BBA Challenge - Anadama Bread

One of my favorite cooking books is Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  I recently discovered a group who was baking their way through this amazing compilation of bread and decided to give it a try!  The BBA Challenge was brought to us by Nicole of Pinch My Salt.  

Anadama Bread is the first recipe of the book.  It's an old New England Bread that appears in many books on bread.  I've tried it in the past and didn't care for the consistency or taste, so passed on making this when I initially bought The BBA.  I believe that previous attempts with different recipes went south because the soaker of corn meal was only a few hours and/or an overwhelming amount of molasses was used.  After letting the soaker rest overnight, the cornmeal had an appealing fragrance and was fluffy.  

The recipe was very easy and straight forward, no unusual ingredients or instruments needed to make this.  The dough was amazing, supple and easy to knead by hand (since the hubs has yet to come through on his "I'll buy you a new KA mixer" proclamation which convinced me to sell my trusty mixer back in AK, LOL).

Since I couldn't find my normal sized bread pans, I split the dough into 5 small loafs.  The finished bread definitely turned my opinion of this bread around.  It wasn't dense, dry, or overpowered by the molasses.  

My only complaint was that I couldn't remember what the heck I did with my stupid bread pans so that we could enjoy this with the BLTs we made for dinner last night!  

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Last year this time I could only dream about rhubarb.  Spring had finally taken control of the weather in DH, but rhubarb was one of those things that never seemed to make it up to the grocery store.  This year I've been lucky to have a over abundance of the stuff thanks to the plants in my back yard and as part of Week #1 of my CSA share.

This likely being the last rhubarb I'll get this season, I decided to make the hub's favorite, strawberry rhubarb pie!  Because I was busy with another project you'll hear about later in the month, I just threw stuff together, not even following any recipe.  I used pie crust I had frozen earlier in the year that I made from Zoe's recipe (truly, TRULY fantastic recipe!), mixed in cubed  strawberries and chopped rhubarb (in approximately equal amounts, about a cup of white sugar, a quarter cup of brown sugar, a few tablespoons of flour, a few dashes of cinnamon, and a few shakes of tapioca out of its box.

Last rhubarb of the season, provided by the Shepherd's Fold Farm's Week #1 CSA share.

Choppin' strawberries... doesn't the pile of tops look like a cute bouquet of posies?

What you don't see is the hub's impatiently waiting in the background to eat this....

I made it tarter than normal, as the plan with this pie is to eat it warm with ice cream.... However it seems that something resides in our freezer that lives off of it because the vanilla bean Edy's I bought earlier in the week was no where to be found....  seems this monster likes root beer too, because a bottle of it showed up in my fridge some how!

January Daring Bakers - Tuiles of the Trade

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

It's certainly been quiet here, the move back, and taking care of family monopolizing my time, but I am certainly excited to finally get my butt in gear and get this challenge finished! I was excited to try this recipe, as its a versatile canvas for many flavors:

Recipe:
Angelique Schmeinck: Het Chocolade Boek
Yields 20 small butterflies/6 large butterflies
Preparation time: batter 10 minutes, 30 min waiting time, 8-10 min to bake

65 grams softened butter
60 grams sifted confectioners sugar
caviar from one vanilla bean (or dash of vanilla extract)
whites from 2 large eggs slightly whisked
65 grams sifted all purpose flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder or food coloring of choice (i did not use food color)
butter spray for baking sheet
Preheated oven at 350 degrees

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Since I wasn't making shapes, I spread the batter in a thin layer and baked.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable. At about 8 minutes I pulled mine out and used a cookie cutter to cut out the shape I wanted, I then shaped them and put them back in the oven for 5 more minutes to set.

Once cooled I smeared a teaspoon of lemon curd into each shaped tuile. For the square shapes I placed a blackberry in the center of each one, then wraped the blackberry with a lemon infused whipped cream. The fluted ones were filled with a teaspoon of lemon curd, topped with whipped cream, and a blackberry was placed at the end.


