TWD- Kugelhopf

This week's recipe was chosen by Yolanda of The All-Purpose Girl. I wasn't expecting much- some kind of bread thing with raisins doesn't appeal to me. Even less so after I read how long it was going to take me to make this. I halved the recipe and used a muffin pan and used chocolate chips instead of raisins. And yes, I should've read this recipe more carefully in advance since it's 8pm on Monday night and my dough is rising in the oven. Thank goodness for the "bread proofing" setting!Ok, so past the refrigeration and second rising, (which, I admit, I cut short), and into the oven the Kugelhopf (muffins) went. I was pleasantly surprised how much they puffed up after the first 10 minutes. I put the foil tent over them and that's about when this wonderful, buttery, sweet smell starting wafting through the kitchen. After another 10 minutes, I took them out because they were golden brown already. I brushed butter over them and sprinkled sugar on the tops. I convinced my husband to try some tonight so I sifted powdered sugar over them and we dug in. WOW! They were really good- warm and buttery, just the slightest perfect amount of sweetness. I admit I really didn't think I'd like these, but they're pretty amazing.
Thanks to Yolanda for the great pick! Check out the TWD blogroll for other results!

Chicken (Curry) Pot Pie

Ok, so it's not quite fall yet here in CA, but it's close enough. So I decided to make chicken pot pie, one of my favorite comfort food dishes.

Tender vegetables and chicken in a smooth, creamy sauce, topped with a flaky, cripy crust... the perfect round-up to a cool(ish) Fall day. I added a tiny bit of curry powder to the sauce for a slightly different flavor, just enough to taste it in the background without overpowering the lightness of the dish. I also used frozen peas and corn because that's what my kids will eat, but you can use whatever veggies you like.

Chicken (Curry) Pot PIe

Pastry Topper (from BHG.com)
¾ cup sliced celery
½ cup chopped carrot
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon curry powder
1-1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
2-1/2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
½ cup loose-pack frozen peas
½ cup frozen corn

Directions
1. Prepare Pastry Topper; set aside.

2. In a large saucepan cook celery, and carrot in oil over medium-high heat until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour, salt, pepper, and curry powder. Add broth and milk all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in chicken, peas, and corn. Pour into a 13” x 9” baking dish.

3. Place pastry over chicken mixture in dish. Turn edges of pastry under and cut slits in the top to allow steam to escape.

4. Bake, uncovered, in a 400 degree F oven for 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Pastry Topper: In a medium bowl stir together 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in 1/3 cup shortening until dough pieces are pea-size. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon cold water over part of the mixture; gently toss with a fork. Push moistened dough to side of bowl. Sprinkle an additional 3 to 4 tablespoons cold water over remaining flour mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until all dough is moistened. Form into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 13x9-inch rectangle.

TWD- Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes

I know you came here looking for something called Rugelach, but I missed last week's TWD because of this, this and this and I really wanted to make them. And also, I didn't so much want to make anything with raisins/currants and nuts. Although the cream cheese dough sounds pretty good.
I was actually planning on making these cupcakes for a Halloween party on Friday night, but I ran out of time/energy so I decided to make them for our missionary dinner guests tonight. These yummy diddies were chose by Clara (whose blog is so great, I might add). I love the pic in the book- so simple with silver dragees. I just topped mine with Heath bits. I was a little disppointed that my glaze wasn't as shiny as the books, but they were still delicious!Here's the recipe. And if you want to see some rugelach, go here!

My weekend- Jungle Cake (cake 3 of 3)

Yes! We're in the home stretch. This cake was for my co-worker's daughter's 1st birthday. She and I were pregnant at the same time (which I'm sure our company loved) and her little Olivia was born just a couple months after the Octopus. I was excited to make this cake- my friend gave me a napkin that they were using as a guide for the design of the cake. So cute.The first tier is lemon cake with lemon cream cheese buttercream and the second tier is red velvet with cream cheese buttercream. Because I'm such a loser with our new camera, I really hope the birthday girl's parents got some better (i.e. non-blurry) pics of the cake! :(

My weekend- Dirty 30 Cake (cake 2 of 3)

For the record, I didn't come up with the name of this cake. A friend called me up late last week, saying her friend was having a birthday party on Saturday night and her cake-baker had a family emergency and couldn't make her cake so she asked if I could make it. Knowing I had two other cakes this weekend, I hesitated. But then I thought, oh well if it's a simple design, I have time. So when I spoke to the birthday girl, she just wanted off-white fondant with leopard print ribbon along the base. Simple. For 80 people. Oh, wait...
This is the largest cake I've made. I was a bit nervous about the 12" layer since I hadn't ever covered a cake that big, but it turned out ok. I was also nervous about not being the one delivering it because the cake was pretty big and pretty heavy and my poor friend who was taking it to the party probably weighs the same as the cake. But I think it made it there in tact and still standing. The tiers are all red velvet with italian meringue cream cheese buttercream.
So, we got a new camera and I'm not good with it. Obviously, this picture is crooked and the top tier did not look like that in person. I should've had my husband take the pics! :)

My weekend- Pokemon Cake (cake 1 of 3)

For Gabe's 16th birthday, his mom asked me to make a Pokemon cake with "any of the first 150 characters." Since I had no idea what Pokemon was except for the yellow guy, I was nervous. Luckily, Wikipedia has Pokemon information galore and I was able to pick a handful that hopefully would be in the same environment together. The cake is covered in fondant and the figures and decorations are fondant/gumpaste. Both tiers were banana cake with vanilla italian meringue buttercream. I used Warren Brown's Mr Banana Legs recipe from Cake Love. AMAZING!

DB- Homemade Pizza

Ok, so I'm a little behind, but once you see what I've been doing, I think you'll agree that it's been a hectic week. This month's (October) Daring Bakers Challenge, chosen by Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums was for homemade pizza from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart. This was so great- I loved that you could make the dough in about 10 minutes and leave it in the fridge for a couple days, and then just pull it out, add some toppings, pop it in the oven for a few minutes and you're done! I just chose basic toppings- olives and artichoke hearts. Beansy and her sis don't care for anything too sophisticated. I'd love to try it with proscuitto, fresh mozzerella and basil.

~ BASIC PIZZA DOUGH ~
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.
Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled -

1 3/4 Tsp Salt 1 Tsp Instant yeast 1/4 Cup Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with) 1 3/4 Cups Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C) 1 Tb sugar Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting
DAY ONE
Method:
1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).
2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.
NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.
3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper. 4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).
NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts. 5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.
NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.
6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.
7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.
NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil(a few tablespooons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.
DAY TWO
8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch and 5 inches in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours. 9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F).
NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.
10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.
NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.
During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and reflour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.
In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again.
You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.
11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches - for a 6 ounce), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.
12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.
NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.
13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.
NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.

If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pan to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.
14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.