Greek Easter Bread

With Greek Easter one week away, not much free time between now and then, and the simple desire to bake something today, I am making Greek Easter Bread (τσουρέκι πασχαλινό, pronounced tsoo-REH-kee pahs-khah-lee-NO). It is a sweet bread often served with a traditional red egg tucked into the the top of the twist. I made the eggs last year and am skipping them this year. I just don't want to deal with 15 pounds of yellow onions. More precisely, the skins from 15 pounds of yellow onions. Let's just worry about the bread.

Luke warm milk and yeast are mixed in a small bowl. A few spoonfuls of flour are incorporated until a paste is formed. This is set aside to rise. The recipe doesn't say for how long. I just checked on it periodically. After half an hour or so, it had tripled in size. At least.

In the bowl for my stand-up mixer I added flour, salt and melted butter. Mahlab is boiled in water and then the strained liquid is added to the mixing bowl. Eggs, the yeast mixture and a few pieces of mastic that have been crushed together with a bit of sugar are added. As the dough hook worked its labor-saving magic, I added spoonfuls of flour until a good "maleable" dough came together. This is covered and allowed to rise for a couple hours.

After rising, the dough is punched down and shapes are created. I am going with simple braids. Ropes of just over a foot are formed. On a greased cookie sheet, three of these are then braided and the ends are tucked under. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar or sliced almonds and bake at 350° for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. When tapped on the bottom, they should sound hollow. Cool on racks.

For the record, I made a half-recipe. The full recipe makes 6 two-pound loaves. I made 2 three-pound loaves and sprinkled one with Premium Maui Gold natural cane sugar.

Bon appétit!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake III

Yes. Peanut Butter Cheesecake III. This month's payday cheesecake will be the same as last month's, except with milk chocolate ganache instead of raspberry jam. I made this for Susie's mid-month payday, but was troubled that there were tiny air bubbles in the ganache. Inquiries were made and I determined (read: guessed) that I whisked the hot cream and chocolate too vigorously, incorporating air into the ganache. A gentler, though not necessarily kinder approach would be used for this reprise.
I brought the cream and the butter just to a boil and poured it over the Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips. I let it sit for a few minutes and then went in with the whisk. It was a test of my patience to whisk gently. It just seemed oxymoronic. Wrong even. But I persisted.

I was sure there were still some chunks of unincorporated chocolate in the ganache, so I poured it through a strainer into a small bowl. There was some undissolved chocolate as I had suspected. It was quite tasty.

The ganache then cools to room temperature before being refrigerated to thicken for use. I want a viscous liquid that will spread slowly, without running. Pour the ganache over the top of the cheesecake and pop back into the fridge to set.

Bon appétit!

Baklava

I decided to make the baklava a full week in advance of my big Greek Easter meal. For two reasons. One, there just isn't a lot of free time in the evenings before Greek Easter, after this weekend, to get everything ready. And two, Thursday is the Edible Book Festival at the UO Library, and I need a piece of baklava for one of my entries.

Baklava (μπακλαβάς and pronounced bahk-lah-VAHS) is perhaps the most well-known Greek food. Well, let's not forget about gyros. But still. It is a simple recipe that can be anything but to assemble. Layers of phyllo dough, painted with clarified butter, a layer chopped walnuts, all soaked in a sweet rose-flavored syrup. The really daunting part of making baklava is working with the phyllo.

Sugar and water are boiled for a couple minutes and then two tablespoons of rose water are added just before removing from the heat. This is allowed to cool and then refrigerated until needed.

Process a couple cups of walnuts and two tablespoons of rose water in a food processor until very fine. Set aside.

Two cups of unsalted butter are clarified. I don't know any short-cuts for this. I simply use a spoon and skim the solids that rise to the surface while the butter is heated. There are still some solids at the bottom of the pan, so I carefully pour the clarified butter off into a bowl. If solids get into the clarified butter, they will burn and blacken when the baklava is baked.

Phyllo dough is paper-thin and dries out quickly, so a damp (not wet, just slightly damp) towel is laid over the sheets of dough while assembling the baklava.

Now the tough part. Brush some of the butter into a baking pan. Then lay a single sheet of phyllo in the bottom of the pan, cover the remaining sheets with the towel and brush butter on the sheet in the pan. Repeat this again and again and again until half the phyllo has been used. Then evenly spread the walnut and rose water mixture over the top. Then, you guessed it, back to the phyllo layers. Place a sheet, cover the rest, butter. Repeat until all the sheets have been used.

With a knife, carefully cut through the assembled baklava, first lengthwise in one-inch strips, and then on a bias to form the traditional diamond shapes. Actually, mine come out looking more like parallelograms. No worries. This is not a geometry exercise. Pour the remaining clarified butter over the top and spread it evenly with the pastry brush.

The pan goes into a 350° oven for 30 minutes. The temperature is then raised to 425° for an additional 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and pour the chilled sugar and rose water syrup evenly over the top. It will sizzle. Enticingly.

Bon appétit!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake II

After Susie and I were married I expanded the Payday Cheesecake program to include the good folks at Benton County Mental Health. They were grateful, and remained so even after they learned that just because they get paid twice a month, they were going to get one cheesecake and not two. This month they get dessert on the mid-month payday. I doubt they will feel slighted that they will be receiving the same recipe, for Peanut Butter Cheesecake, that I prepared for my co-workers a couple weeks ago.

The same recipe, with a twist. A variation really. Instead of raspberry jam to top the cheesecake, I went with a milk chocolate ganache. So, this post is really about making ganache.

I put 8 ounces of milk chocolate in a small mixing bowl. Then, over medium heat, I brought 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter just to a boil. Immediately, the hot cream and butter was poured over the chocolate and whisked until smooth and shiny. Into the refrigerator to cool and thicken a bit.

After a couple hours, I poured some of the ganache on the top of the cheesecake, letting it spread close to the edge. There were tiny bubbles in the ganache and I neither knew how nor cared to try to smooth them out. I doubt anybody will notice, or care.

Bon appétit!

Coconut Brigadeiros

An invitation to a going away party for a co-worker and a recipe from the New York Times seemed destined to wed. The recipe is for Coconut Brigadeiros, a Brazilian desert that looked both interesting and easy.

First, a note on the coconut. Use unsweetened finely shredded coconut. I found some at the local Asian supermarket. The sweetened baker's coconut available at stores is too sweet. So says the recipe.

Sweetened condensed milk, coconut milk, butter, corn syrup and coconut are brought to a boil over medium heat. The heat is reduced and the mixture is stirred constantly over low heat until it becomes fudge-like. The recipe says 8 to 10 minutes. It took me closer to 20. My low must be lower than the recipe's low. I turned the heat up a bit and that seemed to do the trick. The mixture became a single soft piece.

The mixture is slid into a bowl. Do not scrape the sides or the bottom of the pan. Any residue should be left behind. The recipe says so. So I obeyed.

I refrigerated the blob overnight and the next morning formed balls of the thick mixture. I use a small scoop to help ensure uniformity of size, finishing each ball with my hands.

The finishing touch was too roll each ball through some of the unsweetened coconut until completely coated. I did half this way, and rolled the other half through chocolate sprinkles. What the heck. Some very finely chopped nuts might be good as well.

Back into the refrigerator to firm up again. They can be stored at room temperature in a sealed container for up to two days. This just seems wrong. At least with the batch I made. They got a little too soft at room temperature. In the refrigerator they can keep up to a month. Like they'll last that long.

Bon appétit!