Alpha Bakers: Rugelach

Unlike some of my Alpha Baker friends, I get pretty excited when I see recipes containing raisins. I love raisins. I would happily order, eat, cook anything with raisins in it, sweet or savory. 

Of course now that I've declared my love of raisins, I will tell you that I ended up making 1/2 recipe of these Rugelach without raisins. I wanted to try something different but I could not decide whether to choose the Chocolate Raspberry or Cran-Raspberry so I made a mixture of both. Mine is Cran-Raspberry Chocolate. And as you will see from the step by step photos below, I did not use seedless raspberry jam - the one we have is seeded and I don't bother straining them.

Everyone I shared this with love them and I had fun trying to pronounce Rugelach, which to me sounds very similar to Arugula and at some point when someone asked what it is, I happily answered: "Arugula!"

I've made the rugelach from Rose's Christmas cookie book back in 2012 (you can read the post here). I don't remember any details about that experience, only that it was positive and yummy. As I re-read my post back then, written by Jenn circa 2012, it sounds like I was confused by the explanation to roll the dough into a circle. Well, I can proudly tell you guys that I am not confused about this anymore so I think we can safely say that 4 years of baking since then have paid off? :)

These arugula rugelach are easy to put together and very yummy. I love that I can make the dough ahead as I made it one day then it sat in the fridge for a couple days. The combo filling is really good too, I can taste a bit of everything, though I think the chocolate overpower the cranberries a bit even though I didn't use the full amount of chocolate pearls. I think next time if I use chocolate at all I will only put a couple of pearl in each rugelach.

Alpha Bakers: Dutch Pecan Sandies

I am not a big fan of cookies, especially the roll cookies. They are just high maintenance, in my opinion. There's so much to do, you roll it out, cut it, move it to the baking pan, then if the dough gets too soft, it needs to be refrigerated before it can be roll out again. To me, the cookies have to be really good for me to go through all the steps. So when I saw this on the schedule, I was not very excited about this. Until, I opened the Baking Bible to the recipe page and saw:

Beurre Noisette.

There. I'm sold. I'm making this. Half recipe.

It turns out these cookies are high maintenance. It is so soft and tend to want to roll to be too thin. However, I do love working with the dough as it is quite malleable and easy to combine. I have made sugar cookies several times and in comparison these cookies are easier to work with (though I can say I do not like having to freeze them, that takes more time). The cookie dough is so good and the smell of pecan, muscovado sugar, and beurre noisette together created a very intoxicating smell. And yes I never would have guessed I would use the word intoxicating in a sentence, much less in a baking post. And btw, I did use the wrong sugar, supposed to use brown sugar but I ended up grabbing muscovado.

As for the taste, they are really really good! I did not regret making them and would probably make them again, though it will be for cookie-loving friends as the folks I tried to share them with gave the cookies an odd stare. Perhaps it's because they are not pretty like the cookies you see in bakeries or even places like Panera. But these are so good - I exclaimed. Somehow most of them were not convinced. Oh well, more for me. I still have a few in an airtight container and even hubby, who is vegan, has eaten a few.

Alpha Bakers: Mini Gateaux Breton

To this day I still remember the Gateaux Breton that I made from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I baked it on June 20th, 2010 (!!!) as a catch up post since I missed it on the baking schedule. It was funny to see this old photo and I still remembered where I took this in the house. This cake was a good memory - it was the first time I made or eat anything that has Gateaux in the name, and it was also the moment that I learned Gateaux is French for cake.

The version we are making now for the Baking Bible is a mini one. They look so cute in the book and I was very excited to make them. They are also super easy and tasty. And Marie, I made 1/2 recipe of this!

By the way, I know this is a baking post, but I just started a sweater I'm very excited about so that's why it's in the picture :).

Alpha Bakers: My Chocolate Chip Cookies

Finally! Chocolate Chip Cookies from Rose!

I made this recipe in November 2014 (that felt like super long ago). This is again, one of the recipes I test for high altitude baking, for Rose's Heavenly Cookies class at Craftsy. I was really excited to see this cookie on her list since I wanted to make it ever since the book was published - but I was trying to be a good Alpha Baker and not bake ahead. Coincidentally, about a month before The Baking Bible is out, I craved Chocolate Chip Cookies. I couldn't find a recipe for it in any of Rose's other cookbooks so I baked from a recipe I found on the internet. I don't remember which recipe I made. It was not memorable. So not memorable that I didn't even bother to take photos of the cookies.I should probably have taken note of the website so I know not to make it again. But now that I have tried Rose's version, let's just say the search is over. I would not need to try any other Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. 

