January has passed by in rushed afternoons, studying as the sun crept down the sky. I missed having time to relax, read, or even to bake. As you can see baking hasn’t quite been in my schedule as of late, and I started to miss spending afternoons stirring up ingredients, feeling the warmth of the oven against my face, and biting into my creations just as they came out of the oven. Finally after weekends of studying relentlessly, I finally found myself an hour of time.

With this extra time, I made these familiar little cookies. I grew up with them, watching my mother bake them at nearly every special occasion, however I never quite liked them, or appreciated them. Soon, my family’s life became a lot busier, and my mother stopped baking the cookies for a while and the tradition was forgotten.

But only for a while.

A couple of months ago, in December I had to complete a school project about my family’s traditions, and the very first thing I thought of were these little cookies. I did not have much time that particular weekend, and my mom was more familiar with the recipe, so I asked her to make them for me. When I finally bit into one I realized how much I had missed my mother’s cookies, and remade them for my family.

Almond Cookies

• 16 tablespoons butter at room temperature (I used browned butter, but that’s purely optional)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of ground almonds

1. Toast the almonds until golden brown.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and the brown sugar together until fluffy, then add in the egg yolk, oil and vanilla, and mix well.
4. Add a half a cup of flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix in well.
5. Repeat step three until all of the flour mixture is mixed in.
6. Add the almonds to the mixture, and mix in well. Scoop 1/2 a table-spoon for each cookie and roll them into a ball and space them out on a cookie sheet evenly.
7. bake at 350 degrees farenheit for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Christmas is one of those seasons that has a contagious mood, and it makes everyone want to be happy. The lights, the colors, and the happiness of the season is amazing.

My family isn’t Christian, but since we’ve been in America  for so long, we’ve taken on some of the traditions, and added many of our own.

The week before Christmas when I was four I  saw a red velvet cake for the first time. This may sound strange,  but in my little four year old head there were only to types of cupcakes: chocolate and vanilla, and chocolate was the better one.  When I saw this red velvet cupcake, frankly: it blew my mind, I was amazed, and immediately obsessed. So for that Christmas, a new tradition started: we would have red velvet cake for a snack on Christmas along with our tea. A strange tradition, yes, but it’s something I just love and look forward to every year.

The tradition has altered a little, now instead of just having cake, my sister decided that cupcakes were I quote: In style, and definitely cuter. Admittedly, I don’t like red velvet cake as much as I used to, the cake part’s flavor isn’t all that amazing. However my mother and sister are great fans, and I still remain a fan of cream cheese icing on the cake, so the tradition remains.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

From Confetti Cakes Cookbook, via Smitten Kitchen

• 3 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ cup canola oil
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup of melted and slightly cooled semi sweet chocolate
• 3 large eggs
• At least five table spoons of food coloring (this can be increased or decreased by the red color you want, since this recipe has a good amount of chocolate in it, it takes a whole lot more coloring to make it red and same goes for any other colors you feel the urge to try out)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 ¾ cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons baking soda & 2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar mixed together

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake tray with liners.
2. Whisk together the cake flour and salt in a medium sized bowl.
3. Mix together the canola oil, sugar, the chocolate and the eggs( don’t put the chocolate in immediately after heating it! Let it cool down a little, other wise it can scramble the eggs) in a large bowl until smooth.
4. Add the food coloring
5. Add the butter milk and the flour alternately to the oil/egg/sugar/chocolate bowl, and mix to smoothness.
6. fill the cupcake trays
7. bake for about 25 minutes(i reccomend letting it bake fifteen minutes, then coming back and checking, every five or six minutes after), until you are able to put a tooth pick in it, and pull it out cleanly.

The Icing.

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temperature (you need it at room temperature, other it won’t blend smoothly)
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted  ( you may need more if you want a stiffer icing, in these pictures i used 4 1/2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon espresso (optional, i just find that it adds something extra to the whole cupcake)

1. Mix together cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and espresso.
2. add cup, by cup of sugar and beat it, till fluffy and light. (mixers make it easier)

Enjoy, and happy holidays!

A couple days ago I was sitting in my biology class, listening to my teacher talk about evolution, the past of earth, and fossils. Fossils were a subject that have fascinated me ever since I was a child, it amazed me how an animals body could turn into stone, however I never quite looked into it, intimidated and confused by the complex terms I didn’t understand, being the age of seven(even though I did try making my own fossils). However, when I grew older, I switched on to a different scientific fascination, forgetting about fossils until now. I’ve finally found out how fossils become the way they are, and the strange thing is, when I was reading about this, it reminded me vaguely of vanilla sugar. No, I don’t always relate everything I learn to baking, however this was one time I did :)

So with fossils what happens after its buried is that the minerals in the bones of the organism and other hard tissues get replaced with metal ions and other inorganic materials, and also combined with the pressure of the sediment on top of the whole thing transforms it.

