The only times I eat sugar and butter for breakfast is when we’re goin’ on a road trip. Since we haven’t had one in awhile, I’ve been missing out on my sugar-butter doses. So much so that there’s a couple blocks of cream cheese in refrigerator # 2 just waiting to be used.
Our road trips start at a local coffee shop. Usually a non-fat latte, but what to munch on? Barry’s go-to is a blueberry scone; I’ve always wobbled between a coffee cake and a cream cheese Danish. (Sometimes, a croissant.)
As it turns out, Yvonne Ruperti from Cook’s Illustrated this month agrees with me. In fact, she took it one step farther (I would have eventually…) to develop a cream cheese coffee cake.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you’re a regular reader, you might have noticed our multiple pleas for ways to use up our lemons. Wouldn’t you know, Yvonne’s recipe this month is steeped with lemons (in the cake and the topping). A happy accident? Yes, especially when it’s Saturday night, Barry’s catching up on a crappy bang-bang-shoot-‘em up movie and those cream cheese blocks are callin’ my name.
A note on Cook’s Illustrated. It’s refreshing to read material that isn’t laden with advertisements that say “go here, use this, buy that.” On top of the ad-free material, there’s wonderful content, too. I suspect these folks prefer quality over quantity, and I like that. Just wanted to pass that along. I’m going to write them a fan letter this week.
Back to the recipe; no need to discuss it. Yvonne already did that in the magazine article. I’m just gonna verify that yes, my sugar-butter breakfast was outstanding. Not because I was able to unload 4 more lemons, not for the almond-sugar crust, but for the cream cheese ribbon. Now, where’s that gym membership?! [K]
The recipe appears on pp. 20-21 of Cook’s Illustrated, No. 102, January & February 2010.
[Recipe reference awaiting permission from the kind folks at CI. If this sentence never refreshes, I never got the permission.]
Nutrition content per slice: 348 calories, 41g carbs, 5g protein, 19g fat, 1g fiber
Cost per slice: $0.31 – $0.49
Hello, friends!
