Chai Spiced Scones

I was so excited to receive my Secret Recipe Club assignment this month.  I was assigned to The Bitchin' Kitchen, a blog that I drool over every single month on our groups posting day.  Needless to say, I went right over and started going through all of the awesome recipes that have been tempting me for months.

I actually kind of wanted to make... oh... everything she has made. But I quickly found one recipe that just begged me to be made right away - Chai Spiced Scones.  I love the warm, sweet, spicy flavor of chai, and it has always been a big treat for me. And even just reading the recipes, I knew that these would be delicious.

The hardest part of the process was the spice mix. Which was only hard because I don't have ground cardamom. All I have is whole cardamom pods.  It's not actually difficult to prepare the ground spice, but it is pretty time consuming.

Little man helped me with this. I cracked each pod, he helped me remove the seeds from inside the green pods...

...and once we had a good amount, I ground it all in my mini-blender.

As I said, not actually hard, just time consuming. But our hands smelled delicious afterwards.

Anyway, once that was done, making the scones was a snap. Even though the recipe didn't call for it, I decided to make the scone dough in my new food processor. Because I can.

The spices looked so cool all lined up.  And within a couple of minutes, the dough was ready!

I then carefully shaped the dough into a big circle, dusted the top with sugar and cut it into wedges.

And they baked up beautifully. And smelled even better than our cardamom hands.

Little man and I loved these. Little miss... well... she doesn't seem to be a cardamom fan, and claimed that these were "too cardamom-y" for her.

These really do pack all of the spicy, delicious goodness of a chai latte, and make a perfect breakfast or afternoon treat.

And, Ellie, thank you for your awesome blog. I will definitely be trying many more of your delicious recipes!!

Chai Spiced Scones
(from The Bitchin' Kitchen)

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar plus extra for topping the scones
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
5 tablespoons cold butter
1/4 cup milk (I used coconut milk beverage)
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and cardamom. Whisk together until all the dry ingredients are incorporated evenly. I did this in my food processor, just pulsing a couple of times to incorporate the dry ingredients.
Cut the cold butter into chunks and add it to the dry ingredients.  Using your hands, rub the butter into the flour mixture until the flour has a grainy appearance. Again, this just took a few pulses of the food processor.
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk.
Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture.  Stir everything together until it forms one lump of very moist dough.  If the dough is still crumbly and flour remains in the bottom of the bowl, add a small amount of water (about 1/2 to 1 tablespoon) to make the dough come together. A few more pulses of the food processor brought the dough together no problem, though I did need to add about half a tablespoon of extra water.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and shape it into one flat disc, about 1-inch thick.  (Shape the dough into two flat discs if you are making mini scones.)
Sprinkle the top of the dough with the extra sugar.
Cut the disc(s) into 8 wedge-shaped pieces.
Place the wedges on the baking sheet.  Bake the scones for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on top.

Enjoy!

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December Daring Cooks' Challenge - Cabbage Rolls

December’s Daring Cooks’ Challenge had us on a roll! Olga from http://www.effortnesslessly.blogspot.com/ challenged us to make stuffed cabbage rolls using her Ukrainian heritage to inspire us. Filled with meat, fish or vegetables, flexibility and creativity were the name of the game to get us rolling!

Would you believe that I'd never made cabbage rolls before?

Actually, I'd never even eaten one before. For some reason, I thought I wouldn't like them.

Enter this month's challenge and let me tell you, I was totally wrong!

Our hostess provided us with several recipes, but I decided to go for the classic meat version.  They were pretty easy to make, but it did require a little bit of time and planning.

I started out preparing the filling. While I set some rice to par-cook in a pot, I sauteed some onions and carrots in a pan.

Once the veggies cooles, I added them to a combination of ground beef and ground pork, along with some more chopped onion.

Then I added in the half-cooked (and cooled!) rice...

...and mixed it all together.

I covered the filling mix with plastic wrap, set it in the fridge, washed all of the dishes, then picked little miss up from school.

And then came the interesting part - putting them together!

