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Archive for the ‘baking’ Category

Garden Pizza

Posted in baking, recipes, tagged on July 20, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I’ve been trying to perfect a healthy pizza for quite some time now. This is by no means perfect, but it is by far the best pizza I have ever made. I actually liked this pizza better than the local Onsted pizza place’s pizza (Hattie’s). Several of the ingredients came from my garden.

Insert your pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 500F. Let it pre-heat for at least an hour.

Follow my no-knead bread dough recipe. Instead of shaping into bread loaves, cut the dough in half, fold it a few times, and stretch it out into pizza shapes. (I won’t describe that as I’m not very good at it yet). Place on a well floured pizza peal or an edgeless cookie sheet and let rise for about 1 hour.

  • 2 tomatoes (mine aren’t ripe yet so I bought some)
  • fresh oregano (from the garden)
  • fresh basil (from the garden)
  • garlic
  • onions (from the garden)
  • 1lb good quality whole milk mozzarella
  • good quality Parmigiano-Reggiano
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt
  • pepper

Slice the tomatoes into about 1/4 inch slices and salt both sides. Lay out on a kitchen towel to dry for at least 20 minutes (hat tip to Chef Snow for this tip.)

Just before baking, top the pizza. Chop the herbs and spread directly on the dough. Mince the garlic and spread it with the herbs. Shred the mozzarella (I used my Cuisinart food processor) and put half on each pizza. Slice the onions and spread on top of the cheese. Lay out the tomatoes as in the picture on the very top. Drizzle olive oil over the top. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top.

Slide the pizza (bake one at a time) onto the hot stone and immediately close the oven. I did not fill the oven with steam as with my bread recipe. Turn the oven down to 450F and bake for about 12 minutes.

Grate Parmigiano-Reggiano over the top. Individuals may enjoy adding garlic salt or red pepper flakes.

Slice and serve.

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Pocket Pies

Posted in baking, breakfasts on November 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

pocketpie.jpgThese make a great Saturday morning breakfast. It has taken me about 5-6 tries to get all the kinks ironed out of these, but I’m pretty happy with this recipe now.

  • 1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry grain (or about 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
  • 6 tablespoons rapadura or sucanat
  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 2/3-3/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • rapadura or sucanat and cinnamon to sprinkle

Blend butter into flour and rapadura with a pastry blender or food processor until the butter is in pea size or slightly smaller chunks. Gently mix in the buttermilk until all the flour is wet. Let soak at room temperature overnight.

In the morning, put the dough in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes to harden the butter. Preheat the oven to 425F.

  • 6-10 baking apples, peeled and sliced (sorry, didn’t count)
  • 1/3 cup rapadura or sucanat
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • pinch of salt
  • 3 tablespoons butter

Saute the apples in butter until tender. Stir in the rapadura, spices and salt and cook for a few more minutes.

Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Evenly sprinkle on the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Roll up the dough. Flatten and fold the dough gently about 5 times. Roll out into a square until it’s about 1/4 inch thick. Slice the dough into 6 rectangles. Spoon apple filling onto rectangles (probably a couple tablespoons), fold over, and pinch the edges together.

Wisk the egg and brush it over the pies with a pastry brush. Sprinkle rapadura or sucanat and cinnamon over the pies.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Yum.

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Best Sourdough Yet

Posted in baking, bread, fermentation on September 30, 2007 | 11 Comments »

p1100085.JPGI started with my version of the No-Knead Bread (or minimal knead bread). I had recently received a copy of Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor. I followed his directions for culturing a sourdough starter. His starter is about 76% hydrated (which means there’s about 3.5oz of water and 4.5oz of flour).

  • 15oz hard white spring wheat ground finely
  • 13oz water
  • 8oz sourdough starter
  • 2t Celtic sea salt
  • 1t sprouted wheat ground finely

Mix all the ingredients the night before (preferably with a recently refreshed starter). It helps to break the starter into numerous small pieces to mix into the rest of the dough. Knead with wet hands for a minute or so to incorporate the starter. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning knead the dough with wet hands about 8-10 times until the ball is tight. Put the dough back into the bowl (big enough so it can double in size) and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise till about 3:00pm. Longer is fine, but the longer it sits, the more sour it will be.

