Cinnamon Swirl Bread (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Raisin Swirl Bread is all about my baking frenemy, YEAST. Once in a blue moon, I will experience baking success with yeast. However, more times than not I've ended up with some pretty spectacular fails, and vowing during those moments to never to bake with yeast ever again (okay, I'm being a little melodramatic).

With this bread recipe, I'm happy to say that I've experienced yeast success! I opted to nix the raisins, but followed the rest of the recipe as written. Initially, as the dough was coming together it was soft and sticky, so the stand mixer w. dough hook definitely came in handy.

WOW - this bread was delicious! I've been taking nice thick slices of this bread, slathering them with butter and cinnamon sugar, and popping them in the toaster oven to make unbelievably yummy cinnamon toast.

Thanks to Susan of Food.Baby for making this fantastic selection, and helping me resolve my love/hate relationship with yeast. I highly encourage you to make this delicious bread - the complete recipe can be found at Susan's blog.

Brioche Apricot Tart (TWD)

A Brioche Fruit Tart? I can say that this week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe would be a first for me. A rich brioche base, layers of fruit jam and fresh fruit, and a sprinkling of sugar and chopped nuts --- all of these components sounded absolutely delicious, so I couldn't wait to try my hand at this recipe.

Instead of using plums as indicated in the original recipe, I couldn't resist using Blenheim apricots:

These scrumptious beauties are considered to be the best apricots around, and I wholeheartedly agree. These apricots are sweet with just a hint of tartness, intensely fragrant and have a luscious, velvety texture.

They have a relatively short season (June & July) and bruise easily, so it is my understanding that this fruit is hard to find outside of California.

In Los Angeles, I've only seen a few farmers market stalls carry these gems (I found mine at the Santa Monica Market at the See Canyon stall), and I've learned to pick up my share and gorge on them fresh while they are in season.

This will be my first time baking with these beauties, so I couldn't wait to see how this tart would turn out.

This recipe required a little advance planning, as the brioche dough would need a overnight rest in the fridge. When ready, the dough is rolled out and pressed into a tart pan. A layer of fruit jam (apricot in this case) is slathered on the dough and the apricot halves are arranged on top.

After letting the tart dough rise a second time, a little sugar and chopped nuts are sprinked on top, and the tart is popped into the oven for 20 minutes.

Once baked, the brioche dough transforms into a crunchy/chewy crust, and the fruit softens yet retains its shape. In my case, the brioche crust browned a bit quickly (13 minutes), so I had to get the tart out of the oven before the sugar had a chance to caramelize. I ended up bringing out my kitchen torch to finish the job.

I would consider this more of a breakfast or tea pastry instead of a dessert. Whatever you call it, it was delicious! The flavor and sweetness of the apricots intensified after baking, and the jammy texture of the fruit went wonderfully with the crunchy/chewy brioche crust.

Now, I hope I'm not insulting this dessert, but it was like having a decadent version of toast and jam.

This tart is perfect to assemble and bake on a weekend morning, and I know that I'll be making this again very soon...I'll definitely have to try this with plums next time.

Thank you Denise of Chez Us for selecting this gem of a recipe (please visit Denise's blog for the full recipe)! Also, make sure to visit the TWD blogroll to see the beautiful creations of my fellow bakers.

Pizza w. Figs, Caramelized Onions & Feta (Daring Bakers)

October's Daring Bakers Challenge was one that I couldn't refuse --- PIZZA!!! It has never dawned on me to make my own pizza dough, given the availability and convenience of using ready made refrigerated pizza dough (I'm partial to the dough available at Trader Joes).

As it's still summer weather in SoCal, I decided to skip the oven and grill the pizzas on the BBQ. This dough is definitely stickier that your typical bread dough, so I had a challenge getting the rolled (sorry, pizza tossing wasn't in the cards for me this time around) dough on to the grill in one piece and retaining its shape. I started with pretty pizza dough ovals...as I struggled to get them on the grill, they ended up looked like giant amoebas.

I ended up making two types of pizzas. The first was topped with dried figs (couldn't rationalize spending $5.99 at Whole Paycheck ---opps, I meant Whole Foods for a basket of fresh figs), carmelized onions, feta and fresh mozzarella cheese, and topped with basil (I prefer arugula, but I went with what I had in the fridge):
The second was a pizza margherita, made with fresh mozzarella, small heirloom tomatoes, and topped with fresh basil and cracked black pepper:

Both pizzas turned out delicious, despite their homely looking shapes. The pizza crust was definitely a differentiator, as it was nice and crispy, and wasn't too heavy and bread-y. It definitely blew the TJ's dough out of the water!! With a little planning on the front end, making homemade pizza dough is definitely worth the effort.

This was definitely a fun challenge--- Thanks very much to our hostess Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums! To see more delicious and creative pizzas, check out the Daring Bakers blogroll.

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BASIC PIZZA DOUGH
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart
Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter)

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled -
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).
2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).

NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.

NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.

NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).

NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.

In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.
You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.

