Tuesdays with Dorie: Rugelach
November 4, 2008 at 1:10 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 55 Comments
We have made it back to New York, safe and sound. Thanks so much for all the well-wishes in the past few posts! Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to a more regular blog-checking schedule now. We’re staying in a temporary furnished apartment all the way downtown in the Financial District. Strange place to live, but hopefully we’ll find a “real” apartment of our own soon. At least this place has a big oven, so I was able to crank out the Rugelach that Grace of Piggy’s Cooking Journal chose for TWD this week.
I don’t have any fond childhood memories or stories of rugelach. In fact, I’d never had them before I moved to New York, and I’d never made them myself till the other day. If you’re not too familiar with rugelach either, it’s basically a cream cheese pastry that’s rolled out, schmeared with a sweet filling, and rolled up. They kinda look like mini croissants, no?
Dorie suggests using the food processor to bring the dough together. I won’t see my Cuisinart anytime soon (it’s been living in a storage facility, along with all my plug-in kitchen appliances, in New Jersey for the past couple of years), so I made it by hand…just a half recipe. It was super-easy, too. Rather than using cold butter and cream cheese, I brought them to cool room temperature, then just used my right hand to squish them together with the dry ingredients. No utensils needed, and very little chance of overworking the dough.
You can be really flexible with rugelach filling. I used apricot jam, cinnamon sugar, walnuts and dried cherries. You can use whatever jam you like (or no jam at all), different nuts, different dried fruits…Dorie even adds chocolate. I left that out of mine because I don’t like fruit and chocolate combos. I made a bit too much cinnamon sugar, so I sprinkled a little extra on top before baking. It’s important to chop up the chunky ingredients, like nuts and fruit, pretty well, because big bits can make the cookies hard to roll up neatly.
I think they came out quite cute, if I do say so myself. After rolling the cookies into crescents, I stuck them in the fridge for a couple hours. That way, they were nice and firm, and held together well in the oven. There was a little jam leakage out the sides, but nothing major, and I was able to pick it off when I lifted them off the sheet tray. These cookies are just lighty sweet from the filling (the dough has no sugar at all), and really good with the warm beverage of your choice. I think I’m gonna put a few of these in a baggie and munch on them while I wait in line to VOTE today!!
The recipe, of course, is in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, but she also has it here on NPR’s site. And for some extra rugelach tips and flavor suggestions, read this post on Dorie’s site. Don’t forget to read Grace’s write-up and check out the TWD Blogroll to see what a zillion-trillion other people had to say!
Daring Bakers in October: Pizza & Toppings
October 29, 2008 at 4:12 am | Posted in daring bakers, groups, savory things, yeast breads | 39 Comments
October’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge is hosted by Rosa of Rosa’s Yummy Yums, and it’s the third recipe the group has made from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart. Judging from the other two, we will all have had spectacular results with this month’s PIZZA! I completed the recipe so early in the month (which is quite unusual for me), that I’ve actually had too long to think about what I’d say. In my head, this became quite a long, rambling post…sorry…I understand if you don’t have the patience!
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like pizza. I do have a couple of good friends who don’t eat cheese, but they still love cheese-less pizza. As a New Yorker, I prefer pizza that has a chewy, puffy, nicely browned and slightly salty outer crust. I think the crusty edge part is just as good as the topping part– you’ll never see me leaving a heap of chewed-around crusts on my plate! I had a bit of a hard time with pizza in Sydney, where the preference seems to be an ultra-thin crust, with really no outer edge to speak of. Eventually, we found Pizza Mario in Surry Hills (it’s an accredited member of l’Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana), which gets my vote as Sydney’s best!
I make pizza often at home, but I’ve had mixed results. My best work came out of the oven in my last apartment in Brooklyn. It was an old gas Magic Chef with a bottom heating element (I could see the flames under the oven floor) that got my stone ripping hot. The bottom crust was always brown and crisp. In Sydney, we had electric ovens with top heating elements in all three apartments, and no matter how long I preheated my stone, or where I placed it in the oven, I could never get the bottom to brown nicely. It became quite frustrating, and I tried many dough recipes and little technique modifications along the way. (It may also be the stone itself, as my old one went into storage accidentally and I had to get a different one in Sydney. I’ve read about making pizza on the bottom side of a super-hot cast iron skillet under the broiler…sounds promising, but my skillet is kind of small.) I’m definitely crossing my fingers for a gas oven in the future!