Take the dough out of the bowl and fold it over gently a few times. Shape it into a ball (find a nice description of how to do that on the web somewhere) making sure to get the outer skin tight or snug. Place the bread on parchment on a pizza peal or edgeless cookie sheet. Allow it to rise for another 2 hours or so till it is about double in size.

p1100092.JPG

Place pizza stone on bottom rack. Place a cookie sheet full of water on the top rack. Preheat oven for at least one hour to 500°.

Slash the top of the bread in a plus pattern to about ½in deep. Quickly slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Close oven and reduce heat to 450°. Bake for 25 minutes. Turn 180° and bake for another 20-30 minutes. The bread is done if it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

It takes some practice to get everything right. The only thing that isn’t quite right yet is the bottom is a little too dark. My technique will improve with time. I’m also still playing with the sprouted wheat flour hoping to speed rising time.

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Peter Reinhart’s New Book

Posted in baking, books, bread on August 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

I just received my pre-ordered copy of Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor. I was a little disappointed with some of his previous books, not because they were bad books, but because he seemed to be focused strongly on white breads. While I was only able to read a few pages last night, this looks to be a really interesting book. A review is forthcoming as soon as I have time to hunker down and read it and try making some loaves.

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Flakier Scones (and Biscuits)

Posted in baking on August 14, 2007 | 3 Comments »

scones.jpgI recently discovered Cook’s Illustrated. While it certainly doesn’t adhere to Nourishing Traditions principles, it is a very useful magazine for learning techniques for food preparation.

In a recent article on making blueberry scones I picked up a really handy trick for making them flakier. One principle I follow is that grains should be sprouted or fermented before eating. When I make scones or biscuits this means I soak the flour in buttermilk overnight. In the past I always cut the butter into the flour with a pastry blender and then mixed in the buttermilk and let it stand at room temperature overnight. In the morning when I knead in the baking soda. baking powder, and salt, the butter has softened to the point where it simply blends quickly into the dough rather than staying in distinct clumps as I want it to.

The trick I learned from Cooks Illustrated is to freeze the butter and then use a box grater to grate the butter into the flour. My modification is to roll out the flour/buttermilk mixture onto a floured surface, sprinkle the surface with the baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and then grate the butter over it evenly. Then I roll it up like a cinnamon roll, fold it over and gently knead about 5-6 times before rolling out and cutting.

This seems to work pretty well for scones and they definitely are flakier. Biscuits seem to come out tougher. I think this is because I put sucanat in the scones and the sugar inhibits the formation of gluten. In the biscuits, even though I am using a soft wheat, gluten forms more readily and makes the biscuits slightly tough. Normally the butter helps to inhibit the gluten formation overnight. It helps a little to let the biscuits or scones rest for several minutes before baking.

UPDATE (9/17/2007): An even easier way to get flakier scones or biscuits is to put the dough in the freezer for 20-30 minutes before you’re ready to do the final mixing. This keeps the butter or lard from blending into the dough during the final mix. Now I mix the fat in with a pastry blender the night before as usual and then during my 20 minute Taiqi session I freeze the dough. After Taiqi I roll out the dough, sprinkle on the leavening and salt, roll it up and gently knead 6-9 times, roll out, and cut into biscuits or scones. Let rest 10 minutes and bake.

A 24 hour soak makes for a more melt-in-your mouth biscuit than a 12 hour soak. I generally do a 12 hour soak because I only have a chance to make up the dough in the evening. When making biscuits for the evening meal they get a 24 hour soak and man are they good.

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Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Posted in baking, breakfasts, recipes, sweets on June 2, 2007 | 8 Comments »

p1080725.jpgHere’s a good Saturday morning treat that my grandmother introduced me to. I have tweaked it to make it a bit more nutritious, but the basic concept is the same.

Make a batch of biscuit dough.

  • 1 1/3c soft white wheat ground into flour (about 2c flour)
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Blend the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or two knives until it resembles a course meal. Mix in the buttermilk just until it all sticks together. Let site 12-24 hours at room temperature.

