Bread #29 Dill Kuchen

 

Good afternoon fellow bread-bakers.

I’m getting caught up on writing up past bakes.  Two weeks ago, I attempted to make my Mom’s Dill Kuchen – which, along with my Dad, I absolutely love!  I knew the dough was the same as our Nusskolacha dough and I kinda knew what was in the filling based on casual conversations with my Mom, so figured I’d give it a try. 

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Dill Kuchen with me.

Special Tools you will need:

KitchenAid Mixer

 

Dough:
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ cup sugar

1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons) dry yeast
1/3 cup lukewarm water

2 eggs, slightly beaten
4 ½ cups Montana Sapphire flour
Extra sugar to sprinkle on top

 

Filling (for half of the dough):
1 15-oz tub cottage cheese
1 egg yolk
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup chopped fresh dill
¼ cup sugar

 

Directions

Make dough: Heat milk in microwave for about 2 minutes (until it’s hot but not boiling).  Meanwhile, in bowl of mixer, put in the stick of butter, ½ cup of sugar and salt.  Pour in hot milk and stir.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes to cool, stirring every now and then to melt the butter.

Meanwhile, dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.  Add this to the cooled butter-milk mixture.  Add in the beaten eggs and about 3 ½ cups of the flour.  With dough hook, mix for a few minutes.  Keep adding flour until the dough starts to pull away from the sides.  This should take about 10 minutes (you might not use all of the flour – a soft dough is what you want.).

First rise: Lightly sprinkle flour in a medium size bowl.  Put in the dough and sprinkle the dough lightly with flour.  Cover and let rise until double, 1 to 1 ½ hours. 

Mix topping ingredients: In a medium bowl, mix together the cottage cheese, egg yolk, sour cream, dill and sugar.  Set aside. 

Shape the kuchen: After dough has risen, dump it out onto a work surface and cut it in half.  Working with one half at a time, roll out into roughly the size of your half sheet pan.  Lightly grease the sheet pan and transfer the dough onto the sheet pan.  If dough shrinks back, pull it to fill the pan.  Spread the filling onto the dough.   

Second rise: Cover kuchen loosely with saran wrap and let rise about 30 minutes.

Bake:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake kuchen for about 30 minutes, until it starts to brown around the edges.

 

The baked kuchen - a little disappointing!

Reflections on this bake:  I definitely need to get my Mom’s proportions on the filling.  Mine was good, but not nearly as gooey and luscious as my Mom’s.  I think she must use the larger tub of cottage cheese and add more egg and sugar.  Also, as you can see from the picture, for the second piece of dough, I made a simple apple filling with apples, cinnamon, butter and sugar. 

 

Rating Category	Rating out of 5
Taste	4
Texture	3
Likeliness to make again	5
Overall Rating	4

 

Bread #30 Touch of Grace Biscuits

 

Good morning fellow bread-bakers.

I am still getting caught up on writing up past bakes – busy summer!  Last week, while picking up my daughter in New York from her summer research project, we stopped into her favorite grocery store (just to check it out!).  Wouldn’t you know it?  We found two ingredients that are hard to find in Northeast Ohio: White Lily flour and Diamond Crystal Sea Salt (an ingredient I really wanted since that’s what the Bon Appetit test kitchen uses.)  Anyway, with White Lily flour in hand, we had one of the key ingredients to making an old favorite: Touch of Grace Biscuits.   The recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbook authors, food scientist and teacher, Shirley Corriher.  As she says in her cookbook, Cookwise, she once received a standing ovation for these biscuits.  They are delicious!

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Touch of Grace Biscuits with me.

 

Special Tools you will need:
none

 

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups White Lily flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
3 Tablespoons Crisco shortening
¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup heavy cream

Nonstick cooking spray (such as Pam)
1 cup all-purpose flour (such as Gold Medal) for shaping
2 Tablespoons butter, melted

 

Directions

Prep: Preheat oven to 475 degrees.  Spray an 8-inch round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Mix dry ingredients: In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.  With your fingers, work in the shortening until there are no shortening lumps bigger that a pea.

Mix in wet ingredients: Stir in buttermilk and heavy cream.  Let stand 2-3 minutes. 

Shape the biscuits: The dough is so wet; you cannot shape it in the usual manner.  Pour a cup of the all-purpose flour onto a plate or pie tin.  Flour your hands well.  Spoon a biscuit size lump of wet dough into the flour and sprinkle some flour over the wet dough to coat the outside.  Pick up the biscuit and roughly shape it into a soft round.  At the same time, shake off the excess flour.  As you shape each biscuit, place it in the pan.  Push the biscuits tightly up against each other so that they will rise up and not spread out.  Continue shaping biscuits in the manner until all the dough is used.     

Bake:  Brush the biscuits with melted butter and bake just above the center of the oven until lightly browned, 15-20 minutes.  Cool for a couple of minutes in the pan and then dump out.  Slather with butter and jam and eat a couple while they are warm!

 Here they are!  We love them with Bonne Maman preserves!

Reflections on this bake:  Delicious, tender and moist with a slight tang from the buttermilk.  Really, the perfect biscuit!

 

Rating Category	Rating out of 5
Taste	5
Texture	5
Likeliness to make again	5
Overall Rating	5