Sour Cherry and Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Easter morning is all about sweets and treats and the beginning of a day of indulging. That makes it a great day for coffee cake, and I had a list of options from the March issue of Living magazine. These recipes were all shown with possible variations, and the one that caught my eye was the sour cherry and cream cheese version of the yeasted coffee cake. The dough was rolled up just like when making cinnamon rolls, and then it was swirled into a spiral before baking. The filling was to have been fresh or thawed, frozen sour cherries, but neither were available. Instead, I used dried sour cherries that I plumped in some orange juice. The brioche-type dough was easy to make, handled very well, and expanded nicely in the oven. I didn’t realize the cream cheese filling mixture would bake into the dough when spread thin. That did make the cake very tender and delicious, but clumps of cream cheese here and there would have offered more of a cheese Danish experience. I’ll try that next time when fresh cherries arrive and I make this again.

To start the dough, yeast was added to warm milk, and sugar, an egg, and an egg yolk were combined and then whisked into the yeast mixture. That was added to flour with salt in a mixer. It was mixed with a dough hook while butter pieces were added. It looked like it would never come together, but letting the machine do its thing for about eight to ten minutes resulted in a smooth dough. It was left to rise for an hour and a half, and then the filling was made. Meanwhile, I covered a cup and half of dried sour cherries with orange juice and let them sit. Then, softened cream cheese was mixed with an egg yolk and confectioners’ sugar. When the dough had doubled in volume, it was rolled out into a big square. The cream cheese mixture was spread across the surface leaving about an inch border all around. As I mentioned above, some clumps of cream cheese might be interesting rather than spreading it completely evenly. I drained the soaking dried cherries and sprinkled them across the cream cheese layer. The dough was then rolled up into a log shape which was turned into a spiral. The spiral-shaped cake was placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet and covered with plastic wrap. It was allowed to rise for half an hour before being baked. The baking started at 350 degrees F for 55 minutes, and then the temperature was reduced to 325 degrees F for an additional 15 minutes. When the cake was cool, it was drizzled with a confectioners’ sugar glaze.

I was so happy with the pretty shape of the cake, it might not have even mattered if it didn’t taste good. And, of course, it tasted great too. Rich and lovely yeasted brioche dough studded with chewy, dried sour cherries was a fitting cake for Easter morning. I’m sure I can think of some other mornings suited to this treat too. For instance, aren’t Tuesdays deserving of coffee cake? They should be.

Whole Grain Sourdough Onion Bagels with Vegetable Cream Cheese

I know, I know, I’m repeating myself. I’ve posted bagels before. But, those were the first bagels I had ever made. Since then, I’ve made lots of bagels, and I’ve been messing around with the types of flours and grains that I use in the dough, and that’s how I arrived at the version you see here. Last weekend, the Austin food bloggers gathered for a potluck brunch/baby shower celebrating the soon arrival of Addie’s second child. I got inspired to make bagels for the brunch when I saw the Barefoot Contessa making vegetable cream cheese for bagels on a re-run episode. Rather than having to bring sliced cucumber, tomato, onion, and whatever else, this was an easy way to add flavor and crunch to a bagel topping without needing to tote a million separate things to the party. For the bagels, I still follow the steps from the Breads from the La Brea Bakery book with changes to the type and amount of flour. In that book, there is a recipe for onion bagels, and I’ve tried it. Minced, fresh onions are sauteed and then patted dry before being coated onto the bagels. When I tried it, the onions didn’t stick, so I decided to use dehydrated onion flakes instead which work great.

I have the La Brea book open as I write this, and I just noticed the bagel page has poppy seeds and amaranth seeds stuck in the crease of the binding. I like evidence of a cookbook being used. Now that I’m familiar with the process, bagel making seems very easy. My whole grain version of the dough is made from starter, water, fresh yeast, white bread flour, wheat germ, oats, amaranth seeds, whole wheat flour, barley malt syrup, milk powder, sugar, and salt. The mixed dough is divided into 14-18 pieces, left to rest for a bit, and then those pieces are formed into bagels. The bagels are placed on a baking sheet, covered with a towel, and left to slowly rise in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, they are briefly boiled and then pressed into the coating of choice before being baked. I’ll include the recipe below since I’ve changed it from the original.

The chunky, vegetable-packed cream cheese was made with finely diced celery, carrots, and radishes, and sliced green onions. I added some thyme from my garden as well. The vegetables were mixed with room temperature cream cheese. It’s a good idea to use the cream cheese within a few days because as it sits, the vegetables begin to lose their crunch.