I made half a recipe of dough, from which I formed two largish pizzas. This is a well-hydrated dough, and requires an overnight rest in the fridge. I can be held for up to three days, though, so I decided to make one pizza for dinner one night, and the other the next night. I know that Rosa wanted us to shape the dough by tossing it “like a real pizzaiolo,” but mine was much too sticky. I had a hard time even with just the hand-stretching. Despite the stickiness, the dough had a wonderful, soft feel, and I could tell by touch that the recipe would be a good one.
As far as pizza toppings go, I am a minimalist…I don’t like too many different things, or too much of any one thing, either, to weigh down or sog out the crust. I usually do tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil– black olives, too, if I’m feeling crazy– so I thought I’d try a couple of “unusual” topping combinations for my challenge. Inspired by a favorite at the aforementioned Pizza Mario, I made a pizza topped with potato, rosemary and Maldon salt with the first night’s dough. Before baking, I simply sliced a red-skinned potato super-thin with a Japanese mandolin, spiraled the slices on the dough, sprinkled on the rosemary and salt, and drizzled olive oil all over it. The next night, I slowly caramelized a sliced onion in a little olive oil and butter to top my second pizza. Then I scattered on bits of gorgonzola picante and some more rosemary.
I just realized, looking back at the DB details to type up this post, that we were supposed to use both toppings and sauce. Well, we can just consider olive oil to be the sauce on these, because I used copious amounts of the stuff on both pizzas!
The pizzas were a hit! Potato pizza may sound like starch on starch, but it’s really so delicious. If you’ve never tried it, I recommend giving it a go sometime. The sweet onions with the sharp gorgonzola was a perfectly balanced match on the second pizza (and, in the oven, some of the onions got a little crispy on the edges– the best part!). And the dough was wonderful– just the kind of bready crust I like! I unfortunately had the same problems browning the underside, but I expected that, and I’ll try it again when I’m settled in New York.
Rosa was originally to host this challenge with Sher from What Did You Eat?, and it was Sherry’s idea to make this recipe. Sherry passed away in July, but Rosa decided to go ahead with her choice, honoring her friend and her accomplishments as a cook and baker. So don’t call for pizza delivery this weekend! Make your own instead, and get the recipe on Rosa’s site. Don’t forget to check out the DB blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes
October 28, 2008 at 4:56 am | Posted in cupcakes, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 38 Comments
Growing up, Halloween was totally my favorite holiday (or sort-of holiday, really). I was like Linus, waiting all year for the Great Pumpkin to appear. I went trick-or-treating long after I really should have stopped…until I was 16! Every year, when I would get home with my loot, I’d go immediately to my bedroom, tip the contents of my plastic pumpkin onto the floor and form a sort of crude candy hierarchy out of it. Things like raisins, Raisinets, Chunky Bars and Good ‘N Plenty went immediately to my parents. Then the chocolate bars were divided into order of preference– Kit Kats, Twix, Charleston Chew and Reese’s were at the top of the heap. From the “other” category, I was a special fan of rootbeer Dum Dums and Now and Laters. I wouldn’t gorge on the candy, but it eat it slowly and methodically over the month of November…the whole process seems quite demented now that I think about it.
When Clara of I Heart Food4Thought asked us to put a costume on the Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes she’d chosen for TWD, I was happy to get in the spirit of things, so to speak. I was chin-deep in packing materials when I made these, however, so I didn’t have too much time for creativity– thank goodness for colored sprinkles!
If you have Dorie’s book, you may notice that my cupcakes don’t look quite the same as hers, and it’s not just that mine are crawling with spiders! I finally polished off a bag of white chocolate pistoles, that had been my life’s mission to use up before I left Sydney, by making white chocolate frosting instead of dark. (That accomplished, I’ll now have to find a new, and hopefully less frivolous, life’s mission.) I didn’t actually measure the powdered sugar in the frosting recipe…just kept adding until it was spreadable.