This recipe was easy, fast, and the mini desserts were a nice combination of sweet and tart!

Pan de Sal

One of my mother's favorite breads is filipino pan de sal. As the name suggests, it means salted bread. Pan de sal today, is often more sweet than it is salty. This modern pan de sal seems to have made this evolution to make up for the lack of quality ingredients after WWII. My mother isn't fond of the 'new' pan de sal, so this weekend, after a conversation about it, I decided to have a go at making it her way.

Pan de Sal (courtesy of my mother)

1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
2 packets of active dry yeast (fast rise won't work)
1 tbsp (yes, I did write tablespoon) of salt (we used coarse Korean sea salt, measured the 1 tbsp first, then crushed it with a rolling pin)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 extra large eggs
1 cup hot water (not quite boiling)
5 cups (or more - we used 5.5 cups) of bread flour (or any hard wheat flour)

Step 1 - in a small bowl dissolve the yeast and the sugar into the tepid water, allow to rest until the yeast becomes foamy.


Step 2 - in a mixing bowl, add the eggs, salt, and mix until combined with a whisk or an electric mixer. Using a pouring container, slowly add the hot water to the egg mixture and mix until all the water is added.


Step 3 - add the foamy yeast mixture to the egg mixture and blend. Then add 5 cups of flour adjusting with more if the dough mixture is sticky.

Step 4 - using a dough hook (or your hands), knead the dough until smooth, adding flour as necessary. The dough should be smooth to the touch.


Step 5 - transfer to a bowl and let raise until doubled, about 1.5 hours in our 72ºF kitchen.


Step 6 - after dough has doubled, roll out into a long rope and cut into 16 equal pieces. Form into rolls and place on a greased baking sheet. Allow rolls to proof for 45 minutes to and hour, to about 1.5 times their original size. Preheat oven to 450ºF.


Step 7 - place baking sheet in lower third of oven and spritz the rolls and walls of the oven with water. After a minute passes, open and spritz the rolls and oven again, allow rolls to bake at high temperature for 7-10 minutes, until they are starting to turn brown.

Step 8 - reduce the temperature to 375ºF and bake until golden brown, approximately 10-15 minutes more. Rolls will be golden brown on the bottoms and feel somewhat light rather than heavy.


Step 9 - remove from the oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.

Mom indicated the rolls were extremely close to what she had remembered getting from her neighbor when she was a little girl in Manila. She did say many people like to roll the pan de sal in old bread crumbs after forming rolls, but she preferred them plain, with just melted butter. They were pretty good - saltier than any other bread I have ever made, but not so salty that it was overwhelming.

Regression isn't a bad thing!

This past weekend was the local blueberry festival. Wild blueberrys hit the height of the tartly sweet goodness right about now, along with the salmonberries waning as we proceed into autumn quickly followed by winter.

As the recipient of a few quarts of wild blueberries, and the need to bake away as much of my 'pantry' as possible, I went all out. On this weekends menu:

Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins

Blueberry Danish Braid

Cardamom Blueberry Sourdough Bagels

Blueberry Mirror Cake

Some of you will recognize two of these as DB re-runs. I wasn't around for the Strawberry Mirror Cake in July of 2007, but being up to my elbows in blueberries, it seemed a good candidate to attempt!

The menu is challenging for a weekend (especially since I started Saturday afternoon - so really 24 hours!), but considering I sold my KA mixer, my food processor, and several baking implements, it seemed near impossible!

I had the sourdough starter already brewing in the fridge, so that was a big help. I took it out Saturday morning and fed it before I went to work. At lunch I threw half of it out and fed it again. By the time I got home from work at 4, I make firm starter and allowed it to proof in a warm draft-free place for 8 hours. After that was done, I washed some blueberries, coated them in sugar, sprinkled some cardamom on them, spread them on a parchment lined baking sheet and put them in the oven at 200 degrees to dehydrate them.

