Late adopter--No Knead Bread

Several years ago, I made not making resolutions my resolution for New Year's. (Well, with the exception of my ongoing "be more positive!" drive.) Anyway, I didn't exactly make a resolution this year, but I did kind of vow to get more into yeast baking this year. I'm not really sure why I hadn't been doing any yeast baking at all in the last few years--I guess mostly because of the time factor (I like instant gratification) and the fact that my brother is a very talented bread baker. I mean, why bother when I can eat his delicious roasted tomato focaccia?

Well, be that as it may, what could be a better bread to start off with than the completely no-fuss, completely famous, blogged to death No Knead Bread?* After all, I'm only two years late jumping on the bandwagon. The good thing about being this late to the party is that I had ample evidence that this recipe did, in fact, work--and no kidding! It really is the simplest yeast bread I've ever tried--dump a minimal number of ingredients in a bowl, stir, cover, ignore for the next 20 hours (I stirred it up and let it sit overnight), remember the rising dough somewhere around hour 24, shape (very haphazardly and with great mess), despair over getting it into a ball, fling into hot pan, consign to oven with crossed fingers--and hey, presto! The best textured bread I've ever baked by myself!


I mean, look at that slice. It's a far cry from the dense brick that my last loaf of bread turned out to be. And I couldn't believe that it ended up shaped so nicely, despite the fact that I literally just dumped the entire lump of dough into my pan (I just could not get it to form a ball) willy-nilly. The crust is delightfully...crusty, almost shattering when you bite into it, and the interior is nice and tender, but with a nice resistance. Basically, I have no complaints, only praise for this recipe, and if you're just starting to experiment with yeast baking, I highly recommend this.

*Okay, I guess the actual first yeast recipe I made this year was cinnamon rolls, but they were not very pretty.

Brrrrr....

As Dr. Evil says, "It's frikkin' freezing in here, Mr. Bigglesworth." We are in the middle of a (to my mind) rather severe cold spell; I went to draw the curtains earlier and discovered about an inch of ice on the INSIDE of our windows (well, I guess that proves that we have no insulation to speak of). Brrr. Two hoodies and a blanket on, and I still feel cold.

Anyway, since I haven't exactly had any motivation to go outside I've been doing quite a bit of cooking--attempted to make claypot rice last night but I added too much liquid and so it was more like claypot....mush. Today I made a bunch of scallion pancakes with the intention of freezing them but a certain someone has eaten most of them (okay, okay, I helped too).

Just now, I stirred together my first attempt at the famed No-Knead Bread; we'll see how it's looking tomorrow. Just have to remember to put it somewhere warm....like anywhere that's far away from our windows!

Green tea shortbread

Considering that the word "cookie" is actually in the title of my blog, I have not posted much at all about cookies--so, I guess it's fitting that I'm (finally) writing about what I consider to be my "signature" cookie. I mean, if I have to choose a favorite, of course :D Plus, this cookie recipe got me onto the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC to chat with Leonard and Ruth Reichl during his Christmas cookie show. You can still listen to the clip here, although I sound like a complete dork because I was about to collapse from nervousness. (As an aside, you should all listen to Leonard Lopate. He's great.)

Like all shortbreads, this is a good "keeper" cookie and will remain fresh and delicious for at least 3 weeks, if you keep them in an airtight container. It is very quick to put together and consists of only 5 ingredients; as is true for all shortbreads, using the freshest butter you can find is very important. If you use stale butter, you won't taste anything but the inside of your refrigerator. (Please for the love of all that is delicious, don't use shortening or margarine.)


Besides the butter, your other most important ingredient is going to be your matcha (also spelled maccha). This is essentially green tea ground into a fine powder and it's sold in Japanese and most Asian groceries; I buy mine at Mitsuwa Market in Edgewater. The current brand I'm using (above) is Yamashiro Ujji Maccha. If you can't find any in your area, then pick a good quality loose leaf green tea and grind it yourself!

I made this batch for my friend Jack's birthday, but as you can see, I snuck a few. One must perform quality control, right?

Matcha Shortbread
2 C all purpose flour
2 Tb good quality green tea powder (matcha)
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 C powdered sugar and 1/4 C granulated sugar

Sift flour and green tea into a bowl; set aside. Beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Sift in the two sugars (and actually you could use all powdered sugar) and salt and continue to beat until well combined and paler in color; this should take another 2 minutes. Add the flour and green tea mixture and mix just until everything is combined and the dough sticks together; don't overmix or you'll have tough cookies. Form the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic, and chill for an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4" and cut into shapes. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and chill until the cookies are firm (15 minutes or so). Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are set; don't let them brown or you'll lose the nice pale green color. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Knee-deep in macarons

Happy new year, everyone! I don't know about you, but my resolution this year is to be more regular about blogging. I currently have about 7 drafts sitting in my queue from the end of 2008, so...enough babbling and onwards!

A couple of weeks ago, someone asked me what my "desert island" foods would be--my list went something like pho, tofu, pork chops, cookies (I know, that's cheating), and macarons. So you can imagine my happiness when I got not one but two gifts of macarons!


