Hibiscus Vinegar

My favorite ways to use Kismet Refining’s hibiscus vinegar.

add to lemonade or cocktails

use in place of citrus juice in your next flat glaze or drizzle:

dressings or marinades: use 3 parts vinegar, 2 parts oil, herbs of your choice – season with hibiscus salt!

Hibiscus Salt

One of my favorite finishing salts. Use on:

sashimi
popcorn
rim of a glass for a cocktail

Ube Flavoring

Ube Basque Cheesecake

makes 12 servings in about 35 minutes, plus chilling

32 oz cream cheese, cold

7 large eggs (about 14oz)

3/4 tsp kosher salt

12 oz (1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar

8 oz (1 cup) heavy cream

2 tsp ube flavoring

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500F for at least 20 minutes. Line a 10” springform pan with parchment paper, leaving at least 2” of overhang off the sides of the pan.
Using a blender, stand mixer with paddle attachment or a hand mixer, blend all ingredients until completely smooth – I did this in 2 batches using a Vitamix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the top of the cheesecake is very dark brown and the center is still very jiggly; it’ll look undercooked because it is (compared to a New York-style cheesecake). Cool, in the pan, to room temperature then chill for at least 5 hours before serving. Leave the cheesecake on the parchment it cooked on, cutting off excess as needed for serving, but don’t try to move the cheesecake off the parchment, she’s fragile.

Ube Challah

adapted from King Arthur Baking’s Classic Challah
makes one 16” loaf in about 4 hours

3/4 cup (170g) water, lukewarm

2 tsp ube flavoring

4 – 4 1/2 cups (480-510g) all-purpose flour

6 tbsp (74g) vegetable oil

3 tbsp (63g) honey

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk (reserve the white for egg wash)

1 1/2 tsp (9g) kosher salt

4 tsp (12g) instant yeast

Directions:

In a 1 cup measure, stir together 3/4 cup water and 2 teaspoons ube flavoring. Combine with the remaining ingredients by hand, a stand mixer or a bread machine until the dough is soft and smooth. It takes me about 20 minutes kneading by hand. Add additional flour (up to 1/4 cup) as needed if the dough is super sticky.
Let the dough rise in a bowl covered in plastic wrap for 2 hours, until puffy but not necessarily doubled.
Deflate the dough and transfer to a lightly oiled work surface. Divide the dough into either 3, 4 or 6 pieces, depending on the type of braid you’d like. Here are some tutorials to help you decide which braid you’d like to use:

Three-strand braid

Four-strand braid

Six-strand braid
Roll out each piece into a rope about 20” long. If you notice the dough shrinking back after you roll it out, cover the dough and let it rest another 10 minutes, then roll again.
Braid the loaf using 3, 4 or 6 strands. Place the braided dough onto silicone parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Cover the loaf with a piece of lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise until puffy, another 60-90 minutes – when you poke the loaf, the dough should spring back slowly and leave a small indentation. Start pre-heating the oven to 375F toward the end of the rising time.
Whisk together the left over egg white with water and brush on top of the loaf to give it a nice shine after baking. Bake 25-30 minutes, until the bread has a deep brown crust and the internal temperature is 190F. Place on a rack to cool.