TWD: Rugelach

Cream cheese dough, cinnamon sugar, plump dried fruits, toasted nuts...this recipe sounded decadent, old-fashioned, and delicious! I have used this dough in other recipes and it bakes up flaky, light, and beautifully flavorful. While it is certainly the best part of the cookie, the dough seems to suffer in this somewhat clunky recipe.
I decided to follow this recipe to the letter, making homemade apricot lekvar and using almonds, hazelnuts, dried cherries, apricots, prunes, dark and golden raisins for the filling.


The jelly-roll shape of the cookies made me a little nervous, but I rolled 'em up and chilled them overnight. I tried to pinch a seal on the end of the roll to avoid the cookies opening into snail shapes as they baked. Most of them did anyway. I also found it necessary to cut the baking time down to 20 minutes to avoid burning the filling and sugar/nut coating. All in all, the rugelach recipe seemed much ado about, if not exactly nothing, than not very much. I found myself wishing I had made the adjustments my instincts told me to. These are the best looking examples:

What do you think, TWD folks? Perhaps my lekvar was too runny? My oven too hot? Did I bake them sideways? (I think so.) Check out Jessica's lovely rugelach at My Baking Heart and find the recipe with Margaret at The Urban Hiker, or on pages 235-236 of Baking with Julia.

TWD: Chocolate Truffle Tarts

Thank goodness it's still Tuesday on the West Coast! I have been lost in new-job land and barely made these delicious tarts in time. Short post today, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this recipe. The chocolate pate brisee dough was easier than expected to work with and baked up tender enough to give under gentle pressure from a fork.The filling was like a fudgey brownie crossed with a chocolate souffle. The softened cubes of white and milk chocolate and biscotti bits added a wonderful dimension. Here I must admit that a grocery store panic resulted in my using McVities digestive biscuits (ala Will and Kate's wedding cake) and Toblerone White in place of the biscotti and white chocolate. Still, Chocolate Truffle Tarts were a bona fide hit! Find the recipe on pages 382-383 of "Baking With Julia" or check in with one of our wonderful hosts!

Steph at A Whisk and a Spoon
Spike of Spike Bakes
Jamie of Good Eats and Sweet Treats
and
Jessica of Cookbookhabit

Tuesdays with Dorie: White Loaves

Hello, again! (If anyone is still out there...) I've returned to my little corner of the internet to record what I'm sure will be an exciting journey. Over the past four years, a group of wonderful bloggers baked their way through Dorie Greenspan's "Baking From My Home To Yours." Now the Tuesdays with Dorie crew are taking on another project: "Baking With Julia" by Dorie Greenspan and Julia Child, and I am thrilled to be signed on to bake along with them!
The first recipe for White Loaves is one I am sure I will be returning to frequently. Five ingredients, two rises, and less than 45 minutes active time results in two tall, fine grained loaves of bread. It is also a very straightforward and forgiving recipe- I cruised through it while running errands and house cleaning, and all went exactly as planned. This bread has been a hit in my house and eaten plain, buttered, toasted, slathered with jam, peanut butter, and honey, grilled with cheese, and finally, ground into homemade bread crumbs for topping macaroni and cheese.

Thanks to Laurie at slush and Jules at Someone's in the Kitchen for hosting! The recipe can be found on their blogs or on pages 81-82 of "Baking With Julia."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today is truly the loveliest St. Patrick's Day I have ever seen. Here in the Northwest the daffodils have already bloomed, the cherry trees are raining petals, and the green of new life is visible everywhere. The beauty of spring is just about a fair trade for the freezing parades and parties of my Irish community back East!

Today I want to share a family recipe. My mom, though now legally an Irish citizen, does not herself have Irish roots. I have never asked her how and why she developed her recipe for soda bread, but I never remember a St. Patrick's Day when she was not churning out loaves for family and friends. She and my dad encouraged us to embrace our heritage and share it with others. I can think of no better way to do so than with a slice of Mom's soda bread.

