pastry

The latest Baker's Catalogue from King Arthur Flour has a recipe for “Swedish Tea Ring.” I usually just scan these recipes and go on looking for new toys, but this one caught my eye. The sub-caption described it as a “decadent cinnamon roll in the shape of a ring,” but the formula seemed the least “decadent” of any pastry I could recall – 3 1/2 cups of flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 egg, no shortening! Of course the filling had butter, but still … I thought maybe this was an editing error. I did a quick internet search for other Swedish Tea Ring recipes. They all had butter or oil or lard. I checked the KAF web site and found the recipe there to be just like in the Baker's Catalogue. The dough is a very simple enriched yeast dough, without any of the commonly added flavorings (citrus extract, vanilla, cardamom, etc.). That was another point in its favor, since my wife doesn't like cardamom much at all.

Well, the boys and girls at KAF generally know what they are doing, at least in the bakery. So, I figured I had to know if this was any good. If it was, I would have a (relatively) low-calorie sweet dough in my repertoire and less reluctance to bake breakfast sweet rolls, which both my wife and I do enjoy having.

The recipe for “Swedish Tea Ring” can be found here with versions for volume, English and metric ingredient measurements: Swedish Tea Ring

There were some luke warm reviews of the recipe on the KAF site, noting that the amount of filling was not sufficient and that the pastry was dry. Other reviews were more positive. I experienced a spousal veto of doubling the filling, but decided to watch the pastry carefully while it was baking and shorten the bake time, if the ring looked like it was done sooner than the recipe specified. In short, I followed the KAF recipe, except I omitted the optional glazing and ended up baking for just 22 rather than 25 minutes.

We tasted the tea ring for desert after dinner, and it is very good. The dough is sweet but not too sweet and is tender. We did not find it dry, but note that I did reduce the baking time. The filling did seem sparse when I spread it. I will increase it by 50% when I make this again. But the overall flavor balance of dough and filling was very nice. Susan had seconds.

As an added bonus, this dough is the closest I have found yet to the taste and texture of the cheese pockets from Karsh's Bakery I grew up loving and have always wanted to be able to duplicate.

I'm looking forward to making this tea ring again and to using the dough recipe for other pastries. I recommend it … even if you are already skinny.

David

Sumitted to YeastSpotting

Pecan Roll

Cheese Pocket 

Both these pastries were made with the Babka Dough from Inside the Jewish Bakery by Stanley Ginsburg and Norman Berg.

My wife and I have fond memories of the Pecan Rolls from the long-closed Fantasia Bakery in San Francisco. Theirs were made with danish pastry and were coated with a sticky bun type glaze. The ones I made today were simpler and less sweet. After mixing and fermenting the dough, I divided it, wrapped it in plasti-crap and refrigerated it overnight. The next day, I rolled out a 16 oz portion, coated it with KAF Cinnamon Smear, sprinkled on toasted pecan pieces, rolled up the dough and divided it into 12 portions. These were placed in a buttered muffin tin, egg washed and proofed. Before baking, I put pecan halves on the tops and egg washed again. The rolls were not glazed after baking.

Pecan Rolls, proofing in a Brod & Taylor Proofing Box

Ready to bake

Baked and Cooling

Pecan Roll Crumb

When I was much younger, my favorite pastry from Karsh's Bakery was their Cheese Pockets. The ones I made today used the same dough as the Pecan Rolls and the Cheese Filling from ITJB. The dough was rolled out and divided into 4 inch squares. About 2 tablespoons of the cheese filling was put in the middle of each square, and the corners were folded in, overlapping to completely cover the filling. The seams were pinched closed. The pieces were egg washed before proofing and, again, after being sprinkled with slivered almonds before baking. A streusel topping would have been more traditional.

Thesse are not the same as Karsh's. The pastry is much more flavorful, and the cheese filling is smoother and richer. In my wife's words, a more "elegant" version. She liked the pastry more and the filling less. For me, it's still "a work in progress." Meanwhile, I will certainly enjoy eating this iteration.

Cheese Pockets

A Sampler

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting

Today was my first attempt at croissant making.  I was looking for something that was flaky, but could be used as a sandwich.  While mine turned out kind of small, I'm very pleased with my first try. 

I found this recipe on TFL, then changed it up.  This is what I did:

Mix 1/2 cup of starter, 1 3/4 c all purpose flour, 2 T oil (I used olive oil), 1/2 c warm milk together.  Add 1 1/2 t noniodized salt.  Knead LIGHTLY, for only a few minutes.  Place in oiled bowl with plastic wrap, and put in fridge over night.

Next day: 

--Beat out butter in sheets.  I beat out enough butter to cover the surface of the dough when rolled out.  Chill butter.  Roll out dough as flat as possible, chill

--Take dough sheet in squarish shape, place the butter sheet on the dough in a diamond (points hitting the middle of the dough's sides).  Wrap the dough around the butter like an envelope, making a smaller square.

--Roll out into long rectangle, using water for the rolling pin and hands to assist.  Fold the dough over into thirds--you should have three layers on top of each other.  Roll out.  Repeat folding and rolling again, then put in fridge.

--Repeat the folding and rolling twice, then put in fridge.

