Aww, sad – the last edition of our gourmet Let Us Eat Bread challenge!  I wanted to save this one for last – I loved both it’s elegant shape and unusual combination of pumpkin and orange.

Like the buttermilk… Read the rest of this post

Aww, sad – the last edition of our gourmet Let Us Eat Bread challenge!  I wanted to save this one for last – I loved both it’s elegant shape and unusual combination of pumpkin and orange.

Like the buttermilk fantails, these look more complicated than they are – just three small balls of dough left to rise in a muffin tin gives them their perfect shape.

In another iteration, I might add in a little brown sugar and melted butter, roll the dough balls in them before baking to add a touch of sweetness.

Give them a try – I’m betting they’ll be even better for breakfast tomorrow!

Pumpkin Pinwheel Rolls
From Gourmet, February 2009
Makes 1 dozen rolls

active time: 40 min  total time: 4 3/4 hr (includes rising)

equipment: 12 cup muffin pan

ingredients:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (from a 1/4-ounce package)
1/4 cup warm milk (105–115°F)
1 tablespoon sugar2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup canned pure pumpkin
2 large eggs, (one whole, one separated)
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon water

how to:

1. Stir together yeast, warm milk, and sugar in a measuring cup and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn’t foam, start over with new yeast.)

2. Mix flour, salt, pumpkin, 1 whole egg, 1 egg yolk (save the white for later), orange zest and juice, and butter into yeast mixture with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead, dusting surface and your hands with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, until dough is elastic and smooth, 6 to 8 minutes. Form dough into a ball.

3. Put dough in an oiled large bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

4. Punch down dough (do not knead), then halve. Roll half of dough on a lightly floured surface with lightly floured hands into a 12-inch-long log (keep remaining half covered with plastic wrap).

5. Cut log into 6 equal pieces, then cut each piece into thirds. Roll each piece into a 1-inch ball, and tuck sides under to smooth out the surface. Put 3 balls side by side in each of 6 muffin cups. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Cover rolls with a smooth kitchen towel and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough is about 1 inch above rim of muffin cups, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

6. Preheat oven to 375F with rack in middle. Whisk the remaining egg white with a little water and brush on the tops of rolls. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer rolls to a rack and cool at least 20 minutes.

So, things have been a bit busy and I’m behind on the challenge.  Actually I did make these in week three – on Sunday, for a goodbye party for a friend of mine who was heading off to join… Read the rest of this post

So, things have been a bit busy and I’m behind on the challenge.  Actually I did make these in week three – on Sunday, for a goodbye party for a friend of mine who was heading off to join the Foreign Service.  I figured that deserved a batch of fresh rolls!

These are as tasty as they are elegant – soft and chewy, delicately crusted and filled with the taste of cheese.  I used a romano rather than parmesan, simply because it was what I had in the fridge, but I also prefer it’s slightly nuttier taste, and I think it worked perfectly with these rolls.

If I had had time, I would have also whipped up a garlic compound butter to go with them – so simple, but a really nice touch for a dinner party or event – that recipe is below as well.

The only bad thing about these was that my apartment still smelled of them when I woke up the next morning, but they had all been eaten.  It was tragic.

Parmesan Pull-Aparts
Makes 1 dozen rolls
adapted from Gourmet, Feburary 2009

Time: 40 for prep, total about 5 hours.

ingredients:

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (from a 1/4-oz package)
1 teaspoon sugar
2/3 cup warm milk (105–115°F), divided
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling
1 1/4 cups grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
5 tablespoons softened unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon sized pieces
1 tablespoon water

equipment:
stand mixer (if you have it) or good biceps

to do:

1. Stir together yeast, sugar, and 1/3 cup warm milk in a measuring cup and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. If mixture doesn’t foam, start over with new yeast.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, cheese, and salt. Pour in the yeast mixture and remaining milk and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until the dough starts to form.

A stand mixer will let you mix in the eggs and knead the dough, but since I didn’t have one, my instructions are as follows:

3. In the measuring cup, beat 2 of the eggs. Add to the dough, about 1/2 at a time, and stir to combine.  Make sure your butter is very soft, and add it to the dough and barely fold the dough around it.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the butter is worked through and the dough is elastic but sticky.

