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Speculaas Fantans
"> What a tasty treat from the Bread Baking Babes for January! Elle, from Feeding My Ethusiasms chose fantans, a little single portion of deliciousness. |In the past I have made Flo Braker’s Lemon...
Jan 29, 2013
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What a tasty treat from the Bread Baking Babes for January! Elle, from Feeding My Ethusiasms chose fantans, a little single portion of deliciousness. |In the past I have made Flo Braker’s Lemon Pull Apart bread (to die for), which is really just a giant version of this so I was eager to give these individual babies a try. While the recipe was for jam filled fantans, I still has some leftover speculaas spices from the Gevulde Speculaas I made last week that I knew would be perfect for something like this. I just mixed the potent spice blend with some sugar that made a spicy cinnamon roll effect treat. With a slathering of cream cheese frosting these were outstanding! I definitely want to try a savory version next time since I think these would be great for a side of soup but in the meantime I am trying desperately not to eat the entire pan these delicious buns. Bake On! Starter: At least 4 hours ahead prepare the starter (I did this the night before): 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup water 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast Stir together until well blended, cover with plastic wrap and set aside until later. Dough Ingredients: 2 – 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat bread flour 1 teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg 1 cup non fat evaporated milk ¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter ¼ cup honey 1 egg, lightly beaten ½ teaspoon vanilla 6 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided Filling: 1/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed 1/4 Cup granulated sugar 3 tablespoons speculaas spice mixture Directions: Sift 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, the 1 cup of whole wheat bread flour, salt, and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Stir until well blended. Set aside. Placed evaporated milk, butter and honey into a saucepan and heat until butter is nearly melted. Remove from heat. Stir a few minutes to help mixture cool. Let cool to 110 degrees F. Add the starter mixture to milk mixture, then add milk mixture to flour mixture; beat well. Add egg and vanilla; stir until blended. Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, stir until thoroughly incorporated. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft, tacky dough. In a standing mixer with the dough hook attachment,knead for 3 minutes or until dough is smooth and silky. If doing by hand, lightly flour your work surface and knead for about 5 minutes adding additional flour if needed, but only enough to keep it from sticking too much.) Place in oiled bowl, turn dough to lightly coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours. I tend to place my dough in my bottom oven with a bowl of steaming water along side of it. This provides a warm, moist environment for the dough to rise. Dust your work surface with flour. Punch down the dough, then half it. Roll one half into a 12×12-inch square. Brush dough with half the melted butter. Score the bottom every two inches so you can cut even strips. Cut one two-inch wide strip off and set aside. Spread the surface of the remaining rolled out dough with 1/2 of the speculaas sugar filling. Remember, don’t put the filling on the 1/6 plain strip. This will allow you to have a plain side of dough on each side of the roll touching the muffin cup. Cut into 5 equal strips, then stack the strips on top of each other with the plain strip on top. You will now have 6 layers. Cut through the layers into 6 equal pieces, then place each into a buttered muffin cup, standing up so the layers are visible. Gently fan them open. Each will have six dough pieces with marmalade or other filling in between. Repeat with the remaining dough and the rest of the marmalade for the other six cups of the muffin tin. Cover with a clean dish towel and let the rolls rise in a draft free spot at warm room temperature until the dough doubles, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. I actually covered mine with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge for about 2 1/2 hours since I had to go out. I then just let them come to room tempeture and “wake up” for an hour before baking. Place the rack in the middle and preheat the oven to 375° F/190° C. Remove the towel and bake the rolls until they are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan ten minutes, then transfer to a rack and allow to cool for about another 20 minutes before serving. If desired, make a simple cream cheese glaze by mixing together cream cheese, confectioners sugar and cream until smooth then drizzle over the fantails while still warm. Enjoy! Please visit all of The Bread Baking Babes to check out their awesome work: Bake My Day – Karen Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire – Katie blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth Feeding my enthusiasms - Elle Life’s A Feast - Jamie Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya Lucullian Delights - Ilva My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna Notitie Van Lien – Lien Paulchens Foodblog – Astrid Provecho Peru – Gretchen "
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Gevulde Speculaas
"> The January Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Francijn from Koken in de Brouwerij (cooking in the brewery), all the way the Netherlands. She chose a traditional Dutch treat called Gevulde...
Jan 27, 2013
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The January Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Francijn from Koken in de Brouwerij (cooking in the brewery), all the way the Netherlands. She chose a traditional Dutch treat called Gevulde Speculaas (which I am told translates to stuffed spice). The speculaas is a spice blend (you know how cookie butter is all the rage? that is speculaas spice you are drooling over) that is unique like curry powder – every one can be different depending on who’s making it. Cinnamon is the major player here but the team consists of many including, nutmeg, ginger, mace, cardamom, white pepper, anise, clove, coriander… you get the picture. It’s warm, spicy and mellow all at the same time. Anyway, the dough for this cake is infused with the heady mixture and then it is stuffed with almond paste. Seriously, doesn’t just the thought of almond paste get you salivating? Overall, this was fun and easy to make. Wait, I take that back. I have been making my own almond paste exclusively for many years now and almost always have some in the freezer.(Funny sidenote: I actually put 2 pounds of almond paste in my suitcase to bring to my mothers in New York just this past December!) It can seem scary at first but if you own a food processor than you too can make almond paste. This will be the hardest part of this recipe and it’s not hard at all!! Oh, I forgot to mention how cheap it is compared to store-bought. Once you make it yourself I doubt that you will ever buy store-bought after that . It is never quite as smooth as store-bought but unless you are modelling with it you won’t notice the difference and the flavor is so much better. One more thing on making almond paste – you must use blanched almonds = almonds without the skin on. There are two ways to go about this; boil up a pot of water and then add a few cups of almonds. Let them boil 3 or 4 minutes then drain. Once cool enough to handle, the skins will slide off easily. Then you need to let the almonds thoroughly (like for a few days) OR, you can be really lazy like me and buy the big giant bag of blanched, sliced almonds sold at Costco. These take virtually no time at all to process down to a fine powder. You do what works best for you. Believe I have skinned many pounds of almonds in my time. Okay, so there are three elements to this challenge: mixing up some speculaas spice, making almond paste, and preparing the dough. The almond paste and the dough can be prepared a few days in advance if you like (this really gives the spices a chance to develop), but you can also whip this up in a jiffy as well. Bake On! Speculaas Spice blend This is the blend I made up but please feel free to make up your own. All spices are ground before starting 8 teaspoons cinnamon 2 teaspoons nutmeg 2 teaspoons dried ginger 1 teaspoon cardamom 1 teaspoon clove 1 teaspoon anise seed 1 teaspoon white pepper 1 teaspoon coriander mix everything together and store in an airtight container. Almond Paste Francijns recipe: (I actually used this one for the cake so as to stay true to her recipe) 7/8 cup (210 ml)(125 gm)(4½ oz) raw almonds (or 1-1/3 cups (320 ml)(125 gm) (4½ oz) ground almonds) 5/8 cup (150 ml) (125 grams) (4½ oz) granulated sugar 1 large egg 1 teaspoon (5 ml) (3 gm) lemon zest Grind the almonds for one or two minutes in a food processor, until you see nothing but very small pieces. (Or skip this step if you use ground almonds.) Add the sugar, and grind for another one or two minutes. It must be very fine after this step. Add the egg and let the food processor combine it – if it is powerful enough. Otherwise you will have to combine it with your fingers. My usual recipe: 1 cup blanched almonds 1 cup confectioners (powdered sugar) 3 Tablespoons light corn syrup 1/4 teaspoon rose-water dash almond extract Place the almonds and a few tablespoons of the sugar in the bowl of a large food processor and whirl until it is a fine powder. Add the remaining sugar and start the machine. Add the rose-water and extract. Drizzle in the light corn syrup until it comes together and forms a smooth ball. You can store this in thee fridge for a few weeks or months in the freezer. I use a scale to measure out equal parts blanched almonds and confectioners (powdered) sugar so I can make large or small amounts. I tend to eyeball the light corn syrup and add little by little until I get the consistency I want. (I told you this was easy…) Dough ¾ cups (250 gm) (9 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour 1 teaspoon (5 ml) (5 gm) baking powder ¾ cup (150 grams) (5-1/3 oz) brown sugar, firmly packed a pinch salt 2 tablespoons (30 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) speculaas spices 3/4 cup (1½ stick) (175 gm) (6 oz) unsalted butter, softened Put flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and spices in a bowl. Cut the butter in dices and add. Knead until smooth. Feel free to add a little milk if the dough is too dry. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for two hours. I used my standing mixer to do this and I did need to add a little less than 1/4 cup of milk to my dough. I then let it sit in the fridge overnight. You can choose to make the dough a few days in advance, just like the almond paste, that will benefit the flavor. Assembling and baking the Gevulde Speculaas Ingredients: speculaas dough, almond paste, 1 large egg, and blanched almonds for decorating (optional) shallow baking pan, 8×10 inch (20×26 cm) or, round with of diameter 10 inch (26 cm) Grease the pan. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas 4 Divide the dough into two portions. Roll out both portions on a lightly floured surface, until they are exactly the same size as the baking pan. Put one of the layers in the pan and press it lightly to fill the bottom. Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon cold water and brush 1/3 of the egg over the dough in the pan. Roll out the almond paste between two sheets of parchment, until it is exactly as big as the pan, and put it on the dough in the pan. (If you chose to make the paste soft, you can smear the paste instead of rolling it.) Press the paste lightly down to fit in the pan, and brush the next 1/3 of the egg over it. Place the second layer of dough on top of the paste, press it lightly, and make as smooth as possible. Brush the last 1/3 of the egg over the dough. and decorate the pastry with the almonds, if you like. I sprinkled swedish pearl sugar down the center of my large one with just a few almonds slices down the sides. "
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Panettone
" rel="attachment wp-att-2485"> The December’s Bakers Challenge is Panettone,a traditional Italian holiday semi-sweet bread that is studded with raisins. Our host is the lovely Marcellina from...
