Bread Heals All Wounds

Sat, 01/23/10
Bread (ahem...Cupcake) Pudding
from Lizzie May

Hoorah!

After posting my last entry about the doomed cupcakes, I received many suggestions from loving friends and family about what to do with the charred remains, including: cake pops, rum balls, and the practical advice, "just swipe them in frosting and chow down!" (thanks, Stacy.) I finally settled on Lizzie's bread pudding recipe, with adjustments made for sweetened cupcakes.

This recipe was about as foolproof as they come: 4 eggs (plus a yolk), a 1-1/2 cup mixture of milk and half & half, 1 tsp vanilla, a smidge of cinnamon, and... Voila!


Aaahhh...


All Better!

Lizzie also mentioned raisins, but I didn't have anything special to soak them in (i.e. rum), so I left them out, but I think even just plain raisins would have been a good addition. But this bare-bones version turned out fine, as is. Yummy eggy goodness.

Next up on the Bread Train is...

Sun, 01/24/10
Sourdough Baguettes
from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen by Peter Berley

This was my first attempt at really kneading dough... Until now, I've baked lots of loaves of yummy, crusty, rustic bread, but only using "no-knead" methods, all derived from New York Times' No-Knead Bread.

Those loaves have all been good, some better than others, and recently very good, after using the techniques described in Cooks Illustrated's "Almost No-Knead Bread" recipe.

However, I was up for a challenge, and I figured old-fashioned bread kneading would be the ideal next step in my bread-baking journey.

(Also, I had just acquired some prime kitchen loot: a SuperPeel and a heavy duty FibraMent baking stone. These items nicely took the place of the cast iron pot I had used for baking all my no-knead bread.)

Anyway, so I followed the instructions for a series of kneading, resting and rising: methods gathered from not only this Peter Berley recipe, but also Julia Child's bread-baking French Chef video "The Good Loaf", and step-by-step pictures in her cookbook The Way to Cook.

The process was labor intensive and time-consuming, but very fun—something I'll likely try out next weekend.

Here are the end results:


Talk about rewarding!

The bread was made from my sourdough starter, and it tasted wonderful. Also, thanks to steam created from tossing water into a hot pan on the oven floor, the crust of the bread turned out just as lovely as my no-knead loaves (which acquire their steam from the tightly-lidded cast iron dutch oven):





Yum, yum, yum.

Well, like I said, I'll be practicing this recipe many more times... Maybe I can turn it into pizza sometime, too!

Stay tuned for more crusty, doughy goodness.

1-2-3-4—FAIL.

(Failed Attempt No. 1): Tue, 01/19/10
1-2-3-4 Cake
from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

Well, this sucks.

Here we have the dried up remains of what could have been tonight's completely gorgeous cupcakes:


(Sorry, eggs; sorry, butter.)

Everything was going PERFECTLY— I was all set to make Alice's 1-2-3-4 cake into cupcakes for a coworker's birthday, and the batter was beautifully formed—right down to my first soft-peaked egg whites— but then an evil moron twin dug her way into my head and forced me to:

a. not grease the inside of the cupcake liners, and
b. completely crowd the oven.

I'll name my twin Tracey. WHY did Tracey talk me into setting both tins into the oven: not only at once, which I guess was probably not a great idea, but on the same rack?? Tracey, you're SO STUPID!!

After 9 minutes, I smelled burning. ("It's nothing!" Tracey reassured me.) And after 17 minutes, all was lost: all 24 cupcakes had turned black and smokey.

Here are the survivors:




So now I think I know what to avoid next time. Until then, I wonder if there's a recipe or some home-thrown dessert that can be made with the sad remains? Maybe something along the lines of a bread pudding? God, it sucks that I used up 2 whole sticks of butter for this sad mess.

Oh well—better luck next time. Tracey's staying out of the kitchen from here on out.

An Almond Cake

Sat, 01/16/10:
Almond Cake
from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

So here is my second cake ever baked... I used some new tools (2 aluminum 9-inch cake pans and those previously mentioned insulated cake strips), and unfortunately, the aesthetic results were only so-so: as the cake cooled in the pan, the layers started to shrink from the top of the pan, but stayed in place at the bottom, resulting in sloped, hard-to-stack sides... maybe my new tools need to be worn in a bit, kind of like a pancake griddle? Or it could be that I didn't soak the cake strips for long enough: I only remembered that they needed to be soaked at the very last minute, after the batter was all mixed up, so I gave them a kind of rushed soaking for about 5 minutes: I did notice they were sort of browned when I removed them after baking. Anyway, according to Mom, those cake strips are supposed to help layers stay even, so next time, I'll be sure to start soaking at the onset of ingredient prep. (but if there are any experienced bakers out there with advice on how to avoid "shrinking sides", please leave comments!)

