Cinnamon Buns And Sticky Buns

glazed cinnamon bun

sticky buns with chopped macadamia nuts

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge 8th recipe is for Cinnamon Buns and Sticky Buns. After reading the recipe for the caramel glaze, I couldn't resist making the sticky buns. I halved the rolled dough and the slices from one half dough went into a 9-inch round cake pan, the bottom layered with ¼ inch of the caramel paste and a few tablespoons of chopped macadamia nuts (I ran out of pecans). I love this gooey caramel glaze, it is very good.

sticky gooey goodness

The other half of the dough was mistakenly divided into 8 portions and placed on the baking pan too far apart. I wanted thick cinnamon buns but it was already cut and they came out a little bit thin. Oh well, I can always bake another batch and make them into gigantic cinnamon buns. And the good thing is they become crispy when toasted and sinfully indulgent if paired with David Lebovitz's Salted Butter Caramel ice cream...it's like eating an open-face ice cream sandwich, sooo addicting.

toasted cinnamon bun, not just for breakfast anymore...
try it with Salted Butter Caramel Ice cream for a super duper delicious dessert or snack

The recipe does not have a layer of soft butter on the flattened dough before sprinkling the cinnamon sugar mixture. Most recipes I know have at least 2 tablespoons of soft butter for a moist cinnamon bun. But I want to follow the recipe as written so I used just cinnamon sugar and I expected the cinnamon buns to be a bit dry. Thankfully they are not and the bread itself is moist, soft, and delicious. I still prefer them with butter cinnamon sugar combo and I drizzle the insides of the coil with a little melted butter before glazing and eating. I just have to have my butter.:-)

I leave them bare and glaze them just before serving

Rating:
flavor 4
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 4
performance 5
worth 4
Total: 27
Average: 4.5

Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Beef Tapa

a favorite pulutan: beef tapa

This week's Lasang Pinoy, Sundays: Strips. First thing that came to mind was beef tapa, strips of thinly sliced cured beef, then fried crisp and enjoyed with garlic fried rice and a fried egg or two, the original TapSiLog. It is also a favorite pulutan (appetizer) to munch on while drinking ice cold San Miguel® beer.

TapSiLog is eaten with vinegar spiced with super hot bird's eye chili pepper
or tomatoes sprinkled with sea salt

a weekly food photography meme, Pinoy style, is hosted by SpiCes.


Beef Tapa
1 pound thinly sliced beef, cut into 1-inch wide strips
1 cup pineapple juice
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 tsp pink salt, optional
1 to 2 tablespoons oil for frying

• Mix pieapple juice, salt, sugar, and pink salt if using. Coat the meat evenly, put in a gallon freezer zipper bag and marinate overnight in the refrigerator. The next day, drain the meat and discard marinade. Pat the meat dry with paper towels. Put slices on racks and place the racks on baking sheets. Dry the beef in a warm oven (less than 200° F) for 1 to 2 hours. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet and shallow fry beef until crisp.

Butifarra And Mashed Potatoes Tapa

tiny Spanish sausages and mashed potatoes appetizer

Tapas are small plates of Spanish appetizers usually eaten in between meals to go with wine. The most common tapas are potato tortilla (omelet), fried chorizos, mushrooms in garlic sauce, cured olives, and prawns also in garlic sauce.

I borrowed this tapa combination of Spanish chorizos on a bed of mashed potatoes from the Food section of The Washington Post. The tiny chorizos were grilled and served on a very silky soft mashed potatoes. I made butifarra, another type of Spanish sausage which is very mild compared to chorizo, twisting them every one inch and cooked them on a skillet instead of the grill. I separated them after they were cooked. For the mashed potatoes, I boiled yukon gold with salt and a whole garlic clove. I used the cooking water to make a very soft fluffy mashed potatoes and added about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in place of butter. This is a very delicious appetizer or dinner.

My recipe for Spanish chorizo is here. Twist every one inch to make into tiny chorizos. Or slice store-bought chorizos into ¾ inch pieces after cooking.

Next time I'll attempt to make José Andrés' deep fried chorizos wrapped in paper thin slices of potatoes. This one sounds really good.

Ciabatta

5-ounce ciabatta

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge recipe 7: Ciabatta. This Italian rustic crusty chewy bread shaped like a slipper has become so popular and when a restaurant started to serve sandwiches using ciabatta several years ago I was eager to try but was so disappointed at first bite. The bread was incredibly leathery or maybe flip-floppy; I thought I was chewing on rawhide. And the bakeries are no better with their mediocre ciabatta but thanks to BBA and other cookbooks, not to mention several websites, I am now able to have freshly baked ciabatta at home that are flavorful and yes chewy but not rubbery.

For this challenge I [again] forgot to take photos of the unbaked dough. Sorry about that. Anyway, I divided the dough into four 5-ounce sandwich rolls and the remainder of the dough I shaped into a long thin baguette. The rolls were shaped like a letter just like in the photos and I put them on individual pieces of parchment, uncouched. It is easier to slide them one by one from the peel onto the baking stone.

For this recipe I used a poolish which I left in the refrigerator for 2 days to develop more flavor. The ciabatta recipe is easy to follow but I find the dough a little bit dry and had to sprinkle a lot of water while kneading because the wetter the dough the more hole-y the bread will turn out. I honestly thought even with the additional water I felt the dough was still dry. And this is what's odd about this batch: three of the sandwich ciabatta rolls have random large air pockets but one didn't have any, just a few medium and small ones. The baguette also has irregular medium and tiny holes in them. I can't believe these are from the same dough. I suspect my oven has cold spots and I should have baked them in batches. But overall, I like this recipe; the bread is chewy, crusty although not as dark brown as I would have liked, and definitely more flavorful than store-bought. I love it with crisp-fried pancetta, lettuce, and tomato or simply halved and baked topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese seasoned with dried Italian herbs. I probably will NOT use this recipe again for my next ciabatta as I have PR's ciabatta test recipe for his upcoming book.

the baguette and one roll have few small air pockets, the one at the front right is hole-y

PLT: pancetta, lettuce, and tomato

crunchy crust, chewy crumb, gooey mozzarella, yummy Parmesan

Rating:
flavor 4
texture 4
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 4
performance 4
worth 4
Total: 24
Average: 4