Looking back at my previous bagel post, I realize that I’ve since figured out how to form the bagel shape with an appropriate-sized hole in the middle. I’ve even gotten confident enough to make bigger bagels by dividing the dough into 14 rather than 18 pieces. I still tinker with the flours and grains each time I make a batch, but the formula I list below has worked well a few times. Maybe the surface coating is the place to get creative next.

Whole Grain Sourdough Onion Bagels
adapted from Breads from the La Brea Bakery
12 ounces water
1 cake packed fresh yeast
13.5 ounces sourdough starter
15 ounces white bread flour
12 ounces whole wheat flour
2 ounces raw wheat germ
2 ounces oats
1 ounce amaranth
2 ounces sugar
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons barley malt syrup
6 tablespoons milk powder
semolina flour for dusting
1 cup dehydrated onion flakes plus 1 teaspoon salt for coating
(I have also used a combination of white and black sesame seeds, poppy seeds, fennel seeds, and salt.)

-Place water, yeast, starter, flours, wheat germ, oats, amaranth, sugar, salt, malt syrup, and milk powder in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook and mix on low speed to combine. Increase speed to medium and mix until dough is smooth about four minutes. Turn the dough out onto a flour-free, that’s right no flour, surface and knead it for a few minutes by hand. Cover the dough with a cloth and let sit for ten minutes.

-Cut the dough into 14-18 pieces depending on how many bagels you want and how large you want them to be. When divided into 18 pieces, they’re a little smaller than what I usually see at bagel shops. Turn and tuck each piece of dough and leave the balls covered with a cloth to rest for 15 minutes.

-Take one piece of dough at a time and roll each into a nine to ten inch rope. Wrap the rope around your hand to form the bagel and pinch to seal the open ends. With the rope of dough around your hand, roll the dough up and back where the ends meet so as to seal. Place each bagel on a parchment-lined baking sheet that has been dusted with semolina flour and cover with a cloth as you continue forming bagels. This will require two baking sheets to fit all bagels. When all bagels are formed and covered, place baking sheets in the refrigerator for 12 to 24 hours.

-Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F. Bring at least four inches of water to a boil in a wide stockpot, and remove bagels from the refrigerator to let them come to room temperature while the oven heats and the water comes to a boil. On a wide plate or tray, scatter the dehydrated onions and mix in the salt. As bagels are removed from the parchment-lined baking sheet, sprinkle the parchment with more semolina flour. When the water is boiling rapidly, drop three bagels at a time into it. Press them lightly with a wooden spoon to hold them below the surface for ten seconds. Turn them and let them cook for ten seconds more. Then, remove the bagels and place them rounded side down in the dehydrated onions. Turn and press to apply the coating and then place bagels back on the semolina-dusted, parchment-lined baking sheet. When one sheet is full of boiled and coated bagels, place it in the middle of the oven, reduce oven temperature to 400 degree F, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Rotate the baking sheet after 10 minutes. After removing the first baking sheet, turn the temperature back up to 450 degrees F, and repeat baking process with second sheet of bagels.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.

Limoncello Cheesecake Squares

I went on and on about my lemon trees the other day, and when I have a good year for lemons like I just did, I love getting to make limoncello. Limoncello is a simple liqueur involving lemon peels, vodka, and simple syrup. Every recipe I’ve seen seems to suggest a different number of days for the lemon peels to sit in the vodka (three days to 10) and then a different quantity of simple syrup to add at the end (two-thirds cup to three cups for 750 ml vodka). Whichever recipe you use, once it’s ready it can be mixed into all kinds of cocktails, and my favorite is a simple combination of limoncello and club soda over ice. Limoncello can also be used in all kinds of desserts. As I was waiting for my lemon peels to steep in the vodka, I was busy trying to locate a recipe I had seen before for some kind of limoncello cheesecake. It was a year ago if not longer that I had seen this, and I have no idea where I first saw it. In my search, I came upon Giada’s recipe for limoncello cheesecake squares, and that may even have been what I was remembering in the first place but I don’t think so, and I ended giving them a try.

In Giada’s recipe, biscotti are used to form the crust, but I used graham crackers in their place since I had some handy. The graham cracker crust was formed with melted butter and lemon zest, and it baked until golden and was allowed to cool. The filling was made from ricotta, cream cheese, lemon zest, sugar, limoncello, vanilla, and eggs which were combined in a food processor. The filling was poured over the cooled crust, and it baked in a water bath for about an hour. After cooling on a rack for an hour, it was refrigerated overnight. It was very simple to prepare, and since it baked in a nine inch square pan, there was no need to wrap foil on the bottom to prevent water from entering.

