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So even though I’m very happy with my jams this year, and I’m sure all of the jam you canned was like, superfreakingdelicious and all that, but sometimes, you just get TIRED of eating jam on toast, or a bagel, or a piece of cardboard (if you’re dieting). I will be the first one to admit, I ate my weight in jam on toast for May through July. But eventually the monotonous texture started to get to me… and after a while I wanted something different.
Thus the inspiration for a series on the blog, entitled Uncanny (extra points to my sister-in-law Amy for suggesting that title!)
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I wanted to do things for this series that could be easily adapted to whatever preserves you have in your canned goods pantry. I used a jar of my blueberry-cinnamon-vanilla jam, but you should use whatever you have around. Hey, you could even make this with store-bought jam, although I’m not sure it will bring the mouth-gasms like the home-canned preserves do. Adapt this recipe to whatever jam/jelly/conserve you want, whether it be blueberry, raspberry, peach, apple… I could go on. Feel free to spice up your jam before you spread it on the crust… I stirred in a 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice, just to punch up the fresh flavor of my blueberry-cinnamon-vanilla jam.
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The recipe itself is very adaptable, too. If you want, add some pecans and throw them on top with the streusel. Add a thin layer of shredded unsweetened coconut onto the crumb topping before spreading your jam. If the amount of butter offends your health sensibilities (clearly I have no sense, so this isn’t a problem for me) then compensate by adding some wheat germ into the crumb layer. You could even switch out the flours, maybe substitute a cup of almond flour for one of the cups of all-purpose flour. My point is, it’s a very adaptable recipe! Have fun with it!
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Streusel-Topped Jam Bars
Inspired by Smitten Kitchen’s Peach Shortbread
Makes 18 bars
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Gather:
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very cold and cut into cubes
1 large egg
1 (8 ounce) jar of jam, jelly, or preserves
1/2 cup rolled oats
Prepare:
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Prepare a 9 inch x 13 inch baking pan by lining it with parchment paper. Add sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt to a food processor bowl and pulse a few times to combine; alternatively, whisk together in a medium bowl.
Add the butter and pulse about 10 times until the crumbs are the size of peas; add the egg and pulse until combined. (No food processor? How do you live? Use a pastry blender, a fork, or two knives to cut the butter into the flour mixture.) Press 2/3 of the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan, pressing firmly. Pour the jam onto the crumb base, and spread using an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.
Add the 1/2 cup rolled oats to the remaining crumb mixture, and stir to combine. Sprinkle the oatmeal mixture over the jam layer. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn brown. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.
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Cory Chisel / Home in the Woods (Live) lovely guitar-pickin’ and gravelly male voice pairs wonderfully with these jam bars
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After the “strata fail” (as Kate coined it in the comments, best. description. ever) I was bound and determined to make something that I would be willing to eat for breakfast for the rest of the week.
Enter the Foster’s Market Cookbook, which was a gift from my dear sister-in-law Amy. (Amy and I have basically come to the conclusion that we’re going to tell each other what kitchen stuff we want, and then buy them for each other under the guise of birthday/anniversary/Christmas presents. Sister-in-laws are super useful like that.) It’s pretty much food porn, bound into hardcover. And it’s got a foreword written by the Great and All Powerful Martha Stewart, High Priestess of Successful Cookbooks, so you know the recipes are clutch. I think I marked every recipe in the ENTIRE FREAKING BOOK to try. Including, but not limited to, the first recipe for streusel muffins.
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I really don’t understand why we don’t just sprinkle streusel on everything. It’s the ultimate combination of butter, sugar, and nuts! Panera has the right idea – they have that damn cinnamon streusel bagel. I misinterpreted it this entire time, though. I thought it was The Devil’s Bagel because I wanted to eat 5 at a time. I think really, we should be eating streusel-covered breakfast pastries. IT’S WHAT GOD INTENDED.
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Modifications made: I didn’t have a full 1 1/2 cups sour cream, so I used a cup of sour cream, and a 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese instead. Oops! I put the ricotta, sour cream, eggs, butter, and vanilla through my blender before I folded in the peaches… just to make sure there where no lumps from the ricotta or butter. The next time I’ll make them with all sour cream to see what the “original” texture should be like, but I doubt it really made a difference.
