So I was slaving away on brioche research the last week and I started writing up a post. Then I took a look at my pictures. Yes! I have a cache of pictures taken with my spanking new Nikon that look…meh. Especially the ones that I took of my “loaf” of brioche. I’m still trying to get the hang of this thing. I can’t get over how much better the pictures I took with my old G5 were. I know it’s just because I have no idea how to properly use a SLR, especially the lenses. They confuse me. ANYWAYS, I did make this tart, and the pics aren’t toooo bad. While I have a ton of historical tidbits to impart as well as some close up and personal pics of yeast, they’ll have to wait for a proper brioche post (which I hope to get to next week, along with a post on homemade crème fraîche *cough*). My family will have to suffer through loaf upon loaf of brioche attempts as well as other brioche-filled recipes. I’ve even got a pumpkin brioche version planned! Oh, the horror. And just in time for Halloween too.

But as I said, in the meantime I’ve got this tart. The tart can be found in Baking With Julia which is recipe kin to the Viennese Cream Brioche included in Nancy Silvertion’s Pastries From The La Brea Bakery. You know, the same pastry that apparently brought Julia Child to tears with the first bite. What you will find in this tart is a billowy pillow of brioche cushioning a fluffy crème fraîche custard served with a “white secret sauce” which is like a saucy type of sabayon. If you really want to go all out (which I did this time) you can whip up a fruit garnish poached in a caramel wine mixture for a pretty presentation.  

The brioche recipe in Baking With Julia is great, but it is designed to be used with all different types of brioche dishes that are in the book. I’ve made this recipe twice as outlined there, but I decided to mix things up a bit this time and make the tart with the brioche recipe included in the La Brea Bakery book. The only real differences between the two are the eggs, Nancy’s has six instead of five, and of course…the butter. This dough is padded with not one, not one and a half (as in the Baking With Julia recipe), but TWO, yes two full sticks of butter because you know, you can never have too much butter.

I’m including some small suggestions here and there in the recipe of course, but let me tell all of you out there without a stand mixer – BRIOCHE CAN BE MADE BY HAND! YES YOU CAN! That said, a stand mixer (which my angel of a Mother bought for me as a Christmas gift last year, AND I’ve been meaning to write about but I hit my basket case wall) will make brioche an actual pleasure to make instead of one you feel like you have to train for. If you love brioche and don’t live near a place where you can buy it regularly, I strongly recommend beg, borrow, or stealing a stand mixer. Why am I making such a rash suggestion? Well, when making brioche by hand you cannot, let me repeat that you CAN NOT use a hand mixer, you will kill it. Nay, it is set forth in stone that one who dost desire to make golden buttery loaves of goodness must put down your arms in sacrifice to the Lord (watched Monty Python And The Holy Grail the other day, the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch bit cracks me up). That’s right, roll up those sleeves and break out your strongest wooden spoon and stir, stir, stir, stir…. It’s tiring, Dorie Greenspan compared the experience to running a half-marathon, and unless you want to be stirring for a full hour (instead of a half hour – yes, I’m afraid so), you just have to resign yourself to never quite getting the same dough consistency that you get with a stand mixer. Truth be told I didn’t really notice a difference with the finished tart, and only a slight one with the crumb of the loaf.

I would have like to have had a thorough set of pictures of the process to create the “secret sauce” and I started out swimmingly, but a series of unfortunate events conspired against my pictorial goals. Actually it was just one event…my Mom became CRAZY sick. We still don’t know what it was, but pretty much post caramel-wine sauce creation I was juggling a baking tart, mixing up some secret sauce, and a technicolor yawning Mother. It wasn’t pretty. I gave up any pretense of even paying attention to the mixing caramel-wine-yolk concoction that was whisked away for probably more than an hour by my new best friend, the trusty stand mixer. My time was preoccupied with scattering myself between tending to my Mother getting sick upstairs and cleaning up the aftermath of her getting sick downstairs. Around an hour later when I was finally able to check the mixture, it was a lot thicker than mayonnaise. I ended up with more of a whipped cream consistency rather than a sauce. The pictures you’ll see later of a slice are with a proper batch of sauce I made later. That’s not to say that the initial batch was a failure, quite the contrary. It was delish! In fact, I preferred it to the properly made batch, but I don’t think the fact that I mixed it a full hour was the reason for the improvement in the taste. I think I cooked the caramel a little too long for my tastes with the second batch, so keep an eye on that, especially if you’re using vanilla extract instead of beans. Don’t cook it for any longer than an extra 10 minutes, and at a very low simmer, unless of course you like things a little more bitter.

