Chocolate and Roses Cake

Being in the army actually makes me crave baking. I think about it all week and when I get home, I can't wait to get my hands into some flour. (I think they call it withdrawal...) All this past week, I was thinking about what to bake to bring to my hosts for Shabbat. I knew chocolate would be a must, so I browsed through my copy of the Israeli cookbook, More Chocolate (expect to see more recipes from there, soon!) and settled on the recipe for Chocolate and Roses Cake, which is, get this, chocolate buns baked into a chocolate cake batter. (It sounds more difficult than it actually is but I split up the work, making the dough and filling Thursday night and finishing the cake on Friday.) I actually think it's quite impressive and the look of it when cut is kind of cool, with the swirls from the chocolate filling and all. (No picture, it was Shabbat!) For me, the highlight of this recipe was the chocolate filling. Liquid when hot, when cooled, it turns into a mixture identical to the chocolate butter my mother makes every Pesach, which is very nostalgic for me. It's also just insanely good and rich, so I think it'll be my go to filling for buns or babka or kokosh now. (There was leftover dough and filling so I made a cake of just chocolate buns. That was a hit. One of the kids said next time I should just make that. Then again, another one loved the chocolate covered chocolate challah. Can't win 'em all!) I did find the cake needing to be a bit more chocolatey, so next time I would up the cocoa powder. Anyway, hope you give this recipe a try. Happy and healthy new year! This cake is off to Yeastspotting!

Caramel Glazed Chocolate Cake Doughnuts

I know I haven't blogged in ages and that these donuts are wayy late in coming. But I have good reason. I joined the Israeli army and I've been in training the last few weeks. I finally finished today and am at home and ready to sleep, sleep, sleep before I start my job. I promised myself that I would post this, even if it meant not being a great post. I made these for dessert ages ago and remember someone commenting that these are a good parve alternative to Entenmann's, a compliment I'll happily accept since I love their doughnuts. I'm a bit too exhausted right now to post the recipe, but one of these days, I'll back track and post it. The recipe comes from Lara Ferroni's cute little book. Oh, and if you think I'm done with doughnuts, I'm not.

Cinnamon/Chocolate Glazed Vegan Doughnuts

For last Shabbat's dessert, I wanted to make something... different. One of the reasons I was excited to move to a real apartment was to finally be able to have a stove top. You know, real fire instead of the electric burners that don't heat very well. All I wanted to be able to do was fry. (And make pastry cream, but I havent gotten there yet.) Naturally, I decided it was time to make doughnuts. The authentic-deep-fried way. And that's exactly what I did. I opened Lara Ferroni's book and settled on the recipe for the Vegan Doughnuts as I was having a vegan for dinner. (It wasn't that much different than a recipe I would adapt for my parve needs, anyway, so it really was not a big deal.) I made some chocolate glazed (and some with sprinkles, just like when I was a kid!) and some.... Well, I really wanted to make a silan glaze, a la maple. But the silan just tasted off with the powdered sugar, so I kept adding cinnamon to make it a cinnamon glaze and it worked beautifully. I must say.... frying was really fun! So much so that I think I'm gonna try doughnuts again this weekend, this time of the chocolate persuasion. My guests were really shocked and impressed by the doughnuts and thought they were delicious. I snuck in a couple of munchkins and thought they were, too. I realized that they came out on the small and thin side because I might have rolled them a bit too thin. I'm pretty sure people felt more virtuous with the smaller size though. I also reduced the yeast in this recipe from a whopping 3 tbsp to 1 and I think it was still plenty. I also gave this dough an overnight rise, as per my usual. Here's to many more successful frying experiments! These doughnuts are being Yeastspotted!

