Mellow Bakers: Roasted hazelnut and prune bread (May)

Our final May Mellow Bakers bread was roasted hazelnut and prune bread. I've never been a big hazelnut fan, and I've been subbing other nuts whenever our breads have called for hazelnuts. But I'd finally found some at the store, so I decided to try them.

This is made with a stiff levain, some whole wheat flour, bread flour, a tiny bit of instant yeast, salt, water, a bit of butter, roasted hazelnuts, and some chopped up prunes.

I made the levain last night and mixed everything this morning. Then the little ones asked for a visit to the science museum, so I stuck the dough in the fridge. When I got home, the dough had doubled, so I pulled it out and shaped it. It took quite a while to rise, and then I baked it with steam.

This bread was okay. I was right; I really don't like hazelnuts, but my hubby thought they were pretty good. In the future, I'll go back to replacing them with other nuts.

Bake! Danish apricot pinwheels

Finally!!! Our grocery store finally had apricots yesterday, so I was finally able to make Andrea's Bake! pick: Danish apricot pinwheels. I've never purchased fresh apricots before...or eaten them (I don't think), so I was really curious.

I still had a pound of quick Danish pastry dough in the freezer (from the Danish cheese pockets), so this recipe was actually pretty easy to put together.

For the filling, I mixed ground almonds, unsalted butter, sugar, egg yolks, lemon zest, vanilla, and flour.

Then it's assembly time: roll out the pastry dough, cut it into four-inch squares, and then form the pinwheels. Dollop a heaping teaspoon of the almond filling in the center, put half of a fresh apricot on top, and fold alternating corners of the pinwheels to the center. You're supposed to use a one-inch circle of dough in the center; I don't have one, so I used a mini-heart. It looked pretty cute! I was surprised by how easy the assembly actually was.

The pastries rest for a bit and then bake for 20 minutes. Then they're sprinkled with a healthy dose of powdered sugar before serving.

These were pretty yummy. The apricots were a little bitter, which contrasted nicely with the sweet from the sugar and the pastry crust. Are apricots always slightly bitter or were these just not ripe yet? I couldn't taste much of the almond filling; I had a bunch of it leftover, so I think next time, I'd up the filling until I'd used all of it. A fun breakfast treat!

Frying, part 2: homemade corn dogs

I made a batch of Peter Reinhart's all-purpose sweet dough (from ABED) a couple of weeks ago, pretty much just for fun. I used half of it for my monkey muffin experiment, and then split the other half into a 500 g and a 250 g batch to freeze.

Last night, I pulled out the 500 g, and this morning I made a batch of homemade doughnuts for my bookclub (and my hubby...and my kids...and me).

There was already a pan full of oil and my house already smelled like deep frying, so I decided to try this intriguing recipe for corn dogs that Freida posted last week. (Not our healthiest day ever: doughnuts for breakfast, corn dogs for lunch.)

I followed Freida's recipe, and my batter was even thicker than hers in her pictures. We had a bit of difficulty getting it to stick to the little hot dogs; eventually, my hubby ended up almost painting it on. We discovered that less is more; just a thin coating of batter made a perfect corn dog. I also only cooked mine for about a minute until they were beautifully golden.

These seriously tasted just like State Fair corn dogs...soooo tasty and so much fun! Thanks, Freida!

Mellow Bakers: Pissaladière (May)

I never, never would've expected I'd be willing to make a recipe that started with this:

so you can imagine my emotions when I saw pissaladière on the May list of breads for Mellow Bakers. JH describes pissaladière as: "the pizza of Provence, replete with onions cooked long and slow, fresh herbs, anchovies, and pungent black niçoise olives."

On the one hand, we are not fish people; on the other hand, we love pizza more than just about any other meal.

Due to scheduling and life and whatever, I actually made this bread over three days. I made the pâte fermentée (bread flour, water, salt, and yeast) on Saturday evening and let it ripen until Sunday afternoon. At that point, I added more bread flour, some whole wheat flour, water, salt, yeast, the pâte fermentée, and finally, some olive oil. The dough was kneaded briefly and then allowed to proof for two hours, with a strech-and-fold halfway through.

But then I realized we didn't have any onions, and we needed to feed the kids dinner, so I threw one pound of dough into the freezer and one into the fridge.