Olga provided us with an interesting way of breaking down the cabbage for its leaves. Rather than separating the leaves and then blanching them (to soften them for easier rolling), she had us blanch the whole cabbage first.

Then, once the whole things was a bit softened up, the leaves are easier to pull off!

Then it's just a matter of putting a good scoop of filling at the bottom of each leaf...

...and rolling them up!

Once my tray was all filled up...

I was ready for the final element - a quick tomato sauce.

And after a little more than an hour covered in the oven, I was delighted by the sight and smell of these little beauties.

I have never been happier to have been wrong in my entire life. These were so delicious, I have no idea what I must have been thinking to never have tried these before.

And the whole family enjoyed them, too.

These are perfect comfort food, and I know I'll be making them many more times in the future.

Olga, thank you so much for this challenge and for being such a wonderful hostess.

To see the full challenge as it was presented this month, check it out here.

And to see the deliciousness cooked up in the kitchen this month, check them out here.



Cabbage Rolls
(only very slightly adapted the December Daring Cooks' Challenge)

1 green cabbage
4 cups of ground pork (I used one pound)
4 cups of ground beef (I used a pound and a half)
1 cups dry rice
2 yellow onions, medium size
2 carrots, medium size
6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
5 garlic cloves
4 cups tomato puree
1½ teaspoons salt (or to taste)
3 tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
2 teaspoons black pepper
3 bay leaves (I omitted)


Pre-cook rice:
In a large pot, bring about 2 1/4 cups of water to a boil.
Add the rice and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6 minutes.
Drain the rice using a colander and set aside.


Making Stuffing:
Finely chop one onion. Using a coarse grater, grate the carrots. With 3 tablespoons of olive oil, in a skillet, cook the chopped onion and grated carrots for about 5 minutes, just until soft. Allow to cool.
Chop the other onion.
In a large bowl, combine the ground meat, the cooked onion and carrots, the raw onion and the cooled par-cooked rice. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper and combine everything (by hand) until you have a uniform mixture.


Pre-cook cabbage and prepare cabbage leaves:
Using a large chef’s knife, remove core of the cabbage. Please be careful doing this. You don't have to cut out too much.
To determine how much water exactly you will need to cook the whole cabbage, place your cabbage in a large pot and pour in enough cold water to cover the whole cabbage entirely. Remove cabbage from the water now place the pot with the water in it on the stove top.
Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Stick grill fork firmly into the cored center part of the cabbage and carefully place your cabbage into the boiling water, cored-side up. Be cautious not to splash the hot water!
Let the cabbage cook for about 5 minutes. During the entire process of cooking the cabbage and separating leaves keep heat on its lowest setting so as to have the water barely boiling or near the boiling point.
To separate the leaves, you can keep the cabbage in the pot at all times and use a long-handled grilling fork, sticking it into the core of the cabbage and using a regular fork or tongs to separate and remove the leaves, one by one, then transferring them onto a large plate. To separate the leaves right in the pot, pick a leaf at its thickest end and lift cabbage with your grill fork just a little bit, so as to release the bottom part of the leaf. While the whole process seems intimidating, it’s actually easy and even fun to do. Just be careful and keep the water barely simmering (or just below boiling point). After the first couple of leaves, you'll find your rhythm and it works really nicely.
When leaves are cool enough to handle, cut off the tough ribs on each leaf. Now, the leaves are ready for filling.


Rolling Cabbage Leaves:
Place about one heaping tablespoon of stuffing on a cabbage leave, closer to the tough edge. Roll leaf, envelop-style, tucking sides inside. (I folded the  bottom up, then folded each of the sides in, then rolled it up. It really does follow the shape of the leaf, and goes quite quickly.)
Place rolls, seam side down, into a oven proof dish.
Continue stuffing until you run out of leaves or stuffing. I had about twice as much stuffing as I needed for the number of leaves I had, so I rolled the extra stuffing into regular meatballs and cooked them (in a separate baking dish) the same way as the wrapped ones.


