The Apple Strudel Challenge

We are talking paper thin. The kind of dough that you lift and suddenly you have a gaping hole...kind of like very sheer silk stockings. Carefully ...very carefully you stretch it by running your hands under it. Take off your rings and bracelets to avoid any snags!

The Daring Bakers' challenge this month was apple strudel. A strudel is a type of sweet layered pastry with a filling inside and the oldest Strudel recipe is from 1696, a handwritten recipe at the Viennese City Library. One of the challenge requirements was to make the strudel dough. I followed the recipe from our hosts for the strudel dough and made the filling with a combination of apples and blueberries.

The May Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I found the dough very easy to work with, although I couldn't get it as large as the recipe required....almost... and very very thin. I could see the pattern in the tablecloth I was rolling it out on! My tasters Dan, Elliot and Meredith decided on the results........and yes...It was a hit!

Here is the recipe:

Strudel dough
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
3-4 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup cracker crumbs

Filling

3 or 4 large apples (MacIntosh, Cortland, or Spartan), peeled, cored, thinly sliced
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown or granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Change to the dough hook. Knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface a few times.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to an oiled bowl. Spray some oil on the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

3. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Place the rack in the upper third of the oven and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Use the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. When the dough becomes too large to hold, place it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough hanging over the edge of the table. Move your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long. It will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

5. Spread about 3 tablespoons of melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough)

6. Place the filling along the short edge of the dough about 1.5 inches from the edge. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling by lifting the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Keep rolling it like a jelly roll. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit the pan. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter, then sprinkle with the cracker crumbs.

7. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Sprinkle powdered sugar over it. Cut using a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

This was fun to make and really didn't take that long. You can check out the other Daring Bakers strudels for more variations!

Until we bake again,

Penny

Anadama Bread

"A fisherman, angry with his wife, Anna, for serving him nothing but cornmeal and molasses, one day adds flour and yeast to his porridge and eats the resultant bread, while cursing, 'Anna, damn her.'" There are many popular myths about the origins of the name of this New England bread but whatever the story, it is Dan's favorite bread! It is a great sandwich bread and is particularly good toasted (with lots of butter).


This is the first bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice (BBA) Challenge*. The day before making the bread, you make a soaker, a mixture of cornmeal and water. This breaks the sugars free... and the flavor is improved.



The next day, you add the soaker to some of the flour, yeast and water. Cover it and and let it ferment for one hour or until it bubbles.

Add the remaining flour, the salt, molasses and shortening and mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until it forms a ball. If using an electric mixer, change to the dough hook and mix for 8 -10 minutes. the dough should be firm and pliable but not sticky. If it is sticky, add a little flour. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl. Roll it around to coat it with the oil. Cover with plastic and let double in size - about 90 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl, divide it into 2 or 3 equal pieces and shape it. The beginning of the book shows various methods of shaping. Place the loaves into bread pans and mist the top with spray oil. Cover them loosely with plastic wrap.





Proof for 60-90 minutes or until the loaves crest fully above the tops of the pans. Preheat the oven, mist the tops with a spray of water and dust with cornmeal.

Bake until the loaves are golden brown and register at least 185 to 190 degrees in the center. they should make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.



When the family arrived home tonight, the smell of the Anadama bread drew them into the kitchen...the butter was uncovered...and one bread is already gone!



Onto the Greek celebration breads!



Until we bake again...

Penny


*In support of the BBA book, we will not be posting the recipes.

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge!

A few years ago, Dan and I were in Florenceville, New Brunswick visiting the family - Susan, Colin and our nephews, Sam and Jack. Colin served his homemade bread for breakfast. It not only tasted great, it seemed more special because he baked it! Every week Colin bakes bread – I think about 5 loaves for the week. I was envious – bread making takes time and I felt that I couldn’t manage it. I seemed to have no time on weekends. I was running around- grocery shopping, meeting friends, picking up this and that …just running here and there. But I wanted to slow down… have more balance in my life…so when I returned home to Toronto, I started my ritual of baking bread.

Thank you Colin…

I decided Sunday was my day for baking. Bread is not difficult to make, but you need to be around for the rising, shaping, baking and so on and so on. I made a commitment to stay around the house – no shopping or meeting friends (unless they came over). This would give me time to relax and do some gardening, reading, knitting and whatever… it would be my time. I started reading everything about bread that I could get my hands on.

I love making bread...watching it react with the yeast, kneading it with my hands, the incredible smell of it baking and finally tasting it and watching the faces of others when they taste it.

There are many great bread books and bread bakers out there, but if I had to choose one bread book to have in my kitchen, it would definitely be The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart. It is my bread bible. Over time, a couple of bread baking semesters at George Brown College and many many loaves, I am much more confident. In fact I have had the pleasure of being one of Peter Reinhart’s army of recipe testers for his new book "Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Everyday". Watch for it because the breads are absolutely wonderful.

When Nicole from A Pinch of Salt announced a challenge to attempt every recipe in the Bread Bakers Apprentice, I immediately signed up.

I hope you will follow along and maybe join us in our virtual kitchens.
The journey begins with the Anadama bread...stay tuned!

Until we bake again

Penny

World's Largest Cheescake Baked in Mexico

After the Daring Bakers Challenge of cheesecake last month, I had to share this article I found in the Professional Travel Guide.

This is just way too much cheesecake!

"The world's biggest cheesecake isn't coming from where you would think, like New York. It was baked in Mexico. And it's quite large.
Chef Miguel Angel Quezada says 55 cooks spent 60 hours making the world's biggest cheesecake — a 2-ton calorie bomb topped with strawberries.
The monster cake used nearly a ton of cream cheese, the same amount of yogurt, 350 kilograms (772 pounds) of pastry, 250 kilograms (551 pounds) of sugar and 150 kilograms (331 pounds) of butter.
And, lest you question it, Guiness has already certified it as the record holder for World's Biggest Cheesecake. It's the first attempt at this record, of course, but, before you try and make a run at the record, remember: TWO TONS of cheesecake. TWO TONS. That's not exactly something you can just whip together on a Sunday afternoon. "

Where do you keep a cake that big???? How do you cut it????

Wow...I think I will stick with my little cheesecake!

Until we bake again...
Penny