Coconut Almond Bread with Dark Chocolate Chips and Almond Streusel . . .

There's an old but enduring health food store not far from the house where I grew up, and I stopped there last Friday on the way home from visiting my father. He still lives in that same house, along with one of my older siblings, and once a week I come to spend time with him and take him out. We breakfast together at a local restaurant he's been frequenting for decades. No longer able to drive, and now without my mom to accompany him, he's told me half-jokingly that his sanity depends upon these little outings, so I try not to let anything derail them.

As we trek slowly from his silver Buick to the restaurant's entrance, he grips the hand-me-down walker that still bears my mother's name on a little paper sticker. Three or four of the waitresses smile as we enter, and fuss over him. They, too, have been there for decades. One of them, a tiny woman in her late fifties, even kisses his cheek now and then, or pats his shiny bald head with familiar affection. The morning regulars are more and more like my dad--elderly widowers who come to enjoy a predictable, but hot and decently prepared, meal. Predictability is a virtue he finds comforting.

We always pass by the health food store at least once while we're on our weekly outings, and my father rarely fails to comment on its longevity. Somehow, the fact that it's managed to abide and endure for over fifty years, despite fierce economic odds, is comforting to both us. After all, so little stays the same. I like to think that it will be there for a long time, so I stop in now and then to roam through the aisles, never failing to find some arcane item worth buying.

Though it's been renovated and expanded, it's still something of a time capsule with an aura that my husband would likely describe as "old hippy." All in all, it's a nice place. And that's where I bought the unsweetened coconut, as well as the canned coconut milk, that I used for today's coconut almond bread.

This is a recipe that I newly re-adapted from a recipe that I'd already adapted once for a coconut bread post last July. I made several small changes to it, and I think it now evokes all the flavors of an Almond Joy candy bar. (Don't you love Almond Joys? I do, and so does my dad.)


Coconut Almond Bread with Dark Chocolate Chips and Almond Streusel
(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease and flour one 9" x 5" loaf pan.

Prepare the almond-streusel topping first:

1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup All Purpose flour
1/3 cup of coarse/sanding sugar
1 very small pinch of salt

3 Tbsp. melted unsalted butter, slightly cooled

Stir the four dry ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside. (You'll wait to mix the melted butter into the dry ingredients until just before you're ready to put the streusel on top of the unbaked loaf.)

For the coconut almond bread:

2 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup and 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 cups unsweetened, dried, finely flaked coconut
3 eggs, large
2/3 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 tsp. coconut flavoring, or about 3 drops of coconut flavored oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup dark chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and coconut together well with a fork or a hand whisk.

In a medium bowl, still working by hand, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, regular milk, melted butter, coconut extract/oil, almond extract, and vanilla extract.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in all of the liquid mixture. Stir just until combined; it's okay if a few streaks of flour remain.


Pour in the chocolate chunks and again stir just until the chocolate is more or less evenly distributed. Be careful not to overmix the batter.


Pour all of the batter into the greased and floured loaf pan.



For the streusel:
Just before you're ready to bake the loaf, mix the 3 Tbsp. of melted and slightly cooled butter into the dry streusel ingredients using a fork. (You can use your fingers to help mix it all up quickly if that helps.)


Sprinkle all of the mixed streusel evenly over the top of the unbaked loaf.


Bake the loaf for about 60 minutes or until the top crust is golden and a toothpick inserted deeply into the center of the loaf comes out clean. (Definitely check the loaf after about 35 minutes, and cover it loosely with foil if it seems to be browning too quickly. The top of the finished loaf should be nicely golden, but not too brown. I covered mine with foil after 30 minutes, and at about 40 minutes I moved the oven rack it was on from the middle of the oven to the upper rung. My oven always runs pretty hot so I have to take precautions!)

Cool the finished loaf in the pan, on a rack, for about ten to fifteen minutes. Run a thin knife down the sides to loosen it, and then turn it turn carefully out of pan to let it finish cooling completely on the rack. (If you slice it before it's completely cool, the slices might fall apart, so try to be patient.)