Gently knead in the remaining ingredients, about 9 or 10 times.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 16-18 inches by about 12 inches. Gently spread with butter. Sprinkle cinnamon evenly over the top of the butter. Generously sprinkle sucanat over the top. Roll along the longest edge to form a log. Cut gently into half, then quarters. Cut each quarter into 3 pieces.

Butter a 9×13 pan (smaller will work as well) and place the rolls evenly. Bake for about 14 minutes in a 425F oven.

Instead of making frosting, spread unprocessed local honey on top.

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No-Knead Bread

Posted in baking, bread, recipes on May 21, 2007 | 14 Comments »

bread.jpgI’ve been refining this bread recipe. The beauty of this recipe is that it is so easy and doesn’t take much time. It seems to stay fresh longer than some of my previous recipes. I make it on Sunday and it is still reasonably fresh for my Thursday lunch sandwich. By Friday it is starting to get a bit dry and stale, but what more can you expect?

  • 15oz hard red spring wheat
  • 12oz tap water
  • 2T unpasteurized apple cider vinegar or whey
  • 1/4t active dry yeast
  • 1 1/2t celtic sea salt

Grind the wheat as finely as possible. Mix in yeast and salt. Add the vinegar to the water. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid. Stir until mixed, cover, and refrigerate over night.

In the morning wet your hands and knead the dough about 10 times. Don’t do it much more than this. I have succeeded in over-kneading my dough after an overnight soak and a very short knead. Cover and let sit at room temperature.

Sometime in the afternoon (anywhere from 3-5) place a piece of parchment paper on an edgeless cookie sheet or pizza peel. Wet your hands and dump out the dough on the counter. Gently fold the dough as you would a business letter and then again once the other direction. Tuck the seams gently underneath – shaping it into a ball – and place in the center of the parchment. Sprinkle a little flour on top and cover with a towel. Let it rise for 1-2 hours. Don’t let it rise too long.

Place a pizza stone on the center oven rack. Place a pan of water on the bottom rack and preheat the oven to 450F. Let the oven preheat at least 30 minutes. Loosen the parchment paper on the cookie sheet so that it slides easily. With a quick jerk slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Bake for about 30 minutes.

So far the inside comes out perfect. The top sometimes gets a little too brown. I think more steam seems to help keep the bread from getting too dark.

UPDATE (9/16/2007): If found that if you put the pizza stone too high in the oven, you will get overdone crust. I put the stone on the lowest or next to lowest rack and then put the pan of water on the top rack.

I also recently tried using hard white spring wheat instead of the red. It make a much lighter colored bread. However, it also seems to be more thirsty. I bumped the water up to 13oz. The extra water seems to make the crumb a little more open as well.

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Grilling; Buns

Posted in baking, bread, cooking, grilling, recipes on April 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

burgers.jpgThe grilling season has begun! (Actually I’ve been grilling for a couple weeks now.) I like to grill pretty nearly everything. One of our favorite grilled vegetables is broccoli with butter, salt, and pepper (various squashes are also quite good). We also like grilled potatoes. Grilled corn on the cob is wonderful.

This is my first attempt at hamburger buns. I haven’t been able to get my sourdough starter started ever since I killed my last one (purposely). So I’ve been making a “soaked” bread. That is, the flour is soaked in an acidic solution for a while. Since I use raw vinegar (with the mother of vinegar still in it) for the acid component, it might also be called a fermentation. I’ve developed the following technique based on the famous New York Times no-knead bread recipe.

  • 15oz hard red spring wheat
  • 12oz less 1 tablespoon cool water
  • 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon yeast (either active dry or instant are fine)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Grind the wheat into flour as finely as you are able. Mix this all up in the evening, cover, and put it in the refrigerator over night. Take it out in the morning and knead it by hand for about one minute. Put it back in the bowl and cover. Leave it at room temperature.

In the afternoon, liberally cover a pizza peel or edgeless cookie sheet with cornmeal. Take the dough out of the bowl and fold it 3 ways like a letter. Fold it again the other way. Put it on the pizza peel or cookie sheet. Cover it with a towel and wait for it to rise a bit. Probably about 2 hours or so, but whatever seems right.

