Sicilian Lemon Loaf

It is lemon season here in my corner of the world, and gracious but do I have lemons! My CSA keeps giving me them, so I had fourteen of them on my counter as of this morning and a half lemon in the fridge. I needed to find a lot of things to do with my lemons. A lot of lemon recipes call for a couple tablespoons of lemon juice, maybe topping out at 1/3 of a cup, but I have Lemons. So. Many. Lemons.

I remembered that my friend does an orange cake with whole oranges, so the search was on: could I find a tasty recipe where I could puree up an entire lemon or two at a time and have something at the end that would freeze well? It turns out that yes, I can! Especially for the Meyer lemons in the midst of the horde. (Yes, horde, not hoard--these are not objects I am collecting but a mass of organisms organizing themselves in my fruit bowl! They have Intent!)

The only thing I lacked for the recipe I found was yogurt, so I thickened some milk with ground flaxseed. I wanted it to turn out with the same moistness that I would get with yogurt, and I do believe that I achieved that. I also added poppy seeds because I ordered poppy seeds in bulk last go 'round. (Why did I think I needed a pound of poppy seeds? Who knows, but I will put them in everything even mildly appropriate now.) Also, Chris likes poppy seeds.

Sicilian Lemon Loaf

adapted from Christina's Cucina

Ingredients

1/3 cup milk

2 Tablespoons ground flaxseed

3 eggs

1 1/2 c (12 oz) sugar

1 3/4 c (~9.625 oz) all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large or 2 medium Meyer lemon(s), about (10.5 oz), washed and cut into pieces (with the rind, but remove the seeds) 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. Prep a loaf pan by either lining with parchment or greasing with oil.

3. Mix the milk and ground flaxseed in a small bowl. Set aside for 15 minutes.

4. In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs and sugar until fluffy.

5. Sift together flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture in the large bowl along with the softened butter.

6. Mix in milk/flax and vanilla extract.

7. In a food processor, process the whole lemon until it is almost pureed. Add this lemon to the cake mixture and fold in until evenly combined, then put the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

8. Bake for 80-90 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes.

Triple-Ginger Cookies

Triple-Ginger Cookies
makes about 40

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
1/2 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely grated
1/2 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground clove
11-12 ounces (2-1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup crystallized ginger, minced
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
about 1/3 cup white sugar

1. Position a rack in top third and a rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 350°F.

2. Line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar

4. Mix in egg, molasses and fresh & crystallized gingers

5. On top of the wet ingredients (or in separate bowl), whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and ground spices

6. Blend wet and dry ingredients

7. Put the white sugar in a small bowl

8. Measure out 1 tablespoon of dough at a time, roll between palms, roll in sugar, place 1-1/2 to 2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheets

9. Bake about 15 minutes, or until cookies look crackly, but are still slightly soft in the center

Squash Chiffon Cake

Awhile ago, I made the Espresso Chiffon Cake from Smitten Kitchen, and I was really impressed with how it turned out. So when I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Chiffon Cake as I was deciding what dessert to make for Thanksgiving, I knew that I would have to try my hand at that, too.

There were a few tweaks: I halved the recipe, used acorn squash rather than pumpkin, substituted pastry flour, and used the same number of yolks as whites. Oh, and I made up some cream cheese frosting for the cake. Because: Cream Cheese...

It turned out phenomenally. It was certainly denser than the previous chiffon cake I made, but with the squash puree and not cutting some yolks out, that was more than expected. The beaten whites still gave it so much lift and tenderness! I will be doing this again!


Squash Chiffon Cake
adapted from Alice Medrich via Food52
makes 1 - 8" round cake

1/2 cup sugar, divided
4 eggs, divided
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup squash puree (I used acorn)
100 grams (~3.5 ounces) pastry flour (cake or rice work, too)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar


1. Line an 8" round cake pan with parchment paper (optionally, grease)

2. Preheat oven to 325°F

3. Set aside 1/8 cup sugar (to stiffen egg whites)

4. In a large mixing bowl, mix remaining sugar with yolks, oil and puree

5. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves

6. Mix flour/spices into the puree/yolks

7. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until they hold soft peaks; add the sugar that was set aside, then whip eggs until stiff but not dry

8. Fold half of the whites into the batter until no streaks remain, then do the same with the second half

9. Pour into prepared cake pan, set in the bottom third of the oven, bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (30-40 minutes)

10. Cool, then slide a knife around the sides to release from the pan; Peel off the parchment paper



Cream Cheese Frosting

1 - 8 ounce package of cream cheese, room temperature (leave out ≥1 hour)
1/2 to 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt

1. Once the cream cheese is at room temperature (softened), whip until light and fluffy

2. Whip in a pinch of salt, and the powdered sugar to taste (start with 1/2 cup, add until you like it)

Korvapuusti (Pulla Rolls)

Chris went to Finland recently and loved some of their breads and pastries. In particular, he was enamored with the various cardamom breads. Among these were korvapuusti, which means "a slap on the ear" or some such (named, I assume, because of how you cut them; they look a like an ear).  Korvapuusti are a rolled pastry with lots of cardamom, both in the dough and in the filling.

