Cinnamon Coffee Cake Recipe and My Favorite Coffee Beans

I'm a homebody at heart.  I love being at home and can go days on end without leaving my home other than to go for hikes with Simcha.  One of the things that makes being at home enjoyable for me is having freshly baked breads, cookies, and cakes to eat and that's one reason that I bake as much as I do.  It has literally been years since I bought a loaf of bread from a store or bakery and the same for cookies and sweets.  About the only time I'll eat something store bought is when I'm on vacation or happen to be in a coffee shop. And when I do I'm often disappointed.  It's either heavy (usually because its "gluten free") too sweet, or lacking in flavor.  I think I might be spoiled because when I bake I use the very best tasting ingredients like European butter, Belgium chocolate, and that makes a difference to taste.  But obviously there are exceptions and one bakery in Los Angeles that I highly recommend is Republique (in West Los Angeles on La Brea). You simply can't go wrong with anything you order there!  And I'm sure there are others but as I mentioned at the start I'm a homebody and don't get out much.

Since winter is a time when many people are at home whether they are homebodies or not I am sharing a recipe for a lovely rich and moist Cinnamon Coffee Cake that's easy to make and calls for ingredients that you are likely to have on hand.  I would describe it as having a texture similar to a carrot cake and it's wonderful with a cup of coffee or warm with a scoop of ice cream.  I love that it stays fresh for days (and is actually better the second day) and can be left sitting out on the counter. There's something very inviting about walking into your kitchen and seeing a coffee cake sitting there waiting for you.  I've made this many times over the years and hope you find the recipe as reliable and enjoyable as I do.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Recipe ~ 8" round cake

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon (divided into 1 1/2 tsp. and 1/2 tsp.)
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 vegetable oil (light tasting such as safflower or canola)
1 cup walnuts - finely chopped
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 egg - beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk (to convert 1 cup regular milk to buttermilk simply substitute 1 Tbs of the milk for either lemon juice or white vinegar, stir and let sit for 5 minutes before using)

Steps:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Prepare 8" round deep cake pan.  You can either use a spring form cake pan or lightly grease a cake pan with butter and coat with flour.  Alternatively you can use an 9" x 13" pan and adjust the baking time.
3. In a large mixing bowl combine: flour, salt, 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, both sugars, and oil.  Remove 3/4 cup of this mixture and in a small bowl add this to the walnuts and the remaining 1/2 tps. cinnamon. Set this walnut mixture aside.
4.  To the original large bowl of flour mixture add the baking soda, baking powder, egg, vanilla, and buttermilk.  Mix until well combined.
5.  If using a round cake pan (deep) pour 1/2 of batter into cake pan and cover with a 1/2 of walnut mixture. Pour the remaining batter on top of the walnut mixture and top with the remaining walnut mixture.  If you are using a 9x13 sheet pan pour a layer of mixture and top with walnut mixture.
6.  Bake cake for 60 to 65 minutes or until cake tester comes away clean.  Allow round cake to cool for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to finish cooling.  If using sheet pan allow to cool completely before cutting into squares and removing.


My Favorite Coffee Beans ~

Because coffee cake goes so well with a cup of coffee I thought I would share my favorite method of making coffee and the beans that I use for a great home brew.

As a preface I used to be a huge fan of barista coffees and went out of my way to visit coffee shops for my favorite fix which typically was a cappuccino in a large frothy mug.  But somehow over time I became plain coffee drinker.  I simply realized one day that there's something about the rich flavor and pure taste of coffee that gets lost in all the cream and froth and cinnamon sprinkles.  And a plain cup of coffee has a lot less cholesterol and calories too so there is that as well.  But with a plain cup of coffee the quality of the bean and preparation process becomes much more important as the flavor and body is everything.

For years I used a French Press to make my coffee at home.  But inevitably they would crack, or the wire filter would come apart or in some fashion die and while it made a nice cup of coffee it wasn't a great cup of coffee.  So after tossing yet another french press I looked for a better mouse trap and found one!  It's the AeroPress coffee method and for years I've been a fan.  In fact as soon as I had my first cup I knew this was the end of the road for me.  If you've not heard of or tried this method it's pretty inexpensive to try and I think you'll be hooked.  Now all that's left is your choice of beans....

My Top 5 Favorite Coffee Beans

1.  Intelligentsia - El Diable Dark Roast Blend.  A blend of coffees, changes seasonally.  Celebrates the savory side of coffees highlighted by carmalized sugars, molasses and chocolate flavors.  This is my go to daily brew.

2.  Christopher Bean - Irish Cream.  It's one of their most popular flavors and uses 100% Arabica beans.  I don't drink a lot of flavored coffees but once a week or so I'll go for a cup of this.

3.  Blue Horse - 100 % Kona - dark roast.  Shade grown, hand picked, and sun-dried.  This coffee has a rich, full aroma with low acidity and low caffeine.  It's very expensive but it's nice to have this on hand and I like to offer it to company after dinner with their dessert.  I drink this Kona on Saturday mornings.  With my feet up.  Surfing social media and reading the news.

4.  Stumptown - Trapper Cream Decaf (using Swiss water method).  This has a wonderful buttery flavor combining the sweetness of raisins and caramel.    Stumptown is a local Los Angeles coffee roaster and their most popular blend is Hair Blender (notes of cherry, toffee and fudge) named for the original location that was housed in a "hair" parlor. This is typical "insider" LA humor.  And despite the quirky name it does make a great cup of coffee.

5.  Raven's Brew.  Wicked Wolf - dark roast.  I discovered this coffee on our trip to Alaska and remember loving it.  I've also given it as a gift and it was well received.  I added it to my list because it's a regional coffee that is probably unfamiliar to you.

You might notice that I generally select dark roasted coffees and that is because the dark roasts tend to have less of a caffeine kick.  Most of the coffees listed can be found on Amazon.com.  I gave the links to the individual websites because that's where you will get the best description of the coffee and choices.

Incidentally the beautiful mugs in these pictures are made by Wild Child Clayworks on Etsy. I have several of their pieces including a pie plate that I love.  They do beautiful work.

Until next time be well, love well and this winter enjoy your time indoors, perhaps with a slice of coffee cake, a great cup of coffee and your feet up!

Knitting Socks and Why Knitting is a Better Kind of Happiness ~

When I lived in the Midwest during my law school years it was a wondrous experience to go through seasonal changes after having been raised in perpetually sunny southern California.  I found each season had its special moments.  Spring brought snow drop flowers and sunny daffodils; summer meant picking tart cherries and making fresh pies and long evenings watching fireflies twinkling in the dusky sky; autumn was an explosion of vibrant colors and earthy flavorful vegetables; and finally winter was magical from snow flocked trees and discovering animal prints left in the snow to savoring the warmth of family and comfort food in a cozy home.  I loved my time living in the Midwest and miss the seasonal changes.

California has it's seasons too.  It's just that the changes are much more muted and harder to identify unless you are looking for them.  Although I am lucky to live in Topanga, California which is a small community set in the Santa Monica Mountains.  Being at a higher elevation does bring more extreme temperature swings at least, which is one reason that I get to wear shawls and cowls as much as I do as the mornings and evenings can be cool. But regardless of what the temperature is outside come late July there is a sense of preparing for fall and the stores begin carrying back to school clothes and supplies that brings for me a wave of nostalgia.  I loved getting new clothes and supplies for school in the fall.  The only trouble was that I was so excited to wear my new things that sometimes it meant being too hot as the day worn on as a sweater that was comfortable at 8 am was not so comfortable by 12 noon.  I still love fall clothes and shopping for fall clothes and as a nod to that time in my life I'm calling these my back to school socks even though my school days are long behind me.  And it's way too hot to be wearing them right now.  Or maybe just because it is.

How to Knit a Perfect Fitting Sock ~

These back to school socks are knit using my standard formula of 64 stitches on US 1 needles which is my formula for a perfect fit (I wear a size US 7 M / 36 European shoe) and yet they still have enough give that my mom who wears size US 8 shoes can also wear them comfortably.  Once you figure out the right number of stitches and needle size to fit your foot it makes it easy to knit any sock pattern as most patterns tend to use a set number of stitches, such as 64.  For example if a sock pattern calls for US 2 needles and 64 stitches I'll drop down to a US 1 needle with 64 stitches confident that I'll end up with socks that fit. Knowing what combination of needle size and stitch count will fit your feet is your ticket to always knitting socks with a perfect fit!

Particulars: Basket Weave Rib Socks (Ravelry link) from the popular Sensational Knitted Socks (Amazon link - I couldn't find a website or blog) by Charlene Schurch.  The yarn is Hedgehog Fibers Twist Sock (exclusive club colorway that I no longer recall the name of).  This is the first pair of socks that I've knit from this book but I have used it as a resource over the years and it's how I learned to do the kitchener stitch.  There are a number of other designs that I would like to try someday and a great feature of this book is that every pattern has a chart to convert the pattern to any yarn weight or needle size you wish.  Although I've not knit many socks recently I've knit way too many over the years to link to them all so I've just linked to a few of my favorites: Smaug (dragon motif); Cable Rib Socks (also using Hedgehog Fibers Twist yarn); Down the Rabbit Hole (self-striping yarn); and Orzival socks.

Knitting is A Better Kind of Happiness ~

The New Yorker recently published an article entitled A Better Kind of Happiness and I found it amusing and significant that the photo for their piece (shown above) featured a happy knitter, even though knitting per se was not mentioned in the article.

It turns out that feeling productive and engaging in an activity that you find meaningful and that you are able to gain efficacy over adds a sense of well being to a person's life that meets a basic and necessary need to being well and feeling happy. Knitting meets both criteria as the process of knitting creates something of value which gives it meaning and it is also a skill that you get better at the more you do it.  I, of course, already knew this through my personal experience of finding happiness through knitting.  But now I feel a positive mandate to buy yarn and knit and knit and knit!  Kidding aside there is a very sound reason to love being a knitter and not just because you'll have the coolest socks on the block.  It's what Aristotle might call part of living a good life.

Then again there's nothing wrong with an immediate shot of hedonistic pleasure either.  I would be deeply unhappy if I couldn't enjoy my morning cup of coffee. Currently I'm drinking a delicious brew that has hints of raisin and buttery caramel from Stumptown Coffee (Trapper Creek Decaf).  We all have our weaknesses.

Until next time be well love well and have fun knitting knowing that it's actually good for you.  I would also love to hear what simple hedonistic pleasures brings you happiness ~

Knitting a Sweater and Tips to Achieve a Custom Fit

I love my new Spring Lily sweater!  It has wonderful texture with bobbles on top of bobbles and more bobbles and when you look at it you know immediately that it was hand knit which makes it a perfect knitting project.

If you are like most knitters you probably have had the experience of knitting a sweater only to find that it doesn't fit whether it's too long, too wide, too short, or too tall.  So how can you knit a sweater and be sure that it will fit you?  The answer to that question entirely depends upon whether or not you are willing to take a few extra steps before you cast-on.  I'm going to share with you the steps that I take in advance of casting on to achieve a custom fit with any sweater pattern.   

Knitting Tips To Achieve a Custom Fit:

Step 1.  Always knit a gauge swatch and wash and block it.  You will need an accurate gauge swatch to know how many stitches per inch you are knitting in order to calculate (using basic math) a custom fit.

Step 2.  Find a garment in your closet or your friends closet that fits you the way that you want your new sweater to fit.  You are then going to use this garment as a "template" which means that you will sketch the garment on a piece of paper along with all critical measurements (i.e. the length, width, shoulders, neckline, sleeves, etc.).

