Sunday, June 27, 2010

Ina Garten's Sour Cream Coffee Cake AND Scalloped Tomatoes


Barefoot Bloggers is relaxing a bit over the summer, and that's excellent news for me. I was on vacation when the June picks were announced and the relaxed schedule made it possible for me to make both selections. The two picks this month are sour cream coffee cake (selected by Gwenn of Cooking in Pajamas) and scalloped tomatoes (selected by Josie of Pink Parsley).

I've had a go-to coffee cake recipe for, oh, over 20 years now. In fact, I posted it here. I had no expectation that this one would unseat it from it's favored position, but was I ever wrong. It has streusel (which I doubled based on the feedback on the Food Network site) and to quote one of my tasters "This is everything a coffee cake is supposed to be...buttery, fluffy, just perfect." I can't recommend this recipe highly enough. It's easy and delicious, an unbeatable combination in my book. Please make it soon! You can find the recipe here.


I had trouble imagining the second selection for the month, scalloped tomatoes. I was making some Indian dishes with Kayte, one of my Twitter buddies, and I had pulled some naan out of the freezer to serve with soup. If you know me at all, you know I'm lazy, so I had left a piece of naan out overnight. Rather than throwing it away, I tore it into chunks and used it in place of the boule that the recipe calls for. I didn't saute it in olive oil, preferring to let the juices from the tomatoes soften and flavor the naan. Baked for 15 minutes, this came out bubbly and fragrant from the garlic. It was delicious and truly a wonderful way to use leftover bread.

If you'd like the recipe the way Ina intended, you'll find it here.

My thanks to Gwenn and Jody for picking two real winners. We really enjoyed both of these picks.

3 comments:

Kayte said...

I have cooked all of Ina's books to death, but I have never made this coffee cake...I do believe it is time. You have Naan in the freezer?? So organized are you. I am going to try to make it this afternoon from Madhur's recipe in the book. Wish me luck. I have never even had Naan before, so not sure what I will produce on a first effort, that one is getting posted regardless, however! I think it would be fun to try the Naan with the scalloped tomatoes as you have it...it makes 6 breads, so no doubt I will have some left to try it out.

Joy said...

The coffeecake looks fantastic! Can't wait to try it!

Audrey said...

I saw Ina make the scalloped tomatoes (sometime not in tomato season) and immediately wanted to try it. Thank you for this reminder...and for the positive vote! I like your inspired 'variation.' :)