Recipe full disclosure! The almond streusel portion this of recipe was adapted from one at this link: http://www.valleyfig.com/Lemon-FigBreadwithAlmondStreusel.htm

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Valentine Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Whipped Cream . . . Will You Be Mine?

It's not just about hearts and flowers, you know. It's also about love and cupcakes. What would Valentine's day be without them? I shudder to think.

I associate Valentine's Day with cupcakes more than any other holiday. Must be a carryover from all of those Feb. 14th parties in elementary school. Cupcakes were plentiful at those events, along with an endless supply of conversation hearts. Deep vats of Hawaiian Punch stood at the ready to slake our pre-adolescent thirst. I recall how the perkiest Moms, who faithfully materialized to run the show, would ladle the weak red libation into little cups and place them carefully into our hands. The classrooms were always a flurry of red and pink, with cut-out hearts and cupids spinning on strings that had been taped to the ceiling.

And do you remember being required to give a valentine card to every single kid in your class, without any regard to your feelings about those kids--you know, the ones with a dark reputation for hooliganism? They were always the troublemakers who failed to bring in an empty milk-carton to transform into a mail-box.

While the rest of us were busy pasting construction-paper hearts onto our mailboxes, those few children stood morosely behind the teacher as she excavated the supply closet, hoping against hope that she'd find a few extra milk cartons. Valentine's Day, at that tender age, was an equal opportunity holiday.

About these cupcakes . . .

The recipe I used for today's cupcakes comes from the book, Great Cakes, by Carole Walter. This cake batter is somewhere on the spectrum between a sponge cake and a regular yellow butter cake. (You could use this recipe, in the same proportions listed, for a standard two-layer cake.) It has a satisfying crumb and a full vanilla flavor. It's not too eggy, and it's sturdy without being dense.

Though one might typically frost a cupcake like this with a good chocolate buttercream, or a fluffy white icing, I decided to opt for the subdued sweetness you get from flavored whipped cream. The raspberry aspect is provided by about a tablespoon or so of seedless preserves that you mix in after the cream has been whipped to firm peaks.

A bit of sifted powdered sugar helps to stabilize the whipped cream and adds a touch of additional sweetness. The ultra-softness of whipped cream is a nice surprise when it appears on the top of a cupcake, especially a Valentine cupcake.


Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Whipped Cream

Makes 24 regular size cupcakes.

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners. (You may have a little batter leftover, perhaps enough for one large cupcake. I just baked that one extra cupcake in a Pyrex glass custard cup.)

3 cups sifted cake flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, unsalted (The recipe doesn't specify, but I'd suggest the butter be at cool room temperature, not too soft.)
2 cups superfine sugar
4 eggs, large
1 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (I also added in about three drops of almond extract; it doesn't add in any obvious almond taste, but I think it gives the vanilla more dimension.)
1 cup milk (I used whole)

Sift together the salt, flour, and baking powder. Set aside.

Cut the butter into 1" pieces and put them in the large bowl of your mixer; using the paddle attachment, soften them on low speed. Then, increase the speed to medium-high and cream until smooth and light in color, about 1 and 1/2 to 2 minutes.


Still at medium-high speed, add in the sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time over a period of 8 to 10 minutes to blend it in well, scraping the bowl occasionally. (Not kidding--she really says to do this that slowly!)


Add the eggs in one at a time at one minute intervals, scraping as needed. Blend in the vanilla.


Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low. Add in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, starting and ending with flour; do four additions of flour and three additions of milk. Mix just until incorporated for each addition. Scrape the bowl, and then mix 10 seconds longer.


Spoon the batter into your muffin cups, filling each one about 2/3 full.


Bake the cupcakes for about 10 to 12 minutes, then check them with a toothpick inserted into the center. If it comes out clean, they're done. They should be just a little golden on top.

Let the cupcakes cool in the pan, set on a rack, for just a few minutes, then take them out of the pan to cool completely on a rack.


