Raspberry White Chocolate Braid… and a New Website
Featuring homemade jam from the Farmer’s Market, rum-laced, flaky German pastry, messy dough-making, and a side note on Saturdays:
__________________________________________________________________Hello everyone! I know you’re probably looking for more information on a certain pastry.
Check out the full post, recipe, and tons of other yummy things on my new website: Raspberry White Chocolate Braid on Baking in Black and White. __________________________________________________________________
For those of you that do not know, I am not yet 18. I know, I know- you’re thinking, “What the heck does this have to do with the Raspberry White Chocolate Braid? Get to the pastries!” Well, bear with me a second. But to tide you over, here is another pastry pic:
Being not yet 18 means that the weekends of the last two years of my life were consumed by studying, school events, dances, more studying, and unrealistic self-imposed high standards. This pastry may be sugar-coated but I’m done sugar coating high school. It was a stressful time for me. Now to the key part: was. ’Cause I am graduating!
Being “done” means a lot of things.
1. an all-consuming sense of relaxation and relief
2. time to do things you want to do on weekdays
3. time to do things you want to do on weeknights
4. time to do things you want to do on weekends
I’m going to focus on #4. This weekend I went to the Dallas Farmer’s Market with my best friend and bought the delicious, homemade (not by me) jam I used in this recipe.
As we were walking around the open-air section (trendily named “The Shed”) gaping at all the beautiful baked goods and handmade soaps, she said, as if it was the most surprising thing in the world: “Everyone is so smiley and happy!” Saturdays don’t have to be for studying (or socializing followed by stress and guilt). Saturdays are for strolling through a market and sneezing a little bit because it’s Spring time, and also wishing it could be Spring forever.
I walked away from the market with 1/2 lb of pecans, some handmade granola, and an adorable jar of Raspberry White Chocolate Jam from Betty’s Blue Ribbon Fare. On the drive home I started to brainstorm what I could make that would highlight this beautiful jam. I landed on this: a flaky sweet German pastry folded around the jam, baked to golden brown, and sprinkled with sugar. Simple, beautiful, and more delicious with every bite.
Since Betty did all the hard work of making the jam for me, I put some love into the dough. We’re going homemade and mixed by hand! It all starts with a less-than-fancy looking pile of flour, an egg, and a clean work surface.
In the back right of the photo you’ll see something that looks like grated mozzarella. That’s butter. Yep! Grating chilled butter and then freezing it is a great way to make it easier to incorporate into a dough. Those tiny butter pieces will make it flaky and puffy! (When the butter heats in the oven, it releases steam that causes the pastry to puff.) Add an egg and your butter to sifted dry ingredients and get to work incorporating everything!
You want to get the dough to a stage where it looks like this: nice and crumbly with no dry mounds of flour. To incorporate the butter, you can simply use your hands, a thin spatula, or a pastry blender if you have one. Add chilled rum (Yes, rum! Why use water when we can use rum?) to the crumbly dough gradually until everything comes together.
The final dough is smooth and a beautiful pale yellow. Form it into a rectangular block, wrap it in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge to chill.
The filling is simple: a delicious jam of your choosing, a little powdered sugar and vanilla for extra sweetness and flavor, and some flour to thicken. You’ll also want to make an egg wash to brush over your braid so it bakes to a beautiful golden brown.
After a few minutes, your chilled pastry is ready to meet the rolling pin. Trim rough edges, spoon jam down the middle, and cut the sides in a diagonal fringe. All you have to do is criss-cross the fringes and you’ve reached official fancy pastry-maker status.
Buttery, flaky, rich pastry with the added depth of a hint of rum topped off with sweet and slightly tart raspberry jam… simple perfection. The pastry is the perfect balance of crispy and soft. It’s a good base for anything! Go crazy with the fillings: apple butter, Nutella, Cookie Butter, fresh berries, orange marmalade… they would all be delicious!
Now get to baking! You’ll have no chance to get confused; I wrote down all the tiny details.
Find the recipe HERE.
Check out the rest of Baking in Black and White to fulfill all your dessert dreams. You can search my recipes by tags, which range from “cake” to “chocolate” to “jam” to “dough”.
Because there’s nothing better than the pastry dough for a buttery pie crust.
Or a Raspberry White Chocolate Pastry Braid. Whatever floats your boat.
