Filipino Spanish Bread Rolls

This month’s Kitchen of the Month was Aparna of My DiverseKitchen.  She shared a recipe for Filipino Spanish Bread Rolls, a delicious egg-enriched bread, rolled like a crescent roll, and filled with sugar or cinnamon sugar and bread crumbs.

Because this was a basic dough, I decided to use my bread machine to do the mixing, kneading, and proofing.  That gave me time to prepare the cinnamon sugar filling.

 

For shaping, I chose to roll half the dough into a crescent shape, and the other half into the traditional rectangular roll.  They both tasted the same!

Not wanting to consume them all by myself, I did share them with friends.  All pronounced them delicious!  This is definitely a repeat recipe.  And, they sure are an appropriate accompaniment to a cup of coffee or tea.

To find the recipe and the shaping possibilities, go to Aparna’s blog and you will be treated to yummy photos and stories as well.

 

  

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie
• My Kitchen in Half Cups - Tanna
• Feeding My Enthusiasms - Elle

Bread Baking Babes August Bake: Yeasted Blueberry Coffee Cake

The Babes challenge for August takes advantage of the summer fruit bounty (if possible), and the components can be prepared ahead of time to fit into busy schedules. The recipe comes from Zoë François and Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  I always look forward to seeing how the bakers customize their breads based on individual preferences.

Won't you join us for the August bake?


Yeasted Blueberry Coffee Cake

Bread part:

Brioche

Ingredients:

Lukewarm water:  1 ½ cups/12 ounces/340 grams 

Granulated yeast:  1 tablespoon/.35 ounce/10 grams

Kosher salt:  1 tablespoon/.6 ounce/17 grams

Large eggs, lightly beaten:  6/12 ounces/340 grams

Honey:  ½ cup/6 ounces/170 grams

Unsalted butter, melted:  1 ½ cups (3 sticks)/12 ounces/340 grams

All-purpose flour:  7 cups/2 pounds, 3 ounces/990 grams

1.      Mix the water, yeast, salt, eggs, honey, and melted butter in a 6-quart bowl or a lidded container.

2.      Mix in the flour without kneading, using a Danish dough whisk, a spoon, or a heavy-duty stand mixer (with paddle).  The dough will be loose but will firm up when chilled; don’t try to work with it before chilling.

3.      Cover, loosely, allow to rest at room temperature for 2 hours, and then refrigerate.

4.     The dough can be used as soon as it is thoroughly chilled, at least 3 hours.  Refrigerate the container and use over the next 5 days.

The recipe can be halved.  If you halve it, try to use a 3-quart container.  (In a 2-quart container, the dough will rise above the top.)  Even a half recipe will provide enough dough for two separate bakes.

Blueberry Skillet Jam

5 cups fresh or frozen wild blueberries (6 cups if you aren’t using the wild ones, since they are bigger)

1 cup sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Cook the berries, sugar and lemon juice until the fruit juices are thick enough that you can run the spoon across the bottom of the pan and it doesn’t immediately fill in. It should be the consistency of honey.

I’m assuming a skillet was used; I used a small sauce pan, so the jam took longer to thicken.

You are welcome to experiment with other fruits.

This can be made ahead.



Streusel Topping

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add the soft butter and work it into the sugar mixture with your fingers.

This can be made ahead.

Assembly:

Take 12 ounces of the brioche dough, or 16 ounces if you are using a 9” springform pan. (You can also use Whole Wheat brioche dough.)

Divide the dough into 3 pieces, shape them into balls and then roll out into disks that will fit comfortably into the springform pan.  It’s okay if the edges go up slightly on the sides.

Lay one of the disks into the pan.

Cover with 1/3 of the jam, spreading out, but not quite to the edges.

Repeat this with the remaining two disks of dough and jam.

Cover the pan and allow to rest for 1 hour to 1 1/l2 hours, depending on the warmth of the kitchen.

While the coffee cake is resting and rising, set out or prepare the streusel topping.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Add the streusel to the pan just before baking, otherwise it will get soggy from the jam.
Just scatter it over the top, so it is still in pieces, don’t press it down.

Bake for about 45 minutes. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing the sides of the pan.

Let cool for 20 minutes before cutting to allow the bread layers to set or cool longer and serve room temperature.

Have a slice!

