Marie-Hélène’s Apple Cake

Quite by accident, I ended up making this apple cake the same week that it was the recipe of the week for a new baking group that is going through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table. I’ve had my eye on this recipe for a while.

Apple Cider Doughnuts (Cake and Yeast)

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Every year we go to Terhune Orchards for some apple picking. When they have their apple festival, the tantalizing scent of freshly pressed apple cider and just fried apple cider doughnuts is in the air.

One Sunday after the challenge was announced, we were feeling a bit glum. Time to make the apple cider doughnuts!

Cheesy Spinach Snacks

This is from Family Circle. Very rich, best as a part snack or in small servings as a side dish.

Macrina Challah

I’m sorry there is no picture of the whole challah, but I tried the Macrina Challah and was so pleased, I thought I should make some online notes.

Fall Apple Cake

I have been tweaking this recipe for apple snack cake.

Ottolenghi Cauliflower “Cake”

I saw this on Smitten Kitchen (originally published in The Guardian).

Changes that I made: left out the cheese and rosemary; used regular sesame seeds, baked in a 9″ round silicone pan (lined both bottom AND sides with parchment); baked it a bit longer than the recipe said; and used 3 extra large plus 4 large eggs instead of 10 medium eggs or 8 large eggs. Oh, I forget to measure the amount of oil before adding it to the onion to saute them. I think I added maybe a couple of Tablespoons of oil to the onions and then I added another 4 Tablespoons of oil to the batter.

Savory Feta and Roasted Red Pepper Muffins

This is from Bon Appetit’s RSVP section: Savory Spinach, Feta, and Peppadew Muffins. Except that I used jarred roasted red peppers instead of peppadews and I left out the spinach.

Round Braided Russian Challah

I tried Tamar Ansh’s round braiding technique again, this time with Maggie Glezer’s Russian Challah recipe. The Russian Challah is like the Chernowitzer, but with half the oil and half the sugar (and almost half the yeast). It needs to be baked at a higher temperature (425 degrees), but I forgot and baked it 350 and the resulting challah was a bit drier than I would have liked. It made fabulous French toast, though.

And I am loving this shaping technique! The how to is on the Jewish Press website.

Tamar Ansh’s Braided Round Challah for Rosh HaShana

Tamar Ansh had an interesting article in the Jewish Press in which she demonstrated a technique for making a braided round challah. Basically, what you do is make a three strand braid with a fourth strand going through the center, perpendicular to the braid. Then you pull it into a ball.

I baked most of my round challahs this year in round foil pans. The 7″ is perfect for 1 pound challah, the 8″ is good for 1 1/2 pound loaves, and the bulkeleh pans take about 8 ounces each.

Hungarian Compound Challah

According to Maggie Glezer, in A Blessing of Bread, “At the height of difficulty is a Hungarian celebration challah: two high four stranded braids are set side by side and a thin five-stranded braid is laid over their joint and tucked under the ends.”