Mellow yellow

My favorite color is green.  But when I'm feeling stressed or down in the dumps, I really like yellow, especially yellow flowers.  They're great for cheering me up.  Daffodils are my favorites, but I love yellow tulips as well.  And yellow roses smell the best (and were my mom's favorite, part of why I love them).  Besides flowers, another thing that often makes me feel better is baking.  It's fun to make things for us to eat or to give to others.  

It also helps to have others to pull me out of whatever funk I've fallen into.  That's actually what prompted me to make this bread.  I was stuck at home with a sick kiddo a couple weeks ago, and my friend Kayte suggested (via Twitter) that I make bread with her, since I was home anyway.  Besides my bread baking adventures with the BBA Challenge, I've joined a new group, called the Mellow Bakers.  It was started by Paul of Yumarama, in part because he finished the BBA Challenge and was looking for something new to do.  The forum includes information on the start of the group, as well as boards for the monthly breads.  The recipes are chosen more or less randomly from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread, three each month.  The great thing about this group is the whole "mellow" part--members are welcome to do as many or as few breads as they like.  You can blog about them, or not.  Everyone is encouraged to share their experiences so we can all learn from each other, but it's a very laid-back environment.  In other words, perfect for someone like me, who wants to bake more bread, but isn't always sure when or how much time I'll have to do it!

So far, I baked one of the April breads (Rustic Bread), but haven't had a chance to blog it yet.  I want to bake the other two (Bagels and Light Rye), but haven't had time.  When Kayte asked me about baking something, I was already thinking about mixing up the preferment for one of May's breads, Corn Bread.  It definitely helped to have her give me a bit of a push, though.  (Kayte's baking along with the Mellow Bakers unofficially for now.  I'm trying to convince her to be "official" since we are mellow, after all.)  I was feeling frustrated with the whole dilemma of balancing work with the needs of my children.  The prospect of baking--a yellow bread, no less--with a friend, definitely cheered me up.  

The dough is pretty straightforward to make.  It uses a poolish to add flavor.  So before I went to bed (around 11:00pm), I mixed together equal weights of water and flour with a little bit of instant yeast.  Things tend to rise quickly in my kitchen, and by about 7:00am the next morning, the poolish was threatening to escape its container.  So I stashed it in the fridge until I was ready to bake later that morning.  To compensate for the cold preferment, I warmed the water a bit, but I probably didn't need to.  Across the board, my times were shorter than those indicated in the book, which is typical of my kitchen--my bulk fermentation was 45 minutes, fold the dough, then 35 minutes more.  I shaped the dough into two batards.  I love the shaping diagrams in this book--they've helped me a lot!  Rather than trying to transfer them from a linen couche, I place the loaves seam-side down on a sheet of parchment paper on the back of a sheet pan.  The loaves proofed for just under an hour.  (I started preheating the oven after the first 30 minutes.)  After slashing them, I slid the loaves onto my baking stone, parchment and all, then poured hot water into a steam pan (the bottom of my broiler pan, placed on the floor of my oven).  I rotated the loaves after 20 minutes, and baked them for a total of 28 minutes, at which point the internal temperature was 198F.

The verdict?  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I really like this bread.  It has a lovely color, and I like the texture of the crust.  It's not my favorite for things like sandwiches--it seems a bit dry to me--but it makes excellent toast.  It smells a little bit like popcorn when you toast it. =)  It also worked well as makeshift pizza. =)  Brianna liked it well enough to ask for some in her lunch (always a good sign).  If you'd like to try this bread for yourself, I highly recommend that you get a copy of Bread for yourself.  And if you like bread baking at a mellow pace, join in the fun over at the Mellow Bakers forum.  You can read about the other members' adventures with Corn Bread there.  

Worth a thousand words

This is the perfect mug for this morning, when I've been up more or less since 3:30am.  Sorry, guys, no TWD here today.  Just wanted to let you know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  I might get some sort of blog post up later, since I'll be home with the small one today.  Yep, looks like Gillian now has what Brianna had last week.  We'll be heading to the doctor later to double-check.  And then there will be naps...
 

