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.

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!

I love scones.  I love the crunchy tops, the soft fluffy middles, and the fact that they taste good in practically any flavor, from savory to sweet.  The one thing I don’t particularly like, however, is the fat and calorie content of most commercially available scones (Now that I’m 30 I find I need to pay more attention to these things, or else buy a new wardrobe when my clothes won’t fit anymore!)  So rather than give into my recent scone craving by munching on a premium pastry from my local coffee shop, in the interests of my wallet and waistline, I decided to set off making my own. 

Given that we’re in prime blueberry season around here, I decided my healthy scone would contain some tasty ripe blueberries.  From past healthy scone baking attempts, I’ve found that if you decrease scone fat very much you also decrease the moisture, and need to drink an extra cup of coffee or 3 to wash it down.  I based my scones around this recipe I found during my search, which incorporated low-fat ingredients like yogurt; from past experiences, I find this tends to keep baked goods moist without the fat.  These scones truly came out GREAT – toasty brown and crisp on the top, moist and fluffy on the inside.  The tart lemon glaze was a fantastic complement to the sweet blueberries: they taste like summer, even now as the sun starts setting earlier and the nights are getting cooler…

Low-Fat Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze – adapted from Anneliese, via What Matters Most

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and lemon zest in a large bowl.  Cut butter into small pieces.  Using a pastry cutter (or a fork) cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture appears uniformly crumbly.  In a stand mixer, beat together the yogurt, egg, and vanilla until well combined.  Slowly mix in the dry ingredients, mixing until incorporated.  Gently fold in the blueberries to the mixture.  Form 2 inch balls of dough and flatten each to about 1 inch thickness on the cookie sheet.  Bake for 18 minutes, or until tops appear golden brown.  Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.  To make the glaze, mix the juice of your lemon with the confectioners’ sugar – you may need to add more sugar depending on exactly how much juice your lemon yields, and how thick you want your glaze.  When scones are completely cooled, drizzle with glaze.  Enjoy!

Every time I see Hot Cross Buns at the grocery store this time of year, I almost always buy them out of a sense of seasonal propriety.  (In the event you are unfamiliar, these pastries are served on Good Friday.  There is much folklore surrounding them – whether they will heal the sick, prevent fires, or help me bake perfect bread year round remains to be seen.)  However, despite the tasty appearance of the little pastry with the frosting cross piped on top, they inevitably contain candied fruit peel - and if there is one thing I can do without in life, it is candied fruit peel.  And cauliflower.  But, I digress.  This year instead of buying buns I would end up not liking, I decided to undertake baking my own Hot Cross Buns, so I could include whatever fruits I wanted.  I opted to make a traditional currant bun – in the end, all my grocery store carried were Zante Currants, which as it turns out, are just miniature raisins that cost extra.  After a world wide web search, I followed this recipe for the actual dough as it seemed fairly straightforward.  The hardest part was all the waiting as the smell of baking raisin bread filled the house, but it was worth it in the end!  I used a plain vanilla/confectionary sugar frosting from another recipe to pipe on the crosses in the end rather than the orange frosting suggested on the original recipe site.  They were particularly tasty with a cup of tea.  Lastly, I highly suggest baking them before you take your next sea voyage, as they are supposed to ward off shipwrecks!

Ingredients

For the frosting:

Instructions:  Mix 2 cups of the flour with the sugar, yeast, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.  Heat the milk and butter together to about 120-130 degrees F (this took me about 2 minutes on 50% power in the microwave).  Mix the milk/butter into the dry ingredients just until all is moistened.  Beat in the eggs until smooth.  Add the remaining 2 cups of flour to form a soft dough.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead about 8 times.  Take the dough and place into a bowl coated with non-stick spray.  Cover and let rise for 1 hr.  Divide the dough into 18 balls and place into 2 round cake pans.  Cover again and let rise for an additional 30 minutes.  Beat the final egg and water together, and brush onto the buns.  Bake for 18-22 minutes or until golden.  Cool completely and pipe on a frosting cross onto each bun.

One fine winter morning, I decided I would spend my day lazing about the house reading Northanger Abbey while the smell of baking cinnamon buns wafted through the living room.  Sadly (or not so sadly, in the end) I did not have any pre-fab cinnamon buns in a cardboard tube lying around, so I had to make a choice – make cinnamon buns from scratch, or put up with imitation cinnamon bun scent from my favorite Yankee Candle.  I opted for the former, and boy am I glad – these were the most amazing cinnamon buns I’ve ever had.  I found this recipe initially in my Food Network Magazine several months ago and had stuck a post-it on it reminding myself to come back and try it out.  It is supposed to be an imitation of some national cinnamon bun store’s product, but frankly there is nothing like a handmade cinnamon bun coming out of ones’ own oven – far and away better than any commercially available roll.  I changed a few things out of necessity (not having whole milk or cream on hand, I used skim milk, and also reduced the butter in the filling, as I simply couldn’t figure out how to get a whopping 12 tablespoons of butter onto a 12×14 rectangle of dough) and they came out as rich and ooey-gooey as you could want.  Try them, you will not regret it.

Best Cinnamon Buns Ever

For the Dough:

Warm the milk in the microwave for 45-60 seconds until it reaches approximately 100 degrees F.  Add the yeast and 1/4 teaspoon sugar (do not stir!) and let sit until foamy, or about 5 minutes.  In the meantime, whisk together the flour, the remainder of the sugar, the salt and nutmeg in the bowl of your stand mixer. (or a regular bowl if you are without a stand-mixer – just remember to eat your wheaties if you’re mixing this by hand, the dough gets very thick!)  To the foamy yeast mixture, whisk in the melted butter, the egg yolk, and the vanilla.  Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients, and pour in the yeast mixture.  Mix on low speed on your stand mixer with the dough hook (or arm mixer) until the dough appears very wet and sticky.  Then turn up the speed to medium and let knead for about 5 minutes, until the dough gathers around the hook.  You may need to add a little extra flour (I did – probably about 3 tablespoons) to get the dough to this point.  Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and form a ball with it.  Before putting the dough back in the bowl, coat your mixing bowl with butter.  Put the dough back in the bowl and roll the ball around so it is coated in butter.  Cover with saran wrap and let rise for 1 hr, or until doubled in size.

For the filling:

 Mix the cinnamon and sugar together before rolling out the dough.  Butter a 9×13 inch baking dish.  Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Flour the top of the dough so it doesn’t stick to your rolling pin!  Roll the dough out into an approximately 12×14 inch rectangle (I had an oddly shaped ellipse), with the long side facing you.  Spread the butter all over the dough except for about 1/2 an inch on the far side of the dough - the original recipe called for 12 tablespoons of butter, but my dough was well covered with only 4-6 tablespoons.  Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mix over the dough sparing the 1/2 inch bare edge.  Coat this edge with water.  Roll the dough away from you forming a tight roll.  Slice into 1 1/2 inch thick slices using a serrated bread knife with very little pressure so as to not squish the roll!  Place the slices into the baking dish, cut side down, with space in between as they will expand!  Let rise for 20-30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 325 and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.

For the glaze:

Sift the sugar into a bowl and whisk in the wet ingredients until smooth.  Pour over buns after they have cooled in the pan for 15 minutes or so.  (If you can wait 15 minutes for the buns to cool in the pan by all means go ahead – my husband and I couldn’t, so we just poured the glaze right on straight out of the oven.  This made the glaze very warm and melty, increasing the gooey-ness factor by a lot – but if you wait longer it will probably be prettier! )