When you are staying in the cutest little Alm cottage, complete with wooden shutters, blue enamel wood fired stove and boxes of summer geraniums.......
.......with the sound of tinkling cow bells and magnificent views to the valley below.....
.....and your lovely cousin, Angelika, brings along a delicious, sweet treat for afternoon tea....
...... well, what is there to do but enjoy all that your holiday has to offer, and tuck in wholeheartedly with both mind and body? ?
And then later, try and recreate a delightful moment in time?
So thats what I've been doing - trying to replicate this very tasty morsel, that surely tasted better when eaten way up in the green heights, but tasted pretty darn good when I made it here yesterday, too!!
This lovely yeasty cake is called a 'reindling' (pronounced rain-ling) and is eaten for breakfast, afternoon tea or supper depending on what you fancy. I enjoyed it with a cup of freshly boiled milk that had come straight from one of the ten fat cows living in the barn thats attached to the house but the relatives had a coffee with theirs. Angelika made two of them, and when the second one got a bit stale, my mum ate hers broken up in a bowl with hot milk poured over! She's very frugal, my mum and believes in eating everything, down to the last bit of plastic food on those little trays you get in the airplane! In fact, she gave me a lecture when I didn't eat all of mine!! But I digress......
I've fiddled around with a couple of different recipes that I found online and in my Austrian cookbook and I think this is just about right. I'm sure the basic idea is the same as those little snail like scrolls that you bake in a tray, but the association of this one with my holiday is too strong to be ignored...... and besides it's quicker to leave it in a long sausage than to cut it up!
Reindling
2 teaspoons yeast granules
500 gm plain flour
60gm sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
60gm butter
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
250 ml (1 cup) milk
A splash of rum*
I use my breadmaker to make the dough, which takes about 2 and 1/2 hours.
Place yeast, flour, sugar and salt in that order into the breadmaker.
Add the butter, chopped into small cubes, the eggs, milk and rum if using. I'd add the rum just for special occasions because it's a bit decadent for everyday!
If you are doing this by hand, you could just use what ever method you normally use for breadmaking. When the dough is ready, roll it out into a rectangle, about 1cm thick, then sprinkle to the edges with -
1 cup sultanas
Brown sugar, as much as you like (more is good!)
A sprinkle of cinnamon
Grated rind of a lemon
Roll it up along the longer side and drop into your well buttered gugelhupf (bundt) tin!
Leave it in a warm spot to rise, then bake in a very moderate oven for around 30 to 40 minutes. Mine got a bit over done on the top but seeing as it's served upside down, it's not a problem!!
Yes, we had ours with a cup of hot organic milk, although the kids preferred yoghurt on top! I'm thinking some runny custard or thick cream would go well too!
I've made this twice in as many days and both times there were only crumbs left on the plate! It's satisfying when the family loves my kitchen creations but sometimes when I spend a long time creating, it would be very advantageous if they were a little slower at devouring the outcome!!
*The rum seems to concentrate in the sugary sultana filling and is like a little flavour bump as you munch! I use a very nice Stroh Inländer Rum - from Austria, of course!
Wenn man eine schöne Alm Hütte, mit Balkon Blumen und blauen Heizofen, besucht.......
......in die berge hoch und grün und so wunderschön......
.......und die liebe Angelika bringt ein süßen Reindling mit für unser Nachmittag Tee.....
...... was soll man dann machen wenn man wieder zuhause ist, weit, weit weck?
Ja, dann sucht mann für ein Rezept dammit mann kann die guten Zeiten auch zuhause genießen!
Und das hab ich gestern gemacht - einen schönen saftigen Reindling hergestellt für meine hungrige Familie. Und natürlich haben sie alles schnell aus gegessen..... es war sehr gut!!
Manchmal wünsch ich aber schon das sie nicht ganz so hungrig wären!!
