from Tracey G

I fell in love with King Arthur Flour’s Essential Goodness Sour Cream Coffeecake Mix when I made it for one of our mix testing Fridays. I then had run across this recipe for Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake on their website, and it sounded extremely similar – so I knew I had to make it to find out if it was a close approximation of that tasty mix.

After reading through the recipe, I decided I would have to “modify” the batter just a little bit. The recipe didn’t call for nutmeg, and that was a big flavor in the mix, so I added some, freshly grated, to my batter. The whole recipe was simple – and used ingredients that I always have in my pantry:

• Flour
• Granulated Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• Baking Powder
• Salt
• Cinnamon
• Cocoa Powder
• Butter
• Eggs
• Milk
• Sour Cream
• Vanilla

There’s a few steps, but they’re straightforward – you mix up the topping, the filling and then the cake. Once you get them prepared, it’s time to put them all together. Here’s a link to the walk-through on their blog: Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake Walk-Through.

To get started with the assembly, in your greased 9×13-inch baking pan, layer half the batter. Top that first layer with your filling mixture, then smooth on the rest of the batter. You take a butter knife at this point, and swirl the batter – not to mix it up, but as if you were making a marbled cake. Bake at 350° F, for about 55-60 minutes. After it’s baked you allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting and serving out of the pan. There’s also a recommendation that you can add a drizzle of icing on it to “dress it up” a bit, which is what I did for mine. All that involves is powdered sugar and milk to make it, I did add a teensy bit of vanilla to mine to just give it a little “extra” flavor!

All in all, I would say it’s definitely worth the effort – which isn’t much, just a few steps, but nothing complicated whatsoever! It’s received very good reviews around here, from all of us. As I said, it doesn’t call for nutmeg, that was my own addition to bring it close to their mix that I love, but regardless with or without it’s a wonderful coffeecake – to enjoy with coffee or not!!

 

from Kris B.

If you are like me, you are looking at the name of this bread, “Broonie,” and wondering what the heck that is!

A broonie is gingerbread made with oatmeal.  Commonly called a “Broonie Orkney,” this treat originated in the Orkney Islands, an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, UNited Kingdom where the staples for bread are corn, barley, and oats.

The above definition is from The Dellomano Blog.

I must admit that until preparing for this week’s blog post, I had not heard of Broonie. My original intent for this post was to try one of King Arthur Flour’s many waffle recipes.  We got a fancy waffle maker for Christmas and have been working our way through various recipes for both sweet and savory waffles.  As seems to be the way of things in my life these days, the time to make, and perhaps more importantly to eat, waffles just didn’t present itself.  I am a church musician and this week is the busiest time of the year.  As one who is “a planner,” I am not always great at changing direction at the last moment, but I am learning.  Since breakfast was the topic of the week, I searched the King Arthur Flour website for something that looked both do-able and tasty.

This Broonie recipe caught my attention because it uses oatmeal I am a serious oatmeal fan.  Also, the day that I was baking, Weber was struggling with a stomach bug of some kind and I figured ginger might be good.  Despite the fact that I was short on time, I welcomed the chance to try something new.  I’m glad I did.  This stuff is DELICIOUS!

Broonie is a quick bread so its leavening comes from baking soda – no yeast and rising necessary.  That was a definite positive for me!  The dry ingredients (oats, whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, salt, brown sugar, baking powder, and ground ginger) are first whisked together in a large bowl.  You then cut in 8 TBS of butter.  In a separate bowl, the wet ingredients (eggs, molasses, and buttermilk) are also whisked together and then poured into the dry ingredients.  Once combined, the batter is poured into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan and baked for 65-70 minutes.  Done!

Well, sort of…

The loaf cools completely in the pan before removing it.  The recipe suggests that once the loaf is completely cooled, turn it out of the pan, wrap it, and wait over night before slicing.  This is not a bread intended to be eaten hot out of the oven…another lesson in patience for me!  Because I didn’t want to risk the Broonie crumbling and thus making it difficult to get a decent photograph of it, I waited until the next day to slice it.  In case you are wondering, it sliced beautifully and tasted awesome with a dab ob butter on top.  A little marmalade might have made a nice addition, but I had none.

The Broonie has a chewy texture with a slightly sweet but not overwhelmingly so flavor.  In my opinion, it has more of a bread texture than the cake-y texture of the sweeter gingerbread with which most of us are familiar.  The King Arthur website also suggests that Broonie can be topped with yogurt and jam for breakfast or a scoop of ice cream for dessert.  I have not tried either yet, but I have a half a loaf of Broonie in the kitchen begging to be eaten.  A trip to the grocery store for ice cream may be in my future!  What kind of ice cream do you think would be best served atop a slightly ginger flavored bread?

I did make one slight alteration to the recipe.  It calls for the addition of 1/2 cup of crystalized ginger.  Though I do like the flavor of ginger, I am not a fan of “chewy” things, like raisins and other dried fruits, in my baked goods so I left out the crystallized ginger.  It is still sitting on the kitchen counter; maybe one day I’ll be brave a try it because I know that I will make this recipe again.  In fact, it may become a staple food in our house!

King Arthur Flour’s recipe for Broonie