Triple-Lemon Layer Cake

Happy Mother's Day. I wish we were spending it together.


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Four layers of white cake with a hint of lemon zest, filled with tangy lemon curd, and frosted with a lemony butter frosting.

Triple-Lemon Layer Cake, Fine Cooking #63

Orange Cake with Caramel-Butterscotch Buttercream

Ok, not the greatest photo. But that's all that's left, because it is one of the greatest cakes. Unfortunately, it didn't get off to a great start. My first attempt ended up in the compost pile and I cried in my bedroom. A week later, I decided to lick my wounds and try again.

I can't stress this enough: if you think you don't like frosting, try a real buttercream. It isn't the sickly sweet, powdered sugar, fake shortening stuff you get at most bakeries. It's silky. It's ethereal. It's addictive.

This particular buttercream is from a book called Sticky Chewy Messy Gooey. I don't have the book; someone from the CooksTalk message board referred me to an online version. You'll notice that the icing on the top is nearly as thick as the cake itself? That's because I didn't do a good job. I was going to call it "good enough", but I couldn't leave well enough alone, so added more to smooth it out. The finished cake did have a beautiful surface that I was very happy with. Some candied orange peel would make a pretty garnish, but I was whooped by that point.

For the cake, I used a orange butter cake, a basic layer cake. The cake itself is dense and moist. Between the layers is orange marmalade loosened with a couple spoonfuls of orange liqueur. Here are the recipes:

Orange Butter Cake
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup fresh orange juice (about 3-4 oranges)
3 tablespoons orange zest (about 3-4 oranges)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon orange extract

Filling:
2/3 cup orange marmalade
2 tablespoons Cointreau

Butter and flour (or butter and line with parchment paper) two 8-inch cake pans. Position rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350 F (325 F for dark pans).

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. With electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Alternately add dry ingredients and juice, beating after each addition, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape down sides of bowl and beater. Stir in grated orange zest and extracts.

Spoon batter into prepared pan, and smooth the tops. Bake until top is golden brown and cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 25 minutes.

Cool in pans on wire rack about 10 minutes. Run knife blade around edge of cake. Top with plate or cardboard disk, invert and lift off pans. Cool cakes completely.

Filling: In a small bowl, blend orange marmalade with liqueur. To fill layers, set one layer on cardboard cake dish or flat plate. Spread evenly with marmalade-liqueur, top with second layer.


Caramel-Butterscotch Buttercream

for the caramel:
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 cup heavy cream

for the butterscotch buttercream:
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds cold unsalted butter
2 tablespoons bourbon

Make the caramel sauce
1. Combine the granulated sugar and water in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook, gently swirling the pan occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and starts to change color. Increase the heat to high and boil until the syrup turns a deep amber color, 4 to 5 minutes. Watch carefully, as it can burn quickly.

2. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream with a wooden spoon. Return the pan to the stove, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring constantly, until the caramel thickens, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and let cool completely.

Make the buttercream frosting
1. While the caramel is cooling, prepare the buttercream. Combine the eggs and brown sugar in the metal bowl of a standing mixer.

2. Fill a large sauté pan or frying pan with water and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

3. Place the mixing bowl in the simmering water and whisk the eggs and sugar constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is thick and fluffy and very hot, 3 to 4 minutes. Use an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature; it should be anywhere between 120°F and 140°F (49°C to 60°C).

4. Remove the bowl from the simmering water and, using the whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium-high speed until they are tripled in volume and form soft peaks and the bottom of the bowl is completely cool to the touch, about 10 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and salt.

5. While the eggs are mixing, unwrap the individual sticks of butter and rewrap them loosely in plastic wrap. Pound the butter 5 or 6 times with a rolling pin, or until the butter is soft and malleable but still cool.

6. With the mixer speed still on medium-high, add the butter, approximately 2 tablespoons at a time, to the egg mixture, beating in each addition until it is incorporated. When all the butter has been incorporated, slowly dribble in the bourbon. Don't start to panic if the buttercream seems too liquid or looks curdled as you beat in the butter. It will magically emulsify into a smooth, creamy frosting by the time the last little bit of butter is mixed in. Have faith; it's worth it.

