Once Upon a Plate: Tuesdays with Dorie

TwD ~ Rice Pudding

It's TUESDAY, so it's time for another Tuesdays With Dorie

aka TwD ~ (Dorie Greenspan).

This week's host is Isabelle of Les Gourmandises d'Isa

Isabelle chose Dorie's Rice Pudding recipe.

Thank you for hosting us Isabelle!

Dorie chooses to use arborio rice, the medium grained rice usually used for risotto.

I knew I had some Riso Carnaroli in the pantry for making risotto, I was hoping I could use it in the recipe to keep it true to what Dorie had in mind.

I wanted to make sure this type of rice was similar, and happily found that Deliaonline.com had this to say about Carnaroli rice:

Medium- and short-grain rice:

"Here the grains are not long and thin, but rounder and plumper. Italian risotto rice, sometimes called arborio rice, is superb,

or for the finest-quality risotto rice of all, look for the names carnaroli or vialone nano. In creamy, almost soupy risottos the rice is stirred, which releases some of the starch, and it is this that creates the lovely, smooth, creamy mass. The same kind of plump grain is used in Spain, and one of the finest varieties comes from the Murcia region and is called Calasparra, which is used to make paella, though here the grains are not stirred, so they remain firm and distinct but with a moist, creamy edge."

For 3 1/4 cups whole milk only 1/4 cup rice is added to make a rather soft rice pudding.

Some participants noticed that the rice/milk mixture was not thickening at the end of the 30 minute cooking time as directed in Dorie's Book "Baking From My Home to Yours".

Dorie was most helpful and let us know that there is a typo in the book and the cooking time should actually be increased to 55 minutes, so if you have the book you may want to make that notation about the increase in cooking time.

My disclaimer here (and if you love Rice Pudding, I apologize in advance) Rice Pudding is not my favorite. I realize I'm really not a "pudding person".

There is a variation in the book so you can make this chocolate flavored, or fold in some whipped cream. I simply added a small dollop of homemade raspberry jam.

This is probably a good version of rice pudding, but it didn't change my mind, I still prefer my Mom's Tapioca pudding over any other.

But don't allow me to spoil the experience for you. If you like rice pudding, you may like this version!

Psst!!! Don't forget to enter the FREE drawings for one of 3 Great Prizes!

Deadline for entry is November 28, 2008 (9:00PM Pacific time)

Click HERE for details.

TwD ~ Kugelhopf

It's Tuesday!

That means it's time for the Tuesdays with Dorie Bake-Along.

This weeks selection? Kugelhopf!

Usually it is made in one larger (8 to 9 cup) Kugelhopf mold, but since my two molds hold 4 cups each, I used those instead and baked two smaller cakes.

For those not familiar with Kugelhopf it is a yeast-based cake. Below is a description and a little history from "Wise Geek's" internet site.

"Kugelhopf, which may also be spelled Kugelhupf, gugelhupf or kugelhoph, is a classic cake said to have originated in Austria or in the Alsace region of France.

Legend has it that Marie Antoinette, who was born in Vienna, Austria, brought the cake recipe to France upon her marriage to Louis XVI. There are some disputes regarding this, and the cake may have been introduced in France earlier. Variations of the cake are made in Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Poland, and Hungary. It is also popular in many other countries today, including the US, UK, Australia and elsewhere.

Unlike most desserts we would term cake, kugelhopf is a yeast-risen cake, using active dry or fresh yeast instead of baking soda or baking powder. This gives the cake a slightly denser more “bready” texture, similar to the Italian panettone. Kugelhopf is also not frequently served as an after dinner dessert. Instead it’s considered more of a coffee cake that might be eaten for or with breakfast, or could be part of an afternoon snack.

There’s certainly no reason not to serve it as dessert after dinner, since it is still nicely sweet, and especially if the dinner has been relatively light.

Traditional kugelhopf is made in a round pan with a hole in the center, most often what we’d term a bundt pan, though there are heavy pans specifically made for kugelhopf.

Unlike the average bundt cake, which is often a variation of a pound cake recipe, this dessert needs time to rise due to its yeast. You can speed this process up if you have a bread machine, by setting the machine to knead and rise the dough. You’d then need to punch it down, place it in the pan in a warm area free of drafts and let it rise again prior to baking it."

I followed Dorie's recipe, using the 5-quart capacity Kitchen Aid stand mixer, rather than the 6-quart. Even so, I found that using the dough hook (as Dorie recommends) for this amount of dough proved to be worthless (there is not enough dough to make good contact to be effectively mixed with the hook), so I used the paddle instead. I also substituted plumped up currants for the raisins that Dorie suggested.

While still hot, the cake(s) are unmolded, brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with granulated sugar. I skipped the final step of dusting it with confectioner's sugar.

I thought the cake was delicious, but with all due respect for tradition and the history of this cake, considering the time and work involved, I prefer a traditional baking powder/baking soda risen cake to this style.

I'm glad I made it though, so I can say I've made Kugelhopf!

Rugelach ~ Tuesdays With Dorie

My FIRST Tuesdays with Dorie (TwD).

This weeks selector is Grace from Piggy's Cooking Journal, if you want to see some beautiful rugelach and other gorgeous baked products do check out her blog, and get ready to be drooling. :)

*Sigh* Now on to my attempt at Dorie's Rugelach recipe...

I've made rugelachs before with no problem, and I usually LOVE Dorie's recipes, but I had some problems with this one.

As you can see by my results, my version of Dorie's recipe did NOT produce pretty rugelachs.

I'm not sure what went wrong with the recipe but I found the dough difficult to handle, and it almost disintegrated in the oven. :(

The recipe makes enough for two dough discs, each disc producing 16 cookies.

The first batch I filled as Dorie suggested, with raspberry jam, cinnamon sugar, finely chopped bittersweet chocolate and nuts (I used toasted, sliced almonds, rather than pecans), and I omitted the currants.

Hmmm, I didn't care for the way the chocolate baked up... that batch really looked awful!

So I filled the second batch with just raspberry jam, cinnamon sugar, and toasted, chopped pecans. Easier to roll and they baked off better than those with chocolate.

I was a little distraught that these didn't come out anywhere near as well as my favorite recipe for rugelach, it's Ina Garten's~ The Barefoot Contessa's recipe.

Thinking it was just ME, I checked out my friend Em's beautiful blog ~ The Repressed Pastry Chef.

Now Em is a much more accomplished baker than I am, so I was a bit relieved (sorry Em!) to find that she also had some issues with this recipe.

I wish I had checked out Em's blog before I made the recipe.

The recipe stated not to overmix the dough, so I probably didn't mix it enough, and if I were to make this recipe again, I would pulse the dough ingredients a few more times and would cut each disc into 12 sections, rather than 16.