Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Artisan Bread Making--I Can Do That!

 
This post has been a long time in the making...almost a month to be exact.  Thank goodness I didn't let it get that far.  This summer has been filled with baking, writing, job hunting, violin playing, but not a lot of blogging! 
 
I'm sorry. 
 
Almost, but not quite, a month ago my girl, Amy, came over one Saturday while Hubby was away.  We spent a better part of the day making bread and drinking sangria. 
 
It was pretty much the best day ever.
 
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Amy brought the sangria and if you know anything about sangria you should know it is super easy to make and the most refreshing drink for a hot summer day.  We experienced peach sangria while we were out to dinner a few days prior to our bread making palooza, so naturally Amy loaded hers with peach in addition to the ordinary apple, lime, and...wait for it...mint! 

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 Isn't it the most colorfully beautiful fruitastic* thing you ever saw?
 
*Fruitastic: adj. A fruit explosion of awesomeness.  Ex: The sangria Amy made was fruitastic and made my mouth happy.


 
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 She used two different kinds of mint.  Regular and chocolate mint.  Chocolate mint.  I'm telling you, the world of herbs gets more awesome as each day passes.
 
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After we seltzed our drinks with some Ginger Ale, we started into the dough.
 
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Knowing that the dough takes a minimum of two hours to rise, I made the dough two hours before Amy came over. 

For Christmas, Hubby bought me this incredible book: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  It seemed such a specific book for him to buy me, but apparently it was one my heart had been wanting forever.  This book is not just a book of bread recipes.  It is a guidebook to making bread a part of your daily life.  It is so intense, it doesn't even touch on recipes until chapter five.  Chapter five is the 'Master Recipe', which is the only recipe I've used so far.  I figure I need to master the master before I can move on to the peasants (seriously, one of the chapters is 'peasant loaves'). 

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Making the master recipe is extremely easy.  It takes everything you know about making bread to a simplistic yet mind blowing level.  Warm water, yeast, salt, and flour are mixed together until everything is wet.  Kneading is not necessary!  In fact, it is discouraged.

The dough rises for two to five hours and then it is ready to be turned into delicious bread.

The master recipe is enough dough for four one-pound loaves.  It is developed in a way so that all you have to do is tear off a chunk of dough and make a loaf.  Effortless.  Hence the name, "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day".  It literally takes five minutes to prep a loaf for baking.

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This book has taught me so much about how to make bread that I can't believe the loaves I'm making haven't come straight from Italian People's Bakery.  (If you've never been, get your patootie over to one and try their bread.  It's amazing.)

Corn meal is spread out on a pizza peel before the loaf is placed.  The above loaf is still part of the master recipe.  It is known as 'Boule' which is an artisan free-form loaf.

Again, there is no kneading involved.  Here's how simple it is: dust the top of the dough with flour, grab a one-pound hunk of dough, "cloak" (shape) the dough into a loaf for less than 60 seconds, let the loaf rest on the pizza peel.

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My favorite part is that most of the bread recipes involve steam.  As the oven is preheating, there are two things that should be in place in the oven: 1. a baking stone (which the loaf will slide off the pizza peel onto) 2. a broiler tray (placed on a rack under the stone).  After the 40 minute rising time (I know, that part is a practice in patience) the dough is jerked from off the pizza peel and onto the stone.  I still have issues with this, but regardless of how sloppy my pizza peel to baking stone transition has been the bread has always come out delicious.  As soon as the bread is on the stone, pour a cup of water into the broiler tray.  This creates steam which in turn creates a crisp crust.

Just like the pros.

Also like the pros, there is a 'dust and slash' step that occurs right before the bread goes into the oven.  The top of the loaf is 'dusted' with flour, and then with a serrated bread knife you make slashes across the top.

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This is the happiness that is homemade bread.

We got a little too excited over our first loaf of bread and pretty much demolished it in under a half hour.  That might have been okay if we were only making one loaf.  But we had planned on making three.

Yes, three.  Amy and I have always been over achievers.

Every recipe used the master recipe dough so that made the starting out process easy.  Our next loaf was "Sun-dried Tomato and Parmesan Bread" and it tasted just as scrumptious as it sounds.

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This was one of those recipes that I second guessed everything I was doing.  Was the bread rolled out too thick?  Was it too thin?  Is that a proper rectangle?  Was everything evenly spread out? 

