Coffee Cake

This recipe is straight out of the The Joy of Cooking (the cookbook I recommended you all own) and executed by Anne (thanks dear).
I share the authors' sentiment that putting nuts on top turns cake into a suitable breakfast food. The streusel topping is wonderful, but the cake by itself is also a great recipe for a basic yellow cake.
I think coffee cake is a perfect breakfast treat for a morning when you have a little extra time.

Prepare the streusel topping by mixing together
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp. of butter (melted)
1 tsp. of cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt


For the cake,
Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a 13 x 9 inch pan or two 8 inch rounds
Whisk together:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

In another bowl, combine:
1 1/4 cups sour cream or yogurt
1 tsp. vanila

in another bowl, beat on high speed for 4 minutes:
1/2 stick butter
1 cup sugar
Then beat in:
two eggs

Ad 1/3 of the flour mixture and start mixing on low, then add half the sour cream mixture, then another third of the flour, then the other half of the sour cream and the last of the flour. Pur the batter in the pan(s) and spread it smooth, then sprinkle the streusel on top and bake for 25-30 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).

Calzones

I saw a recipe for calzones in a magazine at the doctor's office and I thought they looked so tasty and fun that I jotted down the recipe for the dough on the back of a receipt and made them the very same day. They turned out to be really tasty and easier than I thought. I decided they also make a good dinner for when you're having people over. You can make the dough in advance and set out all the fillings, then have everyone construct their own and throw them in the oven together. I think that a little participation in the process is fun, and that way, you can be sure everyone gets what they want. This recipe made four, rather large calzones--enough for four hungry adults. You could certainly make them smaller for kids, or as side dishes or appetizers.
Here's the recipe for the dough (I did it in a food processor which made it SO fast and easy, but you could use a stand mixer or do it by hand): (That wasn't an emoticon, just some good old-fashioned punctuation)

Put 1 package of dry, active yeast (those are just the normal packets you always see and each one has 2 1/4 tsp of yeast, if you're using yeast out of a jar) in one cup of warm (105-110 degrees) with 1/4 tsp. of sugar.
Let it proof (that just means sit there for a while so the yeast can wake up and start eating) for 15 minutes.
Then add 2 tbsp. of olive oil.

In a food processor, mix together 3 cups of flour (all-purpose or bread) with 2 tsp. of salt and 1 tbsp. of sugar.
With the motor on, pour in the yeast mixture and let the motor run until the dough comes together (less than 30 seconds).
Take the dough out, form it into a ball and put it in a large, oiled bowl, cover it and let it rise for one hour in a warm spot. Punch the dough down and divide it into four (or more) balls. Put the balls on a greased cookie sheet and let them rise for 40 minutes. Then, on a lightly floured surface, roll the balls out into circles with a rolling pin. Put two circles on an oiled cookie sheet and fill it with whatever you want. Leave a little dough bare around the edges like you would for a pizza.
Some of the things I set out were:Ricotta cheese, mozarella cheese, feta cheese, salami, pepperoni, ham, red peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, frozen spinach (thaw it, then squeeze all the water out first) and tomato sauce.
I recommend putting all your fillings on one side of the dough circle, then folding the other side on top. After folding it over, seal the edges with a fork.
Put them in a pre-heated, 375 oven for 15-25 minutes (I think our oven lies about its temperature, so ours was 25, but it should be shorter). When they start to get a little golden brown, then they should be done.
I like to eat them with some extra sauce, so put some of that on the table.
Here's what our little spread looked like.
I promise, this is super easy. Everyone should try it. Like I said, it's fun for having people over, but it's also something that kids would love.

p.s. I'm now realizing that the picture at the top isn't all that inspiring. I should have cut it in half so you could see all the tasty insides. In spite of the somewhat boring appearance, however, this one is really good!

Guest Baker . . . Anne!

This is the bread recipe that my mom used when I was growing up. It was always such a treat when I'd come home from school to loaves of freshly baked bread. I know that sounds cliche, but whatever--it's something my mom was really good at and I loved it.

So when Anne began her mission to domestify, I suggested she get the recipe from my mom. As it turns out, it is a very quick and simple recipe--especially for whole wheat. It makes five loaves, so one bread-making session will be enough to last for a while.

