Maritozzi

 

I could literally kick myself for never having tasted Maritozzi, a traditional Italian breakfast treat consisting of a brioche bun filled with freshly whipped cream, whenever I visited Italy.  This enticing Instagram post from Bread by Elise motivated me to correct that grievous error. 

 

What especially drew me to Elise's bun recipe was the use of tangzhong.  This flour and milk roux added into the dough ensures that the bread maintains a soft interior long after baking.   As I was making the dough I could tell straightaway that the buns were going to be fantastic because the dough's texture was so elastic, light and easy to work with.    

Who doesn't love freshly whipped cream and maritozzis are filled to the brim with it, along with a layer of homemade tart raspberry jam.  A marriage made in breakfast heaven.  The only drawback, if you consider it one, is that the maritozzi tastes best when consumed à la minute, i.e., right away.    Next time I think I'll freeze some of the unfilled, baked buns and then reheat and fill them at a later time.  Now that I'm confident in my maritozzi-making skills I can save myself the price of a plane ticket to Italy, although I'd happily still go for pasta and shopping!

Hot Cross Buns

 

Yesterday (Holy Thursday) I decided to make a batch of Hot Cross Buns, which are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, but I like to enjoy them throughout the Lenten season.  To make the buns I used my all-time favorite fluffy dinner rolls recipe from Cook's Illustrated. The only revision I made to the original version was to add cinnamon, nutmeg and plenty of raisins.  

 

 

While I was making the buns an idea came to me that I think was quite ingenious.  As I finished shaping the buns it just so happened that my dishwasher beeped, signaling the end of a recent cycle.  When I opened the dishwasher door I was reminded of how warm and humid the interior was.  EUREKA! Why not proof the dough buns inside the turned off dishwasher since it had the optimum conditions?  

 

 

After only 30 minutes the dough doubled in size beautifully and validated my hypothesis.   Normally the ambient temperature in San Francisco is too cold to proof dough without some assistance so the dishwasher solution is perfect.  Who says you need an expensive dough proofer?  Not me!  I will definitely be using this funny technique going forward.   

Blueberry Lemon Babka

 

Never had I heard of babka before until I watched that infamous Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine were desperately searching for a chocolate one to take to their friend's dinner party.  Unfortunately for them the bakery they went to only had cinnamon ones left.  Had they only known about Bluberry Lemon Babka they would have forgotten all about chocolate.

 

The recipe for this enriched dough beauty comes from blogger Cinnamon Shtick and it is an absolute winner.   Lemon is infused throughout the bread and the citrus flavor pairs beautifully with the homemade blueberry jam filling.   The addition of a struesel crumb topping takes this bread to the next level.  So good!

 

 

If you've never made bread with an enriched dough before, i.e., a yeasted dough with eggs and butter, then I highly recommend giving this recipe a try.  The dough is a dream to work with and is quite forgiving.     I don't think you can mess it up, but even if things go awry I'm sure it will still taste delicious.

Scallion & Ham Bread

Scallion Bread is a staple item sold at most Chinese bakeries you come across.  My favorite place in San Francisco to get them is Sunset Bakery in the Inner Sunset District.   There they add bits of ham to their scallion buns which are, in my opinion, the ne plus ultra: incredibly delicious, super soft and beautifully browned.  Since they're so easy to buy I never really thought of making it at home, that is, until I saw this post on Healthy Nibbles blog.  Lisa's bread looked exactly like Sunset Bakery's so I had to give it a try for myself.

The dough uses tangzhong, or a roux made of milk and flour, which gives the baked bread a lovely, soft texture.  In my experience any bread using this technique always turns out amazing.  The main modifications I made to Lisa's recipe were to replace the water in the tangzhong with milk, use instant yeast and add pieces of chopped ham.  

I made the recipe twice in a week so trust me when I say it's a good one.  The first time I shaped the dough into a very large four-strand braid.  For the second I shaped it into smaller knots because I wanted individual portions.   You wouldn't believe how excited I was that the bread turned out completely authentic!   Another plus is that it freezes beautifully so I can enjoy this yummy treat anytime I want.