7. When the buttercream is smooth and glossy, turn off the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, fold in 1/2 cup of the cool caramel sauce. For a stronger flavor, fold in up to 1/2 cup more caramel sauce. [edit: I used approx 3/4 cup of caramel. I also beat it, as folding seemed to cause separation]

Blondies

I stopped by Half Price Books yesterday. I can't help it. It's a disease. They had Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies. For $5.98. How am I supposed to pass that up? (It's $49.99 on amazon today!)

As soon as I got home, I threw together Rocky Road Bars. I remember loving Rocky Road ice cream as a kid. And the picture in the book made me salivate. But I didn't care for them. The graham cracker crust was too crumbly and they seemed overwhelmingly sweet to me. I sent them all to work with Gary. Those guys will eat anything.

Today I made blondies. These are the bar cookie I had a taste for! They are excellent. Very sweet, yes. But I think it's the tablespoon of rum in them that makes them so good. These are NOT going to work with Gary! Well, maybe one.

Hoppy Easter, every bunny

White Velvet Butter Cake, The Cake Bible, p. 46
Neoclassic Buttercream, The Cake Bible, p. 230

Fougasse... take 2

This more closely resembles what the fougasse should look like. Even so, it had more oven-spring than I anticipated, which caused some of my slits to nearly close. This one was made from a batch of European Peasant Bread. I'd like to try it with the semolina. And I'd like to try to get it a little thinner. It's delicious no matter what it looks like. Roasted red peppers sprinkled with fresh thyme and coarse salt, wrapped in homemade bread dough that's brushed in olive oil? What's not to like?

Fougasse Stuffed with Roasted Red Pepper

Fougasse Stuffed with Roasted Red Pepper from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Whoops! Mine ended up larger than I intended, and definitely larger than the space that I had floured on my peel. When I went to shake it loose, it wouldn't budge. I was finally able to pry it off, at which time it landed partly off the baking stone.

I have high expectations for this recipe and my problems today rest fully on my shoulders. I'll try again on Thursday or Friday. Until then, to see what it is supposed to look like, pop on over to Breadbasketcase for a mouth-watering photo.

Blueberry Muffins

Awake and up early enough to swim, but had already talked myself out of it, based on inaccurate weather forecasts that threatened death by flood and lightning. So I whipped up a batch of muffins instead. The crunch of the coarse sugar on top is perfect.

Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine, July 2006

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries
turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F. Put paper liners in 12 muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together butter, brown sugar, milk, and egg in a bowl until combined well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir only until barely combined. Gently fold in blueberries.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Sprinkle each muffin with 1/8 tsp. turbinado sugar. Bake until golden brown and a wooden pick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 20 + minutes.

Orange Glow Chiffon Cake

A photo of a single slice would have been prettier. Oh well.

Chiffon cake is like a cross between angel food cake and normal butter cake, but it leans toward the angel food side. It's light and airy, because you whip a boatload of egg whites to stiff peaks. But moist and tender like butter cake, because it also has egg yolks and safflower oil. This particular chiffon cake is flavored with orange zest and fresh orange juice.

Even if you're full, you probably have room for this.

Orange Glow Chiffon Cake
The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum, p. 155

Sear-Roasted Cod with Horseradish Aïoli & Lemon-Zest Breadcrumbs

Central Market received a fresh shipment of cod, just in time for me to test "my" recipe for Fine Cooking Magazine before the deadline. I bought four lovely, thick chunks. With sear-roasted recipes, it's important that you not use thin fillets. The rest of the ingredients were easy to find and I followed the directions to a T. I even measured the oil, which I rarely do. It turned out perfectly!

We opened a bottle of rose', but I didn't serve a side dish. Six ounces of fish is a good-sized portion for us, we had a little bit of starch with the breadcrumbs, and the parsley salad added a nice green to the plate.

I filled out and submitted the survey form, and they pieced together a couple of sections as quote for the magazine:

The directions for the sear-roasting technique were easy to follow, and the results were fantastic. We loved the horseradish aioli and the breadcrumbs, too. Their flavors and textures were the perfect complement to the mild, flaky fish. Since the aioli and breadcrumbs could both be made in advance and the fish only took a few minutes to cook, I loved that I was able to put together a company-worthy dinner with very little effort.

