Apple & Cherry Buns

I found the recipe for Apple Buns here and decided to give them a try. I decided to make both apple buns and try cherry buns so I made a double batch of dough.

Ingredients (for a double batch)
Dough
2 c milk, scalded
1/2 c sugar
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
5 tsp yeast
6 c flour

Fillings
#1.  2 - 3 apples peeled and diced
3 tbsp. butter
1/2 c brown sugar
cinnamon

#2.  for cherry filling I used the above with 1-2 cups pitted frozen cherries instead of apples
cornstarch for thickening

#3.  I had extra dough so mixed up some spiced apricot jam, chopped nuts and chopped raisins.  I did not cook this filling but used it as is.

Scald milk and then mix with sugar, oil and salt.  Cool until lukewarm and then add yeast.  Let sit 10 to 15 minutes until it becomes frothy.  Mix in flour and knead for 10 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl to rest and rise until double in size.

I made the dough first and while it was rising, I made the fillings.

Melt butter in pan and add brown sugar.  Stir to combine, then let caramelize at medium high heat.  Stir only enough to keep from burning. 

 

Add apples and cinnamon and cook until apples are soft and mixture has thickened.  Let cool before using.

 

For the cherry filling, I added some cornstarch as it was cooking because they are much juicier than the apples.  I just sprinkled on a bit at a time and let it cook until thick.  Cool before using.

 

The original recipe was for 16 buns but with it doubled, I only got 24.  Roll the dough into a circle and the fun begins.

 

I used this video as guide for shaping the buns.  I watched it numerous times as my fingers kept forgetting what I wanted them to do.  Place a spoonful of filling in the centre of the dough.

 

Pleat the dough following the video making sure the filling is all inside.

 

Continue pleating until entire edge is done.  Once my fingers got the feel of the action, it was fairly easy, but I had to stop and rewatch the video because they would sometimes fumble and forget.

 

 

Once the dough is in a nice bunch, twist the dough as they do in the video to close and seal the bun.

 

Voila!  I was impressed with myself!  The buns actually looked nice.

 

Place buns twisted side down on a baking sheet.  You can brush top of bun with egg wash if you wish.  (I didn't)

 

Bake in a 400°F oven for 15 minutes.

 

Cool on rack.  I found that a few of the jam and cherry buns leaked a bit and the filling burnt to the pan.  I think they were not sealed as good as the others but also those fillings were juicier than the apple filling.

 

All three fillings were tasty.  Enjoy!  ;)

Focaccia Bread

I decided to try my hand at Focaccia Bread.  I found three recipes that I combined to make my own. http://annastable.blogspot.ca/2011/01/no-knead-tomato-focaccia.html   &
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/focaccia_bread_with_rosemary/   &  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/focaccia-bread/


Ingredients
1/2 c warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast

1 1/2 c water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
4+ c flour
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
pinch pepper

1 c mozzarella cheese, grated
1/2 c parmesan cheese, grated
2 cloves garlic, minced
sundried tomatoes
olive oil


I had never used sundried tomatoes in my cooking.  So last year I decided to dehydrate some Roma tomatoes.  After they were dried, I froze them.

For this recipe, I decided to try two methods of using the tomatoes.  The first was to rehydrate in water.

The second was to rehydrate in olive oil.

I also minced some garlic for the recipe as well.

To make the dough:  Stir the sugar into the warm water and add yeast.  Set aside for about 10 minutes so yeast can start to work.  Mix the spices into a couple cups flour.  Mix the water, oil, salt and yeast and add spiced flour.  Different spices can be used - some use rosemary, etc. but I am partial to oregano.  Add rest of flour, mixing until you have a soft dough.  Knead until smooth and elastic.  Grease bowl with olive oil and roll dough around until coated.  Cover and let rise until double.

Grate mozzarella cheese and set aside.

Divide dough in half and press each onto a well oiled cookie sheet.  Press out dough until it fills the sheet.  Set aside to rise for about 30 minutes.

Use your thumb or finger to press indentations into the dough in rows.

Drizzle on some olive oil making sure it fills many of the indentations.

For one pan, I sprinkled mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

For the second, I sprinkled on the minced garlic.

Then I added the two types of tomatoes to see which were better.  On the left are the oil ones and on the right the ones soaked in water.  Then sprinkle with the two cheeses.

