My First Challah

OK, I get that it's Passover and one is not supposed to be eating the most delicious leavened bread ever, but I just got the Peter Reinhart Bread baker's apprentice book today (from a most delightful friend), and a proper bread knife, so I had to make some bread that I could eat today. Plus, I'd been away from blokey for 4 days, and it's good to give the fella reminders of why it's so awesome to have me around. This was the only loaf that looked yummy and only required about 4 hours. Granted, I started this around 7 so we sat down to eat at midnight, but he's on Hawai'i time most of the week, so it worked out well.
I made a few variations. Like, I subbed one cup of whole wheat for a cup of unbleached flour. I have no instant yeast, and so I multiplied the amount by 1.333 and used the regular yeast. I used 3 eggs instead of 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks. I didn't quite cook it for 40 minutes. I fugded the rising times and failed to do an egg wash (I'm stingy with my cage free vegetarian fed eggs). Instead, I sort of did an olive oil rubdown instead. (Try not to think too hard about it).

"I can't believe it's Passover" Challah bread (adapted from Peter Reinhart)
3 c. of unbleached white flour (King Arthur, if possible)
1 c. of whole wheat flour
2 Tbs of sugar
1 tsp of salt
about 2 tsp of active dry yeast
3/4 c. plus 2 Tbs of lukewarm water (90 degrees. I just mixed boiling water with Brita water and tested it with my wrist)
3 eggs
2 Tbs. of olive oil

Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl. Combine the two and start kneading away. You may need to add more flour, but it will be a pretty wet dough. Knead for 6 minutes if you've got a dough hook. I do not, so I did it for 10. The book said that the bread should pass the windowpane test. (Not even close for me. But we had to run to the store before it closed for split peas, so I covered it with a cloth napkin and hoped for the best, and ran off.)
One hour later, punch down the dough and form into a ball, cover, and let rise another hour or until 1.5 times larger.

after second rise

After second rise, divide the dough into 3 balls. The book says to look it hang out for 10 minutes, but I was impatient, as usual. Roll the balls into rolls that are pretty long and thin (as long as you can make them on your cutting board). Pinch the three rolls on one end on a cookie sheet, and braid the rolls, like you would hair. Lightly brush with olive oil or egg wash (or grease it up with your hands, if you're low rent like me).
Cover with a damp tea towel/cloth napkin and let rise another hour or until 1.5 times larger. Before that's all over, preheat the oven to 350.

post rising

Bake for 20 minutes and then rotate the pan in the oven and let bake another 20 minutes.

after 20 minutes (and rotating)

done baking

I can't believe it's a real bread knife!

This tasted great with just plain butter. We ate it with split pea soup, made in the new pressure cooker (thanks to my coworkers), and some fancy cheese (the cheese was not necessary).

Crumb shot

I hear that challah makes great French toast. We'll find out tomorrow.

Fairway! and Bread!

There's some kind of dire snow situation going on here on the Eastern seaboard, but the moderating Atlantic winds have evidently killed off anything interesting from aculumating here. I'm supposed to finishing up (more like starting) these conference papers, but I'm also cooking and eating! And baking!

First is a ridiculous meal that blokey and I shared on Wednesday. It comes from Joan Schwartz' "Macaroni and Cheese: 52 recipes, from simple to sublime." A lovely colleague lent the book to me, and we actually ate the Swiss Mac and Potatoes during Thanksgiving. I've been dying to reproduce it since. This past week was my first week of the spring semester (only 15 or so weeks to go), and I was knackered on Wednesday evening. So of course, I walked up to Fairway and bought the necessary ingredients.

This was possibly a mistake. Low sodium and low fat swiss lorainne? This is what happens when you shop sleepy.

The Colavita was yummy. And not too pricey (thanks Fairway)

Dood, give me cheese and carbs over booze any day.

Swiss Mac with Potatoes (adapted from Joan Schwartz)
total time: about 1 hour
serves 4
Ingredients:
butter
1/2 lbs of elbow macaroni
3 small potatoes, sliced 1/2" thick
salt
2 c. of grates Swiss (you could ask the deli for 1/2 lb of medium sliced too)
2 eggs beaten
1 1/2 c. of milk
pepper

Method:
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Butter a 9"x13" pan (I used something a bit smaller, so I bet you could too)
Cook the macaroni until al dente (8 minutes) and boil the potato slices just about 8 minutes (so it pierces with a fork but is still firm). Drain both. I then sliced the potatoes into dices.
Layer macaroni, potatoes and cheese in the pan (cheese should be on top). This should be about 2 layers.
Mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Pour of the top of the pan.
Bake for 30-45 minutes until everything carmelizes on top (that's a long range, but I like it browner, others might not).

pink potatoes from the CSA drop (looks ham like)

Final product (I think that white stuff on the middle is egg white. Note to self, beat the eggs better next time)

Next, let's talk bread. We've been eating this bread all day. It's mostly whole wheat with added fiber via flax seeds, very little kneading, and very flexible time wise. I also adapted this recipe from Smitten Kitchen as well (I'm very devoted to her blog). She calls it "Bread without a timetable." There's no denying that her photos are beautiful and professional, but I think our loaf looks just as nice.


It's not that easy but it's not that hard either, and you can pretty much forget about it over night. And it uses very little yeast, which is great in my book. I'm made some adaptations (like the water bath), though, because I like a crispy crust.

"Writing Conference papers" bread
Time: about 30 minute of effort total, 30-45 minutes of baking, and hours when you should be thinking, writing, thinking.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. of all purpose flour, unbleached
2 1/4 c. of whole wheat flour (I think I will play with the proportions next time)
1/2 c. of warm water
1 c. of milk (or water)
1 teas of honey
1/4 teas of yeast (you can up this 1/2 teas if you're not going to be waiting over night).
1 generous teas of salt (you can up this a bit if you'd like. I thought my bread was a little bland)
1-2 Tbs of ground flax (the recipe called for wheat germ or bran, but this worked as really well)

I had to proof my yeast first, so I mixed the warm water with honey and the 1/4 teas of yeast (did this with 2 packets). After 10 minutes, it should be beer smelly (if it's just honey smelling, move on to the next packet and try again).
Next, mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Then add the water and the about a cup of milk, although you may want to add more water if you need to. This should be on the wetter side, but not a mess all over the bowl. Knead a few minutes until well incorporated.
Flour the dough, put it back in the dough, and cover with a damp towl/cloth napkin. Put in a draft free place overnight (I stuck it in the oven).
Then, go back to work, lazy academic!
In the morning (or afternoon, which is when I often wake up), punch it down and let it rise once more. This was about 2 hours for me (you can do it slightly less).

after the second rise

Then shape into a "baguette". Deb's webpage has great instructions. I just sort of rolled it out with a pin, then rolled it up, tucking in the seams. Place on the baking sheet (or for me, the reused lasagna tray cover).
Cut in 4-5 slits with a knife on top and flour it. Flour it again.

Turn on the oven to 550 degrees (yes!). In the meantime, boil some water, and stick it in an overproof pan (I used a 9" cake pan).
Just before sticking the bread in, place the water bath on the lower rack. Place the bread on the middle rack. Shut the door.

Water bath in action. Note the brand new oven thermometer.

The water brings the heat down and makes a steam bath. After about five minutes, lower the heat to 450. Bake for another 20.
Check and see if it's done (is it hollow sounding when you tap it?) If not, keep it in the oven at 425 for another 5-15 (mine was done after the first 30 minutes).
Wait for it to cool, and eat it with cheese.

Here's a better view of the crumb and the thickness of the upper crust. And my office floor

Nervous Prof's Begining of semester healthier banana bread

(I wasn't able to wait to take a picture before tucking in)

I was gonna post the new no-knead, barely measure Danish style "health" bread (whole meal, low yeast, honey, nuts, muesli, etc) based on the lovely Ganda of Eat Drink One Woman recipe, but I never photographed the bread before Blokey ate it all! gah!!
So instead, I present to you what Lefty Cooks does when nervous, especially about the start of a new semester: cooking and baking galore. I am documenting my dinner, which consisted of me throwing EVERYthing left over from the CSA share (turnips, kohlrabi, summer squash, potatoes, cilantro, chinese broccoli) and made it all Indian flavored mess: Bombay potatoes, Indian spiced chinese broccoli with squash, oven roasted (well, burned) kohlrabi and turnips fries, with Indian seasoning, and an interesting, tomato free chana masala (I substituted low fat yogurt for the tomatoes, and it turned into a kind of cheese); plus brown basmati and fake chapati/naans.
This morning, when I found out that Blokey finished off the health bread, I was hungry like a hippo, but tired and desiring more sleep. But the semester deems that I can't wait up at 10 (or 11, or noon) anymore, so I bleary eyed searched for a recipe to modify (make vaguely more healthy). This is adapted from the much abused Betty Crocker book. Luckily, it is relatively cool in Brooklyn and I found 3 really brown bananas and got to work.

