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Bake It All Away: Honey Wheat Oatmeal Bread

5 Sep

Have you ever had one of those days when you’re just mad at the world?

I had such a day earlier this week. In this case, it was over a situation which has left me feeling small, sad, and powerless. I can only stand by and watch things unfold. There is almost nothing I can do to improve or fix any of it.

And so I found myself riding my bike along the Potomac River , barely paying much attention to anything except the occasional mile marker. When I finally stopped at Theodore Roosevelt Island, I paused just for a minute. My mind started to wander and I immediately began pedaling again. The last thing I wanted to do was think.

The trails between my house and Roosevelt Island aren’t particularly difficult. There are a few grades that challenge the relatively small tires on my fold-up commuter bike, but I didn’t huff and puff the way I used to and was finally at the point where I felt mostly balanced and less terrified. But riding still required a bizarre kind of blank focus. I didn’t think about anything else, and was just aware of the road hazards, people, and sounds around me. It was only once my bike was back in the trunk of my car that I thought “Okay, time to pick up groceries and get a latte for Joe.” For those fifteen miles though, I felt a kind of ignorant freedom.

It was what I needed. I’m not saying that trumpets sounded and I was walking around with my chest puffed up and head held high, but I felt determined rather than just mad, and decided that I could do something both distracting and productive. I’d do what I almost always do when confronted with extreme stress:

Bake bread.

My father-in-law was diagnosed with diabetes not too long ago and has been trying to improve his (already very healthy) diet. He’s cut most refined carbohydrates out and has replaced his regular dark chocolate bars with ones sweetened with stevia. So I thought it would be nice to bring him a fresh baked loaf of something hearty and soft, equally delicious for both sandwiches and toast. This recipe makes just that. Low in fat and sugar (1.5 g of each per slice), but rich in fiber and protein, it’s a pretty darn good loaf of bread. It’s also a good way to start your kids on wheat bread, because the honey gives it just enough sweetness to be enticing.

You might be able to make this using only whole wheat flour, but you’d probably need to use some whole wheat pastry flour so it’s light enough to get a proper rise. I’d also recommend buckwheat honey; you can even replace a few tablespoons of it with blackstrap molasses for extra iron.

Honey Wheat Oatmeal Bread

  • 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, plus extra for flouring kneading surfaces and hands
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup multi-grain hot cereal (I used Bob’s Red Mill wheat-free)
  • 1 tbsp. salt
  • 2 tbsp. active dry yeast
  • 2 cups water, divided
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1/3 cup raw, dark honey
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

Heat the milk and 1 1/2 cups of the water in a large saucepan until steaming, but not boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the oatmeal. Let cool, stirring occasionally, until just warm to the touch. The oats will soak up a lot of the milk, but the mixture will still be fairly loose.

Heat the remaining 1/2 cup of water to 100-110 degrees F. In large bowl, combine the yeast, 1 tsp. of honey, and the warm water. Set aside until very foamy.

In another bowl, stir together the flours, hot cereal, and salt.

Add the yeast mixture, butter, and remaining honey to the oatmeal mixture and stir to combine.

Add the oatmeal mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. It will be very sticky. If it’s too loose to knead, add up to ¾ cup of flour a few tablespoons at a time.

Turn the dough out on to a floured board. Flour your hands and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. The dough will be slightly sticky.

Oil a large bowl, roll the dough into a ball and put it in the bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow it to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours).
Punch down the dough and divide it in half. Roll each portion out into a 8 x 13 in. rectangle.

Roll the dough up jelly-roll style and tuck the edges under to shape the loaf. Place each in a greased 8 1/2 x 4 in. loaf pan. Cover the pans with a tea towel and allow the dough to rise again for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Brush the tops of the loaves with an egg wash and sprinkle on extra rolled oats.

Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 190 degrees.

Remove loaves from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Yield: 2 loaves (Sixteen 1.5 oz. slices per loaf)

A doctor I knew once told me that while when we can’t change the situation, we must learn to change how we react and relate to it. Rather than lash out at those around me, growl at the guy that cut me off in traffic, eat an entire pan of crispy rice squares, or glare at the woman taking her sweet time at the grocery store checkout, I did something kind for myself and my family.  I gave myself and my father-in-law something healthy to nourish us physically, and simultaneously soothed myself emotionally.