Naturally, we decided to try to make these at home. We adapted a recipe from Kinfolk, though they just call the recipe Pulla.

Korvapuusti
makes 8

Ingredients:

For the dough:
1 tablespoon yeast (~10 grams)
8-7/8 ounces of milk (250 grams)
17-1/2 ounces ap flour (500 grams)
5-1/4 ounces sugar (150 grams)
1/2 tablespoon cardamom seeds (I did 3 grams ground cardamom)
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, softened

For the filling:
9 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar (100 grams)
2-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon (7-1/2 grams)
1-1/2 teaspoons cardamom (3 grams)

To top with:
1 egg, beaten
Pearl sugar (or regular if you don't have pearl)

Directions:
1. Warm the milk to about 95°F (warm but still touchable)

2. Add the yeast to the milk and let stand about 5 minutes

3. Mix in the flour, sugar, cardamom and salt

4. Add butter, then knead until smooth, elastic and only slightly sticky, at least 10 minutes by hand

5. Cover and let rise until doubled (1 hour)

6. Mix the sugar and spices for the filling together, then beat into the butter until creamed

7. Lightly flour a surface, if necessary, then turn out the risen dough and roll into a 10" by 16" rectangle (should be ~1/4" in height)

8. Smooth the creamed butter out to the very edges of the dough

9. Beginning with the 10" side of the rectangle, roll the dough into a tight cylinder

10. Position the flap at the top of the roll (you'll be pinching it closed or placing it on bottom in a moment, to make sure it will stay closed during baking), and cut into 8 triangles (scalene at the sides, isosceles in the middle of the roll...and well, mostly triangle I should say, because you want to leave the outer most roll layer attached to itself, so really, a trapezoid with one edge really tiny...)

11. Pinch the top point of the triangle and bring toward the center (the bottom of the triangle ends up on the bottom of the korvapuusti, and the top gets pushed down into the center so that it really quite looks like an ear)

12. Cover a baking tray with parchment paper, and place the korvapuusti ~2" from each other; cover and let rise until dough is doubled

13. During last 15 minutes of rising, preheat oven to 400°F

14. Brush the korvapuusti with egg and sprinkle with sugar

15. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown

Blueberry Muffins

I love muffin recipes that use yogurt for the dairy component. There's a delicacy to the crumb that is delightful, a thickness to the batter making it easy to work with, an aroma when baking that I find particularly compelling. That said, I do wish this recipe was worked for twelve regular muffins instead of nine to ten, but I'm hesitant to mess with perfection. And, indeed, the original post from Smitten Kitchen is quite right in calling this recipe perfect.

Blueberry Muffins
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes 9 to 10 standard muffins

5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup (6 ounces) plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon table salt
3/4 cup (3 3/4 ounces) blueberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t defrost)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F

2. Line or grease and flour ten wells in a standard muffin tin

3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy

4. Add egg to creamed butter and mix well

5. Add yogurt and zest to mixture and stir to incorporate

6. In separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt

7. Add the dries to the wets in two steps

8. Fold in the blueberries

9. Divide evenly into prepared wells of the muffin tin

10. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of one of the muffins comes out clean

11. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing

Baklava

For Labor Day weekend, Chris, Neil and I went for a lovely hike in Ansel Adams Wilderness. As that's in the Sierra Nevadas and we live around SF Bay, we had to go across the Central Valley. And my, even growing up in farmland in the Midwest doesn't prepare you for the farms of Central Valley. Fields and orchards and orchards and fields! So vastly many different crops that you'd never expect to be able to grow right next to each other!

Among other things, we picked up a bag full of roasted pistachios. Seeing as it's been so long since I've had baklava, I knew just what to do with my largess of pistachios, too. After sifting through a few recipes, I found the perfect one for me. I got the oranges fresh from my orange tree, shelled all those pistachios (a bit of an undertaking, best done a cup at a time or with more than one person), and set to. It was heavenly!

