Salmon for Lunch

Our local market had wild salmon at a very good price this week. I do love salmon and enjoyed some for dinner, but the piece was too large for one meal, so I found a way to use up the leftovers at lunchtime yesterday.

This is one of those recipes that don't really have precise amounts, especially since I was using up leftover rice, too. Amounts given are close to what I used. I decided to reheat the rice and add the parsley, tomato, and lemon juice so that all were not only warm, but mixed, when added to the wrap. I re-heated the salmon first, then the rice mixture, then added them to the warm tortilla that had the cheese already melted on it. I probably should have left out the smidgen of sour cream but it really added to the finished wrap's rich flavor.

Tortilla Wrap with Salmon, Rice, Tomato, and Jack Cheese
Serves 1

1 large flour tortilla
about 2-3 tablespoons shredded Monterey Jack cheese
leftover grilled salmon...about 1/2 cup flaked
1/2 cup brown rice, already cooked
1/4 cup diced fresh tomato
1 tablespoon finely chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon sour cream (optional)

In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, warm the tortilla for 1 minute. Add the shredded cheese in a thick ribbon down the middle of the tortilla. Cover with a lid and turn off the heat.

In a small bowl, re-heat the salmon in the microwave. I usually use half power to reheat things and this is important with the salmon since you don't want to overcook it. Depending on your microwave, try about 1 minute at half power.

Remove the heated fish to a small plate and use the same bowl to heat the rice, tomato, parsley and lemon juice. Once warmed through, stir the mixture.

Remove the lid from over the cheesy tortilla, turn the heat to medium, and add the salmon, placing it over the cheese and a bit to each side, leaving sections on both sides of the tortilla uncovered. Repeat with the rice mixture. Add little dollops of the sour cream over the center of the rice strip if using. Replace the lid and let the whole concoction heat for 1/2 minute. Turn off the heat, remove the lid and fold in the uncovered sections of the tortilla. Remove to a plate and serve, garnished with a wedge of lemon, if desired.

A Twist on Irish Soda Bread

It was rainy day before yesterday, the perfect weather for winter in Northern California. It's also good weather for baking. I have been trying to bake less because I'm reducing my caloric intake and Sweetie finds that when I bake less he weighs less, too. Tuesday all those thoughts went out the window because it was the perfect afternoon for tea and something baked. The questions was, what to bake? I have some new baking related cookbooks with recipes begging to be made...and I will. But sometimes the best thing to do is just to put a twist on an old familiar recipe. I discovered a few strips of bacon in the fridge, some pecans in the depths of the bottom shelf of the fridge and a nice jug of maple syrup from Costco that isn't getting any younger. Best of all I had a quart of buttermilk...more than enough for a nice loaf of Irish Soda Bread.

I love making Irish Soda Bread. It doesn't need any eggs, it goes together quickly, it is free form and looks very artisanal without trying, and it is delicious warm or cold. Fresh out of the oven (and cooled only slightly), it is heavenly.

So the twist this time was to make Pecan Bacon Maple Irish Soda Bread. Perhaps that makes it more Southern than Irish, but the original recipe is from my very Irish Aunt May, so I'm calling it that even with the additions.

The bacon was the star here, followed by the pecans. Who can hate bacon combined with pecans? The maple flavor was a harmonious background flavor, less assertive than I had thought it would be given that I used a full 1/2 cup! The buttermilk gave it moistness and a bit of a tang. I had to hide 3/4 of the loaf so that Sweetie wouldn't gobble it all up, it was that good! You don't need any additional butter, but it is hard to resist slathering on some. If you made up some maple butter that would be a grand addition.

The key to success with this recipe is to handle things gently, especially the dough once the liquid has been added. The mass of dough going into the oven looks like it barely holds together, but it bakes up as a nice craggy loaf with a tender interior. Too much or too firm handling will give you something more akin to a brick, so resist making a nice, neat loaf, OK?

Maple Pecan Bacon Soda Bread
Makes one large loaf

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
8 oz. (2 sticks) cold butter, in thin slices
½ cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup cooked, crumbled bacon
½ cup maple syrup
2 cups buttermilk

Sift the dry ingredients over the butter and cut in well with a fork or pastry blender. Add nuts and bacon; mix in gently but well. Add the maple syrup to the buttermilk and make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the buttermilk mixture, then mix just until moist - don’t over handle.

Some dry stuff is OK but the dough should be sticky.

Pat into a round on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Cut a cross on top. Bake 45 minutes at 350 F. Cool a bit before slicing.

Good with a spread made of softened butter and maple syrup, whipped together.
 

Another Kind of Pie

This month the Bread Baking Babes' Kitchen of the Month is Tanna's My Kitchen in Half Cups. She has gathered us around her virtual table with a delicious recipe to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of the Bread Baking Babes. The official Syrian name is syrian sabanrhiyat and they are delightful spinach pies, but with bread dough, instead of pastry, holding the spinach filling together. The combination of mahlab, pomegranate arils and feta cheese certainly give them a Syrian flavor. Unfortunately I neglected to purchase the mahlab, and the arils, plus my spinach was frozen, chopped, instead of fresh. The good news is that they were wonderful little pies even without those goodies!

