( More sourdough behind the cut... )
Today's loaf: the basic KA sourdough with pecans to take to a friend's house for dinner.
Today's loaf: the basic KA sourdough with pecans to take to a friend's house for dinner.
April 2nd, 2011
March 21st, 2011
March 18th, 2011
I was at an SCA event a few weekends back, and after a lovely conversation with a very passionate breadsmith, I was gifted some dried sourdough starter, a version that he called "Illinois Sweet."
I've tried once before to get a wild starter going, but it was a pretty dismal failure (and possibly a source of some spectacular biotoxins). This time, I carefully woke up the starter and fed it daily. I followed the directions to the letter, and after about four days I had an overflowing little bowl of bubbly, sticky, yeasty starter... wicktory!
So I decided to try some bread with my little bowl of starter. I dug through my copies of Uprisings (from my Blue Mango baking days) and a few other cookbooks on our shelves before I settled down with the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion Cookbook (a gift from the luminous![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1)
cheesepuppet, thank you SO MUCH!).
I decided to go with a part-whole-wheat Pain au Levain, a very basic flour-starter-water-salt hearth bread. I added some toasted pecans right at the end of the mixing, with fond memories of the Sacramento Baking Company's sour wheat walnut bread.
When I proofed the bread, I made a guess as to the best vessel to use... and I guessed wrong. I had decided to go with a single large loaf instead of two smaller boules, and used the largest glass mixing bowl I own (my mom's old Pyrex bowl), lined with a cotton kitchen towel (fabric, not terrycloth). The shape was too rounded, and this much dough really needed something wider. Also, when I slashed the top, only one slash was deep enough to do any good, so it only spread out along the one axis when it baked... which meant it looked like it was mooning me!
I used the wooden peel sprinkled with semolina and the preheated baking stone to bake it, and that turned out very well. I used a cast-iron pan with water to create a humid oven, but I didn't have a spray bottle handle to spray the surface of the boule before I put it in the oven... I sprinkled it with water from my hands, but I suspect not enough.
Since it was so thick in the middle, there was a bit in the center that was still uncooked while the outer crust was very brown and hard. But the stuff that WAS done was really delicious. It's a lot sweeter than I imagined it would be, even though I knew that the Illinois sourdoughs are never going to be as tangy as the San Francisco versions. Still, it's a young starter and I'm new at this... I suspect I'll be able to get it a little more sour with some age and experience.
I transferred my starter to a larger bowl... I had to use almost the entire bowl of starter for this loaf, so I clearly needed a larger amount to work with. I've been feeding it up, and it's been warmer all this week, so I'll try again this weekend and see what happens. I also went to the thrift store and got a nice wide wicker basket for proofing, and I'll see if I can get a cheap spray bottle too.
I'm also looking forward to some sourdough waffles in the near future!
Anyway, I wanted to document this journey into the land of sourdough... has anyone else out there had a successful experience with starters and sourdoughs? I'd love to hear about it!
I've tried once before to get a wild starter going, but it was a pretty dismal failure (and possibly a source of some spectacular biotoxins). This time, I carefully woke up the starter and fed it daily. I followed the directions to the letter, and after about four days I had an overflowing little bowl of bubbly, sticky, yeasty starter... wicktory!
So I decided to try some bread with my little bowl of starter. I dug through my copies of Uprisings (from my Blue Mango baking days) and a few other cookbooks on our shelves before I settled down with the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion Cookbook (a gift from the luminous
cheesepuppet, thank you SO MUCH!). I decided to go with a part-whole-wheat Pain au Levain, a very basic flour-starter-water-salt hearth bread. I added some toasted pecans right at the end of the mixing, with fond memories of the Sacramento Baking Company's sour wheat walnut bread.
