First Daring Baker's Challenge: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

As we are blogging virgins, please read gently with us.

Intro from Bat...


OK. So this is what it feels like to blog. And it seems to me that everyone blogging should have the Doogie Howser music in the back ground. You know, the ending where he journals on the computer. He was so ahead of his time. I can't help but wonder if eventually we are all going to be young doctors. I know I get all my medical information from the interwebs so I think it's safe to say I'm a doctor in my own way. And now that I'm blogging about food, I could be some kind of food doctor. I should tell this to my friend that's a dietician. I could say, "you might be a dietician, but i'm a FOOD DOCTOR" and food doctor sounds way more impressive.  Especially when she is diagnosing people to eat more bran and carrots (or as i call them Can Brarrots), and I'm making yeasted meringue coffee cakes. 


Who wins now, sucka.

Now into the good stuff...


Basic Recipe:

Thank you Jamie of Life’s a Feast and Ria of Ria’s Collection for a great challenge. We used the recipe word for word but got creative with the fillings. We kept it local with lovely Vancouver Island blackberries picked and 'jammed' last summer and tried a more exotic take on baklava (but with honey from Courtenay, BC). So here it is:

Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter

For the yeast coffee cake dough:

4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast*
¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature

If using standard yeast proof it first by adding the yeast to the 1/4 cup warm water with a bit of sugar, let stand for 10 minutes then add when mixing in the flour.


PS.  Do not drink the yeast and water.  It doesn't make beer.

For the meringue:

3 large egg whites at room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar


PS.  Do not eat the uncooked meringue because the girlfriend will shout at you, and for some other reason she blah blahed about it.

Blackberry white chocolate filling:

½ cup white chocolate chunks
10 fresh or frozen blackberries
¼ cup blackberry jam
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Baklava filling:

½ cup crushed pistachios

½ cup crushed walnuts

¼ cup honey

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Egg wash: 1 beaten egg


PS:  My attempt to convince Sushi that before the Romans invented aqueducts, they actually used to wash with eggs...didn't work.

Directions

Prepare the dough:

Making the dough. Totally messed up the first batch because we didn't proof the yeast. 
But doesn't it look pretty?

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted. 

With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:

In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

All the good stuff going inside. Cake #1: homemade blackberry jam, blackberries and Bernard Callebaut white chocolate. Cake #2: baklava stuff – pistachios, walnuts and local honey. And don't for get the love.  (Actually, this is a good place to hide the love so people won't suspect it.)

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes. Just enough time to watch two episodes of Doogie Howser (downloaded, without commercials).

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes (one Doogie Howser) until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.


PS. Tapped, not smashy smashy.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool (As good as it smells, that is a wery impowtant step).

These are best eaten fresh, the same day or the next day or both days. Also best taken to work where people ask 'hey where did you buy these' and you can say 'I made them' and they say 'but they look professional' and you say 'yes' and walk away with a smug smile... but don't send them to Food Gawker where they can see the even more amazing post by the other challengers... they never need to know.


Enjoy,


Doctors Bat and Sushi.