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.

Pączki!

It's that time of year again. The time when certain monotheistic cultures celebrate one last time before they deprive themselves until the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. The whole practice sounds kind of pagan to me (other than the fact that it's for Jesus), but hey celebrations are always fun.

All joking cynicism aside, although I didn't grow up with the tradition of pączki, being neither Catholic nor Polish, I took to it quite well when introduced by some of my friends. I have always liked sugary, yeasty fried dough, and the addition of jam in the middle (rather than some sort of custardy filling) just clinched the deal for me. So after four years of delighting in the wonders of pączki every Fat Tuesday, not being able to find a decent example in Boston last year (though I've recently found out that I just didn't look in quite the right places at quite the right times) was very sad.

I was up to the challenge, though, and after finding and bookmarking an appropriate looking recipe, I decided to try my hand at it myself this year. It was certainly easier than I ever thought it would be. Frying might have taken forever with a big batch, but I thirded the recipe and was very content with what I came out with--plenty for just Chris and me.


Pączki
adapted from The Novice Chef Blog

4 egg yolks
3/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast
4 teaspoons warm water
2 tablespoons room temperature butter
3 tablespoons sugar
7-1/2 ounces (~1-1/2 cups) flour (1-3/4 ounces pastry, 5-3/4 ounces ap)
1-1/2 tablespoons (sugar plum) brandy (rum or vodka will also work)
1/3 cup scalded whipping cream
Jam for filling
Crisco for frying (oil or lard work too)
Granulated sugar for dipping

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water, and let sit for at least 5 minutes.

2. Scald the cream on medium-low heat, then remove from heat and let sit

3. Add salt to the egg yolks, then beat until mixture is thick, slightly lightened, and forms a ribbon that takes a few seconds to disappear when the beater is raised (~5 min)

4. Cream the butter, then add sugar to it gradually, beating until fluffy.

5. Slowly beat in the yeast.

6. Stir in one quarter of the flour into the butter mixture.

7. Add brandy and half of the cream.

8. Beat in another quarter of the flour.

9. Stir in remaining cream.

10. Beat in another quarter of the flour.

11. Add egg yolk mixture, and beat for 2 minutes.

12. Gradually beat in the remaining flour until the dough blisters.

13. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise. When it has doubled in bulk, punch it down. Cover and let rise again until doubled. Punch it down again.

14. Transfer the dough to a board lightly dusted with flour, roll out until it's the thickness of your pinky.

15. Using a 2-1/2 to 3 inch cutter, cut the dough into circles, wadding up the scraps and re-rolling until all the dough is used. Place on a baking pan dusted with flour. Cover again and let it double in bulk.

16. Heat oil to 350°F in a wok, a deep fryer or even a wide skillet. This was at medium heat on my stove. You can test the temperature by frying a piece of bread; it should bubble and turn golden quickly. Fry as many pączki at a time as fit comfortably without touching each other. Do not crowd as this lowers the temperature and the pączki will absorb too much grease. When one side is golden, flip with a fork to fry the other side.

17. After you've removed the pączki from the oil, dip immediately in sugar, then place on paper towels to drain any excess oil.

18. Fill them with the jam of your choice by squirting about two teaspoons into them with a pastry bag fitted with a doughnut tip.

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.

Chocolate Mousse

I was looking through the various recipes that I keep on hand, and I realized that this mousse recipe has never made it here to Jammin' Jelly. That's likely because I tend to make it around the holidays, when I either have little to no access to the internet or am just not thinking about blogging a recipe when I could be talking with the people I love.

Regardless, I think this is such a wonderful recipe that I really do want to share it here. I know plenty of other people like it, as I've found it spammed over other food blogs, but it originates from Gourmet Magazine and you can find it here. I will say that I like it with the darker chocolate, but if you don't, you should use semi-sweet chocolate rather than bittersweet.

