food-related things
Dec. 4th, 2011 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitI've been baking bread every few days, mostly variations on the no-knead bread recipe, which is nicely flexible. You can use up to half whole wheat flour (if you use any whole grain flour, be sure that your white flour is bread flour--I think it's called "strong" flour in the UK and elsewhere--rather than all-purpose, because it'll make up for the lesser amount of gluten in the whole-grain flour). Today I'm making a rye version, having finally found rye flour.
I've discovered a couple of tricks that make the bread even easier. You can use less water; Jim Lahey later published a recipe book, which I got from the library, calling for 1 1/3 c water instead of 1 5/8. This makes the dough vastly easier to handle, although I've upped the water to 1 1/2 c since I live in a desert. And instead of putting the dough on a towel for its second rise, to which it will stick no matter how thoroughly you flour the towel, you can coat the bottom (and sides, to the extent that's possible) of another bowl with flour and put the dough in it. Then you can just sort of roll it out into the pan. It should hardly stick at all, which means a better-rising and more even loaf because you haven't lost any of the trapped gas through tearing the dough. (I'm told a silicon mat is also a good solution, but I don't own one.)
Less successful bread making has included brioche (tasty, but not tasty enough to be worth the huge amount of fat that goes into it) and a sandwich (soft) loaf made with part buckwheat flour. I didn't love the taste and the texture was a bit crumbly. I think I'll turn the rest of the buckwheat flour into pancakes.
I want to try making pumpernickel, preferably the traditional German kind that's long-cooked and very dense. But for that I need to locate special rye flour and rye berries. One of these days, though.
Possibly I have become obsessed with bread?
Several of you were curious about the pumpkin gnocchi which I made a couple of days after Thanksgiving. They weren't a great success, but it was the kind of not-success that makes me want to try again and get it right, rather than the not-success that makes me decide to quit while I'm ahead.
What went wrong, basically, is that they were too dense. Partly I think the problem was my recipe, which called for an egg yolk and some butter in the gnocchi themselves. Since then I've seen other gnocchi recipes that are just flour + the other ingredient (e.g. potato) and I think that might create a lighter product. The other half of the heaviness problem was my fault for making them too large.
I bought more pumpkin puree on sale after Thanksgiving, so I'll try again with the other recipe, and I'll use gorgonzola dolce in the sauce rather than a sharper blue. The sauce needs some sweetness.
Yesterday, being in a holiday-ish mood, I made molasses-ginger cookies based on this recipe, but with more/different spices (double the amount of ginger, a little less cinnamon, some freshly-ground cardamom, a pinch of nutmeg and a few grinds of black pepper).
I deliberately chose a shortening-based rather than butter-based recipe because I wanted softer, higher cookies. Alas, this did not happen. I may have overbaked them a little, because they are quite crisp. And I find the lack of butter flavor noticeable, so using shortening was probably not a great idea.
Anybody have a good recipe for soft, spicy molasses cookies?
Finally, at the end of a recent crappy day I treated myself to Thai red curry macaroni and cheese, or, as I commented tostarlady when she linked me to this recipe, "the pinnacle of food."
I made a couple of deliberate substitutions. I used low-fat (1%) milk and half-and-half instead of whole milk and heavy cream, not so much out of dietary principle as because it's what I had on hand. I didn't have bread crumbs, so I skipped the broiling step and topped my mac-n-cheese with awesome Thai fried shallots (not the brand pictured, but they're more or less the same as far as I know). And I used less curry paste than the recipe calls for. I recommend you do the same unless you have a very mild brand of curry paste (I use Mae Ploy, which is reputed to be the best commercially-available curry paste) or you're accustomed to seriously hot food.
Finally, there was one inadvertent change, when I discovered too late that I didn't have nearly as much cheese as the recipe called for. For a half recipe I used about 3-4 ounces of cheddar and some parmesan.
