Devil’s Food White-Out Cake

I have a love-hate relationship with celebration cakes.  You know what I’m talking about – those tall, multi-layered, gorgeous, frosting-covered works of art that are meticulously decorated and, if all is right in the world, elicit a chorus of oohs and aahs from the crowd.  I love making them, I do; but I don’t have a ton of experience with them, and that means when I do bake them, I agonize over making them look perfect.  And of course, they never turn out as perfect as I want them to be – there is, after all, a reason I’m not a professional pastry chef.  So in the end, as I gaze at the imperfect cake that I spent hours making and obsessing over, the Type-A lawyer in me fights back tears of frustration and inadequacy.

Those Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies?  I made those for a colleague’s birthday last month.  Even though I wanted to show up to work and impress with a pretty birthday cake, I just didn’t have the time that week to bake and assemble a respectable cake.  The great thing about most cookies?  They are easy and fast.  And luckily those turned out to be the greatest chocolate chunk cookie I’d ever made, so everyone was happy.

Then last week, it was another work friend’s birthday, and I wanted to bake something.  The cake question came up again – to cake, or not to cake?  Do I go big or go home?  I had time to spare that week, so I decided to go big.  And I picked a good one: Dorie Greenspan’s Devil’s Food White-Out Cake, which is pictured on the cover of her excellent book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The cake-making wasn’t a complete disaster, but that did not stop me from spewing a few bitter Tweets, giving the play-by-play of everything that went wrong.  First, I baked my two cakes in 9 inch, and not 8 inch, pans, which resulted in two perfectly delicious cakes that were too thin to cut into layers.  Since my goal was a tall 3-layer cake, I remedied the situation by making another batch of cakes.  Second, while I was slicing the tops of the cake layers to make them even and flat, I also sliced a finger open.  Yes, I am incredibly clumsy.

The Italian meringue frosting, which tastes like marshmallow (it is AMAZING), went flawlessly, and the assembly of the cake with the frosting went off without a hitch.  Then, instead of putting cake crumbs over the whole cake, I decided to get ambitious; I thought, “I should write Happy Birthday on the cake!”  So I covered the sides in crumbs, whipped up a quick ganache, and let the ganache cool and thicken up while I prepped some piping bags.  And then the anxiety hit over writing letters in ganache.  It turns out ganache is pipable, but not quite as smooth as I would have liked.  The message came out neat enough, but I would have loved for it to look better.  I managed to get ganache all over my kitchen floor, and also noticed after I finished that I somehow got a decent amount of ganache in the corner of my left eye.

Whew … so there’s my list of complaints, but they are all complaints about myself.  The actual Devil’s Food Cake and the marshmallowy frosting is really, really delicious, and I highly recommend you try it!  The cake is moist and chocolatey, the frosting is to die for.  And while I decided to make more trouble for myself by decorating the top of the cake, the original recipe’s suggestion of putting cake crumbs over the entire cake is the easiest, most fool-proof way of decorating a cake.  No matter how it looks in the end, rest assured it will taste great.

One year ago: Broccoli Cheese Soup

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours; written about many places, such as the New York Times

Makes 1 3-layer, 8 inch cake

If you use 9-inch cake pans, which is what I had on hand, the two cakes that this recipe makes will be too thin to slice in half (which you do in order to make the 4 layers).  If you only have 9 inch pans, double the recipe for the cake if you want a 3 layer cake.

Ingredients

For the cake:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch process, but you can use non-Dutch process as well)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup boiling water
4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

For the filling and frosting:
1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 large)
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1.  Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Butter two 8-by-2-inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess and line the bottoms with parchment or wax paper.  Or just spray the pans with baking non-stick spray, line the bottoms with parchment, then spray the parchment too. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

2.  To make the cake: Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.  Add the sugars and continue to beat for another 3 minutes.  Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla; don’t be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate.  When it is fully incorporated, add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter.  At this point, the batter will be thick, like frosting.  Still working on low speed, mix in the boiling water, which will thin the batter considerably.  Switch to a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl and stir in the chopped chocolate. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with the rubber spatula.

