Let's do the twist

Sunday is family dinner night around here.  It's the only night that we always eat together.  We occasionally pull it off on a weeknight, but way more often than not, I feed the girls early and then J & I eat later.  Early is relative, of course.  The parent who picks the girls up from school/daycare gets home with them around 6:30 or so.  The other parent doesn't get home until after 7:30.

Since that doesn't leave me with much time or energy for cooking during the week, Sunday is also my day for meals that are more involved, or that just take more time.  A lot of times, it's something that makes lots of leftovers that I can eat for lunch during the week.  Tonight's spaghetti and meatballs is a good example of that.  I try to save the things I know the girls won't eat for me & J to have during the week (as long as they're relatively quick to make).  I want B&G to try new things (and they're really pretty good about that), but I get tired of hearing about how unhappy they are with some of my menu choices.

Last weekend, I tried something new that I was pretty sure they'd enjoy.  A few days earlier, my friend Tracey had a great new dish on her blog.  That's not unusual, since Tracey posts all sorts of good things. =)  But this was one that I wanted to make right away--Pretzel Dogs!  I regularly make my own dough for mini pigs-in-blankets, but it never occurred to me to wrap them in soft pretzel dough.  In fact, I realized that I've never made pretzels at all.  I've been meaning to, but just haven't gotten around to it.  

The great thing about this dough is that it doesn't take long at all to make.  The dough is straightforward to mix up (I used my dough whisk for the initial mixing) and can be kneaded in your stand mixer.  I did some machine kneading, then finished by hand.  The dough is really nice to work with, and it needs less than an hour to rise.  Then you portion out the dough, roll it into ropes, and wrap them around hot dogs that have been cut in half.  I only did five hot dogs (so 10 pieces), using 60 grams of dough for each piece.  I formed the remaining dough into 4 rolls (similar to hamburger buns).  The pretzel dogs are boiled in a baking soda solution for about 30 seconds each.  I boiled the rolls as well, but had to flip them over halfway through the time, since they don't roll the way the hot dogs do.  Finally, the dough is brushed with egg wash, sprinkled with salt (I even had actual pretzel salt!), and baked for about 15 minutes.

The verdict?  These were fantastic!  I definitely think they've earned a place in our regular menu rotation.  Jamie ate his with mustard, which sounds appropriate for pretzels as well as hot dogs.  The rest of us don't really like mustard, so we used ketchup.  But what I really want to try with them next is cheese sauce...  

I'm excited to try my hand at other pretzels as well.  I can't believe it's taken me this long to make them.  If you'd like to try these pretzel dogs for yourself, you can find the recipe on Tracey's blog.  My friend Abby made them, too; I love her cinnamon sugar bites for dessert.  I'm also submitting these Pretzel Dogs to Yeastspotting; be sure to check out all the other delicious yeasted creations.

I love it when a plan comes together

I was off on Wednesday this week, since I had to work today.  I was up early to get everyone out the door and also because I had an appointment scheduled for 9:00am in downtown Austin.  I had a bit of time before I had to head out, so I read some blogs and chatted with friends on Twitter.  I was trying not to think about the fact that I was kind of hungry--my appointment was for a health screening, which meant fasting for blood work.  Let's just say that reading food blogs probably wasn't helping. =) 

One of my favorite blogs to read is the one from the bakers at King Arthur Flour.  There's lots of yummy stuff on there, and it's so nice to have step-by-step instructions with photos to accompany so many of their great recipes.  It's not unusual for me to read one of their posts and want to drop everything and head for the kitchen.  That was definitely the case when I saw the post for Italian Easter Cheese Bread.  My friend Kayte was on Twitter at the time; she's been in a bread-baking mood and was quite happy to jump in and make it with me.  Margaret decided to joined us as well.  I went to my appointment, ran a couple errands, and was home before noon so I could get started.  Kayte had to start a little earlier, and Margaret got a bit ahead of me as well, but we still got to compare notes as we went along.  

One of my errands was a stop at Crate & Barrel.  I only went in for the chopsticks...

The dough for the cheese bread is basically a lean brioche--it calls for several eggs plus a yolk and half a stick of butter.  It doesn't have any sugar, though; instead it calls for freshly ground pepper (I used black since I don't care for white) to reinforce the savory nature of the bread.  Since the dough is pretty soft, I used my mixer for all the kneading.  Once the dough starts to come together, you mix in a bunch of grated cheese.  I went with Parmigiano Reggiano, but you could also use Romano or Asiago.  I love the fact that KAF gives options for volume as well as weight (in either ounces or grams) for their recipes.  But I realized I was in trouble when I discovered that the 1 1/4 cups of grated cheese translated to 170 grams (6 ounces)!  I didn't have that much cheese, so I ended up just going with the 95 grams that I had and hoped that it would still work out.