Making sauce and finishing cooking cabbage rolls:
Finely mince garlic. Take a large pan and, using the remaining olive oil, cook garlic for one minute, stirring.
Add tomato puree. Cook, stirring for another minute and then add enough water to have about 8 cups of sauce. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes.
Season sauce with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper, bay leaves (if using) and about 3 tablespoons of sugar (adjust sugar depending on acidity of your tomato puree). Taste and adjust seasoning. Sauce shouldn’t be bland – remember that the cabbage leaves are not salted.
Pour sauce on top of the cabbage rolls. It should almost completely cover the rolls. If there is not enough sauce, add water right into the pot with the cabbage rolls.

Tightly cover baking dish with foil and cook in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 1½ hours.

Enjoy!

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Easy Brioche

Last week, a package was delivered to my door.

I was not expecting a package, so this was quite a surprise.

I was even more surprised when I opened it. My friend  had sent me a present. A culmination of birthdays and Christmases and any other occasion you can think of, I think. 

I am now the (very) proud owner of a beautiful food processor.

This is a very good friend who knows me very well. And is very thoughtful. And is truly appreciated.

After thanking my friend profusely, I immediately started to search for what recipes I could now make! Holy smokes, there is so much that you can do in a food processor. Seriously, I have so many recipes bookmarked and pinned right now...

But the recipe that caught my eye as a must try was for brioche. Because... brioche? In a food processor? And the recipe says it's easy?? How in the world can that not be tried as soon as possible??

And, believe it or not, it really is easy to make!!

Aside from dissolving the yeast into some warm milk, absolutely everything about this dough is prepared right in the food processor.

And the resulting dough is beautifully soft, smooth and very sticky.

You don't even have to move the dough to let it rise! Just keep the lid on the machine and let it sit!! I couldn't believe that worked!

Now, you may remember that little miss's favorite part about baking bread is punching down the dough after it's risen. She even loves doing that with the food processor version of bread dough.

Yup! Just give it a quick pulse and it's ready to go!  Just turn the dough out onto a floured work surface (but be careful of the dough blade that gets stuck in there!! See it??)...

...and start shaping balls of dough.

The dough balls are placed into prepared loaf pans, where they rise once more...

...and that's it! Pop them into the oven for a mere 15 minutes, and you have...

...absolutely beautiful, golden, wonderful-smelling brioche bread!

And it really feels and tastes like brioche, too - a deliciously rich, smooth crumb that practically melts in your mouth with each bite.

Now I totally want to try this dough for cinnamon buns. I bet those would be delicious!!

And, in case you're wondering, I've used the food processor probably a dozen times already. In a week. I have plenty more food processor recipes to share. Because I'm totally addicted to using it.

I am a very lucky girl. 

As for this amazing friend of mine? You know who you are. You know I love you!

Easy Brioche

(from sophistimom)

1/4 cup warm milk (about 100-110 degrees)

1 package (or 1 tablespoon) instant dry yeast (I used active-dry)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut in pieces

4 eggs, cold from the refrigerator, plus one for egg wash

Dissolve yeast in the milk. Fit the food processor with the dough blade (This is usually the one with shorter, blunter blades). Place 1 cup of the flour, the yeast and milk mixture, salt, sugar, and butter into the food processor. Pulse a few times until it looks mostly incorporated - it will look like a crumble topping for a pie.

With the processor on, use the feed tube to add the remaining flour and each of the eggs, one at a time. Process the mixture until the dough starts to come together and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Turn the power off, and let the dough rise in the food processor for about an hour, or until it has doubled in size. 

Pulse the dough a time or two to “punch it down.”

Grease two 9×5″ loaf pans. 

Take the dough and divide it into 16 equal parts. Roll each section of dough into a small ball and line the bottom of each loaf pan with 8 balls of dough. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brush lightly with egg wash (1 egg beaten with a teaspoon of water), if desired. Bake for 15-20 minutes in preheated oven. Place pan on its side on a cooling rack for cooling, then remove when you feel like you’ve waited long enough, about 3-4 minutes. Serve warm.

* To make individual brioches, butter 16-20 brioche molds, or line a muffin tin with paper liners. Follow the same baking instructions as above, but reduce cooking time to 12-14 minutes.

