Semolina Bread & Berry Galette

In honor of Julia Child's 100th birthday I decided to catch up on two recipes from the Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia baking group.

Cutting in the butter

First Berry Galette!  This has to be one of my favorites so far in this adventure of baking through this monstrous book (I am now realizing how long it is going take and how old Rhiannon is going to be when I am done).

Rolled dough

The dough was a cinch to make. Resting it in the fridge and rolling it with ample flour made it a dream to work with.  No more pie dough for me, if given the choice; this rustic dessert has pie beat for simplicity and ease.  And the taste was comparable if not better.  The additional cornmeal in the dough added an interesting complex crunch and bite.




And the uncooked filling allowed the the fruits flavor to come through and shine.  The better the fruit, the better the galette.   (So, if I had sub par fruit, I guess I would consider a pie again which would allow me to cook the filling, hiding the fruits' imperfection.)  For this go around, I chose blueberry apricot since this is what I found most abundant and interesting at the farmer's market.  It turned out to be a fantastic combination.  Although I did forget to add the tablespoon of butter over the fruit prior to baking and this left the fruit to have a bit of tartness the butter would have balanced.  Next time.  Because for this recipe, there will be a next time.  Maybe next week?  Maybe tomorrow?

Here are the links to this great recipe: Tomato Thymes and The Kitchen Lioness


And now for Semolina Bread which I did bake in time to post but never got around to posting about.  It might have been because I didn't care for the end product, as the loaf slowly grew stale on my counter top.  The recipe was simple, easy and interesting with the excessive salt content and addition of semolina flour.  But I can't imagine baking it again as I can't imagine wanting to eat it again.

The sponge

The final product

After that review, if you are still interested in making the recipe, check out the hosts' blogs at Keep it Luce or Way to My Family's Heart to find the exact recipe.

Here is Rhiannon, the now-crawling-monster, getting into her older brother's toys much to his chagrin.

Blueberry Nectarine Pie

Nectarines?  Really?  Nectarines?  Don't they mean peaches?  Prior to trying this recipe, I had never heard of or even thought of using nectarines in a pie.  But really what is the difference between the two?  Not much really.  Genetically they are extremely similar.  Peaches are fuzzy, nectarines are not.    Beyond that, nectarines have a bit more nutritional value with more Vitamin A and C and potassium.  And as far as pies are concerned, taste is the only thing that matters, and they basically taste the same, do they not?

I had planned to do this recipe while at home last week but time escaped (as it usually does) and I found myself copying the recipe and packing it in the car for our trip to central California this week.  I was hoping to employ the baking expertise of my mother-in-law as well as the babysitting expertise of my sister-in-law.  Pies have never been my friend in the baking world.   My crusts are always difficult to rollout regardless of what recipe I use.   It's always in pieces with jagged edges and holes.  I have never gotten the crust to look like pictures in recipe books.  How do they make it look like pizza dough anyway?  And believe me I have tried almost all the tricks in the books (except for a marble counter- is that the key?  a marble counter?).  

We picked up local, fresh nectarines and blueberries at the grocery store; the nectarines were not as ripe as I was hoping but as the recipe called for cooking them, I figured it wouldn't matter too much.   My mother-in-law picked a lemon from her tree for the zest and juice (gotta love California).  The filling was simple and easy to prepare and definitely needed that lemon juice as it was cloyingly sweet without it. 

The crust calls for a mixture of shortening and butter.  I tend to avoid shortening at all costs in my baking as it scares me to eat it. Had I been home, I may have tried all butter but my mother-in-law had a container of Crisco right there in the pantry so I figured, this one time will be ok, right?  I mixed everything by hand and it came together easily even in 97 degree heat.  Rolling it out, I had my same old troubles: jagged edges, holes in the middle, transfer mishaps.  I patched it altogether and even had to roll the top crust twice- yikes.  It looked rather perfect, but I feared the crust would be as tough and hard as all my previous pie attempts.

It baked for the full 50 minutes the recipe called for and the house smelled amazing.  We had the patience to let it cool mostly because warm pie at 4pm in central California sounds almost miserable.  At 7pm, it was almost divine.  

This crust recipe worked!  It remained flaky and light despite the double rolling and all the patching.  The flavor balanced the filling well with a healthy amount of salt but it did lack a bit of the all butter creaminess.  Overall, I think I have found a winning crust recipe if I can bring myself to use shortening again.  Maybe I can justify it by always using nectarines instead of peaches.

