German · Dessert
Bienenstich
- Advanced
- 60 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, a sweet edge rounding the corners, on a slow, honest burn.
Ingredients
- 375 g strong white flour
- 7 g instant dried yeast
- 45 g caster sugar
- 6 g fine salt
- 180 ml whole milk, at 35C (95F)
- 1 egg
- 60 g unsalted butter, softened
- 100 g unsalted butter, for the topping
- 100 g caster sugar, for the topping
- 60 g runny honey
- 60 ml double cream, for the topping
- 150 g flaked almonds
- 500 ml whole milk, for the filling
- 90 g caster sugar, for the filling
- 4 egg yolks
- 45 g cornflour
- 250 ml double cream, for the filling
The skills inside
Whipping a meringueKneading doughSalted water & the float testProofing: the rise before the oven
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg · nuts
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Mix the flour, yeast, 45 g sugar, salt, warm milk and egg to a shaggy dough, knead 8 minutes, work in the 60 g soft butter and knead until the dough is soft and slightly tacky and a stretched piece goes translucent; prove until doubled. 8 min
- Boil the 100 g butter, 100 g sugar, honey and 60 ml cream to 112C (234F), stir in the almonds and cool until the mixture is thick enough to spread.
- Press the dough into a lined 26 cm tin, spread the almond mixture right to the edge, prove 30 minutes, then bake at 180C (350F) for 30 minutes to 35 minutes until the top is amber and the crumb reads 96C (205F). 30 min
- Whisk the yolks, 90 g sugar and cornflour, pour on the scalded 500 ml milk, return to the pan and boil hard for a full minute, then spread thin, cover the surface and chill.
- Beat the cold pastry cream smooth, fold in the 250 ml cream whipped to soft peaks, split the cooled cake, cut the top into wedges before you replace it, and fill.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Whipping a meringue 40 recipes
- Bowl and whisk are clean and dry with no trace of fat or yolk. Grease prevents the foam outright, and there is no recovering a bowl that had it partway through.
- The sugar went in gradually once the whites were already foaming, rather than all at once at the start.
- No grit: a little rubbed between finger and thumb feels smooth, so the sugar has dissolved into the foam rather than sitting in it.
- Stiff peaks means the tip stands with a slight bow when the whisk lifts, and the bowl can be tipped without the mass moving in it.
- Glossy and smooth rather than chalky or dull, with no liquid gathering underneath it in the bowl.
Where it goes wrong It was whipped past stiff peaks. A minute beyond glory the protein network tightens and tears, the foam turns grainy and matte, water weeps out beneath it, and folding that into anything gives a mixture that collapses on the way to the oven.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauternes
- Also Right
- Demi-sec Champagne
- From the Taps
- Belgian tripel
- Zero-Proof
- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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