Put a cookie sheet in the very bottom of the oven and fill it with water. Put your pizza stone on the middle rack. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Let it continue preheating after the oven thinks it is preheated. It’s lying. Preheat it at least 20 minutes. When the oven is ready quickly slide the dough off the peel directly onto the stone. Bake for about 30 minutes. I haven’t yet found the perfect baking time. Last time I did it 35 minutes and the crust was a bit too brown.

For the buns in the above picture I first folded the dough and then cut it into 5 pieces (6 might be better). I shaped them gently into balls then I put them on a sheet of parchment paper on an edgeless cookie sheet. The rest is the same.

I’ve also made this into bread sticks and pizza.

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The Cook’s Thesaurus

Posted in baking, cooking, websites on April 28, 2007 | 1 Comment »

I’ve been using The Cook’s Thesaurus for a few months now. It’s a very handy site. Check it out.

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Savory Cheese Biscuits

Posted in baking, recipes on March 20, 2007 | 2 Comments »

cheesebiscuits.jpgI was inspired to make these biscuits by Buttermilk Biscuits with Goat Cheese and Chive from Simply Recipes. I didn’t have the ingredients on hand that the author did, so I improvised.

  • 1 1/2 cups freshly ground soft white wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup freshly ground barley flour
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk
  • 4oz grated cheese (I used a sharp cheddar)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon

Combine wheat and barley flour with nutmeg, garlic powder, and tarragon. Cut in butter with a pastry blender. Stir in grated cheese. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk. Stir until just mixed and then squash together by hand into a ball. Let sit a room temperature for 12-24 hours.

Flatten dough a bit and sprinkle baking powder, baking soda, and salt over the top. Knead gently into the dough 10 times.

Roll out into a circle and cut into 8 pieces like you would a pie. Or you can use a biscuit cutter. Brush with buttermilk. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Bake at 425 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

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Dead Starter

Posted in baking, bread on March 6, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Alas, my starter did not succeed. I don’t know what happened, but I will be trying a new one next week. My guess is that my kitchen was not warm enough. I’ll be using my toaster oven as a proof box next time. I’ll have to skip it this week as I’ll be gone skiing at Caberfae.

Nevertheless, I did make bread this week using a recipe I found on the discussingnt group (hat tip to Shelly in Tasmania) using a vinegar soak and commercial yeast with a small amount of baking soda. The bread turned out well and my wife and son like it better than my previous bread. It makes a nice sandwich bread. Nonetheless I consider commercial yeast a stop-gap measure. Natural leavening not only makes the bread more nutritious, but adds a lot more character to the bread.

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New Starter

Posted in baking, bread, fermentation on March 1, 2007 | 2 Comments »

starter.jpgI was informed the other day (not the first time either) that my bread is too sour. This even though a great deal of the sour is reduced by my judicious use of the acid removing properties of baking soda. I asked Shari why she thought it was too sour since she does like some sourdough breads. She said it was too sharp. Yes, it is somewhat reminiscent of lemon flavored bread.

I have occasionally succeeded in making less sour bread by feeding my starter a lot and refrigerating the bread dough and things, but I finally decided to try culturing a new starter. I received Peter Reinhart‘s Crust and Crumb for Christmas, so I set about to follow his directions for a mild starter. The key for a mild starter is to have a very firm starter, more like bread dough. My starters in the past have all been more like pancake batter.

My old starter was cultured with rye flour from a bag – non-organic. Peter recommends using organic flour for at least the initial batch of starter since more yeasts and bacteria live on the surface of organic grains. This starter is made with my home ground wheat instead of rye.

I was really impressed when after 48 hours it was already doubling in size! This could be the best thing to happen to my bread yet. (The tape is the height it was when I put it in the cup.) By Sunday it should be tripling.

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Scones

Posted in baking, recipes on February 26, 2007 | 2 Comments »

scones.jpgThis recipe is based on a recipe from More Than Breakfasts by Sue Gregg.

