Empanada Gallega

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since last month's Daring Bakers challenge. I've been back to work full time for almost 4 months now and I guess I'm still trying to work out a routine for cooking, photographing my cooking, and writing about it. Plus, in solidarity for working mothers every where, I have been cooking really quick and easy things lately. Think (frozen) chicken fingers with sweet potatoes fries and frozen peas and corn. Thank goodness for Daring Bakers challenges, actually. Otherwise I wouldn't have made anything interesting in the last couple of months.

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished! The recipe included in the challenge was savory, but some Bakers made sweet ones. Some eager beavers made savory and sweet Empanadas. I'm jealous. 

I actually didn't have a plan for the filling of the Empanada but it turned out absolutely delicious with leftover bits and bites I had in the fridge. We'd had a party with family for Parker's 2nd birthday (two already! I have a separate, belated, post about his birthday coming soon) where we did make-your-own pizza. I had some pepperoni, roasted peppers, pesto, tomato sauce, feta cheese, and chicken in the fridge and these ingredients made a great Empanada. It was kinda like a giant Calzone. Delish.

One Year Ago: Tomato Recipe Roundup with Tomato Pesto Flatbread Recipe

+ Cacio e Pepe Pasta

+  Jerk Honey Garlic Hot Wings

+ Baby Food Part 1: Purees

+ Baby Food Part 2: Textures

+ Breaded Pork Chops with Creamy Orzo

Two Years Ago: Freezer Meals 

+ Mexican Pizza 

+ Vanilla Iced Coffee  

+  Ham, Swiss and Asparagus Crepes

EMPANADA GALLEGA RECIPE via Daring Kitchen

Cream Puff Baby Duckies

"Shampoo is better. I go on first and clean the hair,"
"Conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth,"
"Oh really fool?"
"Really,"
"Stop looking at me swan."

I cannot see a swan without quoting Billy Madison. Yeah, it's a problem.


(blog checking lines) Kat of the Bobwhites was our August 2012 hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

Pate a Choux Swans. One of the Daring Bakers members says in the forum, "I was probably only 12 or 13 when I oogled a recipe of choux swans in a very 70's style cookbook. These gorgeous swans sat on a mirror and I always thought they were the height of elegance!" The height of elegance indeed. Somebody call the Beejees.

I was going to make swans, but I decided to make them for my brother and (almost) sister-in-law's baby shower, so I made little baby ducks. I think they kinda look like Peeps. Only better. Cause they are cream filled. Yum.

Nobody believes me, but I swear these are easy to make. Please try it. The piping takes a few practice ducks (I meant to take a photo of mine but I was trying to get them in the oven, get showered, and get the toddler dressed in under an hour). Even if they don't look perfect when baked just put little eyes and they'll be cute any way.

No eyes = boring blob

Eyes = cute baby duckie!

To pipe the little ducks, use a piping bag with a large round tip. Or use a Ziploc bag like I did- snip a little off the corner to fit the piping tip into. Use a freezer bag though- sandwich bags burst at the seams. I know from experience. Not pretty. Moving on.

Pipe a two inch oval, making one end a bit higher and pull up the piping bag at the end leaving a peak standing up. When the duckies bake the dough really pulls up and leaves you with a hollow middle to fill with delicious, delicious cream.

To fill the duckies put the cream in a piping bag or Ziploc (see above). Insert the tip into the bottom or side of the duck. Fill with cream, slowly pulling out the piping tip as you fill so that the duck doesn't explode. To make the eyes, dip the end of a toothpick in food colouring, then poke a little hole where you want the eye.

Get the recipe from Daring Bakers HERE

Daring Bakers: Battenburg Cake

This is why I wanted to join the Daring Bakers baking challenges. I would have normally looked at this cake and passed it by, figuring it would be too complicated or time consuming to make. I mean, look at it. There's two colours all in one cake! And rolled icing! Yikes. But you know what, the recipe was actually pretty straight forward. And yummy.