Next on the list was making danish dough. Sans KA mixer, I used the well method. It has been a while since I did any kind of "manual labor" in the kitchen. Add to this that I had a mental midget moment and for some reason decided to double that recipe.... I have no clue why... So I minced up lemon zest, de-seeded vanilla beans, got everthing ready and got started. It was a bit unruly, so there aren't any photos - I didn't want to risk flouring/doughing up the camera - but eventually everything came together :).




With the dough resting in the fridge for 30 min, I pulled out the butter, rolled the sticks in flour then, using a plastic bench scraper, I folded the flour into the butter. Granted, the butter was not as cold as it was when I did this with my KA mixer, but I saw no significant ill-effects from this. I did put it into the fridge for about 10 min to firm it up. When the dough had rested enough, I proceeded to make the pastry dough.

By the time the pastry dough had been turned 4 times, the blueberries were ready to come out of the oven and come to temperature. At the same time, I threw more blueberries into a saucepot and made the filling for my danish.

At 10pm, I was ready to start the cake portion of the mirror cake. About a minute into whisking the eggs and sugar together, my arm was killing me! "WHAT THE H*#$& WERE YOU THINKING????" was going through my head, as I was scouring the steps, coming to the realization that I still would need to whisk up egg whites AND cream... Oy vey...



The cake was easy to make - because I was whisking by hand I don't think the whites were as stiff as they would have been with my trusty KA, so the cake didn't rise as much as I had hoped.

By the time the cake came out of the oven to cool, I pulled out the firm starter for the bagels and proceeded making the bagel dough. At around 11:30 I had the dough finshed as was kneading in my mostly dehydrated blueberries. Since the bagel dough needed another hour or so to raise before forming the bagels themselves, I fould a movie on TV and watched that. Yes, so in the very, very, very early morning, I was up forming bagels. All I know, is I made it to bed around 2 am.

I figured at some point my ambition would be punished. Thankfully my sister, who rarely calls me at home (she usually catches me at work), decided facilitate that by calling at 10 am her time....

Me: "Hello?" (barely audible)
Her: "Where you sleeping?? Oh, isn't it 7 am there???"
Me: "Ummm no - theres FOUR hours difference between you and me...."

So rather than sleep in an extra hour or two, I was put back to work after talking to my sis and then my mom for about an hour total. Good thing too, because there was still a lot to do!

I pulled out the pastry dough, cut it, rolled it, trimmed, filled, and braided it, then let it proof. I also pulled out the bagels and let them come to room temperature (about a hour or so). While waiting, I mixed up my cream cheese mixture and made the muffins. Total this takes about 20 minutes of prep time and 16 or so minutes to bake, depending on how hot I happen to have the oven. You keep the cheese batter and the muffin batter separate and then sandwich the cheese batter inbetween muffin batter in a muffin pan. The cream cheese mixture melts into the muffin batter during baking, giving the muffin a rich creamy taste!

Muffins were done by 9, water was boiling ready to go for bagels. The key to knowing if bagels are ready is if they float in cold water. If they don't float, they need a little more time proofing, just leave them out covered in plastic, until one floats when tested. I boil my bagels in water that's had malt syrup and baking soda added. They boil for 2 minutes (one per side) and drain a few minutes on a rack, are topped with a cardamom-sugar before being placed back on the baking sheet and thrown into the oven. Bagels take about 10-15 minutes to bake at 500 degrees.

Bagels done by 10am, so now the mirror cake. Mashing blueberries by hand to make puree was the worst part - blueberry juice is persistent! I managed to whip up the cream, though i did have a boo-boo and accidentally brought the custart to a boil, which did cause it to curdle a bit. Not to be discouraged, I did finish the cake. Because the steps were a little more time consuming than I had estimated, I have no pictures of the cake. I wish I had - the blueberry puree imparted a lovely violet color to the bavarian cream, and the juice make a deep amethyst mirror. It was absolutely stunning!

