Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake: Daring Bakers’ March 2011 Challenge

(NOTE: For some reason my pictures are not coming up.  I will try to address this problem and update this post later.)
**UPDATE: I took new photos and now they are up.  Apparently Blogger does not like pictures taken with my Blackberry :-)**

Let me start off by saying I have not baked in over a month. With my new job, which I love, I have a lot more work and responsibility. I have been working from home on most weekends, leaving no time for baking… But, I do miss it… And, I yearn for the familiarity and the success of pulling a successful sweet treat out of the oven. So this past weekend I made time to bake. I decided to make the Daring Bakers’ March Challenge.

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I still question that logic considering me and yeast are not good friends. I have had a lot more failure with yeast than I have had success. If I wanted to forge back into baking with a confidence building recipe with assured success, a yeast based recipe would not be my first choice (or second, or third, or fifteenth for that matter).

With all that being said, this dough was a dream to work with! This is by far the best yeast based product I have ever made. You want to know where I ran into problems with this recipe? Whipping up the meringue. I know. Random. I have NEVER had a problem with meringue. Yes all equipment was oil-free (if that is what you are thinking). It took me three batches (two with handheld beaters and once with the kitchen aid) before I got a decent meringue, but it still never reached stiff peaks… I may have been slightly impatient.

The only other issue was the mess factor in rolling up the cake roll. The meringue tended to leak out the roll a little bit. That caused me distress. The roll also cracked down the side while baking, which also stressed me out because the finished roll was not as pretty straight out the oven as I would have like.

Never the less, upon cooling, cutting, and tasting it, it tasted WONDERFUL. For the filling I used brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, and allspice. I LOVE the taste of this brioche type dough. I will definitely be using this dough recipe again.