Tahinli çörek (Turkish sesame pastries)

I read somewhere that mahlab is good for only something like 6 months. I've had mine for quite some time, but I keep it in the freezer, hoping that will extend its viability. It had a bitter flavor, but one might expect that since it's made from the pit of a type of cherry. I wish I'd tasted it when it was fresh. I wasn't sure it was a pleasant flavor.

These are pretty rich, so I cut the recipe in half and made them the smaller size (3 instead of 2.) I have to admit that one and a half of the pastries was just about the right amount for breakfast to satisfy the taste buds and the tummy, but for health's sake one should probably stick with a single, smaller bun.

Since these are unique, I stuck pretty closely to the original recipe, mostly just adjusting the salt quantity.  Here's what I used to make half the original quantity:

For the dough:
1/2 heaping teaspoon dry yeast
1/6 cup warm water
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon oil
1 heaping tablespoon sugar
1 egg, scrambled and divided
1 -1¼ cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mahlep (mahlab)

For the filling:
5 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon melted, salted butter
1 teaspoon orange flower water
salt to taste (if necessary)
2 teaspoons finely chopped shelled pistachios per pastry (optional)

2 tablespoons orange flower water for coating pastry
raw sesame seeds
sugar (granulated or demarera)

Proof yeast with warm water and sugar. Set aside approximately 10 minutes, until well frothy.  In a mixing bowl, add the milk, butter, oil, and sugar and mix well. While still warm (not hot!), add  half the scrambled egg and the yeast mixture and mix well with a whisk. Sift together 1 cup of flour, salt, and mahlep. Add this to the egg mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until you get a slightly sticky dough. Knead the dough, adding the extra ¼ cup flour if needed. Once you have a nice dough, place it back in a greased bowl, cover, and place in a warm area for approximately 2 hours (until doubled).

Punch down the dough and knead for a minute; divide into 2 or 3 equal pieces. Let the balls rest about 25 to 30 minutes. After 15 minutes, mix together the tahini, sugar, melted butter, and orange flower water.  Mix well, then check to see if you want to add salt. The mixture will be granular. (And for me there seemed to be some sort of chemical reaction which made it become fairly thick and almost gummy.  Weird.)

Once proofed, roll each ball into a disk about 1/8-inch thick. (If making 2, it should measure about 11 or 12 inches; 3 should measure at least 7 inches.  They should be as thin as you can get them while still being manageable.) Divide the tahini mixture evenly for each pastry, approximately 3 tablespoons each. Spread this out very thinly almost to the edges. If you like, sprinkle 2 - 3 tsp of finely chopped pistachios on each one. Roll each round into a tight cigar shape; pinch each end closed. Slowly and gently roll each pastry back and forth with your hands to extend it, starting at the middle. Don't worry if small tears occur. The final strand will be almost as long as from the tip of your fingers to your elbow. Twist the long strand of dough gently over and over again (but don't over twist or you will snap it.) Coil the twisted pastry loosely from the center working outwards and tuck the end underneath. Place the coils on prepared baking sheets (either lightly greased or lined with parchment) several inches apart, leaving room for final rolling.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Cover pastries with a tea towel and let proof for 30 minutes. (While proofing, the centers might pop up -- that will be fixed with the rolling. There might also be small amounts of oil weeping from the pastry.)

When the rolls are nearly done, beat the remaining egg half in a small dish; arrange in separate bowls the orange flower water, sesame seeds, and some sugar. Flatten each pastry with a rolling pin gently to half its size. Prick it all over with a fork to arrest its rising in the oven. Using a pastry brush, wash the pastries with orange flower water all over, then the egg wash. Sprinkle each pastry generously with sesame seeds and finally with sugar. (It will make a nice crust when baked). Bake pastries for 30 minutes (for the large) or about 20-25 minutes (for the small), or until golden brown.  Watch for over browning the bottoms.

 

These were more time-consuming than I had anticipated, perhaps mostly because I had to keep checking the directions.  (I've simplified the process here.)  I tried to call up the web page, but it kept diverting to another screen (although I could call it up on the iPhone.  Apparently this redirect is due to a faulty widget, but the original blogger is no longer maintaining his blog, so this won't be remedied.) It helped to check the photographs in the original blog post.

