Bonus: Soft Pretzels and Beer Cheese

This weekend we celebrated Oktoberfest in family style. We usually go to the Breckenridge Oktoberfest, but that was cancelled this year so we held a Ralston version: R-Oktoberfest... which was basically eating all the delicious food and dancing at home while drinking all the beer. Prost!

We all made different items, strudel, spätzle, schnitzel, German potato salad, sauerkraut, and soft pretzels with beer cheese. I volunteered to make the pretzels and we were not disappointed. I made both regular and sweet pretzels, the dough and finishing are slightly different but so easy!

Ingredients
3/4 cup baking soda
1 1/2 cups water (between 100-110 degrees)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon melted salted butter
4 cups all purpose flour

Rock or Pretzel Salt for topping regular ones

Cinnamon Sugar and melted butter for topping sweet ones
*for a sweet dough, increase the brown sugar to 3 tablespoons and add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

First my secret weapon, baking the baking soda... yes, I realize that sounds weird but think about this. Commercial pretzels are dunked in a lye solution prior to baking to get that delicious chewy texture. Home baking recipes often use the baking soda bath but that only gets you a fraction of the way to that chewy texture. Baking the baking soda, for 2 hours at 250 degrees, gets you as close to a lye solution as you can safely do in the home kitchen. So when you are thinking about making pretzels, put some baking soda in the oven and have it ready to go. You will not regret it. 

To make the dough, put the water and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer for a few minutes to bloom. Add the salt, brown sugar, butter and mix gently. Add the flour and mix with the dough hook until it comes together. If the dough is sticky add 1/4 cup of flour until the dough is no longer sticky and bounces back when pressed slightly. 

Knead the dough for 3-5 minutes until it forms a smooth dough. 

Rest the dough on the counter under a towel at least 10 minutes. While it is resting prep your dunking and baking items. 

Add the prepared baking soda with 9 cups of water to a large pot and bring to a simmer.

Prepare two baking sheets (you will do 6 pretzels per sheet) with silpat or parchment paper (spray generously if using parchment). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and adjust the racks to equally fit two trays.

Divide the dough into 12 equal(ish) pieces. Shaping them 1 at a time, roll into 20 inch logs and twist. To make the traditional pretzel shape, make a U in the dough, twist the ends two times, and then press the ends into the bottom of the U. If that makes zero sense then google 'how to shape a pretzel' and watch a few videos, or just make them any shape you want!

Now to dip. Working two at a time gently drop the pretzel into the simmering baking soda mixture. Wait 20 seconds and remove, draining off any liquid and placing them on the prepared baking tray. 

For original pretzels, top with rock salt or pretzel salt before baking. For the sweet ones, we will top them after baking. 

Bake the pretzels 12-14 minutes, rotating the trays top to bottom, front to back at the halfway mark. 

Cool the pretzels on a rack until they are reasonably warm before consuming.

For the sweet ones, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar before consuming, they are my favorite! Don't be fooled, this recipe makes 12 pretzels... I made 4 batches so there was a legitimate pretzel factory in our kitchen!

Beer Cheese is a staple for soft pretzels and worth making at home. 

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2/3 cup beer
2 teaspoons Worcestershire 
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika (1/4 teaspoon if using smoked paprika)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese 

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and cook stirring until the flour absorbs all the butter. Add the milk and stir until combined. Add the beer, continue cooking and stirring until it reduces slightly. Add the seasonings and cheese. Stir as the cheese melts and the mixture continues to reduce. Keep it mind if will be thicker as it cools so be careful not to over reduce it. Once a reasonable thickness, set aside or consume. It was a R-Oktoberfest hit!

Bonus: Churros (with guest baker Harper)

This is our first guest baker feature! Harper is a home baking enthusiast from here in the Denver area and wanted to learn how to make churros. Churros are a lovely pate a choux dough that you fry and then dust with sugar. How can you not love that? 

Ingredients
1 cup of water
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup of all purpose flour
2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups vegetable oil (for frying)
Sugar to dust, plus cinnamon if you are partial to cinnamon sugar which we definitely are

Preheat the oil in a deep saucepan to 360 degrees while you make the batter. I use a candy thermometer to make sure the temperature is spot on. 

