Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

Pull apart bread is one of the most fun things to bake. It is almost impossible to mess up and it looks amazing when it comes out of the oven. Totally perfect for a hopeless baker like myself. I like to make a couple of loaves when I make it, because usually I am making it as a gift or a contribution to a brunch or tea but then once I make it I don’t want to give it away. The same thing happens with my “Debaucherous Brownies”. Most of you who have received them didn’t know until now that you got a half batch…

This pull-apart bread takes a bit of time, but it is totally worth it. Especially for the feeling that you get when your contribution to the brunch is the first thing to be devoured. Or the feeling that you get when someone asks where you bought it. Yes, it’s that good.

Makes you hungry just looking at it, doesn’t it?

Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread

Bread:

3 cups all purpose flour plus a little extra

scant ¼ cup sugar

2 ¼ tsp dry active yeast – one envelope

heaped ½ tsp salt

3 ounces unsalted butter

1/3 cup whole milk

¼ cup water (room temp to warm)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:

1 ½ cup sugar

1 ¼ tbsp. cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 ounces unsalted butter (melted)

Whisk together 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In another bowl whisk eggs.  In a small saucepan on the stove heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and add vanilla and water. Let mixture stand and cool a little bit.

Add the dry ingredients into the milk mixture and stir well. Then add the eggs. Make sure the mixture is cool enough that the eggs don’t cook. Stir until the eggs become fully incorporated – this takes a while. Add the remaining cup of flour and stir. The mixture will be sticky.

Place the dough in a greased bowl (don’t skip this part because otherwise it’s a nightmare to get out) and cover with plastic wrap and a clean tea towel. Allow to stand in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size (about an hour although you can do this overnight in the fridge).

While dough rises combine the cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar for the filling. In another bowl melt 2 ounces of butter. Set aside.

Grease your loaf pan

Sprinkle some flour over your kitchen counter, rub some on your rolling pin, and roll out the dough until it’s about ¼ inch thick. Paint on the melted butter onto the dough and sprinkle liberally with the filling. Then cut the dough into small rectangles, about 3 ½ inches by 2 inches.

Stack the rectangles of dough in small piles and squish them (standing on the long side) into the loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with any cinnamon sugar you have left. When the pan is full set aside for ½ an hour in a warm, dry place until the dough is about half again as big.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the top is very, very golden brown. Serve warm. This bread does not keep well so it is best eaten the day it is made or the day after. 

Goat Cheese Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling

 It seems to me that the new trend in cooking these days is making something with ingredients that do not usually go in it. People make a lot of cakes with beans in them, chicken with blueberries etc. The funny thing about these wacky baked goods is that it seems that people are usually trying to hide these funky ingredients in the finished product. “Don’t worry, you can’t actually taste the beets in my famous beet cupcakes”

I decided to take a stab at this new fad, but actually try and make something that you could taste the ingredients in and not be too weirded out. In steps the goat cheese. We have all heard of putting sour cream in your cupcakes, or cream cheese icing – so this is like that but in a more extreme way. They turned out really well. So well in fact that my sister asked that I make some for her for her birthday. For hers I added the jam – a little extra sweet kick in the middle of the cupcake – a birthday surprise for her twenty-year old tongue.

Goat Cheese Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling

For the cupcakes:

2 ¼ cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 stick butter

1 ¾ cups sugar

½ cup sour cream

½ cup (about half a log) goat cheese – room temp

4 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

cupcake liners

1 jar of raspberry jam, or fresh raspberries if in season

For the icing:

¾ stick butter at room temp

½ cup (the other half of the log) goat cheese (plus a little extra if you want it to be seriously zingy) – room temp

1 cup icing (confectioners) sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Combine dry ingredients (through salt). In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients (through vanilla). Mix well. Sometimes the goat cheese is a tiny bit lumpy, and that’s okay. Just not big clumps.

Pour into cupcake liners until almost half full. Then spoon a teaspoon of jam, or one plump raspberry, right onto the batter. Then fill the rest up until the liner is just over ¾ full. Bake for 18-25 mins.

While they are baking prepare the icing. Mix everything together in a bowl and pop it in the fridge with a knife until the cupcakes are cool. Ice with a cold knife – makes it much easier. 