While the recipe suggests serving the tart the day that it is baked, and let me tell you, fresh out of the oven I can see why Julia Child shed a tear when she ate this. I managed to stretch it out over a couple of days keeping it in the fridge and taking it out for about an hour to bring to room temperature before serving. If you want, warm a slice in a microwave for 10 to 15 seconds, but not longer or the custard will turn, I know this may sound weird considering it is a custard, but mushy. Don’t forget to have a hankie nearby for that first mouthful!

my notes are in italics

Brioche Dough
(from Nancy Silvertion’s Pastries From The La Brea Bakery)
Yields: 2 1/4 pounds dough

2 tablespoons (1 ounce) packed fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (I used active dry yeast)
1/3 cup whole milk, warmed to 100-110°F
6 extra-large eggs
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I spooned the flour into the measuring cup, then leveled off with a knife)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, soft, but not greasy

Place the yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer, and pour the milk over to soften for 1-2 minutes. (I actually sprinkled about a teaspoon of the sugar on top of the yeast-milk mixture and let it sit for 10 minutes to proof. Personally I think this is a wise course of action to make sure that your yeast is viable. I’d hate to think of wasting 40 minutes waiting for a sponge to proof only to find that your yeast is bad. If after about 10 minutes you don’t see some foaming yeast and something similar to what is pictured below, then you have bad yeast which means start over with fresh yeast, otherwise you can proceed.)

Add one of the eggs and one cup of the flour and stir to combine. Sprinkle one more cup of flour over the mixture, without stirring. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until the surface of the flour cracks, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Add the sugar, salt, remaining eggs, and remaining 1 1/2 cups of the flour to the yeast mixture. Using an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix on low for 1-2 minutes, until combined. Turn the mixer up to medium-high and continue to mix for about 15 minutes, until the dough wraps itself around the hook and is smooth, shiny and slightly sticky. If you are doing this by hand, add the ingredients and get out your wooden spoon and stir. You will need to do this for about a half an hour. You want the dough to be as smooth as possible. As you mix the dough you should notice a change in the consistency and the dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl more easily. This is a sign that you’re good to go on to the next step. It may be necessary to add another tablespoon of flour to encourage the dough to leave the sides of the bowl.

Turn the mixer down to medium-low and add the butter a few tablespoons at a time. Mix the dough after each addition until well combined. After all of the butter has been added, turn the mixer up to medium-high and beat the dough for about 2-3 more minutes, until the dough wraps itself around the hook. If mixing by hand, mix the dough for another 10 minutes. Again, look for the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl. If necessary, add a few pinches of flour to encourage the dough to leave the sides of the bowl. The dough will be smooth and shiny, but not oily.

Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface and knead a few times to gather into a ball. Clean the mixing bowl and lightly coat it with vegetable oil. While I did wash my mixer bowl this time, I think next time I will just transfer the dough into one of my big glass Pyrex bowls for the rises. This way I can just move fluidly through the steps instead of stressing about my “dough-out-of-bowl” for such a long period of time while I get OCD about the cleanliness of my bowl. Return the dough to the oiled bowl, cover it tightly with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Punch down/deflate the dough by lifting it in sections and letting it drop in the bowl. Once the dough has been deflated, rub some butter over a sheet of plastic wrap and cover the bowl tightly with it. Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 to 6 hours, but preferably overnight. After this last rise in the refrigerator the dough is ready for any recipe.

Brioche Tart With White Secret Sauce
(from Baking With Julia)

1/2 recipe (about 1 pound 2 ounces) Brioche dough, chilled

1 cup crème fraîche, homemade (page 447) or store-bought, or sour cream
1 large egg
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg white, beaten
Crystal sugar, for sprinkling

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and butter a 1 1/4-inch high 10-inch flan ring or the ring of a 10-inch springform pan. I used a 10-inch springform pan. Personally, I think this is preferable because you can “spring” the pan away easily from the finished tart.

Gently work the dough into a ball, flatten it into a 5-inch disk, and roll it out on a lightly floured surface into a circle that’s at least 1 to 1 1/2 inches larger than the flan ring. If your circle is ragged, trim it to an even round.

This isn't exactly round, but I'm not a stickler for shapes especially when I suck at rolling out virtually any kind of dough. If you plan on making this, consider trimming the edge (which I didn't do) or you will end up with a near loaf of brioche framing the custard instead of a quasi-tart like crust on steroids.

