The Surprising Approach I Use to Recreate Sara Lee’s Iconic Espresso Cake (and Make It Even Higher)

For so long as I can keep in mind, my father has hosted Christmas brunch yearly. The menu has remained comparatively unchanged: My dad at all times fries up a pile of crispy bacon and my aunt Zapote at all times bakes her signature quiche Lorraine. The one factor lacking these days is the Sara Lee pecan espresso cake my grandmother introduced when she was alive.

With its tender crumb, candy cinnamon filling, and toasted pecan topping, the cake was a scrumptious and far anticipated a part of our household’s vacation traditions, and nobody appeared to thoughts that it wasn’t do-it-yourself. What I keep in mind most about that Sara Lee cake, which is made within the model of Danish brunsviger—a frivolously sweetened yeasted espresso cake that’s usually eaten for breakfast or alongside a cup of espresso—is its mushy, pillowy texture. Since my grandmother’s loss of life, no one else has introduced the beloved cake to our Christmas gathering.

Although the traditional Sara Lee cake was as soon as simply discovered within the freezer aisle of most grocery shops, it’s a lot tougher to come back by right this moment. I searched excessive and low for it in nearly each main grocery retailer in my hometown of Seattle with no luck. I discovered the cake on the market on Amazon—however solely in a pack that retailed for $86. If I needed to get pleasure from my favourite Sara Lee espresso cake once more, I’d both must shell out massive bucks or recreate the recipe at residence myself. I opted for the latter, and took it as a chance to make a fair higher model of the unique with the assistance of my father, a fellow Sara Lee fanatic. The result’s a pastry I’d be completely satisfied to serve at my very own vacation brunch annually: tender, subtly candy, with a mushy, springy crumb, and cinnamon-scented brown sugar and pecan filling.

4 Key Methods for the Greatest Yeasted Espresso Cake 

For the Perfect Crumb, Incorporate a Tangzhong 

My first exams took inspiration from traditional Danish yeasted cake recipes. The dough is enriched with butter, eggs, and sugar, then kneaded briefly and baked right into a barely bready cake. I liked the simplicity of those muffins, however they finally lacked the moisture and tenderness of the traditional Sara Lee pecan espresso cake. For a softer cake, I made a decision to include a tangzhong, a Taiwanese strategy of cooking flour and water right into a paste, which supplies baked items an excellent plush texture. Bakers usually use tangzhong (and the associated Japanese yudane and yukone) to organize shokupan (Japanese milk bread), giving it its signature loft and tender crumb, and Severe Eats has a few Western recipes that additionally incorporate this system, together with  babka and crusty dinner rolls.

To make a tangzhong, you whisk collectively a slurry of milk and flour over medium warmth till it thickens right into a stretchy paste. This helps the starches within the flour gelatinize, permitting the flour to carry onto extra water than if it was unheated. “As a result of a gelled combination of flour and water is drier in texture than an an identical ungelled one, it means that you can make a dough with extra water in it than it might in any other case include—with out it turning to soup,” Severe Eats contributor Andrew Janjigian wrote in his shokupan recipe. “The additional water is there, however you may’t see or really feel it within the dough.” This implies the dough can embrace a number of liquid with out changing into unworkably moist, and lends the cake a mushy, plush crumb that stays contemporary for longer.

Enrich Your Dough

Like brioche, the dough for my yeasted espresso cake is enriched with butter, egg yolks, sugar, and milk, producing a wealthy, tender pastry harking back to an enormous cinnamon bun. These elements have an necessary position within the dough’s construction: The butter and egg yolks coat the gluten proteins—glutenin and gliadin—in fats. This makes it tougher for them to bond, minimizing gluten improvement. Just like the butter and yolks, sugar additionally has a tenderizing impact on the dough. As an alternative of coating the gluten proteins, nonetheless, the sugar attaches itself to water molecules earlier than the water has had an opportunity to bond with the gluten proteins and inhibits extreme gluten improvement. The result’s a espresso cake that’s wealthy, tender, and toes the road between bread and cake.

