Results tagged “dough”

I hardly ever use recipes from the internet, least of all from unknown food bloggers (of whom there seem to be a few million).  Usually I spend hours, days even, researching the thing I want to make in various books and then come up with a hybrid recipe that, for me, takes the best of each.  But these Polish doughnuts are an exception.  With barely a thought (OK, I did check in a few books, very quickly) I followed this recipe from the For the Body and Soul blog pretty much exactly and it worked so well I’ve barely tweaked it.  So thank you Karolcia (from Poland, studying in Canada).

My aim was to recreate the light, puffy, too-easy-to-eat doughnuts we’d had at Cukiernia Samanta - a fantastic bakery in Zakopane, Poland where they make literally millions of doughnuts, especially in time for Fat Thursday (at the start of Lent) when all of Poland goes doughnut crazy.  We begged for their recipe, but it is a closely guarded family secret.  After many hours of mixing, kneading, resting, shaping and frying this beautiful enriched dough, I succeeded.  My note to self for next time is to let the dough rise (more slowly) in the fridge as it would be easier to roll and shape when cold.

This class is taught by professional pastry chef Jennifer Altman, who is flying over from California to deliver a series of special one-off Masterclasses with Culinary Anthropologist.  Don't miss out!

This is a full-day hands-on workshop limited to just 8 guests.  You will mix, roll, shape, bake and fill an astounding array of sweet and savoury pastries - some to enjoy for lunch with a glass of wine, and some to take home. 

Jennifer will cover the techniques and secrets of making perfectly flaky yet tender pie crusts, puff pastry, sweet short crust tarts and choux pastry (éclairs, gougères...).  You will never be intimidated by pastry again!

Dates:  Saturday 22nd repeated Sunday 23rd January, 2011

Time:  10am-4pm

Location:  London N5

Price:  £110

Multi-booking discount:  If you book 4 or more places at any of Jennifer's January 2011 masterclasses (Cookies, Pastry, Chocolate & Cakes), each place will be discounted by £10.  For example, you could attend all four masterclasses, or you plus a friend could come to two of them, or you plus three friends could come to one class. 

To book: email Anna  Please read the booking terms & conditions before booking your place.  Thank you.

Ever since he got to Morocco, Barnaby has been searching for warka.  He'd already learnt about yufka in Turkey and filo in Greece.  So he was excited to hear that in Morocco they also love incredibly thin pastry - but have a totally different way of making it!

But could he find it?  It kept turning up in food like the famous pastilla pie, and the little briwat pastries he saw all over the place.  But nobody seemed to sell it on its own, let alone actually make it themselves - so where did it come from?

Well, today he found out.  Hidden away in their homes down little alleyways in medinas all over the country, there are women like Khadija, sitting at big round hotplates, making warka to sell to restaurants and patisseries.

But rather than rolling the dough out like their Turkish cousins, they take handfuls of sloppy, sticky dough and smear it directly onto the hot metal.  Ouch! thought Barnaby - especially when he tried it himself.  It's not easy, particularly if your hands are furry.  Best leave it to the warka women ...

We came across warka being made the old-fashioned way by Khadija in her home in Essaouira.  Warka is the ultra-thin pastry used to make lots of classic Moroccan dishes, such as pastilla and briwat.  It looks a bit like the Turkish yufka and Greek filo, but is made completely differently: there's no rolling, just a lot of dangerous-looking hand-to-hotplate action. 

You might think this kind of manual cooking is the epitome of Slow Food, but it takes only seconds - at least, when you know how to do it.  Check out Khadija's technique, and just how fast she knocks them out, by clicking on the picture to watch the video: