Maple Pecan Spiral Bread

Blog4 070My love affair with maple just got wilder and more obsessive. Torrid, even! It knows no bounds, respects no limits, takes no prisoners. There…every cliché I could come up with at the moment. (Sorry, Mr. Bass. You tried to teach me better.) I truly have no self-control when it comes to maple.

Here is a tempting loaf of white bread with sweet swirls of maple and toasted pecans. Toasting the pecans is what really takes the flavor over the top, and is such an easy thing to do. You can use your oven, but I just put them in a skillet on the stove at medium low for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the fragrance drives me crazy. They’re done at that point, but you might need to test them to be absolutely sure. Actually, you might need to test them a few times!

toasting the pecans in a ceramic skillet.

toasting the pecans in a ceramic skillet.

Although this bread is delightful just as it is, I recommend trying it toasted. Yum! It also makes scrumptious French Toast. Making a spiral bread is easy, and very attractive, but I wanted to try a layered bread because I envisioned stripes of maple pecan instead of a spiral. I don’t know why…sometimes I just have to do what the little voices in my head tell me to do.

Maple Pecan Bread - the layered version.

Maple Pecan Bread – the layered version.

Here’s the recipe in all its glory. I would like to mention that the filling calls for one tablespoon of Mapleine (a maple flavoring.) If you have plebian controllable maple cravings, this is the perfect amount to give your bread a pleasant maple flavor. Frankly, that’s like adding a precise jigger of vodka to a Bloody Mary. Adequate, but a little more is always better! I usually add a bit more (to both mixtures!)

Maple Pecan Spiral Bread
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Makes two loaves. Hide one. Trust me! Hide one.
Ingredients
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1¾ cups hot water
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1½ teaspoons salt
  • ¼ cup butter, softened (you may use oil if you prefer)
  • 5½ - 6 cups all purpose white flour
  • MAPLE FILLING:
  • 1½ cup toasted pecans, finely chopped (please don't skip the toasting step!)
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 tablespoon Mapleine
Instructions
  1. Test the yeast by adding it to ¼ cup warm (not hot) water and a pinch of sugar in a small bowl. (Note: this water and sugar is in addition to the amounts listed above.) Stir lightly and set aside for 10 minutes. If it doesn't bubble and rise up, try again with another package of yeast.
  2. In a large bowl (a stand mixer is best) combine the hot water, sugar, salt, and butter. Stir well.
  3. Add 3 cups of the flour and stir.
  4. When your yeast mixture is bubbly, pour it into the flour mixture and mix well.
  5. Gradually beat in the remaining flour until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl.
  6. Knead until smooth (about 8 minutes by hand, 5 minutes if using a dough hook.)
  7. Place dough in a large oiled bowl. Cover and set aside in a warm spot to rise just until doubled - about 1 hour.
  8. While the dough is rising, Make the maple filling by combining the toasted pecans, brown sugar, white sugar, flour, and Mapleine in a small bowl. (To make sure it's well mixed, use your hands!) Set aside.
  9. Grease or spray (I like Baker's Joy) two bread pans.
  10. Punch down the dough and let it stand for 5 minutes. Divide into 2 equal parts and, working with one at a time, roll out to a rectangle, approximately 12"x7", with a short edge towards you.
  11. Lightly brush (or spray) the dough with water. (This will help keep it from developing air pockets.)
  12. Cover generously with maple mixture and pat down firmly. Beginning with the short end, roll away from yourself. Don't worry if a little filling comes out the sides. Turn the seam to the bottom and pinch both sides to close. Set the dough seam down in prepared bread pan. Repeat with the other piece of dough. If you have leftover filling, put it in an airtight container - it's wonderful on hot cereal or as a streusel topping for muffins.
  13. Cover loaves with a dishtowel and let them rise until almost doubled - approximately 1 hour.
  14. Heat oven to 375F.
  15. Bake loaves for 40-45 minutes, until they're a rich golden brown. Let cool slightly, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling. I like to butter the crust a little while the loaf is still warm.

 

Adding the yeast.

Adding the yeast.

Dough is kneaded.

Dough is kneaded.

Rolling up the dough.

Rolling up the dough.

and...in the pan to rise!

and…in the pan to rise!

Dig in!

Dig in!

To make layered bread, follow the recipe until step #10. After you divide your dough into two parts, roll each part into a 8″x16″ rectangle. Cut four pieces, each 8″x4″. Put one piece into the prepared pan, Lightly brush (or spray) with water, cover it with a layer of maple filling, and repeat, twice, with the fourth piece of dough on the top. Tuck the sides down gently, and allow to rise as usual. After baking, turn them out right away onto a rack. If you let them cool in the pans, the gooey sides will stick. Be gentle, and let them rest on their sides to cool completely.