My dough was really sticky, so it was a bit of a challenge to roll out. If you read the directions, you'll see that we were not supposed to roll it all out as a sheet of dough, but roll out 24 pieces of it, each to about 6 inches in diameter. In my defense, the video that showed how to shape them used a rolled out sheet of dough. A large round cutter was used to cut the dough into circles. I liked that the circles were then, mostly, even. That should make the shaping easier, right? So that's what I did. I had a nice 4-inch in diameter cutter, which made for smaller pies, but they were also easy to handle.

I cupped each dough circle in one palm, added about a tablespoon of filling, then smooshed the edges of three places on the outer diameter (about even from each other) into the middle and together. That left three openings, which I pinched together, one by one, in a more-or-less straight line. That gave me the 'Y' shaped closure. My dough was so soft that it didn't hold any shape very well, so the pies were a bit rounded 'Y's after they baked as you can see in the photo at the top of the post.

The filling included the sautéed onion, the feta cheese, the chopped walnuts, the lemon juice, and spinach from the freezer (which I thawed and then put in a wire mesh strainer, which allowed me to push out a lot of excess liquid. Since the finished filling was plenty moist, I'm glad I did.) I added some freshly ground nutmeg to the dough since I know that spinach and nutmeg are great together. I also cut the recipe in half. Even then I had more little pies than I wanted, so I did a crescent with the leftovers, kind of like the Yule Wreath that the Babes did a few years ago.

I highly recommend that you make these yummy pies. I'll bet that the ones with the pomegranate and mahlab are even better, and with fresh spinach the absolute best. Do be sure to check out the other Babes' sites since some of them have come up with different fillings!

Check out Tanna's site for the recipe and tips and gorgeous photos. If you want to be a Buddy (of course you do!) e-mail her with your story about baking these beauties and a photo.

I'm sending this along to Susan at Wild Yeast for her weekly wonderland of bread baking links, Yeastspotting. Check it out, too, to be inspired and to find great recipes.

Now, I'm going to go eat a couple of the spinach pies that I saved. I noticed that when I do my write-up that I really, really want to have a taste by the time I'm done. Don't you? Well, get baking!

Here is Elizabeth's version of the recipe (for mine, omit the mahlab but add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg for it, also omit the pomegranate seeds and use frozen, thawed, drained spinach...and cut amounts in recipe by half since I only made half the recipe - see notes in italic for my changes) :

Assyrian Spinach Pies

DOUGH
1 tablespoon active dry yeast, (2 1/4 teaspoons) = 1 package
2 cups warm water (105° to 115°)
1/2 teaspoon ground mahlab, I'll use 3/4 to a full teaspoon next time
5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus more for kneading, use some white whole wheat next time
1 tablespoons granulated sugar, I cut this back from 2 tablespoons
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup olive oil

FILLING

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, cut this from 1/2 cut
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 pound cleaned baby spinach, coarsely chopped
160 grams chopped walnuts, I increased this from 4 oz.
1 cup pomegranate seeds, increase these from 1/2 cup
2 cup crumbled feta cheese, increased from 1 cup
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt
1/2 - 1 cup lentils, optional but this was nice
Olive oil cooking spray
Plain yogurt for serving

Directions:
1. Whisk together the dry ingredients: yeast, flax, mahlab (or nutmeg for Elle), flours, sugar, salt.

Mix together water (I usually "warm" it by microwaving it about 15 seconds, it's just above room temp then) and olive oil.

2. Pour water, olive oil into dry ingredients and mix together until the dough gathers into a rough ball. Let rest 5 to 10 minutes letting the flour absorb some of the water.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured counter until the dough becomes smooth, elastic, soft and slightly sticky dough ball - mine took about 6 minutes.

3. WASH AND DRY THE BOWL - now ain't that a kick in the pants, how many Babes are going to follow that directive. We know Elizabeth will. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! and rub it lightly with olive oil Elizabeth won't do that part (but Elle will!).

Place the dough ball into a rising container … I have a wonderful straight side clear 4 qt container with lid: I can easily see when the dough has doubled in volume. The lid means I don't have to use plastic or even a shower cap.
Allow the dough to double in volume - mine took about 90 minutes: if you press a finger into the dough and release it, a depression should remain.

4. If you follow the recipe directions and divide the dough into 24 pieces (about 2 oz each) you'll get what I consider a reasonable portion size hand pie although we were all eating at least one and a half each. I actually weighted the balls and they ranged from 50 to 60 grams each. I might have enjoyed them more made slightly smaller say weighting closer to 40 grams.

When the balls are formed, allow to rest so they will be easier to roll out.
If you've made the full recipe and don't want to make them all at one go, my suggestion here would be to immediately cover however many you want to bake tomorrow or the next day and retort the balls in the fridge.
Allow the dough balls you plan on baking to rest for the 30 minutes before rolling them out.
Elle: I didn't make balls, but did let the dough rest before rolling it out.

