Happy New Year!

 

Wrapping Up 2023

This has been a year with fewer posts and, truly, less enthusiasm about baking. It isn't that I don't have good results, nor that my baking is unappreciated, but with only two of us to bake for...and neither of us needs the extra calories of my favorite baked goods...it's just not as high on my list of things to do.

I have been spending more time doing art, both watercolors and acrylics paintings. Most ordinary activities take longer than they used to, including the washing up after baking...or cleanup after painting. 

And then there are the hours and hours taken up with dealing with the non-acute but still time consuming medical stuff that goes along with aging, from wellness checks to PT to figuring out the ins and outs of poor sleep. Not only do you have to show up for visits, but more time is taken up with online sign-in, messages, video visits, dealing with pharmacies and new equipment like CPAP machines. Still, because of all of this care I'm doing pretty well overall and counting my blessings that it's true for both myself and Sweetie.

Soooooo, expect fewer posts, more posts about cooking than baking, and probably more posts about a certain upcoming wedding. Our daughter is taking the plunge in May and there are bound to be stories to go along with it!

If you get bored with the current blog, there are many, many (over a thousand at last count) recipes to see since I started in 2006. If you see this on your phone or tablet, you may have to scroll down to the last post seen and look below that for the "Web version" link...that version has the link to the recipe index. The link is the photo of a set table with a rust colored table cloth. Wander around the index, use the years listing on the web view (Blog Archive), or just keep scrolling down to see some of the recipes of this year and all the way to fall of 2006. 

Wishing you, dear reader, a good and as happy as possible New Year! Don't be a stranger.

A Family Favorite From Scratch - Salmon Loaf

 As the Friday cook in a Catholic family while I was growing up, I learned to cook a lot of fish dishes. Salmon Loaf Supreme was one of them. I loved to make this because once it was put together and into the oven, it took about an hour to bake. Baked potatoes could be put in the oven at the same time and, a little later, a chocolate pudding cake could join all these items so that there was a yummy dessert, too. A green salad or some steamed veggies added to the dinner plate was all that was needed, so I had some time to enjoy myself while all the dinner items baked.

We had some lovely salmon during the week before Christmas, but there were leftovers, so I thought of ways to use them up. My first thought was salmon chowder, but then I remembered salmon loaf. Sweetie loves it and the warm oven warms the house, too, a consideration when it is cold and rainy out. The only problem was that I didn't have the condensed cream of mushroom soup the recipe calls for. Guess I get to make my own!

The Joy of Cooking cookbook has a cream sauce recipe that sounded like it would make a thick cream sauce that would work. I used leftover bacon grease for the fat, chopped fresh mushrooms, celery, and onion to cook in the bacon grease for the appropriate flavor and veggies, and used slightly more flour than for a regular cream sauce. Now that I can use regular milk, the sauce didn't have sweetness that sometimes comes with using nut or soy or coconut milk, so the sauce was savory and delicious. I added some chopped parsley, too, plus salt and pepper. No red pepper on hand, so I skipped that. Bread crumbs add stability, as do the egg. Lemon zest and juice add zing. The salmon had the skin removed and I then shredded it with my hands to flakes. All this took far longer than just using canned soup, canned salmon, and some bread crumbs and lemon, which is what the recipe I used as a child had. Helps me understand why housewives in the 50s were so taken with using commercial canned goods - much less work!

This salmon loaf was head and shoulders above my childhood loaves! The salmon flavor was fresh and robust, the texture was more tender and overall it was more enjoyable. Sometimes it's easier to do it the hard way, as Max used to say.

Below is the original recipe and then the variation I did this time. Feel free to make either one. Sometimes it just depends on if you have the ingredients on hand or more time to play in the kitchen.

Salmon Loaf Supreme

½ Cup salad dressing
1 Cup  diluted condensed cream of celery soup
1 egg, beaten
½ Cup chopped onion
¼ Cup chopped green or red pepper
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
2 Cup flaked salmon (pink or red)
1 Cup fine bread crumbs

 Combine first seven ingredients and mix well. Add the salmon and bread crumbs and combine well. Pack into a greased 4” x 8” x 2” loaf pan; bake 1 hour in a 350 degree oven. Turn out of pan into platter. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve. Serves 6-8

From Scratch Salmon Loaf Supreme

½ Cup salad dressing or mayonnaise
Cream Sauce with mushrooms, celery and onion (see below)
1 egg, beaten
¼ Cup chopped green or red pepper (optional)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
zest from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 Cup flaked cooked fresh salmon (pink or red), skin removed (ours was grilled)
1 Cup fine bread crumbs or stale baguette crumbs, ground fine in food processor