So here's a picture of the baked bounty:


I didn't win anything, but that wasn't the point for me. Everyone enjoyed my entries and lucky for me I was one of the few who didn't have to take anything home! I did manage to bake through all my flour, eggs, sugar, and cream which makes me happy. I also felt more relaxed afterward than I had for a while. There is something about baking from scratch BY HAND that is theraputic. Granted, dearest hubby has already told me that my new KA mixer is already waiting for me to come home, so I don't think I'll be signing up for this type of therapy again anytime soon!

Breadchick's Dark Onion Rye

This was supposed to be Dark Onion Rye, courtesy of Breadchick from The Sour Dough - this month's Bread Baking Babes host, however, dark rye flour wasn’t available here, so I had to go with what they had which was just “rye flour.”

The idea of trying this rye bread (along with being bestowed the title of 'Bread Baking Buddy'!) excited me. I’ve been on the sourdough bandwagon for some time now. When I moved here, I retired my 11 year old starter that I had made during my first year of graduate school back in 1996 because I couldn't take it through security with me. Can you imagine trying to explain it to TSA? When I first moved to Akron that year, I had very little money for entertainment, so I bought myself “Bread Alone” by David Leader. The bread gods must have been smiling down at me, because the creation of my first rye starter was a complete success. I baked a loaf or two every week, freezing the starter when I’d be away for long periods like visiting family or doing field research.

It was sad to see such a great starter go into the annals of my baking history, but I told myself that this would give me the opportunity to try different starters. When I came to Alaska, I purchased Peter Reinhart’s “Crust and Crumb” after totally LOVING his “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.” I started with his wheat flour barm and never made it to the rye starters. His barm was consistent, lively, and had great flavor. I’ve been using it for nearly a year now for breads, bagels, and pancakes. It wasn’t until I saw what the Bread Baking Babes were doing this month that I decided to venture down the rye starter path once more.

I mixed up Breadchick’s sourdough starter, and diligently coddled to life this past week. There was a fine wine like aroma that was less acidic and more 'rich' than my wheat barm starter.

Yesterday morning I made the sponge and let it sit out for just over 10 hours. Last night I pulled together the dough. I did make one other substitution, I used malt barley syrup instead of molasses. The overall dough looked lighter than what Breadchick had pictured, but that could be the difference in the flours.

I let it proof until doubled which was less time than indicated, so I decided to throw it into a well-floured towel lined bowl and let it retard in the refrigerator overnight for the final proof. Not only would this let me have just-baked bread for lunch today, but the time in the refrigerator would probably let the flavor develop even more.

This morning I pulled out the boule, turned it out onto a parchment lined pan, slashed it and allowed it to come to room temperature (about 1.5 hours) while the oven was heating.

I sprayed it with water and put it into the 400º oven and followed Breadchick’s instruction of baking 20 minutes followed by 25 minutes at 375º. I rotated the pan a few times to make sure the baking was even. I left this to cool before going to work:

When I came back for lunch it was gone. All of it… Apparently the dog decided it was time to practice his ninja skills. I can assure you that he’s usually a well-behaved freak of nature, as well behaved as those can be anyways, but sometimes my creations excite him to the point where he forgoes all knowledge of politeness and obedience and decides stealing something tasty is worth dealing with my anger. Evolution is a funny thing, however, because it granted him the ultimate trump card – uber super cuteness (how can I be mad at that?):

Looks quite please with himself, doesn't he? Luckily he has the iron constitution, if you get my drift, and the onions in the loaf will only torment us with a bad case of gas instead of a vet visit. I have to take Kramer’s word for how good it was, there was nary a crumb left. So maybe next week we’ll try this again and actually get to sample how it tasted. Thanks for the recipe, it smelled fantastic throughout all stages, I’m sure it will taste just as fantastic when we finally get to try it!

Croissants Revisited and a meme

A few weeks ago, when I ventured into the world of croissants, I decided to put 4 into the freezer to see how well they'd freeze as well as any other complications that would arise from thawing and proofing them after freezing.

Yesterday after we got back from a late morning hike, I decided to pull them out and have a go at figuring out what would happen. When I worked at the bakery, we'd take out our IQF sandwich croissant dough out toss them on a parchment lined pan and thaw/proof them in a steam box. When they were 'jiggly' they were ready to go into the oven.

