A Special Treat for New Parents: Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

First of all, my apologies for being a bit unpredictable in the posting department, my life has been just a bit busy as of late and I have not even been making anything fun to even post about! Hopefully back on track now that a lot of big projects are done and the holidays are coming. Once it gets cold and dark earlier, I always want to bake and cook more and different things!

Shafer lounging...

Cort looking cute!

Two sets of our friends have just had babies! One couple had a boy, and one couple had a girl, and both are so happy and settling into their new lives of families of three! Along with all of the fun, comes some very late nights and very early mornings, and the distinction between night and day might seem to disappear. So, I thought it would be fun to make a special treat that can be enjoyed early in the morning (whether that be 2 A.M. or 6 A.M...or even 2 in the afternoon...because that might feel like early in the morning!). Coffee cake is one of my favorite special treats. We usually have a yummy coffee cake at my parents house for Christmas morning, and it almost always features this swirl of chocolate, a yummy twist to a classic.

This recipe makes enough for two cakes in loaf pans, and it was rather easy to make, just takes some time and organization due to the steps and assembly.

I found this recipe on LottieandDoof.com, and I did not stray a bit. Well, I did omit the pecans because you just never know if people like them or not, and, well, to be honest, I forgot to get them at the store.

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Ingredients for Crumb Topping:
3/4 cup of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
6 tablespoons of butter, cut into small cubes

Ingredients for the Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Ingredients for Sour Cream Cake
3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
2 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
16 ounces of sour cream (2 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

Steps for crumb topping:
1. Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine.

2. Add the cubed butter to the sugar mixture and pulse to create a sand like mixture. I tried to use my little Bullet processor, but it was not big enough, so I resorted to the good old fashioned fork, and it worked just fine.

3. Cover and place in the fridge.

Steps for Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl:
1. Combine the sugar, chocolate and cinnamon in a small bowl, and set aside.

Steps for the Sour Cream Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare your baking dishes. I used two standard loaf pans.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl.
3. In your electric mixer cream the butter until smooth. You do not want any chunks of butter.

4. Add the sugar to the butter and mix until light and fluffy.

5. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until fully integrated. Be sure to scrape down your bowl.

6. Add the sour cream and the vanilla, mix until just combined.

7. Add the dry ingredients in three stages, mix until just combined.

8. Pour one third of the cake batter into each loaf pan and smooth out to cover the whole bottom of the pan.

9. Evenly cover this third with half of the chocolate cinnamon swirl.

10. Cover the cinnamon swirl mix with another third of the cake batter.

11. Cover the cake batter with the remaining cinnamon swirl.

12. Use the last third of the cake batter to cover the cinnamon swirl.

13. Cover the final layer of cake batter with the crumb topping.

14. Bake in the 350 degree oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check though because timing will depend on your pan size and oven.

Later tonight I will take them out of the pans and then wrap them in plastic wrap and tie them up with pretty pink and blue bows!

Enjoy!!

Cort just about to bark! 4pm and getting excited about dinner time...she thinks I will forget. 

Shafer just being Shafer!

The Porch: New American Food

It's recruiting time at work and as a result I had the pleasure of taking a few of our candidates for dinner at The Porch earlier this week. The Porch is located on Henderson Avenue just east of Central and serves updated comfort food dishes in a neighborhood bar type atmosphere. The bar is always inventing new cocktails based on seasonal items, so if you decide to come here for dinner, get there a little early and grab a drink. Last fall I tried their Hatch Chile Martini and was compelled by the combination of spicy chile, sweet lime and tequila. 

Now back to dinner. We decided to start off the meal with a couple of appetizers since we were all hungry. The Spinach Parmesan dip is served with fresh tortilla chips and is divine. I found that it was the appropriate balance of spinach and cheese and while certainly rich, it's not as heavy as many spinach dips can be. Our other appetizer was the Calamari and Rock Shrimp Fritto Misto which was served with sweet peppers and a lemon aioli sauce for dipping. The peppers had a slight bite and were a nice contrast to the sweetness of the aioli. It was a great start to things.

Every evening the chef decides what specials will be offered that day and they are displayed on a large backboard and referred to as "Big Board Specials". That night one of the Big Board offerings was Chicken Meatballs with Ricotta Gnocchi and Mushrooms in a White Wine Cream Sauce. I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed in the result. I have come to really enjoy chicken meatballs at other restaurants, and I found these to be dry, slightly tough and without a lot of flavor. The mushrooms didn't provide much flavor either, which was disappointing as I usually find mushrooms to be a great addition to any pasta with cream sauce. Finally, I guess I'm just an old fashioned potato gnocchi girl because I found the ricotta gnocchi to be too sweet and with a texture that was not to my liking. I don't think I would recommend this plate, it was too rich and lacked flavor all at once, which is hard to do.

