Tag Archives: Yeast Breads

Rustic Cinnamon Walnut Horns

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walnut_horns3Currently baking from Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More by Carole Walter

I’m not sure what to classify these as. Are they cookies? Mini cakes? The lazy person’s croissants? Whatever you want to call them, they are fantastic! Warm from the oven, they are soft and pillowy and full of cinnamony goodness. The walnuts give the horns a nice crunch without overwhelming the other flavors.

You start off by making a batch of the yeasted simple sweet dough. Once the dough has rested overnight in the refrigerator, you roll the dough in chopped walnuts and cinnamon sugar and then roll them out into a square. The dough is then cut into triangles, brushed with an egg wash, sprinkled with more cinnamon sugar and walnuts, and finally rolled into croissant shapes and baked.

There’s something about this yeasted sweet dough that goes well with cinnamon and nuts. I suspect that any nut would work well here. Once you get the yeasted sweet dough made, these are a snap to assemble, but they are even easier to eat.

Dimpled Sugar Cake

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dimple_sugar_cake3Currently baking from Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More by Carole Walter

My first try at Walter’s yeasted simple sweet dough didn’t go well (remember that blueberry pizza?), but I felt like I should give it another go since I wasn’t sure why it didn’t work before. So I whipped up another batch and used half of it to make this easy cake.

Once you’ve rested the dough overnight in the refrigerator, you gently knead in some plumped raisins. Normally, I’d substitute cranberries for the raisins, but I was out, so raisins it was. The dough is pressed into a baking dish and left to rise. Right before baking, you “dimple” the dough with your fingertips. The holes are filled with butter and brown sugar, and cinnamon sugar is sprinkled over the whole thing. As the cake bakes, the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon sugar melt and form a slight crust.

And how was the cake? Much better than I thought it would be and definitely better than the blueberry pizza. Even with the raisins, I really liked the cake, especially warm from the oven. There is something about this dough that goes so well with cinnamon.

Blueberry Pizza

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blueberry_pizzaCurrently baking from Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More by Carole Walter.

Sorry for the pictures. I made this cake while vacationing with my family, and I was eager to cut into it, so the picture taking took a backseat.

I really, really wanted to like this recipe. It is unique and lends itself to all sorts of variations. For example, the original recipe calls for blueberries, but I used a mixture of blueberries, raspberries and sweet cherries. Just about any fruit would work here, as long as it isn’t too wet.

The “pizza” part of this recipe is a yeasted sweet dough that contains approximately 20 pounds of butter. Okay, so maybe not 20 pounds, but a lot of butter. You get the idea. The dough is left in the refrigerator overnight, so the butter firms up and the dough is manageable.

The next day, the dough is rolled out, left to rise slightly, topped with vanilla pastry cream, fruit, and streusel, and baked, like a pizza. While most of the people who tried the pizza liked it, I didn’t. There wasn’t any textural contrast between the topping and the dough; it was all very soft. Making sure the streusel is crisp would have helped here, but the oven I was working with kept burning the bottoms of things before the tops ever got done. Stupid oven.

Anyway, I’m filing this idea away. I think there are some really great possibilities here.

Raisin, Rosemary and Cinnamon Focaccia

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Raisin, Rosemary and Cinnamon FocacciaCurrently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

Cinnamon, raisins and rosemary? The combination was intriguing enough that I had to try it. And guess what? It totally works. This may be my new favorite bread. Warm from the oven and smeared with butter, this was foodie heaven. Mushet also says that leftovers can be toasted or used to make a stuffing for roasted pork loin. Seriously, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about any leftovers.

I was starting to worry that I wouldn’t find a home run recipe in this book. I’ve really liked parts of certain recipes (the caramel sauce from the Peanut Butter Thumbprints comes to mind), but nothing has blown me away. This one did.

While the focaccia was baking, the house smelled just like cinnamon raisin bread, but every so often, you’d get a whiff of rosemary. I was worried that the herb would overpower the other flavors, but it doesn’t. The rosemary really makes this bread special, giving it a complexity that it wouldn’t otherwise have. And the raisins give the bread just the right amount of sweetness. I don’t think I’d change a thing, and that’s pretty high praise coming from me.

Note: My work is starting to pick up, which means I’ll be traveling for the next couple of weeks. I’ve got a couple of posts in the can, but I’ll be posting a little less than I have been. Keep checking back, though; I love the comments.

Herbed Fougasse 2.0

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Herbed FougasseCurrently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

Even though I had problems the first time around making this recipe, I enjoyed the flavor enough that I wanted to give it another go. I’m happy to report that this time, everything went well. My biga was still wetter then Mushet’s, but not as wet as it was the first time I made it. I still had to add another half of a cup of flour to the final dough so it was manageable. Before I shaped the dough, I lightly greased the parchment paper. This made it possible to stretch the dough and cut the indentations without the dough sticking to everything. And finally, I made sure not to overbake it.

The fougasse had a crisp crust with a tender crumb. The flavors of the rosemary and thyme really stood out and complimented the bean soup we ate it with. I think this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Apricot, Almond and Chocolate Spiraled Coffee Cake

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Currently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

This coffee cake looked gorgeous, all tan and shiny with apricot glaze. Then I cut it in half and the insides oozed out, but not in a good “I want to eat that” sort of way. I don’t know what went wrong, exactly, but I was so mad that I threw it in the trash without even taking a photo.

I made the dough the day before and it came together pretty easily. After the first rise, the dough is rolled out and spread first with an almond paste mixture, then dried apricots soaked in amaretto and sprinkled with chocolate chips. Next you roll the dough up like cinnamon rolls before cutting the roll into decorative shapes. I noticed, as I was rolling up the filled dough, that it seemed very soft and slack. It didn’t hold together in a cylindrical shape, but puddled out on the baking sheet. As I read Mushet’s instructions on cutting the dough, I became very confused. I think it is supposed to appear “woven,” but I’m not sure as there is no picture of the overall finished product. I finally gave up and just left it as one long roll which I let sit overnight in the refrigerator before baking off in the morning.

The dough inside pretty much disappeared into the filling. I ended up with a cooked outside “shell” and a raw inside. I was also disappointed in the taste. I found it much too sweet and the almond paste overpowered everything else. I don’t think I’ll attempt this recipe again as it was quite a bit of work (not to mention expensive) and I didn’t even like the flavor.

Herbed Fougasse

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Currently baking from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet.

Okay, I had problems with this recipe right off the bat. The first step is to make a biga, which is a pre-ferment that should have the consistency of bread dough. Mushet’s instructions are to mix the biga, turn it out onto the counter and knead until smooth and elastic. My biga looked more like paste. I double and triple checked the amount of flour versus water, but with 4 ounces of water to 4.5 ounces of flour, it’s going to be somewhat runny. I settled for whisking vigorously. Continue reading →