5. Saute the onion in the olive oil, they should be nicely caramelized. Allow to cool.

6. Chop the spinach and mix with chopped walnuts, pomegranate seeds, feta, lemon juice and the olive oil. Mix all with the sautéed onions.
Elle: I left out the pomegranate seeds.
Good ideas for alternatives: pine nuts, dried cranberry, dried cherry, goat cheese, small cubes or large grating of any cheese you like, lentils I added one night to some of the filling was a real winner.

7. Preheat the oven.
Elle: I lined the cookie sheet with a Silpat but parchment paper would equally as well.

8. With a light to good dusting of flour on your counter, roll the dough ball into a thin 6-inch circle. I tried to really fill these and used at least 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the filling for each one.
Elle: I rolled out the dough and cut 4-inch circles with a round cutter, then filled them and sealed, pretty much like the recipe description below.

Pile 1/2 cup of the filling, loosely measured, onto the center of the circle, leaving about 1 inch of dough exposed all around. Brush the exposed dough lightly with water. Imagining the circle to be a clock, lift up the edges of dough at the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions to cover the top part of the filling and pinch firmly to seal, going all the way to 12 o’clock. Lift the 6 o’clock position of dough to meet in the center and pinch the two edges firmly to seal. The seams will look like an inverted Y. Set the pie on one of the prepared sheets.

9. Before putting into the oven, rush the pies with olive oil before baking.
Elle: I forgot to brush mine with anything.
10. Preheat oven.
11. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 375° to 380° depending on your oven.

Storing
Leftover pies can be frozen. When cool, arrange them on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Transfer them to heavy-duty re-sealable plastic bags and freeze for up to 1 month. To reheat, thaw the pies in their wrapping, then set them on a baking sheet and pop into a preheated 350°F oven for 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Pie in Petaluma

As you might have guessed, I have a weakness for baked goods. I can drive by a bakery I'm familiar with and there is a tug drawing me to turn in and park and go buy one of their delicious goodies...even if I just ate and have no room for such a goody. My solution has been to avoid going in the first time. If I have no idea if anything delicious is inside there is no tug...or not much of one.

I've been to downtown Petaluma a few times since Petaluma Pie Company opened their doors, but I kept telling myself to not go in. Today Sweetie and I were at Copperfields on Kentucky St. in Petaluma and as we left the store I saw a round sign that said, 'Pie' and there was an arrow pointing toward the shop where they sell their pies. It was lunch time. We followed the arrow, went down a couple short flights of stairs to a nice pocket park and found the Pie Company open for business. Now I'll be getting tugs every time I'm in Petaluma.

It's a small shop and I suspect that a large portion of their business is take-out. We decided to go with two different types of hand pies; a mushroom with goat cheese and a spinach with feta cheese.

Both were delicious, especially the pie crust, which is very flaky and delicate with just the right amount of flavor. The mushroom filling was  a little smoother than the spinach and it had a wonderful earthy taste from lots of quality mushrooms. I had the spinach one and it was just perfect with lots of spinach and feta cheese and probably some onion.

Sweetie finished his and still looked a bit hungry. We could have had some lovely side salad but chose to try another pie instead. We shared one of the 6-inch coconut cream pies which again had a high quality and delicious crust. The filling had a nice hit of vanilla and coconut and meringue on top in a decorative pattern, plus a bit more coconut. I prefer a filling that is creamier but this was like a firm pudding and it was quite good.

We both had hot chocolate with the pie and you should consider having it, too. A full mug is served of piping hot chocolate that tastes like it is made from scratch with excellent quality cocoa or maybe even chocolate. It isn't as rich as French hot chocolate, but is much richer than what is usually served in most places around here when I order hot chocolate. UPDATE: The nice folks at the Pie Company let me know via Facebook a little more about the hot chocolate:  "FYI our hot chocolate is made with Tcho drinking chocolate and organic Straus milk. See you soon!"



There were many other pies on offer, including the day's special which was pear, ginger and cardamom pie with a double crust. A full size Shaker lemon pie looked good. There were smaller sizes of chocolate cream, banana cream, apple, lemon meringue, sweet potato and an Elvis pie which I think had chocolate, peanut butter and, maybe, banana. The savory offerings included a chicken empanada handpie, one with potato and peas, a chicken pot pie and more.

All in all, I encourage you to visit if you are ever in downtown Petaluma, CA. They do take orders online, but only for pick-up, not to mail to you. Guess I'm going to have to drive a bit away from downtown when I'm in Petaluma to avoid that tug, or else just enjoy the calories and eat pie first!

Petaluma Pie Company
125 Petaluma Blvd. N. Suite B, Petaluma, CA 94952

(Inside of Helen Putnam Plaza behind Starbucks)
707-766-6743
Mon - Thr 11am - 7pm
Fri - Sat 11am - 9pm
Sun 10am - 6pm

Fantan Round-Up

I really enjoyed the Jam Fantans I made, but when I saw the beautiful and drool worthy ones made by this month's Bread Baking Buddies, I wanted at least one of each to enjoy with some hot tea. These women are clearly excellent bakers since they were able to figure out my slightly wonky recipe and to make rolls with a variety of fillings. My hat is off to each of you! Thanks for baking with the Bread Baking Babes this January. The year is off to a good start! Don't miss our Anniversary recipe which will be posted on Feb. 16th.

