Sour Cream Coffee Cake!!

Bookmark this recipe now! It's so worth a try or two or three or more! It's absolutely delicious! The cake itself is buttery, moist and fluffy. And the cinnamon sugar nutty layers just push that cake to perfection. The crunch of the walnuts goes oh so well with the moistness of the cake(: Ahhh, bake it now! My mouth is watering just from writing this.

I wanted to try this recipe so bad that even though I had way less than 12oz of sour cream in the fridge.. I went ahead with the baking. It came out really good still! So I can't imagine how much more perfect and moist-er this cake can get!

Absolutely divine. You will see me make this cake quite a lot from now on!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
-recipe adapted gimme some oven
- makes one 9x13 or 8x8 pan

Cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar* (I used around 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 (12 oz) container of sour cream* (I used a little less than 8oz)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Cream together butter and sugar.
2. Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream and vanilla. Mix until combined.
5. Then pour half of the batter into a greased 9″x13″ baking pan, and sprinkle with half of the topping.
6. Add the remainder of the batter on top, and sprinkle with the remaining topping.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.



Taste: 5 stars out of 5
Texture: 5 stars out of 5

Sour Cream Yeast Rolls

Hello BLOG! My exhausting spring quarter is officially over! The six hours straight nonstop finals yesterday definitely fried my brain. But anyways, I got one week ahead of me before the craziness resumes. All I am thinking of now is sleep baking! : D

First post of spring break-



Sour Cream Yeast Rolls
recipe from Real Mom Kitchen
- makes a dozen rolls

2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons butter, divided (2 tablespoon if you want to skip the brushing at the end)
1 egg

1. In a large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a small saucepan, heat the sour cream, water and 2 tablespoons butter to 120°-130°; add to dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add egg and 1/2 cup flour; beat 2 minutes longer. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.
2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into 12 pieces. Shape each into a ball. Place in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.
4. Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Melt remaining butter; brush over rolls. Remove from pan to a wire rack.


^my best attempt at capturing the fluffy-ness of the rolls.

*I made some minor adjustments to the recipe.. might have substituted some bread flour for the AP flour? (I will need to note it as soon as I find my recipe notebook :P) All in all.. this recipe is GREAT! Super fluffy and soft rolls. The sour cream definitely added something extra, maybe more spring-yness and lightness, to these dinner rolls!

This will be my go- to recipe when I need to make some dinner rolls for a potluck or something(:

-Taste: 5 stars out of 5
Nothing I can nit pick on. Simple goodness. Hehe.
-Texture: 5 stars out of 5 ♥♥♥♥♥
Note: these rolls remained soft and fluffy for 2-3 days in room temperature! Definitely best when consumed the day of.

ENJOY!
p.s. I feel like making some tofu cheesecake next! Anyone got a good recipe?

Sour Cream Pound Cake (failed)

Sour Cream Pound Cake
recipe from vondelicious
- makes a 8x4x2 inch or 9x5x3 inch loaf pan
(I wanted to try out my new mini loaf pan from Daiso. That's why I separated the batter into two pans and resulted in ultra thin pound cakes)

1/2 cup (113g) butter (I reduced it to 90g)
1 cup sugar (I decreased it by a bit)
3 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream/yoghurt
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Allow butter, eggs and sour cream (or yoghurt) to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, grease and lightly flour a 8x4x2 inch or 9x5x3 inch loaf pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and baking soda; set aside
2. In a mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric miser on medium to high speed for 30 secs. Gradually add sugar, beating about 10 minutes or until very light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition and scraping bowl frequently. Alternately add flour mixture and sour cream (or yoghurt) to butter mixture, beating on low to medium speed after each addition until well combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in a 325oF (160oC) oven for 60 to 75 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool.

_______________________________________________

Failed? A mere comparison with Sara Lee's infamous rich- buttery- goodness pound cake led to my conclusion that my chewy sour cream pound cake was an utter failure.


^THEY ARE LIKE BRICKS!

Who doesn't love Sara Lee's pound cake! Buttery. Smooth. Silky. Refined. Velvety. HEAVENLY! And how was my pound cake? Chewy. Firm. Rough. Sad. The inside of the cake looked and sort of tasted under- baked. ):

The.. one two things I am okay with about this pound cake is the strong egg-y taste, which reminded me of those paper wrapped sponge cake in Asian bakeries, and the crust. The crust has got to be the best part of this cake. It got a slight toasty taste to it. I simply love crusts of every sort. Maybe I should cut the crust off. Eat that. Re- bake it and get a "new" crust.. and so on. Haha?


^Looks like mochi cake or something.

I am strongly suspecting that the sour cream has something to do with this mishap since my blueberry crumb cake, which also used sour cream, turned out on the chewy side. Maybe a Sara Lee- like pound cake can only be made with pure "pound" of butter? I don't know. I will find out when I get my hand on one of those recipe. Sara Lee's has the best pound cake in my opinion.

**EDIT: Over- beating the batter! That's my final verdict on the chewy end result. The directions asked for one minute of beating after each egg addition and extra beating after the flour and sour cream addition as well. At the time, I thought that was really excessive but I carried it out nonetheless because I have no better idea. DO NOT OVERBEAT A CAKE BATTER! WHY?

Overbeating the butter can soften it too much, which will diminish its ability to trap air.
Overbeating the eggs whips in too much air and creates tunnels in the cake.
Overbeating once the flour has been added, promotes gluten formation and toughens the cake.

(according to baking911.com)

Sorry, sour cream. I don't think it's your fault after all. I shall try this recipe out again with less and more careful beating.