The square pan was easier for baking, but I was unsure how easily the cut pieces would be to remove from it. Actually, it was one of the easiest desserts ever to cut and serve from the pan. The crust held together well, and there was no sticking at all. The limoncello flavor was delightful but was not at all overpowering. This was a rich and creamy cheesecake that wasn’t as dense as others. I’ll have to try it again someday with the biscotti crust, or maybe I’ll eventually figure out which recipe I was looking for in the first place.

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls

Out with the old and in with the new. That’s what made me finally try a different recipe for cinnamon rolls. I had been making the same cinnamon rolls for years. I’ve changed the recipe to include pumpkin puree at times, but other than that, my homemade rolls have always been made the same way. Many moons ago, my cookbook library consisted of one book and that was The New Basics. The New Basics does not have a recipe for cinnamon rolls, and that’s why my collection grew to two books. Note: that book does have a recipe for sticky buns, but I wasn’t smart enough to think of checking for that at the time. I was at a bookstore, flipping through a few different general cooking types of books, and bought the tenth edition of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook because it did have a recipe for cinnamon rolls. It served me well for years until I decided it was time to try the Saveur cream cheese cinnamon rolls that Joy the Baker made. The key ingredient, cream cheese, is in the dough not the frosting.

After trying these twice, I didn’t completely sweep out the old. I realized there were a couple of details from my stand-by method that I couldn’t abandon. The dough ingredients were much like those for my old rolls other than the use of cream cheese, but there was a difference with the butter. For the new rolls, the butter was to be softened to room temperature and then kneaded into the dough with a dough hook on a mixer. It didn’t work itself into the dough very well, and the first time I ended up kneading a bit by hand to be sure the butter was incorporated. The second time, I warmed the butter to almost but not quite melting as I always did in the old version and then didn’t have to knead by hand. Then, after the dough had doubled in size, it was rolled into a ten inch square, and this is where the cream cheese was added. Softened cream cheese was spread on the square of dough, and the dough was folded almost like folding butter into homemade puff pastry which I still haven’t attempted. So, the dough was folded into thirds like a letter and then turned and folded again. Then, it was rolled out into a large rectangle to be topped with fillings. This new recipe suggests brushing the dough with melted butter, but again I reverted to my old ways with the butter. The first time around, the melted butter seemed to run out of the rolls and the bottoms browned too quickly as they baked. So, the second time, I spread very soft but not melted butter on the dough just like old times. A topping mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, maple syrup and granulated sugar was spread on the buttered dough, and I included pecans and raisins one time but not the other just to mix it up. Then, the dough was rolled and cut and the rolls were placed in a buttered baking dish. You can either let the rolls rise for two hours and bake them, or you can place them in the refrigerator overnight. If refrigerated, they should come to room temperature before being baked.

Old recipe or new, it’s hard to beat the aroma of homemade cinnamon rolls in the oven. When they were baked and cooled, they were topped with a simple confectioner’s sugar frosting with some maple syrup in it. This is a richer version of a cinnamon roll than my old recipe, and the dough was tender and incredibly good. In the end, I don’t think the old will be thrown out since it almost seems like a light recipe now, but I’m definitely keeping the new.

I’m submitting this to Yeastspotting where you’ll find some seriously well-made bread.

Chive, Mascarpone, and Pine Nut Dip

In the middle of a cookie baking frenzy, I needed to think of something in the appetizer category to take to a holiday party. I had some mascarpone in the refrigerator that I bought for another purpose and ended up not using, so my search started with that ingredient. I found this dip on Epicurious and was won over by the swirl of chive oil in it. I had high hopes that the bright green oil would make a festive-looking dip, and it sounded delicious. The chive oil was actually folded into what was a rather thick dip instead of simply being drizzled and swirled as I imagine. The marbled look I had in my mind's eye didn't really come to fruition, but I got over that as soon as I tasted the dip.

First, chopped chives were pureed in olive oil with a pinch of salt. That puree was left to sit in the refrigerator for an hour before it was poured through a sieve to remove the chive solids. Then, pine nuts were toasted in the oven while crostini crisped. The pine nuts were chopped once cool. Mascarpone and cream cheese were to be whisked together, but given the thickness of that mixture, I opted to use a hand mixer instead of a whisk. I changed the recipe by adding a minced shallot to boost the onion flavor, and that was incorporated into the mascarpone mixture. Next, the chopped pine nuts were added. Last the chive oil was poured over top and not too thoroughly folded into the dip so that splotches of green were visible.