Center the flan ring on the dough and press down on the ring gently so that, when lifted, it leaves a clear impression. This impression will be your crimping guide. Keeping the fingers of your left hand (right, if you’re left-handed) against the guideline, lift a little of the dough from the edge with your right hand and fold it over so that it falls about 1/4 inch past the guideline. In this position, you should be able to pinch the dough between the index fingers of both hands and crimp it. Twist your fingers slightly and the dough will have an attractive diagonal crimp. Work your way around the tart and don’t be concerned about getting it just so–as luxurious as this custard-filled brioche will be, it is still a simple, rustic tart. Seriously, if you understood those shaping instructions you deserve a medal. I didn’t and I ended up with the gloppy mess you see below. Don’t stress about it though because it will still turn out looking okay, albeit a little more rustic. For a video demonstration of her crimping technique, as well as the whole recipe, go here. PBS used to have the whole series streaming from their website, but not anymore.

Place the flan ring on the parchment-lined baking sheet and lift the dough up and into the ring. Work your fingers around the crimped edge, pressing your fingers into the dough so that you lift up the thick, crimped edge a bit and firmly press down the base of the dough.

Yeah, this puts the "uggg!" in "ugly". This was as good as I was going to get that evening. I didn't discover that video until AFTER I finished the tart.

This is what I ended up doing with my extra dough. I forgot that it was supposed to be four small balls of dough. I'm not sure if this makes a difference in anything but the appearance, but at least my taste buds couldn't have cared less.

Rise
Let the dough rise, uncovered, at room temperature until it doubles in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

I have to admit that this looks kind of obscene.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 275°F.

Filling The Tart
Whisk the crème fraîche and egg together in a small bowl and keep close at hand.

Press your fingertips into the dough, covering all of the tart, except for the crimped edge, with abundant and deep dimples–don’t be afraid to press your fingers down almost to the bottom of the pan. Spread the crème fraîche mixture evenly over the bottom of the tart, going right up to where the crimping begins.

Sprinkle 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar over the custard. You’ll know how much sugar to use because the custard will tell you–it will only absorb a certain amount. Stop when it appears that the custard won’t take any more. Unless of course you like things a bit sweet. Then load it until you see a patchy dusting of sugar on top like so.

If you like your custard sweet, go for something like this. Otherwise once you start to see that the sugar isn't being absorbed as quickly you can stop adding more.

Baking The Tart
Brush the crimped edge of the dough with the beaten egg white and sprinkle it with crystal sugar. Bake the tart for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the custard is just about set. The custard should be a little loose; it should jiggle slightly when you shake the pan gently. Remove to a cooling rack. A few minutes after the tart comes from the oven, slide a knife between the tart and the ring/pan and release the tart from the pan and place it on a cake plate or other serving dish. Serve the tart slightly warm or at room temperature, with or without the sauce and fruit garnish.

The Secret Sauce

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 vanilla beans, preferably Tahitian (I only used one and it was Bourbon, I did add a teaspoon of vanilla though so if you’d like you don’t have to use beans at all and just extract, either 1 or 2 teaspoons depending on whether you are including any beans or not)
1/3 cup water
2 1/4 cups dry white wine (I used a sauvignon blanc)
4 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks

To make the caramel syrup for the sauce, put the sugar into a heavy-bottomed medium skillet with high sides or a saucepan. If you’re using vanilla beans, split the beans, scrape the seeds into the pan, and toss in the pods. Pour in the water. Tip the pan around to moisten all of the sugar, but don’t stir. Turn the heat on high and bring the mixture to a boil. To wash down any crystallized sugar that may have formed on the sides of the pan you can either cover the pan or wash them down with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.

As the mixture continues to cook, you’ll notice that the bubbles will get bigger. Shortly after that you’ll see the first sign of color. As soon as you see some color in the mixture, begin to swirl the pan gently over the heat. Keep swirling the pan frequently over the heat. I recommend occasionally removing the pan briefly, all the while swirling,  in an effort to carefully bring the caramel to a warm golden color. While you can always generate more heat to deepen the color of the caramel, you can’t turn back burnt sugar. You can test the color by putting a drop of the caramel on a white plate. It may take 6 to 10 minutes to get the right color.

In answer to the equation title of this pic...mmm, caramel.