In alpha order by first name:

Carola of Sweet and That's It
Carola baked gorgeous fantans which included maple syrup, apricot jam and mixed toasted chopped nuts. The nuts made these look even more delicious than ones without, but maybe that's because I love nuts.    

Cathy of Bread Experience
Cathy filled her delicious looking fantans with lemon jelly and strawberry vanilla jam She also used her own sourdough starter.

Connie of My Discovery of Bread
Connie created stunning fantans with lychee jam and marmalade for a friend. Wish I had a friend like that!  

Gilad of Especially Sweet
Gilad's stunning fantans were made with beautiful handmade strawberry jam giving bright red spot to the rolls. I can imagine the wonderful flavor, too.

Kate of FoodBabbles

Imagine how delicious Kate's fantans were since she filled them with either cinnamon sugar or peach lavender jam. Lovely to look at, too, almost like flowers.

Sandie of Crumbs of Love
Sandie made speculaa flavored fantans for a wonderful spicy treat. I have a huge sweet tooth, so I also love the icing.

Again, thank you all for being Bread Baking Buddies this month! Hope you'll bake with us next month, too.
XO Elle

Sweet Way with a Veggie

Sweetie loves carrot cake. We don't have it very often, probably in part because I prefer chocolate cake, but we will be having some tonight. He was such a trooper, practically perfect in fact, during the ups and downs of my recent illness, that he deserves a treat. This one even comes with some veggies and nuts, so it isn't too wicked...unless you add the addictive cream cheese frosting. I also made a mini, pictured here, as a birthday cake for a friend. Even birthdays you don't want to celebrate deserve cake.

This one is the one I found in Dorie Greenspan's modern classic book Baking, From my home to yours. I followed it nearly to the letter, the only changes being that I used 1/2 cup less sugar than the recipe calls for and I decreased the oil by 1/4 cup and replaced that with soft unsalted butter. The oily taste has always been one of the things I don't enjoy with traditional carrot cake, so a little butter helps. It also makes the cake a touch lighter in texture. This one doesn't have any pineapple in it, nor raisins, nor cranberries, just carrots, coconut and pecans. I did add a teaspoon of vanilla, too, again to mask some of the oily flavor.

It makes a gigantic three layer cake, or, as I did, two small mini cakes and one thick layer. It is firm enough to cut the layers in half so you can put icing between the halves and on top. I used my friend Lori's thirty year old cream cheese frosting which has a touch of sour cream in it for a nice zing. It goes really well with carrot cake (and is great with Red Velvet Cake if you are planning to make that for Valentine's Day...never too soon to plan sweet surprises!) and there is plenty. The icing, by some magic alchemy, really brings out the flavors of the carrots and the cinnamon. Well worth the calories.

On the health front, seeing doc tomorrow, which should be the end of it. Still tire easily and I take naps, which is very unusual for me, but feel blessed that all is well again in general.

Mostly Dorie Carrot Cake with Lori's Cream Cheese Icing

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups grated carrots (about 9-10 carrots)(this is a good place to use organic carrots, if available)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 cup canola or safflower oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened butter
4 large eggs at room temperature

Butter and flour 3 9-inch cake pans or equivalent. Place oven racks to divide oven into thirds. Put cake pans on baking sheets, two to one sheet, one on another sheet. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In one bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
In another bowl combine the grated carrots, chopped pecans and shredded coconut.

In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the oil and butter together, then add the sugar and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until barely combined. Gently mix in the carrot mixture. Divide the batter into the prepared pans.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 - 50 minutes, rotating the pans top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. When done, a thin knife inserted in the center will come out clean.

Place cakes on a cooling rack and cool 5 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pans and unmold them. Invert so tops of cakes are right side up and cool on cooling rack.

Make the Cream Cheese Icing (recipe below). Place 1/3 of the icing between each layer and the final third on the top, swirling the icing so its thick by the edges of the cake (which means you will be able to see some of the icing between the layers). Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to set the frosting. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Serves 8 - 10.

For mini cakes, I baked some of the batter in a small 5" (I think, but could have been 4 or 4 1/2 inch) springform pan. Once the cake was cool, I split it horizontally. The bottom layer went on the plate, then some icing, which I swirled out to the edges, then the top layer and more icing on top. Since it was for a birthday, I added some heart shaped decor candies, silver balls and a candle. Party!

Lori's Cream Cheese Icing
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter, cream cheese, sour cream and vanilla together until fluffy. Then mix in gradually
the powdered sugar. Start with 2 cups and add to desired texture and taste by ¼ cup at a time.

Spread between layers, and on top of cake.

Three Kinds of Bread

For the third time in as many years I gathered a few weeks ago with women friends and baked bread. The friends gathered around the table have shifted slightly each time, but there has been a core group.