They were probably plenty done at 25 minutes (perhaps could have done less), but since it mentions a brown crust I left them a little longer, but then they were over done. (The bottoms were dark.) And the twists didn’t show up on the outside.

Conclusion:   These were tasty, with an unusual flavor (perhaps the mahlab), fairly crisp on the outside but tender on the inside.  The filling wasn't very noticeable, but I'm sure lent moistness and flavor, though subtle.  They were good despite being a little tough (from extra baking); they just don’t look terribly appetizing.  (They'd look better if they weren't over baked.)  The orange flower water wasn’t very discernible. Perhaps could have done with a tiny bit more salt, but were okay as they were. (I didn’t add any additional salt to the filling.)  I probably would not make this recipe again, but I'd like to try the one at M bakes.

Recipe:  Tahinli via Is That My Buréka?

Black Sesame and Pear Tea Cake

I poured the sesame seeds into the measuring cup and saw a twig.  Then a broken leaf.  <Sigh>  I was going to have to clean these seeds.  Forty-five minutes later, I had sorted through 1/2 cup of black sesame seeds, removing small pebbles and minute grains of sand, and squashing tiny insects that crawled out of the mound along the way.  I hadn't planned on this.  A simple loaf cake turned into a 3-hour enterprise.

After cleaning the sesame seeds, they had to be washed, dried, and then ground.  I don't have a spice grinder, but I do have a little one-cup processor.  It didn't work very well.  It took about 20 minutes to get the seeds broken down, but I wouldn't have called it a "paste".  So out came the mortar and pestle to finish off the job.  That actually wasn't too painful.  The entire time I kept thinking, "Screw this -- next time I'm using tahini."  But it was all worth it, truly.  Tahini would not have worked.  Well, okay, maybe it would have worked,  but the result would have been an entirely different cake.

First, you can't not notice the COLOR.  The batter was GREY, and the cake was BLACK.

Isn't that attractive?  Someone on the recipe web page complained that people would think this was chocolate and be in for a rude surprise.  No.  Not if they have any faculties for discernment whatsoever.  This cake is grey-black, not brown-black.  It's grainy and rough, not fluffy and shiny.  If you must substitute (and really there is no substitute), buckwheat flour might give at least a similar texture, but never the same flavor.

There is no replicating the taste of black sesame.  It's earthy and musky and dark, like its name.  This cake is instant comfort food, even though I'm pretty sure I've never had anything like it before.  It's like crack; I was addicted with the first bite.

The comments on the recipe web site -- and there were only 10 -- swung wildly from "the cake was dense and moist, like pound cake" to "it was dry and crumbly"; from "the directions were fine" to "there's a mistake -- my cake was done in less than an hour"; from "this was the best thing I've ever eaten" to "it went into the trash."  Wow.  How does that happen?  Well, I think it mostly depends on the pear used.  (There's no accounting for taste -- pity the woman who threw her cake in the trash.)  A ripe pear is fragrant, floral, and juicy.  VERY juicy.  If these people who ended up with "dry and crumbly, or "done in half the time" used a less-than-fully-ripe pear, it explains a lot.  The batter is thick and does not seem overly moist, but those sesame seeds are fibrous, and soak up a lot of liquid I'm guessing.  You need that to soften the fiber and make it palatable, but you also need to make sure the cake dries out enough to serve.

February is not pear season, so while I had a ripe pear, it was not at its peak.  There were no floral overtones; the flavor was one-dimensional. But it was juicy.  Nonetheless, fearing I might over bake the cake, I started testing at 50 minutes -- it still seemed a little too moist.  At an hour and 15, the tester came out clean, so I took the cake out and let it cool.  It didn't fall -- another good sign it had baked long enough.  But when I cut into it, clearly it was still too moist.  It actually seemed sufficiently baked -- there was a nice crumb, dense, but open as one would expect.  But the slice was so fragile I couldn't get it out of the pan in one piece, and it somewhat gummed together in the mouth.  (This didn't stop me from having a few slices.  Like crack, I tell ya.)

