How could I have got to the age that I am and never tasted a blondie?! To be honest, I’d never even heard of them until fairly recently. From the photos of them that I’ve seen, they look like something I’d really enjoy. That’s why I’ve decided to make a batch of pecan blondies for this week’s Cakes & Bakes.
Blondies are US tray bake rectangles similar to brownies. Where they differ, is that the former contain no cocoa and have brown sugar and vanilla instead. Apparently, from what I’ve discovered online, as well as pecans, they can be made with walnuts, chocolate chips or coconut.
The addition of the aforementioned soft brown sugar gives the blondies an amazing caramel… butterscotch… toffee flavour and smell. Similar to brownies, my pecan blondies were soft and gooey with a slightly crunchy crust around the edges.
They go down a treat with an espresso or mug of strong coffee. Tomorrow, I might try a piece warmed up with ice cream or pouring cream… or both!
Line a 20cm2/8-inch2 baking tin with parchment paper
Whisk together the butter, brown sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl
Whisk in the egg and vanilla
Toss the pecan halves in the flour and set them aside
Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and fold in using a spatula
Fold in the chopped pecans
Spoon the dough into the prepared tin and level out and into the corners
Lay the floured pecan halves across the top, spaced evenly apart
Bake for 30 minutes until the edges begin to turn brown and come away from the sides of the tin
Remove from the oven and allow the square to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack
Lift the square out of the pan and onto a chopping board or work surface and cut into 8 equal pieces
Tip: Toss the pecan halves in flour to stop them from sinking during baking.Instead of pecans, you could use walnuts, chocolate chips or dessicated coconut
This Farmer’s wife’s pecan cookies recipe is taken from Maida Heatter’s Cookies book. Heatter is an award-winning American chef and author who specialises in cakes, cookies and desserts. She’s 102-years-old – so she must be cooking and eating something right!
I chose it as this week’s Cakes & Bakes dish because they could be made in a jiffy. We’ve been away from home for a spell – spending a few days in rural Wales – returning yesterday afternoon.
The recipe makes 36 cookies – way too many for the two of us. Rather than scaling the recipe down, I’ve reserved & refrigerated about half the cookie dough. When the 15 that I’ve baked off have been eaten (the way things are going, it may be as soon as tomorrow) I can rustle up another batch in about a quarter of an hour. They’re absolutely delicious – and perfect with tea, coffee or glass of milk.
If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it
Instructions
Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside
Cut the butter into 2½cm/1" pieces and place in a heavy 2- to 3-litre (70-105 fl oz) saucepan. Melt slowly over a low heat, stirring occasionally.
Remove from the heat and, with a heavy wooden spoon, stir in the sugar, then the vanilla and the egg
Add the sifted dry ingredients, stirring until smooth
Mix in the chopped pecans
Transfer to a small bowl for ease in handling
Use a rounded teaspoon of dough for each cookie. Place them 5cm/2” apart on the sheets
Place a pecan half on each cookie, pressing it gently and lightly into the dough
Bake for 12-14 minutes, reversing the position of the sheets top to bottom and front to back to ensure even browning. When baking only one sheet at a time, use the higher rack
With a wide, metal spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool
Notes
These will rise during baking and then will settle down. They should be medium brown - don't underbake
I’m back on the cake-baking wagon with this sourdough cinnamon pecan coffee cake. It commemorates another Sourdough September.
Last year was the first year that I didn’t put my starter into hibernation for the winter… and it survived! I’ve learned a trick for keeping the conditions favourable for the wild yeasts to prosper even though our kitchen is cold. Every time I refreshed it, I put my jar of starter in the microwave alongside a mug of boiling water and shut the door (without ever turning it in, of course). I use the same method for proofing my loaves if I’m not doing a long, overnight rise.
Anyway – back to this week’s cake. I found this recipe in my Cultures for Health recipe book. The recipe is called a sourdough cinnamon pecan coffee cake… but there was no coffee in the list of ingredients. Perhaps the cake is meant to be a cinnamon pecan cake to have WITH coffee. Nevertheless, I added a couple of heaped tablespoonfuls of fine ground espresso to the mix. I also used half pecans and half Brazil nuts (as I didn’t have enough pecans in the cupboard!).
My decision was a stroke of genius – the coffee really worked – it added an extra layer of flavour. It’s a moist, sweet, sour, spiced, nutty, tasty cake that really suits the cooler autumn clime. I love the edges where the sugar and nuts came together to form a chewy caramel crust.
