Irish Soda Bread - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - Fourth Installment!  The recipe is Irish Soda Bread.

Yum!  I love this kind of bread.  I will definitely make this recipe again.

This was simplicity itself, after the Rugelach.  Four ingredients...ahhh.  I was a bit skeptical, since I have made many loaves of Irish Soda Bread, but never made a white loaf without any butter in it.  The two types that my grandmother used to make (and that I have continued to make) are "Brown" (kind of like this recipe, but with the Irish-style whole wheat flour plus wheat germ) and "White" (more of a cake-like bread with dried fruit and plenty of butter in the dough).  But, I should have know to trust in Marion Cunningham ;-)  I loved the result - it was plain, but not too plain. 

The dough seemed rather wet:

 but it baked up perfectly, and was cooked through.  It even kept pretty well into the next day (despite what the recipe said about it turning "as hard as the Blarney Stone" (cliche alert ;-). 

It was great spread with jam for a mid-morning snack with tea.

Rugelach - TWD: Baking with Julia

Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia - Third Installment!  The recipe is Rugelach.

This was a project that stretched over three days:
Day 1: Made the dough and fillings (prune and apricot lekvar)
Day 2: Rolled the dough out, filled it, and rolled it up
Day 3: Sliced the rolls and baked the cookies

Calling these cookies seems like a misnomer - they are like miniature rolls!   Talk about stuffed with filling....what a crazy amount of nuts and fruit.

I used four different fillings - one for each of the four rolls:
- Apricot lekvar
- Prune lekvar
- Chocolate hazelnut spread plus fruits and nuts
- Chocolate hazelnut spread plus nuts only

So, the first two rolls followed the recipe in the book, and the second two were improvised based on the chat and ideas on the web site.

The results were all very tasty.  I do love dried fruit and nuts - these were not as popular with our household members who are more chocolate-centric :-)  I used a mix of raisins, chopped dried apricots, and dried cherries for the fruit that got sprinkled over the filling.  I used a mix of nuts as well - walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, and macadamias (had a bit of everything left from holiday baking).  It was fun to have such a wild combination, as opposed to the typical thing with one kind of nut and/or one kind of dried fruit.

Giant layer of nuts and fruit

Some notes on the recipe:

• Now that I'm looking at the photo on the TWD site, I think I put my rugelach on the sheet the wrong way - they should have been seam side down, rather than lying them down on the cut side!  Or did I just invent something new? ;-)
• The lekvar was easy to make. 
• The rolls seemed not to be securely enough rolled, and they unfurled during the baking process.  I wasn't sure how to seal the rolls shut, since they were so stuffed with filling, so maybe this is expected.
• The recipe was right to warn about watching for too much caramelizing on the bottoms of the rugelach.
• I had a fair amount of cinnamon sugar nut coating left over at the end.  I think I will save it for another baking project or sprinkling on my oatmeal.

Unrolled during baking

Chocolate Truffle Tartlets - TWD: Baking with Julia

Finished Tart

Tart being devoured - you can see the biscotti and chocolate chunks

This is the second installment of Tuesdays with Dorie:Baking with Julia. This recipe went according to the directions and wasn't too difficult.   I liked it, as I am a major chocolate fan, and my family liked it too.  I can see that my strategy to manage all this baking with my busy schedule is going to involve experimenting with advanced preparation of components of the recipes - I made the crust a couple of evenings ahead.

• Since I have no tartlet pans, I made one large 10" tart.  The crust recipe noted that it would make six 5" tartlets or one 10" tart, and it worked well in the larger pan.  I wonder if it would work in a regular springform - I guess it wouldn't look as pretty as it does with the fluted edge of a tart pan.
• I love recipes with make-ahead options, and was glad it said that crust dough could be stored in the fridge for three days.

Baked empty crust

• Very rich filling!  The large tart definitely provided more than six servings - probably closer to 15!  Would the 4.5" tartlets each be a single serving?
• Eight egg yolks - yow.  Definitely only for a special occasion.  I made meringues later in the week with a few of the leftover whites.
• It's unusual to chop up cookies to put in a tart.  I had a bit of trouble finding simple plain biscotti (I wanted basic almond biscotti).  There seemed to be plenty of embellished biscotti available - espresso-whitechocolate-driedcranberry and the like :-)
• I always feel a bit of anxiety when I read that the batter should form a ribbon - never quite sure what that should look like. These directions said that it should "form a slowly dissolving ribbon" which I thought was more descriptive than the usual ribbon instructions.

'a slowly dissolving ribbon'

White Loaves - TWD: Baking with Julia

Yum.   Where's the butter, honey, jam, Nutella....?

This is the first installment of Tuesdays with Dorie:Baking with Julia. The recipe is White Loaves.

Wow - what an easy recipe and a great result! Fabulous for toast and sandwiches (glad it made two loaves). I am an experienced bread baker, so this was kind of a no-brainer. 

Some notes:

• I am the "whole grain" queen in my household, so my family was pleasantly surprised to get homemade white bread for a change :-) 
• Kitchen Aid mixer was quite helpful for kneading. It worked hard and got warm, but handled it.
• Added a bit more (2 T.) water at the initial mixing, because it seemed a bit dry-ish. Maybe because of low humidity in the house. Was glad I did, because the dough consistency was just right.
• It did separate a bit when butter was added, so it was good to have reassurance in the recipe to expect that.
• Had to leave the house for a while after mixing it, so left bowl of dough to rise in our kitchen (temp around 64 degrees F) for two hours, and then I shaped it when I arrived home.  It was just fine - not over-risen at all.

This seems like a good 'everyday' recipe - I will definitely make it again.

Yeast proofing ("proving"?)

Finished dough

Loaves ready to rise

Another excuse for baking....

I recently heard about the Tuesdays with Dorie baking project on NPR's Talk of the Nation. What? A group obsessively baking their way through a cookbook? Sounds like something tailor-made for me! :-)