Cinnamon Swirl Bread (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Raisin Swirl Bread is all about my baking frenemy, YEAST. Once in a blue moon, I will experience baking success with yeast. However, more times than not I've ended up with some pretty spectacular fails, and vowing during those moments to never to bake with yeast ever again (okay, I'm being a little melodramatic).

With this bread recipe, I'm happy to say that I've experienced yeast success! I opted to nix the raisins, but followed the rest of the recipe as written. Initially, as the dough was coming together it was soft and sticky, so the stand mixer w. dough hook definitely came in handy.

WOW - this bread was delicious! I've been taking nice thick slices of this bread, slathering them with butter and cinnamon sugar, and popping them in the toaster oven to make unbelievably yummy cinnamon toast.

Thanks to Susan of Food.Baby for making this fantastic selection, and helping me resolve my love/hate relationship with yeast. I highly encourage you to make this delicious bread - the complete recipe can be found at Susan's blog.

Sweet Potato Pie

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! When I originally wrote this post, it started something like this: "I'm taking a quick break as it's time for our yearly Thanksgiving sojurn to Vegas". For the past 10+ years, the hubs and I have spent the Thanksgiving holiday week in Vegas with single-minded goal of indulging ourselves silly.

Well, this post has been revised...we've crapped out and our Vegas streak is over.

We were frantically packing and printing our boarding passes for our morning flight when we discovered our dog getting sick in the backyard...then on her bed...then in the hallway (sorry for the gross details)! After a trip to our vet, a viral infection diagnosis, and a $350 vet bill, we saw our Vegas trip circling the proverbial drain.

It would have sucked for Siena to sit at the boarding facility in isolation, and quite frankly we didn't have the heart to leave her alone to recuperate. After swallowing a very big bitter pill, the hubs looked at me and asked "so what are we cooking for Thanksgiving?"

I haven't cooked Thanksgiving dinner in over a decade, so this would be an interesting challenge. Where do I start...how about dessert?
A Thanksgiving feast isn't complete without a slice of delicious pie to end the meal with a sweet note and send dinner guests into food comas. Apple, pecan, pumpkin...everyone has a favorite pie for the holiday weekend.

At the Tender Crumb house, we're partial to pumpkin and sweet potato pies. I know a lot of people tell me that they can't tell the difference between the two. The hubs and I can definitely tell the difference between the two pies.

From my personal experience, the primary difference between the two fillings is flavor. Sweet potato has a natural sweetness and earthiness, and it doesn't need a lot of sugar and spice to enhance its flavor. People also talk about a difference in texture, with pumpkin having a more custardy texture, but that isn't as noticeable to me.

Tell me, do you think there is a difference between the two pies?

This Thanksgiving, I want to share my recipe for sweet potato pie. A post for pumpkin pie will follow in the next day or two --- we're drowning our sorrows in two pies. I love this recipe because it is simple to prepare and oh so tasty and satisfying to eat.

Note: What you're seeing in these pictures is a 4 inch baby pie. If you halve the recipe below, it will make enough for two of these mini-pies and a little extra filling (which you can bake separately in a ramekin and enjoy separately).
Sweet Potato Pie
makes one 9 inch pie

Crust
Dorie Greenspan's Good For Almost Everything Pie Dough, partially baked - you can find the recipe here

Filling
2 large red-skinned sweet potatoes
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar (if you like a sweeter filling, increase to 1 cup)
1 cup whipping cream
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white, beaten to blend

For filling:
Pierce potatoes with fork. Bake in a 375F degrees oven until cooked through (45-60 minutes). Once throughly cooked, cool completely.

Press the cooled sweet potato through a potato ricer (this step is KEY for a smooth filling). Measure enough potato puree to equal 1 1/2 cups.

Position rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 400F degrees.

Place pureed sweet potato in large bowl. Whisk in brown sugar and next 7 ingredients.

Brush partially baked crust with beaten egg white. Transfer filling to the crust.

