A Day Off

I'm going to take today off because it is my birthday. You might want something that is food related since you bothered to view this, so here is a picture of the cake that I made for my nephew (his birthday is the day before mine!). I haven't decorated a cake in a very long time... I forgot how to do a lot! I made the cake nice and simple, with little Mickey heads around the side.

Some people only come here and view pictures. One picture won't make you happy. You will probably demand more pictures. So here you go. Some pictures. Of my cat's belly.

Quick Coffee Cake

I haven't found the perfect coffee cake yet. Fortunately, I still have plenty of coffee cake recipes to use before I attempt to make my own version. This recipe is pretty good. I think I will try it again at some point and use a larger pan. I didn’t follow the directions completely and the coffee cake puffed up a lot in the center. The recipe said to use two pans, but I only used one 9x9 inch pan. Maybe a 9x13 inch will work better.

The “quick” part of the title is accurate. It only takes a few minutes to mix it up and assemble it all together. You may finish the assembly part before the oven is even preheated! The baking time isn’t too long either: only 30 minutes. The brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top is to taste and you can even add some chopped up nuts if you like that sort of thing.

Quick Coffee Cake

2 C flour

3/4 C sugar

2 T unsalted butter, softened

1/4 t salt

1 T baking powder

1 egg

1 C milk

1/4 C butter, melted

1/2 C brown sugar

brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts to sprinkle on top

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift together the flour and the sugar. Add the salt, softened butter, and baking powder. Mix together as you would for a pie dough. I used a pastry blender. A fork can be used instead, just press it repeatedly through the flour mixture until the butter is combined in.

Lightly beat together the egg and milk in a separate bowl. Add to the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Pour the batter into a greased 9x9 inch pan (or two 9x9 inch pans or a 9x13 inch pan).

Mix together the melted butter and the brown sugar. Add a bit of milk if it seems thick. 

Spread this on top of the batter.

Sprinkle the cinnamon, brown sugar, and nuts on top.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for 15 minutes before serving. The melted brown sugar gets very hot!

Enjoy.

Italian Bread 2

This attempt at Italian bread turned out much better than the previous attempt. I used a completely different recipe and made the bread in one day. While the bread turned out nice, I thought that it was lacking flavor. The previous recipe had a "starter sponge" or "pre-ferment" part to it, which seems to provide the typical Italian bread flavor. This recipe did not have anything like that. The Italian bread recipes that I use from now on will have the pre-ferment included, even though they are much more time consuming.

This recipe comes from How to Cook Like Your Grandmother by Drew Kime. The bread is good and had a nice crust to it. If you aren't too picky about the strength of the flavor, go ahead and try this bread.

Italian Bread (link to the original)

1 package (1/4 ounce, 2-1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast

1-1/4 cups warm water (105°-115°)

3 cups unbleached flour or all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

cornmeal for dusting

Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of water. Or you can forget to pay attention and proof it in the 1 and 1/4 cups of water. It turns out fine; the yeast just won't get as foamy on top.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Once the yeast is proofed, pour it into the flour mixture and combine until all the liquid is absorbed. At this point, add the olive oil and mix well. I did all this mixing with my hands. 

Place the dough on a clean surface and knead until smooth. Put the nicely kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Let rise for an hour or until doubled in size.

Sprinkle some cornmeal onto a wooden cutting board. This will prevent the dough from sticking to it.

Place the dough on a clean surface and lightly punch it down. Roll it into a loaf shape. Cut the loaf into two pieces.

Roll each piece of dough until it has a length of around 10 inches. Place the pieces of dough onto the wooden cutting board, leaving room for them to rise. Cover with an oiled piece of plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in width. Slice the top of the dough pieces with a very sharp knife.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with a baking stone or baking sheet inside. I don't have a baking stone, so I used an upside down baking sheet! To create steam in the oven, which will create a better and "crustier" crust, place a pot or small pan of water at the bottom of the oven.

Once doubled in width, scoot the dough onto the preheated cookie sheet. This is tricky if you haven't done this before! I accidentally flipped the dough upside down at least once. Be careful or the dough will deflate.

Return the cookie sheet to the oven. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes. The bread with be finished when it sounds hollow when tapped.

Slice and serve immediately or let cool completely.

Enjoy!

Cherry Coffee Cake

There are some recipes that, while I’m in the process of making it, I realize I have no idea what it is supposed to look like and I start to think that I’m doing everything all wrong. This is one of those recipes. The batter was very thick and didn’t spread well at all, the batter to cherry goo ratio seemed too heavy on the cherry goo side, and it looked awful after it was assembled. Everything worked out nicely during the baking process, so I guess I can’t complain.

If you don’t like cherries, you can probably substitute the cherry pie filling for another flavor of pie filling without affecting the outcome. I don’t like almond flavoring, so I left that out and doubled the vanilla amount. Keep in mind that this recipe makes a large amount of coffee cake, so be sure you have people to share it with!

Cherry Coffee Cake (Printer-friendly PDF version)

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C butter, softened

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 t vanilla

1 t almond extract

1/4 t salt

4 eggs

3 C flour

1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling

1 C powdered sugar

2 T milk (plus an optional dash of vanilla)

Place the sugar, butter, baking powder, vanilla, almond extract, salt, and eggs into the mixer. Mix until combined on a low speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix at a high speed for 3 minutes. The mixture will be fluffy.

Reduce the speed to low and slowly stir in the flour. Scrape the side of the bowl once or twice. The batter will be sticky and kind of thick.

Spread 2/3 of the batter on the bottom of a well greased jelly roll pan, 16 x 11 inch pan, or two 9x9 inch pans.

Dump the cherry pie filling on top of the dough and spread it out to the best of your ability. Cherry chunks don’t spread very well.

Drop spoonfuls of the remaining batter on top of the pie filling, spaced out somewhat evenly. Make a vain attempt to spread the batter. It will mix with the cherry goo and not want to spread very much.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40-45 minutes, or until light brown.

Stir together the powdered sugar and milk with a fork. Drizzle this glaze over the coffee cake while it is still warm.

Serve warm or cool completely before serving.

Enjoy!

Italian Bread Fail

I think the title of this post explains it pretty well. There are so many possibilities for what went wrong here. I will say it is a combination of confusing directions and having to chill the dough overnight before baking because I ran out of time.

The bread turned out flat, very dense, and very chewy. I tried a piece. It was painful to eat.

I'll attempt this again next week. I even have half of the dough in the freezer! That means I can test and see if the rise time was too short before baking or the dough is just bad.