I frequently make breads that are baked on my baking stone as freestanding loaves.  To be honest, I don't really like traditional "sandwich bread" for sandwiches, though it is nice for toast.  The cheese bread called for a pan, though, and gave a couple of options.  It can be baked as a round, in a brioche or pandoro pan, or you can make a pretty loaf by braiding the dough and then putting it in a loaf pan.  I actually don't use my 9"x5" pan very often, so this was a good chance to get it out of the cupboard.  In the pan, my loaf took 30 minutes to bake, at which point the internal temperature was about 195ºF.  

The verdict? Even without the full amount of cheese, this is some really tasty bread.  I especially like it toasted with butter.  I haven't had a chance to try yet, but I was thinking that it would make really good croutons.  I used it for B's lunch one day and she said she liked it.  I definitely plan to make this bread again, maybe with a different cheese next time.  

You can find the recipe here on the King Arthur website.  Kayte and Margaret have posted their loaves as well.  I'm so glad that we were able to bake together this week!  I'm also sending this over to YeastSpotting, where you check out lots of other great breads.

Tooth Fairies and sweet teeth

It's been a busy week for the Tooth Fairy at our house.  Between them, my children managed to lose three teeth in the span of four days.  Brianna lost one last Wednesday (I had to help that one along a tiny bit).  Then on Friday when I picked Gillian up from daycare, she proudly showed me the tooth that came out at naptime (she managed that on her own).  But the most dramatic was on Saturday night, when B bit down on the piece of chocolate that she was eating for dessert and another tooth came out with it.  Much more of this, and the Tooth Fairy is going to start demanding overtime pay!

Maybe I can bribe her with some danish instead.  I know how powerless I am at resisting the buttery, flaky goodness that comes with laminated dough.  I've made danish and croissants the traditional way, wrapping dough around butter, and doing lots of folds and turns.  There's no question that the end result is fantastic.  But I'm not always in the mood for something that finicky.  That's why I was glad to see a recipe for Rough Danish Dough in Dan Lepard's column in the Guardian last weekend.  First you make a quick sponge with water, instant yeast and bread flour, and let that sit for about an hour to get bubbly.  The final dough calls for 00 flour but I didn't have any, so I used all-purpose flour instead.  Being danish dough, there's a little sugar and a couple egg yolks added to the dough as well.  Instead of forming the butter into a big block, you leave it in large cubes and mix it into the dough.    

As you roll the dough out, the butter is flattened out into thin sheets.  As you fold the dough (like a letter, in thirds) and roll it out again, layers are formed.  The dough goes into the fridge for half an hour between the turns so that the dough can rest (which makes it easier to roll out again) and the butter can firm up a bit (so it doesn't get squished out all over the place).  For some tips and great step-by-step photos of folds and turns (for traditional croissants), check out my friend Tracey's blog.  She and I actually made the danish dough together via Twitter.  One tip that I found helps with the rough version is to keep extra flour handy.  If the dough is sticky and the butter is trying to break through, coat that spot with some flour and keep going.  I also kept my bench scraper nearby to pick up the dough and make sure there was enough flour underneath as well.  The first turn is kind of a mess, but don't be discouraged.  The second will be better, and by the third, the dough will look a lot like traditional laminated dough.

The recipe says you can shape the dough right after the chilling after the third turn, but I left my dough in the fridge overnight.  You don't want to leave it for much longer than that; the yeast in danish dough keeps fermenting and it gets pretty puffy.  When I was ready to use the dough, I divided it in half.  One half I wrapped really well (plastic wrap and then a freezer bag) and put it in the freezer.  The rest I made into rolls filled with chocolate.  I ended up making half a dozen, and dressed them up with a drizzle of chocolate glaze after baking.

The verdict?  So, so delicious.  Brianna and Gillian loved the chocolate-filled danish.  The glaze was a bit over the top for me, but still really good.  I eventually ended up making a raspberry-filled danish braid with the other half of the dough, and it was amazing.  I'll definitely be making this recipe again.  I even bought some 00 flour when I was at Central Market this weekend so I can try the recipe with that.  

If you'd like to try your hand at danish dough, you can find the recipe here in the Guardian.  You can also find lots of other great recipes from Dan Lepard in their How to Bake series.  Also, check out Yeastspotting for lots of other amazing yeasted treats!

'Tis the season

RAIN!!  It rained today, a lot!  I think we've had more rain in the past 24 hours that we've had in the past several months combined.  This is the first day that it's really felt like fall--I think we barely hit 70º today.  So awesome. =)  Not that the lack of cooler weather has kept me from baking--once the calendar says October, I don't care what the temperature is, I'm baking with fall ingredients.  Heck, I was so sick of summer, I started in September, when it was still getting over 100º on occasion.  My favorite fall ingredient is definitely apples.  While I do like to use local ingredients when I can, I think that the best apples are from New York.  We are starting to get some of them down here, but it takes a little while to get the full variety.  So I'm also baking with my second favorite fall ingredient, pumpkin.