Bake pie until filling is puffed around edges and set in center, about 45 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool.

Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake (TCS)

After a year of baking some really delicious and TALL cakes from Sky High: Irresistable Triple Layer Cakes, The Cake Slice group has switched gears and has moved on to a new cake baking book. After a vote (we're so democratic, aren't we?), the group has chosen to bake recipes from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott. In the introduction of the book, Nancie shares the following:

"I invite you to take a little journey through this collection of Southern cakes. Perhaps you will come across some old friends and meet some new neighbors, since the South, like all the world, grows and changes every day, while still remaining essentially its same old self. I hope that while sampling these pages you will remember something about a cake you once ate or a person who taught you something about cooking and eating and the sacred nature of food."

I couldn't have said it any better.

Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake is the first recipe selected from the book, and it's a perfect recipe to bid summer adieu and welcome fall. Mind you, we have yet to cool down in Southern California, so I'll have to imagine the crisp, cool autumn weather as I enjoy this cake.

Cinnamony and buttery (3 1/2 sticks of buttery goodness --- this is not a typo), this decadent breakfast cake is total comfort food. I didn't have any raisins in the house, so I opted for mini bittersweet chocolate chips. I would recommend not shortchanging on the nuts, as it really provided and nice crunch and flavor to the cake.

Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake
from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

For the Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs

For the Cinnamon Raisin Filling
1½ cups light brown sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp cinnamon
1½ cups raisins
1½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted

Method
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 inch pan.

To make the filling, combine the light brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and stir with a fork to mix everything well. Combine the raisins and pecans in another bowl and toss to mix them. Place the cinnamon mixture, nut mixture and melted butter by the baking pan to use later.

To make the cake batter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir the vanilla into the milk. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with a mixer on high speed until pale yellow and evenly mixed, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl to ensure a good mix. Add the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then, until the mixture is smooth and light.

Use a large spoon or spatula to add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir only until the flour disappears. Add a third of the milk and mix in. Repeat twice more until all the flour and milk mixtures have been incorporated. Stir just enough to keep the batter smooth.

Spread half the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture over the batter followed by half the melted butter. Scatter half the raisins and nuts over the top. Spread the remaining batter carefully over the filling, using a spatula to smooth the batter all the way to the edges of the pan. Top with the leftover cinnamon, butter and nut mixture, covering the cake evenly.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, fragrant and beginning to pull away from the edges of the pan. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before serving in squares right from the pan. The cake is delicious hot, warm or at room temperature.

Cinnamon Squares (TWD)

I know I've said this about several of the previous Tuesday With Dorie recipes, but I think this is one of my favorites to date! I {heart} cinnamon, so I was super excited to see a recipe where it is showcased front and center. This recipe keeps things simple, with just some espresso and chocolate to complement the cinnamon flavor.

For the layer running through the middle of the cake, I used 1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips and 1/2 cup Guittard cappucino chips which I found at World Market (I love this store!):

Not only is this cake unbelievably yummy, it is super easy to make with no special equipment needed - you just need an 8 inch square pan, couple of bowls, a whisk, and a rubber spatula. (Please visit Tracey's blog for the complete recipe)

All you need to do is combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, then gently combine. The final touch is gently mixing in a healthy amount of melted butter. If you follow these simple steps, you will be rewarded with a wonderful cake with a an impossibly moist and tender crumb.

The smell of this baking in the oven was intoxicating! I had to restrain myself from eating this warm right out of the oven.

This recipe is easy enough that I can actually imagine waking up bleary-eyed in the morning to get this prepped and in the oven. By the time I have a few cups of coffee and read the newspaper, this beautiful cake will be baked and ready to be devoured with...well, a few more cups of coffee! Okay, I'll admit it--- I'm a total caffeine junkie!Thank you Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures for selecting this delicious recipe! If you can't get enough of this cake, make sure to visit the TWD blogroll to see more delicious creations.