EASTER BUNNY BUNS !

The Easter Bunny was brought to America by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch
country during the 1700s  . The arrival of the Osterhase or Easter Bunny,  was considered one of "childhood's greatest pleasures," similar to the arrival of  the Christkind on Christmas Eve.  The Easter Bunny would, if the children had been good, lay brightly colored eggs in nests (usually made of baskets or hats) that the children would place in secluded areas of the house.  From this came the hiding of the eggs and the Easter egg hunt.

I used to make these little sweet dough Easter bunnies when I was a kid,  my Dad would have us kids help him around the holidays making things like this.  Good memories.

I am planning on making some sweet dough bunnies for the Family Easter get together this year.
I hope to involve my kids too this year again although they seem to be getting a little old for this kids stuff.  These bunnies are not your average looking bunny but they are very cute.
This of course brings me back to when I was a kid learning all the basics of baking from my Dad and trying not to get in the way or slow production down by asking a lot of dumb questions or trying to get my Dad to show me how to do things.  Fortunately he was very willing to do just that and is the reason I am still in the business today .  I suppose he was willing partly because I would be sweeping the floors and washing the dishes or cracking the eggs later anyways (yes we cracked whole eggs into buckets for later use in baked goods back when shell eggs were cheaper than whole frozen buckets of eggs).

I'm going to post the recipe I used but you can use any good sweet dough or egg dough.

Easter Bunny Bun Recipe

1 lb bread flour

1/4 oz salt

1 oz  sugar

3  oz shortening or butter or margarine  (I used stick margarine)

1/4 oz baking powder

8 oz  warm water  (8 oz  = 1 cup)

1/2  oz active dry yeast (allow yeast to reconstitute in the warm water)

1   egg

• after reconstituting the yeast in the warm water add the rest of the ingredients and mix in stand mixer for about 12 to 15 minutes or until the dough is nice and stretchy 

• after mixing let stand in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until about double in size
• divide into 3 approximately equal pieces knocking the air out of it and rounding them up a bit
• allow to rest again about 15 minutes
• divide each chunk of dough into 12 pieces or whatever size piece you decide on
• round each piece and roll long as seen in the picture
• let them relax and then roll one end narrower than the other and flatten the fat side down and cut according to the pictures
• make the eyes out of raisins cut in half or whole dry currents
• allow them to rise for about 30 minutes and brush with egg white (for a shine) and bake at 350* for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden and still tender
• brush them with a simple powder sugar glaze while still warm

I hope these become a tradition for your family as it is for mine.

Enjoy

German Amerikaners

I was reminded recently by a friend about a pastry I used to make in the Bakery called Amerikaners.

It's been a long time since I've made those so...   here we are.

These are something like an upside down muffin cap except for they are baked that way on purpose and the flat side is glazed with a citrus flavored glaze. Although I did make some with a coffee flavored glaze which were quite yummy!

I like to kinda get back to the old recipe's and make things that people used to enjoy many years ago.  This is a recipe from a 50 year old recipe book that my dad gave me.  It's actually a commercial baker's book that advertised a brand of shortenings that were sold in Germany at the time.

I do read a little bit of German so I can translate these recipes into English.
Sometimes it's challenging to figure out what the ingredients are but in those cases I just pick up the phone and call my Dad.

This is a very simple recipe and as you hopefully have gathered by now simple is what I'm always about when it comes to baking.

Here is the recipe for these deliciously simple treats.

Amerikaners

1 lb  2 oz  pastry flour  (or 1/3 all purpose flour and 2/3 cake flour)

8 oz  sugar

4 oz  butter or margarine

10 oz milk

2     eggs

1/2  oz baking powder
1/2    tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together until smooth

Scoop onto parchment lined sheet pan with enough space between them to expand a bit

you can either use an ice cream scoop or a tablespoon to drop them with

bake for about 10 to 15 minutes depending on how big you make them, bake at 350*F

they should be just golden brown on the bottoms as seen in pictures
glaze with a simple powder sugar glaze with a touch of either vanilla or lemon flavoring

I hope you try these and let me know how they turn out.

signing out....

Mike the bakerboy

Quality Time

Time...
Wow, we could get pretty deep with the study of time , but I never was much for studying.

The other day My daughter asked if we could make cookies for her to bring to a group of volleyball players she is helping coach. Of course how can I refuse that right? Well truth be told Andrea did most of the work I just "coached" her through it. I always like it when Andrea shows interest in baking and so I take advantage of that and show her some tricks and tips on baking and cleaning and being organized.

She is always telling me how her friends think she is so lucky to have a baker for a dad "you must get this good stuff all the time!" . Not so at the Baker's house. first of all I'm trying to lose a little weight and that doesn't help at all, and secondly I do that stuff all the time for work so why would I do it at home!

I have a recipe for your standard chocolate chip cookies that just turns out perfect every time.
The catch is though that I use a scale to measure my ingredients. Using a scale takes a lot of the inconsistency out of baking. Of course being a baker I compared how we did it in the bakery with how most people do it at home , Cups and teaspoons as opposed to pounds and ounces. In fact I take it a step further and use a scale that has a grams setting which of course means that I had to change all my recipes to metric. Fortunately I know how to do this from my bakery training.

Measuring by volume can be very inaccurate when measuring things like flour because the flour can be either too fluffy or too compacted.
I use a scale that can be zero-ed out after each addition of ingredient which makes the measuring really fast, very accurate, and I can do it right into the mixing bowl. Using a scale guarantees you that you will have the same amount every time.

Here's the recipe

Chocolate Chip Cookies

170 g Granulated sugar
170 g Brown sugar
10 g baking soda
10 g salt
255 g butter/shortening/margarine ( I like using block margarine)
426 g All Purpose flour
2 eggs
227 g chocolate chips

• cream the sugars and the butter or margarine in a mixer until smooth
• add the eggs and blend with the sugar/butter mixture
  
• add the flour (with the salt and baking soda sifted into it) a little at a time while mixing slowly
• when all the flour is mixed in then add the chocolate chips just until mixed in
• make into logs of dough and refrigerate until ready to bake (or bake right away)
• after removing from the fridge, cut into equal size pieces and bake at 350* until light brown around the edges and just set in the middle.

If you need a scale you can buy a decent one at Ikea for about 20$ or you can just use a diet scale if it has grams on it.

I guarantee this recipe will produce delicious chocolate chip cookies every time... especially if you make them with your kids.

Make it with love,

Mike the Baker Boy