My wife Susan’s crumb kuchen coffee cake recipe, a variation on a classic yeast-based Polish placek, from her home neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. In Susan’s family kuchen is a traditional Easter morning treat, with butter from the Malczewski Market butter lamb, and sautéed smoked and fresh kielbasa sausages with horseradish and Weber’s mustard.
Makes: 4 loaf cakes
Time: About 5 hours, mostly unattended
For the kuchen dough
- 2 cups of milk, lukewarm
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 3 cups of bread flour
- 6.75 teaspoons of yeast (3 packages)
- 1.5 cups of butter, softened
- 2 cups of white sugar
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 4 cups of bread flour
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 2 cups of golden raisins
For the crumb topping
- 1.5 cups plus 2 tablespoons of general-purpose flour
- 2.25 cups of white sugar
- 4 tablespoons of shortening, room temperature
- 8 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
Process
- In a mixer, combine the lukewarm milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 3 cups of flour, and the yeast and mix thoroughly. Set aside for an hour to let the yeast begin to rise.
- Mix the soft butter and 2 cups of sugar, then add the eggs one at a time, stirring constantly. Add the salt, flour, vanilla, raisins, and lemon zest and mix thoroughly.
- Combine the flour and sugar dough batch with the yeast dough batch and mix thoroughly, until the combination forms a smooth, elastic dough.
- Divide the dough into four parts, and place the dough into 4 greased 5 x 9 x 2.5 inch loaf pans.
- Allow the dough to rise until doubled in volume (about an hour), then punch down.
- Let the dough rise again until it rises to .75 inch below the rim of the loaf pan.
- While the dough is rising for the final time, make the crumb topping.
- Pre-heat your oven to 375°F.
- Mix all the ingredients for the crumb topping with a folk, until a course crumbly mixture forms.
- Sprinkle the crumb mixture onto the tops of the fully-risen bread loaves.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes at 375°F, until the edges of the loaf tops form a golden brown crust.
