Breakfast Pinwheels (in under 20 minutes!)

Tags

baking, breakfast, food, fruit preserves, kid, mom, pastry, pastry dough, Pinwheels, quick recipe, recipe, vegetarian

Sometimes when I get up in the morning (usually on the weekends) I just don’t feel like having yet another bowl of oats or cereal or whatever it is I’ve been monotonously eating for breakfast all week. Not having all that much more time on the weekends, though, before the masses (Thomas and Anna) start charging into the kitchen ravenously looking for something to eat, I still look for quick and easy options that aren’t too hard to throw together. These throwing star shaped breakfast pastries are just that and can be prepared and baked quicker than a batch of pancakes or waffles can and are so much more fun to eat! I found the dough recipe on the blog Table of Colors the other day, where she made chocolate crescents with the dough, and decided to make some with Anna. We used only half the dough to make 8 crescents and the rest I used up this morning to make these pinwheels. The dough reminded me so much of the delicate sour cream pastry/cookie dough that my mom always made in the winter time when we were kids, which she would then fill with various flavored fruit preserves (Polaner) and shape into pinwheels like these. It was nice to have a sweet reminder of home to warm up to on this cold, January morning.

Breakfast Pinwheels

Dough adapted from a recipe by Ulla Svensk via Table of Colors

150 g (1 stick +3 Tbs) cold but slightly softened Butter
1 3/4 cup Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 cup Sugar
250 g (1 cup) Quark, Greek Yogurt, or Sour Cream
Fruit Preserves*
Milk for brushing on top

*I used Raspberry but Strawberry or other berry flavors work well too. You can also add pieces of chopped chocolate or sprinkle thinly sliced nuts over the top.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) if baking right away. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. Cut the butter into tablespoon sized pieces into the flour mixture and with a pastry cutter (or blender) cut the cold butter in until it’s well combined with the flour and forms a crumble. Mix in the quark (or yogurt or sour cream) with a spoon until combined. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a bit with your hands to form a smooth dough. Don’t over work the dough, just bring it together until it forms a smooth ball. Cut the dough in half if you want to make 8-10 pinwheels and store the rest in the fridge, wrapped in plastic, for up to two days. You can roll the whole thing out at once if you want but working with half the dough at a time is easier, plus you will have fresh pastry dough waiting in the fridge for another day if you store half of it now. Roll the half portion of dough out into about a 40cm (16″) long 20cm (8″) wide and 0.3cm (1/8″) thick rectangle, as best as you can, these are just estimates you can make it however big or small you want. Trim the edges to make the rectangle smooth and set the trimmings aside (which you can form into another pinwheel of equal or smaller size depending on how much dough you trimmed off). Cut the large rectangle in half length wise dividing it up into two 4″ wide by 16″ long rectangles. Then cut each smaller rectangle three times, width wise, at equal intervals which should make 4 squares from each rectangle and a total of 8 equally sized 4″x4″ squares. Starting about a half inch away from the center point of the square make four cuts out to each corner, leaving a spot in the middle that is uncut for the filling (see picture at the top of the post). Place a heaping teaspoon of fruit preserves at the center of each square and fold every other corner up to the middle of the pinwheel, pressing down slightly to anchor the dough there. Brush the dough with milk and optionally sprinkle with nuts and/or chopped chocolate pieces. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown on top. Eat hot from the oven or allow them to cool if you can!

Sunday Supper

Tags

Anna, baking, broccoli rabe, cooking, crust, dessert, dinner, food, galette, Germany, kid, kindergarten, orecchiette pasta, pasta, pie, plums, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

I had a very busy week last week with Anna, getting her up early every morning and going with her to German “Kindergarten” or preschool. I stayed in the hallway most of the morning while she played with the other kids and got to peek in on her every now and then to see that my now independent (almost 3 year old) daughter was doing just fine without me! According to this particular Kindergarten’s method, the Berlin method, I’ll be going with her for at least another week and letting her stay there for a little bit longer each day. So I’ll be back to Kindergarten again every morning next week!

One draw back to going back to kindergarten (or for the first time) is getting sick. I got the sniffles after my third day there and Anna seems to have picked up a cold too and was battling a low grade fever all weekend which left her cranky, tired and pretty much homebound. We didn’t get to do much on this lovely Indian summer weekend here in Germany. We made it out to the playground a couple of times and took a quick jaunt into the county-side that ended rather badly with a very miserable and tired toddler, so most of our time was spent home this weekend. It was warm here but not so warm that I couldn’t spend some time in the kitchen making us a tasty Sunday supper.

Orecchiette Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Cherry Tomatoes and Garlic

Plum Gallette with Bourbon Vanilla and Lemon

 

For the Pasta:

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Bag of Orecchiette pasta or homemade pasta

1 Cup of reserved Pasta Water

1 Bunch of Broccoli Rabe

6-8 Cloves of Garlic

Cherry (or Grape) Tomatoes

Olive Oil (plenty)

Crushed Red Pepper to taste

Salt and Pepper to taste

Grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese for serving *optional*

Bring water to a boil and cook the orecchiette while you prepare the other ingredients. Clean and chop the broccoli rabe: leaves, florrettes, and most of the stems into bite size pieces. Put some water in the bottom of a deep frying pan or large pot with the broccoli rabe and simmer until the stems are almost tender. Drain the water and add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan/pot. Turn the heat to medium/high and move the broccoli rabe over to one side to make room for the garlic. When the oil is hot and shimmering add the chopped garlic to the bottom of the pan. Add crushed red pepper flakes and stir it in with the garlic and cook until the garlic is just starting to become fragrant. Then mix everything together with the broccoli rabe and saute on medium heat for a few more minutes more or until the stems are tender. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and add to a large bowl with the drained pasta, but be sure to reserve one cup of the pasta’s cooking water before draining. Cut the tomatoes in half and add to the pasta as well. Toss everything together and slowly add the reserved pasta water and some additional olive oil until everything is well coated. Serve immediately.

 

For the Galette:

 

 

 

 

 

 

About 30-40 small Plums

A single Pie Crust (see recipe)

1/4-1/2 cup Turbinado Sugar or Sugar in the Raw

1 packet of Bourbon Vanilla Extract or the seeds from one Bourbon Vanilla bean

Zest from one Lemon

2 Tbs Butter

Preheat the oven to 350° F or 175°C. Wash the plums and remove any stems. Cut them along the slight indent that starts on one side of the stem all the way around the plum, twist to separate and then remove the pit. Cut each half in half and put in a large bowl. Add vanilla and sugar to the cut plums and stir well to combine. Roll out a single pie crust and lay on a baking tray lined with a sheet of baking paper (parchment paper). Sprinkle the lemon zest evenly over the center of the crust outward until about two inches from the edge of the crust, leave this perimeter free. Empty the plums onto the crust in the center area where the zest is and top with small pats of butter over the top of the plum mixture. Fold the edges of the crust up and around the plums patting it down slightly to secure it. Brush the top of the crust with water and optionally sprinkle the crust with a little bit of turbinado sugar all the way around. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling and oozing out the sides*. Let sit for an hour or more before serving.

*Note: Save the drippings from the galette in a sealed container in the refrigerator and this can later be used as a delicious topping on ice cream, yogurt or anything you want. It adds a sweet and velvety plum flavor and is very delicious, it shouldn’t go to waste.