Professah of Love's Banana Health Bread
Preheat oven to 350 F
Cream together:
1 stick (1/2 c.) of softened butter (or if you're impatient, cut it into small squares and it will soften faster. Please for the love of all things good, do not microwave. Earth Balance works too)
1/2 c. natural sugar (or any sweetner, i used some honey too)
Beat until well incorporated. Next add 2 eggs, 1 teas of vanilla extract, and 3 mashed up, very squishy bananas.
Continue to mix. Then add 1/2 c of butter milk (or add about 1 Tablespoon of natural vinegar or lemon juice to milk/soymilk)
Add 2 1/2 c. of whole grain flour, 1 teas of salt and baking soda. Mix together until just wet.
Add 1/2 of chopped nuts (I used almonds- for omega 3s)

Add to a 9" greased pan (or muffin tins), bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes (I went 1 hour 15, and it was slightly burnt). In a muffin, i think its about 20 minutes, but it should crack on top.

Because I used whole grain (I used Hodgson Mill's organic whole wheat, but spelt would be yummy too), it was a little drier and crumblier than usual. And I maybe over cooked it a bit. My photog skillz are still rushed, but here is a picture for you:

Summer Baking

is a stupid thing to do, but when you bake in the late hours, because you've mostly adapted to the owl-like schedule of your live in blokey (like a good, accommodating Azian grrrrl), it's maybe not so crazy.

I baked a pound cake and a some whole wheat bread for a bake sale at the CSA and my own toast-gratification in the past few weeks. The pound cake was mostly Betty Crocker, with a quick soymilk substitution because that's what Bloke likes in his fair trade directly from the African Farmer coffee. I think I tend to just slightly overbake my goods, but no one has complained thus far to me.

Ingredients:
3 c King Arthur unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks of butter (1 c.) softened
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. soy milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube cake pan (I picked my up in Chinatown for a song), 10-inch angel food (tube) cake, or 2 loaf pans.

Mix flour, baking powder and salt; set aside

Beat sugar, butter, almond extract and eggs in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 5 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat in flour mixture alternately with milk on low speed. Pour into pan.

Bake 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (50 minutes for cake pans). Cool 20 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Bake sale was today, in support of the low income grants for the Crown Heights Community Supported Agriculture organization.

Bread:

The bread is a varaiation of "Volkorenbrood", a really dense, hearty whole wheat Dutch bread (which I believe translates into Whole grain or Wholemeal bread). I have been experimenting with Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread and Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (although the second one has been a challenge since I lack sufficient refridgerator space in the shared apartment). Lately, I've been desiring a good, non High Fructose Corn Syrup filled toast bread, and found this recipe on about.com (which can really be a good resource). I was also impatient and did not want to "no knead" and wait forever for the bread.

It was pretty good. I don't know if I kneaded it long enough (you're supposed to be able to stretch it out into a window without the dough breading as indication that you've kneaded enough, but it's hard to tell with whole wheat dough). The bread was dense like that hard core German stuff you see in the deli. It made excellent toast and went well with eggs, jam, and butter. Highly recommend (if you have aggression and would like to work the deltoids in a food-related way).
Vollkorenbrood (adapted from recipe on dutchfood.about.com)

4 cups whole wheat flour

2/3 tbsp salt

1 1/5 cups water

1 1/2 tbsp live yeast

Additional 1/2 cup lukewarm water

olive oil

Proof the yeast (in a glass container, you "wake" it up), in the 1/2 cup of water. Wait until it bubbles. Next, mix the yeast/water mixture with flour, salt, and 1 cup of the water in a large mixing bowl. It should be kind of tacky and wet. Knead for 15 minutes (or use a dough hook on a Kitchen Maid mixer). I hand knead by pushing the ball of my hand into the ball of dough, and the fold it back, rotate it 90 degrees, and push down again. You can add up to 1/2 c more of water (I used about 1/4 cup). Knead until you can make a window (which means that when you hold up a small amount of dough, you can stretch it out like a window between your fingers that you can see through, without the dough breaking). The kneading process activates the gluten, something that would get activated during a longer rising period.

