Posts Tagged ‘Baking’
Sometimes I come across strange recipes on the internet that I just can’t help but test out in my own kitchen. I become inordinately fascinated by these culinary oddities, with a fixation that won’t be satisfied until I taste them for myself. Of course, in order to get the Everyman to try many of them, I generally have to leave out certain salient details that might give him pause.
Case in point would be when this particular recipe popped up in my RSS, gleaned from the Serious Eats column The Crisper Whisperer. I’m sure that by the time he finishes reading this post I will have received a call or an email about this particular cake and his personal thoughts on it, but when he asked me what it was last night I simply uttered “spice cake”.
Over the years we’ve all come to acknowledge carrot cake, sweet potato pie and zucchini muffins as relatively commonplace dessert-type offerings, but up until this point I’d never seen or heard of a parsnip cake before. Between the fact that I was vaguely intrigued and disgusted by its very existence, and the fact that I had a half bag of parsnips lounging around our crisper not getting any younger, I decided it had to be done.
The recipe began simply, calling for all the usual suspects that come to a batter party (flour, sugar, eggs) but I immediately began making changes and substitutions. Where there was once flour I replaced it with spelt, and a cupful of allergenic walnuts became a measure of porridge oats, while white sugar was traded for brown. Then, just because I felt the guilt of attempting something healthy (yes, I suffer from the opposite form of guilt, not for eating badly, but from trying to eat too good) I threw in a small handful of dark chocolate chips – just because.
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Tags: Baking, cake, New Projects, parsnips, Recipes, Serious Eats
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I’ll be honest.
I’ve been categorically ignoring the whole no knead bread trend since I first heard about it back in 2006.
It became quite the internet sensation at the time, died down and now seems to be making the rounds again, due at least partially to Cathy Erway’s new book about not eating out for 2 years, I assume (which includes her riff on the recipe).
As someone who loves cooking and food as much as I do, I can say with alacrity that I’ve often thought of no knead bread as the lazy person’s shortcut, aka baking for dummies. If you asked my mother, she’d probably cluck her teeth and mutter something under her breath about it being the cowboy way. Beyond that, even though I start by mixing 90% of my breads in a stand mixer for at least part of the process, I can’t imagine giving up the interaction with the elementalness that is bread just to make life “simpler”.
But, when I saw Erway’s recipe for parmagiano, peppercorn and potato no knead bread, I made an exception and decided to try it. At the time I had no knowledge of what made her recipe differ from the standard no knead bread, so I followed everything to the letter except for 2 things. I subbed in a cup of whole wheat flour to surreptitiously improve its healthiness and instead of cracked black peppercorns, I mixed up a blend of 5 different ones that I’ve had lurking in the kitchen, including Muntok, Sarawak, Malabar, Tellicherry and Moula peppercorns crushed in a tea towel with a mallet.
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Tags: Baking, Books, bread, Cathy Erway, Jim Lahey, NY Times, The Art Of Eating In
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Aside from my timtana experiment last week, I haven’t really done a whole lot of bread baking yet this year. I’ve been more than a little preoccupied with work, planning our vacation and things of a more pastry-ish nature, so when I decided to make bread again this week there was a fair amount of anticipation on my part.
I once read that the word ciabatta loosely translates to mean “carpet slipper” in Italian. Given their delicate dough and diminutive stature I can’t really say I’m surprised, though I’m not sure what about carpet slippers is supposed to make them sound appetizing or appealing, despite the fact that they are.
Coincidentally those small, squat rolls are some that I enjoy preparing (and eating) quite a bit. Of course because I am merely an honorary Italian, I make no bones about putting my own little twists into the bread that I’m baking, and on Family Day yesterday I decided to enhance the ciabatta with a healthy dose of homemade tomato conserva.
I began the night before by mixing up a biga (sourdough starter) by combining flour, water and a small amount of yeast and then letting it ferment on the counter.
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Tags: Baking, bread, conserva
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I know, I know.
That clichéd Simpsons line has been popping up in stories all over town this week but I really do love the Simpsons and specifically enjoy that episode.
We’re not really fans of the big “V-day” here at Foodie and the Everyman (which I tend to refer to in my head as venereal disease or victimized delusions day, for no particular reason). In fact, when the Everyman and I first started seeing each other, it was only a few weeks before V-day (and my birthday which is one week after) and we both agreed about how ridiculously stupid it is. So generally speaking, we don’t tend to celebrate it. I prefer to think that the person I’m with is going to do nice things for me all year round instead of being bludgeoned into submission by some industry’s made up excuse for a spending spree.
