Royally Wonderful King Cake
This is a cross between a coffee cake and a French pastry and is as rich in history as it is in flavor. it is decorated in royal colors of PURPLE, GREEN AND GOLD to resemble a jeweled crown honoring the Wise Men who visited the Christ Child on Epiphany.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1½ tsp dry yeast
- ⅛ cup warm water
- ¼ cup whole milk
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large whole egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
For the filling
- 1 16-oz can cherry pie filling
- 1 8-oz package cream cheese softened
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 King cake baby or a dried fava bean
- purple, green and gold sanding sugars
- Confectioner's sugar
Instructions
For the dough
- Mix yeast with warm water. Stir 1 teaspoon of the sugar and 1 teaspoon of the flour into the yeast and set aside. By the time you have measured the other ingredients into a bowl, the yeast should be beginning to form bubbles and foaming.
- Bring the milk to a boil and stir in the butter and sugar. Allow to cool and pour into a large bowl; the mixture should be lukewarm.
- Beat in the egg yolk, whole egg and yeast mixture.Beat in approximately 2 cups of flour, until the dough is fairly smooth. Gradually add enough additional flour to make a soft dough that you can form into a ball. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.
- Lightly oil a bowl, drop dough into bowl and then turn over so the top is oiled.Cover with a cloth and leave to rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 2 hours.Pat the dough down and cover the bowl with a damp towel, plastic film over that and refrigerate until the next day.
For the filling
- Remove dough from refrigerator and with well-floured hands, while it's firm and cold, shape it into a long sausage shape. Using a floured roller on a floured surface, roll out the dough into a 30-inch by 9-inch rectangle as thin as pie crust. Let dough rest.
- If necessary, drain extra juice from pie filling. Mix the cream cheese with the sugar, flour, egg yolks and vanilla extract. Spoon approximately an inch-wide strip of cream cheese filling the length of the dough, about 3-inches from one of the outside edges.Spoon an inch-wide strip of fruit filling the length of the dough, about 3-inches from the other edge. Brush both sides of dough with egg wash. Insert the fava bean. (If using a plastic baby instead of a bean, insert it into the bottom of the cake after it has baked.)
- Fold one edge of dough over the cream cheese and fruit filling, then fold the other edge over. Gently place one end of the filled roll onto a greased cookie sheet. Ease the rest of the roll onto the pan. joining the ends to a from a circle or oval.Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Brush again with egg wash and cut deep vents into the cake. Sprinkle with the colored sugars, if desired.
- Bake in 375°F preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until cake is ell risen and golden.Cool before icing with confectioner's sugar mixed with enough water to make a paste then enough to drizzle over top.
