Danish Pastries: Dinosaur Paws (Wheat Free with Dairy Free Option)

Having learnt how to make fairly decent puff pastry, I think it may be my new favourite thing. There are so many things I want to try out using it; it's a shame it takes so long to make! However, for now, I will show you all my most recent adventure in the land of laminated pastry: cinnamon Danish pastries!

In a lot of bakeries here in Ireland, there are a few varieties of puff pastry snacks available: maple pecan plaits, apple turnovers, croissants, and cinnamon spirals. The cinnamon ones are my favourite, and for those who have never seen one before, it looks like a slice of Swiss roll (roll cake) made with puff pastry and cinnamon sugar, and I love pulling off the pastry following the spiral around to the middle... because I'm strange like that.

This time, though, I decided to do a different shape, using the same combination of things. From researching, I've found no name for this kind of folding technique other than "Turkey Feather", which a few North American bloggers have used, and I've also seen it referred to as a "Tulip Fold"; I, however, think it looks like a dinosaur footprint.

To make these pastries, I used the same puff pastry dough I used to make the croissants, doubling the ingredient amounts to make a bigger batch of pastry. It also needs an extra 5 to 10 minutes freezing time between folds. You will also need about 4 teaspoons of light brown sugar or caster sugar mixed with a half to full teaspoon of ground cinnamon, depending on how strong you want the cinnamon flavour.

Without the aid of a video, I have drawn a little diagram of how I folded it and then took a photograph:

1. Roll the puff pastry into a rectangle roughly 14 inches (35½ centimetres) wide; trim the edges if you want it to be nice and neat, but it's not necessary. Wet the surface with a little water and sprinkle on some cinnamon sugar to make a nice covering.
2. Working with the long sides, fold each long side into the middle, using a technique called a book fold.
3. Wet the new plain surfaces of puff pastry and sprinkle on some more cinnamon sugar.
4. Fold in half, short end to short end.
5. Fold in half again, long side to long side.
6. Pop in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes (or the freezer for about 10-15 minutes) before cutting into 8 equal portions.

Arrange these on a baking tray which has been lightly floured, about 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7½ centimetres) apart from each other and the side of the tray, and bake in an oven preheated to 220ºC (450ºF, Gas Mk.8) for 10 to 15 minutes, or until fully expanded and have a nice golden brown colour around the edges. Use a fish slice to move the pastries from the tray to a wire cooling rack and eat cool, and preferably on the day they are baked.

These are super cute, and quite tasty! I thought they were just fine the way they were but you can also, for a more Scandinavian style cinnamon pastry, use some ground cardamom in addition to your cinnamon. 

Stay tuned for more adventures in the land of laminated pastry!

THIS TIME IN 2014: Mini Chocolate "Melkterts" (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2013: Homemade Box of Chocolates = WIN

Recipe Revision: Doughnuts (Wheat-Free with Dairy Free Option)

Every so often, I like to revisit and revise some recipes that I think need tweaking. I take on the feedback, and make adjustments to the recipes, and this time I'm having a look at my doughnuts recipe.

I've been using the same doughnut recipe for a while now, and it's been doing the job. However, the most common bits of feedback is that they're too dry, the crusts are too thick, and that they crack when they cook. A few people, both online and in the real world, have said that they would prefer something a little more moist and soft, like a "shop bought" doughnut, and I would actually agree with them.

To achieve this, I did a few things:

1. I reduced the amount of raising agent. This was causing the doughnuts to rise too quickly and too much, causing the cracking on the surface.
2. I upped the amount of milk in the recipe, to make the dough softer and a little cakier.
3. I swapped the oil for butter/margarine, and upped that too for more moisture. The block fat is melted to make mixing easier at the start, but sets up to solid again after a brief chill, making the dough - which now has more moisture - firm up and become easier to work with.

Also, another comment that was made, and that I personally experienced, is that the recipe I was using made dense and dry doughnuts that were difficult to fill with jam using the standard syringe method after cooking. However, no matter how many variations I tried, this was always the case. Also, sometimes the round doughnuts with no hole never cooked fully through, or needed way too long in the oil

To combat this, I had a go at filling the doughnuts before frying and it worked a treat! It also meant that they cooked faster and more evenly in the oil.

In the photos below, you can see a batch of doughnuts with glazed rings, and jam doughnuts. You can see in the sides of these ones where I attempted to inject jam, which didn't work at all. In the second photo, which had the jam sandwiched inside the raw dough before frying, the jam inside the doughnut, and the texture of the crumb of the cake itself. This method was far more effective. That's my brother's hand; can't you see the family resemblance?