And for the most part the Everyman does and so do I. Though he doesn’t often bring me the “traditional” gifts of chocolate or flowers, he does regularly indulge me in other ways, such as expanding my love of restaurants and travel. In fact, just last week he told me I could start planning our next vacation to wherever I wanted to go, and to me that’s more romantic than a February 14th drugstore chocolate sampler any day.
But because we both love to eat, we did go out for dinner on V-day one year (to Mistura) but like that article in the Globe earlier this week, I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a worthwhile experience (though it was one of the last times I ate lobster before I got sick). The whole time we were there the service was so rushed and you could tell the meal had been hastily prepared. At the end of the night it was apparent that their main objective was maximizing bums at tables and gross consumerism is just so sexy, you know? So, we just don’t bother anymore. If the Hoof wasn’t constantly overrun with hipsters, I’d probably have gotten on board with going there for an anti-V-day meal, but it’s packed every night of the week anyway, so that was pretty much out of the question. I don’t enjoy busy restaurants on a good day, so amplifying that by adding a “holiday” to the mix makes it even less appealing to the both of us.
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Tags: Baking, Grant Van Gameren, marshmallow creme, Massimo Capra, Mistura, Purveyors, red velvet, The Black Hoof, The Cheese Boutique, whoopie pie
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A couple of weeks ago, I entered and won a contest over at Kitchen Therapy that netted me a free bag of a new gluten free product called timtana. Timtana is a milled all purpose flour ground from timothy grass, which is completely gluten free but full of lots of good for you nutrients like fibre, protein, calcium and iron (you can read more about it over at Kitchen Therapy if you’d like). A company called Montana Gluten Free graciously provided the bags of flour for the Kitchen Therapy giveaway.
As I’ve previously mentioned, my mother in law is allergic to wheat, so I often keep an eye out for new developments in gluten free products, and have a whole drawer in my freezer devoted to the various alternative flours that I use when baking for her. Over the years I’ve found that while gluten free baking is not easy, once you know what you’re doing improvisation is possible.
A 3 pound bag of timtana flour arrived at my door a little over a week ago, and has been sitting on my counter waiting for inspiration to reach out and strike ever since.
While an original idea has yet to take shape, in the interim I decided to use Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio app and the basic bread dough formula for a first pass.
The proportions are simple and include 3 parts water to 5 parts flour, plus a little bit of salt and yeast thrown in for good measure. Because timtana is gluten free, I also opted to toss in a bit of xanthan gum (the gluten free baker’s friend) for some extra leavening power.
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Tags: Baking, bread, flour, Kitchen Therapy, Michael Ruhlman, Montana Gluten Free, New Projects, timtana, YMMV
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As you may recall, one of the things I wanted for Christmas was a bag of Chris Cosentino’s Boccalone lard caramels (amongst other things).
After the holidays I was able to cross a few things off that massive list (I Know How To Cook, the dough press, a scraping beater, a rolling pin and the spice storage solution, specifically), but I was still no closer to tasting those caramels. As I probably mentioned at the time of writing, unless I get myself (or someone I know) to California (which is highly unlikely) I don’t have much chance of partaking of them any time soon, either.
You may also have noticed that this past weekend I rendered down the better part of 10 pounds of pork fat into lard, the majority of which has been earmarked for sealing the prosciutto. Even after taking that into consideration, there was still a fair amount of fat left over. Some I planned to freeze for another day, but it occurred to me that I had enough of a surplus to sacrifice a little to a lard caramel experiment.
When I first read about these fancy lard caramels, I assumed there must be some magical twist to them. Further research revealed that wasn’t the case, and in fact the only thing unique about them (compared to other caramels) is the fact that the lard supposedly comes from Cosentino’s restaurant. Beyond that, everything I read indicated they’ve employed a fairly standard caramel recipe.
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Tags: Alice Medrich, Baking, Boccalone, Books, caramel, chocolate, Chris Cosentino, Ginette Mathiot, I Know How To Cook, lard, New Projects
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Last night when I got home from work I was itching for a spectacular batch of cookies.
You see, the Everyman and I visited Sweet Flour Bake Shop on the weekend to make customized cookies, but the ones I made for myself just didn’t satisfy my cookie craving. There was nothing wrong with them per se, I just didn’t figure out that they weren’t what I wanted until after we’d already left, negating my ability to correct my mistake with more cookies.
