Savory Kugelhopf – Vegetarian and Eggless

I loved the option of Savory Bakes and could not pass this option when Valli gave it as one of them for BM themes. I love home made bread just for the fresh taste and flavor.. The whole house is filled with the fresh baked aroma!!! Love this… When Aparna announced the Savory yeasted bread for this month’s We Knead to Bake, I was so tempted to try it as soon as possible.. I loved the spicy and spongy bread. From Wiki – “A Gugelhupf or Gugelhopf is a southern German, Austrian, Swiss and Alsatian term for a marble cake or Bundt cake. It is baked in a special circular pan with a central tube, originally made of enamelled pottery.”  This is the savory version which can be served as a snack or for breakfast.  The original savory Kugelhopf has meat and eggs in it and this one is vegetarian and eggless. I made this in a 9” cake pan with a tumbler in between to create the hole in between or to simulate a bundt pan.

Ingredients
All Purpose Flour – 3 to 3 ½ cups (I needed 3 ¼ cups)
Instant Yeast – 1 packet (2 ¼ tea spoon)
Sugar – 1 tea spoon
Salt – 1 tea spoon + ½ tea spoon
Butter – 75 grams (at room temperature)
Warm Milk – ¾ cup
Egg Replacer – 1 table spoon
Warm water – 4 table spoons
Oil – ½ tea spoon + ½ tea spoon + ½ tea spoon
Green Capsicum – 1 (chopped)
Sun Dried Tomatoes – ¼ cup (chopped)
Olives – 5 (sliced)
Dried Herbs – 1 tea spoon
Walnuts – 1/3 cup (coarsely chopped)
Onions – 1 cup (chopped)
Cheese – ½ cup (diced)

Method
Mix together 3 cups of flour, salt and incorporate butter small piece by piece until it is fully incorporated
In another bowl, mix together warm milk and sugar and sprinkle the yeast over it and mix well and keep it covered for 5 minutes until the milk becomes frothy and foamy
Beat together warm water and egg replacer until it becomes gooey and set aside
To the flour mixture, add the yeast solution and the egg replacer and allow it to knead until it becomes a soft and sticky dough. Add more flour a table spoon at a time. But do not add too much flour.
The dough will be very soft, elastic and short of sticky
Grease a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl and allow it to proof in a warm place until doubled which can take 1 ½ to 2 hours
In the mean while, heat ½ tea spoon oil in a pan and sauté the green capsicum with ¼ tea spoon salt and when raw smell goes off, add the sun dried tomato and cook for a minute and remove from heat
To the same pan, add another ½ tea spoon oil and sauté the onions with ½ tea spoon salt until it slightly browned. Add the dried herbs and sauté for 30 seconds and remove from heat
Allow the mixture to cool completely
After the dough has doubled in size,  add the capsicum, onions, cheese and walnuts and mix until incorporated. The best way to do this is spread the dough to a rectangle and spread the capsicum, onions cheese and walnuts and fold the dough and knead it. This will help to get even filling. Whichever method you use, DO NOT ADD MORE FLOUR although it is sticky!! It will be sticky, you can use a dough scraper for help.
Make a log of the dough
Grease a 9 inch cake pan and keep a well greased tumbler in the center
Keep the log inside the pan around the tumbler. Pinch the two ends to form a “ring“ of dough. Cover and let the dough rise for another hour until it increases in volume
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and bake it in the preheated oven for 35 – 40 minutes or until the top is golden.  Mine took exactly 40 minutes
Allow it to cool in the pan for 5 – 10 minutes and run a knife around the edges and invert it to a cooling rack to cool completely. While inverting the tumbler will also come off.
Enjoy!!


Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#30.
Sending this to my own Guest host event – “Flavors of Germany”, Simply Food, VFAM – Onions, Priya’s page, Monsoon Temptations, Bake Fest, Vardhini's page, Motions and Emotions, Sara's page, What is with my Cuppa, Nupur's page, Yeast spotting