Bake at 425°F for about 15 minutes or until nicely browned.  This was the cheese focaccia.

This was the garlic sundried tomato one.  Again the oil tomatoes are on the left and the water rehydrated ones on the right.

Remove them from the pan.  Cut into squares and enjoy.

The cheesy focaccia was very tasty with the herbs and cheese combination.  It was good the second, even cold.  The tomato one would have been a great addition to a spaghetti dinner.  The water dehydrated tomatoes turned out to be similar in taste to using fresh tomatoes.  The ones I soaked in oil tasted better but burned more easily because they weren't so moist.  So I have a dilemma next time I try it in how to do the tomatoes. 

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where things go wrong and you figure you should climb back into bed?  Well, this was one of those.

It started with Lulu coming into my room and waking me up.  I usually sleep in later than she does but she stays quiet until I get up.  She usually didn't come into my bedroom at all, but several times in the last week or so she's been sitting there waiting for me to wake up.  Today, she decided to start chattering and woke me up.  When I got up, she squawked and yakked and headed over to her nesting box.

It usually takes Lulu several hours to lay an egg.  She sits and mutters and peers out trying to see what I'm doing. Since her nesting box is back in the corner of the closet/pantry, she can't see much.  But she's so nosy!  If I'm in the kitchen, she seems to be asking, "Mom.  Mom! What are you doing in there?  Are you getting food?  Do I hear you in the fridge?  Are you eating something?  Mom. Mom?"

Usually I take Lulu with me when I go shopping but went on my own since she was in her nesting box and I didn't want to wait until she was finished laying.  I needed some milk and eggs for the buns I was making.  When I got back, Lulu was still in her box so all was fine.

Since Easter is on its way, I started by making some Hot Cross Buns.  I featured them before on my blog. http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.com/2011/04/hot-cross-buns.html

First off, I didn't melt the marg.  It had been sitting out and was soft so I figured it was fine.  NOT!  It didn't melt completely in the milk so I had large lumps to work with.  It would have been fine if the milk had been hotter but by the time I thought of that, they were already in the mixing bowl.  It was not that big of a deal because it worked out in the end but it was the start of my goof-filled day. 

The store didn't have the deluxe fruit I usually use so I bought a container of glazed pineapple chunks and another of glazed cherries.  I had to chop them and while I was chopping them up, I added the flour to the mixer.  I forgot about mixing the fruit with the flour like I usually do so it was a chore to add the fruit and currants when the dough was already all mixed.  The fruit didn't seem to want to stay in the dough - anytime a piece worked its way to the surface, it would fall out.  I had to take the dough out of the mixer and knead it by hand to try and keep the fruit in the dough.

While this was happening, Lulu laid her egg and jumped out of her box and started towards the back door chattering the whole way.  I put her out by the garage and went back to my baking.

While the Hot Cross Buns were rising, I decided to start on my other buns.  I was going to use the recipe for Carrot Rolls that I featured earlier http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.com/2011/04/hot-cross-buns.html  and adjust it.  I decided to use pumpkin instead of carrots since I have quite a bit of pumpkin in the freezer.  I brought it out the night before and thawed it in a strainer to remove the excess moisture.  I decided to add 1/2 tsp of ginger to the 1/2 tsp nutmeg because in my mind pumpkin seems to need ginger. 

Every thing was going nicely until I ran out of flour up here and went down to get some out of the cold room.  I knew I had a partial bag there but didn't realize that it was whole wheat.  Since I didn't want to run back to the store, the buns now were going to be whole wheat.  I probably used half and half white and whole wheat. 

I forgot that in the past I divided the dough in half when kneading it in my mixer.  I have found that if I don't divide bread dough, it climbs the dough hook and makes its way up into the slot where you attach the hook.  Then you have to dig out dough with a toothpick!  Well, that was me today.  I don't know where my head was because I didn't catch the dough before it got away on me.  It is a pain in the butt kneeling on the floor twisting your neck so you can sort of see what you're doing.

While this was going on I checked on Lulu and she was in the front yard squawking up a storm.  It wasn't alarm-type of squawks but she was being very vocal.  I went back and got the mixer all cleaned and the dough kneaded. 