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter in with the water, salt, and sugar. Once it comes to a rolling boil, throw in all the flour and beat with a wooden spoon or spatula to dry out the dough. 

Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the eggs one at a time. Keep mixing until the egg is completely integrated into the dough. It will separate and look funky at first and then come together. Add the vanilla with the second egg. Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a closed star shaped tip. 

Since I don't have the heat tolerance required to pipe churro batter directly into the hot oil I pipe them onto parchment and then put them in the oil parchment side up and pull the parchment out as soon as it releases... about 1 second. This ensures they maintain most of their shape. You can make them any length that will fit in your oil, ours were about 6 inches long and then a variety of letters, hearts, flowers, etc. Prep a plate or pan with a few layers of paper towel for the churros to drain after frying, and put the sugar (and cinnamon if you are using it) in a tray for rolling/dusting post fry.

Fry the churros for about 2-3 minutes per side, the second side is usually quicker so about 4-5 minutes total, until they are golden brown. Handle as little as possible in the oil. 

Once golden and cooked through, remove from the oil and place on a paper towel to drain briefly and roll/toss in the sugar mixture. Enjoy!

Bake 2.4: Bacon and Spinach Quiche

Second episode in series 2: Tarts! I love a good tart.

The signature bake is a savory quiche. My siblings-in-law make a wonderful ham and cheese variety for family events and I decided to play off of that combination and make a smokey bacon and spinach quiche. This quiche is easy and comes together quickly, if you want to skip making the crust you can use a store bought pie crust as well. This can be made in a deeper pie crust, or halve the filling and make it as a thinner tart. 

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) cold salted butter cubed

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons bacon fat

10 large eggs

3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk

4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

1/2 cup shredded cheese, cheddar for me but you can use swiss or gruyere 

3 cups fresh baby spinach 

Start by cooking that bacon, you can do the method you prefer, skillet or oven, just please do not microwave it because you need a few teaspoons of that bacon fat for the crust. 

Add the flour to a food processor with the butter, pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Whisk the egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of ice cold water. Stream into the flour mixture and pulse until moist crumbs start to form. Transfer to a counter and form into a disc, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. 

On a lightly floured counter, roll the dough out to be 2 inches wider than your pie plate. Use your rolling pin to transfer to the pie place, trim the edges to 1 inch and tuck under. Crimp or decorate the edge as desired. Wrap the whole pie plate in plastic wrap and freeze at least 30 minutes or up to a few days. I like to do up until this step the day before and then bake in the morning for brunch. I love brunch.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line the crust with parchment and weight it down. I have pie weights but have also been known to use dried beans and once I used steel cut oats which I then cooked and it had a yummy toasted flavor. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the parchment/beans and bake an additional 5 minutes. Remove and allow to cool while preparing the filling.

Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Whisk the eggs until smooth, adding the cream, milk, salt (2 teaspoons) and pepper (1 teaspoon). Layer half the bacon and cheese in the bottom of the pie crust, pour the egg mixture over the top but do not overfill the crust. Press the spinach into the custard, it is okay if a few leaves poke out. Transfer the quiche to the oven very carefully, then put the remaining bacon and cheese on top. Add any remaining egg mixture if there is room.

Bake 12 minutes and then without opening the oven reduce the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 50 minutes If your oven doesn't bake perfectly evenly rotate halfway through baking. If your oven does bake perfectly evenly then pat yourself on the back and you should probably test that because it is a rare luxury. Allow to cool so you don't burn your mouth before serving. 

YUM! 

Bake 2.3: Layered Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Buttercream and Ganache

Cake showstopper time! The cake round showstopper was to make chocolate tiered celebration cake with an elaborate multi-layer design. Chocolate is something I enjoy but have not worked with so I am pushing myself by making some tempered chocolate decorations to pair with this moist chocolate cake with a secret ingredient, squash! You can just not tell the kids or the picky eater in your life and then give yourself a high five for the win. 

Ingredients

Cake

2 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons espresso powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 

1 cup packed light brown sugar

6 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream (or yogurt if that is what you have)

1 tablespoon vanilla

4 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (wash the zucchini and shred on the large side of a box grater, do not remove the moisture for this recipe)

1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Chocolate Buttercream

2 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature

4 cups confectioners' sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate Ganache

1 cup of chocolate chips of your choice, I used dark chocolate

1 cup of heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare three round cake pans with cooking spray with flour or parchment paper. 

