Hi All!!! Again, a good five months since my last post, but I have still been thinking and cooking. Yesterday, I made a delicious pan of Pecan Sticky buns, again out of my Baking with Julia cookbook. The recipe can be found on page 190 if you have the book. Anyway, it begins with a Brioche dough, which is a bread dough that begins with a sponge. You let it rise, then you add flour, eggs, and sugar. This is a very tricky dough to make, because it requires a heavy-duty mixer to knead the dough for 15 minutes straight. I like to use a Kitchenaid mixer, because of its high power output. One important think I learned was to let the mixer cool down every once in a while, or else a screw might come loose or the motor will overheat and it won't work anymore. After it kneads, you need to add butter. Always use unsalted butter, because the salt in the regular butter can retard the action of the yeast. Then, you must let the dough rise, deflate it, then chill it overnight. Afterward, you must incorporate more butter much like the way you would for a puff pastry. This is what gives the rolls their incredible layers and flakiness. THen, you paint the dough with egg, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and pecans, roll it up, and freeze these logs so that they will be easier to cut. Next, you cut them into 1 1/2 inch slices, put them in a pan that has a stick of butter and 1/2 cup of brown sugar in the bottom. let them rise, and bake them. They are so delicious!!!

Dutch Letters

Hi! It's certainly been a while since I last logged on, but Blogger forgot my password or something. Anyway, I created a new food called Dutch Letters. Dutch letters are a special kind of pastry made from flour, eggs, almond paste, sugar, and lots and lots of butter. You make the filling, seal the dough, and put it in an "S" shape. They're really good and tasty. It starts out as a rough puff pastry, which means that you cut the butter into small pieces and mix it into flour, add water, and make the dough into a ball. The chunks of butter will still be in the dough, not incorporated. Then you roll it out, cut it into strips, put almond filling in the middle, roll them up, brush them with milk, sprinkle with turbinado sugar, and bake for the most delicious treat ever.

Welcome!

Hi everyone! Welcome to Ben's Culinary Concoctions, where every week or so, I will share with you my adventures in cooking and baking. In the past few weeks, I have made and inquired about a lot of different foods. One day, I asked my cousin's grandma about fondant. She said that fondant was a type of candy that can be used to make bonbons or to cover cakes. She said to always buy it because it is a b*tch to make. I found it at Wal-Mart in the party supplies/cake decorating aisle. Today, I made puff pastry, which is a mildly difficult pastry to make. The French name for puff pastry is mille feuilles, which means "A thousand folds," but there are only 944 layers of pastry separated by 943 layers of butter. This dough does not have any leavening agents like yeast, baking soda, or baking powder. The thing that makes it puff up so much is the butter. This recipe is out of Julia Child's cookbook, Baking with Julia. Some important things I learned when making puff pastry is to chill your dough early and often, because if you keep your dough cold, your layers will remain; don't skimp on the time for chilling, make sure that your breadboard and rolling pin are always covered in flour, otherwise your dough will stick and make a big mess, and lastly, to not overwork the dough because it may become tough. I welcome all comments and advice. See you all next week!