Tonight (after buying some onions), I made the topping: onions and garlic sautéed in olive oil and mixed with fresh thyme and salt and pepper. I dumped them on the crust, along with black olives, thinly sliced anchovies, (and pepperoni). We baked it for about 10 minutes at 515º.

I kind of wish this had been described as an appetizer, a flatbread with unusual toppings, instead of as a pizza. We are red sauce and mozzarella pizza people (especially my hubby), and this was nothing like our usual pizza. However, the crust was tasty; I liked the addition of the whole wheat flour. And the onions were pretty good (I wish I'd cooked them a little longer to caramelize them). I was going to try the little anchovy corner, but the smell just did me in, so hubby was the designated taste tester. His comment: "salty."

Not one we'll make again, but I'm glad we tried it. I'm sure we'll make our traditional pizza with the remaining pound of dough.

Mellow Bakers: Five-grain bread with paté fermentée (May)

Cutting it a bit close, aren't I? Almost to the last week of May, and I haven't made any of the Mellow Bakers' May breads yet...yikes!

So here's the first one: five grain bread with paté fermentée. I made the paté fermentée on Friday night: bread flour, water, salt, and a tiny bit of yeast. I also made a soaker, using oats, rye, wheat flakes, flaxseeds, and sunflower seeds.

On Saturday evening, when the paté fermentée was properly domed, I mixed up the rest of the bread dough: more bread flour, water, salt, yeast, the soaker, and the paté fermentée. The dough rose for two hours with a fold in the middle. Then I put the two-pound loaf (I made a half-recipe) into my biggest 9x5 loaf pan, put it in a plastic bag, and stuck it in the fridge over night.

This morning, the dough had risen above the lip of the pan, so I stuck it in a 350F oven for 45 minutes until the internal temperature reached 190F.

The bread has a nice flavor from the grains, and hubby really enjoyed the added crunch from the sunflower seeds. It made excellent sandwiches for lunch.

Bake! scones

Saturdays are my days to get up with the kiddos. They got up especially early today (we were downstairs by 5:30), and while I can usually get an hour or so of quiet cuddle time, today, they were up and at 'em, ready to turn on the lights, eat breakfast, and play. What's a tired mommy to do? Bake some scones, of course!

Our Bake! pick for this weekend was cream cheese scones, chosen by Glennis. (Don't worry, I'm still planning to make Andrea's pick from last week: Danish apricot pinwheels...but our grocer said their grower had a slow start and we won't have fresh apricots until the very end of May.) I really love scones, so the cream cheese scones were one of the first recipes I tried when I got this book for Christmas.

Unfortunately, I was the only one who liked them, and they weren't among my favorite NM scones. (The kiddos hear "scones" and instantly think I mean their favorite "butternut chocolate chip scones"...they get upset if I say "scones" and that's not what I make. And yes, they really say "butternut" instead of "butterscotch" and I think it's so cute that I just can't correct them.)

So I decided to do a flashback instead and bake the first recipe that Kayte and Phyl baked from Bake!, back before I'd gotten my book: orange and almond scones. Figuring that the kids still wouldn't like them (the lack of chocolate chips factor), I made a half batch. They were easy to throw together: flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, pulsed in the food processor. Add some almond paste, then some butter, and finally the liquids (milk, egg, and orange zest).

The scones are patted into a circle, cut partially apart, brushed with an egg wash, sprinkled with almonds (all except two for the kiddos), and then we gave them a small dusting of turbinado sugar (great task for the little ones).

As instructed, I cooked them for 15 minutes and then cooled them for a few minutes more on the tray. And then I went to separate them into individual scones...and they were still raw inside!!!! Argh!! I quickly turned the oven back on, separated them all, and put them back in for another five minutes with fingers-crossed.

It worked! Five minutes later, they were much darker and cooked through. I really liked these...I loved the hints of almond and orange, and the slight sweetness. The kids gobbled up their almond-free ones...even without chocolate chips! Now I'm just sad that I only made a half-batch...thankfully it will be easy enough to whip up some more. =)

Jumping on the bandwagon: the best ever double-chocolate cake

This was all that was left to be photographed of the best-ever chocolate cake.

