Baking Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cakes

Another month, another Daring Baker's Challenge! This month's tasty treat? Coffee Cake... but not just any ol' coffee cake. Meringue, chocolate and pecan-Filled Coffee Cake with a yeasted (read: raised to fluffy, heavenly perfection) dough. 

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. We were given two recipes to choose from, and here's the one I chose:

Jamie's Coffee Cake
Dough Ingredients:
4 cups flour

¼ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon salt

1 package active dried yeast
¾ cup whole milk

¼ cup water
½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature

2 large eggs at room temperature

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1½ cups flour, the sugar, salt and yeast. In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter over medium heat until the butter is just melted. With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed. (P.S. This is what the original recipe said, "sexy dough!" I did my best...)

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate
* Note- I also added 1 cup cinnamon chips because I find them DELICIOUS.


Directions: 
In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately. Also, I chopped my pecans, and chocolate and cinnamon chips in my food processor for uniform size.

Meringue Ingredients:

3 large egg whites at room temperature
 (reserve the yolks for the egg wash)

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ cup sugar

Directions:
Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue. In a clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:
Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

Using a sharp knife, make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch intervals. Don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings. Cover the coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Egg wash: 
1 beaten egg (I used the left-over egg yolks from the meringue)
Cocoa powder (optional) & 
Powdered sugar for dusting cakes (also optional- I sprinkled mine with cinnamon and sugar, and crystallized date bits.

Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper (or Silpat mats) off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes onto cooling racks. 

Just before serving, dust the tops of the coffee cakes with confectioner’s sugar as well as cocoa powder if using chocolate in the filling. These are best eaten fresh, the same day or the next day.

So how did this taste? I typed most of this post with one hand while enjoying a left-over piece of coffee cake this morning. I read in Mimi's post, that Mr. Mimi didn't care for chocolate in his breakfast breads, and my husband said the same thing. However, we gave the second coffee cake to the family moving into the house next door, and one of their boys said it was perfect the way it was and complemented me on using Nutella in the coffee cake!?! There was no Nutella in this recipe but he may be onto something. Maybe next time kid... 

The only draw back (for me) with this recipe, was length of time. I can't imagine what hour I would need to wake up to have these ready for breakfast- only because I have a "slow-rising dough" curse over me. Even though I used "rapid-rise" dried yeast, it still took my dough almost two hours to double in size (and that was sitting on top of my warm oven!) When I use regular yeast, my dough rises in about 4-5 hours!! So the Mister and I enjoyed this coffee cake around 3:00pm yesterday afternoon- which is not a bad time of day for coffee cake... but it's not a breakfast hour by any means. Regardless, it was VERY tasty and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to try this recipe! Thanks again Daring Bakers!