100% Whole Wheat bread (large batch)
5 cups warm water (120-130 degrees)
2/3 cups oil
2/3 cups honey
3 T yeast
3 T dough enhancer (you can probably find it at your grocery store in the baking section)

2 T salt
10 -12 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 150 degrees

Put warm water, oil, and honey in mixer bowl.
Add yeast, dough enhancer, salt
Mix briefly
Add 8 cups of the flour and mix
With mixer running, quickly add remaining flour 1 cup at a time until dough forms a ball and cleans the side of the bowl
(this is the only part that takes finesse--too much flour will make dough heavy, unable to raise; too little and the dough will be sticky, so wait a few seconds in between cups, to see the flour get incorporated and watch for the sides to come clean. Bowl should be clean all the way down, slightly under the dough ball--but stop adding flour right when that happens)
Knead in mixer for 7-10 minutes

Lightly oil hands, shape dough into 5 loaves and place in oiled pans
TURN OFF OVEN
Place bread in warm oven with room between pans.
Let rise until double (20-30 minutes)
Leave bread in oven and turn heat to 350
Bake 30-35 minutes

The special tricks of this recipe are:
--letting the dough rise in a warm oven--it cuts the time by literally hours
--the dough enhancer--it gives the bread a white bread texture and lightness

You can also take one or two loaves-worth of the dough (okay, or the whole dang batch) and roll it out to make amazing cinnamon or orange rolls (use any recipe for the filling and bake times)

Nice job Anne! You're so domestic!

(For full disclosure, it should be noted that Anne also inherited a bread recipe from her side of the family that's great, but it's more like an after dinner kind of bread. It's also quite simple--maybe we'll get that one on here sometime too.)

*Editor's note--I think this recipe's fine for cinnamon rolls and such if you really want to use whole wheat. However, if we're gonna make cinnamon rolls, then let's make CINNAMON ROLLS. I hope to feature Danielle's cinnamon rolls in the near future (You better unpack your baking box Danielle). They're like Cinnabon, without the shame of walking through the airport carrying a watermelon-sized pastry in your sticky hands.

Frosting Recipes

OK--here are a couple of my favorite recipes for frosting. The execution on both recipes is very simple, so I'm certain that all of you are capable of either.

The first is for the tastiest chocolate frosting I've ever had. The recipe is from The Joy of Cooking (which is is something I need to post about in the near future). The frosting is perfectly rich, not too sweet nor heavy. If you like butter than you will especially love this. It is glossy and a beautiful, dark chocolate color. Here's a picture from a couple of years ago so you can get an idea of what it looks like.

So here's the recipe:

In a double boiler (see below for an explanation), melt 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (that's half a bag of chocolate chips) with 6 tbsp. of milk and 1 tsp. of vanilla. Once the chocolate is melted, remove from heat and stir in 6 tbsp. of butter (that's 3/4 of a stick). Stir it until the butter is melted and cool it until it's stiff enough to stand up but still soft enought to spread without destroying your cake. That's it! So easy, huh? I don't remember exactly how much cake this will frost, but it will at least do the top, sides and 1 layer of filling for a 9-inch circle.

So--about double boilers. They're used to gently heat things by placing a container over a pan of simmering water. You can buy a nice set like the one on the left, or just put a metal or glass bowl on top of a sauce pan like the picture on the right.

Just make sure that the bowl isn't touching the water and make the water simmer, not boil. This is especially important for chocolate because if it gets too hot, it will break, meaning that the cocoa butter will separate from the other parts and you'll have a nasty, unusable mess.

Recipe number two: Raspberry Whipped Cream

I think that whipped cream makes some of the best frosting. The melting point of butter (and therefore whipped cream) is about 90 degrees, compared to about 94 for margarine and 98 or more for shortening. This means that whipped cream and butter-based frostings melt quickly in your mouth and do not have the tendency to coat the inside of you mouth like shortening. Plus, the whipped cream is obviously full of air so it's of course very light.

Simply whip 1 1/2 cups of HEAVY cream until it's stiff enough to stand up on its own. When it starts to stiffen, stop beating frequently and turn you beaters upside down. As soon as its stiff enough that the whipped cream doesn't fall, you're done. Then take 1 cup of seedless raspberry jam and mix it up so it's smooth and has no lumps. Add the jam and a few drops of red food coloring if you want (I did for this cake) to the cream and gently fold it in. Store it, covered, in the fridge until you're ready to put it on the cake. This recipe was enough for the top, sides, and 3 layers in the middle of this 7-inch cake. To do a bigger cake, you could increase the cream to 1 pint and the jam to 10 0z.

