Greetings and a Happy Easter to all the loyal DP folk! I apologize for my absence as of late, but the garden beds have been calling me.

For our Easter celebration this year,  I decided to share some of my Polish culinary traditions with my husband and friends.  One staple which you’ll see throughout Central and Eastern Europe is the making of the annual Easter babka. The word babka means “grandmother” in Polish– although this sweet brioche-like bread can be baked into any shape, it tends to be put into a bundt pan and resembles the long skirt a grandmother would wear.

I decided to put my own spin into things, and took some inspiration from Epicurious and Baking for the Cure.  Through a serious of deliberate and accidental incidents, I’ve ended up with my own recipe!

A note before you start baking– This was an all-afternoon project. It’s not of those “just mix and go” recipes, but the wait and the effort are well worth it!

Chocolate Almond Easter Babka–  makes 2 loaves

Ingredients List

For the dough:

3/4 c warm milk  (at about 115 degrees)

1/2 c sugar (plus 2 tsp additional for yeast prep)

3 tsp active dry yeast (almost two whole packets)

3 1/4 c all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

2 whole large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3/4 tsp salt

5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened*

For egg wash:

1 large egg yolk (reserve white)

1 tbsp half and half or heavy cream

For  filling:

3 tbsp unsalted butter, well softened

6 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

6 oz ( approx half can) of almond paste/filling

1 egg white (reserved from egg wash)

Recipe:

Stir together warm milk and 2 tsp sugar in bowl of stand mixer.  Sprinkle yeast lightly over mixture and allow to stand about 5 minutes. You should see bubbles/foam– if not, restart with fresh yeast and take note of milk temp.

Add 1/2 c flour to yeast mixture and mix until combined. Add eggs and yolk, sugar, vanilla, and salt and mix.  Measure out 2 3/4 c flour, and slowly add it to mixture in 1/2 c intervals while beating mixture on low. Increase speed to medium, and beat in 5 tbsp butter. The dough will appear really wet and shiny after about 4-5 minutes– this is a good thing!

Scrape dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Take note that the dough will almost double in size, so make sure the bowl is large enough. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to allow dough to rise, about 1 1/2-2 hours. (I recommend setting the oven to warm; turn oven off and put dough in to rise.)

Combine chopped chocolate, butter, egg white, and almond paste in a small bowl and set aside.

Line two loaf pans with parchment paper.  With a lightly floured or oiled hand, punch down dough gently, then halve dough with oiled/floured spatula. Roll out one piece onto lightly floured surface into 8 in by 12 in rectangle, with the long side closest to you.

Spread half of chocolate/almond filling on dough, allowing a border of about 1 in on each side; lightly brush border with egg wash.  Starting with one side, begin tightly rolling dough into log, pinching in sides as you go along. Bring ends of log together, forming a ring. Take dough ring and twist several times, forming a figure eight. Place in lined loaf pan.

Repeat process with second half of dough and reserved filling. Put remaining egg wash in fridge to use later.

Either butter or apply cooking spray to one side of a piece of plastic wrap and cover loaf pan (butter/spray side down).  I’d suggest the cooking spray– husbands are great for assistance at this point for wrangling the plastic wrap!  Repeat with second loaf pan. Return both loaf pans to warm spot/oven to rise a second time. Dough will almost double in size over 1-2 hours. As an alternative, you can put pans in fridge and allow them to rise overnight, approx 8-12 hours. If you do this, make sure you bring loaves to room temp before baking.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Once the dough reaches the top of the loaf pans, you’re set to bake. Brush tops of loaves with reserved egg wash; bake loaves for about 30-40 minutes. The tops should be dark golden brown in color, and the bread should come out of the pans easily (courtesy of parchment).  Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

This is an incredibly sweet dessert bread, but it pairs perfectly with Sunday morning coffee!

*NB- I made the mistake of adding 1/2 the butter recommended , but it still turned out great. The recipes called for close to 10 tbsp, but I added only 5.  You can make your own call.

I just love the look of these rustic hand-shaped pies.  This is another dish I had added to my list way back when I was making my 30 while 30 list, and somehow I figured I would make an apple flavored one in the fall.  Well, close enough I suppose – I made an apple flavored galette but in February.

I made this recipe for dessert for Beth and our husbands one cold winter evening, and we all enjoyed it with tea by the fireplace with a small change, in that I opted to use raspberry jam instead of apricot preserves.  It was a big hit, although I will say the pictures came out less than great – we just couldn’t keep it around long enough to get a good daytime photo!  Oh well.  Give it a try, it really is delicious.  The raspberry is very unexpected – most people start eating an apple flavored dish expecting to taste spices, but the light flavor of raspberry was just delightful.