When I proofed the bread, I made a guess as to the best vessel to use... and I guessed wrong. I had decided to go with a single large loaf instead of two smaller boules, and used the largest glass mixing bowl I own (my mom's old Pyrex bowl), lined with a cotton kitchen towel (fabric, not terrycloth). The shape was too rounded, and this much dough really needed something wider. Also, when I slashed the top, only one slash was deep enough to do any good, so it only spread out along the one axis when it baked... which meant it looked like it was mooning me!
I used the wooden peel sprinkled with semolina and the preheated baking stone to bake it, and that turned out very well. I used a cast-iron pan with water to create a humid oven, but I didn't have a spray bottle handle to spray the surface of the boule before I put it in the oven... I sprinkled it with water from my hands, but I suspect not enough.
Since it was so thick in the middle, there was a bit in the center that was still uncooked while the outer crust was very brown and hard. But the stuff that WAS done was really delicious. It's a lot sweeter than I imagined it would be, even though I knew that the Illinois sourdoughs are never going to be as tangy as the San Francisco versions. Still, it's a young starter and I'm new at this... I suspect I'll be able to get it a little more sour with some age and experience.
I transferred my starter to a larger bowl... I had to use almost the entire bowl of starter for this loaf, so I clearly needed a larger amount to work with. I've been feeding it up, and it's been warmer all this week, so I'll try again this weekend and see what happens. I also went to the thrift store and got a nice wide wicker basket for proofing, and I'll see if I can get a cheap spray bottle too.
I'm also looking forward to some sourdough waffles in the near future!
Anyway, I wanted to document this journey into the land of sourdough... has anyone else out there had a successful experience with starters and sourdoughs? I'd love to hear about it!
Even though I'm only a quarter Irish, and that quarter was mostly disowned and ignored by other family members, I do like to celebrate holidays with food. So here's the St. Patrick's Day Dinner Report!
Boiled Beef Dinner: I did the corned beef brisket in a slow cooker this year, with half Guinness and half water covering it (and it still took two whole cans!), with a head of peeled, crushed garlic, a palmful of peppercorns, and a bay leaf. It was cooked over about six hours and came out just lovely, I thought. For the last two hours, I popped in a quartered onion, a couple of chunked-up carrots, and a half-dozen quartered red potatoes. The last hour, I added a cabbage cut into eighths (had to ladle out some of the broth to git it all in there).
Irish Soda Bread: I took my friend Kate Healy's Great Nana Kelly's recipe, and tweaked it (cut it into thirds... we didn't need three whole loaves... and added some goodies). It turned out great, and was devoured quickly.
( Want the recipe I used? )
I also made the amazing Car-Bomb Cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen. This recipe is so wonderful that I dasn't change a thing (except that I couldn't find the whiskey, and substituted brandy in the ganache. No complaints!).
Hope you had a great St. Patty's day yourself! What did YOU eat?
Boiled Beef Dinner: I did the corned beef brisket in a slow cooker this year, with half Guinness and half water covering it (and it still took two whole cans!), with a head of peeled, crushed garlic, a palmful of peppercorns, and a bay leaf. It was cooked over about six hours and came out just lovely, I thought. For the last two hours, I popped in a quartered onion, a couple of chunked-up carrots, and a half-dozen quartered red potatoes. The last hour, I added a cabbage cut into eighths (had to ladle out some of the broth to git it all in there).
Irish Soda Bread: I took my friend Kate Healy's Great Nana Kelly's recipe, and tweaked it (cut it into thirds... we didn't need three whole loaves... and added some goodies). It turned out great, and was devoured quickly.
( Want the recipe I used? )
I also made the amazing Car-Bomb Cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen. This recipe is so wonderful that I dasn't change a thing (except that I couldn't find the whiskey, and substituted brandy in the ganache. No complaints!).
Hope you had a great St. Patty's day yourself! What did YOU eat?
March 6th, 2011
The other week, I was seized with a desire to make a spicy Indian lamb curry. So I invited some friends over to share it, and made a few other things too. Even Bill pitched in! ( I wanted to jot down the recipes here for future reference, and there are some photos too. Come see! )
It was an awesome dinner, and it wasn't difficult. But if I do it again, I'll try to space out some of the prep work... doing it all in one day was a wee bit much.
