Chocolate Biscotti and Earl Grey Cupcake

Happy new year!
Since I'll go to my aunt's home this new year's eve, I prepare some desserts for them.
The chocolate biscotti is adapted from David Lebovitz's chocolate biscotti recipes and the Earl Grey Chiffon is adapted from 歡迎進入 grace 西點紅茶時間.


I've planned to make David's Marjolaine which is in the book "Ready for Dessert". I've done most of works, making meringue and praline, however, my homemade creme fraiche didn't get thick enough, and I didn't have time make it again, I decided to make my second choice instead.


I'm glad I made this Earl Grey chiffon. It is fantastic! I was worried it would taste like some Christmas treats because the ingredients are involved cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg powder. I am a big fan of these spices but I've already had them the whole December. The result was out of my expect! The smell is not like the same old way the Earl Grey does and you won't notice there are cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. The only thing you know is that it is incredibly savoury. I stuffed the cake with the custard which is made by the egg yolks left from making Marjolain. Super.






I also made the whole wheat bagel. I have to admit that they are not as good as they look. I added extra flour that the recipe calls for because of the fresh blueberries...Anyway, I don't want to talk about it.

Happy new year again.

Chocolate Blueberry Pumpernickel Bagels

What a long title. After I made the "Pumpernickel Bagels" last time, I 'm fall in love with them right away! They are chewy and crispy. These bagels also fit my family's appetite, so they were out of stock quickly. That's a good thing because I can make another bunch of variant of pumpernickel bagels. There are lots of variant I want to try. This time I use dried blueberried and chocolate paste which is just made by cocoa powder, expresso powder, oil and water to make the pumpernickel bagels. Unlike the orange zast last time, the bagels tend to be in rich and dark flavor which make you what to chewy every bite for a little bit longer.

Pumpernickel Bagels with Raisin and Orange Peel

I suddently found out that my bread is out of stock last night@@", but I still wanted to eat some whole grain bread. Thus, I thought about making rye bagel. One of reasons I'd love to make bagels is that they just need less of time relatively to other wild yeast bread but still can get good flavor from flour. I love whole grain breads because they have depth of flavor, but the results of making this kind of bread easily gets dense. Bagel is kind of bread that just needs half of time to ferment, we want them get chewy instead of puffy and soft. Base on these points, I thought that using 100% whole grain flour to make bagel might be a wonderful ideal.


The recipe is adapted from Jude's "Pumpernickel Bagels". I still got some rum raisin and candied orange peel left in the refrigerator, so...I put all of them into the dough!! They are really good in taste although they look kind of old XD.













Ingredients:

for the soaker
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (4 ounces) whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (4 ounces) rye flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt - 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) water
- 3 1/2 teaspoons barley malt syrup - 2 1/4 teaspoons molasses

Mix all ingredients, cover and leave at room temparature for 12 to 24 hours.

for the biga
- 1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) whole wheat flour
- 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (5 ounces) water, at room temperature

Mix all ingredients, cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours and up to 3 days.
NOTE: If you want to use it after about 8 hours, it is better to allow it ferment for 30 minutes first.

for the final dough
- all of the soaker
- all of the biga
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) water, at room temperature
- 5/8 teaspoon salt
- 7 tablespoons (2 ounces) whole wheat flour
- raisin (soaked in rum)
- candied orange peel

Cut soaker and biga into several pieces and mix with other ingredients until well-combined. Knead the dough until elastic and allow it rest for 5 minutes. Continue kneading the dough for another 1 minutes then adding raisins and orange zest, keep kneading until well combined. Allow it to ferment for 45~60 minute (about 1.5 times its original size).

Divide and preshape into balls. Rest for 5 minutes. Shape them by using thumb to make holes and allow them to ferment for 20~30 minutes. Boil (30s each side)-> Bake at 230 degree C.


for the boiling water
- 10 cups water
- 1T baking soda
- 1t salt
- 28g malt syrup

Apple Cinnamon Bagels

Hmm...it seems like I'm never handy with shaping.@@

The most part I like to eat bagels is that you can enjoy them immediately after the time they just come out, and it is the best timing for me to have them, crispy crust and chewy crumb.

How do they taste? They are amazing. I've known that bread never gets wrong with cinnamon flavor, and apples are good comanies to cinnamon. But I never though that the combination could be that much impressing. The recipe is adapted from Annie's eats "Apple Cinnamon Bagels", and I did some modification by reference "Artisan Breads Every Day".

Ingredients:

for the sponge:
- 63 g bread flour
- 1/8 tsp. instant yeast (I use .5 active dry yeast)
- 70 g water, at room temperature

for the apples:
- 1 medium size fuji (next time I will use small size= = )
- 14 g honey (next time I will cut this off)
- 1/16 tsp. ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

for the dough:
- 60 g bread flour
- 1/16 tsp. instant yeast (I use 0.3 g active dry yeast)
- 2.5 g salt
- 3/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 3/8 tsp. malt powder
- chopped apple

Directions:

for the sponge:
Mix all ingredients in the bowl until well-combined (like pancake batter). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly.

for the apple:
Chop apple and add all ingredients except to it vanilla extract. Steam to soft, and cook the mixture until most of the liquid has cooked off. Add vanilla extract and set aside to cool.

To make the dough, mix all ingredients except chopped apple and knead the dough until it gets smooth. When gluten forms, add chopped apple to combined. (I rolled the dough first, top with chopped apple and then cutting them into pieces, piling them in order to combined them well, and form into a ball.)

Divide the dough immediately and form a ball.(I devided into four pieces) Cover with a damp towel and let them rise for about 20 minutes.

Shape. Make a hole at each of ball, shape into doughnut, and try you best to let the dough cover all the chopped apple. Put the bagels onto parchment papers, each one with single piece of paper. Allow them rest about another 20 minutes.

Make "float test". Check if the bagels could float onto cold water. If they do, put them into refrigerator overnight.

On baking day, boil them and bake for 8 minutes first, then turn around the pan, bake another 5~8 minutes. After baking, take them out of the oven, spread a little bit butter and dip them into cinnamon sugar.

Enjoy~

Blueberry Bagel

My favorite flavor of bagel is bluebarry, so I've plan to make blueberry bagel since I bought frozen berries. I don't know why, bagle and blueberry are super match, they're the best combination than any other bread or cake for me. The strong flavor of blueberry within bagel would make you feel pity if you eat with any patste which might cover the smelling on it.

I 've done a little bit overheat, but it cause the unexpected result that the bagels taste more crispy outside which is really really good~<3 style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">Ingredients: (3 normal size)
- frozen blueberry 50g
- bread flour 山茶花 105g
- cake flour 30g
- whole wheat flour 15g
- honey 10g
- cold water 40g
- salt 1/4t
- yeast 1/4t

water : country syrup = 100 : 5

Defrost the blueberries and use the folk to smash them. Mix all dry ingredients, then pour 30cc water+honey and add bluebarries in it. knead until the dough is elastic and smooth. Form into a ball, let it rise for 20~30 minutes. Seperate into 3~4 pieces and shape it into torus. Put them in refrigirator and rise overnight. (I let them rise for 10 hours this) On baking day, boil the water and put bagels into water directly taking out from refrigirator. Cook for 30 seconds each side. Strain water and bake them for 12~15 minutes under 250/220 degree C.

Oreo Bagel / Chocolate Bagel

These recipes are adapted from 西川 功晃 ”バラエティーパンの教科書“.


The texure of bagels here are unlike the bagels that I've eaten in the U.S.. They are chewy but a little bit tender and they aren't that dense as the bagels they used to be. But anyway, they are delicious!