Apple Galette

adapted from Epicurious.com

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons (or more) ice water
• 1 1/2 pounds apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices
• 4 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup raspberry jam
• Milk

Mix together flour and salt in the bowl of your food processor.  Add the butter pieces and pulse several times or until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Slowly drizzle in the water, until the mixture barely forms a dough.  Form into a disc, and wrap in saran wrap.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hr.  Remove from the fridge and roll out on a sheet of parchment to 1/8 – 1/4 inch thickness.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Combine 2 tablespoons of the sugar with the apple slices, and lay into a single overlapping layer on the rolled out crust.  Fold the edges about 2-3 inches over the edge of the apples, forming an irregular shape.  Brush the crust with milk, and sprinkle with sugar.  Slide the parchment onto a cookie sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce the heat to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.  Slice into wedges and serve.  Enjoy!

Soft pretzels are seriously one of God’s gifts to carb lovers like me.  (Literally! Legend has it, these were invented by a monk as a treat for children who said their prayers.)  The key to getting the proper texture, with the smooth firm outside, is to submerge them into an alkaline bath, such as water and baking soda.  They always seemed easy enough…but we had tried making soft pretzels once upon a time, but I recall it becoming a sticky, gooey mess when in the water bath.  (As an aside, they still tasted good that time, but anyway.)  When I decided to give them another shot, my husband was a bit skeptical, but the promise of freshly baked pretzels won him over, and I gave it a try today.

I recalled that Alton Brown made a tasty looking pretzel on Food TV’s Good Eats, and figured that I would give his version a try.  Sure enough, they were simple and easy – if you have a stand mixer, you barely have to touch the dough – and came out amazing.  I personally don’t keep pretzel salt hanging out in my pantry, so I used a slightly finer Kosher salt, and it came out just fine.  It was a lovely treat to enjoy these with some nice cold beer and a spicy mustard this afternoon.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

From Alton Brown, via Food TV

• 1.5 cups of Warm Water
• 1 packet (or 2 and 1/4 tsp) Dry active yeast
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 2 tsp Kosher salt
• 22oz Flour
• 2oz Butter, melted
• Vegetable oil
• 10 Cups of Water
• 2/3 cup Baking Soda
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 Tablespoon Water
• Kosher salt for sprinkling

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine warm water, dry active yeast, sugar and salt.  Let stand for about 5 minutes, or until mixture begins to appear foamy.  Add flour and butter to the bowl.  Using your dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until all ingredients are incorporated, then increase to medium speed and continue to mix until dough forms a ball, pulls away from the side of the bowl, and appears smooth.  Grease the bowl of your stand mixer lightly with vegetable oil, and place the dough back in the bowl.  Cover with saran wrap loosely, and place in a warm area of your kitchen for about an hour, or until the dough doubles.

After the dough has risen, bring the 10 cups of water and baking soda to a rolling boil.  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  As the water is heating, prepare 2 cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper, and then coating lightly with vegetable oil.  On a lightly oiled surface, turn out the pretzel dough and divide into 8 equal portions.  Roll these portions into an approximately 2 foot long rope.  Shape into a pretzel by forming a U, crossing the arms of the U over each other once, and then folding them down and attaching them to the bottom of the U shape.  Gently lower the pretzel into the rapidly boiling water, one at a time, for 30 seconds each.  After boiling, place onto the prepared cookie sheets.  Beat together the egg yolk and the additional tablespoon of water, and brush this mixture over the pretzels.  Sprinkle with Kosher salt to taste.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the pretzels appear golden brown on top.  Enjoy!

Black & White Cookies are amazing - there’s the soft, cakey cookie part and the rich smooth frostings – the combination makes me pick them up as often as I can.  As I never thought about baking them before, I thought they would be the perfect addition to my list of things to make while I’m 30!  It’s just over halfway for me to 31 now, and I’ve been slacking off a bit on my list in favor of other things that have come to mind, like homemade (wal)nutella and buffalo chicken dip, which is I suppose the peril of making a list of things you plan to make over the course of the next 365 days.  Of course when I made the list, I didn’t really think that I should probably keep my pastry intake to a minimum – but, well, one has to do what one has to do when it comes to making all 30 things on my list.  So here I am, catching up and baking Black and White Cookies.  The recipe I made was adapted from a few places – but primarily from Smitten Kitchen, and from David Lebowitz’s latest cookbook, Ready for Dessert.  I wasn’t sure about the recipe for the frosting from the Smitten Kitchen one – it just seemed like it would be too liquidy to me – and my frostings usually tend to err on the liquidy side to begin with.  I opted instead for the Lebowitz frostings, using the Smitten Kitchen cookie.  These cookies were fantastic: soft and chewy with creamy frosting – I can’t get enough of them!