At first there was a fair amount of trepidation. That 'fear of yeast' is not uncommon. The first year we used a stand mixer since I thought that would help - just let the machine do all that kneading! Not as successful as I had hoped, so last year we went with breads created using thawed frozen bread dough. That worked for getting past the fear and some lovely breads were made after, all on their own.

This year I decided that we should get our hands covered with dough as we made focaccia. In case you haven't guessed, I'm teaching during these sessions. Seemed to me that we were ready to start from scratch and really get the feel of silky, supple kneaded dough. It worked! Everyone created great focaccia (in teams) and I think they all feel confident now to make it on their own.

The other two breads which I demonstrated were Aunt May's Irish Soda Bread (no yeast) and the shaping technique for the Pesto Rose that the Bread Baking Babes made in October. We did a cinnamon and sugar version of it, too. Next time? Already have requests for Sticky Buns and scones. Just wish I could do a Bread Baking Day like this with the Bread Baking Babes one day. I'll post Aunt May's Irish Soda Bread another day with more how-to photos.

I'm sending this over to Susan at Wild Yeast for her fabulous Yeastspotting weekly event. Stop by there as often as you can for yeast bread inspiration!

Your Guide to Making FocacciaIn general: Start with ingredients at room temperature. Gather together the items (including pans) needed for the recipe to make sure you have them, and enough of them. This is called mis en place, or gathering in place. Read the recipe all the way through at least once before starting. Feel free to contact me if you find yourself stuck at any point when you make this yourself. Sometimes it takes a few trials to feel comfortable with the process.

Focaccia:
Ever since ancient times women have mixed flour, yeast and water together to make bread, working and kneading the dough with their hands until it becomes smooth and supple. This bread is a good one because it only has to rise a little and it has the lovely fragrance and taste of olive oil and salt. I like to add fresh rosemary, too. We are going to do a rapid rise version, but if you have lots of time, you can use less yeast and let it rise a few times before baking. For even more flavor, you can put the dough in the fridge overnight and then let it rise a few times.

Fast Focaccia

1 (1/4 ounce) packet active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water (105-115 degrees)
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Toppings: olive oil, fresh rosemary, minced; Parmesan cheese, grated; sea salt, olives

Directions:

1. Mix the yeast, sugar & water in a small bowl. Let proof for 10 minutes (bubbles begin to form)

2. In large bowl, stir together flour and salt. Make a well in the center for the yeast mix and oil.

3. Add the yeast mix and olive oil to the dry ingredients and combine. Dough will be shaggy.

4. When dough has pulled together, turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 5 - 10 minutes.

5. Gather into a ball. With hands coated with olive oil, oil the surface of the dough ball. Turn the bowl over the dough ball. Let dough rise in a warm place for 25 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put 2 tablespoons olive oil into bottom of 9 or 10 inch diameter cake pan. Swirl to coat bottom and sides with the oil. Repeat with another 2 tablespoons olive oil in another pan.

7. Punch risen dough down.

8. Divide dough in half. Place one piece of dough in each in oiled cake pan. Spread dough toward sides with your fingers, pushing fingers down into dough to create dimples or pockets.

9. Drizzle top of each pan with 1 tablespoons olive oil, then sprinkle with fresh rosemary and some Parmesan cheese or sea salt, if desired. Cover and let rise 15 minutes. Uncover.

10. Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown. Turn out of pan and turn right side up.

Better and Better

To all of you who have been thinkng good thoughts, sending good vibes, saying prayers and lifting me up, thank you! I'm doing much better. Hope to be posting some food posts soon :)  XO Elle

Jam Fantans for January

Hope you have had a chance to visit the blogs of the beautiful Babes who have bee good Babes and posted the January recipe. it's a good thing that Babes have no rules because I'm pretty late in posting considering I'm Kitchen of the Month. One of the things that means is that all the Babes got the recipe a while ago in early December. I baked my January version a couple of weeks ago. Will try to remember it all. The med-induced fuzz brain is clearing but still somewhat fuzzy.

I love whole grain and seedy savory breads and breads with savory fillings like pesto, but I do have a real sweet tooth, too.

Jam Fantans rolls are a great find for a sweet tooth because, well, there's jam!, and they are pretty to look at and single serving, too. You can freeze them for that day when you need just  a little sweet to go with you coffee or tea. I made two favors in January. My favorite is made with slightly tangy marmalade, all orange and sticky. Sweetie loved the ones with raspberry jam, which were also pretty with the pink layers. Not a big sweets fan? Go for savory! Pesto, butter and herbs, spicy tomato sauce can all stand in for the jam. No jam? To keep it sweet you can sub in Nutella, butter and cinnamon sugar, butter and a thick applesauce, butter and raisins or currants for the jam. Just be sure to leave that 1/6th space without jam, although the butter under the jam in the photo below did go over the whole dough rectangle.

The best advice I can offer is to have a good sized work surface ready, your dough at room temperature and a sharp a knife or bench scraper handy. The filling will squish out a little after the dough strips are stacked when you cut the strips into six pieces, but that's OK. There will still be plenty of filling. To be honest, I was drawn to this for the technique as much as for the dough, so feel free to substitute your favorite rich dough as long as you try the strips of dough stacked, cut and fanned in small baking container technique.