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, espresso powder and salt in a large bowl. In your mixer bowl combine the oil, sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Mix well then add the zucchini and mix again. Slowly add the dry mixture while beating on medium speed. Stop the mixer when there are still a few streaks of flour showing. Add the chocolate chips and stir by hand to combine until there are no flour streaks. 

Divide evenly between the three pans and bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool on a rack, then remove from the 

While the cake is baking, mix up your buttercream and ganache. For the buttercream, whip the butter with a mixer until it is light and fluffy (3-5 minutes!), adding the confectioners' sugar and cocoa in a few batches, then add the remaining ingredients. Adjust with confectioners' sugar or heavy cream to get the consistency that you want. This is a slightly thicker buttercream which is perfect for a layered cake. 

For the ganache, heat the cream in a saucepan or microwave until hot, pour over the chocolate chips (in a heatproof bowl) and allow to sit for a minute. Then mix until combined. Set aside. 

To assemble the cake, level each layer as needed. Put a dollop of frosting on the plate to hold your layers in place, no sliding cakes here! Put down the first layer of cake, top with frosting and level, more cake, more frosting, more cake, more frosting. Utilize a piping bag with a cake icing tip (Wilton is #789) or an offset spatula to smooth the frosting. Pool the ganache on top of the cake and allow to drip down. You can leave the drips, or do as I did and smooth that out. Decorate with chocolate chips, sprinkles, chocolate, other things, it is up to you! 

This cake is a moist, rich, chocolate lovers dream!

Bake 2.2: Coffee and Walnut Battenberg Cake

For our first technical of series 2 we attempted a checkerboard Battenberg cake, typically in a pink and white color but this was Mary Berry's coffee and walnut version. Now, I am not a coffee drinker, but similar to a good tiramisu this has gentle coffee flavor, and the marzipan is so good. I will definitely be using marzipan more often now that I know how simple it is to make!

I followed Mary Berry's recipe, found here.

The only suggestion I would add to the recipe is to not trust your own ability to divide the batter in half and do measure because I ended up with more coffee/walnut and I could have sworn I did a better job dividing it in half. You can see my ... sworn a did a better job attempt below... 

To make 8 ounces of marzipan, pulse 3/4 cup almond meal, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, then add 1 tsp of almond extract, and 1/2 tsp of rose water. Then add 1/2 egg white and pulse until the mixture comes together in a ball. Fold a few times and you can wrap it in plastic wrap if you make it ahead of time. Roll it out between parchment sheets and add powdered sugar if it is too sticky while you are rolling it out.

YUM!

I really thought I divided them evenly... 

Bonus: Easy Calzones

Pizza is my food, if I had to pick one thing to eat it is pizza. Switching it up and having a calzone is lovely as well though. We needed a quick lunch meal this week and had some veggies to use so veggie calzones it is!

Ingredients
4 cups of flour
1 envelope of instant dry yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons if you have a jar)
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Add warm water to the bowl of your mixer fitted with the dough hook, or a large bowl. Take the water temperature too, make sure it is between 100-110 degrees so the yeast flourishes, over 110 and your yeast will die a sad hot death.

Add your yeast and allow to sit 5 minutes until it is foamy. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until blended. Then knead until it forms a smooth dough.

Place the dough in a container that has been prepped with olive oil for proving and leave until it doubles in size. Once doubled, divide into 6 or 8 portions. Roll each portion into an oval. Fill the oval with your choice of fillings... we did red pepper, spinach, zucchini, and banana peppers with red sauce and mozzarella. Each one can take 1/2 cup of filling, more than it looks like when you pour it on there. Pull the top over and press back on the filling so that you get all the air out... think of it like a plastic bag that you are squeezing the air out of. Press around the seam to seal and then crimp or fold as you like. Save any red sauce for dipping. 

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Beat 1 egg and a teaspoon of salt together and brush the tops of the calzones. I used bits of banana pepper to mark the ones that had banana pepper in them so if you make different fillings, that is a helpful way to not mix them up after baking. The wife loves those banana peppers and they are too hot for me. 

Allow to rest while the oven preheats to 450 degrees. Bake until golden brown and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Yum!