Without further ado,

Rich Chocolate Mousse
Serves 4-6
adapted from Gourmet

8 oz bittersweet chocolate (60-70%), chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick)
3 large eggs, separated
1 tablespoon brandy, rum, or other liquor (such as creme de menthe)
1 cup heavy whipping cream (not ultra-pasteurized)
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Melt chocolate and butter, either in a metal bowl over pan of boiling water or in a glass bowl in the microwave. I know some people have trouble with scorching chocolate in the microwave, but it's my preferred method. I melt the chocolate for 1 min, then stir and add butter and put it in for an additional minute. Stir it again when you take it out.

2. If you don't care for washing your beater(s) inbetween beating the different parts of the eggs, start with beating the whites with the salt. Beat until they've formed soft peaks.

3. Beat the egg yolks until they are lightened and thick. A ribbon formed when you pick the beater up should take a few seconds to disappear.

4. Add the yolks and liquor to the chocolate mixture and stir in.

5. Beat the cream until stiff.

6. Fold cream and whites into chocolate mixture gently.

7. Transfer to dessert glasses or bowls, chill for 30 minutes before serving. You can also chill, covered tightly for up to 2 days, though you'll want to let them stand at room temp for 30 minutes before serving if you do completely chill them.

Waffling on Waffles for Breakfast

For Christmas, my boyfriend's family does a passing game with small gifts. It's vaguely amusing in that it would be awfully fun with the right people, but between Chris and I being the only people of our generation that participate and the gifts being somewhat...odd, I am not completely fond of it. Nonetheless, there are occasional wonderful gifts. Usually they end up with people that can't use them, but fortunately for the waffle maker that Chris's dad ended up with (he already has one), it found a lovely home with us.

I was a bit skeptical that we would really put it to good use, mainly because I didn't know where we would find room to put it; and if it's shoved in too inconvenient of a place, Chris and I would be unlikely to unbury it to make lovely waffles. Fortunately, Chris and I (read: mostly Chris) found the motivation to rearrange the kitchen/dining area of our apartment (and Chris even cleaned out the closets), so it now has a lovely home beside the yogurt maker and the crock-pot.

Which all leads up to the point of this post, making wonderful waffles. Now, I haven't really made waffles before. I have used pre-made batter back in my college dorm days in the cafeteria, but that's really the extent of it. I know, I'm so deprived, aren't I? Fortunately, I love whipping things with my little hand-cranked beater.

Half-Whole Wheat Waffles
makes about 8

Dries
4-3/8 oz (7/8 cup) whole wheat flour
4-3/8 oz (7/8 cup) pastry flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Liquids
4 medium eggs, separated and at room temperature
12 oz (1-1/2 cups) milk, room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter--can halve for low-fat or double for rich and amazing
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Measure out and mix together solids.

2. In a separate bowl, melt butter

3. Separate eggs, beat whites until just past the soft-peak stage.

4. Beat yolks until lightened (a couple minutes)

5. Add yolks to the butter, mix

6. Add milk and vanilla to yolks and butter, mix thoroughly

7. Make a well in the solids, pour in milk-mixture

8. Stir until liquids are fully incorporated

9. Fold in egg whites

10. Pour ~1/2 cup into each section in the waffle maker and let it do its thing. (I'm told most take about 4 minutes to properly cook a waffle, but I didn't time mine. I just waited until the green light came back on as per the directions.)

Serve with syrup, fruit, etc.

Lemon Ginger Cookies

With the extra lemon syrup that was generated by making the limoncello, I was searching for an interesting use for it. As it so happened, I also ended up using some ginger a bit ago, and happened to have some left. Thus the idea of making lemon ginger cookies.

Alas, no one seems to make them with lemon syrup and fresh ginger. I did eventually find a recipe that used a syrup, if not lemon syrup, so I adapted it a bit and came up with the following. It's a bit softer and cakier than the cookies I usually make, but very nice for having with tea.

Lemon Ginger Cookies
adapted from Coconut & Lime
makes 18-20 cookies

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup lemon syrup
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced fine
9-10 ounces (~2 cups) flour
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F.