I do hope you will try this technique out, and be a Buddy. To be a Buddy, email me at plachman*at*sonic*dot*net with a photo of your Fantans and a short description of you experience with them. I'll send you your badge as soon as health allows. Last day to send is Jan. 29  & hope to have round up posted here a few days later. I know a lot of Buddies and great bakers are on out Facebook site, so will try to do a link there soon, as wheel as at round-up time. Bear with me, OK? Probably would have rewritten the recipe to clean it up if hospitilization had not gotten in the way, so hope you can do OK with what is below. Read all the way through first, OK?

Sweet Orange Marmalade Fantan Rolls

THERE IS AN ADDITIONAL SET OF INSTRUCTIONS AT THE END - PLEASE READ!

Makes 12 rolls

Equipment
stand mixer with hook attachment (or mixing bowl and wooden spoon)
large mixing bowl, lightly coated with cooking spray (or clean, if you prefer)
12 cup standard muffin tin, buttered
Ingredients
3-4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 cup whole wheat bread flour (see update)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 cup whole wheat sourdough starter OR 1 package of RapidRise yeast mixed with ¼ cup warm water (see update at end)
1 cup non fat evaporated milk
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter
¼ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup egg substitute OR 1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided (see update)
2/3 cup marmalade (about), warmed

Preparation

Sift 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, the 1 cup of whole wheat bread flour, salt, and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Stir until well blended. Set aside.

Placed evaporated milk, butter and maple syrup into a saucepan and heat until butter is nearly melted. Remove from heat. Stir a few minutes to help mixture cool. Let cool to 110 degrees F.

Add yeast (sourdough or fresher) mixture to milk mixture, then add milk mixture to flour mixture; beat well. Add egg and vanilla; stir until blended. Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, stir until thoroughly incorporated. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that is rather sticky.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 3 minutes or until dough is smooth and silky. (Add additional flour if needed while kneading, but only enough to keep it from sticking a lot.) Place in oiled (or clean if you are Elizabeth) bowl, turn dough to lightly coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Dust your work surface with flour. Punch down the dough, then halve it. Wrap one half in the plastic wrap and set aside. Roll the other half into a 12×12-inch (30.5×30.5 cm) square. You may have to roll slightly larger, and then trim the ends to even out the square. Brush dough with half the melted butter.


Spread the surface of the dough with about 1/2 the warmed marmalade, leaving 1/6 strip plain. This will allow you to have a plain side of dough on each side of the roll touching the muffin cup. Cut into 6 equal strips, then stack the strips on top of each other with the plain strip on top. Cut through the layers into 6 equal pieces, then place each into a buttered muffin cup, standing up so the layers are visible. Gently fan them open. Each will have six dough pieces with marmalade or other filling in between. Repeat with the remaining dough and the rest of the marmalade for the other six cups of the muffin tin.

Cover with a tea towel and let the rolls rise in a draft free spot at warm room temperature until the dough doubles, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. (Optional - I put a piece of plastic wrap between the rolls and the towel because of the sticky marmalade.)

Place the rack in the middle and preheat the oven to 375° F/190° C.

Remove the towel and bake the rolls until they are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan ten minutes, then transfer to a rack and allow to cool for about another 20 minutes before serving. If desired, drizzle a glaze of 1 teaspoon milk whisked together with enough confectioners' sugar (icing sugar) to make a drizzle that will not spread too much. Use the tines of a fork to drizzle it on. Let dry before serving the rolls.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
1) If you don't have sourdough starter, you can combine a packet of dry yeast, 1/2 cup of warm water and 1/2 cup flour and let the mixture sit uncovered. I let mine sit for 4 hours, then made the recipe pretty much as written, using an additional 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour plus a little more flour on the board while kneading, and a little more later when shaping.

2) The butter references are confusing. 4 oz (1/2 stick) of melted butter is used in the dough. The rest of the stick is melted later and brushed, about 2 oz each, on the two rolled out dough squares before the jam is added. A small amount of butter is used to grease the muffin cups.

3) This is an easy dough to make without a machine. The recipe has been edited for how to use the sourdough starter or yeast mixture. I started with the mixture in #1, then stirred in the melted butter, milk and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Then I stirred the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients although the recipe puts it the other way. Then I kneaded the dough which meant a little more flour was incorporated. It makes a nice, supple, soft, and silky dough...a pleasure to work with.

4) When shaping, I brushed the whole square of dough with the melted butter, but put the jam only on 5/6th of the dough so that one strip, which was placed on top of the stack, was buttered but had no jam.

5) Be careful to watch these at 20 minutes and until they are finished. Due to the high sugar jam they can burn easily. It's also a good idea to place a drip pan on the rack under the one with the muffin tin to catch any dripping jam.

Remember, YOU can be a Bread Baking Babes Buddy...just email by Jan. 29th. Sorry, some photos got lost in the fog, but can be found on other Babes blogs.