Once you’ve got the color you want, immediately remove the pan from the heat and add the white wine. Stand back as you pour in the wine because the caramel will bubble and sizzle–it will also seize and harden. Return the pan to the heat and bring the syrup to a boil again to melt the caramel. At this point, if you are using vanilla extract instead of vanilla beans, or only one vanilla bean, add either 2 or 1 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the caramel. Turn the heat down low simmer and cook for another 10 minutes. Pour 1 1/2 cups of the syrup through a strainer into a heatproof measuring cup. Reserve the remaining syrup in the pan; you’ll use it to cook the fruit garnish. If you are not making the garnish, discard the extra syrup.

Steps 1-6 of the "secret" sauce construction are pictured in the slideshow.

Put the yolks into the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer or a heatproof bowl and, whisking constantly, drizzle in the hot caramel. Put the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water–the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl–and whisk without stopping until the yolks are voluminous and almost too hot for you to stand when you dip your finger into the mixture: This should take at least 5 minutes, but the yolks may need as long as 8 minutes of heat and constant stirring. You will go from a dark yellow color with a watery, foamy, bubbly consistency to a lighter color and an almost heavy cream consistency. (If the eggs start to cook, a bad sign, or are heating unevenly, lift the bowl out of the pan, whisk for a few seconds off the heat, and then return the bowl to the heat and continue to whisk.)

Attach the bowl to the mixer, fitted the mixer with the whisk attachment or use a hand-held mixer, and beat the yolk mixture at medium-low speed for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the mixture is cool to the touch, pale in color, and about tripled in volume. The bottom of the bowl should feel cold and the mixture should have the look of whipped mayonnaise. If you’re lucky enough to have a stand mixer and a hand-held mixer, then you can whip the cream into stiff peaks while the caramel is being whipped by the stand mixer. Otherwise you whip the cream to stiff peaks when finished whipping the syrup-egg yolk mixture. Once both components have been whipped properly gently fold in the whipped cream. The sauce can be kept covered in the refrigerator for about 24 hours.

Unfortunately this attempt resembled more of a cream rather than a sauce, but still very tasty!

The Garnish

Assorted ripe but firm fruits, such as apricots, peaches, nectarines, and/or plums, or assorted dried fruits, such as raisins, prunes, apricots, and/or peaches
The remaining caramel-wine syrup (above)
Chopped toasted blanched almonds (I COMPLETELY forgot about these)
Confectioners sugar (Forgot about this too, whoops!)

If you are using fresh fruits, slice them. If you are using a selection of dried fruits, dice the fruits, soak them in hot water to plump them, and then drain them. Pat them dry before using.

Bring the caramel-wine syrup to a boil in the pan in which it was made. Add the fruit and swirl the pan. Cook the fruit, swirling the pan and stirring the fruit as needed, until the fruit is softened.

To serve, place a slice of the tart on each plate. Spoon on some of the sauce and the caramel-poached fruit, lifting the fruit from the pan with a slotted spoon, and decorate the plate with a shower of toasted nuts and a dusting of confectioners sugar.

It’s Iron Cupcake time, and I actually made the deadline this month! This month’s theme was to come up with a savory cupcake. All I could think of was bagels. And what is more NY than a bagel that has a dream of becoming a cupcake. NY being the place where impossible dreams can come true. But I didn’t want a plain old bagel. I envisioned an parmesan cheese and olive spiked “cupcake” of delectable doughy goodness…but would it work?

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Voting will begin no later than Saturday, May 30 at 8 p.m. at NO ONE PUTS CUPCAKE IN A CORNER, http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com and will be open through Friday, June 5 at 12 noon.

Thanks to my local library, I’ve been examining the book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Along with that, I checked out another Peter Reinhart book, Crust and Crumb, to see which one I liked better. After surveying each book, I think I’d get The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. In his own words, the bagel recipe included in the new book is “an improvement on the formula given in Crust and Crumb,” so that’s what ended up being my blueprint for these “cupcakes”.

This was another month of waffling about, not being confident in whether my hair-brained idea would even fly, or boil as the case may be. Can you actually boil a cupcake? Thinking about it, I figured if you can boil a ring of dough, then a cupcake-shaped blob of dough should be fine.

