The Cheese Danish skip #2 go to #3: A little tribute to my friend Amanda

Since the my last blog I have attempted cheese danishes twice. Neither were perfect, but my very last attempt was acceptable to me. I loved the taste, however my puff pastry dough attempts are no good. I am making a passing grade, but it just ain't good enough for me! It's frustrating because I have no idea what I am doing wrong or if I am even doing anything wrong! Okay, so my second attempt left the dough a little crunchy and, quite honestly, I  didn't want to make dough ever again after that, but my friend Amanda Brouillette is moving to Arkansas and she informed me that I had to make cheese danishes for her road trip there. On my third attempt I decided to use a different dough recipe for these. This came out helpful and delicious, although I still had the same issues with the dough being too sticky to handle. I did use the same recipe for the cream cheese filling that I had used before because it is quite delicious. You will notice I got a little creative the last time and I added some fruit in the danishes, this turned out to be a good choice! So here is my third attempt and my tribute :)

After an extremely long process of making the dough here it is, laminated and all.

The strawberries in the filling has such an amazing taste. it really spreads throughout all the filling.

As my friend Amanda said "I just got a burst of blueberries in my mouth!" lol

The way they look as they cook really makes my think they arent going to come out looking "together".

I think with the dough my problem may be that i may need to pound the butter much more thin.

They looked acceptable though. Everyone seemed to like them :) Amanda especially: I hope you enjoy them on your road trip!

Now for my tribute, some pics from the past and present.

Myself, Kristin Y., Brooke, and Amanda after a Starbucks bible study

July 2010

♥Amanda, myself, and Kermesha August 2010♥ visiting my friend Kermesha on her last day with starbucks:(

Yeah so Amanda and my friend Kristin S. stole my camera and I got this.

And this! lol Kristin S. and Amanda

Amanda, me, and Kristin Y. at Central Perk Coffee, Just hanging out talking about Jesus! October 2010

Starbucks girls at Kristin Y. birthday tea :) Kristing Y., Amanda, me, Brooke, and Hollie October 2010

At my 25th birthday (Cheesecake Bistro). Brooke, myself, Amanda, and Kristin Y.  March 2011

Just today saying farewell to Amanda on her last day of work and the last time I see her for a while in LA :(

August 21st 2011 Me, Misty, Mrs. Christie, and Amanda. Already missed! ♥ my co-workers

   

Okay, so I will revisit the cheese danish for perfection's sake, but for now I think it is time to move on! I must find something a little easier for this go round. I'll have to decide later cause I'm baked out!!

The Cheese Danish #1: Only a Minor Fail

Okay, so as much as it pains me to say this, i did fail on the cheese danishes. The good news? I know why I failed! So first here is the recipe brought to you by Joe Pastry. He does a really nice detailed job on how to make puff pastries and I am super thankful for it! By the way I did these over a span of three days, somewhat due to procrastination and somewhat to difficulty.

Looks a little off, don't it?

My first mistake was that somehow I messed up my dough consistency, not sure how, but i WILL correct this on my second attempt. 

Yeah, so i had to use a baby bottle to measure out 1 ounce, I could not find anything else to measure out a single ounce! Thankfully me and my friend Chelsea were babysitting my friends baby that night!

There they are in the background :)

Cultured butter...REALLY! Wow, this process was scary, but it ended up not being the point at which I failed. I had a hard time finding a tapered (Chinese) rolling pin which is necessary in the butter culturing process. When I went over to my friends house, on the 4th of July, he had one!!! They told me they thought they had gotten it from Whole Foods Market, but I borrowed it. This was such great news! I rushed over to whole foods the next day and was pleasantly surprised that they did have them, so now...so do I!

My second mistake was that my friend and I decided that the dough probably needed to be flattened some more since (our logic was) it was going to puff up in the baking process. Big mistake! I made two without flattening it, but the rest of the batches from here on were ruined :(

 This is the second batch with the bad dough.

Some good news is that the toughest critics in the world found the danishes to be delicious (as well as myself)! My friend Dana and her children were the merciless, but thankfully kind critics. lol

My friend Dana feeding the willing critic ;)

At Least I Have Baker Friends Right?

Yes! You are correct! I have totally been procrastinating on this cheese danish adventure. The truth is...well...I'm a little scared it will be a fail. The recipe is a bit complicated (maybe i just don't get it yet) and things are not looking so good with my dough :(. I have clawed not to finish these but I'm afraid I need to do this tonight. So while I am in the middle of a major fail with some cheese danishes. I would like to share some pics of some yummy cookies my bestest friend made for the 4th of July. It was a dessert pizza recipe that was made into cookies. Mmmmmm. C'est bon!

There is my bestie Hollie in the back - the creator of those delicious cookies! Yep her baby is super cute.

Ok So I'll share my friends to you as well : Hollie, Crissy (the mom), and Chelsea.

My friends at the 4th celebration.

Ok, no more procrastinating! Back to work Missy!

Southwestern Eggrolls

Ok, so I know I said this was a blog for pastries and I'm telling you it is, but I guess I'm cheating a little because I do want to put some of my other stuff on here. Especially this recipe because it is time consuming and I won't be doing it again for a while, I just really don't enjoy doing it like a I do a good pastry (they're just more pretty when you're done..like art :). Recipe is a copycat of Chili's southwestern eggrolls Thanks :)

Light Wheat Garlic and Rosemary Spin Rolls

• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 3/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 3 tbsp minced garlic
• 1tbsp chopped rosemary

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. 

  

Mix sugar, salt, 1/4 cup melted butter, egg, and whole wheat flour into yeast mixture. Stir in all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough out onto a well floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

I use my car...cause it works!!! :)

Punch down dough, cover, and let rise in warm place until doubled again, about 30 minutes. 

LOL So I have nothing to pound this with so... I used a pot, whatever gets the job done!!!!

Grease 2 dozen muffin cups. Punch down dough, and divide into two equal portions. Roll each into a 6x14 inch rectangle, and cut rectangle into twelve 7x1 inch strips.

Brush garlic and rosemary mixture onto one side of each strip (not pictured). Roll strips up into spirals. and place into muffin cups. Brush tops with melted butter. Let rise uncovered in a warm place 40 minutes, or until doubled in bulk. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

 

 Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven, and brush again with melted butter.

 

 Yay Light Wheat Garlic and Rosemary Spin Rolls. Light wheat roll recipe from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/light-wheat-rolls/detail.aspx-- Thanks!!!!