Tuesdays with Dorie 2.0

Guess what time it is... it's time for Tuesdays with Dorie, Act 2. Hard to believe we took 4 years baking through Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours". Now a bunch of us crazy bakers and bloggers have signed up to bake through another of Dorie's books "Baking with Julia".

The inaugural recipe was a humble one, "White Loaves". Yep, plain white bread.


It was my first time baking a loaf of yeast bread. I decided to bake half as a loaf and half as cinnamon rolls. I wish I'd gone with two loaves because a) this bread was a little heavy for cinnamon rolls and b) it was perfect for a wonderfully hearty piece of bread. Perfect with a slathering of butter and maybe a little better as toast... slathered with butter.

Great first recipe! I'm definitely a fan and will make this again.

If you'd like to join the fun, be sure to stop by the Tuesdays with Dorie blog and check out "The Rules". For the recipe, click on the link in the second paragraph. See you in two weeks!

Daring Bakers: (Chocolate) Croissants

If you saw the movie, "It's Complicated", then you might remember the scene that inspired my friend Monica to ask our little baking club to try Chocolate Croissants. (Coincidentally, Croissants just happen to be this month's Daring Bakers challenge.)

If you didn't see the movie, it goes something like this: the owner of a gorgeous bakery pops into the silent bakery late at night after shmoozing with her handsome new (boy)friend over dinner and drinks. They casually decide to make croissants. It is simple and sexy, and apparently done sans mess. Apparently, it only takes about 10 minutes.


Ha! I don't think so. Maybe in the movies it's short and sweet, but in real life, it is just a tiny bit more complicated (harhar). You might even say a labor of love (again with the harhar).

But the results are just as decadent (and sexy) as in the movies.


They are fantastic, which they well should be because it's a major effort. Although, to be fair, they're not hard, just time consuming.

We decided to make ours chocolate, in keeping with the movie theme. We tried rolling rectangle as well as triangle shaped pieces of dough. Even though the triangles looked prettier when baked, the chocolate to croissant ratio was better with the rectangles... the pointy little ends were skimpy on chocolate.

Thanks so much to Sarah for a great pick this month. (And now for the required blurb----> The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!)

For the recipe, I'm going to pass you along you mamaliga, who's got the recipe and some really fantastic how-to pictures as well. Here you go ---> click here for the recipe.

Daring Bakers: Doughnuts (and Cinnamon Rolls!)

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

This was my first time making donuts. I guess I was thinking donut-making was far more complicated.

It's not.

A standard yeast dough is rolled out and the donuts are cut and allowed to rise.



A few minutes in hot oil and voila! Donuts!

Who knew?


The whole experience went really well and I didn't have any problems except one. My oil got too hot and I think some donuts got darker than I expected. However, if I ever decide to do some serious donut making, I'll dig out my deep fryer, with it's temperature control, and then I'll be golden. Like donuts.

And how did they taste? Wonderful! They were just as good or better than any purchased donuts I've tried. If I make these again, I'm definitely going to try a chocolate glaze. Those would rock!

Quickly, before I go, I'll share what I did with the rest of the dough (I made 1/2 recipe and only made 6 donuts... I don't need platefuls of donuts around my house!) I rolled out the rest of the dough into a rectangle about a scant 1/4 inch thick and layered on melted butter, a generous sprinkling of cinnamon, and sugar and rolled them up into cinnamon rolls.


I thought I'd try making them in a muffin tin, for a change of pace.


They were quite good, but I think I won't make them in a muffin tin again. They seemed dryer and more chewy on the bottoms. Still good, though.

OK, that's that. Thanks to Lori for a fun and tasty challenge!

Yeast Doughnuts:
Recipe from Alton Brown on the Food Network
Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Rising time - 1.5 hours total
Cooking time - 12 minutes
Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size

Ingredients
Milk 1.5 cup / 360 ml
Vegetable Shortening 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 70 gm / 2.5 oz (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
Active Dry Yeast 4.5 teaspoon (2 pkgs.) / 22.5 ml / 14 gm / ½ oz
Warm Water 1/3 cup / 80 ml (95°F to 105°F / 35°C to 41°C)
Eggs, Large, beaten 2
White Granulated Sugar ¼ cup / 60 ml / 55 gm / 2 oz
Table Salt 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / 1/3 oz
Nutmeg, grated 1 tsp. / 5 ml / 6 gm / ¼ oz
All Purpose Flour 4 2/3 cup / 1,120 ml / 650 gm / 23 oz + extra for dusting surface
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:
1. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
2. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
4. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
5. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
6. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
7. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
8. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
9. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
10. Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.
11. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
12. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

TWD: Raisin Swirl Bread

... or in this case, No-Raisin Swirl Bread.