This is an easy recipe, Q&E for Rose's standard but it does require an extra step for you to make beurre noisette. Anything made with beurre noisette taste good, in my opinion. I like the explanation in the book that to make this cookie lactose-tolerant, to throw away the milk residue (it's called something different in the book but I don't have it near me to check). I wonder though that whether it makes it completely lactose-free, but then you'd have to take out the chocolate chip cookies since it has milk, so then the cookie become walnut cookie? (do you follow my odd logic?).

Alpha Bakers: Hazelnut Praline Cookies

Hazelnut is my least favorite nuts, compared to walnuts, almonds, pecans, or cashews. So  when I saw this on the rotation schedule, my reaction should have been: "I'm gonna skip that." But I feel like baking this weekend and I really need to make up for lost time of being absent all summer, so here I am participating (do I get brownie points for this? :)).

This is a really interesting recipe. It's really easy to put together and the bonus is you learn a cool trick from Rose on how to easily peel hazelnuts. When I saw in the recipe that the first step is to peel the hazelnuts, I thought it's only because you don't want the bits of skin in the cookie dough. But then I realized that by peeling the hazelnuts, it allows you to roast them at a good temperature without burning them. I've made roasted mixed nuts before and the hazelnuts burn faster - I have thrown away a batch because I roast them at the same 350 degree temperature as walnuts and they burn and made my kitchen smell horrible. Now I know what to do - peel the skin!

I am also glad I made this recipe as these cookies are sooo good! They don't taste very strong like hazelnuts and more like yummy butter crunchy sweet stuff. I already ate a bunch and I'm gonna have to give the rest away to my friend so I don't eat all of them today.

Alpha Bakers: Pepparkakors

This is a very short post and my extremely feeble attempt to participate. Highlight the word feeble because I only have one photo. I made this earlier this year while testing high altitude cookie baking for Rose's Craftsy class. I had to make during the week to be able to bake everything in the short period of time so I did not take step by step photos.

Since it was so long ago and I've only written the post today I don't remember much about it, only that the dough was easy to put together but very sticky. It requires putting the dough into the tube of paper towel and freezing it so it can hold into shape and easier to cut into later without making a mess. I am usually not a person who keeps paper towel tube around (who does!?). But having baked the ice cream cookie from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, where the dough was shaped using the tube, I have been saving the paper towel tubes. I think I have about 5 of them in a cabinet in my kitchen LOL.

Unfortunately I do not like this cookie at all because it uses a lot of molasses. As you can see from the picture it is quite brown and the brown color is because of molasses. So the cookie baking experience is really to help Rose and to participate in this bake a long because I only ate 1/2 a cookie. I tried to give it away to a few friends but none of them liked it. They are also not a big fan of molasses. So I'm sad to report that most of the cookies got thrown away.

On the positive note, I think there are no more recipe from the book that uses a lot of molasses so phew... :)

Alpha Bakers: Molasses Crumb Cakelets

If there is one recipe I am least excited about in this book, this is it. The picture looks really cute and I love the crumb topping as decoration. But a cake that is mostly made of molasses? Eww.

I made 1/2 recipe of this. I was tempted to make 1/4 but 1/2 recipe portion seem small and I want to give the recipe a chance to surprise me.

I have an old bottle of molasses from when we baked through Rose's Heavenly Cakes. They still smell like molasses and still slow like molasses. After a brief consultation with my good friend, Google, I found that molasses doesn't really go bad. Unless of course if you see dangerous things like mold or if it crystallized. Mine has no sign of either so I used it.

This cake is really easy to put together. It was super quick. The longest time spent on this cakelet was weighing each muffin pans with 17 grams of batter. This took longer than putting the batter together.

Taste-wise, it turned out worse than I expected. I don't like it. At all. It tasted like straight up molasses, which is not really surprising considering that is the name of the cake and the main ingredient. I had a very small bite from one of the cakelets and quickly swallowed it and drank something afterwards.

I am sad to say that I threw out the rest. I thought of sending it to the office with hubby but the I can't bear the thought of serving something that I can't even eat to others.