With vanilla sugar you have two simple elements, sugar and a vanilla bean, with the insides scraped out. Now you leave them in an air tight jar for a while. The sugar starts to take on the smells and tastes of vanilla like the bones did with the metal ions and inorganic material. However in the end, unlike the process of fossilization, you end up with a delicious vanilla tinged sugar that adds a little flair to everything you put it in.

So, you ask, what exactly is vanilla sugar, and what do we do with it?

Well that’s simple. It’s simply sugar that  has this amazing vanilla taste to it, and you can do many things with it, like spoon a bit into your tea, or coffee in the morning, however I mostly prefer using it for making creme brulee, trust me it makes a difference compared to regular granulated sugar!

So I’ll start over from the beginning for how to make it.

you need:

A vanilla beans with the insides scraped out or used(i usually use mine in ice cream, and keep the pods around for exactly this purpose).

An airtight jar | I usually make really big jar of this but for depiction purposes:

and lastly: sugar. Just plain ol’ granulated sugar.

so what do you do with these?

1. Take the jar and fill it up with sugar(not fully to the rim. Just below is good.)
2. Take your vanilla bean, and push it into the middle of the sugar, like so:

3. Put it in the pantry wait for a month. Yes a month. Although I recommend checking on it every week and a half, because I’ve heard other food blogs say that their vanilla sugar was made much faster than mine. How do you know its ready? You open the jar, and the first you smell is the light aroma of vanilla, and if you taste the sugar it should definitely taste vanilla-y.

Bon apetit :)

~Dee D.

School has finally started again, and as have the hectic days filled with work. Days seem to get shorter, and fall is soon approaching. The leaves haven’t yet fallen, but you can feel it in the air. I’d say fall is one of my favorite seasons, with its warmth of flavors, the colors, and even fall fashion. Its the season of pie, cinnamon, apples, and pumpkins. However, summer is also one of my favorite seasons, and one of the vegetables I see as part of the summer is spinach. It may seem strange, but its very much like summer, bright, vibrant and good for you. This post is a good bye to summer.

This spinach dip is a simple easy spinach dip, and you can add more to it to add a bit more of your own flavor to it. I’ve never made this recipe the same, not even once. What is here is simply a base, that you can add to, and make it better.

Simple Spinach Dip

adapted from Sailu’s Kitchen

• 1 3/4 a cup of spinach
• 1 tbsp. of butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp. flour
• 1 c. of milk
• 3 tbsps. of cheese
• 1/2 tbsp garlic
• any other ingredient you feel you want to add, to give it a little more flair :)

Bon apetit & happy fall!

~Dee D.

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Houses in Burano, Venice

You may have noticed for the past month or so I’ve been a little absent…

No, I wasn’t being lazy and slacking off…I was actually in Europe! It was amazing, and I have some pictures and stuff to show you guys of places and things(including food).

I pretty much lived in London, and every now and then on weekends I would go with my family to other places in Europe, such as Scotland, Paris, Venice, and Rome.

So the first place I’d like to share with you guys…

Venice.

Gondolas in Venice

I would say, out of all the places I’ve traveled, this is the most amazing. It’s simply the fact that its such a different place from what people are normally used to. The whole city of Venice is quite literally on the water. There are no cars, just boats, and it is absolutely gorgeous, and magical.

A little off Venice, there is are three islands, Murano, Burano, and Torcello. The first one, Murano is famous for its glass making…

It’s a pretty great place, just like Venice, however on a smaller scale, and with much more beautiful glass.

If you ever visit, I would recommend checking out a glass blowing demonstation, its pretty amazing how the glass-blowers work with the glass.

A glass-blower in Murano 

The next island is an island famous for its lacework, and its amazingly colorful houses.

Its a great place to simply just walk around and admire the colors and beauty of the place. Even its windows are fascinating.

Another couple pictures of Burano/Venice

Gondolas in a canal

Houses In Burano, Venice

Gondolas

Venetian Mask Shop

Another thing Venice is famous for besides being on the water are their gorgeous masks. It really amazing.

The next place to show you is Paris.