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Suggestions for next time: I didn’t peel the peaches before chopping them; next time I will make sure they’re peeled beforehand. The peel turned almost green around the edges in the baked muffins. It was an immediate reaction, so probably a result of the peach peel reacting to something in the batter. But definitely unsightly.
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Peach Muffins with Pecan Streusel Topping
Adapted from The Foster’s Market Cookbook
Makes 12-15 muffins
Gather:
Pecan Streusel Topping
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups peeled and chopped peaches (about 3 peaches)
Prepare:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners and spray the entire tin with nonstick cooking spray.
For the streusel topping, combine the pecans, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and softened butter in a medium-sized bowl, and mix until well-blended. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and allspice in a medium bowl. In a separate (large) bowl, whisk together the eggs, butter, sour cream, and vanilla. Fold in the chopped peaches.
Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture, just until the flour is moistened. Do not overmix the batter. (Small pockets of flour are okay here.)
Spoon the battter into the prepared muffin pan. The batter should come to the top of the paper liner or pan. Spoon the streusel topping over the batter, and press lightly with the back of a spoon so that the topping adheres to the batter.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Serve immediately for best crunchy topping. Otherwise, store in an airtight container.
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Jaill / New Noise
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Apparently, I’m quite picky about my scones. Until this recipe, I had yet to find one scone I really liked. Who knew?
The Starbucks scones are too sweet. And who wants a pumpkin-flavored scone in July? There’s another local coffee shop here in Denver called Dazbog, but their scones are too dry for my tastes. Plus, there’s always the cost factor – I’m somewhat hard-pressed to pay $2.50 for a dry, overly sweet scone.
I think my problem was that I had only tried flavored scones up until now. And let me tell you, this “plain” scone is anything but unflavored. Made with the simplest of ingredients, it’s the perfect canvas for whatever jam, jelly, or honey you might have lying around the house (I had mine with strawberry jam), but they’re awesome by themselves as well. These are tender thanks to very little handling in the mixing process, so they don’t get hard as a rock in storage (as long as you keep them in a sealed container, of course).
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These are best when right out of the oven, but they still taste pretty freaking amazing 5 days later… I speak from experience.
Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that these are brushed with melted butter and dusted with sugar right before baking. How could this be wrong?
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Traditional Cream Scones
Adapted from :pastry studio:
Yields 8 scones
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Gather:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups whipping cream
2 tablespoons butter, melted
sugar to sprinkle over top
Prepare:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and whisk to combine. Add the cream, stirring until just combined. (Do not worry if there is a small bit of flour at the bottom of the bowl. Best to sacrifice one tablespoon of flour than to ruin the tenderness of the biscuits by trying to pick it up into the dough.) Dump the dough onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Gently mold the dough into a 9-inch circle. Dust a pastry cutter or knife with flour, and cut the circle into 8 equal pieces. Use a spatula or pastry cutter to gently separate the scones so that they can bake without touching each other. Brush each scone with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 13 minutes, or until golden around the edges. Serve immediately, or cool and store in a sealed container.
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Now Playing: Best Coast / Boyfriend
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I know some of you might be reading this, being all “WTF is monkey bread? Has she gone off her rocker?” Or perhaps, for the food bloggers who are reading this, you’re all, “WAY TO JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON, woman!” because monkey bread is the latest recipe darling of the food blog world, or so it seems.
I’m getting the impression that most people haven’t heard of monkey bread before… at least if they didn’t grow up in the South. I grew up in Virginia, but my mother is from North Carolina, and even better, a pretty small town in North Carolina. She’s been making monkey bread for my brother and I since we were wee little kids, using refridgerated biscuit dough. Once I was old enough to pop open the cans of Pillsbury biscuits myself, I was making monkey bread as often as she would let me. My group of friends and me even made it at 5 am the Sunday morning after prom… it was that popular of a dish among my friends (mostly because my mom would make it when they came over, she spoiled them like that).
If you ever wondered how many teenagers it takes to make monkey bread after they haven’t slept for 24 hours… it’s about six. And it still takes them two hours to do it.
