Bodacious Girl

It's the Great Pumpkin Scone Charlie Brown!

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:12:06 -0600

I. L O V E. Fall.

And for the past many years I have been without. No colors changing, no pumpkin patches, no caramel apples, no hay rides or hot apple cider and smores while snuggling around a roaring fire.

Is it any wonder I went completely crazy and escaped back to the Midwest?

Especially for me who absolutely LOVES HALLOWEEN. I had a good 5 boxes of Halloween decor that came with me to Chicago. Including a life size skeleton which would have sat next to me for the 30 hour drive had I not been lucky enough to procure a co-pilot in Albuquerque... (The labor there is so CHEAP!) Sigh, I do regret not slapping him behind the wheel just for photo's sake...

So September came and went and then here came October and suddenly something in me clicked. I ACTUALLY get to enjoy FALL! I get to bake with pumpkin and not die of heat exhaustion when the 375 degree oven makes my AC turn on in October... I get to enjoy FRESH APPLES! No such thing as fresh apples in AZ... Unless if by fresh you consider 3 week old grocery store pithy vile things. My carved pumpkin wont ROT within 3 days from the SUNS GAMMA RAYS of DEATH. No more MICROWAVE smores... Yay!

But really, bottom line? Pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin!

In the coming weeks we plan on buying some pie pumpkins so we can roast our own and make fresh puree, but till then, to satisfy my cravings, I went and bought myself that old standby can of Libby's pumpkin and baked up some Scary Chocolate Drizzle Pumpkin Scones.

I call them "Scary" because you can easily eat the whole batch... and because unbeknown to me, I bought the last can of pumpkin in the tri-state area due to a "pumpkin shortage".

Gasp!! The horror...

The goods:

1 1/2 C All purpose flour
1/2 C Cake flour
2 T sugar
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t allspice
1/4 t ginger
6 T butter
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 C pumpkin puree
1/3 C buttermilk
1/4 C maple syrup
1 t vanilla

The deal:

Preheat oven to 375°

Cut the butter into small pieces and chill out in freezer.

Cut the cream cheese into small cubes and chill in freezer with the butter. You want the cheese to be slightly frozen.

Mix together the pumpkin, buttermilk, syrup and vanilla until well blended and then also chill out in freezer. Of course as I am quickly learning, you could also just put it out onto your 32° window ledge if you happen to live in Chicago by the LAKE...

Now, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

Retrieve the butter and blend it into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or your fingers. This mixture should look like coarse crumbs.

Now do the same with the cream cheese, only less vigorously. You want to see the cream cheese chunks. Do not pulverize them.

Okay, add the buttermilk mixture to the flour and mix just until the dough comes together. Do not over mix. Remember. Want to see chunks of cheese... Cheese good.

Dump this mixture out onto a lightly floured surface, knead a few times to form a flat circle about 1.5" thick and 7"- 8" round. (I tried saying "form a disc" but I kept typing in dick dick dick and I am TRYING, to almost no avail, to keep this site family friendly... god dammit...)

Now cut this circle into 8 pie slices and place on a cookie sheet and put that cookie sheet on top of another sheet so that the bottoms of the scones do not burn and slide it all into your oven...

Bake at 375° for approx 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool. (As opposed to leaving in the oven to cool which, yea, doesn't work...)

The Chocolate ~~Crack~~ Glaze

While the scones are cooling pour 4 oz chocolate chips into a glass bowl. Heat 1/2 c of heavy whipping cream to a boil. Pour cream over the chocolate and slowly stir until blended. Add one T of butter and stir till smooth. Drizzle over scones.

Lick spoon.

Lick bowl.

Fall into sugar coma.

Bribe your friends and family into doing anything you want with the mere promise of one of these amazing scones.

