Speculaas Rolls, with thanks to freerk
Hello,
freerk posted in December about Levine's Divine Speculaas Rolls [1]; they certainly did look divine to me,
and perfect to bake for Christmas gifts. They were so delicious!, I baked them twice, wanting to share these :^)
Update: I wanted to include the link to Levine's original post [2] (another lovely photo),
and the link to Mis Recetas Favoritas [3] (where more shaping photos can be found);
don't the rolls featured in these posts look incredible?!
For spice, I increased the quantity a bit and used Penzey's Baking Spice (thanks, K!); this spice mix contributed a lovely flavor, and I bet Syd's Hot Cross Bun spice mix [4] would be really good for these rolls too!
(MC offered some nice thoughts about spices in this post (lovely Almond-Orange Honey Cakes [5], or pain d'épice)).
The almond paste recipe [6] freerk linked to in his comments was a breeze to make; the inclusion of lemon in the almond paste filling is outstanding. I used candied lemon peel and was delighted with how the filling tasted.
For the second bake, I added some whole grain flour and a preferment, used a firmer filling, and took more care in sealing the bottoms of the rolls (I had some almond paste leak out in the first bake).
These pictures are not as nice as freerk’s video of the process for making these rolls; they were taken the second time around (the letters for each photo correspond with the method below):
(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e) (f)
(f) (g) (g)
(h) (i) (j)
...and here's the whole bunch (18 rolls):
If you want to see an incredibly nice job of shaping these rolls, please see these rolls made by dawkins [7]!
Here is the quantity, for 18 rolls (note, the dough weight total includes the weight of the almond paste):
Thank you, freerk (and of course to his baking friend Levine), for these delicious, pretty rolls.
They were a real treat!
Happy baking everyone!
:^) from breadsong
Submitted to Susan's weekly YeastSpotting [8] event :^)