Enjoy!

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November Daring Bakers' Challenge - Sfogliatelle

This month's Daring Bakers' Challenge was a real challenge. Despite the relatively simple ingredients and well written instructions, this was a true challenge from start to finish!

Sandie of the lovely blog, Crumbs of Love, was our November hostess. Sandie challenged us to make a traditional Italian dessert, along with its American version – Sfogliatelle (or better known in the US – lobster tails!) The flakey, 1000 layers of super thin dough, shaped into a horn and filled with a scrumptious filling. Così buono!

I'd seen these flaky, layered cookies in my favorite Italian bakery, but, to the best of my memory, I really don't think I'd ever tasted it before.  But just looking at the photo... it was daunting! It looked so complicated and difficult!

Reading the recipe and directions, the first thing that jumped out at me is that the whole process "requires" a pasta roller - it's how the initial dough is kneaded, and how the final dough is rolled out to form the thin, flaky layers.

I don't have a pasta roller.  

No problem. Other members were having luck without one, so I hoped I would do just as well. 

The dough is actually incredibly simple. Flour, a touch of salt, and water.

The problem is the proportions.  The dough is, by design, very, very dry.

Very. Very. Dry.

According to the instructions, this very rough, very dry dough should be brought together and worked through a pasta roller many times, which works to hydrate the dough enough to make it cohesive and smooth.

I tried kneading the dough. It did not work well at all.

So I used my counter, rolling pin and body weight to create my own pata roller.

Pushing with all my weight, I was able to work the dough enough that it finally, actually, came together!

Now, it was still VERY tough, but at least it was smooth, and looked kind of right.  The dough then rested for a few hours in the fridge, then at room temperature for a few more hours (totalling overnight resting for this dough. Trust me - the time helps hydrate the dough. Don't rush it!)

I was then ready to proceed with the next daunting part - rolling out the dough.

In order to work the dough as thin as it needs to be, the dough is divided into four sections.

Each section is then rolled as thin as possible (if you have a pasta roller, use it!!) into a long, four inch wide rectangle. The rectangle is then coated with a mixture of butter and shortening (well, the recipe calls for lard... I used shortening...)...

...and then stretched even thinner and rolled up. This process is repeated with each of the four sections of dough, with each section being rolled up around the previous sections, until you are left with one greased up dough log.

This is then wrapped in plastic wrap and put back in the fridge. Overnight. Again. (yes, this took  me three days!)

And now came the fun part. Actually making the cookies!

It starts with cuttting the dough log into half-inch sections.

Then you take a few photos with some jokesters photo-bombing the whole thing...

Then I handed the camera over to daddy because I knew my hands were about to be greasy.

Each of those half inch sections is pressed, using the heal of your hand...

...to create a cone-type shape.

Now, let me step back  here for one second. The next step is to pipe in filling.  The filling is supposed to be a ricotta-semolina filling. Which sounds amazing.  With little man's dairy allergy, I skipped that part. I made a filling using vegan cream cheese.  So what you see here is that vegan no-bake-cheesecake-style filling being piped into the dough cone.

Then just press the open end together and they're ready for the oven!

And that is where the magic happens. The layers open up, all that butter and shortening crisps everything to a nice goldenn brown, and you are left with these cool looking cookies!

A sprinkling of powdered sugar...

...and they were finally done!

I have to say - while they weren't all picture perfect, and while I know that there were a few technical errors in there (hello, gaping holes!), I was really proud of myself after making these. They were a lot of effort, but were well worth it. My in-laws told me that they were just like what they remember from fancy Italian bakeries, in looks, taste and texture. How cool is that??

Sandie, I can't thank you enough for this awesome challenge. Truly challenge, truly rewarding, this was a great challenge and you were a lovely, encouraging and enthusiastic hostess!!

And a special shout-out to my baking buddy this month, Korena! She and I spent the whole weekend messaging each other back and forth with questions and tips and progress reports - it made the whole thing so much fun. Couldn't have done it with out you, Korena!!