Some of you may be saying, “But why I ♥ NY?” To get at the reason behind that we need to look at the history of the bagel, as well as myself. The bagel, like so many other beloved foodstuffs with a long history, has a debatable background. The only thing that seems to be consistent in all the tales is the country of origin, Poland. One legend tells of another Polish King, Jan III Sobieski, and his successful campaign against the Ottoman Turkish empire in 1683 as the inspiration for the bagel. Apparently Polish bakers modeled this commemorative bread after the King’s stirrup of his saddle in celebration of his victory. This story is relegated to that of legend in Maria Balinska’s The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread. She states that in the 16th and 17th century, known as a “golden age” for the Jews in Poland, the bajgiel became a popular repast for the country. And according to the book The Joys of Yiddish, the first time the word “bagel” appeared in print was in 1610 in the Community Regulations of Kraków. Due to the symbolic protective significance of bagels, they were a common gift presented at various celebrations, from births to deaths, in Europe. The descendants of these European Jews brought the bagel, along with other culinary delights, across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, specifically the classic port of call, New York, in the centuries that followed. Although Jewish emigration is recorded as early as the 17th century colonial period, it was until the 1970s that the bagel was introduced to the majority of America. It was Harry Lender, who opened the first bagel factory outside of New York City in New Haven, Connecticut, who helped disseminate the bagel, albeit frozen, to the United States. Now you can find fresh made bagels in every grocery store.

Like the bagel, I’m from New York with Polish heritage. I moved away (too) long ago, and have wanted to get back ever since. For me, there’s nothing like New York, as for many bagel lovers, there’s nothing like a New York bagel. Some say it’s the flour they use, or the famous New York water, but I say it’s the energy of the place and the people that infuses every experience there including its food…you can’t beat it. So what better way to pay tribute to the city I love dearly, and I will always call home no matter how far I away I may be, than to call my crazy concoction, inspired the very New York bagel, an I ♥ NY Cupcake. And if a bagel can become a cupcake, then maybe I can get back to New York

I ♥ NY Cupcakes

Notes before you begin:
First off, you really need a scale to do this right. I measured out the “cupcakes” using my scale, and I can give you a ballpark shape to look for (a large handful), but even when measuring out the ingredients in the first place…if you’re making any kind of yeasted dough, you need a scale. Sorry.

I hate to burst everyone’s bubble, but you’re not going to be able to use paper cupcake liners. Unfortunately I didn’t find this out until after I had baked, and taken pictures of the “cupcakes”. They stick. Big time. I’m sorry for including pics with cute bagel “cupcakes” in cupcake liners, but you just can’t do it. Again, DO NOT use paper cupcake liners when you finally throw these in the oven. This won’t be the last time you hear this because I don’t want you to forget. If you’re worried about forgetting, then just lock your cupcake liners away and don’t use them at all. I do want to note, that you will get a more consistent cupcake-shape if, when retarding in the fridge overnight, you place the dough in a cupcake liner in your cupcake pan. BUT, if you think you’ll forget and put them back in those liners after boiling, well, just forget about using the liners. Otherwise you’ll be trying to avoid eating said liner. THEY STICK….don’t forget! Now, you can do the aluminum foil liners, but those don’t stick at all. So much so that when I took those out of the pan, the liner didn’t come with. It just stayed in the pan. If someone figures out a liner that sticks with these, but not like glue let me know.

Everything should go smoothly, especially if you have a stand mixer with a dough hook. For those of you who don’t (like me!) I want you to know that this can be done without a stinking mixer The tricky thing will be knowing when the dough is really ready. Your best friend will be your hands and your eyes. If you are making any additions to the dough, this process will take longer, and a lot longer if your additions hold any moisture of their own. I’d say that the olives added probably another 20 minutes of kneading time and a heck of a lot more flour.

It won’t necessarily take this long for you, but I was a bit leery of adding too much flour. The next time I do this I’ll know to just dump an extra half cup of flour in and go from there. I was just doing light dustings, but it really needed a lot of extra flour to absorb all the moisture in the olives. In the end I think I may have actually added a whole extra cup, but until I have this recipe down I still plan on playing it a little cautiously.

As far as additions go, I added parmesan cheese, kalamata olives, and dried parsley. Originally I had planned to throw in some sun-dried tomatoes, but I didn’t have any at the time so I just mixed those into some cream cheese for a “frosting”. You can add whatever the heck sounds good to you. Or if you’d rather just go for the classic plain bagel, go for it. Whatever you can imagine on a bagel (or even a pizza for that matter) you can probably add to these. Just keep in mind the moisture factor when kneading those additions in and you’ll be fine.

If you choose to fill these with your “frosting” I’d suggest using the cut the center out from the top method. Basically you cut a “plug” of sorts out of the top, scrap some of the center out, fill up the part you scrapped out with “frosting”, trim your “plug” so it fits back into the “cupcake”, then use it to plug up the hole, frost the top and you’re done!

Sponge:
1 teaspoon (.11 ounce) instant yeast
4 cups (18 ounces) bread flour
2 1/2 cups (20 ounces) water

Dough:
1/2 teaspoon (.055 ounce) instant yeast
3 3/4 cups (17 ounces) bread flour
2 3/4 teaspoons (.7 ounce) salt
2 teaspoons (.33 ounce) malt powder
OR
1 tablespoon (.5 ounce) malt syrup, honey, or brown sugar *I used dark brown sugar.

Miscellaneous:
1 tablespoon baking soda for the water
Cornmeal for dusting the pan
Additions for the bagels such as olives, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, or garlic

If you are looking to replicate what I’ve done here, I added 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup kalamata olives, and 2 tablespoons of dried parsley. You’ll need a bit more parmesan cheese for sprinkling on top.

To create your own sun-dried tomato cream cheese “frosting”, use 8 ounces of cream cheese and about 4 tablespoons of diced sun-dried tomatoes, or to taste.

The Night Before

Make the sponge by stirring the yeast into the flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and stir until all ingredients are blended into a sticky batter, like pancake batter. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature for two hours, until the mixture becomes foamy and bubbly.

Once the sponge has risen, remove the plastic wrap and stir in the additional yeast. Add 3 cups (approximately, I did this by eyeballing since being exact at this point is not of importance since you already measured the flour out precisely in your prep….right?) of the flour, the malt powder (or dark brown sugar in my case), and the salt into the bowl. Stir (or mix on low speed with the dough hook) until the ingredients form a ball. Slowly work in the rest of the flour to stiffen the dough.

On a clean surface, knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes (or 6 minutes by stand mixer). *I actually kneaded mine right in the bowl. It worked fine.

If you are making any additions (olives, onions, etc.) now is the time to add them. Again, your hands are your guide in this process (even if you use the stand mixer). You’re looking for a firm but pliable dough, that’s smooth. There shouldn’t be any dry flour – everything should be hydrated. If the dough is too dry, add water, a few drops at a time. If the dough is sticky, then add more flour. The finished dough should feel satiny, not tacky, and pliant.

Line a baking sheet with parchment. Immediately after kneading, split the dough into 4 1/2 ounce pieces for big “cupcakes”, or 2 1/2 – 3 ounce pieces for smaller, regular looking cupcakes. Roll each piece into a ball and set it on the parchment, cover with a damp towel, and let rest for 20 minutes.

After the dough has rested, place the “cupcakes” in either oiled or cupcake liner lined cupcake pans. Cover pans loosely with plastic or use a food-grade plastic bag. Allow dough to rise at room temperature for about 20 minutes. (AGAIN, if you think you’ll forget on baking day and return your boiled “cupcakes” to a liner then DO NOT USE THEM. DO NOT PUT A “CUPCAKE” IN A PAPER LINER IN THE OVEN! THEY STICK! That said, at this point, they will help keep a more cupcake-like shape in the long run. If you decide to use the liners at this stage, make sure you leave one liner-less for the “floater” test described next.)

Now you need to check to see if the “cupcakes” are ready to be retarded. You can check this by doing a “float” test. I did come across, over on the Fresh Loaf, a baker who decided to skip the test, and just retarded them after 20 minutes. Fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. Drop a test “cupcake” in the water. If it floats within 10 seconds of being dropped in, they’re ready. If not then return it to the pan and continue to proof at room temperature, checking every 10 to 20 minutes until a tester floats. Once you have a “floater”, then return the tester to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan with plastic, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (you can wait up to 2 days from this point before you actually bake them, if you choose).

While the pans do not need to be covered with the plastic tightly, do make sure that they are completely covered. I missed the edge of one and found that the part exposed had dried out overnight. I have to say that this didn’t seem to matter in the finished product since the boiling rehydrated them the next day.

Baking Day

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the tablespoon of baking soda to the pot. This reportedly alkalizes the water, replicating a traditional New York bagel shop flavor. I forgot to do this. Honestly, they still tasted great. I remember to do it with my cinnamon raisin “cupcakes” (did I mention those? Oops!) and frankly didn’t notice a difference. It’s up to you.