1. Cream butter and sugar

2. Add egg, syrup, minced ginger; stir until combined

3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, ground ginger, baking powder and salt

4. Gradually add flour mix to wet ingredients--this should come out so that you can roll it in your hand

5. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (optional: roll balls in sugar to coat)

6. Place on baking sheet and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand

7. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until golden

Catching up with Ketchup (And Other Tomatoey Goods)

Did you know that the idea of ketchup started off as a salty, vinegary fish paste? At least according to the book Salt: A World History. Thank goodness for New World Tomatoes, huh? Not that I have anything against fish or paste made from them after they're dried and salted, but it's not what I want on top of my burger.

As you might suspect by now, I got a lot of tomatoes and processed them into a bunch of interesting forms; ketchup, salsa, sauce, paste, diced and quartered. Let me tell you, it was a lot of blanching and peeling. Fortunately, that gets quicker with only a bit of experience. The thing to keep in mind, of course, is that you want both the boiling pot and the blanching pot to be big, and if you have to choose, make the blanching pot the bigger of the two. After all, waiting for the stove to heat your water is a bit quicker than freezing enough ice to blanch with (unless you go buy some from the store...cheater).

The latter three on the list above (paste, diced and quartered tomatoes) are extremely easy. The paste is helped by having a blender, but dicing quite fine and mashing as they boil work equally well. And the diced and quartered need to be just covered with water, heated for five minutes and have 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon lemon juice added per pint when you go to can them. The processing is as all other tomato products--bubble the jars, and 35 minutes in a boiling water bath for pints (45 for quarts, 25 for half-pints).

Salsa is equally worry-free. As long as you top everything up with enough vinegar, you can put nearly anything in there. I forget our exact proportions, but I know we added garlic, onion, tomato, hot pepper, cilantro, lime juice and salt and pepper. If you're canning properly, you'll want the vinegar to be hot when you add it to the jars so that you can put everything in the hot jars that have just been sterilized. Otherwise, you do run the risk of either the jars be contaminated as they cool or cracking under the thermal shock. Don't worry too much, though, as long as everything is at least room-temp when adding it the jars, there shouldn't be any of that thermal shock, but definitely don't add anything that's just been in the fridge!

So, now to the stuff that needs a recipe: ketchup and sauce. As these two products usually have many more ingredients and/or are less based on an acid, the proportions must be kept fairly close. Most spices can be done to taste, though garlic should be kept decently close as it has a bit of a different ratio of bulk to taste. Unless of course you want to use the ground dehydrated stuff. But that's up to you. Anyway, the recipes I used are as follows.

Ketchup

adapted from a lot of different recipes

3 pounds tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 large (or 2 small) clove garlic, diced
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt

Spices:
cloves, a small pinch
nutmeg, a pinch
cayenne pepper, pinch or so
peppercorns, some (to be strained out of vinegar after infusion)

Bring the vinegar to a boil, then take off heat, add the spices, cover and let steep for at least 10 minutes. (Alternately, you could put the spices in the vinegar to infuse a few days before at room temperature.)

Strain the vinegar, then add it and all other ingredients to a pot or slow-cooker and cook down until you reach your desired consistency. If you don't like chunky ketchup, you can blend this either at the beginning or end of the process.

Process as any other tomato product.

Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce

Adapted from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
via Just the Right Size
Yield: 8 cups

8 cups (2 L) coarsely chopped, peeled tomatoes (about 9-12 tomatoes)
1 cup chopped onion
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup red wine
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
6 ounces (~3/4 cup) tomato paste

Add everything to a pot and cook down to the desired consistency.

This ends up being almost completely chunky, so if you want something that has a decent base of smooth sauce, but still with chunks, I found that pureeing about 2/3 to 3/4 of the tomatoes works beautifully. Also, the yield for me was dramatically lower when I did this the first two times (once when I didn't blend any of the tomatoes, once when I blended 3/4 of them). The third time, though, I let the mixture (with 3/4 of the tomatoes blended) sit in the fridge for a couple days (though I had only intended to let it sit overnight), and I got a much better yield. I don't know exactly why this happened, but that was my experience.