Burnt Offerings

Dinner Report - Pork Arepas with Cabbage Slaw from Food and Wine

2012-01-22T06:56:00.000-08:00

Against my better judgement I let Vince pick a dinner this week. Amazingly, he didn't pick the single most labor intensive thing he could think of but rather Pork Arepas with Cabbage Slaw from January's Food and Wine. If you haven't had an arepa, you have missed out - its masa dough wrapped around a filling of something delicious (in this case roast pork and cheese) then fried until crispy and brown. This recipe called for topping the arepas with sour cream, pickled jalapeno and cilantro plus a tangy red cabbage and onion slaw. All in all the dish was spectacular - the creamy, crispy arepa, cold sour cream, blazing hot jalapeno, and cruncy slaw with just a touch of cilantro. I was in heaven.

As always I didn't get a good picture but I've borrowed the illustration from Food and Wine's website where you will find the recipe if you're of a mind. Actually I think ours looked better but that's just me.

My condiment problem

2012-01-13T10:46:00.000-08:00

It actually might qualify as an addiction. I have almost never met a condiment I didn't want to buy. Pickled garlic cloves? Oh yeah. Habanero orange jelly? Bring it on. Salsa de pocha? Do I even know what that is? Doesn't matter, I want it. Does it have a cool name or a vintage style label? I'm there even faster.

The end result of this is a refrigerator crammed with jars, bottles and cans, in some cases stacked two deep in the door. It doesn't help me much that nobody in this house worships at the altar of the condiment like I do.

In keeping with my plan to do new things this year, I'm going to set my mind to creating meals using up some of these goodies and if they turn out not to be so good, I will toss the stuff out. Maybe by 2013, I'll have one of those clean, spare refrigerators like you see on Barefoot Contessa.

Don't hold your breath.

The best peanut butter cookies you'll ever bake (or taste)

2012-01-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

So far I haven't been eating very dangerously in 2012 but another of my resolutions has been to wean my kids off store bought cookies and snacks in favor of the homemade version. To that end, I made my favorite peanut butter cookies yesterday for the lunch boxes this week. Its an insanely easy recipe with a secret weapon - Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Minis.

If you haven't encountered these little darlings, they are tiny peanut butter cups which come in a bag already unwrapped. They're a bit bigger than a chocolate chip, which means they're a little too big to add to the cookie dough whole. Sadly, the chef has to chop them lightly, which often causes one or two to leap off the cutting board and into the mouth of the person chopping. Yeah, its a dirty job...

At any rate, if you can't find Reese's Minis, milk chocolate chips are a reasonable substitution. Happy baking!

Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes ~24 cookies

1-1/2 cups flour

½ teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup smooth peanut butter
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coarsely chopped miniature peanut butter cups or milk chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or line with parchment two cookie sheets.

2. Whisk the flour and baking soda together and set aside.

3. Beat the butter and sugars together until well blended. Add egg, peanut butter and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add flour mixture and beat until just brought together.

4. Mix in peanut butter cups or chocolate chips (if using) by hand until well distributed.

5. Scoop into 1-inch cookies and criss cross the tops with a fork, pressing down lightly. A bit of water on the fork helps if the dough is soft.

6. Bake 12-14 minutes, watching carefully as they can burn rather quickly. Better to underbake than overbake so don’t let them get too brown.

7. Cool then store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Notes:

• You can substitute almond butter, tahini or cashew butter for the peanut butter. I haven’t used chunky peanut butter but I imagine it would work just fine.
• Chocolate chips or peanut butter cups are optional but add a lot to the finished cookie.
• You can also add chopped nuts or other chunky items (toffee chips, crisped rice, etc.) to add texture.

Lemony Pickled Cauliflower

2012-01-03T16:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this jar looks like something Hannibal Lechter had in his garage, which only proves yet again that I'm a terrible photographer, but in reality it contains amazing, cold, crunchy deliciousness in the form of lemony pickled cauliflower. I know, I know, cauliflower is probably second only to Brussels sprouts in the hated vegetable pantheon but really that's only because it has been abused so much over the years. I always felt it needed to be blanketed in as much cheese sauce as possible to make it palatable so I'm not sure what made me try this recipe but boy, did it change my opinion.

I got the original recipe from Serious Eats and ended up tweaking it a bit to make it even more lemony and tart. Once the cauliflower has rested in the pickling brine for a bit, pull some out, drizzle it with a little olive oil and toss in some parsley for an amazing winter salad. Caroline and I served it at her house with ham and the ravening hoardes fell on it like it was their last meal. The best part is that since its a refrigerator pickle, you don't have to have any special equipment to partake of its goodness.

This recipe makes two quarts

2 lemons, washed and slices

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

8-10 black peppercorns

1 good sized head of cauliflower, cut into florets

2 cups water

2 cups apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon kosher salt

Prepare two clean quart jars by adding two slices of lemon, one slice garlic clove and 4-5 peppercorns to the bottom of each jar.
Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil in a sauce pan large enough to hold all the cauliflower.
Once the water/vinegar mixture is boiling, stir to dissolve the salt then add the cauliflower.
Stir the cauliflower until the water/vinegar mixture returns to the boil then remove from the heat.
Using a slotted spoon, fill each jar halfway with cauliflower. Add another couple of lemon slices to the jar then fill with the rest of the cauliflower.
Pour the hot water/vinegar brine over the cauliflower then top each jar with another lemon slice.
Cap the jars, allow to cool a little then refrigerate for at least 12 hours before eating.
Admire your handiwork (the jars look really pretty in person - much better than my pathetic photo above) then eat and enjoy.