Baked Cake Donuts with Chocolate Glaze

Shortly after my last effort with the yeasted baked donuts, I got my donut pans, all the way from America. Perfectly round cavities, large and small, to make the perfect baked donut. To put them to use, this past Tuesday, my in day and usual baking day, I whipped up a batch of these cake donuts from the Doughnut book, my new authority on donuts. (I reallllly wish I had a means to fry donuts, because the variations are all so tempting but most dont use the baked donut base recipes. You're bound to fail if you bake something meant to be fried... Trust me, I know.) I can't tell you how easily this recipe came together. The batter whipped up in just a few minutes and baked in about the same time. While the donuts were baking, I threw together the chocolate glaze, which was deeply chocolately and satiny. The dipping was quite fun- I felt so professional!! I double glazed just because I had a lot extra and didnt want too much waste. The lucky eaters of the six donuts really liked them and even went back to double dip in the yummy glaze. I sort of felt like I was pulling the wool over their eyes by giving them donut shaped cake, but no one really complained. Points for being healthful, anyone? I considered throwing on some sprinkles as a real throwback to my childhood, but I decided against it. Maybe next time. Just look at those donuts, though. Arent they picture perfect?!

Cinnamon-Sugar Baked Donuts

Chanuka is in full swing! I'm writing this on the fifth sixth night, having just lit the candles after a long day, including dinner at my sister's. Unfortunately, not all has been happy and festive. The worst fire this country has ever seen broke out before the weekend up north in the Carmel area. Much land has been destroyed and too many people have been killed. It was finally put out and today we finally got such much needed rain. Hopefully it wont let up any time soon. But I suppose I should just keep things light in tone... In the Chanuka spirit, I baked these Cinnamon-Sugar Baked Donuts last week. Truth be told, it's about time I made donuts. Years ago, I bought a donut cutter and have never used it. A while ago I acquired the new and adorable book Doughnuts by Lara Ferroni. I also ordered donut pans and finally received them today, but also found donut pans in Israel. So I figured it was about time. On my day in, I finally got to work. The recipe for these baked donuts is an easy one to put together. It might even become my new all purpose sweet yeast dough. The dough rises for an hour, gets shaped, rests and is baked for ten minutes. They are then dunked in margarine and coated in cinnamon and sugar. I originally tried to go for an Entenman's type donut by rolling them in powdered sugar but no one went for them. So I redunked and coated in cinnamon-sugar. They were quite successful and kept the Chanuka spirit alive, in my room at least. These donuts are headed for Yeastspotting. Happy holidays!

Sour Cream Chocolate Rugelach

A few things factored into my making of these Sour Cream Chocolate Rugelach, AKA ruggies a few nights ago. M, our tireless director, mentioned in passing that she loves dairy rugelach, traditionally made with cream cheese. (I remember making them once and disliking them, all the while thinking they were inauthentic because they were not made from yeast dough as the ubiquitous rugelach here in Israel are.) In any case, I had a container or two of sour cream around and we had a meeting coming up, so winging it based on a recipe from Baking for All Occasions, I created my own personal version of her dough. I had no idea how they would turn out, honestly. I chilled the dough and hoped for the best. People always ask me if I make up my own recipes and I always respond that I have no time to really freely experiment with no thought to costs. But I do explain that I substitute and tweak until the recipe indeed becomes my own. This is one of those times. I used a certain amount of flour and all the margarine I had on hand and as much sour cream as was needed to form a cohesive dough. For the sake of convenience, I refrigerated the dough overnight and when I came home from school the next day, I rolled it and filled it with a simple chocolate filling. I neglected a glaze because I don't like the eggy flavor that such a glaze imparts. But they were still divine in all their pale glory. The first batch I baked directly after baking but the second batches I refrigerated after forming to solidify the fat. This is a good tip that prevents an oozy, soggy and nasty mess due to room temperature margarine melting before the rest of the cookie bakes up. Ever since my near disaster with the Plum Galette-- this is something I do with all doughs of this nature. The baked pastries were adorable to look at and so delightfully flaky. They were amazing, in a word. Little bites of oven, especially when enjoyed direct from the oven. Fortunately, they were not as redolent of dairy and not as heavy as the cream cheese variety. All around the reviews were unanimously positive. Feel free to fill as desired.