Since then I’ve understandably had cookies on the brain. But, I had a very particular cookie in mind. I wanted something akin to what I remember the Chewy Chips Ahoy from my childhood to be like, only not full of preservatives and trans fats.
Surprisingly, I don’t often (read: never) make plain chocolate chip cookies, so I was a bit stymied by the prospect of finding a place to start. Usually I am seduced by wonderful additives like oatmeal and peanut butter, etc and never make it to the good old fashioned triple C (chocolate chip cookie).
But last night nothing else would do, so I hauled out all of my recipes and cookie books and started poring over my options.
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Tags: All Recipes, Baking, Chewy Chips Ahoy, chocolate, cookies, Purveyors, Recipes, Sweet Flour Bake Shop
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Last weekend I visited Fiesta Farms to do a little shopping for that aforementioned rabbit, among other things.
While I wandered the aisles, one of the other treats I came across was a lovely 2 pound clamshell of those alluring Meyer lemons. Surprising even myself, I resisted the urge to buy up the whole stand on sight.
You see, I’ve been enjoying the taste of Meyer lemons in restaurants for ages, but until now had never seen them at the grocery store. Of course, since I use an organic delivery service I rarely go to a grocery store to begin with, so I should hardly be surprised. I’ve been pondering where to find Meyers (as well as the more ornate Buddha’s hand) for quite some time, so when I spotted these I immediately had to snap some up.
Coincidentally, days later I happened on a fellow Torontonian’s entry in Tigress’ Can Jam who had managed to find Buddha’s hand lemons (Whole Foods apparently carries them – go figure!) in Toronto, so I imagine I will be visiting them soon, too. I’m not entirely certain what I intend to do with a Buddha’s hand lemon yet, but I’ve been rolling a concept similar to limoncello around in my mind along with the possibility of infusing it into some rye. But that is a different tale for another day. Back to those Meyer lemons…
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Tags: Baking, cookies, Epicurious, Fiesta Farms, frosting, lemons, Purveyors, Recipes, Restaurants, The Hoof Cafe, Whole Foods, whoopie pie
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As I get ready to go off into the great white yonder to spend Christmas at the Everyman’s family’s cottage, I’d like to leave everyone with my best wishes for a wonderful celebration, and some pictures of the holiday edibles that will be gracing our dessert table this year (courtesy of yours truly).
No matter what you may get up to tomorrow, I wish you all the best in doing it!
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Tags: apple pie, Baking, bars, biscotti, blueberries, cookies, eggnog, ginger, shortbread
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Despite the fact that I may have a Santa hat that I typically wear every day once December 1st rolls around (for the past 7 years anyway, this year a coworker reminded me that I didn’t have my hat on until the 8th), I really fucking hate most things about Christmas.
Particularly, it’s all the commercialized crap that I don’t like so much, like the greeting card industry, the frenzy for the hot new toy, the people who make those ugly sweaters and the expectations behind what often feels like forced, uncomfortable revelry. There are all sorts of parties that you’re obligated to attend that are full of food you don’t want to eat, and people you might not want to spend time with, but heaven forbid you appear unfriendly or unsociable by just saying no, so you go. As if that wasn’t enough, people then start throwing around ridiculous sums of money in a holiday pissing contest to try and find each recipient the “perfect gift”. As much as we all enjoy the surprise of unwrapping a good present, 99% of the time nobody has any idea what you like or what you want anyway, so money is essentially wasted. And though it may be the thought that counts, sometimes you just can’t fathom what thought the other person was trying to have in the first place. As was drilled into us at that course I took last month, “people will tell you everything you need to know if you just think to listen” which is a smart mantra t0 keep in mind when hunting for a gift is required. If you still have no clue by the middle of December, perhaps you shouldn’t be buying that person a present at all because you either weren’t listening, or you don’t know them very well. Personally, I think that no gifts are better than bad gifts because then the other person doesn’t have to put on the pretence of liking said gift, which is exhausting all on its own. Ever gotten something you wanted to re-gift as soon as you opened it? Then you probably understand exactly what I’m talking about.
Last night I got to thinking about how my own family hasn’t really had too many holiday traditions to make the whole rigmarole seem worthwhile. As a young child of divorce, all holidays thereafter seemed disjointed and false without my family assembled in one room. In fact, I can’t even remember any that we spent together before everything imploded either, being I was only 6 or 7 when that happened.