Am I among the legions of raisin-haters, you ask? Nope, just in with the perpetually forgetful. The raisins were there on the counter, measured out, awaiting their fate, but that's as far as they got. Oops.


Can you tell just by looking... how wonderful it was? I had a houseload of kids and neighbor-kids over the day I made this and the stats prove it. Five out of six kids wolfed this down, still warm from the oven with butter and a sprinkling of sugar. It tasted like the world's best ever cinnamon toast.

Susan of Food.Baby picked Raisin Swirl Bread for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog or in Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours". Thanks, Susan, great pick!

TWD: Apple-Apple Bread Pudding

Elizabeth of Cake or Death? decided on Apple-Apple Bread Pudding for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe.

This dessert was like a cross between bread pudding and apple pie and it was darn tasty. I had to quickly pawn this off on the neighbors or it would have been breakfast, lunch, and dinner until the bottom of the pan was sadly reached.



I decided to make my own challah since I have no idea where to buy brioche or challah in my area. I used the recipe from "Baking with Julia" which is from baker Lauren Groveman who just happens to have the recipe posted on her site --> HERE. I made 1/2 recipe and didn't include the raisins, although that probably would have been good. The bread pudding used about half of the loaf. The rest of the loaf was hungrily snarfed down by my family, warm and heavy with butter.


OK, that's that. If you'd like to see the recipe, please visit Elizabeth's blog, or find yourself a copy of Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking, From my Home to Yours".

Cinnamon Rolls with Marzipan Filling

It's a random day of the week, we've got time on our hands and some homemade marzipan from a cake recipe we never finished making.


Maybe we could whizz the marzipan in the food processor with some cinnamon and sugar?

Why not?


Yeah, that looks good. Tastes darn good too. Maybe we should just stop here, call it a day, turn on the TV...

Nah.

Hmmm... what to do, what to do?

Hmmm... some simple flour and water, transformed by yeast and butter, gentle kneading, and time.


Maybe cinnamon rolls?

Yes, cinnamon rolls.

Finally. Someone who understands how much cinnamon one needs to make perfect cinnamon rolls. Thank you, Peter Reinhardt, and your magnificent book, "The Break Baker's Apprentice".


But wait! Don't forget the marzipan.

Wonder what that would taste like swirled up with cinnamon sugar and bread.


Yea, we'll only cover half (just in case it isn't as awesome as it sounds).


And we'll cut them about twice as thick as we think we should. There we go.

I'm convinced that we make bread just to marvel at the wonder of rising dough. It's a miracle, I tell 'ya!




Oh, you gotta be kiddin' me. We made those?


The only logical thing to do at this point is to make some cream cheese icing (I'm quite certain that cream cheese icing could play a vital role in achieving world peace).


A little bitta this ...


and a little bitta that.


Yeaaah...


Nom, nom, nom.. mmmm, time well spent, I'd say.


Dude.

You totally gotta try some marzipan in your cinnamon rolls. Just trust me on this one.

I roughly followed step 2 of the instructions from the Odense site for the marzipan HERE. Except that I only mixed it with the sugar and the cinnamon.

I exactly followed the instructions from Peter Reinhardt's Cinnamon Rolls (or maybe it was Buns, can't remember) in "The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Google it. Better yet... go buy it, or borrow it. It's a keeper.

The cream cheese frosting recipe is HERE.

TWD: Brioche Plum Tart

It's Tuesday again and you know what that means. A whole mess of bakers will be showing off another recipe from Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking, From my Home to Yours" today.

Denise of Chez Us picked Brioche Plum Tart for this week's Tuesday's with Dorie recipe. Thanks, Denise!

This was a fairly simple treat. A brioche base is pressed into a tart pan and topped with lightly sweetened fruit. We were supposed to use plum slices, but I opted to use a combination of peach and plum.