Dec 29, 2012
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The December’s Bakers Challenge is Panettone,a traditional Italian holiday semi-sweet bread that is studded with raisins. Our host is the lovely Marcellina from Marcellina in Cucina (what a gorgeous site!). At this time of year it is hard to miss that giant oddly shaped box sitting up by counter in your local supermarket. While I personally can’t stand the box version, I actually like the homemade kind. It is quite nice, slightly warmed, with a hot cup of coffee. Two years ago this time the challenge was stollen, and I used a recipe by Peter Bernhardt that called for a seed starter (which took about 12 days to make) and then a sponge from that before even starting the bread. He did use the same dough though for Panettone as well so I made some up at the time. Very delicious. Last year I wanted to make some more but decided I needed an easier path to my goal and tried a recipe from King Arthur Flour.This version only requires an overnight sponge. Very delicious and loved it for its ease of use. Okay, so this year the challenge is provided with a recipe from Carol Field. I really love her recipes so I was excited to give this a try. An overnight sponge, a lot of butter, a lot of eggs, and a lot of rising times. This is going to be good!! And it was, but, it was no better than my year two recipe from King Arthur and this one is a whole lot less time-consuming (and fewer calories). I don’t get it, but I’m standing by it. Hey, you know what? go to Marcella’s site and try the Carol Field recipe for yourself (it does make a fantastic bread and two giant loaves) and let yourself be the judge. In the meantime, here is my version Panettone (I have modified the quantities, for the original recipe please go here). The interesting part about baking this bread is actually cooling this bread. You hang it upside down! If you are lucky enough to have panettone papers this is easy, just stick 2 thin wooden skewers through the bread as soon as it comes out of the oven and suspend your bread between two chairs. If you use a recycled can for your baking vessel, let the bread cool on its side for about 10 minutes ten tip it out, insert your skewers and then hang upside down. Marcella believes that just cooling the bread on its side and rotating it occasionally works just as well; I will have to give it a try in the future. Before baking this bread I recommend that you not only read Marcella’s post in its entirity, but that you also read this extremely educating post on the subject by Susan over at Wild Yeast (one of my all time favorite bread sites). One more thing about panettone. You will notice it comes baked in it very own package. These are panettone papers and they come in a few sizes. My favorite are the small individual ones. While the large loaf is truly an impressive site to behold, it is a large loaf of bread, so you better have a lot of people to eat it up. The small ones are perfect for smaller families or individuals. Okay, don’t have any? no problem, don’t panic. Save a few large (or small) cans from tomatoes or something like that, wash them well, peel off the paper and voila! you have a panettone pan. Just line it with parchment paper (with the paper cresting the rim by an inch or two) before you place the dough into it. Bake on! Overnight sponge (biga) 3/4 cup (3 1/8 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 1/16 teaspoon yeast 1/3 cup (2 5/8 ounces) water Stir the three ingredients together until well blended; cover, let sit at room temperature for one hour then place in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours (or up to 3 days) Dough all of the biga (above) 2 1/4 cups (9 1/2 ounces) Unbleached All-Purpose Flour 1/4 cup (2 ounces) water 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk 1/3 cup ( 3 ounces) unsalted butter 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon Fiori di Sicilia flavoring OR 1 teaspoon vanilla + 1/8 teaspoon orange oil 2 1/4 teaspoons SAF Gold instant yeast OR 1 tablespoon instant yeast 1/3 cup (2 1/4 ounces) sugar 1 tablespoon each of orange and lemon zest *approximately 1 1/2 cups of dried fruits and nuts of your choice : For my first batch I used dried figs, anise seeds and pistachio nuts. For my second batch I used candied orange peel, candied cherries, slivered almonds and chopped bittersweet chocolate.The traditional mixture is raisins, citron and slivered almonds. Glaze (optional, but so very pretty) 3 ounces granulated sugar 2 teaspoons ground almonds (or almond flour) 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil 1 tablespoon corn flour (not cormeal, otherwise use WW flour) 1 egg (30 g) white scraped seeds from 1/2 of a vanilla bean Combine all of the dough ingredients except the fruit, and mix and knead them together—by hand or mixer —for at least 15 minutes (longer if by hand) It should be a very soft and billowy dough. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until it’s puffy (though not necessarily doubled in bulk). Gently deflate the dough, and knead in the fruits, nuts and zest. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a panettone pan or other straight-sided, tall 1 1/2- to 2-quart pan (or split your dough in two and divide between two parchment lined large tomato cans). Cover the pan and let the dough rise till it’s just crested over the rim of the pan. This can take anywhere from two to 4 hours. To mix the glaze, whisk all ingredients together. Pour, brush, or pipe the glaze evenly onto the top of the loaves. Sift powdered sugar generously over the tops, then sprinkle with pearl sugar. Bake the bread in a preheated 400°F oven for 10 minutes; reduce the oven heat to 375°F and bake an additional 10 minutes; then reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for 25 minutes, tenting with aluminum foil if the crust appears to be browning too quickly. Remove the panettone from the oven and cool completely. While the panettone is baking, set up your hanging apparatus (See above). When the bread is done, hang them as quickly as possible. Allow the panettone to hang for at least four hours, up to overnight. "
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Pear Cranberry Kutchen
" rel="attachment wp-att-2485"> Since December is already a crazy busy baking month, why not throw a delicious yeasted cake into the mix?! The December host of the Bread Baking Babes is Gretchen of...
Dec 23, 2012
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Since December is already a crazy busy baking month, why not throw a delicious yeasted cake into the mix?! The December host of the Bread Baking Babes is Gretchen of Provecho Peru. She chose the lovely and easy German cake Apple Kutchen. It is perfect for this time of year and a breeze to put together. Being a good little baking buddy (well, I am trying to be at least) I firmly put my mind to baking this and not flaking off like last month. Since I didn’t have any apples on had I used some dried pears that I had. I first soaked them overnight in Amaretto and then rehydrated them in pear-cinnamon cider, finally giving them a rough dice. I also had some cranberries in the freezer (thank you Noelle for the idea) and last but not least, some finely diced crystallized ginger. It smelled heavenly coming out of the oven and now my mother has the perfect treat to bring with her to church on tomorrow morning. I was a little worried about how dark my crust was but when tried it I was happy that it was still very soft and moist. Easy and delicious. Bake on! Holiday Apple Pear Kutchen Yield: 12 servings Source: Adapted from BH&G Holiday Baking 2009 Magazine Ingredients Crumb Topping 1/2 cup flour 1/4 cup quick oatmeal (I used Quaker) 3/4 cup brown sugar 5 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon cardamom 1/4 teaspoon allspice Kuchen 2 1/4 – 2 3/4 cups flour,divided 1 package (2 1/4 tsp)active dry yeast (I used 2 teaspoon SAF gold yeast) 1/2 cup milk (I used lowfat) 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup butter 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 eggs Dried Pear topping 2 cups reconstituted dried pears, roughly diced 1/3 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (I tossed mine in a small bit of egg whites then some sugar so as to not be so tart) 2 Tablespoons crystallized ginger, finely diced *If you want to make it Apple Kutchen, use this for the fruit topping instead: 4 cups apple slices (about 4 medium baking apples) 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 tablespoon quick cooking tapioca 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon apple pie spice CRUMB TOPPING: In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside. CAKE: Grease a 13x9x2 baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour and the yeast; set aside. In a small saucepan, heat and stir milk, granulated sugar, butter and salt just until mixture is warm (120F-130F) and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture and eggs to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of the bowl constantly. Beat on high-speed for 2 minutes or until smooth. Beat in as much of the remaining flour as you can without the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour to make a stiff batter. Spread batter into the prepared baking pan. Evenly spread the pears over the top of the batter then sprinkle the cranberries over them and finally the ginger. Crumble the topping over the fruit mixture. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. (for apple topping combine apples, brown sugar, tapioca, lemon juice and apple pie spice. Place apple mixture on top of the batter. Sprinkle with Crumb Topping. ) Bake in a preheated 375F oven for 30 minutes or until top is browned and apples are tender. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. "
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Cookie Dough Balls – Three Ways
" rel="attachment wp-att-2466"> Oh My! These are to die for. When I first made them last month, my husband and mother-in-law ate almost the entire batch in one sitting. I mean, they really are...
