Thursday, September 30, 2010

Celebration of the Tomato

September is coming to an end and the tomatoes are all ripening up at almost the same time.

We have been enjoying tomatoes in our salad, tomatoes arranged on salad plates with fresh mozzarella or without, chilled or not, sprinkled with balsamic vinegar and good olive oil, garnished with chopped basil and/or garlic.

Fresh tomatoes in pasta sauce is a highlight of the season. A BLT become a gourmet treat when the 'T' consists of thick slices of Black Krim heirloom tomato on sourdough bread still slightly warm from being baked that morning. The juice drips seductively out of the sandwich as you eat it and every bit is an explosion of flavors...sweet, salty, savory, crunchy.

I made a baked potato, tomato, spinach, onion and cheese casserole topped with some whole wheat crumbs for crunch that was excellent. Grilled polenta with cheese and basil in the center is even better topped with chopped tomatoes that have been cooked with a little chopped onion.

Sweetie even tried dousing a plate of mixed sliced heirloom tomatoes, flaunting their colors of bright and deep red, green, gold and orange, with raspberry liquor. Ripe tomatoes are sweet enough on their own that I found this to make them almost dessert...not my cup of tea but an interesting discovery.

Katie at Thyme for Cooking has just posted a great stuffed, baked tomatoes with pesto dish. You can see it here.



Note on 10-3-10: Made these lucious pesto stuffed tomatoes for dinner. They are simple, full flavored, delicious, easy to make and really highlight the late summer Black Krim tomatoes I used. Glad I found the recipe on Katie's blog!

This post is really about the photos of the tomatoes themselves. Most of the dishes using them weren't photographed...they were eaten too quickly for that! Maybe I'm bragging a little by showing you all those gorgeous tomatoes, but since I grew them from seed and gave them loving care to get them through our cold summer and occasional heat spells to full glorious ripeness, I guess that's OK. I love it when all the work and concern of gardening pays off. Guess I'll probably do it again next year.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Toasted Walnuts Gild the Lily

We have a big walnut tree out back and some of the limbs hang over our deck. At this time of year now and again you will hear the walnuts falling onto the deck…rustle, rustle, clunk…and that’s when I know it’s really autumn.

Most years I’m able to harvest enough nuts to shell that I have some for holiday baking. They need to be removed, in some cases, from their outer husk, laid out in the sun to dry a bit, then stored in a cool place until I have time to crack them and release the meats from the shells. This year the squirrel got there first and seems to have eaten all of the good walnuts. Now when Xam, the Baker’s Dog, barks at the squirrel I cheer him on!

I’ve put up a few posts before now sharing the wonderful sourdough graham bread Brunkans Långa which the Bread Baking Babes baked for September. I continue to make the Brunkans Långa because I now have graham sourdough, which gets fed regularly when I feed my regular sourdough.

The last time I made it I decided to add toasted walnuts because I thought that the slightly bitter and very rich flavor of toasted walnuts would complement the strong and slightly sweet grain flavor of the dough. Was I ever right! It made a wonderful bread even better! Although I enjoyed thick slices of the regular Brunkans Långa, with the toasted walnut version I found that I liked it sliced thinly. It was great by itself, toasted and buttered, with cheese and with sliced meats. I used King Arthur White Wheat flour for the whole wheat part of this and found that I needed to use a bit more than when I made it with regular Whole Wheat Flour.

Now that it is fall and walnuts should be readily available, treat yourself and make this wonderful bread! This picture is slightly blurred...the bread was eaten so quickly that I never had another chance to take a better photo once I realized that this one was sucky.

This great bread will be sent over to Susan at Wild Yeast for the weekly Yeastspotting event, a cornucopia of fantastic yeasted bread recipes. Check it out!

Brunkans långa Note: I made half the recipe, then kneaded 1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts into the dough right before putting it into the container and letting it rise overnight.

Graham flour* sourdough:
Day 1, morning:
Mix 60g/100 ml/0,42 cups graham flour
with 120 g/120 ml/0,5 cups water.
Cover with cling film and leave at room temp.
Day 1, evening:
Add 60g/100 ml/0,42 cups graham flour and
60 g/60 ml/0,25 cups water.
Mix, cover with cling film and leave at room temp.
Day 2, morning:
Add 60g/100 ml/0,42 cups graham flour and
60 g/60 ml/0,25 cups water.
Mix. By now, the sourdough should be a little active (bubbly). If not, add a teaspoon of honey, some freshly grated apple or a teaspoon of natural yogurt. Leave at room temp.
Day 3, morning:
Feed the sourdough with 60g/100 ml/0,42 cups graham flour and
60 g/60 ml/0,25 cups water.
Mix, cover with cling film and put in fridge.
Day 4
By now, the sourdough should be ready to use. If you don’t want to use it right away, you can keep in the fridge if you feed it as above a couple of times/week.
*Graham flour can’t be found everywhere. If you want to recreate an exact substitute, here’s what to do, according to Wikipedia:
Graham flour is not available in all countries. A fully correct substitute for it would be a mix of white flour, wheat bran, and wheat germ in the ratio found in whole wheat. Wheat comprises approximately 83% endosperm, 14.5% bran, and 2.5% germ by mass. For sifted all-purpose white flour, wheat bran, and wheat germ having densities of 125, 50, and 80 grams/cup, respectively, one cup of graham flour is approximately equivalent to 84 g (~2/3 cup) white flour, 15 g (slightly less than 1/3 cup) wheat bran, and 2.5 g (1.5 teaspoons) wheat germ.