Keeping this knowledge in mind, I put the plug in my sink so that it would drain very slowly. I then put a rectangular cake pan in bottom side up, so that I had a platform in the middle of my sink I pulled the frozen criossants out of the freezer, plopped them onto a parchment lined pan and placed the pan on the 'platform.' I filled the sink with hot water about halfway up the side of the turned over pan and then covered the sink opening with a garbage bag that was pulled taut and anchored down at each corner.

After 20 minutes, I checked to see how the croissants were doing. They were definitely thawing and proofing, and the water was nearly gone, so I filled it up again, replaced the plastic and let them go another 20 minutes or so. When I pulled them out they looked like this:


I wasn't expecting so much better to weep out, but I wasn't overly concerned considering how much butter was actually in them. I imagine that the weeping was resultant from the 'heat' of the steam box, when I had somewhat limited control over. I washed them with an egg/cream mixture, and baked them for god knows how long as you can see here:


I blame WoW (world of warcraft for those of you lucky enough not to know).... I got distracted playing the game, but luckily caught the croissants before they were burnt to a crisp! Note to self.... (yes, I have a lot of these) - don't play WoW when doing any kind of cooking.

They weren't inedible, just extra dark, which I didn't mind. They had a yeastier smell than what I could remember of the original. Straight out of the oven they tasted okay, but as they cooled they definitely became the flavorful, light, buttery rolls of heavenly goodness their earlier siblings were:



My husband thought they were great, and considering how simple it was to take them from freezer to plate, whipping up a batch and freezing them is definitely on the list of must dos sometime in the next month of two.

Now to the meme - Ashley of Memoirs from My Kitchen graced me with a meme today! So first some rules:

#Link to the person who tagged you.
# Post the rules on the blog.
# Write six random things about yourself.
# Tag six people at the end of your post.
# Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
# Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Now that's out of the way - Six random things about me:

1. I play violin.
2. I have an Aussie named Kramer. He's probably smarter than me, but he can't cook nearly as well!
3. I love cheese, especially most varieties of blue cheese.
4. I have a secret obsession relating to all things macaron.
5. I gave the first boy who kissed me a black eye when we were in kindergarten.

Now for my victims! I tag fellow Daring Baker Freshmen:

Kelly from Another Baking Blog
Lauren from I'll Eat You
George from Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess
Alexis from Baking to De-stress
Ruth at Adventures in Amateur Baking & Cooking
Temperance at High on the Hog

The meme is sent to y'all in good fun and I thought it would be cool to tag other newbies to the Daring Bakers ranks! Welcome guys and great job with the first challenge - hope we all can keep it up!

Daring Bakers June Challenge - Danish Braids!

My first month as a Daring Baker and I find “Danish Braid” staring back at me on my computer screen on June 1st courtesy of Kelly at Sass & Veracity and Ben of What’s Cooking? I couldn’t believe it, I had been debating on buying one of the pastry textbooks from Friberg or the CIA just for this very dough recipe, but never pulled the trigger because there are other things that have higher priority (kitchen scale, in particular).

I have to admit, my first attempt at puff pastry (un-yeasted) nearly a year ago was a failure. The folded block resides in the door of my freezer, taunting me as a reminder of my previous, somewhat cavalier attitude toward pastry dough. I mean, how hard could it be to turn butter into a flour-dough to create flaky buttery layers??? After all, I mastered sourdough starters and choux the first time I attempted them? I was quickly humbled, but I kept my disaster of a first try so that it could keep motivating me each time I opened the freezer until I gathered the inspiration to master the technique, after which time I could pitch it in honor of success (unless anyone can tell me what to do with it!).

