Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This week I’ve baked a sour cream coffee cake.  Coffee cake does not actually have any coffee in it, but rather it is a cake that is often served and eaten with coffee.  This recipe comes from a different book from the Culinary Institute of America: The Culinary Institute of America Cookbook: A Collection of Our Favorite Recipes for the Home Chef.  This book, as you can see from the title, is unlike their other books in that it is targeted at the home kitchen.  It produces much smaller quantities and uses volume measurements for just about everything rather than weights.

Here is the mise en place for the coffee cake.  I’ve got too much butter out here, all you really need is 3/4ths of a cup.

This is the measured ingredients for the streusel filling.  Were I to make this cake again, I would make a second batch of this streusel, omitting the chocolate chips to use as a topping.  Also, if you like nuts, then some chopped nuts would go nicely in this streusel.

The streusel should get mixed and then set aside until later.

Then the dry ingredients also get mixed and set aside.

The wet ingredients, except the sugar and butter, go into a third bowl.

Then they get mixed and set aside.

The butter and sugar go into the stand mixer.

This was my issue with this recipe.  This is the fourth bowl I’ve had to use to make one coffee cake.  You could probably go without the bowl for the streusel and mix it in the bowl for the dry ingredients, but that still leaves you with three dirty bowls.

The butter and sugar get creamed together with the paddle attachment.  Then the dry and wet ingredients get mixed in, alternating them, a third at a time.

Then half the batter goes into the pan.  I’m using an angel food cake pan here, but a Bundt cake pan, a loaf pan, or any cake pan would do.

With half the batter in the pan, top it with the streusel mixture.  Then you can swirl it into the batter slightly with a wooden skewer, so that you don’t end up with just a flat layer of streusel in the final cake.

The streusel then gets topped with the other half of the cake batter. 

If you made streusel for topping the cake, you would put it on top the cake now.  Or depending on the cake pan, you may want to put it into the pan prior to adding any batter.

The coffee cake is done when it is golden brown on top and a skewer comes out clean.

After cooling for a while in the pan, it should be removed and moved to a wire rack to complete cooling.

And of course, here is a close up of the coffee cake, ready to be served.

Lemon Buttermilk Cake

In this post, I’ve chosen to make a lemon buttermilk cake. Once again the recipe comes from the Culinary Institute of America’s book Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft. Unlike the biscotti, however, it needs to be at least halved so that it can be made in the home. And even at half the amount, it still made a large Bundt cake as well as two loaf pans worth.

Here is the mise en place for the cake. Only I’ve forgotten to include and ready an important ingredient: the buttermilk.

Getting ready to make the batter, the lemons get zested and the zest gets measured.

The dry ingredients go into their own bowl and get mixed.

The lemons get juiced and the buttermilk measured out.

The wet ingredients, except the lemon juice and buttermilk get mixed.

The dry ingredients go in a third at a time, alternately with thirds of the buttermilk. Once mixed, the lemon juice is mixed in.

The batter then gets measured into the Bundt cake pan. It’s now ready to be baked. The times will of course vary based on the size of pan and the temperature of your oven.

Here is the final product. The shape here is due to the Bundt cake pan that I used: a chrysanthemum.

Here’s a close up of the cake.

And a top down view of the cake.

At this point, it is ready to be eaten, but would be better with a lemon glaze. For that mix lemon juice with powdered sugar until smooth and somewhat thick. Spoon the glaze over the cake and let it seep in and dry.

Chocolate Biscotti

This post is all about the making of chocolate biscotti.  Biscotti are a type of Italian cookie that is baked twice.  They are often eaten with coffee.

This particular recipe once again comes from the Culinary Institute of America’s Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft.  Normally the recipe’s in this book need to be halved or quartered to make in a home kitchen.  However, this particular recipe needs no adjustments.

Here is the mise en place for the biscotti.  I’ve chosen to omit the almond extract since I’m not a fan of almonds.

Here are the “wet” ingredients.  They include the instant espresso powder and sugar.

The dry ingredients go into a separate bowl.

And then they get mixed until uniform.  Technically they should be sifted together, but here I’ve just mixed it together with a fork.

The chocolate gets chopped into small chunks.  Once again, I’ve chosen Callebaut dark chocolate.

The wet ingredients, then, get mixed together with the wire whip attachment until they get a little frothy and lighten up in color considerably.

The dry ingredients get mixed in a third at a time until just incorporated.  Then the chocolate chunks should be folded in.  The mixture won’t seem very thick by sight, but when mixing by hand and when removing from the bowl it will seem very thick and heavy.

The mixture should be arranged on a nonstick surface for baking.  I’ve used a silpat, but some parchment would do nicely.  You should try to make your dough longer and thinner than I have made it here.  It should be as wide as you want your final biscotti to be long.

After baking in the oven for an hour, the biscotti are ready to come out.  Let it cool for a few minutes, and then cut it into strips about half and inch wide.

Then arrange them on their side back on the cookie sheet.  You will probably need at least two cookie sheets for this part.  They should bake again for about 12 minutes then get flipped over and bake again.

Once they are done, they should be very dry.  When they have cooled they can be enjoyed as is or would go nicely with cup of strong coffee.