My few fond memories of Christmas include the time my stepfather bought my mom that hideous purple leather jacket (and our reaction to it), the annual quibble between my dad and I over the last slice of mincemeat pie, and the Perreault family gift exchange that often devolved into friendly fisticuffs from all of the plotting and stealing that ensued. Beyond that, the separation of our family somewhat dampened celebrations (despite my older sister’s best efforts to keep them going), to the point that it just stopped being a big deal. Spending the holidays with each of my parents became a dichotomous affair. Dinners with mom were always perfect fetes complete with plum puddings, croquembouche-like towers of Godiva truffles and champagne, while those spent with my dad were restrained and quiet, usually consisting of nothing more than a roasted chicken or small honey ham and a box of Stovetop stuffing. For the most part the two versions left me wanting to just pack up and forget the whole event altogether, so while I get that some people love the holidays, they just don’t resonate with me.
To be clear, I don’t hate the holidays; they just don’t mean much to me. More than anything it’s just an excuse for me to find new and wonderful things to bake.
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Tags: Baking, cookies
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A little over a week ago, Larbo over at This Little Piggy posted about his discovery of Fergus Henderson’s trotter gear (a gelatinous porky broth made with (what else?) braised trotters.
Until I read Larbo’s post, I’d never heard of this magical liquid before, but had often contemplated the versatility of a pork-based stock.
There are plenty of recipes out there for beef, chicken, veal and vegetable variations, so why not a similar frenzy for pork, I wondered.
After ruminating on Larbo’s post for a little bit, I started to consider the possible uses for trotter gear.
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Tags: Baking, Books, bread, Fergus Henderson, Grant Van Gameren, How To Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman, New Projects, pork, Recipes, Restaurants, The Hoof Cafe, This Little Piggy, trotter gear
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As I mentioned to DMSinTexas the other day, I spent the better part of an afternoon this weekend flipping through How To Cook Everything Vegetarian in an effort to get inspired.
After a bit of random perusal I gravitated towards the soup chapter, which coincidentally is one of my most favourite kinds of vegetarian meals. As much as I generally love poring over a good cookbook and becoming immersed in it, I’ve come to realize that the only time I cook from a recipe is when baking is involved, and even then I’ve taken to winging it more often than not. Of course, since I have such difficulty following a recipe, I didn’t make anything from the book that day, but it did set a few ideas whirring around my brain.
So, it should come as no surprise to my readers that the first recipe I did make was not technically a vegetarian recipe at all (if only because it contained no vegetables) but rather a bread recipe. With the aid of a little advanced planning, I managed to turn out a fairly decent version of Bittman’s overnight French baguettes.
But, before any of you start getting indignant and accusing me of copping out and picking something that is only inherently vegetarian, allow me to explain;
I picked the baguettes because a) they’re a pretty decent litmus test for the general usability of a cookbook’s recipes and b) I needed something to mop up the vegetarian soup I decided to invent.
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Tags: Baking, bread, chevre, Cooking, How To Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman, New Projects, ras al hanout, soup, squash, sweet potato, Woolwich Dairy, zucchini
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There’s almost nothing I dislike more than waste.
Having a CSA share every summer means that I’ve learned to get pretty creative with its contents so that they don’t end up going into the trash.
But, now that summer has taken it’s final bow, we’ve gone back to receiving what our organic grocer Bob from Clean Food Connection calls a “vegpak” in every order, which basically amounts to a box full of fruits and veggies that his staff will pack up for me, based on my likes/dislikes/preferences. So, while everything we receive is always something we’ll enjoy, sometimes it means we end up with produce that we weren’t necessarily expecting.
And sometimes that produce will sit around my kitchen almost until the brink of decay. Which is exactly how I ended up having 6 overripe bosc pears sitting on my counter with no immediate plans for them yesterday.
At first glance, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to make a pear crisp, but once I started to peel the pears, I realized that there was no way they’d be firm enough to stand up to that. Which is how I ended up making a puree. And once I had that puree, it was only a mental hop, skip and a jump to deciding that a pear-based quick bread was the way to go. Fortifying my general quick bread recipe with the addition of oats and a pinch of camphorous cardamom put the finishing touches on the bread.
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Tags: Baking, bread, cardamom, chocolate, oatmeal, pears, Purveyors, Recipes, The Clean Food Connection
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