glazed lemon sugar coffee cake

Fans of the Spoon (and how I love you all!) will know that our house goes through frequent diet-undiet cycles, purposing one day to eat more greens, and several days later caving to the sweetly decadent combination of nutella and ice cream — seriously, people, who can resist this combination!? Only the original combiners of chocolate and peanut butter hold higher esteem in the husband’s gluttonous dessert eating eyes than the combiners of nutella and ice cream. But I digress. We are always on the lookout for healthier (read: slightly less comatose producing) ways to satisfy a sweet tooth, and recently hit a home run with a simple (as in simply divine) rhubarb cornmeal cake that was quite a crowd pleaser with the sweet averse grandparents and sweet addicted husband alike.

Though I’m under no delusion that anything with the word “cake” in it is actually healthy (I guess you could add the word cake to something like “tofu cake”, but I feel that is an insincere use of the word cake that the inventors of the word cake would rightly frown upon), I wanted to continue riding the momentum of the Easter dessert success and made another deceptively simple cakeish dessert. This one boasts lemony sourness and cream cheesey tangyness that is barely sweet, but highly satisfying. Those of you that order sour cream donuts instead of boston cream pie donuts will recognize the satisfaction immediately, and those of you who don’t (i.e. the husband) may consider converting after the experience. This cake is a testament to cakes not needing to be coma inducingly sweet to make for delicious desserts–or even delicious breakfasts.

One Year Ago: Sausage, Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Pizza

Glazed Lemon Sugar Coffee Cake
Adapted from Flo Braker

Makes 1 loaf (just enough for me and not you, err…)

Dough:
About 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons or 1 envelope instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup whole milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Lemon Sugar Filling:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Finely grated lemon zest from 3 lemons, about 3 tablespoons
Finely grated orange zest from 1 orange, about 1 tablespoon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Tangy Cream Cheese Glaze:
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoon whole milk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Dough: Mix two cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Meanwhile, heat milk and the butter together until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat add the water and let cool until just warm, about 120 to 130°F. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Pour the milk mixture over the flour mixture and mix until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened. Attach the bowl to the mixer, and fit the mixer with the dough hook. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition just until incorporated. Stop the mixer and add the remaining 1/2 cup flour, and resume mixing on low speed until the dough is smooth, 1 – 2 minutes. Add 2 more tablespoons flour and mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth, soft, and slightly sticky, about 2 – 3 minutes.

Lightly flour a work surface and gently knead the until smooth and no longer sticky. Place the dough in a large bowl (do not coat bowl or dough with oil), cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size.

Lemon Sugar: Meanwhile, make the lemon sugar filling. Mix together the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan.

Gently deflate the dough with your hand. Flour a work surface and roll the dough into a 20-inch by 12-inch rectangle. Using a pastry brush, spread the melted butter over the dough. Cut the dough into five strips, each about 12-inches long by 4-inches wide. Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons of the lemon sugar over the first buttered rectangle. Top it with a second rectangle and sprinkle with 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon sugar. Continue to top with rectangles and sprinkle, so you have a stack of five 12-inch by 4-inch rectangles, all buttered and topped with lemon sugar.

Slice stack through all five layers, into 6 equal rectangles — each should be 4-inches by 2-inches). Carefully transfer the dough pieces into the loaf pan back to back with the cut sides up. Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until puffy and almost doubled in size, 30 to 50 minutes.

Bake the loaf until the top is golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Test with toothpick or cake tester. If cake is not done in center, but the top is getting really brown, tent with foil and continue baking until tester comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes (or immediately remove from pan, drizzle with glaze and eat within five minutes…but that’s just me).

Glaze: Meanwhile, make the cream cheese icing. Using an electric mixer beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Add the milk and lemon juice. Stir until creamy and smooth.

Run a knife around the edges of the pan to release cake. Place cake on platter and spread or drizzle the glaze over the cake.

Eat immediately, with no apologies.