Biscuits, Part Deux

2012-01-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

I'm in no danger of becoming a great photographer so I've finally given in and started using #2's iPod to get quick pictures without a lot of fuss. It gets even better now that I've figured out how to e-mail the pictures directly from the iPod to the blog. Maybe someday I'll get a great camera but in the meantime the shoot and send thing is working.

So...

Here's the biscuit recipe. I think I posted it once before but I'm such a lazy blogger I'm just going to do it again and be done with it. Many thanks to Betty Crocker and my dear mom for many breakfasts of delicious flaky goodies.

Makes about 15 1.5 inch biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon table salt)
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment or a spray of cooking spray.
Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
Cut the butter into small pieces and cut it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, two knives or your fingers.
Mix in the buttermilk until just blended then turn out onto a floured board or counter.
Knead lightly until the dough just comes together then pat out about 1 inch thick.
Cut into rounds with a biscuit or cookie cutter and place on the prepared cookie sheet about an inch apart.
Bake for 10-14 minutes, depending on your oven, until golden brown.
Serve with LOTS of butter, jelly or sausage gravy.

I'm not going to lie - I've been known to make the dough in the food processor but honestly, the texture is so much better when you cut the butter in by hand that I try not to. Another thing to note is that the better the butter (think Plugra or Kerrygold) the better the biscuit but Land O Lakes works just fine if that's what you have.

Oh, and you can add cheese if you want to. About half a cup of good cheddar works great and they're even better if you add a pinch of cayenne or chipotle pepper.

A Brand New Year but the Same Old Breakfast

2012-01-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome 2012! Another year and more potential culinary adventures. I can't wait to see what this year brings.

In the meantime it never ceases to entertain me that my Chinese children love biscuits and gravy more than any other thing I've ever fed them. No congee for my young ones, no sir, they love the artery clogging deliciousness of sausage gravy poured over my mother's famous biscuits.

It was a revelation to me that my mother's delicious biscuits were not some long secret family recipe only to be revealed on one's deathbed but rather straight from the pages of her 1956 Betty Crocker cookbook. When she died I took possession of said cookbook and I have to admit, I've never made a better biscuit than the recipe she used.

I'm going to post this now because I want to get it done for January 1, but I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

2012 - My Year of Eating Dangerously

2011-12-20T12:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't been a very good blogger, which is abundantly clear to anyone who has ever looked at this blog. Part of it is the challenge of not having a good camera, part is that my original intent has been overcome by the reality of life with a full time job, two kids (or three if you consider the 52 year old who also lives in my house), sports, laptop issues, you name it. I know there are plenty of bloggers who are able to pull it all together and blog regularly but I don't seem to be one of them.

So I've decided to change my approach and do something different for 2012. Because I've been in such a rut, I'm going to try some new things, in fact, I want to try at least one new thing a month for the year then write about it. A couple of things I'm thinking about are almost embarrassing for someone who claims to be a foodie - I want to try Korean food. Yeah, I know, it is so last year but I've never had it and think it is something I ought to experience. I'm also going to try my hardest to like fish in some form other than battered and fried. That one might be a harder sell than Korean but I'm going to give it a shot.

I already took a leap, which sounds completely lame to anyone who is a die hard foodie, but I ate a Cuban sandwich not long ago. I always thought they sounded good but I'm not a pickle lover so I avoided them because of the pickles. Anyway, Jane, Barbara and I went to Bryan Voltaggio's new lunch place in Frederick and I tried the Cuban. I won't say the heavens opened and the angels sang but it was tasty enough that I was sorry I waited this long to try one.

Here's a picture of Chef Voltaggio, who just happened to be working the counter the day we were there. He's mighty cute in person, ladies. Oh, yeah, mighty, mighty cute.

And if there's anyone out there who has any suggestions for more dangerous things for me to eat, I'll take them. And if there's anything interesting that happens in between dangerous posts, I'll blog about that as well.

A most excellent lunch, reheated for breakfast

2011-11-10T12:10:00.000-08:00

Quesadillas are one of those dishes that you probably don't want to admit you love. Here's a dish with no foodie cred that Rick Bayless cringes when he sees on a menu, but come on now, who doesn't love flour tortillas, melted cheese and grilled chicken? Seriously, come clean, you love them, you know you do.

So I went to lunch yesterday with three of my coworkers - a special treat because normally I lunch alone and we tried a Mexican/Salvadoran restaurant that I've seen many times but never went into. The food on everyone else's tables looked great, fresh and tasty but everything looked so huge I thought I'd order something small like a quesadilla. Ha! When it came, the thing was the size of a hubcap! I could hardly lift the box it came in. To top it off I ordered a pupusa, a Salvadoran treat that looks like a pancake but is actually a masa cake filled with cheese cooked on a griddle. Wow! Supermegadelicious.

All that being said, I made my way through the pupusa and about a quarter of the quesadilla before I threw in the towel. I brought the rest of it home and amazingly it survived the night and was still there this morning, begging for me to eat it for breakfast. Twenty minutes in a 350 degree oven and I had a toasty little meal that left me full, well, for the whole day. I haven't eaten lunch yet and its 3:00 pm. I love it.

Why I quit blogging and why I've decided to give it another shot

2011-11-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

Pictures.

