Almond Streusel Cake

Feeling very much in the mood for something fresh-baked today, I poked around on my cookbook shelf until my eyes fell upon this forgotten gem.

A tattered old recipe card from—gracious, could it be?—the first year of my marriage!

An oldie (like me) but a goodie.

This coffee cake is dee-licious, friends. So moist! So yummy! Bake it up, you won't regret it. Better yet, have your hubby make it for you.

~ Almond Streusel Cake ~

Streusel

1 C. firmly packed brown sugar

1 C. sliced almonds (more or less)

¼ C. all-purpose flour

3 T. melted butter or margarine
(but I never use margarine)

1 tsp. grated orange zest

Cake

½ C. (1 stick) butter, softened.
(You could use margarine. Don’t.)

½ C. granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp. grated orange zest

½ tsp. vanilla
(I always use more.)

2 C. all-purpose flour
(or 1 C. white and 1 C. wheat)

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2/3 C. orange juice

Glaze

½ C. confectioner’s sugar

2 ½ tsp. orange juice

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9- or 10-inch tube pan. (Otherwise known as an angel-food cake pan.)

2. Mix your streusel together in a bowl until it’s crumbly.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and then add the orange zest & vanilla.

(Don’t skip the orange zest! Just…don’t. Get a zester if you have to—they’re cheap—and then chop up the strips into bite-sized bits.)

(Trust me. The chopping is both fun and therapeutic.)

4. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Alternately add the flour mix and the orange juice into your egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.

5. Spoon half of the batter into your prepared pan. Sprinkle with half the streusel. Top with the remaining batter and streusel.

6. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze.

7. Carefully turn the cake out onto a serving plate and drizzle with the cake.

8. Serve with coffee, tea or cold milk…or cut off a piece and eat it right there. You deserve some pampering, Mom!

Here is a printable version of the recipe: Almond Streusel Cake

Love from the North Star State!



Ed. Note: I am cross-posting this to my cooking blog, just to be anal. Also, in today's recipe I did substitute one cup of white whole wheat flour and I couldn't even tell. Better yet, nor could the children.

Maple Pecan Scones

(from The Pioneer Woman Cooks)

Scones

3 C. all purpose flour
1/3 C. sugar
5 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
½ lb. (2 sticks) butter, chilled
¼ C. pecans, plus more for sprinkling
1 large egg
¾ C. heavy cream

Maple Icing

1 lb. powdered sugar
¼ C. milk
4 T. butter, melted
Splash of strongly brewed coffee
Dash of salt
2 tsp. maple flavoring (You could substitute vanilla or almond extract if you want, but then you’d have to change the title of your recipe.)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

3. Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

4. Finely chop the pecans and stir into the flour mixture.

5. Mix the egg & cream together and stir into the flour mixture until just combined.

6. Turn the mixture onto a cutting board and push it together into a large ball. Don’t knead too much—only until it sticks together.

7. Gently roll the dough into a 10-inch circle and cut the round into eighths. PW recommends that in order to have perfect eighths, you could first cut an X and then cut a plus sign. I agree!

8. Transfer your wedges to a baking sheet that has been lightly sprayed and bake for 22 to 26 minutes, or until golden brown.

9. Allow the scones to cool completely.

10. Meanwhile, whip your glaze together and pour generously over each scone. Sprinkle with chopped pecans if you want but above all...

Enjoy!

Monkey Bread

Every year and on every birthday, my children request Monkey Bread.

They like it, I think, because they’re all part simian (on their father’s side ;) but also because it’s just darn good.

Is it healthy? Not at all. But as a once-every-blue-moon treat, though, this bread cannot be beat. Think of the food that you eat at the State Fair—elephant ears & cheese curds….a basket of chocolate chip cookies washed down with milk….

We’re talking a treat like those, you know.

So here we go.

The Ingredients

4 tubes of refrigerated biscuits (the 7 ½ oz. ones)
1 C. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 C. brown sugar
¾ C. butter (My recipe says “margarine” which made me wonder: does anyone really cook with margarine?)

The Directions

First you cut each biscuit into quarters.

Place them in a baggie (a few quarters at a time)with your cinnamon/sugar mix and shake shake shake.

The kids love to help with this part.


And you don’t have to be picky on the fractions. You can do thirds or fifths if you prefer.

Only do a few pieces at a time because otherwise you will end up with a great big clump of dough. You want your individual pieces to be well coated, like this:


Like my nails? They’re made in China.

Melt the brown sugar and butter in a pan but do not boil it! It will get all separated and gross. Pour it over your biscuits, which have been placed in a well-greased Bundt pan. (My recipe says you can also use an angel-food cake pan. I tried that once and the brown sugar leaked all over the oven. It’s your call; how brave are you?)

So anyway. Pour the brown sugar and butter over the biscuits, like so:


And bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

When you’re done it will look like this:

And this:


I told you. They like this stuff; they really like it.

PS. You will, too.

Bon appetit!

Triple Berry Muffins

This recipe makes 16 to 24 muffins, depending on how huge you like your muffin.

• 3 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 T. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 1-2 tsp. cinnamon (depending on how cinnamon-y you like things)
• 1 ¼ C. milk
• 2 extra-large eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 ½ sticks (3/4 C) butter, melted and cooled
• 1 C. fresh blueberries
• ½ C. fresh raspberries
• ½ C. diced fresh strawberries
• 1 ¼ C. sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line your muffin tins with little paper liners if you have them. If not, spray generously with non-stick cooking oil.

