The dough is not sweet. In fact, it is described as "brioche" like so if you want sweet, you'll need to create it with the fillings you choose. You can also add a glaze if you have a super sweet tooth.
Along with the orange zest I added orange flavored gum drops and bittersweet chocolate chips for my filling.
The Coffee Cake Dough Ingredients
I hadn't ever worked with yeast before so I was a bit nervous going into this challenge. Due to technical difficulties my dough wasn't quite as fluffy as I'd hoped for but the cake was still very yummy.
The wet ingredients: Milk, Water and Butter
The dry ingredients: Flour, Sugar, Salt and Yeast
The Dough
This is where I went a bit off course. Turns out my house was too cold to allow the yeast to rise. After 45-60 minutes my dough was supposed to double in size. Instead it rose by about 5%. A quick phone call home to my mom and she suggested turning my oven on to 200º degrees for just a minute or so, turning the oven off, then putting the covered bowl of dough (I used a metal mixing bowl, Saran Wrap and a dish towel) into the now warmed oven. It worked like a charm. Another 60 minutes and my dough had easily doubled in size.
The dough after the first rising.
The recipe calls to split the dough so you can make two wreaths from one batch. When the dough was almost done rising I made the meringue for the filling.
Meringue ingredients: Sugar, Vanilla, Salt and Egg Whites
Coffee Cake Fillings
For my fillings I used orange slice gumdrops that I'd cut with kitchen shears, allowing them to fall into a small bowl of flour so the cut portions wouldn't stick together. After cutting them apart I dropped them into a wire sieve and allowed the flour to drop off into a bowl to use later to dust my marble pastry board with.
The fresh orange zest I mixed 50/50 with granulated sugar.
The bittersweet chocolate chips were Ghirardelli.
Next time I think I'll add some roasted nuts too. Maybe walnuts or hazel nuts. They'd add a nice flavor and a bit of texture.
The next step was to use kitchen shears
to score the wreath every inch. The wreath was covered with Saran Wrap and placed back into the still warm oven. . .
Before baking I brushed the dough with an egg wash using the leftover egg yolks from the meringue, mixed with a bit of heavy cream. I used one TBS of cream to each egg yolk. This made the coffee cake dough shiny after being baked.
Before the dough was allowed to rise the second time . . .
And each month I like to feature examples by other talented Daring Bakers. The photo montage shows just how varied our sweet and savory results were even though we all started with the same basic recipe. Take a peek and be inspired!
Row 1
Audax Artifex: Tomato Pesto Cheese Dough with Speck and Pineapple
Audax Artifex: Tomato Pesto Cheese Dough with Olive and Mortadella
Aliciag: Chocolate and Pecans
Row 2
Within the Kitchen: Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter Chips, Walnuts and Caramel
That Skinny Chick Can Bake: Apple and Cinnamon
Diabetic Sinners: Blueberry, Lemon Zest and Almonds
Row 3
Aeroflot Reh: Marionberry, Honey, and Almond
Barbara Bakes: Cranberry and Orange
Sweet and Saucy: Dried Plum, Almond and White Chocolate
Row 4
Aeroflot Reh: Marionberry, Honey, and Almond
Cooking Rookie: Chocolate
An Aspiring Foodie: Cinnamon and Chocolate Chips
Thank you Ria and Jamie! This was a great and fun challenge and I learned how to work with yeast! I'll definitely be trying something savory the next time I make this dough.
If you liked this post you'll enjoy these Bakers' Challenges too:
• January 2011: Fancy Joconde Imprime Entremet
• February 2011: Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies
• April 2011: Edible Container and Maple Mousse
