Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Happy Mardi Gras! What better way to celebrate than with a traditional Mardi Gras King Cake?
Now I have to preface this post by saying I haven’t tasted king cake for about 8 years, so I didn’t really remember what a king cake was supposed to taste like. I perused a few recipes and came to the conclusion that king cake isn’t very cake-like, but more like a breakfast danish with either a cream cheese or pecan filling. I love pecan anything so I went with an adapted version of this Mardi Gras King Cake recipe.
I made this sans baby. You see, traditional king cake has a tiny, plastic baby hidden inside. Whoever has the good fortune of getting the baby in their piece is obligated to supply the king cake or host the king cake party the following year. I have issues with the little, plastic baby. It seems like a choking hazard and it looks like a prop the anti-choice movement might use. So for those reasons, there was no baby in this cake.
This cake was a bit tedious. The prep work took place over the course of a few hours and as you’ll see there are a lot of ingredients. Here’s the mise en place.
The first step was to scald the milk. And in all honesty, I had to Google it because I didn’t know what scalding milk meant. I knew what scalding is and I knew what milk is, but I wasn’t 100% sure what the cooking term meant. So it’s simply heating the milk on medium-high heat until bubbles form around the edges, but before it bubbles.
As the milk cooled, I dissolved the yeast packet into hot water with 2 tbs sugar.
Then the cooled milk was added to the yeast mixture. Then I whisked in the egg, remaining sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Then I added the flour in 3 parts, stirring with a rubber spatula to combine.
This part can be done in a bread mixer. But I don’t own a bread mixer. Do you know what I own? An Italian mixer. You probably have one too. It’s your hands! I wish I could remember which food personality I heard use that joke. When I first heard it, I didn’t even own a hand mixer, so I was very fond of it.
Eventually the mix started to look like a dough.
And then it was time to knead the dough on my flour dusted counter top. I then placed the ball of dough in a plastic wrap covered bowl. I put it on a sun-drenched table so it had a warm place to rise.
And 2 hours later, this is what it looked like.
I punched the dough, the most fun part of this recipe, and then it was time to make the filling. It was simply natural apple sauce, flour, brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon.
I rolled the dough out onto the counter and spread the filling on top.
Then it was time for the hard part – rolling it up. I think I did a pretty good job and none of the filling oozed out.
I thought the hard part was over, but then I had to lift the roll onto the prepared cookie sheet and shape it into a ring. For this step, I could have used an extra pair of hands. But I pressed on.
I made some slices on top with a knife, just till the first layer of filling was exposed.
The ring then sat for 45 minutes to rise a bit more. Then it baked for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.
Look at that golden-brown goodness.
While the cake cooled a bit, I made a glaze with confectioners sugar and water, divided it into 3 parts, and dyed each accordingly.
I drizzled the glaze on top and the king cake was complete.
This turned out exactly as I imagined. The best part was the thicker section of the ring with all the yummy filling.
| King Cake |
Recipe Type: Cake
Author:
Prep time: 3 hours 30 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 3 hours 50 mins
Serves: 8
This cake is more like a breakfast danish than cake. Regardless, it’s delicious. This is a lightened up version of traditional king cake, using unsweetened apple sauce in place of butter. You won’t miss the fat. I promise.
Ingredients
- FOR DOUGH:
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tbs unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tbs white sugar
- 1 eggs
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
- FOR FILLING:
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- FOR GLAZE:
- 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
- 2-3 teaspoons water
- green, yellow, and purple food dye (optional)
Instructions
- FOR DOUGH: Scald milk, remove from heat and stir in 2 tbs unsweetened apple sauce. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in the warm water with 1 tablespoon of the white sugar. Let stand until bubbly, about 10 minutes.
- Add the cooled milk mixture to yeast mixture in large bowl. Whisk in the egg. Stir in 1/4 cup white sugar, salt and nutmeg. Beat the flour into the milk/egg mixture 1 cup at a time. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed.
- Place the dough in a large bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 2 hours. When risen, punch down.
- FOR FILLING: Combine the brown sugar, ground cinnamon, chopped pecans and 1/4 cup flour. Pour 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce over the cinnamon mixture and mix until combined.
- Roll dough out into a large rectangle. Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough and roll up each half tightly like a jelly roll, beginning at the wide side. Bring the ends of each roll together to form a ring.
- Grease and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Place ring on a prepared cookie sheet. With scissors make cuts 1/3 of the way through the rings at 1 inch intervals. Let rise in a warm spot for about 45 minutes.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- FOR GLAZE: Combine confectioners sugar with 2-3 tsp of water until desired consistency is achieved. Divide glaze into 3 parts and dye glaze using 1-2 drops of each color.
- Drizzle with glaze while cake is still warm.