For my blogging friend Phyl, pumpkin is definitely a favorite ingredient.  So much so that he invited a bunch of us to join him in making and posting pumpkin recipes today.  We're aiming to have a full dinner's worth--with a whole lot of courses, I think.  I usually go for dessert, but I figured there would be several others more than willing to cover that course.  So I decided to make a recipe that I've been wanting to for a long time--the Pumpkin Brioche from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking.

The Secrets of Baking is one of the cookbooks that started off my very large (and still growing) collection of baking books.  My husband got it for me for a birthday or another occasion--I can't remember exactly anymore.  It was published in 2003 and he got it not long after publication, so I've had it a long time.  It's a really nice book for someone who likes to bake but is looking to expand their repertoire of pastry skills.  Each chapter starts with a basic recipe that shows a technique, like caramel or pound cake, and then uses that as a jumping off point for more complex recipes.  I have quite a few technique books now, but this is still one of my favorites.  

I've made brioche before, so this recipe wasn't as scary as I thought it would be when I first got the book.  It's a medium-rich dough, so it's buttery without being a huge pain to work with.  I used canned pumpkin puree, but you could certainly use fresh if you have it.  I made a few small adjustments to the recipe.  Since this is a rich dough, I used my SAF Gold yeast.  I had extra large eggs in my fridge, so I only used 5 instead of 6.  This is a pretty forgiving dough, since I totally didn't follow the mixing instructions.  I forgot that you're supposed to develop the gluten with about 5 minutes of kneading before  you add the butter.  I added it not long after I added the eggs.  So I just kneaded longer after the butter went in--about 8 minutes, I think.  Everything still worked out okay.

The recipe says that it makes 3 pounds of dough, but by my measurements, it's actually about 4 pounds (about 1.8 kilos).  I used about a kilo of the dough to make sandwich rolls--a dozen rolls of 85 grams (3 ounces) each.  I'm still deciding what to do with the remaining dough--maybe cinnamon rolls.  After shaping the rolls, I let them proof at room temperature for about 2 hours, then baked them at 350ºF for 25 minutes.  As usual, I skipped the egg wash, though you could certainly use it if you prefer shiny brioche. 

The verdict?  Fantastic!  The rolls don't really taste like pumpkin, but as Brianna said, there's something different about them.  The color is gorgeous.  And I think this is my favorite style of brioche--you can taste the butter, but it's not out of control.  I used one roll to make a ham sandwich for lunch, and it was delicious.  I think they would also be tasty with jam.  Brianna was enthusiastic about having them in her lunch, so I'm sure we'll be making these again.  

Phyl should have the full round-up of pumpkin dishes on his blog sometime this week, so head over to check it out.  Updated: You can find the round-up here. And for more delicious breads and rolls, be sure to check out Yeastspotting.  

Pumpkin Brioche

(adapted from Sherry Yard's The Secret of Baking)

170 grams (3/4 cup) whole milk, at room temperature

5 grams SAF gold instant yeast (or regular instant yeast)

225 grams (1 cup) pumpkin puree

65 grams (1/3 cup) granulated sugar

140 grams (1 cup) bread flour

700 grams (5 cups) bread flour

14 grams (2 teaspoons) table salt

5 extra large eggs (267 grams out of the shells) or 6 large eggs, room temperature

225 grams (1 cup, or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

This brioche starts with a sponge.  Put the milk and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to combine.  Let stand for about 5 minutes, until the yeast is dissolved and starts to bubble a bit.  (This step isn't absolutely necessary with instant yeast, but I figure in a rich dough like this, the head start for the yeast is still a good idea.)  Mix in the pumpkin, sugar and the cup of flour.  I like to use my dough whisk for this, but you could also use your mixer with the paddle attachment.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the sponge stand at room temperature until bubbly, 30 to 45 minutes.

For the dough, first add the flour and the salt to the sponge.  Next mix in the eggs until they are absorbed.  Then add the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time.  Once all the butter is in, switch to the dough hook.  (You can do so sooner if you need to, but I found it easier to mix the butter in with the paddle.)  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then knead with the dough hook for about 8 minutes, until the dough is smooth and shiny.  Transfer the dough to a well-oiled 4-quart container and turn the dough so it is coated with oil on all sides.  Cover the container (mine has its own lid) and let the dough rise until it is doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Deflate the dough by folding the dough over on itself. Refrigerate the dough for at least 4 hours or overnight.  It will rise to fill the container again.  Once chilled, the dough can be made into loaves or rolls or used for other recipes.  For the rolls I made, remove about half the dough from the container.  Divide the dough into 12 pieces of about 85 grams (3 ounces) each.  You could also do 60 gram (2 ounce) pieces for dinner rolls.  Roll the dough pieces into smooth, tight rounds and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Spray lightly with oil (I use Pam) and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.  During the last 30 minutes of the rise time, preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Bake the rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the size.  The rolls will be nicely browned and register about 195ºF internal temperature when done.  Transfer the rolls to a rack and let them cool before serving. 

