Danish chocolate-streusel-swirled coffee cake

Computers can be and are used in many different ways and for both good and bad. It has become a constant part of most people’s lives and sometimes it is extremely necessary.

I was once talking to Fatima (my maid) about that and she told me that her two daughters - one is 15 and the other, 13 – had been asking for a computer. I told her that a computer would be very good for the girls – they could use it for school papers, research... And then she told me that the only thing her daughters wanted to research about was Chris Brown. :)

Like many of you, I use the computer for both work and fun. It has been a great tool for knowing people from all around the world – people who love cooking, baking and sharing recipes with others.

The sweet and talented Dita is one friend I made through Flickr. She has some amazing photos and delicious recipes there and on her blog as well. She recently made the glazed apple lattice coffee cake I posted days ago. And it looked so gorgeous! To make things even more fun, she even prepared a video!

Because Dita made such a beautiful coffee cake, I felt like making another one. I got the recipe here and loved it so much I immediately bought the book. It makes 2 huge loaves, so get people to share them with or halve the recipe.

Danish chocolate-streusel-swirled coffee cake
from Coffee Cakes: Simple, Sweet, and Savory

Coffee cake:
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast
¼ cup (60ml) warm water, 105 to 115ºF (41 to 46ºC)
pinch of sugar + 6 tablespoons
12 tablespoons (168g) unsalted butter at room temperature
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or ½ teaspoon ground cardamom – I used cardamom
3 large eggs
4 ½ to 5 cups (630 to 700g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup (240ml) warm milk, 105 to 115ºF (41 to 46ºC)

Chocolate streusel:
2/3 cup (134g) sugar
¼ cup (35g) unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons (42g) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 egg white, beaten until foamy
3 tablespoons sliced almonds – I used chopped hazelnuts

Make the dough: in a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Add the pinch of sugar, stir to dissolve, and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat the 6 tablespoons sugar, the butter, salt, and vanilla or cardamom together with a wooden spoon or a heavy-duty electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well. Add 1 cup of the flour and beat until smooth. Add the milk, then gradually add 2 cups of the flour, 1 cup at a time, beating well. Stir in the yeast mixture. Gradually add enough of the 1 ½ to 2 cups remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn out on a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. Place in a buttered bowl, turn to coat, and cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours.

Now, the chocolate streusel: in a medium bowl or a food processor, mix the sugar, flour, butter, cocoa, and cinnamon together. Cut the butter in with your fingers or process until crumbly.

Assemble the coffee cake: punch down the dough and turn it out on a lightly floured board and knead lightly until smooth, 1 or 2 minutes. Cut the dough in half. Roll one half into a 10-by-14-inch (25x35cm) rectangle. Spread evenly with half of the Chocolate Streusel. Roll up and place, seam side down, on a buttered baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling, placing the loaf on a separate buttered baking sheet.

With clean scissors, snip each loaf at ¾-inch intervals, cutting three-fourths of the way through the dough:

Starting at one end, pull and twist each cut slice on its side to lie flat on alternate sides – as you can see, I wasn’t very successful here:

Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Brush the loaves with the egg white and sprinkle with the nuts. Place in the oven, reduce the heat to 325ºF (160ºC), and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Transfer the loaves to wire racks to cool completely. Cut into ¾-inch-thick slices to serve. Or, wrap and freeze for up to 2 months.

Makes 2 very large loaves

Bacon and oregano homemade pasta and two silly people having fun in the kitchen together

I have read that food can bring people together. I think it’s true – many celebrations involve family and/or friends around a table. And one doesn’t need an established occasion at all – having friends over for dinner for no apparent reason is equally wonderful.

Joao and I make our Sunday lunches a special part of our life. Work and traffic jams already keep us apart on weekdays and there’s barely any time for cooking. That’s why I love cooking and baking on weekends – my way of having fun. I’m lucky the hubby shares that with me.

Weekdays are all about what I have to do, so weekends are all about what I want to do. I want to have fun. And is it fun making pasta while Joao takes pictures? You bet!

We laughed like two kids – there was flour all over my kitchen when we finished our “pasta making session”. And after that, we had delicious, fresh pasta for lunch. A pretty good Sunday, if you’ll ask me.

This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by the lovely Kalyn, the blogger who created the event.

Bacon and fresh oregano homemade pasta
from Donna Hay magazine

400g (14oz) fettuccine, linguini or any long pasta you prefer
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup fresh oregano leaves
2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed and drained
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
60g (2oz) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup olive oil, extra – I used a little less
crispy bacon, to serve
grated parmesan, to serve

Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, return to the saucepan and keep warm.
Meanwhile, heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat, add the oil and oregano and cook for 30 seconds or until crispy. Drain on absorbent paper. Add the capers and garlic and cook for 1 minute or until crispy. Add to the pasta with the butter and extra oil and toss to combine. Divide between plates and top with the oregano, bacon and parmesan.

Serves 4.

Apple filled cookies

My dear friend Mark, a.k.a. “King of Desserts”, posted an embarrassing story on his blog the other day – he even got some bruises from it. Poor, poor Mark. It reminded me of one of the many embarrassing days I had when I was 16.

