Spinach and Ricotta Challah

I think this is the prettiest bread I've ever baked.  Honestly, though, I stood in my kitchen beaming like I'd sculpted some masterpiece.  This is a challah filled with spinach and ricotta and pine nuts, shaped into a mock braid, and sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds.  When I realized the method for braiding was the same I had used for my Braided Lemon Bread, I dove right in.  Here's a how-to guide.

Before you assemble: Make sure your dough is on a parchment sheet or silicone mat.  Otherwise, it will be almost impossible after to move to the baking pan while keeping it intact.
1. Cut the rectangle of dough so there are tabs on the top and bottom, and evenly spaced strips on either side.  Spread the filling down the middle.  Try to avoid snacking on too many of the toasted pine nuts and depleting them, which is easier said than done.
2. Fold down the top tab, then fold over one side strip, followed by the one on the opposite side, repeating all the way down.  Easy!  So you're either folding left-right-left-right, or right-left-right-left.
3. Before you finish folding all the strips, fold the bottom tab up, then braid the remaining strips over it.  You might have noticed I don't have an even number of strips on each side -- don't repeat my mistake.  If you do, no big deal.  I just tucked the last extra strip under.  Brush on an egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds, and you're ready to bake!

Joe loved the bread and devoured it.  I froze the second loaf, because he vetoed my idea of giving it away.  I have to confess, however, that I didn't love the bread as much as I thought I would.  I felt like the filling could benefit from a stronger flavor like goat cheese or feta.  Also, the dough was just too wet and I had to add nearly an extra cup of flour to make the dough come together, even though I weighed the ingredients so measurements should have been precise.  And as nice as the bread was, I found myself thinking the flaky phyllo layers of spanakopita were superior.  Still, all the while, I never got tired of marveling at how pretty my loaves were.

Spanakopita (Spinach Pie)

Spanakopita is a Greek spinach pie.  In this version, the papery-thin layers of phyllo pastry hold a spinach filling with leeks, scallions, dill, feta, Parmesan, and ricotta.  Agapi Stassinopoulos said on The Martha Stewart Show that the inclusion of ricotta is untraditional but makes the pie sweeter.  She happens to be Arianna Huffington's sister, and this is their mother's recipe.

Joe and I liked this spanakopita, but we could have done without the ricotta and amped up the feta in this dish instead.  We really like feta, and I had followed the recipe and added only three-quarters of the 8-ounce block.  Our other criticism was we would have preferred a shallower pie with a lower ratio of spinach to pastry, because you get a big mouthful of spinach and little phyllo by comparison.  After all, there's three pounds of spinach in this dish!

Like all spanakopita dishes it takes some time to put together, and my least favorite part is squeezing the water out of fistfuls of spinach.  I used thawed frozen spinach, but if you go the fresh route you'll still have to steam or saute the spinach to release the water from the leaves to avoid a soggy pie.  Also, I used a decidedly non-Greek cooking vessel -- the wok.  There was so much filling it would have come up to the rim of my saute pan, making it difficult to stir.

But when it's all assembled and ready to go in the oven, the house has started to warm up and you can just sit back and wait.  And think back to last week when it was sunny and springlike, instead of cold and grey like today.  And then dig into some good spinach pie.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Cannoli

Except this month we're the Daring Fryers! I missed the challenge deadline by a day, but better late than never, right? Who sets a deadline for the day after Thanksgiving anyway? I was still recovering from cooking, eating, and baking two of these!

So this was my rush job. I rarely deep-fry, but you might not believe me if you saw the applesauce doughnuts I made earlier this month. Making the cannoli was easy except for the rolling -- the dough has a knack for springing back so the square never seemed to get bigger. But the shells came out crispy and delicious, and I flavored the ricotta filling with vanilla bean and some maple syrup, for that touch of autumn.  A lot of people aren't familiar with cannoli, which used to stun me. I grew up in an Italian neighborhood where they were readily available, but when I moved to other states people would ask, "Is that like ravioli?" If you're one of these people, don't get put off by the strange concept of filling deep-fried pastry with cheese. It whips up light and is so good when sweetened.

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Cheese Ravioli from Scratch

Joe's the pasta-maker in our house (and pizza, and bread most of the time). But I'm good at filling and cutting the ravioli. We make a great team! These are tasty on a bed of sauce with more Parmesan grated on top while the ravioli are still hot so the cheese melts just slightly.

What we used for the filling:
1/3 cup ricotta
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
3 tbs. dried oregano (fresh, if you have it)
2 tbs. dried basil (ditto)
1 tbs. salt
1 tbs. black pepper
Stir together and set aside. Play with the filling, adding other cheeses, herbs, or seasonings.

Joe's pasta ingredient list is simple:
3/4 cup semolina
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs water (more, if needed)

He whizzes them all together in a food processor (knead by hand if you don't have one) just until the dough comes together in a ball. The dough shouldn't be sticky, and if the sides are frayed when you're cranking it out, your dough is probably too dry. He then divides the dough in half and flattens each half into a rectangle.

Then he folds the dough in thirds like a letter, as pictured, and runs it through the pasta machine. (Why he prefers a hand crank instead of a stand mixer attachment, I don't know.) Run the dough through the crank starting on setting 1, and each time gradually work your way up to setting 7.

The dough will be thin like this.

My rolling mat is great because it has a grid and measurements in inches and centimeters. Cut your dough (my pastry cutter makes these pretty scalloped edges) into long strips. Throw some flour under the strips to keep them from sticking to your mat.

Scoop 1/2 tsp of filling in the center of each square (mine were about 2 square inches each), taking care not to overfill them. Lay another strip on top.

Using a wooden bamoo skewer, go between the lumps of filling, and press down and roll around to push out the air and seal the pasta.

Do the same at the top and bottom, pressing down and rolling in toward the filling and back out to the edge.

Cut up your squares. You can also use a round cookie cutter to make circular ravioli instead.

Boil them for 3 to 4 minutes, and fish them out with a strainer. They'll float to the top. Happy eatins'!