After the initial shock, then joy, then worry, I reviewed the ingredients. Three of the ingredients were something I would have had in my pantry (or access to) in Ohio, but haven’t had a reason to restock in Alaska until now. First, I normally use salted butter for everything, cutting down salt requirements in the recipes I use to account for this. However, puff pastry dough recipes I have come across don’t usually have added salt. This means a dedicated butter purchase. Secondly, two spices in particular were not cooperating. The cardamom I found was odorless and tasteless, and the vanilla beans were $6.50 each – yes for normal bourbon beans – at that price they should be guilded. The $15.99 I spent for the cardamom was a bust, so I wasn’t willing to throw away more money on beans that may be the odorless and tasteless as well. Thanks to Kelly and Gabi for recommending two great vendors for baking ingredients – read HERE for more!

So how did I do? Well before June ends tommorow, I will have made 10, yes – TEN, Danish braids. (There's several posts that lay testament to my freak compulsive cooking nature - please don't be surprised!) My first two attempts were completed prior to my spice order arriving, they were potato, egg, ham, and cheese x 2 and strawberry almond x 2 (one each per attempt). The second time I tried it, I cut back on the sugar so that the savory Danish wasn’t so sweet.

Here's how the dough looked (rolled out with the butter mixture spread over 2/3):

First fold:

Second fold (aka full turn!):

The dough was allowed to rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. The turn process was repeated for a total of 4 turns before the dough was put to rest in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours.

The egg, ham, and potato filling:

Cutting the dough at an angle will help the braid not open up like a rib-cage during baking because each dough cut is held down by the another braided on top:

Strawberry Almond and Blue Berry filled braids - unbaked:

Here's a side view of the the blueberry before baking:

I followed the proportion of fruit to sugar from the Danish Braid Recipe from Cooking with Julia for the strawberry blueberry, and apricot fillings. I used frozen berries and fresh apricots, respectively. The recipe can be found courtesy of Mean Chef's site here for those interested. For the almond part I made almond paste following the 1 cup nuts, 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, and one egg white, lightly beaten recipe I learned as a little girl. Literally any nut can be made into a sweet nut paste using the proportions above.

The remaining 3 attempts (2 braids each) included 3 blueberry, 1 strawberry almond, 1 apricot, and 1 cheese. I made the cheese filling using a block of cream cheese, a cup of sour cream, one egg, vanilla, and enough sugar to taste, depending on how sweet you want it to be. The difference in the flavor of the dough with the cardamom and vanilla bean were amazing. Part of the reason for making so many was due to my addiction to how this dough smelled!

A gallery of finished Danish Braids!

Strawberry-Almond:

Top of a blueberry danish braid:

Apricot:

Close-up of the flaky-ness of a strawberry-almond:

A slice of egg, ham, and cheese:

A pair of braids! Blueberry and cheese:

A whole ham, egg, and cheese braid, great for lunch too:

One of the reasons I think my previous attempt at puff pastry failed was the butter oozed out and the turning never really came together. That method required wrapping the flour dough around the butter like an envelope then rolling out. This method put the butter on 2 thirds of the length of the rolled out dough and then called for folding it up like a business letter – I truly believe the difference facilitated success 100%! After three successful attempts at this recipe, I mustered up enough courage to go for broke and even try croissants! Maybe someday I will attempt the other turning method again, just to prove to myself that I can do it, but until that time, this recipe will be in my baking arsenal for years to come. The filling combinations are endless (check out the blogroll for what other fellow Daring Bakers did this month!).

Here's the recipe used (Danish Braid from Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking):

DANISH DOUGH -- Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients -- For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients --For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Instructions - Detrempe:
Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Without a standing mixer: Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

Instructions - Beurrage

Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.

Instructions - Putting it all together

1. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

3. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Some suggestions to make things easier:

1. Don’t expect to be able to make this in one day, unless you are planning to make it for dessert after dinner.

2. Split the process into 2 days – make and turn the dough on Day 1 store in fridge for next day or freeze for several days later; roll, fill, braid, and bake on Day two (if you want it fresh from the oven in the morning, you’ll need to give yourself at least 3 hours, depending on the temperature available to proof.

