Sunday, April 27, 2008

SoCal Coffee Cake



Southern California:  Oranges. Avocados. Lemons. Strawberry fields...

The branches of citrus trees have been hanging heavy with fruit for months.  Oranges have been practically dripping off the trees.  It's a welcome sight here in San Diego county, what with the seemingly ever-expanding parade of strip malls.  I'm sure that any good orange-based citrus would work wonderfully in this simple and delicious coffee cake. 

Besides being surrounded by fresh oranges, I'm also lucky to work with a woman who has relatives that own a pecan farm in Texas.  She claims to have bags of pecans falling out of her freezer when she opens it, so she occasionally brings me a bag- which I happily bake into some treat to share.  Such a gift is just what inspired me to try this recipe- a fresh bag of pecans, and everything else I needed was languishing idly in the fridge or cabinet.

This recipe comes from "Jim Fobel's Old Fashioned Baking Book", which I wrote about in my last post, only this time I actually followed through and baked from it.  He introduces this recipe for Orange Coffee Cake as being frequently made when his family lived in Orange County and had ready access to fresh, seasonal citrus.  

The orange flavor is subtle, the cake is moist without being either too dense or too spongy.  The recipe, as it's written, yields a coffee cake with about equal parts cake and crumbly topping. Some might prefer a thicker cake, in which case I'd suggest making 1.5x as much batter.   I'm into the topping, so I won't change a thing.  And I'll definitely make this again.

Topping:
1/2 c. pecans (or walnuts)
1/4 c. AP flour
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbs butter, chilled
1 Tbs. grated orange zest
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Batter:
4 Tbs butter, melted
1 c. AP flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 Tbs grated orange zest
pinch salt
1/2 c. fresh OJ
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400 F
Grease the bottom of an 8" round pan.  
(Jim suggests a 8" square pan, which by my calculation has more SA than a circular pan, and I'm not sure I'd want these any thinner.)

First, make the topping.  I used a pastry blender to mash it all up, which did a nice job of bruising the zest and getting the orange oils in the peel well-distributed throughout the topping.  It also served to coarsely chop the pecans, which saved me that step.  If you don't have a pastry blender, you can chop the pecans and the zest together, then work everything into small balls with your fingers or a few knives.  

To make the cake, melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave or on the stovetop.  As it melts, mix together the dry ingredients and the orange zest.  Make a well in the center and add in the orange juice, egg, melted butter, and vanilla.  Stir the wet and dry ingredients just until moistened.  Pour the batter into your prepared pan, sprinkle the topping over the wet batter, and throw it into the oven for 20-30 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Let it cool a bit before you dig in.


A note:  
I used one orange for this, mostly because it's all I had.  Two would have measured up better according to what's called for.  I had to add some water to bring the volume of OJ up to 1/2 cup, and I'm not sure I got a full 2 Tbs zest into the cake.  Didn't matter, it still came out great. 

The most important thing for a good cake is to start with a good orange.   I wonder how a blood orange would work...

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Is this how the Clif Bar came to be?



Dear Clif (Bar),
While I have been known to enjoy your company over the past seven-ish years, I'm afraid that our time together is coming to an end. You see, I have found another. No...that's not quite right.

I have created another.

While I do appreciate that you use organic ingredients when possible, and that you aim to reconstruct deconstructed food into nutritionally balanced bars for an optimal exercise experience, you are a far cry from perfect. Your extensive ingredients list, disposable package, long shelf life, and the slight tackiness you leave on my fingers set my mind adrift. Hopefully we can stay friends. I'm sure I'll enjoy your company casually in the near future.

Love,
Lea


The inspiration for this recipe came from, of all places, Jim Fobel's Old Fashioned Baking Book. I found an old copy of the book and was wooed by the romantic idea of baking the treats my grandmother probably enjoyed. The book has an inspiring introduction about Jim's Finnish grandmother who raised her family of seven on the shores of Lake Erie in the early 1900s, baking both a cake and a pie every day of the week.

With history like that, how could I go wrong? I have Scandinavian roots. These are the recipes of my people! So I started out with Grandma's Oatmeal Cookies. Its subtitle is: "This is surely one of the oldest recipes in this book. It makes a lovely light, flavorful cookie. Whenever I'm in the mood for an old-fashioned cookie, this is what I crave." All of this seemed promising. I was, after all, trying to find old-fashioned.

Then I read down the list of ingredients. 1.5c oats...1 c flour... 1.5c butter...1 egg...3/4 c brown sugar... and I started to get curious about how this compared to the Betty Crocker recipe in my 1996-edition New Cookbook. So I read down that list of ingredients. 3c oats...1c flour...2 c butter...2 eggs...1.33 c total sugar...

Confusion reigned. In the new recipe: twice the oats, same flour, twice the eggs, not much more butter, almost twice the sugar. These recipes are nothing alike!! They will produce very different results! The only way to do this right is to make both!

So I threw caution to the wind and... used whole wheat flour. I was (now) going for a nutty graham-like oatmeal cookie. I wanted saltiness to stand up to the chocolate chips, and cinnamon to pair with the nutty whole wheat.