3.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point.  Mine were done at the 25 minute mark, so start checking at 20 minutes.  When fully baked, the cakes will be springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean.  Don’t worry if the tops have a few small cracks. Transfer the cake pans to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them, and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up. (The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.)

4.  When you are ready to fill and frost the cake, inspect the layers. If the cakes have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. With the same knife, slice each layer horizontally in half. Set 3 layers aside and crumble the fourth layer; set the crumbs aside.

5.  To make the filling and frosting: Put the egg whites in a clean, dry mixer bowl or in another large bowl.  Have a candy thermometer at hand.
Put the sugar, cream of tartar and water in a small saucepan and stir to combine.  Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, cover the pan and boil for 3 minutes.  Uncover, clip the thermometer on the side of the pot, making sure the tip of the thermometer is at the bottom of the pot. Allow the syrup to boil until it reaches 242 degrees on the candy thermometer. While the syrup is cooking, start beating the egg whites.

6.  When the syrup is at about 235 degrees, begin beating the egg whites on medium speed with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer. If the whites form firm, shiny peaks before the syrup reaches temperature, reduce the mixer speed to low and keep mixing the whites until the syrup catches up. With the mixer at medium speed, and standing back slightly, carefully pour in the hot syrup, pouring it between the beater(s) and the side of the bowl. Splatters are inevitable — don’t try to scrape them into the whites, just carry on. Add the vanilla extract and keep beating the whites at medium speed until they reach room temperature, about 5 minutes. You should have a smooth, shiny, marshmallowy frosting. Although you could keep it in the fridge in a pinch, it’s really better to use it right now.

7.  To assemble the cake: Put a bottom layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or on a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Using a long metal icing spatula, cover the layer generously with frosting. Top with a second layer, cut side up, and frost it. Finish with the third layer, cut side down, and frost the sides and top of the cake. Don’t worry about smoothing the frosting — it should be swirly. Now, cover the entire cake with the chocolate cake crumbs, gently pressing the crumbs into the filling with your fingers.

If you want to do some writing with ganache on the cake: melt 2.5 ounces of chopped semi-sweet chocolate with the 2 tablespoons of water in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted.  Remove the bowl from the pan of water.  Cut 3 tablespoons of butter into small pieces and whisk them into the chocolate until completely melted and the ganache is smooth. Cool until spreadable, which may take about 1 hour at room temperature.  You can speed this up a little by putting it in the fridge for a few minutes at a time, but be careful not to let it sit in the fridge too long.

Put the thickened ganache in a piping bag and go to town decorating your cake.

8.  Refrigerate the cake for about 1 hour before serving. (If it’s more convenient, you can chill the cake for 8 hours or more; cover it loosely and keep it away from foods with strong odors.)

Roasted Chicken with Artichoke Panzanella

Last week was a pretty good week for me - my last post, Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, got some nice press from Foodbuzz, resulting in a huge boost in readership.  I’m so happy everyone liked that recipe, and I encourage all of you to try it because those cookies were so darn good!

Looking through my last several posts, I realize that, even setting aside the Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, I’ve been baking a lot lately.  And I’m thrilled to say that I will be baking even more over the next few weeks.  But we all need breaks from an endless supply of baked goods, right?  Fine, my coworkers might disagree, since they are often the people who benefit from my baking experiments, but trust me – you need a break.

Don’t worry, I’ve got a good one for you.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’m always on the lookout for good chicken recipes, since chicken can be one of the most drab, boring dinners you can make.  I found this recipe through Food and Wine, and thought it was absolutely perfect for Spring.  Panzanella is an Italian-style  bread and tomato salad, and here artichoke, lemon and other herbs accompany moist, flavorful chicken breasts.

