Moravian Fruit Coffeecake

It was down to the wire for me this week in deciding on a recipe to make! Usually this would be decided for us, via KAF’s Bakealong, but as nothing new has come out this month, we are figuring they must be done with it. That left me a last-minute-scramble as I hadn’t had anything decided upon, nor even thought of…

So, we decided to grab our Sift magazines and see what we could come up with. I ended up having to go back to the Spring issue, and found this fantastic recipe for the Moravian Fruit Coffeecake. It read as being easy enough, but that’s never stopped me from complicating a recipe, lol. And it delivered in the easy-to-make category! It’s something I can say I’ll make again a lot!

But, as I was getting prepped to list out things etc, I noticed that the website version differs slightly from the print-version in the Sift Magazine. I followed the magazine version, and thought I was being so clever adding in some of my Easy-Roll Dough Improver, well, it’s listed in the ingredients in the web-version – but not the print. There’s also a difference in shaping method, the print-version states to pat the dough into a 10-inch square with a lip on the edges, and the web-version states to roll/pat the dough into a 12×8-inch rectangle (with the lip etc). I went with the 12×8 rectangle in this instance.

Here are the ingredients, first is the web-version, then the Sift Magazine version…

Web Version Ingredients List:

DOUGH

• instant yeast
• King Arthur Unbleached Pastry Flour
• King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• salt
• potato flour
• King Arthur Easy-Roll Dough Improver or Baker’s Special Dry Milk
• water
• unsalted butter
• sugar

FILLING

• fresh berries, or coarsely chopped peaches, nectarines, apples, or pears
• Pie Filling Enhancer

TOPPING

• brown sugar
• pumpkin pie spice, or ground cinnamon plus ground nutmeg and ground ginger
• unsalted butter
• heavy cream
• Instant ClearJel

SIFT Magazine Ingredients List

DOUGH

• unbleached, All-Purpose Flour
• salt
• potato flour
• dried milk powder (I used the Baker’s Special Dry Milk )
• instant or dry active yeast
• water
• unsalted butter
• granulated sugar

FILLING

• fresh berries, or coarsely chopped peaches, nectarines, apples, or pears
• Instant ClearJel
• granulated sugar

TOPPING

• brown sugar
•  ground cinnamon
• ground ginger
• ground nutmeg
• Instant ClearJel
• unsalted butter
• heavy cream

As you can see there are a few differences, and again I went solely with the magazine version, (which also means I did NOT use pastry flour) in every way except the shaping form and size. And really, it is super easy, wow, I was impressed with the ease of making such a yummy treat! I don’t see why the  web-version wouldn’t be just as easy as well.

To make the coffeecake, you make the dough first, and it gets an hour or so to rise. Then, you pat it into your shape and create the lip on the edge, top with your berries. On top of the berries you evenly sprinkle the Instant ClearJel and sugar mixture. It now gets another rising. After the second rising, you then top with the brown sugar, Instant ClearJel, and spices combination. The next two things are a drizzle of melted butter, then the heavy cream gets drizzled over that – now it’s oven ready!

After baking, mine didn’t look as pretty as theirs, I did quarter my berries instead of leaving them whole, and for some reason my brown sugar didn’t “melt down” as much as it looks like theirs did, so it makes mine look burnt. But it’s really not – it’s just the brown sugar in the topping! But no matter how it looks, it sure tastes fantastic! Simple flavors that are perfect together. I am encouraged now to try other fruits, I’d love to do peaches and then a peaches & raspberry combination as well.

I have a feeling this could become a weekend staple as it’s just that easy-peasy to make! It’s a good thing it looked better photographed as served piece because before it was even photographed, I’d say at least half of it was gone!!!

Do give it a try, it may not always look pretty, but it sure is yummy!!!

from Kris B.

Three-Cheese Semolina Bread

We’ve all heard the saying, “Life is what happens while you are busy making plans.”  As Tracey said, that is exactly what happened to us with this week’s recipe choices.  Over the past eighteen months or so we have enjoyed adding the monthly King Arthur Flour Bakealong recipes to our monthly offerings.  The Bakealong weeks have been the only time that Tracey and I make the same recipe and share our different perspectives on that process.  These recipes also often challenged us to try making things outside of our comfort zone.  We kept hoping that a new recipe for September would appear, but that never happened.  So despite having planned recipes for five months in advance, we both found ourselves scrambling this week at the last minute.

We decided to try something out of the Fall 2018 Sift magazine.  As I thumbed through its pages, lots of things looked tempting, but I couldn’t make a decision.  Finally, about ten days ago, I sent Tracey a message saying that I was going to make Ginger Molasses Amber Ale Cookies (p. 84).  They sound good, don’t they?  When I finally sat down and read all of the recipe’s words, I discovered that it calls for golden raisins.  All of the sudden, it didn’t sound so good.  I like golden raisins, but something about them in this particular recipe didn’t sit well with me.  Since we try to make the recipes we share here as closely to their original form as we can, I figured I needed to move to plan B.

Plan B was Pecan Pie (p. 40).  Plan B came and went in a flash.  I thought about the calories/Weight Watchers points in a piece of pecan pie and realized this was not my best choice.  I am within ten pounds of my goal and I knew that eating pecan pie would slow down my race to the finish line so I decided against that option as well.  I have not completely abandoned this recipe, though.  I may try it at Thanksgiving when there are more people around to help eat it.  🙂

We were coming down to the wire.  I needed to make a commitment to something.  Because I had semolina flour leftover from the Breakfast Sandwich Pizza that I made and shared here a few weeks ago and because I like bread and cheese and because I was making meatloaf for dinner and because my husband likes leftover meatloaf sandwiches and this sounded like the perfect bread for that, I finally committed to making the Three-Cheese Semolina Bread (p. 73).  A slice of bread, even cheese bread,  has to have fewer calories than a piece of pecan pie!

Also in its favor, this is a super easy bread recipe.  Mix all of the ingredients.  Let it rise two hours.  Shape the bread.  Let it rise another hour.  Bake for 30-40 minutes.  Enjoy!

Ingredients as listed on the King Arthur Flour website:

• Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• semolina flour
• instant yeast
•  salt
• Pizza Dough Flavor, optional
• garlic oil or olive oil
• lukewarm water
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Provolone cheese, smoked or plain, mild or sharp
• coarsely crumbled Asiago cheese, mild or sharp

As was the case with Tracey’s recipe, there are slight variations between the website version and the printed version of this recipe.  The magazine version does not even suggest the optional Pizza Dough Flavor.  My first thought when I tasted the bread, made following the Sift magazine recipe, is that it needs some black pepper, something to give it a little kick.  The addition of the King Arthur Pizza Dough flavor may give it that little extra something.  I’m going to make that addition next time.

The other difference is in the shaping and baking instructions.  The magazine directs you to make one 14″ loaf or two smaller rounds and bake them on a baking sheet.   I made two small rounds.  The website version suggests baking the bread in a 14″ to 15″ stoneware baker.  I think this is a better option.  My loaves came out flatter than I like so I’m thinking that one bigger life would be better.

All that said, this bread, with its three cheeses, is really good.  Eaten warm, it needs no topping.  The pockets of cheese are enough.  It also was a perfect complement to our meatloaf! 🙂

Happy baking!