Pistachio Baklava with Orange-Cardamom Syrup
adapted from Molly Wizenburg via Bon Appétit

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups plus 1/4 cup sugar, divided
1 1/4 cups fresh orange juice
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
12 ounces shelled pistachios, toasted (scant 3 cups)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
30-40 13x9-inch sheets phyllo dough (2/3 pound, give or take)

1. If your pistachios aren't already roasted and shelled, it will likely take you about 3 hours to do both

2. Chop your toasted and shelled pistachios until you like the texture (for me, it's rather fine, but some people like a larger nut to bite into in their baklava)

3. Mix the nuts with 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon

4. Preheat the oven to 350°F

5. Melt the butter a half stick at a time during this next step, otherwise the last of it will end up quite milky (alternatively, use ghee)

6. Lay out the phyllo dough according to the instructions on the box (usually this entails laying it out flat and covering it with a damp cloth inbetween pulling off sheets) and trim if necessary (I don't as I like a little extra phyllo up the sides of my pan)

7. Butter the bottom of a 13x9-inch baking pan and layer the phyllo dough in, buttering each (or every other) sheet until you have 8 to 14 layers

8. Spread out one half of the nut mixture, then repeat layering in phyllo (be very gentle with the first layer above the nuts as it's easy to poke through)

9. Repeat step 8

10. As you can't cut phyllo after it's baked without crushing it, you'll cut the triangles now, leaving a thin layer on bottom uncut

11. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown

12. During the latter half hour while the baklava bakes, you'll make the syrup. Bring the juice, 1 1/4 cups sugar and cardamom to a boil and reduce to 1 1/2 cups total liquid (if you add much more than that to the baklava, it will be soggy)

13. Once you pull the baklava from the oven, you'll pour the syrup over it (it will bubble a lot!), then let the baklava cool

Store baklava at room temperature at least overnight so that it can finish soaking up all the syrup. Then put it in an air-tight container and store either at room temperature (can last at least a week I'm told, though mine has never made it that long) or in the fridge.

Apple Cake

A couple of weeks ago, Chris and I bought a bushel of winter apples, which I must say is a fair few apples. However, being not in the mood for apple pie or crisp (sacrilegious, isn't it?) and having accidently made up too much of the dries for a carrot cake a week or so before I thought, why not?


And so I made an apple cake. The wet ingredients are a bit made up (though I did reference a couple of actual apple cake recipes: 1 & 2, neither of which upon baking them I like quite so much as the cobbled together recipe I first made) so the apple sauce and egg amounts are adjustable to your preferred batter consistency (read: I don't remember how much I added as I didn't measure and it was awhile ago).


Apple Cake
makes 1 single-layer cake


Apple Mix:
4 medium apples
1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


Dry ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup sugar


Wet ingredients:
1/4 to 1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup brandy or rum
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup melted butter
2 to 3 medium eggs


1. Preheat oven to 350°F, grease a 9" cake pan and dust the cake pan with flour


2. Peel and core apples, then cut them into chunks


3. Toss the apples with 1/4 cup sugar and 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon and let sit for 15 minutes


4. Mix all the dry ingredients together


5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add all wet ingredients except eggs (starting with 1/4 cup apple sauce)


6. Stir that together, adding first two eggs one at a time, and the extra apple sauce and egg as necessary to make a pourable but somewhat thick batter


7. Pour half the batter into the cake pan and smooth to cover the entire bottom


8. Distribute half the apple chunks over the batter, then do a second layer of batter and apples, pouring the juice from the apples over the top layer


9. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean from the middle of the cake

Springerles

Last year over the holidays was the first time I had helped to make springerles, and I was amazed that the only anise flavor came from the aniseeds that the cookies lay upon. As I had recently taken up making my own extracts, and both Chris and I wanted more anise-y springerles, I made a lovely anise extract for this year's batch.

Making aniseed extract couldn't be more simple, either: Fill a small jar half way with aniseeds, top with vodka and let it sit for several months before straining. And I must say, this batch of springerles is most excellent. That said, whipping whole eggs 'til light and fluffy is still weird!

