Zwetschgendatschi PLUM KUCHEN YEAST DOUGH

By exdircomp

Use jelly roll pan

Ingredients

• For the yeast dough:
• 4 cups flour
• 1 packet dry yeast
• 3/4 cup sugar
• dash of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 stick butter (unsalted)
• 1 egg
• grated rind of one lemon (important for flavor!)
• streusel:
• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 stick butter (unsalted)

Preparation

Step 1

Warm the milk until it's lukewarm, sprinkle in the yeast, 1 tsp. sugar and 1 tsp. flour. Let this rise in a warm place (I heat my oven to 100F) for about 20 minutes until the top is frothy. In the meantime, cut 1/2 inch off the butter and place that on a baking sheet (You will need one with a rim.) for greasing, melt the rest of the butter. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl along with the lemon rind, then add the milk mixture, egg and melted butter. Work through the mixture with the kneading hooks of your handmixer until a solid ball of dough forms. Knead that with your hands for a few minutes, then place it back into the bowl and let it rise in a warm place for another 30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare 2 pounds of prune plums: Wash, pat dry, then slice open on one side to remove the stone, then make two more incisions to flatten the prune into a fourfold, keeping the skin intact.

Next, prepare the streusel:

2 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick butter (unsalted)

Mix flour and sugar, then add melted butter using the kneading hooks of your hand mixer. This should result in coarse crumbs:

When the yeast dough has about doubled in size, scoop it out of the bowl with your hands and knead it through one more time before spreading it out on the greased baking sheet. This will take some pressing and pulling as the dough will be elastic and prone to "jump back."

Next, place the prunes on the dough in layered rows, with one fourfold prune overlapping another, as if you were laying shingles on a roof.

Then sprinkle the streusel over the prunes. We actually made a cake that was half Streuselkuchen, i.e. one half was only covered with streusel because my sons are not fond of the prune taste. For that half we mixed some raisins and chopped almonds into the streusel.

Then the whole cake is baked for 30 minutes at 350F. Below is what the final product looked like. In my husband's opinion it tastes best fresh out of the oven, with a dollop of whipped cream, and that afternoon cup of coffee (see first photo).