Best Laid Plans

Dear Reader,

I know that my experiences with kidney stones since last Wednesday through now, both in the hospital and doing self-care at home, may lead to a funny story one day. At the moment I'm not in pain, although I'm very, very tired. Will be having some out-patient procedures and a doc visit tomorrow.

The best laid plans sometimes go awry. Today I was to post on Jam Fantans, the Bread Baking Babes recipe for the month. Since I'm also the Kitchen of the Month, the fact that it might be days before I can put together a coherent post is somewhat upsetting. The good news is that Elizabeth has posted the recipe on her post and perhaps other Babes, too. I'm sure their versions were wonderful! Do go and visit their blogs and see, OK?

If you want to be a Buddy, send me an e-mail with a photo and notes about our fantans. E-mail address is at top right of this blog in web view.

Thats all for now.  XO Elle

Soup for the New Year

Happy New Year dear reader! I hope that your holidays were wonderful. With all of the rich foods I ate for the last month I'm ready for soup. It's usually fairly healthy, and perfect when the weather is chilly...which it is now here. Soup is one of my favorite foods...along with chocolate. I rarely write down recipes for the soups I make because my favorite ones are mixtures of onions, often garlic, sometimes carrots and celery, usually various veggies and broth, plus appropriate herbs and some pepper. I use what is in the pantry, in the fridge, in the garden and adjust the amounts both to what is on hand and what I feel like highlighting that day. Often the soup is a wonderful way to use up leftovers so I don't find little containers with exotic decomposed bits of this and that when I clean the fridge.

 Day before yesterday I finally found the time to make soup with my last garden grown butternut squash. The peeled chunks of squash were the most gorgeous golden color, even after being roasted in a very hot oven until soft. The pot also contained my usual chopped onions and some garlic, chunks of peeled garnet yam, chunks of a half a Granny Smith apple, peels left on, and chicken broth. After everything was nice and soft from simmering, I added cayenne pepper to contrast with the sweetness of the squash, apple and yams. I also added some ground ginger and some thyme, rosemary and mint for herbs plus lots of freshly ground black pepper.

I used an immersion blender to smooth it out a bit, but there was still plenty of texture. I also added a half cup of buttermilk and a half cup regular milk, plus some more broth until I had just the right consistency.

A few days before I had made a meatloaf with some ground pork, similar herbs to those used in the soup, onion, garlic, cooked bulgher wheat, feta cheese and Parmesan cheese. Once it was baked we had it for dinner with a nice salad, but there was still some left.

At dinnertime yesterday I had one of those 'light bulb' moments when I realized that the flavors of the meatloaf would go really well with those of the soup. I also decided that the soup needed some greens. Just before I was ready to serve, I reheated the meatloaf and cut it into bite sized chunks. In two soup bowls I placed handfuls of washed baby spinach, then microwaved the bowls on high for 2 minutes to wilt the greens. The soup was ladled on top and the chunks of meatloaf topped it all. The photo only shows the soup, with no spinach or meatloaf chunks...seems I forgot to take a photo at dinnertime and was able to do a quick snapshot yesterday at lunchtime when Sweetie was just about ready to polish off the last of the soup in this unadorned state.

The dinnertime soup looked lovely with that golden colored soup and some green from the spinach when I stirred it up. It also smelled wonderful! Best of all the flavors all came together. Sweetie is convinced that this is the best soup I've ever made. I'll let him think that until the next time that inspiration strikes!

Butternut Squash Soup with Spinach

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 average-sized Butternut Squash
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium yellow onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium to large sweet potato or yam
½ large Granny Smith Apple
2 ½ - 3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
½ cup milk
½ cup fat-free buttermilk
½ teaspoon dried ginger powder
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried mint
¼ teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
fresh ground pepper to taste (I used a LOT - gave it a nice kick)
a large handfuls washed baby spinach for each serving
meatloaf chunks (optional)

1. Peel and seed the squash. Cut into 1/2 inch chunks. In a large food safe bag (I use recycled plastic bags from the produce section of the grocery store), combine the squash chunks, 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil, salt and pepper. Spread the squash chunks on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast in a preheated 400 degree F oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

2. Peel onion and chop. Set aside. Peel potato and apples and cut into ¼ inch chunks.

3. Over medium heat in a large saucepan/stock pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil and stir onion and garlic until tender.

4. Add stock, yam chunks, apple chunks, and seasonings. Give it a good stir, reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 20 minutes until the yam and apple chunks are fork tender. Add the reserved roasted squash chunks and stir. Heat another 2-3 minutes to heat the squash. Remove from heat.

5. In a blender or food processor scoop about ½ of the mixture into blender. On low speed, blend until nicely pureed. While doing this, add about ¼ cup of milk and ¼ cup of buttermilk until creamy. Transfer this to a bowl or a 2nd pot. Alternately, use an immersion blender to puree the whole pot of soup in the pot, being sure to add the milk and buttermilk (a total of ½ cup each milk and buttermilk) .

6. Repeat step 5, adding another ¼ cup of milk and ¼ cup buttermilk and transfer to bowl or pot; continue until all soup has been creamed.