I really enjoyed this dish, and I think you will too.  Artichokes are in season now, so feel free to use the real thing and not canned or jarred (but I used canned and thought it was great).  I also messed around with the recipe a bit, substituting chicken breasts for the higher-calorie thighs.  I adjusted seasoning levels here and there, and used basil instead of cilantro because I had lots of basil at home. I liked it with the basil, and I’m sure it would’ve just as good with cilantro, so use whatever you prefer.

One year ago: Tzatziki

Adapted from Koren Grieveson, a Food and Wine Best New Chef 2006

Makes 4 servings

Total active time: 1 hour

Ingredients

4 large garlic cloves
One 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (or basil)
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
One 3/4 pound loaf white country-style bread, sliced 1 inch thick
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
12 ounces cherry tomatoes
8 baby artichokes in oil, drained and halved lengthwise (I used artichokes in water)
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 cup chicken stock

1.  In a food processor, pulse the garlic and ginger until chopped. Add the paprika, cayenne, and 1/3 cup of the lemon juice and process until smooth; transfer to a bowl. Add the chicken, cilantro (or basil), scallion and 2 tablespoons each of the olive oil and parsley. Coat the chicken breasts in the mixture, then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.  If you want, you can do this the night before.

2.  Meanwhile, heat a grill pan. Brush the bread with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the bread over moderately high heat, turning once, until toasted, 3 minutes.  Let cool, then tear into bite-size pieces.

If you don’t have a grill pan, just toast the slices and then tear into pieces.  It’s much easier.

3.  Preheat the broiler. In a large, deep skillet, toss the tomatoes with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Broil the tomatoes for 7 minutes, until they begin to burst. Lightly mash around half the tomatoes to release some of their juices. Let cool slightly, and then add the bread, artichokes and lemon zest to the skillet, and toss to mix.

4.  Preheat the oven to 375° F. Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry. In a very large skillet, heat the canola oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and add to the skillet, skin side down. Cook over moderately high heat until browned, about 4 minutes. Turn the chicken, pour the stock in the skillet and bring to a boil; transfer to the oven. Roast the chicken for 25 to 30 minutes, until cooked through.  Spoon 1/3 cup of the pan drippings from the skillet over the bread mixture.

5.  In a small bowl, whisk the remaining olive oil, parsley and lemon juice. Warm the bread salad over moderate heat, tossing, until warm. Remove from the heat. Pour the dressing over the bread salad and toss; season with salt and pepper.

6.  Transfer the chicken to plates, spoon the bread salad alongside and serve.

Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Or, Chocolate Chip Cookies Revisited.  Yes, this is the third recipe for chocolate chip (or chunk) cookies I’ve posted, in about a year and a half of doing this blog.  There were Alton Brown’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Jacques Torres’ Chocolate Chunk Cookies, and now these.  And these – Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, courtesy of David Lebovitz – are now my favorite.

All desserts have a little salt in them; pastry chefs routinely say that the worst thing us amateur cooks can do is leave out the small measure of salt from a recipe we make at home, particularly when we’re making a dessert.  Salt doesn’t just make things salty, it is also enhances flavor.  It cuts the sweetness of a dessert, ensuring that it doesn’t come out *too* sweet (yes, that is possible!).  Almost all recipes using butter, savory and sweet, call for unsalted butter; people like to control the amount of salt in their food, and there isn’t a way to precisely measure how much salt is X, Y, or Z brand of salted butter.

So why use salted butter?  Because it tastes darn good, and it makes these cookies taste even more darn good.  The cookies aren’t salty – they have an incredible deep chocolately, buttery flavor and, I swear, leave you more satisfied than the average chocolate chunk cookie.  Several coworkers, who frequently sample my baking creations, told me that these cookies were the best thing to come out of my kitchen.  I’d like to think that’s saying something.

One year ago: A Lighter Meatball

Adapted from the great David Lebovitz

Makes 20-24 cookies.  This recipe made exactly 21 cookies for me; if you want more cookies, go ahead and double the recipe.