 Combine first eight ingredients and mix well. Add the salmon and bread crumbs and combine well. Pack into a greased 4” x 8” x 2” loaf pan; bake 1 hour in a 350 degree oven. Turn out of pan into platter. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve. Serves 6-8

Cream Sauce with Mushrooms, Celery, and Onion

3 Tablespoons bacon grease or butter
1/2 pint fresh mushrooms, wiped clean and diced
1 stalk celery, diced fine
1/2 Cup chopped onion
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 Cup milk (I used whole but reduced fat is fine)
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley

 Saute' mushrooms, celery and onion in the hot bacon grease in a medium pot. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add the milk all at once and stir vigorously to combine with the slurry in the pot until well combined and any part sticking to the bottom of the pan has been incorporated. Continue stirring until mixture thickens. Should be about the consistency of condensed soup. Use in Salmon Loaf Supreme recipe.

A Couple of December Food Photos

Sweetie and I were given a wonderful early gift of a soup mix and recipe in a quart jar. It made a delicious mixed bean soup with veggies, and then I added some extra frozen mixed vegetables. Since I don't have the quantities of the ingredients, or even what all the ingredients were, no recipe for this one, but I wanted to show you what a beautiful soup it was.

The second photo is from a tart that was made today, mostly by my soon-to-be grandson R, with a little participation by me. The last time he was here, in the summer, we made a free form fruit pie, the kind that you fold the dough over the edges of the fruit and fold it as you go. This time it seemed like he was ready for a bit more challenge, so we did the tart. The recipe can be found HERE. It's a great recipe to have because the tart dough is made in a food processor and is super easy. Also, it's wonderful because you can make it with canned apricots. I keep a bag of almond flour in the fridge and if you do, too, you can make this tart almost any time. No canned apricots? Try canned peaches or tart cherries in their juice...not cherry pie filling, but the actual cherries. Fresh fruit like raspberries or strawberries would work, too. Of course you still need to have butter, sugar, flour, confectioners sugar, salt, eggs, and almond extract  along with that almond flour, but if you are a baker those things are usually in your pantry and fridge.

This tart is absolutely delicious, easy to make, rich but light, and looks really impressive while being pretty easy to make...so, a winner, right?

I was impressed by R's approach to making the filling...he did that part all on his own while I peeled the skin off the canned apricots. First he read the recipe, then he made sure he had all the ingredients on the counter, then he asked about measuring cups and spoons and how to attach the beater. THEN he started to make the filling. He will be taking a semester cooking and baking class starting in January and I suspect that he will do very well...of course I might be biased!

Wishing you, dear reader, a very happy Christmas. May your days be filled with fun with those you love, good food, good conversations, and someone willing to do the dishes.

A Bread To Love

 

This is going to be my last Bread Baking Babes bread for a while, because I find that I don't make bread much anymore and Sweetie has no willpower to not eat fresh bread and is happy I'm baking less. Better for our waistlines, too. I'll still be blogging and checking on the 16th of each month to see what the others have been up to...and you should too.

The good news is that I'm Kitchen of the Month for December 2023 and I chose a wonderful bread - Fougasse. This one is often called Leaf Bread, too, because the bread is shaped like a large leaf (or Christmas tree!) and you cut the leaf veins so that this sort of flat bread looks like a leaf and tears or breaks apart for sharing very easily.

I made two versions of fougasse for this challenge. The first, which ended up being shaped similar to a Christmas Tree, was with chopped rosemary and topped with more rosemary and with sea salt. It makes your house smell delicious as it bakes and is quite tasty.

The second fougasse was shaped like a verrrry wide square-ish leaf and was flavored with both chopped walnuts and crumbles of blue cheese. That made a nice combination and went well with our bean soup. That's the photo at the top. You can see that it's an unusual shape for a leaf...and that the blue cheese melted and ran, which made it taste even better, I assure you.

The recipe given makes enough dough for 4 fougasse of about 450 grams each. Before you decide to cut the recipe in half or quarters, remember that if your fridge has room, this dough can sit in your fridge for many days, getting a better flavor each day, so you can bake the four loaves over a week or so and have lots of fresh, delicious, fragrant bread.

Fougasse is pretty flat but it should be fairly fluffy inside but it does have a lot of thin crustiness because of the cuts that create the veins. 

If you bake along with us and want to be a Buddy, be sure and email me your URL and a photo and a short description of your bake and I'll send you a Buddy badge. You have until Dec. 29th to get that to me at plachman -at-sonic-dot-net.

Be sure to check out the bakes that the other Babes have done, too. We have a very creative and supportive group and I will miss the monthly bakes and especially the bakers!

I forgot to mention that this bread makes a great gift, too...which is handy as it is gift giving season.