Cutting strips of dough for a layered effect.

Cutting strips of dough for a layered effect.

Dough, filling, dough, filling...etc.

Dough, filling, dough, filling…etc.

I’ll admit it’s not the most attractive bread I’ve ever seen (maybe we can just call it “rustic”, ok?) but the slices themselves are very pretty!

Funny looking from the side!

Funny looking from the side!

Now I’m imagining the maple filling in cinnamon rolls, with a maple frosting. Oh oh…I barely get the kitchen clean from one baking spree and another is already building. Stand back – I’m going in there!

Fly on the Wall – April

Fly on the Wall

Are you interested in seeing what other people do at home when they think no one is watching? Every month a group of bloggers give you a glimpse on “Fly on the Wall”. Here’s mine – hope you’ll read through to the bottom, where you’ll get the links for the other 11 blogs! fly1gifcropped

Cookies, cookies, cookies. Every surface was covered with cookies in different stages, because I somehow decided that hitting 1,000 “likes” on my Rowdy Baker Facebook page meant I should make 1,000 cookies. I thought I’d have plenty of time, but a sweet blogger pimped me out a bit and the last 50 “likes” happened very quickly.

Do I need to tell you I didn’t make 1,000 cookies? Not even close. I think I hit 250, which was still pretty impressive, since they were large rolled cookies (what was I thinking?) and I added icing and put names on some of them before I pooped out. If you don’t see your name it’s because it’s off to the side and I cropped the photo. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Keep your fuzzy little fly butt off my cookies!!!

Keep your fuzzy little fly butt off my cookies!!!

I was doing the happy dance when I hit 1,000 but The Man was less impressed. I believe he just grunted “yeah?” (such a charmer) so I didn’t share my bottle of champagne with him. I was a little sorry about that the next morning. I will say he perked up a bit and showed some enthusiasm when he realized the photos were done and the cookies were fair game.
fly1gifcropped
Baking in a Tornado posted a comment on her Facebook page about ironing, which immediately took me back to my childhood. I spent a lot of time ironing since Mom worked and it seemed like everything in our house was pressed. When I was younger and less skilled I ironed handkerchiefs, dishtowels, sheets, and pillowcases. As I grew older I was trusted with actual clothing, including nightgowns. Yes, nightgowns. I can tell you right now that you should NOT use a hot iron on a sheer gown. Nope.

What my mother taught me – and I think of this every time I iron anything – was to go slowly and spend more time smoothing than ironing. It takes less time to do it right than to go back and try to remove a crease in the wrong spot.

Heads up! This is more than a tip about ironing; it’s very wise, and applies to so many circumstances. I need to remember to smooth things over so I don’t say the wrong thing. I need to learn to think before I speak because it’s a lot harder (or impossible) to backpedal and take back wrong or hurtful words. Sometimes you just can’t iron out those creases.

Smooth, smooth, smooth!
fly1gifcropped
I have messes everywhere. Little bits of paper cover the dining room table and floor as I wrap the stems of almost 100 paper flowers for my Homemaker’s Club spring tea. A small group of  us made the flowers, but ran out of oompf before the stems were wrapped, and we wanted some daisies too, so…I volunteered. I don’t mind – it’s actually kind of fun, but with my short attention span I just do a few and then get bored and walk away. That’s okay; we like eating in our recliners. I should just give up and call it a craft table.

Making messes...it's what I do.

Making messes…it’s what I do.

fly1gifcroppedLeftover oatmeal usually goes to the chickens. Somehow I always make way too much! (They love it, and I love to indulge them a bit.) But today I looked at that oatmeal and then looked at the bag of dark chocolate-covered raisins, and experimented. Though my method of adding and mixing defied the rules, and the dough seemed heavy and sticky, it made really nice, puffy, cake-like cookies with slightly chewy bottoms and plump chocolate raisins peeking out.

I should have added the whole bag, but a lot some of them spilled out…into my mouth.

Leftover Oatmeal Cookies with chocolate covered raisins!

Leftover Oatmeal Cookies with chocolate covered raisins!

Cooked Oatmeal Cookies (with chocolate raisins)
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I made these cookies with leftover oatmeal, which had raisins and cinnamon in it. Add a little cinnamon if you like.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups cooked oatmeal ("Quick" or "Old-Fashioned". Just follow the cooking instructions)
  • ½ cup coconut oil, softened but not melted
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chocolate covered raisins (or more!)
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 350 F.
  2. Lightly grease cookie sheet.
  3. In a large bowl combine the cooked oatmeal, coconut oil, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix well with an electric mixer - about 2 minutes.
  4. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and add to cookie mixture. Mix well.
  5. Stir in the chocolate covered raisins.
  6. Scoop onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving an inch between cookies; they won't spread much.
  7. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden brown. Cool on a rack.
Mix everything but the dry ingredients together.

