STICKY BUNS WITH CROISSANT DOUGH - FINGER-LICKING GOOD!

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If you undertake the (highly rewarding!) task to make croissants, you might wonder what to do with all that delicious, buttery dough - if you have just two people to feed (like me). 

It's not worth the effort to make smaller amounts, but croissants are best enjoyed the same day, and laminated dough doesn't like long hibernation in the freezer.

Fortunately, Standard Baking Co. ("Pastries") has more suggestions for the use of laminated dough: morning buns (aka sticky buns): flaky cinnamon rolls with caramelized walnuts.

Sticky buns,  very popular in the US, are the great-grandchildren of the good old German Zimtschnecke (= "cinnamon snail"), brought by immigrants to Pennsylvania in the 18th century.

With or without nuts - true to their name, these sweet little rolls are finger-licking good! 

These buns are finger-licking good!

When I make croissants, I always separately freeze a third of the prepared laminated dough, either to fill it later with ham or cheese, or turn it into sticky buns.

STICKY BUNS  (adapted from Standard Baking Co.: "Pastries")

         12 buns                                              Ingredients                                           4 buns   

1 recipe croissant dough                 after resting period, chilled             1/3 croissant recipe (ca. 460 g)

295 g dark brown sugar                                                                           98 g dark brown sugar

2.9 g/1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon                                                               1 g ground cinnamon
                                                          chopped walnuts, to taste

Sprinkle muffin cups with cinnamon sugar and chopped walnuts

In small bowl, stir together brown sugar and cinnamon.

Butter muffin pan (cups and top surface). Place 1 teaspoon (firmly packed) cinnamon sugar into each muffin cup, then sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

Roll out croissant dough into a square (here for 4 Sticky Buns)

On lightly floured surface, roll croissant dough into 9 by 22 inch (23 x 56 cm) rectangle (12 buns), or a 9 by 7.3 inch/23 x 18.5 cm rectangle (4 buns), about 1/4 inch/13 mm thick.

Spread dough rectangle evenly with remaining cinnamon sugar.

Roll dough into a tight log (here for 4 buns)

Starting with a long side (12 buns) or a short side (4 buns), roll dough into a tight log. Place log seam side down. (Remove any loose flour from surface with pastry brush). 

Using a sharp chef's knife, cut log into slices

Using sharp chef's knife, cut log into 1 3/4 inch/4 cm thick slices (add any runaway cinnamon sugar to muffin pan)). Place dough slices into muffin cups, with cut side down. 

Place slices into muffin cups

Let buns rise at moderately warm room temperature for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, or until they have doubled in size (finger poke test: a dimple should not fill up again).

20 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 375ºF/190ºC, with rack in middle position.

The buns have doubled in size

Place muffin pan on rimmed baking sheet (to catch any sugary spills).

Bake buns for about 30 - 35 minutes, rotating pan 180 degrees after half the baking time). Buns should be golden brown, firm to the touch, and show no translucency if pulled apart.

Baked Sticky Buns

To turn buns out, line baking sheet with parchment paper and place in reach.

Remove muffin pan from oven, and immediately turn buns out (away from you) onto prepared baking sheet, before caramel hardens. Shake pan gently, if they don't release (if that doesn't help, loosen buns with a knife).

Turn buns out onto parchment lined baking sheet

Scrape out any caramel syrup sticking to pan, and drizzle over buns.

Serve warm. 

Sticky Buns taste best when fresh, but you can wrap them in plastic (when cooled), and keep for 1 day at room temperature. To serve, nuke a few seconds, or briefly warm them up in the oven at 400ºF/200ºC.

Sleepy Sunday for Ruffi

The scrumptuous rolls were my contribution to Zorra's BBD #81 (hosted by Sandra From Snuggs-Kitchen), with the motto: "Around the World"

American sticky buns for breakfast!

DUTCH RONDOS - TENDER LITTLE CAKES WITH ALMOND FILLING

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In 2016 we Avid Bakers have a new challenge for breads and pastries: Weekend Bakery.com from the Netherlands.

This is especially interesting to me, since Amsterdam is one of my favorite places.

I have traveled there several times, and love what it has to offer, amazing art, a beautiful, walk-able city, and lots of good food.

Hanaâ, our "head baker", chose rondos, buttery pastry filled with almond paste - very appealing to a marzipan fan like me!

The little cakes, very popular in the Netherlands, are supposed to have a texture like Dutch apple pie - I never had one, so I can't comment on that, but they are certainly delightful.

Dutch bakers have special pastry rings to make rondos (or kanos, if they are ovals). Lacking these, I used my (slightly larger) English muffin rings (the other option would have been baking them in a muffin tin).

There are two choices for the marzipan filling, either the traditional almond paste that needs to be prepared a day ahead, or a same-day frangipane, equally nice - but with more butter.

A tender-crumbly little cake with marzipan filling

Not to stray from my good intentions for the New Year , I piously opted for the slightly slimmer almond paste (the rondos didn't need more calories, anyway), reduced a sugar a bit (this could have been more, as it turned out),  and exchanged some of the white flour for whole wheat.

The rondos turned out as delicious as described, a tender, almond-y little cake, crisp on the edges, with a hint of lemon (now I really have to check out Dutch apple pie!) They were still a tad too sweet for my taste - next time I would reduce the sugar in the dough even more.

Alas, I had to eat them all by myself - my husband being on a trip to Vietnam - but life is hard and requires sacrifices....

A great sacrifice - I had to eat them all by myself!

