To Die For - Yeasted Chocolate Coffee Cake

I was watching Martha Show reruns online when I saw this episode where she made a Yeasted Chocolate Coffee Cake with actor Terry Crews. I don't know whether he was acting or he really was excited in making this since according to Martha he likes to bake but he was so good with his excitement and Martha made it look so easy to do. I just knew I have to give it a shot. Weekend came by, I had everything ready have tons of butter in the fridge, kilos of flour and of course I had to check if my yeast are dead or not. Since I started storing them in the freezer, I think that their shelf-life lasted much more which is a blessing since I don't make bread often. Thank you Mr. Brown. Yup I'm one of Alton's fanatics. I missed his show Good Eats... 

Anyway back to Martha and this awesome coffee cake. Though personally speaking, it shouldn't be called a coffee cake because it's not a cake. It's a huge hunk of loaf with this delicious, chocolaty filling swirled within. The dough itself is at first it was very sticky but as it gets kneaded it became supple and smooth, though I had to add extra 1 cup or so of the flour. The 3 cups the recipe called for looks off because my dough still looks way too sticky. Trying to be patient, I kneaded it until it's less sticky but still a bit tacky to the touch. At this point, the recipe said to rest it for an hour but I'm way too sleepy for that so I let it rest overnight in the fridge in a well oiled bowl loosely wrap with cling crap to prevent though skinned dough from forming. To make things easy on the day you're going to shape and bake the bread, the filling and the topping can be made days in advance or in this case I made it the night before just like the dough. I thought of not using the cinnamon because I wasn't sure if it would be good with the chocolate but I threw caution to the wind and decided to make this one true to the recipe first and if it didn't work out then I will revise it in the future. In making the filling, instead of mixing everything with a pastry blender as the recipe suggest, armed with a fork, I roughly mix the cinnamon-sugar with the soft butter then I added the roughly chopped chocolate. The crumb topping also got the fork treatment and both are covered in cling wrap and stored in the fridge. I'm off to bed.

The next day, on a bright and sunny Sunday, I woke up early well... technically I was awaken by the blazing hot sun streaming from my bedroom window. Just as well, I took out the dough from the fridge and let it thaw out still in the bowl on a cool and airy counter. While the dough is thawing, you could actually do the filling and crumb topping at this stage, provided that you have a room temperature butter on hand. For me though since I already prep them the night before, I got time to watch reruns on the telly before shaping and baking my bread. The bread dough is well rested so it's easy to roll out and the filling got distributed as evenly as possible so that as you roll the dough into logs or what we call "baston" in Filipino the dough wouldn't be lopsided. When it was rolled out I tried to stretch the dough a little bit more before twisting it because it doesn't fit my pan right, use your own judgement. When it's all twisted and tucked safely in your loaf pan, brush with eggwash and scatter the remaining filling, the crumb topping and cover with cling film and wait for it to rise again. It's one of the things I don't appreciate in bread making the waiting. But trust me this time it would be so worth it. Even at it's raw state the brea looks gorgeous! Halfway through the baking process the house smells cinnamony (is that a word?) So if you don't care for cinnamon don't use it though I'm not sure of it would taste good as this does. Be sure to cover the bread with tin foil halfway through because it has the tendency to get too brown. I got so excited in taking it out of the loaf tin that I almost burned my fingers, lucky me my reflects are fast ☺

It was a huge hit in my family, my mom who doesn't have a sweet tooth grabbed an healthy portion. She usually just eats slivers of what I do. My younger brother who doesn't really like cinnamon, he just tolerates it grabbed a healthy portion as well, before and after dinner. I bet it would be good for breakfast. When there's any leftover left or it has gone stale, I have a huge feeling that it would be excellent converted into French toast, deadly I'm sure but of so worth the extra calories.