4. Put the dough back int he bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a towel and place in a warm location to rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours (I stuck mine in the oven with the oven off – the pilot gave off plenty of heat)

5. Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface. Cut dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll into balls between the palms of your hands, and then with your fingertips, stretch the outer layer of the dough towards the bottom, tucking all around, until the top surface becomes relatively smooth.  Butter a round, 9-inch cake pan.  Nestle the balls together with a little space between them, cover, and let rise again for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the rolls fill the pan.

6. Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle. Whisk together remaining egg with water and brush on tops of rolls. (You will have leftover egg wash.) Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Loosen edges of rolls from pan with a sharp knife and invert rolls onto a rack, then reinvert and cool at least 20 minutes. Pull apart and slather with garlic compound butter.

Garlic Compound Butter
prep: 5 minutes, total: 5 minutes

ingredients:
6 cloves garlic (I like mine garlicky)
coarse salt
1 stick unsalted butter, quite soft but not melted
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

1. Peel the garlic cloves.  Mince them finely. Pile the minced garlic on your cutting board, and sprinkle liberally with coarse salt. Using the flat of the blade of your chef’s knife, drag the garlic and salt along the board until it forms a paste.

2. In a ramekin or other small bowl, mix together garlic, butter, and parsley. Refrigerate to harden again, and serve with rolls, or dolloped on top of hot steaks. Make extra, spread a thick layer on bread and put it under the broiler for fresh garlic bread.

Approval from the tasters!

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Check out the other We Bake Gourmet group members:

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Sandy of At The Baker’s Bench

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes

For week 2 of our Let Us Eat Bread challenge, I chose something equally sculptural – these lovely Buttermilk Fantails. Each flaky layer separates easily, and tastes fantastic spread with butter or jam. They were better day one than… Read the rest of this post

For week 2 of our Let Us Eat Bread challenge, I chose something equally sculptural – these lovely Buttermilk Fantails. Each flaky layer separates easily, and tastes fantastic spread with butter or jam. They were better day one than leftover, but I found they revived nicely when sliced in half and toasted.

These came together easily, and though the assembly looks complicated, it’s really quite simple – just layer and cut, and a muffin tin does the rest.

Enjoy!

Buttermilk Fantails
adapted from Gourmet, February 2009
Makes 1 dozen rolls

how long?
about 50 minutes active, 5 hours total

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105–115°F)
1 tablespoon sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

equipment:
12-cup muffin pan

1. Stir together yeast, warm water and sugar in a measuring cup. Let stand until it foams, about 5 minutes. If it doesn’t toss it out and try new yeast.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour and salt. Add buttermilk, 6 tablespoons melted butter and yeast mixture. Stir with a spatula until it turns into a soft dough. Put the dough on a floured surface, adding flour to your hands to keep the dough from sticking, and knead until the dough is elastic and smooth, about 6 to 8 minutes.

3. Form dough into a ball. Spray a bowl with oil, place the dough in the bowl, and turn it to coat. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a dish towel. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

4. Punch down the dough and cut in half. Roll out half the dough on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin into a 12 inch square, about 1/8th of an inch thick. Brush the dough with about 1/2 tablespoon of the melted butter. Cut the dough into 6 strips.  Stack the strips together, butter side up, and then cut crosswise into 6 equal pieces.

5. Grease the muffin tin. Set each bundle on it’s end in one of the muffin cups and gently separate the outer layers so they make a fan. Repeat the process with teh remaining dough, and cover with a smooth kitchen towel. Set to rise in a warm place until the dough doubles in size and fills the cups, about 1 1/2 hours.

6. Preheat oven to 375F. Bake rolls until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Brush tops with remaining 2 Tbsp butter, then transfer rolls to a rack and cool at least 20 minutes.

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Check out the other We Bake Gourmet group members:

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Sandy of At The Baker’s Bench

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes

I’m in the process of trying to lose some weight – reading diet books, including those on (horrors-of-horrors)  low-carb diets.  Then came the Februrary issue of Gourmet, and any hope of that happening went right out of the window.… Read the rest of this post

I’m in the process of trying to lose some weight – reading diet books, including those on (horrors-of-horrors)  low-carb diets.  Then came the Februrary issue of Gourmet, and any hope of that happening went right out of the window.