Nov 30, 2012
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Oh My! These are to die for. When I first made them last month, my husband and mother-in-law ate almost the entire batch in one sitting. I mean, they really are good. Well, that’s if you like cookie dough, and really, who doesn’t?. I had to actually hide the latest batch deep in the freezer from my husband since every time I turned around another 5 would be gone. He was not happy with me, but you will be after you try these. Some time ago I saw a recipe for cookie dough frosting over at the Cupcake Project that really intrigued me, and then over at the library I stumbled upon “The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook” and I knew I had to give some of these recipes a try. The concept is simple, just delete the eggs from the recipe and replace the lost moisture with a little cream or milk. You also don’t need any leavening since these are not going to be baked. This only takes minutes to mix up, but then the wait… at least an hour in the fridge so the dough can firm up. You then roll the chilled dough into bite sized balls, freeze for an hour, then dip into chocolate candy coating, such as Wiltons. Do not use regular melted chocolate such as chocolate chips or block chocolate unless you plan on tempering it first, which you can do, but for this recipe it is a pain and unnecessary .The flavor combinations are only limited to what you put into them. I promise these will be a huge hit with your family and friends during the holidays. Bake On! Oh wait, you don’t need to bake…… First: The Basic 1/2 Cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened 1/4 Cup granulated sugar 1/2 Cup light brown sugar, firmly packed 2 Tablespoons cream (or half and half or whole milk) 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon black walnut extract (optional, but adds a really nice depth) 1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt (I prefer to use kosher) 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 8 oz dark chocolate candy coating 1 Tablespoon vegetable shortening (this is to help your coating be more fluid) Beat the butter and sugars together in your mixer (using the paddle attachment), or by hand, for at least 3 minutes, or until it becomes fluffy and light in color. Mix in the extracts and cream. Stir in the flour and salt and mix just until everything is incorporated. Finally, stir in the chips. Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour (or up to 3 days) Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Put the tray into the freezer for 30 minutes. Melt the chocolate coating. This can easily be done in the microwave; just place the chocolate into a glass bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Let it sit for 30 seconds then cook for another minute. Stir in the vegetable shortening until it is completely combined and fluid . Drop in one ball at a time and lift out with the tines of a fork, gently tapping it against the bowl to remove excess; immediately transfer back to the parchment lined sheet. Since the cookie dough is now frozen the coating will set up really fast. If you want to put some sprinkles on them only do a few at time so the coating doesn’t firm up too fast. These will keep in the fridge for 1 week or in the freezer for 1 month. Second: The Reverse 1/2 Cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened 1/2 Cup granulated sugar 1/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed 2 Tablespoons cream (or half and half or whole milk) 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted (I like Barry Callebaut extra brute) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup mini white chocolate chips 12 ounces (1 bag) white chocolate candy coating (you will need to double dip these so the dark chocolate filling doesn’t show through) 2 Tablespoons vegetable shortening Beat the butter and sugars together in your mixer (using the paddle attachment), or by hand, for at least 3 minutes, or until it becomes fluffy and light in color. Mix in the extract and cream. Stir in the flour, cocoa powder and salt and mix just until everything is incorporated. Finally, stir in the chips. Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour (or up to 3 days). Form into 1 inch balls and freeze for 30 minutes. Melt the white chocolate candy coating. Follow the procedure above for dipping them, except for these when you get to the end start back at the beginning and dip them a second time so the dark filling doesn’t show. Decorate with sprinkles if desired. Third: Vanilla Sugar Cookie Dough Studded With Roasted Cocoa Nibs 1/2 Cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened 1 Cup granulated sugar 2 Tablespoons cream (or half and half or whole milk) 1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract seeds scraped from 1/2 vanilla bean 1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 Cup roasted cocoa nibs 10 ounces dark chocolate candy coating 1 1/2 Tablespoons vegetable shortening Beat the butter and sugar together in your mixer (using the paddle attachment), or by hand, for at least 3 minutes, or until it becomes fluffy and light in color. Mix in the extract and vanilla seeds. Stir in the flour and salt and mix just until everything is incorporated. Finally, stir in the cocoa nibs. Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour (or up to 3 days). For these I rolled the dough out between two pieces of parchment until it was about 1/3 inch. Then using a small 1 1/2 inch circle cutter I cut out 28 circles. Dip into the melted chocolate as above (only one dipping required). Hope you LOVE these! "
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Mille Feuille
"> How glad I am to write about puff pastry again. Since the last post about it (vols-au-vent) two years ago, I have made it puff pastry many times. That first time was nerve-wracking, with a few...
Oct 29, 2012
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How glad I am to write about puff pastry again. Since the last post about it (vols-au-vent) two years ago, I have made it puff pastry many times. That first time was nerve-wracking, with a few failed attempts along the way, but then after a few tries it all came together and then the lightbulb goes off and you realize that it isn’t difficult at all, just time consuming. While I will never judge anyone for using store-bought puff pastry, I use it myself in a pinch, there is a deep-rooted sense of satisfaction when you open the oven door and pull out a tray of perfect, flaky pastry that you made yourself.I’m not kidding. The October Bakers Challenge was hosted by Suz from Serenely Full and she chose a French , though “wildly popular in Morocco”, dessert called mille-feuille, which translates into” cake with a thousand sheets”. It is a very elegant looking dessert that is absolutely delicious. All of your friends will love you for making this. Trust me on this. This makes a pretty large quantity of puff pastry, but I find this recipe perfect for two reasons. 1.) It is actually easier to handle a large piece of dough 2.) Since this is such a labor of love (time consuming labour intensive), isn’t it easier to freeze half (up to 2 months) for the next time you need it? This makes enough for three 11 x 17 pieces. I know this seems like a lot, and it is, but the few times I have made mille feuille in the past year it has been requested for a crowd, so this was perfect. You can easily cut the pastry down to fit the size pan that works for you. When doing this it is best to roll out the entire dough to about 1/8″ inch, cut off what you need, then roll the rest up in wax paper and freeze. While I used to do the “diamond on the square” technique for making puff pastry, I have switched to a much simpler method.This is since discovering the amazing book “Bourke Street Bakery”. I have found their recipe/method to turn out perfect every time. Part 1 PUFF PASTRY 4 3/4 oz ( 135 g) unsalted butter, diced and chilled 4 1/2 Cups (675 g/1 lb 8 oz) all purpose flour 1 Tablespoon (20 g) kosher salt 1 Tablespoon (20 ml) vinegar, chilled 10 1/2 oz (300 ml) water, chilled 1 lb (500 g) unsalted butter, for laminating, chilled Take the 4 3/4 oz cubed butter out of the fridge about 20 minutes before starting, so it is soft but still cold Step 1 In a large food processor, place the butter, flour, and salt together and pulse for about 30 seconds, or until it is crumbly and has a fine sand texture. Combine the cold vinegar and water and pour into the bowl, pulsing until the dough comes together into a ball. Take the dough out, pat it into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Placed in the fridge for 30 minutes (or overnight). Step 2 Take the other one pound of butter and place it between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Gently pound it with a rolling-pin into a 8 x 8 inch square. What I usually do is start between 2 pieces of wrap and then as I’m getting closer to the 8×8 I switch to a piece of parchment paper folded in half. You can use the folded inside edge to get a clean line on the one side of butter and then use a bench scraper push the other edges in place. Watch this video for good demonstration of this. Once you get your 8×8 square place it back in the fridge until your dough is ready to use. Step 3 Take the dough out of the fridge and lay it on a lightly floured counter. Roll it out to 8 x 16 inches. Place the chilled 8×8 butter square at one end of the dough and fold over the other to cover it. Firmly pinch the edges together to completely seal in the butter. Turn the dough 90 degrees and begin to roll the dough out in long, even strokes. You want to end up with a 8 x 36 rectangle. Try to only roll in one direction to help promote lots of layers. I roll on one side then swivel the dough and continue rolling on the other end. Be patient, this takes a few minutes. Once the dough is 8 x 36, fold the two short ends into the middle to meet, then fold it once again like you were closing a book. Dust very lightly with flour, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. congratulations, you have just completed your first turn! Step 4, 5,6 Repeat the folding process 3 more times, turning the dough 90 degrees each time. Every time you finish a completed