It was an awesome dinner, and it wasn't difficult. But if I do it again, I'll try to space out some of the prep work... doing it all in one day was a wee bit much.
January 13th, 2011
I totally nailed some homemade pizza dough last night, and I want to remember what I did for the future. This was a mish-mash of ideas and directions from a dozen different web pages.
Into the KitchenAid bowl with dough hook: 3 c. King Arthur bread flour, 1 c. warm water, 1 tsp. yeast, 1 tsp. salt. Mix together until combined, let rest in bowl about 20 minutes. Start up mixer again. After about 5 minutes of kneading at low speed, start sprinkling in flour slowly until it starts coming together as a ball (I wound up using another whole cup eventually). Total mix time was about 8 minutes. Gather up into a ball... it should be pretty smooth and silky at this point.
Dribble a few drops of olive oil on it and roll around to cover in the bowl. Cover with a towel and let rise (I only had half an hour, but all day would have been better). I left the bowl on top of the heating stove.
Start up the oven with a pizza stone 1/3 from top, at 500 degrees (600 if your oven can go that high, but mine can't). Heat up the oven for at least for half an hour before you plan to start baking.
Rip off pieces of dough and stretch by hand into rough rounds (I think this would have made 4 rounds about 8" across). Work on a cornmeal-dusted surface (I used a pizza peel, but the back of a rimmed cookie sheet would work). Top with a tablespoon or two of sauce and whatever else you have (we used a bit of browned hot Italian sausage, thinly sliced red onion, thinly sliced mushrooms, and grated mozzarella).
Slide the pizza from the peel onto the hot pizza stone. Bake for 8-10 minutes (watch for a nice brown crust but don't let it burn). I meant to throw an ice cube on the bottom of the oven for humidity, but I forgot. Pull it out (if you don't have a peel, maybe a spatula could pull it out back onto the cookie sheet?), let rest a few moments, slice and devour.
Into the KitchenAid bowl with dough hook: 3 c. King Arthur bread flour, 1 c. warm water, 1 tsp. yeast, 1 tsp. salt. Mix together until combined, let rest in bowl about 20 minutes. Start up mixer again. After about 5 minutes of kneading at low speed, start sprinkling in flour slowly until it starts coming together as a ball (I wound up using another whole cup eventually). Total mix time was about 8 minutes. Gather up into a ball... it should be pretty smooth and silky at this point.
Dribble a few drops of olive oil on it and roll around to cover in the bowl. Cover with a towel and let rise (I only had half an hour, but all day would have been better). I left the bowl on top of the heating stove.
Start up the oven with a pizza stone 1/3 from top, at 500 degrees (600 if your oven can go that high, but mine can't). Heat up the oven for at least for half an hour before you plan to start baking.
Rip off pieces of dough and stretch by hand into rough rounds (I think this would have made 4 rounds about 8" across). Work on a cornmeal-dusted surface (I used a pizza peel, but the back of a rimmed cookie sheet would work). Top with a tablespoon or two of sauce and whatever else you have (we used a bit of browned hot Italian sausage, thinly sliced red onion, thinly sliced mushrooms, and grated mozzarella).
Slide the pizza from the peel onto the hot pizza stone. Bake for 8-10 minutes (watch for a nice brown crust but don't let it burn). I meant to throw an ice cube on the bottom of the oven for humidity, but I forgot. Pull it out (if you don't have a peel, maybe a spatula could pull it out back onto the cookie sheet?), let rest a few moments, slice and devour.
December 21st, 2010
Based on
kightp for the pointer!). This spicy cookie features some very adult flavors, and holds up as well with a glass of merlot as it does cold milk.3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/3 - 1/2 cup candied ginger, chopped (I used Trader Joe's uncrystallized)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
4 good grinds of black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
In a bowl of a standing mixer, mix butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add the egg, molassas and chopped candied ginger, mix together. Sift in the flour, soda, cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, peppers and salt. Mix just until incorporated, and chill for at least one hour.
