The Food Police Made Me Do It.

Who says that a blog that writes about food always need to have a new recipe, a new photograph of a cake, a new cookbook review and so on…? I did not see any recipe police checking all the food blogs and gives out summons to those having a recipe or a photograph more than three days old.  And GD forbid if your recipe is a week old – you must be slacking off and must pay for it.

You either will be asked to report to the nearest food police station where you will be fingerprinted and your prints will be analyzed for food residues; if none found you will be retained by the station and will be forced to bake something in an oven that has never seen an oven thermometer, its cleaning system did not work since WWII and the bake ware that are handed to you by the chief chef has not only seen better days but has not seen any pastry chef since the last cake that burned into the dish with a pretty nice design, I may add.

Alternatively, you may choose to start to write something on Friday and not move from the computer until Monday (except when certain body functions necessitate your interruption) at which time you should write one post after another that allow people to laugh, to cry, to curse, to praise, to visualize, to think, (with their brain, I may add and not other parts of their body), to love, to share, to obey and to cherish ….I guess you get my point. I selected the later.

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Easy, No Bake, Delightful Dessert for These Scorching Days

Flakey tart shell with cream cheese filling that is topped with blueberry compote

If you recall we were experimenting with the ratios of two types of flours (cake and all-purpose) in the preparation of tart dough shells for the summer about a month ago. If you want to refresh your memory, please click here. Also, I do not want to mislead you, but if you did not prepare pre-baked tart dough in June, then you will need to bake it now.

I hope you were with us in June and your freezer is filled with pre-baked tart shells, or at the least with “ready-to-be-baked” tart dough. However, it is never too late. Better late then never. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some of us) the heat wave is here to stay. I must tell you that for me heat wave is great, because I am suffering from a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis and I cannot tolerate cold (cold I mean like even in the 60s), but never mind that; this blog is not about me – it is about enjoying what we do, or what we want to do and learn what did not master yet.

This is July in New York City, in Hartford, in Boston, in Philadelphia and in DC.  What you expect? It is in the 90s for the entire week. There will be some thunderstorms with great humidity, as well so we can save some money by no need to visit a health spa for the steam room.

If you think that the weather wizard forgot about the Midwest; think again. OK. Lets stop taking about the weather and make a nice refreshing dessert in our cool, air-conditioned kitchen. If you will read this post to the  end, I will have a surprise for you.

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How to Bake a Golden Kugelhopf using Brioche Dough

The kugelhopf had a beautiful rise in the oven

I hope you read the post about the brioche in our May 12th post?  This is the second part of that post. Just to refresh your memory, the purpose of this post is to show how a minor difference in mixing method can deliver a totally different result. In the first report we showed you the method where the butter was added the last to the dough. The brioche dough (or kugelhopf) that is pictured above was prepared with the butter incorporated into the ingredients right at the beginning of the preparation of the dough.

All in all, both cakes are wonderful and both are best eaten fresh, right after taken out from the oven. If you would walk into my home while the brioche was in the oven, I guarantee you, you would not want to leave before tasting a slice.  The aroma of yeast dough baking in the oven is intoxicating, exhilarating and adrenaline stimulating.

Many of us shy away from baking yeast-leavened dough in our home, because we are frightened by people who rather buy ready-made stuff, then worry about how the cake will come out? Or how much work is involved? Etc. Let me assure you that once you will try to prepare your own home made, brioche, croissant, sticky buns, biegly, etc. you will never want to go back to store-bought ones. (Perhaps occasionally, if you are near to a top quality bakery, like Francoise Payard or the Levaine Bakery, both in  New York City). There is no substitute to the feeling of looking and tasting your own creations. It may take more time to prepare than a sponge cake, or a pound cake, but definitely not more work (the time is the rising time of the dough) and it is worth every minute of it.

Chocolate Kugelhopf Using Brioche Dough

Ingredients for the dough

  • 1 teaspoon (4g) and ¼ cup (1.75g) bakers’ sugar
  • 1 tablespoon (0.33 oz./9g) active dry yeast
  • 1 cup (237 ml) warm water (Temp: 110F/43C); it is advisable to measure the temperature of the water because too cold water kills the yeast
  • 4 cups (20 oz./500 g) bread flour
  • 2 cups (16 oz./454 g) unsalted butter, tempered
  • 5 large egg yolks (3.25 oz./9 g)
  • 3 large egg whites (3 oz./85g)
  • 1 3/4 teaspoon (10.5g/0.35 oz.) salt
  • 1 whole egg for egg wash (extra water cooking pray)

Ingredients for the filling

  • ½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
  • 1 cup bakers sugar
  • ½ cup golden raisins
  • 1 tablespoon butter

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HOW TO SAVE A BRIOCHE CAKE WITH IMPROVISING

Tips and Techniques

Brioche dough used in making a Walnut-layered, apricot jam-filled Yeast-leavened Sweet Cake

If you recall, in my earlier post about yeast-leavened cakes, I promised to write a post about how seemingly minor differences in a recipe will create a substantially different cake.

I love to bake sweet yeast-leavened cakes, because they are great for a coffee break, they have a glorious appearance for presentation, and when eaten fresh out of the oven (Yum!) their spongy characteristics is delightfully satisfying. (BTW the cake can be frozen, but only while it is fresh; then re-warmed in a microwave for nearly the same soft, springy feel as it was when taken out of the oven).