Should you ever wake up one day angry and frustrated by the world around you, admit to yourself, “Yep, this sucks.” If there’s nothing you can do to change the situation and you feel completely stuck, remember what you learned in preschool and share something good with another person (or people). Helping someone else might be just what makes you remember that the world can be nice.

So go bake some bread, and give a gift to yourself and a friend. I pinky-swear promise that you’ll be glad you did.

Ciao for now,

Neen

Easter Bread 101

26 Apr

I consider myself a bread connoisseur. Outside of really good cioppino or bouillabaisse, fresh bread is my favorite thing to eat. When I think about the fact that people have made this one food for centuries, I realize that I cannot possibly be the only one that feels this way.

One of my most beloved varieties is one that only pops up in the spring. It’s lightly sweet and a little bit rich, and for one reason or another only gets made at Easter (oh cruel fate). But you should totally rage against the machine and make it all year.

For most of my life, I’ve almost always seen this bread made with either vegetable shortening or oil, so when Bon Appetit featured an all-butter recipe in one of their recent issues I was very keen to try it. While it was an excellent recipe, I thought that their methodology lacked some important details, and that there were a few ingredients I’d tweak. When I baked up a loaf for our Easter Sunday picnic with the future in-laws, I took some pictures and thought I’d share the experience.

Easter Bread

Adapted from grandma, dad, mom, Bon Appetit…etc.

  • 2/3 cup whole milk
  • 5 tbsp. sugar, divided
  • ¼ oz. envelope of dry active yeast
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for handling dough)
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1-2 tsp. grated orange zest
  • 4 oz. unsalted butter
  • Egg wash: One whole egg mixed with 1 tbsp. water

First of all, get out the eggs and butter and let them get to room temperature. It’s really important for your butter to be soft, so don’t skip this step.

Heat the milk until it reaches about 110 degrees F and then put it in a small bowl and whisk in 1 tbsp. of sugar and the yeast. Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes or until foamy. Add the eggs and orange zest, and whisk thoroughly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, salt, and remaining sugar. With the mixer running on low speed, add the milk mixture. Once it has been thoroughly integrated into the flour, begin adding the butter about 1 tbsp. at a time, blending well between each addition. Slow and steady wins the race here. It’s kind of like making buttercream.

Once all of the butter has been incorporated, fit the mixer with a dough hook and mix on medium-high speed until the dough is very smooth and elastic.

Now, here’s the part where people seem to panic. This dough is sticky, and I mean “I can’t get my hand out of this blob of dough” sticky:

But you have to get the dough out of the mixing bowl and into a clean bowl brushed with melted butter somehow, and the best tool for the job is a bowl scraper. If you don’t have one, a rigid silicone spatula or greased spoon works well. Once you’ve transferred it to a clean, greased bowl, gently brush the top of the dough with melted butter, cover the bowl loosely in plastic wrap, and stash it in the refrigerator.

Letting this dough do an overnight “rise” in the refrigerator makes it infinitely easier to handle, so I highly recommend that. I have the word rise in quotation marks because honestly, the dough doesn’t rise very much at all. In fact the first time I made it I thought something had gone horribly wrong.

The next step is to lightly flour a surface and cut the dough into three equal pieces. Use as little excess flour as possible. You want just enough to keep it from sticking to the surface.

Roll each piece into a long (15-16in) rope and taper at the edges. Place the dough ropes on a piece of parchment paper, pinch them together at one end, and then braid. (Many Easter Bread bakers tuck dyed, boiled eggs in between the braids, but I didn’t make any this year.)

At the end of the braid, pinch the ends together and tuck them under slightly to secure. Let the loaf rest in a warm place for one hour. It will puff a little bit, but not too much.

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F.

Brush the loaf of bread with the egg wash and bake it for 23-25 minutes, until the top is a deep golden brown. The internal temperature will measure about 190 degrees.

Eat every day until it’s gone. Future mom-in-law said she used a few slices for grilled cheese the next day and it was really good. I’m a big fan of Easter bread toast and runny fried eggs. Or you could try using it in this supremely tasty recipe for French toast.

Hope you are all having a beautiful spring. Who else is getting really impatient for summer fruit? Come on berries, get growing already!