Place oven rack in the center of the oven and set to 360 degrees F. I used a #70 disher (the ice-cream scoop thingie), which made balls just under a tablespoon (or just scoop up a scant tablespoon and roll into a large marble). Roll one side of the ball in the turbinado sugar and place sugar-side up on a cookie sheet covered with either a Silpat or parchment paper. Cookies spread to about 2", so don't crowd them.
Bake for 10 minutes, one sheet at a time. Cookies will puff up and then deflate when you take them out. They don't really brown; don't overbake. Let rest on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before using a metal spatula to transfer to a cooling rack. Try not to hork down the whole batch instantly (good luck with that).
Makes about four dozen 2" cookies.
July 15th, 2010
I was hungry, but since I'm trying to do this anti-yeast diet thing, I couldn't just grab my normal go-to quick breakfast (bagel or cereal).
I sort of wanted something Thai-ish, but we're saving money and Linc's got a cold, so I'm not gonna go out hunting for Pad Thai (besides, we live in Little Poland... no reliable Thai that I've found yet). Instead, I searched online for a recipe that sounded good and used what we had on hand. Lot of close but no cigar.
So I made something up. It was so good, I wanted to remember it.
Soak a pound of thin rice stick noodles in hot water, while a second pot starts boiling water. Set timer for 15m.
Chop up veggies (I used three heads of baby bok choy) and saute in 1T oil; add a bit of toasted sesame oil too. Peel, crush and add 4 cloves of garlic. Grate in about 2T ginger. Cook on low while you finish dressing. I mean, MAKING the dressing. I'm already dressed. Sheesh.
In a nice big bowl with a cover (you're gonna put it in the fridge), whisk a can of coconut milk, about half a cup of broth (I used chicken, but if you just used water or vegetable broth, this could be vegan), about 4T of Sriracha red chili sauce, about half a cup of peanut butter, the zest and juice of a lime, 2T rice vinegar, 2T soy sauce, and 2T brown sugar. Whisk it all up. Taste it and add whatever is missing (I think I could have used fish sauce instead of soy sauce).
Did you get that all done before your timer dinged? Nice. You're much more dextrous that I am. When your timer dings, pick up your soaked rice noodles and put them into the pot with the (hopefully by now) boiling water, set your timer for 2 minutes. DO NOT WANDER AWAY! Overdone rice sticks are sad, sad things. Taste your noodles and yank 'em if they seem done before 2m. Drain in a strainer (cos if you use your colander with the slits, you'll lose a buncha noodles).
Toss noodles, dressing, and veggies all together. You could wait until it's cold, but I'm scarfing it as-is. Yom!
I sort of wanted something Thai-ish, but we're saving money and Linc's got a cold, so I'm not gonna go out hunting for Pad Thai (besides, we live in Little Poland... no reliable Thai that I've found yet). Instead, I searched online for a recipe that sounded good and used what we had on hand. Lot of close but no cigar.
So I made something up. It was so good, I wanted to remember it.
Soak a pound of thin rice stick noodles in hot water, while a second pot starts boiling water. Set timer for 15m.
Chop up veggies (I used three heads of baby bok choy) and saute in 1T oil; add a bit of toasted sesame oil too. Peel, crush and add 4 cloves of garlic. Grate in about 2T ginger. Cook on low while you finish dressing. I mean, MAKING the dressing. I'm already dressed. Sheesh.
In a nice big bowl with a cover (you're gonna put it in the fridge), whisk a can of coconut milk, about half a cup of broth (I used chicken, but if you just used water or vegetable broth, this could be vegan), about 4T of Sriracha red chili sauce, about half a cup of peanut butter, the zest and juice of a lime, 2T rice vinegar, 2T soy sauce, and 2T brown sugar. Whisk it all up. Taste it and add whatever is missing (I think I could have used fish sauce instead of soy sauce).
