{Tuesdays With Dorie} Baking With Julia Pecan Sticky Buns (Whew)

Posted in Breads, Breakfast, Desserts, Food by Shortbread

Whew! I have to say I feel like I just ran a marathon after making these Pecan Sticky Buns. It’s a good thing though, that these take so much time and effort to make because if it were easier I might be tempted to make them more often and that would not be good for my thighs.

The recipe for these buns (which was contributed by Nancy Silverton – love her) begins with making a brioche dough, which in itself is a fairly complicated and time consuming process with lots of rising and chilling and rolling. Then once the dough is made, it is made into buns with a lot more rolling and chilling and rising. And a lot of butter.

Even though there were a ton of steps in the recipe, they were all very easy to follow and really caused me no problems. And the end result was the best sticky bun I have ever put in my mouth, with super flaky layers of dough and a nutty caramel topping. Definitely worth the extra effort.

If you are tempted to try your hand at making this recipe you can visit this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie/Baking with Julia hostesses, Lynn of Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Nicole of Cookies on Friday.

28Apr2012

Drumroll Please Shortbread Shortbread

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Food by Shortbread

It would seem logical that one should be able to find a recipe for shortbread on a blog named Shortbread, right? Possibly even in the very first post one might think. Well, it just didn’t quite work out that way here.

I suppose the reason is mainly that I wanted to make sure that if there was a recipe for shortbread, that it would be the best one I could give you. So (drumroll) here it is! I give you my favorite Shortbread recipe that is buttery, crumbly, and perfectly sweet. I know, it’s about time.

Shortbread’s Shortbread

makes 16 pieces

Ingredients

1 cup (8 ounces) butter, softened
1/2 cup (4 ounces) granulated sugar, plus extra for top
1 cup (8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (4 ounces) corn flour or fine semolina*
1/4 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Sift flours and salt (if using) together into a bowl. Set aside.
Beat together butter and sugar with a stand or hand mixer until creamy.
Gradually add flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture and blend just until it comes together as a dough.
Dump dough out onto a piece of parchment or a lightly floured surface and divide into two halves. Gently shape halves into discs and press each into two 8-inch round tart pans or cake tins. (Alternately, shape all the dough into a rectangle and press into a 9×13 inch baking pan.)
Using a fork, either prick holes all over the dough or press the tines around the outer edges (or both).
Bake for 35-45 minutes until pale golden all over.
Remove from the oven and dust top with sugar. Cut each into 8 triangles (or 16 squares) while still warm, then let cool completely before removing from pan.

*I use Bob’s Red Mill Corn Flour. If you can’t find or don’t have corn/semolina flour, the recipe will still work using just all-purpose flour.

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6Feb2012

{Tuesdays With Dorie} Baking With Julia White Loaves

Posted in Breads, Food by Shortbread

I’ve had the lovely book Baking with Julia in my cookbook collection for a while and have made some very successful and delicious recipes from it, but it had somehow gotten buried under the ever-growing pile of newer cookbooks over time. When I discovered that the Tuesdays with Dorie group had chosen this book, which Dorie Greenspan put together from Julia Child’s PBS series of the same name, I dug it out and flipped through the pages thinking all the time “Man, I forgot how good this book is!”

I know the brioche and sticky bun recipes are fabulous, and I love the idea of baking my way through the book in order to try all the other recipes. So, here goes!

The first recipe chosen for the month of February was White Loaves, contributed by Craig Kominiak, which begins a chapter titled “Daily Loaves”. Regular Shortbread readers will know that I have made quite a few loaves of bread in my time, and it was difficult for me to keep from straying from the recipe and doing my own thing. But I tried to use the techniques it called for, and the only substitution I made was using instant yeast instead of active dry because it was all I had in the pantry. (If you find yourself in the same situation, skip the first step of mixing the yeast, sugar, and water together and just stir the yeast and sugar into the first half of the flour before adding the water.)

This dough was definitely on the wet side for me, but the loaves rose quickly and baked up tall and fragrant. It sliced easily and made tasty sandwiches, toast, and was even better with a layer of Nutella.

This week’s TWD/BWJ hostesses are Laurie of slush and Jules of Someone’s in the Kitchen, and on their websites you’ll find this recipe. Visit the Tuesdays with Dorie blog for more information!