Berry good...with chocolate

I had every intention of getting this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe and post done early.  Then life got in the way.  My older daughter, Brianna, has been sick since last Thursday (with what we think its strep--what fun).  So the past four or five days have mostly been spent tending to her and juggling schedules with my husband.  The funny thing is, the only reason I managed to get this done at this point is because I ended up staying home from work again today.  Otherwise, I'd be lucky to get this posted by this weekend... =)  

This week's lovely selection comes from Cooking with Cristine.  It's hard to believe that there are still people who joined the group almost two years ago are just now getting to choose recipes.  Just like it seems crazy that I've been doing this for over two years.  Cristine made a great seasonal pick, with the Quick Classic Berry Tart.  A number of people questioned the "quick" part of this recipe.  Once you have the components ready, the assembly of the tart does go quickly.  But it does take some time to get everything ready.  Fortunately (especially for me, the way the past several days have been), different parts can be made ahead of time.  The tart consists of a buttery, crisp tart shell, some pastry cream, seasonal fresh fruit, and a glaze.

I could tell that Brianna was feeling at least a little better when she showed some interest in the tart.  Once I described to her what I was making, she only had one question--"Can you make the filling chocolate instead of vanilla?"  Since that was the first food-related request she'd made in several days, I decided to go with it.  I knew the extra pastry cream wouldn't go to waste. =)  One advantage of the chocolate cream is that it uses only 4 egg yolks, rather than 6, since the chocolate thickens it as well.  I already have way too many egg whites in my freezer, and will have more now that we're getting into serious ice cream season.  (I need to make something to use some of them up!)

I've made Dorie's pastry creams a number of times, so it didn't take me long to get this one done.  I made it Monday night, and put it in the fridge to chill overnight.  (with plastic wrap on the surface--I hate skin on top of things!)  My original plan was to try to get the tart crust baked before work this morning.  But then I ended up staying home with B again, so I didn't have as much time pressure as I expected.  I mixed up the dough in the food processor, patted it into my new rectangular tart pan (more about that in another post), and stuck it in the freezer while we took Gillian to daycare.  When we got back, I baked it, letting it get a nice, dark golden brown.  Then this afternoon, I assembled the whole thing.  I put the pastry cream in the tart shell and topped it with whole raspberries and quartered strawberries.  Actually, B did the strawberries--she's definitely feeling better than she was.  (and isn't contagious anymore after four days of antibiotics)  Then I glazed it with some raspberry jam that I heated in the microwave and thinned with a bit of water.

The verdict?  Well, the different parts are certainly good.  We've had the tart crust a number of times, and love it.  And anything resembling chocolate pudding is always popular in this household. =)  Plus how can you go wrong with fresh strawberries and raspberries?  As for all together, it's very good. Gillian gave it two thumbs up--"Mommy, this is so good!" Brianna wasn't as enthusiastic about the crust, but loved the pastry cream and fruit.  I liked the whole thing, with the different flavors and textures.  I love chocolate with both raspberry and strawberry.

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, Cristine has the recipe on her blog.  And you can find the chocolate pastry cream recipe here.   Don't forget to see what everyone else did with this week's recipe--you can find links here.  

We all scream for ice cream

The calendar may say that it's just the beginning of May, but it's definitely starting to warm up.   For Tuesdays with Dorie, we're getting into the time of year when fruit recipes and frozen treats become more popular.  This week's selection comes from Becky of Project Domestication, and she picked Burnt Sugar Ice Cream for us to make.  Of course, lots of people like to eat ice cream year-round, but it gets more attention during the warmer months.  I’m spoiled—when I bought my current ice cream maker, it came with an extra freezer canister.  I keep one in my freezer all the time so I can make ice cream on short notice--as soon as I take the canister out, the other one goes in.

I've actually made this ice cream before.  The first time I made it was as part of a Daring Bakers challenge, back in February of last year.  I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t made it since, but that’s probably because I’ve been too busy trying out other flavors.  More recently, I made the Caramel Ice Cream recipe from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home.  The ingredients for the two recipes are pretty much the same—sugar, water, cream, milk, egg yolks, and salt.  Dorie’s recipe also includes vanilla.  Where the two differ is in the proportions.  The Ad Hoc recipe uses a 1:1 ratio of cream to milk, whereas the TWD recipe is 1:2.  The Ad Hoc recipe also uses a significantly higher proportion of egg yolks—5 yolks for 2 cups of liquid, versus 4 yolks for 3 cups.  The question is, is it worth it to make the richer recipe?

