[DANSK] Brunsviger

So - trying to revive a couple of the old projects here, aren't I? I told you, I do like 'em.

This here is a piece of classic Danish baking tradition. A yeasty, sweet, bread-like bottom with a soft brown sugar-butter topping. Easy as pie. This is one of those cakes were the result is more than the sum of it's parts. It's good, caramelly, sugary, fingerlicking so. I remember carrying brunsviger home from the bakery every summer when I was a kid and we were on vacation in north-Jylland - the sugar smearing the paper bags so they were all see-through when I arrived home. Really, you had to make sure that the sugar didn't touch the bag too much, 'cause then there'd only be so much left on the cake itself when you were going to eat it. Yes, a delicate matter indeed, carrying these precious things home.

And here's the recipe - it's a mash-up of a couple different ones I found in my cookbooks, so now it's totally how I think it should be.

Brunsviger - inspired and adapted from Karolines Køkken 2 and Kager Der Smager og Andre Gode Sager

-enough for a brownie-sized pan (mine's 25 x 25 cm.), making, oh, 6 reasonably sized slices (8 if you're more well-mannered than I, heh) Doubles or triples easily.

For the dough:
125 ml. milk, lukewarm
15 g. fresh yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
250 g. flour
50 g. melted butter

For the topping:
140 g. butter
200 g. soft brown sugar

* Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add egg, sugar, salt and flour, holding back a couple spoonfuls of the flour - beat well. Add the melted butter, beat again. Add more flour as necessary, kneading until you have a glossy, slightly sticky dough, sorta like the dough for cinnamon rolls. I do all of this in my Kitchen Aid, but it can of course be done by hand just as easily. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl and leave to rise for 1½-2 hours.
*Grease your brownie pan with butter. Deflate the dough and push it into the brownie pan - make sure you cover the entire pan - it will rise again, so it's okay if it's only a centimeter thick to start. Leave to rise again, ½-1 hour.
*Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Make the topping: in a small saucepan (such a Delia word!) melt the butter with the sugar. Let it come to the boil, then take off the heat. Dimple the now risen dough, so you'll have lots of holes to be filled with sugar. Pour the sugar-butter mixture over the dimpled dough and put everything in the oven.
*Bake for 15-20 minutes (making sure to put an empty baking sheet underneith the rack with the brownie pan - I forgot and ick! what an oven I got myself!)

Btw: have I told you there's a new Danish food blogger (writing in English) out there? Her name is Anne, her blog is called Secret Gourmands and her sweet tooth is almost as big as mine! :-) Go check it out!