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Now that I’ve gotten over my fear of making doughs from scratch, I decided it was time to attempt monkey bread from scratch instead of falling back on the refrigerated dough. I haven’t had the Pillsbury biscuit dough in… 3 years? So I can’t say that I can really taste the difference between a scratch dough and the refrigerated biscuit dough. But you know, I made it from scratch… therefore it HAS TO BE BETTER. It’s like, a law or something.
Plus… this recipe contains 1.5 sticks of butter. Not as much as you’d see in a Paula Deen recipe… but still pretty good.
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Monkey Bread(s)
Adapted from a Kitchenette Family Recipe
Makes 15 muffins or 1 bundt pan (Serves 12)
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Gather:
For the dough
2 3/4 cups bread flour (plus more for kneading)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (active dry or instant)
3/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pecans, chopped
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Prepare:
About an hour before preparing the dough, set out 3 tablespoons of butter and 1 egg to come to room temperature.
Alternatively, if you need to heat them up in a hurry because you didn’t read the directions beforehand (this has never happened to me… never ever ever) you can warm the butter by filling a drinking glass with very hot tap water, let sit for 15 seconds, then empty the glass and cover the butter with the overturned glass for 5 minutes. Warm the egg to room temp by setting the egg in a jar/bowl filled with warm water (not hot water, it will cook the egg) for 3 minutes (it helps to submerge the egg beneath the surface). Repeat with gradually hotter water for 3 minutes at a time until the egg no longer feels cold to the touch.
Combine 1 1/2 cups of the bread flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixture; whisk to combine. In a separate small bowl, whisk the yeast into the warm water. Let sit for 5 minutes or until foamy (see what foamy yeast looks like here and remember if yours doesn’t foam, your yeast may be expired). Whisk in the room temperature butter and the egg into the yeast mixture. Add the butter-egg-yeast mixture into the stand mixture bowl (or large bowl) containing the flour mixture. Combine by either mixing on high for 1 minute with the mixer’s paddle attachment, or using a wooden spoon and your own arm muscles until the dough comes together, approximately 1-2 minutes. The dough will be very sticky.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough by hand until it is smooth, springy, and no longer sticky, about 5 minutes. Butter the inside of a large bowl. Add the dough to the buttered bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth; let rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add muffin liners to two muffin pans.
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Combine 1 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons cinnamon in a medium bowl and mix well. Punch down the dough once or twice and use scissors to cut off pieces of dough, about the size of your thumb. Drop the pieces of dough into the cinnamon sugar and toss until well-coated. Add 5 to 6 pieces of dough to each muffin liner (dough pieces should reach the top of the muffin tin). Once all muffin tins are filled, add approximately 1 tablespoon of pecans on top of each monkey bread.
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Combine the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until the brown sugar has dissolved into the melted butter. Drizzle approximately 1 tablespoon of butter/sugar mixture onto each monkey bread. Bake breads at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes, or until the top of the muffins are caramelized and crispy.
Let cool 5 minutes before serving. Store in an airtight container if not consumed immediately.
NOTE: This recipe makes enough for a bundt pan of monkey bread as well, which is the original incarnation of monkey bread. If using a bundt pan, add the pecans to the pan first, then the pieces of dough, then drizzle the butter/sugar mixture on top. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes and invert onto a platter to serve.
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Now Playing: Local Natives / Sticky Thread
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To continue on my course of becoming a straight-100%-hippie (see previous hippie endeavors here and here), I decided to make my own butter and cream cheese this weekend. You know, because my budding dreadlocks aren’t enough of an indication.
Kidding. I don’t have dreadlocks… yet.
And honestly, I’m not even sure if this can be considered hippie behavior at all. Do hippies own Kitchenaid stand mixers? Probably not, huh?…Whatever. ALL THE COOL KIDS HAVE ONE. Trust.
So this past weekend, I bought some Morning Fresh whipping cream (made outside of Fort Collins, CO – woot, local dairy!) at the farmer’s market, and had a wee little experiment. And let me say, this is probably the best butter I have ever had. EVER. With a wee bit of salt on top of a slice of bread, it is – dare I say it? – orgasmic.
*GASP*
I know. I can’t believe I said THAT WORD on my blog which is clearly made for buttoned-up, goody-two-shoes foodies who don’t say the f-word and who certainly don’t enjoy a show whose only constant plot line centers around sex and all its varied manifestations.