While the dough was rising, I checked on Lulu again and she was at the back door wanting in.  She muttering and chattered as she came in and hustled over to her nesting box and jumped in.  I think she must have forgot that she laid her egg because she sat there again for over an hour.  When she was done laying her invisible egg,  she jumped out, grabbed a few bites of food and a drink and headed to the door to go out again!  Crazy girl!

When I was cleaning up the kitchen, I found that somehow I hadn't attached the dough hook correctly and now it is stuck in the machine.  I did that once before and needed help from my husband to remove it.  Well, so far no luck at removing it and my husband won't be back for two weeks so it may just sit until he returns.

Now on to making the buns.  The Hot Cross Buns were fiddly because the fruit didn't want to stay in the dough.  I had currants and bits of fruit that kept falling out and needed to be pushed back into the buns.  I also had trouble cutting the crosses - maybe the dough was softer or I used a different knife but several of the buns got a bit mangled.  When they were finished baking, I forgot to remove them from the pan to cool and only remembered after I had iced them so I got my hands all sticky taking them out.

The Pumpkin Rolls turned out fine but are not a nice orange like the carrot ones.  They look just like whole wheat buns.  I also forgot that carrots and sweet potatoes are sweeter than pumpkin so could have added a bit more sugar.  The spice was a waste of time too because the whole wheat flour overpowers the bit of spice I used.

Then when I was finished and reading my email, I hit my glass of water with my elbow and spilled water all over the desk, papers and floor.   Thank goodness, I missed the computer.

Anyway, enough ranting as the buns taste fine and I now have almost 5 dozen buns in the freezer.  Hopefully this was my goof day for the year.

OH! I got an email saying that my laptop has been shipped - so soon, very soon I'll have Lulu pics for you. ;)

Placinta - Fried Dough

My mom would make these as a treat when we were young.  She would use dough leftover from making cinnamon buns.  I didn't know how to spell "Placinta" so I turned to Goggle.  It turns out, that Placinta is often stuffed with pumpkin or plums or some savory mixture.  We never had the stuffed ones, so I only have a recipe for the plain fried ones. According to recipes I found on the Internet, most stuffed Placinta are baked but some may be fried.

Placinta (a Romanian word) has many names around the world - fried dough, fry bread, elephant's ears, beaver's tails, doughboys, dough gobs and many more. 

They sometimes turn up at fairs and exhibitions and are covered with pie filling.  Most often they are sprinkled with sugar or a sugar/cinnamon mix.

I use the recipe from my Purity Cookbook for Basic Sweet Dough.

Ingredients

1 c milk

1/3 c plus 1 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

1/3 c shortening

1/2 c lukewarm water

1 pkg yeast

1 egg

5 1/2 to 6 c flour

Scald milk and pour into a bowl with shortening (I use marg), salt and 1/3 c sugar.  Stir until shortening is melted and cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve 1 tsp sugar in 1/2 c lukewarm water.  Sprinkle on yeast and let stand 10 minutes.

Stir briskly and add to milk mixture along with beaten egg.  Stir well.

Beat in flour until able to turn onto floured board and knead for 5 minutes.  (I use my Cuisinart and add flour bit at a time until the dough forms a ball and doesn't stick to the sides.  I then let it knead for 5 minutes.) 

Shape into a smooth ball.

Place dough in greased bowl.  Cover and let rise until double in a warm place.  (I put mine bowl in the oven with the oven light on - it stays warm and is out of drafts.)

Cut off a small chunk of dough and roll it into a flattened circle.  You don't have to be exact.

I roll mine all out before I start frying them so the grease doesn't smoke too much.  I get 9 pieces from the above recipe.

In a deep frying pan melt 1/2 c of lard and keep it at a high heat.  The amount of lard depends on your size of fry pan as you want it halfway up the side of your Placinta when you are frying them.

Do not leave the pan for a second.  These take less than a minute a side.  Be careful when you turn them so you don't splash yourself with the hot grease.

  

Continue frying and flipping them until they are all cooked.  You can see how the shapes are different so perfect circles don't matter.

Drain them on paper towels to remove excess grease.

Sprinkle them with sugar or sugar and cinnamon and eat warm.

As I mentioned at the beginning, some places serve them topped with pie filling.

I like mine with sugar.  Some people also eat them with jam or honey. 

Try some Placinta, Elephant Ears, Doughboys or whatever you want to call them.  Enjoy! ;)