To even the playing field a bit, I adjusted the liquid in Dorie’s recipe, using 12 ounces each of milk and cream.  I also increased the amount of salt from a pinch to ½ a teaspoon of kosher salt.  I did want to try the vanilla, so I warmed the milk and steeped a vanilla bean pod in it.  (I started to scrape the seeds out and rub them into the sugar like I usually do, then realized that might not be the best idea if I was going to then make caramel with the sugar.  So that vanilla sugar is now earmarked for next week’s pastry cream. =)  And there was still enough in the pod to flavor the milk.)  I usually add a bit of corn syrup to the water and sugar as insurance when making caramel, but forgot to do that this time.  It seemed okay, but the caramel seized up a lot when I added the liquids to it.  About 5 minutes of heating and whisking took care of that problem, though.  Then I carefully tempered the hot caramel mixture into the yolks.  Since the mixture was already quite warm, it didn’t take long at all to heat the custard to over 170F.  Once it was done, I strained the mixture into a bowl sitting in an ice bath and stirred to cool it down.  Once it was pretty cool, I put it in the fridge to chill completely before churning it into ice cream.

So, the verdict?  This ice cream is very good.  But my memory of the Thomas Keller ice cream is on a whole different level.  The flavor is similar (and I liked the vanilla bean addition), but the extra yolks give the TK ice cream an incredibly smooth texture.  The TK ice cream isn't something I’d make all the time, but it’s really worth it to go with the extra richness.  My girls aren’t as excited about caramel ice cream as Jamie and I are, so I dressed it up a bit for them.  Strawberries have been everywhere lately and I had some that really needed to be used, so I made a cooked strawberry sauce.  I was surprised at how tasty it was with the caramel—I didn’t expect the flavors to work that well together.

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe also turned out to be a great reminder that I've been meaning to write about another subject--my Adopt-a-Blogger buddy, Lindsay.  I've been meaning to introduce all of you to her and her blog.  Her blog is Scoop Adventures--yes, you guessed it, it's all about ice cream!  She includes recipes for ice cream (and other frozen desserts), as well as reviews of ice cream and places that serve it.  I asked her some questions so we can all get to know a little more about her:

How long have you been blogging and why did you decide to start?

I have been blogging since July 2009.  I decided to start my blog so I could share my thoughts and adventures related to ice cream.  Before I started the blog I had already visited many ice cream shops, so I wanted to share that experience with others.  Plus I was about to embark on the task of learning to use my new ice cream maker and making recipes, so why not write about it?

How did you decide on the theme for your blog?

I think I kind of described that above.  I love ice cream so that was easy.  There is also more info on my About Me page.

What are some of the blogs you like to read?

Oh, there are several!  I love the blogs with pretty food pictures and helpful tips.  Some of my favorites are listed on the side bar of my blog.  I really enjoy reading Tartlette, Running with Tweezers, Gluten-free Girl & the chef, use real butter, to name a few.  There are definitely more.

What is your favorite food and/or cuisine? (that you either like to eat or make)

Well the easy answer would be ice cream.  But I also enjoy many desserts, especially those featuring fresh fruit.  Other than dessert, I enjoy Asian flavors such as Thai and Indian cuisine.  My favorite dish of all time is probably my mom's lasagna.

What do you eat when you just can't decide what to make for dinner (or just don't have the energy for it)?

Usually spaghetti, or we order pizza.  My favorite quick meal, especially when my husband is out of town and I don't feel like cooking too much, is Mac & Cheese with tuna fish mixed in.  Sounds weird but its awesome!

What is your favorite kitchen gadget?

My zester.  Couldn't live without it.

What piece of kitchen equipment is at the top of your wishlist?  

Sounds silly, but a good candy thermometer...still don't have one.  Another item I'd like is a Foley Mill.  Nothing fancy. I'm fortunate to have a lot of kitchen gadgets already.

Who is your favorite cookbook author and/or favorite cookbook?

This is a tough question.  The cookbook I reference the most is Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.  Many of my recipes for ice cream as variations of his recipes.  He provides excellent inspiration.  My favorite "food" cookbook right now is Martha Stewart's Cooking School.

Share a couple of interesting non-blogging facts about yourself...

Blogging is not my full time job (but I'd like to keep that a secret).  I love to spend time with my husband and two cats, enjoying the warm weather in New Orleans.  I actually love everything about food and enjoy going out to eat and trying new things.  In my spare time, I run and bike...I always say that I run to eat. :)

For more information and some great ice cream recipes, head on over to Lindsay's blog!  For the Burnt Sugar Ice Cream recipe, check out Becky's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, check out this week's links.

