coffee cake con cioccolato e nocciole / yeasted meringue coffee cake

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.

On this page, you will find the details of the recipe, including various suggestions for the filling.

I really like the description of the recipe source: "Jamie found this recipe on a piece of yellowed paper in her dad’s collection of clipped out and hand-written recipes from the 1970’s, no source, no date, and she tried the recipe and it was brilliant!"

I struggled a bit to come up with the title for the post. A cake made to be served with caffè is alien to the Italian tradition of drinking coffee by itself, either at the end of a meal or first thing in the morning, or during a coffee break. In the end, I decided to leave the English name. Also, the original recipe name mentions that the cake is leavened with yeast (lievito secco) and that it includes a meringue (meringa). I decided to omit those from the post title and highlight instead the two main ingredients of the filling.

When I saw the photo of the coffee cake we were challenged to make, I noticed that it resembled Stollen, the German Christmas cake that we made last December. I enjoyed making Stollen a lot, so I had high hopes for the yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. I was not disappointed. Here are the adjustments I applied to the given recipe:

• I halved the quantities and made a single cake
• I used 1 teaspoon of instant yeast instead of active dry yeast
• I added saffron (zafferano) to the dough, even though I didn't make Ria's version of the cake
• I opted for a filling of 70% cocoa chocolate (cioccolato) and hazelnuts (nocciole)
• I omitted cinnamon and sugar from the filling
• I baked the cake using the convection bake option of my oven (forno) [which does the temperature adjustment automatically]

Everything went smoothly and the cake that came out of the oven looked quite nice. As usual, the minimalist in me made me stay away from special decorations. The egg wash gave to the cake a nice surface color, which, unfortunately, I was not able to capture properly with the camera. Of the many photos I took, only the one above was good enough for sharing. The coffee cake received an enthusiastic endorsement from my husband.

In a recent post, I showed the variation on the theme of French toast below, where I used some of my homemade English-style Coulommiers as topping. I mentioned that something else made the dish special and now I can reveal the secret: I made it using slices of the last piece of coffee cake.

A special thank you goes to our hosts for their choice and efforts. It was a very nice challenge. I hope you will take the time to go around and look at the creative output of my talented fellow Daring Bakers.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

coffee cake con cioccolato e nocciole

or launch the coffee cake con cioccolato e nocciole audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Comments

[astrofiammante]

sarai anche minimalista, ma questa è davvero una bella torta così come ce la mostri .....mi fa salivare!!! quanto cioccolato e nocciole sono serviti all'incirca?

[Namratha]

The cake looks perfect, evenly browned and delicious looking swirls, nicely done!

[Caffettiera]

what a challenge this recipe was! I never saw or ate such a coffee cake. How did the meringue work in it? Does it just melt with the filling, or can you recognize it as a distinct element?

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Astro. La torta e' venuta davvero carina. Devo dire che mi piacciono le torte fatte non con il lievito chimico: il fatto che devi aspettare, come quando fai il pane, non so. La ricetta originale e' per due torte, che sono tante e quindi io ho diviso tutto a meta'. Per il ripieno ho usato 55 grammi di nocciole tritate grossolanamente e 85 grammi di cioccolato fondente (70%) tagliato grossolanamente col coltello. La ricetta prevede anche un cucchiaio di zucchero e della cannella, ma io li ho omessi entrambi. L'accoppiata cioccolato-nocciole mi ricorda i Baci Perugina e mi piace senza altri sapori.

Thanks, Namratha. I was very pleased with the surface color. It's nice and quite appealing.

Ciao Caffettiera. This is really a nice cake, not too sweet and quite versatile, considering that you can use different ingredients for the filling. The meringue melts into the dough, and it contributes sweetness and softness.

[Laura]

Simona, minimalista o no la torta e' bellissima. La prossima volta la faro' anch'io con le nocciole. Provala con le mele, e' venuta buonissima.

Laura

[bellini]

I have seen many of these around the blogosphere today and they each look so tempting.

[Sara]

Hai fatto un gran bel lavoro! Mi e' piaciuta molto questa challenge...a parte il fatto che a noi non piace la meringa e ne ho messa meno di quello che la ricetta chiedeva. E' anche io ho dimezzato le dosi ma visto il successo ottenuto tra i miei vicini mi sa che la prossima volta devo farla con dosi normali.

[Ivy]

This cake is new to me and have just found out about it from the Daring Bakers. Yours looks amazing and I am very tempted to try it.

[chef_d]

What a gorgeous looking yeasted meringue coffee cake! I love how simple and perfect it looks!

[Catalina]

Chocolate and hazelnuts sound pretty good to me! I love the golden color of your coffee cake! Really beautiful coffee cake, it makes me drool :D

[Lisa]

Simona, your cake is gorgeous! The saffron really lent a beautiful color, and the interior of chocolate-hazelnut swirl looks to die for. Love that you used a slice of this for french toast. I'm thinking you can do just about anything with this amazing dough recipe, raw or baked! My new 'day old' challah :)

[Wolf]

Despite your photo challenges, that is a gorgeous photo. That color is beautiful on your crust.}:)

[marcellina]

Simona, it has been a while since I last popped into your blog. Everything is perfection as usual! I loved the DB's Challenge as well. THanks for you comments - I know have the photo's up correctly. BTW I think despite your problems this photo is brilliant showing the texture of the cake up very well!

[Paz]

Oh, wow! I love your coffee cake and your title! ;-)

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Laura. Grazie del consiglio. La provero' sicuramente perche' davvero questa torta e' venuta molto buona.

Ciao Val. It's that time of the month, you know.

Ciao Sara. Anch'io ero un po' perplessa per la meringa, ma alla fine il risultato e' molto gradevole. Chiedere aiuto per finire una torta puo' essere pericoloso ;)

Ciao Ivy. I think you'd like the dough: it's very nice and then you can play with the filling.

Thanks, Dahlia, for the kind words.

Thanks, Catalina. Chocolate and hazelnuts is a favorite pairing for me. I think it has to do with growing up in Perugia, eating Baci Perugina.

[Ale73]

Simona deve essere squisita!!!!!! baciussssssssssss

[Milen@]

Mi sono innamorata di quei tagli chelasciano intravedere il goloso ripieno :D

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Lisa and thanks for the kind words. This challenge was really fun and satisfying. The French toast options is really nice, since we cannot really eat it all in one day. You can actually see the chocolate marbling under the egg layer.

Thanks, Wolf!

Ciao Marcellina and thanks for the kind words. I am glad you got the photo problem solved.

Thanks, Paz!

Ciao Ale. E' una torta davvero buona.

Ciao Milena. Anche a me piacciono molto i tagli. Li avevo fatti per la prima volta a Dicembre, quando abbiamo fatto lo Stollen tedesco. E' una decorazione che fa molto effetto.

[Aparna]

YOur wreath looks lovely. Funnily, now you mention it, it is a lot like the stollen. :)

[Simona Carini]

Thanks, Aparna. Maybe one day I'll make both and invite a bunch of people to do a comparative tasting.

[Lori Lynn]

I think your photo of coffee cake is perfect. that is the way it should be, with a mug of black coffee around the kitchen table. Not fancy, just homey. Glad you didn't sprinkle a lot of sugar on top...
LL

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Lori Lynn. I am glad you like the cake. I loved the color of the surface and did not want to hide it under powdered sugar. You are right: not fancy, but nice and homey.