Irish Soda Bread

4 1/2 c. all purpose flour

2 T sugar

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. baking powder

3/4 c. raisins

2 c. buttermilk

1 egg, beaten

Mix first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in raisins. Add buttermilk and stir. When dough gets too stiff, mix by hand. Turn dough out onto a floured board and knead 10 times. You may shape into 2 round loaves or into a shamrock. Brush loaf with beaten egg. With a sharp knife, cut a 1/2 inch deep cross into each round. Alternately, cut a 1/2 inch deep slash into each "leaf"of shamrock. Place loaves on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees 35-40 minutes or until golden.

Serve with sweet cream butter and a mug of hot tea.

Party Pieces

I don't know about you, but I think there is something inherently exciting about hors d'oeurves. Intricate little bites of this and that, perfect to nibble while enjoying a drink and good company, seem more sophisticated in a group than they might be alone. Even pigs in a blanket seem retro-cool on a buffet table at a cocktail party. Preparing appetizers always makes me want to step into heels and tie on a lacy apron. (I realize this is not normal and I have, perhaps, been watching too many episodes of Mad Men. But I knew that when I started vacuuming in pearls.)

This particular hors d'oeurve has served me well at many gatherings. I started with a tried-and-true dough and cut back the sugar while converting the filling from sweet to savory. I enjoy the combination of goat cheese and pesto, but the recipe can easily be adjusted to accommodate other filling combinations. Pancetta and salsa verde also work well here.

Savory Rugelach

12 oz butter, softened

12 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 T. sugar

1/2 t. salt

3 c. flour

8 oz goat cheese

4 oz pesto

1 egg, beaten

Cream butter, cream cheese, sugar, and salt until well blended. Add flour one cup at a time until just incorporated. Divide dough into four equal parts, wrap, and chill at least one hour.

On floured surface, roll each package of dough into a 10 inch circle. Spread dough with goat cheese and top with an even layer of pesto. Divide into 10 equal wedges. Roll tightly into wedges, starting with wide end of dough. Bend into a crescent shape. Continue with remaining dough and chill rugelach for 20 minutes. Remove to parchment lined cookie sheets and brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake at 350 degrees 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and serve.

Note: Rugelach can be frozen, without egg wash, up to 3 weeks . Thaw in refrigerator before baking.

Monday Funday

via Cakespy

The object of my affection

This past summer, while visiting my brother in Japan, I experienced incredible new things and tasted a LOT of good food. I returned to the States with a few souvenirs and gifts, tons of great photos, and an obsession with all things litchi. I got my first taste of litchi (sometimes spelled lychee) the evening I arrived and spent the remainder of my trip scouring Osaka for anything that would give me a fix. Candy, juice, liqueur, baked goods......all litchi, all the time. It wasn't until much later that I realized I had never tasted the actual fruit on it's own! Fast forward to this week, when much to my delight I discovered a can of litchis in syrup at a local import grocery.

When I opened the can, the delicious aroma of litchi was strong. I reached in a popped a litchi into my mouth. The flavor was fantastic- no juice or candy can live up to the genuine article! Unfortunately, the texture of the fruit was exactly how I imagine it would feel to eat a human eyeball. The visual of the litchis, smooth white orbs glistening in a pool of syrup, did not help at all. Feeling crestfallen and a bit freaked out by this latest litchi experience, I decided the best bet was to turn it into sorbet. All the lovely litchi flavor, no creepy eye-fruit texture!

Litchi Sorbet

20 oz. can litchis in syrup

1/2 c. simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, boiled to dissolve and cooled)

2 T. lemon juice

2 T water

1 T vodka or litchi liqueur

Drain litchis and reserve syrup. Puree fruit in a blender or food processor and strain through a fine mesh sieve. Whisk together litchi puree, reserved syrup, and remaining ingredients. Chill and freeze in an ice cream maker. Transfer to a freezer safe container with a lid and freeze until ready to serve.

Note: Try a splash of litchi puree in a glass of dry sparkling wine for a twist on a Bellini. Yum!