For the raspberry whipped cream:

1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 to 2 Tbsp. seedless raspberry jam, or regular raspberry jam that have been well strained
2/3 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

Chill a small or medium-sized metal mixer bowl in your freezer for five minutes or in your fridge for ten minutes. Attach the bowl to your mixer and pour in 1 and 1/2 cups of very cold heavy cream. Beat on low speed for the first 30 seconds or so, then increase the speed to medium and beat until soft peaks just begin to form. Slowly add in about 2/3 of a cup of sifted confectioners' sugar. Beat until the peaks become obviously firm but not over-whipped and stiff.

Turn off the mixer and, using a flexible spatula, gently fold in 1 to 2 Tbsp. of seedless raspberry jam. The jam alone won't make the whipped cream very pink. If you want the whipped cream to be more pink, add in a tiny bit of gel food coloring; gel coloring is moist enough to mix in easily and its color is very potent so you need need a dab. Don't use liquid food coloring if you can help it, because it may add too much moisture to the cream.


Wait until the cupcakes are completely cool to frost them. Once you've frosted them, serve them soon. Store any extra frosted cupcakes in the fridge to prevent the whipped cream from separating.


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It's My Party and I'll Bake if I Want to . . . but do I Want to? (Cherry Cream-Cheese Coffeebread)

That's right, you heard me. It is my party . . . sort of. Okay, not a party exactly, just an intimate gathering of immediate family. Come this weekend, on Super Bowl Sunday, I turn 49 years old. We will be celebrating on Saturday evening in order to avoid potential conflict with the annual football spectacle. (One has to keep one's priorities in order, doesn't one?)

So what's the problem? Well, birthdays can present a slight dilemma for a bake-a-holic as well as the bake-a-holic's family. The burning question: From whence cometh the birthday cake?

As I see it, there are three options--all of them intriguing, none of them bad.

• Option no. 1: The bake-a-holic bakes her own cake because she wants to do it herself. (Remember, she's like a junkie that way.)

• Option no. 2: The bake-a-holic goes to a fabulous bakery and picks out something unusual and gorgeous that she'd never typically buy any other day of the year, and that is far too complicated and time consuming to ever consider baking at home . . . something that will surely dazzle all concerned.

• Option no. 3: The bake-a-holic's husband and children venture out into the big scary world to pick out a cake for her birthday, hoping against hope that they select something adequately impressive.

What would you do? At this juncture, I think I'm leaning toward option no. 2. I'm just not in a layer-cake makin' mood, and I don't want to thrust the cake selection task onto my family's shoulders (they get all flustered when forced to pick out baked goods, poor things). I'd kind of like to select an out of the ordinary cake that, besides being a part of our celebration, would make a good research subject. Yes, I like to dissect complicated bakery cakes. See what makes them tick. Sometimes I even draw little pencil diagrams of exactly what they look like and how they're composed, outside and in. (It's that junkie aspect again. Can't help myself.)

Let's get to the cherry cream-cheese coffee bread . . .

Anyway, at the moment I'm in more of a yeasty sweet-dough kind of a mood, which brings us to today's recipe. One of my baking goals this year is to branch out, fearlessly, with yeast dough, including sweet dough with which I've had almost no experience. I found this recipe for "Jam-Filled Sour Cream Coffee Bread" on the King Arthur Flour website. I'm calling mine Cherry Cream-Cheese Coffee Bread, reflecting--I think--more accurately what this is. Coffee bread or coffee cake, call it whatever you want. Either way this is a divine item, really delish. My teenage sons absolutely scarfed it down.

This coffee bread is supposed to look kind of like a lovely braid. Mine, though, ended up resembling a sloppy braid that's coming undone. Not a pretty product, but utterly palatable nonetheless. Because I had trouble with the braid aspect when putting together the first loaf, I decided to abandon that path when dealing with the second loaf and nix the braid altogether. Instead, I completely enclosed the second loaf's filling, and didn't even cut slits or anything in the top. Took my chances. Some of the filling did leak out a bit from that rather over-stuffed second loaf when baking, but no real damage was done.

