Well here we are, Week 5. Quick 90 minute challenges this week. Spoiler alert: Week 5 sucked!
In the preheat, the bakers were given 90 minutes to make and decorate two dozen rugelach. We’ve got some remodeling going on at the house, so I asked our electrician to pick a number between 1 and 5. He picked 3, which was the flavor chai. I could have hugged him. Instead, I promised him chai rugelach when he came back next week.
I sort of used a recipe for the rugelach dough, but I also sort of winged-it. While that was in the freezer chilling, I made a pastry cream by steeping two chai tea bags in the milk before adding the egg mixture. It was good. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve got pastry cream down by now.
I rolled out the dough using lots of flour, then spread out some pastry cream, sprinkled cinnamon and sugar over that, and raisins that had been soaked in chai tea over that. Cut it up like a pizza and rolled, or at least tried to roll, the dough like croissants. It was totally stuck to the marble board. The only way I was semi-successful in rolling and removing the dough was to flour up a spatula really well and push it under the dough. With the trouble I had there, I just barely got the cookies in the oven with 30 minutes left. They took about 28 minutes to bake.
I had melted white chocolate in a piping bag and blue sprinkles nearby, but there was no way I could finish 24 decorated and plated rugelach in time. The rugelach was too hot and stacking them would have been a white chocolaty mess.
They tasted quite good, even though they looked nothing like rugelach. I just had to settle on decorating them after the time expired so they would be edible for our Christmas party next weekend. Into the freezer they went.
The main heat was 90 minutes to make tiramisu using two favorite ingredients from the judges. I picked on this one, mainly because I didn’t want to end up with matcha. Also because I wanted a more traditional tiramisu, so I went with coffee and ginger which are judge Lorraine’s favorites.
I made lady fingers which is a pretty simple recipe. I added some powdered ginger as well as some grated fresh ginger. While they were in the oven, I got started on the maple mascarpone cream. It turned out way too runny. And I didn’t have extra mascarpone so I had to roll with it.
My original plan to make a “naked” tiramisu that was tied up with a ribbon would no longer work. The cream would seep out within a second. So I grabbed a couple of little glass dishes that I have and make individual tiramisu. Dunked the lady fingers in brewed coffee, layered cream over, and repeated. Finished just in time, if you can actually call it finishing. Such a disappointing week. I may need a pep talk before I tackle week 6!
Not going to type recipes this week because quite frankly, they didn’t work all that well. But I’m happy to answer any questions you have in the comments.
All Things Crafty 
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