Brunkans långa
The tall loaf of Brunkebergs bageri
2 large loaves

Ingredients
600 g/600 ml/2,5 cups water
1125 g/2,48 lb high-protein wheat flour (for 1 loaf: 300 g bread flour, 262 g whole wheat flour)
375 g/13,2 oz graham sourdough (see above)
20 g/0,7 oz fresh yeast
150 g/5,3 oz dark brown sugar
25 g/0,88 oz honey
30 g/1 oz sea salt
1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts if using

Day 1
Mix all wet ingredients in a stand mixer bowl. Whisk together all the dry ingredients in another bowl. With the dough hook attached, add the dry ingredients to the wet, keeping the mixer on a low setting. Work the dough in a stand mixer for 10 minutes. Put the dough in a oiled, plastic box and put the lid on. Leave the dough for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes: fold one side of the dough against the centre of the dough, then fold the other end inwards, finally turn the whole dough so that the bottom side is facing down. If making the toasted walnut version, knead into dough at this point, form dough into as much of a ball as you can and put into the plastic box. Put the plastic box with the dough in the fridge and let it rise over night.

Day 2
Set the oven temp to 250 C/480 F. Leave the baking stone in if you use one.

Pour out the dough on a floured table top and divide it lengthwise with a sharp knife. Put the dough halves on a sheet covered with parchment paper and place another parchment paper or a towel on top. I dusted them with some flour at this point. When the oven is ready, put in the sheet or shove the parchment paper with the loaves onto the baking stone. Put a small tin with 3-4 ice cubes at the bottom of the oven. (The water releases slowly which is supposed to be better.) Lower the oven temperature to 175 C/350 F immediately after you have put in the loaves.

After 20 minutes, open the oven door and let out excess steam.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the loaves have reached an inner temp of 98 C/208 F.

Let cool on wire.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Brownies in the Land of St. Honore'


This post is for my Mom who enjoys our travels in the Land of St. Honore'. As usual, it is pure fiction with no relationship to anyone I know.

It’s late summer in the Land of St. Honore’. The leaves are just beginning to put on their fall colors. In the garden the tomatoes echo those colors and are dazzling in bright hues of orange, red, green, gold and russet.

It is still dark when Giselle and her swain leave home, taking with them a lovely picnic basket and warm sweaters. Once they arrive at their destination the sunrise illuminates the gently filling bag of the hot air balloon. Heat from the burners warms the air and the warming air causes the balloon to rise until it’s like a colorful teardrop, with basket and burner below. They climb aboard and the pilot takes the balloon up into the early morning stillness…broken now and then by the wooooosh of the burners.

As they drift with the wind they are able to see the vineyards spread below them in many shades of green and just touches of fall color. What a perfect way to celebrate their anniversary!

After they have risen and then moved off in a different direction the pilot sees a place to land in a lovely field. He lets the air cool and the balloon slowly descends and then lands with a small bump. Leaving the pilot to attend to the balloon, hand in hand they walk over to a live oak tree in a wide field, lay out their picnic blanket and enjoy the fruit, bread and cheese they have brought from home.

Then Giselle brings out her surprise…freshly baked deep chocolate brownies with walnuts. Some have been given a small rosette of coffee buttercream, just for fun. The brownies are moist and decadent and irresistible. Before they know it the brownies have all been consumed with delight. Giselle gives her husband’s lips a final pat with the napkin, followed by a kiss, and they head back to the waiting balloon for the rest of their ride on their special day.

What Giselle didn’t tell her hubby is that the brownies came out of a jar…sort of. The dry ingredients had been layered in a large jar and all she needed to do was to melt and cool some butter and then beat some eggs, then stir the butter, eggs and contents of the jar together, spread in a pan and bake them. SO easy and very luscious.

You, too, can layer the dry ingredients in a jar, ready for an impulsive brownie baking session or as a gift for someone who loves brownies. These are far better than any from a boxed mix but just as easy on the cook. There are lots of variations at the end of the recipe so that you can personalize them.

Other than the ingredients, the only thing needed is care in placing the ingredients in their layers in the jar. I made a sort of funnel with some waxed paper to keep excess from hitting the sides. A real funnel would probably work even better.