--Roll out dough again.  Cut into long triangles, making a wide bottom and a point at the top in the middle of the other two (help me here...what kind of triangle is this).  Roll up the triangle with the flat, two-pointed side first, ending with the top middle point.  Use light flour to help.

--Let them proof.

--Bake 10-15 minutes in preheated 475 degrees Fahrenheit oven.

crumb view (sorry, poor camera)

constructive comments welcome

When I was young fresh fruit was a great treat and not common in Icelandic diet. Today fresh fruit of many sorts is readily available year round allowing one to bake galette year round!

Pastry:

1 cup flour (125-130g)

4 oz. cold butter unsalted (113g) 

pinch salt (or more if you like)

ice water (30-50ml, enough to make pastry workable)

Finely cut cold butter into flour, add salt. Work with spoon or hand until well mixed. Add ice water until pastry can be formed into a ball. Refrigerate for a bit (15 minute). Press pastry into a disk on parchment or Silpat then roll out very thin (thin=flaky). Refrigerate again (cold pastry I find much easier to work) while you make filling of choice.

Apple Filling:

2 or 3 apple peeled and sliced thin

2T sugar, 1T flour, cinnamon to taste mixed.

1T  butter

1T sugar, sprinkle cinnamon

Spread flour/sugar/cinnamon mixture over pastry. Lay apple slices to overlap in circle pattern. Fold edge of pastry over. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over apple, chop butter over apple. Refrigerate 10 minutes.

Cook at 204C or 400F for 50-minutes to 1 hour.

Glaze with 1 or 2 T (to taste) apricot, peach preserve.

Make coffee, pour brandy, consume!

Back in the fall I promised my niece-in-law that I would make kolaches for her birthday at the end of November. Which I did, using the recipe from the point of departure. They were OK, but not quite right. Too dry, a little doughy and the flavor was not quite the same. Wait a minute, you say, not the same as what? What the heck are these kolaches of which you write?

Right smack in the middle of Texas there's an area that was populated by people of Czech descent. Well, a bunch of Germans, too, but right now we're interested in the Czechs. They brought a number of traditions from the home country that have worked their way into local culture, most prominently the sweet roll that makes a true Texan's heart do a little extra thump---the kolache. When I was little, the ladies from the Catholic church in Ennis would come up to our church in Dallas to fundraise by selling home-baked kolaches to the big city folks. We didn't get quite as excited as we would for Christmas that weekend but it was right up there with, say, Easter. Mom would buy six dozen and freeze five of them to be brought out for special occasions during the year. We got to eat one box that morning. Now, you have to realize that there are nine kids in my family. Add two parents and that meant that we each only got one kolache. And I still remember those five or six bites as a highlight of my year.

After a couple of my brothers moved to Austin to go to the University (no need to qualify which university in Texas) our kolache supply got a little steadier. Anyone who made the drive between Dallas and Austin was required to stop in West, Texas (the name of a town, not a region that is in central, not west, Texas) and pick up a couple dozen. It was a regular enough occurrence that we could request certain fillings instead of just grabbing whatever was available. I always went for apricot first, cream cheese second. Or maybe prune. And then, I grew up. Moved away. Lost my source and only ever got a kolache fix if my visits to Dallas happened to coincide with an Austinite's. Joined that community of expat Texans who could only dream. Now and then I'd find a bakery that claimed to make them but they were never anything close to what I remembered. You know, if it's not right, it's just not right.

Now you probably think I'm crazy, just wierd to feel this way about a pastry, but I am not alone. My niece who requested them for her birthday isn't even a Texan, just married to one. When I went looking for a recipe on the internet, the passionate postings about dough and fillings were everywhere. They all seemed to point one direction, however. The recipe posted on The Homesick Texan blog seemed to be the place to go for the real thing. There were 138 comments on the post that all say pretty much the same thing, "Oh my god these are amazing, just the way I remember them." So I used her dough recipe exactly. I subbed in some other fillings since I was out of apricots but that's not important. It's the bread that matters. And now there are 139 comments on that post including mine which says, "Oh my god these are amazing, just the way I remember them."

I'm not going to reprint her recipe. You can go see it for yourself. I will just tell you that I found I had to bake them a little longer than her timing states, more like 20-25 minutes. It may just be that I need to check my oven temp. There are some tiny details that she leaves out that make them even more perfect like you should put them close enough together on the baking sheet so that the oven spring makes them just kiss each other and you wind up with a slightly squared off, not perfectly round finished product. I found the Posypka recipe needs either more butter or less flour/sugar to make it clump properly. She only includes a recipe for apricot filling but it seems more authentic to have a variety so I made three kinds. I used some Trader Joe organic strawberry preserves for some which, while cheating, still came out well. I took some plum conserve my brother made from his home-grown red plums, drained out most of the liquid and mashed up the plum bits. Those, too, were pretty successful. And I really wanted some raspberry ones so I just tried some raspberry jam I had in the fridge. This was way too watery and made a mess on the cookie sheet. They also got the 'best taste' vote from all my testers so I'm going to work on how to make a drier version next time. I also have a request for the cottage cheese/cream cheese filling from my nephew. Can't wait to try it.