This is the story of how I had to open a can of green beans in order to bake Jamie’s Nut Roll.  Yes,  Life’s A Feast, Jamie is our delightful Kitchen Of the Month.  And, yes, thank you for this one!

Start to finish, this one does take some time in total.  Hands on time however is actually fairly limited.  I very often have to chuckle when I remember thinking that bread takes so long to make … that was before I actually made bread and I know just about anyone who’s contemplated baking bread has had the thought “It takes so long, I just don’t have that time.”  That would be true if you had to actually be doing something to the dough not just leaving it alone.

How simple can it get when the night before you put yeast in warm water. Add the butter, milk, eggs yolks, sugar, salt and flour.  Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth. Cover and refrigerate overnight.  I will tell you that after I mixed with the wooden spoon and it was smooth, I really didn’t believe this would be much more than the glop it appeared to be.  Just go with it.

Nut Roll Coffee Cake

Recipe By: Jamie from Taste of Home Cookbook (Taste of Home Bakeshop Favorites)
Yield: one loaf in tube pan

For the dough:
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
70 ml warm water (110°F to 115°F)
225 grams unsalted butter, melted
125 ml warm skim milk (110°F to 115°F)
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar, I used brown
3/4 teaspoon salt
350 grams flour I used a combo: 100 spelt and 250 white whole wheat, more as needed
35 grams ground flax seed
For the filling:
3 egg whites ~ but there were 4 yolks in the dough?
1 cup + 3 Tbs sugar again I used brown, divided
2 cups ground walnuts & pecans
2 tablespoons 2% fat/lowfat milk, ! forgot it, which was lucky because I used that fourth egg white
2 tsps ground cinnamon ~ or whatever looks/smells right to you; I used 2 tablespoons

Directions:

1. The day before, prepare the dough:

2. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the butter, milk, eggs yolks, sugar, salt and flour. Beat until smooth – the mixture will be sticky. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

At this point I thought “this isn’t going to make bread”. It’s goop.

3. The day of baking, prepare the filling:  ***** even though the directions left this step out, consider this dough is cold coming from the fridge: I took mine out and allowed to warm for the time it took to make the meringue below.

4. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in 1 cup sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a time, on high speed until the sugar is incorporated and dissolved.

5. In a large bowl, combine the walnuts, milk, cinnamon and remaining sugar; fold in the meringue.  For a little extra, toast the nuts!  That was a good touch.  I toasted the walnuts … then I chopped them … then I went for pecans.  I didn’t toast the pecans but I did add 3/4 a cup to the already full measure of walnuts.

6. Prepare the Coffee Cake:

7. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).  Grease a 10-inch tube pan.   !#@$###!!! A what … hahahahahaha all my tube pans have been packed for weeks … tube pan … what is a tube pan … well the le creuset dutch oven is a pan and it’s on the shelf … but it has no tube … so you make a tube … and that is when I had to open the can of green beans … wrapped in foil a green bean can becomes a fabulous tube and the dutch oven becomes a tube pan!

8. Divide the dough in half. On a well-floured work surface, roll each portion into an 18 x 12 –inch (45 x 30 cm) rectangle. Spread half of the filling evenly over each rectangle within 1/2 –inch (1 cm) of the edges. Roll each up jelly-roll style, starting with the long side; pinch seam to seal.

9. Place one filled roll, seam side up, in the greased tube pan. Place the second roll, seam side down. Neither one of my rolls were long enough to make it all the way around my make shift tube pan; I just laid the middle of the second roll on top of the first one where it didn’t meet and it all evened out.

******Again missing from the directions but just from the “routine of having baked so many loaves, I gave this a 40 minute rise on the counter before popping it into the oven.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 – 45 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.
What I should have done: take the bread temp. I think this loaf could have baked several minutes longer but maybe not 5. If I’d taken the temp I know better when it would be done next time.
Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before removing the coffee cake from the pan to a cooling rack to cool completely. Removing from the pan prevents bread from becoming soggy.

10. Eat as is or drizzle with glaze or dust with powdered sugar.

You can see how my top roll didn’t quite come together perfectly but I more than happy with it’s charm.  And yes I used all four of those egg whites and had way more meringue than I should have and it squished out … but it just shows you the goodness inside so I’m happy with that as well.

Just the butter called for in the recipe, extra nuts, extra cinnamon … Oh my goodness, all you need now is to get crack’n and bake this … well then you might want coffee although after dinner with wine this was good too.

Didn’t I warn you?  It’s August, it’s HOT and you will want to turn on your oven for this one!  If you want to make this bread with us … like really how could you not … then you really want to be a  Bread Baking Buddy, then bake it, blog it and send Jamie a link by August 26th.  Please use Bread Baking Buddy in the subject line and Jamie will add you to the roundup. But before you do that, check out if and how the other Babes managed their nut roll, on my side bar.

Thank You Jamie!