Braided Lemon and Cream Cheese Bread

I found this recipe from Girl Versus Dough on Tablespoon.

I LOVE LEMON.  A lot.  I was so excited to find this recipe.  The dough is sweet... the cream cheese is sweet and a little tart.  And of course the lemon curd is tart!!

Here we go...

Braided Lemon and Cream Cheese Bread

Ingredients

• Sponge:
• 6 tablespoon warm water (~110° F)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Dough:
• 6 tablespoon sour cream or yogurt
• 4 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Cream Cheese filling:
• 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoon sour cream or yogurt
• juice of 1 small lemon
• lemon zest
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• Lemon Curd:
• 1/4 cup lemon curd
  I used store-bought because I haven't tried making my own yet.  Someday...
• Egg wash:
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp water

Instructions:

1. Say it with me, people: Mise en place!
• Get your ingredients together. This is your chance to figure out if you're missing something.
  
2. (Optional) Make the curd.
• If you're making your own, do it first.  It will need time to cool.  This time around, I used store bought, because I've never made curd and didn't want to have too many possible places for this to fail.  I'm sure I'll tackle this in the future - I adore lemon.
3. Make the sponge.
• Test the temperature of your water!  I will always recommend doing this, regardless of how experienced you think you might be.  I've only started having success with yeast once I stopped being stubborn and started testing the temperature.
• Measure the yeast before adding it.  This recipe calls for Instant yeast which is the same as Rapid Rise but different than Active Dry Yeast.  Oooops.  I used Active Dry because I wasn't paying attention... we'll see how this goes.
• Stir well, cover with a towel, and let proof for 10-15 minutes.  I did this step in the bowl of my stand mixer, to make the next step easier.
  
4. Make the dough.
• Add the remaining dough ingredients (except the flour) and mix well.  Switch to a dough hook.  Don't be like me and try to knead your dough with the whisk attachment...
• Add the flour a half cup at a time until the dough comes together and is smooth and elastic-y.  I never really understood this until recently as I've been working on my bread-making skills.  Surprisingly, this is hard to explain, but you'll know.  You'll learn what works and what doesn't.  It shouldn't be super sticky.  It shouldn't be dry and crumbly.  It should be one mass of dough that is smooth on the outside and tender to the touch.
• Note: I was rushing and put both eggs into my dough.  I ended up needing more flour to balance out the extra moisture.  This will probably also mean a "puffier" finished product.  So far I've messed up the yeast and the eggs... Let's see if I can finish this and have something edible!
5. Let it rise.
• Turn the dough into a greased bowl.  Flip once to coat the entire dough in oil.
• Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.  I turn my oven on to 200° F and turn the bowl every 15 minutes or so.  I like to keep the temperature of our place pretty cool, but yeast prefers warm!
  
6. Make the filling.
• Using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, blend together all the filling ingredients until smooth.
  
7. Prepare the dough and fill.
• Punch down the dough.  You can use the whole dough or divide into 2 (if you prefer 2 medium braids).  I'm doing 2 medium braids because I'm sending some to work with my husband tomorrow. I might try even smaller ones someday as individual servings.
• Roll into a rectangle with the dough about 1/4" thick.
• Using the side of your hand, mark two lines the length of the long side of the rectangle evenly dividing the rectangle into 3 sections.  You're marking the dough into thirds to know where to cut and where to fill.
• Spread the cream cheese filling down the center section, spreading to the marked lines and almost to each end.  Leave about an inch at each end that is unfilled.
• Spread the lemon curd on top of the filling.  Since I was using store bought, I ended dropping thin "dollops" of curd along the center.  We'll see how that works.
  
8. "Braid."
• This isn't really a braid.  It's just alternating flaps crossing over each other - almost like lacing up a pair of sneakers.
• You can see in the picture above that I've cut the corners out.  This is approximately the end that you've left with no filling.  Here's a close-up:
  
• Fold the top and bottom flaps up over the fillings. For the sides, cut even strips down sides - evenly spaced down the side as well as matching the cuts on the opposite side.
  
• Alternate left and right bringing a single flap at a time across and down just a smidge.
• Tuck the ends of the last pair into the bottom flap as best as you can:
  
• Transfer carefully to sheet pan lined with parchment or a silpat.  This seemed incredibly difficult at first, but was pretty easy.  Take your time.  Use your hands; the dough sticks to things so it's easier to control with your fingers.
  
9. Let it rise (part 2).
• Cover with plastic wrap and a towel.  Leave in a warm place for 45 minutes to an hour.
  
10. Bake.
• Brush with your egg wash
  
• Bake at 350° F for 20-30 minutes.  If your oven is running hot and the bread browns quickly (which mine does), tent with foil after 10 minutes or so and remove for the last 5 minutes of baking.
11. Cool  and serve.
• Ta-daaaaaaaa.