All in knots

Every once in a while we end up doing our Central Market shopping on Sunday morning.  Usually we shop Friday and Saturday nights (one CM, one HEB, depending on my work schedule), but we didn't want to go Saturday night last weekend for fear of not being back in time for the start of Doctor Who.  The girls like to watch too, and the 11pm replay is way too late for them.  Heck, most of the time it's way too late for me, too.  

Anyway, the great thing about shopping on Sunday morning is that everything is fully stocked, including the bakery!  Sure, I love baking my own bread.  But I worked Saturday and was still tired on Sunday (from what seemed like a very long week), so there was no way I was going to pass up the still-warm loaves of Durum Sourdough and Ciabatta.  We actually saw some of the bakers still at work, so Gillian and I stopped to watch for a minute.  Her comments?  "Mommy, he has a different kind of weigher than you do."  (He had a balance.)  "But he's making those rolls like you make!"  He was, in fact, making knotted rolls, though they were a bit simpler than these ones that I made last week.  He wasn't joining the ends together to make rounds.  It was neat that she recognized that we make the same sorts of things at home that they make at the bakery.  How many kids can say that?

I discovered these rolls as I was reading my new issue of Fine Cooking (Oct/Nov 2011).  They caught my eye both because they looked delicious and also because the recipe is from one of my favorite authors, Peter Reinhart.  They looked like they'd be pretty easy to make--it's a straight dough, no preferments necessary.  The nice thing is that you can mix up the dough, then either leave it at room temperature to rise if you're baking the same day, or stick it in the fridge to rise overnight.  You can keep it in there for a few days if you don't get back to it right away.  The full recipe of dough makes 18 rolls, so I decided to bake half the first day after refrigerating my dough, then do the other half a couple days later. 

I mostly followed the recipe, though I did decide to substitute some white whole wheat flour for part of the bread flour.  I used about one-third www flour.  I didn't really add any extra liquid, so the dough was probably a bit stiffer than it was supposed to be.  Next time I'll probably add a little extra milk.  The only other big change I made was to omit the egg wash on the rolls--most of the time I can't be bothered to fuss with it.  It probably won't surprise you that I'm one of those people who prefers matte finish over glossy on my pictures... =)

The verdict?  These were a big hit, especially with the girls.  Baking them in batches on different days worked really well, too.  That way we were able to get through them before they got stale.  I'm sure we'll be making this recipe again.  I doubt that the girls had any idea that there was whole wheat flour in them, either. =)

If you'd like to try the original recipe, you can find it in the Oct/Nov 2011 issue of Fine Cooking, or here on the Fine Cooking website.   My friend Kayte baked along with me on this one, so if you'd like to see the rolls finished the way they were supposed to be (with egg wash & seeds on top), check out her blog post.  I'm also submitting these rolls to Yeastspotting, where you can see lots of other yummy yeasted treats.  

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

This has been the first pleasant day we've had in months.  Breezy and dry, with 70s this morning and 80s this afternoon.  There's only one problem--it's dry.  Way too dry.  We had almost no rain in July, none at all in August, and none so far this month.  It's crazy--I've read how much rain has been falling in Louisiana and the southeast US from tropical storm Lee, and all we've gotten from it has been wind.  There won't be any grilling around here for Labor Day, at least there better not be, with all the wildfires burning around the Austin area.  (Thankfully, none are near us at the moment, but we know people close to the affected areas.)

Still, parents with the day off from work and kids with the day off from school flocked to the park this morning to enjoy the lovely weather.  We were among them.  We're lucky to have some really great places to play, like the playscape at San Gabriel park.  The girls got to run around like maniacs for about an hour, and I got to sit in the shade and read.  Well, and take some pictures. =)  Then it was home for lunch and naps.  I love extra days off. 

I did some baking yesterday.  I'm starting to get back into the bread baking mood, now that we're actually seeing some days below 100º. (The Austin area has had 79 days of 100º+ so far, and there's still a chance we could have more.)  I even revived Ernie, my sourdough starter, and have baked sourdough bread two weekends in a row.  Last weekend, I baked Pain au Levain from one of my favorite books, Artisan Breads Every Day.  I really like that recipe, but I wanted to make something quicker this time.  I turned to one of my trusted resources, King Arthur Flour, to see what I could come up with.