Not everybody "gets it". I made two different versions of this cake for family dinners- one on my side and one on Tyler's side. I was explaining the Daring Bakers challenges, and my dad said, "Wait, so why did you make this?". My brother asked what the prize is for winning the challenge. All were perplexed when I said it was just for fun.

For June's challenge, Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease. With this challenge, not only did I try a new recipe (for a cake I'd never even heard of), but I got a history lesson in the process too. And now so will you. Battenburg cake is a traditional English cake that was first made to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria's granddaughter to Prince Lois of Battenburg. Read more on Wikipedia if you are so inclined. The traditional markings and colours of the cake are significant too. 

So, as I mentioned, I made two versions of this cake. The first was coconut-lime, which I made up following the basic recipe provided from the challenge, and the second coffee-walnut. They were both good, but the coffee-walnut looked nicer. I think I used too much food colouring in the lime curd for the first cake and it ended up looking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ooze. Also, traditionally Battenburg is covered with marzipan but I went to two stores and neither had marzipan so I had to go with fondant which I don't love. All in all, this was a fun challenge and I can't wait for the next one!

COCONUT AND LIME BATTENBURG CAKE

Adapted from The Daring Kitchen

Serves 8

• 3/4 cup butter, softened and cut into cubes
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• green food colouring
• zest of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut 

To Finish:

• cooled lime curd (recipe below)
• 1 cup marzipan or fondant
• icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper. Whisk together dry ingredients then add butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix with electric beaters or stand mixer on medium-low.

Spoon half of batter into a seperate bowl. Add a few drops of food colouring and lime zest to one bowl and fold in to combine. To other bowl add coconut and fold to combine. Spread batter evenly in each pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan a few minutes then turn out and cool completely on rack.

Once cooled, cut cakes in half and trim edges of cakes with bread knife so that you have 4 rectangles of cake the same size. Spread a thin line of lime curd on the side of one of the pieces of green cake. Stick a piece of coconut cake to it, aligning them side by side. Repeat with other two pieces, but reversing the order so that when they are stacked they make a checkered pattern. Thinly spread the tops of the cakes that are going to be on the bottom with lime curd. Top with top pieces. Set aside.

Sprinkle work surface with icing sugar. Roll out marzipan or fondant to 1/4 inch thickness, ensuring it will cover all sides of the cake. Spread top of cake with curd and place in middle of marzipan. Spread curd on remaining three sides and carefully roll cake to over all sides with marzipan. Trim marzipan, and cut a thin slice from each end to neaten.

LIME CURD

Adapted from Martha Stewart

 Makes 1 1/2 cups

Any citrus juice can be substituted to make this curd.

• 3 large egg yolks
• zest of 2 limes
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp cold cutter, cut into pieces

Combine yolks, zest, lime juice, sugar in a small sauce pan. Set over medium heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to get the sides and bottom corners of the pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, 7-10 minutes.

Remove pan from heat. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until smooth. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin forming. Refrigerate until cold.

COFFEE AND WALNUT BATTENBURG CAKE

From The Daring Kitchen

Serves 8

• 3/4 cup butter, softened and cut into cubes
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 1/2 tsp instant coffee
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Coffee Buttercream To Finish:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp instant coffee
• 1 1/2 tsp milk
• 1 cup marzipan or fondant

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper. Whisk together dry ingredients then add butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix with electric beaters or stand mixer on medium-low.


Spoon half of batter into a seperate bowl. Mix milk and instant coffee in a small bowl and add to one of the bowls of batter, folding to combine. To other bowl add walnuts and fold to combine. Spread batter evenly in each pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan a few minutes then turn out and cool completely on rack.

With a stand mixer or electric beaters on high, mix together ingredients for buttercream. Refridgerate until ready to use.


Once cooled, cut cakes in half and trim edges of cakes with bread knife so that you have 4 rectangles of cake the same size. Spread a thin line of buttercream on the side of one of the pieces of walnut cake. Stick a piece of coffee cake to it, aligning them side by side. Repeat with other two pieces, but reversing the order so that when they are stacked they make a checkered pattern. Thinly spread the tops of the cakes that are going to be on the bottom with buttercream. Top with top pieces. Set aside.