Brownies in a Jar
Makes 1 quart of brownie mix for one 9 x 13 inch pan of brownies

One 1-quart canning jar or 1-quart decorative jar, plus a lid
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
2 cups sugar
(NOTE: To be decorative, add ¾ cup sugar, then ¼ cup decorative colored sugar, add another ½ cup plain, ¼ cup decorative and ¼ cup plain or just put in a full cup plain. With all plain it is a large band of white. Alternately, put in ½ sugar then chocolate chips or substitute for chips, then rest of sugar.
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Put the baking powder and salt in the jar. Carefully spoon the flour into the jar; gently tamp the flour down and wipe the insides of the jar with a dry paper towel to clean off any dust.

Carefully spoon in the cocoa powder, gently tamping it down and wiping down the inside of the jar with a clean paper towel.

Spoon the sugar into the jar, then add the chocolate chips. Seal the jar with a canning lid and ring or decorative lid.

To vary this recipe
Substitute 2/3 cup of any of the following for the chocolate chips:
Butterscotch chips, chopped toasted hazelnuts, chopped walnuts, cocoa nibs, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, M&Ms milk chocolate chips, mint chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, pine nuts, raisins, Reese’s Pieces, white chocolate chips. (NOTE: I used 1/3 cup chocolate chips and 1/3 cup chopped walnuts in my jar. It worked perfectly!)

Brownie Mix Recipe Card - Include a card printed with this recipe with the layered jar of Brownies in a Jar:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or butter and flour a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
Empty the brownie mix into a large bowl. Add ¾ cup unsalted butter or margarine, melted and cooled, and 4 large eggs, well beaten. Mix well and spread into the pan with a wooden spoon.
Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool completely in the pan before cutting.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Late Birthday Good Wishes and a Baby

NoHandle, my favorite Guest Blogger recently had a birthday...which I somehow missed remembering...so Happy Birthday NoHandle!

In honor of his big day, we are again turning the blog over to him for a Guest Post. GO NoHandle!

Browning Up Baby
By NoHandle

A few years ago, Natasha sent me a recipe for something called "German Baby". It looked interesting, and I tried it. I wasn't sure how it was supposed to come out, and I wasn't too impressed with the results; it didn’t rise very much, yielding an unappealing texture.

Later, when I was poking around the Internet, looking for some recipe to devour, I found references to Dutch Baby, some of them with apples. Some had pictures, and better descriptions of the finished product. I had misplaced the original recipe, but this seemed similar. It was time for a second try.

The recipe I decided to take on was one found on cooks.com. No pictures, but it just seemed right. And it was simple too. They use Dutch here like you would say Pennsylvania Dutch, meaning German. I don’t know where the Baby part comes from. Perhaps it a corruption of another German word.

So, I pulled out my shiny new mandolin (the slicing kind) that daughter-in-law Jennifer had given me for Christmas (at my prompting; I must have been thinking ahead to just this application) and sliced up a couple of apples. The recipe allows that a cast-iron skillet is OK; I would say preferred. Into my skillet went the sinful amount of butter, then sugar and cinnamon, followed with the sliced apples. I cooked the apples in two batches for better carmelization. Fairly quickly the whole mass was browned nicely, and keeping warm in the pan.

While it was cooking, I put together the batter, using a hand mixer rather than the blender the recipe calls for. It worked as well as the blender would have, although I did beat it at high speed for extra time to whip in a bit of air, which probably helps the batter to rise better. I wouldn’t recommend the stick blender approach unless you have a fairly powerful one. Then it's into the frying pan with the batter, pouring it on top of the cooked apples, and into the oven with the skillet. I think that part of getting this to rise properly is to keep the pan warm. I live at altitude and it took fully 20 minutes to brown the baby. I didn’t feel the need to make any adjustments to the recipe because of altitude though.

After resting a couple of minutes (that seems to be immediately enough), and topping with powdered sugar, the dish is ready to serve. It makes enough for four delicate, or two hungry, people. We were somewhere in the middle; there will be a wedge or two to cheer up lunch. I made this as a breakfast treat, but I think Natasha and Walt cook it up for afternoon tea.

I recently received another copy of Natasha's recipe, and it was nearly identical to the one from cooks.com. Here is the Natasha's recipe (with minor editorial changes, and unconventional decimal measures because the fractions don’t always display correctly):

German Baby

3 Tablespoons butter
2 apples (Braeburns or McIntosh)
3 Tablespoons confectioners’ sugar (plus more for topping)
.125 teaspoon cinnamon (1/8 teaspoon)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice (ReaLemon is OK for this)
3 eggs, at room temperature
.25 teaspoon salt (1/4 teaspoon)
.5 Cup milk (1/2 cup)
.5 Cup flour (1/2 cup)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Melt butter in (oven-proof; I prefer cast iron) skillet and take off heat. Remove 2 T and set aside in tall bowl (suitable for stick blender) or blender.

Peel, core and slice apples. Put slices in large bowl; add confectioners sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice; toss to mix.

Return skillet to burner and heat to medium. Add apples and cook, stirring often about 3-4 minutes until tender, but still hold shape.

Add eggs, salt and milk to butter in bowl/blender and blend together. (If blender, add flour too.) Blend in flour until smooth.