Sear-Roasted Cod with Horseradish Aïoli & Lemon-Zest Breadcrumbs
Fine Cooking 92, p 48

Spice-Rubbed Salmon with Honey-Glazed Fennel

Last fall, I received an email from Fine Cooking Magazine, wondering if I would be willing to test a baguette recipe. Oh boy, would I! I am a novice bread baker with lots to learn, so I quickly hit "reply" and said yes. I got a rapid response thanking me for my interest, but they already had a tester. Very disappointing.

Then in December, I got another chance. My absolute perfect ideal of a dinner is a nice piece of fish with a salad, and Fine Cooking was offering me the opportunity to test a recipe for Sear-Roasted Fish! I hit "reply" so fast it would make your head spin. And it worked! I was in! They told me to expect my recipe in the middle of January and that I would have a week to prepare it and fill out a survey form.

I went straight to my favorite fishmonger at Central Market. He was as excited as I was and even gave me his home phone number so that I could call him when I knew exactly what I needed. At that point, I just needed to sit tight.

Finally, mid January rolled around and Fine Cooking gave me warning that they would Fed-Ex the recipe to me. I expected a type-written sheet of paper with one recipe, but what I received was the actual color layout of the entire article. The article included three recipes, and they requested that I test the one next to a little box that would have a quote from a reader. The little box had gobbledygook typed in it, awaiting my feedback.

My test recipe was "Sear-Roasted Haddock or Cod with Horseradish Aioli and Lemon Zest Breadcrumbs". I promptly called Mario to talk about haddock and cod. He warned me that there were storms in the northeast affecting their shipments of both, but that if I would come in on Friday, that would be my best bet. That was fine, actually, because it gave me a couple of days to study the article.

I thought I should read all three recipes, for hints and tips that would make mine successful. As I did, I noticed something that didn't seem quite right. I emailed my contact person at Fine Cooking, wondering if I should ask questions or if I should do the best I could and then fill out the survey. She said to please ask it now... if there is something that was unclear in the story/recipe they wanted to know so that they can change it. After I asked my question, she replied "Amy, what a good catch! Thanks for taking this so seriously..." and went on to tell me that they took that sentence out of the article because it was confusing. THIS IS WHY I LOVE FINE COOKING MAGAZINE!

Friday arrived and I went to Central Market. Of course, they had no cod or haddock. I decided to make one of the other recipes as practice, and cross my fingers that they would get cod or haddock before I needed to return my survey form. Of course, I could have gone to Whole Foods or even some other market, but I'm partial to my fishmonger :)

I'm also partial to fennel and I love the detail that Fine Cooking tends to include in their recipes. For example: "It will look like there’s not much room, but you will be able to squeeze this amount of fennel around the fillets." Because my exact thought was "hmmm, are you sure this is going to fit?" And fit it did. The glazed fennel along with some julienned Granny Smith apple set off the richness of the salmon perfectly.



Spice-Rubbed & Sear-Roasted Salmon with Honey-Glazed Fennel
Fine Cooking 92, pp. 49

Stay tuned for THE test recipe.

Neoclassic Buttercream

The icing that I had to use when I took my cake decorating class was made of shortening and powdered sugar. Even though it was easy to learn on, and it's what many bakeries use, I simply couldn't bear to have it in my mouth.

Fear no more! Rose Levy Beranbaum's Neoclassic Buttercream is pure butter and fabulous! I was scared to make it (add boiling scary-hot sugar syrup to egg yolks, beat like crazy, add lots & lots of butter, continue beating like crazy), but now that I've tried, there's no going back. It's light and smooth, super delicious. Since today was just practice icing on practice cupcakes, I left everything very plain. I can hardly wait to use different flavors.

Her recipe for Mousseline Buttercream is stiffer, supposedly more appropriate for piping decorations. So I will try that next.

Heart Cookies

Treats for my peeps. I love them and I love that Valentine's Day is always right before the Austin Marathon. Go Team!

How Big Are My Blobs?