I have to say, I really like the recent redesign that KAF did on their recipe section.  For one thing, it's much more iPad-friendly.  I was also happy to see that in addition to weights in ounces, many recipes now give the option for grams as well.  It's an easy conversion if I have to do it myself, but it's nice to save a step.  I do have to wonder, though, why it will tell me that a tablespoon of sugar is 14 grams, but not give me a weight for 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt.  Oh well, it's not like it's that hard for me to figure out for myself. =)  

There's a section of sourdough recipes, with all kinds of interesting stuff (including pizza and waffles and even chocolate cake).  I settled on the recipe for Rustic Sourdough Bread.  There is a handy blog post to go along with it, showing how the recipe can be adjusted to give different results depending on how much time you have on your hands.  I went for the quicker version, which still has nice flavor while only taking a few hours.  I fed Ernie Saturday night, so I had a nice active starter ready to go Sunday morning.  I did have to do some math, though.  I keep a firm starter, with a hydration of about 66%.  That means that for every 100 grams of flour, it has 66 grams of water.  The recipe has a link to KAF's fresh starter, and the instructions for it led me to believe that it's a 100% hydration starter, meaning that it has equal amounts of water and flour.  So I had to figure out how much total water and flour were in the original recipe (totaling the amounts from the starter and what is added later).  I decided to keep the amount of starter constant, so I had to figure out how much water and flour were in the same amount of my starter (the recipe calls for about 225 grams of starter) and adjust the additional water and flour accordingly.  This is where I love my notebook.  I didn't want to write it out here, so the photo below shows my calculations and notes for this recipe:

The verdict? Well, we've managed to polish off the first loaf already.  Samples yesterday, toast for breakfast today, sandwiches for lunch.  The other loaf got sliced and went in the freezer for B's lunches this week (and maybe some for me, too).  The flavor is nice--a bit of tang, but not too sour.  It was a hit with B, which is good, since she can be picky about bread.  I'll definitely be making this recipe again--I love how easy it is, as long as I remember to feed my starter first.

If you'd like to try this bread for yourself, you can find the recipe here at KAF.  If you don't have a starter of your own, there are a number of great tutorials on the web, including this one from my friend Phyl.  I made mine using the steps in Artisan Breads Every Day, and posted about it here.  For more yummy and beautiful breads, be sure to check out the collection each week at Yeastspotting. 

Let's do the twist

I hope all you moms out there had a great Mother's Day.  Amazingly, I got to stay in bed all the way to 7:30am!  It's nice that my girls are now old enough to fend for themselves for a little while in the morning.  They were camped out in Brianna's room, waiting for me to get up.  Unlike last year, they apparently hadn't come up with any sort of plan to make me breakfast.  That's just as well, since last year they neglected to let my husband Jamie in on the plan until the morning of Mother's Day.  =)  Being of sound mind (sometimes, anyway), I had already come up with my own plan anyway, and done most of the work the night before.

A few weeks ago I was at the library with the girls, and decided to wander through the cookbook section.  I'm not as fortunate as my friend Tracey; my library doesn't have nearly as many as hers does, especially newer ones.  But I stumbled across an older book (2008, so not -that- old) that caught my eye.  It was The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread.  I had heard of it because Tracey posted a recipe from it a little while back.  Joanne Chang also mentions Amy's Bread in her book Flour, which is one of my current favorite books.  It turns out that the books are similar--home recipes for bakery favorites.  I like the writing style of both, which is what usually leads me to purchase a cookbook.

Once I had the book at home, I read through the whole thing.  Am I the only one who likes to read cookbooks for fun?  I think the people at work have finally gotten used to me doing it on my lunch breaks. =)  I made mental notes of recipes that I wanted to try sooner rather than later, and the one at the top of my list was the Cinnamon Raisin Twists.  They're made from a sweetened dough that contains cinnamon and raisins.  The dough is layered with some butter and brown sugar and then cut into strips that are twisted before baking.  The recipe can be completed in one day, but I broke it up into two.  I completed the recipe up through shaping the twists, but rather than doing the final rise, I stuck the pan in the fridge for the night.  (The recipe calls for two sheet pans for baking the twists, but I crammed them onto one pan since I couldn't fit two in the fridge.)  On Sunday morning, I took the pan out and put it into my slightly warmed oven so that the final proof wouldn't take too long (it ended up being about an hour since I started with cold dough).  Once the twists were puffy, I took them out, preheated the oven, and baked them for about 25 minutes.  

The verdict?  These are fantastic!  Sort of cinnamon roll meets raisin bread.  The only problem I had was that they were too big for any of the small plates we have. =)  Everyone here loved them.  I ended up taking about half of the pan to work today and they were well-received there as well.

I'm definitely going to make these again.  The book also has recipes for some savory versions.  I have plenty of cookbooks already, but now this one is going to the top of my wish list.  Unfortunately, my library doesn't have the first Amy's Bread book; I'll have to see if I can find a copy at one of our local bookstores so I can see if I need that one, too.  

For lots of other yummy yeasted treats, be sure to check out Yeastspotting and the BYOB bakers.  