Anyhoodle, this is a great way to use up some extra cream if you happen to have some on hand, or at the very least, occupy your kids for 20 minutes with the wonders of science and dairy. My plans are to make some delicious compound butters… it is spring after all… fresh herb and sea salt butter, anyone?
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Fresh Homemade Butter
From The Kitchenette
Makes one pound butter
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Gather:
1 quart heavy cream
stand mixer with whisk and paddle attachments
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Prepare:
Prepare a bowl of ice water by mixing about 3 cups of water with ice from your freezer. Set aside.
Pour cream into bowl of mixer. Mix on low speed, and increase to high speed as the cream progresses from liquid to lightly whipped. The cream will go from soft peaks (1) to stiff peaks (2), start to get grainy (3) and finally separate into butter and buttermilk (4).
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xxxxxxxx(1) Soft peaks xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (2) Stiff peaks
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xxxxxxxxxx (3) Grainy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (4) Buttermilk Separates
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xxxx (5) Buttermilk poured off xxxxxxxxxxx (6) Washing the butter
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As soon as you can see buttermilk in the bottom of the bowl, turn off the mixer and switch to the paddle attachment. Beat the butter at a slow speed (about a 2 on the Kitchenaid) for another 10 seconds. Stop the mixer and pour off the buttermilk into a bowl or jar; reserve for another use (like this cake). I had about a cup of buttermilk from this recipe.
Once you have poured off the buttermilk, your butter will look like picture (5). Add to the mixing bowl about a cup of the ice water, and beat using either the mixer’s paddle attachment (or a spatula and your own perfectly-chiseled muscles - my method of choice). If going the spatula route, the idea is to mix the butter and ice water together; my method was to smoosh the butter against the walls of the mixing bowl and through the ice water. (These are very technical terms, clearly.) The water will turn from clear to milky as it “washes” the butter of any remaining buttermilk. Pour off the milky-colored ice water and add another fresh cup; repeat process until the water poured off the butter is clear (this means all the buttermilk has been washed from the butter). Transfer butter to a container and store in the fridge.
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Now Playing: Gregory Alan Isakov / Master and a Hound – chill tunes for chilled butter. Enjoy his album with a cup of coffee on the porch on a Sunday morning.
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WOOT. My first canning challenge for the Tigress Can Jam is complete! Can we please talk about awesome this is?!?
*crickets*
… So that’s a no? Darn. That’s okay… I got the proper amount of excitement from my two BFFs, Sam and Anna, through email.
Me: I haven’t posted about it yet but did you both know that I SUCCESSFULLY CANNED something the other day? It was totes awesome.
(Anna and Sam jabber on about such important topics as Staub’s cheaper line of cookware for BloodBath&Beyond, the undiscovered awesomeness of hardware stores, and the chances of there being a shirtless Channing Tatum scene or two or four in his new movie.)
Me: excuse me, neither of you expressed the appropriate amount of fangirl squeeing that i successfully canned something without 1) burning myself 2) burning my husband or 3) burning my house down.
Anna: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Sam: i guess i don’t fully understand the danger of canning. it involves boiling water and tongs, right?
Me: true, i guess it’s not exactly James Bond material. i guess the danger is more that you won’t get the proper seal and that you’ll accidentally grow crazy botulism in the jar?
Sam: aaah so a delayed death. report back in a few months =)
So yeah, assuming that I’m still writing posts in a few months… we can assume everything I canned this time around was safe to eat. Nothing like a little suspense to liven up the blog posts, right? I actually planned it like this… it will be like a soap opera… it will take 4 weeks for 1 pot of coffee to brew and you’ll have to come back every day to see if I died of botulism spores or if I was stabbed by my neighbor who suffocated me with the wet filter full of coffee grounds.
For the first month of the Tigress Can Jam, we are canning citrus! Very exciting, non? I couldn’t help myself when I went to the grocery store and there were heaps of blood oranges for $1.50 a pound. And then there were Meyer lemons on sale for $1.25 a pound, so I got a bunch of those too… not sure what I’m going to do with the rest of them yet. Having never made marmalade, I was thinking that it a couple of hours devoted to making a crapload of marmalade would be a relaxing activity.
