Mr. Tumnus Sour Cream Coffee Cake

 Do you want your tea to be just like Lucy's first visit into the wardrobe?   This was my take on an appropriate cake for a girl and a faun sharing a pot of tea.  

 

 

Grease a 13 x 9 pan, preheat oven to 350  

In mixer bowl stir together:

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tsp salt

freshly grated nutmeg

dash of mace

 

then mix in:

2 cups sour cream

4 eggs

 

Pour into 13 x 9 pan, then  use mixer and beater:

swirl:

cream together 

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons cinnamon (I like to use some each of cassia and ceylon if you have two types on hand)

1 teaspoon cardamom 

(any other warming spices you'd like)

put well creamed soft mixture into a zip-top bag, snip tiny corner of bag and swirl over the top of the cake.   It will sink in during baking.   

Bake ~40 minutes, until tester comes out clean.

If desired make a glaze: 

2 cups powdered sugar

3 T milk

(dash of vanilla extract, almond extract or orange oil)

Whisk well until liquid, then I use the whisk to drizzle lightly over warm cake.  

 

Christmas Cookies: Gingerbread (gingerbread men, gingerbread starts, gingerbread trees ....)

Ingredients:



1 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons ground ginger (for a spicy cookie - use less if you like)

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon (again, for a spicy cookie)

1.5 tsp ground cloves

pinch of salt

pinch of ground allspice, just because it there in the spice drawer

2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

1 cup molasses (I used blackstrap, but regular will be fine too)

5 cups all purpose flour



In electric mixer beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Add spices and salt and mix well. Add the baking soda mixture and molasses - beat for a while until thoroughly combined or until you reach the commercial break of the holiday special you are watching. Add the flour one cup at a time, then beat for two more minutes until well mixed. Let the dough stand while you go eat dinner or some other activity of your choice for about an hour.



Place a piece of wax paper or parchment paper on the counter. Put about a third of the dough in the middle of the sheet, then rip another piece off of equal length to make a parchment-dough-parchment sandwich. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out. Make sure to flip over your "sandwich" every minute or so. If the paper on either side starts to crinkle into cracks of the dough, carefully peel off the paper and lay it out flat and roll away. (Deep cracks will result in cracked cookies when baked). I think you are supposed to be getting the dough no greater than a quarter of an inch thick. If you ever figure out how to accomplish this, please let me know. Mine are probably 1/2 inch thick.



Place the dough sandwich on a cookie tray in your refrigerator overnight, or lay it on top of the ice cream containers (or any items the same height) in your freezer for 20-30 minutes. Repeat with the remaning thirds of dough.



Preheat oven to 350. Grease baking sheets. Remove a dough sandwich, which should now be cold and firm, from the fridge or freezer. Peel off the top layer of parchment, carefully flip it over so its is still sitting on parchment, and peel off the bottom layer. Now use whatever cookie cutters you like, and arrange cut cookies on a baking tray, no closer than 1.5 inches apart. If you like you can add the hard cinnamon candies for gingerbread men buttons or raisins before baking. Reroll and refrigerate the scraps from between the cookie cutters. Because you are not rolling on flour, the chance of a tough and overworked dough from the scraps is much reduced.



If you actually managed 1/4 inch thickness for your dough, then try baking for seven minutes. Mine were taking 10-12 per tray, depending on the size of the cookie. Remove to wire racks for cooling.



I decorate mine with royal icing:

Homemade Cinnamon buns

These are SOOOO good, and they make your house smell like a Cinnabon while they are baking. (Cinnabon is, I'm quite certain, a registered trademark. I am not claiming these are the Cinnabon recipe. But two different people told me they were better)

In the bread machine, run these ingredients on the dough setting (the second time I made these, I actually set the dough cycle to run right before going to bed, and didn't die because there was milk in the recipe. On the other hand, we keep our house in the mid 50's overnight during the winter nights, so take that into consideration if you try it in the African heat):

1 cup warm milk
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 packed (2 1/2 tsp) yeast

When finished, punch dough down and transfer to board:

Very lightly flour, and roll/stretch out, then brush w/ 1/4 cup butter, melted (or spread if you thought ahead enough to have some very spreadable):

Combine 1 cup brown sugar with 1 Tablespoon cinnamon. (GOOD cinnamon. Not been in your cabinet since Reagan was president cinnamon) If the smell isn't incredible when you open the container, don't bother making this recipe)

Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on all but the far edge (make sure to cover all the way to the edge of the other three sides):

Roll it up. To do this, start by turning the closest edge over once, then run your hands down to finish that "crease", stretching the dough to the sides a bit as you go, and keep rolling. Sprinkle a bit of water on the very edge to help the dough seal to dough to close the roll.

Cut into 12 pieces. I do this by cutting in half, then the half in half, then each quarter into three:

Place in a 13 x 9 pan, which you already greased. Turn the oven to 400 degrees. Cover the buns with a cloth just dampened with warm water, and allow them to rise, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in another part of the kitchen, put 1/2 brick of cream cheese (4 oz) with half a stick of butter into the merry go round with 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and some vanilla (I actually used vanilla paste):

Give'm a whirl!

Bake the buns for about 20 minutes - until they are light brown on top:

Immediately after removing from the oven, spread with the frosting, so it gets ooey gooey melty on top:

By the way - did you know sticky buns, a regional favorite in Philadelphia are made almost the same way, but omitting the cream cheese frosting? You would just put a brown sugar (1 cup)/butter (half stick)/pecan (1 cup, chopped) or raisins mixture on the BOTTOM of the pan before allowing the buns to rise. They come out of the oven, you immediately flip them out of the pan so the gooey mixture on the bottom becomes the topping. If I was making sticky buns I would have used two 9" cake pans instead of one 13x9, for easier flipping.