DUTCH RONDOS (adapted from Weekend Bakery.com)

(8 -10 cakes)

Dough
160 g/5.6 oz pastry four (or Italian Tipo 00)
40 g/1.4 oz whole wheat pastry flour (or all white pastry flour)
5 g/0.18 baking powder
1 pinch of salt
150 g/5.3 oz  cold butter, cut in 1/4-ich/1/2 cm cubes
70 g/2.5 oz light brown sugar (down from 100 g/3.5 oz)
almond paste or frangipane (see recipes below)
8-10 whole almonds, for topping
egg wash for brushing tops (egg beaten with some water or cream)

Almond Paste
75 g/2.6 oz blanched almonds (or almond meal)
60 g/2.1 oz sugar (down from 75 g/2.6 oz)
1/2  lemon, zest
water
1 small egg, beaten (added just before baking)

Frangipane 
50 g/1.8 oz butter, melted
50 g/1.8 oz sugar (I would reduce the sugar here, too)
1 egg
70 g/2.5 oz finely ground almonds /almond meal
1/2 lemon, zest

Almond paste

MAKE 1 DAY AHEAD
Almond Paste (must rest 24 hours for flavors to meld)
In food processor, grind almonds together with sugar to a very fine powder consistency. (Or use almond meal).

Add lemon zest and some water until you have a smooth and stiff paste, neither too wet, nor too dry. Store in fridge until needed (up to 2 weeks)

When ready to use, slowly mix egg into paste, until mixture is very smooth, and can be easily piped with onto dough rounds, but still hold its shape.

Spoon almond paste in piping bag and put it in fridge until needed.

OR
Frangipane (can be made the same day)
Whisk sugar, egg and lemon zest until creamy. Slowly add melted butter while continuing to beat. Add almond flour and mix well. Put in a piping bag and refrigerate until needed.

The dough is quite crumbly, use the plastic wrap to press it into a disc

Dough
 Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in food processor bowl. Pulse to combine. Add butter cubes and pulse, until clumps form (don't overmix!).

Divide dough into 2 halves, wrap both pieces in plastic wrap, pressing dough into flat disks. Refrigerate dough disks for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 10 rondo baking rings (or 8 English muffin rings on the paper, with a small distance between them (or use a non-stick muffin pan).

I used English muffin rings to cut out and hold the dough rounds

Remove first disk of dough from refrigerator. Roll out to a thickness of 4 mm/0.15 inches (cover the dough with plastic wrap, before rolling it out, so that it doesn't stick to the rolling pin.)

Cut out 10 rounds with a 7-cm/2.8-inch cutter (I used an English muffin rings to cut out 8 rounds). Re-roll and cut out leftovers

Place dough rounds in baking rings. Use the second half of chilled dough to cut out the top rounds.

Almond paste filled rondos

Remove piping bag with almond paste or frangipane from the fridge. Pipe equal amounts of filling on bottom dough rounds inside the rings. Then top with remaining half of dough rounds. Press edges together to seal.

Brush each rondo with a first coating of egg wash. Place an almond in the middle of each cake and lightly press down to attach it. Brush rondos a second time with egg wash.

Brush rondos with egg wash

Bake rondos for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Immediately remove baking rings (protect your fingers with a kitchen towel). Leave cakes to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer rondos to a cooling rack.

Bar Harbor in January - no snow yet, but cold!

WORLD'S BEST POPOVERS - AND SO EASY!

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Let's call Yorkshire pudding
A fortunate blunder:
It's a sort of popover
That turned and popped under.

Ogden Nash twisted the facts a little bit - though American popovers are relatives of of the English Yorkshire pudding, they are, off course, the offspring, not the origin. Not only that, over time they turned from a savory side dish for lamb into a dessert.

I've tried several popover recipes, they were quite good, but I was never able to make popovers that really "popped over". Compared with the famous popovers at Jordan Pond Restaurant on Mount Desert Island (which, by the way, get a little smaller every year), mine never rose much over the rim of the pan - even the ones I baked from Jordan Pond's own recipe.

Fortunately there are the good people from "Cook's Illustrated", working tirelessly in America's Test Kitchen, trying to come up with THE best version for every imaginable recipe. I gave their popover recipe a shot - and they POPPED! And not only that, the recipe is really one for dummies, you practically can't screw up.

Tea and Popovers at Jordan Pond

WORLD'S BEST POPOVERS (6) (adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup/140 g all-purpose flour (or exchange 14 g/5 tsp with whole grain flour, see note below)
1 tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vegetable oil

In a blender, mix eggs and milk until smooth. Add flour, butter, and salt, and continue to blend on high speed until batter is bubbly and smooth, about 1 minute. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Measure 1/2 tsp. vegetable oil into each cup of popover pan. Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place pan in oven, and preheat oven to 450ºF.

After batter has rested, stir it and pour into measuring cup with spout. Working quickly, remove pan from oven and divide batter evenly among cups. Bake for 20 minutes without opening oven door.

Lower heat to 350 F and bake until golden brown all over, 15 - 18 minutes more. Gently flip popovers out unto rack and let cool slightly before serving (2 minutes).

Serve with butter and strawberry jam (or other jam).

You can exchange 10% of the white flour (14 g/5 tsp) with whole grain (I like Einkorn) without having to add more liquid or compromising their popping.

Popovers can be prepared in a 12-cup muffin pan (fill only the 10 outer cups), but they will not rise quite as high as in the special popover pan.

Popover batter can be made 1 day ahead and stored in refrigerator, wrapped tightly. Let come to room temperature and stir thoroughly before using.

Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park