… yeah. Not so much. Dude, making marmalade is HARD. You’ve got to juice the oranges (which I did by hand) and then cut out the pith, then julienne the zest, and after all that work… you get to cook it. However, what I didn’t expect was how easy the actual canning part of the process went. Go figure. I was so scared that I was going to screw something up and then it turned out to be crazy easy! And of course I had to share my excitement with the world over Twitter:
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click to enlarge my twitter enthusiasm
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… because I was so proud of myself. I’ve never canned anything before and canning is necessary knowledge for an aspiring hippie like myself. Unfortunately my first marmalade endeavor only yielded three 8oz jars of marmalade, which was a wee bit less than I was expecting. But I still have lots of oranges left, so I might make another batch (or something similar) tonight.
PS. I was only able to make this marmalade because my super-awesome father-in-law, Mike, sent me a care package of brand-new canning equipment! He’s getting a jar in the mail this weekend. Hope it’s actually good!
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Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon Marmalade
Adapted from The Hungry Engineer and Simply Recipes
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Ingredients:
3 pounds blood oranges, washed and dried
4 cups water
2 Meyer lemons
2-3 cups sugar
Equipment:
Medium saucepan
candy thermometer
Canning pot
4 8-0z mason jars with lids and rings
Directions:
Scrub the oranges clean. Cut the oranges in half and juice them, one by one, over a strainer until you have 2 cups of juice. Set aside the juice. As you juice the oranges, set aside the seeds and membranes, as they will be used for making pectin. For each juiced orange half, use a spoon to dig out the pith as much as you can. You may find it easier to lay pieces of the peel on the cutting board and to slide a knife between the pith and the peel, similar to how you would de-skin a piece of fish.
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Cut up both Meyer lemons into 8 segments each, and cut each segment crosswise into small triangles. Remove any seeds from the lemons and add to the orange seeds and membranes. Pull all the seeds and membranes from both the oranges and lemons into a square of cheesecloth (at least 4 layers thick) and tie the fabric together with kitchen twine to make a small bag.
(Note: At this point, if you plan to can the marmalade for shelf-stability, then put a small plate in the freezer to chill.)
Place the lemon and orange juices in a medium-sized pot, and add the julienned peels and lemon pieces and the water. Tie the cheesecloth bag to the pot’s handle on one side, making sure that the bag is sitting in the marmalade. As the seeds/membranes cook, the pectin will leach out of the bag and into the marmalade. Bring mixture to a boil and let cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Remove the bag and let sit until cool enough to touch.
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Pour the fruit mixture into a measuring cup and measure how much fruit mixture you have. For each cup of fruit mixture, add 7/8 cup of sugar. (I had 3 cups of fruit, so I added 2 1/4 cup sugar.) Put the sugar and fruit mixture back in the pot. Once the pectin bag is cool, squeeze the bag to get any extra pectin out of the bag.
(Note: At this point, if you plan to can your marmalade, sterilize your glass jars. Wash each jar in hot water, and put the jars on a baking sheet. Put the jars in a 200° fahrenheit oven and let “cook” in oven for 10 minutes.)
Add the pectin to the sugar and fruit mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, and cook until the marmalade reaches a temperature (as measured by a candy thermometer) of 220 – 222° fahrenheit. As an alternative to using a candy thermometer, you can utilize “the wrinkle test.” For the wrinkle test, chill a plate in the freezer while you are prepping and cooking the marmalade so it’s fully chilled when you are ready to test the marmalade. Put a small spoonful of marmalade on the plate, wait 5 seconds, and push the marmalade with your finger (it should be cool from sitting on the plate for those 5 seconds). If the surface of the marmalade wrinkles at all, it’s time to can the marmalade. If the marmalade is runny on the plate and/or doesn’t wrinkle when you push it, then it’s not ready to can; cook it for a few more minutes and try again.