7. Put soup back on very low heat, stirring to blend, and adding lots of black pepper...yum! Simmer for 15 minutes and taste soup. Adjust seasonings and, if needed, more broth, to get the consistency you like. Simmer another 2 minutes at very low heat.

8. To serve, place a handful of washed baby spinach leaves in the bottom of each microwavable bowl for the number you are serving. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Top each portion of wilted spinach with a serving of the soup. Garnish as desired. For a hearty soup, top with chunks of warm meatloaf as I did.

Yuletide Treat

When my Mom was a child the family would gather at one of the aunt's homes and the dessert highlight at Christmas was plum pudding with hard sauce. When I was little we always had lots of cookies, but the highlight of Christmas dinner was the Lane Cake. Lane Cake is a layer cake with a plain white cake for the layers and a rich, fruity, bourbon-laced filling and frosting between the layers and on the top and sides.

We used to start making the Lane Cake the day after Thanksgiving to give the concoction time for the bourbon to mellow and mingle with all those dried and candied fruits. Coconut was fresh and grated by hand. The raisins were put through the meat grinder and came out in long black snakes. The candied cherries were bright red and green and had to be cut up by hand...a sticky business. Pecans were chopped, too. It was a good thing that we had lots of willing hands to help out with all the prep. Mom baked the cake layers and I think Dad assigned us the different prep tasks. The most difficult part was getting the filling just right. Cook it for too short a time and it would slide down the sides and cook it for too long and it turned grainy. You served it in thin slices since it was so rich.

When I had children of my own I made Lane Cake once to carry on the tradition, but found that I was the only one who enjoyed it, so it really wasn't worth all the work. I found that gingerbread, both as cookies and as houses, was what my family wanted for Christmas...and cookies, too.

Last spring when I was working on the Classic Comfort Foods Cookbook I found out that my niece Mandy had become the family Lane Cake maker and that she had changed the recipe a bit, especially by using dried natural cherries instead of the candied ones. The family had also discovered that the cake was fine if you only made it a week ahead of Christmas and also that you could just put the filling between the layers and on the top (but not the sides) which made the consistency of the filling less of an issue.

This year we were thrilled to have Mandy's sister T with us for Christmas. I was thrilled that she made and brought a Lane Cake. I even had the pleasure of being consulted by phone on baking tips the day she made it. It was perfect...moist and flavorful and just a bit boozy. Gorgeous to look at, too, like T herself. We took our portion home and had it with some hot cocoa. It brought back sweet childhood memories for me. Thank you T!  Maybe next year we can bake the cake together?

XO Elle

Lane Cake
from Classic Comfort Foods


Prepare 4 cake pans by greasing them and lining them with waxed paper. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Ingredients
1 cup butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3¼ cups flour, sifted
3½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
8 egg whites

Cream butter; add sugar and vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients. Alternately add dry ingredients and milk to butter mixture. In separate bowl, beat egg whites to soft, glossy points, but not dry. Fold egg whites into batter until incorporated. Divide into the 4 prepared pans. Bake 2 pans to each rack, for 15-20 minutes in preheated oven. Cool 3-5 minutes, loosen edges, and turn out to cool. Remove waxed paper and turn right side up carefully. Set aside while preparing the filling/frosting.

Filling/Frosting
1½ cups seedless raisins
12 egg yolks
1¾ cups sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter
½ cup bourbon whisky
½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped
½ cup red and green candied cherries, quartered - or try modern version (Mandy’s) below
1½ cups coconut, shredded (fresh or frozen)

Cover raisins with hot water, let stand to plump. Drain and dry. Chop or grind (Note: Dad used to grind the raisins in a meat grinder, but they can be chopped with a knife, too.) Put egg yolks in top of double boiler; beat slightly. Add sugar, salt and butter. Put over simmering water. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved, butter melts, and mixture thickens. Do not overcook. Mixture should be almost translucent and should mound when small amount is dropped on waxed paper. Remove from heat; add bourbon. Beat 1 minute with a beater. At this point, mixture can be transferred to a bowl. Fold in nuts, cherries, coconut and raisins. Cool. Spread between layers and on top of cake. (Sides optional) Wrap cake in plastic wrap and mellow one month (or less, about one week, for less stale cake). Serve in thin slices. Serves 20-24.

Niece Mandy’s Modern Lane Cake: “I made the cake the same as the recipe directs; I just did the cakes in 2 batches of 2 pans. 8” this year and 9” last year.

For the filling/frosting, I did a few things differently:

Rather than using 1½ cups raisins and ½ cup candied cherries, I did about 1 ¼ cups dried Traverse City cherries (I’m biased) and ¾ cup other dried fruits (this year was just raisins, but last year I also used currents). I also soak all of these in a combination of freshly-boiled water and a few splashes of bourbon. Just enough liquid to cover the fruit. I then ground about half the fruit and very coarsely chopped the rest, leaving a few whole.

When at the step of combining the eggs, sugar, salt, and butter on top of the double boiler (or bowl over boiling water, like what I used), note that it will take about 30-45 minutes to thicken.”