TWD: BWJ Rugelach

For those who baked through BFMHTY, this sounded like it would be a pretty similar recipe. To my recollection, this one was a bit more fussy. I halved the recipe; living alone and having just received my order of Girl Scout cookies, this was necessary. The dough came together very easily and rolled out without any problems. I admit, when it came to the filling and rolling, I was a bit more loose with the directions. One half of my dough got apricot preserves, cranberries and almonds, while the second half got black cherry preserves, almonds and bittersweet chocolate chunks. Surprisingly, the non-chocolate rugelach ended up my favorite. I do have to say, if I was going to make rugelach again, I'd stick with Dorie's recipe from BFMHTY.

  Thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart and Margaret of The Urban Hiker for picking a great recipe for the week!

TWD is BACK! White Loaves

I'm so happy to be baking along with all you ladies and gents again!

For the first recipe of the new book, the white loaves were a great choice. Personally, I needed a good rebound from those flipping marshmallows. The dough came together so easily, wasn't too sticky, and even after the butter was incorporated it was nice and pliable. I chose to knead partially by hand because I'm paranoid about overheating my KitchenAid. What would I do without it?! 

I probably could have left the bread in the oven for a little longer to get more of a golden color but honestly it smelled so good, I just wanted to get the bread out so I could have some. When rolling it out I added a layer of Parmesan cheese, which made a nice (small) swirl through the bread. It's been fantastic for sandwiches and grilled cheese. The crumb is nice and fine but it's not too dense either. Bottom line: I'm very happy with this and will be making it again soon!

For the recipe, visit either Jules or Laurie's blogs at Slush or Someone's In the Kitchen

As for the Marshmallows...

These turned out to be a hot mess. I can see how they could be delicious, but I would definitely need to practice juggling the several components before making these again. I had to take my sugar syrup off the burner a time or two because the egg whites weren't where they needed to be. In the end I had a little layer of gelatin that separated out of the bottom of the 'mallows. After smelling the liquid gelatin and re-reading all the Ps&Qs it was just not appetizing. I ate some of the meringue off the tops but that's only because I went through the trouble to make a caramel swirl for them.

Le sigh...I might make these again when my kitchen is big enough to handle the mess.

Fluffy Goodness

In light of the fact that I'm still waiting on Rafael Nadal to show up in his match against RFed tonight, I've been plotting a return to some Dorie recipes before the new TWD begins in February. First up I think I'll do the marshmallows. I missed them the first go-round and what hot chocolate or mocha isn't improved by a homemade marshmallow? Results should be up soon. On one of her NPR appearances, Dorie shared the basic recipe here.


Photo credit Alan Richardson

Good To See You Again

Here we go! I'm reactivating the old blog, brushing the dust and cobwebs off in advance of the new Tuesdays With Dorie Baking With Julia adventure. I have been reading blogs the whole time, obviously, but it's going to take some getting used to with all the changes that have happened along the way. My last post was May 26, 2009. This shit's complicated now, yo!

No TWD this week

I'm all baked-out from Memorial Day festivities. I'll be back next week.

TWD - Fresh Mango Bread

This week Kelly of Baking with the Boys chose Dorie's Fresh Mango bread for us to make. For once I actually had the special ingredient (aka mangoes) ahead of time - like last Thursday. This is a big step for me. Not like I made the loaf early or anything, I definitely only made it today. Howeeeever, this was a snap to put together. I like how Dorie branched out to include recipes in BFMHTY that don't require a food processor or stand mixer...it's nice to go lo-tech every now and then ;).

As far as fiddling with the recipe, I left out raisins altogether, upped the amount of zest to that of a whole lime, subbed applesauce for half of the oil, and used maybe 3/4 tsp of fresh grated ginger rather than ground ginger. I don't think the end result had an overpoweringly gingery taste, but I like ginger anyway so it might not have really been a problem. I didn't end up using a foil tent so the top got nice and brown; it has a great crunch which I think might be partially due to the brown sugar. The loaf turned out nice and moist; it'll be great for breakfast...and second breakfast...and elevensies too.

Stop by Kelly's blog for the recipe and the blogroll for everybody's results!