loopy
Balls of dough—rolled in butter and cinnamon sugar—look rather comical nestled in a big tube pan.
Yet, as they merge and the whole coffee cake rises to magnificent heights, the interconnected orbs form interesting mosaic slices, patterned as they are with dark ripples of spiced sugar. This gentle and supple yeasted coffee cake dough is beautifully manageable; it is enriched with plenty of butter, milk, and whole eggs. Four teaspoons of vanilla extract add a glimmering floral scent. In its plainest version, cinnamon and butter dominate the flavor palette. But you can scatter chopped walnuts or raisins around and about balls of dough as you toss them into the pan, as the extras fill in the little nooks so well.
If you are not slicing this tall sweet-bread-cake into ample slices, do as I do and use it as an interactive centerpiece at brunch, letting each guest have a go at freeing up his or her own cluster of coffee cake.
bubble bread
serving: one 10-inch sweet bread, creating about 16 slices
ahead: 2 days
big-on-butter yeast dough
41⁄2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1⁄4 teaspoon granulated sugar
1⁄3 cup warm (105 to 110 degrees F) water
1 cup milk
1⁄2 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 cups unsifted bleached all-purpose flour, plus an additional 1⁄4 cup, as needed for kneading
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
11⁄4 teaspoons salt
1⁄2 pound (16 tablespoons or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size chunks, softened
butter and cinnamon sugar roll
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled to tepid, and whisked with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
11⁄4 cups granulated sugar blended with 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
shimmery finish (optional)
For the dough, stir together the yeast, the 1/4 teaspoon sugar, and the warm water in a heatproof measuring cup. Allow the mixture to stand until swollen, 6 to 7 minutes.
Place the milk and the 1⁄2 cup sugar in a small saucepan and set over low heat. When the sugar has dissolved, remove the saucepan from the heat. Pour and scrape the mixture into a medium-size heatproof mixing bowl. Let stand for 5 to 6 minutes to cool to tepid, then whisk in the eggs and the vanilla extract. Blend in the yeast mixture.
Place 5 cups of the flour, the cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Pour over the yeast-egg-milk mixture; mix to combine, using a wooden spoon or flat wooden paddle. Scrape the dough into the bowl of a heavy-duty freestanding electric mixer. Set the bowl in place and attach the dough hook. Add the butter, 4 tablespoons at a time, beating on moderately low to moderate speed until absorbed (about 1 minute) before adding the next amount. The dough will be smooth, elastic, and sticky. Add the remaining 1 cup flour and beat for 1 minute. The dough should be pudgy and somewhat resilient. Throughout the mixing process, stop the machine from time to time to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and the dough hook.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface dusted with the additional 1/4 cup flour. Knead the dough for 4 minutes, using only enough of the flour to prevent it from sticking too much; the dough should remain somewhat moist.
Turn the dough into a bowl heavily coated with softened unsalted butter, lightly turn to coat all sides in a film of butter, make several cuts in the dough with a pair of kitchen scissors, cover tightly with a sheet of food-safe plastic wrap, and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.
Remove the plastic wrap. Lightly compress the dough with a rubber spatula, cover loosely with the plastic wrap, and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove and discard the sheet of plastic wrap.
Film the inside of a plain, one-piece 10-inch tube pan (41/4 to 41⁄2 inches deep, with a capacity of 18 cups) with nonstick flour-and-oil spray.
For the butter and cinnamon sugar roll, place the melted butter–vanilla extract blend and cinnamon sugar in separate shallow bowls. Have the bowls at hand at your work surface.
To form the coffee cake, divide the dough into 8 even-size pieces, then divide each piece into 4 portions. There should be 32 balls. Smooth each piece into a plump ball by rolling it on the work surface briskly under the cupped palm of your hand.
Roll each ball first in a film of melted butter, then in the cinnamon sugar. As it is coated, place each ball in the prepared baking pan. Do so in an irregular pattern, filling in the gaps, here and there, as you go. Be sure, however, to arrive at a reasonably even surface area as you finish the final layer, but note that the top will be irregular because the dough balls have rounded surfaces.
Cover the pan of coffee cake loosely with a lightly buttered or nonstick oil spray–filmed sheet of food-safe plastic wrap. Let the coffee cake rise at room temperature for 1 hour, or until almost doubled in bulk. The bread should rise to under 3/4 inch of the pan’s rim. (If the bread rises too much, you will risk having it collapse in the oven as it bakes; keep in mind that, for this kind of yeast-raised coffee cake, it is better to err on the side of under-rising the formed cake.)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F in advance of baking.
Have a rimmed sheet pan at hand.
Remove and discard the sheet of plastic wrap covering the coffee cake. Place the pan of coffee cake on the rimmed sheet pan (to catch any sweet and buttery ooze that bubbles over here and there during baking).
Bake the coffee cake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until set and baked through. The top will be a deep golden brown and the cake will just begin to pull away from the sides of the baking pan. The cake will sound vaguely hollow when the top is lightly tapped with the long handle of a wooden spoon. If the surface of the coffee cake begins to brown too quickly, tent or drape a sheet of aluminum foil loosely over the top of the baking pan (avoid pressing the foil firmly on the top or down the sides of the pan).
Cool the coffee cake in the pan on a rack for 10 to 12 minutes. Carefully invert the coffee cake onto another cooling rack. Lift off the pan. Cool completely. If you are finishing the sweet bread with the apricot glaze, apply it to the top and sides of the coffee cake, using a soft pastry brush. Let the glaze set for at least 1 hour before serving. Store in an airtight cake keeper.
notes
• versions of this sweet bread often call for dividing the dough into smaller balls, but creating jumbo balls seems to make a moister baked coffee cake
• stand by the mixer for the entire beating times referenced in the procedure
• my favorite way to present the coffee cake is upside down, for its geographical surface is the most interesting (you can see the curlicues that the baked dough balls form)
bubble bread