Alpha Bakers: Lemon Jammies

I made this on Valentine's Day, which feels like a long time ago and it really has. 10 weeks ago!

Yes I baked ahead and I made full recipe! But in this case it is okay because it's author-sanctioned bake-ahead. Earlier this year Rose asked me if I can help test 7 cookie recipes for high altitude adjustment. So I did. And this is one of the cookies I tested. The only high altitude adjustment for this recipe is add 10 grams of egg whites.

These cookies came together easily and quickly and I enjoyed rolling them out. I used a Linzer cookie cutter set that I got a long time ago from Home Goods. They are Easter themed and really cute. Instead of just reusing the cut-outs butterfly, baby duck, and baby chickens, I used a little dab of water to attach them to the corner of the cookie. It made for a cuter effect.

Alpha Bakers: Luxury Oatmeal Cookies

May I present:

my leaning tower of cookies.

These cookies are very sturdy. Yes they are. Why do I say that? Sturdy is not really a word you would associate with cookies. And it's not a very good word. I would think that if someone refers to cookies as sturdy maybe it means they are hard like rock and therefore unedible.

These cookies are amazing. They are chewy and yummy and I would totally make them again and again.

They are sturdy because while I was trying to take photos of my leaning tower of cookies, they fell 8 times. 8 times! The bottom 2 cookies stayed put, the other 6 fell over and over again.

Alpha Bakers: Hamantaschen

This week we're making a cookie that I've never heard of nor tried before. Hamantaschen hamantaschen hamantaschen. Okay now say it 15 times really really fast :).

I was looking forward to this recipe. Not only this cookie has a story behind it, which I find very interesting, the main ingredient: poppy seeds, is banned in several countries.

According to Wikipedia, Hamantash, is a filled-pocket cookie in a triangular shape. The shape is formed by folding the 3 sides of a circular piece of dough, with a filling in the middle. Poppy seed is the oldest and most traditional filling, though you can substitute other "fruit" filling such as prunes, nut, date, apricot, raspberry, or fruit preserves. The name, Hamantash, is known as a reference to Haman, the villain of Purim. These pastries are supposed to symbolize the defeated enemy of the Jewish people, and resemble the three cornered hat of Haman. I am glad that Rose is exposing us to cookies like this one, cookies with a story behind it.

Onto the next interesting topic, did you know that poppy seeds is banned in Singapore and Saudi Arabia. I'm sure Faithy is substituting and probably is using her 3 year old lekvar from Rose's Heavenly Cakes bake-a-long. According to the Central Narcotics Bureau of Singapore, poppy seeds is banned because of its narcotics (morphine) content. In Saudi Arabia it is banned for various religious and drug reasons. In airports India, they advised folks not to carry poppy seeds to other countries as it can lead to false positives drug test result.

This leads me to wonder how much poppy seeds one has to consume to show a positive result in drug test. I am glad I am not doing drug test for a new job or a health assessment at the doctor's office any time soon. I would not want to have this on my record: "patient tested positive for morphine due to baking cookies containing poppy seeds for a baking club."

Alpha Bakers: Gingersnaps

This week we're back to small portions folks!

For these cookies, I made 1/3 recipe this time. How, you might wonder, would I adjust the 1 egg and 1 egg white by 1/3. I first calculated the 1/3 amount of egg and egg white needed in grams. Then I separated the egg yolk from the egg whites. Then I weighed them separately. The egg yolk weight 16 grams so it's normal size, so I split it into 1/3 (5 grams). I add the amount of egg whites needed for 1/3 of egg weighted. Are you still with me? And lastly I added then 1/3 additional egg whites.

It dawned on me recently (thanks Rose), that I should probably mention any high altitude adjustment that I make on recipes. I think all of the Alpha Bakers are at sea level so this is probably not very interesting. But perhaps it can be useful for others reading this blog if they happen to be at high altitude. Denver is at 5,000 feet above sea level so adjustments needs to be made for cooking and baking.

I usually adjust two things: leavening agents and liquid. Decreasing leaving agents is because at high altitude baked goods rise more quickly. The second adjustment is increasing liquids. I always thought that increasing liquids is because it's so dry here but that is not the only reason. At higher altitude, evaporation happens faster so add that to the dryness baked good taste less good. Some folks adjust the dry ingredients: increasing flour, reducing sugar, etc. I feel that increasing flour is counter-intuitive to adding liquids to prevent dryness so I never really bother with that. As for sugar, Rose's recipes is not too sweet so that's not needed, in my opinion.  It is not as complicated as it might have sounded. Trust me on this - I almost failed high school chemistry.