Check out Martha's site for the recipe

Holiday Themed Magazines

Look what I found at my favorite second hand bookshop, back issues of CI & ATK's Holiday issues. I've been waiting for these for what seems like forever! I like torturing myself by checking their respective websites monthly and see what's the new issue is all about. Then I get impatient waiting for it to come out in the newsstand. For some weird reason though I cannot get these anywhere but from the second hand bookshop which is actually a good and a bad thing. Good being, I get to buy it at a cheaper price often it cost less than $2, the only con is that it's months delayed. Like this holiday versions I just found it today, 3 months after the holiday but I still bought them for the next holiday!

Got to run, have lots and lots of reading to do... 

P.S. My first time shopping online internationally was quite successful, I got the book last Tuesday and been reading though it.

Cathedral Windows

Cathedral Windows is a dessert composed of colorful cubed jellies against a creamy white backdrop, resembling stained glass window. Here in the Philippines it was made popular by the bakery chain Goldilocks. Growing up I remember being intrigue by the colorful cubes of jellies suspended on the milky jelly. Wanting to recreate that childhood favorite, I scour the internet looking for the perfect recipe. I finally settled on using the one I found at Home Cooking Rocks. It's a no nonsense recipe, that uses only water and cream. Silly little me encountered an odd dilemma, when the white base is being heated the mixture looks creamy and luscious. For some reason as it cools, it looked a bit curdled like the water is trying to separate from the cream but have no fear it still tasted good. The jellies are sparkly as it should be entices you to grab a huge spoonful of this addictive concoction. 

Next time that I'll make this I will try to lessen the jelly. I bought 2 huge Jello boxes which made too much so you could hardly see the white part. Moreover next time, I will try it with no water at all, maybe milk would be much better. Giving it that creamy milky flavor without the overwhelming taste of the cream. For some reason local cream found in tetra packs here have that distinct smell and color, not horrible but it's just odd.

CATHEDRAL WINDOWS

Adapted from Home Cooking Rocks

• 2 90-g. packs of clear unflavored gelatin
• 1 90-g. pack of strawberry flavored gelatin
• 1 90-g. pack of orange flavored gelatin
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1 c. of cream

Empty the contents of the red and green gelatin into two separate sauce pans. Pour 400ml of water into each pan. Stir to dissolve the gelatin granules. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, just until the mixtures start to bubble. Pour into two separate trays and allow to cool and set.

When the green and red gelatin have set, cut into one-inch cubes. Pour into the mold. Stir lightly to distribute.

Empty the contents of the two packs of unflavored gelatin into a clean sauce pan. Place the cream in a measuring cup and add enough water to measure 800ml. Pour into the sauce pan, stirring to dissolve the gelatin. Cook over medium heat, stirring, just until the mixture starts to bubble.

Pour the white gelatin into the mold. Do this little by little so that each time you pour, a few of the red and green cubes float. That way, the red and green cubes are distributed rather than remaining at the bottom.

Cool and chill the gelatin for a couple of hours before serving.

Vanilla Bean Animal Crackers

Aside from Toba Garrett another cake decorator that I admire is Peggy Porschen, her designs are easy on the eye and her books are filled with pictures which provides you with a tremendous amount of ideas. When a friend of mine contacted me to make sugar cookies for his cousin's baby shower, I immediately said yes. Then the dread started to get to me. I started to panic, I didn't know where to start. It took me a week before the panic died down and I got all excited again at the prospect of making something for someone aside from my family that I hope they would enjoy. So here I am late Saturday night, testing out recipes for sugar cookies. This cookie dough version I got from Peggy Porschen's book, it was so easy and specially with the help of my trusty KA mixer. The dough was formed after few minutes. Off to the chiller they go.

