BONNI FINALLY BAKES BROOKLYN BIALYS

This was the recipe that I was looking forward to, and it 

didn't disappoint...ultimately.

I've made bialys before. As a matter of fact, my recipe was published in Linda Stradley's book 
a few years ago. What was so different about this recipe was the amount of time 
needed for the dough to rise properly. Beginning to end it was five hours.


The dough mixed together easily, as long as you used a powerful  machine like a Kitchen Aid

The book warned that if the  rises weren't sufficient, the rolls would blow up like softballs...

like these. There is no indentation in the center and the roll interior was too "doughy"

With the remaining three batches we allowed the rolls to almost
 over-proof and exaggerated the center indentation, as seen above

As the outside edges of the rolls swelled during proofing, the centers remained flat and distinct

We made four batches of 6 bialys each and improved with each one. This is a 
picture of batch three. Notice how one bialy looks perfect. The technique was 
a little tricky but by our final batch (pictured at the top of this story) they all 
looked right and had the correct texture & taste of a true Brooklyn Bialy.


The taste testers enjoyed a bialy with a schmear (scallion cream cheese) & voted thumbs up.

Tomorrow we'll bake the final recipe of the "Inside The Jewish Bakery" challenge. It's a recipe that was the basis of an entire Seinfeld episode...the one & only  CHOCOLATE BABKA  

Tastings will be at the TreeHouse Friday March 9 from 2-4

Come through the white iron gate across the driveway at 932 12th Ave West in The Village of the Arts and walk back toward the two story house (the TreeHouse). The house entrance faces the garden beds.

This Sunday March 11th I'll be at 

The Farmer's Market at GERALDSON'S  COMMUNITY FARM

http://www.geraldsoncommunityfarm.org     1401 99th St NW, Bradenton    (941) 981-01111

FROM 11 - 3PM

Some of the things I'll be selling are:

CHOCOLATE ORGASMS and individual COOKIES

BREADSTIX:  Roast Garlic/Blue Cheese // Rosemary Parmigiano,

 MUFFINS:  Banana Chocolate Chip // Cranberry Orange 

MANGO CHUTNEY 

JAM:   Mango Daiquiri // Strawberry Balsamic & Black Pepper // Mango Strawberry Cardamom

plus some surprises 

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Hugs from my kitchen,

Bonni

BONNI BAKES 

932 12th ST West

Bradenton, FL  34205

(941) 746-6647

bonnibakes@gmail.com

 

SWEET EGG BUNS TWO WAYS...BOTH DELICIOUS

The dough came together easily in the KitchenAid

The key here is to mix & develop the gluten sufficiently so it will "window pane". That means that when you gently stretch a small piece of dough it spreads without breaking until you can sorta see through it.

After enough mixing, the dough has to rise until doubled in size. At this point we decided to divide the batch of dough into equal halves, which allowed us to turn them into totally different recipes.

One half was destined to become the famous roll found on every table at Ratner's restaurant back in the day. A delicious filling of rehydrated onions, poppy seed, salt and oil was spread over 2/3rds of the dough.

After folding and spreading with more filling, which produced multiple layers, they were individually cut

I can't express how delicious the house smelled, surrounded by warm bread with virtually sauteed onions

Oh yes, there was still the other half of the dough to be transformed into Cinnamon Raisin Rolls. The raisins were soft after a soak in hot water, then joined by Vietnamese cinnamon & sugar.

 

Once rolled and sealed, the log was cut into 2 " pieces, then placed cut side up on a silicone baking sheet

If I had given it some thought, I would have glazed the tops with an egg wash & sanding sugar.

Instead, I just allowed them be au natural with a simple sprinkle of plain old cinnamon sugar.

The experiment worked...we got two totally different results from the same basic dough.

I celebrated with a crunchy salad. When I was at Geraldson Farm's first Farmer's Market last Sunday I came home with an abundance of fresh organic veggies. The yellow beets were fabulous and I plan on serving them with goat cheese & caramelized onions on a bed of greens. 

They'll be hosting a Farmer's Mkts each Sunday from 11-3 at the farm in NW Bradenton. I won't be 

there this week but plan on being back the following week. It's nurturing to support good 

food, good people and good ideas on a local basis.