New year, old stuff

Wow.  Welcome to 2011.  I had grand plans for blogging in December, and toward the end of the months, things just got away from me.  (Especially with the cookies--my apologies to my friends for not finishing the Saveur cookie baking project.)  But it's a new month and a new year, and I'm starting fresh.  I've been trying to decide what I want to accomplish this year.  2008 was my first year of blogging--lots of TWD and Daring Bakers.  2009 was the year of bread--starting with getting ABin5 for Christmas (08), challenging myself with Baking Your Own Bread, making croissants, starting the BBA Challenge.  2010 was the year I tackled sourdough, from Crusty Cheese Bread to Panettone.  So far I only have a few things on the slate for 2011.  I want to learn to temper chocolate.  It's one of the few techniques that really scare me.  But hey, if I can handle caramel without fear, I can do chocolate, right?  The second thing was inspired by my friend Kayte.  Last year (and again this year, I think), she has strived to use the things she already has, rather than buying new stuff.  I'm not going to say that I won't buy anything new, but I really do want to make use of the many, many baking & cooking books that I already own.  The third thing is to get back on track with baking my own bread.  Last year, I still did more of it than most people, but it got pushed to the back burner a lot due to timing.  I want to get better organized with it this year.  

So this post is about two of those things, anyway.  (No chocolate yet, sorry.)  Baking more bread, and using stuff I already have.  What helped me bake lots of bread in the beginning was Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  No-knead bread, using dough that you mix up, let proof for a couple hours, then stick in your fridge and bake when you want.  I pulled the book off the shelf, and looked for a recipe to get started.  (I actually did this last week.)   Semolina is a favorite of mine, and I realized that I'd never made the Semolina Bread recipe because I didn't have durum flour.  But thanks to a couple orders from King Arthur, I'm now well-stocked.  One reason that I stopped doing the ABin5 method is that the 6-quart dough container just takes up too much room in my fridge.  So I decided to scale the recipe to fit in my 4-quart container (which is the same height but a much smaller diameter).  

I do most of my measurements by weight these days.  The full ABin5 recipe calls for 2 pounds of flour, which is roughly 900 grams.  Two-thirds of that is 600 grams.  I did 200 grams of durum flour and 400 grams of bread flour (I wanted chewy bread in this case).  Two-thirds of the water is 2 cups, or about 450 grams.  I used 10 grams of instant yeast and 14 grams of kosher salt for my adjusted recipe.  I measured everything directly into my dough bucket (more about that here) and mixed it with my handy dough whisk.  The dough spent a couple hours on the counter, then went into the fridge for the night.  That was Wednesday.  Thursday morning before work, I took half of the dough and formed it into a batard.  I let it warm up and rise on a sheet of parchment on my peel for about an hour.  Then I dusted it with flour, slashed it, and baked it for about 35 minutes.  For the first ten minutes of the baking time, I covered the loaf with a disposable aluminum pan instead of pouring water into a steam tray.  

The verdict?  This bread was excellent with some garlic butter, and paired nicely with our pasta dinner Thursday night.  I'd forgotten how easy the whole ABin5 process is.  I'm definitely going to be doing more of it.  I love making bread with lots of different techniques, but this one is great for getting something baked & on the table quickly.  The rest of the dough was baked the next morning, shaped as a Dragon Tail Baguette (sorry, no good pics--will do some next time), and was served with bean soup for dinner.  Overall, the results were better than I remember, probably because I'm so much better at shaping now, even with wet doughs.  I kind of wish I'd made a full batch, since this only made two loaves, but there just isn't that much room in my fridge right now.  And hey, that means I can try something new that much sooner! =)  

If you'd like to try your hand at no-knead bread, head on over to the ABin5 website.  If you're new to their technique, this is a good place to get started.  If you like what you see, buy the book.  And if you're a little crazy and want to start baking all your own bread, join in the BYOB adventure.  To see lots of other yummy bread and other yeasted treats, check out Yeastspotting!

Rolling along

Most of the time when I tell people that I’m going to be on vacation for a week, they ask if I’m going anywhere. More often than not, the answer is no. This time of year, Brianna is in school. Plus it’s not exactly inexpensive to fly four people to another part of the country (since none of our family members live anywhere near here). And honestly, I’m okay with that. Traveling long distances, especially with young children, can be pretty darn stressful. I’m quite content to stay at home and do some baking, take some naps, and maybe even do some cleaning up around the house.

This week I had more than the usual incentive for the cleaning up part. My dad came down from Pennsylvania for a few days. I wish he could have brought some of the cooler fall weather with him, but he was pretty happy with our warmer temperatures. He got to spend some time with the girls, even with B in school. I’m particularly glad he got to spend some one-on-one time with G, since she often gets overshadowed by her older sister. (Though Gillian certainly does her best to make her presence known.) Jamie and I even got to have dinner out by ourselves one night, while Dad took the girls to McDonald’s. Yay for grownup, uninterrupted conversations! =)

With Dad here, I didn’t do quite as much baking as I might have on my own, but that’s okay. The baking I did do was mostly for him. Gillian and I made crumb cake for breakfast yesterday, which is one of his favorites, and I packed some of it up for him to take for breakfast on the plane this morning. We also had to make chocolate chip cookies, which I knew he’d be more than happy to help us eat. (And a bunch of those got packed up for his carryon, too.) But the surprise hit of the week was some simple rolls that I made.