Having a slotted spoon nearby, remove the “cupcakes” from the refrigerator. It will be a little tricky, but gently take them out of the pan (obviously remove the liners before boiling if you used them). Don’t worry too much if they seem to become more misshapen. Once you put them back in the pan, they’ll regain a more cupcake-like shape. Drop a few of the “cupcakes” into the boiling water and let them boil for about a minute and a half. Flip them over and boil them on the other side for another minute and a half.

Before removing the “cupcakes” from the pot, sprinkle corn meal on the cupcake pan. Remove them one at a time, set them back into the cupcake pan, and top them right away (I used some extra parmesan cheese to sprinkle on these, but you can use whatever you want or nothing at all), while they are still slightly moist. Repeat this process until all of the “cupcakes” have been boiled and topped. I did let mine drip dry on a paper towel. I just felt weird throwing a very moist “cupcake” into the pan. It worked out fine, but you can probably skip that and just throw them in the UNLINED cupcake pan.

After all the “cupcakes” have been boiled and topped (if you chose to do so) bake for 6 minutes in your preheated oven. Reduce the heat to 450°F degrees, rotate the pan, and bake for another 6 minutes until the “cupcakes” begin to brown. You can bake them longer if you prefer more color in your “cupcakes”.

Remove the pans from the oven and let cool on a rack for at least 15 minutes before serving. These are fabulous right out of the oven!

Can you believe that I actually baked this on Wednesday last week? You’d think that since I baked so early, I’d have this thing written before the weekend, let along before 7pm today. You’d've thought that, but then you’d been wrong, just like the Bride. Nope, I got it in my head that I had to get my savory cupcake baked this weekend, and that’s what it took to get it done…all weekend. And prior to Saturday I was trying to play catch up with my Recipe Round-Ups which I’ve only managed to get last week’s out. Busy, busy, busy.

But who cares. You’re mad about mangos and want to know how they faired in a quick bread. I can tell you they faired well, but got a bit lost in the cinnamon. Apparently it was her ardent love of fruit that brought Kelly of Baking with the Boys to select the Fresh Mango Bread from Dorie’s tome of baked goodness.  

The mango, considered the “apple of the tropics”, is a drupe that you can find in multiple varieties. Containing a plethora of vitamins and minerals, including 17 amino acids, and antioxidant vitamins A, B, C, and E, the mango is marketed as a “superfruit“, a savvy choice for the health conscious. There was some question by TWDers on picking and cutting up the mango. I suggested this post from Coconut & Lime on signs of a good mango. Amy Ruth from Amy Ruth Bakes provided a link to At Home With Vicki Bensinger who outlined a couple of ways to cut a mango. I have to say that Lifescript also offered an informative and comprehensive article about the mango that includes health benefits and cooking and storage methods.

This was a good recipe, but I have to say that the mango got lost in the cinnamon for me. As written, the recipe included ginger, raisins, and lime zest, all of which didn’t sound appealing to me so I omitted them. Maybe if I had included them they would have brought out the flavor of the mango…I don’t know.

This recipe is super easy to make. The only thing that many of the TWDers, myself included, seemed to run into was that we couldn’t get 2 cups of fruit from one mango. Thankfully I bought two mangos when I went to the store. While preparing the batter I kept wondering how in the world were all those ingredients going to fit in that itty bitty pan.

At one point I thought I was going to have a bread explosion in the oven, but thankfully it behaved and stayed in the pan…for the most part.

I have to say that this was a beautiful bread. When you slice it you’ll see the beautiful mango color speckled throughout the bread. This is also the one time you won’t have to worry about hair in your food because if your mangos are a bit overripe, their hair will show up. Despite a lack of mango kick, this was one tasty bread.

I couldn’t resist this picture with my love, Arlo, in the background.

I can honestly say that I have joined the ranks of Harry Houdini, but more on that in a moment. First I want to put out an important warning about bakeables. Sharing bakeables that is. Yes, all you would-be bakers out there must beware this important caveat, if you share the fruits of your labor, they will come calling when not regularly supplied with something from your kitchen. Case in point my Mom drifted through the living room the other morning dropping, “Hmmm, I’m in the mood for something . . . cake, pie, or canelés? What are you going to bake for me?” So there it is, the inescapable fact that if you bake and share, you will do so for the rest of your days and on a consistent basis or jeopardize every relationship in your life. This is the sad truth of when you weep in the kitchen if a cake falls it’s not because of all that work for naught, but because you most likely will be shunned from your family in response.

