Cookbook # 76 Best of the Best Cookbook Recipes Volume 12/ Lemon Pull-Apart Coffee Cake

Cookbook #76.  Already?!?!  Okay so after a few years maybe I should be farther along but sometimes it's a marathon not a sprint and just making it to the finish line is an accomplishment.  I say that so I feel better about slacking and it really kind of works.  Just saying.

Best of the Best is a cookbook series put out by Food and Wine magazine and it highlights 25 of the year's best cookbooks and recipes from each.  Since they don't put a year on the cover, it's hard to tell what year this is...I just know that I have the Bobby Flay Grill It cookbook so it's from whatever year that cookbook came out(2008 or 2009?). I kind of like that it doesn't have a year...sometimes I see my Martha Stewart Livings with their 2002 year and wonder if they should still be on my bookshelf.  Not sure why really.

If you like those annual compilation CDs like that give you just a taste of the best of the best--this is the cookbook equivalent.  If you are not a cookbook collector, having one cookbook that highlights some top cookbooks and recipes seems rather fun. Included in this volume are:

1. The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet

2. Secrets of the Red Lantern by Pauline Nguyen
3. Bottega Favorita by Frank Stitt
4. Heirloom Cooking with the Brass Sisters by Marilynn and Sheila Brass
5. Urban Italian by Andrew Carmellini
6. Osteria by Rick Tramonto
7. Baking for All Occasions by Flo Braker
8. Big Night In by Domenica Marchetti
9. The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever by Beatrice Ojakangas
10. Giada’s Kitchen by Giada De Laurentiis
11. Grill It! by Bobby Flay
12. Screen Doors and Sweet Tea by Martha Hall Foose
13. Mediterranean Fresh by Joyce Goldstein
14. Italian Grill by Mario Batali
15. Cuisine a Latina by Michelle Bernstein
16. Olives and Oranges by Sara Jenkins
17. The Complete Robuchon by Joel Robuchon
18. Sweet! by Mani Niall
19. Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito
20. The Book of New Israeli Food by Janna Gur
21. Chanterelle by David Waltuck and Andrew Friedman
22. A16 Food and Wine by Nate Appleman and Shelly Lindgren
23. Jewish Home Cooking by Arthur Schwartz
24. Home Cooking with Charlie Trotter by Charlie Trotter
25. 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

I have quite a few stickies in this cookbook and there is a recipe for a scallop caprese salad I am dying to try once I can wrap my mind around any food costing 18.99 a lb. So instead, I chose a recipe from Baking for All Occasions by Flo Braker....Lemon Pull Apart Coffee Cake.  Lemons cost 3 for a dollar around these desert parts.

Not sure why this is called a coffee cake.  Truly it's more like a bread or even cinnamon buns.  In fact, after I made this batch, I couldn't help wonder if this wouldn't be just as fabulous with cinnamon and brown sugar instead of lemon. 

It looks a bit time consuming, but if you throw the dough in the Kitchen-Aid mixer, the "effort" is really just in rolling out the dough.  From there you brush with butter, cut into strips, sprinkle the lemon sugar, stack, stuff in pan and let rise.

I use the word "stuff" into the pan and suggest you really stuff it.  I placed it nicely in the pan.  And while it looks all lovely at first....

It looked a lot like this coming out of the oven.  Okay, it looked exactly like this actually.  Just keeping it real here people.  Baking is an adventure each and every time.

Just like Beyonce, we have to be survivors.  I grabbed some kitchen shears and chopped all the crazy tops off and topped with frosting.  Cream cheese frosting hides quite a bit. 

The result?  Kind of like a cinnamon role in texture and especially with the cream cheese.  And like cinnamon rolls, I really only wanted to eat the frosting laden parts.  I think the lemon was a bit subtle...I'd go as far as adding lemon peel to the dough.  But I did love the idea of the pull-apart bread and will definitely give it another try.

Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake

Sweet Yeast Dough
About 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast/1 packet
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup whole milk
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Lemon Sugar Filling
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest (3 lemons)
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted

Cream Cheese Icing
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon whole milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Mix two cups (nine ounces) flour, the sugar, yeast, and salt in a medium bowl with a rubber spatula. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan or in the microwave, combine the milk and the butter and heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat, add the water, and let rest a minute until just warm (120 to 130°F). Stir in the vanilla extract.

Pour the milk mixture over the flour-yeast mixture and, using a rubber spatula, mix until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Attach the bowl to the mixer, and fit the mixer with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition just until incorporated. Stop the mixer, add 1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) of the remaining flour, and resume mixing on low speed until the dough is smooth, 30 to 45 seconds. Add 2 more tablespoons flour and mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth, soft, and slightly sticky, about 45 seconds.

Lightly flour a work surface and knead the dough gently until smooth and no longer sticky, about one minute. Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons of flour only if the dough is too sticky to work with. Place the dough in a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size. An indentation made with your finger should keep its shape.

Meanwhile, make the lemon sugar filling. Mix the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan.

Gently deflate the dough with your hand. Flour a work surface and roll the dough into a 20″ by 12″ rectangle.  Also sure both sides are floured, so that the dough will be easy to lift up later. Use a pastry brush to spread the melted butter evenly and liberally over the dough.

Use a rolling cutter to cut the dough crosswise in five strips, each about 12″ by 4″. Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon sugar over the first buttered rectangle. Top it with a second rectangle, sprinkling that one with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon sugar as well. Continue to top with rectangles and sprinkle, so you have a stack of five 12″ by 4″ rectangles, all buttered and topped with lemon sugar.

Slice this new stack crosswise, through all five layers, into 6 equal rectangles (each should be 4″ by 2″.) Carefully transfer these strips of dough into the loaf pan, cut edges up, side by side. it might be a little roomy, but the bread will rise and expand after baking. Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place (70 °F) until puffy and almost doubled in size, 30 to 50 minutes. When you gently press the dough with your finger, the indentation should stay.

Bake the loaf until the top is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Mine loaves usually take longer to bake; use a cake tester to make sure it’s done, and cover the top with foil if it is browning too quickly. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the cream cheese icing. Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth, then add the milk and lemon juice. Stir until creamy and smooth.

Flip the loaf over onto a cooling rack, then flip onto another rack so that it’s right side up. Spread the top of the warm cake with the cream cheese icing, using a pastry brush to fill in all the cracks. 

Eat warm or at room temperature.