Cuban Bread

Never made bread before? Or put off by the lengthy proces of fermentation? Well, here is an easy recipe that will make you feel like you can bake bread like a pro! This easy and delicious recipe is provided by Ilva, the host of Bread Baking Babes for this month. If I am still not convincing enough, please go to Ilva's blog and read the recipe, you will understand what I mean. to Ilva, thank you so much for introducing us to the delicious Cuban bread, that otherwise I would never discovered it myself. 

Also sharing this with YeastSpotting friends at Susan's blog!

Pandan Spiral Mooncake

Too all of you who celebrate it, 

I wish you a very Happy Chinese New Year 2012!

May your year be filled with joy, good health and happiness!

I love Mooncake, I even starting to like the one with salted egg which I never to like before. I always want to make my own, but always put off by the fact that I don't have the beautiful molds to start with. Fortunately, there is apparently mooncake that don't require any mold of making it. So, I am quite thrill when I saw the recipe over at Kristy's blog. I thought I give it a try. 

The different between hers and mine is that she uses many beautiful colors for her mooncake, while I only chose one color, which actually came from pandan paste. Next time I will definitely try to use more color. Anyway, I'm so happy that I can make my own mooncake now. What more?, it tastes very good and I can get to choose any kind of filling I am fond of, in this case is azuki bean. Thanks Kristy!

Update (1/25/12):
After I got comment from Jeannie, that I am so early for moon cake, I thought I might be posting a wrong cake for new year.  It also make me realize that moon cake  might be something that the Chinese would not serve for New Year's treat.  So, I deleted part of the title that said "for the new year 2012". Since I am not not sure what they  actually eat as a sweet treat, other then Ni Gao (Chinese New Year Cake) which is made of glutinous rice flour, I decided to make moon cake. Other reason? First, because I never made it before, and the technique seemed pretty intriguing; secondly, I love eating moon cake;  thirdly for me,  pastry seem more delicious then just plain steam cake made from glutinous rice. 

Pain Grenoblois (Grenoble Raisin - Nut Bread)

Just looking at the picture in the book, nothing sort of special about this bread other then it look like a regular loaf of bread with some raisins and nuts. After a quick glanced through the recipe, there is nothing ordinary about it all.  In fact,  it is quite unique in its own way as they are actually two very different dough, combine together. First dough is what it is called Pâte Viennoise, which includes powdered milk in the ingredients. Then, in the final dough, there is addition of rye flour, which I am starting to develop  fondness to incorporating it in my  bread baking whenever possible. So, there is no reason not to bake the ordinary looking bread with extra ordinary taste. Especially to those who really like sweet and delicate, almost shreddy  texture slice of loaf. 

Pain Grenoblois (Grenoble Raisin - Nut Bread) 

Recipe adapted from: Linda Dannenberg's Paris Boulangerie Pâtisserie

make 2  loafs

Pâte Viennoise Starter

1 tsp dry yeast 

3/4 cup (175 ml) water, room temperature

2⅔ cups (340 g) all-purpose unbleached flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbs sugar

4 tsp powdered milk

2 tbs (25 g) unsalted butter, room temperature - cut into pieces

Final Dough

2 tbs dry yeast

3 cups (375 g) all-purpose unbleached flour

2/3 cup (90 g) Rye flour

1/4 cup (50 g) sugar

pinch of salt

1¼ cups (310 ml) water, room temperature

1 cup (120 g) chopped walnut

1 cup (140 g) raisins

To make the starter: combine everything in a mixer bowl and knead using dough hook attachment for 3 to 5 minutes on a medium low speed until the dough is elastic. Add the butter and continue to knead for another 2 minutes, or until the dough is satiny. Form into a ball, place it in a clean and lightly grease bowl, cover with plastic, let rest 45 minutes. 

For the dough: In a mixer bowl, place dry yeast, all-purpose unbleached flour, Rye flour, sugar, and salt. Cut the pâte Viennoise in to pieces and add to the mixer bowl, add the water. Knead on the lowest speed on your mixer for 2 minutes, increase the speed to low (speed # 2 on a KitchenAid), continue to knead for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is supple and elastic. Transfer to counter top, knead in the raisin and walnut just to incorporate them. Gather the dough into a ball shape, and place it in a lightly grease bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel, and let it rise for 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease two 8 inches loaf pans.