Left to right:
2 Tablespoon, 1 Tablespoon, 1 teaspoon, 6 blobs


Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day is my current obsession. I saw a variation for Vermont Cheddar Bread, and it reminded me that Jess makes Chipotle Cheddar Sourdough, so I decided to add chipotle.

Whenever I open a can of chipotle in adobo, I dump it straight into the blender, puree it, and freeze it in little blobs using a mold I reserve for that purpose only. I don't know the orginal purpose of the mold; I think I inherited it somehow. After the blobs are frozen, I put them in a zipper bag for easy retrieval whenever I want a bit of chipotle. One of my favorites is in aioli, but I use it in a lot of other things too.

In making the bread, I wasn't sure how much to add. I don't mind tasting raw cake batter or cookie dough, but raw bread dough just doesn't do it for me. So I added blobs until it started smelling hot and then quit. For the full recipe in that article, it would be 6 blobs. Which begs the question of course, "How big are your blobs?"

I originally estimated that each blob is a teaspoon and that 6 would be 2 Tablespoons. However upon comparing the blobs to measuring utensils, it appears that a blob is a heaping teaspoon, not a level one. Of course it's all subjective anyway, and I've had some chipotles that were hotter than fire using only a dab, not even a blob.

The bread is excellent, by the way. 1-2 more blobs and twice as much cheddar and it would be perfect.

Tamales

If I could, I would cook with Sheri everyday. I would happily be her kitchen slave. I wouldn't mind washing her dishes or doing her prep work. We've had so many happy cooking projects - Mole! Tapas Party! My First Bread! [and don't forget - we are the queens of fondue!]

But, seeing as how we live 1700 miles apart, it's not that practical. Sigh.

As substitutes go, Jess is a dear one. We've already had one project, which I'll blog about later. And yesterday was our second. It was her idea to learn to make tamales and she chose a recipe from Rick Bayless' Mexico One Plate at a Time for Green Chile Chicken Tamales.

We soaked corn husks in hot water for a couple of hours. We marinated and grilled some chicken thighs. We made a tomatillo sauce with serranos and jalapenos. We reconstituted masa harina and mixed it with shortening, salt and baking powder. We laid out the corn husks, spread them with masa, topped them with filling, and wrapped and tied them. Then they steamed for just over an hour. Food blogger Homesick Texan devotes two entries to the process: Part 1 and Part 2, which are informative and fun to read.

These Green Chile and Chicken Tamales are super yummy and an awful lot of fun with a friend. The recipe we used makes 24 tamales, which was do-able afternoon project for 2 people. I think it would be a blast to have a tamale party, with lots of people and dozens of tamales.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I was thumbing through my most recent King Arthur mail catalog last night when I saw this recipe Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread. Instead of starting the 99 million other things I have to do today, I procrastinated by whipping up a loaf. It's very easy if you have a Kitchen Aid or other stand mixer. I've only tasted the heel (I love the heel!), but it seems like pretty nice, soft, basic sandwich bread to me. Would make a good PBJ, I think.

KAF has a similar recipe online.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
13 oz. lukewarm water
2 T. butter
1.5 tsp. salt
2 T. sugar
2.5 oz. nonfat dry milk
10.5 oz. white whole wheat flour
4.5 oz. traditional whole wheat flour
2 tsp. instant yeast

Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer and mix until you've made a smooth, fairly stiff, but not dry, dough**. Place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl and allow it to rise for 60-90 minutes. It won't have doubled in size, but should feel puffy when you squeeze it.

Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan. Gently shape the dough into a smooth log. There's no need to punch it down, just stretch and round it to fit the pan. Place it in the pan, smooth side up, cover the pan, and allow the loaf to rise for about 30-45 minutes, till it crowns over the rim of the pan by an inch or so. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 375.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until center registers 190 degrees. Remove from pan and cool on a rack.

**After kneading forever, I finally added more flour to get it to clear the sides of the KitchenAid. But the instructions do say to "reduce the water by 2 tablespoons if you're baking this bread in the summer, when there's more humidity in the air" so maybe that's what I should have done. Who knows, maybe February in Texas is like July in Vermont.

Orange & Chocolate Bread Puddings

The aforementioned challah does indeed make excellent french toast. But there was still plenty left for bread pudding, and this recipe from Fine Cooking #62 caught my eye a long time ago. I was too full after dinner last night to eat one for dessert, so I had mine today for breakfast. Coffee and sweets are so good together.

I love the combination of chocolate and orange (oh those dark chocolate crackles!!) but this might have been a little too much chocolate - it overpowered the orange. Still, it's hard to complain about yummy bread pudding for breakfast.

Challah

This recipe is from Beth Hensperger's Bread Made Easy. About a year ago, I made her Milk Bread, which was excellent.

I had trouble deciding whether the dough was too sticky and I should add more flour. Seems to be my standard dilemma when baking a bread recipe for the first time. And it usually turns out just fine and I wonder why I worried.



This bread is rich with eggs and oil, slightly sweet from honey, and very good warm from the oven. I suspect it will be even better with jam. If it lasts long enough, I plan to make either french toast or bread pudding with it, both of which are classic uses for day-old challah.

Of course if it doesn't last long enough, that's ok. Because I definitely need to practice braiding. I might give RLB's recipe a try for the sake of comparison.

Bite-Size Ginger Cupcakes

Jess & Jon were here for dinner tonight, and for dessert we had Bite-Size Ginger Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (Fine Cooking #64). Since they've been on my to-do list for a long, long time and since both Jess and I adore ginger, it seemed like a good time to finally bake them. I love them!

Jess seemed to like them too :)

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

My friend Sheri over at Pork Cracklins emailed me with a great idea: She received a book as a gift called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and asked if I wanted to bake it together (long-distance) as a project. Fun! I knew I was "in" as soon as she suggested it.

She chose the European Peasant Bread for us to begin with. I liked that idea too, because it has a little bit of rye and whole wheat flours in it.

The method really is as easy as the title implies. You pre-mix and refrigerate enough dough for 4 smallish loaves of bread. On the day you want to bake, you pull off a hunk, form a rough boule, let it rest, and bake. Voila. Fresh bread.



For more hints, suggestions and fun reading, check out the authors' blog at www.artisanbreadinfive.com

Bake Sale Success

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Africa. But it's home to some of the most talented runners in the world! For Malawi's elite runners, the opportunity to compete in the U.S. is the opportunity of a lifetime. It's a chance to provide for their families, to buy medicine for sick relatives, to pay school fees for their children – and maybe even buy themselves a pair of decent running shoes!


Rogue Training Systems is giving 6 athletes from Malawi the opportunity to travel to Austin to run the AT&T Marathon on February 17th. You can read more about these incredible runners on the Malawi Project Homepage.









The group that I am coaching is trying to raise enough money ($3,000) to support one athlete as an honorary member of Team A-M-E (Austin Marathon Experience) and we are well on our way! This weekend, we held a bake sale at the end of a 16-18 mile training run. There's not a better captive audience than a bunch of exhausted runners! In 2 days, we raised approximately $1,000!!!!!

Anna from Cookie Madness gave us some great advice:
giant brownies sell well,

Rice Krispie Treats are low cost/high profit margin,



and signage is important.

Starbucks donated coffee and one of our marketing strategies was to give "Free Coffee with the purchase of any baked good!"



They're runners; you have to offer something that reasonably healthy so they can offset the less-than-healthy :)


Isn't that some beautiful bread? I didn't bake it, but I can vouch for how fabulous it is!



Some big eaters and some big spenders, we were grateful to them all!

Lots of people donated their time, their energy and their money. There are too many names to name, so I won't try or I'd leave someone out, but THANK YOU~

It's all about the packaging...

Snowflakes

There is some sick similarity between Ironman, marathons, and cut-out cookies and it is this: after each event, I am likely to say to myself and anyone nearby, "Remind me to never, Never, NEVER do this again!"

But time goes by, the pain subsides, I forget my promises, start click click clicking around on the internet, and get tempted by what others are doing.

I keep seeing the most darling snowflake cookies! And so, having already made most of my inexpensive, easy to churn out recipes for this weekend's bake sale, I foolishly decided to give snowflakes a try.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. The only smart thing I did was to mix a half recipe, instead the full one. Impossibly difficult to deal with, I threw most of the dough away and ended up with only seven - count them ladies and gentlemen - SEVEN cookies that more resembled daisies than snowflakes. Ah, I thought brightly, not yet discouraged, a little royal icing and they will look festive and snowy! Baloney.

