Apple pie poptarts and my labmates

Have I mentioned how much I love my labmates? Very much. You know, when you start in a new lab, with a new project, doing stuff you've never done before, things look a little scary. Every little step is full of questions like how should I do this, is this ok, is it gonna work? .

I'm a super lucky gal. I have fantastic labmates who are more than willing to help me every step of the way. They answer my questions, they teach me their tricks and they do it with a smile on their faces. We're a bunch of happy people sharing a tiny space.

But please, don't you think for a second that all we do is work. We do work, but we seriously have too much fun. I usually define our dinamics as a 'shit show'. And excuse my vocabulary, but we're just plain ridiculous. Take for instance the other day, when I was trying to filtrate some stuff and I couldn't reach the filter. There comes my labmate with two large cans and puts one underneath each one of my feet so I can reach. And obviously, two seconds later, the boss shows up and starts laughing at me and says 'ok, we're getting you a stool'. (I did get it!).

That's just one example of ridiculousness. I think our singing is pretty funny too. I share my primary workspace with two very manly guys. Well, they both sang Whitney Houston the other day. I almost dropped what I was carrying.

All in all, I love these guys. I have tons of fun with them and they help me a lot. That's why when C mentioned the other day, how disappointed he was that his mum didn't make apple pie this past thanksgiving, I had an idea. I thought I could make him apple pie in a portable way. And the result are these delicious 'poptarts'. Basically apple pie crust with apple pie filling in a nice cute shape. Pretty and delicious. I bet your coworkers will be happy if you make them!

Apple pie 'poptarts'

For the crust
1 1/4 cups flour
1 stick of butter, cold and cubed
1/8 cup really cold water
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix the butter with the flour and sugar until pebbles form. Use either your hands or a pastry cutter. If you do it with your hands, work fast so the butter doesn't melt. Add the cold water and mix well until you form a homogeneous dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour. Once cold, roll the dough to a thickness of about half a centimeter. Cut in rectangles of the same size. You can make them as big or as small as you want.

For the filling
2 large or 3 medium granny smith apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon (I like it a lot)
2 tablespoons of butter, softened

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl. If the butter doesn't spread homogeneously, heat the mixture in the microwave for a bit. Make sure your filling is cold when making the poptarts.

For the poptarts
Preheat your oven to 350F
Place the filling (about 2 tablespoons for the size I made) on top of one of the sides of the poptart. Cover with the other side. Seal the edges with the help of a fork and make three cuts in the tarts to release the steam. Brush the tarts with egg wash. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tarts are golden brown and oozing with juices. Enjoy warm or cold!

BBD #33: Banana bourbon cinnamon rolls

Hi there! Long time, no see! I apologize for the disappearance! I must confess it’s been crazy over here. I’m currently in my dad’s hometown, recovering from a week of crazy fun, lots of work and not enough sleep.

Last week we celebrated the town holidays. Putting in words what we do over here when that happens, it’s sort of complicated, but I’ll try my best. The holidays are called ‘Los toros’, literally, the bulls. There’s no animal sacrifice of any kind, but there’s bulls and cows involved. The animals are put in a ‘plaza’, people run in front of them, they run after the people. Sometimes people get caught and it isn’t pretty, but usually everything works out just fine.

Even though that’s one of the main activities, there’s many others. The ‘cuadrillas’, which are groups of friends around the same age, get together and party all day long. At night there’s the ‘charanga’. That’s a popular procession around the town, following the town’s band, asking (literally) for water. No joke. The idea is to get totally soaked with the water that people throw down their balconies while dancing around and singing traditional songs. After midnight, there’s always dancing of some kind and ‘toro embolao’ which feels too complicated to explain.

In addition to the regular lack of sleep, this year, my group of friends, were organizing the holidays. That means assembling tons of stuff, setting up tables, serving drinks and controlling that all the rules are followed when there’s bulls involved. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been totally worth it. There’s no better way to bond with your friends than staying awake day after day, past dawn and looking at each other with tired eyes and a smile on your face.

Like I said, it’s hard to put into words what’s been going on. What isn’t hard to make or enjoy are these bourbon banana rolls. They’re made with a simple sweet dough and filled with bourbon cooked bananas mashed with some cinnamon. One could say they are bananas flambé inside a brioche. I got the sweet dough recipe from ‘Artisan baking’. The process is quite long but totally worth it. You’ll get the softest rolls you could imagine.
This is my contribution to the BBD# 33: Breads with booze which I have the pleasure to host this month. There’s still plenty of time to participate, so go for it!

BOURBON BANANA CINNAMON ROLLS
For the sweet dough
From ‘Artisan Baking’
Makes  18 rolls

½ cup milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons table salt
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter

Microwave the milk for 4 min or heat it in a pan until bubbles form around the edges and the milk smells cooked. Let it cool to 105 F and dissolve the yeast in the milk. (Scalding the milk denatures the proteins that prevent gluten formation). Let it stand for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, add the flour and then the yeast mixture and eggs. With a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until combined. Cover the bowl with plastic and let it stand for 15 to 20 min.
Add the salt to the dough and mix until combined. Take the dough out of the bowl  and knead until smooth, for about 10 min. The salt will incorporate just fine. Add half the sugar and keep kneading, then add the other half. Finally, add the butter in 2 additions and knead it into the dough until this is satiny and soft.

Place the dough in a covered container in the fridge, for at least 8 hrs and up to 48.

For the filling
Makes 9 rolls

4 very ripe bananas
½ cup bourbon
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cut the bananas into big chunks and cook in a pan with the bourbon until all the liquid is absorbed. Transfer the bananas to a bowl and mash together with the cinnamon. Let the filling cool.

To assemble the rolls

Roll the sweet dough into a rectangle, ½ inch in thickness. Spread the cooled banana filing and roll the dough like you would do with a swiss roll. Cut the dough into 1 to 1 ½ inch pieces and place them in a round pan. Let them rise for 30 min. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 325 F. Brush the rolls with egg wash. Bake them for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let them cool slightly before eating.

Snickerdoodles

Most americans like cinnamon, you find it everywhere, cookies, cakes, cereal... snickerdoodles are cinnamon cookie queen... I topped mine with a little suprise... cinnamon almonds!

They where chewy, yummy and almond was the crunch...

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter  (2 sticks), softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs

For the coating:
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a bowl, mix flour, cream of tartar and baking powder. Set aside. In a separate bowl mix butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated. Add the dry mixture slowly mixing well. Refrigerate the dough for 30 min.
In the meantime, combine in a bowl, sugar and cinnamon and mix well to make sure it's a homogeneous mixture. Once the dough is chilled, drop tablespoonfuls of it into the sugar/cinnamon mix until well coated.

Optional: place a cinnamon almond in the middle.

Bake for 9-11 min until the edges are golden brown.