Braided Challah

I don't have much experience braiding bread dough but when I see beautiful loaves twisted in such interesting ways I'm determined to give it a go.  My colleague Inna makes challah every Friday for the sabbath and recently she made a mini loaf so I could try.  Her bread had the deepest, mahogany crust and such a beautiful braid.  As soon as I got home I cut a few slices and enjoyed them toasted with butter.  Delicious!  

Straightaway I asked Inna for the recipe she used and she referred me to this one from Chen Shukron.  The original post is in Hebrew but one click on Google and you can easily get the English translation.  To shape the bread she referred me to this Instagram post, but to be honest it seriously intimidated me!   I needed to start with something more for the beginner.

A few years ago I attempted a challah, but the braiding technique was a "cheat" version because you stacked a simple plait one on top of another.  What I wanted was to make the intricate, multi-strand braids that you see in bakeries, but for a novice.

I remembered seeing a Braided Round Challah from an issue of Cook's Illustrated that looked so appealing because it used the tangzhong technique, or cooked flour paste, and was shaped so beautifully.   In the end, I decided to make Inna's recipe and the Cook's Illustrated version using the braided round technique because two challah are always better than one! 

The aroma of homemade bread permeated throughout my kitchen and it was heavenly!  Both loaves baked up gorgeously, if I do say so myself.  I should definitely practice my braiding more because now it's not as daunting as it used to be.

Shabbat Shalom y'all!  

Iced Fingers

I'm a huge fan of The Great British Bake Off and this recipe for Iced Fingers was featured in one of the earlier seasons of the show.  I'd been meaning to make them ever since I first watched that episode all those years ago so you could say these are long overdue.  There's just something so inviting about a soft and fluffy bun filled to the brim with whipped cream and jam. 

The recipe comes from Paul Hollywood, GBBO "male judge" and bread baker extraordinaire, so you can pretty much assume it's going to be a winner.  And you would not be wrong.  Enriched dough is not as difficult to make as you might think and this one has the most beautiful texture to work with.  You could make the dough by hand, as suggested in the recipe, but I'm too lazy for that and leveraged my trusty Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  It makes your life so much easier!

Baked to a lovely golden brown the fingers had a beautifully soft and fluffy interior.  My main deviation from Paul's recipe was in the filling.  Rather than using whipped heavy cream on its own I added softened cream cheese to give it more structure and stability.  The last thing you want is a weepy iced finger!  Once iced and filled with cream cheese whipped cream and raspberry jam these fingers were a dream to eat.   

One caveat though: I highly recommend making the buns all in the same day to get the maximum freshness and flavor.  I spread it out over two days and found that the buns weren't as soft and fluffy as they were when they were freshly baked...still tasted great though!

Pineapple Buns with Chinese BBQ Pork

Hard to believe but after living in San Francisco for more than twenty years I must confess that I'd never tasted a Pineapple Bun until  just recently when I made them myself from a Cook's Illustrated recipe.  It sounds a bit silly to admit since my neighborhood is literally inundated with Chinese bakeries that sell this popular sweet bread.   One taste of the soft, fluffy interior and crunchy sugar top crust and I was a goner.

The secret to this bread is tangzhong, a cooked flour and water paste, that's added to the dough and makes the interior so light and soft.  I adore working with this dough - it is so forgiving and has the most beautiful elasticity.   You seriously can't mess it up!

The topping is piped in spirals over the proofed buns and is made of a butter, powdered sugar and flour mixture.  In the oven it melts down the sides of the bread and bakes in to a crunchy crust, very similar to craquelin on a choux pastry. 

I ended up filling my buns with Cook's Illustrated char siu or barbecue pork, another staple dish in Chinese cuisine, which I recently posted to my blog.   The savory, sweet filling was a delicious complement to the pineapple bun.   I brought samples of my first batch in to the office and my Chinese-American colleagues gave them the thumbs up.  If that's not the seal of approval I don't know what is!

Danish Pastries

My friend Julia and I attended a class recently at Baking Arts in San Mateo to learn how to make Danish Pastries.  I'm no stranger to laminated dough, having made croissants, puff pastry and kouign amman before, but never have I made Danish which is made from an enriched dough with eggs.   I was happy to learn something new!