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To process the jars of marmalade, bring a small pan of water to boil and drop in the flat lids. Let them soak in the hot water for 5 minutes to soften the seal. Fill each jar up with marmalade, leaving 1/4 inch space between the lid and the top of the jam. Run a knife around the inside of the jars, to make sure that no air bubbles are sitting between the marmalade and the jar. Wipe the outside of the rims of the jars to make sure that no sticky marmalade will break the seal. Put the lid on the jar, and screw on the ring/band to close the jar. Put the jars in a large pot of boiling water (do not lay them down sideways, they must be processed standing upright) and cover with water such that there is at least 1 inch of water above the tops of the jars. Bring water in pan to boil, and process cans for 10 minutes. Use tongs to get the jars out of the hot water and leave them on the counter to dry.
Listen for the “pop” sound as the jars’ vacuum seal is created. Celebrate by opening a jar even though you just spent upwards of 4 hours making it shelf-stable.
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Now Playing in the Kitchenette: The Cribs / We Share the Same Skies - please to be loving this band with me. trust.
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At the end of the day, when you’re laying in bed and trying to go to sleep… what do you think about? I always try and think about relaxing things that make me happy. I imagine other people think about counting cute little sheep or something. Or maybe the latest pair of Louboutins that they have their eye on. Or they plan what they are going to wear tomorrow that will totally knock the socks off the cute guy in Sales.
Me? I think about the future… or what I want to be my future. I think about my house. I have visions of Sub-Zero refridgerators and double ovens dancing in my head. I dream of plum-colored walls and a walk-in closet. I dream of a white house on a hill in the country, with a huge garden and a chicken coop. And I dream of making cheese from scratch.
Wait… what?
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Yeah. I’m in my hippie phase. I not only feel the need to make homemade ricotta, homemade pasta, and now homemade yogurt; I want to make breads every day, homemade marscapone, and homemade tomato paste. (And that’s just the food. Hello, homemade soap… will you be my friend?)
And why am I suddenly morphing into Anne of Green Gables? I have no experience with this. I grew up in the suburbs of Virginia… not the boondocks. Not on a farm with cows and horses. I went to college for 5 years. I have a master’s degree. The closest I’ve ever come to a farm is driving by the ones on the interstate.
But then I think, maybe that’s exactly why I’m so enamored of ”country” life… I didn’t have any of that growing up. I didn’t have a garden or fresh milk or fresh pasta or homemade cheese. Most of the things that I grew up eating were bought at a grocery store, not homemade. Not that I blame my mother (Hi Mom, you’re my best friend and you know I love you). It’s just the way things were in my little suburban neighborhood. It’s not like the lady down the street was growing vegetables next to her BMW; she was growing roses.
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These jars of yogurts have halos because they are heavenly-tasting
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And now, here I am: 25, living in the largest city in a 600-mile radius, and what do I want? A plot of land, a garden, a gaggle of kids and a view of the sunrise. The time to attempt making homemade mozzarella, the garden space to plant the 87 different kinds of veggies I want to try growing, and the freezer space to store them. I guess I just want to be able to attempt my vision of a green household as much as possible.
So yeah… here’s my 3rd step towards becoming a dirty, unshowered hippie who spends all day making stuff from scratch. You know you want to be one, too.
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Homemade Yogurt
From the Kitchenette
Serves 8
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I like to use whole milk for this recipe. You can use lowfat milk, or skim milk, but I find that whole milk yields the creamiest yogurt. Plus, it just tastes better! Regardless of the fat percentage, ensure that the yogurt you use as your “starter” says “contains live cultures” on the container. I like to make my yogurt in a large glass canning jar that I bought at a grocery store for less than $5. I would stay away from plastic containers, as the plastic might melt. Even if it doesn’t melt, it will probably impart a nasty taste to your yogurt. Don’t forget to reserve about a cup of your homemade yogurt to use as a “starter” for your next batch. It’s the dairy that keeps on giving.
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Ingredients:
2 quarts whole milk
1 cup whole milk yogurt
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Directions:
Preheat the oven to 250F degrees.
Heat the milk in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until steaming. Do NOT let the milk boil. (If using a thermometer, this is about 180 – 185F degrees.) Remove milk from heat and let cool to 110 – 115F degrees. Add yogurt to cooled milk, and whisk to incorporate. Pour yogurt-milk mixture into a glass jar and wrap jar in kitchen towels. Put towel-wrapped jar in oven, close the door to the oven, and turn off the oven heat. Leave in oven (while oven is turned off) overnight, or until yogurt has thickened. Refridgerate yogurt until it’s consumed.