Spread apples evenly on bottom of skillet and pour batter on top. Bake in the PREHEATED oven for about 20 minutes, until golden, but not brown in the middle, and puffy around the edges. Turn over onto platter. (You can just server from the skillet if you want.)

Dust with confectioners’ sugar (optional) and serve immediately. Serves 2-3. To satisfy a 3rd person, add an additional apple. To serve 4-5, use 4-5 apples, double other ingredients, and use a 12 inch pan.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Yes, We Have Cupcakes

Amazing as it may seem to those of us who know how to bake cupcakes, on the retail market people are willing to pay over $3 per cupcake and I know of a place that gets over $5 per cupcake. I think that makes this a craze...a cupcake craze.

What is the appeal of cupcakes?

For one thing, most cupcakes are pretty, even fanciful. Adorned with swirls of icing, sprinkles, coconut or nuts, sparkling sugar in clear or colored form, and cute candies or candied flowers, too, they look good enough to eat.

That's the second part...they are a small indulgence. If you cut them in halves or quarters, you can share them with friends. If you buy four kinds and have four friends, each of you can taste four flavor combinations!

A variety of flavor combos is another part of the appeal. One place might combine chocolate and peanut butter for a proven pairing of compatible tastes, while another place might combine salted caramel and peanut butter for something a bit trendier.

Another winning notion is that these beauties are portable and usually less expensive than a whole cake...but cuter than a cake slice.

Last, but certainly not least, they look like a party! How many of us remember cupcakes as the main attraction at school birthday parties? Since busy Moms could purchase them at a bakery but stay at home Moms could make a batch themselves, it was a treat that provided equal opportunity to Moms...and we got to eat cake!

So no matter what reason you like for enjoying a cupcake, I hope you will find one so that you consider making a batch yourself.

Last week I made a batch of chocolate ones to celebrate a friend's birthday. I used packaged chocolate cake mix (but I added more dark cocoa and some additional vanilla extract and almond extract to mask some of the chemical taste that is often found with commercial cake mixes). I really didn't have the time to make from scratch cupcakes since I needed the time for the frosting.

One of the best parts of a cupcake should truly be the frosting. In this case it really was! I made Coffee Rum Buttercream and piped it on in a nice swirl. Notice that this recipe allows you to make really well defined swirls of buttercream. Since I'm in a fall mood already, I added orange and chocolate sprinkles and popped a candy corn in the middle of each.

Pretty?...check. Dividable?...check. Interesting flavor combo?...check. Cute and portable?...check. Looks like a party?...absolutely!

Since you probably have your own favorite chocolate cake recipe or cake mix, I'm just going to give you the buttercream recipe. You can use the photos for inspiration to make them cute, or create your own decorations. It's hard to go wrong with cupcakes.

Coffee Rum Buttercream

4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
24 tablespoons (3 sticks or 1 ½ cups) unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons espresso powder
2 tablespoons rum

1. Whisk the egg whites and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Set the bowl over simmering water (but don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water) and whisk gently until the sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are hot, about 3 minutes.

2. Attach the bowl to the mixer and whip with the whisk on medium speed until cooled, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddles and beat in the softened butter a few small pieces at a time, and continue beating until the buttercream is smooth, about 6 – 10 minutes. While the buttercream is becoming smooth, dissolve the espresso powder in the rum in a small bowl. Once the buttercream is smooth, add the espresso mixture, a little at a time and beat until everything is smooth again.

3. Put the buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe swirls of buttercream on the top of each cupcake and decorate as you like. Any leftover buttercream can be stored in the fridge for up to a week.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Fall is Coming and So It's Pumpkin Time

Fall is my absolute favorite season. There is something about the cooler air, the leaves turning crimson and orange, gold and brown. I love the flavors of the fall from butternut squash and pumpkin to tart apples and cranberries. Many of the spices that have sat on the shelf through the summer, including cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg, are the perfect additions to fall cakes and cookies, muffins and pies.

I'm starting with pumpkin! Last Christmas my daughter brought home a recipe from Southern Living for an outrageously good pumpkin pie. It had a layer of gingersnap crumble on top of the regular pie crust, rich pumpkin filling and a streusel topping...plus whipped cream for garnish! Last winter one of our favorite restaurants served a pumpkin dessert that was delicious...a bit lighter than regular pumpkin pie, with a streusel topping and, of course, whipped cream. I looked for a recipe that would give similar results but came up empty.

Recently I borrowed a book from the library called Block Parties and Poker Nights by Peggy Allen. It had lots of dishes to bring to potlucks and poker nights, including one that sounded a lot like that restaurant pumpkin dessert. Never being one to leave well enough alone, I decided to combine aspects of the Christmas pie and the potluck pumpkin dessert by putting a gingersnap crust under the pumpkin dessert layer. I'm here to tell you that this is one spectacular and awesome and excellent dessert! Just ignore your diet when you take your serving. After having a generous portion and giving one to Sweetie I decided that we really couldn't let this dessert remain in the house.