To add to the futility of me ever giving up bread, along comes the lovely Sandy of At The Baker’s Bench to suggest a re-coneving of our cookie baking group to tackle the beautiful roll recipes from this month. So out went the South Beach, and hellooooo yeast.

The first recipe I chose was the Crusty Cornstalk Rolls – a baguette like loaf that’s cut before baking to make little rolls that can be torn from the main stalk.  It includes cornmeal in the dough, giving it a slightly denser texture and sweeter taste.

I had a little difficulty with the cutting process – the rolls kept adhering back together. But in the end, they did tear off easily enough, and were delicious slathered in butter and dipped in the batch of Mark Bittman’s Garlicy Beef Daube.

Crusty Cornstalk Rolls

adapted from February issue of Gourmet

ingredients:
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (from a 1/4-ounce package)
1 1/4 cups warm water (105–115°F), divided
1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon stone-ground yellow cornmeal, divided

equipment:
spray bottle with water, parchment paper, baking stone or baking sheets

to do:
1. Stir together yeast, 1/4 cup warm water, and sugar in a measuring cup and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn’t foam, start over with new yeast.)

2. Mix flour, salt, 1/2 cup cornmeal in a large bowl. Pour in yeast mixture and remaining cup warm water and mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until a soft dough forms.

3. Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and knead, dusting surface and your hands with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, until dough is elastic and smooth, 6 to 8 minutes. Form dough into a ball.

4. Put dough in an oiled large bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

5. Punch down dough (do not knead) and fold into thirds like a letter (dough will be soft), then gently roll into a 12-inch-long log with lightly floured hands. It may be easier at this point to divide the dough into two halves for baking.

6. Sprinkle a large baking sheet evenly with remaining 2 tablespoon cornmeal and fit single or double logs of dough onto the sheet to coat the bottom with cornmeal. Alternating sides, make 3-inch-long diagonal cuts, about 1 1/2 inches apart, into sides of log using kitchen shears (ends of cuts should not touch; maintain a center “stalk”). Gently pull apart cuts to stretch dough, forming rolls that are separate (about 1 1/2 inches apart) but connected to center stalk. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise until doubled, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

7. Preheat oven to 425F with rack in middle and baking stone. Spray rolls with water, then bake, spraying into oven 3 times in first 5 minutes of baking to help form a crust, until golden, about 20 minutes. Transfer rolls to a rack and cool at least 20 minutes.

NOTE: Rolls are best warm and fresh, but can be frozen if wrapped well.

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Check out the other We Bake Gourmet group members:

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Sandy of At The Baker’s Bench

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes

I am having a sandwich obsession. It comes in the form of melty cheese with the sweet whisper of figs. It’s first incarnation included a rosemary boule bread from Firehook Bakery, though I’ve since moved on to Whole Foods… Read the rest of this post

I am having a sandwich obsession. It comes in the form of melty cheese with the sweet whisper of figs. It’s first incarnation included a rosemary boule bread from Firehook Bakery, though I’ve since moved on to Whole Foods Sesame Semolina (and their French brie, currently on megasale).

This is good.  This is comfort.

Grilled Cheese With Brie And Figs

ingredients:
2 slices good bread
enough brie for one layer of 1/4 inch slices
tablespoon of fig spread, or other tart-sweet preserves

the hows:

Heat up your indoor grill or panini press. Place brie on one slice of bread, and slather the other with your preserves (I imagine plum, or cranberry would also be lovely). Press cheese and preserves together and grill 3-4 minutes until bread is toasted and cheese begins to ooze. For really bad days, serve with tall glass of cold beer.

I adore pizza. It’s bread, melted cheese, meats and vegetables (or fruit), all in a package you can hold with one hand while holding a cold beer in the other. I’ve been having fun with the daring bakers… Read the rest of this post

I adore pizza. It’s bread, melted cheese, meats and vegetables (or fruit), all in a package you can hold with one hand while holding a cold beer in the other. I’ve been having fun with the daring bakers challenges up until now, but when I saw that this month’s was for pizza crust, I knew that it would not only be a challenge — it would be an event.

