Description
Fluffy yeasted cake with a craggy cinnamon sugar butter top.
Ingredients
Scale
- One baking potato, about 8 oz (227 g)
- 1 cup water from boiling the potato (see step 1)
- 2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (520 grams)
- 3 large eggs
- 4 oz butter (1 stick, 113 g)
Cinnamon topping
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 oz butter (1 stick, 113 g)
Instructions
- Cut the potato into quarters with the peel on. Cover the potato chunks with water and boil until fork tender: about 20 minutes. Save the potato water and cool to warm.
- Peel the potato chunks and press through a potato ricer (see note).
- Whisk the yeast and sugar with 1 cup of warm potato water. Set aside until the yeast is foamy, about 5 minutes.
- Melt the butter in a small pan. Turn off the heat then quickly whisk in the eggs (see note).
- Make a sponge (optional but awesome): Place the yeast mixture, mashed potato, eggs, butter and flour and 2 cups of flour. Stir this mixture 100 times in the same direction with a wooden spoon. Cover the mix, and set aside to rise until double in bulk, about 1 hour. You can skip this step, but the dough will take a little longer to rise in the next step.
- To the sponge, add the rest of the flour and salt. Knead on a stand mixer for 7 minutes, until shiny and elastic. Cover, and allow to rise until double in bulk, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat the over to 350F (180C).
- Well butter a 9″x13″x baking pan.
- Press the dough into the prepared pan. When the dough starts resisting being stretched, allow it to rest for a couple minutes before continuing to press it into the bottom of the pan. Cover and allow to rise for 15 minutes.
- For the topping: mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Cut up the stick of butter into 1/2″ cubes.
- Gently press the butter at intervals into the dough across the surface. Sprinkle the sugar mix across the surface, then gently use your fingertips to press the sugar into the surface to make a craggy pebbled texture. Cover and allow to rise for another 10 minutes.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes until the top is a lovely brown, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool completely, then cut into squares.
Notes
- Why a potato ricer? A potato ricer is the best tool for getting fluffy, well-mashed potatoes. If you don't have one, simply mash the potato with a fork. Use what you have!
- The absent-minded baker wins again: Usually baking recipes call for room temperature eggs. 95% of the time, I forget to take out my eggs, but in this case, it doesn't matter. In fact, cold eggs straight from the fridge are really helpful here because they will cool down the hot butter quickly. This way you won't have to wait for the butter to cool before you add it to the dough.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Additional Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Breads
- Cuisine: Czech, American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece
- Calories: 228
- Sugar: 6
- Sodium: 201
- Fat: 10
- Saturated Fat: 5
- Carbohydrates: 30
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: 4
- Cholesterol: 52