Were I to make this recipe again--and I wouldn't hesitate to do so--I think I might divide the dough into three smaller loaves. It was difficult to keep them intact while trying to move them onto the baking sheet. I suspect that step would be more manageable if each loaf was shorter. I assume you could use just about any jam flavor you like. The basic Smucker's cherry jam I used provided a fine balance of sweet and tart, but I'd also consider using raspberry or apricot preserves. I'm sure the braid design looks lovely when done well and I'd like to give that another go.

Caveat: If you plan to make this, do it on a day when you have plenty of time to devote to the process. It's not hard but it takes a while, and what with the long risings it requires some babysitting.

What did I change?

I altered the recipe by leaving out a couple of optional ingredients. One of them was "buttery sweet dough flavoring." That's an artificial flavoring that I've only ever seen for sale in cake decorating stores and which, of course, King Arthur also wants you to buy from them. Also, I left out Instant Clearjel, which they suggest adding to the jam, and which is made from waxy maize. (Waxy maize, as used by bakers, is sort of like cornstarch but more stable; they use it at school in my retail baking class for things like fruit pie fillings. I've never seen this stuff for sale in stores. It does have certain advantages over corn starch, and it's worth looking into, in case you're curious.) I've never purchased Clearjel, but I'm going to be on the lookout for it at the grocery store as I'd like to give it a whirl. I reworded the King Arthur directions here and there, as usual, adding in my two cents when needed.

Cherry Cream-Cheese Coffee Bread

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Dough ingredients:
3 cups unbleached All-Purpose flour or pastry flour (I used pastry flour)
3 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 and 1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sour cream
4 Tbsp. butter
1 large egg yolk, white reserved
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 Tbsp. instant yeast (not active dry)

Filling ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg white, reserved from dough (above), mixed with 1 Tbsp. cold water
*1 cup jam (flavor of your choice) mixed with 3 Tbsp. Instant Clearjel or flour (I didn't include either of these and all was fine)

Topping:
1/4 cup coarse/sanding sugar (for sparkle!)

Combine all of the dough ingredients in a mixer bowl and, on low speed, mix and knead until a soft, smooth dough forms. (I used a dough hook from the start for this, on the lowest speed, and it took about 5 minutes or so for the dough to get nice and smooth.) The dough will seem dry. Resist the urge to add any additional flour.


Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it with a dish towel or plastic wrap and set it somewhere kind of warm to rise. Leave it alone for 90 minutes. It will barely look like it's risen at all and that's okay.

(The top photo of the dough is how the dough looked before rising; the next photo is how it looked after the rising time was over. See? Almost no difference is evident.)

Divide the dough, on a slightly floured surface, into two pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll it or pat it into a 10" x 15" rectangle. Let it rest while you make the filling.


For the filling, gently beat together until smooth the cream cheese, butter, sugar, salt, and the flour or Instant Clearjel if you're using one of those. Add in the 1 whole egg and continue to beat gently until only a few lumps are visible.


Return to the dough rectangle and spread half of the jam in a 2 and 1/2" swath down the middle of it, lengthwise. Leave 1" of dough bare at each short end.


Spread half of the cream cheese mixture on top of the jam. Fold the bare 1" of dough over the filling at each end. If you want to make it look like a braid, use a pastry wheel or sharp knife to cut little flaps, each about 3/4" wide, along both sides in the bare dough. Stop each cut before you get too close to the jam and cream. Then, starting at one end and alternating sides, gently pull the strips up and over, criss-crossing to give the appearance of a braid. (To see exactly how this is supposed to be done, go to this link at King Arthur; the photos are very helpful!)

As carefully as you can, transfer the loaf to your baking sheet. It will be very floppy and soft.

Repeat the whole process with your other chunk of dough.

Cover both loaves and let both them rise again for 90 minutes. As before, they may look as if they haven't risen at all and that's okay. Towards the end of the rising time (allow at least 20 minutes, I'd say), preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine the egg white and water, and brush all over the tops of the loaves. Sprinkle the coarse sugar liberally over the loaves.

Bake the loaves until they're golden brown, perhaps 20 to 30 minutes. (Mine only took 22 minutes to bake. King Arthur suggests "32 to 36 minutes" but mine would have been completely burned if I'd left them in that long. I say check on them at 20 minutes and follow your instincts from there!)

Let the finished loaves cool on a rack. Slices of this bread are good served warm or cold. Best the first day.


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When Only a Snickerdoodle Will Do . . .

When you don't know what kind of cookie to make, but you just feel like making something and you know that you don't want that something to be complicated or too time consuming, this is the cookie to go for. The classic won't-let-you-down snickerdoodle is a predictable crowd pleaser. I made a batch of these last Friday while my 13-year son, Nathan, and a bunch of his friends were at our house celebrating the fact that they had a half-day of school. They were raucous and loud and funny. After a stint of skateboarding in the freezing cold, they piled into the house and commandeered our living room to watch a movie, throughout which they all chattered and chuckled in perfect adolescent style.

I knew these cookies would likely be a hit when one of the boys, a tall, cheerful fellow named Zack, popped into the kitchen and asked, "What kind of cookies are you making??" When I responded that they were slated to be snickerdoodles, his face lit up and he blurted, much to my delight, "I LOVE snickerdoodles!" Now, as you well know by now, that's just the kind of response I crave whenever I bake just about anything. So, in case you're reading this, Zack, (the odds of which are slim and none, I'm quite sure) I'd just like to thank you for your support. Oh, and feel free to come back anytime for more cookies.

That's a darn good cookie . . .

I found this recipe in a 1996 cookbook that I picked up at a used book sale this past autumn. The title is a mouthful in and of itself -- Rosie's Bakery Chocolate-Packed Jam Filled Butter-Rich No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book, by bakery owner Judy Rosenberg. The book looks as if it may be out of print, though why that might be true I can hardly imagine. It's "packed" alright, with delectable cookie formulas of every stripe. Each recipe appears with a brief but helpful preamble, and the instructions are so clear that you'd really have to give it the old college try to screw anything up. It's a good book, plain and simple. If you can scrounge up a used copy, go for it.

I like snickerdoodle recipes that include baking powder and cream of tartar, vs. those that just try to pawn off regular sugar cookies as snickerdoodles merely by dousing them with cinnamon sugar. They're not the same. They're just not. These are classics. I promise.

One aspect of the recipe that I changed involved the spices. I grated fresh nutmeg for the dough, and used less than the 1/2 tsp. nutmeg indicated (the fresh stuff is way stronger than the stuff in a jar, you know!). I also used at least twice as much cinnamon as called for in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, just because I adore pungent, high-quality cinnamon and I didn't want the nutmeg to be the dominant flavor (people seem to either love or hate nutmeg, have you noticed?).

I ignored Judy's direction to simply sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar on the unbaked cookies while they're on the cookie sheet. Instead, I scooped the dough with a portion scoop, and plopped each glob of dough right into a bowl of the cinnamon-sugar. That allows the coating to cover the entire cookie, and avoids the mess of wasted sugar baking all over your cookie sheet.


Classic Snickerdoodles

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

3 cups All-Purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (or slightly more if you're using already ground nutmeg)
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs

For the topping:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (or less, if you prefer)


Sift the flour, soda, salt, cream of tarter, and nutmeg together in a small bowl and set aside.

Mix the two topping ingredients together thoroughly in another small bowl and set that aside.

In the medium/large bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about one and a half minutes. Stop to scrape the bowl as needed.

Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing at medium speed for about 30 seconds in all. Scrape the bowl.

Add in the flour mixture on low speed and mix until blended, just about 20 to 25 seconds. Scrape the bowl and blend for 10 seconds more. Don't overmix this dough.

Scoop the dough in portions of about one tablespoon (I used a portion scoop to do this and I highly recommend you use one too!). Drop the dough into the cinnamon sugar to completely coat. Place the unbaked cookies on the parchment lined cookie sheets, about 2" apart.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, or until light golden with small cracks on top. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool. (If you'd like completely crispy snickerdoodles, bake them longer; for a more chewy and less crisp cookie allow a little less time in the oven. ) Store the cookies well covered. They'll be good for two or three days.


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