I am sticking with these. And if I ever say I'm making anything else, please wop me upside the head.

Pecan Tartlets

These darling little pecan tartlets from Fine Cooking #41 will be on my holiday baking list from now on! The crust is a buttery dough that is pressed into muffin tins. The filling is not as sickeningly sweet as most pecan pies are. And individual tartlets seem more special and not as cookie-ish as pecan pie bars.

The "walls" of my crust didn't seem quite high enough and I worried a little when the filling overflowed, but it didn't seem to matter in the end. I also had extra filling left. When I peeked at them while they were baking, they had puffed up in an alarming way, but settled down as they cooled. I also worried that they would stick like glue to the pan and never come out in one piece. But not to worry, I loosened them while warm and they released just fine.

I've been told they freeze well. I hope so, because they're going into the freezer until Thursday. Gobble, gobble, gobble...

Dark Chocolate Crackles

I've hardly tried anything from the October/November issue, and now the December 2007 issue of Fine Cooking is here! I've been reading it and left it laying around. This afternoon, Gary brought it to me with "A Cookie for Every Occasion" left open, pointed to these and said, "Please???"

So, I whipped up a batch. They have the perfect hint of orange zest in them and I think that's what makes them so special. They are very, very good.

Pugliese

Today's bread is Pugliese, pronounced "pool-yee-AY-zee".

A lovely photograph of it graces the cover of The Bread Bible. It's described as a simple, crusty bread from Puglia, the Apulia region of Italy. It is made using part durum flour, the hardest of all varieties of wheat, low in gluten, and supposedly gives the bread "an especially delicious, nutty/sweet flavor, pale golden crumb, and exceptionally fine, chewy crust."

Except that durum flour was nowhere to be found in Austin, TX. I found semolina (which is the same wheat, but coarsely ground) everywhere. No durum. Rose says that it may be labeled "extra fancy pasta flour" or "patent durum flour" or "farina grade". So I kept my eyes peeled for any of those terms. Nada.

I resisted ordering it from King Arthur Flour. It just seems silly to pay $5.95 in shipping for $4.50 of flour. But after weeks of thinking about it and checking every local source I knew, I caved. I decided that in the grand scheme of things, $10 wasn't that much money, and I'd get lots of loaves of bread from it.

No sooner did I order it, than Central Market began carrying darling little two-pound bags of farina. I kid you not. I spent $10 for something I could have paid $1.89 for. This better be some darn good bread.

The dough was incredibly soft and silky. I just wanted to hold it. I did bake it, and the resulting bread is very good. In fact, I might even say "excellent", but for the fact that I've been hopelessly spoilt by the homemade sourdough.

Country White

Another loaf of sourdough. Considerably easier than the first time (last week), because my starter was active and I didn't have to feed it for 3 days before using it. And I kindasorta knew what I was doing.

First I worried that I didn't let it ferment long enough, then I worried that I didn't let it proof long enough. I worried because the doorbell rang right as I put it into the oven, and so it was 15 minutes before I turned the temperature down from 500 to 450 degrees, instead of 5 minutes as instructed. But now I'm wondering if maybe it is nearly foolproof and no matter what I do, it might turn out as wonderful as these first attempts.

Dang, I shouldn't even think that, much less say it out loud. I bet I just jinxed myself.

Tonight this becomes garlic bread to go with Mahogany Beef Stew. I can hardly wait. I better have a slice now to be sure it's ok...

Cake Decorating 3

I missed Class 2, but since there are only 2 other students, the instructor sort of gave me some extra attention and got me caught up.

It's safe to say that I won't be putting roses on a cake. First, they just aren't "me". Second, they are a total PITA. Third, I suck at making them.



Borders are nice. I could learn lots and lots of borders. Plus they cover up a less than perfect icing job. BordersRGood:


I also think it's worthwhile to learn to write nice letters. I think I'll be practicing that:


All in all I am very glad I took the class. I got tips that I don't think I would have ever figured out for myself. I may even repeat the class at a different time, so I get a different instructor. In case that leads to more tips. I think I'd rather do that than take the next level. I could use more practice before moving on anyway. And I'm not sure I even want to move on. I like fairly simple decorations.