That's it in a word. I don't have a good camera and I won't be buying one any time soon so I've allowed myself to be intimidated by the glorious photos I see on so many other food blogs.

Bread.

There's a second word. I originally started this blog to talk about baking but I just haven't been doing too much of it lately. I love bread but nobody else in my family does so I end up baking and eating too much then throwing out the rest. Not a good thing in an economy where wasting food is really a crime.

So I've changed my mind about how I'm going to blog going forward. I'm taking the pressure off myself and if I get a good picture, well, that's a bonus. And I'm going to blog about cooking of all types, not just baking.

I'm free.

I think...

Today's word - speed

2011-03-02T20:36:00.001-08:00

I'm really struggling with whether or not I can recommend this recipe but I will give it one thing - speed. Normally, I am a slow girl. Seriously, I like to plan ahead with my baking and give my doughs a lot of time to rise and develop flavor. This recipe is the opposite of slow. You mix and torture the dough then bake it within a few hours of when you start.

I'd say this bread is not bad when hot out of the oven but it doesn't keep. If you have unexpected guests and want to get bread done quickly to go with a meal, go for it. Otherwise, if your expectations are low, you won't be disappointed.

Two Hour French Bread

1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbsp yeast (2 packages)
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1/3 cup oil
2 cups very hot tap water
6 cups flour

Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup water. In a large bowl, combine salt, oil, and 2 cups hot water. Mix in three cups flour. Add the yeast mixture. Mix in remaining 3 cups flour. Stir down every 10 minutes for 5 times (keep bowl covered with a towel in between so it doesn't dry out). Shape. Raise until double. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 2 loaves french bread

In a Word - Comfort

2011-03-01T10:51:00.001-08:00

I've decided to participate in National Blog Posting Month again and this time, I'm determined I will post every single day in March. This month's theme is "In a Word" in which you select a different word each day and blog about it. So for me, the word today is comfort.

Most people's comfort food reminds them of their childhood but my mother wasn't much of a cook when I was a kid so my only real food memories are of things I'd probably rather not think about (like ham, onion and sour cream casserole - dear god! what a disaster!) I'm not sure where I developed my love of Tex-Mex but for me, when I really crave something comforting, food-wise, this is where I go.

With all that's been happening professionally in the past few weeks, I've gone to the chili salad well more than once but this time I finally took a picture. Its a pretty simple thing - romaine, avocado, tomato, chili of some variety, cheddar, salsa and sour cream, plus a few tortilla chips for crunch. You can make it fancy if you want to but you really don't need to - this one has Tostitos and store bought chipotle salsa rather than homemade tortilla wedges and fresh pico de gallo. And it is still delicious.

Back so soon? My first post in a year...

2010-12-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

I can't believe its been a whole year but what a year it has been! I won't offer any lame excuses except to say it has been a roller coaster ride that hopefully is drawing to a close.

In the spirit of getting back on the horse, I want to offer a recipe that we made the other night as a main course for Meatless Monday. The hubby and kids are NOT happy about my desire to be meatless, even for one meal, but they grudgingly ate this and three of us at least actually enjoyed it. It is based on a recipe from Real Simple but I made some tweaks, which I've indicated below. Next time I make it I'll use either sweet potato or pumpkin instead of the butternut squash, though, and if I make it for a non-vegetarian meal some chicken-apple sausage might be a nice addition as well.

Butternut Squash Bread Pudding

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the baking dish
2 medium onions, chopped (I used one)
1-1/2 pounds butternut squash (about half a medium squash)—peeled, seeded, and cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces
kosher salt and black pepper (I added a lot more salt than the directions indicate below and it still needed salt when we ate it)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
6 large eggs
2 cups whole milk (I used 1%)
3/4 pound soft French or Italian bread, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 7 1⁄2 cups)(I actually just eyeballed the baking dish I was using and cut up enough bread to fill it)
1/2 pound Gruyère, grated (2 cups)(I didn’t want to use up all my good Gruyere so I used about ½ a cup of it and the rest was grated Swiss from the grocery store)

Heat oven to 375° F. Oil a 2 ½- to 3-quart baking dish.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to soften, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the squash, season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper, and cook, tossing frequently, until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes more. Stir in the sage. Let cool for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Add the bread, cheese, and squash mixture and toss to coat. (I actually used less bread than they suggest so I poured the mixture into the baking dish and let the milk and egg mixture really sink it for about 15 minutes)
Transfer to the prepared baking dish and bake until golden brown and set, 55 to 60 minutes.

I wish I had taken a picture because it was gorgeous - golden brown and puffed. Oh well, maybe next time. Because there will be a next time and I will post about it, I promise.

My New Yahoogroup - Baking Savory and Sweet

2009-12-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

I guess I just got sick of hearing my own voice complain about how there weren't any Yahoogroups for baking so I started one myself. Its called Baking Savory and Sweet and the address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bakingsavoryandsweet. We have quite a few members already and have had a mini flame war so that makes it all official.

I have begun referring to myself as a "moderatrix," which sounds far more interesting and dangerous than moderator. One of my listies conjured up an image of a baker in black leather whipping her dough into submission which I really like.

So now I'm a list owner. Onward to complete world domination...

A new crop of bread books just in time for my birthday

2009-11-04T12:34:00.000-08:00

I'll admit it readily - I am a cookbook junkie. I don't often cook things from the cookbooks I own (case in point - The French Laundry Cookbook - gastroporn at its finest but not something you'd actually want to cook from) but I read them like novels and drool over the pictures. I recently freecycled a couple of boxes of cookbooks I knew I'd never look at again and, even though I am not a packrat in the rest of my life, I will admit to a pang or two when this lot left my house. Thankfully, two long awaited bread books have come to take their place.

