Day 26 - Blueberry Strudel

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Today I saw Claire Robinson from "5 Ingredient Fix" on the Food Network make a blueberry strudel and I decided thats what I would try to make today. If I wasn't convinced to try this recipe already, when I got to the grocery store, the blueberries looked amazing, which really got me excited to make this!

The recipe was really quite simple. I started by heating the blueberries, sugar, a dash of salt, and a little corn starch (to help thicken the sauce) in a pan. The blueberries began to pop pretty quickly and created a lovely, thick sauce in just a few minutes.

While the blueberry sauce cooled, I unrolled the thawed phyllo dough and covered it in a damp cloth so it didn't dry out. The last time I tried to work with phyllo dough, it was really challenging because as soon as I unrolled the dough it began to crack and break apart. This time, I made sure that the dough was room temperature before I worked with it and it didn't break apart at all!

I layered three sheets of phyllo dough, brushing melted butter on each layer. I then put a dollop of the blueberry mixture in the lower half of the dough and rolled it up to create a small bundle. I brushed a little more butter on top of the bundle, sprinkled it with sugar, and cut small slits across the top so the air could escape while it baked.

I repeated this two more times, to make three strudels in total.  The strudels baked for about 15-20 minutes and came out golden brown and oozing with blueberries. They looked and smelled amazing.

I served these with vanilla ice cream and they were awesome! The blueberries were not too sweet and the crisp phyllo dough was the perfect compliment to the gooey center.

I would definitely make these again!

Day 25 - Zeppole

Friday, June 24, 2011

Today is Friday and I am still struggling to keep my commitment to baking! I have been traveling for work so I have been extremely busy in the last two weeks. So even though its not Sunday, I wanted to bake to make up for last week. Today I decided on zeppole which is an italian donut. I have watched various chefs on TV make these (Giada DeLaurentiis in particular) and I have always wanted to try it.

The recipe looks simple and very similar if not identical to the dough I make for cream puffs. The one part of this recipe I was skeptical of, and probably is why I have put making these off so long, is frying. My solution was to enlist my Dad, Dean, to do the frying.

The dough was created by melting butter, sugar and a pinch of salt in a pan. When the mixture comes to a boil, I stirred in a cup of flour to create a thick dough. Once the dough comes together in a ball, I took it off the heat and mixed in four eggs, one at a time.

While I put the dough together, my dad heated vegetable oil to 375 degrees. Using a small ice cream scooper we put dollops of dough in the oil. The first few donuts were much to large and after the recommended 5 minutes of frying, while the outside of the donuts were browned, the inside was totally raw. We decided to make the donuts much, much smaller. This seemed to work better and 5-6 minutes in the oil was perfect.

Once the donuts were made and the excess oil dripped off, I rolled the donuts in cinnamon sugar. The donuts looked great and tasted okay. My Dad and brother really liked them, but I still wasn't crazy about the texture of the dough in the middle. The outside was lovely and crisp, but the inside, while it was cooked through, didn't appeal to me.

I am hoping to bake again on Sunday this weekend with guest blogger Michael, just home from Italy, so stay tuned!

Day 24 - Millionaires Shortbread & Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Ok so I have totally been slacking in the blog department. Not only have I been busy but I'll admit that I've been a little unmotivated to bake - thats what nice weather does to me! I have been feeling a bit guilty for not blogging so I want to make a commitment to doing this every week again, even if I only bake one item each Sunday!

So today I decided to start with a bang and bake 2 items. First up is something called "Millionaires Shortbread." It's essentially a layered bar made with shortbread, caramel, and chocolate. I saw this being made on the Food Network by Claire Robinson and it looked really simple and delicious!

First, I started with the shortbread layer which was just made by mixing, flour, sugar and salt with butter. This comes together easily and I pressed the mixture into a square pan. The shortbread layer baked for 20 minutes and then sat out to cool before the other layers were added.

While the shortbread was in the oven, I made the "caramel" layer. This is made by heating sweetened condensed milk with butter until it thickens and darkens in color. This layer is then poured over the shortbread. For the final step, I melted some milk chocolate and poured it over the caramel layer.

Now that the bars were complete I put them in the refrigerator to harden and cool for later!

Finished bars - ready to enjoy!

Next, I decided to make blueberry coffee cake muffins. Joanne has actually made these before and raved about how delicious they were so I decided I had to try them for myself.

First, I creamed together the sugar and butter until it was smooth and combined. Then I added the rest of the wet ingredients: eggs, vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl I sifted together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. I slowly added the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to create a thick batter. Finally, I folded in the blueberries to complete the muffin mixture. Then they were ready for the oven!

The muffins baked for about 25 minutes and came out looking and smelling great! I sampled one right away and it was delicious! The muffin was moist and had the perfect amount of blueberries in it. I would definitely make these again!

Just out of the oven

Ready to eat!

Stay tuned for next week…