mix, mix… stir, stir

It is time for a bit of a cookie run with the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group. December should be National Cookie Month, but apparently it was in October along with celebrations for National Apple Month,  Country Ham Month, Popcorn Poppin’ Month, Restaurant Hospitality Month, and the one I am really kicking myself for not celebrating - National Toilet Tank Repair Month. Next October is going to be a non-stop party!

photo by David Peterman

A few weeks ago I was making cut-out cookies and decided I really don’t like making cut-out cookies. They are time consuming, messy, and generally frustrating. Surprisingly Dories Linzer Sables aren’t any of those things. She instructs to roll the dough out right after mixing it with the aid of waxed paper. By sandwiching the dough in the waxed paper for rolling, no added flour is necessary alleviating the primary mess of cut-out cookies. Additionally, rolling warm dough is a snap because it is willing to go in any direction it is pushed without a fight. Once the dough is rolled it goes in the fridge or freezer to chill, then after it is really cold the cutting happens. What do you know, cutting out really cold dough is fast, easy, and because the dough is so stiff the shapes don’t distort when lifted onto the baking sheet. Ta-da, fast, easy, cut-out cookies and I didn’t get flour all over the kitchen. Dorie’s technique may just convert me.

Sablés aren’t a standard sugar cookie, but a French cookie named for the word that means “sand” because they have a very delicate and crumbly texture. Sablé is pronounced SAH-blay, which I generally forget and feel silly every time I realize I am pronouncing them incorrectly. In addition to their distinct texture, sablés (think SAH-blay) are often flavored with almond, lemon or orange zest. Dories version uses almond flour and a touch of spice for a really nice flavor.

I deviated from the flavors in Dorie’s recipe by not using the Linzer namesake flavor of raspberry for the filling and filled half the cookies with chocolate ganache and the others with the last bit of my favorite fig, pear and rosewater jam. Both fillings worked beautifully with the touch of spice in the dough. Dorie went with cinnamon and clove, but I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to grind cloves, so I tested out my new “Over-grind Blend.” This is a blend of all the little extra bits of ground spice that I have accumulated from the previous month. Anytime I grind more spice than I need, I toss the extra in a little jar. All the sweet type spices such as allspice, clove, nutmeg, cardamom go in one jar and the savory spices in another. Anytime I need a quick hit of spice for a recipe I just use this blend. I try to use it up by the end of the month and start again fresh. Every month the blend will be unique depending on what I have been grinding, but it works great and makes those little bits of extra ground spices easy to use up.

Thank you to Noskos of Living the Life, for selecting a recipe this week that has changed my outlook on rolled cookies. He has posted Dorie’s recipe, but you can also find it in Dorie’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Once again the Tuesdays with Dorie group expands my dessert boundaries. I had never made rice pudding until this week, and I made a lot of rice pudding this week.

photo by David Peterman

The recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, uses Arborio rice, which is the type of rice used to make risotto. This rice pudding is a deliciously comforting dessert that takes me right back to all the tapioca I used to make as a kid. The only variation I made to Dori’s recipe is using half a vanilla bean rather than vanilla extract. The little vanilla specs look lovely and with such a minimal ingredient list of milk, rice, and sugar, it is a perfect place to splurge a little by using a vanilla bean.

After cooking the rice pudding I was initially put off by the texture of the rice. The grains were cooked to the point of being quite mushy making the rice pudding a disappointment from a texture standpoint, though the flavor was lovely. I wondered what rice pudding would be like if it were cooked like traditional risotto, so I embarked on a second batch starting by sauteing the rice in a little butter and then stirring in hot milk bit by bit as it was absorbed. This rice pudding had lovely toothy risotto grains nestled in a sweet creamy sauce of milk and sugar. I was thrilled with delicious results, so into the refrigerator to cool.