Holy Crap it's ALIVE and well proofed...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:26:31 -0600

Yes yes, I am alive and kicking. Just been busy. I mean B U S Y. When I capitalize AND space the letters out like that I mean business. Doesn't mean I haven't been cooking or baking or eating or enjoying. It just means I have not been posting. Did you miss me at all my loyal ~~readers~~ reader? Maybe a smidgen? No? Eh. Truth me told you didn't miss much. I have a few back logged posts that I am saving up for another time, however today is a bring you up to date on the BBA post. That is, the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge. Yes. More bread. Are you excited or what? (Yes Dad I know you are, I meant the ~~readers~~ reader that doesn't feel obligated to read what I have to say...) I DO PROMISE that when I get my act together you will be the first to know. Heck you might even recognize it before I do.

Anyway, for sake of yeast product documentation... here is where we are:

We baked the French bread:

& the Italian bread, which we turned into bread sticks. They didn't stand a chance...

and they are posted in slightly more detail here. (NOTE: I helped BAKE but did not help POST so therefore cannot be held accountable for the lack of punctuation. You've been amply warned.)

Okay, so we skipped the Kaiser for now because we are just CRAZY like that...

And moved on to the Lavash. Which was an adventure in itself and the tom foolery can be found here as well.

And then, ha, get this. Someone actually left town to avoid baking the wheat breads with me. I mean seriously what gives? So hence, in my mini-kitchen I baked the Light Wheat:

And I baked the Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire. Which I guess was like the light wheat just with more... "crunch"??? I also can't for the freaking life of me find the damn photos I took of it and no I will NOT bake it again. So kids, let's all close our eyes and imagine that yummy multigrain bread with - like - rice and seeds and psudo cereal. Now slather some home made butter on it, yea yea that's right...

Um. Okayyy. That got weird. So, moving on. We also skipped the marbled rye. "We" meaning "I" because "I" was going to do this bread when someone fled the country to avoid baking with me, but lo and behold - NO ONE SELLS RYE FLOUR. Don't you look at me with those judging eyes and scream King Arthur Dot COM woman!, I wasn't going to place an order for just one type of flour. I looked in 5 different stores. It is like it didn't exist which forces me to ask - where is all this rye bread coming from if there is no rye flour?

Anyway, we moved on to Pain de Campagne & Pain a l'Ancienne. The Campagne we baked into baguette's and they tasted like mmm... bread.

And the a l'Ancienne we froze for impromptu pizza during the week, but I turned one lucky blob o' dough in this yummy apple focaccia:

Which I promptly ate. Alone. HA. Serves you right for abandoning me mid baking book...

But I digress. If you are interested in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge just click here to visit Nicole at Pinch My Salt and get the details. And if you decide to bake along with us I suggest you buy stock in King Arthur before you purchase any supplies, because you are going to spend your retirement in flour and yeast...

Lolla-Tabouleh!

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:14:16 -0600

The weekend after I moved into my MASSIVE apartment in Chicago, Lollapalooza came to town. A weekend of lewdness and drunkenness and bawdy lascivious women and I decide to leave for the weekend. NICE HUH? Who makes these plans for me?!? I had this massive kitchen in which to cook and create... and here I was leaving.

Yes, YOU DO remember what my kitchen looked like right?

Seriously - it is THAT small. That is a real penny. Was my change from laundry. The laundry room is bigger then my kitchen.

Actually it is bigger then my apartment. But I still lurve it.

I decided after I got back from my weekend (which, I may add contained some debauchery, some bread, a few beers... did I mention debauchery?) that I wasn't going to let such a small kitchen scare me into a life of carry out. I could still cook and boil and maybe even saute' in my lil kitchen. Ooh and maybe even bake! Oh yea, this winter mah teeny little apartment is so going to smell like fresh baked bread and cookies and cupcakes all season long and it is so going to RULE! (But it won't ever smell like cranberry walnut bread. I'm just saying...)

However tonight, I craved a nice & healthy light dinner for myself. Something tasty and satisfying, and not to heavy. So over carryout from Jimmy Johns - I retro-fitted my lil kitchen, and chopped my way into Tabouleh heaven.

In case you were wondering, tabouleh is a bulgur and parsley salad, that is not only yummy, but rather healthy as well. It fills you up and is chock full of fiber and antioxidents - it was just what I needed after the two beers I enjoyed with my #12 unwich.

