Pistachio sweet buns...

The recipe below was for traditional Moroccan sweet buns otherwise known as "Krachel" but being that I was going to share them with local neighbors I decided to give them a more Middle Eastern twist by topping them with crushed pistachios. When it comes to baking my mind usually takes different routes as I go along, that's when the idea or a Middle eastern "Esponja" (Mexican sweet buns) came into mind. Note that this was not my intention so stay tunned for a more traditional pistachio "Esponja" recipe but let me tell you these sweet little buns were absolutely amazing and perfect for and afternoon tea or coffee break.


Ingredients
4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup lukewarm milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons sesame seeds (toasted)
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
Topping
1/2 to 3/4 cups pistachios
4 heaping tablespoons powder sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

Directions
sift the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Set aside. In a seperate bowl beat your egg, oil, and vanilla. Set aside. In a small bowl or in your stand mixer mix the yeast with the milk and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. Add a few tablespoons of flour to the yeast mixture and beat until a smooth batter is formed. Set the mix aside for 5 more minutes. After 5 minutes whisk the egg mixture into the rested yeast batter until smooth. Slowly add the flour leaving 1/4 cup aside. Add the toasted sesame seeds and fennel seeds, and kneed to combine, add the remainder of the flour until a soft and slightly sticky dough is formed. Make sure to kneed the dough for a few minutes for better results. Place the dough on a lightly oiled bowl cover with plastic and let rise in a warm place, for 1hr or until doubled in size.

After the dough has risen, divide it into 12 to 16 smooth, evenly shaped balls. Place the balls of dough two inches apart on an oiled baking sheet, and slightly flatten the tops of the dough to form a rounded disc.

Cover the baking sheet with a towel and leave the dough to rise another hour or longer, or until the rolls are very light and puffy.

Add the pistachios and powder sugar into your food processor and pulse until a powder is formed. Melt 1/4 cup of butter and set aside.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 370* F. Brush the rolls with the melted butter and carefully place 2 teaspoons of the sweet pistachio sugar on top of each bun to cover evenly. Press the mixture down and drizzle 1 teaspoon of butter over each pistachio covered bun. Dust again with approximately 1 teaspoon of pistachio mix. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown in color. After 15 minutes of baking test the buns by lifting with a spatula, if the bottom is golden brown and the buns appear to be baked but the tops are not quite golden, set the oven to a low broil and broil until the tops are golden brown.

Remove the baking pan from the oven and cool slightly on a wire rack and dust again with the pistachio powder sugar. Serve warm....

Date stuffed rolls...

I should start this post by warning you all about my Ramadan pictures. Since our Ramadan meal is usually served in the late hours when all the beautiful sunlight is no longer visible my pictures wont appear as vibrant. The lighting in my home is not the best and whatever pictures I do get to take in the day time will have to be of my leftovers. This dough was suppose to make a Polish buchty bread, so feel free to leave out the date filling. The date paste I make is a bit different than any others I have tasted, I make mine with milk, spices, and a little bit of butter giving it a creamy light taste and not a heavy tamarind like flavor some others tend to have. The date filling is the leftovers used for this recipe, the recipe makes approximately 3 cups date paste, you can either cut the recipe in half or store the paste to use in other recipes such as maamoul. Dusting the rolls with plenty of powder sugar straight out of the oven creates a soft, and buttery sweet topping for the rolls.

Ingredients
4 cups white flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
3 eggs lightly beaten
3 tablespoons butter melted
confectioners sugar for dusting


Directions
Grease am 8inch square pan or pan of choice. Sift the flour and salt together into a large bowl and stir in the suagar. Make a well in the center. Melt 1/4 cup of butter in a small pan then remove from heat and stir in the milk. Let cool until lukewarm. Stir in the yeast into the milk mixture until it has dissolved. Pour into the center of the flour and stir in enough flour to form a thick dough. Sprinkle with a little of the surrounding flour and let sit in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Gradually beat in the eggs to the remaining flour to form a soft dough. This will take about 10 minutes. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and punch down. Divide into 16 equal pieces and shape into rounds. Flatten each ball into a disk and fill the center with approximately 1 heaping teaspoon of date paste, fold all sides in and pinch to seal. Roll the filled dough into a ball and continue with the remaining balls of dough.

Melt the remaining butter and roll the rounds in to coat, then place slightly apart in the pan. Cover with slightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375* F. Spoon in any remaining melted butter evenly over the rolls and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and dust the rolls with plenty of powdered sugar. Let cool for 5 minutes then remove onto a wire rack and dust again with sugar.

*Adapted from, Bread (Breads of the world) with some minor changes to the original recipe.

Brittish style Naan

To be honest with you all I'm not sure if this is Brittish style Naan what I do know is that after living in London and now here in the Kindom of Saudi Arabia this Naan is more like Naan you would find at an Indian restaurant in London but nothing like the Naan you would find in an Indian restaurant here in Saudi Arabia. Naan sold in the UK is thick like this one while the one sold here is more like a lavash bread with a softer thicker center.


