Soft apple roll

I've been on a bread baking kick. After the scallion bread, I realized how much I enjoy kneading dough and the lovely aroma of the bread when it's baking. I turned to Pook from Daily Delicious because she has really great bread recipes on her blog. I decided to try the Soft apple roll because of the title of that post. It's "Soft Apple Roll: Soft bread for an easy afternoon". That title just painted such a wonderful picture in my head that I knew I wanted that easy afternoon for myself too.

The only thing I changed in the recipe is I cut the the dough into 9 pieces and baked it in a 8" square pan. The result is a wonderfully soft bread with a little sweetness from the apple chunks. It's a really nice roll, the perfect amount of sweetness. I really liked it. Here's the recipe.

Soft Apple Roll
adapted from Daily Delicious

For the bread:
160g Bread flour
40g Cake flour
6g Instant yeast
40g Sugar
2g Salt
10g Dried milk
10g Unsalted butter
1 Egg
80g Water

For the filling:
230g Apple (peeled and cut)
25g Sugar (see note)
1 tsp Lemon juice
100ml Water
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

For the egg wash:
1 egg + 1 tbsp water

For the Icing glaze:
Icing sugar (Powdered sugar)
water

Make the dough:
1. Put all the dry ingredient into the bowl, whisk to combine. Pour the water and egg into the bowl. Use large spoon (or pastry scraper) to mix everything together, and knead briefly to bring all the ingredients together.

2. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead, you will see the dough will be elastic after about 2 minutes. Add the butter (see note) and knead by using the heel of your hands to compress and push the dough away from you, then fold it back over itself. Give the dough a little turn and repeat. Put the weight of your body into the motion and get into a rhythm. Keep folding over and compressing the dough. Knead for 10-15 minutes or until the dough is soft, pliable, smooth and slightly shiny, almost satiny.

3. Put the dough into a light buttered bowl. Let the dough rise in a warm place until double in size (can be 1 hour or 1 hour and a half check often depend on the temperature). Meanwhile, make the filling (see below).

4. Brush an 8" square pan (see note) with butter. Roll the dough into 20x30 cm square. Spread the apple over the dough, then roll into the cylinder. Cut into 9 pieces and place into the prepared pan. Let the dough rise until almost double in size (about 20 to 30 minutes).

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When the dough is ready, brush with egg wash, then put the dough into the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown. Let the bread cool on the wire rack.

6. Mix the icing sugar with water and drizzle over the roll.

Make the filling:
1. Put all the ingredients into a small pan, bring to boil and reduce the heat.
Boil until most of the water almost evaporate, remove from the heat and let cool completely.

Notes:

• *The original recipe calls for 50 g of sugar for the apple filling. I decided to cut down on the sugar because I didn't want it too sweet.
• *When you start to knead the butter into the dough, it will fall apart and look like it's completely ruined. Don't worry, keep kneading the butter into the dough and the dough will come back together.
  
• *The original recipe calls for a 18cm round pan. I decided to use an 8" square pan and cut the dough into nine pieces instead of six.
  

Scallion bread

My whole apartment smells so wonderful right now with the aroma of scallions and fresh baked bread! This recipe is from My Kitchen. Lydia from My Kitchen was so nice to translate this recipe so that I can recreate it in my own kitchen. I think the original recipe uses onions, but I wanted to use scallions instead.

The bread came together pretty quickly and I love the braiding technique, it's so pretty!! The only thing I did differently was adding one tbsp of butter in the dough. I think next time I might add some bacon bits in there. Here's the recipe.

Scallion Bread
adapted from My Kitchen

250g bread flour
2 tsp dry yeast
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
100ml warm water (40C)
1 tbsp butter, room temperature
2 large stalks of scallions, finely chopped, about 1 cup
1 Egg - for egg wash

1. bring together 125g of bread flour, yeast, sugar and water in a large mixing bowl, mix with a spatula until well combined. Add the remaining bread flour and knead until it's smooth and no longer sticky.

2. Knead in butter until it's incorporated into the dough.

3. Cover dough and rest for 30 minutes or until it is doubled in size. You may also prepare dough in bread maker.

4. Punch down dough to remove air. Divide and shape dough into 2 balls. Cover and rest for another 10 minutes.

5. Roll out each ball into 20x25cm rectangle, spread scallions over the surface.

6. Roll it up from the long side, then make a cut lengthwise leaving 2cm uncut at the end. Plait and pinch the ends to seal.

