Coffee Cake Rings

This is a tasty, slightly sweet, cake that is more like a bread. As the name suggests, it pairs brilliantly with coffee.

Ingrediants: Dough
1.5 tsp instant yeast
3.25 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup warm water
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
2 tsp. salt
1/3 cups sugar

Ingrediants: Nut Filling
1 cup walnuts
1 cup pecans
2 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnaom
2Tbs. honey (warmed slightly)

Method: Dough and Filling
1. Put the yeast, 100g flour, and warm water into a large bowl and mix with a fork
until smooth. Let this mixture stand, uncovered for 10-20min until it begins to ferment
(the smell is slightly alcoholic, and it looks a little puffy, the mixture is noticeably thicker,
it sticks to your finger if you did it in).

2. With a fork mix the egg, egg yolk, oil, salt and sugar into the above mixture until the
eggs are well incorporated, and the salt and sugar have dissolved. With a wooden spoon
stir in all the remaining flour (340g) at once. When the mixture is a shaggy ball put it on
a lightly floured bench and knead it until it is smooth and soft. If needed add water (if
dough is too dry) or flour (if dough is too sticky).
The dough should feel soft and silky.

3. Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover it with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Let the
dough ferment in a warm place until it has at least doubled in bulk (around 2 hours).
Make the filling in the meanwhile.

4. Finely chop the nuts by hand until the texture is like baklava filling.

5. Transfer to a bowl, mix in sugar, cinnamon and honey. Taste, you can add more sugar
or honey if you like it sweeter.

6. Cover the filling and set aside.

7. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

8. Divide the dough in half.

9. Using a rolling pin, and a small amount of flour, roll out dough until it is about 10cm (4inches) wide, and 50cm (20inches) long.

10. Spoon a heaping line of half the filling down the center of thedough.

11. Pull the edges over the filling and pinch together. Then roll again and check if it is sealed, if not pinch together some more.

12. Pull the ends together to form a ring.

13. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

14. Let them proof until triple in size (around 1.5 hours).

15. Preheat oven to 375F or 190C.

16. Brush with egg wash (1 egg)

17. Get scissors and cut shallow, diagonal incisions about 1inch (2.5cm) apart, creating a decorative fringe.

18. Put bread on two racks in the oven.

19. After the first 15min of baking, switch the bread over with each other: the top on the bottom, the bottom on the top.

20. Bake the rings for 25-35min, until very well browned.

21. Remove from oven, cool on a rack


Taken from the amazing book: "A Blessing of Bread: Recipes and Rituals, Memories and Mitzvahs" by Maggie Glezer (pp184-6).