Step 3.  Ignore the pattern instructions for size.  For example, if the pattern instructions tell you to cast-on 150 stitches for a size 38" sweater you will ignore that instruction.  Instead, you will look at your sketch and using basic math and your gauge swatch you will calculate the number of stitches to cast-on. So if your template indicates that you want the bottom of your sweater to be 18 inches across you will calculate how many stitches it will take to knit 18 inches based on your gauge swatch (i.e, multiply the number of stitches per inch by the number of inches you want) to determine the number of stitches to cast-on.  You will mainly use the "pattern instructions" for overall guidance as to the style of stitches used and for how long, the techniques used for shaping, and finishing instructions, etc.  But for any increases, decreases, or number of stitches to cast-on you will ignore the pattern instructions and instead use your template calculations.  It is always helpful to read over the entire pattern instructions before you begin so you have an idea of the sweater construction.

Step 4.  Periodically take your project off the needles using waste yarn and do a "fitting."  The fitting process will help you make any adjusts to your increases and/or decreases based on how the garment actually fits.

Step 5.  Always wash and block your knitting before doing any finishing work (i.e. before seaming together pieces, etc.).  After pressing out as much water as you can, use your template measurements to gently ease the individual wet pieces into the desired size/shape and leave until completely dry.  Seam together as per pattern instructions.

I know this seems like a lot of things to do but for the amount of work and money that goes into knitting a sweater you want it to fit well and by following these steps you are more likely to have a sweater that will indeed fit!

Particulars:  Lily designed by Marnie MacLean (Twist Collective); US 6 needles (circular and straight); 6 skeins Amy Butler Belle Organic dk by Rowan (50% wool / 50% cotton).  I more or less knit the 2XS size up to the point where the yoke and sleeves are joined.  However, after joining the yoke rather than follow the pattern decreases I adjusted my decreases based on "fitting" which means I took the garment off the needles and adjusted the decreases as needed.  See above tips for more guidance on how I achieved a custom fit.

And Now a Mishmash of Things that I am Enjoying this Spring ~

Spring Lollipops!  I love these seasonal treats that I find at William and Sonoma.  They are a wonderful combination of sweet and acidic and I wish they were available all year round.

Homemade bagels with wild Maine Blueberry jam and freshly brewed Stumptown Coffee yum yum yum. For the bagels I used King Arthur Flour's free on-line Baby Bagel recipe and because I did not have "high Gluten" flour I simply added a tablespoon of Gluten for each cup of All Purpose Flour that I used.  You can find Gluten in most health food stores.

And lastly my morning hikes with Simcha watching the clouds roll in from the Malibu coastline.

Until next time be well and love well and I hope that your Spring will be filled with beautiful color, a sense of renewal, and lots of seasonal treats.

Winter Blues Skirt and Morning Coffee

This skirt has more of an urban edge to it than most of the projects I knit.  But then even us rural Topanga people occasionally visit the big bad city of Los Angeles.  Although, not often, if I can possibly avoid it.  I shouldn't really say that because I am fortunate to live as close to Los Angeles as I do. If there is anything you are interested in Los Angeles is sure to have a club, store, support group, and more groupies than you can possibly fathom.  What you thought was a weird fetish of yours is probably hugely popular here and taken to levels you haven't yet begun to imagine.  Another nice thing is the amazing amount of talent (actors and musicians) that lives in the area and every once in a while Steve and I enjoy going out to a show. And getting dressed up to go out brings me back to my skirt.

I like knitting skirts and this is the third one that I've knit.  If you are going out at night they are a great chance to wear funky tights, show off cute shoes, and make a nice change from the jeans that I typically wear.   I actually don't knit a lot of "clothing" and that is simply because they don't get worn enough to justify the time, effort and expense compared to accessories. But the skirts (and sweaters) that I have knit I am very pleased that I have.  If you haven't yet knit a skirt I really think you should consider giving it a try.

Particulars:  Winter Blues Skirt (loosely based on the Seaport Skirt a design by Kristina McGowan; pattern from Modern Top-Down Knitting); 3.5 skeins Madelinetosh tosh DK (fathom colorway); US 7 circular needles.  Because I was concerned that the skirt might be too heavy as designed for my climate I eliminated a lot of the cables from the design and made it more a traditional A-line skirt.  And, even with many fewer cables, it is still a very warm skirt which makes it exactly perfect for what I had in mind as even in Southern California we occasionally have cold wintery days. But it looks substantially different than the original design which I really liked too and if I had used a lighter weight yarn I definitely would have knit it as designed.  Other skirts I've knit are: Carmine blogged as: Winter Wool Skirt and Bell Curve blogged as: My Retro-Fitted Skirt.


Morning Cup of Coffee ~

You can't imagine the passion I have for coffee.  And lately my morning coffee has been elevated to a new level of pleasure.  Granted I do have to wear goggles, gloves and use a bunsen burner but these are small inconveniences for someone like me dedicated to achieving a perfect brew. Kidding aside my morning cup of coffee is extremely fast, fun, and easy and it's all thanks to my newly acquired and never to be parted from Aeropress coffee device.  As a bit of background I don't have many expensive vices so don't feel badly spending money for a fabulous cup of coffee in the morning and this winter it has become somewhat of a quest of mine.  So let me fill you in. First, if you haven't heard of the Aeropress alternative to the french press it's a much faster and better alternative for a single cup of home brew and you don't have to just take my word for it there are legions of positive reviews on Amazon.  But the device you use to brew your coffee is only part of the equation.   The other critical part is your coffee bean and over the last few months I've been conducting my own informal taste testing and have found the following coffees are my favorites, so far, listed in order of preference:

Kona Medium Roast - Blue Horse.  $32.00/16 oz.  cost per ounce: $2.00 (pictured above)
Jamaican Blue Mountain - Trader's Joe  $19.99/13 oz.  cost per ounce: $1.54
House Blend - Intelligentsia  $14.00/12 oz  cost per ounce: $1.17
House Blend - Stumptown Coffee  $14.25/12 oz cost per ounce: $1.19 (Los Angeles based)
Kona Dark Roast - Blue Horse  $32.00/16 oz.  cost per ounce: $2.00
Cafe Domingo - Peet's Coffee $13.95/12 oz.  cost per ounce: $1.16

Honorable Mention:
French Roast Classic - Peerless Coffee $10.95/16 oz  cost per ounce: $.68 (a popular brand served in many cafes in my home town Santa Barbara, California (shown in the picture below).
Ebony Pearls - Raven's Brew $12.25/12 oz cost per ounce  $1.02 (I discovered this brand while in Alaska)

As far as brewing techniques using your Aeropress there are a number of styles including a cute flip method demonstrated on Vimeo. But whether you flip or not I think is irrelevant.  To make a 10 oz mug of coffee I simply use one heaping aeopress scoop (1 aeropress scoop = 2 tablespoons which means I use slightly more than 2 tablespoons) of beans that I finely grind.  I employ a very slow pour of hot (not boiling) water (30 seconds or longer) and fill the tube up to around the "2" marker. I then gently (almost a caress - it is a fetish after all) fold/mix the coffee and water with no more than 5 or 6 folds max .  I then immediately begin to press at a rate of no less than 40 and up to 60 seconds.  See how easy that is!!!  Within seconds you have a wonderful cup of home brewed coffee.  Alas, I'll concede it's possible that I've thoroughly confused you and, if I have, just watch some of the pros demonstrate it on youtube and you'll see how easy it actually is.

Until next time, be well and love well and stay warm this winter by drinking your own wonderful home brewed coffee! After all a little of what a person fancies does them good.  Sage advice from my mother who will laugh to know that I am dispensing it.