7. Let it rise for 20 minutes or until doubled in size. Egg wash and bake in the preheated oven at 350 for 15 minutes.

English pudding-Daring Baker

A few years ago, Mr. G and I went shopping in the gourmet section of Foodland. We saw a can of spotted dick and like the unsophisticated people that we are, we had a giggle fit! Guess what this month's Daring Baker challenger is? It's spotted dick!!

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

We were able to choose between a boiled pudding or a steamed pudding. I decided to make the steamed pudding and make the spotted dick variation. I've never had spotted dick before and not sure what it's supposed to taste like, but I wasn't thrilled about this dessert. The sponge by itself is very dry. It's a better with the custard sauce, but overall, not really my cup of tea. I have to say though, it was really easy to make. The time consuming part is the steaming. I let my sponge steamed for about 2 hours.

Here's the recipe.

Spotted dick

(100 grams/4 ounces) All-purpose flour
(1/4 teaspoon) salt
(1.5 teaspoons) Baking powder
(100 grams/4 ounces) breadcrumbs
(75 grams/3 ounces) Caster sugar
(75 grams/ 3 ounces) Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard)
(1) large egg
(6 to 8 tablespoons) Cold milk

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.

2. Add breadcrumbs, sugar and suet.

3. Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk

4. Turn into a buttered 1 litre/ 2pint pudding basin and cover securely with buttered greaseproof paper or aluminum foil.

5. Steam steadily for 2.5 to 3 hours

6. Turn out onto warm plate, Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or a sweetened fruit sauce.

Chocolate turtle cookies

I made these cookies for the administrative assistants at my work for AA day. They're beauties, aren't they? For how beautiful they look, they were actually really easy to make. The thing that takes the longest is probably waiting for your butter to come to room temperature. Speaking of which, I read a trick to speed up the process. Measure out your butter and put it between two pieces of wax paper, pound it with a rolling pin until it's soft. No more waiting for butter to softened. I'm not sure where I got this from, but I'm thinking such cleverness must come from Cook's Illustrated.

The AAs loved them, but I thought they weren't chocolaty enough. I think that has to do with the fact that I ran out of my good cocoa powder and had to resort to Nestle cocoa powder. (note to self and you, of course: do not buy Nestle cocoa powder!!) I love the caramel in the middle...yum!! I would suggest using a really good cocoa powder and maybe add a little extra.

Here's the recipe.

Chocolate Turtle Cookies
adapted from My Kitchen Cafe

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, separated, plus 1 egg white
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts, chopped fine (see note)
14 soft caramel candies
3 tablespoons heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners. Combine flour, cocoa, and salt in bowl. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolk, milk, and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until just combined. Refrigerate dough until firm, at least 1 hour.

2. Whisk egg white(s) in another bowl until frothy. Place walnuts in another bowl. One at a time, roll dough into 1-inch balls, dip in egg whites, then roll in walnuts. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using teaspoon measure, make indentation in center of each ball. Bake until set, 10 to 12 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking.

3. Meanwhile, microwave caramels and cream in bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Once cookies are removed from oven, gently press existing indentations with teaspoon measure. Fill each with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon caramel mixture. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

Note:

• *The original recipe calls for pecans, I only had walnuts so that's what I used.
  

Gorilla bread

I made this gorilla bread for Mr. G's potluck party last week. It was kinda last minute, so I needed something quick. I bookmarked this recipe awhile ago from Paula Deen and I thought I would give it a try. This recipe got rave reviews, but I have to say it was way too rich for me. I guess I should have known, it is a Paula Deen recipe.

I think I would prefer the normal monkey bread. This gorilla bread with the cream cheese filling is a bit of an overkill. It already has the biscuit dough which is incredibly rich. The topping with the sugar, cinnamon and walnut is yummy, but I think I would prefer to omit the cream cheese next time.

Here's the recipe if you want to give it a go.

Gorilla Bread
from Paula Deen

1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
2 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated biscuits (10 count)
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon. In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar over low heat, stirring well; set aside.

3. Cut the cream cheese into 20 equal cubes. Press the biscuits out with your fingers and sprinkle each with 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon sugar. Place a cube of cream cheese in the center of each biscuit, wrapping and sealing the dough around the cream cheese.

4. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan. Place half of the prepared biscuits in the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts. Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Place a plate on top and invert.