Monday, April 30, 2012

Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti.

Before there was anything else, there were these. In the early days, post college graduation, before I discovered my true calling and passion for baking, I made these. And they were really good. So good that I kept getting requests for them from my family members.
Conversations went something like this and still do, by the way.
"what do you want for your birthday?"
"just send some biscotti!"

"what about for Christmas?"
"how about some biscotti?"

These were the originals, the cookie from which my passion was fueled. And, yet, after 7 years and some 200 posts, I still haven't paid homage to this little guy.

Well, that all changed last week. After 4 years and nearly 0 care packages sent to my family members,
(can I blame the kids, you guys?)
my parents lost a beloved friend of 13 years. My second thought after hearing the news was, maybe I should send them some biscotti.
Doesn't biscotti make everything feel a little bit better?
Here's hoping it will. xo























Again, so sorry for the terrible pic quality...


Best Biscotti.

4 oz butter
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 T vanilla
1 T squeezed orange
3 1/3 c flour
3/4 teas baking powder
1/8 teas salt
1/2 teas cinnamon
4 oz shelled salted pistachios
4 oz dried cranberries


cream together butter and sugar.
 add the eggs and beat until creamy.
add the vanilla and orange, mix to combine.

In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
add to wet mix and mix to combine. try not to over mix.
then, add the nuts and fruit. feel free to improvise! I have used chocolate and pecans with good results too.

roll into 2 logs. 3in  wide by about 15 in long.
bake at 350 for 30 minutes, until the cookies are baked and just slightly golden.
let cool, cut into cookies about 1 inch wide, and re bake, abotu 15 minutes until golden and dry.

I love you guys. The package is in the mail.





Posted from bed using blog press for iPhone..

Friday, April 27, 2012

Chocolate Babka Rolls

(After just posting my last entry, I had to trudge ahead and post a follow up with a good ending.
I learned with my previous post that I needed to trust my gut and not the celebrity pastry chef. In this case, I trusted my gut again but following through on this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and I was so so happy I did. It was pretty labor intensive but so worth it.)
Read On.

Recently, I made these for a cookbook club meeting. With 2 active kiddos, they took me a couple days to complete. They were so worth the wait. I was able to make the chocolate filling and dough in stages and then retard the dough in the freezer, pulling it out several hours ahead of time to proof and bake. I made these rolls below and a huge loaf to share with my cookbook club.
With these rolls below, just roll the dough as you would in step 7 below. then, instead of twisting it or adding the strusel, just cut the rolls from the log using a serrated knife.



Chocolate Babka (from Smitten Kitchen, via Martha Stewart)
When shaping the babka, twist dough evenly throughout the length of the roll a full 5 to 6 turns.

*(I made these rolls and a large loaf, which I froze after step 8 for a couple nights, pulled it out and thawed for about 7 hours before baking.)

1 1/2 cups warm milk, 110 degrees
2 (1/4 ounce each) packages active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups plus a pinch of sugar
3 whole large eggs, room temperature
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature, plus more for bowl and loaf pans
2 1/4 pounds semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped*
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon heavy cream
Streusel topping (below)

1. Pour warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and pinch of sugar over milk; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. In a bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, and egg yolks. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture, and whisk to combine.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. Add egg mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Change to the dough hook. Add 2 sticks butter, and beat until flour mixture and butter are completely incorporated, and a smooth, soft dough that’s slightly sticky when squeezed is formed, about 10 minutes.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead a few turns until smooth. Butter a large bowl. Place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
5. Place chocolate, remaining cup sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut in remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter until well combined; set filling aside.
6. Generously butter three 9-by-5-by-2 3/4-inch loaf pans; line them with parchment paper. Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon cream; set egg wash aside. Punch back the dough, and transfer to a clean surface. Let rest 5 minutes. Cut into 3 equal pieces. Keep 2 pieces covered with plastic wrap while working with the remaining piece. On a generously floured surface, roll dough out into a 16-inch square; it should be 1/8 inch thick.
7. Brush edges with reserved egg wash. Crumble 1/3 of the reserved chocolate filling evenly over dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Refresh egg wash if needed. Roll dough up tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch ends together to seal. Twist 5 or 6 turns. Brush top of roll with egg wash. Carefully crumble 2 tablespoons filling over the left half of the roll, being careful not to let mixture slide off. Fold right half of the roll over onto the coated left half. Fold ends under, and pinch to seal. Twist roll 2 turns, and fit into prepared pan. Repeat with the remaining 2 pieces of dough and remaining filling.
8. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush the top of each loaf with egg wash. Crumble 1/3 of streusel topping over each loaf. Loosely cover each pan with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place 20 to 30 minutes.
9. Bake loaves, rotating halfway through, until golden, about 55 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake until babkas are deep golden, 15 to 20 minutes more. Remove from oven, and transfer to wire racks until cool. Remove from pans; serve. Babkas freeze well for up to 1 month.
* After chopping the chocolate into moderately sized chunks, I used the food processor to pulse the rest of the chocolate in two batches to small bits. It saved a lot of time!
Streusel Topping
Makes 3 3/4 cups.
1 2/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, and butter. Using a fork, stir until fully combined with clumps ranging in size from crumbs to 1 inch.


*I didnt use the topping on the rolls and they tasted delish nonetheless.


Kouign Amann, take 1.

This is a classic example of one of those, trust your gut lessons. And, in this case, don't always trust the celebrity chef.