Rosemary-Olive Oil Bread

I've had some issues with my starter exploding from its home. In the refrigerator. Creating big huge mess. Hopefully I've got that figured out now.

Very early yesterday morning, I gave half a feeding to 4.5 oz of starter. By 3:00 in the afternoon, it was perky and happy, so I began a half-recipe (one loaf) of Rosemary Olive Oil Bread. I used the KitchenAid for all the kneading, because it keeps me from adding too much extra flour, which I tend to do when I knead by hand. I did end up with a wet dough, which is what I was hoping for, so I was surprised when I cut the finished loaf in half (shown above) and didn't find especially large holes.

Of course I had to sample. It's fabulous. The rosemary is more subtle than I expected, probably because I've become accustomed to the "in your face" rosemary of my focaccia. I had another little sample, and maybe another. Really. This is scary. And I found the large holes that I looking for. See, there was a reason to keep cutting. All in the name of science.

Sourdough!

My first experiment with my sourdough starter is complete. It's been a week-long process! I have tried to meticulously follow Nancy Silverton's directions for Country White in her book Breads From The La Brea Bakery:

Monday evening - starter comes out of the refrigerator for 2 hours, before feeding. I feed it before I go to bed.

Tuesday morning - Jess (who grew the starter from organic grapes 7 years ago!) asks me if it's bubbly. "Yes..."

Tuesday evening - the starter gets it's second meal. I hate throwing away the excess.

Wednesday morning - wow! It's gone bonkers! Grown like crazy. Apparently liked its second feeding. Jess says it's nickname is "the Beast".

Wednesday afternoon - Gary notices that it has shrunk. Emergency email to Jess who reassures me that it is "just doing its thing". I begin to regret not taking pictures of things as they go along.

Wednesday evening - it gets its third feeding. More excess starter goes into the compost pile. waaaa!!!!!

Thursday morning - Dough time! More emails to Jess: "I think I am lacking in self confidence today. So I'm just going to acknowledge that and move on. This may not be the best 2 loaves of bread, but I have to start somewhere. Things seemed ok until I sprinkled on the salt. The dough didn't "want" it. It acted like it was rejecting it. I was patient and it finally accepted it, but wasn't happy. So I keep kneading, kneading, kneading, and way more than 5 minutes go by. It's not "tacky", it's downright "sticky". I add tiny amounts of flour, wanting to err on the side of too wet, not too dry. But this goes on forEVER. I took it's temperature a few times; it was barely going up. Finally, I thought "screw this" and threw it in the KitchenAid. It kept climbing up the damn dough hook. *sigh* It's temperature finally got to 78, but it still seems like it's on the sticky side of tacky. Definitely no stretching to a window pane. I let it machine-knead a bit more and called it quits. Now it's in it's plastic container, fermenting. I don't have high hopes..." She sends reassuring and encouraging replies and reminds me to flour the heck out of my new bannetons. They came with a little note to spray them with Baker's Joy, Pam For Baking, or similar grease/flour spray and then to flour on top of that, so that is my plan. Then they go into the fridge to retard the fermentation process.

Friday morning - Baking day! The first banneton comes out of the fridge to proof at room temperature for about 3 hours. My oven isn't large enough to bake 2 loaves at once, so I'm giving the first one an hour headstart before I begin proofing the second one.



It's time to slash and I'm too timid with it. I've forgotten that the slashes turn out better when I just go for it. I spritz the oven and the first loaf goes in. Oh the waiting! Thank goodness I had permission ("DO IT!!!") to cut into it after only a short time...



It's fabulous!! The crust is crusty, crunchy yummy, the crumb is chewy but tender, the sourness is spot on. Thank you, Jess!! Couldn't have, wouldn't have done it without you.

Madeleines

A favorite treat from la Madeleine French Bakery and Restaurant are the lemon madeleines. I had toyed around with making them, and recently had an excuse to acquire the specially shaped pan. Then, as luck would have it, a madeleine recipe was included in a recent newletter from Cooks Illustrated! So I adapted it.