These were good…nothing life-altering, buy hey, they’re just simple chocolate cupcakes after all. I’d make them again, though, for sure. Do test them early, as there were several reports of dry cupcakes in the TWD group…I pulled mine from the oven about two minutes before the recommended time, and they were just fine. For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, or read CB’s post. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say! Happy Halloween!!
Catch you on the flip side
October 23, 2008 at 7:34 am | Posted in other stuff | 19 Comments
I’m so sorry that I don’t have time to go through many of the TWD and The Cake Slice posts this week. Why does moving have to turn so chaotic, no matter how organized you try to be? The organization thing flew out the window when we lost the folder with all of the moving details…somehow it was absorbed into the vortex of crap that has become our apartment, and has not reappeared.
When I packed up my sweaters and coats for the trip home, it completely sank in that I’m getting jipped out a summer here! Oh well, those raspberries and nectarines will taste that much sweeter when I finally see them again. It will be good to home, though. I’ve missed my friends, I’m looking forward to a proper Thanksgiving and a chilly Christmas, and I’m so excited to VOTE!! It will be awhile before we are really settled, unfortunately…we’ll be in temporary housing for a month or two while we look for our own place. I’m not sure what to expect as far as the kitchen situation there goes. I’m bringing a bare minimum of cooking equipment in my luggage to hopefully get by on more than just takeout.
I’ll really miss Sydney. I’ll miss the beaches, the (generally, although not at this moment) sunny weather, the wonderful food, the Aussie sense of humor. I’ll also miss the everyday excitement of living abroad. It’s been fun to pick up on the cultural differences (some subtle, some not), to get used to a vocabulary that’s quite a bit different, and to find all kinds of wonderfully unexpected things around every corner! I think for most people a trip to Australia is a dream vacation–once in a lifetime, if that. It’s pretty neat that I got to live here for almost two years…
We get on the plane, bound first for my parent’s house in Seattle for a few days, tomorrow. So I’ll try and check back next week. In the meantime, I’ve put up a small set of Sydney photos on my Flickr page— check them out if you’re interested.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Pumpkin Muffins
October 21, 2008 at 5:14 am | Posted in breakfast things, groups, muffins/quick breads, tuesdays with dorie | 52 Comments
It’s spring-time warm here, and pumpkin would be the last thing on my mind if it weren’t for the fact that Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp chose these muffins for TWD. I’d actually better get used to the idea of cool weather foods, and quick, because come Friday, I’ll be back in the States! That’s right–this is my last TWD from Oz…I’ve already done next week’s recipe, but I won’t be able to post “early” anymore. Boo.
I’ve never noticed canned (or tinned) pumpkin in Australian grocery stores. Maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong aisle, I don’t know, but I assume it’s just not popular here. I would have had to roast and mash my own if I hadn’t had a can of Libby’s that I brought back from home. As an aside, which my American friends may or may not find interesting, all the hard-skinned gourds are referred to as “pumpkin” here (not just the orange ones that I think of in the US). For instance, I’ve gotten used to calling butternut a pumpkin, not a squash.
So, armed with my Libby’s, I was ready to tackle Dorie’s muffin recipe. I started by dividing it half (to make just six) and replacing the raisins with dried cranberries. Then I decided to skimp on the butter a bit, leaving out one tablespoon and replacing it with an additional tablespoon of buttermilk. The baked muffins were moist and soft, so I never even noticed that bit of butter was missing. What was missing, though, were the nuts! I had the exact amount of walnuts needed for this…they were right there on the counter…and that’s where they stayed. Oops! Early morning baking is apparently not my forte. Oh well–they found a new home in a spinach salad instead.
I can’t say that I ever crave pumpkin muffins, but I liked these a lot. I’ll make them again if I have an open can that needs to be used up. Next time, I’ll be sure to remember the nuts!
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Kelly’s post. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what close to 300 other people had to say!
The Cake Slice: Cappuccino Chiffon Cake
October 20, 2008 at 6:39 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, the cake slice | 33 Comments
I’ve joined a new baking group, and I couldn’t be more excited! Gigi and Katie thought it would be fun to actually use the cookbooks they have on the shelves, and so The Cake Slice was born. The premise is easy: we bake from one book per year, making a different recipe each month. This year’s book is a great one, covering a subject dear to my heart–Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne.