Ciao for now,

Neen

How to not be grumpy on Valentine’s Day

14 Feb

I’ll say it: I like Valentine’s Day.

It’s an easy holiday to loathe. Super-saturated with frilly pink hearts, unreasonable expectations, gender imbalance, and overpriced candy (the horror!), I can understand why it might lead to feelings of grumpiness. But like many things in life, it’s about changing perspective. Eight years ago, my now-fiancé was the first person to ever take me out on what some consider the world’s most frustrating holiday. I didn’t really date much before I met Joe, and so my view of Valentine’s Day developed outside of the narrow frame that greeting card companies would prefer you to acknowledge.

As with Christmas, I feel like you have to strip away the over-commercialization and remember that holidays are just extra reminders to acknowledge and thank the people in your life who make it brighter. Whether it be co-workers that help the workday go a little faster, friends and family that bring you joy, or that special someone who makes you feel like the coolest person in the world, just say “thank you.” Remind someone that he or she makes a difference. Heck, go to CVS and buy some Batman valentines if you want to be silly. It’ll make someone smile.

And isn’t that really one of the best things in life, making people smile?

This time last year, I wrote about being grateful for the people who have impacted my life in a positive way over the last decade. How they made it possible to heal, grow, and accept that while life is never perfect, it is always hopeful. As Mary Oliver writes in my favorite poem, “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination…”

So if you’re feeling down today and you really need a boost, just say “thank you” and share a smile with someone.

Oh, and make banana bread! (Come on, it wouldn’t be Neen’s Notes without a good recipe). Here’s what I made for some of the great people in my life today. When life hands you overripe bananas and ricotta leftover from making lasagna—but not enough to make another lasagna—make banana bread.

Truly Lovable Banana Bread

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 3/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 4 tbsp. butter
  • 3 bananas, mashed
  • 1/3 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp. almond extract
  • 2 eggs

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices in a medium sized bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars together until smooth and then add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the ricotta, bananas, and extracts and mix just until combined.

Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed or by hand just until a batter forms and there are no remaining dry spots.

Spoon the batter into a greased 9×5 or 8×4 1/2 loaf pans and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy, my friends, and a happy Valentine’s Day to you all.

Ciao for now,

Neen

Lost Bread: Found!

19 Aug

I don’t like pre-sliced bread. There, I said it. Back in the days of dieting, I used to buy this super low-calorie sliced wheat bread product that I thought could act as a base for sandwiches. It was very sad bread, mostly made of chemicals and air (as Alton Brown shows at 6:00 in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlb9gHVeBR0z).

But real bread, you might say, goes stale so fast.

And you’re right. It does. Most real bread goes stale quickly because it isn’t full of flour conditioners and preservatives. But stale doesn’t mean bad or unusable. Fresh bread is pretty awesome, but stale bread is better for a variety of things: Panzanella (in salad or soup form), bread crumbs (seasoned or plain), croutons, bread pudding, egg stratas, toast, and pain perdu, or “lost bread.”

Pain perdu/French toast, one of the most delicious Sunday brunch foods, is best made with stale bread. Since bread that has gone stale loses a lot of moisture, it soaks up more of the custard and makes a much richer and more satisfying end product.

So grab your lost bread and get to reviving it!

Pain Perdu

  • Eight ½ in. slices of day-old or stale bread. Country, French, challah and brioche loaves are all good options.
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup cream
  • 2 tbsp. maple syrup
  • 3 eggs
  • 1tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
  • Dash of cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • 4 tbsp. butter

Whisk the eggs, milk, cream, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon together until thoroughly blended. You may do this a day ahead and store it in the refrigerator. When ready to dip the slices, pour the custard into a pie pan.

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F.

Place a wire cooling rack over a baking sheet. Dip the slices of bread, two at a time, into the custard and allow them to soak for 30 seconds on each side. Move the dipped slices to the wire rack and allow them to sit while you prepare the others.

Melt 1 tbsp. of butter in a pan over medium-low heat. Place two slices of bread in the pan and allow them to cook until golden brown (about 2 minutes on each side).

Remove from the pan and place directly on a rack in the oven for 5 minutes. Repeat this process with the remaining butter and slices of bread. Serve immediately with maple syrup and fruit, whipped cream and berries, or powdered sugar and cinnamon.