Divide the dough into two equal size. Take a portion of dough, divide into 2 or three portions, shape each portion into round, then place it side by side in a loaf pan. or simply shape each dough into oblong, and place them  in a prepared loaf pans. Cover the pans with clean towels. Let rise for the second time for about 40 minutes to an hour.

Bake in the bottom rack of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes until well brown.

Cool the loaf (still in the pans) on a wire rack. 

The book said that this bread will stay fresh up to 3 days if wrapped in foil, but mine didn't  last that long.

For YeastSpotting!

Pâte de Coing

This is actually my second attempts of making this delicious fruit pate.  The first one I made was a complete disaster. My heat was too high, I did other stuff in between the stirring, and did not bother to put timer on. As a result, it was harden more then it was suppose to, making it very hard to cut and to chew. My suggestion is, put the heat low, keep stirring, and put timer on. First, set up the timer for an hour, then it depends on the consistency, you can always add more time. Anyway, I was determine that I had to make it again until I got the (almost) right result. Fortunately, it only took second trial to get me pretty satisfied. It was not perfect, but it was pretty good enough to eat. To me the perfect one would be a little softer then this one, but not as soft as membrillo.

The recipe I used was from many different sources I found on the internet, they all seem pretty similar.

Pâte de Coing

Recipe adapted from here, here, and here

5 quinces

sugar (the same amount of puree quince)

2 lemon

Fill a large bowl with cold water, add juice from 1 lemon. Peel and core the quince, plunge in to the lemon water. Repeat with remaining quinces. Drain. Transfer onto a pan, fill the pan with water and boil until soft, remove from the heat, drain, and cool completely. Once cool, puree in a blender or food processor. Now, Scale the puree to determine how much sugar you need to add.

Line an 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Lightly oil the paper. Set aside

Place pureed quince, sugar, juice of the remaining 1 lemon in a sauce pan. Cook on low heat until it is started to become thick. stirring from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. This will take about 1 to 2 hours. Transfer onto prepared baking pan, and let it cool completely before cutting.

Galette des Rois ( Pithiviers)

As I promised yesterday, here is my Pithiviers or Galette des Rois that I managed to make it in time for the Epiphanie day. Traditionally, trinket would be inserted inside the galette, and a person who is lucky enough to get it would be the King or Queen of the day. Unfortunately (read, as usual), I only remember about it after I put my galette in the oven.
  

Galette des Rois (Pithiviers)
Recipe adapted from Maria Villegas & Sarah Randell's Pithiviers, Food of France
Makes (one) 11inch galette

Ingredients:
1 lb 5 oz chocolate puff pastry, recipe follows. If you don't want the trouble of making your own, use
store bought puff pastry that available in your grocery store.

8 tablespoon (1 stick) butter, soften at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 tablespoon rum

Finely grated 1 orange zest
Finely grated 1 large lemon zest

3/4 cup almond meal

2 1/2 tablespoon flour

Roll out puff pastry into 11 inch circles. Transfer circles onto baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for an hour. This will help to minimized shrinking during baking process.

Beat  butter and sugar in a mixer on medium high speed until pale and creamy. Add egg one at the time, beat well after each addition. Add rum, orange and lemon zest turn the speed to low, mix. Add almond meal and flour, mix again just enough to incorporate all ingredient together. Scoop out this filling onto a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate until firm enough.

To assemble: Spoon all filling onto one pastry circle, then using small spatula, spread it out starting from the center  toward the edge, leaving about 3/4 inch from the edge should be sufficient (see photo here). Using a small pastry brush, moisten the edge with water or egg white. Score the other pastry circle lightly with desire pattern (see photo below), place it directly on top of almond filling. Press gently so pastry stick together. Cover with clean kitchen towel, refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

If  regular puff pastry is used, you can brush the galette with egg wash to give it a beautiful shine and golden color, but make sure to avoid brushing the side, or the pastry layers won't rise properly. If using chocolate puff pastry, I don't find it  necessary to brush it, as the color is pretty dark already. If you insist, use white egg instead of regular egg wash. Bake in the middle rack for 25 to 30 minutes until it has risen. Remove and cool completely on a rack.

