Greenstein's Bakery - Baking Bible - Sour Cherry Chai

ב''ה

Did someone say its "Chai" day today?

Mis en place. Easy to find canned sour cherries in the kosher marketplace.

I figured I would go 'maverik' and simply knead in the butter by hand to see what would happen. After all I am already an experienced pie maker (having made one pie already…)

Seems to come together O.K. Another change was that we only had whipped cream cheese. I think it actually contributed a very nice smooth texture and the flavor was fine.

Lovely pitted sour cherries. This recipe came together real quick.

Action shot.

We simply peeled flipped the dough over the pie plate, while still on the parchment and peeled it off.

And, as they say in yiddish "Gevaldig!'…

Or, maybe it was the roller-skates…

Or first attempt at making the strips was not successful. We put it in the freezer for 5 minutes.

Luscious sour cherry pie filling.

"...מִכְבָּר, מַעֲשֵׂה רֶשֶׁת נְחֹשֶׁת…"

"…a surrounding lattice, made as a net of copper …"

Exodus 38:4

חי is a word that means life and looks suprisingly similar to the pi symbol π. A connection between the infinite source of life and a number that goes on forever?

Toaster shot.

I really love how this pie tasted. I went back for seconds.

I may have to take a brake from baking and blogging for a couple weeks to get the house and kitchen ready for Passover. I'll blog if I can.

Happy Baking!

Greenstein's Bakery - Baking Bible - Caramel Sticky Buns

ב''ה

Marvelous sticky buns. Very rich.

These took me all week to make. That what happens when I miss my chance on Saturday night and Sunday. I had to do this an hour or so at a time after work, in between bed times.

Monday: Starting the sponge

Cover in plastic...

Tuesday:

Mix the butter and make the 'dough'.

 Perhaps I under-mixed it a bit...

Rum!

Raisins!

Toast the pecans

Laugh with Omi Girl.

The dough ready to be 'rolled'

How am I supposed to roll this exactly?

Oh, like this. With lots of flour.

Egg wash.

filling. I forgot the raisins at this point.

Use a kids thermos for the middle.

Rolling was difficult. I realized you can use the spatula. :)

I wrapped these up and went to sleep at this point.

Thursday:

Toaster shot!

Taking out the thermos.

O.K., there not individual buns. So sue me.

Glaze

 The caramel bubbling.

I am still trying to decide if it was really worth the effort. These are rich, complex and flavorful. We shall see tomorrow when I have my coffee.

לכבוד שבת קודש!

Greenstein's Bakery - Bread Bible - Rosemary Foccacia

ב''ה

This Rosemary foccacia was delicious. 

I mixed all the dry ingredients together.

I almost broke our mixer making bread dough once so making bread for me is strictly a hand-mixed affair.

 I love these wet doughs.

So, since I was not using the mixer I could not get the consistency recommended by the recipe. I have learned a trick however (from "Artisan Bread Baking"  by Maggie Glazer I think) to periodically pull/fold the wet dough until its gluten is worked.

I ended up giving this a five hour rise (while I made the hamentashen).

It poured like Rose said but because I made a double batch and had to divide it, I lost some of the air pockets.

 I  like a lot of Rosemary on my bread and a lot of hot pepper on my pasta.

First bread.

The second bread. I skipped the salt since I figured there was enough for me in the dough.

Greenstein's Bakery - Baking Bible - Hamentashen

ב''ה

These are wonderful hamentashen. Most hamentashen dough is parve and fairly bland. These are very dairy, buttery, flaky and full of flavor.

Mis en place.

Some of the fillings. Every one already has favorites, so I did not make the one from the recipe.

Some characters from the Purim story. The concept is that Divine intervention is not mentioned in the story, even though it was obvious divine influence. The moral being to recognize the hidden divine influence in ones own every day happenings. So the theme is 'hidden', such as the name "Esther", which means hidden, children wearing costumes and um, foods that have a stuffed 'hidden' center (kreplach are another).

Omi-girl is already in costume. :)

Turbinado sugar.

I do not have a dairy food processor so I ground the turbinado in my coffee grinder...

…and mixed the flour and butter with the hand mixer...

…until it was 'pebbles'.

I multiplied the recipe x 4. Then I realized we would need more for the holiday and made another x4 batch. Everyone is obligated to gives gifts of ready to eat gifts of food to friends and neighbors ('shalach manos'). Hamentash are often a traditional part.

After the hand mixer reached this point, I kneaded for a minute by hand until it came together.

It is a lovely, workable dough.

I use this cup that has a rounded lip. If you push down right it creates a vacuum that pops the cup back up when you push down and leaves the dough-round unattached to the cup. If it sticks to the cup, I use a knife around the edge to loosen it and let it drop.

I did not put it in the fridge for any rest. I rolled it right away and did not have any problem.

The 'mun' (poppyseed) filling is wonderful. Apricot lekvar is also classic. It seems Rose's version is a combination of the two.

 We like to experiment a little with different filling. 

Shaping.

Toaster shot.

All the kids like chocolate chip hamentash. However, chocolate chips do not melt in the oven. Next time, I'll have to make a ganache. We skipped the egg glaze. 

We made a large assortment, with many different flavors. You can use any fruit preserves as long as they are not too watery.

If you use watery jam, such as the cherry on the bottom left, it bleeds all over. :)

Poppy, prune and apricot.