My coworker ordered the brisket enchiladas and I must say they looked divine. Their appearance along with the fact that he cleaned his plate confirm that they were quite delicious. The brisket is finely shredded, wrapped in a corn tortilla and topped with red chile enchilada sauce. They definitely looked as though they would be worth trying next time. One of our recruits ordered the Country Club with the Tomato, Cucumber and Basil salad and it too looked amazing. The sandwich was served on hearty slices of white bread, perfectly toasted and filled with the delicious combination of smoked turkey, smoked ham, thick peppered bacon, cheddar, and provolone and the salad looked crisp and refreshing, a nice delicate contrast to the hearty sandwich. Our other recruit ordered the cheeseburger and it too looked delicious. At the conclusion of the meal I asked my companions for their verdict and all were pleased to confirm that they thoroughly enjoyed their meal. I guess I just made the wrong choice this time.

While parts of this most recent experience were disappointing, the atmosphere continued to impress and the service was impeccable. Based on what my dinner companions ordered, I think I will definitely try one of their choices next time and I'm confident I won't be disappointed and besides, there's always their cocktail menu. :)

Le Cordon Bleu: Birthday Lunch

My birthday was on Thursday, and so my mom wanted to take me to lunch! I thought we would go to our old favorite, Cisco Grill, but she decided to shake things up a bit and we traveled out to the Dallas Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School to dine at their Technique Restaurant. This restaurant is a class for the students, a place where they can put their skills into action: serving and cooking for actual customers. It was such a treat! The menu is actually quite large, and you choose three courses for just ten dollars! We both thought that due to the low cost that the servings would be rather small, but we were completely wrong! We ate as much as we could of each course, but always had something left over. Also, I certainly didn't expect bread, but we indeed had an endless supply of bread and butter! The bread was always just warm enough for the butter to lightly melt, very tasty.

I started with the Margarita Pizza, a perfectly fresh wood-fired pizza that I could have easily mistaken for one from Italy. Crisp but tender dough, huge fresh tomatoes sliced very thickly, large slices of fresh mozzarella, and a drizzle of olive oil. That was it and it was just the perfect balance of flavors and textures, the perfect ratio of gooiness to bite, soft to crisp.

I then had the Salad Nicoise, but requested to have chicken rather than the tuna. I knew we had a rather new student/waiter when he looked really concerned and perplexed about this request, he scurried off the the kitchen to ask about my absurd request, and then scurried back to the table with a relieved, yet still a bit concerned, look upon his face letting me know that indeed, they could make this substitution. Lesson number one for anyone working in the restaurant industry, your customers are difficult and they will ask you for things that you think are ridiculous, in response, you should politely smile and fulfill the request, you are welcome to think any thoughts in the world about how odd the diner is, just don't share it on your face! My chicken Salad Nicoise was delightful, lightly dressed and with each component perfectly balanced.

My birthday dessert was just what I wanted. Good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies! They were very soft, filled with chocolate chunks and just warm enough to give the illusion that they were just moments out of the oven. I had one at lunch and took one home for a midnight snack :)

Mom and I had a delightful lunch, classic tastes perfectly executed in a fun and different environment. The dinning room is basically in the kitchen, so you have a front row view of your food preparation. A little warning, it was freezing in there, so take a shawl! You can even go for dinner (dinner is fifteen dollars each), and dine on delicious food and drink cocktails from the bar. But I think one of my favorite parts of this place was walking in the hallways of the actual school to get to the restaurant. All of the classrooms have windows, so you could look in on students hard at work creating deliciousness, and you could smell the aromas throughout the hallways. What a treat! My very favorite part was eating birthday lunch with my mom!

A very special birthday lunch indeed, thanks mom!
Hopefully you too can enjoy this special place!

Buttermilk Biscuits

I love breakfast. However, I also really love my sleep and during the week sleep always wins over a large homemade breakfast. Typically I grab a banana or packet of oatmeal that I will add hot water to and eat once I get to work. The weekends, however, provide me with ample time to make Robert and I delicious homemade breakfast feasts. It's part of what I love most about the weekend.

This was not my first time making homemade biscuits, it was, however, my first time making biscuits from scratch without a mix. The results were absolutely delicious and definitely worth the large mess of flour and dough I left all over the kitchen. Oops. :) Have I mentioned how amazing my husband is to help clean up after my messes in the kitchen?

One thing I love about making homemade biscuits is that you can freeze the dough already cut and then just pop one in the oven later when you're ready for it. Just like you can buy in the freezer section of the grocery store. I will say, that I learned somethings while making this.

First, you don't need to use a rolling pin, just pat the dough down into a flat circle. In fact, the biscuits that I just formed with my hands from excess dough rather than rolling them out and using the biscuit cutter were my favorites. Second, the dough is super sticky, be warned and prepared. Finally, don't roll out your dough too thin or else you'll have thin crispy biscuits. Which still taste good, but lack the flakiness that defines all great biscuits.

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Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 to 6 tablespoons chilled butter cut into little squares (I used 6)
1 cup buttermilk

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sifter.

Sift into a large bowl.

Using a pastry cutter, or if you're me a whisk, cut in the butter pieces.

 Work the butter in until they are the size of small peas.

Make a well in the center of the flour.

Pour in the buttermilk.

Stir until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Transfer to a floured surface and knead 8 to 10 times.

 (Your hands will get messy.)

Roll out the dough, our push down using fingers, until about 3/4 inch thick.

Cut with a biscuit cutter.

Place the dough on a cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with butter or jam and a big cup of coffee.

Source: The Joy of Cooking