Attain for Bread Flour

Whereas we need to keep away from extreme gluten improvement, we nonetheless desire a cake with sufficient construction to assist the air bubbles—or carbon dioxide—that’s produced by the yeast because the dough ferments. Flours have differing protein percentages, which point out their gluten potential. All-purpose flour usually has a protein share of 9% to 12%, whereas bread flour tends to have 12% to 14% protein. Utilizing bread flour could seem counterintuitive, because the goal here’s a tender cake, however on this recipe, it helps assist the dough’s construction and rise. Through the use of bread flour mixture with gluten-limiting elements equivalent to butter, egg yolks, and sugar, we’re in a position to strike a stability and produce a loaf that’s each mushy and has construction.

Proof Twice to Make It Further Good

Like many yeasted doughs, this cake requires two rises: a bulk fermentation and a ultimate proof. The majority fermentation, or first rise, occurs within the mixing bowl, after the dough has been kneaded, with the ultimate rise taking place after the dough is stuffed and formed.

Giving the cake sufficient time to proof is essential to reaching its mushy, mild texture and permits the dough to develop extra taste. Beneath-proofing can result in a dense crumb, because the yeast wants time to digest the sugars and produce the carbon dioxide so important to the cake’s rise. To check in case your dough is absolutely proofed, gently poke the cake with the tip of your finger. Your finger ought to depart an indent and the dough ought to gently spring again.

After the dough is formed, it’s then coated and set to rise a second time. Whereas it’s completely acceptable to let the cake rise on the counter till puffy and bake it on the identical day, letting the cake rise in a single day within the fridge helps the dough develop extra taste, and means you may get pleasure from a stress-free morning full with a contemporary, heat cake for breakfast.

While you’re able to bake the cake, take away the cake from the fridge and let it end rising at heat room temperature till it’s puffy, which is able to take one to 2 hours. Use the identical poke check as earlier than to inform if the dough is absolutely proofed. This time, you’re in search of the dough to very slowly spring again when pressed. It’s key to not let this dough rise too lengthy at this stage or it might overproof and find yourself flat—you’ll know you’ve taken it too far if the dough begins to deflate when poked.

Easy methods to Fill and Type the Espresso Cake

Working with a mushy dough could be a bit difficult. When you don’t need to incorporate an excessive amount of flour whereas kneading, you must use sufficient flour when dealing with and forming the dough to forestall extreme stickiness. Do not forget that dough sticks to itself, so in case your arms or rolling pin are coated in dough, issues will solely proceed to get stickier—and messier. Generously dusting your work floor and rolling pin with flour will assist stop an infinite cycle of sticking. And when you have extra flour remaining on the dough, simply take a dry pastry brush and gently brush your dough to mud it off.

To kind the cake, I roll the dough right into a 9- by 16-inch-sized rectangle, scatter the cinnamon-pecan filling excessive, then roll the dough into an extended log. Subsequent, I coil the log round itself to make a circle that’s then rolled out into a bigger circle that may match the dimensions of the cake pan—very similar to how a scallion pancake is shaped. In my testing, I’ve discovered  this forming course of to be the easiest way to include swirls of the candy filling evenly all through the cake.

Earlier than baking, I firmly press pecan halves into the floor of the dough. Remember to cram as many as you may, because the nuts add a satisfying crunch to the in any other case pillowy cake. Brushing the cake with melted butter provides it a luscious sheen and helps preserve the surface of the cake mushy. Because the cake itself doesn’t include a number of sugar, a beneficiant layer of vanilla glaze provides an additional layer of gooey sweetness and is actually the icing on the cake for this particular breakfast deal with.

Serve It Heat

Technically, you’re supposed to attend till yeasted breads and muffins are utterly cooled earlier than reducing into them. This permits all of the starches to set and makes for the perfect texture. That stated, this cake is really greatest loved whereas it’s nonetheless a bit heat. Don’t serve it straight from the oven, because the cake can have an disagreeable gummy texture when sizzling. As an alternative, let the cake cool for about 45 minutes earlier than serving it.  This can make sure the cake is tender and fluffy, however nonetheless a bit gooey and heat.

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