Mix everything but the dry ingredients together.

Add the chocolate covered raisins. Oh, go ahead...dump in the whole bag!

Add the chocolate covered raisins. Oh, go ahead…dump in the whole bag!

fly1gifcroppedOur young rooster has finally found a home. I take him to town tomorrow to rendezvous with his new owner. She has a brand new chicken coop and has even rounded up a few hot babes for my randy roo. He should be in heaven. He’s been bullied by our old rooster for months, and now will be cock of the walk. Here he is, running from Big Red!

Run, Rooster, run!!!

Run, Rooster, run!!!

fly1gifcroppedWhile you’ve been rubbing your legs together on my wall, I’ve been out working with The Man to get our greenhouse ready. New dirt, compost, and straw to (hopefully) keep the weeds at bay…it’s a thing of beauty. And we didn’t kill each other. This is a big plus, because we DO NOT WORK WELL TOGETHER. We have a lower garden and an upper garden, and I try to always be in the one where he isn’t. Today I wasn’t raking out the dirt “correctly” so I gave up and screened compost instead. He wasn’t pulling off the flakes of straw neatly and butting them up against each other…grrr…so he gave up and went to cut cardboard. See? We’ve got it all worked out. Separate corners.

Yep...you just stay there, and no one will get hurt!

Yep…you just stay there, and no one will get hurt!

fly1gifcroppedProud Mama alert! My daughter Brenna just started her own blog, and I expect nothing but amazing posts in the future. She’s a wonderful writer, cook, mother, and photographer, and has a wicked humor to boot. I’m setting your bar high, Honey! Go give her some love, my friends. Click on the picture of my (ahem) beautiful grandbabies to see her introduction. Nut Without a Shell

Here is a list of links to eleven wonderful bloggers who played along this month. Please buzz over to their house and visit!

Baking In a Tornado
Stacy Sews and Schools
Just a Little Nutty
Menopausal Mother
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
The Momisodes
Follow Me Home
Moore Organized Mayhem
Hypnotic Bard
Tiny Steps Mommy
Outsmarted Mommy

Boston Cream Pies

Blog4 040I adore a good Boston Cream Pie. I make a lot of cakes that are lavishly iced, but the cake itself is actually my favorite part. A Boston Cream Pie is really a cake (I know – go figure!) with layers of custard filling, and chocolate ganache only on the top of the cake. Now that’s the perfect cake!

For fun I made individual sized cakes which, for once, turned out just as I imagined them. Whew! The gals in my book club were my guinea pigs, and seemed to really like them, so these are crowd-tested for you. I did one thing that probably wasn’t necessary, and added a chocolate-hazelnut crust on the bottom. It tasted good, but added a little bit of crumb/mess factor that I could have done without. A layer of chocolate cake in the middle would have been lovely though. Maybe next time!

I liked the tall, stately look with three layers, but you could also spread the batter in a larger pan, cut the circles out and then cut them in half for a shorter version with two layers of cake and just one layer of custard. They’d be easier to cut, serve, and eat, but not quite as impressive. And you know that food bloggers don’t bake just to produce delicious goodies…we’re always trying to WOW people! Either way, you will find them tasty and beautiful. And did I mention tempting?

The yellow cake recipe is something you’ll use often, so I wanted to keep it simple. If you choose to add the chocolate crust, here’s how you do it:

CHOCOLATE CRUST
2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs. (I love “Famous Chocolate Wafers” by Nabisco)
1/2 cup hazelnuts, ground
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Combine well and press firmly on the parchment in the bottom of the pan before pouring in the cake batter. When the cake is baked, it’s easiest to cut your shapes directly from the pan instead of turning the cake out onto a rack.
Hint: a food processor makes it simple to grind up the cookies and the hazelnuts!

Pouring cake batter over the chocolate crust.

Pouring cake batter over the chocolate crust.

 

THE CAKE

I used a 12″x2″ round cake pan, which was just barely big enough. A 13″x9″x2 rectangular pan would hold the same amount of batter. You could also use two 9″x2″ round pans.

Luscious Yellow Cake
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Ingredients
  • ¾ cup butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 4 eggs, room temperature
  • 3 cups cake flour
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1¼ cup milk
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 350 F.
  2. Grease the bottom of a 12"x2" round pan, or two 9"x2" round pans, or one 13"x9"x2" rectangular pan. Line with parchment and spray the parchment with a flour based cooking spray (like Baker's Joy).
  3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy.
  4. Add the vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each egg.
  5. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Sift it once more.
  6. Add the flour mixture and milk alternately to the butter mixture, beginning with the flour and ending with the milk. Beat well after each addition, being careful to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  7. Beat for two minutes.
  8. Pour into pan(s) and bake until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake. If you are using a 12" round pan, it may take 45-50 minutes. If you are using two 9"x2" round pans, check after 30 minutes.
  9. Cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes and then turn the pans over to remove the cakes. Allow them to cool before decorating.

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While the cake is baking, make your custard filling. This way it will have a chance to chill before you use it.

VANILLA CUSTARD FILLING
2 1/4 cups milk
1 vanilla bean, split and cut into 1 inch sections
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, room temperature)
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

In a large saucepan on medium heat, bring the milk and vanilla bean almost to a boil. It should be bubbling slightly. Reduce the heat to low for 10 minutes. The milk should be hot so the vanilla will flavor it, but not boiling.
In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt.
Using a large mixing bowl, mix the eggs until they get foamy looking and turn a lighter color.
On low speed, mix in the sugar mixture.
With a slotted spoon, remove the pieces of vanilla bean from the milk and discard.
Pour approximately one-fourth of the hot milk into the egg mixture and beat on low briefly, until combined. Immediately pour it back into the pan with the rest of the milk and start stirring!
Turn the heat up to medium and stir constantly (or use a whisk) until thick and is bubbling.
Remove from heat and add the butter and vanilla.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and stir occasionally for 10-15 minutes. Cover the surface with waxed paper and put it in the refrigerator to chill.

Whip those eggs!

Whip those eggs!

Vanilla filling...thick and bubbly.

Vanilla filling…thick and bubbly.

While your cake cools and your filling chills, make the chocolate ganache for the topping.

I usually make my ganache by the traditional method of chopping the chocolate and adding the hot cream to it little by little. This time I tried melting the chocolate first, and it turned out just as good and saved me from having to clean a knife and cutting board. Hey – every little bit helps when you hate to do dishes!

EASY CHOCOLATE GANACHE
5 ounces dark chocolate (don’t use chips…quality counts!)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Melt the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave, using 15 second intervals and stirring each time.
In a small pan on medium heat, heat the cream just until it starts to boil.
Pour half of the cream into the chocolate and stir gently. A whisk or a rubber spatula work well.
Pour the other half of the hot cream into the bowl and stir gently until it is smooth and well combined. Set aside.

ASSEMBLY
Because I used the chocolate crust, I left the cake in the pan while I cut the circles using a tube fashioned out of plastic from my (out of control) craft room. You could also use a sturdy cardboard tube cut from a roll of gift wrap. You may have to get inventive. I know you can do it! Anything tubular that is open at the top so you can push the cake back out if necessary. I had to give a few stubborn cakes a nudge with the end of a wooden spoon.

Cut out all of the little cakes you can (I got about 20) and save the scraps. I’ll show you why later.

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Cutting the cake towers out with a plastic tube.

Thinly slice the brown top off of each cake and put it in your scrap pile. Cut the remaining cake into thirds. Place the bottom piece in a cupcake wrapper or on a plate and put a blob of vanilla cream filling on it. You want enough to squish out the sides just a little when you press the next layer on. So…cake, filling, cake, filling, cake. Pour a small spoonful of ganache on the top and spread carefully to the edges. If it drips down the side a little, that’s just fine. It’s artistic, not sloppy!

Little cut-out cakes before trimming and slicing.

Little cut-out cakes before trimming and slicing.

Slicing layers

Slicing layers

And a layer of ganache. Yep, this is messy business!

And a layer of ganache. Yep, this is messy business!

Blog4 034Repeat until you’re out of little cakes. Aren’t they pretty?

Now you have cake scraps, leftover custard, and hopefully a little ganache. Layer them all with some whipped cream and maybe a sliced banana, and TA DA! Trifle.

Trifle!

Trifle!

So to recap…you have three things to do. Bake a cake, make a custard, and create a ganache. (Or if you like the chocolate crust idea, make that four things.) Assembling these puppies is the easiest part. For those of you who are tight for time, you could definitely use a yellow cake mix and a box of vanilla pudding mix (make it with cream, not milk, for a richer filling) and it will be just fine. You’ll miss a little bit of homemade flavor, but people will still scarf it up.

Have fun with these! Just think of the possibilities. You could: bake the cake in jelly roll pans and then cut out fun shaped layers with cookie cutters, put a layer of chocolate cake in the middle, or go all out and make them neapolitan with chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla cake layers, spread a little raspberry or strawberry jam between the layers, or…whatever else you come up with.

These make me want to have a tea party!