It started with dinner on Sunday. We were having hotdogs (with sauerkraut for me & J; with ketchup for the girls). Brianna had requested them a week or so before, but I kind of forgot that they were in the fridge. Since I started BYOB, I almost always make my own hot dog and hamburger buns. I was getting ready to lookup my usual bun recipe from KAF, when I remembered that one of the Mellow Baker recipes for this month was Soft Butter Rolls. I pulled my book off the shelf and took a look at it--it was an easy enriched dough recipe that wouldn’t take all that long to make. I also took a look at the MB discussion board for this recipe. Unfortunately, the first couple reviews I read weren’t very positive. But I decided to give it a try anyway.

The dough was very easy to mix up--it’s a straight dough, so no preferments to worry about. And it used a generous amount of yeast (about 8 g according to the errata) which allowed the dough to rise fairly quickly despite the additions of butter, sugar and egg in the dough. The dough was mixed, then allowed to double. Then the recipe called for dividing the dough into very small portions. I went a little bigger.  I made 5 oblong buns at 75 g each and then formed the remaining dough into round rolls of about 60 g each (yielding 9 rolls). The buns and rolls were placed relatively close together on a baking sheet so that once they were done rising and baking, they were touching each other, keeping the sides soft. Since several people commented that their rolls browned quickly, I baked mine for 13 minutes even though they were larger in size than the ones in the recipe.

The verdict? Well, despite my worries, these were a huge hit with everyone in my family. The dough made excellent hot dog buns--sturdy enough in the face of drippy sauerkraut, but soft inside. Brianna has been quite happy to use them for small sandwiches in her lunch. I ended up making a second batch (just round rolls) to go with beef stew this week--they were really tasty when consumed hot and dripping with butter. I substituted 100g of white whole wheat flour for an equal amount of the bread flour in that batch, and really liked the result. I will definitely be making these again--it’s nice to have another fairly quick and tasty dinner roll in my repertoire.

If you’d like to try this recipe for yourself, you can find it on page 258 of Bread. Be sure to make note of the corrected yeast amount (should be .29 oz, or about 8 g).  And to see what all the other Mellow Bakers thought of this recipe, check out the discussion board.  For lots of other fun bread options, check out Yeastspotting!

Spur of the moment

This was my weekend off.  I worked the last two Saturdays, and will work the next two.  (Sometimes the schedule just works out that way, with lots of vacations this time of year.)  I had lots of plans for stuff to make this weekend.  I've done almost none of them.  Yesterday, the girls and I went to the farmers market (only came home with tomatoes; very sad that my usual cheese guys wasn't there this week), Build-a-Bear (finally spending B's birthday present from Aunt Kate), and story time at Borders.  This morning, we went to the pool with some friends, stopped to pick up some lunch to bring home, and all took naps.  I did squeeze in some baking this morning, and still hope to this evening, but things didn't really go according to plan.  

What's funny is that last weekend, I made all sorts of stuff in a much smaller window of time.  Sometimes it just happens that way.  Some of the things I had made before, like the scones we ate for breakfast on Sunday.  And then I couldn't resist making the plum cake again, with peaches.  For the record, the plum version is better. =)  But one of the recipes I made was a brand-new one.  One of the things that pops up in my Google Reader every weekend is Dan Lepard's baking article in The Guardian.  There are all sorts of yummy looking recipes, but the ones that really catch my eye (and the ones that I've actually made) are the bread recipes.  

The recipe for July 17th was Semolina BBQ Buns.  Right away, I was drawn in by the semolina part.  I love breads with semolina (I often add it to pizza crust, too).  I took a quick look at the ingredient list and was happy to see that I had everything on hand to make them--semolina, butter, honey, yogurt, salt, yeast, and bread flour (what I usually use when UK recipes call for "strong flour"), plus water and a bit of oil for kneading.  This recipe employs one of my favorite techniques, which I originally learned from another Dan Lepard recipe.  Once the dough is all mixed together, you knead it on an oiled surface for about 10 seconds every ten minutes for about half an hour.  Each brief knead develops the gluten a bit more, until you have a fairly smooth dough.  Then you let the dough rise for a longer period (an hour, for this recipe).  For these buns, you then roll the dough out into a large rectangle and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet.  The dough is cut into 8 rolls (I used my metal dough scraper to cut through the dough) that are left in place.  The dough is covered and allowed to rise a bit more.  Before baking, the dough is brushed with water, sprinkled with more semolina, and lightly scored with a butter knife (for decoration).

The verdict?  Dan suggests in the article that these are perfect buns for barbecued pork.  I'm not a big barbecue person, but I have to say, they're great with chicken salad.  Or for most other sandwiches--including jam, according to Gillian. =)  They're also quite good eaten plain, with some salted butter.  Or toasted.  So yes, I'm telling you that these didn't last all that long around here.  I ate the last one for breakfast this morning, and they only made it that long because I froze most of them.  I really love the bit of crunch in the crust from the semolina sprinkled on top.  I generally prefer rolls over sliced bread for sandwiches, since they have a higher ratio of crust, and these are perfect in that respect.  