And here is Rhiannon cheering on her favorite Olympians.

As a side note, I did indeed complete the Semolina Bread recipe from 2 weeks ago but never got around to completing a post about it... maybe I'll post in the next week.

Here are the links for the recipes:
http://thatskinnychickcanbake.blogspot.com/
http://manchegoskitchen.typepad.com/

Hazelnut Biscotti

Biscotti, biscotti, biscotti.  How I love thee.  How I love to be able to eat a cookie in the morning and not feel the least bit guilty!   Because of this, I have made a number of biscotti recipes over the years and have also come to love how simple they are to make.  These hazelnut numbers were definitely easy, but they did require an extra step of peeling and toasting hazelnuts (which I would normally not bother with, since it goes against the whole point of simplicity).  

To peel or skin the hazelnuts usually requires a lot rubbing with towels and even with a lot of effort the skins usually stay on.  This recipe uses a baking soda bath to get the skins off and it works just fabulously (but I did read from one of our other group members that it can stain pots- so be sure to use an old or aluminum pot if you do this).  

Toasted.

In the peeling process.

Once the hazelnuts were ready then it was a simple batter, shaped into sticky logs, and baked.   Once they cooled a bit, they were sliced and baked again to get that crispiness so particular to biscotti.  The recipe suggested baking these on cooling racks to avoid having to flip them all over halfway through the second baking period, but I only have one cooling rack and had to do it the old fashioned way.  Not a big deal.

The sticky logs prior to the first baking.

Logs cooling, ready to be cut.

To check out this recipe follow these links:

Katrina of Baking and Boys

Jodi of Homemade and Wholesome 

And I have decided to include a picture and maybe a little tidbit of Rhiannon with my twice monthly blog entries since I am "Baking with Rhiannon".  I thought it might be nice to note her progress along with all my baking progress.  So here she is....

Car camping at the coast.

She's almost 9 months.  She's eating tons of food (not the biscotti, but maybe they would make good teething biscuits?) and starting to commando crawl all over the place.  Time to re-babyproof...

French Strawberry Cake

My friend asked me last week if any of the Tuesday with Dorie recipes had failed.  I replied that they hadn't, that the recipes are so specific and detailed it would be hard to have a failure.

Well, that was last week.

And this is this week.

Genoise.  It failed.  My first failure.  I now realize it will be the first among many.   I now know the butter I mixed into my ever so carefully beaten batter was too hot.  I only realized this, because after this flub, I scoured the internet for Julia's video making genoise and watched it intently looking for my mistake.   Ah, the butter.  Usually my favorite part of a recipe but this time, my nemesis.  

I went ahead and finished the recipe.  I am not sure why but I wanted to see what the whole recipe was supposed to be like at least on the outside if not on the inside.

I picked up fresh Hood strawberries at the market.  They were gorgeous and super sweet.  Sugaring them went without a problem, and they were by far the best part of this recipe.

Whipping the cream was another failure.  I whipped it too long.  Right when I was about to turn the mixer off, it turned from smooth and silky to chunky and stiff.

I was so tempted to try this recipe again right on the spot, but I know we are doing more recipes based on genoise so I held back.  In the morning, I scraped the whipped frosting off the cake and gathered up the leftover sugared strawberries, and spread it all over fresh pancakes.  That was not a failure.

For the recipe click on the links below:

Sophia’s Sweets 

Allison of Sleep Love Think Dine

Oasis Naan

Final product- Oasis Naan

These big little dough poufs were just fine, not amazing, not bad, just fine.  I am racking my brain trying to think of why they were just so.

They were a bit chewier than expected.  I think I followed the recipe correctly and did everything it said.    I don't think I overworked the dough at any point, although I must say, I had to add a bit more flour than the recipe stated.  I probably added a good 1/2 cup more than it stated in the ingredients list because the dough remained sticky after I added all that it called for.  I kneaded for 10 minutes and the dough felt right at that time.  But still the chewiness...

The flavor was lacking.  Maybe I didn't add enough green onions or cumin seeds.  Or maybe salt.  The first two I made I forgot to add the salt along with the onions and seeds and added it after they came out of the oven.  And come to think of it I ate one of those with dinner.  The next morning I had one from a later batch, and it was better.  But still the blandness...