Springerles
makes several dozen depending on thickness

Ingredients
3 large eggs
1-2 tablespoons of butter

1-1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon aniseed extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons aniseeds, or enough to cover your cookie sheet

Directions
1. Beat the whole eggs until light and fluffy and the eggs come off the beaters in ribbons

2. Add butter, sugar, and extract to the eggs and mix

3. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder

4. Add the flour mixture in 1/2 cup increments until you can no longer beat the mixture, then mix in by hand the rest of the flour

5. Roll out the dough so that it's 1/2 inch thick, then press into shapes so that it is at least 1/4 inch thick

6. Cut out the cookies and lay out approximately 3/4 inch apart on top of a cookie sheet that has been lightly covered with aniseeds

7. Leave out at room temperature overnight to 24 hours to dry out

8. Preheat the oven to 325°F and bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes. Do not brown!

Chocolate Beet Cake

My first experience with chocolate beet cake was at a potluck earlier this year when Chris and I went to our CSA farm for a day of cider pressing. It was pretty exquisite, but it was much more a chocolate cake that incidentally had beets in it than a chocolate beet cake. The recipe that I found for making it at home, however, is more the latter. This is a beet cake that has some lovely chocolatey-ness to it, and I love it.

An additional note now that I've made this recipe again: I found that the cake is very different depending on how you make the puree. Boiling gives a much less pronounced beet flavor. This was probably obvious if I had thought on it, but I hadn't until it smacked me in the face. That said, I found boiling to be even easier than roasting and definitely shorter, so it's a bit of a toss up as to which I prefer.

So, without further ado, here's the recipe.

Chocolate Beet Cake
makes a two-layer 9-inch cake
adapted from Tiger in a Jar

Ingredients:
1/2 cup oil (or butter)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs

4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 pound (~2 cups) beet puree*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ounce liquor of choice (I used whiskey)

10 ounces (2 to 2-1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

confectioner's sugar or frosting (optional)


1. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease two 9-inch cake pans

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together (or cream if using butter) oil and brown sugar; then add eggs and mix well

3. In a medium mixing bowl (or double boiler) melt chocolate and 1/4 cup butter and stir until smooth

4. Cool the chocolate slightly before adding beets, vanilla and liquor

5. Add the beet mix to the butter/sugar/egg mix and blend thoroughly (this apparently may appear separated, but I didn't have such an issue)

6. Sift together flour, soda, and salt before adding to the wet ingredients and stirring until smooth

7. Pour one-half the batter into each cake pan and bake for 20-30 minutes

8. Cool in pan for at least 10 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely

9. Dust with confectioner's sugar or frost and serve

*If you've not made beet puree before, it's very simple. You can either just boil the beets until they're soft, skin them and put them in the blender with a bit of water, or you can skin them, roast them with a bit of water then pour all that in the blend and puree it. It does take about an hour to roast them versus about 30 minutes to boil, but still easy-peasy. And cooked beets (either way) or beet puree freezes just fine.

Guy Fawkes Day Cake

I haven't the slightest idea why Brits traditionally have a ginger cake for Guy Fawkes Day, but when Chris and I were looking at gingerbread recipes, we came across this one and saw that it wasn't too sweet and it had molasses in it (double score!). We even made it almost on time (Guy Fawkes Day was a week ago). Now, we did indeed made it according to the recipe in the book, substituting only lemon vodka (homemade) for the zest and upping the amount of ginger, but we weren't told to absolutely not use just blackstrap molasses. Which you shouldn't, as we found out. We also decided we really did miss the egg. So here's the slightly revised recipe.

Guy Fawkes Day Cake (Parkins Cake)
adapted from Joy of Cooking
1-8" round cake

Ingredients:
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
2/3 cup molasses (NOT blackstrap); alternatively, 1/3 cup molasses (can be blackstrap) + 1/3 cup honey
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon vodka or lemon zest

5 ounces (1 cup) flour
2-5/8 ounces (~2/3 cup) rolled oats
1 tablespoon sugar
1 to 2 teaspoons ground ginger (according to personal preference)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2/3 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease an 8-inch cake pan

2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix the melted butter and the molasses (and honey, if you're doing half and half), then beat in the egg and lemon zest

3. In a separate, large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients

4. To the dry ingredients, add 1/2 the butter mixture and stir until the mixture is uniformly moist, then add half the milk, stir, the other half of the butter mixture, stir again, and finally the last half of the milk and stir until thoroughly mixed

5. Pour into the greased cake pan, and bake 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Cocoadoodles

Cocoadoodles
makes 24

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup
1 large egg + 1/4 cup infused vodka of choice (or another large egg)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Whisk to combine.

Cream butter and vegetable shortening in bowl of electric mixer. Add sugar and beat until very light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add egg and beat in.

Add flour and mix to combine.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.

Form dough into 1 1/2" balls. Roll in sugar and cinnamon.

Place on baking sheet lined with parchment, partially pressing down. Bake until top is cracked and lightly golden, 12-14 minutes.

Cool completely

Shortcake Biscuits

Among other sweets to use up all the strawberries I mentioned in my last post, Chrissy is quite the fan of strawberry shortcake. Personally, when I think of strawberry shortcake, I'm thinking of a sponge cake–you know, something that actually involves cake. However, Chris and his family, for whom I'm making the shortcake, are more partial to the type of "shortcake" that's a cross between a biscuit and a scone. Mind you, I find these delicious and I certainly don't mind the shortcake biscuits being the vehicle for my strawberry and whipped cream consumption, I just think that a more cake-like substance is better. Nonetheless, here is a recipe for shortcake biscuits.

Shortcake Biscuits
makes about 12
adapted from Joy of Cooking

Ingredients
2 cups ap flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1-1/4 cups cream

1. Preheat oven to 450°F

2. Mix dry ingredients together.

3. Add cream all at once and stir briefly. Then very gently knead the dough until all the flour is incorporated.

4. Roll out on a lightly flour surface until dough is a scant 3/4 inch thick and cut into 3 inch diameter circles. Re-roll extra dough and cut out more circles until all the dough is used.

5. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

6. Serve with strawberries that have been cut and macerated in sugar, and some whipped cream.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Though lemon poppy seed muffins are not my favorite muffins, I am always amused when I make them because of Chris's inordinately happy response. He certainly enjoys their lemony goodness with his mid-morning tea! I, on the other hand, have to limit myself (which is no bad thing in and of itself, I just get a little jealous when Chrissy grabs three) because I inherited my grandmother's reaction to opiates. That is to say, I can only consume so many poppy seeds before I get shaky and nauseous (and forget anything stronger). Nonetheless, these seem to be the only muffins we ever make around here, and this is one of the best recipes I've found--tweaked only a little to include my homemade limoncello and no fresh lemon zest.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
adapted from Annie's Eats
yields about 12 muffins

Ingredients:
9 ounces (~2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature or softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 medium eggs
1/3 cup limoncello
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup yogurt (plain or vanilla)

For the glaze (optional):
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1-2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, seeds, b. powder & soda, salt)

3. In a separate bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (~2 min. with electric beater, 3-4 min. by hand)

4. To the sweetened butter, beat in the eggs one at a time

5. Add the limoncello, lemon extract and vanilla to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly

6. To the wet ingredients, add 1/2 of the dry, mix; the cup of yogurt, mix; other 1/2 of dry, mix

7. Into a greased or lined muffin tin, divide up the batter evenly

8. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

9. While they are still warm, glaze if desired

Bagels

Chris and I have brewed at home all of twice now, a wheat beer last spring that was so-so and a Belgian Saison that we started a month ago that's turned out quite nice. This time, though, we were looking for other interesting things to which brewing supplies could lend themselves. Among them, we saw that bagels, of all things, require malt syrup (at least the recipe that intrigued us). So what were we to do but make bagels?

We found a recipe on Smitten Kitchen that adapted a Peter Reinhart recipe. We didn't have high-gluten flour, but we did have bread flour. Unfortunately, the first attempt with bread flour didn't turn out quite right in shape (they smooshed overnight in the fridge), though we figure this might have just been because it was a wee bit wet. Regardless, the second attempt incorporated vital wheat gluten and turned out much more shapely.

Whether I found this so easy because I keep Amara (my sourdough sponge) on hand, or just because I'm quite used to baking many and sundry bread products, I don't know. I do know, though, that there will be many more renditions of our homemade bagels!

Bagels
adapted from Peter Reinhart via Smitten Kitchen
yield 8 (3-3/4 to 4 oz) bagels

Ingredients:
1-1/4 pound 100% hydration sponge (10 oz flour, 10 oz water)
1/4 teaspoon yeast

scant 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt (3/4 tsp table salt)

1/2 tablespoon malt syrup (or honey, molasses, or brown sugar, or 1 tsp malt powder)

8-3/4 ounces bread flour
1-1/4 ounces vital wheat gluten
(optional) 4 ounces of dried fruit, 1 teaspoon cinnamon

To add to the boiling water:
1 tablespoon baking soda

Plus any toppings, such as:
Asiago cheese
Chopped onion
Sesame seeds

1. Let your starter/sponge come up to room temperature if it has been in the fridge. If you do not already have a starter, add equal parts by weight flour and water (assume ~5 oz/cup for flour, 8 oz/cup water), along with 1/2 teaspoon yeast and let sit for at least 2 hours

2. Mix starter, malt, salt, and yeast together, giving a cursory stir to help begin to incorporate these ingredients

3a. Add the gluten and flour and knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as needed. The dough should be relatively firm at 1:2 water to flour, but still pliable and smooth, not at all sticky

3b. If adding dried fruit (such as raisins) and/or cinnamon I've found this is the best time to add it. Stretch out the dough, and add the dried fruit a small handful at a time and a sprinkle of cinnamon, folding inbetween additions, and kneading briefly after all the fruit is in.