  • 1 1/3 cups soft white wheat freshly ground into flour (or 2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour)
  • 5 or 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2-2/3 cup buttermilk
  • 6 tablespoons sucanat
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • sucanat and cinnamon for sprinkles

Mix flour and sucanat in bowl. Blend in butter using a pastry blender or two knives till you have a course meal. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk. Stir just until mixed into a ball. Leave at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

Flour some counter space and squash dough out a little. Sprinkle with the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Knead the powder into the dough about 10 strokes. Roll out the dough and use a biscuit cutter with sharp edges to cut. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sucanat to taste. Let the dough rest at least 10 minutes. This will allow the gluten to relax and create a more tender scone.

Bake in 425 degree oven for 12-14 minutes.

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Healthy Tollhouse Cookies

Posted in baking, recipes, sweets on February 10, 2007 | 8 Comments »

cookies.jpgA few weeks ago I tried making some healthy chocolate chip cookies. I wasn’t very happy with the results and made another attempt on Sunday. These turned out quite well, and with a few tweaks will be quite excellent. They have already been approved by my kids.

I took the original Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe and just changed a few ingredients.

  • 1 cup freshly ground sprouted wheat flour from soft white wheat
  • 1 1/2 cups arrowroot powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups sucanat
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 package of Enjoy Life chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped nuts (I omit these since my wife and kids don’t like them)

Combine flour, arrowroot powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, coconut oil, sucanat, and vanilla in a large mixer bowl. It may take 5-10 minutes to get somewhat smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in a preheated 375-degree [Fahrenheit] oven for 6-7 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

These cookies were quite flat. My wife says that if you want them to be higher you need to add more flour. I used arrowroot in place of part of the flour because I thought it would lighten the cookies. My next attempt will use more sprouted wheat flour and less arrowroot. I’ll update this article directly when I improve the recipe, so check back if you’re interested.

Oh, and one other thing. Why are cookies called cookies? Shouldn’t they be bakies?

cookies.jpgUPDATE (2/10/2007): I tweaked the recipe a bit the second time and got a much softer and taller cookie. Shari said they tasted a bit “wheatier,” but I guess that would be because there’s more wheat in them. I also noticed that cookies kept disappearing throughout the day, so I guess she liked them well enough regardless of their wheatiness. I’m quite happy with this recipe at this point.

Replace the amounts listed above with the following:

  • 2 1/2 cups of freshly ground sprouted wheat flour from soft white wheat
  • 1/2 cup of arrowroot powder

Use a tablespoon instead of teaspoon to measure the cookies. I just pulled off chunks by hand and plopped them down. Bake them for 9-11 minutes instead of 6-7.

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Tortillas and Burritos

Posted in baking, bread, gadgets, milling, recipes on February 8, 2007 | 9 Comments »

burrito.jpgUsing my spiffy new Fidibus 21 grain mill and my new tortilla baker (a Christmas gift), I made burritos. I would link to the tortilla baker, but Amazon doesn’t seem to carry it anymore.

I had been making corn torillas with masa harina, but Shari wanted me to try to make flour tortillas. So here’s the recipe I developed for whole wheat flour tortillas.

  • 2 cups soft white wheat freshly ground into flour (or about 3c whole wheat flour)
  • 2 tablespoons of whey
  • 1 teaspoons of sea salt (I’m currently using RealSalt)
  • 1 tablespoon of oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
  • 1 cup of lukewarm water

tortilla.jpgMix all of this stuff up and let it sit for 12-24 hours at room temperature. It’s probably better to leave the salt out and knead it in just before baking as it will allow the lacto-bacilli in the whey to work better.

Pull dough off in 2 inch diameter balls and flatten in a tortilla press or baker. Heat on both sides until done. Keep warm in the over (or toaster oven) on a plate covered by a damp paper towel till ready to serve.

If they stick to your press, you may want to add some extra flour to the dough or flour the press. The press I am using is Teflon coated (gasp) so works well with this recipe.

These are wonderful fresh, but get quite stiff if they sit around for very long. I found that they make a nice chewy snack after a day or so, but won’t work for burritos anymore unless you seriously rehydrate them.

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