Some weeks ago I promised my sisters fiancée to bake some Bienenstich (Bee sting) when we meet to drink coffee in their new house. But then I was busy in the lab and so I bake fast and easy nut triangles instead. The next time we planned to meet for cake and coffee I was ill and bake nothing at all. But when I was thinking about what to bake for my mums birthday last week the promised Bienenstich seemed to be perfect.

Bienenstich is a traditional german yeast cake topped with a crunchy almond layer and filled with a  vanilla pastry cream

Because I like the taste that Pâte fermentée adds to a sweet yeasted dough I decided to vary my old recipe. And because my kitchen machine does not work so nice with small amounts of dough (everything less then 500g flour ) I decided to knead the dough completely by hand. That was a little bit difficult because the dough is very soft and tend to stick to hands and counter. But it is good to resist the temptation of adding more flour because the softness of the dough will result in a fluffy and soft cake. Continue reading →