Let's think about baking this...You can use sourdough starter or dry yeast, you can flavor it with rosemary and sea salt...my favorite...but you could use other seasonings like oregano, basil, lemongrass...or use seeds like poppy seeds or sesame seeds to enhance the bread. Consider adding cheese, like a good strong blue cheese, and maybe some walnut pieces. Maybe you would like citrus zest added, or perhaps olives.

Let's see what you come up with. The basics of the challenge are to make a leaf shaped, slashed bread, preferably with the recipe(s) below, but you decide the shape, flavorings, and if you will use sourdough starter or not.

Fougasse with Rosemary and Sea Salt

Preferment:
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 cups lukewarm water (not hot), divided
2 cups bread flour, divided

Mix together 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast, 1 cup lukewarm water and 1 cup bread flour in a bowl. Cover lightly and let sit for 1 hour. Add an additional 1 cup lukewarm water and add additional cup bread flour and mix until all new ingredients are incorporated. Let sit for at least an hour for flavor (or refrigerate overnight, then bring to room temperature).

Dough

all of Preferment

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 cup water, divided
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
4 - 5.5 cups unbleached bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2-3 tablespoons olive oil from brushing

1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 - 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary for top of dough

1-2 tablespoons sea salt for sprinkling

In the bowl of a stand mixer place the Preferment.  Add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and mix briefly just until the oil is mixed in.

Make sure the water for the dough is lukewarm, not hot. Take 1/4 cup of it and add the dry yeast in a small bowl. Let sit 5 minutes until foamy.

Add the rehydrated yeast, the rest of the warm water, and about half the flour (2 cups) to the mixture in the stand mixer bowl. Mix with the paddle.

Switch to the dough hook. On slow speed add the remaining flour, a half cup or so at a time, adding only a few tablespoons at a time toward the end. The dough will be soft. Add the salt and then knead with the dough hook on low to medium low speed for about 6 minutes, until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and is smooth. If necessary, add up to an additional cup flour so that dough is soft but firm. Turn kneaded dough out on a lightly floured board or counter and knead a few turns to make sure all flour is incorporated.

Form the dough into a ball. With the remaining tablespoon olive oil, oil a large bowl and turn the dough ball in the oil to coat. Cover with oiled plastic wrap or a clean shower cap and place in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk. This usually takes a couple of hours but check often. Dough is ready when a finger poked into the dough leave an indent that stays.

Shaping: About an hour before baking the fougasse, punch dough down, and turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Knead a few times to get rid of the extra trapped gas. Divide it into four pieces weighing about the same. Take one of the pieces and knead in the chopped fresh rosemary, then press it out into a leaf shape. Use your clean hands to press it to about 10-11-inches on a side and about 1/2 - 1-inch high. Wet hands if necessary, so that dough doesn't stick. (I shaped it into a tall triangle.)

Place the shaped dough onto a piece of baking parchment which has been placed on a baking sheet. Using a bench scraper or stiff plastic scraper or something similar, cut into the dough to make leaf 'veins' - see photo at top of post. Use your fingers to gently spread out the dough to open up the cuts. Keep the leaf shape. Repeat if desired with the other pieces of dough, making four leaves, which can be flavored differently if desired, or store rest of dough, covered, in fridge, until ready to use.

Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, oiled side down, and let rise for about 30 minutes. Leaf will get puffy. If holes close up, gently open them again with your fingers after removing the plastic wrap.

While leaf is rising, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. If you have a pizza stone, put it in to preheat too.

Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the surface of the leaf with olive oil, then sprinkle with some fresh rosemary and sea salt.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until dark golden brown. Remove from oven, cool a bit on a wire rack after having removed it from pan and parchment. Serve while still warm, breaking off pieces of the leaf, or cutting into portions.

Don't care for rosemary and sea salt? Just replace those with your favorite enhancements.

or, for Sourdough:

Sourdough Fougasse
2 cups 100% hydration sourdough starter
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 cup water, divided
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
4 - 5.5 cups unbleached bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
additions like cheese, nuts, herbs, citrus peels, olives, etc.

In the bowl of a stand mixer place the sourdough starter. Add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and mix briefly with the paddle attachment just until the oil is mixed in.

Make sure the water is lukewarm. Take 1/4 cup of it and add the dry yeast. Let sit 5 minutes until foamy.

Add the yeast, the rest of the warm water, and about half the flour. Mix with the paddle.

Switch to the dough hook. On slow speed add the flour, a half cup or so at a time, adding only a few tablespoons at a time toward the end. The dough will be soft. Add the salt and then knead with the dough hook on low to medium low speed for about 6 minutes, until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and is smooth. Turn out on a lightly floured board or counter and knead in most of the rosemary, leaving about a teaspoon for the top.

Form the dough into a ball. Oil a large bowl (not metal) and turn the dough ball in the oil to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk. It took mine four hours, but even my 'warm' place wasn't as warm as it should have been.

