English Toffee Bundt with Drunken Dulce Drizzle #BundtBakers

Fold bits of toffee candy into a batter rich with cream and deep brown sugar for a tender Bundt replete with caramel and love. Drizzle it lavishly with rum-spiked dulce de leche and you’ve got a full-blown love affair on a cake plate. 

Caramelicious deliciousness
I’m on deadline here, folks, because they are getting ready to turn my power off in a couple of hours – something about upgrading the system – and I’ve got to share this Bundt with you! So, no long story or introduction except to say that it’s BundtBaker time again and our host this month, the talented Lauren of Sew You Think You Can Cook has proclaimed Caramel as our theme.

Caramel comes in many forms but one of my favorites is caramelized condensed milk, otherwise known as dulce de leche. One of my others is toffee, which is basically sugar that’s been caramelized to which butter and/or cream is added. I love to make this candy for holiday gifts. I make it and wrap it and get it out of the house pronto, or I will eat it all, one shard at a time until it’s gone, gone, gone. So buttery, sweet, salty, nutty, in a word, fabulous. It’s kind of a homemade Almond Roca, but with bigger pieces of almond.


It’s not quite holiday gift giving season so I saved myself the calories and bought a box of Almond Roca to use in the cake, every gram of which went in or on the cake. Feel free to use homemade toffee, if you have some.

Ingredients
For the batter:
3 cups or 375g flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups or 300g dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cups  or 355ml whipping cream

3 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup toffee candy, chopped, or 140g

For the drizzle:
3/4 cup or 240g dulce de leche
1 tablespoon dark rum
Good pinch salt

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by greasing it generously with butter or non-stick spray. I’m not even kidding a little bit here. The toffee bits in the batter will melt and stick to your pan if you don’t. I coated mine once with the spray and put it in the refrigerator. Then, when I was ready to fill it, I took it out and gave it another coating of spray. Even so, one piece of toffee tried to stick up near the top, until I loosened it gently with a wooden skewer. You have been warned!

Sift your flour, baking powder, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.

Use electric beaters or your stand mixer to beat the cream and brown sugar together for several minutes until the brown sugar is dissolved.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, and beat after each until well combined.

First egg going in. The brown sugar and cream mixture looks good enough to drink!

A few serving spoons at a time, add the flour mixture to the batter, beating well as you go along. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as well. When it’s all in, beat on high for two minutes.

Fold in about three-quarters of your toffee pieces, reserving one-quarter to decorate the Bundt after the glaze is added.

Pour into your prepared Bundt pan and bake for about one hour or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. If the top starts to darken too much before the center is done, cover it with a piece of foil.

It wasn't that full but, boy, howdy, did it rise while baking!

Allow the Bundt to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning over and out onto a cooling rack. Don’t leave it longer than this because you don’t want the toffee pieces inside to harden and stick to your pan.

Cool completely before attempting to drizzle on the glaze.

To make the glaze, add your one tablespoon of dark rum and the good pinch of salt to the dulce de leche. Stir with a fork or small whisk until the rum is completely incorporated. At first it looks like it’s not going to mix in but persevere.

When the Bundt is completely cool, drizzle on the spiked dulce. You will not use it all and that's okay. I have a plan for the balance.

Now stick on your reserved pieces of toffee.

Serve extra dulce de leche on the side in a shot glass. :)

Enjoy!

Check out all the fabulous caramel Bundts everyone has been baking this month!

• Apple Butter Bundt Cake with Cider Caramel Glaze by Cassie of Cassie's Kitchen
• Apple Pecan Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze by Aisha of La Cocina de Aisha
• Belle Helene Bundt Cake by Jelena from A Kingdom for a Cake
• Brown Butter Praline Bundt Cake with Salted Caramel Drizzle by Tux of Brooklyn Homemaker
• Caramel Apple Bundt Cake by Kaylin of Keep it Simple, Sweetie
• Caramel Banana Bundt Cake by Kathya of Basic N Delicious
• Caramel Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Icing by Rebekah of Making Miracles
• Caramel Chocolate Bundt Cake from Natalia of Principiando en la Cocina
• Chocolate Caramel Apple Bundt Cake by Lauren of Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Peanut Butter Caramel Sauce by Laura of Baking in Pyjamas
• Cornmeal Bundt Cake with Caramel Popcorn by Patricia of Patty's Cake
• English Toffee Bundt with Drunken Dulce Drizzle by Stacy of Food Lust People Love
• Fall Classic Caramel Bundt Cake by Maleka of La Luna en Dulce
• Fair Toffee Apple Bundt by Jane of Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Milky Way Bundt Cake by Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Salted Caramelized White Chocolate Glazed Butterscotch Pecan Bundt Cake by Laura of The Spiced Life
• Snickers Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze by Bea and Mara of I Love Bundt Cakes
• Spiced Apple Bundt Cake with a Caramel Brickle Drizzle by Teri of The Freshman Cook
• Spiced Caramel and Pear Bundt Cake by Rocío of Kids&Chic
• Three Flavor Zebra Bundt Cake - Vanilla, Caramel and Chocolate by Caro of En la Cocina de Caro

What is BundtBakers? 
#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Would you like to join us? 
If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Povitica #BreadBakers

Povitica, pronounced pov-e-tee-za, in its original form, is sweet yeast dough, stretched till it’s very, very thin, then spread with a walnut filling and rolled up, Swiss-roll style and baked in a loaf tin. I won’t kid you; this was a pain in the backside to make. It was also, however, quite delicious.

