Chocolate Danish Braid

This recipe makes use of the quick laminated dough technique I use for puff pastry and croissants.  You can, of course, make a traditional danish dough if you want to (replace the cream cheese in the the recipe with mashed potatoes).  I think the results are pretty good with the quick dough, though, and spending less time laminating works for me. You can fill this with whatever you want, but the chocolate is always a crowd pleaser.  You will also have to forgive my idiosyncratic measurements in the recipe.

Quick Danish Dough
- 300 g all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 140 g cold margarine or vegan butter
- 7 oz cold plain soy milk
- 2 oz cold mashed potatoes (i.e. potatoes boiled whole, then skinned, then mashed)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla

Chocolate Filling
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp cold margarine
- 1-2 tbsp soy milk

- soy milk and maple syrup for brushing
- sliced almonds
- course sugar

METHOD
To Make the Dough:
1. Whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. Cut in cold margarine like you would for a pie crust.
2. Blend mashed potatoes and vanilla into the soy milk with an immersion blender until smooth.  Add to flour/margarine mixture and gently mix with a silicon spatula until the flour is hydrated. Use the spatula to shape into a ball as best you can.
3. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough over night.
4. On baking day, turn the dough out onto a floured surface and fold twice as per this recipe.
5. Let the dough rest for 15 mins.
6. While dough is resting, blend together sugar and flour for the filling in a food processor. Pulse in the chocolate chips, then the margarine. Blend in enough soy milk to make a thick but spreadable paste.
7. Roll the dough into a 9x14 inch rectangle. Spread the paste down the middle third of the dough rectangle. Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut 1.25 inch diagonal strips on both sides of the filling (like this). Cut off the triangular pieces at the top and bottom to leave a flap at the top and bottom.  Fold the top flap down, then start folding alternating strips over the flap and then the filling at an angle. Fold the bottom flap up before you cover it with the remaining strips.
8. Carefully transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, cover, and leave to rise until almost doubled.  Since the dough is cold this will take about 2 hours.
9. Preheat oven to 425. Mix a splash of maple syrup into about 1/4 cup of soy milk.  Gently brush the braid with the soy milk mixture.  Let sit for 5 mins, then brush again.  Sprinkle with sliced almonds and sugar.
10. Bake for 15 mins, then reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another 15 mins, or until a deep golden colour.  You can cover the braid with foil if it browning too quickly.
11. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Buchty

If you are familiar at all with these traditional Czech sweet buns you will note right off the bat that mine do not have any kind of filling. But, since "buchty" translates as "buns" I think the name is still appropriate.  I simply find it too finicky to try to seal jam or poppyseed filing inside the dough. I also think you get a better rise, bake, and crumb without a filling.  So do what you want with this recipe. I like to cut the buns in half, toast them, and slather them with strawberry jam for breakfast.

INGREDIENTS
- 17 oz white bread flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3.5 oz vegan butter, divided (or vegetable shortening)
- 8 oz lukewarm non-dairy milk
- 4 oz mashed potatoes (i.e. boiled whole in skins, skinned, then mashed)
- 1 tbsp instant yeast


METHOD
1. Whisk together 10 oz of the flour, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the melted butter to the warm milk.  Add the mashed potatoes and blend until smooth (I use an immersion blender in a large 4 cup measuring cup).  The mixture will be thick.  Whisk in yeast and let sit for 5 mins.
3. Add milk mixture to the flour and beat until smooth (batter attachment on a stand mixer works well).
4. Cover and let sit for an hour in a warm place.
5. Add the remaining 7 oz of flour and work into a soft, smooth dough.  It should be tacky, but not sticky.  Add more flour or milk as needed.  Shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled.
6. Line the bottom of a 10x10 baking pan with parchment paper.
7. Melt the remaining 1.5 oz of vegan butter
8. Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces and shape into balls. Roll each ball in the butter to coat and place in the pan in four rows of four.
9. Cover and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
10. Bake for 22-25 mins, until a dark golden brown.
11. Remove from the pan to a cooling rack.  Dust with icing sugar before serving if desired.

