This month I decided to do something I’d been wanting to do for a few months now…join the Daring Bakers! If you’re not familiar, the Daring Bakers are an ever-expanding group of bloggers who pick a recipe each month for everyone to make and write about. The main attraction for me is that the monthly recipes are not contests but challenges, and there is a great community for help and inspiration. Everyone makes the same recipe as written, and the only deviations allowed are specified by that month’s host. This may sounds restrictive, but it’s actually extremely interesting to see the differences and personalizations that pop up. From professionals to amateurs, there is a wealth of creativity out there!

This month’s recipe and my first challenge was chosen by Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups. She picked Tender Potato Bread, from the book Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour & Tradition Around the World, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. This was indeed a challenge for me, as I have very little experience baking yeast breads. I’ve only done so a couple of times in the past (apart from pizza dough, which I make regularly), and those tries…well, they left something to be desired. Some of the rules for this challenge were that it had to be kneaded by hand, and the result had to be savory, but the final shaping and topping options were up to us. This left plenty of room for variation, but since I was already a bit apprehensive about the bread-making process, I kept things fairly conservative.

I followed the recipe carefully, and used about 5 cups of flour (the maximum was 8 1/2) and about 12 oz of potato (max for this was 16oz). I then divided the whole yeasty bundle into a foccacia and 11 rolls, topping the foccacia with chopped fresh rosemary, sliced olives, and a small amount of black Hawaiian sea salt. In retrospect, it probably didn’t need the extra salt, but it was still pretty tasty.

As an aside, I think Santa might be bringing me something to help my losing fight against the shifting of the Earth and frantic attempts to coax November light.

For the rolls, I experimented a little with different shapes: spirals (or cinnamon-roll shape), S-shapes, and knots (not pictured). Some I left plain and others were topped with shredded Gruyère. The Gruyère ones got eaten first.

I’m pleased to say that everything turned out pretty well. Although it was somewhat chewier than other potato breads I’ve had, there were some nice, small holes in the crumb and the crust was pleasantly crisp, especially after being toasted the next day. I might have done the rolls on a baking sheet instead of the baking stone, as the bottoms of some of them were on the verge of being a bit too crisp. Still, I can make bread! And boy, hot bread fresh from the oven…soooo good.

I am totally looking forward to next month’s challenge.

The recipe for this is a bit long, so I’ve moved it to after the jump.

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Baking, Daring Bakers | 30 Comments »

I made this tart as part of the Thanksgiving spread. Its main attraction is Pierre Hermé’s famous Lemon Cream, a sumptuous concoction that is quite unlike a regular pastry cream or lemon curd. Its secret, I think, must be the truly wicked amount of butter in the recipe. The cream is perfect for lemon lovers, with a smooth and velvety texture infused with powerful lemon flavor. The lemon gets even stronger overnight, so it’s excellent to make ahead.

I spooned it into a pistachio crust that was based on the one used for Alice Medrich’s Warm Mocha Tart. I chose this one because we were making three dishes to bring for Thanksgiving and didn’t have the time (or counter space) to chill and roll dough. Any simple pâte brisée in a 9-inch tart pan would be fine. Inspired by Tartelette, I topped the tart with chopped crystallized ginger, which adds a subtle spicy kick.

As mentioned above, the cream has a somewhat frightening amount of butter added; so frightful in fact that I impetuously cut it down a smidge just for fear of what wickedness would be wrought on my butt and thighs. I’m glad of this, actually, since the result is just on the edge of my butter limit, but so deliciously rich and lemony that one quickly ceases to care about how naughty it is.

Here’s the tart recipe, as I made it.

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Baking | 7 Comments »

What a wonderful Thanksgiving it was this year. In fact, it was probably the best Thanksgiving I’ve had in recent memory, and I’m pretty sure it was because of two orthodox details that happened to be missing this time around. First, it was all vegetarian and thus no turkey, second, the dinner was spent with friends rather than family. I can’t thank our wonderful hosts enough, who were so gracious and made terrific food, and also the lovely friend who invited us.

Although I’ve had some fantastic post-Thanksgiving dinners with friends, turkey, and all the fixings, I’m usually obliged to spend Thanksgiving Day itself with family. However, as my family is quite small, it seems a bit overkill to go into a cooking frenzy (especially since I’m the only one who likes to cook), so we go out to eat, which to me seems most un-Thanksgivingy. And let me tell you, even supposedly reputable restaurants can serve a pretty horrible interpretation of Thanksgiving dinner. Needless to say, I was tickled pink to have another option this year (which involved some careful strategizing to please the family, mind).

