ABC - Old-World Braided Coffee Cake

A yeasted coffee cake called the Old-World Braided Coffee Cake is the March recipe for the ABC bakers. It's a sweet yeasted bread that's braided around a sweet and slightly spicy nut filling. It was my first braided coffee cake so I was pretty excited about it. The recipe can be found in Flo Braker's book, Baking for all Occasions.
 

Braided Coffee Cake brushed with Maple Syrup for a shiny top

Are you a Flo Braker fan or are you just as passionate about baking as we are? Why don't you join us in our monthly ABC adventure? Click here to find out how.

I made the dough in the bread machine using the dough cycle. After 90 minutes, which includes 30 minutes of kneading and 60 minutes of rising time, I had a satiny smooth dough that was just slightly sticky. I made a couple changes to the dough: added the zest of one large navel orange and instead of 2 oz of butter I used 2 oz of sour cream for a little tang as well as a reduction in fat and calories.

The filling intrigued me a lot as I wasn't sure what kind of consistency it would be after it baked inside the dough. I substituted the walnuts with an equal amount of toasted almonds. I ground them finely in the food processor and added sugar, cinnamon, and salt which I pulsed together. To make this pasty, a mixture of cream and maple syrup is heated and added to the nut mixture. This thick mixture has the consistency of marzipan or almond paste. To lighten this mixture for the filling, beaten egg whites are folded in.

Step-by-step:

Roll the dough into a rectangle and use a fork to dock it into three equal parts

Put the filling in the middle leaving some space between the sides, top and bottom



Fold the dough strips over the filling, one from each side, back and forth. Not the prettiest thing in the world but I bet it'll taste great!

  

After about an hour, the dough was risen enough to go into the oven (the small piece on the right is for quality control) :o)

After a 25 minute stay in the oven, I brushed the coffee cake with 1 Tbsp of maply syrup to make it shiny

A slice of almond/orange goodness. Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• We enjoyed this coffee cake a lot. On day #2 it felt a bit dry but a quick zap in the microwave "fixed" that. Hubby gave it a 9 out of 10. I sliced the remainder of the coffee cake (for easy access) and froze it.
• The "bread" part is soft, not overly sweet, with a nice orange flavor. It contains eggs so it's almost like a brioche but it's less rich. It's perfectly complimented by the sweet, cinnamon-y and slightly crunchy almond filling which had the consistency of chunky/crunchy almond butter. When eaten warm (even after a brief zap in the microwave) with a glass of milk or a cup of tea, it's hard not to want seconds.
• Recap of my changes: subbed sour cream for the butter in the dough as well as added zest from 1 orange. Subbed 8 oz of toasted almonds for the walnuts. And instead of the sugar/water glaze, I brushed the top with maple syrup.
• After the coffee cake baked for 15 minutes, it had browned so much that I got worried. I lowered the oven temp to 325 and covered the cake with aluminum foil for the remaining 10 minutes. That worked!
• Don't forget to check out the other ABC bakers' Coffee Cake right HERE.