Focaccia - Take 2

Focaccia

It is no secret that bread is my kryptonite. Well, it's bread, cheese, coffee and red wine. But bread is a magic thing. It is magical that you can get so much flavor from a mixture of water, flour, yeast and salt. The fermentation makes all the difference. 

Last time I made a focaccia I opted for a more complex dough. It felt more greasy. This time I used the classic No-Knead Bread recipe, transforming it into a focaccia, and it turned out perfect.

Makes 1 bread.

INGREDIENTS:

• 400 ml water finger-warm

• 5-10 g live yeast (or little under 1 teaspoon dry yeast)

• 500 g all-purpose flour or a high protein flour.

• 2 teaspoons sea salt

Toppings:

• sea salt

• olive oil

• rosemary like spices (or jalapeño)

• cherry tomatoes

DIRECTIONS:

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add a teaspoon sugar if you are using dry yeast, and wait until it starts to foam. Mix in most of the flour, befor adding the salt. Mix the rest of the flour in, mixing it until you are sure you have no lumps of dry flour. You do not have to knead this very sticky dough. 

Let the dough ferment covered on the countertop for 8-12 hours. The longer you ferment it, the more flavor you get. 

Gently scrape the dough out onto a well-floured surface. The dough will be very soft. With a spatula or bench scraper fold the 4 "sides" of the dough unto it self 3 times, to stretch the gluten and to build up the surface tension on the dough. Place the dough on a large parchment paper lined baking pan. Gently pat the top of the dough with a little olive oil, to prevent the dough from drying out. Let the bread rise for 60-90 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 425℉ (220℃). 

Pour some good olive oil on top of the dough and gently poke your fingers into the dough, making holes for the filling to rest in. This will spread the loaf out making it more flat and ready to receive the filling. Sprinkle rosemary and more oil over the loaf and press it into the holes. Gently press the tomatoes into the dough.  Sprinkle with a little more oil and a good amount of salt.

 Let the focaccia rise for another 30 minutes before baking it for 20-25 minutes at 440℉ (220℃). I baked mine on a baking stone, but still on the parchment paper for easier handling.

Let the bread cool in the pan before serving. 

Enjoy!

Pretzel Turtles

Pretzel Turtles

Theses turtles have become a part of my Danish Christmas celebration here in America. My sweet sweet neighbor gave me a tin of these every Christmas. I do not think Christmas woulds be the same without Pretzel turtles. Last year I was so recklees to move away from my sweet neighbors, and not only do I have to miss them, but I also have to miss out on this special Christmas Treat.  Now I had to learn to make them by my self. My version is with pecans only. They are nearly as good, they just need the sprinkle of Bobbie magic. Love you Bobbie. 

Makes 48 heavenly mouthfuls.

Ingredients:

• 48 rolo candies (2x5.3 oz bags)
• 48 mini pretzels
• 48 pecan halves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300℉ (150℃)  degrees. Line an 18 by 13-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay pretzels in a single layer on baking sheet then place one Rolo candy in the center of each pretzel. Warm in preheated oven just until chocolate and caramel have softened, about 4 minutes. Remove from oven then press 1 pecan into each rolo candy. Transfer baking sheet to refrigerator and chill until chocolate has set. Store in an airtight container at room temperature (preferably in a single layer - the chocolate softens up just a little at room temperature).

Enjoy!

Danish Shortbread Sticks

December 3th

This is a take on the traditional Danish Shortbread or Finskbrød as they are called. I really like the addition of the lemon zest, and the more modern look. Normally Danes do not like changes to their traditional food and cookies. 'It has to be exactly like my mom made it' - but some changes are for the better, like this one.

Inspired by a Blomsterberg recipe.

Makes 30.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 200 g butter, salted, room temperature

• ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 60 confectionary (powdered) sugar

• 1 lemon, the zest of

• 275 g all-purpose flour

Topping:

• 1 egg,

• coarse raw cane sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃)

Mix all the ingredients until it forms a dough, be careful not to overwork the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic film, and let it rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 6 x 12-inch (15 x 30 cm) rectangle. Transfer the cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, set aside. Beat the egg, and brush a thin even layer on the dough. Sprinkle with a good amount of raw cane sugar. Gently press the sugar into the dough with the rolling pin. Put the dough into the refrigerator to chill for about 10 minutes. Cut the dough in half so you now have 2 squares 6x6-inches (15x15 cm) each. Cut each square in 14-15 long thin logs, 

Bake for 7-10 minutes, until light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!

December 1 st.

Decorating.

Happy December - Christmas is approaching 🎄🎅🏼

Here we go again, December 1 st. sneaked up on me again. This year I have no excuses. I didn't move, we didn't host Thanksgiving. Next year I will set an calendar alarm to warn me mid november, to see if that helps.

I started my Christmas cookie production today. I always treat my friends with a little box of homemade cookies, when we go to events during the holiday season. And People you normally tip. Americans tip everybody. Mailman, hairdresser, doctors, teachers, and and and.... eeeeeeverybody. This is still kinda new to me. But I still try to learn the unspoken rules here 9 years in. Most important person on my cookie list is my husbands boss. I do not dare skipping him 😉😉

This year I just want to bake all the basic Danish Christmas cookies like Vanillekranse, håkonskager, pebernødder, Danish gingerbread cookies, and Chocolate Biscotti. There might be more in the works, but let's see what happens.

I hope you want to join me on my December Journey into Christmas classics in sweets, cookies and food.

Happy December 🎄

Croissants

Croissants are made from a yeasted dough laminated with butter. It is so so good.