Running the risk of embarrassment and starvation if my crust failed, I invited a group of friends by to help me make pizza. I started the dough the day before and let the pizza dough rise in the fridge overnight. Everyone brought their favorite toppings, and took charge of one of the six balls of dough.

Part of the challenge was also to toss the dough. Although I made attempts to educate myself via YouTube the day before, I’m hardly ready for the pizzeria (if you really wish to see my attempts, you can visit the album). But at toppings, I can say that we all were masterful.

The first pizza started slow with the basics. A nice red sauce, pepperoni, orange peppers, shredded mozzarella with a sprinkling of parmesan.

Next, a vegetarian delight — red and white sauce, spinach, roasted red peppers and goat cheese. Then, an elegant seafood pizza with white sauce, clams and anchovies, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil as soon as it came out of the oven.

Pizza number four was the International — teriyaki chicken sausage, onions, peppers and Mexican blend cheese. Then, the Everything: mushrooms, peppers, onions, pepperoni — and all the cheeses left on the table.

The last pie was our attempt at dessert — a sweet pizza with ricotta cheese and cinnamon-sugar apples. This was meant to be served alongside my first attempt with my new ice cream maker — a creamy quart of molasses ice cream, recipe courtesy of Alana of Kitchen Parade.

Now that I know how simple a process it is to make my own pizza, I will have to do so more often. The most difficult thing was keeping my small apartment cool while the oven raged at 500F for about 2 hours, but the fall weather cooperated. (Had the Steelers also cooperated by winning the football game that evening, it would have been perfect, but hey — at least there was pizza.)

Thanks to Rosa of Rosa’s Yummy Yums for hosting the challenge. You can see the complete recipe we used at her blog.

(This post also appeared on Cookthink)

The food sensation I find myself craving more than any other is crunch, that wonderful, teeth-shattering crack of fried tortillas and potato chips.

So I was particularly excited to try this month’s Daring Bakers challenge —… Read the rest of this post

The food sensation I find myself craving more than any other is crunch, that wonderful, teeth-shattering crack of fried tortillas and potato chips.

So I was particularly excited to try this month’s Daring Bakers challenge — lavash, using a recipe from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread.

It’s a fairly basic bread dough — flour, water, salt, sugar and a pinch of yeast so it rises just a bit. Knead until your arms feel like they’re going to fall off. Let it rise, then roll out into a large, thin sheet. Top with whatever salts and seasonings you like — I chose a combination of coarse sea salt, black toasted sesame seeds, and dash of cayenne for a little heat. Bake until crispy and then cut or break into pieces.

The other half of the challenge was to make a vegan dip to go with the flatbread crackers. It so happens that my favorite mushroom spread is vegan, so I went straight for the creminis. The mushrooms and walnuts in the dip were just perfect for the crispy toasts, and I started slathering the lavash with it almost immediately.

Many thanks to Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, and co-host Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl for hosting this challenge! They adapted the recipe to be gluten-free, so that everyone can enjoy a crisp cracker. You can check out their sites for the recipe we used, or try our bacon-infsued lavash (for the non-vegans).

(This post originally appeared on Cookthink)

Another month, another challenge. After the danish braid, I was excited for another puff pastry challenge — Chocolate Éclairs. It involved a few techniques I hadn’t done before — creating a pâte à choux dough, using a pastry… Read the rest of this post

Another month, another challenge. After the danish braid, I was excited for another puff pastry challenge — Chocolate Éclairs. It involved a few techniques I hadn’t done before — creating a pâte à choux dough, using a pastry bag (which I didn’t have, so I substituted Ziplocs) and making pastry cream. Eeek.

I had some trouble with the dough: the recipe called for waiting until the liquid was at a “rolling boil,” and I waited too long for it to get past what I would call a quick simmer, so a lot of the liquid evaporated. I ended up having to add liquid back in at the end to make the dough soft enough to work, which probably explained the lack of puff in the pastry fingers. It was the prettiest end product, but the test would be in the tasting.

Since I can’t handle too much chocolate, I left the final judgment to my boyfriend. He declared them to be “Oh, Claire” rather than éclairs, because that’s what he kept saying as he ate them. I declare that a success.

