Stollen

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration. I have never tasted stollen before but it is really good and Laith loved it so that means something. Traditionally stollen is made and served during Christmas so i decided to make this stollen an Arabic version. Usually the dried fruit inside is maraschino cherries, citrus peel and marzipan but i made mine with dried figs, dates, apricots, raisins and walnuts....yumminess.

In a bowl i mixed yellow and brown raisins

I had some dried figs so i cut the stem off and then cut them into quarters

The traditional recipe asks for rum to plump up the dried fruit but i used orange juice.

In a saucepan melt butter with milk, you don't want to boil the milk but when the butter is almost melted and the milk is warm turn off the heat and let the butter finish melting from the residual heat.

Zest three lemons and 2 oranges. My zest here was big so i chopped it up really finely.

In a bowl crack three eggs and whisk

Add in vanilla

In a separate bowl sift the dried ingredients.

Add in the cinnamon and citrus zest

In the bow with the eggs add the yeast and milk and butter

slowly add the dried ingredients

The dough will be really sticky so let it sit in the bowl for about an hour and let it rise.

The dough will still be sticky but you will be able to work with it easier now. Add in the dried fruit and i added in dates and walnuts.

Put the dough (after the dried fruit and walnuts and fully incorporated) in a really big bowl and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight

Take the dough out of the refrigerator 2 hours ahead of when you want to work with it to let it come to room temperature.

Roll the dough out thin. At this point some people add marzipan (almond paste) but i chose not to.

Roll the dough up and pinch the seam closed tightly

Bring the two end pieces together and pinch them together so it looks like one big wreath

Which kitchen scissors cut slits into the dough and then let it rise (under a towel) until it has risen and bake it in an over until golden brown.

When the stollen comes out of the over rub some melted butter over top and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Repeat this step a couple of times.

MMMM seriously it was really good, I was amazed that the citrus zest and cinnamon could have such a wonderful flavor.

Written Recipe:

¼ cup (60ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C)

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 cup milk

10 tablespoons unsalted butter (can use salted butter)

5½ cups all-purpose (plain) flour (Measure flour first - then sift- plus extra for dusting)

½ cup sugar

¾ teaspoon salt (if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

Grated zest of 3 lemon and 2 orange

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ cup dried figs and dates

1 cup firmly packed raisins

3 tablespoons orange juice for the dried fruit

1 cup chopped walnuts

Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath

Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath

Here is the written steps for making stollen i was given for the daring bakers:(some ingredients may be different but that is because i changed the recipe.

¼ cup (60ml) lukewarm water (110º F / 43º C)
2 packages (4 1/2 teaspoons) (22 ml) (14 grams) (1/2 oz) active dry yeast
1 cup (240 ml) milk
10 tablespoons (150 ml) (140 grams) unsalted butter (can use salted butter)
5½ cups (1320 ml) (27 ozs) (770 grams) all-purpose (plain) flour (Measure flour first - then sift- plus extra for dusting)
½ cup (120 ml) (115 gms) sugar
¾ teaspoon (3 ¾ ml) (4 ½ grams) salt (if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (6 grams) cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (very good) vanilla extract
1 teaspoon (5 ml) lemon extract or orange extract
¾ cup (180 ml) (4 ¾ ozs) (135 grams) mixed peel (link below to make your own)
1 cup (240 ml) (6 ozs) (170 gms) firmly packed raisins
3 tablespoons (45ml) rum
12 red glacé cherries (roughly chopped) for the color and the taste. (optional)
1 cup (240 ml) (3 ½ ozs) (100 grams) flaked almonds
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Confectioners’ (icing) (powdered) sugar for dusting wreath

Pour ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup (240 ml) milk and 10 tablespoons (150 ml) butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes.

Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add lemon and vanilla extracts.

In a large mixing bowl (4 qt) (4 liters) (or in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment), stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests.

Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

Add in the mixed peel, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing with the dough hook) to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes (6 minutes by machine). The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.

Mhalabieyh

Ahhhhhhhhh, how i love dessert. I especially love pudding and this dessert is an Arabic milk pudding. This is very easy to make and great for when you have a huge party and don't want to spend all day cooking desserts after you already cooked a bunch of food. This can be made many ways and it is the basis for many other desserts like haylatiyeh (unsweetened and thicker and atar is poured over) or riz oo haleeb (rice pudding). This can also be eaten for breakfast with a yummy Arabic cheese sandwich (jibneh bayda and samoon bread). When i make this usually i put it in individual cups because the more you scoop into it the more water might be released. If you are making this for a party then putting it in one large dish is perfect. Here is how i make Mhalabiyeh.

First start off with milk (whole milk is preferred but 2% can be used although more starch might be needed)
Corn starch is obviously very essential. I believe back in the olden days they used rice flour to make this. Rice flour works well except that it takes longer to thicken so if that is all you have be patient. Also rice flour, in my opinion, leaves a slight flour texture in the milk pudding.
So while the milk is still cold add in the sugar. Normally i add 1 tablespoon for every cup. Feel free to adjust to your taste, you can taste this at any time in the cooking process.
Mastic or mistica is a resin or sap (i think) from a plant in the Middle East. It is used a lot in Middle Eastern desserts and it really does make a huge difference in taste.
So the mastic comes in like little pebbles. So in order to turn the pebbles into a powder so it can dissolve we need to grind it with some sugar.
So once the milk is warm (not boiling, never boiling until after the corn starch) we add a cornstarch slurry. This just means that you mix corn starch with water (or milk) until it is pourable. So for every cup of milk you need 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.
While the milk is thickening with the cornstarch smash your pistachios for garnish. I just put my nuts in a coffee grinder and....
Then i get finely ground pistachio. Feel free to make it however fine or chunky as you like. Usually Arabic desserts are topped with finely ground pistachios.
So after the milk is thick add the mastic and add rose water and orange blossom water. Then pour the mhalabiyeh in either individual serving bowls or in a large serving bowl (like a Pyrex or something that is all one level, not literally a big bowl.
There are so many ways or garnishing the mhalabiyeh so feel free to be creative. I had some rose jelly so i added some of that as well.
Yummy

Written Recipe:

6 cups of milk

6 tablespoons of sugar

6 tablespoons of cornstarch dissolved in water

6 pebbles of mastic ground with sugar

3 teaspoons of rose water

3 teaspoons of orange blossom water

3 tablespoons of whole pistachios ground finely

Shockingly i didn't have a story for this recipe....oh well!