To see the other amazing sfogliatelle baked in the kitchen this month, check them out here.

And to see the full recipes as provided by Sandie this month, check out the full challenge here.

Sfogliatelle Ricci 

(from November Daring Bakers' Challenge)

Servings: 14-18 pastries

For the Dough:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup warm water (about 100°F)

4 oz lard (I used vegetable shortening)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

filling of your choice (recipe for what I used below)

Combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir in the water, or use your standing mixer with the paddle attachment. The dough will be very dry. If you feel absolutely compelled, add an extra teaspoon of water but it is supposed to be very dry. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and knead it together, bringing in all the dry bits as best as you can. At this point get your pasta roller out and ready. Roll out the dough to about 1/3 inch (10 mm) and pass through your pasta machine at the widest setting. Fold the dough in half after each pass also change the direction of the dough occasionally. After about 15 passes the dough should be very smooth. 

If you don't have a pasta roller, this will take a lot of muscle, time and determination, but I promise, you can do it. Letting the dough stand for a few minutes after every few minutes of kneading will help the dough to hydrate a bit better, which will make it a bit easier to knead. I promise, the dough will become smooth.

Knead the dough back into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate and rest the dough for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

When you are ready to proceed, beat the lard/shortening and butter together in your mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer) until very fluffy. Make sure it is thoroughly combined. Set this aside, you will need it in easy reaching distance once you start rolling.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it into 4 equal pieces. Working with one piece of dough at a time (cover the other pieces with a towel or plastic wrap), lightly flour a piece pass it through the pasta roller set at the widest setting. Try to get the dough as even as possible, your goal is an even rectangle strip, about 4 inches (10 cm) in width. If needed, fold it over on itself a few times until you get an even strip. Once even, pass the dough through every setting, ending with the highest.

If you don't have a pasta roller, you will need to roll the dough by hand. A little bit of warmth is a big help in rolling the dough by hand. You can either create a heat tent by heating a pot and placing it over the dough or by gently microwaving each section as you begin to work with it. Be patient with it and roll carefully.

Whichever way you roll out the dough, you should end up with a long 4 inch wide strip. Repeat with the other three remaining pieces of dough.

Place one piece of a strip on you clean work surface and paint (or smear) it liberally with the lard/butter mixture. It might be easier to spread only section at a time rather than the whole thing at once, but you will find what works for you. Gently pull the sides of the dough and stretch it, starting from the middle and going out, until it is about 8 or 9 inches in width. Again, do this slowly and carefully. Begin from the short end and start rolling the dough into a very tight roll. When you start to reach the end of your stretched section, stop and liberally grease up another section, stretching and rolling until all the dough is finished. When one strip of dough is finished, overlap the end of one to the beginning of the other; continue to pull, stretch and roll up until all of the dough is in one rolled-up log.

Spread the lard/butter mixture over the entire finished log and starting in the middle gently run the hands down the length to extend the length another inch or so. This will release any air pockets and tighten the roll. Your finished roll should be approximately 10 or 11 inches long.

Wrap the log in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight. The dough may be frozen for up to 3 months at this time. Once frozen, simply defrost it in the refrigerator overnight before using.

When you are reaady to bake, preheat your oven to moderately hot 400°F, line 2 baking sheets with parchment, remove the dough from the refrigerator, unwrap it and place on a cutting board. This is also when you need your filling ready, so be sure that you have it made and in a piping bag (or plastic bag with the corner cut - whatever works!). 

Slice off about an inch from each end of the dough log so that the ends are straight and even. Cut the roll into 1/2 inch slices. 

Take one slice of dough and place it on your workplace. With the heel of your hand, push out from the center in one direction. Rotate the dough and do this in all four directions. This forms the dough and opens up the layers. Pick up the piece and insert your thumbs on the inside with your forefingers on the outside meanwhile gently stretch the center to make it more into the shape of a cone. You don't want the layers to actually separate. Holding the cone in one hand, squeeze some of the filling into the cavity so it is full. Lightly push the opening closed. 

