Tahini Cookies

I'm working hard these days in order to finish all my work for March before we head to Paris in 2 weeks. So I'm popping along just to post a quick recipe for tahini cookies. I had an urge for sesame, opened the fridge, combined this and that and my impulse led to these cookies which I happened to make already 3 times the past month.

Tahini Cookies Recipe:
Makes: 50 – 55 cookies

• 150 gr all purpose flour, sifted;
• 1 tsp baking powder;
• pinch of salt;
• 115 gr butter, at room temperature;
• 100 gr tahini;
• 135 gr granulated sugar;
• 1 egg;
• 100 – 120 gr black and white sesame seeds for rolling the cookies.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, equipped with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Cream in the tahini paste, then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour mixture.

Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for at least an hour – the batter will set and it would be easier to work with it.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. When baking cookies I prefer to use the upper and lower heater with the fan function.

Take the dough out of the fridge. Using your hands roll small balls(the size of a quail egg) of the dough, then roll the balls into the sesame seeds. Arrange tahini - sesame seed balls onto a lined with silpat baking sheet leaving some space between them. Bake for about 8 minutes or until the bottom starts to turn golden-brown.

Cool on a wire rack, then store cookies in an airtight container.

Pâte de Coing / Quince Paste

The sells woman from the fruit and vegetable shop asked me with great curiosity what I'm using for all the quinces I'm buying. She has no idea but I'm buying from other places too. Actually, wherever I see quinces, I'm sold. I love their flavour so much that sometimes I eat them plain, just poached, with nothing added. But I also made quince jelly, quince frangipane tarts and galettes, quince jam with slaked lime. This quince paste was made in November but I'm still keeping a couple pieces in the fridge just to see how long it will last. And it is still fresh. My concerns were that I used less sugar than most of the recipes suggest but I wanted the quince to be the leading taste, not the sugar. Apparently my recipe worked fine and I'll try it again the next quince season.

Pâte de Coing (Quince Paste) Recipe:

• 850 gr quinces (around 3 quinces), cored, peeled and diced to 1 cm pieces;
• 300 gr water;
• 500 gr sugar.

Note: Although quince's peels and the core contain the most pectin I didn't use them for the paste since the flesh itself is rich in pectin too. Instead I added them to two more quinces and made jelly.

Line a 20 cm ring with paper.

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan with a lid, combine water and quince pieces. The water won't cover them, but no problem. Stirring now and then, simmer until fork tender on a medium-low. Let the mixture cool a bit and puree using an immersion blender. Add the sugar and keep simmering on a medium-low heat stirring all the time. Keep stirring till the mixture reaches 106ºC but beware since it bubbles up wildly. If not using a thermometer – it is ready when it becomes pretty thick and if you pour a small amount of the mixture on a cold plate it would set very quick. Then pour into the paper lined ring. Allow to cool completely then cut at whatever shape you like.

Keep in a airtight container in the fridge.

Poppy Seed Tea Cake

Minus 15 to minus 25 isn't the normal temperature for our part of the world but this is what we are dealing with for the last 2 weeks. Everything is white and transparent with snow and ice. And it's like the nature prepares itself for renovation.

It's just the right time for some tea and cake. This time it's poppy seed cake with lots of poppy seeds that produce a crunchy pop sensation in the mouth.

Poppy Seed Tea Cake Recipe:

• 100 gr all purpose flour, sifted;
• 100 gr poppy seeds;
• 1 Tbsp baking powder;
• pinch of salt;
• zest of 1 lime;
• 95 gr sugar;
• 70 gr butter;
• 150 gr sour cream(20% butterfat);
• 1 egg.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in sour cream and lime zest. When homogenous, beat in the egg. Fold in the flour - poppy seed mixture.

Transfer the batter into a lined with paper 10x20 cm loaf pan. Bake for around 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.

Tea Update(16.08.2012) - Just had this cake along with jasmine green tea and it's a heavenly combination.

Tangzhong Bread

For the second time we are hosting the January Fresh from the Oven challenge.

This time we decided to make bread using the Tangzhong (water roux) method. It was Yvonne Chen's book "The 65º C Bread Doctor" published in the 1990s that made this method so popular. We however don't have the book but took the recipe from Christine's Recipes.

It's the texture that differs this bread from any other type of bread. It's extremely fluffy, soft and tender. This is achieved due to the use of water roux – 1 part bread flour is being cooked in 5 parts of water to 65ºC. The water roux keeps baked breads moist, soft and fresh for days. The reason – when cooked to 65ºC “the gluten in the flour and water mixture would absorb the moisture and become leavened. When tangzhonog is added into other ingredients of the bread, the bread dough will be heightened and produces softer bread.” - this is how Christine explains it.