The best thing about this dish is the texture contrast. You get the wonderful crisp outside from pan-frying and a custardy, but not mushy inside from a short bake in the oven. We had ours with the classic maple syrup, but also some of my prize-winning (!) blueberry-peach syrup with lemon basil and orange zest:

It’s been busy in the Neen’s Notes kitchen. After I made that wheel of gouda a few weeks ago, I realized that aging cheese in my refrigerator was getting pretty impractical. Since I’d already turned the downstairs closet into a curing cabinet for meat, it seemed only logical to take over the rest of the little room. Allow me to introduce my little kitchen extension:


On one side of the table, I have the meat grinder and on the other is a homemade cheese press (thanks again, Dad!). To the left of the table is a small refrigerator that I’ve made into a cheese cave. Kept on its lowest setting, the temperature hovers at around 50 degrees. With a bowl of water inside and the occasional spray of water along the walls, the humidity is around 75%. Ideally, I’d like to get it up to 80%. Right now inside you’ll find the aforementioned wheel of gouda and a wheel of montasio quietly aging. The curing closet is directly across from the refrigerator, out of view in this picture. To the right of the table is a small reference shelf. A second bookcase is at the other end of the room and it holds mason jars and other canning materials. The shelf above the table holds supplies (cheese mats, wax, curing salts…etc.), and the calendar is being used to mark dates and weights for cheeses and curing meats. It wasn’t an expensive project; mostly just a reorganization to use space more efficiently. The only new purchases I made were the refrigerator and a few hooks for the curing closet. It could use a few decorations, but all in all, it’s just a great little room that I’m looking forward to use for creating all sorts of fun, tasty things.

Ciao for now,

Neen

Recipe Megapost: Joe’s Birthday Party

19 Mar

Yesterday was a perfectly beautiful spring day, the first we’ve had here in DC thus far. How appropriate that the warm weather decided to show up on Joe’s birthday! We had some friends over for a celebration and spent the evening enjoying wonderful company and (if I don’t say so myself) some pretty tasty food.

Since this bash fell on a Friday, I did a lot of prep in advance so that I wouldn’t have much to do when I got home from work (and so I could enjoy the party). On to the deliciousness…

Amuse-bouche: Caramelized Pearl Onions with Queso Blanco

  • 32 pearl onions, blanched and peeled
  • 1 dried cayenne pepper
  • ½ cup dry sherry
  • 2 tbsp. sugar
  • A few spoonfuls of liquid from canned beets
  • Sprig of fresh thyme

*Okay, here’s the thing. The recipes I referenced for this all called for red pearl onions. I can’t find them anywhere. I don’t know why. So, I cheated and dyed them red with some of the liquid from my home-canned beets. It added bonus flavor and made them an awesome color.

Put all of the ingredients into a pot and add water just to cover the onions. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, swirling the pan every so often to keep the onions from scorching.

Reduce until there is about ¼ cup of syrupy liquid left in the pan. Remove the onions with a slotted spoon and reserve syrup.

Queso Blanco

  • 1 gallon whole milk
  • ¼ cup white vinegar

Heat the milk, stirring frequently to keep from scorching. When it reaches 185 degrees, add the vinegar in 3 separate additions, stirring between each one. Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for five minutes, then stir for another five or until the curds have firmed up a little bit. Strain into a colander lined with cheesecloth and then hang the curds to drain for an hour.

You can salt to taste and use this as is, but I really wanted it to be firm so that I could cut it into cubes. So, if you have a cheese press, line a mold with cheesecloth and press the curds at 10 lbs. for 10 minutes, redress the cheese and then press at 25 lbs. for 3 hours.

Put it all together: Thread one onion and one cube of queso blanco onto a skewer and drizzle with the reserved syrup.

Appetizer: Crostini Duo

  • 2 baguettes, bias sliced and toasted

For Spinach, Artichoke and Caramelized Onion Crostini

  • 1/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
  • 1/3 cup low-fat sour cream
  • 3 oz. Neufchatel cheese or cream cheese
  • 1 can of artichoke hearts, drained
  • 10 oz. fresh spinach
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
  • ½ tsp. dried cayenne pepper
  • Salt and pepper to taste

In a wide pan, sweat the diced onions in olive oil until soft, translucent and sweet. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the spinach and cook just until it has wilted. Set the pan aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the yogurt, cheese, sour cream, artichoke hearts, thyme, mustard, pepper, and a few pinches of salt. Pulse to combine. Add the spinach, onion and garlic to the food processor and pulse until it has a spreadable consistency.