They're yummy! I think they could be a tiny bit more lemon-y, but too much extract has a funny "off" flavor, so I might not increase it by much. They're not too sweet; they're Goldilocks sweet.

Lemon Madeleines

1/4 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 c. cake flour
pinch of kosher salt
zest of one lemon
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 T. unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375. Coat a nonstick madeleine pan with Baker's Joy, Pam for Baking or similar flour/grease spray.

In a small bowl, stir together flours, salt and lemon zest. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the yolks and whole egg until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes on high if using a hand mixer or about 3 minutes if using stand mixer. Add sugar and extracts and beat until a ribbon drops from the beaters, another 3-5 minutes.

Gently fold in the flour, then the melted butter.

Spoon the batter into the molds, just flush with the rim. Bake until tops are golden and spring back when pressed lightly, 9-10 minutes. Turn madeleines onto a clean, dry kitchen towel and cool.

Makes 12 yummy afternoon tea snacks or morning coffee treats.

7-Grain Bread

This is one of my favorite breads. It makes perfect toast, especially with nut butter and/or sliced bananas.

I think it turned out better this time than it ever has. Maybe practice makes perfect. It's a Cook's Illustrated recipe, but I have adapted it by adding 2 Tablespoons of vital wheat gluten. I've also found that the "right" sized pan helps, and that not all 9x5 loaf pans are 9x5. Go figure.

Cake Decorating 1

I'm taking a 3-part cake decorating class at All In One Bakeshop. Today's lesson went over how to make pastry bags from parchment paper, how to fit the coupler & icing tips both on those bags and also on disposable plastic pastry bags, as well as how to fill them with icing.

We learned to cut the cake horizontally into 2 layers and pipe an icing "dam" around the bottom layer so that we could put a filling on it without it gushing out the sides once the top went back on. Then we learned how to frost the cake and (mostly) get it smooth enough to decorate.

I was worried that I am generally not patient enough for things like this, but it went better than I expected. I think with some practice, I'll be able to make things that I won't be embarrassed of. Maybe.

I'm guessing that this would not be a design that my brother would choose. However it does happen to be his 37th birthday today, so I am going to dedicate it to him nevertheless. Happy Birthday, David.

Very Finely Diced

I've been sort of obsessed with restocking my deep freezer. In late June, I arrived home after being out of town for 2 weeks, only to be greeted by a freezer full of rotting food. It seems that while we were gone, Austin had a series of thunderstorms. One of them tripped a circuit breaker and apparently we were without power for a while. What a stinky mess to come home to.

Today I practiced my knife skills in anticipation of making Mario Batali's ragu bolognese tomorrow. The recipe was in the current issue of Wine Spectator that I read on the way home from Twinland last weekend.

Mario emphasizes that the onions, celery and carrots (is it still a mirepoix if it's for an Italian recipe?) should be very finely diced because they should melt into the ragu as it simmers. I'm not sure mine qualify as "very". They might be "finely diced".

While I was dicing and being grateful that Chef Batali wasn't standing over my shoulder, I kept thinking about poor Casey. I don't know if you're watching Season 3 of Top Chef, but in an episode several weeks ago, the teams raced each other in some basic prep work. Casey had to chop 5 pounds of onions. She was so terribly slow precise that not only was it painful to watch, she lost the race for her team.

RLB's Ciabatta

I've made Suzanne Dunaway's ciabatta from No Need to Knead many times, but wanted to try Rose Levy Beranbaum's from her Bread Bible. It makes a much smaller, more manageable loaf, suitable for 2-4 people. I worried that neither the biga nor the formed loaf were rising enough (they never quite tripled, despite allowing them much longer times than Rose suggested), but worked just fine.

I was wracking my brain to think of what to have for dinner. So many recipes that say to "serve with a loaf of crusty bread", why couldn't I think of any of them?? In the end, I decided on Chicken Cacciatore with Sauteed Mushrooms and Zucchini from Fine Cooking #56, even though the serving suggestion is white rice, not lovely homemade bread. The same article by Tony Rosenfield includes a recipe for Southwestern Spiced Chicken & Black Bean Stew that is excellent. This time I used boneless thighs, instead of bone-in, which I think worked even better.