Handmade Loaves - Bourbon & Nutmeg Pound Cake

The only problem with picking loaves as the theme for my autumn blogging event was that I had a really hard time deciding what to make myself!  My first thought was to make a yeast bread.  I usually do non-pan loaves when I bake bread, since I'm not that excited by typical sandwich loaves.  However, I seriously considered Dan Lepard's Simple Milk Loaf (posted here by my friend Nancy), since somehow I haven't blogged it even though I've made it many times.  This week ended up being kind of crazy, though, and I spent my day off on Thursday making a fancy birthday cake for a certain young lady who turned 5 on Friday.  Thursday evening I decided to try to throw something together quickly so I wouldn't end up baking at the very last minute.  The other thing I had been considering was pound cake.  I ended up turning to my copy of Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert.  I made several of the variations of her Kamut Pound Cake a couple years ago, but again, never got them posted.  I didn't have an kamut flour in my pantry, so I decided to go with one of the variations.

The version that caught my eye was the Bourbon and Nutmeg Pound Cake.  As I mentioned in another recent post, nutmeg is one of my favorite spices, and this recipe sounded like a good one for fall.  The kamut flour from the original recipe is replaced with either spelt flour (nope, out of that too) or whole wheat flour (yes! I have that!).  I actually used white whole wheat flour.  I also got to use some of my unbleached cake flour blend for the cake flour in the recipe.  

My favorite pound cake recipes are usually the ones that fold melted butter into the batter at the end.  I haven't had much luck with pound cakes using the creaming method.  This recipe doesn't really do either.  Medrich mentions that she adapted the recipe from The Cake Bible, so if you've made cakes from that book, the mixing method will be familiar.  First you whisk together the wet ingredients--milk, bourbon, eggs and vanilla, and set that mixture aside.  Next, you mix together the dry ingredients--flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.  Chunks of butter are added to the dry ingredients, along with a third of the liquids, and the mixture is beaten together for about a minute to develop the structure of the cake.  Then the remaining liquid is added in two additions, beating for about 20 seconds after each addition.  

The recipe calls for an 8" by 4" loaf pan lined with parchment paper, and a bake time of 55 to 65 minutes at 350ºF.  I decided to use the vintage loaf pan that I received from my friend Nancy, which is about 3.5" by 10" and only 2.5" deep.  For others who have similar pans, the bake time is about 40 minutes.  Once the cake was baked, I let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then lifted it out (I let the parchment overhang the sides a bit so I'd have handles) and let it cool completely on a rack.  The next morning I cut it into thick slices and took it to work.  (I did take a few pictures, but it was early in the morning and still dark outside, so they weren't very good.) 

The verdict?  Well, I had to bake a second loaf today to take decent pictures.  I thought I'd have some left from the first loaf that I took to work, but it was pretty well devoured.  I'll take that as a positive review. =)  I really liked it myself--the cake is delicious, with a subtle spice from the nutmeg.  I've made some dry pound cakes in the past, but this one definitely is not.  I really like the slight nuttiness from the whole wheat flour, too.  But don't take my word for it, try it for yourself!  

I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of the book (maybe your local library will have it!)--there are lots of other enticing recipes besides this one.  I was also able to find the recipe on Google Books here.  (The link shows the variations page; the full recipe is on the previous page.)  For those who like to use metric weights, here are the ingredients I used:

30 grams(2 tablespoons) whole milk, at room temperature

15 grams (1 tablespoon) bourbon

3 extra large eggs (what I had--the recipe calls for large)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

100 grams unbleached cake flour blend (KAF)

50 grams white whole wheat flour (KAF)

150 grams granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

185 grams (13 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

For lots of other delicious loaves of many varieties (including some savory ones!), check back later this week for the round-up!

I scream

I mentioned in my last post that although I'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, I'm still baking.  What's really suffered from all the craziness of late is my blog.  I've been making stuff.  I've even taken pictures of a lot of it.  But I've been having trouble writing--I just don't know where to start.  I don't want to just put down a quick review of a recipe (though the occasional one-sentence post can be nice), so I haven't been writing anything at all.  One thing that's really taken a hit is my Tuesdays with Dorie participation.  Okay, I haven't really been keeping up with any of my baking groups, but TWD is the one I really feel bad about.  So I'm trying to get back on track this month, actually writing some blog posts about the stuff I've made.

This week's recipe is Coffee Ice Cream Tart, chosen by Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought.  Ice cream tart sounded yummy, but I had some problems.  Number one, I don't like coffee ice cream.  But Dorie gives options for other flavors, so that was okay.  I recently made a batch of Vanilla Bourbon ice cream to test out my new Madagascar vanilla beans that I got from Beanilla.  (I purchased them myself due to positive reviews from others; I have no connection to them.)  The original recipe is for Double-Vanilla Bourbon ice cream, but I left out the vanilla extract so that the flavor of the vanilla bean would come through more.  Next time I'll try with both bean and extract.  I only used 2 tablespoons of bourbon, and was happy with that--I enjoyed the flavor, but it wasn't overpowering.  

