Author: petebakes

peanut butter blossoms

do you like peanut butter and chocolate? sure you do. who doesn’t? i can’t resist it. i used to trade all of my halloween and easter candy for reeses peanut butter cups. move aside, charleston chew. no room for you.

are these just peanut butter cookies with hershey’s kisses stuck in them? sure they are, but the sum is greater than its parts. it’s almost a reese’s peanut butter cup, deconstructed…and inside out..sort of. well, chocolate and peanut butter are a delicious combination anyway. these cookies could not be easier to make, and they’re actually fun too. next time i could try actually putting a reese’s cup in the center of the cookie, but dare i?

one note of caution – it can be tough to store these cookies since they’re not easily stackable. and if you try to put them on top of one another in some kind of container, the kisses can melt and get squished. you have two options: either refrigerate the cookies after they cool on the sheet for about half an hour before trying to store them, or eat them before you get a chance to store them. i usually opt for the latter.

pastry

portuguese egg tarts – pastéis de nata

Post author By petebakes
Post date June 29, 2008
98 Comments on portuguese egg tarts – pastéis de nata

let me start by apologizing for my lack of posts lately. moving into a new apartment coupled with a vacation in california (including a much-needed vacation from the computer) left me with little free time to bake. but now i’m back, wooden spoon in hand, ready to take on another recipe and make up for lost time. let’s get to it.

i had my first portuguese egg tart in america, but they did come from a portuguese bakery. during college, my old roommate’s mom came to visit for a few days, bringing with her boxes and boxes of pastries, including about 4 dozen egg tarts. let’s just say they didn’t last too long in our house. unfortunately, they’re not something you typically see in american bakeries, but if you look around a little bit, you’ll come across them.

pastéis de nata are thought to have been created by catholic sisters in a convent in lisbon. the convent belonged to the belém parish in lisbon, and so they are known there as pastéis de belém. pastéis de belém is also the name of a now world-famous pastry shop in lisbon, specializing in, of course, these egg tarts. my girl was lucky enough to eat there during her trek around europe last year and can attest to their incredible and well-deserved reputation. as for my tarts, she thought they tasted more like the chinese egg tarts you can get at dim sum places, which i am still happy with.

this week i used *gasp* store-bought puff pastry instead of homemade pastry dough. two reasons – i made these on a weeknight where time constraints kept me from dedicating the proper amount of time to a pastry dough and leaving me enough light for photos. secondly, i’ll be making a homemade pastry dough in a day or two for another recipe i can’t wait to make. and while store-bought puff pastry may make some of you cringe, the real star here is the creamy and decadent filling. if you’re going to sit and eat a dozen tarts at once (which is more plausible than it seems once you eat one), just avoid looking at the filling ingredients in the recipe. i’m almost glad i don’t have a neighborhood bakery churning these out – i’d be an extra 200 lbs by next month.

bread

how to make braided challah

Post author By petebakes
Post date June 15, 2008
39 Comments on how to make braided challah

a.k.a challah atcha girl, a.k.a challah like it’s hot.

it’s no fun to bake when it’s hot out. and right now, we’re being subjected to some ungodly death-heat that’s driving temperatures (at least here in dc) up around 110 F. but i don’t like to let anything stop me from baking, so i am forging ahead. sure, with the oven on, my kitchen might hit something like 125 F but it’s totally worth it for delicious baked goods…

challah is the first yeast bread i ever made, and it’s pretty special to me because taking those loaves out of the oven the first time really opened up a world of new possibilities for me. like many, i was afraid of using yeast the first time. and again, like many, it was a girl that actually gave me the confidence to face my fear. my intention was to impress the girl for rosh hashanah (she is jewish and i am not, it would be my first rosh hashanah). i didn’t actually expect the bread to come out looking good, but when it did, my heart skipped a beat. then, when it actually tasted good, it was like the flood gates had opened.

completing my first yeast bread gave me a rush and an incredible desire to take on every recipe i saw. i had tackled something that i considered way over my head and come out victorious. i was let in on the secret that anyone can bake anything – all you’ve got to do is try.

now let’s get back to the challah – the bread is soft and inviting, good for any meal. in fact, after baking, i always leave one loaf for eating and freeze the other so the girl can make bread pudding later. and this time, half of the the loaf for straight up eating is going to become french toast. i’ve made the simpler three braid challah here – there are step by step photo instructions below.