The recipe suggested that the cake remain plain, and served with fresh fruit or whipped cream, but it also mentioned an alternative gussied-up look of apricot jam glaze. I tried that on and between the layers, and I think it looks nice. Another attempt to hide the messy layers was an adornment of blanched and toasted almonds. Amazing what a little symmetrical pattern can accomplish.


Waiting for James to come home so I can slice this and EAT it...



Finally!



(For the record, this was James' "favorite dessert yet!")


The cake really tasted fantastic! This is my second cake from Alice Waters' cookbook, and so far it seems that she really has a knack for keeping the texture extremely moist and fluffy. That chocolate cake from my birthday included buttermilk and an addition of hot water (the latter of which my mother found pretty unusual), but I think these two ingredients really helped to keep the cake moist for several days: its texture was excellent almost a week later. This cake had very few ingredients: sugar, butter, almond paste, 6 eggs, and flour (as well as baking powder), but they must be the right ingredients; the cake just melts in your mouth. Lovely!

I think next up is Alice's 1-2-3-4 cake, a recipe she includes in The Art of Simple Food for cake novices. The numbers refer to the ratio in ingredients: 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, 4 eggs. I'll wait a week for these calories to settle, but stay tuned!

Hey, Everyone else is doing it, so why can't...

Whoa. Just looked at the ticker there... and it's been about a year. hmm.

Well, Happy New Year, no time like the present, whatever.

Anyway. Been doing a lot of cooking and baking lately—around October, I even learned to make pie dough!—and after receiving a mess of new kitchen loot and cookbooks for Christmas, I got to thinking, how 'bout I start a foodie blog/journal?

(I mean, it's never been done before, right??)

So... recently, here are some things I've added to my kitchen repertoire:

Wed, 01/14/10
Kale and Potato Soup with Red Chili
from The Greens Cookbook by Deborah Madison

This is something I probably would pass up on any other night, but I had to figure out what to do with some week-old kale from my CSA box, and the cookbook index directed me here. Another thing in the recipe that was quite unusual for my cooking habits was the chili flakes: I'm sort of a wimp when it comes to spicy foods. But this soup was great! It took a long time to cook and for the flavors to marry, but the time spent, plus a little mashing of the potatoes helped thicken it up nicely, so it seemed much more creamy and fattening than it really was. And it also called for nutritional yeast(!), which I haven't seen listed in any cookbook besides my old Southern Standby, the Grit Cookbook. So there you go: nutritional yeast makes it out to the Bay Area. Whaddya know. Oh, and the soup was sort of spicy, but not so much that I couldn't handle it: it really livened up what could otherwise be a pretty bland-tasting soup.

okay, next:

Sun, 01/10/10
Tarte Tatin
from CooksIllustrated.com

I discovered this recipe long ago, but held off on making it until I could use the recommended 9-inch cast iron skillet to cook it in. After receiving said skillet for Christmas, I knew this would be a good christening dish. Okay... it was a bit more challenging than that...

I managed to burn the caramel a bit on the bottom (or top), and the apples were sort of sloppy and not quite as formed and glistening as I had hoped, and I spent quite awhile afterwards scrubbing the skillet that probably could have used a good seasoning prior to any cooking. But still.. you can't really go wrong with sugar and apples and butter... so not a bad first try, all in all.

My first inspiration for Tarte Tatin was Julia Child, of course: I've been watching her French Chef videos on Netflix, and I love that she totally screwed this one up, too: in the video, she ends up with a pretty sad-looking tart after using "obviously mislabeled" apples... oh well: like she said, no matter what it looks like, it still tastes good!

Speaking of Ms. Child, James gave me two of her cookbooks for Christmas, Baking with Julia and The Way to Cook. Both of these books are splendid, and the first recipe I tried from the latter was:

Sun, 01/10/10
Leeks au Gratin

Whoa! Talk about rich... this was pretty intense. The recipe called for her "master recipe" of Cheese (Mornay) Sauce, by way of Béchamel Sauce, which was an extremely thick mixture of

• 2-1/2 Tbs butter
• 3-1/2 Tbs flour
• 2 cups hot milk
• 1/2 tsp salt and several grinds of white pepper

I added this mixture to braised leeks and some Gruyère cheese, and ended up with a very, very rich casserole: which would probably be a much better side dish than a main dish. On very special occasions. Thoughts for next time: this is not a main dish, you'll be full after two bites, and don't overcook the leeks. Live and learn.

Back to desserts:

A few weeks ago I went back to Georgia for the holidays, and to celebrate my 30th birthday, I baked my very first...

Sun, 12/27/09
Chocolate Cake (!)
from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

My mom was in the kitchen with me for maternal guidance, handy tips, and moral support, but I pretty much did it all by myself, and the results were amazing. Good old Alice Waters!


Prep time with Mom: making Alice's buttercream frosting (pink, of course!), on perfectly-leveled layers (thanks to Mom's secret weapon: insulated cake strips)



The Candles



The wish...



The scrumptious Cross Section...



...and the Gourmet Magazine shot. Happy Birthday, indeed.

---

Okay, I think that's enough for tonight...

More to come soon.

Care and Use Instructions (or: "It Broke")

I recently received the stunning gift of a beautiful bright-green Le Creuset Cookware Set. I had baked my last loaves of No-Knead Bread with my Dad's older 7-qt Le Creuset dutch oven, so naturally I was eager to christen the Dutch oven in this new set with another batch of bread.

Well, last night I was reading the little booklet that came with my set, and noticed that the black phenolic knob on the lid was only oven-proof to 375 degrees. "Hmm..." I thought. "The NYT No-Knead Bread recipe is so popular, that surely many people have been able to use these pots at 450 degrees with no problems, and I've been able to use my older pot with no problems... so, eh, it'll be fine."

As you can probably guess... it was not fine. The knob was loose after taking the lid out of the oven 30 minutes later, and while nervously trying to screw it back on, the knob chipped right at the base, and I realized that my beautiful little brand-new pot was busted.

After several hours of panicking and fretting, a late night web search directed me to several wholesalers who sell Le Creuset pot knobs: not only the replacement black phenolic knobs, but hardcore, sure-thing, 100% heatproof stainless steel knobs, at just $10 a pop. Most dealers only sell one or the other, but I found this handy dealer who sells both: IraWoods.com. Here are the links for the Le Creuset Stainless Steel Knob and Large Phenolic Knob.

What really made me feel better during this web search was discovering that I wasn't the only dummy out there, stubbornly destroying her perfect cookware. It turns out that after the New York Times published the Mark Bittman No-Knead Bread recipe back in Nov. 2006, so many folks damaged their LC knobs that people took to stealing knobs from display models at department stores: see article Knob Heads: No Knead Bread Update.

So, the moral of this story is: when you receive a lovely and valuable gift, always read (and believe) the Care and Use Instructions, to ensure the gift stays lovely and valuable.

But don't feel so bad if you do mess up: a lot of people out there are just as stupid as you are, and are more than happy to blog about their mistakes.

Such a long time such a long time such a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time...

Well, it hasn't really been a lonely time, I just like that song.

But it HAS been a long time since I posted my last blog. EEK! I blame it all on Facebook.

Okay, so here's what I've been doing for the past 5 months:

1. Drawing!! I switched figure drawing classes a couple months ago, and am now studying with Michael Markowitz, an artist at the 23rd Street Art Gallery in Noe Valley. Here's my link to the Flickr page with some favorite pieces from both his class, and my previous class with Linda Corbett at Palo Alto's Pacific Art League: My Figure Drawing Set on Flickr

And here are my big faves:



9/23/08, 23rd St. Gallery, 1-hr pose; conté crayon, pastel, charcoal



10/06/08, 23rd St. Gallery, 2-min gesture; charcoal



10/06/08, 23rd St. Gallery, 7-min pose; charcoal



10/06/08, 23rd St. Gallery, 1-hr pose; pastel, conté crayon, charcoal


2. Reading: Mostly thanks to Caltrain, I've had my nose stuck in some pretty great books lately. My most recent amazing read is The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood. This book was my introduction to Atwood, and I am completely hooked. As soon as I was finished with Assassin, I went out and bought another Atwood novel, Alias Grace. After a somewhat slower start than Assassin, this one is proving to be just as engaging. Also on the "Recently Read" shelf: Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. Absolutely LOVED it. On the nonfiction side: Don't Get Too Comfortable, by David Rakoff and When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris. Both were very funny books from reliably hysterical writers.

3. Biking! Recently my boss at WPI set up a ride from Mill Valley to Mount Tam with the Obama-centric theme of "YES WE TAM!" This is the JPG of the email invitation he sent out to announce the ride:



Here's the album with pics from the ride on my Facebook Page: Yes we TAM! Bike Ride

By the way, while we're on the subject of Obama, let's all vote on Tuesday, mmkay?


4. Visiting my Family: James and I went to visit my sister this past weekend in Colorado Springs, and then took them all down for a roadtrip to celebrate my Grandpa Tom's 80th birthday in Albuquerque. Charity has the most adorable kids I've ever seen, and deserves a medal for raising them so well while her husband's been away for most of the last 5 years in Iraq. Here are Gibson, almost 9; Jonathan, 7; Conner, 4; and baby girl Sydney, 8 mo:

My Sister's Great Kids

That's about it. Also on this list would be: moving with James to a cute place in Belmont, listening to and watching the debates, becoming addicted to This American Life podcasts, getting deeply involved in the political goings-on of Getting More Bike Capacity on Caltrain, and, most recently, pumpkin carving:



I hope everyone else has been just swell. I promise I'll be back soon!

Where the Hell is Matt?

My Mom sent me this link, and she NEVER sends me forwards or links (or very rarely sends them, anyway), so I figured it had to be good. I was correct:


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Because I'm not made of wood, I was sitting there with tears rolling down my face by the end of it. Wasn't that good??