4. Divide into equal portions, and cover with a damp towel. Let sit for 20 minutes.

5. Cover a pan in parchment paper, and lightly oil.

6. Make a somewhat large hole (2-1/2 inches) in your the dough balls by poking your thumb through the middle and using your finger to roll and shape the dough. Try to make the bagel as even as possible.

7. Place on the parchment paper, lightly oil the tops of the bagels, and let sit for 20 more minutes.

8. Check to see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator by using the “float test”. Fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it.

9. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). If the bagel does not float. Return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the ambient temperature and the stiffness of the dough.


Next morning:
10. Preheat the oven to 500°F, and bring a large pot of water to a boil.

11. Add baking soda and malt syrup to the boiling water.

12. Get the bagels from the fridge, and slip them into the boiling water one at a time until there are as many bagels as fit comfortably floating on top of the water (2-3 for my pot).

13. Boil the bagels for 1-2 minutes (longer gives chewier bagels), then flip with a slotted spoon, and boil for 1-2 more.

14. While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle a bit of corn meal on the parchment paper.

15. As you pull the bagels out of the water, place them back on the parchment paper (on the corn meal) and top them as you like.

16. Once you have a full tray of bagels, place them in the oven.

17. Bake for 5 minutes, then turn the pan 180° and reduce the temperature to 450°F. Bake for another 5 minutes or until the bagels are a lovely golden to golden brown.

Yogurt Biscuits

Before Chris and I left for a week, I naturally wanted to do something with our short-term perishables, namely our milk. Fortunately, there was a beautiful application that I like doing anyway: yogurt. Homemade yogurt is a bit thinner than store bought as it doesn't have such things as pectin or cornstarch. As such it is much better for baking with. I use my homemade yogurt in my naan and some curries (though that's not baking). I also use it occasionally when feeding my sourdough starter or directly in my bread.

So now that we're back and neither of us has had a chance to go to the store (Chris being quite busy with work and me being sick), we're finding out pretty much everything we can do with what's on hand. The past couple of mornings, we've had some waffles that we froze before we left, and this morning I found a really good recipe for yogurt biscuits.

Yogurt Biscuits
adapted from Mark Bittman via Culinate Kitchen Collection
makes at least 15

5 oz pastry flour
4 oz whole wheat flour
4 oz ap flour
(that's about 3 cups flour total, adjust individual amounts according to preference)
1-1/4 teaspoons kosher salt (3/4 tsp table salt)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups (~10 ounces) plain yogurt


1. Preheat the oven to 450°

2. Mix together the dry ingredients

3. Either cut or grate the butter into the dry ingredients

4. Stir the yogurt into the dry ingredients, until the dough just comes together. If you still have some dry at the bottom, use an additional spoonful of yogurt

5. Using your hands, press all the dough together into a shaggy ball, and turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface

6. Knead gently until the dough holds together; keep in mind that it will probably still be a bit sticky

7. Press dough into a ¾-inch-thick rectangle and cut into biscuits with a round glass or biscuit cutter dipped into flour

8. Place the biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet

9. Reshape the leftover dough, being careful not to overwork it, and cut out more biscuits

10. If you don't have a double bottom baking sheet, place the baking sheet on top of an identical baking sheet as a double pan lowers the chance of overbaking the bottoms of the biscuits and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until the biscuits are golden-brown. These biscuits are best served warm.

Naan

Flatbreads are fun. I really quite like a bit of a sour bite in mine, though, as you can tell from my previous Sourdough Pita. So really, aren't naan and I destined to be together? Well, perhaps not, but I am a fan. And it's quite simple.

What's not quite as simple is cooking it in the bottom of an oven, right next to the element, and keeping things going so that the oven isn't on any longer than necessary. Fortunately, that's easily solvable by having two sets of hands. One person rolls and brushes on the butter while the other keeps the one in the oven from burning. Then one rebutters and folds while the other is putting the next naan in the oven. Rinse and repeat. Very nice.

But don't let me keep you waiting.

