Saturday, March 27, 2010

Sunburst coffee cake & Cornmeal loaves

About a week ago, we attended a Scout fundraiser. It was a chili cook off and baked goods auction. I made chili from a recipe that looked good, but didn't taste that impressive. I didn't have enough time to alter it to satisfy my taste buds. Oh well. I also tackled too much bread that day.

I made oatmeal bread (a previously tasted recipe) for the auction, but I also made a new recipe (cornmeal loaves) at the same time. I put too much bread in the oven and I just didn't pay enough attention to it. One of the oatmeal loaves got overdone so I didn't feel comfortable donating it. It wasn't burned enough that I wouldn't share, so Nathan picked a family and dropped it off. The cornmeal loaves fell horribly. You can see a sad cornmeal loaf next to a beautiful oatmeal loaf.
In the words of a taste-tester, "It's different but good. Definitely a good one for stews/soups but it tasted good with butter also. I don't think sandwiches but something as a side for pasta, stews and soups. Thumbs up. "

The other new recipe I tried for the auction was Sunburst coffee cake. It was more like sweet rolls. I doubled the recipe so I could taste it, and shared some with a couple of neighbors. To make it, you rolled out the dough and cut doughnuts. The doughnut holes got scrunched together in the middle and the doughnuts were arranged around the center. After baking, jam goes in the doughnuts (which have risen to where they don't have holes in the bottom), and icing goes over it all, with yellow sprinkles in the middle.
For the donated one, I re-purposed the red cupcake frosting still in my fridge, and just diluted it to icing consistency. It looked a little more appealing, in my opinion.
I liked it. And of course, I have to give a shout-out to powdered milk. To make the icing for the one we kept, I just estimated everything and shook it up in a pint jar. Powdered milk, water, vanilla, cinnamon (just for fun), and powdered sugar until the consistency seemed right. It made it easy to pour on, and the remaining icing was already in a storage container. :-)

I got burned out that day, and since my life is busy with other things right now, I'm enjoying a short baking break. I have bread in the freezer, so we won't go without.

2 comments:

Jaime said...

Wow. That last one looks very bright, like something out of a Dr. Seuss cartoon.

Amy said...

Sorry you got burned out that day. I'm feeling like that today - not from cooking - just all the tasks of life that pile up. Hopefully I've accomplished enough that I can enjoy the next few days before I have to pack for camping. I'm dreading the packing/planning.

Anyway, I just read the My Year Living on Food Storage blog and was about to try to put that book on hold, then saw that you already tried. Maybe we both should request the book and the library will get it for us. . .