TWD: Danish Braid - Prune Version

To make it short: I love this recipe!

It needs some preparation due to chilling and rising time, but besides that it is not too difficult and offers a lot of possibilities for variation.

I am not a big lover of Danish and things like that usually, because at work they serve for every meeting before 17 pm "Plunder" what comes very close to Danish. They are mostly prebaked in large factories and only re"heated" shortly before the meetings, they are always the same, odd and not a bit crunchy or flaky.

The more I liked these self-made braid.

I opted for a plum version od the Danish Braid with confectioners cream, infused with some almond extract. The cream stayed liquid, unfortunately, but I somehow managed to spread some over the prune-jam. I skipped the glaze because I don't like coffee-glaze but I don't think it makes a big difference.

I made two smaller braids, one was not width enough so the stripes didn't close / opened up during baking. While it doesn't look that nice it still tastes the same (=great!) The second turned out pretty good, I think. At least I am happy with it :-)

For the recipe, have a look at Dorie Greenspan's book on p. 205. And to find out about all the other (and for sure prettier) versions of the braid with different fillings, head over to the TWD-group!

TWD: X-Cookies

I'm not a native english speaker, so the recipes we bake are sometimes challenging for me. Although I learned a lot during these past years of baking I still have troubles sometimes figuring out what the author wants to tell me. And while I claim to be as good a non-native can be when it comes to speak about politics, economy or football - I still have serious troubles in understanding the directions for shaping a dough. In this respect, while the recipe itself for the X-Cookies was no that difficult, this recipe was not made for me. Seriously, up to now I have no idea what I should have done with the dough and the filling.

Therefore (and because I am kind of clumsy anyways and shaping a dough nicely is not one of my strenght), at some point I decided to forget about X-es and do what I can: shape filled logs and cut them in rugelach-style.

I'm sorry I didn't even nearly do what I should have done, but I really didn't get it.

So, see here my version of X-cookies, the rugelach-way.

Oh, before I forget it: cookies and filling are excellent! A bit christmas-ish, already, with the figs, nuts, cinnamon and chocolate, but really excellent!

For the recipe, have a look at p. 318 in Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking with Julia". And to find out, what X-Cookies really should look like, turn to the other bakers blogs!