In Memory

 Last week my grandmother passed away after 94 years on this earth. Born in Pennsylvania to Slovak immigrant parents who worked in the steel mills and rail yards around Pittsburgh, she did not have an easy life. My grandfather passed away almost 30 years ago and yet my grandma carried on, making ends meet from his meagre pension and the little that Social Security provided. And yet, her generosity knew no bounds. We were always welcomed into her home with food, and lots of it. She taught me about hospitality and I have tried in this blog and at my own home to keep that alive. Food politics so often divides us that we forget how a meal can bring us together. I am so grateful that I got to know my grandmother for almost forty years and that all my children were able to hear her laugh and listen to her stories. So tonight I am making a big batch of pierogies in her honour and thinking about how my grandma's hospitality and love touched so many.

Raspberry Flakie

 Oh, how I coveted other kids' Flakies when I was a kid. My mom would never buy such swill, of course, which only increased the allure of pre-packaged pastries.  There may or may not be beef tallow in Flakies, so if you are craving a treat from your Canadian childhood this recipe is for you.  The tang of the raspberry gets mellowed by the creamy filling, both of which are complemented by layers of buttery pastry.  I made my own butter this time--I use just a pinch of salt and it is absolutely  perfect for baking.  

INGREDIENTS

- 1 recipe easy puff pastry

- 1 recipe Twinkie filling

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 2 tbsp cornstarch

- 1 1/4 cups fresh or frozen raspberries 

- 1 tsp lemon juice

- 1 tbsp water

- soy milk for brushing

- sugar for sprinkling

METHOD

1. Make the puff pastry and chill.  Make the Twinkie filling and chill in a pastry bag fitted with the tip of your choice.  

2. Make the raspberry filling.  Whisk together sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan.  Add fruit, lemon juice, and water.  Mix well and bring to bubbling over medium-high heat.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.

3. Roll out puff pastry into a 8x16 rectangle. Cut pastry into 8 4x4 squares.  If you want thicker pastries, roll into a 6x12 rectangle and cut into 8 3x3 squares (see bottom pic). Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 

4. Chill squares while you heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Brush tops with soy milk and dust with sugar.  Bake for 20 mins, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for another 15 mins, or until pastry is golden.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  

5. When pastries are cool, cut in half with a serrated knife.  Cover bottom piece with raspberry filling, then pipe Twinkie filling on top.  Place top back on and serve.  

Vegan Twinkies

 Finally the final post in my vanilla cake series!  Every time we have a family weekend at the cottage, my sister in law sends me recipe ideas that the whole family can enjoy (vegan and non).  I was never that in to Twinkies, but it is a rather fun way to eat cake and frosting.  She send me this recipe which looked good, but I wanted to make the traditional filling so it could be stable at room temperature.  

There is a little bit of wiggle room with this recipe.  The problem I had was getting the bleedin' cakes out of the pan.  No amount of greasing, flouring, etc. made it any easier, so I had to go with a more durable cake so it could get it out of the pan in one piece.  If you are better at getting cakes out of a pan than I am, you can add up to 2 tbsp more milk and up to 2 tbsp more sugar (see pic below).

INGREDIENTS
Makes 8
Cake
- 100g cake or pastry flour
- 50g all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup soy milk
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp lemon extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract

Filling
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup soy milk
- 3/4 cup icing sugar
- 1/4 cup cold margarine
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, room temp
- 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cake
1. Sift together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together soy milk, orange juice, and lemon juice.  Whisk in sugar, oil, and extracts until smooth and consistent.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry and gently whisk until smooth.  Divide batter evenly in the separate sections in the pan (60g per section).
4. Bake for 16-20 mins, or until golden and baked through.
5. Allow cakes to fully cool before removing from pan.

Filling
1. While cakes are baking and cooling, make your filling.  Whisk flour into the soy milk in a small saucepan.  Place over medium heat and whisk until thick and cooked through.  Set aside to fully cool.
2. When flour mixture is cool, use a hand mixer to beat in the icing sugar, the margarine, coconut oil, and salt.  When fluffy, beat in extract.  Place in fridge to cool down for a least 30 mins.
3. Put filling into a piping bag fitted with a #5 tip (or similar).  Poke the tip into the underside of the Twinkies in three or four spots along its length and gently squeeze in filling.  You will feel the Twinkies swell.  Don't over fill.

These cakes have the additional soy milk and sugar.  You can see that they are more tender (and are overfilled) but that has resulted in some breakage getting them out of the pan, and some splitting when they were filled.  They tasted amazing, though.