Danish Pastry Braid

I found this recipe for a Danish pastry braid in the cookbook "Baking with Julia," by Dorie Greenspan. I've made the recipe twice, since I made enough pastry dough for two braids, and the practice certainly made it look a lot better the second time around. I found it helpful to watch the "Baking with Julia" episode where Beatrice Ojakangas demonstrated how she makes the braid to get an idea of technique. I found the trick is to be careful not to overfill the dough, so that the jam and cream don't spill out as you braid the dough together. If you make the dough in advance, you can make this pastry in just about an hour, as it takes very little time to bake. It tastes delicious with coffee for dessert, or even a luxurious breakfast. You can also glaze the pastry (with regular or coffee glaze) but I found that it was sweet enough without, so I chose to omit that step. If you're looking for a fun challenge, I recommend giving this recipe a try. Enjoy!

Danish Pastry Braid Dough

• 1 recipe Danish pastry dough 
• 1 egg yolk

Raspberry Jam Filling

• 2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 2/3 cup sugar

Confectioner's Cream

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1.5 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough into a 10" x 16" rectangle.
3. Mentally section the dough into thirds, and cut 1" strips of the dough slanted away from the center on both the left and right sides. A video with the proper technique can be found here.
4. Spoon the jam filling down the center of the braid, being careful to stay away from the edges where the strips have been cut. 
5. Soon confectioner's cream over the jam in dollops.
6. Braid the dough strips (as shown in video) over the filling. 

 

   7. Brush the braid with egg white

   8. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve cool. Enjoy!

Blueberry Brunch Cake

This simple, yet gorgeous, blueberry brunch cake is the first recipe I ever was able to complete on my own. Over the years I've tweaked the recipe a bit, but the original can be found here.  It tastes great with either fresh or frozen berries (I used a bit of both since we ran out of fresh ones). Enjoy!

Cake:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 stick of butter, softened
• rind of 1/2 lemon
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 1/4 cup milk

Filling: 

• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp flour
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Grease a 9" springform pan. 

3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

4. Add in zest of 1/2 lemon (approx. 1 tsp) and 1 egg.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in order to combine and sift.

5. Combine yogurt and milk until smooth.

6. Add dry ingredients and yogurt mixture alternately to large bowl with butter. Combine.

7. Spread batter on the bottom of the springform pan, and about 1/2" up the sides of the pan.

8. Combine blueberries, sugar, flour, and nutmeg for filling.

9. Spoon filling over the center of the cake, making sure filling doesn't spread over the sides.
10. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, and serve warm. Enjoy!

Cheesecake Stuffed French Toast & Blueberry Compote

Cheesecake stuffed french toast makes a decadent and easy breakfast. I made this with a blueberry compote for Mother's Day and it was an immediate hit. It takes only a few minutes longer than french toast would. I pulled this together in the morning and, again, forgot to take process photos, but luckily it's a very simple recipe. The blueberry compote is completely optional - I just enjoy the fruity taste to offset the creaminess of the filling, but you could certainly go without, or use different fruit. This recipe yields about 4 stuffed toast pieces. Enjoy!

Here's the recipe:

• 8 slices white bread
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 -1/2  cup of milk (depending on consistency you prefer)
• pinch ground cinnamon
• dash ground nutmeg
• 2 tbsp. butter 
• 4 tbsp. sugar plus more for compote if necessary
• 4 oz. cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• blueberries

1. In a bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until it has a decent consistency. Whisk in 1 tbsp. of sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

2. Heat a pan on medium, and grease with some butter. Dip bread in mixture, coat completely and cook on the pan until golden brown with a custard-like center. Repeat for all 8 slices of bread.

3. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese with sour cream until fully combined. Add in 3 tbsp. of sugar and beat for about 1 minute.

4. Spread about 3/4 tbsp. of the cream cheese mixture on top of one piece of warm french toast. Press another piece of toast on top

5. Heat blueberries in a saucepan until reduced to a compote. Add sugar to taste if necessary. 

6. Serve toast warm with a heaping spoonful of blueberry compote. Enjoy!

Peach Ricotta Muffins

Muffins are a delicious and easy snack to whip up. I had some extra frozen peaches on hand, and decided to make a slightly healthier version with some almond flour and coconut sugar. The final product turned out moist and fluffy, and the substitutions were  impossible to detect. I used frozen peach chunks that we had on hand from a summer peach-picking trip - but this recipe will work just as well with fresh or canned peaches as long as you adjust the amount of sugar for the canned variety to account for the sugar syrup. This recipe yields 24 muffins. Enjoy!

Here's the recipe:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups almond flour
• 1 cup coconut sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup canola oil
• 3 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups peaches, peeled and diced

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In a large bowl, sift together the flour, almond flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda with a whisk.

3, In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, coconut sugar, ricotta cheese, oil, eggs, and vanilla. 

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. 

5. Stir in peaches, diced, and combine. 

6. Grease a muffin tin and spoon batter into each mold. 

7. Bake for 35 minutes. Allow the muffins to cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!