Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumTrying to recreate an old recipe
Forty years ago, a family member had a commercial bakery. At a recent family reunion, there was much reminiscing about a pastry he made called a Bismarck. It was a kind of coffee cake/danish thing that had nothing to do with filled doughnuts. Then someone said they had the recipe and, being the baker in the family, the recipe was presented to me with the apparent expectation that Id be able to do something with it. Here is the recipe as transcribed from handwritten bakery notes from 40 years ago:
Bismarck dough
8 oz yeast
1/2 gallon water
60 degrees, dissolve, mix together, let sit
Add to water egg shade, vanilla, and butter flavor
Sugar 1#
Shortening 1#
Salt 1 1/2 oz
Eggs 1 1/2
Powdered milk 4 oz
Pastry flour 1 1/4#
High gluten flour 2 1/2#
All purpose flour 3 3/4#
Mix everything together
Mix til dough comes off side of bowl
Mix 1st gear couple minutes
Mix 3rd gear about 10 minutes
If sticky add more flour
If too dry add more water
Let sit 45 minutes
Punch down
Let sit 15 minutes
12 oz dough for each Bismarck
Roll thin
Spread paste
Fold
Pinch edges
Make into ring
Almond paste
2 1/2 # almond paste
4 1/2 # granulated sugar
1# shortening
1 quart eggs
1 1/2 # flour
Egg shade
Mix paste and shortening until creamy after it is mixed put it on 4 speed
Mix eggs and pour slowly to creamed mixture on 4 speed
Put egg shade before flour is added enough to look bright
Dont mix long after flour is added
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As you can see there are many issues here, from what seems to be an extreme amount of yeast, to no baking instructions, to no one in the family seemingly able to remember exactly what the thing looked like. My first impulse is to just find a recipe for a similar almond pastry and make that.
2naSalit
(92,705 posts)spinbaby
(15,199 posts)It was more an almond Kringle. Honestly,I think they just made up the name.
2naSalit
(92,705 posts)It's a mess of a recipe, might want help translating it into something workable!
essaynnc
(866 posts)There's a company in Wisconsin that makes almond Kringle. It sounds kind of what you're looking for. Take a look. See what you think.
sinkingfeeling
(52,993 posts)rambles before the recipe. I saw he also has more photos on FB.
https://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/17806953.sink-slice-spicy-fruited-loaf-custard/
spinbaby
(15,199 posts)Im going to give it a try, minus the fruit, and present it to my sister in-law who seems to remember the thing.
eppur_se_muova
(37,403 posts)As for cooking time, find a recipe for a similar confection and use the same.
Maybe, if you can get the ear of a professional baker, ask him how much butter flavor and vanilla he would use. And double-check time and temp. I've seen several references to the dough being like a brioche, if that helps. Or if you're feeling adventurous, substitute real butter for lard, and compare to other brioches for time and temp.
As for "form into ring", I'm a little puzzled, since it doesn't say "roll up" first -- just fold. I guess you could roll it out in a long strip, fold, pinch the long edges, and roll it up like a cinnamon roll. Just wing it -- if no one knows what it looked like, no one will know if you get it wrong.
eppur_se_muova
(37,403 posts)Marthe48
(19,023 posts)If my calculations are correct, you might end up with 30 servings
I wonder if it is 1 1/2 eggs, or 1 and 1 1/2 dozen eggs?
Is mixing at 1st gear and 3rd gear a reference to a mixer they had in the bakery?
Nice math problem to go to bed with