Total time: 1 hour, not including fridge time

If you want to use unsalted butter, Mr. Lebovitz informs us that 4 ounces (8 tablespoons, or 115g) of butter has about 1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon of salt in it.  You could simply swap out unsalted butter and add another 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Ingredients

4 ounces (115g) salted butter, at room temperature*
2/3 cup packed (110g) dark or light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup (180g) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt or kosher salt (do not use table salt!)
1 1/3 cups (200g) high quality coarsely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate – I use Scharffen Berger semi-sweet, it’s my favorite!
1 cup toasted nuts (such as walnuts or pecans), coarsely chopped  (While I usually don’t like nuts in my chocolate chip cookies (or brownies, for that matter),  I followed Mr. Lebovitz’s advice and added walnuts to these cookies and I’m so glad I did.  But do as you like!)

* I bought European-style butter at my local Whole Foods, which a lot more expensive, only because Mr. Lebovitz goes on and on about how great French butter is, so I thought why not try it (even if it isn’t actually butter I got from the French countryside).  I’m not sure how much of a difference it made, but I will say that I tried a little bit of the European salted butter, and it tasted incredible.  And I generally don’t like butter that much!  But buy whatever is easier for you, regular unsalted butter will work just fine!

1.  To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, or by hand, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar just until smooth and creamy.  Beat in the egg and the vanilla until fully incorporated.

2.  In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  With the mixer on low, or by hand, stir the flour mixture into the beaten butter until combined (do not overmix!), then mix in the chopped chocolate (including any chocolate dust!) and the chopped nuts, if using.  Do not overmix the dough, just incorporate the chocolate and nuts until just combined.

3.  Cover the dough with plastic warp, and chill the dough until firm.  It’s best to letthe dough rest in the fridge overnight, which is what I did.  But if you don’t have the time, don’t stress.  Try to let it chill for a few hours, if you can.

4. To bake the cookies: Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

5.  Form the cookie dough into rounds about the size of a large unshelled walnut.  I used my #24 disher, which is a good tool because the dough will be a bit hard.  Place the rounds evenly spaced apart on the baking sheets, 6 per sheet, and press down the tops to flatten them so they are no longer domed and the dough is even.  Dampen your fingers slightly when you flatten to tops.

6.  Bake the cookies for 9 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway during baking, until the cookies look about set, but are not browned.

7.  Remove from the oven and quickly tap the top of each with a spatula, then return to the oven for 2 to 5 more minutes, until the tops of the cookies are light golden brown.  The spatula trick is an interesting direction from Mr. Lebovitz - it compacts the crumb and makes the cookies a little chewier.  After returning the spatula-whacked cookies to the oven, I only left mine in 2 minutes, as they were already getting pretty brown.

Remove from oven and let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then move them using the spatula to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Storage: The cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days in an airtight container.  The dough can be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for one or two months.

A Simple Almond Cake

Did I ever tell you the story of the best dessert I had in my entire life?  No?  Last summer during my trip to California wine country, a friend and I stopped in for lunch at Chez Panisse, the famous Alice Waters restaurant in Berkley, CA.  We sipped Ms. Waters’ favorite rosé while working our way through a few courses.  The food was great, but the dessert was outstanding: an almond-crusted cornmeal cake.  It was simple but brilliant – a moist but light cornmeal cake crusted with sliced almonds, finished with a little powdered sugar and accompanied by mixed berries.

I asked our waiter if the pastry chef would be willing to part with their recipe; our waiter laughed and said no.

So began a quest to recreate the now infamous Almond Crusted Cornmeal Cake of Chez Panisse.  I haven’t been able to do it … yet.  But this cake, what I call a Simple Almond Cake, is inspired by the quest.  It’s a true almond cake full of sweet almond paste, with a touch of cornmeal added for texture.  And I call it simple because it is simple; there aren’t many ingredients, but they are whipped together into an airy batter that bakes into a dense-but-not-too-dense, sweet cake with a slight crunch from the cornmeal and a deep almond flavor.