I thought this recipe had potential, but I have to admit that I didn't exactly love it as-is. I thought the bread layer was a tad thick for the amount of fruit. If I were to try this again, I might bake it in a larger pan, or reduce the amount of brioche dough.


Hey, it gets high points for looks, though, huh?


If you'd like to give this a try yourself, please stop by Denise's site or better yet, pick up a copy of the book. See you next week!

TWD: Brioche Raisin Snails

Hi all! You know that chocolate bread pudding the Tuesday's with Dorie crowd just made a coupla days ago? The one where I made my own brioche?

I have a confession to make.

The REAL reason I made brioche was not because I'm some sort of domestic diva who would be appalled at making bread pudding with anything other than homemade bread. Oh, no. The REAL reason I made brioche was because it's the primary ingredient in Brioche Raisin Snails.

(insert big, happy smiley face)


Brioche raisin snails. (Sigh.) To answer your question, yes, they DO taste as good as they look. Maybe even better.

They have a layer of vanilla pastry cream sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and plenty of fat, juicy raisins.

They looked so gorgeous before baking, it was hard putting them in the oven.



But I did. And I waited. Then I took them out. And waited. And then I tried one.

And I was happy.

The End

(The TWD gang made these in March, 2008. Check out Dorie Greenspan's book, "Baking, From my Home to Yours", or Culinary Concoctions by Peabody's blog to peek at the recipe )

TWD: Kugelhopf

In general, I try not to turn this blog into my personal sounding board. I know everyone has problems and hardships and they don’t need to take on my burdens too. Plus, I don't even like to listen to myself whine. However, I have a beef I feel like talking about. And I’m wondering, am I the only one who feels this way? Maybe I've turned into one of those old farts who’s got romantic notions of how much better things were in "the good old days"?


Here's what gets my goat... Hollywood and the entertainment industry bombarding my kids with its lack of values. For example, advertising of the movie, “Sex and the City”.

I don’t mind that the movie exists, but dag-nabit, do they have to advertise it everywhere? At every turn, I see that larger than life poster (and more to the point, my kids see it) with the word “SEX” in all caps, in hot pink rhinestones on a black background. Very glamorous, very glitzy, lots of visual appeal… and there it is at the theater, the mall, TV commercials, at the bookstore for crying out loud. It’s fine for adults, but when I take my kids to the bookstore and end up having to have “the talk” with my 7 year old? Oy vey!

You may be thinking, “but you could just tell them when they're older”. Yeah right, you try not explaining something like that to a curious elementary school kid and you will be hounded every waking minute, I guarantee you. At that age, they just can't stand being left out of a secret. And saying nothing isn't an option... you risk them using their fun, new word at school, at their friend's house, or wherever, because they don't know what it means.



And it's not a matter of "well, if you don't like it, just don't look at it." Because you just can't escape it. It's everywhere.

Here’s another example. Our family goes to the bowling alley, middle of the week day, we’re among a handful of groups bowling. Another nice wholesome outing, right? Right. Guess what song starts blaring on the juke box? “I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It” (which is sung by a girl, in case you didn't know). Niiiiice. Then some goon plays it AGAIN! And I see the sweet faces of my 7 and 10 year olds, looking at me and their dad with a “what the... ?” look.

What I dislike is when society forces me to have these discussions with my kids before I feel that they’re ready. OK, maybe the 10 year old is ready. But the 7 year old? Does he really need to know that? Will the world not let me keep him innocent for just a little while longer?

Wishful thinking, I guess.

Believe me when I tell you I am not a prude. I’m not holier than thou, not one to preach to anyone about my beliefs or be judgemental. And I don’t get all wigged out when I do explain the grown up parts of life to the kids. I tell them matter of factly, as much as I think they need to know, or can handle. But damn, let me do it when I think the time is right! Not as a result of a trip to the bookstore or the bowling alley, for pete’s sake!

Sigh.

So anyway, the kids are finding out (too young) about sex and the options for partners, and the Tuesday's with Dorie crowd and I are finding out about Kugelhopf. Sigh.

Here's a shout out to Yolanda of All-Purpose Girl for this week's recipe selection.

