TWD: Kugelhopf

This is another Tuesdays with Dorie post, I must say I quite enjoy baking these days and I discover new recipes which I have never heard of in my life before. Last week I baked first time Rugelach and this week I baked first time Kugelhopf.


This week's recipe was chosen by Yolanda from The All Purpose Girl. You can find the recipe here or from the book on pages 61-63.

According to Dorie, Kugelhopf is half cake and half bread, to me it reminded a bit doughnut though, not bad if you like doughnuts and I do :).

This time, surprise surprise, I didn't half the recipe :)!

My version: I am lazy person and didn't even use mixer for mixing the dough like Dorie suggested to do. I mixed all ingredients together using wooden spoon and I also didn't dissolve yeast in milk. Basically I approached to the dough like it's regular pizza dough :).

My dough rose pretty well though, and it remained this way even after taking out of oven but I didn't use any foil to cover it, so no reason to open oven door either. I baked my Kugelhopf in 180 C degree oven about 25 minutes and that was pretty enough.

I used first time in my life silicon pan and I was very pleasantly surprised, I tend to prefer firm metal pans but silicon was great, I might even consider buying some more silicon dishes in future.

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

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