Peach Coffee Cake

Christmas Day I wanted to make coffee cake. Flipping though the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook I saw a recipe for peach coffee cake that tempted me.

I didn't follow the recipe, but started with it.

I heated some dried cranberries in some orange liqueur  then added a large can of peaches, drained and coarsely diced.

In a bowl I sifted together

• 2 1/2 Cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

In the mixer I creamed together:

• 1 cube butter (1/2 cup)
• 1 cup toasted sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

I set at the ready:

• 1 cup whole milk (recipe called for buttermilk)

Added and mixed until combined 1/3 of the dry mix and 1/3 cup of the milk in turns.

Then folded in the Peach mixture just until mixed in.

Poured this into buttered 9x13 casserole dish. 

Topped with mixture of:

• 2 tbs butter
• 1/2 cup toasted sugar
• 1 Tbs sweet spice mixture (in this case cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, grains of paradise, cubebs)
• 1 drop sweet orange essential oil

Bake at 250 for 35 mins, then cool 20 mins on wire rack. 

Ended up with a fragrant, moist cake. 

Strawberry shortcake

A friend gave me a copy of Alton Browns cookbook: Good Eats, The Early Years. I have been working my way through it. And since I had some strawberries on hand that needed to be eaten, what better than to try my hand at strawberry shortcake.

Sourdough Coffee Cake

I started with a recipe I found online for sourdough coffee cake, but used whole wheat pastry flour in place of all purpose flour. I also added a diced apple and a quarter cup of hazelnut meal to the batter. I spiced the batter with nutmeg, galangal, orange extract, a splash of orange juice and a drop of orange oil.
For the topping I used 1 Tbs of butter and 1Tbs of sesame oil, spiced it with fresh ground cinnamon and salsa fina (fine spices), added a quarter cup of almond meal and then completely lost my mind and threw in a quarter cup of dutch process cocoa. I think I will regret that last move. Maybe a Tbs would have been interesting.