The trick is to keep the dough and the butter at the same temperature and texture, to prevent soft butter bleeding out of the dough. A too cold dough will crack a bit, so you are looking for a firm but yet soft dough.

There are different kinds of folding/turning when it comes to pastry and croissant dough. 

Letter fold or Single turn: Dough folded in thirds, like you would do a letter going into an envelope. (I did that for this recipe.)

1. Turn: makes 3 layers of butter

2. Turn: makes 9 layers of butter

3. Turn: makes 27 layers of butter.

Book fold or double turn: Dough folded to the middle and folded again on the middle like a book. This makes 4 layers per fold or turn as they are called.

1. Turn: makes 4 layers of butter

2. Turn: makes 16 layers of butter

3. Turn: makes 64 layers of butter

You can mix the folding methods to get the amount of layer you want. Theoretically you can make how many layers you want, but making too many layers makes you end up with a brioche dough, made the hardest way possible 😉.   

At the croissant class I attended I learned that Manresa Bread use 2 double turns (16 layers) for regular croissants, and 3 single turns (27 layers) for chocolate croissants. For traditional Danish pastry you normally use 3 single turns, giving the desired 27 layers of butter. If you are looking for a traditional puff pastry, you need 144 layers

Makes this 20-24 croissants. 

Ingredients:

Dough/Détrempe:

• 750 g bread flour

• 200 g water, lukewarm

• 187.5 g milk

• 90 g sugar

• 22.5 g salt

• 65 g live yeast (15 g dry yeast)

• 7.5 g malt powder

• 37.5 g butter, room temperature

Beurrage (butter):

• 450 g cold butter

• all-purpose flour for dusting

Directions:

Dough/Détrempe:

Mix the milk with the water, dissolve the yeast in this mixture. Add the sugar. If using dry yeast, let the yeast wake up for about 5-10 minutes, until creating a foam on top. 

Mix in half of the flour and malt powder, forming a sticky dough. Mix in the softened butter. Finally mix in the rest of the flour and knead the dough until you have a shiny, slightly sticky and elastic dough, for about 3-5 minutes. The dough will be a bit on the dry/tough side.
Shape dough into a ball and place it in a dough rising bucket, or another large covered container. Let the dough fermented overnight, this will give you a good flavor.

Beurrage (butter):

Place the cold butter on a well floured surface. With your palms press the butter a little flat. Using a rolling pin pound on the butter to flatten it. Fold the butter into it self, and keep pounding and folding until the butter has the same consistency as the dough. You want to end up with a 30x32 cm (11x12.5 inch) sheet of soft but still cold butter. If the butter is too warm or too hard, it will be hard to roll it out in the dough, and it might make holes in the dough, instead of the lamination.
If you don't want to add any flour to your butter, you can pound and roll out the butter between sheets of parchment paper. Chill the butter while you roll out the dough. 

Laminating:

Place dough on a lightly floured surface, roll it out to 62x32 cm (24.5x12.5 inch), so the dough is the width of the butter, but a little over double in length. Clearly I rolled my dough longer than necessary, but it worked fine anyway. Place the butter on the dough, and wrap it with the dough, pinching the edges, meeting in the middle of the dough, together. Chill the dough package covered in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes, before starting the folding/turning.

Roll the dough to a rectangle, 3-4 times as long as the height. Keep it lightly floured so the dough do not stick to the surface. Make sure to roll the dough with straightedges. This will ease the folding.

Fold the far edges into the middle and fold again on the middle like a book. Now you have 4 layers of butter. Place the covered dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes to cool the butter again, and to relax the gluten.

Repeat this one more time, making 2 double (book) turns and ending up with 16 layers of butter. If you want to use this dough for Danish pastry or chocolate croissants, I would make 3 single turns, so you end up with 27 layers.

Before shaping the croissants you want the dough to rest covered in the refrigerator for at least 45-60 minutes. And letting it sit covered for 5 minutes on the kitchen counter, letting the butter to soften up a bit.

Shaping the croissants:

Roll half the dough out to a 20x40 cm (8x16 inch) rectangle. Using a knife or pizza slicer to cut the dough. Cut the croissant triangles as shown in the picture. (you get 7, not 5 croissants from the dough, I missed the last 2 in the picture, sorry). Let the dough rest covered 5 minutes to relax the gluten a bit. 
Stretch the triangle, so you elongate it, be careful not to rip the dough. Roll the dough towards the tip of the triangle, making sure that the tip is on the underside of the croissant.Place the croissant on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, spaced at least 5 cm (2 inch) apart.

Proof the croissant covered at maximum 85℉ (29.5℃) for 45-60 minutes until doubled in size. I have a proof setting on my oven, so I can use that, with a cup of boiling water sitting next to the baking sheet. But you can also proof the croissant on the kitchen counter, in a large air filled plastic bag.

Presheat oven to 350℉  (177℃) convection or 375℉ (190℃) foer non-convection.

Gently brush the croissants with egg wash, covering the exposed surfaces not allowing the egg wash to drip or pool.

Bake the croissants for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Let the croissants on the baking sheet on the kitchen counter. 

Serve the croissants within a day. 

Enjoy!

Tip:

The unbaked pastry can be frozen just, after shaping, individually, and can be baked straight out of the freezer, just add about 5 more minutes to the baking time.

Tip:

Leftover croissants can be used for almond croissants. Make some frangipan (125 g almond flour, 125 g butter, 125 g powdered sugar, 12 g all-purpose flour and 1 large egg, all mixed together) and smear it inside the croissant, and on top, before baking it for xx minutes.