Its history goes back to the 19th century. Early forms of the pastry were found in the cookbook of the author Katharina Prato in 1865. The gugelhupf finally made its breakthrough at the end of the 19th century.

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 50 g (1/4 cup) bittersweet couverture or cooking chocolate
• 30 g (1/8 cup) icing sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 egg whites
• 3 cl (0,1 pt) rum
• 2 tbsps sugar
• 50 g (3/8 cup) breadcrumbs
• 50 g (3/8 cup) crumbed ladyfingers
• 2 tbsps milk
• 50 g (1/4 cup) hazelnuts or walnuts, roasted and grated
• pinch of salt
• 100 g (1/2 cup) butter (melted for greasing)
• 3 tbsps sugar (for the baking forms)

For the chocolate sauce:

• 150 g (2/3 cup) dark chocolate
• 150 ml (0,25 pt) milk
• 20 g (1/8 cup) sugar
• 100 ml (1/2 cup) cream
• 1/2 pod vanilla (cut open)
• 80 g (3/8 cup) soft butter
• 1 cl (0,02 pt) cognac
• 300 ml (0,5 pt) cream (half-whipped, for decoration)

Preparation:

Grease some small soufflé molds with melted butter and dust with sugar. Refrigerate (so that the mixture can rise without running over the sides). Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Whisk the egg yolks with rum and icing sugar until fluffy. Pour in the melted chocolate. Whisk the egg whites and sugar and a pinch of salt until half stiff and carefully fold in about 1/3 of the egg whites. Combine the breadcrumbs, ladyfinger crumbs and milk and fold into the mixture, along with the nuts and the rest of the egg whites. Fill the molds 3/4 full with the mixture. Fill a deep baking tray with about 2 cm of water (or use a double boiler) and place the molds in the water. Bake in a preheated oven at 170 °C for about 20 minutes. For the chocolate sauce, heat the milk with the cream, sugar and vanilla pod. Remove the vanilla pod and melt the finely chopped chocolate in the mixture. Whip up the butter and pour in the chocolate mixture, stirring regularly. Pour in some cognac for extra aroma. Loosen the small cakes from their molds and arrange on plates. Pour on the warm chocolate sauce, and decorate with whipped cream.

Enjoy with: Sweet wine

Tip: Garnish: Vanilla or pistachio ice cream, strawberry sauce and Hippen (a type of thin wafer)

Recipe is taken from:

Christoph Wagner/Alexandra Winkler
The New Sacher Cookbook
ISBN: 978-3-85431-380-9
Pichler Verlag

More recipes: www.ichkoche.at/Viennese-Cuisine/