Sparkling Lemonade Arab Style ليمونادا غازية

Well if you haven't noticed yet....I am a bit obsessed with everything that reminds me of Syria. This is a lemonade that i drank at the amazing restaurants in Syria last time i went. I changed it a little because Oussama isn't a huge fan of mint.

Start off by squeezing the juice of 2 lemons (about 2/3 cup) and place it in a container. If you want you can make more of this mixture and keep it in the fridge for whenever you feel like having a refreshing drink.

To the lemon juice i add about 1/2 cup of atar (arabic simple syrup with rose water and orange blossom water, ingredients and directions can be found on my Hrissa post) Of course this measurement is approximate because it depends on how sweet you like your drink and how sour the lemons were (i don't like mine too sweet so this is a good amount to start with)

Now if we wanted to make this the real lemonade and mint i would take my mixture of lemon juice and syrup and blend it in the blender with a bunch of picked mint leaves and then strain the chunks of mint) Fill a glass about half way with the concentrated lemon juice.

Slowly pour Perrier (or any sparkling water or plain water) over the lemon juice and ice and serve!! I garnished my cup with julienne slices of mint leaves, its pretty and yummy and refreshing. MMMMMMMMMM

Written Recipe:

Juice of 2 lemons or 2/3 cups

1/2 cup of Arabic simple syrup

Perrier water

ice

mint leaves

Fast and Easy Crepes كريب

I love crepes, they are really easy to whip up, they stay well if you want to make them ahead of time and use them later that night for a dessert. Crepes are also good when you want to make a variety of things or your having a party. Each guest can put their own fillings into the crepe for a brunch or for dessert. I like this recipe because it NEVER sticks to the pan. I don't have any non stick pans because I'm paranoid so stuff like this gets annoying because its so thin your don't want to add butter or spray and overwhelm the taste of the crepe.

First just mix all the ingredients together.

Pour about 1/4 cup of the thin batter into a warm pan (no grease and not too hot of a pan) and swirl to make a thin layer.

When the crepe has a little bit of golden brown on one side just gently release it from the pan and turn it over for like 30 seconds so the other side is cooked.

I made a scrambled egg crepe with sauteed mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes.

This one was for "REES" (Idris) its banana and Nutella Mmmmmmmmmmm it taste even better with strawberries. You can make berry crepes or crepes with ice cream...oh man im getting hungry..only 4 more hours until i can eat

Written Recipe:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

No additional butter is needed for the pan, simple whisk together and pour 1/4 cup at a time into a skillet.

Hrisseh هريسة

OK so this is one of my most favorite arabic desserts, its soft yet dense and it sweet but not overly full of fat like most Arabi dessert. The original recipe is from Ziyad but i like to change a couple of things. Here are the step by step directions:

The first step is to add the baking soda and baking powder to the yogurt and let it sit.

In a mixing bowl mix the smeed (fine semoline), butter (i used semneh for the first time but definitely recommend using butter not semneh) , sugar and salt.

The yogurt should look like this, it should rise

Add the yogurt and mix everything up

Then add the coconut, this is optional but i think it adds a nice texture and plus....let just cut to the chase I LOVE COCONUT

The mixture should be soft and should stick together, if it is too dry add some yogurt

Grease the pan with Tahini (ive used just pam oil spray before and it is the same thing)

Smooth out the hrisseh mix

Cut the Hrisseh in straight lines first

Then starting at the begining of a straight line, cut diagnally

When your done, add blanched almonds (blanching just means stick the almonds that still have their skins on in boiling water and then directly into cold water and the skins should just come off, i had to blanch for the first time here its really easy)

The Hrisseh should be golden brown when it comes out, pour the syrup over and let it soak in

To Make a Basic Syrup:

Add 1 part water to 2 parts sugar (here i used 1 cup of sugar to 1/2 cup of water)

When the Sugar has dissolved add a capful of both rose water and orange blossom water and a squirt of lemon juice.

Once the syrup is clear its done, turn it off. You need to be careful to stir as little as possible when it is boiling because crystals will form, and don't let it boil too long or it will become very very thick

Written Recipe:

2 tbsp Tahini

4 cups of smeed (semolina)

1 ¼ cups butter ghee or plain butter

1 cup of sugar

¼ tsp. baking powder and baking soda

1 ¼ cups yogurt

1 ½ cups of coconut

3 cups Attar (sugar Syrup/see below to make)

¼ cup blanched almonds

Dash of salt

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the baking soda and baking powder into the yogurt and set aside. Then grease the pan with the tahini. Net mix the remaining ingredients together, when the yogurt has rised slightly then add t to the mixture, add in 1 ½ cups of dried coconut. Place the Hrissa mixture into the pan and smooth out then cut into diamonds and decorate with blanched almonds. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. When the Hrissa comes out of the oven let it cool for 10 minutes and then pour Attar over it to the desired sweetness.

Attar Recipe:

1 part water to 2 parts sugar. Place in a pan and heat until sugar dissolves, add some lemon juice and ma ward and ma zahir.