And guess what?  None of that mattered.  Right or wrong, it still would have come out as a delicious hunk of tomato, parmesan, and bread.

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Like this.  I totally meant to make it in an 'S' shape.  That was, of course, thoughtfully planned out.

Yeah, okay. 

This lovely 'S' shape occurred because I am pretty sure I rolled my dough out too thin.  Then when I went to transfer the dough from the pizza peel to the stone, I had a bit of an issue.  An issue that is near impossible to correct because it involves a stone that is 450 degrees.

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In the end, it didn't matter.  The bread was still warm, crisp and filled with a mixture of the richness of Parmesan and the wild flavor of sun-dried tomatoes.  I think this was Amy's favorite.  Especially considering she texted me a few days ago a picture of a loaf of it that she made on her own at home. 

As if we needed more bread at this point, we pressed on to make a 'Crusty White Sandwich Loaf".  This was mainly to satisfy finally using my Italian and French bread loaf pans that I got for Christmas.

Though I loved, really loved, the Sun-dried Tomato and Parmesan bread, after this last loaf I don't think I could pick a favorite.  The Crusty White Sandwich Loaf is exactly what you get when you buy stick bread from your local supermarket's bakery section.  Except, of course, it's better.

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See the little bumps?  Don't they make it look authentic? 

That's the glory of the Italian loaf pan.

See the little breakage at the top of the loaf?

That's the idiocy of someone who will remain nameless (hint, it wasn't Amy) putting too much dough on the pan.  By the time the dough had risen, it was lopped over the side of the pan.  I did my best to stretch it out, but that beautiful wrinkle still happened.

Let's just say it gives the bread character.

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If you love baking and if you love bread, this method is for you.  If you love baking but you don't love bread, please seek bread therapy.  If you love bread but don't love baking, buy this book for someone you love who likes to bake.  Then they will bake the most delicious breads ever, and hopefully, share them with you.  I guarantee, the discovery of how easy it is to make artisan bread at home is something that no one can keep to themselves. 

Monday, July 14, 2014

Must Have Mini Burgers

Recipe: Pan-Fried Baby Bacon Cheeseburgers 
Source: The Picky Palate Cookbook
(Note: This recipe is not listed online however, a similar baby bacon cheeseburger recipe is found here:)
Time: 25 minutes
Ease: 2
Taste: 7
Leftover Value: 6
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

Last year, Hubby bought The Picky Palate Cookbook as a last-day-of-school gift for me.  

Isn't he so cute?  Although just yesterday we realized that this year he didn't buy me a last-day-of-school gift.  What was he thinking?

Oh yeah, that's right.  He was thinking we had a wedding to drive to twelve hours away in Indiana and then a trip to Las Vegas.  I guess I'll forgive him.

I keep a running wishlist on www.Amazon.com of any cookbooks that I find interesting either from other bloggers, Food Network stars/shows, or ones I find while browsing at Barnes and Noble.  Picky Palate was recommended by The Pioneer Woman, and if you've read this blog for some time now, you know how much I adore her and her amazing recipes.

While I don't dislike this cookbook, I'm finding it isn't exactly related to the type of cooking I like to do.  Let's face it, it is titled "PICKY" Palate.  I've tried to be anything but that with the meals I have prepared for the last five or so years.

I've found this to be a good book to use when I'm making dinner with my brother, Jonathan.  Though he doesn't exactly have a picky palate, the meals are usually simple enough that he actually enjoys cooking with me and/or watching me cook.  

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The burgers are pretty basic with their makeup consisting of: beef, onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings.  The above recipe link is a little more exciting with zesty and intriguing ingredients like Ranch dressing, paprika, and hot sauce.

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Aren't they so cute?!

Nope, never thought I would call a hamburger cute.  I've called donuts cute before, but never burgers.

I like it.

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Ordinarily I am not a fan of onion in my burger.  I find it is always too crunchy and that I could easily achieve an onion flavor by simply adding onion powder.  With these burgers, I barely knew the onion was there.  I'm going to chalk that up to their petite size.

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Oh my goodness, I love these.  I know it has more than likely 80 percent to do with the fact that they are mini and not the fact that they actually taste good, but I don't care.

Try the above recipe link, The Picky Palate Cookbook, or even turning your own favorite hamburger recipe into a mini one today.  You'll thank me later for the joy and excitement that a mini burger brought into your life.

By the way...you're welcome.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Sauteed Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Lemon-Garlic Sauce

Recipe: Sauteed Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Lemon-Garlic Sauce
Time: 20 minutes
Ease: 2
Taste: 7
Leftover Value: No leftovers!
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

If you are anything like me, you've begun to face the summer refusal towards cooking dinner.  There always seems to come a point during the summer, usually after we've had a straight week of almost 100-degree days (oh wait, that was the start of summer until now), that something within me rebels against the notion of cooking dinner.  The thought of standing closer than ten feet to a hot stove makes me want to gag and so I revolt and refuse to cook anything more complicated than a half hour of my time.

It hasn't helped that we were spoiled by a trip to Vegas for the first week of summer, and then the second week Hubby was away for business so I barely cooked because it was just me.  This led to an extremely early start to the lack of excitement over cooking dinner.

If you're anything like me, you'll love this following meal because it is a 20-minute meal with hardly any prep and minimal clean up.

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This recipe was one of those ad recipes for 'Pork: Be Inspired'.  I try not to wrinkle my nose too quickly to ad recipes because occasionally there are some winners.  

However, there are many, many losers.

I put off making this recipe for a while because of that reason.  I ended up making it on a night that I didn't realize Hubby was already headed home from work and I was slowly turning into my alter-ego: 'Jessica B' who has blood shot eyes, frizzy hair, a growl in her stomach, and the inability to perceive right from wrong.

So I was sure this recipe was going to stink and that it would be 9:00 pm before Jessica B disappeared and I was make to my normal self.

I only had pork chops on hand, rather than a pork tenderloin as the recipe calls for, but I made it work.  I sliced my pork chops into strips, seasoned them, then browned them in the skillet.

The sauce that follows is ridiculously easy and so delicious.  If only everyday life could be as simple and satisfying as white wine, chicken broth, garlic, and lemons. 

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I served mine with egg noodles and broccoli and I highly recommend that you do too.  The lemony garlic sauce poured over the noodles is addicting. 

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins

Recipe: Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins
Time: 65 minutes, includes cooling time
Ease: 5
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer!

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I want to make something perfectly clear before I begin.  I have never, ever been into blueberry muffins.  I have never, ever been into muffins that didn't involve chocolate chips throughout.

Yet.

These muffins, oh my, these muffins.  They make me forget all about, what were they again? 

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I found Joy the Baker through who else but the Pioneer Woman?  And I'm so happy I did.  This girl knows her stuff, and every one of her recipes I have made has been fantastic.

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The first time I made these I had no idea what it meant to brown butter, so I winged it.  I'm pretty sure I failed miserably, because since then I have really learned what it means to brown butter.  The muffins hadn't suffered too much, because they were still edible and delicious.  But perhaps they were even more delicious the second and third time I made them with true blue, er...browned butter. 

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Here is what Ms. Joy tells us to do: "Keep an eye on the butter.  It will melt, froth, and begin to crackle....The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly.  Remove from heat when butter solids become a medium brown color and butter smells slightly nutty,"

Wha...wha...what??

First of all, the crackling is hardly "crackling".  From this term, I'm expecting a Rice Krispies snap-CRACKLE-pop sound.  Not quite.  This sound is slightly reminiscent of what...wait for it....butter sounds like in a frying pan.  However, there does reach a point where there is no longer any sound coming from the butter.  I used this the gauge when my brown butter was close to done.

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Another issue I have is that no matter the lighting of the kitchen or the coloring of the pan, it is pretty difficult to determine that the butter has officially become brown.  This leads me to wonder things like, How brown is too brown?  and  Did the butter actually change color, or has it looked this way the entire time?

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Whether I got it right each time or not, I will say this, this batter is so divine I could skip the baking step, grab a spoon, and call it quits right there.

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Thankfully, I have learned to exercise restraint and times have not gotten that desperate.

I love the topping on these muffins, after all, what is there to dislike about the crunchy buttery delight that flour, butter, and sugar make when mixed together?

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As I said before, baked goods with fruit aren't normally my thing, but these are like vanilla cake dressed up as something a little healthier. 

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I don't even mind the purple stuff at the bottom.*

*Note: Every time I have made these I have used fresh frozen blueberries and it tastes darn good.  Translation: I buy blueberries in bulk, freeze them, and then can make these muffins whenever I want.