The next day I sampled my risotto rice pudding and it had transformed into hard little pellets in a sweet creamy sauce, where as Dorie’s rice pudding had chilled to perfection. The rice firmed up to be perfectly toothsome, but still tender. Hum… then I remembered a little lesson I had learned some time ago about retrogradation, which explains what’s going on.

photo by David Peterman

Harold McGee in his book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, and Shirly O. Corriher in her book, Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed, give detailed explanations of different starches and how they react to heat and refrigeration. The bottom line is the type of starch found in rice, amylose, binds together really tightly when it is cooled after having been cooked, and the rice gets very hard once it is refrigerated. The term for this process is retrogradation. Once reheated, the crystallized amylose molecules melt and the rice becomes soft again, so if you want to eat chilled rice pudding you either need to cook the rice to a very soft consistancy (ah, Dorie knows what she is doing!) or use a medium or short grain rice which has less amylose than long grain rice. Arborio rice is a medium grain rice, but I cooked the rice pudding to the same texture I cook risotto, and it was fine while hot, but once chilled, it was like eating raw rice pudding. So, hot overly-mushy rice pudding will transform, once chilled, into perfection.

photo by David Peterman

All this rice pudding experimenting got me to wondering about black sticky rice. Sticky rice (also known as glutinous or sweet rice) has a predominately amylopectin starch structure, so retrogradation is not issue. Once it is cooked it is very sticky and if refrigerated will remain soft. Sticky rice is sold as black, containing the outer bran and germ layers, or white with the outer layers removed. It is typically soaked overnight and then steamed rather than boiled, though I have seen reference to Black sticky rice being boiled, cooked like risotto, and steamed for anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. The traditional application of sticky rice in Asian cuisines is as dessert, but I have also come across numerous savory applications and after trying this rice for the first time, I think it has fantastic potential in savory applications. It has a nice nutty, wild rice type flavor and the color is stunning.

For my Sticky Black Rice Pudding experiments I tried two different cooking methods. One batch I soaked for 4 hours and then cooked it like risotto using the soaking liquid. The other batch I soaked overnight and steamed for about 45 minutes. Both were good, but for the rice pudding I preferred the steamed version. In savory applications stirring in a flavorful stock like a risotto might be the way to go. I didn’t follow an existing recipe, but started with the classic base of coconut milk and added a few more layers of flavor; pandan leaf, palm sugar, and true cinnamon.

photo by David Peterman

Pandan or pandanus leaf is a fantastic flavor and fragrance to add to both sweet and savory dishes. It is available in Asian markets and looks like long palm leaves. I have heard it described as the equivalent of vanilla in Asian cuisines. A leaf simply tied into a loose knot, to release the flavors, and tossed into a pot of oatmeal or rice adds a warm fragrant flavor that is subtle and exotically satisfying. I don’t make oatmeal without it. The leaves store well in the freezer tightly wrapped in plastic. Palm sugar can easily be found in Asian markets and is use frequently in Thai cooking. True cinnamon (Cinnamomun zeylanicum) is almost exclusively grown in Sri Lanka and offers a slightly more subtle, but far more complex flavor than the common cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) sold in the U.S. The sticks, called quills, are much softer and more papery than cassia cinnamon sticks. I usually always opt for True Cinnamon in savory applications like soups and braises. If you have not experimented with it, you should give it a try.

Here is my recipe for Black Sticky Rice. I really enjoyed it as a black and white combination with Dorie’s recipe. A big thank you to Isabelle of Le Gourmandise d’Isa for selecting this week’s recipe, and setting me off on a grand rice pudding cooking adventure. Dorie’s Arborio Rice Pudding recipe can be found on Isabelle’s post (scroll down for the English version) and of course in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: from my home to yours.

Sticky Black Rice Pudding

1 cup black sticky rice
3 cups water, plus additional for steaming
2 six to eight inch pieces of pandan leaf, each tied into a loose knot
1 cup coconut milk
1.5 ounces palm sugar
2-3 inch piece of True cinnamon quill, or a cassia cinnamon stick
Pinch of salt

Place black sticky rice in a bowl with 3 cups of water and let soak at least 4 hours or overnight.

Set up a steamer for the rice by placing a steamer insert in a pan with a tight fitting lid. Ideally the steamer will allow for 2-3 inches of water. A colander or vegetable steamer lined with cheese cloth set into a large pot works well. Drain rice and place in steamer with one pandan leaf that has been tied into a loose knot. Steam the rice for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until soft and tender, adding additional water throughout steaming as needed.

While the rice is steaming, melt the palm sugar in a heavy bottomed pan over low heat. Once melted, turn up the heat to medium and bring the sugar to a gentle boil and let boil for 30 seconds to a minute. Carefully add the coconut milk to the melted sugar. The sugar will clump up just like caramel does when the cream is added. Stir over medium low heat and the sugar will melt into the coconut milk. Add the cinnamon quill and second pandan leaf and bring the mixture to a gentle boil for a minute or two. Remove from heat and cover for 20 minutes to let the cinnamon and pandan infuse into the coconut milk. Remove the cinnamon quill and pandan leaf.

