Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Some people buckle their knees at th sight of a chocolate dessert. Me, I go gaga over caramel anything. I like salty, I like sweet, I like strong flavors. See, my mom doesn’t like overly sweet baked goods. Just a touch of sugar is all she wants. The most important thing for her is…
soft
moist
say it with me..
warm
moist
tender
Back to baked goods. My mother likes the subtle sweetness ideally delivered in form of tight crumbs. So I made this sour cream coffee cake for Mother’s Day. It really fits the bill - sweet, moist and tender. Just like my mother.
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Turn the oven to 375 degrees
Mix [2 cup cake flour + 1 t baking powder + 1 t baking soda + 1/2 t salt] = flour mixture
Cream [1 cup white sugar + 1 stick room temp. butter] + then [3 large eggs + 8 oz sour cream (1 cup) + 1 t vanilla] = butter mixture
Fold [flour mixture + butter mixture] = yummy batter! (PS. this makes a delicious batter. If I were to make cake batter ice cream, I would use this batter. Or you could take a spoon and dig in, but I digress) (PSS. use a white spatula here. Mix as little as possible to ensure soft crumbs. Also put the flour into butter mixture. I forgot why I do this…. but trust me here)
Mix [ 1/4 brown sugar + 2 t cinnamon] = cinnamon sugar mixture (see the pattern…?)
Pour 1/2 of batter on tube pan, sprinkle 2/3 cinnamon sugar*, then rest of batter, then rest of cinnamon sugar.
Bake for 35 to 40 mins.
*layer thinly slice apple before pouring the rest of batter **well ripe banana works VERY well. ***I suspect blueberry will work equally well, but I haven’t tried it. Let me know how it goes. ****or pears
Better Brunch
Monsoon! They have the best waffle ever! Crunchy yet soft and chewy. Waffle served with strawberry rhubarb jam, creme fraiche and syrup. Outside table is where its at. Flowing with Capitol Hill’s own Victrola coffee in crisp white art deco cup, brunch at Monsoon is relaxing, casual affair. French Toast = Toasted Custard, although it can’t beat the Waffle.
Brunch now make sense
Chandler’s Crab House
I never got really understood brunch. It’s either toast/english muffin/bagel with some form of egg (poached, scrambled, fried), and fruit (inevitable melon, strawberry, grapes, pineapple). Usually there is potato in some form. Things seems to miss the mark. Like my brunch today for example…
I went to Chandler’s Crab House. Lovely view and I’m a sucker for white table cloth. I got Chandler’s Benedict, which has some crab meat, sautéed spinach , poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce on toasted english muffin. Here we go:
Egg - too poached. Why do people eat eggs Benedict if not for the warm runny yolk?
Spinach - no flavor except just something green and chewy. Also under salted. The whole concoction was undersalted. Speaking of salt. Why do they have table salt? There were cracked peppers on the table, which is fine and dandy , but really table salt? Would it kill them to have kosher salt? or even rock salt with the salt crackers? I think it’s inexcusable for nice restaurants to have table salt on their table.
Hollandaise - Not buttery or eggy enough. Also undersalted. Also, not enough of it.
Potato hash - little dry, undersalted (there is theme going on here..) There were some peppers, but not enough. Kind of boring.
I will say the apple fritters were hot off the fryer, and was delicious with butter. Also, why was the butter not at room temp? It was cold. Without butter, it was flavorless. Maybe some cinnamon would have been nice. or more sugar.. or more butter. It was good. Not perfect.
mini scones - Hot off the oven, very nice. Texture was crumbly, mini currents offers a break from the dough. The dough needed flavor. I think I need to give them my cream scone recipe. They served with butter and raspberry jam/preserve. I already covered the butter, so on to jam. Wasn’t too sweet, had the right seed vs. jam, good consistency, but lacked strong flavor. Very mild.
Overall, food was good, view is lovely. Good place to take people out of towns people for brunch. I’m a bit too critical of brunch type food. Maybe..
Live what you love
Searching for happiness. Here we go!
