Pineapple Rosemary Coffee Cake - Crazy Ingredient Challenge

Procrastination is going to be the death of me. I have known what I wanted to make within a day of the ingredient polls closing for this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge. Actually, I had two ideas - a cake and a bread. I was actually most excited about the cake. But thought I'd go bread just based on the fact that the other things that I wanted to make were also dessert. I got my pineapple and rosemary pretty quickly and I was ready to bake. But things just kept getting in the way.

Suddenly, it was the Friday afternoon and I hadn't started my bread yet. I wasn't too worried though. I had never tried the recipe before. But I was sure (hopeful?) that the pineapple and rosemary would work well. Additionally, I thought I'd paid close attention to hydration while I was planning the recipe. There shouldn't have been any surprises.

The dough gods were just not on my side. The dough was STICKY! It made no sense. I had added only half on my planned liquid. How could it possibly be so sticky? Where did I go wrong? Keep kneading? Keep adding flour? Eventually, I tossed the sticky mess into the fridge for a slow, cold rise and decided that it was time for a new plan. I didn't want to start the bread recipe over. At that point I didn't know what went wrong. I decided to go cake. The original cake plan actually involved caramelizing pineapples. I know - so good! In my panicked state, I completely forgot about the original cake and decided to go with a coffee cake instead. The coffee cake is good. Even better with way too much glaze on top. But I'll be honest, I want my caramelized pineapples! I still could have gotten it done. This coffee cake plus caramelized pineapples would have been pretty awesome too. But I had a meeting to get to and I was running late. And I HATE being late and having people wait for me.

I'll bake the bread at some point today and will share how it turned out. My best guess at the crazy hydration is that I added too much sugar. I remember now that there was a question mark beside the weight of the sugar and that meant that I needed to think about adjusting it. Clearly, I didn't. Sugar will pretty much act like water in your dough. Try it sometime. Add a ton of sugar to a dough of perfect consistency and then watch it become very hydrated. The other issue could be weather related. Ah, bread baking is so fun! Seriously, it is.   Until I bake my bread, I have coffee cake with way too much glaze to eat! Be sure to check out what all the other bloggers made with pineapples and rosemary. 

Pineapple Rosemary Coffee Cake

Recipe by: Kelly   Adapted from: Red Star Yeast

Yield: 1 cake

Ingredients Cake 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour, divided 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast 1/3 cup sugar 2 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely minced 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup water, heated to 110 F (or per yeast manufacturer's instructions) 2 tablespoons butter, softened  1 egg, beaten 1 cup pineapple, chopped Topping 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup flour 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions Whisk together half the flour, yeast, sugar, rosemary, cinnamon and salt. Add the butter to the warm water then pour into the flour mixture. The butter does not need to be completed melted. Stir in the beaten egg. Beat for 3 minutes. By hand, stir in the pineapple and the remaining flour a little at a time.  Pour into a greased 9 inch square or 9 inch springform pan. Cover and let rise until doubled.  Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Prepare the topping by mixing the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Finally, mix in the butter until crumbly. Gently sprinkle oven risen batter.  Bake 35-45 minutes until golden and the cake registers at least 190 F.

Notes If using a springform pan, be careful of leaks. Wrap the bottom of the pan with foil or place the pan on a baking sheet while it's in the oven.  I used a 9.5 inch springform pan which is a wee bit too big.  A 9 inch cake pan with 1-2 inch sides might be too small. Three inch sides would work.

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