Here’s where I flex my magical skills.   I ended up baking a babka. Baking babka or any yeasted type dough is magic I tell you! If you don’t believe me, just try it. You will surely exclaim that some supernatural force is at work when you uncover a dough that has doubled in size like magic. Normally I only bake a babka for holidays, Easter really. The thing is that a couple of weeks ago I ended up baking one for my Grandfather who had been diagnosed with back cancer. I wanted to let the guy enjoy some of his favorite baked goods before he couldn’t enjoy them any more and I knew that he always liked babka. Thank God (!!!) I baked it correctly and it came out great! Or at least that’s what I heard from my family because I didn’t get a piece. Not that I mind. I mean, I baked it for him. But, after all that work I kinda wish I had at least tasted a little corner of the thing. And we arrive at another inescapable baking fact . . . if you fill your house with the aroma of something, you sure as heck better get a bite of it otherwise expect to bake a second one for yourself a week later. There you have it, my second babka in less than a month when I normally only bake one (maximum two) a year.

There are lots of different kinds of babka out there. Two years ago (before the baking bug bit me) when we moved to this area we ordered a babka for Easter from a local European bakery. We ended up getting a cake-like object which it turns out is what babka is to some people. For my family, babka is more of a bread than a cake. If you do a search you’ll find a ton of different recipes in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. Holy yeast cakes! I have got to try this one out!

I think I’ve made around a total of four recipes of babka in my lifetime. I can’t remember the first recipe I used, but it certainly wasn’t a winner. The two loaves I rendered had a rock like heft to them, and were about as dense. After this experience I decided to go to the authorities . . . the Kijowskis. My Polish relatives on my Grandmother’s side are a fount of Polish heritage and recipes. Here is the recipe from my Great Aunt Janet and Great Uncle Bob (my comments are in italics):

Babka:
1 1/4 cup scalded milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 packages of yeast
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

In a bowl, combine milk, sugar and butter. In another bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup water. This step of dissolving the yeast in water is known as proofing. I add about a teaspoon of granulated sugar to the yeast/water mixture. You’ll know the yeast is proofed (good and ready) when it gets foamy. If it doesn’t reach this stage after ten minutes, it’s a sign of bad yeast and you’ll need to get two new packages and start the proofing process again.

Proofed Yeast

Add (proofed) yeast mixture to milk mixture and stir in 1/2 the flour, beat well.

In another bowl, beat eggs with salt. Add to flour-milk mixture; mix well. Stir in remaining flour and raisins. Knead mixture for 10 minutes, dough will be soft and sticky. Cover; set in a warm spot and wait until it doubles in bulk, about 1 hour. I do the kneading all by hand because (sob) I don’t have a standing mixer. Those with standing mixers may want to cut down on the kneading time because I’m sure that the mixer has more constant movement than my arm. The consistency you’re looking for is where the dough will turn slightly more elastic than mushy and will pull away from the bowl more easily. Don’t get me wrong, it will still stick to your hands like glue. Trust me, you’ll notice after some time a change in the consistency. I cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a towel. Most of the time I ended up letting it rise for maybe an extra half hour. Sometimes if the dough didn’t rise fast enough I would preheat my oven for five minutes then shut it off and just place the bowl on top (NOT in) of the oven. The heat radiating from the oven should be enough to spur the yeast to grow. Here are pictures of kneading the dough and the dough ready for the first rise.

Yes, It’s That Sticky

Ready For First Rise

Punch down dough; knead for a few minutes. Punching is really a misnomer. You’re not in a boxing match here. All that you really need to do is gently pull the dough down on itself from the sides of the bowl. I have to admit I don’t do the “knead for a few minutes” part. I probably should try it once, but I’m always just too nervous about the thing. I have to say that it turns out fine regardless.

First Rise – It’s Magic!

Divide dough in half and place in a warm spot again until it doubles in bulk, about 1/2 hour. Key thing to remember here is that this is where you will shape the dough. I actually ended up forgetting this step and had to let the dough rise a third time. It still ended up coming out OK, but I think it was a little dense this time. I’m not sure if this is due to the extra rise or not, but I just want to let you know all is not lost if you end up forgetting to shape the dough like I did. I end up just throwing the whole thing in a big pan for the second (or third if you forgot to shape it after the first) rise. One other thing that I do is after you have your dough shaped and it rises this second time, brush the top of the loaf(s) with a beaten egg. This will create a beautiful sheen to your finished bread. If you like more of a matte look then just pop it in the oven without the brushed egg.

Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 35 to 40 minutes or when top of bread is browned.