Housewarming Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Last week two very good friends of mine moved into a new apartment, and it's about time! For a year they have been living in a studio smaller than a dorm room. It was always fun going over, but it usually involved sitting on their bed to watch a movie, or crowding around one side of a desk to eat sushi, which is not fun. But those days are long gone. I went over on Saturday night to see their new place and, as is tradition, have some sushi. With the exception of the extensive stenciling done by the previous owner, it is very cute and very spacious. Not only is it spacious, it has an amazing kitchen with all the cabinets a girl could dream of, and this girl can dream! I guess it's a good thing they have a great kitchen because my friend has a blog. Actually, her blog, Fully Baked, was a big push for me to finally start one. So I thought it was only right that I would bring along a baked good for them to enjoy. 

We have had cupcake wars before, which she won with her amazing Boston Cream Cupcakes, so I thought I would make something that nothing could compete with. In the end I made them a Cinnamon Swirl Cake which, when drizzled with a vanilla glaze, tasted just like a Cinnnabon. I only had a small sliver, but it was delish. I left them lots of leftovers so they could have some yummy cake with their morning coffee.

 I substituted sugar coated pecans for roasted pecans, which was an awesome idea, if I may so myself. 


Cinnamon Swirl Bread
taken from Mangio da Sola

1 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk (or soy milk)
1/3 cup cooking oil


Cinnamon mixture
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup sugar

Vanilla Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp milk (or soy milk)
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional, I would use a little less)


Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a loaf pan. Mix together the ingredients for the cinnamon mixture and set aside.
Mix 1 cup of sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl beat the egg and then stir in the milk and oil. Make a well in the flour mixtures and then add the egg mixture. Stir until just mixed, making sure not to overmix.
Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon mixture. Repeat.
With a wide spatula, swirl the mixtures together with a circular motion up and down.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until done. Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, and then pop it out and let it completely cook on a wire rack.
Once cool mix the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the top.
Enjoy!

For a girl allergic to chocolate

This past Shabbat my room mate and I decided to stay in, for the third week in a row. Her reasoning was "I'm in the middle of finals and I dont have to the energy to travel for Shabbat." My reasoning was "I'm too lazy to go anywhere so I'll just stay home." And so we found ourselves together again for a very romantic evening of schnitzel, carrot kugel, anagrams and rummikub. She had invited a few friends over for lunch, of whom one happened to be allergic to chocolate. Allergic to chocolate?!?!?!?! How does she ever find fulfillment in life? Doesn't she feel like something is missing?

I have a friend who gripes about the obsession with chocolate desserts. "There are so many options other than chocolate, yet people always want something with chocolate!" she cries. And it's true, if you look at her blog you will find very little chocolate desserts but a multitude of fruity confections. So after getting over the initial shock of a life without chocolate, I mosied on over to her blog, For the Love of Bread, to search for a suitable dessert. After some browsing I found an Apricot Nectarine Buckle, perfect to use up all of my slightly overripe apricots hanging out in the fridge.

I found that the batter wasnt enough so I made another half-batch.

Don't the pieces of fruit look just like gems?

I may have pushed the fruit down a little to hard as well, but I liked the surprise of finding a chunk of apricot in the cake, rather than on top.

Apricot Nectarine Buckle

adapted from Williams-Sonoma (and taken from For the Love of Bread) 

3-4 apricots

3-4 nectarines

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 sticks margarine or butter, softened

1 cup sugar plus more for sprinkling

2 eggs

Preheat your oven to 180C. Grease a 9 inch springform pan and set aside.

Slice the fruit. The recipe calls for slicing the nectarines into fourths and the apricots into thirds, but I didn't do well in math so I just sliced 'em up willy nilly.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a separate bowl beat the margarine and sugar together until uniform and creamy.

Add the vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the flour mixture all at once and mix to form a thick batter.

Spread batter into the prepared pan and then top with the fruit, gently pressing them down into the batter (or harder if you want fruity surprises like me!) Sprinkle some sugar on top and bake until golden, about 45 minutes. Don't forget to rotate, especially if you have a weird European oven like me, which tends to be MUCH hotter in the back.

Enjoy!

The school year is done, REJOICE!

June is finally over. In Israel the school year starts September 1st and runs all the way through to June 30th, ten whole months. While children in America are out on break mid-June, some even in May, here in Israel they continue to go to school as temperatures, humidity levels, and tempers skyrocket. Nobody, neither student nor teacher, wants to be in a sweltering classroom with a faulty air conditioner. Tel Aviv summers are especially brutal, which is why I will be spending this one in an office with the holy grail, central air.  

No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air.

In my opinion the above can be applied to these Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins. And ten points if you can tell me who said it...

The manager of my branch of the English school is leaving so we had a goodbye party for her. She asked me to make something for her party, and after some diligent research on Tastespotting, I found these amazing Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins.

Naked little muffins waiting to be dipped in buttery, sugary goodness

While being slightly more labor intensive than most baked goods I have attempted, it was well worth it. They were delicious, and very, very bad for you. But, as long as I choose to ignore the fact that they are soaked in butter and then rolled in cinnamon sugar, the deliciousness far outweighs the cholesterol. They were so good that the hostess asked me to leave her a few for breakfast the following morning, and I graciously obliged.

It's okay, I didn't let them drown, I'm a trained junior lifeguard

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins

adapted from Kokocooks

¾ c sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ c vegetable oil
¾ c milk
1 tsp vanilla

Cinnamon Sugar Topping (I tripled the topping, and I would suggest you do too)

2 Tbs melted butter

3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C.  Lightly coat a muffin tin with non-stick spray. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and egg. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Pour dry mixture into the egg mixture and stir to combine. Add vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla, stirring until just combined.

Divide batter evenly into muffin tin, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes clean, about 15-18 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove muffins from tin. Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave. In another small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Dip the muffin first into the butter and then roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Enjoy!