The first of what promises to be twelve amazing layer cakes is a Cappuccino Chiffon Cake. Chiffon cake is light as cloud, and relies on air (in the form of a meringue) to give it a sky-high rise, with a little baking powder mixed in for “insurance” purposes. Because it’s made with oil instead of butter, it’s not incredibly flavorful in and of itself, but its texture makes it a perfect vehicle for soaking up a flavored syrup.
This cake looks and tastes sophisticated, but it’s really quite basic–three layers of espresso-flavored chiffon soaked in a coffee simple syrup, finished off with heaps of whipped cream. Wanting to pack as much cappuccino flavor as I could into the cake, I skipped over to the coffee shop on the corner and bought a few shots of strong espresso to use in the cake batter and the syrup. The only change I made to the recipe was that I switched out the rum in the soaking syrup for Kahlua.
I love the lightness of whipped cream frosting, but I have to admit that I’m always a little nervous when actually icing a cake with it. It’s so fragile that messing around with it just a bit too much can overwork it in a hurry. As someone who will muck about with buttercream icing for half an hour trying to get it just so, I had to try hard to just get the whipped cream on there, throw the spatula in the sink and walk away.
I wondered how the whipped cream would hold up, but this cake lasted nicely for a couple days in the fridge. It became even tastier as syrup soaked its way through the cake layers. There’s a little cinnamon in the cake batter…I really love it in combination with the espresso. I don’t allow myself to have an afternoon coffee any more (too many sleepless nights), but I’ll make an exception anyday for a slice of cappuccino chiffon cake!
Visit Gigi and Katie for the recipe, and cruise through the list of The Cake Slice Bakers to check out all of our chiffon cakes!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Lenox Almond Biscotti
October 14, 2008 at 4:28 am | Posted in cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 60 Comments
Is this picture ridiculous? Of course I did not store the Lenox Almond Biscotti I made for TWD in this jar. I couldn’t close the lid without destroying them. That would be dumb, possibly even self-defeating. I just need better props.
Anyway, we have Gretchen of Canela & Comino to thank for this week’s recipe choice. I knew before baking these biscotti that they would go over well. R, being the good half-Sicilian that he is, loves crunchy, almondy Italian bakery cookies.
You probably know that biscotti are sturdy, crunchy and “twice baked”…they first go into the oven as large log to set the dough, and then again when that dough is sliced into individual cookies. During the first bake, my biscotti log certainly spread, as I knew it should, but it didn’t poof. The finished product was much flatter than I expected or hoped. I decided to cut them a little wider to compensate for their sad, deflated look. I must have done something screwy, because I’ve seen others make this recipe with picture-perfect results. I was kind of pissed at myself, but they tasted *fantastic*, so I got over it soon enough.
I definitely had to increase the times for both the the first and second bakes…I can’t really tell you how much extra time I added, but for the first bake, I left the log in the oven until it no longer had visible raw spots. For the second bake, I made sure the slices were crisped through before taking them out of the oven.
I followed Dorie’s cue to add a couple extras to the dough…a big pinch of cinnamon (that was for Gretchen, although I chickened out on the cumin!) and a handful of white chocolate chunks (there is still a tiny bit left in the bag). The full amount of almond extract sounded quite overpowering, and too much can be a little artificial-tasting, I think, so I did choose to go skimpy on that. Also, I used slivered almonds instead of sliced, because that’s what’s I had.
The finished cookies were crunchy and craggy– perfect with coffee, or with ice cream! Quite sweet, too, but then again I did add white chocolate. The cornmeal in the recipe gives a golden boost to the color of the cookie dough, and a rustic, gritty crunch (which I like, but I know some aren’t crazy about).
For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (she also has it here on NPR’s website) or read Gretchen’s post. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say!
Tuesdays with Dorie: Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake
October 7, 2008 at 5:11 am | Posted in cakes & tortes, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 63 Comments
My blog buddy Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy picked a winning recipe for this week’s TWD–Dorie’s Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake. These are three good things that go well together, let me tell you!