175g/6oz whole cane sugar (Muscovado, Rapadura or Sucanat)
1 tbsp plain white flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
60g/2oz softened butter
125g/4½oz chopped pecans & Brazil nuts
For the cake batter
115g/4oz softened butter
255g/9oz honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
150g/5oz sourdough starter
60ml/2 fl oz milk
275g/10oz plain white flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp sea salt
240g/8½oz thick buttermilk or sour cream
Add ingredients to shopping list
If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it
Instructions
Grease a 23x33cm/9x13-inch glass baking dish; set aside. Preheat oven to 175ºC/350°F/Gas mark 4
Mix pecan topping ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside
In a larger bowl, stir honey and butter together until well blended. Stir in vanilla extract, sourdough starter, milk and eggs
Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl
Using an electric hand mixer, stir flour into sourdough mixture alternating with buttermilk until the batter is smooth
Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the topping. Cover with remaining half of batter and sprinkle remaining topping over top
Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes until a skewer inserted in centre of the cake comes out clean
Notes
Serve warm or cold plain or with cream or vanilla ice cream
The past few things I’ve made for the weekly Cakes & Bakes post have been pretty easy and speedy. Today’s coconut pecan cake is also pretty easy – however, the multiple stages take that little bit longer.
If you’re in the mood to spend a lazy, rainy morning baking this is a great cake to try. The recipe is the work of Dolester Miles (or ‘Dol’ as she prefers) who last month (May 2018) won the prestigious James Beard Foundation pastry chef award.
If you’ve not got the luxury of a few hours in a single day, it’s easy to spread the steps over two or three days and bring everything together on the final day.
As the chef (and her recipe) is from Alabama, a couple of the ingredients may be a bit unfamiliar to us Brits. The cream of coconut is the thick, syrupy, sweet tinned stuff that you can use to make piña colada. The sweetened, shredded coconut seems to be similar to the dessicated coconut we get here in the UK, but it appears to be shaved rather finely grated. I used dessicated in the custard filling, but used Tree of Life organic coconut chips in the cake batter and toasted on the top and sides.
I don’t think I’ve incorporated a custard filling into a sponge cake before, it works really well. And I’ll save the recipe for a doughnut filling (when I eventually get round to making those for Cakes & Bakes!).
Once all the component parts have been prepared, it’s simply a case of building up the layers and then coating. I think the colour and textures are very attractive – perfect to display in our recently purchased glass cake dome.
It’s a substantial cake, but light and airy too – coconutty and moist. Absolutely delicious – I’d be very happy if I was served a slice of this in a tea shop!
Here’s Dol making her now-even-more-famous coconut pecan cake!
If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it
Instructions
Heat oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease two 9-inch round cake tins and line the bottom of each with parchment paper
Finely grind the coconut in a food processor, then transfer to a bowl
Add the pecans to the food processor, along with 2tbsps of the sugar, and finely grind together
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt
Stir in the ground coconut and pecans
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, cream of coconut and the remaining sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the bowl as necessary, then beat in the coconut extract
Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the coconut milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture
Divide the batter equally between the tins and smooth the top of each with a spatula
Bake until the cakes are golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean, 30 to 35 minutes
Allow the cakes cool in the tins on a wire rack for 30 minutes
Run a knife around the edge of each cake, invert onto a wire rack and remove the parchment. Allow to cool completely
For the filling
Place the egg yolks into a small, heatproof bowl and set aside
In a saucepan, combine the condensed milk, butter and cream of coconut and cook over a medium-low heat, stirring constantly until hot, about 4 minutes
Whisk ⅓ of the hot milk into the egg yolks
Transfer the egg mixture to the saucepan of milk and whisk constantly over medium-low heat until mixture has the consistency of custard, about 4 minutes. Don't allow the mixture to get too thick
Transfer to a bowl and stir in the shredded coconut. Allow to cool completely
For the syrup
In a saucepan, heat the sugar and water, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved
Remove from the heat
To assemble
Cut each cake in half horizontally
Place one layer in the bottom of a /9-inch cake tin, moisten the top with 2 to 3 tablespoons simple syrup and spread ⅓ of the coconut filling in a thin, even layer with an offset spatula
Repeat to make 2 more layers of cake and filling, then place the last layer on the top
Refrigerate the cake for about 1 hour
To remove, run a spatula around the edges, invert a cake plate over the top, and flip the cake over onto the plate
For the icing
Whip the cream with the icing sugar and coconut extract until stiff peaks form
Spread on the top and sides of the cake and sprinkle with toasted coconut
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Tip: Toss the pecan halves in flour to stop them from sinking during baking.
Instead of pecans, you could use walnuts, chocolate chips or dessicated coconut