fold you must place the dough back into the fridge for at least 30 minutes before rolling again. Myself, I complete 2 turns then place the dough in the fridge overnight and complete the next 2 turns the following day. You can do it all in one day, but you cannot skip the resting/chilling time between turns. This is crucial for relaxing the gluten and keeping the butter cold so you will end up with gorgeous, flaky, mile high pastry. After the completed 4th folded turn, you now must wrap up your pastry and chill it overnight. The next day…. Okay, now your pastry is ready to use! Yeah!!! Take the dough out and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before you begin rolling it out. Part 2 PASTRY CREAM 2 Cups whole milk 3 large egg yolks 3 Tablespoons corn starch 1/3 Cup granulated sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or the seeds of one vanilla bean 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, diced Whisk together the corn starch, egg yolks, and sugar; set aside In a medium saucepan, heat the milk (and vanilla seeds, if using) until it is hot and steaming, but not boiling. Take the pan off the heat.Very slowly, and whisking constantly, pour some of the hot milk into the egg mixture (this is called tempering) then pour this back into the hot milk (keep whisking!). turn the heat to medium low and place the pot back onto the heat. Whisk the mixture until it thickens and begins to slightly bubble; simmer, whisking, for one minute. Pour the custard through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. If using vanilla extract, stir in now. to prevent a “skin” forming on your custard, you can either place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface or dust the entire surface with confectioners sugar. Let cool to room temperature then place in the fridge to cool completely. Baking the pastry preheat your oven to 400 F. You will need two 11 x 17 baking pans (or 2 baking pans the same size) Line one baking pan with parchment paper. Roll out your dough to 1/8″inch into a 11 x 17 rectangle. Cut the pastry into 3 equal pieces (drag the knife through as opposed to straight down- this can ruin your lovely layers) and place side by side in the pan. Prick all over with a fork. Place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. Place another sheet of parchment paper over the top and then the other baking pan on top. This will prevent the layers from puffing up too much. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the top tray and parchment, then return to the oven for another 10 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. You might need to gently pull the 3 pieces apart. Assembly Lay down one sheet of puff pastry. Cover with half of the pastry cream, spreading it as evenly as possible. Now take another piece of pastry and place it over this, pressing down gently. Spread the remaining pastry cream over this layer and finally top with the remaining piece of puff pastry. Place this in the fridge while you prepare the topping (or you can just dust the top with a little sugar if you choose) 2 ¾ cups (660 ml/ 12⅓oz/350gm) icing sugar 2 teaspoons lemon juice 2 large egg whites ½ cup (2¾ oz/80gm) dark chocolate To make the icing, whisk 2 egg whites with 2 teaspoons lemon juice until lightly frothy.Whisk in about (2 cups) of the icing sugar on a low setting until smooth and combined. The mixture should be thick enough to leave trails on the surface. If it’s too thin, whisk in a bit more icing sugar.Once ready, immediately pour over the top of the mille-feuille and spread evenly. I found that I didn’t quite need all of the icing. Still working quickly, pipe a row of thin chocolate lines along the widest length of your pastry sheet (see below). You can make them as far apart/close together as you like.Take a sharp knife and lightly draw it down (from top to bottom) through the rows of chocolate. A centimeter (½ inch) or so further across, draw the knife up the way this time, from bottom to top. Move along, draw it down again. Then up. And so on, moving along the rows of chocolate until the top is covered in a pretty swirly pattern. The Switch-Up As I have mentioned before, we have a monthly dinner supper which I host every month (it’s easier and I enjoy it). The menu this month: Pear and endive salad with blue cheese and pecans Osso Bucco Roasted butternut squash risotto Pineapple infused napoleons with sauteed fresh pineapple To make this dessert, I cut the pufpif pastry into small rectangles before baking and I did not place another baking sheet on top. I wanted these to rise to the heavens. I had in my pantry some freeze dried pineapple, which I ground into a powder with the grinder. I then stirred this into some pastry cream. I then mixed up some whipped cream and slowly added this to the pastry cream to lighten up the whole mixture. OMG this was so good!! This was then piped (using a star tip) between the layers. I then diced up some fresh pineapple and sauteed it in a pan with brown sugar and rum. this was served on the side. Deluxe!!!! Helpful links http://moroccanfood.about.com/od/tipsandtechniques/ss/How-To-Make-Millefeuille-Napoleons_11.htm Puff pastry video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg-ybzGok3U Mille-feuille/Napoleon video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGQCWuKU7Co Vegan puff pastry: http://veganbaking.net/pastries/718-puff-pastry Gluten-free puff pastry (plus a chocolate mousse & raspberry mille-feuille): http://www.tarteletteblog.com/2010/04/recipe-gluten-free-puff-pastry.htm… Vegan pastry cream: http://vegandad.blogspot.co.uk/2011_08_01_archive.html "
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Molasses Fennel Rye Bread
"> Can I say once again how much I enjoy baking bread? It still makes me smile to try out a new bread recipe and have it turn out so tasty. The September Bread Baking Babes host was Elizabeth at...
Oct 1, 2012
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Can I say once again how much I enjoy baking bread? It still makes me smile to try out a new bread recipe and have it turn out so tasty. The September Bread Baking Babes host was Elizabeth at From Our Kitchen . She and her husband went for a romantic dinners at a restaurant were served delicious rolls. She asked for the recipe and was kindly given a copy. I baked this last week and thoroughly enjoyed it with a smear of biscoff cookie butter (heaven) and my husband loved it with turkey salad. As usual, I am behind schedule so without much further ado, here it is. Bake On ! Molasses Fennel Rye Bread 1½ tsp ( 5gm) active dry yeast 1/4 c (63gm) lukewarm water 4 tsp (17gm) sugar 4 Tbsp (85gm) blackstrap molasses 1¾ c (438gm) water, room temperature 1 Tbsp (6gm) fennel seeds ½ tsp (1gm) ground dried ginger 1 c (103gm) rye flour ( I increased it to 1 teaspoon) 1 c (122 gm) whole wheat flour ½ c (59gm) wheat germ 2 c (254gm) unbleached all purpose flour 1 Tbsp (18gm) salt (I used 15 gm) ¼ c (36gm) Thompson raisins up to ½ c (64gm) unbleached all purpose flour for kneading (I need all of the extra flour plus 2 tablespoons since it was such a wet dough) Mixing In a smallish bowl, whisk yeast with the lukewarm water until it resembles cream. Set aside. Meanwhile, in a bowl large enough for the dough to double, pour the rest of the water. Stir in sugar and molasses. (If the molasses is stiff because of a chilly kitchen, use warm water instead of room temperature.) Add fennel seeds and ground ginger. Dump in flours, wheat germ and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until the flour is mostly absorbed. Add the yeast mixture (it should be quite foamy – if it is not after a period of 20 minutes have passed, either the yeast is dead or the water was too hot or far too cold. Check the due date on your yeast container. If the date hasn’t passed, try again.) stir to form a rough dough. Cover the bowl with a plate and let sit on the counter for about 20 minutes. Kneading Scatter a little of the flour for kneading onto a wooden board. Turn the dough out onto the board. Wash and dry the mixing bowl. (Please do not be tempted to skip this step.) Hand knead the dough 10 to 15 minutes, adding the smallest amounts of additional flour if dough is sticky. You don’t have to use up all the flour. When the dough is springy and silky to the touch, knead in raisins. Proofing Form the dough into a ball and put it in the clean bowl; cover it with a plate (there is no need to oil the bowl!) Let the dough rise in a no-draft place at room temperature (or in the oven with only the light turned on if you want) for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. Gently deflate dough. Recover with the plate and allow to rise until doubled again. Gently turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board; cut it in half with a dough scraper if you have one, with a knife if you don’t. Shape into two round balls and place them (not touching) on a parchment papered pan or a cornmeal dusted peel. Dust the tops with flour. 5 Cover with a clean tea towel followed by a large plastic bag overtop let rise until double in size. (about an hour if the temperature is around 20C) Baking Place a breadstone, if you have one, on the middle to second from the top rack and preheat the oven to 400F. If you want, slash the top of the rounds with a very sharp knife. Liberally spray the tops with water. Put bread in oven and immediately turn the oven down to 350F. Bake the bread on the middle to second from the top rack for 30-35 minutes until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 205-210F or until it is hollow sounding on the bottom. It’s a good idea to turn the bread half way through baking to allow for uneven heat in the oven (remove parchment paper at the same time). Remove to cool on racks. Please wait until the bread is cool before cutting it. It’s still baking inside! If you like to eat warm bread, reheat the bread after it has cooled. "
data-name="Molasses Fennel Rye Bread"
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Quick Bread (thank goodness)
">The Bread Baking Babes are taking it a little easy this month and as a buddy I am thankful. It’s been a fun crazy month with the 100th Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede in town. As a city girl,...