The dinner I paired it with was not good.  More than anything about the recipe or my execution, I think this is the source of its ho-humness.  

Ready to bake.

Case in point: I saved some of the risen dough in the fridge for the next morning (as there was no way we could have or should have eaten all eight in one night).  In the morning I prepared them the same but in place of onions and cumin I used cinnamon and sugar.  Paired with coffee, they were better than average.  And the salt in the dough nicely balanced out the sugar on top.  

Maybe I just need to make these again and see if the same things happen.  And make them with a stellar dinner (maybe one picked up from my friend's newly opened fabulous Indian street food restaurant- Bollywood Theater).  They were simple and easy and when it comes down to it, there is not much to dislike about freshly made dough poufs.  

For the recipe, check out our Baking with Julia/ Tuesdays with Dorie hosts:

Always Add More Butter  

Of Cabbages & King Cakes

Pecan Sticky Buns

I DID IT!  I was pretty sure I was not going to do this recipe.  I had slotted some time this past weekend to make these buns but after a long week of working, putting kiddos to bed, waking up with a teething baby, fighting a cold... it was looking doubtful.  There were signs upon signs telling me not to put one more thing on my plate (even if it was a giant plate of gooey, yummy sticky pecan buns).  Despite this, I picked up my friend's stand mixer on Friday night, still playing along with the calendar on my iPhone that stated "Pecan rolls" on Saturday.  And then I woke up Saturday, and said to myself, "Wait... I don't need to do this.  This baking group is just for fun and if I made these rolls right now it would not be fun, at all.  And if I really want a pecan bun I can go buy one down the street."   I even entertained the thought of dropping out of the baking group altogether.  I have enough things to do that aren't by choice right now, so the few things I do chose to do need to be fulfilling and rewarding and relaxing and not stressful.  That's a tall order.

So Saturday came and went and I didn't even think about the recipe.  Not even once.

The proofed sponge.

Sunday was a different story.  It must have been the 4-5 hour stretch of sleep I got the night before.  I had more energy.  And somewhere in the midst of naps and diapers and gardening I made the brioche sponge and then the brioche dough.  And it was fun.  It was like no other dough I have made and using the stand mixer was revolutionary for me.

The dough chilled overnight and Monday is a day off of work for me, so I was around the house enough to piece together the rest of the recipe throughout the day.  I wound up eating my Pecan Sticky Bun at 9pm on Monday night with a glass of milk (I debated whether or not to pair it with a glass of wine).  Not quite like I had envisioned in the morning with a cup of coffee but it was glorious.  And it was fun.  And it was way better than anything I could have bought.

Ready to bake.

My baking notes:
- I pretty much followed the recipe without variation.
- I used all the butter.  And I laminated the dough.   I would do the same next time.
- I upped the cinnamon to 1/2 tsp and I am glad I did.
- The mixer I borrowed was a Kitchen Aid Professional Series mixer and it didn't even break a sweat.
- I have 1/2 the recipe in my freezer- maybe this one will be made for breakfast!
- On one roll, I didn't trim the end and the bun came out all whompus so I would definitely trim all ends.

Look at all that butter!

For the complete recipe see our hosts:
Nicole of Cookies on Friday
Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat

Hungarian Shortbread

I'm about to eat another one of these buggers.  I am a sucker for shortbread.  Any version really.  I think it's all the butter.   My husband tells me they are even better today (day #3).  So, I won't regret eating another one.   After all I need to see if that is really the case, scientifically speaking.

I followed this recipe without variation.  I even made the vanilla- rhubarb jam as it was described.  The jam turned out quite runny, so I turned it back on the heat for a bit longer to reduce it a bit, but then I think I had too little jam.  As a result the sweet shortbread far outweighs the tart rhubarb jam, but when I do get a bite that balances the two, the desert is quite perfect.  It's just that, this doesn't happen enough in this go-around.  Next time, more rhubarb jam.

And I think there will be another time for this recipe.  It was simple but the result was decadent enough to bely it's simplicity.  I envision this one around the holidays with cranberry preserves...

For the full recipe see our hosts for this week:


Lynette of 1smallkitchen
Cher of The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler…

of the Tuesdays with Dorie/ Baking with Julia baking community