Anyone who knows me knows my complete obsession with no-knead bread, particularly the version introduced by Mark Bittman of the New York Times and Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery. Since I first discovered this bread four or so years ago I have baked hundreds of loaves and taught the technique to more people than I can even count. Imagine my excitement when I read that Jim Lahey had published a book called "My Bread." I decided to give myself a birthday present and buy the book (along with "Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day" - more about that later).

My friends, it is everything I hoped for and more. This is a guy who is serious about his bread and it shows in every aspect of this book, particularly the obsessively concise directions and the "food as still life" photography. Since I'm the obsessive type myself, this book spoke to me loud and clear.

Some of the recipes sound so fantastic I can hardly wait for the weekend to bake, particularly fennel-raisin bread (candied fennel stalks combined with fennel juice, Pernod and golden raisins - I'm in heaven), carrot bread (carrot juice instead of water) and the various pizzas. My hubs and kids are a little bit over the whole homemade pizza every Friday night thing but this week they have no choice. How could you not want to make (and eat!) cauliflower pizza or fennel pizza or Pizza Bianca?

Now, on to the other book. I really enjoyed "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day," the first book from the authors, Hertzberg and Francois. The brioche in particular was spectacularly good and I like the idea of making a large quantity of dough and baking it to order over the course of two weeks.

What they've done with this book is use the same technique with various whole grain and even gluten free breads. I didn't expect to get quite as jazzed as I was for Jim Lahey's (they are a wee bit less serious) but I found myself getting pretty excited. I'm thinking brown rice bread or oatmeal date bread sound good as my first breads from this book.

Its going to be a busy weekend.

2009-05-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much lately, in fact, I've barely posted at all this year. I don't have much of an excuse except that life has definitely gotten in the way. One bright note in all of this is that we now have pizza night every Friday and, thanks to Breadtopia, I have come a long way towards the pizza crust of my dreams (thin, crisp and chewy a la Saviano's on Long Island). Hopefully we'll be grilling pizza this summer too - a rather different experience but a delicious one nonetheless.

But I digress. Any reader of this blog knows I've had a love affair of long standing with Jim Lahey's no knead bread. It has been my go-to ever since I first learned the technique and is still a standby when I need to produce bread the next day but there's always been the issue of "what if I forget or I don't know I'll need a loaf the next day?"

Enter "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." I really didn't want to like this book because it seemed to want to horn in on the no knead movement and take it to the masses. Then, I caved. I heard the authors on "The Splendid Table" describing making brioche in just a few minutes and my curiousity got the better of me. I bought the book, made the bread and, well, drank the kool-aid.

The basic premise is that you mix up a big ol' mess of dough, refrigerate it and cut off a hunk whenever you want to bake. The dough lasts for two weeks in the fridge and by the end of the two week period has soured a bit for a slightly more complex flavor. The concept is simple and brilliant and I've ended up talking to about everyone I know about how to do this (after I spent the last three years bending their ears about Lahey's no knead technique).

This morning I went to the next level and used the brioche dough (and yes, it really is that simple - it took more time to melt the butter than it took to mix up the dough) to make sticky buns.

OH MY GOD!!!! THEY ARE NOT TO BE BELIEVED!!!

I'm not given to Valley speak or multiple exclamation points under normal circumstances but normal speed and punctuation really don't do these rolls justice. They are just that good. Even my sub-standard photography captures the insane amount of luscious caramel topping. I am still, almost twelve hours later, in awe of the deliciousness.

If you're a baker and you don't already own this book, buy it immediately. I mean it.

Today's bread bakeoff

2009-04-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

One of my coworkers and I have been talking baking for some time and I got her started on my beloved no-knead. Of her own volition (I'm so proud) she found the Artisan Baking in Five Minutes a Day website and has turned into a baking maniac. Talk about going from zero to sixty in 10 seconds! She's now baking just about every day.

At any rate, we decided, since we were both in the office today, that we'd do a "bread off" and each bring a loaf in for our coworkers to taste. Hers was a bit softer and less sour than mine; mine had a chewier crust and a slightly "holier" look but there weren't even any crumbs left after the ravenous hordes were done.

I'm so glad I've been able to convert her. Tomorrow, total global baking domination...

And so another month begins

2009-04-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

I have been the world's worst blogger, especially for someone who says she wants to get serious about this stuff, so I'm going to commit to blogging a bit more. I certainly don't want to get maudlin but it is amazing to me to think I've been baking for over 50 years! How the heck did I get THAT old?

More later...

Is it Reinhart?

2009-01-05T12:45:00.001-08:00

Or is it me?

Oh, I think we all know the answer to that question, but it frustrates me nonetheless. I've been baking for a really, really, really long time (yes, I am that old) and never in my life have I had so many disasters as since I've taken up this BBA challenge. I'm starting to feel like a flour covered loser and my family is resisting eating any more of my failures.

Just to make myself feel better, I've baked three gorgeous loaves of my beloved no-knead bread (my stable bread-boyfriend who never lets me down) plus cornbread (not from BBA) and the best chocolate cupcakes I've ever produced, all in one week. I'm starting to regain my confidence, slowly, but I'm feeling a bit more like myself again.

