Can’t believe I have come this far

This TWD commitment has been a blast. I think about baking most of the time (other interests and commitments also have a piece of my heart). Still, I am doing something that I have done since I was ten years old and, probably, not well. But the TWD has been challenging. I never would have picked out the tartlets before!. I would have thought that the recipe was too challenging. Reading the blogs of others in the TWD commitment has given me some support (Heck, I’m not alone out there!) and encouragement (I received a lot of nice support comments when my rugalach went bust). I’m uncertain about the lattice work on the next recipe, but I’m willing to try! Thanks to all you bloggers out there who are at various baking skill levels!

Irish Soda Bread – it can last more than a few hours

I loved the Irish Soda Bread recipe. The directions were clear (there were a few problems with interpretation in the rugalach recipe) and I was able to make the bread two hours (counting set up time and break down). My bread turned out with on very crunchy crust and a dense and delicate bread. I added raisins to my bread and the burst of sweetness is a perfect balance.

I don’t know why I did this but I did add the raisins before the buttermilk. This, I think, distributed the raisins more quickly. Not sure if this is so, but I have a nice distribution of raisins throughout the finished bread.

My husband and I ate the bread with cabbage soup – made with dark green swiss chard and carrots – to represent the flag of Ireland. It was filling and a really good meal.

One thing that did bother me and I did overcome was the statement about how the bread would turn ‘hard as a blarney stone’ in a few hours. THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN! My husband and I were not going to finish that bread off in one sitting or even in a few hours. Sooooo – I wrapped the leftover bread (and there was a lot) in a damp paper towel and placed it in a zip lock plastic bag. Then into the frig. Today, about 20 hours later, I pulled it out and we had it for lunch. Perfectly find (with a bit of the crustiness gone, though). Anyway, we both ate a slice cold and a slice that had been warmed in the toaster oven – either way was fine.

We’ll see if it is still as good tomorrow. If not, most has been eaten and enjoyed.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and ‘May the sun always shine on your face and the wind always be at your back!’ (or something of the kind!)

Kristine

Rugelach

What a disaster! Every mistake that I could make, I did! I didn’t roll the dough out thin enough. Didn’t the recipe indicate not to be afraid of the thickness? So I wasn’t afraid, but my techniques were jack poor when I started to roll the rugelach with the filling. Then I burnt the first batch – I wasn’t certain what the directions meant by a ‘prepared pan.’ I know now and saved batch 2-4. Still, they fell apart while baking and the cookie dough was, well, doughy. I got maybe 10 good cookies. But the sum of my mistakes added up to poor taste. This was a big fat mess for me. Still, I got a lot of experience, reflected and came up with alternatives to my mistakes and I was able to list all the things I did do right (I won’t put the list here as it might be way too long for the readers!) 🙂

Unlike the tartlets, I won’t try this one again. The rolling of the dough, I will get more experience doing pie crusts. This was not a success! Hope others have a better experience.