Tuesday 27 October 2015

The most delicious strudelly biscuit

Do not wait. Do not think. Do not stop. Go straight home and make these. You may want to stop for some ice cream to eat with them but that's the only diversion you should make. These are seriously delicious (not really biscuits and not really strudel) and you do not want to miss out. If you've read my other posts you won't be surprised to learn I did NOT wait the recommended 6 hours after baking to try these. I don't think I even made the 6 minute mark. And I just kept on 'trying' them. Eventually I rushed some over to my neighbour, just so I could truthfully say I hadn't eaten them all myself.

These are the rather prosaically named (for Rose) Cookie Strudel from the Baking Bible. I'm not sure I would have chosen to bake them, if left to my own devices, because the picture doesn't do justice to the flavour (how could it?!) plus it's always a bit trying to make this kind of pastry in the heat. I love Rose's rugelach but they always end up looking like they fell out of the oven when I make them at Christmas. Of course I've learnt some new skills over the last (almost) year; in particular the benefits of refrigerating dough/biscuits at every stage to help combat the effects of the heat and humidity.


Actually you might be slightly misled by my 'do not stop' advice since you have to wait a number of hours for the pastry dough to firm up in the fridge before you can finish these. And if you live in a very warm climate like Darwin you need to refrigerate during the shaping and before the baking too.

You can see that my dough came out very wet. It looks like cake batter almost. It was quite tasty but not really rating highly on the delicious scale for raw dough. 


It was a miracle that (after overnight in the fridge) that wet dough was able to be rolled out (using plentiful amounts of flour) into a thin rectangle (with some emergency refrigeration in between).


The scant filling of walnuts, currants and cinnamon on top of apricot jam makes this a fairly cheap biscuit/dessert to make. 


Now that my workmates have discovered phylliscaroline there are no baking secrets anymore and I fear I may have to make a batch for them to avoid outrage and retribution for not sharing. I might need to make it double batch. Surely I couldn't eat a double batch myself before I got to work...?


Next week the Alpha Bakers are making (the long winded) Marble in Reverse with Custom Rose Blend Ganache Glaze.

6 comments:

  1. So glad you liked these too!
    Does Darwin have a non-humid season? Ever?

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    1. Not ever! Just some times when it is less humid and a few degrees cooler. This time of the year is the hottest time with the highest humidity and no rain to cool us down. They talk about people going 'troppo' at this time of year which means going a bit mad with the heat.

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  2. Brilliant post! Okay, I'll go straight to the market for sour cream to make these this morning. After a write up like this how could I resist?! And your photos make me sorry I didn't go to the store yesterday because they look really tasty.

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  3. thanks for reminding me once again how much i love this! and love your post!

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  4. Looks so good. Ha, so funny about your co-workers. Glad mine don't really know.

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  5. Sounds like Darwin and Singapore has the same climate. At least you get cool season.. we don't since we are only 10-degrees off equator. After reading your post, I will have to go and make this tonight!

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