It doesn't look like anything special in the pan or even when you put a portion in the bowl. The whipped cream makes it look more special, but it is still a timid looking sweet. Then you taste it!It is rich, spicy, light but creamy and probably addictive. The gingersnaps at the bottom gives it zing and goes perfectly with the spicy pumpkin filling. I think the walnuts on top are crucial because they add needed crunch. You can leave them out, but I wouldn't.

The remaining dessert was taken to the lovely folks at the local library...after all without the library I would never have found the recipe! Besides, they are always a pleasure to speak with, always helpful, knowledgeable and hard working, too. Now they want my recipe...and who can blame them?

So for Jennifer and the other lucky librarians who had a taste of this dessert, and for anyone who wants a wicked good pumpkin dessert that will feed quite a few people, here it is!

Pumpkin Dessert with Gingersnap Crust– Better Than Pumpkin Pie
Inspired by Block Parties and Poker Nights by Peggy Allen

40 gingersnap cookies, finely crushed (about 2 cups)
½ cup finely ground nuts (I used walnuts, but pecans work well, too)
½ cup butter, melted
2 ½ cups (28 oz can) pumpkin puree
2 cups milk
6 large eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1.2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 (18-oz) package yellow cake mix
¼ pound (1 stick) butter
½ cup chopped nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl mix the gingersnap crumbs, ground nuts and melted butter. Pat into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

In a mixer bowl, combine the pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, salt, and spices. Beat at medium speed until blended. Pour the mixture over the gingersnap crust in the 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

In a separate bowl, pour the dry cake mix. Cut the butter into the cake mix until it is crumbly (or use a food processor).

Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the pumpkin mixture. Top the crumbs with the chopped nuts, if using.

Bake until the crumbs are golden, about 50 minutes to 1 hour .

Serve this dessert warm or cool. Can be garnished with whipped cream or ice cream.

Serves 18

Thursday, September 16, 2010

BBBs Go Long

No, we're not playing football. We're baking the gorgeous long loaves of Brunkans långa.

Gorel from Grain Doe has given the Bread Baking Babes an excellent challenge this month…from scratch graham flour sourdough. It was pretty painless and produced a bread that is out-of-this-world wonderful! You can really taste the wheat flavor, it is slightly sweet, chewy, has a great crust, open crumb


and makes fantastic toast, but is perfect to eat plain, without any adornments. This recipe makes a LOT of bread…two long loaves.

I enjoyed the first loaves so much that I made a half of the recipe using a sourdough graham starter that is a combination of the regular graham starter and my own starter (see end of recipe). It was SOOO good that I baked the half recipe two more times after that with the combo graham starter. The first time I just made one loaf using the dough as it spilled out of the container after it's night in the fridge, then shaping it lightly so that it was a long loaf...but only one long loaf! Two was way too much bread for Sweetie and I to manage and it is so delicious that we found it hard to not eat it all.

The second time I made two baguette shaped loaves, cutting the single long loaf in half and pulling the edges under.

The third time I made two pans of rolls,

glazed with an egg yolk wash.

Unfortunately I think the yeast I was using was too old, so this batch wasn’t as light as the other three, but still delicious if a bit more leaden than I would have liked.

As you can see I really, really like this bread. It has a wonderful, rich wheaten flavor that is hard to resist. Thank you Gorel!

Before we get into the specifics of this great recipe, I would invite you to visit the other Bread Baking Babes to see how they fared with the long loaves. Links are to the right at the top of this blog.

I also want to remind you that you, dear reader, are invited to help the Babes pick their Anniversary challenge for February 2011! We are hoping that in November you will send in suggestions and requests for a bread that you think we should bake to celebrate another year of great Babe bread. So scour your recipe books, check those magazine piles, print outs and bookmarked blogs to find the perfect bread recipe. Details will be provided in November on where to send them. So many breads....so little time!

Since this has the the bread I've been baking, over and over, for the last few weeks, I'm finally sending this to Susan at Wild Yeast for her weekly Yeastspotting event. This is where you will find a weekly collection of bread baking delight and inspiration. Ohhh...great place to get ideas for the Anniversary challenge. She has an archive of bread links that will amaze and delight! Susan also recently posted a video for the most fascinating way to shape a baguette to make rolls that are hooked together...check out the dragon tail shaping...it's way cool.

My bad, I forgot to mention that you can be a Buddy by making this yummy bread, posting it and sending the URL, etc. to Gorel, our delightful kitchen hostess of the month. DO become a Buddy! You have until September 29th.

A little bit of backstory: Brunkan is a nick name for Brunkebergs bageri (the bakery of Brunkeberg, situated in Stockholm), and ”långa” means ”the long one”. When they bake this bread at the Brunkeberg bakery, it is more than two feet long – hence the name. This bread is from the book ”Bröd” (Bread) that Heléne Johansson published last year and which contains the most popular breads in her line.


Brunkans långa

Graham flour* sourdough:

Day 1, morning:
Mix 60g/100 ml/0,42 cups graham flour
with 120 g/120 ml/0,5 cups water.
Cover with cling film and leave at room temp.

