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Last-Minute Holiday Baking
You still have time to make a sweet-scented gingerbread spiked with fresh ginger and laced with a sugary lemony sauce to serve to the family during the holidays—a perfect way to start the day. Or if you would prefer, bake up this yeast coffee cake and select your filling of preference: friends and family will sit down to a bountiful breakfast or brunch in the next few weeks! Enjoy, and happy holidays:
Grandma’s Gingerbread
Gingerbread is hundreds of years old and one of our early and best-loved sweets, which today we link with the holiday season, expecting that it should appear at least once during the two-month period. Fresh ginger adds to the batter a lively flavor and fragrance unmatched by the ground, dried ginger. It’s an ecumenical bread that pleases everyone regardless of race, creed, or color. Yield: 1 9-x-9-inch gingerbread
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup molasses
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease and flour an 9-x-9-inch cake pan.
Combine the butter, sugar and egg in a large mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the molasses and buttermilk. Combine the dried ingredients and stir them into the batter and beat until smooth.
Spoon the batter into the pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Set on a cooling rack and cool to room temperature or serve hot, if desired with whipped cream or a lemon sauce.
Brailsford’s Christmas Morning Coffee Cake
You can shape this versatile sweet dough into several types of sweet offerings, depending on the type of filling you use, either almond or apricot spreads, jams or jelly, or just brown sugar sprinkled with raisins or dried cramberries or snipped dried fruits.
Yield : 4 coffee cakes
1/2 cup warm water
2 packages active dried yeast
1 1/2 cups warmed milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter plus extra for spreading
7 to 7 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 baking sheets.
Combine the water, yeast, and a pinch of sugar in a large mixing bowl or in the work bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitter with the dough hook attachment. Let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 10 minutes.
Combine the milk, sugar, salt, eggs, and butter with the yeast mixture. Stir in 3 cups of flour until well combined. Beat in the remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, until the dough is no longer sticky. Knead on a lightly floured work surface or with the dough hook for about 10 minutes or until the dough is firm and springy to the touch and no longer clings to the work surface or bowl.
Place the dough in a generously greased bowl and coat the top with butter or shortening. Stand in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Divide the dough into 4 even portions and roll each out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangular shape 1/4 inch thick. Spread the surface with softened butter, and sprinkled with 3 tablespoons cinnamon sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 3/4 cups mixed dried fruits (including raisins, dried cranberries, snipped apricots) and spread evenly on top of the rectangle. Roll the rectangle up firmly jellyroll fashion, starting with the long side. Shape the roll into a circle, and using sharp kitchen shears, snip 6 or 7 slashes into the perimeter of the circle. Fold the snips out so the filling shows and place each circle, or wreath, on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. Bake the wreaths for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden. Remove to a cooling rack and when cool enough to handle, brush with the powdered sugar glaze. Cool completely.
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