Despite all this, the result was still damn tasty. One of these days I'll make the full rich cheesy version, and I think it will be worth every milligram of cholesterol.
So, what are you baking, cooking, and/or eating lately?
I've discovered a couple of tricks that make the bread even easier. You can use less water; Jim Lahey later published a recipe book, which I got from the library, calling for 1 1/3 c water instead of 1 5/8. This makes the dough vastly easier to handle, although I've upped the water to 1 1/2 c since I live in a desert. And instead of putting the dough on a towel for its second rise, to which it will stick no matter how thoroughly you flour the towel, you can coat the bottom (and sides, to the extent that's possible) of another bowl with flour and put the dough in it. Then you can just sort of roll it out into the pan. It should hardly stick at all, which means a better-rising and more even loaf because you haven't lost any of the trapped gas through tearing the dough. (I'm told a silicon mat is also a good solution, but I don't own one.)
Less successful bread making has included brioche (tasty, but not tasty enough to be worth the huge amount of fat that goes into it) and a sandwich (soft) loaf made with part buckwheat flour. I didn't love the taste and the texture was a bit crumbly. I think I'll turn the rest of the buckwheat flour into pancakes.
I want to try making pumpernickel, preferably the traditional German kind that's long-cooked and very dense. But for that I need to locate special rye flour and rye berries. One of these days, though.
Possibly I have become obsessed with bread?
Several of you were curious about the pumpkin gnocchi which I made a couple of days after Thanksgiving. They weren't a great success, but it was the kind of not-success that makes me want to try again and get it right, rather than the not-success that makes me decide to quit while I'm ahead.
What went wrong, basically, is that they were too dense. Partly I think the problem was my recipe, which called for an egg yolk and some butter in the gnocchi themselves. Since then I've seen other gnocchi recipes that are just flour + the other ingredient (e.g. potato) and I think that might create a lighter product. The other half of the heaviness problem was my fault for making them too large.
I bought more pumpkin puree on sale after Thanksgiving, so I'll try again with the other recipe, and I'll use gorgonzola dolce in the sauce rather than a sharper blue. The sauce needs some sweetness.
Yesterday, being in a holiday-ish mood, I made molasses-ginger cookies based on this recipe, but with more/different spices (double the amount of ginger, a little less cinnamon, some freshly-ground cardamom, a pinch of nutmeg and a few grinds of black pepper).
I deliberately chose a shortening-based rather than butter-based recipe because I wanted softer, higher cookies. Alas, this did not happen. I may have overbaked them a little, because they are quite crisp. And I find the lack of butter flavor noticeable, so using shortening was probably not a great idea.
Anybody have a good recipe for soft, spicy molasses cookies?
Finally, at the end of a recent crappy day I treated myself to Thai red curry macaroni and cheese, or, as I commented to
starlady when she linked me to this recipe, "the pinnacle of food."I made a couple of deliberate substitutions. I used low-fat (1%) milk and half-and-half instead of whole milk and heavy cream, not so much out of dietary principle as because it's what I had on hand. I didn't have bread crumbs, so I skipped the broiling step and topped my mac-n-cheese with awesome Thai fried shallots (not the brand pictured, but they're more or less the same as far as I know). And I used less curry paste than the recipe calls for. I recommend you do the same unless you have a very mild brand of curry paste (I use Mae Ploy, which is reputed to be the best commercially-available curry paste) or you're accustomed to seriously hot food.
Finally, there was one inadvertent change, when I discovered too late that I didn't have nearly as much cheese as the recipe called for. For a half recipe I used about 3-4 ounces of cheddar and some parmesan.
Despite all this, the result was still damn tasty. One of these days I'll make the full rich cheesy version, and I think it will be worth every milligram of cholesterol.
So, what are you baking, cooking, and/or eating lately?
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 06:25 am (UTC)I really wish measurements were standardized in all recipes. I suppose when I can afford one (hah!) I should buy a kitchen scale, which would help.