Quest for the Perfect Coffee Cake! Part One

At the suggestion of someone in our office, I've decided to use the next month or so to find the best coffee cake recipe. I'm hoping to start with a base recipe and build on it, take feedback and perfect it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a before picture so I've only got a couple of afters. If smell is any indication, this came out just fine. It's an interesting recipe that starts with boiling raisins in copious butter and brown sugar. I used a larger pan so I adjusted my baking time to about 20 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 7x7 inch square baking pan.
2. Boil sugar, raisins, butter, and the water until the raisins absorb most of the water and are quite soggy and mushy. Set aside and let cool completely.
3. Sift the flour, cinnamon, and the baking powder together. Stir the flour mixture into the raisin mixture and mix until just combined. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 to 45 minutes or until cake springs back upon the touch. Immediately put on a wire rack to cool. This is a very soft cake, liable to break easily. Take care when you cut the cake.

Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Muffins

I'm finally settling into my new digs and am back to baking. Last week I brought in a banana chocolate chip loaf that my aunt made. But I'm back at it. This week's recipe was a vegan recipe, but I was having none of that. I added switched the soy milk for regular milk, and because I don't like to use oil, and because I wanted to mix things up, I substituted with Crisco. The muffins formed a hard crust, which likely owes to the high baking soda content.

Ingredients

• 2 c flour
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/3 c shortening (Crisco or oil)
• 2/3 c molasses
• 2/3 c milk
• 6 tbsp water
• 2/3 c mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, dry spices and salt.
2. In a medium bowl first mix the sugar with the oil. Then add the molasses, soy milk, ginger and water, mix until thoroughly combined.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently mix. Just make sure there are no big dry patches. Mix in the chocolate chips last.
4. Fill muffin tin 3/4 the way full and bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes.

New Year, New Beginnings - Strawberry Pecan Bread

I've been notably absent these past few weeks. Sadly it was not because I was having such an amazing holiday season that I couldn't be bothered to post. I spent Christmas Eve moving out of the apartment I'd been living at for 4.5 years and into a new apartment, very close to my office. You might ask, "why on earth would one move on Christmas Eve?" And you'd be right to wonder. Basically, the roof in my old apartment caved in and collapsed the day before Thanksgiving, and along with about a thousand other reasons, it was time to move on. I found an apartment and have been dealing with realtors, condo associations, moving, and organizing the past half decade. Then, I got sick on New Year's Eve! So basically I've been a grinch this Christmas but am hoping to return to a somewhat normal, if not very different existence shortly. From all I can tell, turning the oven on to bake this bread is the first time it's been used. I can't wait to put it through its paces. Without further soliloquy, here is tonight's recipe (pictures courtesy of my new 70-300 macro zoom lens).

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
• 2 cups chopped fresh strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the middle position. Grease a loaf pan and Set aside.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the room temperature butter until softened (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in three additions) and sour cream (in two additions) alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined. Gently fold in the chopped strawberries and pecans.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake about one hour, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick
5. inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan.