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Alicia's Activity Angle

Alicia Wicklund

04/10/2012

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There’s something about a cup of coffee. For most it gives them the extra boost to get up and going for the day. For others, it is part of an everyday social where conversation occurs.

I’m sure many can relate, but turning on the coffee pot is one of the first things that gets done in the morning, whether it is at home or at work.

The coffee is always on at my grandparents as they are farmers. Their place is considered, “the grand central station,” and any neighbor, friend or family member driving by always seems to stop.

Grandma can always pull some sort of goodies out of her freezer to go along with the hot coffee, or, if company is lucky, they will catch her on one of the days she makes homemade bread.

I have a feeling a lot of farmers in the area can agree, something along these lines takes place daily at their place too.

A person may walk into a Bottineau business and the employee or owner may say, “Can I get you a cup of coffee?” In my opinion, coffee goes along with being Midwest nice.

But coffee is not only to drink. Coffee goes good in things. When used in baking it adds a little bit of richness or a taste that leaves you wanting a cup too.

The following is a brownie recipe I would not leave out of a recipe collection. My mom always called them:

Texas Brownies

  •  2 cups all-purpose flour
  •  2 cups sugar
  •  1 stick of butter
  •  ½ cup shortening

 

  •  1 cup of strong coffee
  •  ¼ cup dark, unsweetened cocoa
  •  ½ cup buttermilk
  •  2 eggs
  •  1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. vanilla


Frosting

  •  1 stick butter
  •  2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
  •  ¼ cup milk
  •  3 ½ cups powdered sugar
  •  1 tsp. vanilla  


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine flour and sugar in a separate bowl. In a heavy saucepan, combine butter, shortening, coffee and cocoa. Stir constantly and heat to boiling.
Pour hot mixture over flour and sugar. Add buttermilk, eggs, soda and vanilla. Mix well.

Pour into a greased jelly roll pan and bake for 20 minutes or until done.

While baking, combine butter, cocoa and milk in a saucepan and heat to boiling, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and mix in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Pour warm frosting over brownies as soon as you take them out of the oven. If your frosting is done before the brownies are, I sometimes lay a damp paper towel over the saucepan as it helps keep the frosting moist.

If desired, you can sprinkle nuts on top.

Another recipe may not always contain coffee, but it sure goes well with it – coffee cakes.
My favorite to make is:


Streusel Apple Coffee Cake

  •  1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
  •  ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  •  ½ cup butter, chilled and diced
  •  2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  •  1 cup chopped walnuts
  •  3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  •  1 ½ tsp. baking powder
  •  ¾ tsp. baking soda
  •  ¾ cup butter, room temperature
  •  1 ½ cups white sugar
  •  3 eggs
  •  1 tsp. vanilla extract
  •  16 oz. plain low-fat yogurt
  •  2 Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored and finely diced


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt cake pan.

To make streusel, in a medium bowl mix brown sugar, ¾ cup flour and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a fork until crumbly. Stir in walnuts.

In a medium bowl, stir together 3 ¼ cup flour, baking powder and baking soda. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Then stir in the vanilla and yogurt. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until blended.

Pour 3 cups of the batter into the Bundt pan, sprinkle with ¼ of the streusel and layer with apples. Sprinkle with ½ the remaining streusel. Pour in the remaining batter and top with the remaining ¼ streusel. Lightly pat the top layer of streusel so it sticks to the cake batter.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Place cookie sheet over pan and carefully invert both. Remove Bundt pan and let the cake cool completely.

These can be made in muffin cups too, as it is sometimes easier to serve. I found this recipe online at www.allrecipes.com.