Sunday, May 17, 2009

How to make.....

Coffee Bread


This is a popular recipe in the Stowers household.  We make it during the holidays, I made it for all my wedding shower hostesses, and I am trying to bribe potential home buyers with it!

I grew up with this bread and I LOVE IT!  There is nothing like the smell of fresh and delicious bread baking in the oven!  So I finally decided it was worth the task of photographing/blogging the process so more people could enjoy this delicious treat at home!

Some of you may be intimidated by yeast.  DON'T!  It's so easy!  And the worst things that could happen would be that the yeast gets killed in the process and your bread won't rise, but at least you will have tasty bread sticks!  So best of luck!  This is a simple recipe with only a few ingredients, but it does take several hours for the whole process.  I find it best to start early in the morning and then I can be done by noon or the early afternoon!  So without further ado....

1. Gather your ingredients, and notice that I forgot to include eggs, yeast, water, and baker's joy cooking spray.


2.  Melt the butter.  Dissolve the yeast in warm water (not pictured). Combine dry ingredients (note to reader,  I have yet to perfect the bread when making it at higher elevations.  In the Texas panhandle 8 cups of flour may be just right, but it's too much in Albuquerque.  I only start with 6-7 cups and then add more after the entire mixture has risen.  I have no tips on high altitude cooking)  Slightly beat the eggs and sprinkle some grated rind into the eggs.

After the butter is melted, I then add the water and evaporated milk.  Doing this helps to cool down the butter and keep the  yeast from being killed.




3.  Add the egg mixture to the milk/water/butter mixture.  Then add the yeast to the milk/butter/water/egg mixture.  Mix gently.  Add the milk/water/butter/egg/yeast mixture to the dry ingredients. 


4.  Stir the wet and dry ingredients until flour disappears.  Cover and put in warm place to let it rise.  The length of time that takes varies but it's around 2 hours.  If it sits too long, the dough will start to dry out!  




5.  After the dough has risen, lightly flour the top of the dough and push it down in the bowl.  Dump it out on a floured surface and knead slightly.  Divide the dough into 3, and put 2 of the balls back in the bowl.  Continue to knead the remaining ball and then roll out into a large oval. 




6.  Brush the dough with lots of melted butter (good for your heart right?) and sprinkle generously with cinnamon sugar.  Roll it up and place it seam side down a greased bread pan.  Continue the same process for the remaining balls of dough.  Brush all the tops with the melted butter.  Cover the 3 loaves and then place in a warm place and let double in size (which takes about 1-2 hours).




7.  Once doubled in size bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.  When done remove from oven and turn out while the bread is still warm.  Let cool and then slice it up and smother it with butter and stuff your face till you have a tummy ache! (Well maybe you have more self control than me!)

If you don't eat all 3 immediately, the best way to get the fresh bread taste is to slice it up, butter it, and broil it so you get a nice toasty edge, but a gooey center!  





Coffee Bread Recipe

2 pkg yeast
1/4 c warm water
1 c evaporated milk
1 c water
1/2 c margarine or butter
8 c flour
1 1/4 c sugar
1 T salt
2 eggs (slightly beaten)
grated orange or lemon rind

Filling:
melted butter
cinnamon sugar

Heat milk, marg/butter until melted.  Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Dissolve yeast in warm water and combine into milk mixture along with the eggs and grated rind.  Stir into dry ingredients until flour disappears.  Cover bowl and let rise ~ 2 hours.  Push down and turn out on floured surface.  Knead slightly and then divide into 3 parts.  Knead until elastic.  Roll each into a large oval, brush with melted butter, and sprinkle generously with cinn/sugar mixture.  Roll up and place side down in a greased bread pan.  Brush top with melted butter and let rise again until doubled in size ~ 1 hour.  Bake at 350 for ~ 35 mins.  Turn out of pans while warm and devour when its cool enough to cut!


Whew...this recipe is so much easier to make than to blog about...I'm pooped!  Did I mention that we triple this recipe when making it, so we don't have any left over evaporated milk.  each can has about 1.5 cups in it.  When that happens...this is how much bread you end up with....



(that's right, 5 normal loaves, and 8 baby loaves, remember that I'm trying to bribe people to buy my house...would it work for you?)


ENJOY!

7 comments:

Jon and Steph said...

Yummm! I LOVE coffee cake! Thanks for the recipe, I'm definitely writing this down ;)

Have a great Sunday!

McBee said...

MMMMMM....I hope one of those breadies has my name on it! :)

katie said...

mmm! I LOVE that stuff

Unknown said...

yum! that looks deeelicous. and not too difficult!

Anonymous said...

I'LL JUST WAIT UNTIL YOUR DAD MAKES ME SOME AT CHRISTMAS---IT IS GOOD STUFF.
MARMIE

Ann said...

Wow that looks good. I really like your blog and I am ging to follow it.

wife.mom.nurse said...

YUM!.

Ok, I guess you are lucky that I do not live in N.M., I might have become a Lookey Loo(do you even know what that means?!) LOL!