TWD: Rugelach

This is my first Tuesdays with Dorie post, well technically my first :). I have done before Banana bread but this doesn't really count since I wasn't member, just someone who was browsing randomly and ended up on Tuesday with Dorie page. But now, everything is official, I have the book and I am the member!

This week's recipe was chosen by Grace from Piggy's Cooking Journal. You can find the recipe here or from the book on pages 150-152.


To be honest, I have never even heard of the word Rugelach before and I have no idea how it's called in Estonian but reading the recipe, it includes all the yummie things, so I suspect the result can't be bad!

I usually halve the recipe when I cook/bake something first time, I mean even dog can't eat all the failures, so no reason to torture him with enormous amounts:)!

My version: I used strawberry jam, this was the only thick enough jam in my cupboard and the jar was already open, so strawberry it is. I used almonds, chocolate and almonds go together very well in my world. I left out sugar and cinnamon, jam was sweet enough for me and I don't like overly sweet things. I only had small bag of small and very dried raisins, so I soaked them about an hour in amaretto. Alcohol always gives a little touch to sweet things and besides better inside the cookie then somewhere else :). I didn't bother rotating my rugelach in oven, I prefered to watch TV instead :).

Half way rolling the wedges

Valuation: Smell which came from kitchen was wonderful! Rugelach taste awsome but it takes a LOT of time and patience to make them. If I'll bake them next time, I'll double the recipe, I want my effort lasts a bit longer then 5 minutes!

These little babies are ready to into oven

Recipe adapted from: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Cream Scones

It's Saturday again, amazing how much joy one weekend might bring :). Today's breakfast is again from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: From My Home to Yours, cream scones.

This is my first time when I actually bake scones, I have baked cinnamon rolls, meat pastries and some other yeast containing pastries. I really enjoyed her Basic Biscuits and I had a bit heavy cream left in fridge so scones was perfect choice.

Cream Scones

1 large egg
2/3 cup cold heavy cream
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
3/4 cup moist, plump currants

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.

2. Stir the egg and cream together.

3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly.

4. Pour the egg, cream and currants over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, come together. Don't overdo it. Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or turn it with a rubber spatula 8 to 10 times.

5. Lightly dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough. Divide it in half. Working with one piece at a time, pat the dough into a rough circle that's about 5 inches in diameter, cut it into 6 wedges and place it on the baking sheet.

6. Bake the scones for 20 to 22 minutes, or until their tops are golden and firmish. Transfer them to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for them to cool to room temperature.


My version: I think there's mistake in recipe, according to her book, she never mentions currants in instructions. I tend only read ingredient list and from instructions I read temperature and baking time, so I discovered later that there's no currants! I used raisins which I found from dark corner of my cupboard and mixed them in with flour mixture.
I have noticed Dorie's baking times don't match with my oven, I set timer 5 minutes less then recipe requires and it's more then enough.

Valuation: great for breakfast or even eating as all-day snack. They turned out really puffy and crumbly, especially good warm with cold butter.

Recipe adapted from: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Basic Biscuits

Few days ago I got from Amazon.com Dorie Greenspan's book Baking: From My Home to Yours, and since this is Saturday and I don't have to start my morning with make-up and my never ending question "what should I wear today", I had time to make something for breakfast which doesn't include only coffee and cornflakes :).

So I decided to start with biscuits since bread which I thought I had, well, apparently somebody ate it (not me!).

Basic Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 stick cold butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup cold whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Drop the butter in and, using your hands, blend the butter and flour together quickly. You can also use a pastry blending if you desire. Do this until you have a pebbly, sandy mixture.

3. Pour the milk over the dry ingredient and toss with a fork until the dough comes together.
Give the dough four quick kneads with you hands.

4. Dust a clean work surface or pastry cloth with some flour. Press the dough until it is 1/2 inch high. Using a biscuit cutter or the top of a glass cut the bisuits out. Do this as closely together as you can to get the most out of the first round. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet or stone.
Gather the scraps together, press again, cut out biscuits. Follow this procedure until all the dough is used.

5. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Remove immediately.


My version: I used plain flour, although Dorie suggest you can use 1 2/3 cups of all purpose flour and 1/3 cups cake flour, I didn't have any cake flour so I used that I had in my cupboard. I also added a bit more sugar into dough, 3 teaspoons. Instead of butter, (well, somebody obviously forgot to buy butter!) I used good-quality shortening, and I can't say it affected taste much. For cutting I used flower-shaped cookie-cutter, just because it was the only one I managed to find and flowers look much prettier then regular rounds:).

Valuation: great for breakfast or even eating as snack. They turned out really puffy and moist, especially good with butter or Nutella.

Recipe adapted from: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

TWD: Black-and-White Banana Loaf

I discovered recently one nice community Tuesday with Dorie, where people bake recipes from book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I gave it a thought and ordered myself also a copy of this book from Amazon. It takes time to arrive though but I decided to try recipes ahead, after all, we all love Internet :)

I had some bananas at home which were almost ready to go bad, so perfect to put inside some cake. I checked my pantry and result, Black-and-White Banana Loaf!

Black-and-White Banana Loaf

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 ½ ripe bananas, peeled
squirt of fresh lemon juice
grated zest of ½ lemon
1 tablespoon dark rum
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 stick plus 2 tablespoon room temperature butter
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup whole milk

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8 ½ x4 ½ x 2 ½ inch loaf pan on an insulated baking sheet.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

3. In another small bowl, mash the bananas with lemon juice, zest, then stir in the rum.

4. Melt the chocolate and 2 tbsp. butter together in a microwave or saucepan over simmering water.

5. Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter at medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the sugars and beat for 2-3 more minutes, until light and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. The batter will look curdled, and it will continue to look curdled as you add ingredients.

6. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the flour mixture, mixing only until it is just incorporated. With the mixer running, pour in the milk and when it is blended add the remaining dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl and mix in the mashed bananas. The batter will look even lumpier.

7. Pour a little less than half the batter into the bowl with melted chocolate and stir to blend. Drop alternating spoonfuls of both batters into prepared pan (or follow any of the marbling techniques on page. 229). Then, using a knife, swirl the batters taking care not to overdo it.

8. Bake for 1 hour and 20 – 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Check after 30 minutes, if the cake browns too much, cover loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it cool for 15 minutes before removing it from the pan. Continue to cool on the rack.

My version: I didn't have any light brown sugar so I replaced it with dark brown sugar and I only used half the milk which was given in recipe; otherwise I think I would have ended up with cocktail :-)! I used mixer only to beat butter and blend eggs into batter. I can't say my batter was lumpy though. I baked the loaf in 175 degree oven (Celsius!), so hotter then recipe says but it got done within an hour.

Valuation: Tastes better as cold, when eat warm, nutmeg taste is too intensive. Not sure if I'll bake this loaf again, probably not. It's not bad, inside is pleasantly juicy, great with tea as breakfast but nothing spectacular.

Recipe adapted from: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan