kugelhopf alsacien

For the dough:

g. 500 strong flour (Manitoba)

ml. 150 warm milk

g. 7 dried yeast

g. 130 cold butter, melted

n. 4 eggs, lightly beaten

g. 120 sugar

a vanilla pod

zest of one lemon

g. 150 raisins

brandy or rum

almonds to decorate

Method:

Wash the raisins and put it to soak in brandy. Pour into the bowl of the mixer warm milk, butter, sugar, vanilla seeds, the lemon zest and a pinch of salt and mix everything quickly. Add the eggs and the flour with the yeast and mix at low speed, when all the ingredients are well blended slightly increase the speed and continue to beat the mixture until it is shiny, elastic and detaches completely from the container walls . At this point, at very low speed, add the raisins well drained and work just enough to ensure that this is evenly distributed in the dough.
Spread with a brush butter in a kouglof two-liter mold, place an almond in each channel of the bottom and distribute the dough, cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until the dough has completely filled the mold.
Bake in preheated oven at 180 °C and cook for 40-50 minutes, cover with aluminum foil when  the surface of the cake will be golden.
 Serve warm or cold, sprinkled with plenty of icing sugar.