Contemplations and Concoctions

A Mommy blogging about life, love, food, and toddlers.

First night:

1. Put baby to bed. 

2. Wait for baby to go to sleep.

3. Quietly get everything out of fridge/pantry.

4. Stare at recipe.

5. Stare at recipe again.

6. Walk away and go play on the computer.

7. Finally buckle down.  Time to get this done!

8. Make dough, do all the stuff to it.

9. Go to bed

Second Night:

1. Get out dough.

2. Roll out, cut, put in raspberry/blackberry mixture and cream cheese.

3. Realize should have done that part on the baking sheet.  S*@T!!!

4. Try and move pastry.  Get very annoyed with ugly blob.

5. Wait for proofing... waiting.... waiting...

6.  Need to go to bed.  Bake.  Bed.

Next Morning:

This doesn't look the way it's supposed to I don't think...  Oh man.  This sucks!  Frustrated and disappointed.  Tastes ok, would not make again.

Yup, this months baking challenge was a doozy!  I had a hard time the first time around and I think maybe my yeasty beasties might have died in their cold milk bath.  I don't use a lot of yeast so I didn't know at the time.  I was really deflated and sad about the whole thing.  We didn't even eat it all!  Here are a few pictures for you to have a gander at. 

Tim said that I should try again, I wasn't so sure.  I was thinking I should just write it off to being a new experience and not have to worry about it anymore.  But I tried it again!!!  It's fabulous!  This time it worked out perfectly!  I used the apple filling that was recommended. Although I did drain all the liquid out of it after my previous experience with the berries and all their liquid (Help Tim!!!  It's bleeding!!!).  I bought some Sugar in the Raw to put on top this time.  I would definitely recommend it.  It tasted great and was just a little crunchy.  Also, I used Julia Child's instructions and only made the braid 10 x 16 inches instead of the recommended 15 x 20 inches.  I think it folded much better and looked prettier in the end.

Here are the photos of my second try.

Braiding:

Waiting for Proofing:

After Proofing outside on the trunk of my car for an hour:

At the 10 minute mark of baking (turning around in the oven):

Fresh out of the oven:

Dessert! Yummy!:

The second time around was a much better experience!  It turned out wonderfully this time.  Light, and oh so flaky.  Just the way I like my pastry.  One of the best things I think I have ever made.  This time Tim and Riley had eaten a lot of the main braid before the first day was even over!  There was enough for breakfast the next day and that's about it.  We also had about half of the one of the little braids left and one full mini braid I'm giving to my friend.  We didn't even finish the ones I made last week so I guess there's the proof that this time around is way better!  Thanks to Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What's Cookin'? for hosting this month's challenge!