Tag Archives: baking

Homemade Russian Pelmeni – Updated

March 23, 2025 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Back in 2011 I posted a recipe for one of my favorite dumpling recipes – pelmeni. This was back before I had all the recipe-writing knowledge I have today, so I wanted to update this recipe for anyone wanting to make these delicious dumplings at home.

It’s super helpful to have a pelmeni mold, but you can always make them using a small glass as a dough cutter and folding them into half moon shapes.

Russian Pelmeni

Makes about 60 dumplings

Ingredients for the dough:
1/2 cup warm water
2 eggs
About 260-270 grams AP or 00 flour, plus more for dusting

Ingredients for the meat filling:
1/2 medium onion, chopped very finely (I recommend using a small food processor)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper, to taste

For the topping:
Butter
Rice vinegar
Curry powder
Sriracha
Fresh cilantro
Sour cream

Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and water. Incorporate flour till you have a soft, stretchy dough that isn’t sticky to the touch. Knead on a floured surface for five minutes, incorporating flour if it’s still too sticky. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a pan with the oil over medium-high. Add the onions and sauté until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat to medium, add the curry powder and garlic, and cook for 1 more minute. Let this cool off the stove while you combine the beef, pork, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Once onions are mostly cooled, add to the meat and combine well. Cook a small sample in your frying pan to sample, if you like, then adjust for salt. Once the meat mixture is seasoned to your liking, place it in a gallon sized zip top bag and cut a small hole in one of the bottom corners.

If you have a pelmeni mold, use 1/4 of the dough and roll out a large, thin, round sheet of dough, incorporating flour if needed so it doesn’t stick. Sprinkle flour over the mold and drape the dough on top. If you don’t have a mold, use a biscuit cutter or the edge of a glass and cut circles out of the dough.

Using your makeshift piping bag, add about a teaspoon of filling to each divot in the pelmeni mold. If the dough seems too dry, you may want to lightly spritz the whole sheet with a water sprayer because you want the other sheet of dough to stick. Roll out another 1/4 of the dough into a large, round sheet and place it on top of the filled mold. Using your rolling pin, gently roll back and forth along the dough side of the mold until the mold starts to pierce through the edges of each pelmeni. Lightly dust a counter with flour and turn the mold upside down to shake/poke the pelmeni out of the mold.

Repeat with the remaining dough to make one more set of pelmeni with the mold.

If not using a mold, add about 1 teaspoon of filling to each cut circle. Crimp closed with your fingers. The dough should be sticky enough to stay closed on its own without additional moisture.

Set each finished pelmeni on a flour-lined baking sheet.

From here you could either boil the dumplings right away or place them in the freezer for later. If you freeze them, make sure to freeze them on the baking sheet before putting them in a zip top bag or container, otherwise they will stick together.

To prepare, bring a big pot of salted water to a boil. Add the dumplings and return to a boil. Cook until dumplings float — about 5 minutes (7 minutes if frozen).

Use a slotted spoon to remove dumplings and place them in bowls. Top with butter, vinegar, curry powder, Sriracha, cilantro and sour cream.

baking, Cooking, dessert

Guest Post: Jack’s Lemon Cherry Bread

January 4, 2025 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

My son is becoming quite the cook. Over the winter break he did some baking, so I asked him to write down the recipe for his most recent quick bread, inspired by a different Natasha cook of Natasha’s Kitchen.

This simple bread has a lovely hint of lemon flavor that pairs perfectly with the dried tart Montmorency cherries we always buy from Costco.

Lemon Cherry Quick Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

¾ cup + 1 teaspoon granulated sugar, divided
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 cup milk
Zest of 1 large lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 1/2 cups + 1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 cup dried cherries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a glass loaf pan then dust with flour, tapping out the excess flour.

In a measuring cup, combine 1 teaspoon sugar, honey, milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar on medium/high speed, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, mixing until well incorporated.

Add flour mixture in 2 parts, alternating with the milk mixture and mixing on medium/low speed just until incorporated with each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.

Coat the dried cherries in the 1/2 tablespoon of flour and add to the batter just until incorporated. Spread the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes until golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes then transfer loaf to a cooling rack.

baking, dessert

Unicorn treats

April 30, 2017 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

If you aren’t aware, unicorns are amazing. Starbucks will tell you so. During an evening with friends the other night we discussed the rainbow frappuccino that is sweeping the social media nation. What other foods could we transform into unicorns? The answer was simple: rice crispy treats. We brainstormed the ideal unicorn treat. Obviously it would need fruity pebbles to make it rainbow.

Then my husband made them. I was stunned as I’m usually the cook in the family. So join in on the unicorn craze and make this deliciously fruity unicorn treat.