If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Brioche

In my prior TWD post for Pecan Honey Sticky Buns, I mentioned a different technique for making brioche dough, which I will share here. I recently completed a terrific 10 week pro-baking course at a local cooking school, New School of Cooking. I was thrilled to find out that we would be learning how to make brioche during one of the weeks. As we started assembling our ingredients and brought out the kitchen aid mixers, I was very surprised to see that we would be using the PADDLE attachment instead of the dough hook to mix the dough. I really like this technique as it doesn't force my poor hardworking kitchen aid mixer into overdrive! Here are the quick instructions to making the dough (any recipe can be used, but the basic technique is the same):

- combine warm water/milk and yeast, and allow for yeast to dissolve
- add dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt) and mix to combine
- 0nce the mixture starts looking lumpy, add eggs one at a time. Once all eggs are added, turn mixer up to low/medium and mix for approx 5 minutes. The purpose of this is to extract all the gluten out of the flour. Contrary to what I've read in cookbooks, we were told to mix at a lower speed as you don't want to aerate the dough. At the end of this mixing time, you want to see 1/2 of the mixture sticking to the sides of the bowl and the other 1/2 sticking to the paddle. You should see "strings" of dough stretching from the paddle to the side of the bowl. If the dough still clumps in the middle, add a little water to loosen.
- turn the mixer to low and add the butter to incorporate (takes me 2-3 minutes). Not overmixing is emphasized here, as overmixing will warm up the butter. - at this point, the dough should be very soft, but hold together with noticable elasticity
- proofing and baking instructions are similar to that in Dorie Greenspan's recipe.



































Ideally, the brioche crumb should look tight and dense, like pound cake. As you can see here with all of the little air pockets and lack of a tight crumb, I was not successful in my handiwork this weekend. Still, trust me, as this technique has worked almost everytime for me.














Regardless of technique, the taste of the final product was delicious. Thank you Dorie for another wonderful recipe!

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection comes courtesy from Madam Chow at Madam Chow's Kitchen. There is nothing more seductive than a sweet, sticky honey glaze dripping over circles buttery brioche dough. To prepare for this recipe, I had to acknowledge and accept that I will be using almost a POUND of butter! (two seconds pass...tick, tick) Okay, I'm over it... on to the preparation. Aside from the dough technique, I didn't deviate from the original recipe.

The trickiest part of this delicious recipe was the preparation of the brioche dough.
I took a different approach to making brioche dough, and this came courtesy from a pro-baking course I took at my local cooking school. I used the PADDLE attachment, only mixed at a medium speed for only 5 minutes to develop the gluten, and added the butter at the very end mixing at a low/medium speed for 2-3 minutes (until fully incorporated). The resulting dough was soft and pliable, and it didn't require overworking my KA. I will provide more info on this technique in a future post with my brioche pictures.

I am always amazed at how yeast transforms flour, sugar and butter into these puffy gems. I baked only a portion of the rolls, so used a small loaf pan as my baking dish. Even before going in the oven, these babies look scrumptious..

The verdict on this recipe --- absolutely delicious!

I going to stop writing (as I'm getting the luscious honey glaze all over my keyboard) and let the pictures speak for themselves....

If you can't get enough of these gorgeous buns, check out the delicious creations made by my fellow bakers at Tuesdays With Dorie.

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns
Adapted From Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan
Makes 15 buns

Ingredients:
1/2 batch for Golden Brioche Dough (recipe below)

For the Glaze:
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup honey
1-1/2 cups pecans (whole or pieces)

For the Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons (packed) light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

Instructions:
Generously butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan (a Pyrex pan is perfect for this).

To make the glaze: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter, and honey to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to dissovle the sugar. Pour the glaze into the buttered pan, evening it out asbest you can by tilting the pan or spreading the glaze with a heatproof spatula. Sprinkle over the pecans.

To make the filling: Mix the sugars and cinnamon together in a bowl. If necessary, in another
bowl, work the butter with a spatula until it is soft, smooth and spreadable.

To shape the buns: On a flour-dusted work surface, roll the chilled brioche dough into a 16-inch square. Using your fingers or a pastry brush, spread the softened butter over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1-inch strip bare on the side farthest from you. Starting with the side nearest you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can. (At this point, you can wrap the dough airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months . . . . Or, if you want to make just part of the recipe now, you can use as much of the dough as you'd like and freeze the remainder. Reduce the glaze recipe accordingly).
With a chef's knife, using a gentle sawing motion, trim just a tiny bit from the ends of the roll if they're very ragged or not well filled, then cut the log into 1-inch thick buns. (Because you trim the ragged ends of the dough, and you may have lost a little length in the rolling, you will get 15 buns, not 16.) Fit the buns into the pan cut side down, leaving some space between them. Lightly cover the pan with a piece of wax paper and set the pan in a warm place until the buns ahve doubled in volume, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The buns are properly risen when they are puffy, soft, doubled and, in all likelihood, touching one another.

Getting ready to bake: When the buns have almost fully risen , center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the sheet of wax paper and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Bake the sticky buns for about 30 minutes, or until they are puffed and gorgeously golden; the glaze will be bubbling away merrily. Pull the pan from the oven.


The sticky buns must be unmolded minutes after they come out of the oven. If you do not have a rimmed platter large enough to hold them, use a baking sheet lined with a silicone mate or buttered foil. Be careful - the glaze is super-hot and super-sticky.
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Golden Brioche Dough


Ingredients:
2 packets active dry yeast (each packet of yeast contains approx. 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water
1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature but still slightly firm.

To Make The Brioche: Put the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the flour and salt, and fit into the mixer with the dough hook, if you have one. Toss a kitchen towel over the mixer, covering the bowl as completely as you can-- this will help keep you, the counter and your kitchen floor from being showered in flour. Turn the mixer on and off a few short pulses, just to dampen the flour (yes, you can peek to see how you're doing), then remove the towel, increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for a minute or two, just until the flour is moistened. At this point, you'll have a fairly dry, shaggy mess.Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs, followed by the sugar. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes, until the dough forms a ball. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2-tablespoon-size chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next. You'll have a dough that is very soft, almost like batter. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes.Transfer the dough to a clean bowl (or wash out the mixer bowl and use it), cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the warmth of your room.Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap to the bowl. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours, then leave the uncovered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight. (After this, you can proceed with the recipe to make the brioche loaves, or make the sticky buns instead, or freeze all or part of the dough for later use.)