We've made this recipe several times and it indeed produces the most fluffiest bread we've ever made. The only problem is that the dough is very wet and the easiest way to knead it is using an electric mixer – sometimes the 15-20 minutes of kneading are really challenging for our hand mixer. But it's been a fortnight since we're having the so longed Kmix stand mixer and she's giving us a very helpful hand in the kneading. But I still haven't come out with a name for her. For now I'm calling her “The Red Gorgeous”.

The dough is equally good as for a loaf bread as well for small buns, plain or stuffed with cheese, dry fruits, bacon, herbs, etc...

This week we even baked kozunak(rich Easter bread, no matter Easter is months away) using the tangzhong starter and it was superb.

Drop by the FFO site to see how everybody's tangzhong bread turned out.

Tangzhong Bread Recipe:
Adapted from Christine's Recipes

For the Tangzhong:

• 30 gr flour;
• 150 gr cold water.

For the Dough:

• 350 gr strong flour;
• 5 gr instant yeast (or 15 gr fresh yeast);
• 55 gr sugar(for not so sweet bread we're using 15gr);
• 5 gr salt;
• 1 egg;
• 125 gr milk (buttermilk works too);
• 120 gr tangzhong;
• 30 gr butter, melted and cooled.

For Glazing:

• the rest of the tangzhong - it adds gloss and nice golden colour to the crust during baking.

Note: Very strong flour is needed for making this bread, because the higher the gluten content – the more moisture would be absorbed. Otherwise the dough would be extremely wet. We've tried the recipe with all purpose flour and had to add 100 more grams of flour in order to obtain a workable dough. All the same, it produced the same soft and fluffy bread.

Prepare the tangzhong. Whisk together cold water and flour (there should be no lumps) and cook over low heat (stirring all the time) until the temperature reaches 65ºC.

If you don't have a thermometer – no problem – cook until the spoon you're stirring with leaves a trace. The mixture should have the consistency of something in the middle between crème anglaise and pastry cream. For more directions look here.

Leave the tangzhong to cool down at room temperature before using it.

Prepare the dough. Dissolve yeast in the milk. Combine together flour, sugar and salt then add in milk with the yeast, tangzhong and egg. Use your hand or stand mixer equipped with the dough hooks to mix all the ingredients into a soft dough then add in the butter. Let the mixer do the kneading part for 15 – 20 minutes. You can say if the dough is ready by tearing a small piece of it and stretching it to a very thin membrane before it tears. Cover the bowl and leave it to become double in bulk.

Knock the dough down on a lightly floured counter top, give it a quick knead just to let the gas escape, then form it as desired – a loaf or small buns. We made this form scroll down to see how it's folded. Transfer to buttered loaf pan or lined with paper sheet pan if making buns. Cover with plastic wrap and let it double in bulk again.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Brush with the rest of the tangzhong and bake for around 30 – 35 minutes until nicely golden.

Palmiers

“Resistance is like swimming against the current, exhausting and pointless.” I'm thinking over these words for awhile, ever since I finished Joanne Harris' Five Quarters of the Orange. It happens to me quite often, when reading a book to think over certain sentences, phrases and circumstances. To transfer them over my life and live through them. To consider them as signs. A sign searcher - this is who I am - a daydreamer, thinking too much over the matters but then doing something impulsive, unexpected, off the cuff. Not just in life, I'm the same when baking too.

It was Christmas week and we were in Vetren. Everybody was expecting from me to make cookies – something made quickly for the afternoon coffee. But no, I decided to get to making puff pastry for palmiers. Believe me, the puff pastry could be a really challenging thing to make when the fireplace is burning wildly and it's almost 30ºC in the room. The butter was melting down and the pastry was really hard to work with but the palmiers happened to be the most beautiful ones I've ever made. I really regret for not taking photos.

A fortnight later, back at home, in our 18ºC kitchen I was making palmiers again in huge doses since Ivan wanted to take them to his work and his Romanian course as a treat for St. Ivan's day. The dough was wonderful to work with but the palmiers were not as beautiful as those I made in Vetren, although the taste was better since the butter wasn't melting down while rolling out the puff.

Those palmiers from the photos you see are the third batch I'm making this month, and I'm going to make them again next week since a friend of mine ordered them for a birthday party. So I proclaim this month to be the palmier's month.

Palmiers Recipe:

Makes around 50 palmiers

• 300 gr all purpose flour;
• 6 gr salt;
• 175 gr water;
• 170 gr butter;
• brown sugar (I never weigh it beforehand since I always measure it by eye, but it's around 200 – 250 gr).

Make puff pastry. Combine flour and salt then add in the water. Mix with an electric mixer equipped with the dough hook till all the ingredients are combined and soft dough forms. Knead the dough for 10 more minutes to develop the gluten, form a ball out of the dough then wrap in plastic and refrigerate for half an hour.

