Babes start with some fantans in 2013

This first month of the year our sweet babe Elle is kitchen of the month. She picked a recipe that makes small sweet breads, that you can make savory as well. I've made fantans before, they are funny rolls, which tend to be eaten by tearing layers off.  I only made half the recipe this time, cause I had so much bread to eat and the freezer is just too full.

Sourdough starter is needed in the original recipe, I just skipped and used yeast, as I don't have a sourdough monster living in my fridge and don't need one at this point in time. So the recipe below is how I made it (6 rolls). I hope I still understand my notes. The non fat evaporated milk just made me go "?". I then went a bit over the top by making evaporated milk myself, by putting half a liter in a thick-bottomed pan and heating it for hours until half of it was gone. Why? I don't know, I normally substitute all cowmilk related stuff without thinking about it, so there must have been some malfunctioning of my brain. In the end I didn't use any of it for the rolls either, cause our boy can't eat things with milk and I needed him too to eat the rolls. He really loved them btw, so I was happy I did.

I had a jar of marmelade filled 1/3 in the fridge that called out to be used, so I didn't think about other possibilities to flavour them. Check out the other babes for more versions and pick the one that most appeal to you. Become a Bread Baking Buddy: bake, post, and mail Elle about it, so you'll receive a Bread Baking Buddy Badge and are included in the buddy round-up. Deadline 29th of this month.

Last but not least I'm happy to announce that the multi-talented Jamie (Life's a feast) has graciously accepted our invitation to become a Babe, we happy to have her join us, even though I think she already was a Babe before that! Susan and Sara have decided to leave, lack of time and just things changing in their lives, as things tend to do from time to time, thanks for baking together girls!

Jam Fanfans

(makes 6)

PRINT recipe

 230- 310 g bread flour (divided)
1 tsp dry yeast
70 g whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
115 ml of rice cream (oat cream or yogurt with 2 TBsp of water)
2 TBsp maple syrup
58 g butter (or vegetable margarine)
1/2 egg, lightly whisked
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a few TBsp of marmelade
melted butter to brush on

Ahead: Mix 70 g bread flour,115 ml luke warm water and the yeast in a large bowl and let stand for about 3 hours.

Place yogurt/oat or rice cream, butter and maple syrup in a small sauce pan on low heat until the butter has melted, set aside to cool.
Sift 70 g of bread flour, the whole wheat flour, salt and nutmeg over the yeast mixture. Add the cooled liquids and start to knead with a dough hook (standmixer). Add enough flour (in parts) to make a smooth and silky dough. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic and let rise for about 1 hour.

Oil your work surface. Punch down the dough and roll it into a 12×12-inch (30.5×30.5 cm) square. You may have to roll slightly larger, and then trim the ends to even out the square. Brush the dough with some the melted butter.Spread the surface of the dough with the marmalade, leaving 1/6 strip plain. This will allow you to have a plain side of dough on each side of the roll touching the muffin cup. 

Cut into 6 equal strips, then stack the strips on top of each other with the plain strip on top. Cut through the layers into 6 equal pieces, then place each into a buttered muffin cup, standing up so the layers are visible. Gently fan them open. Each will have six dough pieces with marmalade or other filling in between. 

Cover with greased plastic and let the rolls rise in a draft free spot at warm room temperature until the dough doubles, about 1 hour. 

Place the rack in the middle and preheat the oven to 375° F/190° C.

Remove the plastic and bake the rolls until they are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan ten minutes, then transfer to a rack and allow to cool for about another 20 minutes before serving. 

PS.For the full recipe check at Elle's in a few days (she's may be a little late with posting cause she isn't feeling too well)

A new year of the Avid Bakers Challenge

I'll be baking another year with the Avid Bakers Challenge and this time the choice of recipes don't come from a book, but from the King Arthur flour site. Ah, we envy the possibility to visit King Arthur or even to order online, but here in Europe we haven't got such a store and the shipping costs would  be way too much these days. Years back I ordered some things from KA, a very costly procedure indeed. Baking stuff have come more available these days, though still not like the goodies from King Arthur. Fortunately we can make use of their abbundance of recipes that are available on their site and no need to buy yet another bakingbook. So that's a good thing.

And another good thing is the recipe this first time:

  Panettone Muffins

Recipe

These were lovely light, tasty, cakelike and moist muffins. We loved them. I did have some drops "Fiori di Sicilia"left from my order years back (stored as a treasure in the fridge)  and used that, love the stuff! I omitted the cake enhancer, as I didn't have that. The fruits were soaked in fruitjuice.

I divided the batter in 12, eventhough the cups seemed to be filled quite high. The recipe says to fill the cups "quite full", but I didn't know how full that was. I was afraid they might spill, but they behaved like angels and were perfect. So they didn't rise much, but still were very airy inside. The top stayed a little pale, but I resisted the temptation to leave them in longer and that way they were lovely and moist inside. A great recipe!