So, I’ve been working on some new recipes, trying to find the perfect thing for dessert for a big party. Something that goes with the Sumatra Caviar. However, the cookies, while wonderful, aren’t the texture I needed. That said, these are some pretty amazing cookies, so I thought I’d share the recipe.
Ingredients and Preparation instructions behind the cut.
Today’s bread experiment will be mini-baguettes. I’ll also be making a fresh pea, garden mint and leek soup. I’m crossing my fingers that the flavor profile will do what I expect it to do. I’ll be using the baguettes to make a montrachet and roasted red bell pepper and basil sandwiches to go with the soup. Recipes and pics to follow, if it works.
We followed a recipe from Alton Brown that we adapted a tiny bit, mostly because I didn’t have pretzel salt on hand. But the recipe was easy enough that Igor got to do a whole lot of the actual recipe. He didn’t get to do the boiling part, and he didn’t get to put the trays in or out of the 450 degree oven, but other than that, he was able to do most of the recipe. He’s turning into quite the little 6 year-old sous chef.
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam.
Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined.
Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size. 
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces.
Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.
Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula.
Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. (I used Kosher salt.)
Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving. (I used a convection oven, which turned them a little darker than I would have liked. I think it’s possible that with a convection oven, one could skip the egg wash, or use an egg-white wash instead, and get the color I wanted. I’ll have to try it and find out.)
So, in prep for the Bee-Day cake, I was practicing basketweave and grass techniques with buttercream icing.
Well, you can’t frost nothingness (sorry sweet-toothed existentialists), so I made cupcakes. Amaretto spice cupcakes with hazelnut creamcheese icing, to be exact. Yum. The groovy thing about making cupcakes to practice is that it’s easy to give away cupcakes. The bad thing is that the techniques don’t really transfer as well as I’d hoped…in that doing the grass and basketweave on a cupcake gives your wrist plenty of time to unkink before you move to the next one. Doing the cake, I found myself having to stop a lot and shake out my hand. I think a less-stiff frosting may be easier, but the cream cheese really gunks up the pastry bag and tips. Still, I’m in love with the grass, and the little mini baskets turned out to be tres cute.
So, here are the practice cupcakes:
1. cupcakes 007, 2. cupcakes 006, 3. cupcakes 005, 4. cupcakes 003, 5. cupcakes 002, 6. cupcakes 001
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