Roll out the butter between two plastic sheets to form a small rectangle, then chill in the fridge.

Lightly dust the counter with flour. Roll the dough from the four sides forming a cushion mat in the middle. Lay the butter on that mat and fold the all four sides of the dough sealing the butter inside. Roll the dough out to around 25x20 rectangle then fold it like you would fold a business letter. Rotate the “letter” short side down, roll out and fold again. Wrap in the plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours to chill.

Repeat the rolling-folding procedure 4-5 more times with at least 2 hours interval after each procedure. You can keep the puff pastry for up to 3 days in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line a baking sheet with paper. Normally I use silpat when baking cookies but for palmiers I prefer paper for better caramelisation.

Generously sprinkle the counter with brown sugar, place the puff pastry on top and sprinkle more brown sugar over it, then roll out to a rectangle about 3 mm thick. Add more sugar as you roll it out. When rolled out sprinkle a final layer of sugar. At the end there should be a nice layer of sugar that will melt and caramelize during baking.

Roll up one of the ends of the rectangle till you reach the middle, then roll up from the opposite end. Cut the roll into 0,5 cm slices and arrange them on the lined with paper baking sheet leaving some space between slices as they will expand. I like to pinch the bottom of the slices to resemble hearts.

Bake for around 8 – 10 minutes or until nicely caramelized. Take out of the oven and wait a couple of minutes till the caramel hardens then move palmiers on a wire rack upside down (caramelized side on top). When cooled transfer to an airtight container.

Chocolate Coconut Cookies

There are certain moments when everything seems possible, when fairy-tales come real, when one can see beyond the imaginary frontiers of the universe. Maybe being a daydreamer what I am makes it easy to believe and see.

I was having a coffee with a friend today and she said her son who is 4 still believes in Santa. I'm 29 and I do believe into the magic with all my heart. Does that make me too naïve? So what? I do believe in the Santa spirit and love the emotions that Christmas brings. The smell of cookies, mulled wine, all the family and friends gatherings. Isn't that what Christmas is all about. I'm not very fond of the commercial side of the holiday – all the shopping and gift giving that turns out quite useless most of the times.

When I was a child there were no fancy toys, there was no Santa. I don't even remember if we ever celebrated Christmas. This was a capitalistic holiday. All we celebrated was the New Year Eve. Of course, there were presents for the children, but the choice wasn't so great. I always received a doll, although never played with it.

But although without the Christmas fuss I was a happy child. This was the time when my mother would make us pancakes for breakfast and we would eat them while stirring vigorously some rye coffee with water in order to make it into foam. Then my father would pack up me and my sister into the sledge and would take us to kids' cinema. And later at night I would read fairy-tales to my sister.

One of my favourite fairy-tales was about a tailor in whose workshop there were little creatures springing to life during the night and helping him with his work. I've had countless sleepless nights stalking for little creatures.

Now they've come to our kitchen :)

Chocolate Coconut Cookies Recipe:
Makes around 60 cookies
Adapted from Mad About Maida 

For the Filling:

• 85 gr cream cheese;
• ½ tsp vanilla extract;
• 60 gr granulated sugar;
• 90 gr dessicated coconut;
• 60 gr ground walnuts.

Whisk the cheese until creamy, then whisk in the vanilla extract and the sugar. Mix in the coconut and the walnuts.

Spread a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Using your hands shape the mixture into a long log, then wrap it into the prepared wrap. I formed the filling into two 35cm long logs but they were a little bit hard to handle, so the next time I would form it into several smaller logs. Refrigerate for a couple of hours.

For the Chocolate Dough:

• 185 gr all purpose flour;
• ½ tsp baking powder;
• pinch of salt;
• 100 gr confectionner's sugar;
• 55 gr dark chocolate, melted;
• 90 gr cold butter, cut into 1 cm pieces;
• 1 tsp vanilla extract;
• 1 egg.

Note: The original recipe suggests using a different method for the dough but I prefer my favourite “all goes to the food processor” method.

Place flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in the bowl of the food processor, equipped with the metal blade, and pulse to combine. Add in cold butter pieces and pulse a couple of times until crumbly. Add in egg, vanilla and melted chocolate and pulse just to form dough. Gather the dough to a ball, flatten it to a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Take out of the fridge. On a lightly floured counter top, roll out the dough, then cut it to strips the length of the filling logs. Place the filling log over the chocolate dough strips and roll up like sushi, besides sushi mat could be of help here. Wrap in plastic (reuse the plastic wrap from the filling!) and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line a baking sheet with silpat. Cut the log into 1 cm slices. Press each slice between your palms to flatten it a bit– I didn't do this with the first batch that went into the oven since I expected the cookies to spread but they didn't and some pretty fat cookies came out of the oven, so do give them a little face-lift.