Next, form the dough into a ball with the dough and wrap it with a warm, damp non-terry cloth towel (I used a cloth napkin). Let the dough rise for 30-45 minutes (it should about 1/3 larger). Remove the towel, punch down the dough with your fist, and then form it back into a ball, wrap in the tea towel and again allow to rise for 30-45 minutes.

Grease a loaf pan with olive oil. Take the dough out from the towel and shape it into a the for form the pan. Place the dough in the pan and cover the it with the warm moist tea towel and allow the bread to rise for another 30 minutes until it has increased by 1/3 in volume. I like to cut the bread with a cross pattern on top and dust with more flour (not necessary with sandwich bread).

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. When you're about to bake the bread, place the pan in the oven, and throw in a cup of water (this will create steam). Reduce temperature to 400 degrees F. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds "hollow" when you knock it. Allow to cool on a wire cooling rack.

Eastern Parkway Pizza

Saturday evening pizza, prep time is overnight, but actual pizza to mouth time is about 20 minutes. Feeds several happy and hungry friends.

My brownstone-mates and I get together and eat. It's the best thing ever and I am happy to have a living community that likes each other/eats together.
Yesterday was impromptu, but I had started a 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 white flour cold fermentation pizza dough recipe on Friday night (since I had purchase flour and yeast the at the local Fine Fare, the place where everyone calls you "baby" or "mama"). I riffed a bit off of Heidi Swanson's post of Peter Rhinehart's cold fermentation pizza dough recipe. She did a white and a whole wheat one. But I didn't have "white whole wheat" King Arthur flour as she used, so I went halvies and added a wee bit more liquid. And we played around with the toppings, and the 4 of us ate four pizzas (and later and great dessert. food coma). Reading 101 cookbooks introduced me to the joys of home pizza baking, especially the hardcore and amazing Jeff Varasano, who broke the self-cleaning lock on his home oven to get it at 800degrees. Our oven goes relatively comfortably up to about 525 degrees (F), and that turns out pretty great pizzas in about 10-12 minutes (as opposed to 90 seconds). Evidently, any home pizza baker worth their salt uses a stone, which we don't have. I've read that an untreated ceramic floor tile works as well. Some people keep them in their oven even when not baking pizzas as way to ensure more even heat distribution.

"Crown Heights Hipster* Hovel Pizza"
*(I'm not the hipster, the artists and young people I live with are).

Dough:
2 1/2 c. Whole Wheat flour (chilled)
2 c. white all purpose flour (chilled)
1/4 c. olive oil
1 3/4 c. COLD water
1 teaspoon of instant dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp. of salt
more oil and flour for dusting, etc.
cornmeal for lining pan

Mix the dry ingredients. Then add the water and oil slowly, stirring to incorporate. When it gets to hard, roll up those sleeves and knead and punch and slush together for about 5-6 minutes (having a mixer with a dough hook can simply this step, but oh well). When you are done, it should still be a shaggy and wet ball, just barely clearing the bowl. Next, divide up in to 6 approximately equal balls (or 4 if you like a bigger pizza or thick crust), cover in olive oil, place in individual baggies, and stick in one large ziplock. Refridgerate at least over night, but 2 nights is even better.
Take out the dough about 2 hours before eating pizza. Take out of baggies, place on an oiled cookie sheet and cover with a damp towel (not paper towels, a mistake I only made once). Place in a warm place until read to use.
Preheat over to as high as comfortable. Prepare toppings (we used very little canned marinara sauce, sauteed garlic and mushrooms, fresh basil, fresh mozzerella and pecorino, and roma tomatoes. Less is probably more). When ready, pul apart the dough to desired thickness (it pulls quite thin and don't worry if it tears a little, you can fill it back in). It doens't have to be pretty or symmetrical, it will still taste good. If you can, preheat the pan/stone while prepping ingredients, sprinkle cornmeal on top, and place the stretched out dough onto the pan. Quickly place toppings and stick in the oven, about 10-12 minutes.
Take out, cut up, and eat (not to fast, as its hot).
This dough is crispy outside, soft on the inside, with a great texture from the half whole wheat/half white flour mixture. At high temperatures, the crust cooks as the cheese caramelizes and it looks great (doesn't last long with four hungry hippos, though).