You can kind of see that it's a bit more puffy than you'd expect from this kind of sweet bread, but it's still amazing.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe.  Comment or message me with ideas, questions, suggestions!

I'm enjoying all this practice in my kitchen.

Spicy Candied Bacon

Better late than never.  I sat down to plan for this weekend and realized that I never posted my bonus recipe from last weekend.  So here is the Candied Bacon I made the day after I made Challah.  :)

I found my inspiration from many places, but The Clever Carrot was the main one.

Spicy Candied Bacon

Ingredients
1 pound good quality bacon, sliced
2 Tbsp pure real maple syrup*
¼ Cup brown sugar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp Kosher salt
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

*Note: Please.  Pleasepleaseplease I am begging you.  Use real Maple Syrup.  From real maple trees.  With no flavorings or additives.  Trust me - it's worth the extra cost.  There is nothing that compares to it.  I'm so passionate about this, I'll probably do a post about this at some point.


Instructions

1. Mise en Place. (By now,  I hope you expected this... get your stuff together!)
2. Prepare.
• Preheat the oven to 400° F.
• Wrap a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and top with a wire rack. Trust me: do this.  Bacon grease is soooo messy by itself, and this time we're adding all sorts of sticky things, too.
3. Make the coating for the the bacon.
• In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the bacon.
• Mix well.
  
4. Coat the bacon and put on the rack.
• Separate the bacon strips and put them all into the bowl.
• Squish the bacon around in the coating until all pieces are nicely covered. Yes, I said "squish". I like instructions that sound normal.  This is how I talk. You'll get used to Jenn-ese.
  
• Line the slices on the rack in a single layer. They can be touching but should not overlap.  They will shrink a bit as you cook them.
  
5. Bake.
• Bake in the center of the oven for 20-30 minutes.
• Keep a close eye it starting around the 15 minute mark.  You're looking for it to be dark but not burnt.  It will finish crisping as it cools, so you want to pull it out before it's super crispy... but not too early either.  This is the trickiest part.
6. Cool and enjoy!
• Remove from the oven and let it cool on the rack for about 5 minutes.  Don't let it completely cool in the rack or it will stick.
• To serve, you can leave whole or break it into smaller pieces.
  

I've had candied bacon in mac-n-cheese with jalapeños.  Sooooo good.  Highly recommend.  But this stuff is great just to munch on.  Or put in a sandwich!

Thanks for checking out this recipe.

Hang out and check back for more posts as I practice

cooking and baking in my little kitchen.

Traditional Challah with Honey

Let me start by saying I am not Jewish, nor do I have a kosher kitchen.  However... I fell in love with soft, eggy, beautiful Challah in Junior High.  One of my good friends and neighbors was Jewish and used to invite me to Shabbat dinner often.

As I work on baking - specifically breads - I thought it would be worth a try.  There are TONS of recipes online, but Tori Avey's version really spoke to my soul.  I can hear her speaking through her writing (which I love) and she gave great background and information through the whole process - including a page all about different braiding techniques.

Challah Recipe from Tori Avey

Dough Ingredients
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, divided (~110°)
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 egg
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup honey
2 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp salt
4 1/2 to 6 cups flour

Egg Wash Ingredients
1 egg
1 tbsp cold water
1/2 tsp salt

1. Mise en Place.  (Get your stuff together!)
   
2. Wake up the yeast.
• Put 1/4 cup of the water in mixer bowl with yeast and sugar.  Let it sit for 10 minutes.
  
• The mixture should be all foamy and bubbly.  If it ISN'T, your yeast didn't wake up; dump it and try again.
  
3. Make the dough.
• Add the rest of the water, all the eggs, honey, oil, and salt.
  
• Mix until thoroughly blended.  At this point, I'm using the whisk attachment on my stand mixer.
• Add flour.  I added 1 cup at a time and whisked for a minute or so until combined.  Once I got to the 4th cup, I started adding just 1/2 a cup at a time until the dough was ... well... doughy.  Not batter-y or sticky.

1 Cup

2 Cups

3 Cups

4 Cups

5 Cups

6-ish Cups

• Switch out to the kneading hook and knead for a few minutes until it comes together and is smooth and elastic-y.  You can also do this by hand, which some bakers prefer.  I know myself, if I did this by hand I would give up.  So, I do a mixture of both: I let my machine bring it all together, and then I knead it a few times by hand, too.
  

4. Rise #1
• Put a saucepan full of water on and bring to a boil.
• Meanwhile, put the dough into a greased bowl and flip once to make sure the whole dough is covered with oil.  Cover with a towel and place in the oven. The oven is OFF!  We are NOT COOKING yet!!
  
