the urban baker: MORE BAKING!!

I bake to relax. I enjoy reading cookbooks, I enjoy "prepping" my provisions, I love, love, love SURFAS (a restaurant supply store in Culver City, however with the volume turned up). I go there at least once a week and all the employees know and love Levi. He always gets some sort of treat! Here are some of last weeks baked treats...

Maida Heatter has some of the best biscotti recipes. A lot of her recipes require that you freeze the logs of dough before baking. This is great for someone like me who likes to always have fresh baked stuff around. I can make logs of this stuff, in all sorts of flavors and then bake when needed (especially good when going to friends and family for dinner). This particular recipe is a milk chocolate, almond biscotti. Problem is, I can eat 10 at a time.

This rugulah recipe is my grandmas. Any rugulah recipe with a cream cheese dough works well ( I have tried a few). I mix up the rugulah. The filling always consists of sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. Yet my kids like them with mini chocolate chips and Mitch likes them with dried cherries and nuts. Anything goes!

I had some buttermilk in the fridge that was on the verge of becomings something really, really nasty. I hate throwing anything out. Most of our meals and baking are made with potential garbage. Those are usually my best creations! I had enough buttermilk to make a double batch of scones and the marble cake below ( my families all time favorite treat). I have finally perfected the perfect scone. These scones are made with cake flour (making them much lighter), buttermilk and no eggs! Go figure....

Again, I like to mix up the flavors. One batch was an espresso/chocolate combo and the other batch I used grated orange zest, sour dried cherries and a little bit of hazelnuts.