TWD: Cottage Cheese Pufflets

Hello Bakers.....happy fall as it is the first day of fall. I love fall treats. It is the best time of year to bake. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am. The TWD this week is yummy, but not neccesaryily fallish. Don't you worry though we still had some fun with it.

These were a fun little change in pace. These pufflets were more like tiny little pastries that I think would be good served as appetizers. My husband's family has a Cottage Cheese Pancake recipe that is delicious so I thought these cookies could be similar. I am not sure what the cottage cheese adds to something like this, but they were tastey. The original recipe calls for a dot of fruit preserves in the middle, but I am not a fan of preserves in my desserts so I changed it up a bit. I did three variations.

The dough is refridgerated for a while before rolling out.

My filling variations were as such:
1. cinnamon, brown sugar, a little butter, and chopped pecans
2. sweetened cream cheese and chocolate chips
3. sweetened cream cheese and frozen raspberries

It seems like the favorite by my taste testers was the cinnamon version. It was delicious, but didn't turn out as pretty as the others. I preferred the raspberry version, but may have sweetened the raspberries a little next time. The chocolate was a fun variation as well. Next time I think I will make the pufflets bigger and more like puffs so I can add more filling. While these were yummy they may not be a regular in our house. Perhaps an occasional fun treat.

If you are interested in the recipe you can visit Daisy Lane Cakes.

TWD: French Pear Tart

It is my opinion that pears and almonds belong together....or at least that is what I learned from making this tart. The two flavors are complimentary foods and were quite delicious together. This tart had a couple of steps to it.
The first was making the crust which was amazing. The key ingredients are butter and powdered sugar. Those flavor combinations made for a rich crust that tasted great. I had a challenging time with a few of the steps because I don't own a large food processor and a few steps called for using that so I used my kitchen aid with the whisk attachment. My dough ended up a little dry. I was surprised to see that it didn't call for any liquid, just egg yolk...so I cheated a bit and used a little bit of ice cold water to help make it more of a dough. I also don't have a tart pan and it just isn't in our budget to buy a bunch of new things for one recipe so I used my spring form pan. The spring form worked well, but the end product did not look as beautiful as I would have desired.

The next step was an almond cream. Given the title of the filling I thought it would have called for cream or milk or something similar, but it didn't. It was still quite delicious. The base of the flavors were ground almonds and butter. I almost licked out the kitchen aid after making it but made myself wait for the end product when it was combined with the pears.

Then of course the pears. I am still not sure if I arranged them how it was described in the book, but I think it ended up beautifully. Here are the pictures. Sorry about the lighting...I finished it after dark and we were having it for dessert that night...sorry.


The crust is supposed to be partially baked before adding the almond cream and pears and the top of my crust got darker than I wanted so when I finished baking it I put tinfoil over the top to help with burning. It helped a little but I wish I had done it initially. (lesson learned)


The edges are not the beautiful design from a nice tart pan, but I actually ended up liking the look of the crust this way too.


Here is the end result. We ate it for dessert and both Glenn (my husband) and Spencer (visiting brother-in-law) were surprised that it was so good. They were coming off spaghetti squash served with dinner and both were less than impressed so the pear tart made both boys happy.

I learned more about my baker self this time around. I really enjoy baking. It is fun and I love the yummy creations that come from it....but I also learned that I like making treats that aren't so time consuming. I found myself feeling guilty spending time in the kitchen when my hubby was home or a child wanted to be read to, played with, or diaper changed. The types of desserts I like to make in this stage of life have to be a one bowl type deal. However it is good for me to stretch myself. I guess it is good I only do this every four or five weeks. I also learned that I am not much of an aesthetic baker. I do not have a finesse for making my work beautiful. That is something I am sure I will get better with time.

This week's TWD was chosen by Dorie herself, which made the task a little more intimidating...but I made my way through it okay. Here's the link to the full recipe.

Sour Cream Butterhorns

Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings wouldn't be the same without Sour Cream Butterhorns for breakfast. For as long as I can remember that has been the Debenham family tradition. My mom is the queen of making them and I have to admit I am still a novice. Mom told me that the recipe came from a family friend from when she was growing up. She is the only one of her siblings to continue the tradition and we are so glad she did. We LOVE these yummy pastries! 

When I made them for Christmas I meant to take photos of every step but totally spaced it. I baked them Christmas Eve at my parents house this year because our oven was still broken. It is now fixed and if I get around to it, I'll make a batch just for a step-by-step photo instruction of how to make these. For now a few photos and a recipe will have to do. 

 

Sour Cream Butterhorns...or as my mom calls them Manna from Heaven 

Dough:

4 cups flour 

2 T sugar

1 1/4 cups butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt
1 oz. cake yeast crumbled (or 2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast)
1 small carton sour cream (8 ounces)
3 egg yolks- save whites
1 tsp vanilla

Place butter, sour cram, egg yolks, yeast and vanilla in mixer fitted with dough hook. Mix on low until ingredients begin to come together. Add flour and sugar and mix until dough is smooth and satiny and all flour has been incorporated. Wrap in plastic and chill several hours or overnight.

Filling:
Beat 2 egg whites until stiff. Make sure they are very still before adding the sugar.  Beat in 1/2 cup sugar slowly.  Add 1/2 cup chopped nuts (we use slivered almonds) and 1/2 tsp each cinnamon and vanilla

Divide dough into 4 parts.   Roll out one part at a time onto a powdered sugar covered surface.   Circle should be about 14" in diameter.   Cut into 8 pie shaped pieces.   Put a spoonful of filling at the wide end and roll up without squeezing the filling.  Form into a crescent shape.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 375 degrees for 16-20 minutes.   

Make a thick frosting of powdered sugar and a little milk and almond flavoring.   Frost while still warm.

This is what the dough should look like after coming out of the fridge.

This is what they look like right out of the oven. My filling didn't get beaten enough so it oozed out a bit too much. You also have to be careful with the filling because when the nuts get mixed it, it makes the egg whites less stiff. I am still working on mastering the filling! 

Tuesdays With Dorie - Rugelach

Tuesdays With Dorie - Rugelach
Okay! I did it! I made Rugelach! I'm quite proud that I successfully made this dessert. I LOVE to bake. I think it's quite addicting, as long as what you're attempting to bake turns out as divine as this did! I made one with raspberry, chocolate, pecan, currant filling and one with just chocolate raspberry filling (to keep the picky hubby - who thinks he's not picky - happy). They were both delicious. I got more nervous to make it when reading about all the trouble people had with the texture of the dough and the "exploding filling". Fortunately I only had one of those problems.



You know it's going to be delicious when it starts with two of my favorite ingredients - butter and cream cheese! Seriously, I don't think I've had anything with these two ingredients that I haven't loved.



My dough was a little dry, but thankfully I'd read to add a little sour cream and that saved the day. I felt like a very skilled and professional baker putting my dough disks in the refrigerator.





This is the part I was really impressed by, because I completed it with my 4 kids and 4 neighbor kids over! It was really fun having little helpers. I had to add extra chocolate chips at the end to make up for the ones that landed in little bellies prematurely!



Here's the final product. They're like little bite size tastes of heaven. Everyone was happy - even the picky hubby. I was really pleased for our family to discover a dessert that I normally wouldn't have picked on my own. I think next time I'll try one with Heath bits or Nutella!

Here's the recipe if you'd like to also feel like an accomplished, professional baker!