Here's a picture of this morning's loaf, which I have to admit is just plain delicious. The girls have developed a new obsession with garlic bread so I think we'll be having that tonight along with our soup for dinner. Mom and Dad will have grownup grilled cheese (grated sharp cheddar with pepper jelly).

On the subject of cupcakes, before I forget, they are from Georgetown Cupcake, a precious little bake shop in DC where they sell upwards of 4000 cupcakes a day! They won the Washington Post's cupcake contest and having tasted the results, I can certainly see why. These cupcakes are simply spectacular - just don't overfill the cups or you'll get martian tops, which are a bit less lovely but still delicious. Here's the link to the recipe. Try it, you won't regret the calories one bit.

As for me, I may have the courage to pick up BBA again this weekend. Wish me luck.

Not a complete disaster by any means...

2008-12-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

But not exactly what I was going for... yet again.

It all started when I realized I had a fair amount of roasted red pepper hummus but no pita with which to scoop it up. The hummus to pita ratio never seems to work out here (not unlike the dog to bun ratio in houses where hot dogs are consumed - not this house any more, sadly, because even though I know hot dogs are the work of Satan I still love them). At any rate, I needed pita and I needed it quickly.

In keeping with my personal challenge to bake my way through the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I didn't go directly to my fave pita recipe (Baking with Julia, the episode with Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, a couple of my favorite food writers). I love this recipe and have used it many, many times with complete success. BUT, I promised I'd stick with Reinhart so off I went. Turns out he doesn't have an actual pita recipe but suggests that using his lavash dough you can approximate pita if you make rounds and bake on a stone instead of a baking sheet.

The dough was nice to work with, shiny and smooth, and only needed to ferment for 90 minutes so it seemed I was in good shape. Once I was ready to bake I divided the dough into four pieces of about three ounces each and rolled them out into rounds (sort of). On to the stone went the first two but there was no puffing going on in my oven that day. I ended up with chewy, crispy flatbreads, which were delicious but definitely not pita.

Caroline suggested that I write an indignant letter to Peter Reinhart complaining about his recipes. I had to remind her that he's one of the most famous and respected bakers in the world and if I wasn't getting the right results the issue was most likely in MY kitchen, not his.

Sigh...

The countdown is on

2008-11-26T03:14:00.001-08:00

One of the greatest pleasures of the holiday season for me is to get invited to my best friend Caroline's parents' house. No matter which holiday they have a full house of beautifully dressed, interesting people sipping cocktails and discussing things like art, music and books. This year we're invited for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and I got Big Daddy to agree to Thanksgiving (we'll work on Christmas later - he won't know what hit him).

At any rate, my contribution to these soirees is always dessert and this year I'm pulling out the stops. I have to do something flourless since Caroline's mom is gluten free so my trusty Giada de Laurentis chocolate cake with almonds and amaretti will do nicely (this is from her Everyday Italian cookbook - I'm not normally a Food Network kind of gal but got this as a gift and the chocolate cake is worth owning the book for). Next is my beloved sweet potato bourbon cheesecake. I have to leave out the bourbon since we'll have a couple of people in recovery in attendance but it is spectacularly delicious even without it.

Of course there has to be pumpkin pie but I'm going to do an apple buttermilk pie as well. This pie is the evolution of a recipe that Big Daddy presented to me when we were first married. His version calls for canned apple pie filling and a sweetened condensed milk custard topped with oatmeal strusel. Oh honey, that baby was so sweet I thought my teeth were going to fall right out of my head! I've reworked the recipe to call for caramlized Honeycrisp apples and a buttermilk custard but kept the strusel because it is GOOD. Big Daddy says his version is better but that didn't seem to stop him from eating three pieces of the test pie I made over the weekend.

So that leaves one dessert left and I can't decide what it should be. Different factions are rooting for their favorites - Caroline wants Shaker lemon tart, the kids want Hershey bar cake and I'm leaning towards something chocolate like Claudia Fleming's cheesecake tart only with a chocolate cookie crust instead of graham crackers. Plus I'm in the mood to make a salted caramel sauce and that would be delishment on a chocolate something. Watch this space to see where I end up.

Ciabetter but still not great...

2008-11-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

I finally got a picture loaded but with this last batch of ciabatta I got at least one of the big holes that are so characteristic of the bread. I'll be the first to say that a pizza made from this dough kicked butt and took names but the darn dough still wasn't quite soft enough to spread properly. My family is objecting to me making another batch this weekend so I guess I'll have to comfort myself by baking ahead for Thanksgiving. More on that later.

Of course, I did have another disaster that promises to make me nuts for a very long time. Big Daddy gave me what, at the time, seemed like the best birthday present I ever received - 2000 sheets of parchment paper, cut to fit a half sheet pan. Since I am an insane cookie baker, this was the equivalent of giving a big fat Gucci purse stufffed with bling to one of the Real Housewives but I discovered the hard way that this parchment, which he got through their supplier in his kitchen, can't cope with moisture quite the way what I'm used to using can. So, a whole batch of bagels and a gorgeous loaf of no-knead sourdough later, I'm peeling shreds of parchment off the bottom before they can be eaten. Lord help me, what a mess. I keep telling the kids that paper is just another type of fiber and fiber is good for you, right? They're not buying even though I keep selling.

But for the Christmas cookie season I am golden! Or parchment colored! Whatever...

Not bad but not ciabatta...