Here are your required ingredients:

2 bunches of fresh parsley (1 1/2 cup chopped, with stems discarded)
(Traditionally curly parsley is used here, however I prefer flat leaf Italian.)
2 tablespoons of fresh mint, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1/3 cup bulgur
3 - 4 tablespoons lemon juice
3 - 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 t salt (to taste)
1/2 t pepper (to taste)
dash of cayenne (again... TO TASTE)
optional - left over cucumber (diced) from last nights peanut butter and cucumber pop tart swammich. (I so ROCK the eating for one adventure!)

First - soak the bulgur in cold water for 1 hour.

Drink a beer or 5 while waiting... then,

Chop the parsley:

(I propped my cutting board over my mini-stove top to make room for all the ingredients. It didn't quite work.)

Then chop the mint, the tomatoes, the onion, and you get where I am going here right? It is tabouleh - not bioengineering.

Toss all the chopped goodies with the drained bulgur. Top with the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Then add the cayenne and stir to incorporate. You can serve it immediately with pita or leaves of romaine, but I like to chill it for at least an hour. Mmm yum!

My kitchen is Tabouleh friendly! Yay! Next up little kitchen - ~~chateaubriond~~. ~~Chateaubreoind~~? Chateaubriand!! Ah screw it. Chocolate Chip Cookies!...

Be afraid.

Hello, it's me...

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:26:35 -0600

Did you miss me?

Wait... who am I even talking too?

Me: Hello?

Mr. Echo: Hello hello hello hello hellooooooooo...

Just as I suspected. Ghost town.

Not that I can blame you. I have been - well rather gone. Tho you should know I had good reason to be gone. Big changes happened for this bodacious girl - that even the MOST BODACIOUS of girls needs time to adjust to.

The most important being I am A CHICAGOAN again!!! insert applause

Second most important is I got my appetite back! insert more applause. It was getting almost impossible to write about ice water and potato chips. I mean there are only so many combo platters one can make with that. (13. There are 13 combo's you can make and no I am not going to reveal them.) The biggest bonus? I took applications for a baking buddy to help me back on the BBA track. The right candidate had a functioning Kitchen Aid, an amazing King Arthur flour supply, and a nice ass. Hey, a girl has to have her priorities.

Needless to say with the creation of this:

We are officially caught up. Ta da!

More news on the Chicago front. My blog features, layout, postings, etc... going to change. Things are different now, and not everything is relevant. Like grilling bread in the hot Arizona desert. Or What the hell am I going to do with all these damn lemons? No. They just don't work anymore. Look more for "Holy CRAP it's cold here in December!" and "How the hell does Heather cook anything in THIS???"

This. Is. My. Kitchen.

It has no dishwasher... Oh positive thoughts of joy and joyness...

Anyway, if you are still reading (insert cricket sound here) - watch for new fodder. More mid west gardening folly's, farmer's market pillages, keeping up and kicking back with the BBA and my oh so lucky assistant baker, and every other food related thing I can attend, enjoy, pursue, cook, create, dish out, raise or grow. And more... much much more...big changes. HUGEEEE! (No I don't know what yet... I have been drinking and it is 11:20 at night. Cut a girl a break huh?)

Okay. Thank you for indulging me and hopefully sticking around these past 45 days while I gallivanted across country to my new home.

You, my fellow ~~readers~~ reader, rock.

Wordless Wednesday - Farmer's Market Bounty

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:41:53 -0600

Bringing Your Kitchen Outdoors.Yes you CAN bake on a grill.

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:52:27 -0600

Yes my fellow ~~readers~~ reader. I baked on my grill this past week. No. Not a cake. Bread. A beautiful loaf of casatiello bread. And while the daytime temperatures hit 105. My kitchen inside stayed cool. See when I decided to take on the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge, it was spring. My morning’s were a brisk 50° and I could leave my doors and windows open without a care.

But now day time temperature are hitting about 187° and the electric bill will put me in the poor house. The thought of heating up my kitchen with a 350° oven so that my AC has to crank even harder seems like a no win. Besides, those little hamsters are working their little legs off to keep that AC running and I think they are about ready to form a union. So with a little help from my friend over at Bucky’s Barbecue & Bread, I turned my grill into an oven. And out popped this beauty.