Place the closed dough triangle onto the prepared baking sheet and very lightly brush the outside of each completed pastry with the lard/butter mixture (I skipped that part - there was plenty of the butter/shortening mixture on my dough so I didn't feel the need to add more.) 

Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes or until they are a deep golden brown.

Remove the trays from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack. These are best served warm with a sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar on the day they are made. To reheat them, just place them in a moderate 350°F oven for about 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

The filling that I made was a vegan no-bake cheesecake filling:

8 ounce container of vegan cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until it is soft and fluffy.

Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to beat until well incorporated and very fluffy.

Transfer the filling to a piping bag or plastic bag from which you can cut the corner to create your own piping tool.

Simple and delicious! 

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Sourdough Kolaches

This month's Sourdough Surprises was particularly awesome, in that it was inspired by one of our members! She suggested that it might be fun to try to make kolaches, a pastry of Czeck or Slovak heritage consisting of a soft dough surrounding a sweet (usually) filling.

To be completely honest with you, I'd never heard of kolaches before this. I had to google them to get an idea as to what we'd be making.

And to make it trickier, we couldn't find a sourdough version anywhere. Sure, we'd seen references to sourdough versions, but we could not find a single sourdough-risen kolache recipe to use as our inspiration.

So this was a double challenge, as we would now all be forced to step outside of our comfort zones and either create or adapt a recipe for these treats.

Never having had kolaches before, I knew I couldn't create a recipe from scratch, so I chose to adapt one. I started with the King Arthur Flour version. To adapt the recipe, I started by omitting the yeast. Obviously.  I then looked to the wet ingredients. The easieset to look at, for substitution purposes, was the water.  1/2 cup.  Since my starter is at 100% hydration, it is comprised of equal parts water and flour. Well... by weight, not by volume. That's okay, it's close... I figured. So I thought... half a cup of water... there's approximately half a cup of water in one cup of starter... that's what I'll use. But, since that cup of starter also contains half a cup of flour, I figured I'd have to adjust the amount of flour called for in the recipe by, you got it, about half a cup.  Using these calculations and this jerry-rigged recipe, I was ready to start.

I'm pretty much going to let the photos tell the story here, because... well... there are a lot of them.

Once I'd figured out my recipe, the dough came together relatively easily, though it has a bunch of components, as this is a nice, rich pastry.  Melted butter, sour cream, sugar, eggs... and of course, our star... a cup of nice, bubbly, well fed sourdough starter.

And it's seriously just a matter of combining everything together...

...then adding flour until the douch turns into... well... dough.

The yeasted-version recipe that I was basing mine on had said that it would be a soft and smooth dough, but I was surprised at just how soft it was. I wound up needing to add about a cup more of flour than I'd anticipated, but was soon left with a dough that was super silky and soft, yet that I could shape into a ball for its overnight rest.

The next morning was when the real fun started.  My dough was nicely rested and ready to play. The recipe called for the dough to be divided into 20 equal sections. I made my job a little easier by starting with four so I could more readily make the smaller sections.

Little man tried to help me roll each section into balls. We both wound up washing our hands a lot that morning.

We soon had 20 balls of dough...

...which then needed to be flattened out.

Little man found this process to be hysterically funny.

Once the flattened dough balls had rested for another ten minutes, it was time to shape and fill them. I tried to use the back side of a spoon to create the indentations in the middle, but soon found that my fingers worked much better.

You can use any number of fillings, but I went a bit easy on myself and used jam. I used home-made peach jam to fill eight of them, pre-made grape jam for six, and for the final six, I decided to be decadent and used Biscoff.

All that was left was the streussel topping...

...and off to the oven they went!

Now, I knew that mine would take longer to bake than the recipe called for, since the base recipe had said that each of my 20 dough balls would be roughly the size of a golf ball. Mine were definitely larger than golf balls, so I had to really keep an eye. I waited until the dough got nice and puffy and golden...

...and knew that they were perfectly done.

The peach jam worked out really well. The grape...

