Eenie Meenie Miney Moe!! Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake- Daring Bakers

By Ritu @ritzchocs


In a "celebration" of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we'd like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!



The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I went with Jamie s version.

I want to thank Lisa for giving this opportunity to catch up on all the lost challenges as I have missed out on quite a few. Having seen this meringue filled coffee cake earlier on many blogs I decided to try my hand at making one. 


The cake turned out to be quite amazing. Its easy and fun recipe. The cake is light and fluffy, barely sweet, the meringue miraculously melts into the dough as it bakes leaving behind just a hint of sweetness and adding to the perfect moistness of the cake.Nuts add a nice crunch to this brioche type of cake and chocolate oozes out with the melted meringue.

Ingredients
Makes 1

For the yeast coffee cake dough:
300 g                flour
30 g                  sugar 
¾ tsp                salt 
4 g                    active dried yeast
90 ml                milk
30 ml                water 
135 g               unsalted butter at room temperature
1 large egg       at room temperature

For the meringue: 

1 large             egg-white at room temperature 
¼ tsp              salt
½ tsp              vanilla 
40 g                 sugar
For the filling:

55 gms          chopped walnuts 
15 gms          sugar 
a big pinch of      ground cinnamon 
85 gms         coarsely chopped chocolate

Prepare the dough:
In a large mixing bowl put 100 gms of flour, sugar, salt and yeast.
In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted.
With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the egg and 75 gms flour and beat for 2 more minutes
Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of remaining flour ) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.
 Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. 
To prepare the filling.
 In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar .
Keep  chopped nuts and the chopped chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:
 In a clean mixing bowl –  beat the egg white with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, beat until very stiff, glossy peaks form.
Assemble the Coffee Cake:
Line baking/cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue.
Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.
Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch intervals. 
Allow it to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush the top of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake the cake for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.
Dust it with icing sugar.