Bittman Mondays – Quick Cardamom Coffee Cake

I am quite relieved to say this Bittman Monday went a lot better than last week’s inaugural installment.  In fact, this coffee cake was a perfect complement to a lovely Sunday morning!  No yeast issues, no weeping at the lack of dough rise.  No sir!  Just the taste of victory, which coincidentally tastes of cardamom and walnuts.  But victory required a little adjusting and a little tweaking and perhaps a few choice words uttered at the cook book…some of which may or may not have rhymed with duck.

As a disclosure, I will take you through the process I went through when making all my Bittman Monday recipes.  However, for exact measurements, please refer to Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything”…I don’t want to get sued for you guys!

I’m starting to learn a few things about How to Cook Everything.  For one, Bittman’s writing style is very conversational, giving you the sense he’s actually in the kitchen with you.  He also covers a lot of ground in this book…going from kitchen equipment to clean up.  It’s a wonderful reference for the novice cook, especially those just starting to stock their kitchens.  For others who are more advanced cooks, a lot of these sections can come across as useless or even unnecessary…if you want to be like that.  Although a lot of his tips were things I already knew, I dutifully read through some of the sections and learned a few new tricks.

But there are some things I have noticed that are less than stellar.  For instance, I have already made six recipes from this book…and only one would be declared a hit.  The cinammon buns fell flat (as we all know); the cornbread I made was a little on the chewy side; the hummus didn’t taste any better than store bought (I had to go searching online for a different Bittman hummus recipe for the savory tuiles); and we won’t even go into the pancake debacle.  The common denominator in each of these recipes?  Had I listened to the little voice in my head (she sounds like Martha Stewart by the way…which is kind of scary), the recipes would have turned out well.  Like when I read the recipe for the cornbread, I thought to myself, “Hmmmm…that size skillet is going to make a rather flat cornbread.”  But instead of going with a smaller size like I should have, I followed the recipe faithfully…and the cornbread was a thin mess.  I sensed the hummus would be improved with a different ratio of chickpeas to liquid, but once again, I ignored that thought and plowed on.  The result?  A grainy, less than flavorful dip that I wouldn’t have served to Scout and Roo, let alone guests.

So when I got to this recipe, I decided to give it a try but to follow my instincts.  When I added the egg and milk and the batter was way too thick to “pour into the pan” as the recipe suggested, I added another half of an egg and continued on.  I also decided to use a loaf pan as opposed to the nine inch square pan he called for in the recipe.  I adjusted the baking times accordingly and the coffee cake was a success!  Then it hit me…Bittman really doesn’t mean for you to follow all of these recipes faithfully.  These are guidelines to help you along…to help you become a more self reliant cook.  So he really is teaching me how to cook everything!

This is an easy recipe to make your own…he even offers a few alternative suggestions for the basic recipe.  I opted to take his suggestion of replacing the cinnamon with cardamom and it gave the cake a more complex profile of flavors.   You could also easily throw in a cup of seasonal fruit into the batter (fresh blueberries would be a fantastic touch).  The recipe is so versatile, you could do just about anything to it and with a simple adjustment of baking time, it would work.

As with most coffee cakes, you start with making a strudel topping of flour, sugar, nuts and a spice (like cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg or even allspice).  Add cubes of cold butter and using your hands, meld all the ingredients together until you get a mealy type texture.  Set this aside and go on to make the batter.

Sift together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder, along with the remaining amount of spice you used in the strudel topping.

Cut up the cold butter into small cubes and add them to the dry ingredients.  Using the same method when you made the strudel topping, incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients using your hands.

Once you’ve achieved the mealy texture, add the egg and stir.

Now add the milk and stir until everything is mixed well together.  Have ready either a greased nine inch square pan OR loaf pan.  Pour half of the batter into the pan.

Sprinkle the batter with half of the strudel topping.  Note:  if you use a loaf pan, you may not need to use all of the strudel topping.  Sprinkle enough of the topping over the batter to completely cover the batter.

Pour the remaining batter over the topping.

Then sprinkle the remaining topping over the batter.  Again, if you use a loaf pan, only use enough topping to completely cover the batter.

Bake for 30 minutes if you use the square pan and for at least 50 minutes if you use the loaf pan or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Remember, this is a great recipe to play with, so throw in your favorite ingredients!  Heck, I was considering throwing in some chocolate chips but thought it may be too sweet.  Just make sure to trust your instincts…it’s only bread after all!

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