Coffee Cake for Kansas Day and more...

We celebrated Kansas Day this week. Besides a proud heritage from pioneer settlers, Kansas has a interesting history of food facts. For instance: 

At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas. My family would be upset! 

Pizza Hut restaurants opened its first store in Wichita. I believe that building is now on the Wichita State campus as a historical site. 

The graham cracker was named after Reverend Sylvester Graham. He was a minister who strongly believed in eating whole-wheat flour products. 

We usually acknowledge the day with special foods that have some Kansas connection. I took this coffee cake to our church's coffee time last Sunday and it was well liked. Of course, we claim the flour as Kansas grown wheat and the pecans were from the KSU Research Center in southeast Kansas. In the instructions I've noted some tips for preparation and why. 

CINNAMON STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE       

Ingredients:

¾ cup granulated sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup sour cream

Streusel Filling:

3 tablespoons butter, melted

¾ cup packed brown sugar

¾ cup chopped pecans

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preparation:

1.     Preheat oven to 350°F.

2.     In the bowl of a standing mixer or with a handheld mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. (Don’t skimp on this step, the creaming of butter and sugar not only thoroughly mixes the ingredients, the sharp edges of the sugar cut into the butter creating tiny air pockets to make the product lighter)

3.     Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure to fully incorporate before adding the next one(one at a time allows the mixture to thicken and emulsify). Add the vanilla.

4.     In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

5.     Alternately add the flour mixture and the sour cream to the butter until combined. (Additional steps, but it makes a difference. Adding flour all at once could cause the batter to be too thick. Adding liquid all at once could cause the batter to separate.) Start and end with dry ingredients. Stir after each addition, but only until just combined.

6.     In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon and melted butter. Stir to combine well.

7.     Pour half the batter into a greased bundt pan, and smooth down with a spatula as this batter is thick and fluffy.

8.     Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture all over the batter in the bundt pan and pat in down lightly.

9.     Pour in the remaining batter and smooth down with a spatula.

10. Place the bundt pan in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Eating the Kansas Way

Happy Kansas Day, January 29. 156 years ago our state became the 34th state of the United States. We in Kansas are proud of our heritage and celebrate Kansas Day as an 'almost holiday'. Here in our house we do that with food. While most of our meals center around products common in Kansas, it's fun on Kansas Day to consider how much of our food is produced locally.

This year's Kansas meal included sloppy joes (beef from our ranch and whole wheat buns), baked beans, coleslaw, strawberry jello, and apple pie (the pie will be the next blog post). 

The sloppy joe recipe is one I developed for our church Fall Festival last October. The recipes I inherited with the United Methodist Women's box of files just didn't sound right, so with bits of those and some ideas from my own recipe files, we added and tasted and added some more. Luckily I wrote down the additions as we tasted and the end result is a recipe that we'll use again and again. I adapted it from 20 pounds of ground beef to 2 pounds for my family, and that version is what I'm sharing here. 

Beef sloppy joes are the main entree of this Kansas
food meal

UMW SLOPPY JOES

2 pounds ground beef

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup catsup

1 can (6 oz) tomato sauce

1 1/2 Tablespoon brown sugar

1 Tablespoon vinegar (I used Balsamic)

6 oz. tomato paste

Brown ground beef, add additional ingredients and simmer to develop flavor. 

What I discovered: The brown sugar and vinegar make a good balance of sweet/sour flavor. Tomato paste brings a bolder tomato taste to the mixture. Thanks to fellow UMW member Chef Deb for the help in finding the best combination. 

Baked Beans: One can of Pork 'n Beans in the cupboard, how to 'jazz' them up? I cooked bacon in the skillet, crumbled it and added chopped onion. After the onion was sautéed, I added the can of pork 'n beans with a little brown sugar and catsup. Let this reduce and thicken to make a tasty and quick baked beans side. 

Kansas Day Coffee Time

This month is Kansas Day, and for someone who grew up with Kansas history and pride, it is a fun way to decorate the food tables. This Sunday I helped supply refreshments for our church's coffee time after morning service, so I baked (Kansas wheat) and decorated with sunflowers and Wizard of Oz. Even though the Dorothy jokes can get old, it is a fun theme to use.
Two new coffee cake recipes were waiting for trial in my notebook. I think they are both good and I'll use them again. However, both were baked for 50 minutes, and seemed a little dry. Next time I'll watch closer and check at 45 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 ¼ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup 2% milk

1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Topping:

¼ cup sugar

¼ chopped pecans

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions: In a large bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased 9”x13” pan. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over the batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

Streusel Topping:

⅔ cups granulated sugar

pinch of salt (if you use unsalted butter)

¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ tablespoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

1 cup brown sugar, light or dark

1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder (for color, not taste. Optional)

Cake:

¾ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt (1 ¼ teaspoon if using unsalted butter)

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

⅓ cup brown sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

¾ cup plain Greek yogurt (or regular yogurt)

1 ¼ cups milk

3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9”x13” pan.

Make the topping by whisking together sugar, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Add melted butter, stirring until well combined. Set the topping aside.

Make the filling by mixing together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder. Set it aside.

To make the cake:

In a large bowl, beat together butter, salt, sugars, baking powder, and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt and milk until well combined.

Add flour to the butter mixture alternately with milk/yogurt mixture, beating gently to combine.

Pour/spread half the batter (about 3 cups) into the prepared pan, spreading all the way to the edges.

Sprinkle the filling evenly over the batter.

Gently spread the remaining batter over the filling. Use a table knife to gently swirl the filling into the batter, as though you were making a marble cake. Don’t combine the filling and batter thoroughly; just swirl the filling through the batter.

Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.

Bake the cake until it is a dark golden brown around the edges; medium-golden with no light patches showing on top, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55-60 minutes. When pressed gently in the middle, the cake should spring back.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 20 minutes before cutting and serving.