Vanillicious.com – Easy Desserts

Vanilla Yeast Swirls

Or: Are you Brave Enough to Bake with Yeast?

I keep reading and hearing that baking yeast cakes are not for amateur bakers or beginners. Even people that bake on a regular basis avoid these type of cakes. I agree that some yeast dough can require some time and a little more skills (but only very little), when making the dough. But when it comes to the basic dough, it’s (litterally) a piece of cake. When preparing the dough, the most complicated part is kneading it. If you have a good mixer, you’re not even going to do that! So what so complicated about yeast dough?…

Another thing about yeast cakes is that you can’t be spontaneous about it, because it has to rise for several hours. Therefore, when you plan to bake a yeast cake, take into account that it will probably take at least 6 hours from the moment you start mixing the dough ingredients until you take the cake out of the oven. It usually depends on the type of yeast you’re using – fresh or dry, when dry usually takes longer to rise (from my experience), and how warm is the room where you let the dough rise.

I got the idea for this delicious yeast cake from Kugelhopf, a cake with Eastern European origins. I’ll tell you all about Kugelhopfs and the research I made in a later post. Anyway, the swirl cake I made has a modern twist – its shape and filling. The shape came from a cake I noticed at the local supermarket, and as for the filling – I filled it with creme patissiere and coconut. Though you can replace the coconut with other dried fruits of your choice (e.g. apricots), chocolate chips or jams if that’s what you prefer. The good thing about these type of cakes is that you can make it as interesting as you like, and there are endless options as to how to fill your swirls. So it’s basically up to you and your preference – If you’re more of a chocolate person, you can also spread chocolate paste instead of vanilla etc.

You’ll need:

• 20cm round loose-bottomed sandwich tin

For the dough:

• 300g plain flour
• 100g softened butter
• 50g sugar
• 0.5 tbsp dry quick yeast  (or 25 fresh yeast)
• 1 eggs
• 80ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 0.5 tbsp lemon zest
• pinch of salt

For the filling:

• Half the quantity of Creme patissier
• 30g ground coconut

• 1 egg, beaten, to brush (optional)

How to:

(1) Combine all pastry ingredients in a bowl and mix well

(2) Kneed until the dough is smooth and elastic, at least 6 minutes. The dough will be very elastic at this stage

(3) Place the dough in a bowl and cover with cling film

(4) Leave dough in a warm place and let rise until it doubles its size (approx 3-4 hours). Alternatively, let it rise overnight in your fridge

(5) Roll out the dough on to a lightly floured surface

(6) Using a rolling pin, gently deflate the dough into a rectangle with the long side nearest you. It should be about 0.4cm thick, approximate size: 35cm x 25cm

(7) Cut the dough in two, lengthways

(8) Spread the creme patissiere on top of each of the rolled dough leaves

(9) Scatter the coconut on top of the creme patissiere

(10) Start rolling each leaf into a roll. Pinch the dough gently while you roll, to avoid air pockets in your pastry

(11) Slice each roll into 3.5cm swirls

(12) Fill your tin with the small swirls. Don’t attach them, though. Approx. 2mm space between the rolls is required, since they will rise again

(13) Cover and let rise for another 2 hours. You’ll know it’s ready when the swirls look “swollen”

(14) Preheat oven to 180c

(15) Brush the cake with a beaten egg

(16) Bake for 40-45 minutes, until swirls are golden-brown