It was easier then I would have thought, but I did learn a few thing that makes baking on the grill much different then in an oven. But first the prep. After preparing the loaf and rolls for the casatiello, I placed them on a baking stone dusted with corn meal.

Then prepared the grill.

I lit the grill, which is three burners, and then turned off the center burner leaving only the outside ones going. Then took another baking stone and centered it on the grill.

Placed 4 tuna cans on the outside “corners” of the stone. Yes I know circles do not have corners, just work with me will ya?! Nit picker…

Close grill and wait until you have reached 350°. You have to leave the grill at 350° for about 5 - 10 minutes before putting the bread on to make sure you can maintain your baking temperature. The Temperature will go down when you open the grill to put the bread on, but will easily climb right back to where you need it to be.

Then I put the bread which is already on the other stone, on the grill, using the 4 cans to keep it elevated. This is done so that the stone is not directly on the fire. Fire bad.

Monitor the temperature and do not open grill until you are at least half way through your baking. Because? Hello, as we already discussed, opening any grill releases heat. Pay attention! Baking time was about 10 minutes shorter then the recipe called for. The rolls came out at the half way mark. With the exception of some over browning on the sides, the bread was perfect!

Next bread is challah. On the grill should prove to be interesting. I have, however, to make a few minor adjustments based on some observations.

The temperature could probably stand to be about 5-10 degrees less then is actually called for. This theory will be tested on the guinia challah.
Usually a baking stone should be brought to temperature prior to placing what you are baking on it. I kinda forgot that with the casatiello. It seemed to actually be a better option, as I am pretty sure a pre-heated stone would have over baked the bread.
Over browning on the sides of the bread was due to the flames not being covered on the sides. Covering the whole grill with baking stones should stop that. I think foil on the grill over the outside burners would also inhibit that from happeneing. More cost effective as well since 2 more stones would be about 40 bucks. That is a lot of dough.

Get it? Dough? HA HA HA! I slay me.

Will report back on my findings soon. But baking on the grill was NOT a fail but a success. My house stayed nice and cool and the hamsters love me again.

Building a Better ButterButter Making 101

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:50:50 -0600

Yesterday I casually tweeted that I was making butter for the next bread in the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge - the brioche. I received a flurry of responses.

"Making butter like shaking the hell out of cream?"

"Making your own butter - how decadent".

"Do you have a butter mill?"

Ha ha no, I do not have a butter mill. I didn't grow up on a farm. One day years and years ago when I was a child, my dad was making fresh whipped cream for pumpkin pie. I asked him, how do you make cool whip from milk. He laughed and said "First off, this is cream you silly child and second, not only can you make the best and freshest whipped cream ever from it, you can also make butter." It was like he told me I could take over the world...

With the right butter, you can.

First we start with the right heavy cream. The best possible cream to use is non-ultra pasteurized, high butterfat content (36-40%), organic, and from pastured cows. Just pure cream.

Mmm cream...

For sake of this recipe we are starting with 2 cups cold cream. This will yield 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of buttermilk.

We are also using the ever faithful Kitchen Aid with whisk attachment.

Pour cream into your bowl and turn on your KA. A nice slow speed is good here, say a 2.

First the cream with thicken slightly. See how it coats the whisk?

Then it will become whipped cream...Or if you aren't paying attention like I was, broken whipped cream...

But it's OK! We're not making whipped cream. Our goal is butter. Put down the sugar and Kahlua and pay attention. Turn off your KA to avoid injury and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Turn that Kitchen Aid back on and watch the magick happen...

Whoop there is is!

Now, let the buttermilk drain from the butter. And please for all that is sacred in this world. DO NOT just throw away the buttermilk. Make pancakes! Make biscuits! Chicken! Drink it! It's amazing...

Look at those beautiful golden curds of butter.

Almost done, we still need to rinse the butter to remove any trace of buttermilk. I do a simple cold water bath while squeezing the butter. It will start out like this:

And when it is thoroughly rinsed, should look like this:

At this point you can wrap it in cheese cloth and squeeze out the excess water, or just allow it to strain off. I do the latter.

