In Snyde, The Jewish Baker: More Trials from Stan And Norm's Book
Today I baked two things from Inside the Jewish Bakery: one worked out very well, and one didn’t. The double knot rolls with Honey-Whole Wheat Challah dough are just as I hoped. The Mini-Schnecken came out all wrong.
First, the Mini-schnecken. These are supposed to be like rugelach, except rolled up and cut rather than rolled in a crescent shape. I used the cream cheese short dough from ITJB, and it was easy to make and had a great texture. But as I was rolling out the dough to add the filling, I realized that the dough sheet was way too thick. I followed the instructions, rolling one recipe of the dough out to 18” by 8”, and ended up with a sheet of dough that was about 3/16”“ thick, and when I added the amount of jam filling the recipe called for, that was too thick too. I wonder if one recipe is supposed to make two sheets of 18x8 and the filling is supposed to cover both (more thinly). That would make a product more like my experience of rugelach.
In any case, though they look nothing like mini-schneckens, they are delicious (some Apricot and some Olallieberry). I especially like the dough…might be great for bear claws. Here’s some photos:
The double knot rolls were a breeze to make. I hand kneaded the dough and it had a great silky consistency. The instructions in ITJB for shaping the rolls were excellent. And the resulting rolls are superb. They’ll be great with leftover turkey.
Glenn
Comments
I think that we need to refine the filling instructions for the mini-schnecken, however; try rolling the dough about 1/4" thick and spreading it with a *thin* layer of jam -- just enough to coat the dough -- that way, the taste of the jam will complement, rather than overwhelm the dough. We're still working our way through this ... so thanks for yur forebearance!
Stan
The recipe states that it makes 3 dozen cookies. The instructions are to make an 18" roll and cut it in 1" sections. Looks as if the dough should be cut in half to make 2 rolls.
Thanks for the reply, Stan. I know there are some tweaks to make in your first edition. I consider it a learning experience, and I get to eat the results happily. Next time, I'll cut the dough ball in half and roll each out with half the filling. That should work.
Glenn
Which dough did you use?
They are great with leftover turkey, although it's been three years ...
Works for PB&J, too ...
David
I used the Honey-Whole Wheat Challah formula from ITJB (or, as we call it in our household, "Chunny-Chole Wheat-Challah"). Very nice to work with and delicious (even though it's a little bit nutritious).
What a doll your grand-daughter used to be [smileyface].
Glenn
Hi Glenn,
What a nice job you did shaping those rolls. Beautiful.
:^) breadsong
I just followed the excellent roll-shaping instructions in the book, and the dough behaved superbly. Thanks for the compliment.
Glenn
Today I tried the rugelach recipe. It worked out pretty well. I made up two sheets of dough with the recipe and ended up with about 36 rugelach for my efforts. I had about half of the cinnamon filling leftover after making the cookies, so I froze it for another batch some time in the future. The cookies themselves are tender and sweet, very nice. I used the standard short dough for these and did use the optional nuts (I chose walnuts) somewhat finely chopped to fill the cookies along with the cinnamon filling. They don't look anything like the picture in the book, but they are good enough to eat!