Serve with granola and/or seasonal fruit, if desired. Or eat straight from the jar. Depends on how mannered you can be when still unshowered and in pajamas.
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Now Playing in the Kitchenette: The Hollies / I’m Alive – In the spirit of getting old school and making our own yogurt and stuff.
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What do you think about at night? Is there anything you’d like to try making at home?
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Ummm see that flaky, buttery, delicious puff pastry dough up there? Yeah, that was all me. Ain’t no thing, as my friend Lauren would say.
Saturday, September 26, 2009. A momentous and hereby a holy day in my book. It marked the first – or the only, depending on your level of optimism – baking success in my entire life.
Let’s examine the reasons why I was successful this time, shall we?
- The recipe includes copious amounts of butter and I wanted to consume said butter, therefore my dedication increased tenfold.
- The directions are easy – mix dough, fold in butter, roll out, fold and roll out again.
- See #1
- There was pressure to get it right, as it would be served to my very first “dinner” party (which actually took place at 4:00 pm but let’s overlook our octogenerian tendencies for now, as it will be covered in another post.)
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That’s a lot of butter
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In the past, I’ve only had store-bought puff pastry… and I can’t even remember when I had that last. So this was definitely not only an adventure in making the puff pastry itself, but also tasting puff pastry for the first time in years. After many difficult moments of pondering the precise elements of pastry, the flaky layers so sought after in each bite, and the way that the delicate flavors of butter and flour came through in the final product, I realized…
It’s butter and flour, for pete’s sake! You can’t go wrong with those ingredients!
And oh dude, do you use a TON of butter in this recipe. A whole pound of butter, to be exact. I wasn’t aware of how buttery these little suckers would be. These are melt-in-your-mouth little bites of butter. They basically taste like butter. And butter is delicious, so I’m glad that works the way it does.
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Measuring the first roll
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I served these with some chilled peaches that had been marinating in wine, as well as homemade whipped cream. I had been eyeing this recipe from Orangette (do you read Molly’s blog? You really really should if you’re aren’t. She’s a genius) and peaches were on sale this week at the store. I tried to find the wine that Molly recommends, but apparently my local liquor/wine/beer depot doesn’t carry it. I just used a white wine that I liked, so that I was sure to like the flavor that it imparts to the peaches. The light flavor of the peaches were a great contrast to the richness of the puff pastry. And I added the homemade whipped cream, because it would be a light and fluffy element to the dish, and because… it’s really freaking delicious and should be added to every dish I’m making if possible.
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I see you, butter
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I was initially pretty scared of making puff pastry, because let’s face it – baking is not my strong point (this case in point). I did run into some snags in the process, however. My biggest problem was that butter tended to peek through the top or the bottom of my dough. I just tried to sprinkle a bit more flour of that part of the dough and be gentle with the rolling pin. I’m guessing that problem arose because the dough wasn’t chilled enough. Next time I make this (and there will be a next time) I’ll make sure to chill the dough between each turn. As you can see, the butter peek-a-boo problem wasn’t detrimental to the project overall. Now, of course, I’m part of the secret club of puff pastry makers. I’m in the inner circle. I feel special.
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Three turns down, three more to go
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The September 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
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Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough
From: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough
Steph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.
There is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). They do seem to give slightly different ingredient measurements verbally than the ones in the book…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book.
Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter
plus extra flour for dusting work surface
Mixing the Dough:
Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them.
Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.)
Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that’s about 1″ thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.
Incorporating the Butter:
Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10″ square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with “ears,” or flaps.
Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don’t just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8″ square.
To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.
Making the Turns:
Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24″ (don’t worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24″, everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!).
With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.
Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24″ and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.
Chilling the Dough:
If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you’ve completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.
The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.
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Wine-Soaked Peaches
Adapted from A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, via Orangette
4 ripe peaches, washed well and rubbed dry, cut into medium dice
2 tbsp. sugar, or more to taste
2 cups dry white wine
Toss the peaches and sugar together. Add the wine and stir to mix. Add sugar if necessary. Cover and refridgerate for at least 4 hours before serving.
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Homemade Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
Combine cream and sugar in the bowl of a mixer (or a bowl of your choosing if you’re going with the manual method). Whisk on low speed at first (to minimize splatter) and then move to high speed until stiff peaks are achieved.