Now is the time you can add herbs or salt or sugar or honey or whatever to flavor your butter. I leave it as is mostly. But then again I make butter weekly... However, I do have a ton of different butter recipes to share. Soon. Or if you are DYING for one now, email or tweet me and I will set you up. I have so many yummmmy recipes...

Ahem, to finish. I take the butter and press it into a jar.

Press it down real good so that you push out any air pockets between the butter pieces or at the bottom of the jar. Top with cold water.

Store in the refrigerator for up to one week. Every time you need butter, simply pour off the water, take what you need and top with fresh, cold water before covering and returning to the refrigerator. This has the same effect as a butter bell.

That's it. Yep! It is THAT easy. You can even get some cool silicone ice trays and use them as individual butter molds. Wow your friends! Impress your family! Confuse your enemies!

With home made butter - you can take over the world.

3 days, 2 sponges, a bottle of Tequila RoseAnd all I got was this lousy bagel

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:09:32 -0600

Lousy? Hardly. Mmm bagels.

As you may have already read, my bagels were put on hold due to a little ~~binge drinking~~ friendly gathering. The rest of the BBA is already going into brioche week... or wait is it casatiello? Whatever, I am still slaving over bagels. But oh - they are my absolute favorite. So far. So much bread so little time. How can something that tastes so damn good be so bad for your belly. Who cares. I look forward to every little bit of it.

I, however, unlike most of my Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge friends have learned to bake for 2. I halve most recipes. If I made 24 bagels I would try and eat each and every one. It would be ugly. Very very ugly. I cut the recipe right in half and lo and behold - I didn't have to hand knead. Hint Hint to my single bakers out there.

I baked a inept baker's dozen. (11 bagels) And I couldn't decide what kind to make so I made a slew of different ones. 2 sesame, 2 super seeded, 2 plain, 2 cinnamon sugared, 2 mozzarella and sun dried tomato, and one cheddar jalapeno for my baker friend in Indiana... but I ate it before I could send it. I think they may have over proofed or were to smart to retard in the fridge or something happened because once done, they were the size of my hand. I have big hands...

I of course enjoyed my favorite of the group, the sesame bagel, with some chive and onion cream cheese. The best thing about these bagels other then the taste was the texture. Because I am sure I did something wrong, I do not know if this was the desired effect, but the crusty outside was just that, chewy and crusty, especially after I toasted that big ole' bagel and sent myself into carb paradise mere minutes after they came out of the oven.

I do wish I took photos while I was doing the sponge and the kneading and the shaping and the retarding (which wasn't overnight... shhhh) and the boiling and the baking. But the chances of an ever so slightly ~~hung over~~ under the weather baker's apprentice wielding her camera while the Kitchen Aid whirled and flour kinda exploded out of the bowl and she ended up looking like she was being prepped to be dipped in beer batter - not so good. Not. So. Good. But they look good don't they? They don't look like the bagels of an abusive alcoholic mother.

I think not.

If you my ~~readers~~ reader would like to join me on this baking adventure, pick up The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge by Peter Reinhart and get baking. Be prepared to wear more flour then you use...

It's a Brat Showdown, a Brat Off, A Brat-o-Thon if you will...

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:07:08 -0600

Hello Tuesday.

You snuck up on me and I don’t quite appreciate it. Seems like just yesterday I was fixing my first bagel sponge. Minding my own business. Working and cooking. How I like to spend my day. Then Saturday came around and with her came Tequila Rose and my bagel sponge grew 10 times the size and started crawling across the counter top and damn I need to grill some brats for the Brat Showdown! Oh mah GAH who can eat a BRAT now? Maybe if the world would stop spinning so fast…

So while all my partners in brat crime followed the rules and posted on MONDAY (some even stretched and posted at like 10 pm on Monday… you know who you are… ) I was just DINING on my brats Monday by the time most were in bed. And mmm were they good.

When I first signed up for this brat showdown my mind started to race. How can I use brats in an original way? Something different. Special. Never done before.

Ooh! Now THIS has never been done before!

I’m sorry, but for those not in the know - I am a Chicago girl. One of my rights of passage other then a Maxwell Street Polish or an Italian Beef Sammich’ is a good ole beer brat, grilled to perfection. If I had some Gonella bread I would have been in heaven.

But I don’t because they don’t deliver to Arizona which annoys the crap out of me.

So instead of a bun, I made the next best thing. Potato and scallion pancakes. I went total Bavarian! You there - hand me my lederhosen and let’s forget about the tomatoes and duck confit! Scrap the idea of goat cheese and truffles. Someone pass me the horseradish!

Will admit, when I first proclaimed my menu for dinner it was welcomed with mixed emotions. And questions about what kind of syrup to use… Oh my food lovin’ head…

After the first bite however. All were hooked.

Simple and tasty.

Ingredients:

For the brats:
Package of brats.
One white onion sliced
Two bottles of beer.

Put brats in pan.

Top with onions

Pour in one bottle of beer.

Simmer till cooked, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and pan.

For the Potato Pancakes:
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and grated coarsely.
3-4 scallions, trimmed and cut into quarters.
1 1/2 T flour
1 egg
1 t lemon juice
1 t parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

While the brats are simmering, crack open that other beer and coarsly grate those potatoes. Let them drain on a paper towel in a colander.

Add them to your food processor with the remaining ingredients and pulse a few times until the mixture is smooth and the scallions chopped.

Heat some oil in a skillet and pour out some of the potato batter onto it into little pancakes. Cook till browned, then flip. Come on now it’s not like you don’t know how to make pancakes - you can do that right? If you seem perplexed, have another beer.

While you are browning the pancakes - grill these brats so that the skin is nice and crispy.

Serve and eat quickly before anyone wants seconds.

You CAN remove the brats from the pan and add some butter to the onions and cook down and add some salt and pepper and serve with the brats which is a side of heaven, but because I was grating potatoes they reduced to onion charcoal. ICK.

Be sure to check out the rest of the brat lovin’ fools here! Be sure to tell them you think HEATHER won… heh heh.

Eric @ Eric Rivera Cooks
Paula @ Bell’ alimento
Jeff @ Culinary Disaster
Kristy @ The Wicked Noodle

Tomatoes eggs and cheese has never been so PERFECT

Fri, 29 May 2009 11:19:21 -0600

My new best friend Alex over at Ile de France Cheese must listen in on me when I talk in my sleep. Because there is nothing in the world I love more then cheese. And my hubby says that I never really talk in my sleep but when I do, I am always talking about food. Eggs and cheese to be specific. Can you say one track mind? Well Alex dropped me a little email, and then he dropped me a little package. A little package that held some of the yummiest goat cheese I have had in a long time.

That 5th piece you see there WAS a whole round. But photo's or not - there is cheese sitting out that requires eating. Alone it offered a tangy fresh taste, smeared on an ak mak cracker it was even better. I crumbled it on my spinach salad - perfect! I melted it over grilled scallops, stuffed it into chicken breasts and enjoyed the best cucumber and goat cheese sandwich evah.

Then, while watering my veggie and herb garden Monday morning, I found THIS:

The first tomato of the season.

Perfect. And soon, even more perfect.

First I cut just the top of the tomato off and gutted the poor fella:

Diced up 2 stalks of asparagus:

And cracked an egg into the tomato:

Um. Egg shell in focus, tomato, not so much...

Carefully pushed the asparagus pieces into the egg white, not breaking the yolk:

Like my lil tomato holder? It is a sauce cup I swiped from PF Changs. Shh...

Then roasted it in a 400° oven for 10 minutes. The egg was slightly set at this time. Then I topped it with a nice big round of Ile de France goat cheese, and broiled it for 5 minutes more.

Topped it with some cracked pepper and kosher salt and ate it all up before the hubby could wake up and steal it from me. Ha!

It was amazing. The egg cooked just enough for the yolk to ooze out when cut into. The asparagus and the tomato roasted nicely and the browned and melted goat cheese brought the whole thing together.

Perfect.