Once the rice is cooked add it to the coconut milk and stir over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt. Cook until the rice and coconut milk are nicely combined, stirring continuously. Let rest 10 minutes if serving warm, or refrigerate and serve chilled. Additional plain coconut milk can be poured over the rice pudding for serving if a thinner consistency is desired.

It’s fun to say and even more fun to eat. Kugelhopf is a buttery-rich bread along the lines of brioche, that is studded with dried fruit and often nuts. The traditional dusting of powdered sugar in addition to baking it in a fancy shape pushes this bread very much toward the cake world.

photo by David Peterman

I didn’t happen to have a true Kugelhopf pan, which is similar to a Bundt pan but taller and narrower with a shape somewhat like a spiraled turban. I can attest that there is no need to purchase a Kugelhopf pan to make Kugelhopf, a Bundt pan, mini Bundt pans, standard loaf pan or muffin tins will work just fine.

Originally an Alsatian bread, it is made all over Europe and as the bread has traveled, the spelling of the name has morphed. I have run across Kugelupf, Gugelhopf, Gugelhupf, Kougelhopf, and Koeglof, but because this is Tuesdays with Dorie, I will stick with Kugelhopf as Dorie uses in her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The most difficult thing about this bread, like many yeasted breads, is time. Dorie’s recipe calls for three risings that take about seven hours. Knowing I couldn’t fit that into my schedule the day I wanted to make this I made a few adjustments in the process. One option she gives is resting the dough in the refrigerator overnight, which with any bread is a great way to develop flavor. As a compromise I mixed up a sponge of 1/3 the yeast, the milk, and enough flour to form a thick, but still very liquid batter. After letting it sit at room temperature for three hours it got nice and bubbly and then I put that in the refrigerator to ferment the rest of the day and evening. Right before going to bed I pulled the sponge out of the refrigerator and let it sit overnight in a very cool part of the house. I needed to start the bread first thing in the morning and I didn’t want the sponge to be refrigerator-cold. It seems to have worked just fine. I then finished mixing, let the dough rise twice in a warm spot, molded it, and let it rise a final time in the mold and baked it. My “speedy” version still took all morning with the bread coming out of the oven about noon.

On the flavor front Dorie calls for plump raisins and I just couldn’t leave well enough alone, so I veered off here as well. I used golden raisins soaked overnight in dark rum and added a teaspoon of mahleb to the dough.  I also sprinkled a few slivered almonds in the mold before adding the dough which added a really nice crunch and flavor to the bread. Once these come out of the oven, Dorie takes things one step beyond simply dusting with powdered sugar and first paints the bread with melted butter then sprinkling on the powdered sugar. This makes such a nice sweet almost crispy glaze over the bread.

photo by David Peterman

I used a heavy metal pan of mini-Bundt molds to bake my Kugelhopf, but had more dough than the molds could accommodate, so I pulled out my silicone Cannell mold to finish off the dough. This is the only silicone baking pan I have and must admit that I don’t have much experience baking with it. The criticism I frequently hear of silicone pans is they don’t brown well. This was true for one side of my Kugelhopf buns. Each little bun had a very blond side that faced to the inside of the pan and a nicely browned side that was on the outer edge of the pan. Not the end of the world, but interesting to observe. The little Kugelhopfs were a great nibbling size.

Overall I was thrilled with the results and besides taking a fair amount of time, it’s not a difficult bread to make. If you feel like creating your own Kugelhoph you can find Dorie’s recipe on Yolanda’s post at All Purpose Girl. Thanks Yolanda for selecting the recipe for this week; I now know how to make Kugelhopf!

First things first - Happy Voting day! Here is a little cookie tribute to our flag in celebration of the big day.

photo by David Peterman

It was another cookie week for the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers as we all made rugelach. I have never made this type of cookie before and can only recall ever eating them once. David and I bought a big tub of them from Costco, and though it was years ago, I recall they were darn tasty.

photo by David Peterman

Rugelach is hard to spell, strange to say, and despite liking the ones I tried from Costco, has never been a type of cookie I have been drawn to. I suspect if it weren’t for this baking group I would have skipped right over this recipe in my book and unknowingly been missing out on a great easy to make baked delight.