I went to work on Monday as usual, saw my friends/coworkers at lunch as usual, chatted about our weekends, and it wasn't until I got home and checked FB that I realized that it was one of my friend's birthday! And not just a birthday, but a big 6-0 birthday! I was so sad that I hadn't known in time to make her a birthday treat.

This is a friend with a lot of will-power...she turns down every goodie offered at the lunch table. So while normally I would want a birthday treat to be a surprise, I grilled her yesterday because I really have no idea what she likes (as I said, she always says no). I informed her that she would be getting a birthday treat and she would eat it...so what should I make? She said either chocolate-chocolate cake (preferably dark chocolate) or carrot cake. Figuring I'd make a little cake for work and a few extra cupcakes for home, I gave the choice to hubby. His response? "Make the chocolate cake...but that could just be the fat guy talking."

I searched and searched for a good recipe...I checked my baking challenge books (killing two birds and all), but all of NM's recipes seemed to require much more time than I had to give to complete all of the steps. Finally, I discovered this recipe, via Smitten Kitchen, and it didn't seem too complicated and I had all of the ingredients on hand. As usual, I read most of the reviews. I could not find one single negative comment, and there were about a billion "this is the best chocolate cake ever" comments.

I halved the recipe and then followed it as written. Well, except I only had one bar of semi-sweet chocolate in the house (and my friend had requested dark chocolate anyway), so I used it, plus part of two 60% bars, and a tiny bit of a 72% bar. Oh, when I asked hubby to brew me a bit of coffee, he used French vanilla flavored coffee. And I didn't have buttermilk, so I used milk + lemon juice. And I guess my cocoa isn't entirely natural (it's Hershey's Special Dark, which is part natural and part dutched). Hm...why don't I just give you my ingredient list? (Sorry for the mixed measurements...I'll convert them all to grams the next time I make it.)

Double chocolate layer cake
adapted from Gourmet, March 1999

for the cake layers:
1.5 oz semi-sweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
.75 oz hot brewed coffee (French vanilla)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1 tsp baking soda
3/8 tsp baking powder
5/8 tsp salt
75 g eggs (I used about 1 1/2)
3/8 cup oil (I used safflower)
3/4 cup milk + 3/4 tbsp lemon juice (= fake buttermilk)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

for the frosting:
8 oz mixed chocolate (I used Ghirardelli semisweet + Ghirardelli 60% + Lindt 60% + Lindt 72%)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp light corn syrup
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

For the cake layers:
1. Preheat oven to 300°F.

2. Line bottoms of pans with parchment paper and grease them.

3. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and then pour the hot coffee over them. Let it stand, stirring a few times, until all of the chocolate is melted (it took about 5 minutes for me).

4. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.

5. In a different bowl, beat the eggs until thickened slightly (about 3 minutes in the stand mixer). Slowly add the oil, buttermilk (or fake buttermilk), vanilla, and coffee/chocolate mixture. Beat until combined.

6. Add dry ingredients and beat on medium speed until combined.

7. Divide batter between pans. (I put 380 g of batter into each of my 6" rounds and then made 5 cupcakes (filled about 2/3 full)).

8. Bake until testing skewer comes out with a few crumbs but no wet batter (my cupcakes were done in 30 minutes; the cake was done in 50 minutes).

9. Cool pans on a cooling rack. When cool enough to touch, invert cake layers onto rack and allow to finish cooling completely. (Mine took about 2 hours to cool. Having read that it's a very moist cake which can make it difficult to frost, I stuck the layers in the fridge for about 20 minutes prior to frosting.)

For the frosting:

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces.

2. In a small saucepan, bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until the sugar dissolves.

3. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate is melted.

4. Add the butter and whisk until melted.

5. Allow to cool before frosting. (The half-batch of frosting was perfect for the 6" double layer cake and a small smear on the top of the cupcakes.)

*******
This cake was a hit! It was dark and chocolately and rich and dense and so incredibly moist. I was worried that the frosting would be too dark, but it ended up being a perfect match for the cake. We were able to get about 10 smallish slices out of it, which were perfectly sized because it was so rich.

Given how easy it was to make, and that the birthday girl declared it was the best chocolate cake she'd ever had, this will be our new go-to chocolate cake recipe. Try it!