2008-10-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

I guess I was feeling overconfident, buoyed by my bagel success, but I knew from almost the beginning that my ciabatta dough was not wet enough to spread out into the classic slipper shape. In fact, based on the size of the dough after the first proof, it was pretty clear I was looking at the Ugg boot of bread as opposed to, say, the delicate Manolo Blahnik cocktail sandal I was striving for.

So, instead of ciabatta, I ended up with something I can only describe as the type of bread you get at a neighborhood red sauce Italian restaurant - not necessarily bad, in fact it is pretty tasty, but definitely not what I intended when I started my poolish on Saturday.

My misfortune wasn't limited to the dough, either. I attempted to follow Reinhart's directions for baking on a stone with a steam pan in the oven but apparently my oven gets hotter on the bottom than his does because the bottom crust of the first loaf charred before the top got done. I ended up throwing that loaf out and using my trusty cast iron dutch oven to bake the remaining loaves.

Well, live and learn. Lessons for next time? Wetter is better so however much water was in the dough - I need to double it. Also, put the stone higher up in the oven and put the steam pan in the bottom.

Now, the question is what am I going to do with three loaves of Italian-ish bread? I guess Auntie M and Grandma will take one but nobody in this house will eat the other two so I may be standing on the street corner begging passers by to take a loaf off my hands. I don't suppose it would be the strangest thing most people in this town have seen...

BBA Project, First Effort - Two Thumbs Up for Bagels

2008-10-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

They don't look so hot, sort of like the Frankenstein of bread products, a bit misshapen and lumpy, but oh, the taste! These bagels come so close to the bagels of my childhood (from the Lakeview Market in Chevy Chase), the crispy crust and chewy crumb, that with one bite I was transported back to my mother's big blue Chevy station wagon, clutching the still warm bag as I sneaked my hand inside to grab a bagel on the ride home. Now that I'm a mom myself, I know my mother knew perfectly well what I was doing (the rear view mirror and all) but she was enough of a bread lover herself that I believe she understood the impulse.

At any rate, I haven't had much luck making bagels in the past but I suspect that was primarily because I don't like to follow recipes very much and with baking, you really need to follow the recipe. This time, I slavishly read and followed every step and I am chagrined to admit the result was well worth it.

A couple of small nits - I do think I'll add a bit more salt next time and also, the malt syrup didn't mix into the dough very well so I'll have to think of how to solve that problem. Except for those two tiny minuses, this experiment got a big A+ from me. I promised Caroline I'd bring her a dozen next weekend that she can throw in the freezer so I will definitely be going into production again this week. I might even make what my New York friends consider blasphemy - cinnamon raisin bagels. I know they're not authentic but I bet they'll taste delicious.

Postscript: I stored the bagels in a zip top bag after they cooled. This morning I took one out and wasn't feeling optimistic about how they would taste after a night in plastic but once I toasted it, mamma mia! Again, delicious with a crispy crust and a chewy interior. Thank you, Peter Reinhart. Today I will pay homage a second time with ciabatta. I can't wait.

My not so serious challenge

2008-10-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus from both baking and blogging, I am ready to get back into the trenches and bake my heart out. Every year on my birthday (election day this year!) I issue myself a challenge for the year (last year it was to start blogging - which I achieved, albeit with some fits and starts) so this year I'm challenging myself to bake my way through Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" until I become expert at every type of bread in there that appeals to me.

Don't worry, this isn't going to be one of those "Julie and Julia" things where I force myself to bake every recipe whether I think anyone in this house will eat it or not (we throw away too much food as it is). I can't see either of my children taking a fancy to cranberry nut bread or some of the other more exotic breads Reinhart gives techniques for. And, although I plan to make stollen for Christmas, I'm going to do it with dried fruits and candied ginger like I did last year, even if I do use the BBA's recipe.

So I guess the short answer is I'm going to do it my way (cue Frank Sinatra here, please).

Because I'm waiting for my order from King Arthur flour to bring me diastatic malt syrup, I won't be starting with bagels, so I think the first to go will be ciabatta, which is just fine with me. I'm all about crust, let me tell you, and ciabatta is pretty much two chewy crusts with a little bit of crumb in between, hard on the teeth but heaven otherwise. I'm heading downstairs right now to mix up my poolish to get started.

Whoo hoo! Another year, another adventure.

Welcome to Cookie Town

2008-03-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

I had a big family to-do on Saturday and ended up baking about 20 dozen cookies to take with me. This was for a cookie basket for the assembled multitudes as well as a bag of assorted cookies for one cousin who wasn't here at Christmas to receive his (every Christmas I do cookie baskets or bags instead of gifts - just for grins this past year I also added a jar of Mother Connie's chile sauce as an added gimme). I didn't go as hog wild as I usually do because I had to hit the office two days during the week and that cut very seriously into my baking time. I was mightily annoyed, let me tell you.

Anyway, I made oatmeal chocolate chip, cream cheese chocolate chip with dried cranberries, and the incredible Chocolate 6-Os, made originally for cousin K's 60th birthday. The thing that makes the oatmeal chocolate chip ones different is that I grind the oatmeal up before adding it to the dough. This way the kids don't realize they are eating oatmeal plus it makes the cookies thicker and chewier. Personally, I don't like crispy chocolate chip cookies so the oatmeal makes all the difference. The cream cheese based cookies are a new recipe I made for the first time this past Christmas. They are soft and delicious and I use mini chips along with the dried cranberries. Yum! Chocolate 6-Os are just a force of nature. Six kinds of chocolate as well as a ton of espresso make these babies high test. I can't let my kids eat them after 6:00 in the evening or they will be up all night.

