Thursday, January 31, 2008

From my home to yours


I just bought the baking cookbook that seems to be all the rage among food bloggers: Baking - From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan.


Everyone and their mother seems to be raving about the recipes in this book and say it's their favorite book ever. Can it possibly be THAT good? I have got to see what all the commotion is about.


I've tried only one of Dorie's recipes before. I made her World Peace (Korova) cookies, and I must say, they did turn out pretty darn yummy. Well Amazon.com says my book will be here by Feb. 6 so we shall soon see!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Oatmeal Bread

Posted by Picasa



After reading homesicktexan, I just had to try her great-grandmother's Oatmeal Bread. I knew it was a recipe for me because 1.) It called for ordinary ingredients that I had in my house, 2.) Required no kneading and 3.) Only had to rise for 1 hour....no fussy knead for 10 min, rise and then rise again, punch down, knead for 10 minutes, rise again, etc, etc. It is a lazy girl's type of bread!

The bread turned out pretty nicely! The crumb is tender and is like a mix between a homemade white bread and a banana bread. The honey and oatmeal combo smelled great while baking in the oven. After 45 minutes, the bread was ready for me to slather on the butter and eat away.

Great-Grandma Gibson's Oatmeal Bread

  • Ingredients:
  • 2 cups of boiling milk
  • 1 cup of oats (not instant)
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup of honey
  • 4 tablespoons of shortening
  • 5-5 1/2 cups of flour
  • 2 packets of yeast
  • 1/2 cup of warm water

Method:

  • 1. Add oatmeal to hot milk and let stand for two hours. **
  • 2. Dissolve yeast in warm water.
  • 3. Mix yeast and other ingredients with oatmeal (start with five cups of flour and add more a little bit at a time until dough is smooth).
  • 4. Form into loaves, and either fill two loaf pans or place in balls on a parchment-paper lined sheet.
  • 5. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about an hour).
  • 6. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

* I halved the recipe to make one loaf. Instead of using just half an egg, I used an entire egg and just added a bit more flour.

** I microwaved the milk, then poured it over the oatmeal. I only let it sit 10 min or so.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Fat/Fun Fest



The title pretty much sums up our MLK holiday weekend in Boston, flitting from one food establishment to the next, to the next, ad nauseum, literally! Highlights: Modern Pastry ("Can I eat a cannoli for breakfast?" Yes! If it's from Modern, you can and should eat it whenever you can), Flour Bakery (pass me another homemade oreo), East Ocean City (jumbo deepfried prawns swimming in kewpie and candied walnuts.. mmm).

But some of the most satisfying food came from the Tsai Kitchen, where master baker PT and sous chef/kitchen annoyance JT went to work on 2 varieties of delectable biscotti. The cranberry almond biscotti was studded with spicy crystallized ginger, bottoms coated with white chocolate. The other was a brownie-like, rich chocolate walnut mini biscotti. Potential new items for sweetstuffcookies??

Friday, January 18, 2008

Lesson Learned

Never make katsu in the oven.

After all my hard work of pounding down chicken breasts, dredging them in flour, egg and panko, I ruined my meal by trying to be healthy.

Instead of frying the chicken in oil, I figured I could spray them with oil, and fake-fry them by baking them in the oven.

Uhg, tasteless hunks of meat (no matter how much katsu sauce and ketchup I used!) .

Full fat is always the way to go, I guess!

Snack time

The bloggers of "Ideas in Food" made some tasty looking treats. Their pretzel pralines look and sound amazing. Crunchy, salty and sweet! I'm adding these to my list of recipes to try. Hmm.... maybe I'll add a drizzle of melted chocolate to the mix too.


Caramel Pretzels
1cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups broken pretzel pieces
2 tablespoons of cold butter, cut in small pieces

Place sugar, salt and pretzel pieces in a heavy bottomed pot over a high flame. Stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spoon to thoroughly coat the pretzels with the melting sugar.

Once most of the caramel has turned amber, but still looks sandy, lower the heat and add the butter.

Stir well to blend and once the butter has been fully absorbed, turn the pretzels out onto a buttered sheet tray or silpat. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before eating.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Challah Back!


Another lovely tan loaf of Challah bread. While rather time intensive to make, this bread is delicious! Its fine crumb and honey-scented flavor make it ideal to eat by itself or as French toast. Pass the syrup already.