3. We made our own fillings for this challenge, but you could save time by using pre-made fillings or mixing berry jams with ‘dry’ fruit like apples or pears. I even saw in the grocery store, pre-mixed cheesecake filling!

4. Don’t be afraid to make the braid the night before – warm Danishes are rarely available at a bakery (unless you are lucky enough to be the baker!) and are most often at warm room temperature when sold.

Thanks to this challenge, I can cross puff pastry off my ‘need to try’ list! I am totally sold on this recipe and truly believe if you take the time to read the recipe, break it into easy sections over several days, anyone can have success with it! Thank you Daring Bakers! THANK YOU!!!

CupCake Foolery - That's all you can call it!

This post is long, but the end makes it all worth while! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I planned to make cupcakes at the end of this week. My intention was to only do Devil’s Food, but the compulsive baker in me somehow decided that I needed to offer variety… Cupcakes are never a BAD idea, but by the time I was putting the 4th DOZEN out of the oven, I started thinking that maybe, JUST MAYBE, I had gone overboard….

I love chocolate cake; I am not talking Chocolate Death type cakes either, though they are good. I am talking about a good old fashioned chocolate cake that even by itself, unadulterated tastes amazing. I have tried many recipes for German Chocolate, Chocolate, Devil’s Food, and never found a recipe I liked – I preferred to use boxed cake mix because it produced just as good results as all those scratch recipes I tried, with a lot less hassle.

I stumbled upon Zoë, from “Artisan Baking in 5 Minutes” fame and her site this past January. Her site is amazing, the pictures are gorgeous and the recipes she posts about blow me away. When I saw her Devil’s Food cupcakes and knew I had to try that recipe some day. Well a few weeks ago, I needed to provide dessert for a dinner I was going to and chocolate cupcakes seemed like the perfect thing. I gave this recipe a try and I was HOOOKED – Thank you Zoë!!! I followed her recipe exactly as she provided it, so I am not going to reproduce it here but you can find it on her site (link above), along with many other tempting ideas! I measured out and mixed the dry and wet ingredients:

As she indicates, the batter is ‘thinner’ than you’d expect:


I used a ¼ measuring cup to fill the lined cupcake pans. I didn’t take any pictures, because who doesn’t know what that looks like!

Her recipe makes three dozen cupcakes – I allowed them to cool then topped them with the icing recipe she provided. I did make one change – I added about ½ cup of chocolate ganache to her recipe. While waiting for the chocolate cupcakes to bake (I only trust my oven to one pan at a time) is when I came up with the fabulous idea of making a different ‘flavor’ of cupcake. At the time I didn’t factor exactly HOW MANY cupcakes I was going to bring into this world. My husband claims my simple math skills are non-existent, and laughed at me as the number of cupcakes increased at an exponential rate.

I decided my second flavor would be red velvet. I was looking at some of the past Daring Bakers challenges a few days ago and came across this from Ivonne at Cream Puffs in Venice. WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO MAKE THOSE???? HELLLOOO???? So while dozen #2 and #3 of the Devil’s Food were baking, I googled the recipe she used (Magnolia Bakery’s) and started down the path to cupcake oblivion…

The batter is completely different than the Devil’s food – it’s based on butter instead of oil, making the batter more stable and thick, which also results in a more sponge like cupcake. I didn’t take any pictures – whipping up a recipe I never made before, on top of trying to remember that I have to not burn my other cupcakes was enough for my brain to handle at 7pm.

I made it though! After the last of the red velvet cupcake batter was in the oven, I went into high gear making Zoë’s icing as well as the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cream icing I found. The dog was apparently aware of the cupcake foolery that was in progress, and tried to persuade me to convince one of the cupcakes to commit suicide, but I steeled myself against the Power of Cute:


By 11pm, the cupcakes, ALL 72 OF THEM, were happily resting in the fridge (please disregard the mess – I had to shove things around to fit all the cupcakes):



This morning, to the extreme I brought them into work, to the appreciation of my fellow co-workers!





Cupcakes for breakfast? It's the new breakfast of champions!