Artos! Where for art thou Artos!

Wed, 27 May 2009 08:17:47 -0600

Everyone have a good holiday weekend?

Anyone need a holiday from their holiday? Whew. I thought it was just me. Then yesterday I realized I need a holiday from my holiday from my holiday and at this rate - I won't get anything done...

Where my fellow Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge peeps have almost finished baking the whole book, I took the holiday weekend to bake the second in a series of breads... the Artos loaf. I also decided to make it Christopsomos style, which is basically taking the Artos recipe and adding cranberries, raisins and walnuts. I was excited. It sounded like one delicious loaf of bread. Braiding and weaving and shaping aside, I just decided I would go monkey bread on it. Pour on that glaze and go to town.

Best laid plans.

But, it looks nice doesn't it?

Taste? Oh it tasted WONDERFUL! (As you can tell from the inconspicuous tear taken from the top right of the loaf...)

It even started out great. My poolish bubbled and doubled. My Kitchen Aid even handled the rather dense dough. I added the flour and the yeast, the milk and the oil. I used agave rather then honey and it smelled wonderful for unbaked bread. I molded it into a ball and placed it in an oiled bowl where it would sit and double in size. Mmm. THIS would be a GREAT day!

BUT WAIT!

What is that little bowl of nuts and cranberries and raisins and spices I see behind the FLOUR!

*panic*...

Shouldn't that be in the DOUGH THAT HAS ALREADY DOUBLED IN SIZE?

I 911 twittered my fellow BBA'ers. They suggested to add it after the first proof, just let it re-proof another 30 minutes or so before the final loaf shaping thing...

So I punched the dough out like Sicilian pizza maker and spread a thin layer of nuts and cranberries and raisins and SPICES over the dough. (Yesssss, even the spices were omitted...) Rolled it up and started forming it into a nice ball - but wait - NO! - the nuts and raisins and cranberries are breaking through! I pinched the little raisin holes up only to have 324 more open. Pinch! Ball! Pinch! CURSE! Pinch! PINCH PINCH PINCH! GAH!!! Cover with plastic wrap and come back in 30.

In that 30 minutes the outside temperature increased. The inside temperature increased. The dough proofed to ohhhh 3x its size. With little raisins and cranberries and nuts all trying to escape... not a pretty site.

Why oh why didn't I take photos...

Now I should have just taken this as a sign to screw the monkey and his bread and MAKE A REGULAR LOAF but noooooooo... Now the big ball of protruding raisins, cranberries and nuts had to become a bunch of little balls of the same.

Someone just shoot me.

If any bread should be called a monkey loaf - this was it... as if this wasn't enough, a minor situation involving beer, chips and salsa made me FORGET about the damn thing for 45 minutes. It was all, nuts, fruit and dough trying to escape the pan.

:-|

Laughing and cursing, I threw it in the oven and hoped for the best.

Sure - It looks good in that photo - ok, kind of - but what you see is merely the top of a GINORMOUS loaf of monkey **** bread ever. This bread was 7" tall!

But it tasted AMAZING.

And the next morning - I learned that Artos french toast ROCKS!

If you my reader readers would like to join me on this baking adventure, pick up The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge by Peter Reinhart and get baking. You may have just as much fun as me...

Week Late - Dollar Short

Thu, 21 May 2009 07:17:39 -0600

So have I mentioned that I got all caught up in this little thing called the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge two weeks ago? On the encouragement of a non-bread baking foodie I know I signed up for what looks to be a year long trip down a very doughy road. Myself and 199 other crazy foodies are going to make and bake every bread in the book The Bread Bakers Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Why? Hmm. Quite simply because we can.

I LOVE to bake. But generally save that baking for the cooler fall and winter months. Cranking my oven up INSIDE when it is 110 OUTSIDE and I am paying upwards of $300 a month to keep the temperature below 79 INSIDE hardly seems like the smartest thing to do. I may make this a two fold challenge. Bake the whole book - but do it outside on the grill. I wonder if THAT has ever been done. I wonder how many disasters I will endure. I wonder if my coffee is ready… Regardless, here is the first in a continuing series of yeast and gluten - the Anadama bread.