Happily, when we left the family event, there was barely a crumb left. What can I say? Being the cookie lady makes me happy.

Big, Bad Biscuits

2008-02-26T11:56:00.001-08:00

That clanging noise you hear in the background is my arteries slamming shut after making biscuits not once but twice this weekend. The kids had been bugging me for Nana's butter biscuits, buttery little hunks of deliciousness based on a recipe from my mom's 1956 Betty Crocker cookbook. These are biscuits made without shortening that are then rolled in melted butter and baked. The tops get golden but the bottoms actually fry a little bit in the leftover butter in the baking pan and are so greasily wonderful I could eat a whole pan full myself (hence the aforementioned artery thing). For some reason my offspring like to break them into pieces and dip them into tomato juice for consumption, which I would suggest you try before you dismiss it out of hand. It actually isn't bad.

So that was Saturday. Then Sunday we had our once in a while Southern fat-fest, better known as sausage gravy and biscuits. There weren't enough butter biscuits left over so I had to start all over again with the traditional baking powder version. I love to bake but it isn't often I do two batches in two days! I'm posting both recipes so you can compare and contrast. They are similar but just different enough that you might want to try both.

Butter Biscuits

6 tablespoons butter

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Put the butter into an 8x8 square baking pan and put in the oven until melted.

Mix the remaining ingredients together to make a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured board and knead lightly then pat out to about 1/2 thickness.

Using a round cutter, cut 12 rounds. Coat the round in the melted butter and arrange in the pan.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until dark golden brown.

Traditional Baking Powder Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients together and, using a cutter or two knives, cut in the butter until the mix resembles cornmeal.

Add the buttermilk to make a soft dough.

Turn out onto a floured board and knead lightly then pat dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness.

Cut with a round biscuit cutter and place on an ungreased cookie sheet or stoneware pan.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Bread Baking Day #7 - Here We Go!

2008-02-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

I'm excited that I've discovered a new web concept called Bread Baking Day! It was developed by another bread obsessed blogger and has been embraced by bakers all over the world. Each BBD is given a theme then anyone who participates bakes, blogs about it and sends their bake info to a central person who compiles the whole lot. I may have some of the specifics a bit muddled up but I intend to participate in the March 1 event.

Okay, it doesn't take much to turn me on. I know this.

The theme for March 1 is flatbreads but excludes pizza so I'd better get cracking on finding something to make. Maybe I'll get with Caroline and see about making the Moroccan flatbread her MIL made when she was here. It was SO good but I didn't get to watch her make it so I might need some education.

Really Delicious Bran Muffins

2008-02-16T07:13:00.000-08:00

Quick - let's play the word association game. I say something and you tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. Here's the phrase - bran muffins. So let me guess what you came up with - I'm thinking dry, tasteless, doorstop, heavy. Am I coming close? I know, delicious bran muffins sounds like a complete oxymoron but a couple of years ago I stumbled on a recipe in Greg Patent's Baking in America that has totally changed my mind on the subject. These babies are not just yummy, they are tender, moist and loaded with fruit. I tinkered with the recipe just a bit to add more spice so they are way too good not to try just because of the painful experiences you might have had with bran in the past. Here's the recipe:

1 cup unbleached flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup wheat germ
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups bran cereal (like All Bran)
1 cup raisins, dried cherries, or dried cranberries
1 large egg
1½ cups buttermilk
¼ cup applesauce or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the dried fruit and toss to combine.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg, then add the buttermilk, oil or applesauce, and vanilla and mix. Add to the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Let the batter stand for 15 minutes to moisten the cereal. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees while the batter is standing.
5. Divide the batter into the muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes.
6. Serve warm or at room temperature.

My continuing obsession with no-knead bread

2008-02-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

No-knead bread, the love of my baking life. I had never heard of the stuff until last year but have been on a mission to make great artisan bread at home for what seemed like my entire existence. I was beginning to think it would never happen in spite of baking stones, 70 year old sourdough starter, and pretty much every cooking and baking accoutrement that I could cram into my house. Then I picked up a Vogue magazine and read the article that changed my life. I know, you think I'm being dramatic (and it wouldn't be the first time I was accused of such) but when I read I could make bread as incredible as something from Sullivan Street Bakery in New York in my home oven, I wanted to drop to my knees right there in my living room and thank the powers of the universe for putting that magazine in my hands that day.

I'll admit it didn't hurt that the article was written by Jeffrey Steingarten, my absolute favorite (and to my mind the most erudite) food writer on the planet today. The irony of a magazine devoted to the emaciated darlings of the fashion world still having a great food writer on staff doesn't escape me but I'm sure glad they do.

The first time I baked this bread I got a loaf that looked like it had come from the ovens of a fabulous artisan bakery like Bread Line in DC or Tom Cat in NY. It was just plain gorgeous and the taste was unbelievable, the crust was chewy and crisp at the same time. I was in heaven and I swear I baked a loaf of bread every day for about two weeks (and I'm the only person in my house who likes bread so I was going through a lot of flour and eating a LOT of bread). Yes, I definitely had a few bombs but the technique is so easy that just a little bit of experience with the dough and I was producing spectacular loaves every time.

So here's the basic recipe plus a ton of notes I've taken over the past year. I'm not baking every day these days but I'm still crazy about this bread and no lie, it looks as good as the pic I've loaded every time I bake it.