Day 1, evening:
Add 60g/100 ml/0,42 cups graham flour and
60 g/60 ml/0,25 cups water.
Mix, cover with cling film and leave at room temp.

Day 2, morning:
Add 60g/100 ml/0,42 cups graham flour and
60 g/60 ml/0,25 cups water.
Mix. By now, the sourdough should be a little active (bubbly). If not, add a teaspoon of honey, some freshly grated apple or a teaspoon of natural yoghurt. Leave at room temp.

Day 3, morning:
Feed the sourdough with 60g/100 ml/0,42 cups graham flour and
60 g/60 ml/0,25 cups water.
Mix, cover with cling film and put in fridge.

Day 4
By now, the sourdough should be ready to use. If you don’t want to use it right away, you can keep in the fridge if you feed it as above a couple of times/week.

*Graham flour can’t be found everywhere. If you want to recreate an exact substitute, here’s what to do, according to Wikipedia:

Graham flour is not available in all countries. A fully correct substitute for it would be a mix of white flour, wheat bran, and wheat germ in the ratio found in whole wheat. Wheat comprises approximately 83% endosperm, 14.5% bran, and 2.5% germ by mass. For sifted all-purpose white flour, wheat bran, and wheat germ having densities of 125, 50, and 80 grams/cup, respectively, one cup of graham flour is approximately equivalent to 84 g (~2/3 cup) white flour, 15 g (slightly less than 1/3 cup) wheat bran, and 2.5 g (1.5 teaspoons) wheat germ.


Brunkans långa
The tall loaf of Brunkebergs bageri
2 large loaves

Ingredients
300 g / 600 g/600 ml/2,5 cups water
562 g / 1125 g/2,48 lb high-protein wheat flour (for 1 loaf: 300 g bread flour, 262 g whole wheat flour)
188 g / 375 g/13,2 oz graham sourdough (see above)
6 g / 20 g/0,7 oz fresh yeast
75 g / 150 g/5,3 oz dark muscovado sugar
13 g / 25 g/0,88 oz honey
15 g / 30 g/1 oz sea salt

Day 1
Mix all wet ingredients in a stand mixer bowl. Whisk together all the dry ingredients in another bowl. With the dough hook attached, add the dry ingredients to the wet, keeping the mixer on a low setting. Work the dough in a stand mixer for 10 minutes. Put the dough in a oiled, plastic box and put the lid on. Leave the dough for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes: fold one side of the dough against the centre of the dough, then fold the other end inwards, finally turn the whole dough so that the bottom side is facing down. Put the plastic box with the dough in the fridge and let it rise over night.

Day 2
Set the oven temp to 250 C/480 F. Leave the baking stone in if you use one.

Pour out the dough on a floured table top and divide it lengthwise with a sharp knife. Put the dough halves on a sheet covered with parchment paper and place another parchment paper or a towel on top. I dusted them with some flour at this point.

When the oven is ready, put in the sheet or shove the parchment paper with the loaves onto the baking stone. Put a small tin with 3-4 ice cubes at the bottom of the oven. (The water releases slowly which is supposed to be better.) Lower the oven temperature to 175 C/350 F immediately after you have put in the loaves.

After 20 minutes, open the oven door and let out excess steam.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the loaves have reached an inner temp of 98 C/208 F.
Let cool on wire.


Second time: Used 1 cup plain flour sourdough starter and added the graham flour/water mixture to it. Each successive day was done just like the recipe. When I made the loaf, I measured out the starter by weight for the first thing into the bowl. There is still a lot of the starter left because I had to feed it twice more than called for…until I had time to bake again. I’ll happily make more of this delicious, versatile bread using the rest of the starter.

Note: the first ingredients listed (not in bold) are the ones I used for the sourdough graham starter (above) which I used for making one loaf. After the dough had risen overnight in a round container with lid I poured it out onto a large, floured board, gathered the ends under to shape it into a long loaf, put the loaf on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat, sprinkled with a bit of flour, covered it with a tea towel and continued with the recipe as written. It was just as good as the first, but not any better.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Th Lazy Baker Makes Pizza

I am a baker, and occasionally lazy but not today. There are times when being in the kitchen for hours, lovingly stirring a pot of pasta sauce or chili, making cookies, baking bread and other such tasks is pure comfort and joy. Other times life gets hectic and all you want to do is get something good on the table at dinnertime without a lot of fuss.

It has been the former kind of weekend here at the ranch with lots of time to make fresh tomato sauce and stir polenta and concoct salad with lots of local veggies in them. Almost everything I made has already been posted before now, so even though pleasant hours were spent in the kitchen, there is little to post about.

Luckily for me NoHandle has sent me another guest post. Along with fond memories of pizza made by his Dad, he also passes on a quick pizza that he made for his sons when they were growing up. This pizza takes about an hour and a half total time to make, although most of that time is taken up with waiting for the dough to rise.

For you pleasure we have The Lazy Baker Makes Pizza, guest blogged by NoHandle:

The Lazy Baker Makes Pizza
By NoHandle

When my kids were younger (3 boys) they always liked pizza, as did my wife and I. Like my dad before me, I decided I could do a presentable job for a lot less money than the carry-out stores (Yeah, not just lazy, cheap too). Actually, when my dad made pizza there were no carry-out pizza stores; pizza was only available in Italian restaurants. Saturday night became pizza night at our house, and even with the extra time, it always seemed to be a rush job. Teen-age boys are always hungry. I don’t know where the recipe came from, but it has served me well over the years.

When I say lazy, I mean that this recipe doesn’t take a lot of time or effort, and uses some prepared ingredients. If you want to cook up your own sauce, go for it! The dough is a yeast dough, as you will see, but with rapid-rise yeast, and only one rise (and one kneading) it is both quick and easy. You can use whatever toppings you choose, but as Wallace Simpson once said, “You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many mushrooms on your pizza.” Well, she said most of that, anyway. So mine was usually topped with as many mushrooms as would fit. Since this makes two pies, the other was often topped with pepperoni.

I will describe briefly the dough making process, and leave the recipe to speak to the rest. Add 1.25 Cups of warmed water (I microwave it) to the salt and yeast in the bottom of a medium-large bowl. Add in the flour. (It usually takes an extra .5 Cup or so to get the right consistency; it is sticky, but you can lift the dough without it dripping through your fingers. This is not critical, you will end up kneading in more after it rises.) I have always set the bowl in a shallow bowl of warm water, cover it with a towel, and let it rise until doubled in volume. This typically takes a bit less than an hour.

I then turn it out on a floured plastic sheet (from Tupperware, long, long ago) “pastry cloth” and knead in extra flour until it is no longer even a little sticky. I then divide into two even balls and roll it out each of them on the same sheet. You could toss it, but like the title says, I’m lazy. Also, I suspect the dough would not stretch well with so little time spent in its preparation. I usually made one round (12 inch) and one rectangular (9x13 or so) pie, because those were the pans we had. These are fairly thick crusts, but that’s the way I like my pizza, and it’s less work rolling them out.

After that, it goes very quickly, so you should preheat the oven when you start kneading the dough. I use a Pampered Chef pizza stone which slows the preheating considerably. I usually grease the pans lightly with cooking spray, but it doesn’t usually stick if I don’t.

So with that out of the way, here is the recipe:

Crust:
1 package rapid rise yeast
1.25 Cups warm water
.5 teaspoon salt
2 Cups unbleached all purpose flour

Toppings:
2 teaspoons crushed Oregano (dry)
1 small jar of thick spaghetti sauce (Ragu or one of the others)
12-16 ounces of shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese (Dad used sliced fresh, and you can too if that is your preference, but his came out more like what you get with carry-out.)
8 ounces sliced mushrooms (I slice them about .125 inches thick)
Other toppings to taste

Add the oregano to the sauce, stir and let stand. Prepare the dough as described above. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spread the sauce over the prepared dough, sprinkle on the cheese, and add your toppings. Bake until the cheese (and the crust) starts to brown at the edges (about 25 minutes where I live, perhaps a bit less at sea level). Remove from the oven, slice and serve. If you ended up with extra dough, coat it with butter, cinnamon and sugar, and bake on the rack below the pizza on a cookie sheet. I usually bake each one separately, but with a large oven you can probably bake both together with no issues.

Pizza is a clean canvas. You can top it with lots of different things. Tomato sauce is sort of traditional, but you can leave that off and top with wild mushrooms, sliced onions and cheese (again mozzarella is more traditional, but not mandatory). We had that combination recently at a local new pizza restaurant, and it was yummy.

See that was pretty quick and easy. The total time is about 90 minutes, with only a few minutes of that (maybe 10) actually doing any work. Shiraz pairs nicely with this if you are out of Chianti.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Simple Fresh Tomato Sauce and Pasta with Bacon

Finally, tomatoes to cook with!

When you consider that I start the seeds in February or March, you have to admit that it shows great patience to wait and wait and wait for enough ripe tomatoes from the garden that there are some to cook with...in the second week of September! Only a half year of work, weeding, watering and anticipation. Soooo worth it. Since I haven't had my yearly BLT sandwich yet I decided to add some bacon to this dish. Yum!

The dish that I made is a simple pasta dish. The pasta is a simple linguine from the store, cooked al dente. The sauce starts with a few slices of bacon crisped in a frying pan. After removing the bacon use the bacon grease and saute some onions and garlic in the same pan. After 4 minutes, the pan gets covered, the heat gets turned down and the peeling of tomatoes commences. If you are a smart cookie you can prepare the fresh tomatoes long before dinner time, but I worked today so it all happened at the same time. I was twirling around the kitchen like a ballerina in order to keep everything going: Water to boil for the pasta..... stir the onion mixture..... dunk a couple of tomatoes in boiling water to loosen the skins..... get out the bowls for the salad..... stir the onion mixture..... peel the tomatoes and chop..... check to see if the water is boiling..... chop the parsley and basil while a couple more tomatoes get heated up..... peel the tomatoes..... grate the Parmesan.....oops make sure the onions aren't burning, and so on. It's one of the reasons I don't share my kitchen too well.