Did you get that all done before your timer dinged? Nice. You're much more dextrous that I am. When your timer dings, pick up your soaked rice noodles and put them into the pot with the (hopefully by now) boiling water, set your timer for 2 minutes. DO NOT WANDER AWAY! Overdone rice sticks are sad, sad things. Taste your noodles and yank 'em if they seem done before 2m. Drain in a strainer (cos if you use your colander with the slits, you'll lose a buncha noodles).
Toss noodles, dressing, and veggies all together. You could wait until it's cold, but I'm scarfing it as-is. Yom!
March 25th, 2010
A friend posted a link to a recipe for homemade Girl Scout Samoas (aka Caramel De-Lites). I decided to make a double batch for a fundraiser.
( I used her recipe almost exactly, so I won't reproduce it here, but I wanted to make some notes so others can learn from my mistakes. )
If I hadn't gracefully dumped part of a tray when I removed them from the oven, I would have had 60 finished cookies total from that double batch (that came out to about 30 cents and six minutes per cookie!).
Did I mention how fiddly these cookies are? But they are soooo good... like fabulous little candy bars!
( I used her recipe almost exactly, so I won't reproduce it here, but I wanted to make some notes so others can learn from my mistakes. )
If I hadn't gracefully dumped part of a tray when I removed them from the oven, I would have had 60 finished cookies total from that double batch (that came out to about 30 cents and six minutes per cookie!).
Did I mention how fiddly these cookies are? But they are soooo good... like fabulous little candy bars!
January 28th, 2010
So I had a couple cups of baked, smooshed butternut squash in the fridge after making the lasagna, and needed to use it up. A friend suggested making a pasta sauce with it, so here's what I did:
Sauteed a diced sweet yellow onion in some olive oil, added a big handful of those Costco bacon bits, poured in the puree and heated it all up. Crushed a couple cloves of garlic into the pot, stirred in about a half cup or so of toasted pine nuts, then mixed it up with about a pound of cooked and drained penne.
It was a perfect winter lunch, and it was done faster than the time it took to boil the pasta!
Incidentally, I think I may have found a local substitute for my beloved Scimeca hot Italian sausage: Nottoli's does a really nice version, along with an Italian grocery that rivals Bella Napoli (Notolli's has a website, but for some reason it doesn't mention the Harlem location, which is about a mile away from my house!). Their sausage has some heat, but not in a one-dimensional, overpowering way like some other local sausages I've tried, with a good dose of fennel and other spices. They also make another local delicacy that Bill and I have grown fond of, giardiniera, a spicy pickled mixture of vegetables (that sounds pretty awful, but believe me, it's terrific!).
I have more I'd like to say about the Chicago food scene, but I think I'll save it for later. Just wanted to let you know I'm still here, and still cooking!
Sauteed a diced sweet yellow onion in some olive oil, added a big handful of those Costco bacon bits, poured in the puree and heated it all up. Crushed a couple cloves of garlic into the pot, stirred in about a half cup or so of toasted pine nuts, then mixed it up with about a pound of cooked and drained penne.
It was a perfect winter lunch, and it was done faster than the time it took to boil the pasta!
Incidentally, I think I may have found a local substitute for my beloved Scimeca hot Italian sausage: Nottoli's does a really nice version, along with an Italian grocery that rivals Bella Napoli (Notolli's has a website, but for some reason it doesn't mention the Harlem location, which is about a mile away from my house!). Their sausage has some heat, but not in a one-dimensional, overpowering way like some other local sausages I've tried, with a good dose of fennel and other spices. They also make another local delicacy that Bill and I have grown fond of, giardiniera, a spicy pickled mixture of vegetables (that sounds pretty awful, but believe me, it's terrific!).
I have more I'd like to say about the Chicago food scene, but I think I'll save it for later. Just wanted to let you know I'm still here, and still cooking!