This Friday (tomorrow) Anna & I will finally be baking BIALYS as part of the "Inside The Jewish Bakery" challenge. I'm all set to see if this recipe is better than the one I developed years ago. I've made the classic Zabar's Scallion Cream Cheese to shmear on them...what could be bad? 

Tastings are at the TreeHouse Friday March 2 from 2-4.

I've been in a cream cheese based mood, so I made these incredible rugelach filled with my homemade Mango Meyer Lemon & Lime Jam, golden raisins and Florida pecans. I won't be doing this again anytime soon because this fragile dough doesn't like to be handled in hot weather. But the taste is fabulous. If you want any of this limited batch, let me know. It's $4 for 5 oz of Heaven that melts in your mouth.

This is a very busy musical weekend in the Village of the Arts.

Fri March 2 at 5:30pm the soaring public sculpture "Chrysalis Launcher" will be dedicated by the community at the corner of 9th St/12th Ave. Then follow the drummers to 12th St/11th Ave for a celebratory musical concert with food & drink. Many Village galleries will have live music Friday night. Check out www.villageofthearts.com for more details.

SATURDAY March 3 put on your dancing shoes and spend the day with us as we DANCE THROUGH THE VILLAGE from 11-4. Lots of dancers will demonstrate, teach and ask you to join in this celebration of dance, music & movement. Everything from rock & roll, to belly dance, traditional Lao, ballroom, Broadway musical, Tai Chi, Celtic, Latin, Zumba, Polynesian...plus a CONGA LINE. Bring an acoustic instument, your tooties, family, friends and playmates. I'm co-chairing this event, so I'm prejudiced, but know you'll have a great time. 

IT'S FREE & APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AGES.

CHECK OUT THE AMAZING GALLERIES WHILE YOU'RE HERE 

Hugs from my kitchen,

Bonni

 

BONNI BAKES 

932 12th ST West

Bradenton, FL  34205

(941) 746-6647

bonnibakes@gmail.com

 

 

What we made for the Village Studio Tour

Instead of joining this week's group challenge bake from "Inside The Jewish Bakery", we opted to participate in the annual Village of the Arts' Studio Tour.

Friday, Anna with her flexible young fingers, adeptly demonstrated how to create an Asian Summer Roll. The photo below shows ones with shrimp. They start off vegetarian but you can customize them any way you want by adding chicken, tofu, seafood, varying the veggies, etc.

Rice paper wrapper around cellophane noodles, cucumber, carrot, snow peas, cilantro, shrimp and lettuce

We made several dozen and happily gave them all away, along with a delicious peanut dipping sauce, to everyone who stopped by. All day we heard a chorus of YUMs. I love being able to take the mystery out of something, then teach it to others who competently add to their own repertoire. We distributed a hand-out with recipes explaining how to create Asian Summer Rolls and two dipping sauces, plus a local resource for buying inexpensive oriental groceries. I don't know how to post it here. If you'd like a copy, send a request to me at bonnibakes@gmail.com

I was hungry for more Chinese food when this was over. Since I've been wanting to make Ming Tsai's Pork Pot Stickers, this seemed to be the perfect time. My dinner consisted of a veggie stir fry and a few pot stickers & sauce. They're outstanding. The rest, uncooked in the freezer, wait to be shared with our Friday taste-tasters down the road.

Pork Pot Sticker with homemade Dipping Sauce

Saturday I taught how to make delicious homemade bread with no tools and in a minimum amount of time. The recipes came from "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" and "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day"; both books by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

Whole Wheat & Seeded Oat Loaf from "Healthy Bread...Day"

People were able to taste their crunchy Basic Baguette and Seeded Oat Loaf (seen above). There were samples of all of my jams, including my newest, Mango Daiquiri. Great way to start the day. 

The breads are made by simply mixing a few ingredients together in a large plastic container for 2 minutes. No kneading or fancy equipment required. Leave the covered container on your counter for two hours, during which the yeast causes the dough to bubble up. When it stops rising, place it in your refrigerator. You can use this dough to provide fresh bread whenever you'd like over the next two weeks. Just cut off a chunk, shape it, allow it to rise and then bake it. It's that simple. The time it spends in the refrigerator allows the enzymes in the dough to produce a flavor that normally would take a lot of time, effort & fussing. It's easy and tastes great.

