Daring Bakers: Meringue Coffee Cake

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Finally.  I have missed more than one of the Daring Bakers challenges in the last few months.  I am glad that I got back on track with this one!

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I managed to get the coffee cake made this week despite the fact that my son has not been a fan of napping for more than 30 minutes at a time.  At the moment I am trying to get this post written before he wakes up!  So, forgive me if this one is short and sweet.

The dough wasn’t too difficult to put together, but even after an hour and a half rise it hadn’t really doubled in bulk.  I do not have a great relationship with yeast.  I added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 3/4 teaspoon of cardamom to the flour mixture.

The filling.  Oh my goodness.  The filling.  How can you argue with this?  Sweet meringue, chopped pecans, cinnamon sugar and chocolate chips.  I did one ring with chocolate, and one without.  I prefer the one without if I’m enjoying this for breakfast.  I found that the chocolate hides the other flavors too much.

Rolling this up was easy, but when I went to form the ring I couldn’t get the edges to completely seal together.  I also didn’t have much filling on the edges, so a section of my ring was just bread…which still tasted delicious.

After baking, the meringue puffed out of the vents and got nice and brown.  It is so lovely!  I couldn’t resist breaking off a piece of it to enjoy.  Yummy.

I made the coffee cakes the day before and sent half of each one to work with Ben the next morning.  I was worried that it wouldn’t stay fresh overnight, but I had a piece the next afternoon and it was quite good.

Here is the link to the recipe.  I am too pressed for time to put the recipe on this post!  Ok, now off to get the kitchen cleaned before the little man wakes!  Enjoy!

Chicken Caesar Club Sandwiches

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My mother-in-law made this sandwich over Christmas when we went home to visit.  Thanks, Kate!  The recipe is an Ina Garten one, so it has no choice but to produce something delicious.  I made a few changes to the recipe last weekend when we had company. Here is the original recipe.

I made 2 of these sandwiches for 3 couples, and we had some leftovers.  If you’re serving 6 ladies, one sandwich would be enough.  If you’re serving 6 gentlemen, I’d go ahead and make two of them.  I doubled the dressing, which is lovely, light and tangy, and I had just enough.  I baked 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and fried up about a dozen pieces of bacon.  I used spring mix instead of the arugula, and a jar of julienned sun dried tomatoes of which I used about half.

To make putting this together a breeze, cook and slice the chicken a day ahead.  You can also make the dressing a day ahead and keep it in the fridge.  I would fry the bacon right before you assemble the sandwich so that it stays nice and crispy.  We didn’t take this on a picnic, but I think it would be a nice, fancy picnic sandwich.  Enjoy!

Chicken Caesar Club Sandwich

Courtesy of Ina Garten

Ingredients

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 6 slices bacon, cooked
  • 1 large garlic clove, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup good mayonnaise
  • 1 large ciabatta bread
  • 4-6 ounces spring mix
  • 12 sun-dried tomatoes, in oil
  • 2 to 3 ounces Parmesan, shaved

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan skin side up. Rub the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until cooked through. Cool slightly, and slice the meat thickly. Set aside.
  3. Place the garlic and parsley in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until minced. Add the mustard, lemon juice, and mayonnaise and process again to make a smooth dressing. (Refrigerate the Caesar dressing if not using it immediately.)
  4. Slice the ciabatta in half horizontally and separate the top from the bottom. Toast the bread in the oven, cut side up, for 5 to 7 minutes; cool slightly. Spread the cut sides of each piece with the Caesar dressing. Place half the spring mix on the bottom piece of bread and then layer in order: the sun-dried tomatoes, shaved Parmesan, crispy pancetta, and sliced chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and finish with another layer of spring mix. Place the top slice of ciabatta on top and cut in thirds crosswise. Serve at room temperature.

Fudgy Chocolate & Peanut Cookies

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There was a time in my life that I would have turned my nose up at a cookie recipe that used a cake mix.  Times have changed.

Like many of my baked goods these days, this one was an attempt to use things I had on hand.  I had a cake mix, a jar of peanuts, and chocolate chips.  So, I made these cookies.  And they are not bad.

These cookies taste like a cake mix, and that’s OK with me.  I happen to like that flavor every now and then.  The mix I had already had some little chips in it, so add a few more chocolate chips if your mix does not.  I used half butter and half margarine since I had half sticks of both in the fridge.  These were crazy delicious while still warm and gooey in the middle.  They weren’t quite as good the next day for some reason.  Just pop one…or two…or five in the microwave for 5-10 seconds to warm them up, and enjoy with a cold glass of milk. Mmmmm…

Switch the chips for whatever you want.  Use different nuts.  Whatever. Enjoy!

Fudgy Chocolate & Peanut Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 box chocolate cake mi
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups salted peanuts
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup peanut butter chips

Directions

  1. Beat butter or margarine until smooth.  Beat in cake mix, then oil, eggs and vanilla until smooth.
  2. Stir in peanuts, and chips.
  3. Bake cookies at 350°F for 9-12 minutes.

Trail Mix Cookies

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Trail mix is one of my favorite snacks.  I am not active enough to really need the calories and nutritional value it provides, but it’s still not as bad as chowing down on a bag of potato chips, right?  Right…

Not only is trail mix delicious, but it’s an easy snack to take along with you, and we almost always have a bag (or a few bags) of it in our house.  I was planning to make cookies for a trip we took to Angel Fire this past weekend.  My original plan was oatmeal raisin, but then I thought I’d use the trail mix instead.  Pure genius.

The trail mix I buy for Ben can be found at Sam’s Club, but when I don’t feel like going to Sam’s just for a bag of the stuff I buy it at Wal Mart.  It is a perfect mix of peanuts, almonds, cashews, raisins and M&M’s.

I used a simple oatmeal raisin cookie base, but instead of the cup of raisins I measured out 1 1/2 cups of trail mix, chopped up the larger almonds and cashews and stirred it in to the dough.  I added a few dark chocolate M&M’s I had left over from Valentine’s Day just to be sure there was enough chocolate in there : )

The combination of peanuts, raisins, M&M’s, almonds and cashews was terrific.  The final product was hearty and delicious.  Enjoy!

Trail Mix Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 stick butter
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3 cups oats
  • 1 1/2 to 2 cups trail mix, larger nuts chopped

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Beat butter and shortening until smooth, then beat in both sugars, then eggs until light.
  3. Add in vanilla.
  4. Stir in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
  5. Stir in oats and trail mix until well combined.
  6. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheets.
  7. Bake for 8-10 minutes.