I am attempting this recipe, but with no measurement given for flour, "soft dough" does not help much. I started with 1/4 cup, am up to almost 3 cups, and it is still too soft to roll out. I am wondering if I need to chill the dough first so the butter solidifies a bit before I an roll it out? Yikes...guess this won't be for Christmas breakfast tomorrow : (

Hi Suegee,

This is an old fashioned recipe. Recipes of the past never specified flour amounts because the humidity in the environment affects how much flour a recipe will absorb. These recipes often were nothing more than a list of ingredients and relied heavily on the baker's experience in judging texture and consistency of the dough/batter throughout the baking process.

The best way to bake bread and cakes is to learn to judge the consistency. Once you learn how a dough should be, you will always be able to make the best breads and cakes because you can adjust your recipes; light cakes are made with just the right amount of flour while heavy cakes are made when you slavishly follow a recipe which isn't right for your flour. The same holds true for breads.

Recipes for bread and cakes that call for measurements are a good starting point but as you gain experience you will adjust flour quantities to suit your own conditions.

If you're not able to roll out the dough you have, continue to add small amounts of flour until you can, trying not to add too much, since adding too much will make a heavy bread and the secret to good bread is to make it as light as possible.

I would suggest adding 4-5 cups total as a starting point for this recipe, adding more or less as needed (to make a soft dough).

When the dough is right, it will still be somewhat "sticky"; you can keep it from sticking to the kneading surface by rubbing olive or vegetable oil on your hands and dusting the work surface lightly with flour. Or you can knead the dough on a silicone baker's sheet.

Knead dough by pressing it away and turning it back over itself, toward you in a rolling fashion. Do this for at least 5 minutes and the dough will become smooth and elastic. Add a dusting of flour, if needed, to the work surface as you go.

The dough will be somewhat easier to handle after it has rested (let it sit in an oiled bowl covered with a damp towel for 30 minutes at room temperature).

Hope this helps and good luck with your bread making!

-- CM

Would love to see this converted to a lower fat version - I often substitute olive oil for part to all of the butter in a recipe but would be concerned about the flavor - add cardamom and a bit of cinnamon to the dough??? Do you think using whole eggs would make the dough too heavy???

Hi Kathy,

If you don't want the taste of olive oil to come through, try using extra light olive oil, or a mixture of extra light olive oil and peanut or other vegetable oil (I would leave at least half of the butter for the flavor it provides).

If you decide to use whole eggs instead of the egg yolks, the texture will not be as tender as the egg white will serve to toughen the crumb somewhat (egg yolks adds extra color and tenderizes the final product).

-- CM

This recipe was wonderful, but it needs a little nudge. I added about 3/4 cup sour cream and made twice the amount of cinnamon mixture than recommended. Came out beautifully. I also cooked it in a silicone bundt pan so I could simply peel it out when it was cool. I used this cake to talk about German kuchen at my son's school. Having lived in Bavaria for three years, I can honestly say a lot of the kuchen I encountered was very dry and stiff and definitely NOT sweet (it's the fillings and toppings and liqueurs that are), so this recipe isn't exactly authentic. It does, however, taste amazing!

Came out wonderful but I have made many pies, bread, etc. I added about three cups of flour. It was sticky but I put half mixture on floured surface and added it to outer surface. Placed parchment paper on pan and lightly patted dough with floured fingers to a rectangular shape. After sprinkling apple mixture on dough plus one crumbled slice of bread I did the same with other half. I used the egg white to brush on top of Kuchen. I didn't have sour cream so I used about 2 tablespoons of buttermilk. I also used the zest from the lemon (it sounded like the recipe called for the white pith also) it was absolutely wonderful.