I was taking a Teaching Course and, being on the 3rd year, our class was responsible for decorating the school for Christmas. The 30-something students were divided into smaller groups and each one would have a part of the school prepped; my group got the teachers’ room – oh, yeah, sheer luck.

One of our plans was to make centerpieces using candles and pine cones and off we went to buy the material: 3kg (6 ½ pounds) of red and white thick-as-hell candles. Boy, those were heavy. But not heavy enough to stop two teenage girls with serious plans of going out that evening from going to the mall in search of the perfect outfit.

All was well until the bag with the candles broke while I was standing at the top of the escalator; I’ll never forget those people’s “WTF??” faces, having to move away from the candles, then from me trying to catch the candles – without much success, I might add.

I was so mortified I stayed away from that mall for over a year. I wish I had these cookies to comfort me back then.

Recipe from my lovely Brazilian friend Clarice – the cookies were a lot flakier the day they were made; I took the photos 2 days later. I also used a very small cutter, so there’s not much filling in each cookie – next time I make these, I’ll use a 5cm round cutter.

Apple filled cookies

Filling:
1 small apple, finely diced
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon lemon juice
ground cinnamon, to taste – believe it or not, I forgot to add it

Dough:
80g cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
150g all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 large egg yolk
iced water
1 egg white, for brushing

For sprinkling:
caster sugar and ground cinnamon

Start by making the filling: mix all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap and take to the microwave oven (500W) for 3 minutes. Remove from over, stir and set aside to cool.

Now, the dough: sift flour and salt and place in a food processor, along with the butter – I used my Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment for it. Pulse a few times until mixture resembles fine meal. Add the egg yolk and a little water. Pulse again and add water until dough comes together. Transfer dough to a large piece of plastic wrap and press it to form a 1cm-thick disc. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF; line a large baking sheet with baking paper.

In a lightly floured surface, roll dough until 3mm-thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place a bit of filling in the middle of dough, brush edges with egg white and top with another dough shape, closing the edges so the filling won’t leek. Transfer cookies to prepared pan.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden on the edges – mine took a little longer to bake, 35 minutes.
Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll each cookie in cinnamon sugar.

Makes 38 with a 3cm cookie cutter in the shape of a drop

Jam slice

My good friend C. gave me a very special gift last week – “The English Patient” DVD. It’s one of my all time favorite movies and Ralph Fiennes would be my #1 name if I had a laminated list like Ross’. :)

Back in 1996, I read the book before watching the movie and loved it too. Book, movie and actor – 3 fantastic things combined. Like the flavors in these bars.
The book would be the cookie base and the movie, the jam layer; getting face to face with Ralph Fiennes would be an amazing topping. Too bad that won’t happen – I’ll have to go with coconut instead. :)

I have made this recipe twice already – once in an 18x28cm pan, which resulted in bars with thinner layers (especially the cookie base). And the ones you see on the photos were made in a 20cm square pan - I just baked it for a tad longer to make sure it was cooked through.

Jam slice
from Modern Classics Book 2

Base:
125g (4oz) butter, softened
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
1 cup (135g) all purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg yolk
¾ cup raspberry jelly – I used strawberry

Topping:
½ cup (113g) caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup (90g) desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF; line a 20x30cm (8x12in) slice pan* with non-stick baking paper.

Process the butter, sugar, flour and baking powder in a food processor until combined - I used my Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.
Add the egg yolk and continue to process until the mixture forms a soft dough. Press into the prepared pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the base is golden brown. Allow to cool then spread with the jam.
To make the topping, combine the sugar, egg and coconut. Sprinkle over the jam. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden. Cool in the pan. Cut into slices.

* I used regular pans, both times – no removable bottom. I just left a bit of paper hanging out of the pan to work as “handles” – this way, it was easier to remove the cookie from the pan and slice it into bars.

Makes 24 slices – I got 16 larger slices from the 18x28cm pan and 9 large slices from the 20cm square pan.

Crash-hot potatoes

I was devastated when I learned that Tastespotting had been closed. Luckily for me and for all the foodies, there new options for our daily dosis of food porn: Food Gawker and RecipeMuncher. Go check them out!

Deb, from the super yummy Taste and Tell, has mentioned a couple of times that she has trouble choosing side dishes. Deb, my dear, these are for you! Not only they are extremely simple to make but they’re also delicious! And one can play around using their favorite herb – I followed one of Jill Dupleix’s suggestions and went for thyme.

This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Joanna, from Joanna’s Food.

Crash-hot potatoes
from Totally Simple Food

16 small, round potatoes
salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon thyme or rosemary sprigs – I used a bit more

Heat oven to 230 or 250ºC/445 or 480ºF - yes, hot. Don't peel the potatoes. Just bung them into a pot of salted water, bring to the boil, and simmer for around 15 minutes until they'll take a skewer without too much resistance. They should be just about cooked, without being soft.

Drain, and arrange on a lightly oiled baking tray or sheet. Use a potato masher to squash each potato flat, until it is twice its original diameter.

Brush the tops with olive oil, and scatter with sea salt, pepper and thyme.

Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until terminally crisp and golden. Serve hot.

Serves 4