...got a little runny.  The Biscoff was delicious, but made for an overall pretty dry pastry, so the fruit ones definitely received the better reviews, overall. But everyone really enjoyed them and they made a yummy treat (as well as a special breakfast, too!).

The batch made so many that I even packaged a bunch up to share with neighbors and friends.

What a great introduction to kolaches, and what a fun double challenge for myself!

So how did your kolaches work out? I can't wait to see everyone's posts!



Sourdough Kolaches
(adapted from King Arthur Flour)

For the dough:
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
1 cup 100% hydration starter, recently fed
2 large eggs
4 cups all purpose flour (approximately)

Warm the sour cream gently, and combine it with the sugar, salt, and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the sourdough starter and eggs, and  mix to combine. Switch to the dough hook attachment and begin adding the flour. Knead the dough, continuing to add flour, until it’s soft and smooth.  This will take a little bit, so be patient. The dough will be very soft, but you will be able to make a loose ball with it. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for a couple of hours, then refrigerate the dough overnight. Note: This dough won’t rise much, so don’t worry about having to put it in a huge bowl.

For the filling:
There are many, may options for filling. I used two different jams (one homemade, one store bought) and Biscoff for my three different fillings - be creative here!

For the streussel topping:
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted

Combine the flour and sugar, then stir in the butter, mixing until it is incorporated and the mixture is crumbly.
*note: this made way more topping than I needed - I recommend cutting back a bit... or, since the streussel topping is super delicious, finding something else to top with it!

When you are ready to assemble and bake:
Remove the dough from the fridge and divide it into about 20 pieces, rolling each piece into a ball. Place the dough balls on lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving about an inch between them. Flatten the balls till they’re about 1/2-inch thick, then cover them with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow them to rest for 10 minutes.

Using your fingers, make a wide, deep indentation in the center of each flattened dough ball. Don’t be afraid of being decisive here; you want to make a deep enough indentation that it doesn’t just disappear as the buns rise and bake. Place about 1 tablespoon of your chosen filling into each bun. Cover the kolaches, and allow them to rise for about an hour. Don't worry if they don't rise much.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and sprinkle the streussel topping on top of each bun.

Bake the kolaches about 35 minutes, until golden brown (I checked mine every few minutes starting at about 20 minutes). Remove them from the oven, and serve warm, or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

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#tributetolis #daringbakers

This is, quite possibly, the most difficult post I have ever written.

This post is a tribute to a wonderful, caring, funny person. Someone who touched the lives of countless people all over the world.

If you remember way back to my first posts, the whole reason that I started this blog was so that I could join the Daring Kitchen.  Since that time, I have completed 90 challenges, hosted two, and written several product and cookbook reviews for the site overall. I have learned so many things, from different cooking techniques to different world cuisines. I've also made countless friends. Good friends. All because of the Daring Kitchen.

And the Daring Kitchen was able to thrive because of the dedication, love and commitment of its founder, chief and backbone, Lis.

This week, we suddenly and very unexpectedly lost Lis. The Daring Kitchen lost its leader, the world lost an amazing person, and I lost a friend.

I can't find the right words to put here. I've been staring at the screen for a very long time just putting together these few sentences. There is nothing I can say to make sense of this. She was young. She was vibrant. She genuinely cared about each and every member of the group that she started. She was funny. She was a good person. And I can't believe that I'm writing a post about her in the past tense.

As painful as it is, as difficult as it is to understand, we (Daring Bakers, Daring Cooks, bloggers, family, friends and anyone who was touched by Lis) wanted to come together and pay tribute to the person behind the scenes. Through writing, through cooking, through baking - whatever helps.

I made pretzels.

These pretzels are made based on the first challenge that Lis ever hosted for the Daring Bakers back in November of 2006. They were the basis for the whole group, for the whole reason I have a blog at all.

So I made pretzles to honor a friend gone too soon.  To celebrate a life lived for others. To honor all of the love she put into everything she did. To honor her family and friends who are hurting so much right now.

The best way I can honor my friend is to try to help her legacy live on, which is what I will do.

Today, I do that with pretzels.

Lis, you will be forever missed. And forever remembered.

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