For this gingersnaps I adjusted the baking powder and baking soda by about 20%. I didn't measure very accurately since it's impossible to split 1 teaspoon baking soda into 1/3 and then reduce 20%. Let's just say I measure 1/3 of it and then take a bit off.

I waited until everything is being mixed in the mixer, the batter almost come together with the stated amount of eggs. There's still a few stray crumbs left and the batter feels a tad dry to the touch, so that's when I added 1 tablespoon of egg whites to it and mix it by hand. I avoid using the mixer at this step since it is harder to mix a dough that's already come together with additional liquid - at least that's how I think of it in my head haha.

1/3 recipe yield 10 cookies, all exactly 27 grams.

Alpha Bakers: The Ischler

There is no better smell than the smell of freshly-baked cookies.

This is the third recipe in our baking adventure, The Ischler are not on the quick and easy list. I suspect mainly because there are 3 components to it and the recipe is 4 pages long. But they are really pretty quick and easy, especially considering  you can make some of the components in advance. The lekvar can be made ahead of time and last indefinitely in the fridge. The cookie dough itself can be made 2 days in advance.

These cookies are one of the recipes that I was looking forward to make when I got the book. I have made the Sugar Cookies recipe from Rose's Christmas cookies several times - it is one of my favorites, so naturally I was curious about the Ischler. Add that to the fact that the Ishler's photo is so beautiful. The styling is simple, there is no prop really, just the cookies themselves. The close up shot really did the job - I want to reach into the pages and grab a cookie (or three!).

All the steps for the Ischler are easy enough and I enjoyed putting the dough together in the food processor. And then I got to the roll and cut cookie part. I find this part a bit annoying. The dough is stickier than the sugar cookie. And towards the end of rolling, they have a hard time to stay together and wants to crumble. At some point I thought that these were not worth all the efforts, and I was glad I only made 1/2 a recipe or I would have spent a lot more time rolling and cutting. It took 10 minutes to bake them and I tried a couple as they are still warm. They were so good that I forgot my annoyance from earlier. They are totally worth the efforts. I find them way too sweet with the ganache and lekvar though. I like the cookies itself without any filling so next time (yes there is a next time), I will skip the lekvar and ganache.

Valentine's Day Cookies

For Valentine's Day this year I want to make decorate some sugar cookies. I think heart-shaped cookies are the cutest. It makes me so happy to see them.

So I made a bunch. Some chocolate and some basic sugar cookies.

This was my first time trying on Sweet Sugar Belle's sugar cookie recipe and I really like it. I love her recipe doesn't require you to refrigerate the dough. It made it so much faster not to wait.

Decorating these cookies took forever but all so worth it. I used royal icing and parchment cone. Lots and lots of parchment cone. They work better for me than using piping bags.

I had so much fun playing with different decorations. I hope you like it.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Inspirations:
Annie's Eats
Sweet Sugar Belle
Cookie Artisan
Wonderland Cookies

Rose's Crescent

Hanaa and I had so much fun baking the Panettone together last December so we decided we should bake together more often. We don't want to have anything formal like a baking club but more of "let's bake together when we feel like it." This way works better because it's more flexible and easier.

We both own Rose's Christmas cookies but have not used it much so we decided that's what we will bake from. Hanaa chose Rose's Crescent for this round of bake-a-long.

Rugelach

I love Rose's cookie book and I want to make everything from it. I know I will. In time.

Rose said in a recent Q&A that the rugelach is her favorite Christmas cookie to make and to eat. So I made it this past weekend.

I am on the fence about whether it's the best to eat. But it sure is fun to make. First, you make the dough by creaming room temperature cream cheese and butter in the mixer. Add in vanilla and egg, then add in bleached AP flour slowly.

The mixture is pretty soft and has to be refrigerated for at least 2 hours.

While the dough is resting, I made the filling. Pretty easy. Coarsely chopped walnuts is mixed with brown sugar, granulated sugar, golden raisin, and cinnamon.

