The Daring Bakers Make Povitica (Walnut Swirl Bread)

I was so happy to get back into the swing of participating in Daring Kitchen challenges after missing a few! This recipe was just the kick in the pants I needed, though those pants may not fit for long if I keep picking at this bread. It is completely addictive, and I find myself wanting a slice at breakfast time, with tea in the afternoon and for dessert too. It's also a lot of fun to play with: by unraveling the spirals as I eat I can make a slice of this last for a long time. Not long enough, though: I offered about ⅔ of the loaf to a friend, but we haven't managed to meet up yet, and I am sorry to say that I started in on her share of the bread this afternoon. I plan to make another of these soon, so she may have to wait for that!

Complete challenge and recipe in this handy PDF. Make this and you'll be a hero. Thank you to Jenni of The Gingered Whisk for a fantastic challenge! See some of the other beauties in the Daring Kitchen slideshow (not sideshow).  

Blog-checking lines: The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

I'm back, with Rarotongan Coconut Rolls

Coconut bun with very special sauce

Hello! Is anyone out there? I have been back in Canada for 2 weeks now and am finally getting around to posting something. Unfortunately it's something I made before I left, but I am still having computer problems. I have a new hard drive, but iPhoto is not working properly, meaning no new photos, and no photos from Ecuador. Since returning, I haven't baked much, worked much or done much of anything. I just want to jump back on a plane (preferably without any airports involved) and be somewhere else, away from everyday responsibilities. That's not happening right this minute, so I'll post this and then head back to the computer shop so that I can share the results of pumpkinfest 2011. Brace yourselves.

Ready to rise

I have had this recipe bookmarked for ages and finally got around to making it in a fit of baking before I kissed my stove goodbye for 6 weeks. My family and I are huge fans of coconut, and my nephew likes to help too. While trying to entertain him at my mother's non-childproofed house, we gave him a coconut and a hammer. What followed was hilarious, with James chasing the coconut around the garage and swinging the hammer with abandon. I know, not safe, but nobody lost an eye, the kid was entertained and I got enough coconut to make these buns. Win-win, no?

Barely risen, hoping the oven spring will sort that out

Not exactly. More lose-win. I loved the coconut sauce and could see myself eating it on just about anything. I left it at my mother's and she was contemplating pouring it over ice cream. The buns, though, were a bit of a disappointment. They did not have the texture of yeast buns, but seemed more like bad biscuits or scones: heavy, with a dense crumb. I proofed the yeast, but they just did not rise much and the amount of liquid called for did not even make crumbs, much less a kneadable dough. There were comments noting this on the original recipe, so I can't say I wasn't warned. I'll be making these again, but using a different yeast dough recipe. Maybe this one from King Arthur Flour?

Baked, slightly risen, but look at that sauce!

Here's the link to the original recipe, from the lovely blog Pease Pudding.

The Daring Bakers make meringue filled coffee cake

I haven't got a lot of time today, but I wanted to share these pictures with you. When I first looked at the challenge, I wasn't so sure about it. I love making yeast breads, but the idea of putting a meringue inside one wasn't all that appealing. So, I went on to bake other things, and only remembered about the challenge with a week to go. One of my friends reminded me. Friends and family take a very healthy interest in these challenges!

Apricot in the front, lemon at back. 

Last Sunday morning I made the dough, and it was as silky and easy to work with as promised. I made a half recipe and divided into two small loaves. For fillings, I made one with the meringue and lemon curd and roasted almonds. Rolling this mixture up was a bit like trying to change a squirming baby. There were slips and leaks galore. The second one I filled with apricot leather from Syria, called amardeen. It's tart and tangy, but not very flexible, so rolling the dough around this and the meringue, chopped bittersweet almonds, whole cardamom seeds and more roasted almonds was another challenge.

The lemon curd coffee cake, before I attempted to roll it

In the end, both loaves were tasty, but the apricot one was the clear favourite. The amardeen softened up to a firm, jelly-like texture which, combined with the dark chocolate, crunchy almonds and surprise bits of cardamom was perfect in every way. It didn't rise as much as the lemon one, I think because the amardeen did not stretch or give, but it didn't matter one bit. The lemon one was good, and stayed moist for at least 4 days, but the nuts softened up and it just wasn't as interesting as the other one.
Filling:
amardeen, cut (with scissors) to 1"/2.5cm smaller than the rolled out dough
chopped bittersweet chocolate and chopped toasted almonds, enough to generously cover the meringue
cardamom seeds from 2 pods (use 4 if making a full recipe)

The amardeen, before adding more meringue, chocolate and nuts.

Spread dough with a thin layer of meringue and centre amardeen on it. Cover with remaining meringue and sprinkle nuts, chocolate and cardamom over. Roll, making sure you are holding one edge of the amardeen, as it is reluctant to roll. Seal bottom and lay on parchment lined baking sheet. Slash every inch or so, using a very sharp knife and making sure you cut the amardeen as well as the dough. Let rise and bake as directed. See challenge PDF here for recipe.
Thanks very much to Ria and Jamie for a great challenge. I'll be making this again and I have more filling ideas. I always have ideas, and just need to work on finding time and more hungry mouths to feed!

Blog-checking lines: The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

Daring Cooks make pâté and bread!

This was my second challenge with the Daring Cooks, and it was a great one. I love pâté, but rarely make it. I enjoy making bread too, but again, I don't do it often enough. The components of this challenge were perfect for a picnic, and that's exactly what I did with them. It was a beautiful day for a picnic, and even though we were downtown, we enjoyed watching the wildlife frolic. There were chipmunks and squirrels, of course, but also groundhogs and raccoons, and a visit to the stray cat colony behind Parliament Hill.

The challenge required us to make one of the given pâté recipes, and you can see it in the upper right corner of the picture above. I chose the vegetarian pâté, with a layer of pesto, seasoned white beans, and a roasted red pepper layer. It was delicious, but as you can see the red pepper layer didn't set. The meat pâté is a combination of caribou, pork and veal liver. I ground the meats by hand with my grandmother's grinder, seasoned it with Marsala, and included figs and pistachios. The caribou was some from my uncle's hunting trip, which I had used here earlier. I wrapped the whole thing in bacon and it was delicious. I served it with Dijon mustard, hot red pepper jelly and cedar jelly. This is a product I picked up in Montreal, and it is delicious with cold meats and cheese. It's a lovely pale green colour, and it does taste of cedar. It seemed the appropriate accompaniment, as our hosts for this month both live in Montreal. They were Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valérie of The Chocolate Bunny, and they did a fabulous job. Thanks!

Oh, and where's the bread, you wonder? It was still in the oven at this point. I'm not known for being early, and I had woken up that day and decided to complete both my Daring Bakers' and Daring Cooks' challenges. I grabbed it out of the oven about 3 minutes before I left for the picnic (which I had already had to make a bit later). I made the Rustic Potato Bread from Baking with Julia. I don't really like potatoes, but I do like this bread. It's really quick, and it's moist and tender with a fine crumb. In fact, I'm going to have some toast right now with the leftovers.

Blog-checking lines: Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

Recipes after the jump!

Wheaten bread

I'm not a bread fanatic. You know, one of those people who claims they could live on nothing but bread. I don't get it. I like bread. I've had amazing bread. I've even made some pretty amazing bread. But, really, isn't bread a buttery-delivery vehicle? Now, bread and butter, that's another story. And honey, mmmm. Don't even get me started on cheese. Occasionally I'll make a meal of a nice baguette and some stinky cheese. Maybe I do love bread after all.

Bread did form a huge part of my diet for the month I spent in Belfast. I was working, so I didn't have a lot of time to eat out, but I didn't find the food scene to be the most inspiring. I don't think I ever got over the shock of being told to buy my groceries at the gas station. Now, it was a proper little grocery store with produce, nothing like the stores attached to gas stations here, but still. A few times I walked 3 or 4 kilometres to Marks and Spencer, or to another large store, but I usually didn't have time. And, if groceries at the gas station weren't strange enough, they had Tim Horton's coffee and donuts! Yes, I know that Timmy's has taken the apostrophe out of their name, but I'm a bit of a stickler that way. It wasn't regular Tim's coffee, though. It was a machine that made lattes and other fake, frothy looking things. The donuts were plastic-wrapped. I didn't try either of them. Just knowing it was there was enough. For my non-Canadian readers, Tim Horton's is a nationwide chain of coffee shops. It's cheap, and many Canadians need a cup of Timmy's to start their day.

So what did I eat? Bread, of course! Wasn't that the whole point of this meandering post? Store-bought, wheaten bread, toasted and slathered with butter and honey. And I drank lots of tea. This is what I had for breakfast and dinner (and occasionally at 3 in the morning too, because you'll feel better in the morning if you eat something to absorb all that liquid in your stomach).

When it was time to think about leaving, I got a bit panicky. I needed a good recipe for wheaten bread, and fast. Luckily I had a group of Irish trainees to supply recipes, and I came home with one, and a large bag of coarsely ground whole wheat flour. I made it often when I first came back, and still make it every couple of months.

UPDATE:

This is the recipe I've been making most often. It's adapted from the back of a bag of Odlum's Stoneground Coarse Wholemeal.

10 ounces coarsely ground whole wheat flour
6 ounces all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ounces cold butter
1 egg
425 ml buttermilk

Preheat oven to 300℉. Grease a loaf pan.

Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut butter in until it resembles coarse crumbs. Whisk egg and buttermilk together and pour over dry ingredients. Mix quickly and as little as possible. Turn into the greased pan and make a slash down the centre. The dough will be quite sticky. Don't worry about it. Make a lengthwise slash down the centre with a sharp knife and bake for 1¼ to 1½ hours, until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Turn out onto a rack, and wrap in a tea towel if you like the crust soft.
Eat with butter and honey. This bread doesn't keep well, so I usually slice and freeze it, and toast the frozen slices.
Yield: 1 dense, craggy, cakey loaf.

I always serve this with ginger honey, which is just honey that I've stirred finely grated fresh ginger into. I use my rasp. This stuff keeps forever at room temperature and never crystallizes. It's amazing on pretty much anything.