Black and White Cookies

adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Ready for Dessert, by David Lebowitz

For the cookies:

• 1 scant cup granulated sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cups milk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 and 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the frosting:

• 2 cups, plus 2 tbsp powdered sugar or more if needed
• 2 tsp, plus 2 tsp light corn syrup
• 1/4 tsp lemon extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp water, plus more if needed
• 3 tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.  In a stand mixer cream together butter and granulated sugar until fluffy and light.  Add in eggs, milk and extracts, mixing thoroughly.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder, and salt.  Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet ones, until the dough is formed.  (Be careful not to overmix, so the cookies don’t become tough.)  Drop by the tablespoon onto the parchment lined pans – these will bake into approximately 2 inch cookies.  Bake for 18-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cookies are lightly golden at the edges.  Cool completely on a wire rack.

For the frostings – mix together 2 cups of powdered sugar, 2 tsp of the corn syrup, extracts, and 3 tbsp of water until smooth.  Divide this mixture into two portions.  In one of the portions, stir in the cocoa powder until smooth – if this is too dry, add water in very small increments (1/2 teaspoon at a time) stirring after each addition until smooth.  To the other portion of frosting, stir in the remaining 2 tbsp of powdered sugar.  Spread chocolate frosting on one half of the cookie, and the white frosting on the other half.  Enjoy!

Peppermint Filled Brownie Cupcakes
From Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes
Yields 12 cupcakes

8 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
12 small (1.5 inch) peppermint patties

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Place butter in a microwave-safe bowl and melt in the microwave. Once butter is melted, add chocolate pieces and stir to melt. You may need to microwave the chocolate – do so at 20-second increments and stir well.
3. Add sugar and salt, whisking until smooth.
4. Whisk in eggs.
5. Gently whisk in flour and cocoa just until smooth – do not over-mix.
6. Spoon 1 heaping tablespoon of batter into each lined cup. Place 1 peppermint patty on top of batter, pressing gently into the batter. Top with two tablespoons of batter, covering patty completely.
7. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached (insert above the peppermint patty).
8. Place muffin tin on a wire rack and cool completely before removing cupcakes.

I’ve been baking quite a bit lately, but I haven’t gone through nearly as much work as it may appear.  I’ll let you in on a little secret:  I mixed the dough for the Doubly Chocolate Cookies and the Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies at the end of December.  Seriously.  If you peruse my freezer, you’ll find frozen balls of dough, a handful of baked cookies and well-wrapped brownies (also already baked) alongside the standard bags of frozen vegetables and frozen meats one expects to find in the freezer.

Why do I do this?  My motives are mixed: 1)  Freezing desserts, both baked and unbaked, assists greatly in portion control.  Let’s face it, a plate of cookies sitting on the counter is going to get consumed in short order and 2) Sometimes you want a cookie or two just out of the oven, but you don’t want to go through all the trouble to make the dough and clean up.  This is fantastic when you just have to have cookies and tea at 9:30 on a Wednesday night.

If you want to freeze dough, portion it out onto a cookie sheet and pop it in the freezer for 30-60 minutes to allow the dough to firm up.  You can place them close together, because they’re not going to spread.  I like to line my cookie sheet with foil or wax paper to make clean up easier.  One the dough balls are firm, pack them in a freezer bag, squeeze out as much air as possible and seal.  The dough will stay fresh for a few months – I’ve gone up to three months with no problems.  When you want a few cookies, heat the oven according to the original recipe instructions, place the frozen dough on a cookie sheet and pop it in the oven.  There’s no need to thaw – just bake for 1-2 minutes longer and enjoy!

I’ve been told that my family has the chocolate gene.  The women in my family simply adore it.  Most desserts at family gatherings are chocolate and for years a birthday cake that wasn’t chocolate may as well have been considered blasphemy.  I had to chuckle when my cousin’s 8 year old son surveyed the dessert table at our last  family Christmas party with dismay and queried “Is there anything that isn’t chocolate?”  There were oreo truffles, chocolate cookies, doubly chocolate cookies and a host of other chocolate-containing cookies.  I think he settled on some sugar cookies, and possibly relented on Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Poor kid.