Jul 25, 2012
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The Bread Baking Babes are taking it a little easy this month and as a buddy I am thankful. It’s been a fun crazy month with the 100th Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede in town. As a city girl, I really eat this stuff up. This year Calgary was also the host for the world marching band championships. If I had any idea marching bands could be so awesome I would have been in one growing up. Not only did I attend an afternoon of semi finals, a “drum off” on another day, but I watched the 4 hour finals held in the Calgary Saddledome with about 10,000 other people. I must admit that it was spine tingling. Seriously. We also have been having some really nice weather so there has been a lot of entertaining at my house. We love to have people over for dinner, so I have been cooking and baking up a storm. I’m just too lazy to blog about it. Oh well.That’s why this months BBB recipe is great. While it has yeast in it, it is really like a tea bread, super fast and easy. It isn’t the prettiest of breads but your taste buds will love the homey flavor. The only change I made was to add 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds. This was great fresh out of the oven with a cup of coffee.Sarah, from i like to cook chose this lovely little number ,”Easy Little Bread” from 101 Cookbooks. Please check out her site and also visit the other talented Babes. They are all inspiring.This was a breeze to make (and eat). Bake On!Easy Little Breadfrom 101 Cookbooks1 1/4 cups / 300 ml warm water (105-115F)2 teaspoons active dry yeast (one packet)1 tablespoon runny honey1 cup / 4.5 oz / 125 g unbleached all-purpose flour1 cup / 5 oz / 140 g whole wheat flour1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g rolled oats (not instant oats)1 1/2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt2 tablespoons butter, melted, for brushingIn a medium bowl, sprinkle the yeast onto the warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Stir in the honey and set aside for a few minutes, until the yeast blooms and swells a bit – 5 – 10 minutes.In the meantime, mix the flours, oats, and salt in a large bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir very well.Brush a 8-cup loaf pan generously with some of the melted butter. Turn the dough into the tin, cover with a clean, slightly damp cloth, and set in a warm place for 30 minutes, to rise.Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C, with a rack in the middle. When ready, bake the bread for 35-40 minutes, until golden and pulling away from the sides of the pan. I finish things up by leaving the bread under the broiler for just a heartbeat – to give the top a bit deeper color. Remove from oven, and turn the bread out of the pan quickly. Let it cool on a rack so it doesn’t steam in the pan. Serve warm, slathered with butter.Makes 1 loaf."
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Battenberg Cake
"> The June Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. She chose a fun little cake called a Battenberg. You’ve probably seen it in the store at one point or another since...
Jun 28, 2012
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The June Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. She chose a fun little cake called a Battenberg. You’ve probably seen it in the store at one point or another since it is easily recognizable by its pretty checkered pattern. It is said to have been created to celebrate the 1884 wedding of Prince Louis of Battenberg to Queen Victoria’s granddaughter Princess Victoria .The theory is that the four sections of the cake originally represented the four Battenberg princes – Louis himself and his brothers Alexander, Franz-Joseph and Henry. Mmmm….. but is it really true??? The only problem with this theory is that the earliest known recipes called for nine squares, not four. I have come across a most interesting site written by a food historian and it is his conclusion that the entire theory that this cake was created for the royal wedding is rubbish ans just some old wives’ tale. This type of cake had also been called a Neapolitan roll, domino cake and chapel window cake. Please go and read the three fascinating posts on this debunked theory.I love how here say evolves into “truths” over time. Very interesting. Anyway, onto this utterly delicious cake. It is a genoise cake base and covered with marzipan (traditional) , fondant, or chocolate plastique. Although there are specialised Battenberg cake tins available, you don’t need one. This can be baked in a square baking tin and a divide made with foil to separate the two batters. I made two different Battenbergs. First, a blackberry and lemon version covered with white chocolate plastique (tinted lavender). Since the cake has ground almonds in it I automatically loved it. What I didn’t care for was the modeling chocolate on the outside. Too sweet. Not the cake part- that was delicious, just the chocolate covering. Next try, a cherry-rhubarb and toasted coconut version covered with marzipan. AMAZING. You can easily buy marzipan in the store but it’s really just as easy to make your own at home. It does require a food processor though, so if you don’t have one than go with store bought.If you want to add a flavour to one of the sponges in liquid form, make sure to add the same amount of liquid to the other batter in the form of milk. The batter is very thick and should be quite thick so don’t add too much. Ingredients ¾ cup (1½ sticks) 175gm / 6 oz Unsalted Butter, softened & cut in cubes ¾ cup / 175gm / 6 oz Caster Sugar 1¼ cups / 175gm / 6 oz Self-Raising Flour (***see end of doc on how to make your own) 3 Large Eggs, room temp ½ cup / 65gm/ 2 1/3 oz Ground Almonds (Can be substituted with ground rice) 3/4 tsp / 3½ gm Baking Powder ½ tsp / 2½ ml Vanilla Extract 1/4 tsp (1¼ ml) Almond Extract For the fruit side: 1/3 Cup cherry-rhubard puree (I just boiled 2 spears of rhubarb and 1 cup of cherries together with 2 tablespoons each sugar and water. After 5 minutes I strained it through a fine sieve and then measured it out. Any leftovers make a great ice cream topping) For the coconut side: 2 ounces toasted unsweetened coconut mixed with 3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk. To Finish 1/3 cup (80 ml) 100gm /3 ½ oz cherry jam (You can also use buttercreams, curd, ganache etc instead of jam to glue the cake together). 1 cup / 225gm / 8 oz Marzipan, natural or yellow Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4. Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter. Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil) OR Prepare Battenberg tin by brushing the tin with melted butter and flouring Whisk together the dry ingredients then combine with the wet ingredients in a large bowl and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth. Spoon half the mixture into a separate bowl and mix in the fruit puree until thoroughly combined. Spoon this into one half of the prepared pan.Mix together the coconut mixture and spoon the batter into the other half of the prepared baking pan. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan) Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife and cut each coloured sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge (neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible). Gently heat the apricot jam and pass through a small sieve. Brush warmed jam onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink. On top of that, one pink next to one yellow) Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam and place the cake on the marzipan, jam side down. Brush the remaining three sides with jam and press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over - Tip: If you put the sponge to the one side of the marzipan, I found it easiest to “roll” the sponge over and over onto the marzipan instead of lifting the marzipan up onto the sponge Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top corners with your fingers to decorate. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern. Uncooked Marzipan Recipes http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8164/easy-vanilla-marzipan Cooked Marzipan Recipes http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/party-food/accompaniment… http://thecookieshopinenglish.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/diy-marzipan/ Chocolate Plastique/Modelling Chocolate http://www.joyofbaking.com/ModelingChoc.html"
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Oatmeal Twists
"> Well, I just got a message from dear Lisa over at Parsley, Sage , Desserts and Line Drives asking where I’ve been. Good question. Here, but not here. Still working on the kitchen since the smoke...
