TWD Hungarian Shortbread

TWD - Hungarian Shortbread

Everything about this was fabulous and will become a staple in our repertoire.  What did we like about it? The dough came together quickly in the food processor and then had an overnight rest in the fridge.  The jam was delicious on its own, as was the raw dough!  The grating method was so easy and it came out of the oven crispy on the bottom and top and soft on the inside.

Things we changed: we noticed that other TWDers were baking the bottom on its own then adding the jam so we did this too and got a crispy bottom layer.  We halved the dough recipe but made all of the jam recipe yet there seemed to be only just enough jam - how would it have covered the whole amout of dough?  Anyway, thumbs up from us.

TWD Lemon Loaf

Easy to make but...... Just not worth it. Far better cakes out there which are just as easy to make. None of it was eaten so it has been wrapped in foil and put in the freezer for an emergency which requires a lot of underwhelming cake.

TWD - Baking with Julia - Irish Soda Bread

Here's our attempt at Soda bread. Very easy and I quite like crust.
We also used some of the dough to make cookies by mixing in sugar and oats (bottom let) and of course we're still making white bread! (top left)

Here we have everything read to go!

Just a little mix...

TWD - Baking with Julia - Rugalach

This was for us a three day baking event. The first day we made the pastry and then left it in the fridge. The second day we made the filling etc and rolled the Rugalach. The final day was cutting to shape, topping and baking.

Here we have the sugar mix for the filling in the background and the nut and sugar mix for the topping in the foreground.

We didn't have lekver so we used apricot preserve.

Rolling was quite hard to start... I did think that it might have been easier to roll it in paper... maybe next time.

We also made a second version using Nutella (chocolate spread), the same sugar and cinnamon mix and chopped nuts. This was delicious and we recommend it!

Hey presto, the finished article.... there was a lot more... for awhile :)

TWD - Baking with Julia - Chocolate Tart

Chocolate tart isn't really our cup of tea.  We like a nice cheeseboard like this one we had had the Pipe and Glass near Beverley in East Yorkshire.

However, in the spirit of Tuesdays with Dorie, we had a go!

Recipies that begin with instruction to first turn to page xyz usually make us want to go and lie down in a dark room! However, first we made Biscotti (see page 313) and then chocolate dough. The biscotti were very easy to make and something to look forward to again in the challenge.

Despite some very 'rustic' looking tart cases.........

...... they actually looked Ok once filled  (our photographic skills obviously need some work!) and tasted delicious!

We found Jen's links to David Ogonowski's Youtube videos a great help. It gave us the confidence to make the pastry more crumbly the second time round. Non of the tarts lasted long and we will definitely make them again.

We did have a second go.  The remains of that attempt are on the bottom of the oven still.  Hint: do not put pastry shell directly onto oven runners.

There'll be a third attempt shortly.  :-)

TWD - Baking with Julia - White Loaves

All set and ready to go... our first Tuesday with Dorie

We have been looking forward to this since Christmas and have been gathering equipment, scouring the blogs of other TWDers and talking about bread.

Cost of bread so far:

1 Kenwood Chef £369

1 Baking with Julia £16.50

2 Loaf tins £29.98

2 sets of weighing scales £30

1 set of American measuring cups £7.99

1 measuring cup £4.99

Total = £458.46 ($724.36)

....... and lots of strong flour and unsalted butter

All ingredients measured / weighed and ready to go..

The dough all mixed and ready for first rise..

In the tin and after second rise.

Out of the oven....

I very pleasing crumb and crust :)

Same dough but a plait loaf..

We actually made this recipe several times over - more from having perfectionist tendencies than loving the result.  But, we have scoffed the outcome and enjoyed it.  Even more enjoyable was learning about bread, ingredients, oven position, our weird ovens, no-knead bread, the importance of salt, having yeast that isn't up against its use-by date, taking photographs of food with a DSLR....and learning how to use our lovely new stand mixer.

Here's some of our previous attempts: These are actually mini loaves (or buns!) note the 10p coin on the board.

Here we have a bit of a selection

We have made bread before but never so frequently and with so much enthusiasm and attention to detail.  Although we are already reading the chocolate tart recipe and preparing shopping lists, we now have 7.5kg (16.5 lbs) of flour and we have the bread bug and its going to be a regular part of our weekly meals.

The butter seemed like a strange addition - we've read that it makes a softer loaf - but there was so much of it.  It prompted me to have a sneak peek ahead at the brioche recipe  - that sounds like buttery fun!