Rugelach

Rugelach cookies

are Jewish in origin

with the root translation

meaning

"little twists".

No matter what the shape

they are tasty cookies.

First a cream cheese dough

is made then

chilled and rolled

into a circle. 

I used my mini food processor

but next time

will use a mixer

or

pull the large one down

from the cupboard.

It got extremely creamy.

Brushed with apricot preserves,

sprinkled with

cinnamon and sugar

then

topped with raisins and walnuts.

Cut into wedges and rolled

they are brushed with milk

and

sprinkled with more 

cinnamon and sugar.

Chilled and baked.

I can't even tell you

how wonderful

the house smells.

Ready for 

a nice cup of tea.

They are

so delicious.

Uh oh!

All the recipes baked through Rose's Heavenly Cakes,

the current list of The Baking Bible

and

the thirteen or however many breads from The Bread Bible,

this has never happened.

I forgot to set the buzzer

for the final ten minutes

of the last tray.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Italian Fig Cookies

These

are the Italian Fig Cookies

known as

Cucidati.

They may not look

like the pretty

sprinkled cookies

which grace

Italian Christmas

tables

but they are very tasty.

Labor intensive

I can see why 

it can be 

a fun family affair

to make them

together.

I learned about these

charming cookies

from a 

high school friend.

They are a favorite

in her Italian family.

I'm so glad she 

shared them

with me.

Here

is the

Gourmet Magazine

recipe I used.

Sacaduros

Hackeysak Sacaduro rolls

are quite scrumptious

even if they failed to

blossom into petals. 

Fun volcano sponge step

First up was one of my favorite of Rose's recipes,

The Basic Hearth Bread,

for the dough.

Had I realized this was needed for Sacaduros,

I could have made them back

when I mistakenly made the dough for

the Pretzel Bites.

Mixing the sponge into dough

Is it too dry?

Is it too wet?

I wish there was an instant read thermometer

that measures moisture in dough.

The dough behaved nicely during risings.

+

It was much too wet to form petals,

and instead formed puddles around the butter slices.

I tried out Trader Joe's new cultured salted butter,

leaving out the sprinkle of salt.

It's very nice butter.

I baked up half the dough and put the 

remaining in the refrigerator for the night.

Maybe a night chilling will make a difference.

Regardless of the lack of shapeliness,

they are delicious.

My husband,

who has zero appetite

from being in and out

of the hospital

absolutely loves them.

The texture is the perfect

combination 

for his discerning Italian palate.

Go figure!

UPDATE

After refrigerating half the dough overnight,

which had gone through all the risings,

it was wrapped around butter

and thrown in the oven

on a cookie sheet.

No flour coating, 

no pizza stone,

no ice cubes for steam.

The flavor is spectacular; 

the crust nice and soft.

What a surprise.

~

The Bread Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Hungarian Raisin Walnut Tartlets

Is everybody having a good time

with 

Mars in retrograde?

Clearly this was not the recipe

to space out on.

After I made the dough,

I saw the bit about needing to triple 

the recipe.

My math was off

and it turned into

a soggy, vinegary mess.

To start over in this heat wave

we are having

or buy ready made dough?

Ready made dough won.

The raisin mixture was

simple enough to mix up

except I botched 

that, too.

I popped the raisins and

toasted walnuts into the

Cuisinart for a whirl

instead of the sugar, egg, vanilla

mixture.

Didn't seem to hurt it any.

I baked a few in the

ill gotten pastry dough

and the rest 

in a Nordic Ware non-stick

mini tartlet pan.

I am surprised how

delicious these are.

Next time I'm adding

a bit of unsweetened coconut.

Hopefully, 

Mars will be out of retrograde

and Mercury is nowhere to be found.

Crust-less

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

ChocolaTea Cake

Rose's ChocolaTea Cake

with caramel buttercream filling

from the FloRo

Half the cake was absconded by

granddaughter number three

before it was frosted.

How could I refuse

when she asked if it was dairy free?

It was without the frosting.

The ganache is delicious.

Combined with the caramel buttercream,

exquisite.

As for the 

I was blind sided genoise

cake layers,

well Taylor Swift says it best-

We are never ever getting back together.

Go have a look see at the other

Alpha Bakers

 and see how it was supposed to

turn out.

I did have fun using my new

All-Clad Saucier pan.

I have coveted this pan

since reading about it

on David Lebovitz's blog 

but it was expensive.

I've watched the sales

for a couple years now

and finally it got down

to a reasonable price.

I love this pan!

The round shape was perfect

for all the cooking steps.

It's going to be great for lemon curd.

There are other saucier pans

much less expensive 

and 

I'm sure just as good;

I just wanted All-Clad

to go with my other pans.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Meringue Birch Twigs

Well, It looks like a storm hit these

Meringue Birch Twigs.

Very simple to make

Mix up egg whites with 

sugar and vanilla

then pipe in

somewhat

straight lines,

and bake for an hour.

Let cool

and drizzle

with melted chocolate.

Try and remove without cracking

the delicate twigs.

These are similar to eating 

cotton candy

which is to say,

it's almost like eating air.

They were fun to make

and

underscored once again

I have zero patience for piping

which may have to do

with zero skills.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum