Cinnamon Raisin Rolls

I'm all gung ho on learning to make sweet yeast breads, hence my effort with raisin buns this week. The recipe is from the "Sunmaid Raisins" website. I adapted it slightly and followed Dorie Greenspan's method in making cinnamon bread - to leave the dough out to rise once it has been formed. I can't imagine why one should put it in the fridge for the first rise, which is the instruction from the Sunmaid recipe! They certainly aren't the best looking of raisin buns but they were a wow with my "taste testers" at work. Obviously I must practice forming them into nice roll shapes.

Ingredients

3/8 cup of milk

6 TBS butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teasp. salt

1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 F)

1 packet yeast

1/2 egg (beat an egg lightly then measure half of beaten egg in liquid measuring cup)

2 cups flour

1/2 cup brown sugar (light), packed

1 TBS cinnamon

1/2 cup raisins

Method

Check if raisins are nice and moist; if not, steam them for one minute and pat dry.

Lightly beat egg then measure to one half of this.

In saucepan, heat milk; stir in 4 TBS. butter, sugar and salt, stirring until butter melts; cool to lukewarm.

In large bowl, combine warm water and yeast; let sit for 3 minutes then stir until dissolved. (Does not matter if not perfectly dissolved but it must be soft.) Add milk mixture, the beaten egg half and 1 cup flour; beat on low speed for a minute or two in stand mixer with paddle attachment until smooth. Stir in remaining cup of flour to make a soft dough.

Cover; let stand in a warm place until twice the volume. Then cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer for 30 mins. to make the dough firm enough to roll.

Grease 9-inch round pan, buttered. On floured surface, roll dough to 18x8-inch rectangle.

Melt remaining 2 TBS. butter; brush over dough.

Sprinkle dough with the brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins. Starting with longest side, roll up jelly-roll fashion. Pinch edges firmly to seal. Cut roll into 12 slices. Place cut side down in greased pan.. Cover; let rise in warm place (80 to 85 F.) until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 F. Bake for 25 minutes or until light golden.

Glaze:

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 TBS. butter, softened

1 tsp. milk

1/8 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine all glaze ingredients; brush glaze over rolls while they are still warm.

Nectarine Upside-Downer - Tuesdays with Dorie

This is my first upside-downer. I chose nectarines for the "topping" - they came out tasting delicious on the cake but I think they must have more liquid than I thought as the base of the cake is a little too soggy. It's rather like a sponge pudding texture. When I can get cranberries I'm going to make this one with cranberries; the Dorie cookbook picture looks so enticing with them.

It's a nice recipe though and so easy to get together. I have set aside a large slice just for me.

Thank you, Sabrina, of "Superfluous" for this week's pick. The recipe is on Sabrina's blog.

Peanut Butter Crisscrosses - Tuesdays with Dorie

These are delicious PB cookies; the flavor is delicate, not too peanut buttery and they are a cinch to make. I did not use any add-ins as I like cookies that are quite classic in a way, and these fit the bill.

I baked them for about 14-15 minutes and they seem to be just right - I've eaten half of the props!

Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine picked these cookies. For the recipe, check out her lovely blog.

Italian Almond Squares

Quick, easy, delicious and great if one needs a Plan B if the first recipe bombs.

Recipe

Yield: 16 squares.

CakeIngredients:

3/4 cups of butter

1 1/2 cups of sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract

1 1/2 cups of flour

Topping:

1 Tbsp sugar

3/4 cup of SLICED almonds

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter. Pour melted butter in a bowl and stir in sugar. Add eggs . Beat mixture at moderate speed with hand mixer, until creamy (about 4 minutes). Add all other ingredients (but not the topping ingredients). Grease bottom and sides of eight-inch square pan. Spread the batter in the pan. Sprinkle the almonds over the top and sprinkle the sugar over the almonds. Bake for about 40 mins, until cake starts to pull away lightly from pan edges.

These were a rave at work, one of the most popular desserts I have made.

Expresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies - Tuesdays with Dorie

These are cute side-of-the saucer cookies. The dough is delicate and lightly crunchy; the cookies are well worth making again, with the proviso that I will use a lot less coffee. This is my own personal taste, but I think 1/2 to one teasp. of coffee should suffice to give the chocolate that mocha lift. I found the taste with the exact recipe of 1 Tbs. rather bitter. I'm going to give them a shot next week, with the smaller quantity of coffee (when I make the peanut butter cookies for TWD).

For the recipe, check out Donna's blog: Life's" Too Short Not to Eat Dessert

Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie

Rachel of Sweet Tarte picked this lovely tart for us. It's a great choice - thank you, Rachel. The recipe is on the Sweet Tarte blog.

Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough has become a staple for my baking - I use it for lemon curd tartlets, fruit tarts, and so on and so on. Why use anything else! I just made the plain recipe for this tart, without the almonds (I'll try that some other time).

I used my rectangular tart pan, just for a change - it's roughly, very roughly, the same area measurement as my 9 inch circular pan and the single portion of the dough fits very nicely. It's also easier to cut than a circular tart. I bought luscious, ripe, yellow peaches from my local store and had fun slicing and fitting them into the pan. The custard filling was easy. The only thing I was a bit disappointed in was the streusel - it came out looking rather lumpy; obviously my streusel making skills are not yet up to par.

They loved it at work - I had to go out of the office for the morning; when I came back it was all gone, with only a few crumbs left. It always gives me a lift when the group enjoys the Tuesday treat. Now I'm sold on using peaches in baking - maybe in individual tarts next time, with some brown caster sugar over them, or in a nice fresh fruit cake.

So onward to next week's Chocolate Shortbread.

Pistachio White Chocolate Biscotti

These are the biscotti I baked for the co-workers for their Tuesday treat. The recipe is Dorie Greenspan's, adapted to include pistachio nuts and anise essence and dipped with tempered white chocolate.

They were delicious and got a thumbs up at work. I had a bit of a hard time doing the baking in the heat - yesterday was quite wicked and my kitchen gets very hot, so the dough was difficult to handle and had to be put in the fridge before shaping into the logs.

I have tempered white chocolate successfully before but that was in May; this time it didn't temper properly and remained a bit sticky. The temperature on the chocolate thermometer was supposed to go no higher than 110 degrees F, then down to 84 degrees and finally up to 87 (according to the instructions I used). But it shot up to well over 110 degrees, which, I think, is white chocolate tempering doom. For my next effort I'm going to heat the chocolate as the water in the double boiler base is heating, not wait until it's simmering. That way I should have more control.

Dorie's recipe is here: (I've just realized I have made this four times and posted about it three times - oh well, it must mean I really like it.

Pistachio White Chocolate Biscotti

adapted from Baking From my Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Biscotti

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of yellow cornmeal

8 tablespoons of unsalted butter, softened

1 cup of sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons of anise

3/4 cup of pistachios, medium-size chopped.

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and cornmeal together. (If you are adding ground spices, add them to this mixture before combining.)3. Beat the butter and sugar together at medium speed for 3 minutes, until very smooth. Add the eggs and continue to beat, scraping down the bowl as needed, for another 2 minutes, or until the mixture is light, smooth and creamy. Beat in the almond extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. You'll have a soft, stick-to-your-fingers dough that will ball up around the paddle or beaters. Scrape down the paddle and bowl, toss in the pistachios and mix just to blend.4. Scrape half the dough onto one side of the baking sheet. Using your fingers and a rubber spatula or scraper, work the dough into a log about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. The log will be more rectangular than domed, and bumpy, rough and uneven. Form a second log with the remaining dough on the other side of the baking sheet.5. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the logs are lightly golden but still soft and springy to the touch. Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and cool the logs on the baking sheet for 30 minutes.6. Using a wide metal spatula, transfer the logs to a cutting board and, with a long serrated knife, trim the ends and cut the logs into 3/4-inch-thick slices. Return the slices to the baking sheet, setting them again on the same sides as before and slide the sheet back into the oven.7. Bake the biscotti at 350F for another 15 minutes, or until they are golden and firm. Transfer them to racks and cool to room temperature. These are very nice indeed. (The baking time might need to be a little longer but the biscotti must not get too brown on the underside.)

White Chocolate: Temper one pound of good quality white chocolate (I used Callebaut) and let cool before dipping biscotti.