Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Paula Deen is Nutty. So is Her Coffeecake.



For our anniversary, Ben bought me a copy of Nancy Baggett's Kneadlessly Simple. I can't wait to bake my way through it. And my friend Kim set me up with some of her excellent sweet white bread starter. Between the two, we're looking at some carb-filled weeks ahead. Recipes to come soon.

In the meantime, let me give you another carb-filled delight: Paula Deen's own nutty, nutty coffeecake (pictured above). I don't make a lot of recipes with purchased dough (mostly because they don't give me a chance to cover my kitchen in flour -- my favorite part of baking, for sure) but refrigerated biscuits make this recipe easy and fast to make, and I've never had a coffeecake I like better.


Nutty Orange Coffeecake (from Paula Deen)
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 2 t. orange zest
  • 2 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 each)
  • 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
  • 1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
  • 2 T. fresh orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, pecans, and zest; set aside. Separate the biscuits. Divide the cream cheese into 20 pieces. Place one piece of cream cheese in the center of each biscuit. Fold each biscuit in half over the cheese, pressing the edges to seal.

Dip the biscuits in melted butter, then dredge in the granulated sugar mixture. Place the biscuits, curved-side down, in a single layer in the hollows of a lightly greased 12-cup bundt pan, spacing them evenly (do not stack). Drizzle any remaining butter over the biscuits, and sprinkle with any remaining sugar mixture. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Immediately invert the cake onto a serving platter.

Combine the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, stirring well; drizzle the glaze over the warm cake. Serve warm.


The food: Nutty orange coffeecake
The verdict: It's cream-cheese-filled genius

2 comments:

Courtney said...

Definitely the best coffee cake I've had. Very yummy! :)

Mike said...

you are the man, i mean, woman at cooking and taking pictures! dang. ben is a lucky man.