my name is ali turetzky. i am from the san francisco bay area and love both ballet and baking. i have been training at the san francisco ballet school for the past 4 years. i am excited to share my passion for food (especially sweets) with you all.

-thanks for reading
-xoxo, ali

Monday, January 6, 2014

huit.

Aside from baking and ballet, one of my favorite things to do in my free time is to read. Read anything. Books, magazines, cookbooks…anyways, I recently finished The Storyteller, by Jodi Picoult. It has to do with the Holocaust and it is a wonderful book that I highly suggest. Why am I talking about book when this is a food blog you might ask? Well after finishing up the book, my english teacher gave me a printout with book club discussions and a recipe for chocolate cinnamon bread (this recipe is talked about many times in this book). I was excited to combine together my interests of baking and reading.



These mouthwatering buns really are as good as they look. The bread is not sweetened, but is very nicely balanced out by the sweet and spicy flavors of the bittersweet chocolate and cinnamon which are a part of the filling. 

The recipe is easy to follow and fun to make. It requires a fair amount of time purely based on the fact that we are dealing with yeast and dough rising. 

You start by combining warm milk, yeast, and a pinch of sugar. 


Once this combination begins to foam, (isn't science cool?!) you prepare an egg mixture. After combining the yeast combo to the egg mixture you are ready to get going. Simply add flour and salt and  you are set! 







I always use my Kitchen Aid mixture for my recipes. It is especially great because of the different attachments. For this bread recipe, I used the dough hook which allows for a kneading movement. When you have the dough ready, add 3 tablespoons of butter and leave your concoction to be kneaded by the dough hook. 





Once you have completed this step and the dough looks like dough, pop it into a bowl, cover it with a dish towel, and leave it in a warm spot to rise. 

I am always amazed at how you can mix such simple ingredients and literally watch it grow before your eyes. After an hour in the covered bowl, you should have a lovely, puffed ball of goodness. In the mean time however, I suggest working on the chocolate-cinnamon filling. This is super simple, I just popped the squares of bittersweet chocolate, teaspoon of cinnamon, and 3 tbs of butter into my Nutribullet for a few seconds and it was done. This mixture should be crumbly. 


Now you should have the risen dough, and chocolate mixture all ready to put together. Place the dough onto a floured surface and get ready to roll!! 



Once you roll the dough into a somewhat rectangular shape, sprinkle/spread the chocolate combination on top and roll it all up. YUM!



Now all that is left to do is cut, place, and bake. Cut 2 inch pieces off of the roll and place them each into a buttered cupcake tin. Bake for 12-15 minutes and you have a gooey, melted-chocolatey, fresh bread roll. 








I was thrilled with how these rolls turned out. They had a wonderful flavor with a hint of cinnamon with out becoming too sweet. I am sure this dough recipe would work well with different fillings and toppings. This was a fun one!

Minka’s Roll 

Ingredients 

• 1/2 cup warm milk, 110 degrees 

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast 

• 1/2 cup sugar, plus a pinch 

• 1 large egg, room temperature 

• 1 large egg yolk 

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface 

• 1/4 teaspoon salt 

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for bowl and muffin tin 

• ¼ pound bittersweet chocolate, very finely chopped or shaved 

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

Directions 

1.Butter a large non-reactive bowl for dough and set aside. 2.Butter a 12-cup muffin tin and set aside. 

3.Pour warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and pinch of sugar over milk; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. 

4.In a bowl, whisk together ¼ cup sugar, 1 egg, and 1 egg yolk. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture, and whisk to combine. 

5.In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. Add egg mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated. 

6.Change to the dough hook. Add 3 tablespoons butter, and knead on low speed until flour mixture and butter are completely incorporated, about 10 minutes. Dough will be sticky. 

7.Butter a large bowl. Place dough in bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a dish towel. Set aside in a warm place to rise until dough doubles in size, about 1 hour. 

8.If dough is not in a warm area it may take longer to rise. A simple trick to help warm your dough – place a large pan of boiling water on the lowest rack in your oven and place bowl of dough on the next highest rack. This should help the dough rise. 

9.Prepare filling: Place chocolate, remaining ¼ cup sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Add 3 tablespoons butter and toss to combine. Alternately, place chocolate, cinnamon and butter in food processor and pulse to combine. Set aside. 

10.Once dough has doubled, turn onto a well-floured surface and deflate. Let dough rest for 5 minutes. 

11.With rolling pin, roll dough into large rectangle shape. Sprinkle filling over dough; roll the dough into a log and slice into 2” pieces. Place each slice in muffin cup. Cover muffin tin with plastic and let sit for 15-20 minutes or until dough rises slightly. 

12.Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 

13.Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack. - See more at: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Storyteller/Jodi-Picoult/9781439102770/reading_group_guide#sthash.mCmRqiCP.dpuf


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