Ingredients
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon yeast
10 tablespoons lukewarm milk
2 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 eggs
5 to 6 tablespoons melted butter or ghee, for brusing

Directions
Sift the flour, salt, and yeast into a large bowl. Set aside. In your stand mixer cream the yeast with the milk, set aside for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl whisk the egg, oil, and yogurt until well combined and lump free. Add ½ cup of your flour mix to the yeasted milk and whisk until smooth. Set aside for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, add the yogurt mix and turn the stand mixer on to medium speed with the hook attachment, beat until combines. Gradually add the dry ingredients into the mixture until a soft dough is formed. You may or may not need the entire amount of flour. Kneed the dough in your stand mixer for approximately 7 to 10 minutes to build up the gluten. Remove the dough from the mixer and kneed by hand over a lightly oiled surface, kneed for an additional 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow it to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 450* F. Place 2 to 3 large heavy baking sheets in the oven to heat. Turn the dough out to a lightly floured surface and punch down. Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces and shape into balls. Cover the dough balls with a towel to prevent them from drying while you work on your first naan. Roll out the first ball of dough into a teardrop shape about 8 to 10 inches long and 5 to 6 inches wide and with a thickness of 1/4 - 1/3 inch. Due the same to the remainder of dough balls. Brush heavily with melted butter on both sides.

Preheat the broiler to high. Place the Naan’s on the hot baking sheets and bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until puffed up and golden in color. If the bottom of the Naan isn’t as golden as the top, flip over brush with more butter and place under the broiler until golden in color. Remove the Naan from the oven, brush with butter or ghee and serve warm.

Mallorcan Ensaimadas

This wonderful recipe comes from Majorca Spain, very similar to the cinnamon bun you would think but it's far from that. These sweet little coils are crunchy on the outside and soft in the inside. You may want to double up on the recipe, mine were cleared of the table before my oven even went back to normal temperature. The traditional recipe doesn't include vanilla but my vanilla bean twist on these Spanish buns gave them I would say 10 EXTRA points in flavor. Brushing with water is a MUST

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
6 tablespoons lukewark milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (optional)
1/4 cup butter, melted
confectioners sugar for dusting (vanilla sugar recipe follows)
water for brushing

Directions
sift the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Set aside. In a seperate bowl beat your egg, oil, and vanilla. Set aside. In a small bowl or in your stand mixer mix the yeast with the milk and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. Add a few tablespoons of flour to the yeast mixture and beat until a smooth batter is formed. Set the mix aside for 5 more minutes. After 5 minutes whisk the egg mixture into the rested yeast batter until smooth. Slowly add the flour until a smooth dough is formed. Make sure to kneed the dough for a few minutes for better results. Place the dough on a lightly oiled bowl cover with plastic and let rise, in a warm place, for 1hr or until doubled in size.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Punch down and cut into 8 to 16 equal size pieces (Use a knife to cut). Shape each piece into a thin rope about 15 inches long. Dip each rope into the melted butter on the baking sheet, curl each rope into a spiral, spacing each roll well apart. Tuck the ends under to seal. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 375* F. Brush the rolls with water and dust with powder sugar. Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool slightly on a wire rack and dust again with powder sugar. Serve warm....

Pizza dough...

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I came up with this pizza dough recipe a few weeks ago and its definitely a keeper, using pastry flour makes the dough very elactic and easy to stretch out by hand without the use of a rolling pin. The topping of choice, sauce, and cheese are entirely up to you. One thing I do recommend is shaping the dough by hand using oiled hands over a lightly floured surface (I use corlmeal). Bake the pizza at 380* F on the lowest rack and bake until golden brown. Because of the amount of olive oil used in the recipe the crust will be golden in color with the perfect crunch yet soft in the inside which is just how I like my pizza. This recipe makes 2 large pizza crust. Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pastry flour
2 teaspoon fast acting yeast
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup lukewarm water

Directions
Sift your flour, sugar, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine the yeast, with a pinch of sugar and 3 tablespoons of water and stir gently to dissolve. Let the mixture stand until the yeast comes alive and starts to foam, 3 to 5 minutes.

If you're using a stand mixer combine your water and half of your flour mix and beat until a cake like batter is formed. Add your oil, and yeast mix and beat for 1 minute, gradually add the remainder of your flour.

When the dough starts to come together, increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough gathers into a ball. This should take about 2 minutes. Stop the machine periodically to scrape the dough off the hook.

Feel the dough as you're making it by squeezing a small amount together between your thumb and fingers. If it's crumbly, add more water, if it's sticky, add more flour, 1tablespoon at a time. Turn the dough out onto a lightly "oiled" surface and fold it over itself a few times, kneading until it's smooth and elastic.

Form the dough into a round and put it into a lightly oiled bowl, turning it over to coat the dough entirely with the oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

This dough recipe uses more oil than your basic pizza dough giving it a nice golden crust on the outside when baked. Shape the pizza using oiled hands and bake at 380*F on the lowest rack.