Prior to class the instructor had pre-made and shaped a batch of the dough so that we could see what it would look like before going in to the oven.  Then he showed us how to finish off the baked pastries by brushing on sugar syrup and then piping a flourish of icing.  During the class we students made the dough from scratch and laminated it with a block of cold butter.  We then took the thrice-turned dough home to finish off later.

Because I was anxious to see how my Danish would turn out I woke up really early this morning to finish the recipe.  This dough is super easy to roll out which makes it nice to handle when it's time to cut your shapes.  I made a few pinwheels and with the rest of the dough turned them in to snails.

The key with Danish is that the finished pastry is brushed with a sugar syrup that gives them that beautiful shine and gloss.  Now I was definitely skeptical when the instructor repeatedly told us to be really generous when brushing on the syrup.  I assumed it would make the finished pastry too sweet, but I was wrong.  Even with a double coating of the syrup the Danish was just right.  I'll undoubtedly be making this recipe again...next time I think I'll try a savory version. 

Mallorcas & a Giveaway

What started as a "girls trip" in 2014 with my girlfriends has subsequently turned in to a summer tradition that I look forward to every year.  On our first tour we went to Capri which was absolutely gorgeous and had the best people/celebrity watching.  Last year we ventured to Florence  where we shopped 'til we dropped and ate tons of pasta and gelato in between.    This summer's locale was Mallorca, one of Spain's stunning Baleriac islands. 

We stayed in Palma and had the best time walking throughout the capital city's cobblestone streets and enjoying the delicious food (tapas! sangria!), beautiful sites and fantastic shopping.  Can you sense a theme in our trips?   So when I was thumbing through America's Test Kitchen's latest amazing tome, Bread Illustrated, I was absolutely delighted to see the recipe for Mallorcas.

It seemed like every bakery we passed by sold this massive, spiral bread which I later came to learn was called ensaimada (see pic below).  With further research I soon learned that Mallorcas, or Pan de Mallorca, are Puerto Rico's version of the ensaimada.  Unfortunately I never got the chance to try the bread in Palma, but armed with this recipe I could now try it's close relative!

The enriched dough is similar to brioche in that it's laden with eggs and butter.  After an initial proof the dough is rolled thinly, brushed with melted butter and rolled up like a jelly roll to achieve multiple layers.  After portioning out the dough each piece is then rolled in to a long rope, brushed with more butter and finally formed in to a spiral before it's final proof.

The smell of the freshly baked buns is absolutely hypnotic.  After a brief cooling they are generously dusted with a cloud of powdered sugar and served slightly warm.  Delicioso!  I brought the buns to my family's Labor Day BBQ where they were subsequently claimed by my siblings and mom.

There are so many fantastic bread recipes in this cookbook and I can't wait to try more.  I think the chocolate babka and Portuguese sweet bread are calling my name, so watch this blog for future posts.

My friends at America's Test Kitchen have generously donated a cookbook to give away on my blog AND my Instagram, @treatssf.   See blog giveaway rules below.

BLOG GIVEAWAY RULES:

1. Deadline to enter is Saturday September 24, 2016, 11:59pm PST.
2. Only open to people with US mailing addresses.
3. To enter, leave a comment to this post with your email address.  Sorry, you must include your email address as that's the only way I can contact the winner.

GOOD LUCK! 

Pumpkin Spice Rolls

It's beginning to look a lot like autumn.  I, for one, love this time of year.  The air is crisp and cool and I can finally break out the thick sweaters from storage.  My baking shifts to warmer undertones as well - spices like  cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves prevail.

Pumpkin is hands down my favorite fall ingredient.  Pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie...LOVE THEM!!  So when I saw Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls posted on Martha Stewart's Instagram I knew I was going to make them this weekend.

I started with Martha's recipe but modified it with a few tweaks of my own - replacing the cinnamon with pumpkin pie spice and filling the rolls with granulated sugar rather than brown sugar.   Icing is the best part of a great cinnamon roll and I used my go-to recipe which is made with heavy cream, melted butter and powdered sugar.