Bake cookies for 6-7 minute, although it depends of their size. Cool on a wire rack.

Candied Ginger – Milk Chocolate – Roasted Pineapple Tartlets

We made these tartlets some time ago(believe it or not but it was in April) and they were extremely delicious but I never found time to write down the recipe. Since I've promised myself to finish all the things initiated through the year before its end there was no more time for procrastinating.

The original recipe is from Larousse du Chocolat by Pierre Hermé, but we changed it a little bit by making the crust gluten free, and using the syrup from the candied ginger for roasting the pineapple.

Candied Ginger – Milk Chocolate – Roasted Pineapple Tartlets Recipe:
Based on Pierre Hermé's Tart au chocolat au lait et à l'ananas rôti from Larousse du Chocolat

For the Crust:

Makes 6 8,5cm tartlets

• 110 gr cold butter, cut in 1cm pieces;
• 60 gr confectionners' sugar;
• 3 egg yolks;
• 60 gr tapioca flour;
• 75 gr millet flour;
• 45 gr rice flour;
• 45 gr corn starch;
• 20 gr almond meal;
• pinch of salt.

Place all flours, almond meal, sugar and salt in a food processor, equipped with the metal blade, and pulse a couple of times to combine all the dry ingredients. Add in butter and pulse several more times until large crumbs form. Add in egg yolks and pulse just to combine. Gather the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Take the dough out of the fridge. On a lightly floured counter top, roll the dough out to 3mm and line 6 tartlet rings with it. Place the rings on a lined with silpat (or paper) baking sheet. Poke the bottom of the tartlets a few times with a fork. Refrigerate for half a hour.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Take the shells out of the fridge and prepare them for blind baking – place a piece of aluminium foil in each shell, then fill with dry baking beans. Bake tartlet shells for 10 minutes (till the edges just start to turn golden), then remove the dry beans and bake for further 10 to 15 minutes or until goden brown. Transfer the shells to a wire rack and let them cool.

For the Candied Ginger:

• 150 gr fresh ginger, peeled;
• 300 gr water;
• 300 gr granulated sugar.

Cut ginger into thin slices. Place them in a heavy bottom sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for a minute. Discard the water (I like to drink it as a tea sweetened with some jaggery). Cover with fresh water and repeat the procedure for 2 more times. 3 times in total.

Combine water and sugar and bring to a boil. When sugar dissolves add in the drained ginger slices. Cook till the temperature reaches 106ºC. Remove from heat and let the ginger steep overnight in the sugar syrup before using it.

The next day the ginger slices are ready to be used. On the other hand the syrup will be used for roasting the pineapple into it.

Since the recipe makes more than needed you could keep the rest for future needs. Just strain the ginger slices and lay them on a wire rack – leave them for a day this way to let all the unnecessary syrup to drip off. Then roll them in granulated sugar, place them in a jar and keep them in the refrigerator for up to a year.

For the Roasted Pineapple:

• 1 pineapple;
• ginger sugar syrup (from the recipe above);
• 1 vanilla pod;
• 3 allspice berries;
• 2 Tbsp rum.

Preheat the oven to 230ºC.

Pour the ginger sugar syrup in a gratin dish, add in allspice berries and rum. Cut vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape the seeds and add both seeds and pod to the syrup.

Trim off the top and the bottom of the pineapple, then peel it. Insert a bamboo skewer lengthwise in the center of the pineapple leaving both ends of the skewer hanging out, so you could easier rotate the pineapple during baking.

Place the pineapple into the dish with the syrup and bake for an hour – an hour and a quarter. During baking, use both ends of the skewer as handles to rotate the pineapple 4-5 times so the syrup soaks from all the sides.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Take out the skewer and prepare yourself for the messy part. Cut lengthwise the pineapple in quarters and remove the hard core. (We actually sliced the pineapple crosswise, then removed the core using a cutting ring). Cut each quarter in three, then slice crosswise and return slices into the syrup. At this point the pineapple should be ready to be used but ours looked a little bit under baked from inside so we baked it at 200ºC for further 20 minutes submerged in the syrup.

Keep pineapple slices in the fridge, submerged in the syrup till needed.


For the Milk Chocolate Ganache:

• 180 gr milk chocolate (we used Cacao Barry's Ghana chocolate which contains 40,5% cocoa solids);
• 150 gr butter, room temperature;
• 110 ml whole milk;
• 45 gr candied ginger, chopped to small pieces – 2-3mm.

Bring the milk to a boil, then pour it over the chocolate. Leave it for a minute, then stir until homogenous. Add in the butter and stir to combine, then mix in the chopped candied ginger.

Assembling:

Divide the ganache among the tartlet shells and refrigerate. Take out of the fridge an hour before serving.

Arrange the pineapple slices just before serving.