Top each toasted baguette slice with the spread and serve at room temperature.

For Fromage Blanc, Basil and Roasted Red Pepper Crostini:

  • Roasted red peppers
  • Fromage blanc
  • Basil, chiffonade cut

To make the fromage blanc, heat 1 gallon of milk to 85 degrees and add a packet of fromage blanc starter. Stir vigorously for a minute or two and then cover the pot and allow the milk to ripen at room temperature for 12 hours. Scoop the curds into a colander lined with cheesecloth, and then hang them to drain for 6 hours. It should have the consistency of cream cheese. Salt to taste.

Top each toasted baguette slice with a layer of fromage blanc, diced roasted red peppers, and chiffonade basil.

Appetizer: Mushroom Strudel (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

I am sorry that I didn’t get more pictures of this process, but my hands were covered with butter most of the time and photography got the shaft. These are so good and you can make them in advance, freeze, and then bake as needed. Handy.

  • 1 package phyllo dough (40 sheets)
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1 pound cremini mushrooms
  • 1 medium onion, minced
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • Freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon dry sherry
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 sprig thyme
  • 4 to 6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400°F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cook the onion in the butter until translucent and then add the mushrooms and nutmeg. Saute for 5 to 7 minutes, until liquid has been released and has partially evaporated. Add the sherry and evaporate the alcohol by cooking over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the flour, herbs, and some salt and pepper, and let cool. The mixture will be moist.

Take one sheet of phyllo at a time from their package; cover the remaining sheets with plastic and then a damp towel to keep them from drying out. Brush one half of the sheet lengthwise with butter. Fold the unbuttered side over the buttered side, carefully, smoothing out as best you can. Again, brush one half of this lengthwise with butter, and fold the unbuttered side over it again. You’ll end up with one long column.

Place spoonful of the mushroom filling near the end and sprinkle a teaspoon of parmesan over it. Begin folding one bottom corner of the phyllo strip over the filling until it meets the opposite edge, forming a triangle, as if you were folding a flag. Place the triangle seam side down on the baking sheet, brush lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with parmesan.

Bake for 15 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

Main Course: Porchetta

Normally, this is seared and roasted, but oven-space was at a premium and so I went the crock pot route.

  • 2 tbsp. canola oil
  • 4 lb pork loin roast
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth

Herb rub:

  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 2 tbsp. fresh rosemary
  • 1/2 cup fresh parsley
  • 1 tbsp. kosher salt
  • 1/2 tbsp. lemon pepper
  • 1 tbsp. dried oregano
  • 1 tbsp. dried fennel seed
  • 1/2 tbsp. onion powder
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil

Combine all of the ingredients for the rub in a food processor and pulse until they form a paste.

Cut several inch-deep slits in the roast and stuff some of the rub inside of them. Slather the roast with the remaining rub.

At this point, I vacuum sealed mine to let it marinate for a few days.

In a large pan, sear the roast on all sides and then move it to the crock pot. Dioji was hypnotized by the smell of meaty goodness:

Add the broth to the pan to deglaze (scrape the bottom to get all of the bits of herby piggy goodness) and bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes and then pour the liquid onto the roast in the crock pot.

Cook on high for 5-6 hours or on low for 7-8 hours. The roast ended up so tender that I shredded it and served it with the reduced cooking liquid.

Main Course: Cheese Manicotti with Zucchini Cayenne Marinara Sauce

I made the ricotta and mozzarella for these and you can find photo tutorials for them here.

Manicotti:

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 cups flour
  • 6 tbsp. olive oil
  • 5 tbsp. water

Filling:

  • 1 lb. ricotta cheese
  • ½ lb. mozzarella cheese, grated
  • A handful of grated parmesan
  • 1 egg
  • Fresh thyme and parsley to taste
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Sauce:

  • 2 zucchini, ¼ in. dice
  • 4 cans crushed tomatoes
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 onion, minced
  • 4 dried cayenne peppers, diced
  • Dried thyme
  • Fresh parsley

To make the pasta dough, beat together the eggs, oil and water and then stir them into the flour. Get your hand in the bowl and begin to knead the dough together.Knead until it is smooth and then flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 min.