This cake can be eaten as is (without any filling), but can be filled with cinnamon/golden raisins, cocoa powder/golden raisins, poppy-seed, sweet farmer cheese filling to enhanced its taste. The cake is also a great partner for baked fruit (you can wrap the dough around apples, pears, apricots and more) and the result is a delightful combination of the juicy aromatic fruit in a light and fluffy, melt-in-your mouth cake. I am sure you guessed by now that I am talking about the brioche dough.

French toast or bread pudding made with older brioche slices is not comparable to any other dough (not even the Challa Bread) and there is no better Beef Wellington on this Earth than the one uses brioche to wrap around the filet mignon. You must trust me on this.

Since I wanted to show the effects of different mixing methods on the characteristics and textures of the cake I needed to bake two brioche-doughs using the same recipe, but not the same method of preparation. Unfortunately, (or fortunately from a tutorial point of view) I also made two errors, so you have an opportunity to see the effects of these errors, as well, and the two preparation methods. With respect to the taste and texture difference you will have to trust my description. I will try to do my best to be poetically descriptive.

Ingredients for the Dough

1 teaspoon (4g) and ¼ cup (1.75g) bakers’ sugar

1 tablespoon (0.33 oz/9g) active dry yeast

1 cup (237 ml) warm water (Temp:110F/43C); it is advisable to measure the temperature of the water because cold water kills the yeast

4 cups (20 oz/500 g) bread flour
2 cups (16 oz/454 g) unsalted butter, tempered

5 large egg yolks (3.25 oz/92g)

3 large egg whites (3 oz/85g)
1 3/4 teaspoon(10.5g/0.35 oz) salt

1 whole egg for egg wash
may need some extra water
cooking pray

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Thanks to Shirley Corriher, Baking Yeast-Leavened Bread is Problem-Free (Almost)

Yeast-Leavened Sweet Bread with Raisins

I love all yeast-leavened sweets/breads, because it brings up the warm and fuzzy memories of my Mother’s kitchen. Most holidays she would work in the kitchen tirelessly and churn out an array of baking goods that turned our home into a “dream bakery” without using any recipes, guide books, TV shows or consulting with Shirley Corriher.

The aroma from a yeast-leavened dough baking in the oven is intoxicating. I used to sit next to the oven and watch the sweet bread inside it patiently. I definitely did not want to miss the first slicing ceremony. Once the bread is sliced, there is a burst of aromas that fills the air, not only in the kitchen, but in the entire house.

For instance, if the bread is filled with cocoa powder, the entire house would overcome with the aroma of “chocolate.” I also love the fragrance of poppy-seed. I was always wondering if perhaps we are getting high from the opium in the poppy seeds? Poppy seeds are the perfect filling for yeast dough; I do not know why, but the combination creates an unmatched tantalizing effect on your taste buds (I should ask Shirley)

Just a brief note here: You do need to have the right recipe for the poppy-seed filling, otherwise it can taste bitter, or be unpleasantly grainy.

As you know, I am, like Shirley,  coming to cooking and baking from a science background, which means I always want to know why, how, what if…and more. So over the years I developed an advanced understanding in the process of baking. However, if I would draw a graph after reading Shirley Corriher’s BakeWise cookbook from cover-to-cover, you would see a line shooting straight up the sky. The reason for this introduction is that despite all this, errors and mishaps can still happen; the only difference is, that now I do not panic.

If you like baking and would like to better at it day-by-day or enhance your confidence, minute-by-minute, then please come visit this blog often, because I love to share my knowledge with my readers.  I derive great contentment from my students’ success.

I know that Easter came and gone, but the traditional yeast-leavened breads baked for Easter, are here to stay. Unfortunately, I did not have a great weekend health-wise, so I started to bake late. Then add to it the errors I made; so here I am posting a recipe for the sweet bread I baked on Saturday. “Better late then never.”  As I said before, you do not need to wait for next Easter; just bake this refreshing yeast-leavened sweet bread anytime you feel like you want to treat your family and friends.

Unfortunately, I forgot about the dough in the microwave after the second rise (I find it the best place to keep the dough for rising) so it has over-risen. It is not the end of the world; it is still taste good, looks OK (not great, but OK) and we will not throw it out, but I thought I will use it for another educational post. Actually, I made two errors: one I just mentioned: I let the dough rise too long and the dough actually fall back after risen. The second error I just realized after I decided that I will bake another bread and found the yeast that I was supposed to use in the bread (the active dry yeast) in the refrigerator. It appears that I used the instant, rapid-rise yeast instead; meaning I created a double jeopardy for the bread.  Oh well. Life goes on…and hopefully we will bake many more yeast-leavened breads.

Yeast-Leavened Sweet Bread

Ingredients for the sponge
5.5 ounce/150g warm whole milk
0.5 ounce dry active yeast
5.5 ounce/150 g all-purpose flour

Ingredients for the dough
5.5/150 g ounce raisins
5 ounces/140g unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoon/8 g confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoon/8 g vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon/1.25 g salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs at room temperature
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of allspice
1.75 ounces/50 g whole milk, warmed

Other Ingredients
1 egg for egg wash

Equipment

Baking sheet prepared with either buttered parchment paper, or Silpat
A large bowl greased with butter

Note: I usually have vanilla sugar on hand by dropping vanilla pods (after the content was scraped out) into a bowl of sugar. If you do not have home-made vanilla sugar you can buy it from specialty shop, or use vanilla paste.
For the raisins, you can use cognac, or sherry or any other liqueur for soaking. Pour the liqueur to cover the raisins, about 1 inch over the top. You could drop the liqueur all together and soak the raisins in orange juice or any other fruit juice. Make sure to squeeze the raisins well before incorporating them into the dough.

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