Punch dough down, turn out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface, knead a few times to get rid of the extra trapped gas.

Use the Instructions for Shaping and Baking in the recipe above.

Elizabeth gave us the recipe to include weights. I'm a complete fool when it comes to conversions, but I think Elizabeth knows what she is doing. Thank you Elizabeth!

FOUGASSE WITH ROSEMARY AND SEA SALT
(for 4 fougasses)

PREFERMENT
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast [0.75 grams]
2 cups lukewarm water (not hot), divided [480 grams?]
2 cups bread flour, divided [240 grams]

DOUGH
all of Preferment [720 grams?]
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided [50 grams]
1 cup water, divided [240 grams]
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast [0.75 grams]
4 - 5.5 cups unbleached bread flour [480-660 grams]
2 teaspoons salt [12 grams]

TOPPING
2-3 tablespoons olive oil from brushing
1-2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
1-2 tablespoons sea salt for sprinkling

SOURDOUGH VERSION:
2 cups 100% hydration sourdough starter [720??? grams]
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided [50 grams]
1 cup water, divided [240 grams]
[strike]1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast[/strike]
4 - 5.5 cups unbleached bread flour [480-660 grams]
2 teaspoons salt [12 grams]
additions like cheese, nuts, herbs, citrus peels, olives, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If I were going to make a wild version, I think I might be a bad BBBabe and try following this previous wild yeast one I made, but leave out the poppy seeds:

https://etherwork.net/blog/wild-fougasse-with-poppy-seeds/.

Karen converted the starter, flour and salt for half the original recipe to grams. Thank you Karen!

1 cup starter = 227 to 241 grams
2 to 2 3/4 cups flour = 240 to 330 grams (I used 260 grams)
1 teaspoon table salt = 6 gram

Cathy of Bread Experience has a great post which includes instructions and photos for shaping, as well as a delicious spelt and asiago cheese version!

A Great Cookie Gift

For years I've been making a wonderful chocolate shortbread cookie that is rolled and cut out, but this year I had a request for a Ted Lasso type shortbread cookie...pretty much a Scottish type vanilla shortbread that are cut into fingers after baking. They look plain, but are wonderful! In the photo above, the one at the top left is turned on the side to show you the texture inside...cut this way they are about the same width as height.

I looked at quite a few recipes and found that there are very few variations and that's a good thing. I based mine on some from the Internet, but made a few changes, as I often do.

This shortbread depends on the flavor of the ingredients, especially the butter, so indulge if you can by buying European butter...it has a higher butterfat content, too. The end results are tender fingers that almost melt in your mouth. They are not too sweet, especially if you go easy on the sugar topping as I did. The internet recipes called for a tablespoon or more of granulated or raw sugar to be sprinkled on top, either before or after baking. I only used a teaspoon of granulated sugar. That was just right in my opinion.

The great thing about this cookie is that you make the dough in a food processor, so it is quick, and there are so few ingredients that it's ready in no time. You do, however, need to chill the dough in the baking pan for at least half an hour. This helps the butter stay cold at the beginning of the bake.

One of the changes I made was to use part granulated sugar and part confectioners sugar in the dough. The confectioners sugar contains some cornstarch and is traditional for shortbread, but the Ted Lasso recipes pretty much used all granulated sugar. I guess mine is a compromise.

These can be addictive, so consider giving at least half of them as gifts, or put them on a cookie tray at a party. Of course you might be the rare individual who can parcel them out one at a time to themselves over the rest of December. If that's you, save them all for yourself!

Regular shortbread Cookies
Makes 18 or 24 depending on how you cut them

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners sugar, strained
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cold
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract


1) Fit the food processor with a steel blade and place the dry ingredients in the bowl. Cut the cold butter into ½-inch slices over the dry ingredients. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Cover and process until the ingredients hold together. Remove the dough from the food processor. Form the dough into a ball and flatten it slightly.

2 ) Prepare and 8"x 8" baking pan by lining with parchment with a couple inches over the sides for handles. Place the dough in the pan and push out to fill pan, including corners. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough and then use a spatula or short dowel to flatten the dough evenly. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. Remove from fridge and remove plastic wrap.

3)   While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust racks to middle or lower middle. Bake as soon as possible after removing dough from fridge.

4) If desired, sprinkle an additional teaspoon of granulated or raw or turbinado sugar over the pan, evenly.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes until cookies are firm to the touch. The top will be a light golden brown. Place pan on a rack to cool. While cookies are still hot, cut into rectangles of desired size. (I cut them in half one way and into thirds the other way, then cut four cookies from each rectangle.

5) Once cookies are cool, use parchment 'handles' to remove the whole cookie from the pan to a cutting board. Using the pre-cut marks, cut again for sharp sides. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.