I can relate to my little cousin.  For years, I didn’t get what all the fuss was about.  Vanilla, fruit and mint flavors piqued my interest and tantalized my taste buds far more than chocolate ever could.  My family probably wondered what was wrong with me.  However, I can assure you that my chocolate gene has kicked on and my love of chocolate has shifted into high gear in recent years.  Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake is my absolute favorite cake recipe, and I keep a supply of Ghirardelli squares and Lindt truffles on hand for chocolate emergencies.

Even in my vanilla-loving hey-day, I adored these Hershey’s Doubly Chocolate Cookies.   They’re simply perfect:  soft and chewy, chocolaty and rich, but not overly so.  Each bite is full of chocolate flavor from the mellow cocoa and the perfectly sweet chocolate chips.  I’ve been baking these for years – first with my mother and then on my own.  They’re always part of my Christmas baking rotation and make numerous appearances throughout the year.  With two kinds of chocolate rolled up into one little cookie, you just can’t go wrong.  The only way to make them better would be to add more chocolate!

Hershey’s Doubly Chocolate Cookies
Yields approximately 4 1/2 dozen cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups (12 oz. package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just set. Cool for 1-2 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

When I first made these cookies, it was bright, sunny and warm.  My little container garden was in bloom and my mint plant was out of control.  I had been hesitant to bake, because I didn’t want to make the house any warmer than it already was!  I lounged on the deck in a sun-dress and flip-flops, enjoying my mint chocolate chip cookies with a cool glass of iced tea.

These days, my container garden is a distant memory and the extra heat from a warm oven is a welcome addition.  Freshly-baked cookies are best enjoyed with a piping hot cup of tea, a cozy blanked and a roaring fire.

Whenever you make these cookies, they are fantastic!  Buttery, sweet and minty, these cookies are studded with dark and mint chocolate chips and dotted with slivers of fresh mint leaves.

The original recipe from Betty Crocker Cookies calls for semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I opted to use the seasonal Nestle Dark Chocolate & Mint Morsels.  Now that I’ve run out, I’m using Guittard Mint Chips mixed with Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Chips.  Availability for the Mint Chips seems pretty limited, but Amazon has the best price.  The Ghirardelli chips can be found in many grocery stores and also on Amazon.  Feel free to experiment with different combinations and kind of baking chips – you really can’t go wrong!

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields about 3 1/2 dozen cookies

1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup mint chips
3/4 chocolate chips (semi-sweet or dark chocolate)

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F
2. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter mint and eggs on medium speed until well-combined.
3. Mix in four, baking soda and salt.
4. Stir in baking chips.
5. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving two inches between the cookies.
6. Bake 11-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

An open bag of Oreos is an incredibly dangerous thing.  I’m usually very well-behaved around sweets, but Oreos are a striking exception to the rule.  It starts off innocously enough: a single serving of 3 cookies.  But then I just grab just one more, and then another, and then another… you get the picture.  Open bags of Oreos don’t last very long in my house.

When I saw this recipe for Oreo Cheesecake Cookies in December, I knew I had to make them.  Oreos?  Cream cheese?  I’m there!  The problem was that I had a large array of cookies already planned for Christmas gifts (and snacking!) and it just didn’t seem wise to add another variety to the mix.  So I tagged the recipe in my Google reader and waited until the perfect baking opportunity presented itself.

They were worth the wait!   The cookies are remarkably easy to make and taste outstanding.  The subtle sweet tanginess of the cheesecake cookie pairs beautifully with the rich, chocolate crunch of crushed Oreos.   Like Oreos, they’re just too easy to eat…it’s pretty much impossible to eat just one!

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies
Yields about 30 cookies

8 tablespoons  unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (normal size is fine too)
1 cup oreo cookie sandwich crumbs (about 8 oreos)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees andline 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese and salt on medium-low speed until smooth and creamy.
3. Gradually add the sugar, beating until the mixture is light and fluffy (1-2 minutes)
4. Beat in the vanilla and add the flour, mixing on low until just combined.
5.  Mix in the chocolate chips.
6.  Place Oreo crumbs in a shallow bowl.  Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and drop in the cookie crumbs, rolling to coat.  Place dough balls 2 inches apart on baking sheet.
7.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Cookies are done when the edges just start to brown and the tops are set.  Cool for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.