I may not have a version of the Chez Panisse cake just yet, but I did create a darn good almond cake recipe.  My coworkers (who are also frequently my taste testers) loved it – the cake disappeared from the kitchen in minutes.  One even admitted to immediately going back for seconds and slicing off a quarter of the cake for himself.  If you are looking for simple, great tasting, and elegant dessert for yourself or to serve a crowd, please try this cake!

One year ago: Hot Cross Buns

Simple Almond Cake

Recipe by Pâte à Chew

Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Makes 1 9-inch cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 10-ounce can of almond paste (not marzipan)*
8 ounces unsalted butter , at room temperature
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

* I always buy Love’n Bake brand almond paste, which comes in 10 ounce cans.  You can find it at stores like Whole Foods, or online at stores such as Amazon or Nuts.com.

1.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and position the rack to the center of the oven.  Line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan or spring-form pan (I used the latter) with a round of parchment paper, or butter the pan and dust it lightly with flour, tapping out any excess.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: baking non-stick spray, such as Pam for Baking, is the best invention ever.  I spray the bottom and sides of my pan with the baking spray, put a round of parchment down, and then spray the parchment.

2.  With a standing or hand mixer, beat together the sugar and almond paste until the paste is finely broken up.  Let it run for about 5 minutes.

3.  Add the butter, then and beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy.  Again, let it go for about 5 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl with a spatula half-way through.

4.  Meanwhile, in a separate bowl or a measuring cup with a spout, stir together the eggs with a fork or whisk.  When the butter/sugar/almond paste mixture is done beating and looks light and fluffy, dribble the mixed eggs into the batter as you beat.  Once incorporated, add the vanilla.

5.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt with a whisk, then gradually add the dry ingredients into the batter with the mixer on low/stir speed until just incorporated (do not overmix!).

6.  Transfer the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Mine took 1 hour exactly, but start checking at 50 minutes.  I could have pulled my cake out a few minutes early, as the edges got ever-so-slightly overdone.

Cool the cake on a rack before serving.  This cake is extremely moist and will keep well for up to a week if well-wrapped.

Honey BBQ Pulled Chicken

One day last year I saw a great deal on a Cuisinart slow cooker.  “I will totally use this all the time,” I thought.  So I bought it.  Before the dish I made for this post, I had used it only once.  In over a year of owning it.  A good deal?  Maybe not.

But, because this contraption was living on the floor of my dining room collecting dust, I was always on the lookout for recipes that used a slow cooker.  And then I found one that looked promising: slow-cooked pulled barbecue chicken, made of boneless, skinless chicken breasts (AKA, healthy barbecue!).  You are always told not to slow-cook lean meats because they won’t get to that “fall off the bone” state of tenderness, but I didn’t have that problem at all with this dish.  The chicken shredded perfectly after cooking, and the sauce was amazing.  This is an incredibly easy, absolutely delicious dish that would make a quick weeknight meal or impress a crowd.

I adjusted the sauce components a bit, adding a few ingredients I had on hand, and changing the proportions of others.  Besides the cup of ketchup and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, I didn’t measure any of the ingredients; I just guesstimated as I poured each into the slow cooker.  That’s beauty of homemade barbecue sauce!

One year ago: Gigante Beans, Greek-Style

Adapted from Healthy Delicious

Makes 4 servings

Prep time: 15 minutes; Total time: 7-8 hours

You do not need a slow cooker for this meal, if you have an oven-safe pot or Dutch oven.  Combine all of the ingredients in the pot and bake at 350 degrees F for 2 hours, or until the chicken falls into shreds when you press on it gently with a wooden spoon.

Ingredients

1 cup ketchup
1 small onion, minced
1/4 cup bourbon (optional)
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons molasses
4 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 pinch to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper*
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 sandwich rolls of your choice

*I put 1/2 teaspoon because I like my barbecue spicy, but if you don’t like spice, add a pinch (or none at all).

1.  Combine all ingredients except chicken in your slow , and stir them together.  Add the chicken breasts and turn so they are coated with the sauce.