Me thinks I let it rise just a weee bit to much, but over all it was a tasty bread. I did think that it tasted much better right out of the oven then it did say a day later. But that did not stop me from enjoying it all week. The recipe calls for corn meal (polenta) and molasses which give this bread a slightly sweet flavor. Perfect for french toast. You are just going to have to trust me on this as before I could get the camera, it was literally all gone.

It also took quite literally - all day to make.

The soaker rested overnight.

Then we had to wake up the yeast for an hour.

Knead the dough

Proof for 90 minutes.

Punch down and shape into a loaf

Paint the house.

Let it proof again for 60 minutes.

Pour a drink.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Wonder if the cows will ever come home.

Let cool on a wire rack for 1 hour before you even DARE slice into it.

Patience is not one of my virtues…

So I sliced into it within 20 minutes anyway as you can see from the knife marks on the loaf.

But that was the best part. The VERY best part. It was warm, and still a little doughy and the butter melted perfectly and I was able to eat that whole slice before I fell asleep amidst scatterings of flour and cornmeal.

Mmm.

Bread. Good.

PS If you my ~~readers~~ reader would like to bake along with us please do! Pick up a copy of the Bread Bakers Apprentice and post links to your creations in the comments section of the post with the matching bread. So bake Anadama - comment here!

High's today of 107°... Send ICE!

Mon, 18 May 2009 13:09:19 -0600

This heat is crazy hot for May. Broken high temperature records is not my idea of fun. It is also playing havoc with my basil plant.

It seems like every other day I am pinching the flowers off of this poor plant.

Has anyone ever used basil flowers in a recipe? I know that if you allow it to continue flowering the basil gets a touch bitter, but what about those pinched flowers? I have what feels like buckets full.

What? What blog?

Tue, 05 May 2009 10:25:10 -0600

Today was spent in the sweltering heat - as it is May and it is already 93 - doing some thrilling and exciting yard work.

It sure looks pretty so far doesn't it?

Tomorrow, I plant MORE...

Help me mommy.

When life hands you lemons... Have a LEMON FEST!

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 07:01:41 -0600

Wait. Did I say HANDS YOU? No my fellow foodies, life does not merely HAND me lemons. Rather it bombards me with about 1,500 a season. FIFTEEN HUNDRED! I should set up shop on the street corner. Buck a lemon - get ‘em while the gettin’s good! Feasibly, I could retire.

This is only about 1/50th of my tree. I. Kid. You. Not.

I really couldn’t sell them. After all I only actually give them away to a chosen few. It is not that I do not like to share, I just LOVE to use them in everything I can. Yummy treats and delectable dinners and savory snacks and delicious baked goods and ahhhhhh! Not to mention the wonders it does for dry summer hair and oily summer skin.

Speaking of summer. It is only March 2nd and already I awake to THIS kind of news:

Sigh. Yes. That is going to be today’s high. 91. So where some of us are all woo woo break out the sun tan lotion, other’s of us are all:

Maybe when I woke up this morning and said I know I’ll make some LEMON SHERBET, I didn’t realize that some of you were all yea - SURE BERT! Enjoy it in the SUN - you goober!

And oh yea, I will…

You do not need an ice cream maker to make sherbet. Or sorbet. Or frozen yougart or ice cream for that matter. Just patience, time and freezer space. (So you will have to dump the bodies. It’s time anyway don’t you think?)

Lemon Raspberry Sherbet

Ingredients:

1 cup lemon juice
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 - 3/4 cup powdered sugar (to taste)
2 lemons zested
1/2 pint raspberries (optional)

Juice lemons, then strain. Mix juice with milk and cream. Wisk in sugar until well blended. Add zest. Pour into glass pan and freeze.

Every 30 minutes, remove from the freezer and mix. Scrape any frozen bits from the sides and gently mix.

After the first 90 minutes, fold in 1/2 pint of chopped raspberries.

Contine to stir every half hour until set.

Serve cold. Perhaps poolside. Paired with a nice coolie.

Oh wait…

Maybe skip the pool.

But still, serve cold.