Eventually we had a lovely fresh pasta sauce with fresh onion, garlic, Italian parsley and basil AND bacon... served over the linguine, topped with grated Parmesan. There was also a little leftover pork roast and some yummy green salad that Sweetie made. A satisfying and fairly simple dinner here at Elle and Sweetie's. Hope you had a nice Friday night meal, too.

My recipe is a good one, but if you want to see an amazing pasta recipe, with plenty of fresh, beautiful garlic, go on over to Louise's blog Satisfied for pasta dressed with fresh basil infused olive oil and some fried garlic and red peppers, twirled into nests and topped with a fried egg. The pasta? It's made from semolina flour and a flour made from grape skins! It is beautiful to look at and sounds very tasty. Thanks to Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies for the heads up on that post.

Finally Tomatoes Pasta with Bacon
serves two generously

for pasta: 1/2 lb of your favorite pasta, cooked according to package directions...al dente please

for sauce:
2 slices bacon, cut in 1 inch pieces
1 large onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic (or more!) peeled and minced
5-6 large ripe tomatoes (about 2 cups once peeled and diced), peeled and diced, juices saved
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
2-3 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, broken
1/2 to 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a skillet cook the bacon until crisp. If you cook it over low heat toward the end it will render more of the fat, which is good. Remove the bacon to a paper towel to drain.

In the same skillet saute' the onion and garlic for 4 minutes, stirring a few times. Reduce the heat, cover and continue cooking for 5 more minutes.

While the onion mixture is cooking, fill a pot with water and heat it to cook the pasta.

Heat 2 cups water in a 4 cup heatproof measuring cup or narrow bowl with high sides. Add a couple of tomatoes and let sit 1-2 minutes to loosen the skins. Remove from the water and peel. Continue until all tomatoes are peeled.

If you don't like seeds in your pasta sauce, cut the tomato along the hemisphere and remove the seeds. Otherwise, just dice the tomatoes and reserve the juices, seeds and all. Empty the tomatoes from the cutting surface into the onion mixture in the skillet. Stir to combine. Add the salt and pepper, basil, Italian parsley, oregano and rosemary. Stir to combine. Cook over medium high heat, stirring often, to evaporate some of the liquid until sauce is the consistency you like for pasta.

If they have cooled, reheat the bacon pieces in the microwave.

Drain the pasta and plate it. Spoon the sauce on top. Sprinkle the bacon on top. Pass grated Parmesan at the table. Serve at once.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Back with Chocolate

Guess I needed a break from blogging and didn't even know it. Even though the camera was in the kitchen I stopped taking photos and a blog post on a food blog without a food photo is less than appealing in my view.

The good news is that I'm not only back to posting but that I brought chocolate! This is not actually a new, bold, adventuresome recipe, but it does have chocolate. It is the kind of recipe that is best made at this time of year (unless you are smart and freeze grated zucchini so that you can make it when the spirit moves you) and tastes fine without cherries.



Why mention the cherries?...well, the last time I made this I added chopped, pitted fresh cherries and it was sooooo good that I couldn't imagine making it without them...until I did. After all, it's chocolate and I had the zucchini, the plain yogurt, the eggs (and some egg substitute), lots of vanilla and sugar and flour and salt and chocolate chips, so why not?


Yesterday was Labor Day and so I made this in the morning and went off to work. Sweetie and Straight Shooter had a whole loaf that they could eat...and they even left me a piece. It is not too sweet, except for the chocolate chips, and you really can't tell there is zucchini in the bread. It is moist and it's very hard to eat only one piece.

BTW the bathroom project is mostly finished. It is lovely and looks better than I thought it would. We even have a heater! ...and a quiet fan! Here are a couple of photos to give you some idea.



I spent a huge amount of time finding just the right color, especially for the walls. but now I love to look at the way the color changes depending on the light and time of day. Now I'll have more time for baking and blogging and visiting friends and family. Yay!






Chocolate Zucchini Bread
based on:
ELIZABETH'S PHENOMENAL CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD
brought to you via Robin Brande & Jama Rattigan & Tanita Davis

3 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups sugar
3 eggs or equivalent egg substitute
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini (about 2-3 medium zucchini)(measured after being squeezed dry)
½ cup chopped nuts ( I used walnuts)
1 pkg (12-oz) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two 9x5" loaf pans with canola spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. In a separate bowl, beat eggs (or egg substitute and water) with the sugar until well combined. Add oil, yogurt and vanilla. Beat to combine, then stir in zucchini. Add wet bowl to dry bowl and stir until just moistened. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.

Spoon evenly into pans. Bake 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10minutes in pans, then turn onto racks. This bread is yummy when eaten still warm...the chips are melty and the fragrance is full chocolate!