2.  Cover and cook on low for 7 to 8 hours. Mine was ready at around the 7 hour mark, but I’m sure if I had let it go to 8 it would have been just fine.  Use the back of a wooden spoon or two forks to gently shred the chicken.  Stir the shredded chicken into the sauce so that the chicken is evenly coated.  Set slow cooker to warm and let chicken stand for 15 minutes to soak up the sauce.

Serve the pulled chicken on the toasted rolls.

Greek Easter Bread (Tsoureki)

Happy Easter everyone!  Unless you are Greek Orthodox like me, in which case your Easter is a week later this year!  Last year for Easter, I made Hot Cross Buns, promising that next year I would try my hand at tsoureki, or traditional Greek Easter bread.  My grandmother made it every year for the family when I was growing up, and since she passed, no one in my family has tried to make it.  I knew it was time to try making it on my own.  So behold, my very first tsoureki.

Tsoureki is a sweet yeast bread not unlike challah, but tsoureki is flavored with a spice called mahlab (also called mahlepi) that is ground from the pits of wild cherries.  Mahlab is a little sweet and nutty, but still a unique taste you won’t find with any other spice.  The spice is a little hard to acquire at regular grocery stores - any Greek or Mediterranean food store carries it, and it can also be found online at places like Penzy’s.  There is also a small amount of a second spice – mastiha - in this bread.  Mastiha is the sap of lentisk trees (AKA, evergreen bushes) found only in certain areas of the Greek island of Chios.  Complicated or exotic enough for you?  You can leave the mastiha out, but if you’re going to the trouble of buying mahlab, might as well buy both!

I have my grandmother’s “recipe” for this bread, but it lacks a lot of what you might call “instructions.”  It is, in other words, a typical vague Greek grandmother’s recipe with imprecise measurements that magically comes together for the grandmother but not for the rest of us.  So I looked at her recipe and mashed it up with a recipe posted last week by Elly Says Opa.  So thank you Elly for for the recipe!  I was very happy with the way my first tsourekia turned out; it’s a lot of work making yeast breads, so I’m glad all my work paid off!

Note that you can speed up the rising process for this bread (and others too) by doing the following: when you start making the dough, set your oven at its lowest setting (likely 200 degrees F).  A few minutes before the dough is ready for its first and second rise, turn off the oven.  Then place the dough in the oven, which will give it a warm, draft-free place to do its thing.

One year ago: Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tomatoes, and Goat Cheese

Adapted from my grandmother and Elly Says Opa

Makes 6 loaves

Total time: 6 hours

Note: This makes a lot of bread, but the loaves freeze beautifully.

Ingredients

2 cups warm (not hot)  milk
2 (1/4 oz.) envelopes of dry active yeast, or 4 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast (I used Red Star)
8-9 cups bread flour, divided (I use King Arthur Flour)
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 large orange
1 tablespoon ground mahlepi
1/2 teaspoon ground mastiha (optional, but encouraged)
1/2 cup butter, melted
5 large eggs, beaten
Vegetable or canola oil

Egg wash
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons milk
Sesame seeds and sliced or slivered almonds

1.  In a large bowl, mix together the milk, yeast, 1 cup flour, and 1/4 cup sugar.  Cover with a clean kitchen towel and proof for one hour.  (See my note above about using the oven to make a warm place for it to rise)

2.  In a separate large bowl, whisk together 7 cups of flour, the remaining 1.5 cups sugar, salt, orange zest, mahlepi and mastiha (if using).  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture; add the yeast mixture, melted butter, and beaten eggs.  Work from the center outwards, bringing flour into the well, stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon until a dough begins to form.