This was well-liked at the party, even Kurt let me know that it was really good, but sadly, I only had a small taste of it. That's why I'm already planning on making it again just for us to enjoy at home. The flavor of the chive oil is lovely, but I was glad I added the shallot as well. I'll definitely repeat that addition when I whip up another bowl of it.

Grilled Stuffed Jalapeños and Banana Peppers

I have a new kitchen gadget, and it’s a fun one. Actually, it’s a grilling gadget for roasting jalapeños, and it’s from Williams-Sonoma. I wish they were paying me to tell you about it, but they’re not. I’d had my eye on this for the longest time and finally purchased one the other day. It’s made to hold jalapeños upright and keep them above the flame of the grill, and it has little handles on each side for easy moving and lifting. I couldn’t wait to pull a rack full of oozing, cheese-filled chiles with blistered skins and smoky flavor off the grill. I found some nice and smallish banana peppers at the farmers’ market but had to stop by the grocery store for the jalapeños. The first step was cutting off all the tops and hollowing out the centers. Williams-Sonoma also sells a pepper corer, but a grapefruit knife works well. You’ll want to scrape away the white membranes all the way down the tip inside the chiles and tap out the seeds. This opens space for the stuffing and removes the source of the chiles’ heat.

Once the chiles were cleaned and hollowed, I placed them in a glass bowl and poured a quick, garlic marinade over them. They sat in the marinade for about two hours, and I stirred them twice during that time to distribute the marinade. Next, it was time to stuff them. I made a simple stuffing of cream cheese, monterey jack cheese, chopped cilantro, and salt and pepper and used a butter knife to fill each chile. With a butter knife, it’s easy to push a small amount of filling all the way to the bottom of the hollowed chile and then keep adding until it’s full. I had reserved the tops of the cut-off chiles, and they were returned to where they belonged once the filling was in place.

There was just one little issue with this roaster contraption, or maybe it’s not the contraption at all but was just a twist of fate regarding the size of jalapeños being sold locally last weekend. Several of the chiles I used slid right through the holes on the roasting rack. Maybe they were slenderer than usual. The banana peppers were definitely smallish and thin, but I didn’t think the jalpeños looked any thinner than normal. To hold our chiles in place, Kurt took charge of placing little rings of foil on the rack to fill out extra space in each opening, and that worked fine. The stuffed chiles went to the grill as secure as can be, and we eagerly awaited the end of their cooking time. They sat on a medium-hot area of the grill for about 18 minutes total, and Kurt turned the rack once after 10 minutes. The wait for the molten centers to cool enough so as to only burn a little seemed like an eternity, and I worried the jalapeños would be too spicy even though the membranes and seeds had been removed. We were surprised to find the jalapeños were very mild tasting as if the grilling had tamed them. The simple cheese filling worked well as it allowed the character of the chiles themselves to play a bigger part, and the time over charcoal was a key element in building the overall taste. The jalapeños were terrific, but we found that we were gravitating to the flavor of the banana peppers, and they oddly had a bigger hint of spiciness. Roasting the stuffed chiles was as fun as I’d imagined it would be, and I predict we’ll be doing this pretty much every time we light the grill.


Grilled Stuffed Chiles

18 plump, short chiles to fit the roasting rack as best as possible
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T white wine vinegar
1/3 c olive oil
8 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 c shredded monterey jack cheese
2 T chopped cilantro leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

-cut tops from chiles and hollow out interiors removing membranes and seeds
-in a small bowl, whisk together minced garlic and vinegar, slowly add olive oil while whisking, and season to taste with salt and pepper
-place hollowed chiles in a glass bowl and pour marinade over them; refrigerate for two hours; to evenly distribute, stir chiles and marinade twice during the two hours
-in a medium bowl, stir together cream cheese, monterey jack cheese, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste
-remove one chile at a time from marinade and let excess oil drip back into bowl; fill each chile using a butter knife; start by placing a small amount of stuffing all the way at the bottom of the hollowed space and then continue adding until the filling reaches the top
-place filled chiles in the roasting rack and replace reserved tops on the chiles
-grill over medium-high heat for 10 minutes; turn rack; check for doneness after another eight minutes; chiles should be blistered and softened and the filling should be oozing and melty