I couldn’t wait to open the package in the mail. Earlier that month, I had “ordered” a new book from Paperbackswap. The title is simply Willams-Sonoma Muffins. It’s a gorgeous full color cookbook filled with, well, muffin recipes, but also quick breads. (By the way, if you have gotten a chance to read some of my posts over at the Frugal Living blog, you’ll know that I am a fan of Paperback swap. The retail price of the Williams-Sonoma Muffins book is $16.95. An average credit will cost you $2.25-$2.75).
As if by divine providence, the Muffins book fell open to page 79. On the left-hand page is a mouth watering photo, and on the right-hand page is a recipe for Chocolate Coffee Cake. I didn’t need to look at the rest of the book. This was the recipe I was going to make this morning.
Unfortunately, the recipe called for Dutch Process Cocoa, something that my little store here in PA doesn’t carry. This is different from regular Unsweetened Cocoa Powder. Dutch process cocoa powder contains more alkaline. It is darker and milder than standard unsweetened cocoa powder. Because of the difference in alkaline, substituting standard unsweetened cocoa powder for dutch processed is not recommended.
However, we’ve been having a hard weekend. My husband worked yesterday and will work again today, despite the holiday. I just wasn’t in the mood last night to go scampering around to speciality shops with three young children.
So, I made the substitution, but I did it with a little eye to science. To balance out the difference in alkaline and keep the science, I added additional baking soda to the recipe. For every 3 tablespoons of cocoa, I added an additional 1/8 teaspoon baking soda. This recipe called for 2/3 cup of cocoa, which translated into a scant 8 tablespoons of cocoa. So I added 1/4 teaspoon plus a pinch of baking soda.
To balance out the slightly more flavorful (and slightly more bitter) unsweetened cocoa, I used a combination of regular and miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips in the streusel topping.