Pantry raid

One of the reasons we picked the particular floor plan for our house was the kitchen.  After living in apartments for many years, I was incredibly excited at the prospect of having more than enough kitchen cabinets and a fantastic pantry area with plenty of shelves.  When we moved into the house, I had quite a bit of kitchen gear already, but was looking forward to actually having room for more.  Well, eight years later, I've done a pretty good job of filling things up. =)  In fact, my old cookbook shelf is now home to some of my more interesting to look at stuff (madeleine pans, tart pans, etc).  And thanks to blogging--and especially being part of groups that challenge my skills and get me to bake new things)--these days my pantry is also filled to overflowing. 

Bread baking alone has dramatically increased the variety of flours and grains that I keep on hand.  All-purpose, bread, whole wheat, white whole wheat, rye, semolina, oats, cornmeal...the list goes on.  And then there are the various sugars and other sweeteners.  Don't even get me started on the chocolate!  Then there's the category that really came in handy this week--I have quite a variety of dried fruit.  I never would have guessed that I'd use it so much in baking all sorts of things, and the girls love to eat it, too.  The reason the fruit was so good to have on hand is that this week's recipe (chosen by Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet) is Chockablock Cookies.  As you might guess from the name, these cookies have all sorts of great stuff mixed in.  No problem at all for someone with a well-stocked pantry. =)

I did make a few changes this week, both with the method and the ingredients.  I took the easy route in making these cookies, and did the mixing by hand with a wooden spoon.  That's my favorite method for mixing up cookies, especially drop cookies.  As any long-time reader of my blog could predict, the first thing I ditched from the recipe was the coconut.  It's not allowed in my house, except under extremely special circumstances. =)  I also decided to leave the nuts out, since I knew Brianna and Gillian would be more likely to eat the cookies without them.  I don't mind nuts in some things, but wasn't in the mood for them, either.  I decided to go for a variety of dried fruit, thanks to the abundant supply in the pantry.  I used half a cup each of chopped dried mango, dried cranberries, and chopped prunes.  Yes, prunes.  My kids love them (to the point where I really have to make sure they don't eat too many, as that would have unfortunate consequences), and thanks to Dorie, I've discovered that they're great with chocolate.  I know a lot of people substituted for the molasses, but I like it, so I kept it, using the mild stuff.  I also used all butter, rather than a mix of butter and shortening.  After mixing up the dough, I used my #40 disher to portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  I ended up with a total of 40 cookies, and baked them for 16 minutes.

The verdict?  Pretty good.  There are a few more things I'll change if I make these again, but they were good.  I like molasses, but it seemed like these needed something more.  I don't like cinnamon with chocolate, but I think I'll add some ground ginger next time, since it pairs well with the molasses.  Along those same lines, I think some chopped crystallized ginger would be a good addition, too.  B liked the cookies, but isn't a big fan of the cranberries, so I'll probably leave those out.  The mango was great, and I like it with the chocolate.  It was hard to detect the prunes, but I'd probably leave them in, especially since my kids are big fans.  All in all, a fun cookie to play around with some more.

If you'd like to try these for yourself, I highly recommend getting your own copy of the book.  For this particular recipe, you also find it over at Mary's blog.  And be sure to check out what everyone else did this week, here.  

And one to grow on

I love birthdays.  It doesn't matter if it's mine or someone else's.  I love presents, and special dinners, and cake, of course.  My birthday and Jamie's are exactly 7 weeks apart (okay, except for leap years, when there's that extra day in there).  I'm the older one.  Most of the time that's no big deal, unless it's a birthday of some significance.  Like next year will be--we turn 40 next year.  And if the last major milestone was any indication, I'd better start looking for obnoxious birthday cards now.  Because the year we turned 30, Jamie got to all the good cards before I did.  Yes, cards.  Like, 3 or 4 of them.  I had to work much, much harder to find something appropriate to respond with. =)  This year, the only real significance that I noticed with the difference in our ages was the census.  As I was filling out the form, it said to put ages as if the form was filled out on April 1st.  That means that for official purposes, I am 39, while Jamie got to be 38.  That hardly seems fair, does it?

But I decided to be nice and make some yummy birthday cupcakes for him anyway.  =P  I can't get away with making cupcakes for Gillian or Brianna most of the time.  They want an actual cake.  (Okay, now that I think about it, I ended up making cake and cupcakes for Brianna, one for home, the other for school.)  But Jamie seems to be okay with cupcakes, or at least he's never told me that he isn't.  As I've mentioned before, everyone in this house likes chocolate cake with chocolate frosting the best, except for me.  So I had at least some idea of what I would be making.  The question was whether I'd be using recipes I'd made before, or something new.