There’s a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things to do was to sit on the closed toilet lid in a steamy bathroom and watch my father shave. I was fascinated by the canned foam that frothed up around his spreading fingers, covering whiskers and cheeks and chin. And the clean, neat path cut by the razor, snug on his skin, still pink from the hot shower, reflected in a crudely rubbed circle in the foggy mirror.

Best of all were the ditties he sung as he shaved. “’Rye whiskey, rye whiskey, rye whiskey,’ I cry. ‘If whiskey don’t kill me, I’ll live till I die.’” And the seemingly never ending “Hole in the bottom of the sea.” Perhaps you know it.

It starts,
“There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a hole. There’s a hole. There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea.”

Then,
“There’s a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea. There’s a log. There’s a log. There’s a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea.”

After that “There is a branch on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea” and you can see where this is all going. It’s a long song, people. But I loved it. Because my daddy was singing it.

The Great British Bake Off
Why am I sharing this with you today? It’s only because I wanted to say that unless you’ve been living under a log in the hole in the bottom of the sea, you’ve probably heard of and/or been watching the Great British Bake Off. And I thought that might need some explanation. I’m all about the teaching moments here.

I’ve been glued weekly the GBBO, as we insiders call it. It’s the ultimate competition for home bakers in the UK, starting each season with 12 bakers hand-picked from thousands of applicants. Just normal people like you and me who like to bake at home for friends and family. They are challenged with unknown recipes but hopefully familiar techniques and each week one of the 12 gets sent home, until finally last week, there was a showdown with the last three contestants. And a lovely lady named Nancy was declared the winner and given a cake plate. No kidding. A cake plate and some flowers after countless weeks of toil and worry. The real prize is the eventual cookbook deals. And perhaps they get to keep the apron.

But back to the Bread Bakers post at hand
It was the quarter final in the GBBO and the bakers were faced with a recipe that all but one of them had never heard of, povitica. Eastern European in origin, it is apparently a Christmas treat. Based on the internet chatter, few others, including me, had ever heard of it either.

But with all of the critiques from the judges in mind, and the original Paul Hollywood recipe from BBC Food in hand, I decided to give it a go for this month’s Bread Bakers theme, Touch of the Grape, adding plump raisins to the bread and baking it in my favorite Bundt pan. Make sure you scroll to the bottom of my recipe to see all the other lovely grape-ful breads we have for you this month - some sweet, some savory, all delicious - and to find out how to join us for future editions of Bread Bakers.

Ingredients
For the dough:
3/4 cup or 180ml whole milk
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
About 2 1/3 cups or more accurately 300g bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 oz or 7g fast-acting yeast
1 oz or 30g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1/2 vanilla pod

For the filling:
1/4 cup or 60g unsalted butter
4 tablespoons whole milk
10oz  or 280g walnuts
1/2 vanilla pod
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk

To assemble:
1 cup or 150g raisins
3-4 tablespoons honey

Method
To make the dough, warm your milk and put it in a large mixing bowl with the sugar and yeast. Leave it to sit for a few minutes to make sure that the yeast is going to foam up, signaling that it is alive and ready for action.

Cut your vanilla bean into halves and split them down one side. Scrape out the seeds from one half and add it to the yeast bowl along with the flour, egg, butter and salt.

Mix thoroughly until all the flour is incorporated.

Now beat vigorously for five to eight minutes. This dough is going to be extremely loose but should get stretchy and smooth as you keep beating.

Grease another large mixing bowl and scrape the soft dough into it. Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place until it doubles in size or about one hour.

Liberally butter your Bundt pan, making sure to cover all the nooks and crannies. Pour most of the raisins in the bottom, reserving a generous handful to sprinkle around the sides once you add the dough in, and cover them with the honey.

While the dough rises, we can make the filling.

Measure your milk into a microwaveable container and add in the butter. Microwave for 10-15 seconds at a time until the butter has melted.

Scrape the seeds out of the second half of the vanilla pod and add them to your food processor with the walnuts, sugar and salt. Pulse until you get a sandy powder.

Add in the milk/melted butter and the egg yolk and pulse to combine.

Mr. Hollywood’s recipe calls for a clean bed sheet on which to roll out your dough but I decided to take a page from GBBO contestant Martha’s book and use cling film so I covered my kitchen table almost completely in that stretchy stuff and sprinkled on some flour. By all means, use a clean sheet, if you would prefer.

