Review: November Cakes!

So, a couple of Sundays ago, I was bored, and in the middle of reading The Scorpio Races (I know, I know, those two things sound like they're incompatible. Just trust me on this--my brain can be weird sometimes), so I decided to make November Cakes! I actually finished the book before they were done (cuz they take forever to rise!) but they were so good, I had to share a review of them (+ slightly modified recipe) with y'all!

So...how were they? In a word: amazing.

The tops were golden and crunchy, and the glaze from the top leaked into the bit under the top, and the sides, and softened it. The icing is...well, the icing on the cake, but it adds a lighter stickiness to the top. The inside is like a cinnamon roll, only softer because of the butter filling, and yes, the bottoms leak buttery vanilla/almond/orangey goodness (although not quite as much as I expected, after the book). And did I mention it's yeasty? In addition to being soft and leaky, the insides are yeasty, and taste like Fall in a bakery; but in a baked good. And yes, they are impossible to eat without getting your hands sticky. But that just means you get to lick your fingers off afterwards. What's not to love?

One of the beauties of November Cakes is that there's next to no sugar in the actual cakes, so even with the glaze, they could be a breakfast food. Although if you have a mom like mine, you might want to leave off the icing if you're planning on eating them for breakfast. Because she will ask awkward questions like "If there's not much sugar in them, why are you adding more sugar on top?" 

I would not attempt to carry them around in my backpack like Puck does in the book, unless I had a plastic container, but I am looking forward to making them again, and eating them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

And can we talk about the recipe for a sec? Because I think that fiction authors should ALWAYS be hired to write cookbooks. Because this recipe? It is hilarious! Read it. You will love it. 

Overall Rating

4.5 stars! Will definitely make again.

Now: on to the recipe

Because my family has a ridiculous amount of food allergies and intolerances, I made these gluten free and egg free (because I eat gf and ef. And yes, it's a pain sometimes). I was prepared for a huge, huge mess, because usually, when I turn a recipe gf and ef the first time, it's a disaster. But it actually worked! I'm not sure if that's because I'm getting better at mentally figuring out the chemistry of gluten-free, egg-free baking, or because God knew I needed something delicious that day. But in any case...I have figured out how to make gluten-free, egg-free November Cakes! *joy* I've added my notes to the recipe in italics, so if you, like me, have allergies, you will not miss out on the joy of November Cakes.

November Cakes Recipe (Credit: Maggie Stiefvater)

Ingredients

for the cake:

1 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon butter

2 eggs (if you're trying to make it egg free, use 1 tablespoon of Egg Replacer in 3 tablespoons of water)

3 1/2 cups flour (for gluten free, I used 1 1/2 cups arrowroot starch, and 1 cup each brown rice and sorghum flour.)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast

(if you're trying to make it egg free, add 1 2/3 tsp of powdered psyllium husk. Or maybe you could use flax seed, I'm not sure.)

for the filling:

3 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 teaspoon orange extract (we didn't have any, so I used a splash of vanilla, and a smaller splash of almond)

for the glaze:

1/2 cup honey

8 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup brown sugar (if you don't have any, you can use white sugar, and add about a teaspoon of molasses)

2 tablespoons whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 tablespoon water

Directions

Cakes: Microwave milk, water, oil, and butter for two minutes. Make certain it is not too hot to touch (90-100 degrees. We don't want to kill off our little hardworking yeast, do we? No. We are not killers). Crack eggs into liquid (or put in egg replacer mixture). In the mixing bowl of a standing mixer, combine 1 1/2 cups of flour, the salt, sugar, and yeast (and psyllium husk). Add the liquid and stir thoroughly. Add remaining 2 cups of flour one cup at a time, stirring between each addition. (If you're making them gluten free, here's where things get dicey. The amount of flour called for in the recipe will not make the dough stiff enough. Add flour (NOT starch, but either brown rice or sorghum) a 1/4 cup at the time until the mixture is firm (i.e. not watery) enough to knead without sticking to your hands. If I was a good chef, I would have kept track of how much I added, but I did not. I would wager a guess that it was around 1 cup.) With mixer on low and using the bread paddle or hook, mix dough for 4 minutes. If you don't have a standing mixer for some strange reason, which I cannot fathom because they are the most useful things ever, you can knead it by hand for 8 minutes instead. (We have a standing mixer but I couldn't find the dough hook...so I kneaded. I'm not sure it's strictly necessary for gluten free.)

    Scrape dough into a greased and floured mixing bowl (didn't find the grease necessary. In other words, I forgot it and didn't have any problems). Let rise for one hour in a warm place. (I preheat my oven to 100 degrees and then turn it off before putting the dough inside, covered with a towel. This is a Great Way to Not Kill Your Yeast. (If, like me, your oven only goes down to 200 degrees, you can preheat it to that, and then turn it off so it can get down to temp. Or, if you, like me, forgot to turn it off, you can put the dough in the 200 degree oven with the door open)) After one hour, remove the dough and place on a floured cutting board. Gently roll it out to a 12 x 20 inch(ish) rectangle.

    Combine 3 tablespoons melted butter and 1/4 teaspoon orange extract (or other extract) for the filling. Spoon the filling to cover the rectangle, then roll it up. It will be...slimy. Delicious, but slimy. (It's really not that bad) Use a sharp knife to cut the log into 12 rolls (BEFORE you divide it, cut the ends off. They will be raggedy and uneven on the inside). (They should be swirled like cinnamon rolls.)

    Place each roll cut side up in a greased muffin tin and let rise for a half hour covered with the towel. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then bake rolls (remove the towel first, flames are such a pain in the kitchen) for 14 minutes. (If, like me, you do not have two ovens, you can simply take the towel off and set the oven to 400 degrees. At around ten minutes, cover the rolls so they don't get too brown on top, and cook for a bit longer, since the oven wasn't quite at temp when you started.) Let them cool in the pan for a few minutes, then tip them out onto a large plate for the next step.

Glaze: While the rolls are cooling, prepare glaze. Mix together honey, butter, and sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil (this looks like a tall fizzing, basically--it puffs up a lot.) for 2 minutes (no skimping) while continuing to stir. Add whipping cream and vanilla (stand back when you do this, because it will fizz harder and sort of explode. This is normal.), and mix well, keeping the stirring and heat constant until mixed through.

    Spoon glaze over the rolls. Because of the rolls' shape, the sides will likely remain glaze-free and the glaze should pool in the dimples and crevices on the top of the buns. (Do one generous layer of glaze, let it soak in, and then add another. There will still be glaze left over, and btw, it's great for dipping apples in. Ask me how I know.)

    The glaze as it's made this way, is a good consistency for eating when it's warm, but it hardens when it cools. If you don't want to serve the buns hot (though I don't know why you wouldn't) you should definitely boil it for less long, maybe a minute or a minute and a half.

Icing: Combine powdered sugar, melted butter, and water to desired consistency--thin enough to drizzle. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar, and if it's too thick, add water. Give the glaze five or ten minutes to cool (seriously. You should wait.), and then, with a spoon, drizzle icing in a zigzag pattern over the tops of the rolls. (If there's any left over...drizzle them more.)

Serve while warm, and don't get on any strange horses.

Have you read The Scorpio Races? Have you ever had November Cakes? Do you have allergies that make cooking hard? Do you like to bake?