Although it’s called a “brownie cake,” it’s not as dense and fudgy as a brownie. It definitely has a cake-like crumb, but is quite moist. (Mine dipped a little in the center as it cooled, but Dorie suggests that that’s normal.) I’m running a little low on vanilla extract, and trying to save my last few drops for something where it’s really needed. Here I replaced it with a sprinkle of instant espresso and a splash of Kahlua added to the warm melted chocolate and butter. I often put espresso powder in my brownies, so hey, why not here?
You can probably tell from the top picture that I made a half-recipe (a 6-incher). I made even less caramel…I figured 1/3 of the full amount was all I’d really need. Rather than pour the caramel-peanut sauce over the whole cake, I spooned it over the cut slices. That way I could easily (and cleanly) wrap and save the remaining cake overnight.
Sweet and salty, this has all the flavors of a yummy candy bar! For the recipe, look in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan or read Tammy’s post. Don’t forget to check out the TWD Blogroll to see what over 250 other people had to say!
White Chocolate Ice Cream
October 4, 2008 at 3:31 pm | Posted in ice creams & frozen, sweet things | 20 Comments
I want to start by saying thank you for all the good wishes regarding my last post! We are getting our act together over here and slowly sorting out the move details. Luckily, the move itself probably won’t be too painful, as we really don’t have much big stuff to send back. I’ll keep posting till we go, and I hope you’ll follow me back to New York!
OK, time to get back on topic–did I ever tell you about that one kilo bag of white chocolate I bought a few months back? I probably did, as it was dumb purchase that I am continually kicking myself for. I am determined to not waste it, but I can’t seem to use it up either. It taunts me from the cupboard…in fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be multiplying in the bag.
The days have suddenly gotten quite warm (and a little muggy, too) here in Sydney, so I thought maybe a white chocolate ice cream would kill two birds with one stone: use up some some of that stash, and beat the heat at the same time. I found a recipe to almost exhaust the bag– the white chocolate ice cream from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. It uses a whopping 8 ounces of chocolate…that’s about double any other recipe I’ve seen. With all that white chocolate, you can probably guess that it’s a pretty rich ice cream. It’s quite dense, but silky smooth. Although I’ve photographed it plain and simple here, it’s great with sliced strawberries, or if you are feeling naughty, a big splash of Kahlua poured over the top works, too.
If you have The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, you can find the recipe there. If you don’t, you can find a version with fresh ginger here on his site (omit the ginger and you’ll get the same recipe I’ve used).
One last thing…I cringe at the thought of using my blog as a pawn shop, but if anyone in Sydney is interested in purchasing a very gently used (gorgeous!) pistachio KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer or a Braun Multiquick stick blender with lots of attachments, shoot me an e-mail for the details. I apologize. I know it’s tacky, but these electronics won’t work back home (without a transformer, which I don’t trust and would rather not bother with). Also, to buy them new, they are much more expensive here than in States, so if anyone wants a deal, I thought I’d throw it out there.
Emptying Out the Cupboards
October 1, 2008 at 4:02 pm | Posted in other stuff | 31 Comments
Dear readers, there is something I have known about for a couple months now, and have neglected to share with most of you. And that’s not right. You need to know.
Seems R and I will be leaving Sydney and moving back to New York at the end of this month. I have mixed feelings about it, and I guess that’s to be expected. Of course I’ve missed my good friends, my neighborhood of eleven years, and the city itself. But being here, especially over the past few months, has been like living in some sort of suspended reality. We have had a fine time traveling recently, and are now doing our best to enjoy the last of our days here in Sydney. It’s not to say that we haven’t been affected by what’s going on, economically-speaking, in the States–in fact that’s the reason we’re leaving. Reality will certainly hit us in the face when we get back home. Where will we live? That will be a scramble. Will be both find jobs? I’m not so sure.
There’s little we can do about either of these things from half a world away, so I’ve been trying to concentrate on what’s right in front of me, and not stress too much about November. One important task at hand is to use up the food in the house (including my huge dried herb and spice collection). So forgive me if I come up with some wacky combos over the next few weeks, or if I do some weird ingredient substitutions for TWD. I’m just trying to empty out the cupboards.
Did I mention the saddest thing about leaving? It’s Sydney itself. I like it here, and although I knew we wouldn’t stay forever, I’m not ready to leave just yet.
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