Roll the pasta into sheets, and then cut into 5 in. squares.

Boil the squares in salted water for 1-2 minutes. Drain and leave these to rest on damp towels.

Combine all of the ingredients for the filling and taste for seasoning.

Spoon a row of filling along one end of a pasta square and then carefully roll up into a tube shape. Place this, seam side down on a baking sheet while you prepare the others. If you are freezing them as I did, freeze them individually on a baking sheet before moving to a bag.

To make the sauce, sweat the onion in a few tablespoons of olive oil until translucent. Add the zucchini and garlic and sauté until everything is soft and fragrant. Add the tomatoes, peppers and spices and simmer for a few hours or until the consistency is to your liking. Add seasonings as needed.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spoon a thin layer of sauce onto the bottom of a 9×13 in. baking dish. Arrange the manicotti in rows and then top with the remaining sauce (and some extra cheese if you like).

Bake for 40 minutes or until cooked through. Cover with foil and rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Bread: No-Knead Bread (from Splendid Table)

I like this because you can make the dough, throw it in a bucket in the fridge and forget about it for several days before baking.

  • 1-1/2 tbsp. granulated yeast
  • 1 tbsp. kosher salt
  • 6-1/2 cups unbleached flour, plus extra for dusting dough
  • Cornmeal

In a large plastic resealable container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water. Using a large spoon, stir in flour, mixing until mixture is uniformly moist with no dry patches. Do not knead. Dough will be wet and loose enough to conform to shape of plastic container. Cover, but not with an airtight lid.

Let dough rise at room temperature, until dough begins to flatten on top or collapse, at least 2 hours and up to 5 hours. (At this point, dough can be refrigerated up to 2 weeks; refrigerated dough is easier to work with than room-temperature dough, so the authors recommend that first-time bakers refrigerate dough overnight or at least 3 hours.)

Place a broiler pan on bottom rack of oven. Place baking pan on middle rack and preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sprinkle a little flour on dough and on your hands. Pull dough up and, using a serrated knife, cut off a grapefruit-size piece (about 1 pound). Working for 30 to 60 seconds (and adding flour as needed to prevent dough from sticking to hands; most dusting flour will fall off, it’s not intended to be incorporated into dough), turn dough in hands, gently stretching surface of dough, rotating ball a quarter-turn as you go, creating a rounded top and a bunched bottom.

Place shaped dough on a piece of parchment and let rest, uncovered, for 40 minutes. Dust dough with flour.

Using a serrated knife, slash top of dough in three parallel, 1/4-inch deep cuts. Slide dough onto preheated baking sheet. Pour 1 cup hot tap water into broiler pan and quickly close oven door to trap steam. Bake until crust is well-browned and firm to the touch, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven to a wire rack and cool completely.

Dessert: Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Layer Cake

The guest of honor requested an ice cream cake with vanilla cake layers and Oreo ice cream.

  • Two layers of vanilla cake, cooled completely, wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen. I used this recipe.
  • Two layers of ice cream
  • Whipped cream

To make the ice cream layers, line two 9 in. pans with plastic wrap and scoop softened ice cream into each. Flatten out the ice cream by pressing another pan on top of it. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer to harden.

Stack the layers as such (from bottom to top): Cake, ice cream, cake, ice cream. Again, cover this in plastic wrap tightly and freeze. Before icing your cake, trim the sides as needed to make them even and neat. Frost the cake with whipped cream and return to the freezer. I decorated this one by piping tempered chocolate designs onto wax paper, letting them cool, and then applying them to the cake.

Dessert: Strawberry Jam Tart

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup dry cornmeal / polenta
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 9 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp.
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg, separated
  • ½ tsp. vanilla bean paste
  • 1 1/3 cup jam (I used strawberry, but anything will do)
  • 2 tbsp. coarse sugar

Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt.

In a stand mixer, mix the butter and 1/2 cup sugar together until smooth. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla bean paste and beat until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until the dough just comes together.

Transfer about one-third of the dough to a lightly floured counter and shape it into a log about 2 in. diameter. Wrap it in plastic wrap freeze for an hour.

