Yule log cake

Older Daughter decided she wanted to try making a yule log cake. She got the recipe here.

She mixed the dry ingredients...

...separate from the wet ingredients.

This is for the cake part.

Whipping egg whites.

Folding the egg whites into the mixture.

This is the part she wasn't sure about. She lined a tray with parchment paper, and poured the cake mixture to make a thin cake.

It baked beautifully.

The next tricky part was rolling the hot cake and then letting it cool.

While the cake cooled, she made the icing (ganache) that would go over it, starting with breaking up a bar of baking chocolate.

She added the chocolate to hot cream.

Then she whisked it until it was smooth.

Next was the filling, which consisted of whipped cream, mascarpone cheese, and a bit of powdered sugar for sweetener. (The filling was out-of-this-world delicious.)

When the cake was cool, she very carefully unrolled it...

...and spread it with the filling.

After this, the cake is re-rolled.

Not bad!

But wait, it gets better. The next step is to cut off a chunk of the end, at an angle.

The rough end is then "glued" with the ganache against the main part of the cake to make a "branch." (This is a yule log, after all.)

The ganache was thick and dry, almost crumbly, to resemble bark. It took some work to get it onto the cake roll.

After this, the ganache is kind of "scored," again to resemble tree bark.

She added a snippet of cedar, just to make it festive.

She said the one thing she did wrong was not to relocate the cake onto a platter before frosting it, since once it's frosted, it's almost impossible to move.

But other than that, it was a splendid first attempt. I'm not a huge chocolate fan, but even I thought this project was just delicious.

An excellent Christmas baking project. Next time, she said she might try making an "alder tree" by making a vanilla (instead of chocolate) cake. Yum!

An excuse to use up some blueberries

Our blueberry bushes are budding like mad.

The harvest promises to be good. Last year we picked sixteen pounds of berries from these fairly young bushes, which I canned up. However I hadn't really used up any of the canned berries; and if we're going to get a similar harvest this year, I figured I'd better come up with an excuse to use last year's fruit.

So, borrowing a cobbled-together dessert I made years ago, I made blueberry tarts.

I started by taking four quarts of berries, and draining them.

I used puff pastry for the tarts. I stinkin' love puff pastry. It's so versatile for both savory and sweet dishes.

I cut the sheets of puff pastry into 24 squares (12 square per sheet)...

... and rolled each square flat.

I pressed these flattened pieces into muffin tins.

To the drained blueberries, I added some flour and a bit of sugar...

...and spooned the blueberry mixture into the tins.

After this, I made a batch of "crumbs," consisting of 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 6 tablespoons margarine, mixed together.

The crumbs got distributed over the 24 tarts.

I baked the tarts at 350F for 30 minutes.

Voilà. An easy-peasy (and delicious) way to use up last year's blueberries!

Baklava

I tried something new a couple weeks ago: Making baklava.

Baklava is a rare, seldom-encountered treat because it's so expensive. I have a small piece maybe once every three or four years. Because I've never worked with phyllo dough before, to be honest I was a little intimidated to try making my own. Then I came across a recipe that seemed reasonably easy to follow, and decided to give it a try.

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Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 16 oz phyllo dough thawed by package instructions
• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, melted
• 1 lb walnuts, finely chopped (about 4 cups)
• 1 tsp ground cinnomon
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup honey
• Melted chocolate chips & chopped walnuts for garnish (optional)
  

Directions

1. Thaw phyllo dough by package instructions (this is best done overnight in the fridge, then place it on the counter for 1 hr before starting your recipe to bring it to room temp).
2. Trim phyllo dough to fit your baking dish. [I bought a new but inexpensive 10x14 baking dish from the grocery store that fit the phyllo without trimming it.]
3. Butter the bottom and sides of the baking pan.

Start with the honey sauce (which needs time to cool as baklava bakes)

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup honey, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, and 3/4 cup water. Bring to a boil over med/high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then reduce heat to med/low and boil additional 4 min without stirring. Remove from heat and let syrup cool while preparing baklava.

Preheat Oven to 325˚F

1. Pulse walnuts 10 times in a food process or until coarsely ground/ finely chopped. In a medium bowl, stir together: 4 cups finely chopped walnuts and 1 tsp cinnamon

2. Place 10 phyllo sheets into baking pan one at a time, brushing each sheet with butter once it's in the pan before adding the next (i.e. place phyllo sheet into pan, brush the top with butter, place next phyllo sheet in pan, butter the top, etc. etc.). Keep remaining phyllo covered with a damp towel at all times. Spread about 1/5 of nut mixture (about 3/4 cup) over phyllo dough.

3. Add 5 buttered sheets of phyllo, then another layer of nuts. Repeat x 4. Finish off with 10 layers of buttered phyllo sheets. Brush the very top with butter.

• Here's the order of the baklava layers:
  10 buttered phyllo sheets, 3/4 cup nut mixture,
  5 buttered phyllo sheets, 3/4 cup nut mixture,
  5 buttered phyllo sheets, 3/4 cup nut mixture,
  5 buttered phyllo sheets, 3/4 cup nut mixture,
  5 buttered phyllo sheets, 3/4 cup nut mixture
  10 buttered phyllo sheets and butter the top.

4. Cut pastry into 1 1/2" wide strips, then cut diagonally to form diamond shapes. Bake at 325˚F for 1 hour and 15 min or until tops are golden brown.

5. Remove from oven and immediately spoon cooled syrup evenly over the hot baklava (you'll hear it sizzle). This will ensure that it stays crisp rather than soggy. Let baklava cool completely, uncovered and at room temp. For best results, let baklava sit 4-6 hours or overnight at room temperature for the syrup to penetrate and soften the layers. Garnish baklava with finely chopped nuts or drizzle with melted chocolate. Store at room temp, covered with a tea towel for 1 to 2 weeks.

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Anyway, that's the recipe.

First thing I did was take the phyllo dough out of the freezer and let it come to room temperature.

For the filling, I needed a pound of walnuts...

...chopped fine.

To this I added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Next up, the honey sauce.

I put the honey sauce aside, then melted the butter in another pot.

Then it was time to unwrap the sheets of phyllo. As I said, I'd never worked with this dough before, and it was a lot easier than I thought.

I started by buttering the pan.

I followed the order for layering the phyllo sheets listed in the recipe: buttering 10 sheets, then a layer of nuts, then five sheets, etc.

To keep track, I used 10 pennies and put one aside every time I buttered a layer.

Adding a layer of nuts.

I found using a dry brush to spread the nuts helped a lot.

Then it was back to buttering layers of phyllo, layering with nuts, repeat, repeat, repeat. This was undeniably the most tedious portion of making baklava. Next time I do this, I'll sit rather than stand.

At last everything was assembled, and I got ready to cut the tray into the parallelogram shapes the directions indicated.

I quickly learned a knife wasn't nearly as efficient...

...as a pizza cutter. Worked like a charm.

Ta da!

When I finished assembling the baklava, I couldn't bake it right away because I was using the oven for something else. So I covered it with a damp towel for the time being.

Then I baked it. It came out golden-brown.

Immediately, while it was still hot, I ladled the honey sauce over the top. It sizzled in a very satisfactory fashion.

Per the instructions, I let it cool at room temperature overnight before trying it. It was terrific!

Because I'm not the most creative or successful person in the kitchen, I'm always thrilled when something actually turns out right. This is a winner! Definitely something for future desserts.