Milk loaf (kalács) with dried fruits
Ingredients
- 300 g flour
- 50 ml lukewarm milk with a coffee-spoon of sugar in it
- 25 g yeast
- 50 ml rum
- 50 g sugar
- 2 sachets of vanilla sugar (20 g)
- 2 eggs
- 80 g butter + a little bit for greasing the baking form
- 1 coffee-spoon oil
- 150 g dried or candied fruits (raisins, prunes, apricot)
- grated rind of a well-washed orange
- 1 egg yolk
Instructions
- Slices of milk loafWash raisins in hot water, drain them and let them soak in rum.
- Crumble fresh yeast in the lukewarm sugary milk.
- Sieve flour in a deep bowl and make a small hollow in the middle with the back of your fist.
- Pour milk and yeast mixture in the hollow, sprinkle some flour on top, cover it with a tablecloth and let it rise in a warm place (takes about 15 minutes).
- Melt the butter and let it cool a bit.
- Slightly beat up 2 whole eggs, mix them with 50 g sugar, rum strained from the raisins, and grated rind of a well-washed orange.
- Add this mixture and butter to the dough and knead it well until you get dough that has an elastic, blistery consistency.
- It also pulls away from the sides of the bowl. It takes some time and it’s a great physical exercise.
- Butter a baking form. Place dough on a slightly floured board and knead it well.
- Roll it out to make about a 25×40 cm rectangle.
- Sprinkle raisins and dried, candied fruits over it.
- Roll it up and form a ring by sticking together the two ends of the roll.
- Place the ring in the baking form, cover it with a kitchen cloth and let it rise until it fills out the form (about 30-40 minutes).
- Preheat oven up to 220 °C and place a heat-resistant bowl or can with hot water in it on bottom of the oven (the steam is necessary for baking the batter).
- Cut zig-zag forms in the top of the dough with scissors.
- Mix egg yolk with oil and brush dough with the mixture. It’ll give a nice glaze to the milk loaf. Tip #1: You can sprinkle the top with some peeled almonds.
- Bake dough in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes at 220 °C, than reduce heat down to 200 °C and bake it for about another 60 minutes.
- Tip: Cover dough with foil should the top start to brown.
- Let milk loaf cool a bit in the form then remove it onto a tray.
- Slice it up and sprinkle it with castor sugar.
Have a slice with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate!
Source: budapestbylocals.com
