TWD: Kugelhopf

Woohoo!  I am now a proud mama of a KitchenAid stand mixer! And it arrived earlier than expected and just in time for me to christen it with this week's selection (thank you to Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl for this week's choice).  This has been an eagerly awaited gift to myself and I couldn't wait to get started.

But, oh no, my bubble of giddy happiness was threatening to burst when the dough did not behave as it should. At one point in the recipe, it says the dough will climb up the dough hook. Whenever I anxiously peeked into the bowl, the dough (batter really) had absolutely no inclination to climb up anything.  In fact, the batter was so flat the end of the dough hook barely sunk low enough to do much to the dough other than to stir the surface.  When it came to adding the butter, I started to get really worried.  

The pats of butter I dutifully squeezed before adding as specified in the recipe just sat on top the batter. I had no choice.  I had to help my baby along.  I felt so bad, I couldn't help but give comforting pats while stirring the dough with my rubber spatula. I also added a spoonful of flour because the dough looked so wet...it looked like thick pancake batter.  Is that how it's supposed to be?

Once the dough was left to rise, it behaved more like it should.  And voilà! Here is the finished product.  Turned out better than I expected, but I haven't tasted it yet so we'll see if it really turned out okay.  I'm off to California early tomorrow morning (which is why I'm posting this tonight) on a business trip and will be lugging this baby along with me so that my co-workers (aka my tasting panel) can give it their usual taste test.  I'll give you an update when I get back in couple of weeks.