There was no way the cake would have come out of the pan, and I couldn't serve it as it was, so I did something that has never worked before:  the next day, I put the cake back into a pre-heated oven and baked it some more.  And guess what... It worked!  I think it worked because the cake truly was fully baked, it just needed more time to steam off the excess moisture.  (I placed foil against the cut edge to keep it from drying out too much.)  So in the end, a winner.

This being an unusual recipe with a wide range of previous results, I didn't want to mess around with it, so I stuck to the original mostly.  The only change was I copied Bon Appétit and sprinkled raw sugar on top, one tablespoon's worth, which covered it nicely.  Two seemed like it would have been too much, so I switched to granulated.  I'm inclined in the future to use neither.   Here's what I used:

1½ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup almond flour or almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons plus ½ cup black sesame seeds
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 (medium) firm but ripe Bosc pear, peeled, cored, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

Preheat oven to 325°. Butter one 9x5x3-inch loaf pan or six 4x2x2-inch paper or metal loaf pans. Whisk 1½ cups flour, next 4 ingredients, and 2 tablespoons sesame seeds in a medium bowl. Grind remaining 1/2 cup sesame seeds in spice mill to form a thick paste, about 2 minutes.  Using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/3 cups sugar in a large bowl until well combined, 2–3 minutes. Add sesame paste and beat, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl, until blended, 1–2 minutes. Add egg and egg yolk. Beat until pale and fluffy, 3–4 minutes. On low speed, beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Toss pear with remaining 2 Tbsp. flour in a small bowl; fold into batter.  Spoon batter into prepared pan; smooth top. Sprinkle with remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar.  Bake until a tester comes out clean when inserted into center, about 1 hour 40 minutes for large loaf and 45–55 minutes for small loaves. Let cool in pans on a wire rack.

This isn't the prettiest cake.

The cake is fantastic on its own, but I think the sweetness level is a little high as a snack cake.  One woman served it with a pear crumble (perhaps this one) and frozen honey mousse (both recipes available at Bon Appétit), which I think is absolutely inspired.  Especially the frozen mousse -- the roughness of the cake would benefit from the creamy mousse.  This would also fancy it up and make it more appropriate as a dessert course.

Conclusion:  SOOO good!  Definitely a keeper!  And worth the effort to clean the sesame seeds.  I'll just plan on that task next time.

Recipe:  Black Sesame-Pear Tea Cake by Elizabeth Quijada of Abraço (NYC), via Bon Appétit

Grape Molasses and Tahini Rolls

 

I so wish I had remembered to take a photo of these before I baked them.  It was a sorry sight, and I was sure they were going to bake up into runny hockey pucks.

I thought I had worked with puff pastry before, but nothing about it seemed familiar.  The (purchased) dough was very soft and unforgiving, and one of the first things I noticed was that the sheet was much smaller than expected, about 12x12".  I knew 1.5 cups of filling was going to be too much, so I reduced it to half.  (I think that was still too much.)

It rolled up fine, but as soon as I started to cut the slices it squished into a sticky, messy glob.  I suddenly found myself wondering what were the cautions I'd read about with puff pastry -- something about the edges that would cause them not to rise.  I couldn't remember, but whatever it was I was sure I was violating every rule.

So I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. As the recipe warns, these are not very sweet, but sweet enough, especially since they are very rich.  In fact, while I love the flavor combination (a sort of Middle Eastern take on peanut butter and jelly), I would like to pair it with a less rich dough, since tahini is already very high in oil.  (But the crispness of the puff pastry is so nice!)

I did not bake on parchment paper -- with all the released oil, these slid around loosely on the pan.  I baked them 4 minutes longer; at 15 minutes they were just golden, but I was concerned the centers might be squishy.  The sugar was just starting to burn on the bottoms at 19 minutes, but the centers were still too soft for my taste.  I think reduced filling would help with that.  (I would spread it very thinly next time, and consequently add sugar.)  Also perhaps using an air-bake pan.

Conclusion:  Delicious, a different flavor from the usual, and easy to make.  But I'll be making some adjustments next time.

Recipe:  Grape Molasses and Tahini Rolls via Taste of Beirut