I have had this recipe for Kouign Amann bookmarked on my computer ever since I tasted it for the first time at Honore Bakery in Seattle. It was quite possibly the best pastry I had ever eaten, and this includes all 100,000 chocolate croissants that I have consumed. I haven't had a lot of free time over the last 4 years, but I am starting to reclaim it slowly and surely. Yippee. So, the other day on a whim, while one kiddo slept and the other was at school, I clicked on the bookmarked tab and started mixing dough. As I looked at the recipe, I had my hesitations, but it was a blog written by David Lebovitz, a well known pastry chef, so I plunged forth. My hesitation was this: the Kouign Amann I had tasted was a flaky, chewy, crispy piece of buttery sugary heaven with a touch of sea salt. My guess was that they use some sort of laminated dough. Not sure what this is? think croissant. lots of layers of butter and dough, delicately folded and rolled over and over again. this creates pockets, flakes in the crust. The David Lebovitz recipe was like, throw some butter and sugar on the dough, fold it some, roll it a little. At one point he even states that if it falls apart to just push the dough back together. I found myself thinking that my Chef teachers at the CIA would laugh if I had done this with a delicate and lovely croissant dough. This was no delicate and lovely croissant dough. This was like lazy man's croissant dough. (not trying to be elitist here. croissant dough is just way more labor intensive, with good reason!) So, I guess I wasn't surprised at the result. But, as I was trudging ahead, I kept thinking, 'well, it is a David Lebovitz recipe...so it has got to be good, right?'


Um, wrong.

just wrong.

I don't know, maybe this is the real Kouign Amann and the version I had was an improvised version (and much superior, I might add)
So, if you are looking for a lovely, light, layered, flaky, buttery, sugary and crispy pastry, this is not it.

On the other hand, if you want something that is heavy, crispy on top with some decent caramelization, super doughy, butter leached out of the dough and into the bnottom of pie pan.. eek. barf.
I will say that this was edible, sort of. I mean, when is sugar, butter and dough not edible, right? Well, this was on its way to hitting the dirty diapers in the garbage when my husband came in the kitchen to tell me that he actually liked it.

Tomorrow, I may have to introduce him to the real thing.



The Dough before layering.




The finished product. doesn't look too bad. Looks can be deceiving.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Carrot Cookies.

I ended up with a lot of carrots last week. We don't have a horse, but my son does love them. but, still, that is a lot of carrots. So, I started pinning on Pinterest. Carrot Pancakes, Carrot Cake.. I even looked at some cookies. But, nothing I saw was what I had in mind when I started to envision a carrot cookie. I didnt want frosting on it. I didnt want it to taste like cake. If I want cake, I will make cake. I like my cookies chewy.
So, I took a recipe that I have used and tweaked it. I used all whole wheat flour. I cut back on the sugars, eliminated the raisins, added some chocolate chips and some carrots, and voila, this cookie was baked. And, they turned out good. not too cakey, but, just a touch raised. and, chewy. I also really liked the flavor of the whole wheat and the carrots. This one is a keeper.


Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Carrot Cookies.

1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teas vanilla
1 c oats
1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 teas baking powder
1/2 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt
1/2 teas cinnamon
1 c chocolate chips
1/2 cup carrot, grated thin.

cream butter and sugars, add egg and vanilla. whip to combine.
in a separate bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
add this to the wet mixture. stir to combine. (the batter might seem a little dry, but the added carrots shouls alleviate this. )
add the carrots and the chocolate chips.

preheat oven to 350. line pan with silpat or parchment.
spoon hefty Tablespoon of dough. (I got about 18)
Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly golden and dry to the touch.


Thursday, April 12, 2012

Meyer Lemon Whole Wheat Honey Bread.

This bread started out as sweet Portuguese buns for Easter. But, I had some lemon infused milk and a lemon sweet bread was born. Then, I ran out of regular flour and a whole wheat bread was born. then, I ran out of time chasing the kids and threw the dough in the freezer.

This is how is goes these days.

A couple days later, I pulled the bread out and thawed it. I proofed it and baked it, and a lovely lemon honey whole wheat bread was born.

Since having kids, I am amazed at how many times I have bagged a recipe. I put things off. I run out of time. But, I am trying to bake a loaf of bread a week, in the very least. This recipe, or my new version of it, yields just the right amount of dough for 2 loaves. If you choose or have no choice, throw half in the freezer, and pull it out next week. You will be glad you did.



Meyer Lemon Whole Wheat Honey Bread.
(say that three times, fast)


Sponge:

1 1/2 Tablespoons dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk, steeped with Meyer Lemon Zest of 2 lemons.
(I let it sit overnight, but I imagine 30 minutes would do. bring 1 1/4 c milk and zest to a simmer, then let it sit.)
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour

mix ingredients until smooth, then let sit for an hour at room temp, covered.

Dough:

1 stick butter, room temp, in pieces.
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs, at room temp.
3 cups or so Whole Wheat Flour

*Stir down sponge and add butter, honey, salt, eggs and 1 cup flour. stir. continue to add flour, little by little until you have a soft dough that comes together. any flour left? use it to flour your surface for hand kneading. knead for a few minutes until springy, then let rise in a covered bowl for 1.5 hours.

(at this point, if you run out of time, you may retard the dough in the fridge or freezer and pull it out later. if you do this, be sure to allow a few hours for the dough the thaw, if frozen, or to come to room temp, if in the fridge. when thawed, proceed with the instructions below..)

divide the dough into 2 portions and grease 2 loaf pans. (9 by 5 by 3 or similar)
form each portion into a elongated football shape and place in pans.
let rise for 45 minutes or until just puffy near the top of the pan, yet slightly springy to the touch.

bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown on all sides.
let cool, then eat.