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Eggs
☒ Dairy (you can use block margarine instead of butter, and water instead of milk)

INGREDIMENTS

For the dough:

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 medium egg
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter or block margarine, melted and cooled
• 4 fluid ounces (120 millilitres) milk or water, or milk alternative, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Optional: ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

For filling and decoration:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) raspberry, strawberry, or any jam you'd like, sieved to remove seeds and pieces of fruit
• Icing sugar
• Food colouring
• Sprinkles
• Caster sugar
• Cinnamon

METHOD:

• In a mixing bowl, sieve the flour, cornflour, sugar, (nutmeg, if using) and baking powder together. Make a well in the centre, and add in the egg, butter, and milk. Mix with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are fully moistened, and the ingredients are well combined. The dough will seem very, very sticky, but don't freak out: it needs a stint in the fridge to set/
• Cover the mixing bowl with a sheet of cling film, or a slightly damp tea towel, and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or until the dough is firm to touch, but still a little tacky.
• In a saucepan filled with about 2 inches (5 centimetres) of flavourless oil, such sunflower oil, or in a deep fat fryer, preheat the oil to 190˚C (375˚F). Line a plate with a double layer of kitchen paper, for draining. I use a deep fryer because it's safer, and also because the heat is more consistent, which makes more consistent doughnuts.
• Dredge your work surface, rolling pin, and cutters very well with flour. You will need a 3 inch (7½ centimetre) round cutter for all the doughnuts, and a 1½ (3¾  centimetre) round cutter to cut out the middles of the ring doughnuts.

To make ring doughnuts,

• Roll the soft dough out on the surface, keeping flour nearby in cake it sticks, to a thickness of half an inch (1 centimetre).The mixture is very sticky and very soft, but that's how you want it, DO NOT be tempted to add more flour, because it'll make the dough too dry, which will cause the crusts to crack too much while frying.
• Cut out the doughnuts out with the big cutter, then their middles with the small cutter, and lie them on a baking paper line tray, to make frying easier. Gather up and re-roll the trimmings and punched out middles, being careful not to work the dough too much or be too rough with it; it’s delicate and temperamental.
• Using a fish slice and a table knife, put a doughnut on the fish slice, lower it into the oil, and slide it off the slice with the flat of the knife. This stops the doughnuts from losing their shape. Only fry a few at a time, because they need room to puff up, and if you put too many in at once you will make the temperature of the oil will drop too much.
• Fry the doughnuts for a total of 3 to 4 minutes, flipping half way through. You can tell when they’re ready to flip because the outside of the doughnuts, and the inside of the hole, will be a nice golden brown colour around the edge. If they brown too quickly, your oil is too hot, and if they don’t brown in two minutes, the oil is too cold.
• Flip and finish cooking, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the kitchen paper lined plate, blotting off all the excess oil. Move to a wire rack to cool.

To make jam doughnuts,

• Roll the soft dough out on the surface, keeping flour nearby in cake it sticks, to a thickness of a quarter inch (6 millimetres). Try and get the dough into a nice a rectangle as you can.
• On one half of the rectangle, spoon teaspoonfuls of jam, about 2 inches (5 centimetres) apart, then fold the plain dough over, covering the jam blobs, pressing the edges around the jam gently. Use the big round cutter to cut out around the jam, making little round jam and dough sandwiches; treat them gently. Gather up and re-roll the trimmings as with the ring doughnuts.
• In the same way as the ring doughnuts, use a fish slice to lower them into the oil and a knife to push them off. These take a little longer to cook: about 5 minutes, flipping half way through. You can tell when they’re ready to flip because the outside of the doughnuts will be a nice golden brown colour around the edge. If they brown too quickly, your oil is too hot, and if they don’t brown in two minutes, the oil is too cold.
• Flip and finish cooking, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the kitchen paper lined plate, blotting off all the excess oil. Move to a wire rack to cool.

To decorate,

• Once the doughnuts are cool, you can decorate them however you want. You can mix some caster sugar with some cinnamon, and toss the doughnuts in that to coat, or just toss them in plain caster sugar.
• Or, you can make some simple glaze with water and icing sugar, adding some food colouring if you like, and dip them in it. Decorate with sprinkles.

These new revised doughnuts are much nicer in texture and flavour than their predecessors, and using the pre-filling method is much more effective. You can, of course, fill them with whatever you like: custard, nutella, marmalade, peanut butter, marmite, superglue, or whatever your heart desires... within reason, obviously.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Variation on a Theme: Persian Banana Bread

THIS TIME IN 2013: Sweeties Make Great Gifts, Hopefully

Cheat Croissants (Wheat and Yeast Free)

Hello everyone!! I'm back from my extended break, and I am happy to be back to managing my time well enough to be able to bake often. Let me tell you what I was up to in my time away:

Firstly, where I work is a community centre run by the Methodist Church in Limerick: it's a three story building that used to be an office block that the church built about 75 years ago to rent out and have an income. However, 15 or so year ago, the businesses moved out and it was unoccupied except for one street unit that houses USIT, a student travel agent.

My mother became the minister of the Methodist Church in 2012, and since then she has been working on making the office block into a community space. In that time we have had many a different group and individual use our space, and everyday it is used for something or other, from breakdancing classes and theatre rehearsals, to English language classes and Mums and Tots groups. In 2014, I was made part-time community and youth worker, and as of the start of July, I was made full time.