This is also the week that I bake for Geraldson Farm's Co-op. As a result I have some extra muffins available. I'll also be at their first 
SUNDAY FARMER'S MARKET on Feb 26th from 11-3

 http://www.geraldsoncommunityfarm.org/

Blueberry Lemon (foreground) & Cranberry Orange Muffins

Vegan Pumpkin Date Raisin Muffins 

 

Limited quantities available, call or email if you'd like to order some.

Wade Tatangelo wrote a wonderful article in the Bradenton Herald this past week about the house I built & live in. You can find it here: 

 http://www.bradenton.com/2012/02/17/3880534/welcome-to-the-treehouse-bonni.html

If you'd like to be a taste-tester for this week's bake from "Inside The Jewish Bakery", stop by the TreeHouse on Friday from 2-4pm. We'll be making some kind of Sweet Egg Buns. The simple version is a knot roll but Anna & I want to experiment.

The TreeHouse is located down the driveway of 932 12th St West in Bradenton's Village of the Arts. Come through the white iron gate and follow the driveway back to the TreeHouse. We'll be waiting for you.

Pass thru the gate with the sign "BAD DOG BEWARE"

 Hugs from my kitchen,

Bonni & Anna

BONNI BAKES 

932 12th ST West

Bradenton, FL  34205

(941) 746-6647

bonnibakes@gmail.com

 

The Heart of NYC Is A Black & White Cookie

 

 At last, one of my most anticipated bakes of this challenge so far. 

What is more iconic than a real New York City Black & White cookie? Here in Florida I've seen the most appalling versions...shortbread for the base, bizarrely over-sized, a hard crisp cookie, fluffy frosting. I can't bear to remember all of the disasters I've tasted. And of course the taste was never right-on. The biggest insult is that these much less than accurate versions are presented as "the real thing" to innocent mid-westerners and other locals.

A true NYC Black & White cookie is more like cake than cookie. The base is somewhat rounded with a soft, vaguely lemon flavored bottom that is thinly covered on top with equal areas of vanilla & chocolate icing. This recipe had it all, except the lemon, which we judiciously added. In order to have lots of samples, we made most 3"-4", rather than the usual 5" size. Here's how we made them.

First the sugar & fat were creamed until fluffy

Then the eggs were gradually added

This resulted in the batter curdling temporarily

But it all smoothed out once the flour was added

 

The smooth batter was poured into a bag for piping; we're used a freezer grade zip bag with a 1/2" diagonal cut made in the corner

We piped them as concentric circles, which meant 

we had to smooth out and flatten the tops

We used an off-set spatula, but if we had piped it as a 

3" blob we probably could have eliminated this step

 

The cookie centers all puffed up in the oven, as they should

You have to watch them carefully to make sure they only 

brown lightly around the edges

While the baked cookies cooled, it was time to make the two icings

In the end they were a delicious bevy of beauties. 

I hope you were one of our lucky taste-testers.

THIS WEEK IS THE VILLAGE OF THE ARTS STUDIO TOUR

 galleries invite you in to see the magic behind the curtain

We're taking a break in our schedule to share this with you

FRIDAY from 12-3 Anna will show you how to make

VEGETARIAN ASIAN SUMMER ROLLS 

& PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE

delicious, simple, healthy, inexpensive & impressive

 

  We'll be demonstrating how to make them, giving

away free samples, plus the recipes & resources 

----------------------

SATURDAY from 12-3 I'll show you how to make

ARTISAN BREAD IN 5 MINUTES A DAY

basic baguette & whole wheat seeded oat loaf

delicious, easy, can be baked fresh with little notice

 

  I'll show you how to mix this master dough in minutes & have it ready to bake at will. Taste a variety of different samples.

 

We'll be in a tent (I hope it doesn't rain!!) at the edge of the driveway in front of my TreeHouse at 932 12th St W, in the 

Village of the Arts both days from 12-3.

I'm proud that the Bradenton Herald has decided to do a story on my TreeHouse. It will be in the Neighbors Section, this Friday Feb 17th.