3.  On a heavily floured work surface, knead the dough for about 12 minutes until the dough no longer sticks to your hands, adding some or all of that extra cup of flour when necessary.  I split the dough into two pieces, and used my standing mixer and its dough hook to do my kneading for me.  I split it into two pieces because there was too much dough to fit in the bowl and knead properly, so I did it in turns.  Once you have kneaded the dough (either by hand or with your mixer), place the dough in a large oiled bowl, turning once to get oil on the other side. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for 2 hours, until doubled in size.  (See my note again for the oven trick)

4.  Punch down the dough, and divide into 6 equal portions, and then divide each of those into three equal portions. Roll each piece into a 12-inch strip.  Lay 3 strips side by side, pinch together the strips at the top, and then braid them. Pinch the bottom together.  You can tuck the two pinched ends underneath each loaf.  Repeat with each set of 3 strips, until you have 6 braided loaves.  Place the braided loaves on parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheets (I put three loaves per sheet) then cover with a towel and let rise for about 2 hours or until doubled in size.  I only let mine rise for about an hour.  (See my note again for the oven trick)

5.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Whisk together the egg yolk and milk.  Take a pastry brush, and brush the mixture on top of both loaves evenly.  Sprinkle with slivered almonds and/or sesame seeds.

6.  Bake each sheet for about 25 minutes, checking the loaves about halfway through;  you will likely need to tent the pan with foil to keep the top from over-browning, which I did at about the half-way point.  Let cool, but they do taste good a little warm!

Brown Sugar Carrot Bread

I haven’t played much with yeast on this blog.  I love making English muffins, last year’s Easter treat was Hot Cross Buns, and occasionally I whip up a quick-rise pizza crust, but that’s about it.  I promise one day I will get more into yeast breads – one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to bake a homemade, fresh loaf of crusty bread this year.  But fresh and crusty yeast breads take a lot of time, and a lot of patience.  And I’m not often a patient person.

Luckily, quick breads are an impatient baker’s dream; they usually come together in an hour, not up to a day like yeast breads.  We’ve all had banana bread and zucchini bread, but I recently saw something I’m ashamed I never thought of myself: carrot bread.

And I’m sorry I didn’t think of it sooner, because it’s incredible.  This is a dense, slightly sweet bread, not a carrot cake.  Much like zucchini or banana bread, the carrots ensure a moist bread that’s still a little reminiscent of carrot cake.  But still not quite cake.  Not that this should deter you – it may not be cake but it’s still darn good.  Using all brown sugar lends a deep flavor and a slight of hint molasses; it also gives the crust a sweet crispness.  The orange zest brightens the overall flavor and also serves to highlight the taste of the sweet carrots.

It’s also full of whole wheat flour and only has a little butter (4 tablespoons in the whole loaf!).  Next time I might try most, if not all, whole wheat flour and see how it turns out.  I also loved the use of a handful or so of sliced almonds, which gave the bread a nice bit of crunch, but you can substitute other nuts like walnuts, or leave the nuts out completely.

On a related note: I updated the Recipe Archive; you’ll find it much easier to navigate!

One year ago: Florentines

Brown Sugar Carrot Bread with Almonds

Adapted from Mark Bittman with some inspiration from Ravie Nom Noms (great blog, you should check her out!)

Makes 1 loaf, 10-12 slices; would also make 12 absolutely delicious standard size muffins (if making muffins, I suggest dropping the baking time to 20 to 25 minutes)

The almonds can be replaced with another nut, or nuts can be omitted.

Total time: 1 hr 15 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup (half stick) butter, cold
1 cup buttermilk or almond milk
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup sliced almonds (or another nut well-chopped, such as walnuts)
Baking non-stick spray

1.  Preheat oven to 350º F.  Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with butter, or spray the pan generously with baking spray.

2. Stir together the dry ingredients, through the brown sugar. Cut the butter into small pieces, then use a fork, 2 knives, or your fingers to cut or rub it into the dry ingredients until there are no pieces bigger than a small pea.  I used a food processor for this step, which makes it much easier, but you should not use a food processor for the remaining steps or the bread will be tough.

3. Whisk together the milk, zest, almond extract (if using) and egg.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing just enough to moisten; do not beat and do not mix until the batter is smooth.  Fold in the shredded carrot and the nuts, then spoon the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for about an hour, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan, and cool completely before slicing.