Jun 22, 2012
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Well, I just got a message from dear Lisa over at Parsley, Sage , Desserts and Line Drives asking where I’ve been. Good question. Here, but not here. Still working on the kitchen since the smoke fire. After the new stove (Maytag Gemini double oven – best. oven. ever. At least in my price range…) was installed last month, I decided to repaint all of my 30-year-old kitchen cabinets. Which were painted over white before I even lived here. I always thought that they were just cheap plywood cabinets painted white, but after taking off all of the hardware and stripping the doors I found out they were cheap, wood grained chip board. Boy, how wrong was I (that’s sarcasm right there… )So I stripped, sanded and painted all 17 doors. I wish I could say they were smooth and beautiful. Not. Oh well, moving on. I painted the outside and inside of all of the actual cabinets. I say inside because when I moved in I had to by a hippie freak and paint the insides of all of my cabinets purple. Looks cool until you have to paint over it like 5 freaking times so it doesn’t show through the lovely lemon mousse colored you are going with now. Oh, and how about how every item stored in those cabinets has to be taken out and placed somewhere else. In my tiny house. To spare you of the nasty details let’s just say that there was a small trail left open to walk through between the living room and the dining room with a small plate sized clearing on the table for my 6 yr old to eat. We ate standing up. A lot. After many days of this I get new hinges for my newly painted cabinets only find that after struggling put up doors (meaning that I butchered my newly painted cabinets with new holes) that the hinges would not work after all. This is where small nervous breakdown occurs and I take it out on my poor unsuspecting husband and run out of the house crying. Thank you to my friend Russell (a carpenter) for calming me down later in the day with encouraging words… He lets me know that all is not lost, but I do in fact need different hinges. Arghhhh! I would also have to patch over the new “holes” I drilled about. BUT, I could and should put all of my stuff back in the cabinets since the paint was now dry. So I did just that, then took all of the unhung doors and hid them away in the basement for a few days. Break time. At least so I could still have my monthly supper dinner club. And what a fine supper it was. June menu: pulled pork coleslaw with boiled dressing (from the Southern Cookbook 1951) succatash collard greens and smoked pork hock cornbread rhubarb crumb pie lemon shaker pie (from The Joy of Cooking) Seriously, this was fine eating Well, that was a lovely break. Sitting around the table with a large group of friends |(well, 7 of us) with interesting conversation always makes me feel better. Since now I was mentally stable again (sort of) I bought new different hinges and only after 3 days was able to proudly say that all of my cabinet doors are now up. Well, one is a little wonky but I will wait for Russell to come back over to help with that one. Luckily I had a Danish almond cake in the freezer to give him as thanks last time. IT should be all smooth sailing now. Oh, except that since my crappy cabinets were built pre 1979 all of the measurement specs for door handles have changed! Talk about a sharp stick in the eye. So right now I am enjoying my lemon mousse cabinets with white doors. Without handles. To be continued. I can say with confidence that the next time I get the silly notion to do something like this again I will take a 2nd mortgage out on my house before the thought gets too far………… The bread chosen this month for us Bread Baking Buddies is oatmeal twists. Elle, from Feeding my Enthusiasms, was the host, and her inspiration came from this post by Farine ( I must add that I find all bread bakers inspiring). These are lovely little twists packed with oatmeal, dried fruits and nuts. At least that is what was in mine. I want to try these again with cheese and seeds as recommended by Elle. I don’t keep a sourdough starter (I will complete this mystical achievement one day)so I made an overnight poolish instead. I also added some rye flour to my poolish for a little extra something. Did it make a difference? I don’t know . I will try these again with all white flour. I will say that they were delicious and wonderful treat with a little butter and a cup of coffee. I split the dough in half and put dried blueberries and pecans in 8 of them and dried figs, walnuts and anise in the other 8. Bake on! Oatmeal Twists based on Morning Cuddles at Farine makes 16 twists 700 g sourdough starter (or poolish/starter of 350 g all-purpose flour mixed with 350 g water and 2 teaspoons yeast. Sit 3 hrs, stir down, put in fridge overnight, or at least 8 hours – use where recipe calls for sourdough starter.) I used 75 g rye flour and 275 g white flour 320 g all-purpose flour 230 g whole wheat flour 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast 115 g rolled oats, coarsely ground in a food processor 15 g salt 1 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup buttermilk 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled 100 g pecans, chopped (I used 1/2 cup each dried blueberries and pecans OR 1/2 cup each chopped dried figs and walnuts with 1 tsp anise seed) Mix the flours together with the yeast, oats and salt. Stir the water, buttermilk and butter into the starter. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the starter mixture until a soft dough forms. Let sit 10 minutes. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead in additional flour if needed until dough is tacky but not sticky. Knead in the pecans. Shape into a ball and put dough ball into oiled rising bowl or container, turning dough to coat with the oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. This might take 2 hours or 6. (Also fine to cover and let sit overnight in the fridge, then let rise until doubled on the counter the next day.) When dough has doubled, turn out onto lightly flour board. Shape into a log and cut into two pieces. Return one piece of the dough to the rising bowl and cover. Shape the second piece of dough on the board into a log and cut into 8 pieces, each about 100 g. Cut each piece in half and shape each piece into a snake and twist two pieces together a a time or two, then place twist on a parchment or silicone mat lined baking sheet. Repeat with remaining 7 (100 g) pieces. You will have eight twists. Take the remaining large (about 800 g) piece of dough and repeat the shaping into a log, cutting into 8 pieces, cutting those in half and shaping into twists. You will finish with 16 twists set out on parchment or silicon mat covered baking sheets. Cover twists and let rise until doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F when twists are almost doubled. Uncover, glaze with buttermilk with clean pastry brush. If desired sprinkle with finely chopped pecans, or preferred seeds or with sea salt. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. If browning too rapidly, turn down the oven temperature. Turn the pans back to front and bake another 10 – 15 minutes or until breads are 180 degrees inside. Cool on a rack then serve. Elle’s Variations: When you knead in the pecans you can knead in dried fruit like dried cranberries or diced prunes, apricots or dates to make a breakfast twist. If you prefer savory you can knead in herbs and/or Parmesan cheese and/or seeds. This bread loves to have you make your own combinations, so other nuts can also be used in place of the pecans or with them. I made my second batch without any nuts, seeds, fruit or herbs and they were yummy, too. So please take a moment and go to Elle’s page to see her fine baking skills and make sure to check out the other extremely talented Bread Baking Babes masterful creations. The links are all on Elle’s page. It’s well worth it."
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Challah Bread (three ways)
What a fun Bakers Challenge this month!"> “Challah is a bread of celebration in Jewish tradition. At a time when white flour was considered a luxury, its use was reserved for either the wealthy or...
May 28, 2012
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“Challah is a bread of celebration in Jewish tradition. At a time when white flour was considered a luxury, its use was reserved for either the wealthy or for festive events. In Judaism, the Sabbath is a weekly holiday, and therefore is a festive occasion. It was around the 15th century when Jews in parts of Austria and Germany adopted an oval braided loaf from their neighbors to make the Sabbath special. These fancy shaped loaves made with white flour were seen as a fitting way to honor the Shabbat (Sabbath), symbolized in Jewish culture as a queen, therefore deserving of the finest one can achieve. In honoring the Sabbath as a day of rest, two loaves are traditionally put on the table. This is generally seen as a representation of the double portion of manna provided to the Children of Israel on Fridays during their wandering in the desert after fleeing from Egypt. This double portion allowed them to maintain the commandment to not do “work” on the Sabbath. Another symbolic comparison to the manna eaten by the Israelites is the fact that challah is traditionally covered with a cloth prior to being blessed and eaten. According to tradition, manna was encased in dew to preserve its freshness. Covering the challah with a decorative cloth serves as another reminder of the special quality of the day of rest. There are other explanations given regarding why the challah is covered. The one which I always liked was that we cover the loaves so they will not be “embarrassed” by having to wait while the wine is blessed first. (A traditional Sabbath dinner begins with a blessing over the wine first, followed by the blessing of the bread, after which the meal is enjoyed.)” This beautiful description comes from Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood, who is the host of the May Bakers Challenge. Growing up in New York I am well acquainted with the challah bread. While my first two boyfriends were jewish, it was the second one who came from a very religious family. Every Friday night his mom would set the candles out for the Sabbath with the challah bread sitting on the table (needless to say she was not too happy about her son dating me- in fact that is an understatement.lol!). This bread has a long history, as well it should, since it is delicious, gorgeous to look at , and makes awesome french toast! Since my disaster in the kitchen last month, I haven’t has a chance to do much , well, any baking,but since my new oven was delivered last week I have made many loaves of bread. I tried three different recipes for the challah and I highly recommend all of them. The first is Bernard Clayton’s from the New Complete Book Of Breads (I adore this book). It makes two large loaves and is gently scented with saffron, which makes it so unique in flavor. The second time I used a recipe from Beard on Bread. This one was simple, straight forward and delicious. The third time around I tried a pumpkin challah from Martha Stewart. To these loaves I added raisins which had been soaked in butterscotch schnapps. Yumm… The best part of this is the braiding. There are so many different ways to go with this that only you can decide. I went with the six strand braid, the 4 strand round braid, a braided ring and a turban. At the end of this post will be link to instruct you on different braiding techniques. Well let’s get to it, Bake On!! Challah (Version 1) 2 Packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast 5 Cups bread or AP flour, approximately 2 Tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons salt 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup hot water (120-130F) 1 pinch saffron (I soaked my saffron in the hot water for a few minutes and added it in at the same time) 3 eggs 1 egg white 1 egg yolk (from egg above, beaten, mixed with 2 teaspoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cold water) 1 teaspoon poppy or sesame seeds In your mixer bowl (or large bowl if doing by hand) combine the yeast, 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and butter. Slowly add the hot water and beat on medium speed, using the flat beater, for 2 minutes. Add the saffron (disregard this if you added the saffron to the hot water), eggs, and egg white. Beat on high-speed for 3 minutes (the batter will be thick). Change to the dough hook and add the remaining flour, one cup at a time, until the dough is no longer shaggy or sticky. If it is too moist, add some more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead for 10 minutes.. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down the dough and divide it in half. These will make your two loaves. Now comes the fun part! To braid, divide each half into 3 pieces (this is for a simple 3 strand braid). * Please try out the many variations on braiding when you feel a little brave- they are quite easy once you get the hand of it.* Once braided,place the loaves on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush lightly with the egg yolk mixture .Sprinkle with the seeds. Do not cover the bread for the second rise. they will double in bulk, about 1 hour. Preheat your oven to 400F about 20 minutes before baking. Bake until shiny brown, about 30 to 40 minutes. Cool before cutting. Challah (Version 2) 3 Packages active dry yeast (I thought this was excessive so I used 4 1/2 teaspoons like above) 1 1/3 cups warm water (about 110F)note: I used some whey I had leftover from making cheese 1 Tablespoon sugar 1 Tablespoon salt (I use kosher) 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 3 eggs 5 to 5 1/2 cups AP flour 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 teaspoon cold water (for brushing) poppy or sesame seeds Proof the yeast in the warm water in a mixing bowl with the paddle attachment. Add the sugar, salt, butter, eggs and 5 cups of the flour, one cup at a time.Switching to the dough hook, gradually add more flour if needed, until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Knead for 10 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a large greased bowl and cover tightly with wrap until doubled in bulk, about 1-2 hours. Punch the dough down and divide in half. Proceed to form into braids ,place the loaves on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let rise again, covered, for 1 hour. Lightly brush with the reserved egg yolk and sprinkle with seeds. Bake in a preheated 400F oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on racks. Challah (Version 3) 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast, (1 1/2 packages) 1 cup warm water (100 degrees to 110 degrees) 3/4 cup egg yolks, (9 to 12 large eggs), plus 1 large egg yolk for glaze 1 tablespoon salt 2 tablespoons canola oil, plus more for bowl 1/4 cup honey 2 cups homemade Pumpkin Puree, or one 15-ounce can 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon allspice 8 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting Proof the yeast in 1 cup warm water. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine egg yolks with remaining 1/2 cup warm water. In a medium bowl, combine salt, canola oil, honey, pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. Replace paddle attachment with dough-hook attachment, and add the pumpkin mixture to the mixer bowl; combine. Add the yeast mixture, stirring until combined. Add the flour, 1 cup at a time, until all the flour is incorporated into dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, punch down the dough, and then form it into two 8-inch loaves. Place the loaves on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.While the dough is rising, heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix remaining egg yolk with 1 tablespoon water. Brush the loaves with the egg glaze, and bake until golden brown, about 50 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Video of basic three strand braid: http://s1075.photobucket.com/albums/w440/tinkrsh/challah%20braiding/?act… Videos of four strand braids: http://s1075.photobucket.com/albums/w440/tinkrsh/challah%20braiding/?act… http://s1075.photobucket.com/albums/w440/tinkrsh/challah%20braiding/?act… Videos of six strand braids: http://s1075.photobucket.com/albums/w440/tinkrsh/challah%20braiding/?act… http://s1075.photobucket.com/albums/w440/tinkrsh/challah%20braiding/?act… Video of four strand braided round: http://s1075.photobucket.com/albums/w440/tinkrsh/challah%20braiding/?act… p.s.- I’m submitting this to Susan over at Wild Yeast for the weekly yeastspotting roundup"
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Shepherd’s Bread
"> Has it really been a month since my last post?!? It feels like yesterday while at the same time it feels like a year ago. I have been so busy trying to get things back in order since the smoke...
May 26, 2012
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Has it really been a month since my last post?!? It feels like yesterday while at the same time it feels like a year ago. I have been so busy trying to get things back in order since the smoke fire last month that I just haven’t had the energy to write or bake anything. Not that I could bake,even if I wanted to, mind you…After the insurance adjuster assessed the damage, they sent in a house recovery team (these are the same people who go to clean up crime scenes and the such) to scrub my house from top to bottom (one good thing out of this) for three days straight. Then they scraped and painted my kitchen ceiling so we couldn’t even use the kitchen for over a week. Then my oven was moved so many times that when I did turn it on to bake it automatically went to 500F with nothing in-between. Out of all of this turmoil, my new *double* oven arrived mid last week. We decided since we had to get a new oven that we would upgrade to a Maytag Gemini double oven. My mom has had this oven for the past 7 or so years and I have always loved it. Thank you, dear husband. I have been baking a lot of bread over the past 5 days to test this new baby out. Three different kinds of Challah (that will be posted on Sunday) as well as this lovely little number. Brought to us by the Bread Baking Babes, us wee buddies were invited to try this simple bread that is baked a very cool way- in a clay baker! . It is also known as a la cloche baker, but a enamel or cast iron dutch oven can also be used. I just happen to have a clay baker that has been sitting very lonely and neglected in the back of my closet. Thank you to this months host, Karen from Bake my Day!, for giving me a wonderful reason to use it! The recipe is from Bread for all seasons by Beth Hensperger. Okay, so here are my comments…. the recipe is for one huge loaf or two “normal” sized loaves. Since my husband had been away for the past 2 weeks and it is only me and my little girl I decided to half the recipe. I have already given away 6 loaves of bread in the past few days and didn’t think my friends could take anymore. Even so, I ended up with one pretty impressive loaf. It smelled wonderful baking in the oven (but then again, doesn’t all bread?) and was really very simple to put together. For the starter I used half white flour half rye flour per Karen’s suggestion. I found that the baking time was about 1 hour, 10 minutes total, but considering the size of the loaf that doesn’t surprise me. I can’t imagine what a full recipe would make! So get your bread on and head on over here for the amazing recipe!"
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Granville Island Beer Bread
"> I’m late, I’m Late, I am so very late… Well, I actually was on time but I have been unable to post until now due to a serious accident in my house. Meaning I almost set my house on fire. As in I...
May 1, 2012
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I’m late, I’m Late, I am so very late… Well, I actually was on time but I have been unable to post until now due to a serious accident in my house. Meaning I almost set my house on fire. As in I left a pot on the stove (boiling) and completely forgot about it. And left the house. For 2 hours. This is where the word “loser” get written across my forehead. When we did get back I got out of the car hearing this loud alarm and thought “What is that noise”? How about every smoke and carbon monoxide detector going off in my house. I still didn’t realize what was going on until I opened the door and smoke came billowing out and I yelled “Fire”!! It was only then that I realize the stupid mistake I had made. Thank goodness for the fire department. I am also so thankful that it was smoke fire, no actual flames. My entire house was filled with smoke and it was pouring out every window. Well, I guess those chickpeas are going in the garbage. Anyway, my entire house now smells like a firepit. After doing what feels like (and probably is correct) 100 loads of laundry, we finally called the insurance company and are letting them take over. Every piece of clothing in the house must be washed as well as all of the furniture, replace the stove, etc… It’s not good. Anyway, back to bread. The Bread Baking Babes asked us buddies to join them in making bread with beer. This month the host was Natashya at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. The recipe was generously supplied by Chuck at Cookingbread.com . It is named after the beautiful island right off of Vancouver in British Columbia. To keep it Canadian I used Big Rock traditional ale, Bavarian smokies that are house made and smoked at a german butcher in the neighborhood, extra sharp Canadian cheddar cheese, and fresh chives, right out of my Canadian garden.. All I can say is “Holy Smoke” (a sick reference the above story. Hey, when you don’t laugh, you cry). This was one beautiful bread. We had it with a side salad for dinner since it’s really a meal in itself. Please head over here for the recipe. You’ll be glad you did."
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Two Recipes: Armenian Nazook and Nutmeg Cake
> This month’s Bakers Challenge was hosted by Jason at Dailycandor.com. He introduced us to two very interesting and delicious Armenian desserts : Nazook (or nazuk, nazouk) and scented nutmeg cake....