Any questions, call me at (941) 746-6647

or email bonnibakes@gmail.com

Hugs from the kitchen,

Bonni & Anna

Oh my, I think my streusel is showing

As a kid I always looked forward to Sunday morning when I would go hand-in-hand with my Dad to round up the usual suspects. Each item was found in a different store -- lox (the real salt cured salmon), whitefish, smoked salmon, chopped herring and health salad at the appetizing store; hot bagels & bialys burning your hands through the paper bag from the bagel bakery; and finally the Jewish bakery for pletzels, corned rye bread, chocolate crullers and cake. When you ordered "Coffee Cake", it was cut from a huge slab and sold by the pound, like my favorite Seven Layer Cake which was sold the same way.

This week we baked Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake and it transported me right back to age 8, nose pressed against the glass bakery case trying to see everything from my modestly elevated position. The warm buttery-sugar smells that wafted from my oven Friday were not lost on each person as they entered. Welcome to my place where memory deliciously meets reality. Stop by Friday between 2-4 to sample each week's bake. This Friday it's the classic NYC Black & White Cookies. These made us proud long before the Giants in the SuperBowl...but we'll toast to that too!

I doubled the recipe and needed A TON OF STREUSEL to top the cake

The ingredients were simple and basic...lots of sweet butter and sugar. 

They mixed for a long time until whipped to a texture like butter cream frosting.

 

Then the beaten eggs were added at a slow dribble

An offset spatula helps to gently spread the cake batter without crushing the air of it

 Anna gently & evenly spreads the LARGE AMOUNT of streusel over the top

 Followed by sprinking the toasted chopped walnuts

I baked a double batch and it came out golden with delicate rich cake bottom & walnut streusel topping

All of this was supervised under the watchful eye of Twinkie , All Breeds Super Chef

 

There are no interior shots of the cake, because we gave it all away. Yums were heard echoing.

I think I'm a very lucky person because I've always found myself in the company of wonderful people. Just this week Mike, our terrific mailman, brought me a stunning cabbage that his lovely wife Evelyn grew in her organic garden. I had to consider how to use such a jewel. My thoughts went back to that old appetizing store in Brooklyn and their Health Salad. It was a specialty I've only found available in those stores, usually located near bagel bakeries, where the combo of fresh bread, smoked fish and cream cheese spreads had an affinity for each other. Health Salad was usually sold next to the Greek Salad, by the pound. It is a sweet & sour, non-mayo version of cole slaw that is a perfect "side" with a sandwich and stays crisp for weeks in the refrigerator in a sealed container. It's even VEGAN before anyone thought to promote it that way. It took a long time for me to unearth a recipe that tasted "right on", but the Second Ave Deli's cookbook has the real thing. 

Try this in honor of Mike & Evelyn's generous gift...

I hope you have a cabbage that is worthy

 

                         2nd Ave Deli Health Salad          yield 8 cups

1 small head green cabbage (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)

2 medium carrots, peeled

1 small green bell pepper

1 large rib celery, cut crosswise into thin slices

3/4 cup distilled white vinegar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, peanut, corn, or canola oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

  

To prepare the salad, halve the cabbage, cut into quarters, and remove the core in each section. With a large, sharp knife, shred the cabbage as finely  as possible and transfer to a large bowl.

Using the coarsest side of a box grater, shred the carrots into the shredded cabbage. Halve the green pepper and remove the seeds, ribs, and stem. Wash and dry the pepper halves, then cut them into extremely fine strands; add them to the slaw along with the celery.

To make the dressing, whisk together the vinegar, oil, sugar, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Pour the dressing over the slaw. Toss well.

Refrigerate the slaw, tightly covered, for at least 8 hours before serving. As the slaw will not wilt much, it should remain crisp and fresh tasting for 2 to 3 weeks.

 

THIS WEEK'S BAKE:  BLACK & WHITE COOKIES

  This cookie can be found in every deli, coffee shop & bakery in New York City. It is a soft, almost cake-like cookie, whose top is iced with vanilla & chocolate. Stop by and 

sample one to see if it lives up the standards all of us New Yorkers know & love.

Anna & I will be baking them Friday morning Feb 10th

Stop by to sample between 2-4pm Friday at

my home, The TreeHouse, just down the driveway at

932 12th St., Bradenton (Village of the Arts)

come through the white iron gate & walk back to the TreeHouse

 

 

I also have a limited amount of

 

Chocolate Orgasm Cookies

Assorted Breadstix

Homemade Jam & Chutney

Any questions, call me at (941) 746-6647

or email bonnibakes@gmail.com

Hugs from the kitchen,

Bonni