For my future baby shower project, the mum to be requested a rubber duckie theme cookies. Uh oh...big problem...I don't have any rubber duckie cutter. I tested it using a rubber duckie template made out of parchment paper. It was a slow process but I think it's very doable. I will share these pictures on another day. But for today the star of the show are my Animal Cookies! I used the cookie scraps gather them all together and punch out these adorable animal shape cookies, these are about an inch or so in size, very much a pop in your mouth kind of thing. The cookie cutters I got way back during one of my family trips abroad. There are six adorable little animal shapes (the dog, fish, bunny, elephant, bear & I am totally spacing out can could not remember the last shape! Sorry), my favorite is the dog as you can see on the picture above. Taste wise I think they are quite bland but on the other hand, I'm not sure if it's meant to be bland since the royal icing that is suppose to be on top of the cookies might be a little sweet and that these are not meant for naked cookies like the ones I did. Next time I make this I'll try to look for different recipe. Though every time I look at these I find them quite cute! so adorable!

Texas Sheet Cake

Cook's Country is an American food magazine that gives us a recipe that has been tested for several times to give us the best workable version, just like it's sister the Cook's Illustrated, the difference is that Cook's Country is more rustic and simple, the magazine is much thinner than Cook's Illustrated but definitely doesn't lack in content. Most people prefer this magazine because the pictures are colored. For me personally I love them equally.

For this Texas sheet cake, I used my Jelly roll pan to bake this cake and it fits perfectly! Just like other people who tried this, it does look like a huge brownie batch instead of a cake, though it's not a bad thing, who doesn't like chocolates anyway. The frosting turns out so fudgy and sticky! Yum! What I particularly love about this is that I didn't need to bring out my mixer. Everything can be done by a whisk and a bowl. To save on electricity while preheating my oven, I evenly spread the cup of pecan on a clean dry jelly roll (yes the same one that I will bake the cake in) and threw it in the oven. Be sure to keep an eye on it, I gave it 5 minutes and checking it in between by taking it out and smelling it. You would know when it's done if the kitchen starts smelling nutty. As you can see from the picture these are not for people with nut allegy! Leave ou the nuts if you're allegic!

One of the amazing thing about this cake is that I don't need to wait for the cake to cool before frosting the cake. It's actually a must to slather the warm frosting over the freshly baked sheet cake as soon as it is out from the oven and strew about the chopped pecans. It was as easy as 1, 2, 3. And as hard as it might be not to dig in at once specially when the house smelling like warm chocolate cake, do wait for the icing to set before devouring it, it helps meld the flavors together.

TEXAS SHEET CAKE

Adapted from Cook's Country

Toast the pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until golden and fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Cake:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour

* 2 cups sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 2 large eggs plus 2 yolks
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1/4 cup sour cream
* 8 ounces semisweet chocolate , chopped
* 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 3/4 cup water
* 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

 Chocolate Icing:
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
* 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
* 3 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 cup toasted pecans , chopped

1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 18- by 13-inch rimmed baking sheet. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Whisk eggs and yolks, vanilla, and sour cream in another bowl until smooth.

2. Heat chocolate, butter, oil, water, and cocoa in large saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Whisk chocolate mixture into flour mixture until incorporated. Whisk egg mixture into batter, then pour into prepared baking pan. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to wire rack.

3. For the icing: About 5 minutes before cake is done, heat butter, cream, cocoa, and corn syrup in large saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Off heat, whisk in confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Spread warm icing evenly over hot cake and sprinkle with pecans. Let cake cool to room temperature on wire rack, about 1 hour, then refrigerate until icing is set, about 1 hour longer. (Cake can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.) Cut into 3-inch squares. Serve.

Shopping Online!

I have a confession to make...

I purchased a book online!!! Yikes! I'm nervous!

This is actually my first time purchasing book online through an international book dealer called Book Depository, I learned about this company through a fellow blogger and one of my favorite cookbook author David Lebovitz. Normally I would have tried puchasing through Amazon like my dad did before but I find the shipping fee to Philippines is so expensive! Moreover, Amazon doesn't have this yet. So I threw caution to the wind and whip out my credit card and just bought it, before I chickened out and changed my mind.

Now all I have to do is wait, I wonder how long though...I want to contact them and ask now, but they might think I'm weird for being so anxious over a book but then they don't know me and the likelihood that I get to meet one of them is like 1 in a million so...I guess it's ok if they think I'm weird...