Pull Apart Coffee Cake

Um...where's my piece of cake?

 I received a complaint this week and it went something like this.

Dear Wife

Would it kill you to use sugar and butter in your baking recipes once in a while. I mean come on, it's a cookie for goodness sake, what part of sweet treat don't you understand?

Yours
Husband

Admittedly, he was some what more subtle in his message, but although the mouth was trying to wrap the complaint in a compliment, the eyes were saying the above. Truth be told, my baking mojo has been a bit off lately with cookies and cakes coming out tasting more like something produced by your local kindergartner during sand play. So although I will never make following a recipe whose only goal is to see me forever wearing elasticated pants while navigating the streets in my motorized arm chair, a permanent thing, I did go ahead and bake this cake to it's full sugar and butter potential. A reset of sorts. This cake is basically a giant doughnut, no, lot's of mini doughnuts stuck together. Heck who cares, it tastes like doughnuts, but without the deep fat frying. It is wonderful. As we sat around the table, ummmming with pleasure, Tim (fully embracing his opportunity to be smug) turned to me and said, 'You see, everything's better with sugar and butter'. Damn it, I hate it when he's right.


 Pull Apart Coffee Cake adapted from breadworld.com

1 envelope active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (100° to 110°F)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter OR margarine
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 to 2 cups all-purpose flour ( I needed less than a cup, so add slowly)
Sugar Blend:
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (super finely chopped!)
1/2 cup butter OR margarine, melted
 
Directions
Dissolve yeast in warm water in a small bowl. Let rest 5 minutes. 
Heat milk and butter until warm (100° to 110°F). Combine yeast, milk mixture, whole wheat flour, sugar and salt in a large mixer bowl. Beat on medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Gradually add enough all-purpose flour until soft dough forms.
 Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic (about 4 to 6 minutes). Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place about 1-1/2 hours, until doubled.
Generously grease a fluted tube pan. Punch dough down and divide in half. Form 24 small balls of dough from each half.
 Mix together sugar, cinnamon and walnuts. Dip balls in melted butter and roll in sugar and nut mixture; place in pan. Combine leftover butter and sugar mixture and pour over dough.
Cover and let rise for 45 minutes or until doubled. Bake in preheated 375°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Immediately invert pan onto plate and allow to rest 1 minute before removing pan. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

I know, a ridiculous amount of sugar and butter, but being a good wife means throwing the husband a bone every now and then, this time it just happened to taste like doughnuts. 

Due to technical difficulties (we ate it all!) I am unable to show you a picture of our cake. Here however is the cake in all it's sugary glory courtesy of breadworld.com 

Amazingly, two of those nuggets of joy are only 170 calories and 6g of fat. Not great, but as sugary treats go, not terrible either.
  

A burning desire for cassoulet!

Okay confession time. I have this ......I think error is the best term to use. I have an inbuilt programming error that is so stupid and extreme it is amazing to me that I haven't been able to fix it. Here it is. I consistently burn my hand when baking casseroles. I do the same thing every time. I use oven gloves to remove the pot from the oven. Then remove the gloves and lift the 500F lid with my bare hands. EVERY SINGLE TIME! I have so many burn scars on my hands it's ridiculous. Last night it took a split second for my brain to register the burning sensation. I had that split second to wonder where the sizzling sound was coming from only to realize it was my hand becoming one with the pot. Most people keep ice in the fridge for their G&T, we keep it for casserole day!

Luckily, this casserole, or cassoulet as this particular dish is named, was so delicious I soon forgot the pain;)
Go ahead and use canned beans if you want, I happen to have dried in my pantry but use whatever is on hand at the time.

Vegetable Cassoulet adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly Vegie Food Cookbook
serves 4

1/2 cup (100g) dried borlotti beans
1/2 cup (100g) dried canellini beans
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 shallots (100g), halved
3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
2 medium carrots (240g), chopped coarsely
200g mushrooms, halved
1 cup (250ml) dry white wine
2 medium zucchini (240g), chopped coarsely
1 1/2 cups (375ml) vegetable stock
1 can tomato paste
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme

BREAD TOPPING
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion (80g), chopped finely
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
1/2 ciabatta (220g) diced into 2cm pieces
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Place beans in medium bowl, cover with water; stand overnight, drain. Rinse under cold water; drain. Place beans in medium saucepan of boiling water; return to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, about 15 minutes or until beans are just tender.
Preheat oven to moderate 350F (180C).
Heat oil in large flameproof casserole dish; cook shallot, garlic, carrot and mushroom, stirring, until vegetables are just tender. Add wine; bring to a boil. Boil, uncovered, until liquid is reduced by half. Add zucchini, stock, sauce, thyme and drained beans; return to a boil. Remove from heat; transfer to oven. Cook, covered, 50 minutes.
Meanwhile make bread topping.
Heat oil in large frying pan; cook onion, stirring, until soft. Add zest, garlic, thyme and bread; cook, stirring, about 10 minutes or until bread browns lightly. Stir in parsley.
Sprinkle cassoulet with bread topping; cook, uncovered, in oven about 10 minutes or until bread topping is browned.

Any country bread would work here, I used a white Italian loaf, but a light whole wheat whole grain would also be a great topping.
Don't forget your oven gloves!

And we're back!

I know, slightly late and worse, no Merry Christmas and Happy New Year I'll be back on such and such a date before I disappeared from the web. Lack of planning on my part and then copious amounts of chocolate eating during the holidays addled the brain a bit, or something like that anyway.
But here we are again and I have been spending a lot of time with my head buried  in cookbooks so let's get started. So we're all on a diet, okay well some of us are on a diet, well truthfully the diet started and ended on January 1st, but we are making more health conscious choices, right? Good, then you are going to love this salad. It's fun to make, pretty to look at has only a few ingredients and tastes great, plus it's super good for you too.


Patricia Wells' Green Lentil Salad on Zucchini Noodles adapted from Food52
 serves 4

1 large zucchini
1 lb french lentils
1 medium onion, halved and stuck with two cloves
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse lentils and put in a pot with the onion, bay leaf and garlic. Cover with cold water by one inch. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 -25 minutes until lentil are done. All the water should have been absorbed, if not drain then discard onion, bay leaf and garlic. Whisk olive oil and vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Pour two thirds of the dressing over the lentils and leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash, top and tail the zucchini. Using a vegetable peeler, slice the zucchini into long strands similar to linguini or fettuccine. Pile the zucchini 'noodles' in a serving dish and toss in the remaining dressing. Place the lentils on top of the zucchini 'noodles' and serve immediately.


This makes a lot of lentil salad and although we could have eaten it all, I held back some of the lentils and had it for lunch the next day with some butternut squash I pan cooked in some butter and olive oil. Yum!