Cooking

Step 1

Remove the butter from the refrigerator in advance (2-3 hours before preparing the dough) so that it becomes very soft, creamy, or soften it in the microwave immediately before cooking.

Step 2

Turn on the oven and heat it to 3.2 (180 ° C) (so that you can put the dough on it if there is no other warm place, for example, a radiator, for it). Wash the lemon (orange) with hot water and soap and pour over with boiling water to wash off the layer of preservatives from its surface. In a separate container, measure the amount of wheat flour required for the dough.

Step 3

Start preparing the dough. Pour 100 ml of milk into a metal saucepan or aluminum bowl, put on a small fire and heat to a warm state (40-45 ° C) (during heating, milk can be gently tasted with a finger to control the temperature). Then turn off the fire, pour 1 tsp into the milk. with a large slide (7-8 g) of granulated sugar and stir.

Step 4

Crumble fresh yeast into milk and sugar or add dry yeast, shake the bowl slightly to wet the yeast, and leave for about 15 minutes in a warm place (on a hot stove or radiator) so that the yeast swells and begins to foam. After 5 minutes, you can shake the mixture slightly to speed up the process.

Step 5

In a large bowl (about 3-3.5 liters in volume), beat the egg with a pinch of salt, 1 tbsp. l. with a large slide (25 g) of sugar, cardamom and finely grated lemon (orange) zest.

Step 6

Pour the yeast with milk to the beaten egg, mix.

Step 7

Pour into the mixture, sifting, first 100 g of the previously measured wheat flour and mix it with a mixer, then put the soft butter and mix everything thoroughly. Add another 50 g of flour to the dough, sifting, and mix everything again until smooth. At the end of the kneading, add the rest of the flour in portions and knead the dough thoroughly with your hands so that it begins to lag behind them and the walls of the dish (do not forget to remove the rest of the dough from the beaters before this). The finished dough should be soft. It is acceptable if it sticks a little to the hands.

Step 8

Shape the dough into a ball, return it to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 50-60 minutes. As a result, the volume of the test should approximately double or triple.

Step 9

Turn on the oven and heat it to the number 3.2, if you did not turn it on beforehand. Line a round Ø 28 cm pan with non-stick parchment for baking, pressing the latter into shape.

Step 10

When the dough rises, you need to knead it with your hands in a bowl so that it settles, and again form a ball out of it. Remove the parchment from the mold and roll out a ball of dough on it with a rolling pin into a circle with a size corresponding to the diameter of the bottom of the mold, trimming it periodically with your hands. Then put it in a mold and put it in a warm place, covering the top with a paper towel so that the pie blank comes up and increases in size (this may take 20-30 minutes).

Step 11

At this time, measure the amount of sugar and cold butter required according to the recipe for sprinkling into a small container (the latter can be cut into small pieces with a knife). Quickly grind them with your hands into a homogeneous mass, then remove the container with it before use in the refrigerator or leave at room temperature. But the first option is preferable, because. in this case, it will be more convenient to distribute the sugar-butter mass over the surface of the cake and it will turn out to be less greasy, since the butter during baking will spread more slowly over its surface and remain in the recesses (see paragraph 13 of the recipe).

Step 12

If you are using whole almond kernels in the recipe, chop them into medium sized pieces in a blender or chop them with a knife.

Step 13

On the entire surface of the approached layer of dough, make a lot of indentations with your finger, trying not to push it through. Spread a piece of the previously prepared mixture of butter and sugar into the recesses, and evenly distribute its remains over the surface of the future pie. Then sprinkle it with flaked almonds (or coarsely chopped almonds) if you are using them in the recipe.

Step 14

Place the cake pan in the oven and bake until golden brown at 3.2 (180°C) for about 30-35 minutes. Make sure that the top of the pie does not burn too much. If necessary, after 15-20 minutes, turn the mold over in the oven on the other side (if the cake is baked unevenly). The finished cake should rise evenly, and its top should be golden.

Step 15

Remove the baked pie from the oven and immediately brush (sprinkle) with liquor using a silicone brush or a teaspoon (optional).

Step 16

Cool the cake a little in the form, and then transfer it along with the parchment to a serving plate. Let it cool completely at room temperature, cut into the required number of portioned pieces and serve (if necessary, after cutting off the burnt places with a sharp knife with a serrated edge with sawing movements (so as not to damage the dough pulp)). Enjoy your meal!