Unicorn Treats – A spin on the traditional Rice Krispies treat

Ingredients:

4 cups Rice Krispies cereal
2 cups Fruity Pebbles cereal
3 tablespoons butter
a couple of handfuls of Lucky Charms marshmallows
1 bag mini marshmallows

Directions:

Coat a casserole pan with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the mini marshmallows and stir until melted.

Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Using a buttered spatula spread the mixture into the pan. Cool and cut into squares. Go grab a unicorn frap and feel the sugar high.

baking, dessert, recipes

Sparkling sake cupcakes

February 26, 2017 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

Lately my four-year-old son has been interested in science experiments, which consist of his mixing random kitchen ingredients together into a nasty gloop and watching what happens.

Not that I disapprove of his experimenting but I would rather he make a kitchen mess if we were actually preparing something edible.

I suggested cupcakes but we were running low on milk, so I harkened back to my one-and-only successful baking recipe: pink champagne cake. I didn’t have any champagne but I had a delightful little bottle of sparkling sake my husband had bought for me.

Instead of a whole cake I halved the recipe and we made lovely pink cupcakes. You can too! By using effervescent booze the cupcakes turn out airy and not overly sweet.

Pink sparkling sake cupcakes

Makes about 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 egg whites
3 drops red food coloring
1 cup sparkling sake or champagne

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. With a Kitchen Aid mixer, beat the butter and sugar for several minutes till fluffy. Mix in the vanilla. Add the egg whites one at a time then mix in the food coloring. Beat for a couple of minutes. Incorporate the flour and sake in alternating batches of three, starting and ending with the flour. This way the champagne won’t curdle (but it’s ok if it does).

Add cupcake liners to a cupcake pan. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool completely before adding icing. If you’re at a loss for icing, here’s my recipe:

4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup of heavy whipping cream

Whip together the sugar and cream cheese. When fully combined, add the whipping cream and beat till you get stiff peaks. Slice up fresh strawberries for garnish.

baking, Cooking

Harvesting Seattle: Blackberry peach pepper pie

August 24, 2015 alaskaknitnat 1 Comment

Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending time in Seattle. Despite the smoky air, I made it a point to get outdoors and do some urban foraging. Blackberry brambles are abundant around the city. My best friend, her boyfriend, my sister and I headed out to Discovery Park and found several briars laden with sweet blackberries.

This wasn’t my first blackberry rodeo. Although it was a hot day I made sure to wear pants, shoes and socks. There’s good reason Sleeping Beauty was surrounded by a thick wall of brambles — these bushes are brutal! My friend Matt didn’t heed my pants advice.

We picked a quart of berries in about half an hour. I got a few unbelievably ripe, juicy peaches at Pike’s Market and we knew that pie was on the horizon.

I’m not a baker and I’ve probably made one pie in my life, but I was inspired by the blueberry pie at South Restaurant + Coffeehouse. I tasted it the other day and noticed a subtle, unusual ingredient: pink peppercorns. I don’t know if the pepper was in the crust or the filling, but I found a pretty cool recipe from the L.A. Times that incorporated blackberries, nectarines and pepper. I wanted to try it.

A big thanks to my best friend Jess for her pie lattice expertise because this pie was a winner inside and out!

We used 3 cups of blackberries and two cups of peeled, sliced peaches. We used honey instead of corn syrup. The ground pepper was incorporated into the crust and gives the pie a bit of zing.

After placing the bottom crust in the pan, we set a circle of parchment paper on the crust and used some dry beans as pie weights. Then we baked the bottom crust for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven, let it cool for about five minutes and added the filling.

We brushed the lattice with milk and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top.

Click here for the original recipe.

alaska, baking, cocktails, Cooking, indian, recipes

Harvesting Anchorage: Rose and rhubarb cookies (and a Rose Collins)

June 11, 2015 alaskaknitnat 7 Comments

As part of my personal challenge to forage at least one edible plant a month this summer in Anchorage, I decided to revisit wild rose petals. Several years back I collected these perfectly pink petals and made a just-OK jelly out of them. Thing is, I don’t eat jelly. I’m not a toast and jam kind of gal, I guess.

This time I opted to make rose petal syrup. It was easy to prepare and resulted in a gorgeous pink concoction that tasted as good as roses smell.

Harvesting Anchorage: Wild Rose and Rhubarb Cookies | A recipe from Alaskaknitnat.com — You can find wild roses just about everywhere in Anchorage in June. This bush is on the on-ramp to the Seward Highway.

The wild roses are in full bloom here in Anchorage and it’s hard not to find them. I picked petals on the side of the highway, on my street and in my back yard. They have been in bloom since the first week of June and will probably be around for another week before they fade, fall and begin to turn into rose hips (and that’s another foraging adventure!)