Naan
makes 4

2 cups ap flour (I've found that I like to use about 10 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/8 teaspoon yeast
4 tablespoons melted butter, divided
3/4 cup yogurt

1. Mix together flour, salt, yeast

2. Pour in 2 tablespoons butter and yogurt

3. Mix until it comes together in a ball

4. Knead for 10 minutes on a floured surface, adding flour as necessary (don't shortchange the kneading)

5. Let rise for an hour and a half in a lightly greased bowl, covered

5.5. Put a baking stone on the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 500°F

6. Divide into 4 balls and let rest and plump for 20 minutes

7. Roll out the naan one by one into 8" ovals

8. Brush with melted butter (side note, you can put herbs or garlic into the butter, yum!)

9. Bake for ~3 minutes, give or take, until beginning to brown

10. Brush with a titch more butter, fold and put in a towel lined basket

Cherry Pie

While I was visiting my family, my sister wanted me to make some cherry pie for her boyfriend. I was thinking about getting frozen cherries, since it was a little early in the season round my hometown for cherries just now, but my hometown is also pretty much an armpit of the state, there was nowhere to buy frozen cherries either. I ended up making the pies with cherry pie filling--alright, but far from amazing. I made it up with using my lovely pie crust with a half substitution for butter and double sugar.

However, toward the end of my visit (and after the second rendition of cherry pie filling pie, I was looking through the freezer for something to put in the small pie I had made of the leftover crust. What should I happen upon, of course, but cherries! Needless to say, I made up another cherry pie, and it did not go to my sister's boyfriend!

The cherries had to be pitted, and I could tell that they had some sugar before freezing, though I didn't have a clue how much. But this is what basically went into the pie:

Cherry Pie
~2-1/4 cups cherries + juice
scant 2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch

I heated it all in a pan on the stovetop so that I could taste the end filling to make sure the acid/sugar ratio was appropriate. And boy! was it ever! I don't think that I ever had such an amazing cherry pie. I just wish that I knew what kind of cherries they were. My dad thinks that they were black cherries, and I tend to agree, but whatever they were, it was certainly a heavenly pie!

Never-Fail Pie Crust

So, I'm surprised that I haven't posted this before now. It's really the only pie crust recipe that I have ever made. It just works so wonderfully: It's not fussy, you can use a number of substitutes, and it always turns out nice and flaky. Here's the basic incarnation.

Never-Fail Pie Crust

4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shortening
1 large egg
1/2 c cold water
1 tablespoon vinegar

1. In mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt

2. Cut in shortening until crumbs are pea-sized or smaller

3. In smaller bowl, mix egg, water, vinegar until in a single phase

4. Mix wet ingredients into dry until most of the flour is incorporated. Toward the end, you might need to gently knead the dry ingredients into the dough.

5. Separate into 4 balls, then roll on lightly floured surface (I like to use wax paper for ease of transportation to pie pan) and use as any pie crust

Now, for notes.

While this pie crust is supremely unfussy, in a warm kitchen, it's still nice to put it in the fridge for 10 minutes or so if it's a bit sticky. Alternately, you can use a bit more flour (it can stand it, but it's better to just fridge it).

For substitution on fats, you can use all butter, but it's quite sticky. If I did that again, I'd cut by 1/4 cup-ish. I much prefer substituting only half of the shortening for butter if I want a butter-y crust. I also know that my great-grandmother used lard, but the closest I've gotten to that is using the animal fat based shortening (pretty close, but I don't know how close for handling purposes). Honestly, that was the easiest fat to work with that I have ever used in this recipe.

When halving this recipe, still use 1 egg, but reduce the water to 1/8 cup instead of to 1/4 cup.

If I know that all the pie crust is going to dessert pies, I like to double the sugar. I've also accidentally doubled the salt (when doing a half recipe), and that's perfectly fine. It doesn't help anything, but if you do have a brain-fart like I did, it really is fine to go ahead with the half recipe.

For flour, I've not done a lot of substitutions, but I know that if you're using pastry flour, only substitute half! Otherwise it turns out very wet. It's salvageable by throwing in more flour (at that point I used whole wheat flour), but it made a bit of a mess. I haven't tried completely using whole wheat flour, but substituting up to a quarter is excellent.

Sourdough Pita Bread

2-3/4 c (5:6--water:flour) barm
10 oz flour (6 oz in barm)--separated: 1 c, unsifted + 1 c, sifted if working without kitchen scale
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons yeast
2 tablespoons oil

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except for a scant 1/4 cup of the flour. With a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until all the flour is moistened. Knead until it comes together.

2. Dust the counter with a little of the reserved flour and scrape the dough onto it. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, adding as little of the reserved flour as possible. Scrape the dough with bench scraper and gather it together as you knead it. At this point it will be very sticky. If it is too sticky to work with, cover it with the inverted bowl and allow it to rest for 5 to 20 minutes. Then knead the dough for another 5 to 10 minutes until it is soft and smooth and just a little sticky to the touch. Add a little flour or water if necessary.

3. Let the dough rise in bowl, lightly greased with oil. Press the dough down and lightly oil the top of it. Cover the container with a lid or plastic wrap. (At this point, you can refrigerate the dough overnight or up to 3 days.)

4. Preheat the oven to 475°F one hour before baking. Have an oven shelf at the lowest level with a baking stone.

5. Cut the dough into 8 or 12 pieces. Work with one piece at a time, keeping the rest covered with a damp cloth. On a lightly floured counter, with lightly floured hands, shape each piece into a ball and then flatten it into a disk. Cover the dough with oiled plastic and allow it to rest for 20 minutes at room temperature. Roll each disk into a circle a little under 1/4 inch thick. Allow them to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes before baking.

6. Quickly place 1 piece of dough directly on the stone and bake for 3 minutes. The pita should be completely puffed and just beginning to brown. The dough will not puff well if it is not moist enough. See how the pita puffs, then, if necessary, spray each remaining piece with water before baking.

7. Once the pita has puffed, you can flip it to lightly brown the other side.

8. Proceed with the remaining dough, baking as many at a time as can fit on the stone without touching. After they are baked, transfer the pita breads to a clean towel, to stay soft and warm. You should allow the oven to reheat for 5 minutes between batches, but it isn't completely necessary.

The pitas can be reheated for about 30 seconds in a hot oven before serving, if needed.

Scones

You know, I've always had a problem with scones. They either end up too moist or too dry--I can never get them just right. Of course, I've tended to make them with fresh berries, so when they end up too dry, suddenly the berries get all squished and then they are way too wet. Oh the tragedy (mind you, they still taste great).

I was convinced, however, by abreadaday's Windsor Court Scone recipe to try the dried fruit approach. I even went all out and did the egg wash on top, and they turned out marvelously. Or rather, they were too dry (I used medium eggs instead of large, so that might be why), but instead of squishing my berries when I tried to get the liquid integrated without adding too much, I was able to adjust the amount of cream easily! It was fun and easy compared to my previous attempts at scones!

Maybe I'll try do the dried fruit approach more often, at least until I get a better handle on the Perfect Scone. (Note: After having these scones a few times [and devising a few rules for fresh fruits in this recipe], I decided not to ever look for a different recipe–so good!)

Windsor Court Scones
Adapted from the Windsor Court Hotel, New Orleans

via ABreadADay
Makes 8 large wedges

–11 ounces (about 2½ cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
–5 teaspoons baking powder
–4 teaspoons sugar
–1/8 teaspoon salt
–6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, grated
–1/3 to 1/2 cup dried fruit or 3/4 to 1 cup fresh fruit **
–6 ounces (3/4 cup) heavy cream — if using medium eggs, up to 7 oz; if using fresh fruit decrease by 1/2 oz (1 tablespoon is about 1/2 oz)
–2 large eggs, lightly beaten (reserve 1-2 tablespoon(s) for egg wash)

–use reserved egg mixed with a dash of cream to make an egg wash
–additional sugar for sprinkling (a larger sugar granule, e.g., sanding sugar or pearl sugar, is best, but regular granulated sugar is fine too)


1. Preheat the oven to 450° F, and (optionally) line a baking sheet with parchment. (I used to grease the baking sheet, but this has proven unnecessary/counterproductive with my insulated sheet pan.)

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

3. Grate in the cold butter in three increments, tossing the grated butter with the dry mix inbetween.

4. Add the fruit to coat with flour.

5. Add the cream and eggs, and fold together quickly and gently until it just forms a dough; drizzle a little extra cream over any dry spots if needed.

6. Turn the dough out onto the baking sheet. Pat into a 1 inch thick round, and cut into 8 equal wedges. Carefully pull apart on the baking sheet and remove any extra bits that fall off the wedges.

7. Brush the tops with the egg wash, and sprinkle with additional sugar.

8. Bake the scones at 450° F for 13 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden on top. Let cool briefly on baking sheet before serving, or removing to a rack to cool thoroughly.


** For fresh fruit, there are rather more rules than with dried. What I've learned is as follows:
--Delicate fruits (raspberries, blackberries, etc.) need to be frozen
--Non-delicate small fruits (blueberries, currants, etc.) can be substituted 1-for-1 with dried fruit
--Non-delicate larger fruits (cherries, rhubarb, strawberries, etc.) should be chopped and sprinkled with 1/2 tablespoon of sugar and you'll need the larger amount in the recipe (3/4 to 1 cup)