Welcome back! It shouldn't be a secret that I don't know what I'm doing. That is to say I have no formal training in cooking, let alone baking. I actually used to shun baking because it required too much precision and felt a little too much like college-level introductory chemistry lab (which, if I'm being honest, I did not pass the first go-around). I liked stove top cooking where I could just throw mostly whatever I wanted in all willy nilly--amounts, temperature, time--and I was good to go as long as I didn't burn the garlic. Slowly, I began to embrace aspects of baking. The cookie. The quick bread. The crisp. The cupcake. You know what I wasn't prepared for?
A yeast bread. A baking feat that involves caring for a living thing--an organism that requires a particular temperature in its environment and, like, food. Last year, I probably would've shied away from this task, but now that I've got four months of baby-rearing under my belt, I figure I can feed some yeasties. So, after that pep talk, I decided to dive in and make some sort of king cake treat--cupcakes seemed like the way to go.
After some thorough scouring of the Internet for instructions on how to deal with this dough without a KitchenAid stand mixer, I think I figured it out. So, if you're like me, and you're new enough to this game that you don't yet have a need for such an expensive piece of baking equipment, bust out your hands. According to the folks who know, it's good to start familiarizing yourself with these doughs by hand and then moving to a mixer. #Winning?
The most important things I took away from this experience were that I needed a kitchen thermometer, I had to be careful not to add too much flour to the dough, and that working with the dough was like trying to put hosiery on an octopus. I'm just not accustomed to it quite yet, but I'll get there. The nice thing about this recipe is that even if you mangle the dough as you're trying to roll it up before slicing it, it doesn't really matter. You end up putting the slices/pieces/jaggedy chunks of dough into muffin tins (I highly recommend silicon liners if you have them), and they come out of the oven golden brown, twisty, cinnamony, and beautiful.
These festive little cupcakes have a light base that's flavorful yet not too sweet, finished up with a lemon cream cheese frosting and colored sugar. If you're looking to bake a Mardi Gras treat, and you too have been looking to step outside of your cookie-quickbread baking comfort zone, I highly suggest that you give these goodies a go. I've tried to lay out the recipe in such a way that the you can easily see the steps (super photo heavy)--it's definitely one worth attempting.
Ingredients
8 oz. Greek yogurt (I used plain nonfat)
3 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. butter
½ tsp. salt
1 packet active dry yeast
¼ c. warm water (100 – 110 degrees F)
1 tsp. granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 – 2 ½ c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp. lemon zest
½ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
Directions
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| yogurt mixture prep |
In a medium saucepan,
combine yogurt, sugar, butter, and salt, and heat on low, stirring frequently.
Once butter is melted, set aside and allow to cool slightly (to 100 – 110
degrees F).
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| yeast prep |
In a large bowl,
mix yeast, warm water, and sugar—allow to sit for 5-10 minutes or until foamy.
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| yogurt/yeast mixture (lower left); flour prep (center) |
Add the yogurt mixture to the yeast mixture, mixing well.
Add eggs and mix until incorporated. In a medium
bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, salt, nutmeg, and lemon zest. Then, slowly
add flour mixture to the wet mixture, about ½ cup at a time until the dough is
sticky—if the dough still seems very wet, add remaining flour little by little.
You do not want to add too much flour, as this will result in a dry, tough
product. I found these two videos (getting started + kneading techniques) helpful in terms of getting a feel for what the dough should probably look and feel like--theirs is a white bread, but the dough texture is pretty similar.
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| dough as flour is being added; note that it's still pretty sticky-looking |
Now, grease a new bowl—the
dough will go into this bowl after you finish working with it.
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| dough in oiled bowl after "kneading" and working; much less sticky but still very soft |
Once soft, sticky dough has formed, pour dough from bowl
onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough with your hands until it is
elastic and less sticky than when you began—this should take around 10 minutes.
Place dough into greased bowl, rolling it around so that a layer of oil coats
it.
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| dough after "first rise"; doubled in volume, and a dry (but still soft) outer crust will form |
Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm location for
about an hour, or until the dough doubles in volume. Punch the dough down, and
roll it out into a rectangle, stretched horizontally—aim for 11 x 17, but don’t
stress about it. Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar mixture, and then
roll the dough toward you from the back, forming a spiral, and then slice into
sections about 1” wide.
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| rolled out dough; note it's nowhere near a perfect rectangle |
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| cinnamon-sugared dough before rolling up and slicing |
Place the segments into a lined muffin pan (use silicon liners if you have them--paper liners will work in a pinch, but I found that they stuck a little bit where the sugar mixture came in contact with the liners) before covering
the tins and setting aside to rise again (20-60 minutes). I let mine go for about 20 minutes, and they were good to go, but I've seen instructions advise up to an hour. Then, bake at 325 degrees
for 10 to 15 minutes, or until they reach a deep golden brown.
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| unbaked cupcakes before "second rise" |
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| baked, unfrosted cupcakes |
While cupcakes are cooling, make the lemon cream cheese frosting. Make sure that you allow them to cool completely before frosting them.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
8 tbsp. of unsalted butter, softened
4 oz. of cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
juice of one lemon
colored sugar (optional)
Directions
Using a hand mixer, in a large bowl (because the powdered sugar tends to create a bit of a cloud when you turn on the mixer), blend all ingredients together on low until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
Frost those cooled cupcakes--minus the one you shoved in your mouth as soon as they came out of the oven. Sprinkle them with sugar if you're feelin froggy. :)
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| HAPPY FAT TUESDAY! |
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