Kugelhopf is a European “cake” made from slightly sweetened yeast dough and typically contains raisins. It’s baked in a ring type pan and has a distinct look. Leite’s Culinaria has a real nice description and a beautifully made example, along with Dorie Greenspan's recipe.

I’m guessing I won’t be alone amongst the Tuesdays with Dorie crowd when I say that it seemed more like bread than cake. Albeit, a nice, light, soft bread.

Here is the dough in the molds, before it's had a chance to rise.


I don’t have a Kugelhopf pan, and I wanted to cut the recipe in half, so I used some cute little metal molds I have to bake it in. I added mini chocolate chips because I thought the recipe looked like it could benefit from some chocolate. (What, in life, couldn't benefit from a little chocolate?)


Some had problems with the yeasted dough rising. Mine rose to the tops of the molds before baking (I filled the molds about ¾ full to start with) but they rose even more in the oven and seemed to turn out just right.


Alone, they were OK. Warmed up, slathered with butter and jam, they were pretty good. I’m guessing the full sized loaf, sliced and toasted with butter and jam would be downright tasty.

All in all, it was a new and fairly successful baking adventure. Now, if I could get Hollywood to messing around in my business, I'd be set!

Daring Bakers: Pizza

This month's Daring Bakers recipe was Pizza & Toppings and we were to show proof that we tossed the dough in the air. Thanks so much to Rosa of "Rosa's Yum Yums" for hosting this month's challenge. She chose the Pizza Napoletana from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. (Please stop by Rosa's site if you'd like to peek at the recipe.)


I made the full dough recipe, split it into four pieces, and froze two of them for later use. My pizza flavors were Skyline Chili Pizza and Chocolate Strawberry Pizza.

I would have to say the results were... well, let's just say I tried. When I got done baking my first crust, my son said "Mom, that's not pizza, that's Texas". Bless his pointed little head.

Sadly, he was right. I present to you, Texas, in pizza crust form...

Before I get into the gory details, let me just explain Skyline Chili real quick.


OK, this "chili" is a Cincinnati thing. There are other Cincinnati Chili chains, but Skyline is my favorite. Honestly, it's really more of a spaghetti dish. The first time I tasted it I was like "What the...?" It's a plate of spaghetti, topped by a meat sauce, and the whole sha-bang is topped with a MOUNTAIN of finely shredded (neon orange) cheddar cheese. The meat sauce has a real distinct taste. (You can take a look-see on the Skyline website.) It's totally habit forming and now I crave it! I don't know what the H they put in the stuff, but I can't get enough.

Aaaaanyway, back to the pizza. I thought it would be a fun experiment to make pizza with Skyline chili and some of that eerily orange cheese.

The second pizza, LOL, was my Sandra Lee-inspired dessert pizza. In true "Semi-Homemade" fashion, I popped open the Snack Packs, sliced some strawberries, and drizzled on the caramel sauce straight from the jar. It was quite tasty and I'm guessing Sandra would have approved.


The verdict? Well, it might be best for everyone involved if I stick to baking sweets.

My dough wasn't right. When I went to pick it up after refrigerating and letting it sit out for 2 hours, it just fell out of my hands, like water overflowing the sink. There was no way I could toss it. I had to ball it up and knead it together a bit before I could toss it. The taste and texture was just OK. I'm guessing I flubbed up somewhere because mine wasn't as awesome as those I've seen posted by others. Also, the chili was probably too wet because my savory pizza crust was undercooked even after 8 minutes. Live and learn, right?

I was able to toss the dough somewhat and my second crust actually ended up round rather than geography inspired.


So, there you go! If you're still with me... thanks. Feel free to stop by the other Daring Baker's sites to see how they fared.

P.S. I'm shamelessly pimping my giveaway, which is two posts below this one. Even if you don't want the book, I'd love to hear about your grade school years. :)

Cinnamon Rolls, Part 2

I learned two important things this week:

1. The vacuum cleaner will eventually recover after sucking up toilet water. (Don’t ask.)

2. Grandma’s cinnamon rolls really are the best.

For me, cinnamon rolls are synonymous with “grandma”. My grandma made cinnamon rolls every week, to be eaten Sunday morning before church (how’s that for a Norman Rockwell image?). I wish I'd have known then that this was not normal. I might have appreciated them just a tiny bit more.

