Cheese pita

If you want to make cheese bread rolls look a bit more festive, arranging them in a pita form is the ideal way to achieve that. Separate the dough in three parts. Roll out the first and spread a little butter on it. Then roll out the second on top of the first and spread some butter on it as well. Finally roll out the third piece on top of the other two, making a 0.5mm thin rectangular dough sheet. Spread some shredded feta cheese on top and roll it in as a swiss-roll. Cut it in even 5-6 cm. pieces and arrange them with the cut part up in a baking form. Bake until ready. Enjoy!

As you can see, mine weren't quite even, but you get the idea.

Sweet bread and painted eggs for Easter

Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter today. I officially celebrate with them, even though I also took advantage of last week's celebrations. It's both exciting to have two holidays and a bit confusing, as it also steals from the uniqueness of the celebration. I myself am much happier when the holiday coincides and I can celebrate it together with my family and my Bulgarian and international friends. But it's a rare occurrence.

When I think of Easter, the picture that comes to mind is sweet bread (kozunak) and painted eggs. We don't have them at any other time of the year, so I'm always looking forward to eating a slice of warm sweet bread with yoghurt drink for breakfast on Easter Sunday and to paint eggs and later have egg fights with my family and friends.

This year, for the second time in my life I made my own sweet bread. Unconventional as it is, I opted for an Italian recipe that I had just discovered and here is the video, where you can learn to make this beautiful bread with cacao and raisin.

Mine turned out pretty nicely, although I was too overzealous with the cacao. Lesson learned! :)

I also managed to paint a couple of eggs in different styles and now I'm heading off to a bbq where possibly none of them will survive. At least I'll have a picture to remember them by. :)

Crescent rolls with cheese

I thought I'd experiment a bit with my favorite dough (recipe) and make crescent rolls for a change. I used 150 ml milk and 100 ml buttermilk (kærnemælk) instead of 250 ml milk. I also increased the butter to 45 g., using the extra 15 g. for spreading between the rolled out dough layers. This time I estimated the dough at a little above 400 g.

Method


1. Once the dough increases its volume twice, separate it in 8 parts.
2. Roll out each part and use butter to glue each two round layers/sheets.
3. Roll out again the so formed 4 circles and cut 8 triangles of each. 
4. Fill in the triangles with cheese/ jam/ chocolate and roll them into buns.
5. Brush over each bun with a whisked egg white.
6. Bake on baking paper at 220 C until ready.


Although they were softer than the buns from the original dough, both I and my sister prefer the lighter version.


That being said, I'm planning to make croissants with cheese/ chocolate on Sunday. So, I'm hunting for recipes now. DO share, if any of you dear readers have a favorite croissant recipe! :)

Carrot bread with ricotta dip for lunch

I've been craving a ricotta dip for a few days now and since I haven't had it in a very long time, it seemed like a good idea to remind myself of its taste literally. What I've noticed is that it goes equally nicely with both vegetables and fruit. So, I decided to match it with carrot bread (my first). Sadly, even though I knew I should squeeze the water out of the carrots, I missed the step. It didn't bake as nicely as I would have wanted it and it should have had twice the volume it ended up with (I just made half a doze without considering using another form - my mind's elsewhere today :S), but it was delicious anyway. I particularly enjoyed how well the bread and the dip go together.

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 cup flour

30 g. butter

3/4 cup carrot

1/4 cup yoghurt

1/2 t. sp. baking soda

1/2 sp. baking powder

1 tb. sp. sugar

1 t. sp. salt

1 tb. sp. poppy seed

1/2 t. sp. ground cardamom 

1/2 t. sp. cinnamon

2 tb. sp. raisin

For the dip

100 g. ricotta cheese

3 tb. sp. sweet corn

1 tb. sp. peas

2 tb. sp. fresh onion

1/2 red pepper

salt

basil

Method

1. Mix the eggs and the soft butter.

2. Put the baking soda in the yoghurt.

3. Sift the flour in a big bowl and add the dry ingredients.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour and mix them well. Add the blended carrots and the raisin and fold them into the batter. 

5. Bake at 220 C until ready.

If you are making the ricotta dip, just cut the pepper and the fresh onion and mix everything together. Garnish with basil.

Have an enjoyable and productive week!

Bread and butter

I've been thinking about the use of butter in bread. It's surely healthier to use sunflower oil, but how can one make a real croissant with it? Moreover, one eats about 2-3 slices of bread a day (regardless its kind) and home-made bread is not an everyday occurrence, so why not make it tasty?! Because yes, bread with butter tastes many times better than bread with sunflower oil. Just as I'm about to finally convince myself about the superiority of butter, I think of olive oil. Divine! I made this year's Christmas eve bread with it (fasting day in Bulgaria). Now that's a memorable flavor! Cheap as it is not, I'd still go for it unless some special pastry dough is on the agenda. Then I'm gonna smile at the thought of the recently introduced "fat tax" and head for the dairy section. :D How do you solve this quandary?

I had half a package of yeast left, so this morning was a last call for using it - nothing should go to waste! ;) Since we really liked the dough I used last time (dough), I made a braided bread with tomato pure, feta cheese and herbs filling, and a couple of buns. Admittedly, I've become fond of bread without any filling, as it bakes better and I can choose what I wanna have it with afterwards. How do you prefer your bread?

Soft buns with filling

It's amazing how many people return to baking their own bread. Hardly surprising though! Nothing compares to the smell of freshly baked bread coming out of your oven! Kneading has been one of my favorite activities in the kitchen and I'm always up for it. So, whenever someone from my family or friends gives a hint that they'd like to have some home-baked bread, I'm up for it. Like today.

Usually I use only feta cheese for the filling, but today I decided to add a bit of extra flavor to it. Some of the buns were with feta cheese, spearmint and basil filling, others with feta cheese and double concentrated tomato pure, and the third ones with feta cheese and garlic.

Ingredients

250 ml milk

25 g. fresh yeast

2 eggs

30 g. soft butter

1 tb. sp. sugar

1 t. sp. salt

flour (as much as it takes to form soft dough - approx. 500 g.)

125 g. feta cheese

double concentrated tomato pure

basil

spearmint

minced garlic

Method

1. Heat the milk until its lukewarm. Then add the yeast, 1 tb. sp. flour and the sugar in 150 ml. milk and stir until everything integrates. Set aside for about 10 min. until the yeast doubles its volume.

2. Sift the flour in a large bowl. Add the salt, the eggs, the remaining milk and the yeast. Start kneading.

3. Little by little add the butter. Continue kneading for about 10 minutes or until the dough feels soft, but not sticky. Hit the dough 100 times on the counter (It's an old trick shared by elderly women and bread bakers in Bulgaria. It helps the flour integrate better.)

4. Let the dough rest for about 40 min. in a greased bowl and covered with a towel.

5. Separate the dough in 8 parts. Roll them out to form rectangulars. Put from the filling I've suggested or whichever you prefer. Fold the rectangulars and extend them until they become like ropes. Be careful that the filling doesn't come out of the dough. Then either form knots or "snails".

6. Add 1 tb. sp. milk to 1 egg yolk and whisk them together. Spread the mixture on top of the buns and sprinkle with sunflower seeds, sesame or poppy seeds.

6. Bake in a 200 C oven until ready.

I also made two buns (picture below), which had no special form and the filling was just in the middle. I'm not sure whether I liked them most because of their feta cheese, basil and spearmint filling or because the bread tastes better without much feeling, but they have officially become #1 bun. Decorating them was also very entertaining and I recommend it was an activity to moms with children. Your little helpers could have a whole independent role in the process of baking buns. Enjoy! :)