Ingredients

3 cups bread flour (I like King Arthur but just about any brand will do; I’ve also used regular unbleached all-purpose flour with great results)
1 teaspoons instant yeast (look for Rapid Rise or bread machine yeast; SAF is great)
2 teaspoons salt (I use Kosher – you might need a bit less if you’re using table salt)
1.5 cups room temp or slightly warmer water
Wheat bran

Tools/supplies

Parchment paper
Cast iron or ceramic Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid

Instructions

1. Put the flour, yeast and salt in a bowl and mix together thoroughly.
2. Add the water and mix to get a rough, sticky dough (there may still be some flour clinging to the side of the bowl but most of it should be incorporated)
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for about 12-18 hours (can be a few less or a bit more but 24 hours is about the longest you want to let it go)
4. Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a heavily floured board or counter and pat it out slightly 5. Fold the two sides of the dough in like folding a letter, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes
6. After 15 minutes, fold the other two sides in to make a sort of square then pull it to make a round loaf. Place the dough on a heavily floured towel that has been sprinkled with wheat bran; sprinkle the top of the loaf with wheat bran and fold the sides of the towel up over the loaf. You may also place the loaf on parchment paper (my preference) which then goes right into the oven when you bake. Cover with a towel to keep the dough from drying out.
7. Let rise for two hours.
8. After one hour of rising, put the Dutch oven with the lid into the oven and turn it on to 500°
9. After the two hour rise, open the oven, pull the lid off the Dutch oven and turn the dough from the towel into the Dutch oven, trying not to let it fall in and completely deflate.
10. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on then bake for 20-25 minutes with the lid off. Use an instant read thermometer to be sure the interior of the loaf is 205 degrees or above if you have doubts.
11. Cool on a rack for at least two hours. Resist the urge to tear the loaf apart with your bare hands once it is cool enough to not give you third degree burns. You won’t be sorry.

A few notes:

· Go to YouTube and search on no-knead bread. Be sure to watch the video of Jim Lahey and Mark Bittman from the New York Times but when you go to make the bread, use the ingredients listed here rather than the measurements he says. This version tastes and rises much better. Marthastewart.com also has video of Jim on Martha’s tv show but some find her a bit hard to stomach (no culinary pun intended...)

· If you don’t have a Dutch oven, I’ve seen people make this bread using a pizza stone with a flower pot on top or use a number of different types of Pyrex bowls with lids. The real key is to be sure a) whatever you use can stand up to a really hot oven, and b) the lid fits tightly.

· If your dough sticks to the towel when you go to turn it into the Dutch oven, pry it off as much as you can and hope for the best. Next time (and there will be a next time), be sure the towel is very heavily floured (so you can’t see the weave of the cloth) and add more wheat bran. Do not despair as you will probably still get a fantastic loaf of bread.

· As I mentioned above I’ve had pretty good luck rising the dough on parchment paper then just sliding the whole thing, paper and all, into the Dutch oven. The paper gets a bit crispy but doesn’t catch on fire or anything horrible like that. If you’re really concerned, pull the paper out of the Dutch oven when you remove the lid before the second half of the baking period.

· If the bread seems a bit sticky when you cut it, it is underbaked. Add five minutes to the baking time next time you bake and test with an instant read thermometer. If it measures over 205 degrees, you’re good.

· If you don’t get a good rise in the oven or your crust is hard instead of being chewy, your dough is probably too wet. Because the dough is very sticky and may not incorporate all the flour in the bowl, you may be tempted to add a bit more water. Do not do this, just keep mixing (you can use your hands or a wooden spoon) until the dough is mostly pulled together.

· You can add stuff like cheese or raisins if you want. There are MANY recipe variations of this bread available on the web (breadtopia.com is one that I like but just Google no-knead bread and you’ll see how this has caught on in the baking world).

· This recipe makes a BIG loaf. You can easily cut the ingredients in half and get a nice size loaf for a smaller family.

Good luck and report back!

Some of those bread people really scare me...

2008-02-12T08:46:00.000-08:00

I'll admit I'm obsessed with baking. I mean, who spends hours on the web, surfing from site to site, drooling over a perfectly blistered golden crust, the insanely buttery cookie, if they're not crazy. If there was such a thing as the smellovision equivalent for computers and even one bread site used it, I'd sign up tomorrow even if it cost a fortune. There are a ton of blogs about food, many about baking in particular, but some of the bread-only people can be scary to the point of making me want to festoon myself with garlic.

I'm not going to name names but when you get a posting thread that goes on for days that debates the merits of one percentage of hydration vs. another, I realize that the denizens of this particular website live on a different plane of reality than mine. These guys are SERIOUS about bread and there is no room for error when calculating percentages of ingredients or discussing grinds of flour (yes, there is the subculture of grinding your own wheat that plays in this too - eek! - but I'm not even going down that road)

Yes, I know there is science to baking and my refusal to pay much attention to that has led to some of my more spectacular failures but really, I mostly like to bake because I like to eat. The serious bread people don't seem to be having much fun with the whole thing and I don't hear a lot of discussion about how good the stuff tastes, which is the point, I thought. At any rate, I get slightly creeped out when bread stops being food and starts being just an experiment. It all seems a bit Soylent Green (I hope I spelled that right - the movie came out a LONG time ago) to me.

Its snowing here in the mountains and the kids are agitating for me to bake cookies. One wants peanut butter, the other chocolate chip so I'm off to wing it and attempt to make something that satisfies them both. As long as nothing explodes it'll be a success as far as I'm concerned.