Once the dough has finished rising, punch it down and turn it out onto your prepared flat surface.

Roll it out as thinly as you possibly can, sprinkling on more flour as need be. The directions call for picking the dough up and stretching it out bigger but that didn’t work so well for me so I just kept rolling gently until it was quite thin.

I managed to get it to about 28x20 inches or 70 x 50cm.

Put blogs of the filling all over the rolled dough and spread it out gently, being very careful not to rip the dough.

Starting on the long side of the dough, pick up your cling film and start rolling the dough up, Swiss-roll style, as tightly as you can manage.

So willing but so little help there under the table.

Just keep rolling, snugly, snugly, until you get to the other side.

Now here comes the trickiest part and, if you have a helper with opposable thumbs in the kitchen, this would be a good time to enlist his or her help. Sadly, my helper, though willing, does not have the necessary appendages.

Starting with one end of the roll, tuck it up against the center of the Bundt pan so that it will not be visible on top when the povitica is turned out.  Wrap the rest of the roll around in the pan. Sprinkle the reserved raisins on the bottom and down the sides of the dough.

Put the Bundt pan in a clean plastic bag in a warm place and leave the povitica to rise for one hour. On the GBBO, they called these proofing bags or some such. I used a new garbage bag and made sure it was puffed up with air so it couldn’t touch the dough.

When your hour is almost up, preheat your oven to 350F° or 180°C.

After rising in a garbage bag

Bake the povitica for 15 minutes and reduce the oven temperature to 300F° or 130C° and bake for a further 45 minutes. If it starts getting too dark, you can cover the top with foil.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy!

Traditional povitica would have been baked in a loaf pan and had a glaze drizzled on top instead of a sticky pile of honeyed raisins. So sue me. I think we all know how I feel about Bundt pans and the Touch of the Grape Bread Bakers theme was my idea so the raisins were essential.

Which reminds me that I have a fabulous bunch of grape-y breads to share with you today!

• Cinnamon Raisin Bread from Rocío at Kidsandchic 
• Double Chocolate Red Wine Bread from Heather at Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks 
• Easy Grape Focaccia from Kimberly at Rhubarb and Honey 
• Golden Raisin and Fennel Sourdough Pocket Bread from Karen at Karen's Kitchen Stories 
• Grape Bread Pudding from Cindy at Cindy's Recipes and Writings 
• Grape Cornbread from Vonnie at My Catholic Kitchen 
• Grape Focaccia from Renee at Magnolia Days
• Grape Poppy Bread from Mireille at Chef Mireille's East West Realm
• Oat & Raisin Hokkaido Loaf from Kelly at Passion Kneaded 
• Peshawri Naan from Anshie at Spiceroots
• Poached Pear Brioche Tart from Sophie at Sweet Cinnamon & Honey 
• Povitica from Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Raisin Bread from Caro at En La Cocina de Caro 
• Savory Grape Bread with Goat Cheese, Lemon and Coarse Salt from Jenni at Pastry Chef Online
• Schiacciata all'uva from Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Sweet Dry Grapes Bread with Cinnamon from Kathya at Basic N Delicious 

Want to join our bread baking band?
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Pumpkin Spice Spice Baby Muffins #MuffinMonday

Pure pumpkin puree and cinnamon flavor a fluffy, tender muffin, topped with crunchy pumpkin seeds and a melt-in-your-mouth pumpkin spice white chocolate kiss candy. 

My self-imposed pumpkin moratorium is over. While a chill isn’t exactly in the air yet here in Dubai, I can finally see that there is hope for autumn and soup and pumpkin recipes. It’s been an extended summer of flights to family and friends and even having family visit me. Bless my mother; she came to Dubai in the hottest month to keep me company while my husband traveled on an extended business trip. We did see some sights, the ones that were inside and air-conditioned. Because that is what makes life tolerable when temperatures soar. The top temperature while she was here was, according to my external car thermometer, 52°C or 125.6°F. So, you are going to laugh at me but the current temperature of 34°C or 93°F actually feels cool. I know, weird, right? But it’s true, at least for the first five minutes outside. I am looking forward to the trend continuing. And I am finally baking with pumpkin.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190g all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour blend
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 15 oz can or almost one cup or 215g pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For topping: 1/4 cup or 40g pumpkin seeds and 12 pumpkin spice kiss candies

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and either grease your 12-cup muffin pan or line it with paper liners.

In one big mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.

In small mixing bowl, whisk the pumpkin, eggs, oil and vanilla extract.

There you have the difference between brands of eggs here.

Fold the liquids to the dry mixture, stopping when they are just mixed if you are using all-purpose flour but stirring until completely and thoroughly mixed if you are using the gluten-free flour blend.

Divide the batter between your prepared muffins cups.

Push one pumpkin spice kiss into each cup and sprinkle the pumpkin seeds all around.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted next to the kiss candy comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.

Remove from the muffin pan and finish cooling on a rack.

Enjoy!