Plum & cinnamon streusel cake

It's been a long time since I last made a traditional Austrian cake. If you want to know what's been keeping me all those years, I'll be very honest with you. I used to hate baking, primarily because I never was much of a sweet tooth, so I had never felt the urge to bake until quite recently. It's only since we moved to London that I discovered that end of the culinary spectrum - possibly because good pastries are hard to come by in this country. Sure, supermarkets and cafés offer muffins, cookies and deep-fried stuff galore, but proper home-made cakes are not all that easy to find. And although I love a good opera cake (bought, not home-made) as much as the next person, you can't beat a cake that really makes you feel at home. Like coming in after a long autumn walk in the woods, fingers and toes slowly thawing by the fireside, a pot of tea at arm's length... surely this calls for something like your Mum used to make much more than poncey patisserie. Right?
The other obstacle to baking Austrian things more frequently is that in a country that (deservedly) enjoys world fame for its patisserie and (inexplicably) coffee culture, most cakes are just impossible to recreate at home. Our way of baking is very far removed from the American (and I guess British) approach where you throw all ingredients into one bowl, mix them up with a fork, pour into a tin and hope for the best. No, that would be far too simple! To make a proper Austrian torte (think Dobos  Torte), you'll be killing your back standing in the kitchen for hours non-stop just to prepare fourteen pivotal ingredients to a cake, not to mention the fact that you'll run out of mixing bowls and whisks half-way through it!

On the other hand, we obviously have simpler fare as well, but I never even attempted to make any of that, because back home, they're so well known all around that a) they don't impress anybody and b) everybody has their own favourite version of a particular cake and instead of reaping compliments, the best you'll possibly get is a half-hearted "this is nice, but you know, my auntie soandso makes the best EVER (insert name of the cake that you just pain-stakingly made) and we've been trying to coax the recipe out of her for ages, but she took it to her gave". How can you possibly compete with that!

So it was only this week that I undertook my first attempt to make one of the most popular cakes known to the Austrian: the Zwetschkenfleck. It's a tray bake with plums, topped with cinnamon & almond streusel and the name sort of suggests already that this isn't considered haute cuisine... "Fleck" literally translates as "blotch" or "stain", although in Austrian dialect, it is commonly used to designate a scrap of cloth. A Zwetschkenfleck is an afterthought, something you make on the side when you've got too much fruit at home at harvest time and you can use all sorts of fruit, of course, the plums just being the most common.

I did not have a recipe for it, nor did I remember exactly how my Mum makes it. I think the traditional would be a sponge or shortcrust base, a generous spread of jam, topped with the fruit and then the streusel. I wanted to make the deluxe version of it, which is probably what you would find in most patisseries and coffee houses (including Paul's in Paris and London), with a base of pâte briochée, a layer of crème pâtissière, a layer of plums and a topping of cinnamon-laden streusel with almond slivers, half of which I naughtily gobbled up while I was assembling the cake. What can I say, since I brought the cake to a coffee morning where I could be sure not to encounter any Austrians or Germans, I felt quite confident with my first attempt at baking Zwetschkenfleck. And although it wasn't all that difficult to make, it was a sure hit with the ladies... whether they're easy to please or just glad someone could be bothered to actually bake something, I don't know. What I DO know is that I feel like I've done a big step towards my own reconciliation with Austrian baking ;-)

Plum & cinnamon streusel cake (Zwetschkenfleck)
(makes a 30 x 40cm tray cake)

For the brioche base:
25 g live yeast (buy at the bakery counter in UK supermarkets)
180 ml warm milk
60 g vanilla sugar
50 g butter
330 g self-raising flour
15 ml rum or cognac
2 large egg yolks

For the crème pâtissière:
500 ml milk
100 g sugar
50 g corn starch (e.g. maizena)
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tbsp vanilla extract

For the topping:
1 kg plums
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
120 g flour
120 g golden caster sugar
100 g ice-cold butter (finely diced)
200 g flaked almonds

Dissolve the yeast the in luke-warm milk. Pour into a food processor and add the remaining ingredients for the brioche base. Beat well until combined smoothly. Cover the bowl with a towel or cling film and leave to rest and rise for two hours.

For the crème pâtissière, I use a Thermomix. Put all ingredients in the TX bowl, set the machine to 7'/90C/speed 4. If making this cream the conventional way, whisk the corn starch, eggs and egg yolks together until smooth, then pour over the hot milk, whisking thoroughly. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to cook and whisk, over a low heat, until you have a cream the consistency of custard. It should be lump-free, completely set and dry enough not to soak the base.
Leave to cool.

Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 200 C. When the brioche dough has risen, butter a 30x40 cm baking sheet, then line with non-stick baking paper. Pour in the dough and smooth out all the way to the edges, about 5 mm thin, using a dough scraper.
Place in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Remove and leave to cool. Lower oven temperature to 180C.

Meanwhile, cut the plums into eighths. Make the streusel topping by crumbing up athe butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon by rumming the mixture between your hands. Stir in the almonds and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
When the brioche base has cooled slightly, spread the crème pâtissière on top, evening it out as much as you can. Layer the plum slices evenly (I usually use a fan-like pattern in straight rows,  alternating the way in which the backs face.

Top with the streusel topping and place in the oven, baking for 35 to 40 minutes.

Leave to cool slightly or completely, serving with whipped cream or ice cream, if you wish.

Comments

[Manggy]

Ooh, that's one of the easiest brioche recipes I've seen :)
Yeah, the Viennese have a very proud dessert tradition (almost rivals the French!) and it intimidates me a lot-- but your yummy "fleck" (hee) is saying maybe I ought to give it a shot :)

[Meeta]

Johanna I love it when you make these kind of Austrian cakes. Although I have to say while on vacation in Austria this summer - I was disappointed with what the bakers there offered. In Germany it seems the "Kaffee & Kuchen" is really marketed well with bakeries offering huge variety.

I love Zwetschkenkuchen!

[MM]

>>Our way of baking is very far removed from the American (and I guess British) approach where you throw all ingredients into one bowl, mix them up with a fork, pour into a tin and hope for the best.<<

Where did you learn this?

They would if they could afford a Thermomix!

[Claudia]

Great post.

I can imagine the pressure and how difficult it must be to deal with long established culinary traditions when all you want is some comfort dessert.

The tart looks fantastic.

C.

[Michelle]

Johanna, I know what you mean by trying to get in touch with your "home" food. Not that South Africans' baking recipes is anywhere as advanced as the Europeans, I still managed to produce two flops out a total of two attempts. Damn it.

Your cake looks divine!

[Kit]

Perhaps we are lazy bakers, because I am skightly intimidated by this having so many steps i.e. more than two sets of things to prepare! - it is far more than just a throw it together family cake and if the rest of the tortes are way more complicated then there is no way I'd attempt them at home, though I'm going to have to vist Austria one day to taste them in the coffeee shops!
Looks delicious - I'm not surprised it was raptorouly received!

[Tessa]

An interesting post. The recipe sounds fantastic and something I would like to try. But before then when I'm next in Wimbledon it'll be a visit to Pauls. Thanks for the info.

[Angela]

I think British baking is a little more sophisticated than just mixing things together with a fork ;)

I am very jealous of your Thermomix! Never come across a home cook with one, and I am now trying to prevent myself from googling for prices. I do not need one! I do not have space for one!!!

Your Zwetschkenfleck looks gorgeous. I would be thrilled if someone turned up to coffee or lunch with baking like that. alas, it's only ever me who bothers to bake something nice.

[johanna]

Margaret,
i am sorry to have caused this controversy and am sorry if it offended you.
but sometimes when we write, we have to exaggerate a little to try bring a point across.
i was, in my mind, comparing a simple scone with an elaborate dobos torte - and of course there's millions of things in between which show the same level of sophistication and degree of difficulty...
to tell the truth, i have always struggled to do some of the supposedly simple english/american things... i can never get cookies chewy enough, i struggle to make a proper lemon meringue pie (meringue always weeping) and my muffins don't rise nearly as well as the ones they sell at starbucks - i am probably just tinkering with the amount of ingredients too much (always using far less sugar and BP than indicated...) but to me, some of the things any american perceives as child's play is actually quite a challenge. and that's probably because i've never seen it made, so don't know when the right moment has come to take something out of the oven etc...

kit, i know i have caused quite a bit of controversy here and it wasn't meant like that...
if ever you do go to austria, please let me know... there are some great places i'd like to recommend and i am sure you will love the food!
i will be doing a small feature on viennese cafes for a food lovers guide the national geographic are putting together - i will send you that once it is done, just to make you want to go there even more ;-)

[Jeanne @ CookSister!]

Plums... streusel... what could go wrong?? It sounds wonderful and I demand to have it next time I come over! (I did wonder whether you would step on some toes with the baking comments...!)

[altenpflege]

WoW! absolutely yummy.=D