The original recipe is here.
 

If you would like to bake along with us as a Buddy, send me a description of what you did and some photographs by August 29th, and I will publish them in the Buddy Roundup and send you a Buddy Badge.  Email is jahunt22 at gmail.com.

Hope you enjoy it!  

Singing Hinnies

It's been hot and humid here in Southern California for last two weeks.  While I don't mind firing up the oven, it was a treat to 'bake' a bread on a griddle for a change.

Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms was July's Kitchen of the Month, and she offered up Singing Hinnies, a scone-like bread from England that is cooked the stove top.

The dough came together quickly, sort of like a pie crust, and it had a similar texture.  I halved the recipe.  Just as well, or I would have eaten every last one immediately.  Four was fine.

I portioned the dough into four pieces, formed each one into a ball, and flattened them slightly, then placed them on the griddle over low heat.  They took awhile to cook through, which allowed me to clean up and do other kitchen tasks, checking every so often on how brown the bottoms were.   There wasn't much of a rise, but that was fine.

I split each little roll with a fork, then slathered on soft butter.  They disappeared in the blink of an eye, and I only have myself to blame.

Some of the other Babes experimented with different flours and dried fruit.  They are tasty no matter how you tweak the ingredients.

If you make these by the 29th of the month, and share with Elle, you will be included in the Buddy roundup.

Singing Hinnies

225grams (8ozs) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 grams (4ozs) butter (or margarine)
50 grams (2ozs) currants
Milk to mix to a dough (about 6-9 tablespoons)

Sift the flour and baking powder (and baking soda if using) into a bowl.  Rub in the fat (or cut in with pastry blender or two knives) and stir in the currants.  Add enough milk to make a dough.  Roll out onto a floured tray or board and cut with scone or biscuit cutter into rounds of chosen size, usually about 3 inches wide.

Heat pan (griddle or cast iron skillet work well) and lightly grease.  Place scones onto griddle on a very low heat so that the scones can cook very slowly.  Turn once and cook on other side.  To check that they are cooked remove one of the scones and tap it gently – it should sound hollow. The top and bottom should be browned but not burnt.

Serve warm, either split and buttered, or not. Strawberry jam should be great with these.

• blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
• Bread Experience – Cathy
• Feeding My Enthusiasms – Elle
• Thyme for Cooking – Katie
• My Kitchen in Half Cups – Tanna
• My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna

Novel Food #33 (summer edition): Bread

I make my living reading books, all non-fiction, so having a few stolen moments to enjoy a novel is, well, novel.

A friend had recommended A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles.  I put my name on the library's waiting list, and after months and months, it was finally my turn.  I had just three weeks to squeeze in a 400+ page book!

A few other friends had only made it as far as the second page, then put it aside, but I persevered, and was well rewarded.

The primary character is Count Rostov, who has been declared a Former Person by the new Bolshevik regime, and placed under house arrest/exile in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow.  Additionally, he is forced to move from his suite to a 100 square foot room at the top of the hotel.  The novel is an account of the Count's philosophical acceptance and survival during the decades that follow.  In the hotel, he makes friends with and becomes part of the staff, and also makes friends with various hotel visitors.  Food is a part of the scenario, especially since the Count eventually becomes Head Waiter. 

Occasionally, a long-time friend stops by, and during one particular visit, this friend is visibly upset because changes have been requested to his manuscript on Chekhov, a passage relating to bread.  Years later, the friend leaves a book in the Count's care, a collection of literary passages about bread.

Since I am a bread baker, that was what I had to make.

I chose a bread that I make on a weekly basis:  a simple no-knead bread that is proofed overnight, then baked in a piping hot Dutch oven.  Each time I make this bread, I make small changes.  For this iteration, I added emmer flour, sesame seeds, and nigella seeds.  The resulting bread had a nutty flavor and a nice, open crumb.

The original recipe can be found here.  It can also be found in Book 3 of Good Eats.

I should say that I enjoyed the book, and was a bit sad when I finished it.  Because I studied Russian and Russian history in college, names and locations were also familiar, so perhaps that made a difference.  I hope that you, fellow reader, will give this sweet novel a try.

Whenever I have the opportunity, I do my best to participate in Simona's Novel Food event.  Find information on the latest edition on her blog.  She will post a roundup in the next few days.