June ABC challenge: strawberry cream cheese coffee cake

The challenge this month was breakfast/brunch.  My favorite!  I used up some leftover frozen strawberries by making half the original recipe.

Here's what I used:

Strawberry Filling

3/4 cup frozen strawberries, thawed, drained, and cut into pieces

1½ tablespoons sugar

1½ teaspoons water

3/4 teaspoon cornstarch

Cream Cheese Filling

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/8 cup sugar

1/2 large egg

Butter Cake & Crumb Topping

1 cup all purpose flour

3/8 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, cold and cut into chunks

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/8 cup sour cream (full fat)

1/2 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the strawberry filling, mix the strawberries and sugar in a pan. Cook briefly over low heat to warm (until the strawberries release their juices if using fresh, about 5 minutes). In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and water to make a slurry, then add to the strawberries and stir until well combined. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another minute or two until it has thickened. Let cool to room temperature.

For the cream cheese filling, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar and ½ egg and beat until well combined.  Set aside.

For the cake, combine the flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Measure out 3/8 cup of the mixture and set aside. Add the baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix well. In another bowl, beat the sour cream, ½ egg, and vanilla extract until well blended. Add to the flour mixture and stir gently until just incorporated. Spread the dough in a greased 8 x 4" or 9 x 5" pan that's at least 1.5 inches deep, patting down with damp fingers if necessary. Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the dough, then top with the strawberry jam. (Avoid letting the jam touch the edges of the pan to prevent sticking.) Sprinkle the reserved 3/8 cup crumbs over the strawberry filling. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack at least 20 minutes before slicing.

 

I had some difficulty deciding what pan to use.  I used a 9 x 5" loaf pan, so my cake was a little thinner than the original, and I think the high sides prevented proper browning on top.  Also, turned out the oven was at 375F for the first 20 minutes; I turned it down to 350 and baked it another 5, which was just the right amount of time.  It might need a little longer for a 350F oven, especially if it's a thicker cake.  The pan I used was non-stick and very slick, but I greased it anyway and the slice came right out.  The original recipe calls for a pan with a removable bottom, which would make for a nicer presentation but isn't necessary to get the cake free.

Conclusion:  This was much lighter than you might expect, and not too sweet.  (The cake part tasted just like a cinnamon streusel coffee cake my mom used to make.)  Very good.

Recipe:  Strawberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake via Food Wanderings (adapted from a blueberry version on Annie's Blog)

Blueberry Buttermilk Bars

Leftover buttermilk and fresh blueberries.  Here we go.

I like recipes to be made up of different textures and flavors and not be the same throughout.  For this I wanted the sweetness to be in the filling, not in the crust, so I reduced the sugar in the crust and added some to the filling.

Here's what I used:

Crust
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sea or kosher salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

Filling
1½ tablespoons cornstarch
1½ cups buttermilk
4 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
1 2 pinches sea or kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1½ cup fresh blueberries

Line an 8x8 inch baking pan with foil.  Put the flour, sugar, cornmeal, cornstarch and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to blend. Add our cubes of butter a few at a time until you have a moist dough that forms big crumbs. Dump the dough into the baking dish and press into the bottom of the pan - as evenly as you can. Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees F. While the oven is preheating, put the dish in the freezer or fridge to keep the butter in it cold.  Bake the crust for 25 minutes, until it’s golden brown - and I mean golden, like, more than you would think for pre-baking. You want the crust crisp and able to hold up to a custard and the juice expelled from the blueberries, so make sure you cook it long enough. Put the pan on a cooling rack and cool it completely.

Meanwhile, make the filling.  Place the cornstarch in a small bowl and pour over 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Stir it until the cornstarch dissolves. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl until foamy. Add the sugar and immediately start whisking vigorously. Whisk in the salt and vanilla, then whisk in the slurry. When the slurry is fully incorporated, stir in the remainder of the buttermilk, followed by the melted butter. Scatter the blueberries over the crust and then pour on the topping. The blueberries will move all over the place when you pour the custard in,  so try to push them back around to distribute evenly if you can, this can get annoying so don't sweat it. Bake the bars for 42 to 45 minutes, until the topping is puffed all the way to the center, brown around the edges and firm everywhere. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 20 minutes at least. Pull the foil and lift out of the pan to finish cooling.

In a word, these were disappointing.  (I was skeptical when I saw some of the ingredients and the mixing directions, and was convinced that the originator didn't actually make these and doesn't know a lot about recipe development.  Then I found out the recipe developer was Dorie Greenspan. Hmmm.) The use of so much cornmeal plus the corn starch in the crust gave it an unpleasant crumbly, gritty texture that tasted strongly of corn.  The directions to bake it until it's "really golden" left me with a brown crust, not one that gradually blended into the pale filling as shown in her photos.  The filling is made with liquids, so I don't know why the elaborate ordering, including the reference in the original that sugar "burns" the eggs such that they'll form a film if you don't whisk vigorously.  Never heard that before and never had it happen.  Aside from mixing the corn starch in a little liquid to start, it can all be thrown in together.  I poured the filling into the pan first and then added the blueberries--- no repositioning required.  (They float.  Anyway, if you use enough, they fill the space.)  If I were keeping this recipe, I'd rewrite the directions to be more sensible, but I won't be making these again.

I had to bake the bars an extra 25 minutes.  The center never did puff up, but the edges were starting to look burned and the whole thing was firm.  The end result was berries in a soft custard.  (I think there was too much milk.)  There's no way those ingredients were going to produce the blond-brownie-looking bars the originator posted, with clear teeth marks in every bite.  You need something with substance to do that, and 1½ tablespoons of cornstarch wasn't going to do it.  (However, by the next day, they did firm up and I could get clean cut edges.)

            

Hers

Mine

Conclusion:   I thought this recipe was the creation of someone who doesn't know how to write a recipe and wouldn't admit to a failure.  This is one bookmark I can remove.

Recipe:  Blueberry Buttermilk Pie Bars via Kate the Baker, from Dorie Greenspan's Cookies.