Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls

Oooh boy!  If you like cinnamon rolls for breakfast, fresh and hot from the oven but you don't like working with yeast or don't have the time to wait for rollin' and risin', then I hope you give this recipe a try.  Have mercy, these were a winner.

I had another recipe for biscuit cinnamon rolls, and it was just like it sounds, biscuits with cinnamon.  Not horrible mind you, but clearly deserving of their biscuit claim, and they were not something I rushed to make again.

So I saw this recipe, hemmed and hawed, reflecting on my past experience, and passed over it several times.  Don't ask me what drew me to it--probably the buttermilk that needed using and the fact that we love pastry type items for our weekend breakfasts. And I don't discount the fact that I have been a huge fan of Mel's Kitchen Cafe for years and years.  She is totally amazing!

And may I say these far exceeded expectations.  While not as light and fluffy as a yeast roll, these were amazing on their own.  Definitely fluffy and tender and full of cinnamon deliciousness.  And huge.  The original recipe said serves 12 to 15.  I am not advocate of puny cinnamon rolls so I made 12.  Just let me say a single roll would easily be more than enough for someone who was wasn't a part of the super-size crowd.  Ahem.  Both Sweetie-Pie and I had two.  What can I say; that's the way we roll.

BUTTERMILK BISCUIT CINNAMON ROLLS
Discovered on Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Biscuits:

4 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour

1/3 cup  granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

13 tablespoons very cold butter

2 cups buttermilk (plus a few tablespoons more, if needed)

Filling:

4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup (3.75 ounces) light brown sugar
1/2 to 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Easy Vanilla Glaze
From the good folks at King Arthur's Flour

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar or glazing sugar, sifted to remove any lumps
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk or water
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture is like coarse meal and the butter is in small, about the size of a pea.
3. Pour in the buttermilk and mix until just combined. The dough should start to come together but don’t want to overmix the dough. If there are lots of dry patches throughout the dough, add a bit more buttermilk, just a tablespoon or two at a time until the dough comes together.
4. Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured counter.
5. Gently pat (do not roll with a rolling pin!) the dough to about 1/2-inch thick. Gently fold the dough in thirds (as if folding a letter), repeating three times and pressing gently to 1-inch thick after each fold. These folds, combined with the cold butter, are what help to create flaky layers.
6. With a lightly floured rolling pin (or pressing quickly with your hands), roll the dough into a 1/4-inch rectangle, about 18" x 10". It's important to not overwork the dough if you want tender, flaky biscuits.
7. Spread the melted butter over the top. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and spread evenly over the butter.
8. Start rolling up the cinnamon rolls, beginning with one long edge, rolling tightly without pulling and stretching the dough.
9. Pinch the seam and reposition the long roll until it is seam side down.
10. Cut into 1- or 1 1/2-inch rolls. Tuck the loose end of each roll underneath and place an inch or so apart on the prepared baking sheet(s).
11. At this point the rolls can be covered and refrigerated for up to two days. To bake immediately, bake for 12-15 minutes. If baking straight from the refrigerator, add a couple minutes to the baking time.
12. Let the rolls cool for 10 minutes or so before drizzling with the icing.

For the Vanilla Glaze:
Stir the ingredients together, adding extra liquid or confectioners' sugar to adjust the consistency as needed. Yield: about 1/2 cup glaze.  This made just about enough to lightly glaze all the biscuit rolls.  If you lot a lot of glaze, consider doubling the recipe.

Coffee Walnut Layer Cake

Coffee and Walnut Layer Cake

I was going to try and teach myself how to bake using metrics--I bought myself the scale and metric measuring spoons and visited British baking sites and was all gung-ho and then I backed out.  It's not my fault entirely, I swear.  I discovered that my food weighed differently when I put it in different places on the scale.  I mean just millimeters away from the center of the scale caused it to show a different weight.  This is one of those times when I needed somebody who knew exactly what they were doing to be by my side to weigh in on the subject.  So the kitchen scale sits in my cabinet.  

In my forays into British food, I began seeing multiple recipes for coffee and walnut cake.  I'm a pushover for just about mocha and walnuts anything and I fell in love with the recipes when I saw them.  Everyone raved about it and so many had said it was the choice of cake for birthdays.  This cake evoked a lot of memories for a lot of people, and I wanted this cake. I was convinced I was going to perish if I didn't have it.  But alas, there were no imperial measurements anywhere that I could find for it, and I am serious when I tell you I looked for it.

After resigning myself to a life without this, I found that Nigella Lawson had converted the recipe so I could make it too, and it was on the New York Times.  Hooray!

And yes, this cake lived up to my every expectation.  Walnuts and coffee are a love match. The cake is sweet and rather dense (due ground walnuts in the flour mix), with a pleasant coffee flavor.  I used espresso powder, but as I said I like the flavor of coffee.  You can double the frosting recipe to frost the entire cake, but the cake does not need it.  I found just frosting the middle and the top to be quite adequate without being overpoweringly sweet and decadent.

COFFEE AND WALNUT LAYER CAKE
Original recipe here on the New York Times 

For the cake:
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (reduce to 1/4 teaspoon if using salted butter)
4 large eggs

2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water

For the frosting:
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/8 salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water

walnut halves for decoration

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Butter two 8-inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper to fit the bottom. 

In the bowl of a food processor add the 1/2 cup walnut pieces and the sugar.  Process until ingredients are a fine powder.

(Original directions said to add remaining ingredients to the food processor, but I moved everything to a separate bowl and used a hand mixer at this point.)

Add the butter, flour, baking powder, salt and eggs.  

Add 2 tablespoons of milk to the coffee mixture.  Mixture will be kind of heavy but should be soft enough to drop from a spoon.  If not, add droplets of milk, stirring.

Divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans and bake about 25 minutes, or until springy to touch and cake tester tests clean.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before moving to a rack to finish cooling.

For the frosting:  In a bowl, mix the sugar, salt (if using) and butter until smooth.  Add the coffee mixture and beat until well combined and of desired spreading consistency.

To frost the cake, place one of the layers upside down on a serving plate or stand.  Spread about half the frosting.  Take the second layer and that that one right side up on the first layer.  Frost with remaining frosting and decorate with walnut halves.

 












 




COOK'S NOTES:  I think this is a cake I would have to make again to get it perfectly right, and I will most certainly make it again.  In the spirit of honesty, one of my layers was slightly sunk.  Of course I filled it with gobs of wonderful frosting and no harm done and the taste was absolutely unaffected.  I have no idea what that happened.  Maybe I removed it from the pans too soon or not soon enough?  Maybe because I didn't use a food processor for the entire recipe?  That seemed ridiculous to me.  Cakes are finicky creations.  Regardless, this cake was good!  It lasted very well for a couple of days, well wrapped.  Flavors seemed to deepen a bit, becoming even more delicious.  As I said I used an espresso powder, but I like the flavor of coffee. 

Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Oh, boy, this is sweet, sweet, sweet but good, good, good.  If you want something a little extra special to go with your morning coffee, this is a good choice. This looks like a lot of work, but really with an electric mixer and a couple of quick washes in between, it goes pretty quickly. And I'll think you'll note several of the ingredients are used are used in each layer, so the ingredient list really isn't as long as it might appear.  Simple pantry items combine to make a company and holiday worthy treat.

CREAM CHEESE COFFEE CAKE

Grease and flour a 9"x 13" baking pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the cake:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt  (I use salted butter so added only a pinch of salt)

Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs and beat well.
Add remaining dry ingredients gradually to wet mixture and mix well.
Batter is thick and heavy, almost like a sugar-cookie dough consistency.
Spread a little more than half the batter into a 9"x13" baking pan and reserve remaining batter to the side.

Filling:
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients and spread upon the bottom crust.
Spoon reserved batter over filling, just dropping it over the filling.

Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 stick butter

Combine sugar and flour and cut in butter until crumbly, either using two knives in a scissor motion, a pastry blender, or rubbing between the fingers of your impeccably clean hands.  Scatter the topping over the coffee cake.

Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick tests done.

When slightly cooled, top with a little simple glaze.

GLAZE
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons milk or water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combined all ingredients and stir until smooth.

COOK'S NOTES: The batter for the bottom crust is pretty thick and doesn't like to spread with a knife or spatula. I spooned several gobs of batter evenly about the bottom of the pan and then used my fingers to spread it evenly to form a bottom crust.