As I was standing in the checkout line at Central Market the Friday night before Jamie's birthday, I looked over the cooking magazines as I usually do.  (They have a really great selection.)  The new Cooks Illustrated caught my eye.  One of the recipes mentioned on the cover was Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes.  That sounded perfect.  I picked up the magazine and skimmed the article.  Chocolate cupcake, with ganache filling baked in, and chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream on top.  Wow.  More than perfect.  Keeping my fingers crossed, I put the magazine back, and reminded myself to check the mail when we got home.  Sure enough, my copy of the magazine was waiting for me in the mailbox.  

There were a few expected things in the recipe, and a few unexpected ones.  As is often the case with chocolate, coffee is added to enhance the flavor.  There actually isn't any dairy in the batter itself.  The butter is replaced with oil (plus there's fat from the chocolate).  Since coffee is the liquid rather than buttermilk, a little vinegar is added to react with the baking soda for leavening.  And the flour used is bread flour, to help strengthen things so you don't end up with crumbs everywhere when eating the cupcakes.  To add more chocolate flavor (in case bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder aren't enough), ganache is dolloped on top of the batter before baking.  It then sinks, to make a creamy chocolate center for the cupcakes.  Finally, there's the amazing frosting.  I love Swiss meringue buttercream, but have never made a chocolate version. 

The verdict?  Wow.  These are some wonderful cupcakes.  As promised, the cake is not too crumbly.  And the frosting is amazing.  The only thing that needs some work is the filling.  While it was quite tasty, it sank almost to the bottom of the cupcakes.  I'll have to play around and see if I can do anything about that.  We will definitely be having these again!  The birthday boy enjoyed them a lot, as did the girls.  If you'd like to try them for yourself, I definitely recommend picking up a copy of the magazine.  It's the May/June issue of Cooks Illustrated, which should be available for a while yet.  You can also get access to that recipe and many more by subscribing to their website.  And for some other great recipes from magazines, check out Ivonne's blog for Magazine Mondays.  

Tasty cake

Quick post this time (as quick as mine ever are), since I'm already posting this incredibly late.  I was very excited that one of my favorite food bloggers and Twitter friends got to pick our Tuesdays with Dorie recipe last week.  Nancy has two wonderful blogs, one devoted to yeasted creations and the other a wonderful collection of sweet and savory dishes.  She's a woman after my own heart, posting her recipe notes and often figuring out the math to fit a recipe to the pan(s) she wants to use. =)  And I've been fortunate enough to bake along with her on quite a few occasions, with recipes from all sorts of different sources.

For this week's TWD pick, she selected a wonderfully easy and tasty cake for  us to make, Swedish Visiting Cake.  As Dorie indicates in the recipe notes, this one is quick to mix up and bake.  That's good, because I decided to tackle it before work one morning last week.  I'm happy to say that it was indeed quick and easy.  Part of the reason I was baking early in the morning was because I wanted to take some of the cake to someone who was nice enough to do a favor for me.  So I decided to make the full recipe, but split the batter between my two 6" round pans.  That way I would have one to give away and the other for us to taste.  I greased my pans with baking spray, and thought about lining them with parchment, but decided to go with out it.

Mixing the batter reminded me a bit of the French Yogurt Cake (before I played around with it).  First you rub lemon zest into sugar, which smells wonderful. =)  Then you whisk in the eggs, flavorings and salt.  (I stuck with just the vanilla extract, since I don't like almond extract very much.)  Then you stir in the flour, and at the end you fold in melted butter.  Once in the pan, the batter gets topped with sliced almonds and a sprinkling of sugar (I used coarse decorating sugar).  My cakes only needed 20 minutes to bake.  After letting the cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, I was able to carefully turn them out onto a couple of plates to cool.  (I really need to get some more disposable plates for when I'm giving stuff away--the only ones I have are pink or Princess.)  When I got home from work that night, I decided to dress up the cake that I kept with a bit more lemon.  I made a glaze with some juice from the lemon I zested, plus some powdered sugar.

The verdict?  This cake was very tasty.  Great for sharing, whether with people coming over or if you're the one doing the visiting.  For the cake that I gave away, I don't know what the recipient thought of it.  I ate the other one over the course of several days.  No one else actually got to sample it.  Oops.  =)  It's excellent with tea.  I'll definitely be making this one again.  I think it would be fun to try different types of zest for flavoring, or add some sort of fruit.  

If you'd like to try this one for yourself, head on over to Nancy's blog.  She has the recipe as well as some great process pictures.  And be sure to see what the other TWD bakers thought of this one!