Issue number two, I wasn't excited about the crust.  I don't like almonds all that much.  I also heard from a number of people that they weren't that happy with the crust--that they found it hard to cut when frozen.  So I decided to improvise.  I only wanted a mini tart, and I had just enough dough left over from last week's cookies to make a 4 1/2" mini tart.  Tia of Buttercream Barbie picked the Pecan Powder Puffs for last week.  I made some of the cookies but didn't get a chance to post them, and I only baked one sheet, so I had leftover dough.  I pressed the dough into my mini tart pan, and followed the recipe instructions for baking the tart shell.

Once the tart shell was cooled, I filled it with some of my vanilla ice cream.  I covered the tart with plastic wrap, and stuck in in the freezer overnight.  The next day, I mixed up a little ganache with some chocolate and cream, and drizzled it on top.  I stuck the tart back in the freezer long enough to let the topping firm up.  I tried to unmold the tart before cutting it, but couldn't get the tart ring to release.  Once I cut a small piece, though, it came out with no problem.

The verdict?  I'm happy with the tart, but it really isn't the tart in the recipe. =)   I realized as I was looking back over the recipe that I was supposed to have a layer of chocolate under the ice cream.  Oops. I'm actually not sorry that I skipped it, since I'm happy with the flavors of my tart.  The bourbon and vanilla were good with the pecans and hint of cinnamon in the crust.  The chocolate on top was far enough from the bit of cinnamon in the crust that it didn't bother me.  (I'm not a fan of the chocolate/cinnamon combo.)  I liked the texture of the crust--it held together in the pan, but wasn't too hard to cut with a fork.  

If you'd like to try the real recipe for yourself, head over to Jessica's blog.  And to see how everyone else interpreted this week's recipe, check out the Links.

A sweet anniversary

I meant to do this post yesterday, but with all of the holiday stuff going on, I just didn't get that far.  Yesterday was my blogiversary!  Hard to believe that I've been at this for two years now.  It's pretty amazing when I think about all the neat baking things I've accomplished since I started blogging.  And even better, it's great to think about all the wonderful blogging friends I've made.  Brianna and I made a brief stop at Starbucks yesterday so I could pick up some gift cards.  While we were waiting, she had to look at everything, of course.  One thing that she noticed was a bunch of madeleines displayed by the register.  She took one look and pointed out to me, "You've made those!"  And she's right, though I haven't baked any since we did them for TWD last year.  They're on the long list of new things that I've tried due to the influence of a baking group or blogging event.  It's not that I didn't do a lot to baking before I started blogging, but the interaction with others has definitely inspired me to try so many new things.  I'll talk about some more of them when I get to my year-end wrap-up next week, but there's one that I want to share for today.

I've certainly made lots of Christmas cookies this year, thanks to the 12 Days of Cookies.  I realized that I wanted to do something a little different for the daycare teachers and my employees, since they've already been the recipients of many of the cookies I've made this year.  So I decided to try my hand at some different sorts of candy.  I made fudge and caramels, but wanted something else.  Then one of my new Twitter friends mentioned making pralines.  That reminded me of a recipe in the Martha Stewart Holiday Sweets magazine that I picked up right at the beginning of the holiday season.  Pecan-Sour Cream Pralines sounded like just the right thing.

When I first started blogging, I'd rarely made caramel--maybe once.  It scared me, quite a bit in fact.  But over the past two years, I've made it many times, including here and here, and with very messy results here.  Thanks to all that experience, sugar syrup no longer scares me the way it did.

It helps that I have a great digital thermometer to help me with things that need to be cooked to a certain temperature, as the praline mixture did.  You start by melting a couple tablespoons of butter, then adding white and dark brown sugars and sour cream.  The mixture is brought to a boil, then cooked to a temperature of 240 degrees F.  I can set my thermometer to tell me when it reaches a certain temperature (either when heating up or cooling off).  Much less stressful than having to constantly check the temperature.  Once the mixture is done cooking, you turn off the heat and stir in bourbon and vanilla, which makes it bubble a lot.  Then after a couple minutes, you add the pecans and stir until the mixture starts to turn opaque and thicken a bit.  Working fairly quickly, you drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and let them cool until set, about 30 minutes.

The verdict?  These are really, really good.  Sweet, yes, but the salt helps a bit with that.  I've already made two batches because I gave away most of the first one as well as part of the second.  That's probably a good thing, since I've had to restrain myself to not eat them all.  How can you go wrong with pecans and brown sugar and bourbon? =)  They've been a hit with everyone else who's tried them, as well.  If you'd like to try these for yourself, you can find the recipe here.  I definitely recommend it!