Recipe from Epicurious.com: My Challah

Ingredients

2 teaspoons (6 grams/0.2 ounce) instant yeast
About 3 1/2 cups (475 grams/16.8 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (60 grams/2 ounces) warm water
3 large eggs, plus 1 for glazing
1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams/0.3 ounce) table salt
1/4 cup (55 grams/1.9 ounces) vegetable oil
1/4 cup (85 grams/3 ounces) mild honey or 1/3 cup (70 grams/2.4 ounces) granulated sugar

Preparation

Mixing the yeast slurry
In a large bowl, whisk together the yeast and 1/4 cup (30 grams/1.1 ounces) of the flour, then whisk in the warm water until smooth. Let the yeast slurry stand uncovered for 10 to 20 minutes, or until it begins to ferment and puff up slightly.

Mixing the dough
Whisk the 3 eggs, salt, oil, and honey (measure the oil first, then use the same cup for measuring the honey — the oil will coat the cup and let the honey just slip right out) or sugar into the puffed yeast slurry until the eggs are well incorporated and the salt has dissolved. With your hands or a wooden spoon, stir in the remaining 3 1/4 cups (445 grams/15.7 ounces) flour all at once. When the mixture is a shaggy ball, scrape it out onto your work surface and knead it until smooth, no more than 5 minutes. (Soak the mixing bowl in hot water now to clean and warm it for fermenting the dough.) This dough is very firm and should feel almost like modeling clay. If the dough is too firm to knead easily, add a tablespoon or two of water to it; if it seems too wet, add a few tablespoons flour.
The dough should feel smooth and very firm but be easy to knead.

Fermenting the dough
Place the dough in the warm cleaned bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. (Or, the dough can be refrigerated right after kneading, them removed from the refrigerator to finish fermenting up to 24 hours later.) Let the dough ferment until it has at least doubled in bulk, about 2 hours, depending on the temperature in your kitchen. (If the dough has been refrigerated, it may take an extra 30 to 60 minutes to ferment.)

Shaping and proofing the dough
Line one or two large baking sheets, depending on how many breads you are making, with parchment paper or oil them. Divide the dough into two 15-ounce(430-gram) portions for loaves, one 1 1/2 pound (680-gram) portion for a large loaf and three small pieces for rolls (the easiest way to do this without a scale is to divide the dough into quarters and use one quarter for the rolls and the rest for the large loaf), or fourteen 2-ounce (60-gram) portions for rolls. To make a New Year's spiral*, roll each portion into a long, even strand, preferably sheeting it out first.

For each portion:
For a flat spiral, make a very loose spiral of dough on the prepared sheet, starting at the center and winding the dough around, leaving space between the loops, and tuck the end of the strand under.

For a high-rising spiral, wind the dough tightly around on the prepared sheet, without leaving any space between the loops, and be sure that the last loop is bound with a bit of tension. This will force the dough to rise in the center as it is proofing and especially during the oven rise.

If you would like to make the bird's head, before making a long strand, pull off and shape a small round from the dough. Set the round on the spiral, using a little water to help it stick. When the dough is fully proofed, pinch out a beak shape and use your finger to push in dimples for eyes, or use raisins or currants for the eyes.

Cover the loaves well with plastic wrap. (At this point, they can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours.) Let them proof until tripled in size, about 2 hours (or up to 3 hours if the loaves were refrigerated).

Meanwhile, 30 minutes before baking, arrange the oven racks in the lower and upper third portions if using two baking sheets, or arrange one rack in the upper third position if using one sheet, and remove any racks above them. Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C/gas mark 3). If desired, you can preheat one or two baking sheets to double with the baking sheet(s) the loaves are in. Beat the remaining egg with a pinch of salt for glazing the breads.

Baking the loaves
When the loaves have tripled and do not push back when gently pressed with your finger but remain indented, brush them with the egg glaze. Bake rolls for about 15 to 20 minutes, the 15-ounce (430-gram) loaves for 25 to 35 minutes, or the 1 1/2-pound (680-gram) loaf for 35 to 45 minutes, until very well browned. After the first 20 minutes of baking, switch the loaves from front to back so that they brown evenly; if the large loaf is browning too quickly, tent it with foil. When the loaves are done, remove them from the oven and let cool on a rack.

*According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, the New Year's spiral is a shape with a Ukranian origin, originally a bird shape with the center of the spiral culminating in a bird's head: "The bird's head symbolizes the phrase in Isaiah 31:5 'As birds hovering, so will the Lord of Hosts protect Jerusalem'" — which helps to explain why this spiral shape would be called a faigele, "little bird" in Yiddish.

Just give me a burger already!!


For the past 3 days I have been craving MEAT. More specifically, COW meat in the form of a juicy burger (with fries too). Should I go to Cook-Out or not? I can't decide!

What I'll get when I give in and became the ultimate fattie:
The Cook-Out combo with a 1/4-lb. burger - cheddar style, french fries, onion rings and of course, a diet coke (gotta watch my figure).

Wednesday, January 16, 2008