Apr 27, 2012
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Directions: Make the Pastry Dough Place the sifted flour into a large bowl. Add the dry yeast, and mix well. Add the sour cream and softened butter. Use your hands, or a standing mixer with a paddle attachment, to work it into a dough. If using a standing mixer, switch to a dough hook. If making manually, continue to knead for about 10 minutes, or until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl or your hands. If it remains very sticky, add some flour, a little at a time. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 3-5 hours, or overnight if you like. Make the filling Mix the flour, sugar, and the butter in a medium bowl. Add the seeds from a scraped vanilla bean (if using) and vanilla extract. Mix the filling until it looks like clumpy, damp sand. It should not take long. Set aside. Make the nazook Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/175°C/gas mark 4. Cut the refrigerated dough into quarters. Form one of the quarters into a ball. Dust your working surface with a little flour. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle or oval. The dough should be thin, but not transparent.Spread 1/4 of the filling mixture across the rolled-out dough in an even layer. Try to spread the filling as close as possible to the edges on the short sides, but keep some of pastry dough uncovered (1 inch/2.5 cm) along the long edges. From one of the long sides, start slowly rolling the dough across. Be careful to make sure the filling stays evenly distributed. Roll all the way across until you have a long, thin loaf.Pat down the loaf with your palm and fingers so that it flattens out a bit (just a bit). Apply your egg yolk wash with a pastry brush. Use a crinkle cutter (I used a serrated bread knife) to cut the loaf into 10 equally sized pieces. Put onto an ungreased cookie sheet.Place in a preheated moderate oven for about 30 minutes, until the tops are a rich, golden brown. Cool and then try not to eat all of them! Next up… Armenian Nutmeg Cake"> 1 cup (240 ml) milk 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 cups (480 ml) (280 gm/10 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour (I used pastry flour) 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 cups (480 ml) (400 gm/14 oz) brown sugar, firmly packed (I used demerara sugar) 3/4 cup (1½ sticks) (180 ml) (170 gm/6 oz) unsalted butter, cubed 1/2 cup (120 ml) (55 gm/2 oz) walnut pieces 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground nutmeg 1 egg Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C/gas mark 4. Mix the baking soda (not baking powder; that’s for the next step) into the milk. Set it aside. Sift together the flour and the baking powder into a large bowl.Add the brown sugar and mix together.Cut the butter with a fork into the dry ingredients (you can use your food processor like I did). You’ll want to achieve a more-or-less uniform, tan-colored crumbly mixture. Take HALF of this resulting crumbly mixture into your springform (9”/23cm) pan. Press a crust out of it using your fingers and knuckles. It will be easy.Crack an egg into a mixer or bowl and add the nutmeg . Start mixing slowly with a whisk attachment and then increase to medium speed, or mix with a hand whisk if you’re doing it manually (or process for 60 seconds). Once it’s mixed well and frothy, pour in the milk and baking soda mixture. Continue to mix until uniform. Pour in the rest of the crumbly mixture. Mix well until thoroughly combined and fluid.Pour the batter over the base in the springform pan and sprinkle the walnut pieces over the batter. Bake in a preheated moderate oven for about 30-40 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the top is a golden brown, and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan,release and enjoy! freezing/Storage Instructions/Tips: Nazook will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple of weeks, and the Armenian nutmeg cake will keep (covered) at room temperature for 2-3 days. Both taste even better still warm from the oven. Allow to cool completely before attempting to freeze. Nazook will freeze best if put in a freezer bag with all the air squeezed out. Armenian Nutmeg Cake will also freeze fairly well if completely sealed. Both can be frozen for up to 3 months. "
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Cherry -Chocolate Mousse Cake
"> So, did everyone have a nice Easter/Passover holiday? I know we did. Instead of staying home for dinner, we got in the car and went to two of our favorite places, Chico Hot Springs and...
Apr 20, 2012
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So, did everyone have a nice Easter/Passover holiday? I know we did. Instead of staying home for dinner, we got in the car and went to two of our favorite places, Chico Hot Springs and Yellowstone National Park. They are both located in the magical states of Montana & Wyoming. It’s a long drive (900k/530 miles), but to us, soooo worth it. At this time of year the park is such a great place to visit. There is only one section open in the park in the winter, but it never fails to amaze us. Mammoth hot springs is a site to behold on its own, but we also saw tons of Bison, pronghorns, elk, and birds, including hawks, osprey, and a bald eagle! The highlight though were the wolves. We were lucky enough to see a park wolf patrol officer with his scope and got to view a male and pregnant female couple eating a kill (with the bald eagle trying to get at it). Amazing. Seriously. We never forget how lucky we are to live out West and love seeing all of the truly awe-inspiring places around us. The many colors of Mammoth Hot Springs And a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure… One of the best perks is that the place where we stay has no TV, telephones, or computers. Well, you get dial-up in the lobby but it’s sort of a pain, so why bother. You realize that you don’t need to be “connected” at all times. You realize that the best way to be “connected” is to spend time with your family and friends. With no outside distractions. Kids even soon forget that there is no TV or video when their parents are there with them. Swimming, playing board games, puzzles, reading. Sounds old-fashioned, but it really works. We always meet such interesting people just hanging out in the lobby sitting around the fireplace.So much so that when I got home, I didn’t even want to plug in my laptop for a few days or watch the boob tube. I highly recommend this for everyone every once in a while. I think you will be glad that you did. Okay- enough said on that! With us missing Easter dinner at home, we just moved it a week. It was time for our monthly dinner supper club anyway, so we did everything a week later. It worked out better for everyone involved anyway. On the menu this month: apricot apple-bourbon glazed ham (we also had apple-bourbon hot toddys to start) carrot souffle braised red cabbage with raisins and apples shredded brussel sprouts with bacon popovers and for dessert…… Cherry Chocolate Mousse Cake!! equipment needed: one 9″ springform pan, two 8″ inch cake pans, parchment paper and acetate (you can substitute parchment paper), and a 9″ cardboard cake circle or cake plate. Before you begin, cut a length of acetate or parchment paper 3 1/2 inches high and 33 inches long. Take this and line the inside of your springform pan. Cut a 9 inch circle of parchment paper and place it in the bottom of the pan. Set this aside until the final assembly. This step makes removing the cake from the springform pan a breeze Cake: This makes 2 cakes. If they bake perfectly even then you can cut one in half horizontally and freeze the other half for a later time. Since mine usually are domed, I just trim the tops off each one to even them out and use both layers, saving the leftover scraps for a later use (cake pops, sides of cakes, over ice cream…) 1/2 cup boiling water 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1 large egg, at room temperature 1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup hot, strongly brewed coffee Preheat your oven to 325 F. Grease 2 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper … Whisk the boiling water, chocolate and butter together until melted and set aside.Whip the egg, sugar and vanilla until the mixture doubles in volume (about 2 minutes on high-speed) and then fold in the chocolate mixture by hand. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt over the batter and fold in, then stir in the hot coffee (this will thin the batter out). Divide the batter evenly between the 2 pans. Bake the cakes for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans. Cherry Mousse: * To make the puree, I boiled up about 3 large cups of frozen, pitted cherries with 1/2 cup of sugar, whirled it up in the blender then strained it through a fine sieve. Cool to room temp. I swear, it was easy. Do this while the cake is in the oven. 2 Cups (16 oz) sweetened cherry puree (see above) 3 Cups (24 oz) heavy cream (33-36%) 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 2 teaspoons kirsch (optional) 2 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin 1/3 cup water Sprinkle the gelatin over the water in a small bowl and either place in a small pan of simmering water and stir until dissolved or place the bowl in the microwave for about 15 -20 seconds (just do not let it boil). Let this cool down for about 10 minutes. In a large bowl, place the sweetened cherry puree. Stir in the gelatin, almond extract, and kirsch (if using). In a separate bowl, beat the heavy cream until soft, billowy peaks form; fold lightly into the cherry mixture. Assembly: Either cut one layer of cake horizontally or trim down the two layers so that you have 2 thin even layers. Spoon half of the cherry mousse into the bottom of your prepared springform pan. Carefully place (drop, really) one layer of the cake into the center. You will have a border of mousse all around the cake. Gently press down. Spoon the remaining cherry mousse over this layer. Repeat with the second layer of cake, again gently pressing down so that the cake and mousse border are level. Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight, to set up. While the cake is setting up, make the glaze… Chocolate Glaze 1/2 cup water 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup whipping cream 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder, sifted 1 1/2 tablespoons unflavoured gelatin powder 1/4 teaspoon almond extract Bring the water, sugar, and cream to a boil in a medium pan. Once boiling, whisk in the cocoa powder and simmer (reducing the heat if needed) for 4 minutes, stirring often, (the consistency will not change). Remove from heat. Soften the gelatin in ¼ cup of cold water and then whisk this into the hot cocoa mixture until dissolved. Cool the glaze to room temperature, then chill completely, at least 3 hours. It will set up like chocolate gelatin (and it tastes great) To finish the cake: Open up the springform pan and remove the cake. Gently peel away the acetate (or parchment) that is around the sides of the cake. Place the cardboard round (or cake plate) onto the top of the cake and invert it onto a cooling rack. If you don’t have an exact 9 inch round cake plate, then invert it directly onto the cooling rack. Place the cooling rack over a parchment lined baking sheet. Warm the chilled glaze over low heat,while whisking occasionally, until just melted and smooth and pour this over the cake , spreading gently with a spatula to ensure that it covers the top and sides of the cake evenly. I poured half over, chilled it a bit, then put a second coat on it. Scoop up any leftover glaze that dipped through onto the parchment paper and reuse. You can chill and reuse this glaze over and over. Chill the cake for at least 30 minutes, then lift it onto your presentation plate and store chilled until ready to serve. This keeps in the fridge for up to four days. This was a real visual show-stopper while also a light and delicious way to end a big meal. Enjoy! recipe adapted from here"
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