Breudher - Dutch New Year's Cake

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Recipe's preparation

Breudher is a rich, buttery yeast cake, traditionally baked in a fluted mould and eaten with slices of cheese and fruit for a  New Year's Day brunch.  It makes 2 or 3 cakes, so you can share them with friends.

1.  Grind the spelt grain in the Thermomix for 1 minute on speed 9.  Set aside.

2.  Cook the milk, 3 tsp rapadura (or honey), salt and 90g butter for 2 mins, 80 degrees, speed 4.

3.  Add the water and yeast and mix on speed 4 until the yeast is dissolved.

4.  Add the ground spelt grain, and 200g of the plain spelt flour, and beat until smooth on speed 6.

5.  Add the rest of the plain spelt flour, and mix on speed 6 until combined, and a soft dough forms.  Knead on interval setting "Dough mode" for 2 minutes.  If there's too much dough and it's not mixing well, remove half the dough, and knead in two lots.  Add a little more flour through the hole in the lid if it's really sticky and not mixing well.  (But don't add too much, as you want it to be soft.)

6.  Place dough in breadmat and wrap up to rise until doubled in size.  Or, place in greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and leave to rise.

7.  Clean out Thermomix bowl and dry well, then grind rapadura for 20 seconds on speed 9.

8.  Fit butterfly attachment and add butter and vanilla.  Mix on speed 4 for 30 seconds, until light and fluffy.  Remove butterfly.

9.  When dough is risen, punch down, then pinch off pieces of dough and add to the butter mixture while mixing on speed 6, using spatula to help it along if needed.  Use interval speed if it gets too hard to mix towards the end.

10.  Remove half the mixture to a large bowl.  To the dough left in the Thermomix, add 2 eggs and beat on speed 6 until mixed in.  Set aside, and repeat with other half of dough and 2 eggs.

11.  Combine the dough with the sultanas in a large bowl, mixing with a wooden spoon.

12.  Prepare cake tins - you'll need about three tins.  Use a baba mould, or kugelhupf pan, or tube pan, or if all else fails, loaf tins or deep cake tins. Generously butter the cake tins, then fill to no more than halfway (they rise a lot!!).

13.  Place tins into cold oven and leave to rise for 15 minutes, or until partially risen.  Turn oven on to 170° C and cook for 30 minutes or so, until golden-brown on top and a skewer in the middles comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 mins, then turn out on wire rack and cool a bit more before cutting.

Breudher can be wrapped in foil and frozen - to re-heat, leave wrapped in foil and bake in oven until warm.