Transfer the remaining dough to a buttered 9-inch spring form pan. Press the dough evenly into the bottom, going about 3/4-inch (2-cm) up the sides of the pan. Freeze the dough-lined pan until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread the jam or marmalade evenly over the dough in the pan. Cut the chilled dough log into very thin discs with a sharp paring knife. Arrange them in overlapping concentric circles over the jam to form a top crust.

Whisk the remaining egg white with a teaspoon of water until frothy; brush evenly over the tart lid and then sprinkle with the coarse sugar. Bake until the top crust is golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely before unmolding.

This holds up well and can be made up to 3 days in advance. Keep wrapped in plastic at room temperature.

The Final Treat: Pecan-Walnut Caramels

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 12 tbsp. butter
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste, vanilla extract, or one vanilla bean, split and scraped
  • 12 oz. nuts (I used half pecans and half walnuts), toasted and chopped

Generously butter a 9×13 in. pan.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, corn syrup, butter, sweetened condensed milk, water, and vanilla bean paste. Stirring often, cook this mixture until it reaches 245 degrees F.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the salt and chopped nuts. Pour the caramel into the buttered pan and cool completely (about 2 hours).

Turn the slab of caramel out onto a cutting board and use a pizza wheel to cut into squares. I usually get 128 pieces of candy from this recipe. Wrap the candies in pieces of wax paper and store in a cool, dark place.

Hope you enjoyed checking out the menu. Thank you to everyone who joined us and made the party so much fun.

Ciao for now,

Neen

Free Time for Croissants

8 Nov

I found out on Friday that I passed my graduate portfolio. I turned in the last several documents for it earlier in the week, and expected to receive revision recommendations from my advisor soon. I thought I’d likely spend this weekend tidying everything up. Instead, I opened my e-mail inbox to see the message subject line:  LIBR 289 CONGRATULATIONS CHRISTINA CERTO. I’d completed the requirements for the course.

I spent the next day in shock and then decided that a long set-aside culinary project was in order. I’d put off doing it due to time restraints–but this weekend presented the perfect conditions.

Anyway, time for Croissants!

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups flour
1 cup barely warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups cold unsalted butter (3 1/2 sticks)

Method
-Mix 1 cup of the flour, the water, and the yeast together and then set aside to rest for one hour.
The mixture will become very foamy.

-Add the remaining flour, cream, and salt, then knead the mixture for one minute. Let the dough rest in a bowl covered in plastic wrap for 20 minutes.

-At this point you can either knead the dough by hand for about 10 minutes or in a mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment for 15 minutes on a low speed. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a half hour.

-Place the sticks of butter in between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound / roll them out into an 8 inch square.

-On a lightly-floured surface, roll out the dough to a 9 x 17 inch rectangle and place the square of butter on half of it:

-Fold the top of the rectangle over the square of dough and pinch the edges with your fingers to seal.

-Roll the dough into  9 x 18 inch rectangle…

and then letter-fold into thirds. Turn the dough so that the single-folded side is on the left:

-Roll the dough out to a 9 x 18 inch rectangle again and complete another letter-fold. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour. (I docked the top with two dots to note that I had completed two “roll-fold” cycles.

-Remove from the fridge, roll the dough out to a 9 x 18 inch square and letter-fold two more times. (A total of four). Cut the final letter-folded dough in half and wrap each in plastic wrap. Now the dough is ready for use, although aging it for a few hours or overnight will develop more flavor.

-Roll the dough out into two 6.5 inch by 20 inch rectangles. Place on two parchment-lined baking sheets and return to the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

-Dock the edges on each side of the rectangle to mark off triangles. Cut them out with a pizza cutter or small, sharp knife.

-Make a slit at the base of each triangle and roll slightly outward as you tightly roll up the croissants. Roll the triangle up so that the final tip is underneath and then bend the two ends toward one another to form the classic croissant shape.

-Arrange the rolled croissants on parchment-lined baking sheets, cover with plastic wrap and proof overnight in the refrigerator.
-When it is time to bake, remove the croissants from the refrigerator and leave them at room temperature for an hour.

Beat one egg and a splash of cream together and brush the mixture on top of the proofed croissants.

-Pre heat the oven to 375 degrees F and then bake croissants for 35 minutes or until puffed and deeply golden-brown. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy the buttery flaky goodness.

Ciao for now,

Neen

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