Fresh from the Oven - Kiflice

This months' FFTO recipe was Kiflice - Serbian Cheese Rolls.  These are apparently a great tradition in Serbia with each family having their own special recipe. Our recipe was posted by Maja this month and it was a really interesting one!


I made the basic dough in the breadmaker and immediately noticed how rich it was - milk instead of water, 75ml of sunflower oil and an egg.  That is before we get to the amazing and unusual cooking method.


Making the little rolls was slightly more fiddly.  The dough had a great texture and was very easy to work with.  I split it into 5 pieces (as per the instruction) and then rolled each piece out into a circle which I cut into 8 triangles.  It was a very good way of getting roughly equal triangle and made so much easier when I decided to make the cuts with my pizza wheel! 

Each triangle was filled with about a tsp of crumbled feta.  Cottage cheese was recommended by Maja but as soon as I saw her note to make sure it was well salted I just decided to use feta instead and this was a very good move.

I was surprised that no rising time was given for the rolls after they had been made but since I couldn't cool them straight away anyway they did get a rise of an hour or so in a cold house - temperatures in the UK have suddenly plummeted to around 0 degrees which is very cold for November.

To finish them off I took the route of putting optional sesame seeds on top.  I am very pleased I did that and would happily have used poppy seeds as well.

This is the finished picture of about 1/2 the final amount.

The recipe made 40 which was a fairly large amount.  I was visiting friends on the day I made it and so shared the rolls with them as J and I would never have got through them on our own. They tasted stunning and I would definitely make them again - probably for a special party or other occasion. 

The full recipe by Maja is below including the unusual (and so very tasty) cooking method.  Do check it out...

Dough:
500 g all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
20 g fresh yeast (2 tsp instant yeast or 2.5 tsp active dry yeast)
1 tsp sugar
250 ml milk
75 ml sunflower oil
1 egg

Filling:
200-250 g cottage cheese (you may use feta or other fresh cheese)
1 egg white (optional)

And more:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk
100 g margarine


Directions:
1. Crush the cheese using a fork. Add some salt if it tastes neutral. Stir the egg white in, if the cheese is too crumbly. Filling shouldn't be runny, but thick and compact, thicker than the cream cheese, and pretty salty.

2. For the starter - dissolve yeast with some lukewarm milk in a cup, add a teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoon of flour, stir to get smooth batter. Set aside at room temperature, or near the stove top, to let the yeast activate and fill the cup.

3. Sift the flour, add salt. Add activated yeast, egg, oil and milk, then combine using a wooden spoon to get smooth dough. The dough seems like too soft and too sticky at the beginning, but don't worry, continue with kneading, and soon your dough should start to separate from the bowl, and thicken. It is not necessary to knead the dough by hands, the wooden spoon works just fine (you may use any spoon, of course, the wooden spoon is common tool for all stirring and kneading works here at the Balkans). Grease the cling film with oil, cover the bowl, and set aside for at least an hour, at lukewarm place, to let the dough doubles in size.

4. Re-knead the dough, divide into 5 equal parts, shape them into balls. Each part should make 8 rolls, so you'll end up with 40 rolls, which should perfectly fit the regular oven pan, if lined in 5x8 order. Flatten each ball by hands over the floury working surface, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough out in a circle, a few millimeters thick. Use a sharp knife to cut the circle into 8 triangles. Take one triangle, stretch it in the air with your hands, to get it extended as much as you can, gently. Put some filling at the triangle base, then fold the edges of the base as shown at pic2, to avoid the filling leak out during baking. Roll. Arrange the rolls at the pan (5x8).

5. Lightly beat the egg yolk with a tablespoon of milk, then brush the top of each roll with the mixture. This is used to prevent forming thick crust, and to improve the color of baked rolls. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds, if you like.

6. Arrange the small peaces of margarine between the rolls, then bake in the oven preheated to 180°C for about 20 minutes. Be careful not to overbake them. Let them cool a bit, be careful as the filling is always more hot then the dough, take a seat in your favorite armchair, and start enjoying the softest cheese rolls ever. And don't think of calories, please :)

A place to note books/authors I may want to read...

