Guest Author - Anita Burroughs

One of the secrets to making superb desserts is using the freshest spices available. It surprised me to learn that many spices we purchase in the supermarket may have been on the shelves for a year or more, even before we open them. I learned this lesson after buying some fresh spices at a farmer’s market in Atlanta many years ago. I returned home, and smelled my new spices along side the ones I had sitting on my own pantry shelves.

The spices I had been using had very little fragrance. The new spices seemed to jump out of the bottles, and were incredibly fresh. My advice to home cooks is to purchase the best spices you can afford, and to buy them in smaller rather than large containers. The giant cinnamon container you can buy cheaply at Costco is great, unless it’s going to take you years to use it up. By the time you get to the bottom of the bottle, the cinnamon will likely lack any of the vibrancy that is needed to make a truly great dessert.

Farmer’s markets are a great source for spices, as are health food stores, cooperative markets and gourmet food shops. If you are like me and live in a more rural environment, you can purchase spices online. My favorite source is www.penzeys.com; Penzey’s also has retail stores in many metropolitan areas. Their spices are unbelievably fresh…just try a few items like their freshly ground ginger or cinnamon, and you won’t believe the difference.

Here is my favorite coffee cake recipe of all time. Try it with super fresh cinnamon, and it will be even better.

Amazing Apple Coffee Cake

One 13 x 9 inch cake pan is recommended for this recipe. This is a large recipe, and serves 12 to 16 people.

2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons fresh ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup sugar
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup of buttermilk or you can use plain yogurt, which is thinned with some milk to give it the consistency of buttermilk.
2 cups cored and diced baking apples, about ½ inch pieces. You can use any kind of baking apple, such as Golden Delicious, Cortland or Macintosh.
For the Topping:

½ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 Tablespoons of cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans or almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the baking dish and put it aside for now. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a bowl and put this aside.

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until it is creamy. Then, add the white and brown sugars and beat until the mixture is light and well blended. Then add the eggs, one at a time, until the mixture is smooth. Then add the dry ingredients in stages, alternating with the buttermilk or yogurt mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients, until everything is incorporated; do not over mix. Quickly stir in the apples, and pour the mixture into your prepared pan.

In a bowl or a food processor, mix together the ingredients for the topping, except for the nuts. After they are mixed, add in the nuts. Stir the topping over the cake batter evenly.

Bake the cake until a toothpick or knife comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake, about 30 minutes.

Cool the cake, and then cut into squares. This cake also freezes beautifully, and is great for large crowds.

Are you looking for a great new baking book? Check out King Arthur Flour's Cookie Companion. It's in my permanent library, and I use it frequently.