If you'd like to give these a try for yourself, you can find the recipe here.  And be sure to check out the other recipes on that site.  (The Buttermilk Baps are another favorite of mine.)  And these rolls are also being Yeastspotted!

Brought to you by the letter S

I was recently amazed to discover that Gillian can write a lot more than I realized.  I knew she could recognize all the letters and write her name (a few of the letters are interesting, but you can make out what she's writing).  We were at Borders for story time, and afterwards they got to make Father's Day cards.  She sat there and asked me what letters she needed to say "Happy Father's Day." I offered to help her write it, but she insisted she could do it herself.  She only needed me to explain how to form one of the letters.  Boy, this kid is quick, even more so than her big sister.  She's not even four yet!  And with the timing of her birthday (October), she'll be almost 6 by the time she can start kindergarten.  It's really hard sometimes to figure out what to do with my smart kids to keep them challenged.

Jamie and I realized a couple weeks ago that boredom may be a lot of the reason B is driving us crazy lately.  She doesn't have enough to do of her own, so she starts bothering G and wanting to play with her stuff.  And I get tired of explaining, that yes, those toys were originally hers, but now G gets to play with them, since they're geared more toward a 3-year-old than a 7-year-old. *sigh*  Fortunately, we were able to come up with a few ideas...J is teaching her how to play chess, since he loved it as a kid (and still does).  I can play, but am nowhere near his level.  And he's a much more patient teacher than I am.  He found a couple of chess books for kids, too.  Another thing that B really likes is puzzles, both word puzzles and the jigsaw variety.  I think it's time to get some new ones--harder ones that G can't do yet, with more, smaller pieces.  

She's also been reading a lot, which is good, but that only keeps her occupied for so long.  Besides some new Betty & Veronica comics (J is the comic book influence), the main thing she's been reading is her Christmas present from my sister Kate.  Kate got her the entire collection of Ramona books.  With the new movie coming out next week, she's been trying to read as much as she can beforehand.  She's already talked me into taking her to see the movie.  The only movies I've seen in a theater for the past several years are the ones I've taken B to.  Going to the movies isn't in the budget much.  

Of course, you're all familiar with my main source of entertainment these days--baking. =)  And a lot of the books I read are cookbooks.  I was thinking the other day that I've gained an amazing amount of knowledge and skill through my participation in various baking groups.  Tuesdays with Dorie and Daring Bakers have helped with cakes and other sweets.  For bread, though, the biggest influence is definitely the BBA Challenge.

I mentioned in my last BBA post that I got stuck on the Marbled Rye and decided to jump ahead for the time being.  Since I was making pâte fermentée for the Pain de Campagne, I figured I'd make a double batch so I'd have some ready for the next recipe, too, which is Pane Siciliano.  I was really looking forward to this one, because I've really enjoyed every bread that I've made with semolina.  The addition of semolina flour gives bread a pretty yellow color and I like the texture it contributes, too.  

The dough for Pane Siciliano is fairly lean (bread flour, semolina flour, salt, yeast and water) but does have a small amount of olive oil and honey added to it.  After the initial mixing, my dough was rather sticky.  Rather than add flour when kneading, I decided to try Peter Reinhart's stretch and fold technique from his newest book, Artisan Breads Every Day.  I did the stretch and fold on an oiled countertop 3 or 4 times in about 45 minutes, and then let the dough rise for another 45 minutes.  When it was time to divide the dough for shaping, I decided that I wanted to set some of it aside for pizza crust.  I did three portions of 7 ounces each that I formed into balls and stuck in the fridge to use for dinner.  The remaining dough was about 23 ounces, and I shaped that into the traditional "S" shaped loaf.  It's supposed to be topped with sesame seeds, but I didn't have any.  The shaped loaf is retarded overnight in the fridge to develop flavor.  The next morning, I pulled it out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit while the oven preheated, about 45 minutes.  The loaf only took about 20 minutes to bake.

The verdict?  I really enjoyed this bread.  It made a very nice loaf, and excellent pizza crust.  Next time I make it, I'll make sure I have sesame seeds on hand so I can try it that way.  Everyone else here loved it as well.  Jamie is my main critic for the various pizza crusts that we've tried, and he commented that he really likes how this dough worked--stayed nicely firm and crisp on the bottom with his choice of toppings, but was tender on top.  I loved the edges of this crust--nice and puffy.  I love the bubbles. =)

If you'd like to try Pane Siciliano for yourself, check out a copy of The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  There are so many excellent recipes and such good information on how to make bread.  To see how everyone else is doing with the challenge, check out the BBA Challenge blogroll.  Also, check out Yeastspotting for lots of other yummy yeasted treats.  And I'm submitting this to Bread Baking Day #32: Italian Breads!