Many thanks to this month’s hosts Tony Tahhan and MeetaK! You can see the complete recipe here.

(This post originally appeared on Cookthink)

My last few Daring Bakers challenge posts have been tales of woe—crushed cakes, broken batards, etc. But I am happy to report that this most recent challenge, one of my first forays into pastry, went exceptionally well!

The Read the rest of this post

My last few Daring Bakers challenge posts have been tales of woe—crushed cakes, broken batards, etc. But I am happy to report that this most recent challenge, one of my first forays into pastry, went exceptionally well!

The Danish Braid recipe from Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking, chosen by Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What’s Cookin’? was a laminated yeast pastry, meaning that it had yeast and needed to rise, but also that it has alternating layers—in this case, of dough and lots and lots of butter.

I was lucky that I happened to be at my parent’s house in Philadelphia when I worked on the challenge, which meant I had a stand mixer at my disposal. The dough came together in a snap, and then I mixed up the butter block—two sticks of butter with a 1/4 cup of flour.

The dough was rolled out into a large sheet, two thirds covered with the butter, and folded into thirds. To distribute the butter through the flour and create the layers that would make the pastry puff, the dough was rolled out and turned five more times, before being cut and filled with caramelized apples. The braiding is surprisingly simple, just left over right, and makes the pastry look so impressive.

I guess there was one woeful part of the tale. I finished the pastry the night before I had my wisdom teeth removed, which meant that I couldn’t actually taste it fresh out of the oven. But it was soft enough for me to have a piece two days later, and still delicious.

The recipe made enough dough for two braids, and I froze half for later. Any suggestions for other fillings?

I’ve become progressively more fascinated with baking over the past few months, turning out far more cookies and pastries than I ever should have in my house at one time (though my boyfriend’s co-workers now adore me).

So I… Read the rest of this post

I’ve become progressively more fascinated with baking over the past few months, turning out far more cookies and pastries than I ever should have in my house at one time (though my boyfriend’s co-workers now adore me).

So I joined the Daring Bakers, a collective of food bloggers with a passion for all things that come out of the oven. I thought that it would be a good way to push my boundaries a little, try some new things. After all, they’ve made lemon meringue pie, bostini cream, sticky buns…it would be fun!

But…you want me to bake bread?

The panic I felt at watching my printer spit out the 10 pages of Julia Child’s French Bread recipe surged upon reading note after note on kneading, rising, yeast, bread ovens. My head swam. I was sweating. What on earth was I going to do?

Well, I was going to try. And try. And try. And try again.

The first two batches of dough went with a resounding thwack into my garbage can. First thing learned: yeast from a packet apparently can be dead, even if it’s not expired. Go figure.

Batch three. Live yeast. More lessons. For example, don’t leave a 1 1/2-hour rise alone overnight, no matter how tired you are (don’t start a 9 hour process at 2 PM either). Also, when they say to let the loaves rise on “stiff floured canvas,” a floured kitchen towel does not suffice. Only one made it off the towel at all; the other was left to soak in the sink until I could scrape the dough off with a spatula.

But this is also where things got better. The one salvaged loaf, while probably the ugliest loaf of bread I’d ever seen, was still bread. It was edible, though one side was saltier than the other (thoroughly mix salt with flour — check). I was emboldened, excited. I would try again.

Batch four. It was rising fine, came together with the springy elasticity I had come to love when kneading. My biceps were still sore from batch three (no standing mixer in this tiny kitchen), but the thwack-thwack-thwack of the bread hitting the board moved me forward.

One rise, then two, then they peeled off the flour-coated parchment paper with only minimal sticking. I made my ragged cuts in the top with a shaking hand, and put them in the oven.

And voilà. Two loaves of bread.

Again, they wouldn’t be winning any beauty contests in the near future, but they were toasty and crusty and evenly salted. I’d done it. There was flour on every surface of my kitchen, in the pocket of my apron and probably in my ears, but I’d done it. I’d made bread.

I felt exultant. Triumphant. Exhausted. And daring.

Thanks ever so much to Breadchick Mary (The Sour Dough) & Sara (I Like to Cook) who hosted this particular event.

(This post first appeared on the Cookthink Blog)