Would you call this a "Free Lunch"?

I don't usually go bats over things I find on the Internet, but this site is really interesting - if you just really enjoy cooking and food and new ideas or anything culinary at all.
Here's the website:
http://tastingtable.com/entry_by_section/national/dining
See what you think.

I also stumbled across a free eCookbook while I was there (which in all probability is the true reason I love this site). It's called Stone Soup. You can download it for yourself - for nothing from:
http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2010/06/a-free-e-cookbook/

Blackberry Coffee Cake

I love coffee cake and I love berries. Despite the fact that blackberries are far from my favorite berry, I'm going to try to make a coffeecake that incorporates them.

One of the things I dislike most about using fresh berries in baked goods is that the berries inevitably turn musty after a day or two - even sooner in the 100 degree heat of the Texas summers. You either have to eat the entire cake in a day - or throw half of it away by day two.

My strategy is for solving this issue is this: Instead of using fresh or frozen berries, I'm going to use some of the blackberry preserves that I made last week and marble it into the cake to produce what I hope will be a brilliant moist cake with a danish heart.

I started with a sour cream coffee cake recipe that usually turns out a moist, tangy cake that will hold up to loads of streusel topping and a dripping of pure vanilla drizzle. Sweet cake here would be just too much.

Instead of flavouring the topping with cinnamon, I used just a tiny bit of nutmeg and a dash of fine ground white pepper.

Then, I folded in some of the Blackberry preserves that I made last weekend. I probably used about five tablespoons in all.

After that, the streusel topping went on and it went in the oven. Baking took a bit longer because the preserves add a lot of moisture to the cake - and they're denser than straight fresh berries. But the result looked like it had worked.

After the cake cooled I added a drizzle of plain sugar icing and it was done.

So far, this has been a success. The cake is sweet and tangy, the topping is crunchy and the berry taste is really clear. The pepper in the topping was the right choice. It doesn't overpower the berries or detract from the buttery crunch of the topping.

Here is the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare either one 13" x 9" cake pans or two 8" squares or two 8" rounds with the standard butter and flour.

Make the streusel topping by combining:

5 Tbsps melted butter

2/3 cup light brown sugar

2/3 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground white pepper

The topping should be crumbly and chunky. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix and set aside:

1 3/4 cup of sour cream or plain yogurt (Don't use the non-fat variety of either.)

1 tsp vanilla

In a medium bowl combine and set aside:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

In a large mixing bowl beat together:

1/2 stick butter

1 cup granulated sugar

When it's fluffy add:

2 large eggs

Add the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture alternately to the butter/egg mixture beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Blend just until the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. The batter should be thick and slightly lumpy with air a few pockets or bubbles. Without over mixing you can add berries (cranberries are my favorite) or fruit here.

If you're using whole fruit, canned drained fruits work the best. Fresh fruits tend to turn musty and add too much liquid to the cake making soggy bits which can be  . . . well, kind of gross.

Move the batter into the pan you chose for baking.

If you're using preserves, add them here and marble the preserves into the batter before you bake.

Top the cake with the streusel topping covering the cake completely.

Bake for about 35 minutes for two small pans or 45 to 50 minutes for the larger, single pan. use your best judgment here. I've always used the 'nose test' (when I can start smell it, it's almost done) or a toothpick for a cake tester.

I like to make a watery glaze from powdered sugar and water to put on the cake after it cools. This is strictly preference. If you want, you can eat it without, but it's already so laden with sugar that adding a little more hardly seems like it could make it would be the 'hair that broke the diet's back'.

Here's where it all started. My first cookbook. I remember when I got it and how much I LOVED it. I was hooked. I could sit and look through the pages for hours imagining the tastes and textures that had so far only been possible in my imagination. I still have it - every page familiar. I can still read cookbooks for hours. They are my favorite souvenir no matter where I travel.
This book has travelled with me from one coast to the other and has generally been with me despite my address or if it ever would be looked at again. These books are like my culinary security blanket. When I wonder if things will work out and I feel stressed, I see them and know that I have clear, trusted directions close at hand - and it's just that simple.
I couldn't have been more than four or five when I got it. I used to watch The Galloping Gourmet on television at lunchtime followed by Julia Child of course. I suppose Kimba the White Lion was on, before both, but I was secretly simply waiting to watch someone cook who knew what he or she was doing.
Ever since, cooking, baking, canning and preserving has been a compulsory part of who I am. I cook when I feel as though I can't think clearly. I cook when I need to stop and just think.
I've spent hours assembling and breaking down recipes to achieve the best result possible - the textures, tastes and sentiment I'm looking for. Whether that means altering ratios, adding, changing or removing ingredients or something as small as changing the brand of a product. The differences in result can range between vast and subtle. Possibilities are virtually endless. This blog will serve as my online log book of those trials, experiments and successes - failures included.