Kolach, Ears and Rockin' Rolls!

This past weekend included some new baked items. We started with Kolach, a Bulgarian type of bread that's very rich - the dough is made with eggs and yogurt. It reminded me a lot of Chalah, except it's a bit more sour.



We weren't quite sure what to eat it with. I figured an egg would be good, especially since we had some leftover from glazing the bread.



I spread it with cream cheese and topped with some greens. It was good!

A grad student got married over spring break, and so a couple of other grad students decided to have a little reception for him in the office. Then they decided that there are a couple of other people who got married recently, so they decided to add them to the celebration. One of them is myself. It was a bit weird to be congratulated for something that happened over 6 months ago, but I guess it's my fault for not telling anyone about it when it actually happened.
For the reception I decided to bring Hamantaschen, traditional Purim cookies. After all, Purim is just a few days away! In Hebrew they're called "the ears of Haman". Haman was the evil guy who tried to convince the king of Persia that the Jews are bad. I don't know why they decided to name the cookies after the guy's ears, though. As you can see from the photo, they don't really look like ears. Well, not human ones.



I used this recipe, but filled with raspberry jam because that's what I had. The dough kept opening during baking and I had to reseal them, which was kinda hot on my fingers. But the flavor was good.

And for dessert - buttermilk rolls with some veggie BBQ riblets!



Mmm... Molassessy!

Pretzels, Stollen, and Rolls

Another rather busy weekend... Mark started on Friday, with his world-famous pretzels. Last time he made them we realized - too late - that our oven is broken. So we had to bake them in the toaster oven. In addition to being extremely exhausting, the ones that went in late rose too much and got way too fat. They were still good, though.
This time we could bake them in the oven, which is much better suited for baking 16 to 24 of the beasts.

This is what they look like after they're brushed with butter and sprinkled with garlic powder.

The next day he made buttermilk rolls. These are our favorite rolls - we use them for Sloppy Joes, with burgers, hot dogs (all vegetarian, of course!), and eggs. Seems like every time they get even better!


Sunday we finally made Stollen, a traditional German bread made during the Christmas season. And I say "we" because I made the little baby Jesus that lies inside the colorful folded covers - out of almonds.

Jesus is barely visible in this picture - he seems to blend in pretty well with the blankets - but it's still very yummy. The dough is flavored with cinnamon and cardamom and rum-soaked raisins and dried fruit. The pineapple and cherries are my favorites!