The deal with electric knives--They are not a necessity. For leveling tops and splitting layers, a long slicer works great. If you have to straighten edges, however, an electric knife greatly simplifies things.

How to do the squiggles on the cake below--This was my first try and if you look closely it is evident. I just used the chocolate recipe from above and used the fine, round tip on a pastry bag and started swirling, trying to cover all the area wihtout overlapping. The sides were a little trickier and took a few tries to get it right. I had to kind of press the chocolate firmly into the frosting to get it to stick. If you just did the squiggles on top and left the sides bare, it would save you a lot of trouble and would still look cool.

A few tips for cakes

OK, sorry for the extended absence. No excuses, just stopped posting for a bit.

So today's post isn't a specific recipe, but a few pointers for people who want to improve their cake-building skills.

1. Don't feel bad about using a cake mix. I almost always use a mix for the cake. As Alton Brown put it: "they have access to all sorts of super-chemicals that you and I can't get." Betty and Duncan just know how to make cakes turn out consistently well.

2. Do feel bad about using pre-made frosting. I'm sorry, but there are two things which I absolutely cannot support: fake cheese and store-bought frosting. Home made frosting is infinitely better and is really not that much work. I'll post two easy recipes later this week that you can use.

3. After baking your cakes, level with the tops so they are flat. In the picture below, you can see that the cake is totally flat. Rounded tops are normal upon removal from the oven, but removing the dome makes a more professional looking finished product. I just use a long knife and freehand it.

4. Also notice in the picture the strips of wax paper hanging out from beneath the cake. This is so you can decorate without fear of mucking up your cake plate. Cut strips of wax paper and lay them under the bottom layer of the cake. When you're totally done frosting, pull them out to reaveal your sparkling cake plate.

5. Cakes from nice bakeries taste nice because they use more frosting than most home cooks. Just becasue you bake your cakes in two round pans, doesn't mean you should settle for two layers. Cut each round horizontally in two then you frost in between all the layers. If you made delicious frosting, this will be a good thing.

6. Basic instructions for frosting the top and sides:
- Use a lazy susan or something that spins. This makes things a lot easier
-Put as much frosting as you think you'll need for the top AND sides on the top, then spread it toward the outside as you spin the cake. Push it over the edge and start spreading it down the sides of the cake. Push more frosting off the top and if you need it until you reach the plate. Use something with a straight edge (I recommend an off-set spatula and not what yousee in this picture--I left mine at my grandma's house) to straighten the sides as you spin the cake.




-Never pull you spreader directly away from the cake. It will pull crumbs off and they will be very hard to get out of the frosting. You have to kind of spread your spatula off-if that makes sense. It's hard to put into words, but you get the idea, right?
7. One more little thing--Tall, slender cakes seem to look fancier than short, wide cakes. Consider buying some smaller pans to increase you repertoire. Anne bought me these 7-inchers from Sur la Table. They're quite inexpensive.
8. Oh yeah, ONE more thing, cheaper cake pans usually have slightly sloped edges making it difficult to achieve straight sides. There are two solutions: buy the nicer, heavier ones with straight side, or trim your edges once the layers are stacked and frosted. An electric knife is the perfect tool for this job. I know you all got one as a wedding present, so dig 'em out and fire 'em up!

Have Fun!

Yummiest Muffins

These muffins are my favorite. My sister found the recipe in Martha Stewart. The secret ingredients are vanilla and orange zest. Both flavors are subtle but the combination is divine. It just gives the muffins that certain je ne sais quois.

There's nothing tricky about the recipe, although it will probably require a special trip to the store as most people don't keep all these ingredients around

In a large bowl, combine:

11 tbsp. melted butter (no wonder they're good)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. buttermilk

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tbsp. orange zest

In another bowl, stir together:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

Stir the dry into the wet, then gently fold in:

1 1/2 cups berries (I used mixed frozen berries, but you could use whatever you can find--cran, rasp, blue, straw, scnozz (for all the fans of the original Willy Wonka movie))

Spoon the batter into 18 muffin cups and bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

Danielle--Anne got me the same cake plate for Christmas that Travis got you for your anniversary. Hmmmmm.