Rose Petal Syrup

To make one bottle of syrup I collected about 2 gently packed cups of petals. Be ready to encounter some caterpillars, bugs and spiders (I lost about a cup of petals when I spotted an arachnid creeping around my collecting jar).

I followed this recipe from Nitha Kitchen to make the syrup.

*2023 update* – I realized I didn’t have a written recipe for the syrup. Here it is!
Ingredients:

6 cups fresh wild rose petals
5 cups sugar
1 quart plus 1 cup of water
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Fill the sink with cold water and pour in the petals. Stir them around and let the bugs and debris settle. Spin the petals dry in a salad spinner and place in a medium mixing bowl. Add 3/4 cup of sugar and muddle the petals with a potato masher.

Place the pulpy petals in a sealable container in the fridge overnight. Before cleaning the mixing bowl, scoop out remaining sugar gloop and exfoliate your hands. It’s lovely.

The next day, bring the water to a boil. Add the remaining sugar till dissolved. Toss in the petals and any pulp, lemon juice and salt and simmer on low until the color has been extracted from the petals. There’s no science to this. I think I simmered mine for 30 minutes. The liquid should be bright pink.

Turn off the heat and let the syrup cool. Using a mesh strainer lined with a clean linen dishcloth, ladle the syrup into a pitcher, pressing on the petals and tossing them as you go.

Pour into sanitized jars or bottles. Keep refrigerated. Keeps for several months.

Continue reading Harvesting Anchorage: Rose and rhubarb cookies (and a Rose Collins) →

baking, Cooking, dessert, recipes

Banana Cupcakes with Dulce de Leche Icing

April 28, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

We never seem to consume an entire bunch of bananas. There’s always those sorry two or three sitting in the bottom of the fruit bowl, waiting to be make into banana bread. I don’t even like banana bread all that much, but I hate to waste the darn things.

I decided to spice things up a bit and use my overripe bananas for something a little more decadent than sliced bread.

I basically just made regular banana bread but put it in cupcake liners and topped it with a sweet and salty icing.

My recipe was inspired by this one from Culinary Couture.

Banana bread:

1/2 cup softened coconut oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1.75 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3 overripe bananas, mashed

Icing:

6 oz. softened cream cheese
3 Tbs. softened butter
3 Tbs. Nestle’s La Lechera (sweetened condensed milk)
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
pinch of salt
coarse sea salt for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, combine the coconut oil and sugar. Add the eggs and mix well. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture and mashed bananas in intervals to the wet ingredients.

Pour batter into a muffin tin filled with liners or greased well. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.

For the icing:

with an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, butter, La Lechera, vanilla and salt. Beat until smooth and aerated. Frost the cupcakes with a knife or with a pastry bag. Sprinkle coarse sea salt on top of each cupcake.

baking, Cooking, recipes

Homemade Bagels

April 14, 2014 alaskaknitnat Leave a comment

My favorite bagels in Alaska come from LuLu’s in Fairbanks. That’s a six-hour drive from Anchorage and sometimes I crave a good rosemary bagel! I’ve blogged about bagels in the past, but I have to post the recipe I made tonight because it was near perfect. Homemade bagel heaven. Crusty and salty on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.

The recipe hails from an unassuming corner of the internet — HubPages.com. It contains few ingredients and the steps are simple. I tweaked the ingredients and process ever so slightly, which is why I’m posting it. I will forget how I made them if I don’t!

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbs. sugar

1.5 tsp. salt

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

2 tsp. yeast (not instant rise)

1.25-1.5 cups warm water

2 Tbs. chopped fresh rosemary (optional)

Coarse salt (optional)

Directions:

Place all the dry ingredients plus the oil in a Kitchen Aid mixer. With the hook attachment turn the machine onto a medium setting. Slowly pour in the water and wait for it to be fully incorporated into dough before adding all the water. If the dough is too dry, add the remaining quarter cup water. Knead the dough on a floured surface for about five minutes. Place back in the mixer bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, about 1.5 hours.

Once risen, remove the dough and split into eight even-sized balls. This is where I incorporated the chopped rosemary. Roll each ball into a snake, about 8 inches long, folding in the rosemary as you go. Overlap the ends to make a bagel shape and carefully roll the the seam part of the bagel back and forth till it’s combined and sealed.

Form the rest of your bagels and set them on the Silpat-lined or greased baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the water is boiling, gently set a few bagels at a time into the pot, being sure not to overcrowd. Boil for one minute, then flip the bagels and boil another minute. Using tongs, remove the bagels and place them back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle liberally with coarse salt. Boil the remaining bagels. Place baking sheet in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, turning the sheet around halfway through. Let cool completely.

Slice, toast, butter and enjoy the bagely goodness.