Sprinkle work surface with icing sugar. Roll out marzipan or fondant to 1/4 inch thickness, ensuring it will cover all sides of the cake. Spread top of cake with buttercream and place in middle of marzipan. Spread buttercream on remaining three sides and carefully roll cake to over all sides with marzipan. Trim marzipan, and cut a thin slice from each end to neaten.

Challah

Challah is near and dear to my heart, but we call it Grandma Bread. Challah is a traditional Jewish bread steeped in tradition- Wikipedia will tell you all about it. My family is not Jewish, but my Grandma makes a mean Challah.

Wanting to get more into the blogging community (yes, this exists), I have recently joined The Daring Kitchen. Each month they post challenges- one for baking and one for cooking- and all members post on their blogs the results. I chose to sign up for baking for now. May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads. I'm taking it as a sign that my first challenge was Grandma bread (I mean, challah).

I have made this type of bread before from my favourite people, America's Test Kitchen, but I found their recipe dry. I know- shock and horror- I've never criticized any of their recipes before. This time I used a recipe supplied in the challenge and it turned out much better. Be sure to use a heavy pan to bake the bread though- my loaves always burn on the bottom regardless of the recipe so I've attributed it to my pan being too thin.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Bread is fairly easy to make, but you have to have some time to do it, what with the risings and in this case, shaping the bread. I did take some advise from America's Test Kitchen, actually, on how to braid the dough. Making a four or six (!) strand braid was confusing the hell out of me, so they have you make two regular three strand braids and stick them on top of each other. Easy. Even I can do that. Regardless of the shape, the end result is two delicious, slightly sweet, golden loaves. Stick one in the freezer for later, but be warned you may be pulling it out sooner than you expected. Cause the first one will be eaten so fast, of course.

Aside from being delicious with a schmear of butter, Grandma bread/challah makes fantastic French toast and uber-delicious sandwiches. But my favourite way, which is kind of a tradition in my family, is with butter and a thick slice of ham. Salty and sweet. It's kinda my thang.

One Year Ago: Mushroom, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese Quiche

Two Years Ago: Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta

+

Easy Cheesecake

Challah (Honey White)

from Tammy’s Recipes
Servings: 2 loaves

 To make fancy looking braided loaves, at step 4 divide each piece of dough into two sections, one slightly larger than the other. Starting with the larger section, divide each of these pieces into 3. Roll each into strands, tapering at ends. Braid, tucking ends under. Repeat with second, smaller, piece of dough. Brush top of first braid with egg wash and affix smaller braid, tucking ends under loaf.

• 1 ½ cups (360 ml) warm water, separated
• 1 Tbsp. (15 ml) (15 gm/½ oz sugar
• 2 Tbsp. (2-2/3 packets) (30 ml) (18 gm) (2/3 oz) dry active yeast
• ½ cup (120 ml) honey
• 1 Tbsp. (15 ml) oil (light colored vegetable oil, or olive oil if you prefer)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 ½ tsp. 7½ ml) (9 gm) (1/3 oz) salt
• 5 cups (1200 ml) (700 gm/25 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour, plus more as needed (up to 8 or 9 cups total)
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water

1. In mixer bowl/large mixing bowl combine ½ cup warm water, 1 Tbsp. sugar and 2 Tbsp. yeast. Allow to proof approximately 5 minutes until foamy.
2. To the yeast mixture add the remaining water, honey, oil, eggs, salt and 5 cups of flour. Knead (by hand or with your mixer’s dough hook) until smooth, adding flour as needed. Knead for approximately 10 minutes.
3. Transfer dough to a clean, oiled bowl, turn to coat or add a bit more oil on top. Cover bowl with a kitchen/tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours.
4. Punch down the dough, divide it into two sections. Use one half to make each loaf (shaped or braided as desired).
5. Place loaves on parchment lined or greased baking sheets, cover with a towel, allow to rise 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
7. Brush tops loaves with egg wash. (Sprinkle with seeds or toppings here if wanted.)
8. Bake loaves 30-40 minutes until done.
9. Cool on wire racks.