Our longest tenant is an organisation called Doras Luimní, which is a migrant support and human rights NGO (non-governmental organisation) that offers legal aid, advocacy, and assistance to migrant people living in Limerick, and as part of my job I work with them for 5 hours on a Thursday. Part of Doras Luimní's remit is anti-racism and integration training, and since 2014 we have been running a European initiative called "C4i" (Communication for Integration), which involves "Anti-Rumours" training and workshops, designed to tackle racist rumours. The project evaluation was in Brussels at the end of June, and the project leader and I went over to attend the conference.

Since then, I've just been getting to grips with having a full time job and juggling it with my personal life - my friends, my companion, and my hobbies - and it's been incredibly time consuming. For about three weeks I only baked things for youth groups and church things, and as such used old reliable recipes with little or no experimentation.

But now, having found my feet, I'm back to abnormality, and my trip to Belgium inspired my to try something that I haven't done for years: croissants!

I tried making croisssants once when I was younger with no success: they didn't rise, and were as tough as nails. My brother Paddy ate them, but I did not think they were successful. Not only because I hate working with yeast (yeast and spelt are not friends in my experience), but because my layering process wasn't done properly or something.

Since then, I have dabbled in puff pastry many times, including recently when I made some sausage rolls. That dough was nice, but not quite right either. So, I did some serious research. What I present to you now is a mixture of about 4 different puff pastry recipes; these croissants are raised with baking powder, which is a little bit of a cheat, but it works.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Eggs (you can skip on the egg wash, though)
☒ Dairy (you can use block margarine instead of butter, and water instead of milk)

INGREDIMENTS:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon (3 millilitres) lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) caster sugar
• 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) water
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter, at room temperature, divided in four
• Extra flour for dusting
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) of milk or water, for glazing

METHOD

First, make the pastry (this takes roughly 90 minutes, over an hour of which is waiting for the pastry to chill):

• In a mixing bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, and sugar to mix evenly. Then, using your fingertips, rub in one quarter of the butter until it resembles a slightly wet sand kind of consistency.
• Add the water and mix until it becomes a very soft dough that cleans the sides of the bowl. Gather the dough into a ball, and allow to relax for about 15 minutes.
• Dust the work surface with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle about a quarter inch inch (5 millimetres) in thickness. Using a butter knife or the back of a spoon, spread another quarter of the butter over two thirds of the dough's surface. Sprinkle a little with flour, and then do a trifold: fold the unbuttered third over, then fold the remaining buttered flap over again; think of how you would fold a letter into three before you put it in an envelope. Wrap in cling film, and then put in the freezer for 15 minutes.
• After the brief freeze, the dough should be firm but still pliable. Dust the surface once more and roll out the dough into another rectangle quarter of an inch (5 millimetres) in thickness again. This time, do a trifold with no butter, folding the dough into three like a letter. Roll out again, and spread another quarter of the butter over two-thirds like before, sprinkling lightly with flour. Do another trifold, then wrap up and freeze again for another 15 minutes.
• Repeat the process, doing one more dry trifold and one last trifold with the final quarter of butter and a last little sprinkling of flour. Wrap and freeze for another 15 minutes.
• At this point, you can use it after the 15 minutes of freezing, but if you want even more flaky crispy layers, you can do a few more dry trifolds. Just be careful: do NOT allow the butter the melt out of the pastry, and always freeze it for 15 minutes before you finally decide to use it. Congratulations, you have made puff pastry!

Now, make the croissants:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F, Gas Mk.6)
• When you're ready to use, roll out the pastry on a dusted work surface into another rectangle to about a quarter inch (5 millimetre) thickness. Cut 3 long triangles out of the dough, like this:

• Put the scraps on either edge aside for now, and then take each triangle in turn. Cut a tiny slit in the wide end, maybe about an inch or so (2½ centimetres), end then roll from the wide end to the thin end. Bend in the ends to made a crescent shape and that's your first croissant! Repeat with the others. You can also make wonky croissants with the edge strips, if you like; that's what I did.
• Place about 2 inches (5 centimetres) apart on baking tray lined with baking paper, or that has been every so lightly greased. 
• Brush each croissant with the milky egg wash, using a brush or your fingers, and then bake in the well preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until puffed up, flaky, and golden brown. It's important that the oven is well preheated, otherwise they'll be soggy. (You can use any leftover egg wash to make some nice egg fried rice or an omelette.)
• Once cooked, remove  from the oven and transfer to a wire rack. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before eating, or if you want you can eat them cold.

Croissants are best enjoyed the day they are made, straight from the oven, but if you want to eat them later they keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

THIS TIME IN 2014: Variation on a Theme: Choco-Nut Granola with Cranberries
THIS TIME IN 2013: Ginger Nut Biscuits (Wheat Free)