First things first: vegetarian Thanksgiving isn’t all about Tofurkey, believe it or not. There was nary a meat substitute in sight; instead, everyone contributed to an amazing array of dishes, which spanned the unconventional (hominy stew, nut loaf, homemade samosas, roasted beets and red carrots) to the deliciously traditional (stuffing, mashed potatoes, and a shocking magenta cranberry sauce). In fact, there was more food than I recall seeing at Thanksgivings of any kind. To top it off, we even got to take home leftovers. I’m still swimming in food heaven.

Of course, I couldn’t help myself but go a bit manic and bring not one, but three dishes along, which thankfully wasn’t interpreted as overbearing by our hosts. :) So to log this year’s contributions, and also since we’re too exhausted to do a post-Thanksgiving this year, what follows are a few short words and some quickly-snapped pictures of the dishes we brought.

First was a savory Mushroom and Onion Tart. I used purchased puff pastry for this, and next time I may bake the pastry first rather than with the topping on (or perhaps just use less topping, or use a thicker crust), because the middle slices were a bit too soft to hold easily in the hand. It’s a mixture of caramelized onions, sautéed oyster and shiitake mushrooms with fresh thyme, topped with a few sliced kalamatas and some shredded Gruyère.

The other things were brought were, of course, desserts. Tiramisù is a nice crowd-pleaser, and my mad scientist makes a wonderful one. Along with all the typical ingredients, like savoiardi, mascarpone, and good-quality espresso, he uses a special Portuguese twist (which you can probably guess). The recipe is from a highly amusing and talented friend, Dushyanth.

As one dessert just didn’t seem like enough to my sugar-obsessed brain, I made a Lemon Cream Tart, using Pierre Hermé’s ultra-decadent Lemon Cream recipe. I did cut down the butter only slightly, and frankly am glad to have done so, as more would have been way over the top. The cream is supremely luxurious and rich, but I couldn’t resist adding some chopped crystallized ginger to gild the lily. I’ll post the full recipe for this tomorrow.

General | 2 Comments »

When all else fails, roast some vegetables. I’m only halfway joking. Since this past week has been so busy with work, not to mention preparation for holidays and visitors, the thought of dirtying up a bunch of pans to make myself dinner is the last thing I want to do. At least it’s easy to throw some vegetables in the oven, ignore them for a while, and come back to something pretty darn tasty.

As I’m staring at this photo of those selfsame vegetables, though, it seems to me that the parsnips look a little like bananas due to the color they acquired after being roasted. I now kind of want to make something that involves roasted sweet potatoes, bananas, with maybe some cream and crunchy demerara sugar. I can’t seem to do anything without thinking of sweets, can I? This dish is decidedly healthy, though, and although the title is a bit long-winded, it’s a fine thing to put together when you’re short on patience (who, me? never!). It also doubles as a dish that’s as worthy of serving to guests as it is for lazy cooking nights. The bright flavor of orange pairs so well with rosemary, and also highlights the subtle sweetness of the parsnips. Toasted hazelnuts on top add a lovely crunch for some textural interest. For any last-minute planners, this would even make a nice addition to a holiday spread; just double the quantities for a large group. As is, the recipe will feed 3 to 4 people as a side dish.

Orange and Rosemary-Roasted Parsnips and Sweet Potatoes

1 lb parsnips, peeled and sliced into rounds
1 lb sweet potatoes (aka yams, e.g. jewel yams), peeled and chopped into cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped
grated zest of 1 small orange
1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup chopped blanched hazelnuts
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450ºF.
Spread chopped hazelnuts in a pan and toast for 5 minutes or until fragrant and a shade darker in color. Set aside.
Toss parsnips, yams, orange juice, orange zest, olive oil, rosemary, salt, and peppper together in a bowl, then spoon into a small baking dish. Dot butter pieces evenly over vegetable mixture. Cover loosely with foil and roast for 10-15 minutes minutes or until vegetables are slightly tender. Remove foil and roast until completely tender, about 15 minutes more. Remove from oven and sprinkle with toasted hazelnuts.