Tea Cupcakes

These aren’t quite cupcakes, but they are not quite tea cakes either. They are like tall, jam filled tea cakes. Fluffy and cinnamon-ey with a warm tart center. All you need is a cup of tea and a partner and you’re in for a great Sunday afternoon. 

Tea Cupcakes 

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

½ cup butter melted and cooled slightly

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Raspberry jam

Icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Combine the dry ingredients (through cinnamon). Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add the dry ingredients bit by bit to the wet.

Grease a muffin pan and fill the cups up about half way with the batter. Spoon a heaped spoonful of jam into the middle of the cup. Then full up the muffin cup with more batter until it almost reaches the top. 

Bake for 12-15 mins until golden around the edges. Dust with icing sugar. Serve warm with tea and cozy socks.

Debaucherous Dark Chocolate Brownies

I am calling these treats brownies because chocolate is their most prominent ingredient. But they aren’t really brownies – these have yet to be named. Some friends have been calling them a “four layer finish”, rather than brownies. That’s because they are beyond brownies – mega brownies – slutty brownies. They are diet shatteringly moreish and a best friend hug in one bite. They taste like things you remember from when you were younger, but all grown up.

I decided to make these for a friend who is getting some very exciting test scores back today. These brownies cannot be made just any day of the week – they are a special occasion treat. Today is a very special occasion and worth being a little bit wicked – in both senses of the word.

Debaucherous Dark Chocolate Brownies

1 box dark chocolate brownie mix (extra fudgy)

1 box chocolate chip cookie mix

1 box double stuff oreos

1 bag mini marshmallows

1 little bag of pecans (about ½ cup – see baking aisle)

½ cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 stick butter

The above ingredients apply to my specific kind of cookie and brownie mix – Betty Crocker. Read the directions on the back of your boxes to ensure that you have everything before you start.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish. Mix the chocolate chip cookies according to the directions. Spread the mixture in a thin layer on the bottom of the dish:

Then line rows of Oreos across the cookie dough, leaving a little space between each one. Eat the broken ones along the way:

Fill the holes with mini marshmallows. Mallows are surprisingly low cal, so grab a handful as you sprinkle this layer:

Mix the brownie mixture and stir in the pecans. Pour the mixture over the top of the other layers.

Bake for 30-40 mins, or until a fork comes out (almost) clean – you still want them to be a little bit gooey.

Have your glass of milk ready for when these come out of the oven and prepare yourself – you will be surprised how many of these you can eat in one sitting. Speaking of eating 12 brownies in one sitting – for your friends’ sake I would save these for celebration rather than commiseration, they could end up making break ups, exam weeks and PMS even worse than the usual 2 gallons of ice cream.

Chocolate Pie

I think the stigma against chocolate pie lies in the name. We all remember those cafeteria pies that you would choke down at the end of lunch at school, constantly reminding yourself “this is supposed to be a treat, so eat it”. It is for this reason that I will defer to my dad for this recipe and from here on out refer to it as “tarte au chocolat”. Everything sounds better en français, n’est-ce pas?

This tarte is essentially an indulgent flourless chocolate cake encased in a piecrust. But the best part is that the middle stays rich and gooey – like the world's best brownie. 

Chocolate Pie

1 premade piecrust (Pillsbury or just generic – the uncooked kind though)

2 100g bars of dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa - says on the bottom of the bar)

2 100g bars of milk chocolate

2 sticks of unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

4 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease the pan. Roll out the piecrust and place it in your pie pan. Prick the bottom all over with a fork. Line the piecrust with a piece of foil and fill with uncooked rice or beans (just something to weigh it down). Cook the piecrust for 12 mins in the oven.  Remove foil and rice.

Meanwhile fill a pot about ¼ way with water and simmer. Place a heat proof bowl on top of the pot to make a double boiler. Melt the chocolate in the bowl – keep stirring so it doesn’t burn. Taste the chocolate with your finger or a piece of nearby fruit (essential). 

When chocolate is melted add the butter. Then when the butter is melted remove the bowl from heat, and stir in the sugar and the eggs. Mix until thick. Pour the chocolate mixture into the piecrust. Bake for 20-25 mins. When you take it out the middle might look a little wobbly – but it will harden when the pie cools.

Serve with ice cream.

I brought one of these pies over to an apartment of four guys last night and have since been ejected into university wide fame and popularity. I highly suggest you follow suit.