Rugelach is made from a simple cream cheese dough that comes together with a few pulses of a food processor. Aside from needing a few hours for the dough to chill before rolling, these are quick and easy cookies to make and yet they look so complicated and impressive. I was expecting a very tedious task of cutting lots of triangles to make these, and yes triangles need to be cut, but not in a tedious way. Think pizza; a bunch of triangles cut in seconds! I was thinking of triangles as a quilter, and cutting fabric triangles is rather tedious work.

Typically rugelach is filled with a variety of fillings including fruit, nuts, jam, poppy seed paste, or chocolate. Dorie’s recipe gives a few suggestions and I made two varieties, one chocolate and for the other I used a fig cardamom and rose water jam (I would share the recipe, but I still have a bit more refining to do before it is finalized).

photo by David Peterman

The fig jam version also included currents, walnuts, and chopped chocolate. In the future, I would leave the chocolate out of fruit fillings. The chocolate took away from the bright tangy fruit flavor and worked much better as the solo star in the all-chocolate filling which also included a little hint of cinnamon and ancho chile. The chocolate filling also made for very tidy little cookies because the filling was smooth and uniform. I liked both versions very much, and I am thrilled to now know how to make this impressive looking little cookie. Thank you to Grace of Piggy’s Cooking Journal for giving me a new baking experience with her recipe selection.

You can find Dorie’s recipe for rugelach in her book Baking: From My Home to Yours. Here is the recipe I came up with for my chocolate filling. This was just a bit more than I needed to fill one 12 inch diameter round of dough.

3 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ancho chile powder

Place the chopped chocolates in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Mix the sugars and egg together in a small bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until the mixture is about 120 degrees F. Pour the sugar mixture over the chocolate and let it stand for a minute. Begin whisking the mixture to melt the chocolate and combine the ingredients. If the chocolate does not completely melt, set the bowl over the pot of warm water and stir to fully melt the chocolate. Stir in the spices. The chocolate mixture will be thick, but still spreadable. Set filling aside and roll out dough. Place pieces of chocolate paste filling on the dough and press the filling out using fingers to create a uniform layer.

Rolling round dough

Rolling a uniform circle of dough can be a challenge because dough seems to prefer to take on free-form amoeba like formations rather than perfect circles. I find it helps to start with dough that is chilled as a nice flat and uniformly round disk. When rolling the dough roll from the center out in one direction, then turn the dough a quarter turn and roll again from the center out to the edge. Continue spinning the dough after each roll and it should grow in a uniform circular manner. The edges can often times get ragged and split apart, but just pinch and push them back into shape if they start to grow in odd directions. Turning the dough after each roll also prevents it from getting too stuck to the counter. Have a bench scraper or long spatula handy to free the dough between rolls if necessary and then toss a bit more flour down before continuing on if it is sticking. Running your hand over the dough you should be able to feel any bumps or thick spots that need to be evened out as you are rolling. Working uniformly in all directions should result in a perfectly round result.

Oh no, my first really dud of a result in baking with the Tuesdays with Dorie group. I am very pleased with the way the cupcakes look, so enjoy the photo, but they were dry and lacked flavor.

photo by David Peterman

I was banking on the frosting to save the day, but no, it was hard as soon as it cooled. Chocolate, butter and sugar, seems reasonable enough, but when I stopped to think about the fact that the proportions of sugar and butter were small compared to the chocolate and butter is solid at room temperature, it is no surprise that it set up rather solid. Dorie refers to the frosting as a glaze indicating that it should just be a thin layer, which would be better, but I think it would still be too hard even as a thin glaze.

I did mix some smooth commercial peanut butter into the glaze to make a soft filling hoping to distract from the dry cake and it was delicious, but didn’t do much to hide the fact that the cake was dry. It would make a wonderful topping as well.
Quick Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting
Gently melt bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and mix in half as much smooth peanut butter, by weight. Whisk in powdered sugar by the tablespoon until the flavor reaches the desired sweetness.

I am so interested to go see all the other blogs on Tuesdays with Dorie and find out if I was the only one with these problems. Thanks to Clara of I Heart Food For Thought for selecting the recipe for this week.