My grandma was first a nurse, then a farmwife. She cooked three hot meals a day, tended the chickens, and the monster-sized garden, delivered eggs to customers in town, canned beets, peaches, pears and put up pickles. She raised her children and grandchildren part-time too. She sewed clothes and quilts, knitted afghans, crocheted doilies galore. She was a baking queen. She made the title “housewife” something to be proud of.

I never remember seeing her mad. Ever.

I only wish she was here to guide me in my attempts to master cinnamon rolls. She would probably be amused to see me reading and rereading recipes. I can imagine her smirking as I measure the rectangle of dough to make sure it is rolled out to the correct dimensions.

She probably could have made cinnamon rolls with her eyes closed.


I made somewhere around half a dozen batches of cinnamon rolls (it's become a blur) in my attempt to make some like hers. You might laugh at this… after these half-dozen batches I finally got the bright idea to check my recipe box on the off chance I somehow had gram’s recipe in there. Low and behold, there it was, just waiting for me to find it. Duh!


But making all of those batches brought me some much needed confidence. Maybe it was fate… I needed to practice on other recipes before I was ready for hers, so her recipe would be just like I remember.

Here are a few things I learned along the way…

- there’s no such thing as too much cinnamon. Well, for me anyway. If you're like me and love cinnamon, don't bother measuring it out, just start shaking it on until it seems like enough.


- I like to roll them a little thinner, so there is a higher percentage of filling to dough… like closer to 1/8 inch than ¼ inch thick. In the pics of the risen rolls below, the first one was rolled to a little more than 1/8-inch...


while the second was rolled to more like 1/4-inch thick (too much bread, not enough filling).


- The electric bread maker makes acceptable dough and is a good alternative for when you don’t feel like coddling the dough. Just throw your ingredients into the canister and walk away (use the sweet bread recipe included with your break maker).

-for caramel-topped cinnamon rolls, I prefer a caramel that isn’t cooked ahead of time, and one that contains butter, brown sugar, and milk or cream. Cooking ahead of time makes the caramel too hard and sticky and makes eating the rolls unwieldy and messy, IMO. The first picture had cooked topping. I had to throw them away, the caramel was so stiff and sticky...


while these had topping that was only warmed slighly beforehand (much better!)


- dental floss makes cutting the rolls a snap!



- folding the semi-rolled out dough first into a business letter shape, and then into three again gives you the best chance of ending up with something that most resembles a rectangle after being rolled out.



No doubt I’ll be a grandma someday too. I just hope my grandkids think my cinnamon rolls are as good as hers.

GRANDMA'S CINNAMON ROLLS

Dough
1 C. milk
½ C. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 yeast cakes, or 2 packs active dry yeast, or 4 ½ tsp active dry yeast
2 eggs
4 C. sifted flour
½ C. melted butter
1 tsp. flavoring (I used vanilla)

Filling
½ C. melted butter, cooled
1 C. brown sugar, broken up to rid it of lumps (or more, to taste) or granulated sugar
Cinnamon – I actually didn’t measure. I just start shaking it on until it looks like enough. I’m guessing I used at least a tablespoon. Use what you like.

Caramel Topping (optional)
See recipe and instructions for the glaze in ----> this post.

Cream Cheese Icing (optional)
See recipe at the bottom of -----> this post.

Instructions
Scald milk. Add sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm. Add yeast to mixture, stirring until dissolved. (I put the ingredients in the bowl of my stand mixer and used it for the mixing.) Add beaten eggs and half of the flour. Mix. Add melted butter and beat thoroughly. Stir in remaining flour.

Turn onto lightly floured board. Let stand 10 minutes covered. (I left it in the bowl for 10 minutes.)

Knead 2 or 3 minutes until dough is smooth. (I used the dough hook and let the Kitchenaid do the kneading.) Place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and let rise until double in bulk.


Roll out to a rectangle about 1/8 thick. Spread butter over dough, then sprinkle on cinnamon, followed by sugar. Roll into a tight log and slice into rolls around 1 inch thick.

Grease pan with pan spray. Prepare glaze topping, if using, and place in pan. Place rolls in pan.


Cover pan with saran wrap and let rolls rise until double in bulk.

Bake at 375-400 degrees F for 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.

If using cream cheese icing, spread on the still-warm cinammon rolls.

Enjoy!