I suppose I wasn’t as impressed with Paris as I expected it to be. Don’t get me wrong, it was a pretty amazing place(and the food…), but it struck me as any old big city. It was like london or new york with slightly different buildings, a different language, and a whole lot more bakeries. Still a great place to go though, here are some pictures…

The Louvre

The Louvre was amazing. Its crazy how there were so, so many pieces of art all in their, and some of this all being from so long ago. I did indeed see the original Mona Lisa, which was weird, and great in all.

A Stained-Glass Window in the Notre Dame

Another place that you must check out while in Paris is the Notre Dame. Its absolutely stunning, from the inside, because of all the huge stained glass windows.

Palace of Versailles

I feel as if I’m using the same adjectives too much, but once again, this was stunning. The Palace of Versailles is a great piece of history as well.

The Eiffel Tower

As for the Eiffel tower, at first when I saw it, I was quite confused. It didn’t live up to my expectations…however I had a ticket to go up on the Eiffel tower at ten thirty so I ended up staying a while. And I was quite glad I did, because the Eiffel Tower at night is completely different from it during the day.  And if you come at the right time, you can also watch it “sparkle”. I couldn’t quite capture the effect for you guys with my camera, which is why you see little white blotches all over it.

This isn’t something you really have to visit, I just thought it was interesting. Around the Eiffel Tower is bridge, and on that bridge, are hundred of locks,  and I suppose the couple puts them on there to symbolize their love. I found it strange how people all managed to do this… did just start out with one lock that people copied? Or was it a bunch of people who spread the word?

Sacre Coeur Basilica

The Sacre Coeur Basilica was also quite grand and this Basilica stood out to me the most for one reason. Its made out of color changing rocks which turn whiter when there is supposed to be bad weather, an effect which I  didn’t see, but I thought was very interesting.

Also around the basilica is the town of Monmarte, and even though its in France, its not at all like the places around it, it’s not very city-like, and its an interesting place to walk around.

The next place I went to was Rome. Rome’s history is honestly a very fascinating thing. Or to me atleast, I found it quite amazing how Rome rose to be such a great empire, and it also fascinated me how, it was so different from what it used to be, or it seemed to be different. Rome again, was your giant metropolis, but with amazing history and so many places from the past.

One of the places being…

…the Colosseum. Its really amazing how some thing so old still lasts today, and if you think about it you were in the same place people we standing hundreds of years ago.

The Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountian is also a great place to visit. Actually there are many, many fountains all around Rome, however I believe this is most likely the most famous of them all.

St. Pete’s Basilica, Vatican

St. Peter’s basilica, in the Vatican,  is probably the grandest of all the basilica’s I visited whilst in Europe. Its probably also, the most famous, because it is where the Pope is.

The Oculus of the Pantheon

Another church like the Sacre Coeur, which i found really interesting was the Pantheon. It was originally created as a temple to all greek gods, however it was converted to a christian church. Also as you can see, it has a hole in the top, called the oculus. The interesting thing about it, is that it is said, that it never rains in the pantheon.  The reason, which I will not reaveal here, is quite interesting, and its not because the oculus is sealed with glass.

And the last place I visited, was Ediburgh, Scotland. Once again, this place was also filled with sites of historic value. It’s also great to wander through the streets though, its very quaint, yet not so quaint.

Edinburgh also has many castles, and is home to Holyroodhouse, a residence of the queen. It was also fairly different from all the places I went, and I really liked it.

While i wasn’t off exploring these other places I just showed you, I stayed in London.

I honestly loved living in London. It was definitely different, from normal life, but I like it. The people in london seem much more relaxed than people in America. And it was great that to go places I mostly walked in the street, and used the tube which is something you can’t do in the suburbs of America. It may seem a simple thing, but I really liked it.

And I nearly forgot! What did I eat there?

Well many things. Most of which I forgot to take picture of for you guys. Don’t blame me, its was seriously yummy food!  But some of those things are already on this blog(such as tiramisu, which i had ALOT of in italy, panna cotta, crostata, and chocolate mousse), and others will soon be coming.

But here are somethings that I did remember to take pictures of…

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I like to consider this the british equivalent of apple pie. Its seriously yummy, and is even better warm with a scoop of ice cream on top.

This most likely will pop up on here sometime, as soon as i find a recipe :)

Belgian Waffles

Best waffles ever. Period. You don’t even need syrup.

Chocolate Bombe

This was so delicious, and so richy and creamy!  A bit like mousse…but thicker.

And I suppose that’s all. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Hope to blog soon,

Dee D.

It’s really hard to believe that my first year as a freshman is over. It really feels like I was ranting about my fears of high school years just yesterday. I honestly anticipated this year to take forever, just like everything I don’t like seems to take, but really it just rushed right by. I’m surprised that I’m now a sophomore. I can still remember clearly of how I walked into the high school for the first time as a student, and wondering why school decor was always so drab.

And so sophomore year starts…

On a brighter note: I have a quick and simple recipe to share!

It’s fudge.

A fudge shortcut. Its ridiculously easy to make, and you can make it in ten minutes.

Seriously.

Oh and one last little thing: I made a face book page for the blog! Go and check it out and like it!

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Notorious-Experiments/182235575167065?ref=hnav

and here is the recipe:

Simple Fudge

PS: before you start making this recipe, know that it is very, very sweet. I rarely eat more than one or two pieces in a sitting because it is simply that sweet.

Adapted from Baking Addiction

•  3 cups chocolate chips(semi-sweet or dark chocolate is good, in the pictures above I used dark chocolate)
• 14 oz of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 a tsp of salt(fleur de sel is preferable but i have used regular table salt sometimes)
• 1 1/2 a tsp of vanilla
• if you really want to add some sort of nuts or something go ahead!(i recommend about a cup)

I’m sorry I haven’t been around…

I’ve been caught up in some of my business(which involved staring at textbooks and math equations relentlessly)…

If you’re a new reader, hello and welcome :)
Hope are enjoying it :)

This is going not going to be one of my usual posts, it’s going to be somewhat more quick and direct because at the moment I am busy, and I just wanted to post something quickly…

Also, some of you commented and emailed me for step by step pictures of each of posts, and here’s why I don’t want to do this:

I have nobody around most of the time to take pictures for me, so I’ll have to take them myself. No it’s not because I’m lazy, it’s because I will get involved in what I’m making and forget to take pictures, so you’ll probably end up with half of the pictures for all the steps…

I will try however :)

I know I’ve said this before, but just in case you don’t know: if some of you have questions about anything, feel free to email me, or just leave a comment below, and I’ll reply to your email and/or comment! My email is: thenexperiments@live.com. If you want to tweet me as well, go ahead! My username is @thenexperiments (there’s also a follow button on the side somewhere).

Now about this tart I’m supposed to be talking about… I’ve had this recipe, and these pictures for a while now, except I never got around to posting, and I forgot about it, until now when I realized it was strawberry season, and this would be perfect for use!

I really love this tart. Its crust is amazing, and ridiculously flaky and buttery. The pastry cream, isn’t fully solid but it ta

stes great, and it uses a only a little of heavy cream(I’m really attempting to find recipes for things without heavy cream, its notoriously bad for you! How ever I am being a little hypocritical, considering the tart shell, but I cannot not use that shell! its amazing!)…and the topping of the fresh

strawberries really just is great :) It adds a fresh taste to it :)

Hope you try and enjoy it!

Fresh Strawberry Tart

• 1 pack of strawberries(16 oz.) quartered.
• tart shell(recipe below)
• pastry cream (recipe below)

Use this recipe from David Lebovitz for the tart I followed the whole thing exactly, and he has pictures of certain steps as well :)

Pastry Cream

Modified from Barefoot Contessa in Paris via Culinate

• 5 large egg yolks at room temperature
• 3/4 a cup sugar(I didn’t fully fill each of the cups to minimize the sugar content in this  somewhat)
• 3 tbsp. corn starch
• 1 1/2 cups of scalded milk(scald the milk by heating it at a medium, until it develops a skin on top and that skin starts to rise and turn off the heat before the whole thing boils over. note: scald this right before you start the first step of this)
• 3/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract.
• 1 tsp. rum
• 1 tbsp.unsalted butter
• tbsp. heavy cream

I love spring, its one of the most beautiful seasons, with birds coming out of hibernation, flowers blooming, and the very best part: more sunlight.

The lack of sunlight is one of the biggest reasons I despise winter. The sun used to set at five everyday, and even then it was so drab and depressing because the sun almost never came out from the clouds…but now a five, the sun is still out shedding its vibrant rays of sunshine upon us.

I would say flowers are my very favorite part, however I have ridiculous pollen allergies…although I’m not experiencing  the allergies that badly this year, the occasional sneezing fits…well they’re not fun.

I remember back in first grade where they used to be truly horrible, that one day in class my teacher took pity on me, and let me be teacher for half a day, because she felt bad for me. She even colored my project in for me. I loved that day, and i still do :)

But even with that I still think spring is wonderful. And to celebrate I baked some of my favorite baked goods: Blondies.

I really love blondies. In fact I love them more than brownies!