Salads & Sides | 2 Comments »

I have a deep affection for just about any food that contains cornmeal. A cornmeal affection affliction that takes the form of corn bread, corn muffins, polenta, Indian pudding, cornmeal biscotti…you name it. But until last weekend, I hadn’t yet tried cornmeal scones. Luckily for me, Nick Malgieri also loves all things corny, and there’s a recipe for Lemon Cornmeal Scones on his website that I’d been eying for a long time. I finally made them yesterday.

One thing about these scones…they are not like the ones you might find at chain coffee shops; they are small, more crumbly than cakey, and not too sweet. Due to the cornmeal, they are also slightly drier than classic flour-and-cream scones, which makes them excellent for dunking. I’ve mentioned before that I prefer my breakfast and tea foods to be pretty low in sugar, and thus don’t take offense at the mild amount of sweetness in these. For those who prefer more cookie- or cake-like scones (putting aside arguments about scone authenticity), these might not be indulgent enough, but you could try making Apricot Cream Scones, which are sweeter but not overpoweringly so.

I found these scones to be pretty good, and were especially lovely when spread with a little honey, but I was a bit regretful that there wasn’t a stronger lemon flavor. It’s there, just in a pretty subtle way. I even used the zest of a whole lemon, but maybe I should have used lemon juice, too. To be fair, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. It originally called for adding dried tart cherries, but I omitted these since I was saving my cherries for another recipe. I realize now that this was probably a mistake; they have a fairly significant role as it seems the lemon is supposed to be a supporting flavor for the cherries rather than the other way around. So yes, us recipe-fiddlers do learn our lessons sometimes!

Cherries aren’t the only option, though. If you find them prohibitively expensive ($9 a pound for me, and that’s at the cheap place), other dried fruits such as apricots or cranberries are great alternatives, or even try adding some savory herbs like rosemary or thyme. I’ve printed the recipe with the original quantity of dried fruit, with my changes of more lemon and the option of brushing egg over the tops of the scones, which gives them a nice shine.

Lemon Cornmeal Scones with Dried Fruit
Adapted from Nick Malgieri

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal (medium grind, if there is a choice)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup dried tart cherries or other fruit (e.g., cranberries, chopped apricots)
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
finely grated zest from 1 medium lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg, beaten (optional)
sanding sugar for dusting (optional)

Preheat oven to 450°F and set a rack in the middle level.
Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
With a pastry cutter or two knives, cut butter into 12 pieces and rub evenly into dry ingredients, until mixture has the appearance of coarse cornmeal. Add dried fruit.

Whisk egg, milk, zest and vanilla together and stir into flour and butter mixture with a fork, to form a smooth dough. Divide the dough into 3 pieces and form each piece into a 5-inch disk. Using a sharp, floured knife, divide each disk into four wedges. Place on pan, leaving 2 inches between scones on all sides. Brush tops of scones lightly with egg and dust with sugar.

Bake scones at 450°F until they are firm, but not dry, about 10 to 15 minutes. Watch closely to be sure they do not color too deeply.

Baking | 2 Comments »

Ok, so I did not end up entering the pie contest. But my reason for not doing so wasn’t because of shyness, or even grumpiness….it was that wretched devil that is time. I talked about this with a friend and we both wondered whose idea it was to have the contest on a Saturday morning. I for one think Sunday would have been a better choice, since honestly, how many people have the time or inclination to bake on a Friday night? I had plans that night, and there just wasn’t an opportunity earlier in the week to get good-quality apples. Oh well. I hear it was a pretty good festival, so I’ll likely sign up next year, doing my best to plan ahead (yeah, yeah, laugh away…).

Meanwhile, here’s a short interlude of some strange food findings, shot on location thanks to that glorious gadget that is the iPhone. First, talking about not having time…I present to you an example of American convenience gone too far:

I found this at my local Whole Foods, right by the eggs in cartons which you could hard-boil yourself in ten minutes. I mean, how freaking lazy and/or strapped for time has our culture gotten? I certainly don’t always have time to cook either, but sheesh.

Next is a Russian snack that my partner in crime found at a shop in Brighton Beach. This one rather speaks for itself, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s the sad fate of all those poor unclaimed fish that are offered as carnival pets.

Regular programming will resume tomorrow. It’s been a wacky weekend.

General | 3 Comments »