Good intentions for a good cookie took a nosedive near the world of health-conscious food. In tweaking the BC recipe, I accidentally left out half the fat. I didn't miss it at all, didn't even realize it was gone until I went to write the recipe down. Fortunately they don't share any of the negative qualities typically associated with healthy foods. Plus they keep well, or at least they keep well for as long as you can keep them around.



and I will call them...


Cliffhangers
2/3 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/2 stick butter
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/2 c oats
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 (generous) cup chocolate chips and chunks

Preheat oven to 350F.

I creamed the butter with the brown sugar, then added the egg and beat for another minute. Scraped everything together, added all the dry ingredients except the oats. Mixed for another minute on medium speed. I didn't want to develop the gluten, but this is less of a concern with whole wheat flour. Scraped everything together, added the oats and chocolate chips, then dropped them on an unlined, ungreased sheet to bake. I used bits and pieces of chocolate- some of which was little shavings that were the dregs from a chocolate-chopping session from a bobka baking. The little shavings got well-dispersed. You could just shave a small square of chocolate into the batter for a subtle hint of chocolatey goodness throughout.

They're moist and chewy, with a bit of toothiness. Satisfying. Not too sweet, not too buttery. Slightly nutty. Mission accomplished- these will be made again. Next time, I might try adding a bit of water to the batter to soften up the oats. That would be a good trick to steal from Jim Fobel's grandmother.
She puts in 1T.

You might want to double the recipe if you're baking for more than just yourself.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The (purportedly) six-minute cake



I was recently charged with baking some sort of birthday treat for one of my esteemed mentors in the lab. The recent Beet Cake planted the seeds of the Ultimate root cake in my mind, and I was tempted to tinker with my favorite carrot cake recipe to turn out this dreamed-of baking project, but... time was short. As we're almost out of beet season, this might become a project for next winter.

Pushing carrots, beets, and parsnips from my mind, I turned to the second best thing: chocolate. It was a glorious day, and there were many things to do besides bake. This recipe for "Six-Minute Chocolate Cake" is tucked away in the last chapter of the Moosewood Book of Desserts. A chapter, it should be noted, entitled "Moosewood Classics." How could I go wrong? Chocolate...coffee...six minutes...a classic.

I got out the ingredients and set the timer. Maybe I'm slow at scooping and leveling cocoa powder. It took me something closer to 12-15 minutes by the time I was ready to put this all into the oven. Still, they're worth it for the ease of preparation and the fact that the ingredients are inexpensive pantry staples (for me). It's a good recipe. I doubled it for the purposes of sharing with the masses and keeping a few for myself.

Once the cupcakes were baked and cooled there came the issue of topping them. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of frosting. Maybe that's sacrilegious when a birthday and cake are both involved. Maybe I've grown out of the frosting-phase of my life.

Being the person in charge of the cupcakes, and knowing I couldn't bring them in with just powdered sugar topping without getting a few desultory looks, I opted for a chocolate ganache topping. As the birthday girl (a self-proclaimed fan of frosting) put it upon sampling, "this topping elevates the birthday cupcake to an adult treat." A chocolate glaze would also work well, and is what the book suggests you use. This allows you to keep the cake vegan, or top the cake in the case that you don't have heavy cream kicking around the back of your fridge.

The Cake
(Makes either 12 cupcakes, a 9-in round cake, or an 8-in square cake)

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Sift together:
180 g (1.5 c)
1/3 c. unsweetened non-dutch processed cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. sugar

Separately, mix together:
1/2 c. veggie oil
1 c. cold coffee (or water)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix the batter with a whisk. Not too much, just get things moist. When the batter is smooth, add

2 Tbs cider vinegar (this reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise)

and stir quickly. There will be milk chocolate-colored swirls in the dark batter as the vinegar reacts with the baking soda (this is fun to see.) Stir it just until the vinegar is evenly distributed.

Bake 20 min (cupcakes), or 25-30 (cakes), then cool.

The Ganache

3/4 c. heavy cream
4.5 oz bittersweet chocolate
pinch salt
optional: 1 tsp vanilla, or 1 tsp hazelnut-flavored liqueur...

This is quick and easy, too- pour the cream into a small saucepan. Bring that to a simmer on the stoveop, then toss in the chopped up chocolate. I stirred it for a minute or so on the heat, then took it off the heat and just kept stirring until the chocolate was all melted. I seasoned it with salt at the very end.

Let it sit on the counter for a while- at least an hour- it will harden up as it cools. I spread it on the cupcakes while it was still the consistency of a glaze, so it brushed on easily and solidified nicely. Put the finished products into the fridge to harden, then cover them up for longer-term storage in there. As you can see, half the cupcakes were garnished with coconut flakes, half I left unadulterated. You'll have enough ganache left over for making a few cups of hot chocolate or mochas, or rolling out a few truffles, or for snacking straight from the fridge... or you could just try making less. Next time I have leftover ganache, I'm going to mix it with peanut butter and use it as a decadent topping for toasts in the morning, I think. That wouldn't suck.

I came back from a noontime swim at the pool to find both boxes of cupcakes empty. So my suspicion that ganache-topped chocolate coffee-infused cupcakes might appeal to adults seems... confirmed?