After the 2 hour mark, I took out the dough to roll. This part was a bit confusing. I thought that the recipe would say to roll out the dough like how I would roll out croissant dough. I mean, after all, the rugelach is kinda shaped like a croissant. But the recipe actually said to split the dough into 4 pieces and roll each one into a circle. That doesn't make a lot of sense for me. So I just sort of roll each piece into a messy rectangle.

The only fruit preserves I have in the house is orange marmalade so I used that. I was a bit worried that it would affect the taste or make it bitter. But then again apricot preserves doesn't have a lot of taste. And I figured that its main purpose would be to wet the dough so the filling can stick to it. So orange marmalade it is. I didn't even try to water it down, just dip the brush into it and brush it onto the pastry.

I wish I had shaped these rugelach better. They are not very uniform, some are big and some are small. But I think they are cute.

They are pretty tasty. I would not say I'm a huge fan of them. They tasted more like bread to me and not a cross between pastry and cookie like Rose said.

Recipe: Rose's Christmas Cookies

Chocolate Madeleines

I have made madeleines several times but this is my first time making the chocolate version.

Rose said that since this version used melted chocolate, the texture is heavier and not as airy as the non-chocolate version.

She was right.

Swiss Chocolate Meringue Cookies

I made these chocolate meringue over the weekend. I am not a big fan of meringue but these cookies look so pretty in the book. And I really want to pipe those s-shaped swirls. Yes, I know! I want to bake these because I want to pipe the pretty swirls. I am nuts!

The recipe is from Rose's Christmas Cookies. Technically it's supposed to be Swiss Mocha Meringue but I don't have espresso powder on hand.

It is a pretty easy recipe to put together. Whisk the egg whites until foamy, add cream of tartar, add a bit of sugar, and whisk until stiff peaks form. Then boil the sugar and water until it reaches the 240-250 degrees. To be safe, I always took it off the heat when it reaches 230 as I know it will continue cooking and I don't want to have caramel forming. Then add the sugar syrup in 3-4 additions to the meringue. Then add the melted unsweetened chocolate.

Per the recipe Rose recommends adding a few drops of red food coloring to give the cookies a richer chocolate color. I added a few drops too many and they turned out pink, :). I like the color though.

After the batter is piped onto the cookie sheets, it needs to dry out for 2 hours or until the meringue stays intact when touched with a finger.

I ended up letting it dry for 2 1/2 hours. And yet they crack! Rose said in her book that the meringue would crack when it's not dried up properly. I think mine is properly dried so I 'm not sure what happened but every single one of the crack! Oh well, they are still pretty and tasted very good. I love the chocolatey smell and flavor.

Holiday Baking

This is Pecan Pie from Rose's Pie & Pastry Bible. I don't make pies as often as I'd like. But I just purchased Lyle's Golden Syrup and wanted to try it asap. Somehow the 1st thing that came to mind is Pecan Pie.

It is pretty easy to make, first make the crust. Once cooled, place all the pecans in the crust, and proceed to make the filling. The filling is really easy. Combine all of it in a pot under low heat and stir until it's thick. This step is the hardest, because I find it completely boring to stand there and stir constantly. I think next time I should bring a novel or something and read while waiting. Rose said this takes 7-10 minutes but it took me 20 minutes (and it felt like an hour).

This pie comes with a bittersweet glaze, which is basically melted chocolate with cream added - like ganache before it's thickened. I need to learn how to make parchment cone, it broke midway so then I just ended up applying it with a spatula.

Oh well, that's what the whipped cream is for, to make it prettier and cover all the imperfection :). Since we are planning to eat the pie over several days, I made stabilized whipped cream and added bourbon.

Tasting impressions:
Really really good. I was afraid of it being too sweet with the golden syrup and the sugar, but I think because it used brown sugar it taste less sweet. The whipped cream is really yummy and added a nice flavor to the pie.

I also made some cookies yesterday. The sugar cookies are from Susan Purdy's Pie in the Sky. It is my go-to sugar cookies recipes and it's very good! I also tried to make gingerbread cookies from RHC, but I used regular molasses (instead of light) and even though I reduced the quantity, they taste too strong. I still decorated some of them, for practice.

So for my HCB readers, these are why I am slacking off and did not make the Vanilla Bean financiers. I was going to make it yesterday but ran out of time.

So there you go. Holiday Baking at Knitty Baker's house. More to come...