Sour Cream Chocolate Rugelach

290 grams flour

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

125 grams cold margarine or butter

200 grams cold sour cream

Desired Filling (I used a mixture of sugar, cocoa and oil)

Place all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk until combined.
Break up the margarine and rub it in with your finger tips until the mixture is full of coarse crumbs. Add most of the sour cream at one time, stirring to form a shaggy mass.

Knead the dough a few times to make it come together. Refrigerate at least four hours, until firm enough to roll, or overnight.
The next day, divide the dough into three portions. Flour a work surface and a rolling pin with flour. Using one portion at a time, dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Have your filling at the ready.
Roll the dough out into a large circle, as best as you can.
Spread a third of the filling over the dough, taking care to leave a circle in the center empty so that when you roll them up, the filling wont ooze out.
Cut the dough into eights or sixteenths. Eights makes larger pastries and the sixteenths making adorable little ones. Starting from the fat side of the triangle (not the point!) roll up the pastries into little crescents. Bake the pastries until they're lightly golden brown. I dont have an exact time, I just went by my eye.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in its pan for a few minutes. Once cool enough to handle, break off the chocolate oozy pieces. Remove to a rack to cool. Enjoy and Shabbat Shalom!

Shabbat Dessert Roundup Part 1: Almond Puff Loaves

This is the first of the three part dessert from Shabbat. Last Shabbat. I know we're halfway toward the weekend, again, but I'm supposed to be focusing my efforts on... Who am I kidding? I'm clearly not focusing at all. Besides, I do better when I'm blogging. So this weekend my good friend S decided to host Friday night dinner. But not just any dinner. It would be a themed dinner, which actually turned out to be a nice change of pace and a smashing success. Ever the sensitive environmentalist, she chose Green as the theme. All the guests had the option to literally make a green dish or something that was green in the healthy sense of the word. Being the baker responsible for the bread and the dessert this presented a bit of a problem. Green challah? Green dessert? What's a girl to do?! Mind you, food coloring, or anything artificial, is not an option in my kitchen. So of course I was the rebel. Sort of. I did make very successful whole wheat challot, which covered the green as healthy aspect of things. As for dessert... Well who says dessert is supposed to be good for you anyway?! I ended up making these Almond Puff Loaves that Ive been wanting to make for a while from the KAF site (they also have a blog post up) and an Almond Tea Cake (more on that later). This dessert is multi-stepped but not too difficult. The bottom layer is a flaky, pastry type bottom which is then covered with a choux paste top. I opted to use raspberry jam instead of the original apricot and used vanilla in the dough instead of almond although next time I would try with the original flavorings. I topped both with glaze and then one pastry with nuts. I really liked how this turned out; I had good results with the choux paste, so I'm looking forward to trying it again. The only other change I can think to make is to bake the bases so that they are a deeper shade of brown.

Almond Puff Loaves
from King Arthur Flour Baking Companion

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup flour
1 cup+ 1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp almond extract or vanilla
2/3 cup jam or preserves
sliced almonds
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 tsp milk or water, as needed


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.Place the flour and margarine in a large bowl.Cut in the margarine until coarse crumbs are formed. Add the water.Knead until a cohesive dough ball is formed. Divide in half.Pat the dough into two rectangles on the baking sheet. Set aside.Place the remaining margarine and water in a saucepan.Heat until the margarine is melted. Bring to a boil.Remove the pot from the heat and immediately add the remaining flour. Stir well.Add the eggs one at a time,stirring well after each addition.The batter should look like this.

Scoop the batter onto the dough.

Spread the paste evenly over. Bake until very golden brown, about an hour.Remove the pastries from the oven.Immediately place an even amount of jelly on each pastry.Spread the preserves out evenly.Mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to form a glaze. Drizzle glaze over the pastries.Sprinkle with nuts if desired.