Just because I’ve encountered a lot of confusion when I’ve mentioned blondies, I ‘ll explain what they are: Like chocolate cake is the opposite to vanilla cake, the opposite to brownies, are blondies! Where brownies depend upon chocolate to flavor it, blondies depend on butterscotch like flavor. Both have the same density(between a cake and fudge), its simply their flavoring that differentiates them.

They are amazing, so buttery and lighter in taste than brownies, which are rich and somewhat heavy tasting.

Blondies

Adapted from Whipped 

~Dee D.

I like simple recipes. The recipe always seems to be simple but the flavor of dish that results is always complex.

Take for example these sweet potato fries. They simple to make. Chop the potatoes, drizzle a bit of olive oil, sprinkle some garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt and pepper, then bake till crisp.

Its just that simple.

The result? A fry with a crisp, spicy salty outside, with a slightly sweet, soft inside.

These are honestly my favorite fries. I like these better than regular fries. Not only do they have a better flavor, they’re also much healthier than  regular potato fries.

Try them :) You’ll love them too :)

Sweet Potato Fries

• 2 medium sized potatoes
• 1-2 tbs. olive oil
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• A sprinkle of pepper(adjust to your tastes, i usually use 1/3 tsp)
• 1/3 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika

1. Turn on the broiler, or preheat the oven to 450 degrees. I usually use the broiler. I find that it gets a some what crisper with the broiler, but the oven works too.

2. Cut up the the sweet potato into french fry like slices and toss it into a bowl with a lid(it doesn’t matter if you have the skins on or not, its all your choice, sometimes I leave them on other times I don’t)

3. Drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes and sprinkle all the spices over it all.

4. Put the lid on the bowl and toss the potatoes around until they are fully coated in olive oil and spice.

4. Put them in the oven from 10-15 minutes or until the ends of some fries start to get blackened.

Notes: This is one of the recipes which are extremely customizable. Add what you like, change something and personalize it. My sweet potatoes are never truly consistent. Every time I add, or take out something from this mix that i have up there.

~Dee D.

From my childhood, I remember that every few years or so there would be some sort of catastrophe. There was Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, the huge tsunami and Haiti. Now, there’s Japan, and I personally think, that this recent disaster has been one worst ones of them all. It was a huge triple blow to Japan. First the earthquake and its aftershock, then the tsunami, and now the impending disaster of  a possible nuclear explosion.

When I saw the before and after shots, I was astonished by how much Japan had been affected by all of this. It’s absolutely devastating, especially for the people there.  It’s truly heartbreaking. I feel the need to do something, and I’m thinking about doing maybe, a bake sale for Japan? I’m not sure how that will work out, but I’ll try to do the best I can.

On a happier note: I made the daring  bakers challenge, and I loved it!

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.

This coffee cake is so delicious soft and most definitely not the way I expected it to be. When I saw the addition of the meringue in this, I was surprised. Usually when baked, meringue turns hard, however when I took it out of the oven and cut myself a piece, I saw that instead of a hard sugary layer inside which I’d expected, there was a warm,  and utterly soft inside with a layer of almond chunks, chocolate and white chocolate.

The texture of the cake was amazing, and it was very similar to the texture of brioche, a cross between a cake, and bread. The chocolate inside added wonderful taste to it and the almonds gave a subtle nutty crunch. This is absolutely amazing, when it was straight out of the oven, and just as good when toasted a little afterwards.

Bon appétit!

Filled Meringue Coffee Cake
Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter
The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake

Ingredients
For the yeast coffee cake dough:

• 4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
• ¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
• ¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
• 1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast
• ¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
• ¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
• ½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 large eggs at room temperature

For the meringue:

• 3 large egg whites at room temperature
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

• 1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) coarsely chopped roasted almonds
• 2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
• ½ c. white chocolate
• ½ c. semisweet chocolate

Egg wash:

• 1 beaten egg (or if you simply happen to have egg yolks lying about, those work too!)
• Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

Directions:

To Prepare the dough:

1.       In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

2.       In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted.

3.       With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended.

4.       Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

5.       Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together.

6.       Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

7.       Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) 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. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

8.      Prepare your filling:In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:

1.       In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds.

2.       Then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque.

3.       Then add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Note: I made little individual pockets, but it was hard to fill these and in the end they didn’t have enough filling. So I recommend taking a look at the other shapes the other bakers made here(just click on any link you want and check it out :)). Below I’ve included the instructions for a wreath like shape, which most bakers did.

1.       Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2.       Punch down the dough and divide in half.

3.       On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle.

4.       Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges.

5.       Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

6.       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.

7.       Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

8.      Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

9.       Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

10.   Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

11.    Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

12.    Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks.

13.    Allow to cool.