Note: If you make the whipped cream ahead of time, be sure to refridgerate it as it will melt at room temperature.
Assembling the dish:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
On the sixth roll out of the dough, roll it to a thickness of 1/2 to 1/4 inch. Let sit for 1 hour. Cut the rounds and assemble on a baking sheet covered in parchment. Refridgerate rounds for 10 minutes.
Combine 1 egg with 1 tablespoon water, mix throughly to get a smooth egg wash. Brush the egg wash over the pastry rounds. Lay a silicone baking sheet (such as Silpat) over the rounds, ensuring all rounds are covered (this will ensure that the rounds rise evenly). Bake for 12 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until the tops of the rounds are crispy and just starting to brown. Serve warm with whipped cream and peaches.
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I hope that I have given you courage to try this recipe, or just something new in general. I mean, if I can do this, you know you can too! What would you like to make, that you haven’t yet?
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Playing today in the Kitchenette: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club / Suddenly
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I’ve been, how should I put it… “eyeing” this recipe since I saw Lottie + Doof post about DIY ricotta all the way back in November 2008. Which is to say, I’ve been calculating exactly when I can justify making homemade ricotta by making ricotta-based recipes for the rest of the week. I finally worked up the courage (read: I’m convinced that I won’t kill myself with heated dairy product) and decided to embark upon my own cheesemaking adventure this past weekend.
Making fresh ricotta at home is so easy. It’s exceedingly easy. It’s 99 percent idiot-proof (and you probably aren’t the 1% if you’re reading this). So what do you need to embark upon this cheese-filled adventure?
- 1 stockpot
- 1 thermometer (I like the ones that you attach to the side of the pot, about $20 at most)
- 1 stirring utensil (whisk, spoon, a stick you picked out of your backyard)
- 1 large bowl (should fit around your strainer)
- 1 colander
- cheesecloth (found at your grocery store in the baking aisle)
… And that’s it. Ingredients?
- 2 quarts whole milk (organic if you can)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream (again, organic if you can)
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
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And then it’s a mere 8 steps to deliciousness:
1. Heat the milk and cream over medium-high heat until the mixture reaches 185 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not let the milk boil.
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(Note: I saw little bubbles like this form on the surface at about 175 degrees, at which point I turned down the heat to medium, just to ensure the temperature didn’t rush past 185 degrees or start to boil while I wasn’t looking.)
(Another Note: The surface of the milk will pucker while it heats. Do not be afraid. This is normal. Feel free to skim it off if it freaks you out… but only do this right before the milk hits 185 degrees, because the skin will appear again very quickly.)
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2. When the mixture reaches 185 degrees, remove the pot from the burner and set on a cool surface. Add the white vinegar immediately and stir gently for 30 seconds. Behold, ricotta curds will form!
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3. Stir in the salt gently to incorporate.
4. Cover pot with a kitchen towel (preferably a clean one) and let sit for 2 hours at room temperature. (This is the point at which my dad would freak – but let me assure you, I have eaten this ricotta for two days in a row, and I’m still alive to write this post.)
5. Set the colander into the bowl. Line the colander with several layers of cheesecloth.
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This reminds me of a cushy bassinet. If the baby were made of cheese.
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6. After the 2 hours has elapsed, gently scoop the curds into the center of the strainer. Once you’ve gotten most of the curds out of the stockpot, pour the remaining liquid and curds into the colander. Fun fact to know and tell – the white liquid is called whey.
7. Gather the cheesecloth at the top, and if you’d like, fasten together with a rubber band/piece of twine/your kid’s hair ribbon. Gently squeeze the curds to encourage draining of the whey. Let the curds continue to drain for 30 minutes, gently squeezing a couple of times during the 30 minutes.
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8. Unwrap the curds and put cheese into an airtight container. (Note: this recipe made about 3 cups of ricotta for me.)
And there you go! You made ricotta at home! Pat yourself on the back. (Pat yourself extra hard if you can actually REACH your back.) Now brainstorm some delicious recipes in which you shall utilize your awesome homemade ricotta.
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Playing in the Kitchenette: Jet / She’s a Genius – because making cheese at home ensures genius status, at least for the day
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