Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Swedish Tea Ring

I did it. I went out and bought Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More. After seeing it at my aunts house I knew I had to have it! It such a wonderful book. My family and I will be eating well for quite a while! Good thing we're all passed the sugar making us hyper.
Swedish Tea Ring

Yesterday I put together the Rich Sour Cream Dough, that needs to sit in the fridge overnight. Today I turned it into the Swedish Tea Ringe, and because I so wanted to try one of the streusel toppings, and made that too, and threw it on before baking. Topping it all off, I used her Orange Glaze instead of vanilla, because I love orange!

Swedish Tea Ring (please ignore the background in this photo)
Swedish Tea Ring

Here's the recipe. Now, the swedish tea ring doesn't call for the streusel, but that's what I used, and if you use only half the dough, you only need half the recipe for the streusel. It also calls for vanilla glaze, but I liked the orange. This took forever to type!

The Following recipes are taken from Carole Walter's Book: Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More. Please support her by buying the book! It's definitely worth every penny.
Rich Sour Cream Dough

4 tablespoon of sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour spooned and leveled, (plus 1/4 cup for hand method)
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, plus 1 tsp soft butter for brush top of dough
2 larg eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla exctract

In a large bowl, whisk together the 3 cups of flour, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, and salt. Add the cubed butter. Using you hands or a pastry blender, work in the butter until the mixture looks like fine meal. Make a well in the center.
Disolve the yeast and the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in the warm water, making sure it's activated. Using a fork blend together sour cream, eggs, vanilla. Poor the cream mixture and the yeast mixture into the well. Using a wooden spoon, slowly work the crumbs into the liquids, mixing until all the ingedients are incorporated and a rough dough is formed. Sprinkle the work surface with 2 tablespoom flour. Turn the dough onto the floured surface, add the remaining 2 tablespoons flour and knead until smooth. Note: This is a soft dough!

Lightly butter a bowl for storing the dough. Place the dough into the bowl and brush the top with soft butter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator over night. This dough may be kept in the fridge tightly covered for up to 3 days.

Swedish Tea Ring (Note: This recipe only uses half the rich sour cream dough. I doubled the following so I could use all my dough. Mine took long to bake, and I had to cover with tin foil for the last 10 minutes or so.)

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 recipe rich sour cream dough
about 1 tablespoon melted butter

In a bowl, combine the sugars and cinnamon. Set aside. Removce the dough from the refrigerator and knead the cold dough 6-8 times. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 9 x 16 inch rectangle, with the 16 inch side parallel to the counter. Brush the dough with butter and sprinkle with sugar mixture, leaving a 1 inch border in the far side, and gently pat them into the dough. Beginning with the side closest to you, roll the dough tightly, jelly roll style, to form a log. As you roll, be sure to square the ends of the log with a dough scraper to even the thickness of the log. Pinch the seem, sealing it well, and gently roll the log back and forth, elongating it until it measures 16 to 18 inches long. Place the log seam side down on the prepared cookie sheet and form it into a circle, 7 to 8 inches round. To make the ring, brush one of the ends with butter was and seal it to the opposite ends by pinching them together. Place a greased, inverted heat-proof bowl into the center of the ring, to help hold the shape. using sharp scissors, cut 16 to 8 slits about 3 quarters of the way through the dough, spacing them about 1 inches apart. Turn the slices out, so that they lay somewhat flat on the pan. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and a towl, and let rise for 45 to 60 minutes, or until puffy and almost doubled.
HPIM2120

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush the top of the dough with soft butter and cover with streusel topping*. bake in the oven for 25 to 28 minutes.

Streusel topping:
Carole's Favorite Streusel:
6-7 tablespoon melted unsalted butter(I used margerine)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tso salt
3 tablespoon finely chopped walnuts
with a fork, combine all the ingredients until crumb forms.
While dough is baking, prepare the orange glaze.

Orange Glaze:
1 cupe powdered sugar, 4 to 5 tablespoon hot orange juice, 1 1/2 tsp light corn syrup, 1/3 tsp orange oil, 1/8 tsp vanilla extract. Apply while the dough is hot!

I'm editing this post to add a picture I did for this blog. Sadly it won't fit on the side like I wanted because all the layouts just don't work that way...but I still wanted to post it, since it sort of has to do with baking...sorry it's so big!
CBwhat copy

9 comments:

Karen said...

Oh, that looks so good! Your family is so lucky!

dailydelicious said...

Oh, I wish I can have a little pieces if it. It looks so yummy.

Colette said...

Thanks! Yes, I hope they realize it...haha, just kidding. My dad's the happiest man on earth!

Christine said...

Lovely! It looks as if it came from a bakery.

I also love orange toppings. The citrus taste is very delicious, though I have to be careful to not include something orange in all my baked goods or else it would taste the same!

Very cute anime pictures! Do you make them yourself?

Colette said...

Thanks! Yes, I make the pictures myself.
I was so set on orange I made my brother buy me a little jug of orange juice while he was at school just I could make the glaze. Of course, I paid him back with a nice piece of the Tea Ring! Haha.

Mother Bliss said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. Your blog is wonderful, can't believe you're only 15! The stuff you make looks great, keep up the great work.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

my goodness, that Swedish Tea Ring is GORGEOUS!!! excellent work!! Your baking (and photography) skills are impeccable!

Randi said...

I googled this because I had a problem with the dough. Did yours rise overnight in the fridge? What about when you took it out to rest? Mine didnt rise at all so I tossed it out. My yeast was very fresh too.

Unknown said...

My mom has made the tea rings since I was a child, now I'm 42. She made them every year for our teachers, 4-H leaders, etc. She rolled hers out thinner than most, and when she was done, it barely fit onto a LARGE cookie sheet, like you would find in a bakery. Every year the teachers, leaders, etc, looked forward to this! I am so glad you posted this. Many people don't know what they are!