If desire, dust with confectioner sugar before serving.

Chocolate Puff Pastry

recipe adapted from Piere Hermé book's Chocolate Dessert, and from Fanny's technique on how to "Mastering puff pastry, step by step"

makes 2 ¾ pounds

For the dough:

3 cups (420 g) all-purposed flour

3/4 cup (185 g) cold water, plus more as needed, about 2 -3 tbs

2 tsp salt

5 tbs (2½ oz; 70 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the butter packet:

3¾ cup (15 oz; 425 g) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (50 g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder (Valrhona, if possible)

To make dough packet:

Put flour on a kitchen counter top, and make a well in the center.

Mix 3/4 cup of water and salt until salt is dissolved. Pour this in the well, working from inside of the wall flour, start mixing it using  a fork until most of flour has been stirred. Pour the melted butter over this mixture, continue to stir. If the dough feels a bit on the drier side, add water  a tablespoon at a time.  Knead the dough for roughly one minute, shape into rectangle, wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours. The dough will not look perfect at this point.

To make butter packet:

Using paddle attachment on an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth, but not airy. Add cocoa powder, continue to process just enough to blend them together. 

Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a kitchen counter top. Scrape the butter directly on top, shape into square about an inch or two inches smaller than the size of your dough packet. Wrap - refrigerate at least 2 hours. 

To roll and turn: 

I always rely on  this same method of making puff pastry, and it is always successful.  I have Fanny to be thankful for her fantastic tutorial, so please visit Fanny's blog on how to "Mastering puff pastry, step by step". I am sure you will be happy to find her easy to follow technique, and explanation.

When you are done with steps, refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

Chocolate Puff Pastry For The New Year 2012

Hello everyone.... I hope you all enjoyed your holiday season, and embrace the the year 2012 with happiness and lots of good hopes.

I started my new year having fun making laminated pastry, the one that I've been making for many times, yet haven't found my self getting bored of it. This image of chocolate puff pastry was taken 2 days ago, and needed two more turns. As I type this post, the pastry has completed their final turn, and I decided that I wouldn't take photo of it, as you all know that I have the photos in my previous posts (here, here, and here). Anyway, I thought I just share, and also letting you know that I am still here. Will definitely share recipe and photo of my galette des rois that I am planning to post very soon. Thank you for being such a wonderful reader, I am truly greatfull!

Update (1/6/12): I've decided to post the recipe as well. So here it is :

Chocolate Puff Pastry

recipe adapted from Piere Hermé book's Chocolate Dessert, and from Fanny's technique on how to "Mastering puff pastry, step by step"

makes 2 ¾ pounds

For the dough:

3 cups (420 g) all-purposed flour

3/4 cup (185 g) cold water, plus more as needed, about 2 -3 tbs

2 tsp salt

5 tbs (2½ oz; 70 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the butter packet:

3¾ cup (15 oz; 425 g) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (50 g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder (Valrhona, if possible)

To make dough packet:

Put flour on a kitchen counter top, and make a well in the center.

Mix 3/4 cup of water and salt until salt is dissolved. Pour this in the well, working from inside of the wall flour, start mixing it using  a fork until most of flour has been stirred. Pour the melted butter over this mixture, continue to stir. If the dough feels a bit on the drier side, add water  a tablespoon at a time.  Knead the dough for roughly one minute, shape into rectangle, wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours. The dough will not look perfect at this point.

To make butter packet:

Using paddle attachment on an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth, but not airy. Add cocoa powder, continue to process just enough to blend them together. 

Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a kitchen counter top. Scrape the butter directly on top, shape into square about an inch or two inches smaller than the size of your dough packet. Wrap - refrigerate at least 2 hours. 

To roll and turn: 

I always rely on  this same method of making puff pastry, and it is always successful.  I have Fanny to be thankful for her fantastic tutorial, so please visit Fanny's blog on how to "Mastering puff pastry, step by step". I am sure you will be happy to find her easy to follow technique, and explanation.

When you are done with steps, refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

P.S When the pastry is completed, I always test a little piece by baking a small portion to see if it is actually puff properly. This way, I can always make another batch, if  it is fail. As you can see from the photo below, I didn't have to, as I was satisfied with the result.