• Once the water in the saucepan is boiling, place it on a shelf lower than the bowl of dough and close the oven door.  LEAVE THE OVEN OFF!  The heat and steam from the boiling water will aid in the rise.
  
• Let rise for 1 hour.
5. Rise #2
• Punch down the dough while in the bowl and put the covered bowl back in the oven which is OFF.
• I reboiled the water to encourage this second rise, too.  Put it back below the covered bowl of dough.
• Let rise for 1 more hour.
  
6. Make the braids
• Split the dough.  If you're making 2 medium loaves (like I did), split it in half and then each half into as many pieces as you are going to braid (3, 4, 6, etc).  I did 3-strand braids this time.
  
• Roll them into equal lengths and braid.  If you don't know how, check out Tori Avey's post about braiding Challah.
  
• Put the braids on baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.  Make sure they have room to spread and grow.
7. Egg wash
• Mix the egg wash together and brush each loaf with it.
• Keep the extra egg wash - there are 2 more times you'll use it.
  
8. Rise #3
• Let rise another 30-45 minutes.
• Brush with another coat of egg wash.
  
9. Bake
• Bake at 350° for a total of 40 minutes.
• After the first 15-20 minutes, bring them out and brush the centers with egg wash again.  This is where the bread has risen and is very light.
  
• Put them back in for another 20 minutes.  Keep an eye on your bread.  If it starts getting too dark, tent them lightly with foil.
10. Cool
• Let the Challah cool for a minute or 2 on the baking sheet.
• Transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
• Clearly, my oven is running a bit hot right now.  These turned out really dark.

Oh! Make French Toast with the leftovers - you can thank me later.

Look for a bonus post later tonight or tomorrow with a quick recipe that is decidedly not Kosher!  I hope you're having fun practicing with me in my kitchen!  Tell me what you'd like to see me try!

Using up special ingredients: Blue Cheese Crackers

Have you ever bought a "special" ingredient for a recipe and not needed it all?  So what do you do with the leftovers?  I'm frugal, so I hate to waste anything - so I go searching for a recipe (or an idea) to use it in a new and creative way.

Last weekend's Bacon and Blue Pierogies required 4 oz of Blue Cheese.  Because I wasn't totally sure about the amounts, I bought an extra wedge as backup.  Which meant that I've had blue cheese sitting in my fridge for a week - calling my name.

I've made these crackers before - they are a play on a savory shortbread.  I love them.  This time I adjusted the size to be more bite-sized.  I think I prefer them smaller!

Blue Cheese Crackers

Ingredients:

4 oz blue cheese, room temperature

4 Tbsp butter, room temperature

3/4 Cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)

Instructions:

1. Mise en place.
• I've said this before.  Get your stuff together before you start cooking.  This recipe has 5 whole ingredients... I think you can manage.

  

  Look closely.  See something wrong here?

  

  I might have gotten excited to make the recipe... and forgot to take pictures until the end!

2. Cream together the blue cheese and butter
• It is really important that both be room temperature.  They won't combine very well if they're not. Trust me - leave them out on the counter for a few hours before trying to make this.
3. Mix in the flour, black pepper, and cayenne.
• Fresh ground black pepper.  Please please please - use a pepper mill or a spice grinder.  Don't buy ground black pepper in the little tin at the grocery store.  Trust me - the flavor is completely different.
• Cayenne.  Use as much or as little as you can handle.  My husband and I both love spicy things - so I'm generous with it.  But it's totally up to you.  But don't skip it unless you're allergic!

  

  Here's a funny picture of my empty bowl!  It's the best I could do!

  
  
4. Prepare the dough.
• For small crackers: split the dough in 1/2 and put into 2 sandwich-size ziptop bags.
  For large crackers: put the whole batch into 1 sandwich-size ziptop bag.
• Squish it all the way to the bottom and roll to form it into a small log.
• Seal the ziptop bag and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours or the freezer for 1 hour.  You need the dough to be very cold in order to slice nicely.

  

  This is after it's chilled, but you get the idea...

  

  For reference, this is 1/2 the dough making small crackers.
  

  

  To give you a sense of how small the log is...
  

5. Slice the coins and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
• Cut the log of dough into 1/4" thick coins.
  
• Parchment make this a very easy clean up.
• I got about 20 small crackers from 1/2 the batch.
  
6. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes.
• Watch them closely and pull them out when nicely browned.
  

  

  5 minutes
  

  

  10 minutes
  

  

  15 minutes
  

  

  20 minutes

 Tadaaaa!  Used up my leftover blue cheese and now have a nice snack for the weekend!  They are light and crispy and tangy with a nice little bite from the blue cheese and peppers.

Hope you enjoyed this quick little recipe!  Come back and visit next weekend when I spend some more time practicing in my kitchen.