The Hathor Legacy had a list of great authors of colour who write SF and Fantasy novels (other than my personal heroine Octavia Butler).  So I am just popping them down here so that when I get through my current backlog of around 40 unread books (I know I know) I can read them...

N. K. Jemisin, 
Nisi Shawl, 
Alaya Dawn Johnson, 
Terence Taylor, 
Ted Chiang, 
Shweta Narayan, 
Chesya Burke, 
Moondancer Drake, 
Saladin Ahmed, 
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz

Handkerchief making

J uses a lots of hankies which I approve of heartily as a very green option (compared to throw away tissues).  But given how well he uses them he also needs a lot.  So I used some left-over cotton bed sheets to make a few for him to add to the pile.

I have finished 2 out of the 4 I have on the go, the last two only need embroidering which has been good fun as I have done any free hand embroidery for a long time.

So here are the first two in the hope that putting them up here will encourage me to finish the other two.  Although I have discovered that this sort of embroidery makes for even worse RSI pain in my shoulder than knitting which is unfortunate.  I don't remember getting all these aches and pains from sewing and knitting when I was in my early twenties - I blame computers and computer mice!

I also discovered (thankfully) that the embroidery silks are far more colourfast than I was expecting and can be washed on a 40 degree cycle with no ill effects at all!

Cubist Socks

My PA left the company recently to go on an amazing adventure, volunteering in the Highlands of Scotland and then trekking in Nepal.  I was so excited for her and wanted to knit her a pair of socks before she left (because knowing the weather in Scotland she will need all the warmth she can get.  Also she was someone who was so pleased to received hand knitted socks in the past and it is so gratifying to knit for people who really love getting handknit gifts.

So I had gone to Knit Nation with her in mind and bought the bright rainbow coloured yarn from Easyknits.  My PA often wore bright colours to work and I hoped that the bamboo in the yarn would mean that the socks would be hardwearing in her hiking boots.

One of the things I bought at the show was a programme because it contained two free patterns - one by Alice Yu which I shall be knitting up in due course and the Cubist socks by Cookie A (and I do love Cookie A patterns).  So I decided to use the Cubist pattern with the rainbow yarn as they seemed to compliment each other.

 In think in hindsight they were a little tight around the top and across the instep - which I was surprised about (particularly the instep bit) as the pattern didn't appear to be lacking in give.  It was not like it was lots of tight cabling or anything.  I hope that these elements didn't make them difficult to wear or put on in the end though.  My PA was really chuffed with them though and I do hope she is enjoyed wearing them even now.

Finished Cubist Socks

Close up

Knit Nation

I went to this year's Knit Nation with a large amount of money which I had been saving up to splash out on yarn.  I have been knitting successfully through my stash all year and made a good dent in some of the less fancy pants yarns so I have saved up a wodge of cash to replace some of those lovely sock yarns.

I bought 3 skeins of Wollemeise Twin - expensive but good value for money as each skein is 150g not 100g!

Fliederbuch

 

 

 

 

Thriller

Lowenzahn

I got two skeins of Easy Knits

BFL - Swamp Thing

Bamboo/Merino - Rainbow

I got one skein of bfl from a new dyer - Juno yarns

bfl yarn

Juno is a brand new indie dyer I discovered at the show.  I made a beeline for the indie dyers only there were a couple of stalls stocking things like Rowan etc. but I can buy that anywhere so I was only interested in things I couldn't see in person at the local John Lewis.  There was some great stuff on offer - although I didn't buy any at the time Fyberspates, Rennaissance Dyer and Old Maiden Aunt were also worth a shout out.  In fact if I ever take up fair isle or do more colourwork I will be heading straight to the Rennaissance Dyer.  It was particularly good catching up with Jon from Easyknits who I hadn't seen in ages.