Sift your flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinnamon into a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the milk, eggs & melted butter. Do try to cool your butter before you add it, unless you like to cook your eggs before adding them to the batter.

Coat your berries with the sugar and set aside.

Make a nice big well in the middle of your dry stuff and pour in the wet stuff. You know what’s coming: stir gently until just combined. Do not overmix, lest the fluffy muffin police come knocking. Add your berries and gently, gently, gently fold into the batter. Murmur “slow and steady wins the race” to yourself as you are folding. You don’t want pink or blue or pinkish-blue muffins when you’re done. You want golden brown muffins with all their berries intact.

Spoon the batter into your muffin tin; the more you put in, the bigger the muffin. (naturally)

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and your kitchen smells delicious.

Recipe adapted from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa at Home

Blueberry Coffee Cake

In honor of Suzanne’s Blueberry Bash, here is a yummy recipe using one of the world’s most perfect fruits. I’m with Kristen; I can eat blueberries by the handful right out of the colander. Should I be disciplined enough to actually bake with them, then a coffee cake’s the way to go. I love the way the blueberries hang onto their shape and then burst open with flavor when you bite into them.

Don’t be put off by the olive oil in this recipe, by the way. It makes for a very moist and tender cake.

• 11/4 C. flour
• ½ tsp. soda
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ¾ C.sugar, divided
• ½ C. buttermilk
• ¼ C. light olive oil
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 T. grated orange zest
• 1 T. orange juice
• 1 ½ C. fresh blueberries, washed & drained
• 1 tsp. flour
• 2 T. sliced almonds
• 1 T. sugar

Grease side and bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with olive oil (use a mister if you’ve got one) and dust with sugar. Combine first 3 ingredients with ½ C. sugar in a large mixing bowl; set aside.

Whisk together buttermilk, olive oil and egg yolks. Add to dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Stir in orange zest and juice.

In another large mixing bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form (about 1 minute). Gradually add ¼ C. sugar. Beat at high speed until stiff (2-3 minutes). Using a few strokes, whisk one half of cake batter into egg mixture. Gently whisk in remaining cake batter until no white streaks remain. Pour into prepared pan.

Toss blueberries with 1 tsp. flour and sprinkle over batter. Sprinkle the almonds and 1 T. sugar on top of it all. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (55-60 minutes). Cool 10 minutes; remove side from pan. Cool 5 minutes; invert; remove bottom of pan. Invert again onto pretty serving plate and dig in.

Recipe adapted from The Byerly Bag magazine

Sour Cream Muffins

This recipe was given to me as part of a wedding gift (along with a muffin tin and scraper). The card is splattered, stained and faded, I have made these so often!

They are not the healthiest of muffins but they are delicious.

Play around with the recipe if you want to decrease the fat and calories, e.g. substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream and Splenda for the sugar.

This recipe makes 2 dozen muffins.

½ C. butter
1 ½ C. sugar
½ tsp. Salt
4 eggs
2 ¾ C. flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 ½ C. sour cream

Mix butter, sugar and salt until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add dry ingredients and beat until well-mixed; blend in sour cream.

Your batter will be very thick.

Spoon into prepared muffin tins and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Or, if you prefer, leave off the toppings and add chocolate chips to the batter.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Ed. note: Each muffin is worth 4 Weight Watchers points.

*Photo from SorrentoCheese.com

Grandma's Coffee Cake (Also known as Christmas Bread)

This recipe is large enough to make two loafs of bread and a pan of rolls! I will often just make half a batch.

4 C. milk
1 C. half and half
2 sticks of butter
1 1/4 C. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Heat 'til very hot and butter is just about melted. Cool to lukewarm and then add three packages of yeast that have been dissolved in 1/2 C. warm water and 1 tsp. sugar.

Stir in 1 tsp. vanilla and about 12 C. flour by hand. Knead until the dough isn't sticky any more. Put in a large greased bowl and let rise for an hour.

You can make a large pan of rolls with the dough as well as a couple of coffee cakes. The "coffee cakes" are really round loaves of bread that will look like the picture. I like to add chopped maraschino cherries to the cake--very Christmassy!

Sprinkle the top of your cakes with sugar & cinnamon and let them and your rolls rise for 1/2 hour to an hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Frost rolls with powdered sugar frosting.

Powdered Sugar Frosting

1 1/2 C. powdered sugar
A dash of salt
1/4 C. butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend together, adding milk by the teaspoonful until it's spreading consistency. Enjoy!

Double Chip Pumpkin Muffins

I found this recipe in a bed & breakfast cookbook that we stayed at in Duluth. I had the best time just sitting in that lovely room copying down recipes while my husband read Butchering Deer on the bed. It was such a Mars/Venus moment.

This recipe makes two dozen.

3 C. flour
2 C. sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

4 eggs
1 can pumpkin puree
6 T. butter, melted
1/2 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 C. white chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tins.
2. Combine dry ingredients. Set aside.
3. Beat eggs slightly. Stir in pumpkin puree, butter & chips. Blend well.
4. Stir in dry ingredients just until moistened.
5. Bake 20-25 minutes.