January 2021 – Cooking the Books

January 23, 2021

I’m on a roll

After my first week of making rolls, and absolutely loving them, I couldn’t resist making more when I came across a cinnamon roll-like recipe that included the delightful mixture of “orange cheesecake” and “breakfast.”

Times being what they are, cheesecake for breakfast sounded like a really good idea to me.

Plus, I miss baking bread.

Once again, this one is a bit time-consuming, even if much of it isn’t active time, so another one to make on a weekend day or over a couple of days. However, like the savory rolls from the start of this year, these were amazing and disappeared quite quickly from our fridge.

Though the cheesecake filling and orange glaze do not use any cinnamon or other similar spices, the process is very much like a cinnamon roll: making the dough, letting it rise, making the filling, wrapping the filling in dough, cutting into rolls, letting it rise, baking, and then coating in a glaze, and then devouring.

Here’s what I did, slightly altering a Taste of Home recipe:

Ingredients

For the dough:

4 ½ t. (2 packages) active dry yeast
¾ c. warm water (about 110 to 115 degrees)
1 ¾ c. warm milk (about 110 to 115 degrees)
¾ c. sugar
2 large eggs
3 T. butter, melted, plus more for greasing
1 ½ t. salt
7 to 8 c. all-purpose flour (I needed a little more, but YMMV)

For the filling:

8 oz. (1 package) cream cheese, softened
½ c. sugar
2 T. orange juice concentrate, thawed
½ t. vanilla extract

For the glaze:

2 c. confectioners’ sugar
4 T. orange juice (from one orange)
1 t. grated orange zest (from one orange)

Directions

For the dough, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add the milk, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, and 5 c. flour. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a firm dough. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top of the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

In a small bowl, beat the filling ingredients until smooth.

To form rolls, punch dough down, and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half. Roll one half into an 18 x 7 rectangle. Spread half the filling to within ½ in. of the edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side. Pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 slices and place cut side down in a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.

Cover and let the rolls rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

To make the glaze, combine the ingredients and stir until well mixed. Drizzle over warm rolls, and enjoy!

January 15, 2021

Heading to Israel, via Italy, for pastel

Of course, times being what they are, my title is metaphorical not literal. The few times I’ve left my house to go anywhere other than for a walk in the neighborhood I’ve been asked the laughable (to me) question: Have you traveled outside the state?

“[Person]”, I say, “I have not even left my house.” Because my trips are mostly to the doctor’s office, I hear a “Same,” and we both sigh.

Anyway, my recipe this week is a pastel, which I understand is an Israeli breakfast item, and definitely is a delightful meat pie. However, I found the recipe through an Italian food site called Labna, and I loved that it included a red wine, which I’m not sure is traditional.

It was supposed to be an easy dish, so I made it on a weekday. As I got more than halfway into the process, I realized some steps involved cooling/chilling the parts, and I decided for my sanity and our hunger, to make a quick box meal while I continued the steps to the pastel.

So, be smarter than me, and read the entire directions before assuming how quick this will be.

However, other than the down time, it is actually pretty easy and simple; the pie crust is pre-made puff pastry; otherwise, it’s cooking some meat and vegetables together.

I mean, I’m still glad I made it, after finally tasting it the next day, but next time, I’ll try to be better about reading all the directions.

Here’s what I did, tweaking the recipe to add carrots and also upping the spice amounts:

Ingredients

~2 T. vegetable oil
3 medium onions, chopped
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 lb. ground beef
1 T. ground cinnamon
2 T. ground cumin
3 T. chopped parsley
1 c. red wine
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 sheets of puff pastry
3 eggs, divided
2 T. sesame seeds (I probably used a little more, but didn’t measure)

Directions

Heat a couple tablespoons in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and carrots and saute until the onions have softened, but not browned. Add the beef and the spices and parsley, and stir to combine. Cook until the beef begins to brown.

Pour in the wine and cook until the wine has evaporated, about 5 more minutes. [Time consuming direction incoming!] Let the mixture cool completely.