I am still knitting through the less good stuff and have recently finished a pair of socks and am well on the way to finishing a big shawl out of my slightly less good stuff which is great.

Laminaria

This is the most complicated shawl I have knitted to date it is Estonian Lace from this free pattern from Knitty - Laminaria. And I was successful only on the 3rd attempt at which point I felt the yarn was the best fit (even if the colour is detracting from the overall effect the actual fibre and spin composition of the yarn was a good one).

I finished it a while ago but got a little behind with blogging so here it is in all its glory.

Laminaria Shawl

Knitted with Zauberball sockenwoolle in the Blackberry colourway.

I liked the zauberball but it is a single.  I would never even consider using this for something as hardwearing as a sock - it would felt/wear thin in a heartbeat.  It was perfect for the shawl though and I have seen many shawls on Ravelry that have worked very well in this yarn.

Fresh from the Oven - Polenta Bread

This month at the Fresh From the Oven Blog we all made Polenta bread.  I ought to show my interest here because this month the recipe was my pick.  J and I have long been fans of cornmeal and polenta breads - by which I mean yeasted breads with a portion of the flour substituted for cornmeal.  We love American Style cornbread as well but not as a "go to" loaf.  So I scoured my bread books and found a fancy little recipe for an Italian Polenta bread with lashing of melted butter and toasted pine nuts. 

Luckily I made the bread (and took the photos) before I came down with the everlasting virus.  A really nasty germ which has completely knocked me out and meant I haven't been able to do anything except sleep, watch murder mysteries, sleep, read trashy novels and cough...a lot.

I made this loaf as a treat because we had family visiting.  In truth I left it to rise for too long which meant that the bread wasn't stable so when I took the cover off after the final prove it collapsed and went a bit flat.  My own fault and nothing to do with the recipe.  The final loaf was lovely, great flavour and beautiful soft texture (although this was likely due to the large amount of melted butter and not my brilliant technique this time).  Everything enjoyed it and the whole loaf was eaten very quickly.  An excellent toasting bread as I predicted as well thanks to the polenta grains - which make it wonderfully crunchy.

Here is the final photos

If I had one criticism of the recipe it would be the final sprinkling of pine nuts.  In my heart, when I read about that stage in the book, I was concerned that they would burn and they did a little so another time I probably wouldn't bother as no pine nuts is better than overdone pine nuts.

Dough was also very sloppy so I cheated and did each knead in the mixer - I know I know - bad baker!


Polenta Bread Recipe

50g polenta
300ml lukewarm water
15g fresh yeast
1/2 tsp clear honey
225g white bread flour
25g butter
3 tbsp pine nuts
1 and 1/2 tsp salt


For the topping:

1 egg yolk
1 tbsp water
pine nuts for sprinkling

Makes 1 loaf

1. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Mix the polenta and 250ml of the water together in a pan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring continuously with a large wooden spoon. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, or until just warm.

2. In a small bowl, mix the yeast with the remaining water and honey until creamy/frothy (depending on the yeast being fresh/dry). Sift 115g of the flour into a larger bowl. Gradually beat in the yeast mixture, then gradually stir in the polenta mixture to combine. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

3. Cover the bowl with lightly oiled cling film and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for 2 hours or until it has doubled in bulk.

4. Melt the butter in a small pan add the pine nuts and cook over a medium heat, stirring, until the pale and golden. Set aside to cool.

5. Add the remaining flour and salt to the polenta dough and mix to a soft dough. Knead in the pine nuts cooked in butter (and the butter). Turn out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

6. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

7. Knock back (punch down) and turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough into two equal pieces and roll each piece into a fat sausage about 38 cm/15 inches long. Plait (braid) together the two pieces and place on the baking sheet. Cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C/ 400 F/ Gas Mark 6.

8. Mix the egg yolk and water and brush over the loaf. Sprinkle with the pine nuts and bake for 30 minutes or until golden and sounding hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack.

I hope it turns out yummy for everyone!