While the beef is cooling, line a 9 x 13 baking dish with parchment paper, and then place one layer of pastry on the paper, pulling and pressing on the dough to cover the sides of the baking dish. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Once the beef is cool, add in two whisked eggs, and stir to combine. Spoon mixture over the prepared pastry dough, and then top with the remaining sheet of pastry dough. Pinch the two pieces of puff pastry together to lock in the filling.

[Another time consuming note incoming!] Chill the pie in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Once ready to bake, heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk the remaining egg and brush it over the pastry. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake the pie until golden and puffed on top, about 40 minutes, and allow to cool about 15 minutes before cutting, and enjoy!

January 9, 2021

New year, new knowledge

One of my favorite things about doing this blog is regularly challenging myself to try something new. Sure, I like getting my favorites written down and sharing them, and of course, eating my creations, but that’s not all!

This week’s joy, after a whole year of making breads, was learning about tangzhong. It’s a technique to get softer bread and doesn’t take much time or effort. And, well, it works really well. It didn’t hurt that this week’s recipe — in my new equipment for the year, the ever-useful 9 x 13 in. casserole dish — was full of butter and sour cream, as well as chives: sour cream and chive dinner rolls from Bon Appetit.

Sour cream and chive dinner roll ingredients.

Spoiler: they’re so good, they were not just eaten at dinner. They were anytime rolls, and they’re already nearly gone after making them a few days ago.

I didn’t do much to alter the original recipe, but for once, I wish I would have read the comments in an article. At least before I ran into the exact same issue and could have saved myself some time, and a little bit of yeast and milk. The recipe says to use the same saucepan from the tangzhong steps to warm a little milk and add yeast until it dissolves; mine clumped. I, instead, ended up using a small bowl and microwaving the milk for a short bit until it was warm, then adding a pinch of sugar, and then the yeast. Worked like a charm on the second go.

Otherwise, while it was time-consuming, nothing was difficult and about all of it was expected for a yeast bread, so it was a nice way to kick off the new year. And stay away from the news for a few hours.

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

½ c. plus 2 T. whole milk
5 ⅓ c. bread flour (667 g), divided, plus more for dusting
1 ½ t. active dry yeast
1 c. sour cream, room temperature
¼ c. sugar, plus a pinch more for yeast
2 ½ t. kosher salt
3 large eggs, divided
1 stick (8 T.) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
½ c. finely chopped chives
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Make the tangzhong: whisk together ½ c. milk, ½ c. water, and ⅓ c. flour in a small saucepan until smooth. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until a stiff paste forms (per the directions: it should resemble mashed potatoes), about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and scrape the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer, which is fitted with a dough hook.

Warm the remaining 2 T. milk until lukewarm. Add a pinch of sugar and the yeast, and whisk until dissolved. Let sit about 5 minutes until the mixture is foamy.

Meanwhile, add the sour cream, salt, 2 eggs, 4 T. butter, and 5 c. bread flour to the tangzhong. Scrape in the yeast mixture, and mix the dough together on low speed until it’s shaggy. Increase the speed to medium and mix, scraping as necessary and adding any more flour by the tablespoon if needed, until the dough is smooth, about 8 minutes.

Dust the dough with flour and shape into a smooth ball. Place the dough inside a large bowl and cover. Let sit at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Meanwhile, coat a 9 x 13 in. casserole dish with 2 T. butter.

Punch down dough and turn it onto a lightly floured surface and stretch into a square. Roll out into a 12 in. square, dusting with more flour as needed. Sprinkle chives evenly on top of the dough.

Starting at one end, loosely roll up dough, and flatten into a long rectangle using your hands. Roll out dough again, dusting with flour as needed, into about a 6 x 16 in. rectangle. Cut into 24 squarish pieces, in a 3 x 8 grid.

Working 1 piece at a time, pinch the corners together to form a teardrop shape. Then, seam side down, roll the dough into a round ball. Place in prepared casserole dish and repeat with the remaining pieces of dough, making about a 4 x 6 grid. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until doubled in size, about 45 to 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, place a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 375 degrees.

Whisk remaining egg in small bowl, uncover the dish and gently brush the tops of the rolls with egg, and then sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake rolls until tops are deep golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and immediately brush tops with remaining 2 T. butter. Let cool about 5 minutes and then slide the entire grid of rolls onto a wire rack. Serve warm or let cool and enjoy!