First was this box of chocolate and caramel macarons from Paulette that my coworker Amy carried back from LA for me (also see the top photo). I've been looking for a caramel macaron comparable to the one I had from Laduree since our trip to Paris, and although Paulette's comes close, it's still not quite the same. This is not to say it's not delicious, of course! It was my favorite, and though I gave away a few of the chocolate ones, I hoarded all the caramel ones for myself (shhhh).


My second dose of macarons in as many weeks came as a gift from two lovely friends, Tenebrous Kate and the Baron. These are from La Maison du Chocolat, which I blogged about previously. I have to admit, I get kind of a thrill when I see the packaging; yes, I'm still a sucker for nice packaging.

In comparison to the Paulette macarons, La Maison du Chocolat's are significantly larger (about 3" across, I would estimate). I'm not sure what all of the flavors were, but chocolate and raspberry were the predominant flavors I got.


And inside a chocolate macaron. To me, the true appeal of the macaron is in the contrasting textures; the crisp shell and the marshmallowy interior, and the even softer filling. Both macarons fit the bill, although if forced to choose, I'd probably have to go with the Paulette macarons....but only if forced.

May 2009 be even more delicious.

Paulette
9466 Charleville Boulevard at Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

La Maison du Chocolat
30 Rockefeller Center
New York, NY 10020

Normandy Apple Tart (or, Adventures in Applesauce)

I love Dorie Greenspan's Baking book--I've made at least 10 recipes from it by now and every single one has been terrific. I don't know if it's just me but I find that a lot of recipe books lately have a lot of errors (sometimes glaring! like a certain cake recipe from a book-that-shall-not-be-named which neglected to give measurements for flour) or which are converted improperly from the metric measurements. I've never had a problem like that with Baking AND it's beautifully photographed and full of little anecdotes and tips. It's my current favorite book (although my wonderful brother got me a Nick Malgieri book for Christmas so...game on!)

This recipe is no exception. I could not locate my tart ring (a recurring theme with me) so I made it in an 8" removable bottom cake pan. It's a bit deeper than it was intended to be and of course, somewhat more rustic looking (especially in the crust edges as you can see above), but you know, I actually found the ratio of apple to crust to be more to my preference this way. I'm usually a crust person, but this applesauce is SO GOOD.

And now for the "learn from my stupidity" part of the post. When I read instructions that tell me to puree something with a food mill, I usually shrug and reach for a potato masher or a mesh sieve and a spoon. BUT (and you know there is a but), I fell victim again to missing implements--in this case, my large mesh sieve was MIA. "Oh well," I thought, "I have this little one that I use for sifting powdered sugar. So it'll take a little longer...big deal!" Two hours later, I was sweaty, covered in bits of apple, my hand was sore, I had invoked and then cursed a number of deities, and all I had to show for it was a smallish bowl of sauce. Fortunately it was a delicious bowl of sauce (thank you Greenmarket farmers!) or I think I might have cried. Anyway, I have learned my lesson--I'm going to go get a food mill. And when I do, there will be delicious Normandy apple tart for all.

Normandy Apple Tart (recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)
2 pounds apples (I used a mix of Gala, McIntosh, and Honeycrisp)
1/4 cup water
half a stick of cinnamon
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping:
2 medium apples (I used Fuji)

1 9" tart crust, partially baked and cooled

For the crust, use your favorite sweet tart dough; there is an excellent one in Dorie's book, although I used a batch of pate sucree I had left from another baking endeavor.

Peel and core the apples and chop into 1" chunks (of course if you have a food mill, you can cut them larger and leave the skin and cores intact). Place in a saucepan with the water, cinnamon, and brown sugar and bring to a simmer over medium heat. You want to cook the apples until they are extremely soft; if the water boils away before this happens, add enough a bit at a time so the apples don't stick to the bottom of the pan. When the apples are soft enough, remove from heat and process through a food mill (or push through a (LARGE) sieve.) Under no circumstances should you use what amounts to a glorified tea strainer. This is your last warning! If the applesauce seems thin, return it to the pan and cook very, very gently until it thickens slightly. Stir in vanilla, transfer the sauce to a bowl, cover and refrigerate.

When ready to assemble the pie, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Fill the baked and cooled tart shell (which you have left in the pan) with the applesauce almost to the top; place the filled pan on a baking sheet. To make the topping, peel and halve the two apples and remove the cores. Cut each half into very thin, neat slices and arrange in concentric circles over the applesauce, overlapping slightly. You could arrange them in any old way, but concentric circles is pretty. Dorie's recipe calls for an eggwash but I skipped it and sprinkled some coarse sugar on top instead. Bake for 50 minutes or until the apples are golden and easily pierced with the tip of a knife. Cool and eat!

Merry Christmas!!!

This post has nothing to do with food, but I just had to show off my awesome new Christmas present, so Totoro and I want to wish everyone happy holidays!

And we did feast royally (lamb for lunch, steamboat for dinner). There, now it is a food post!

NY Chocolate Show

Chocolate Chrysler Building headdress

I'm baaaack....well, kind of. I feel like I've always got some excuse about why I've fallen off the blogging thing, but really, this time, it's just been insane, and the constant news about layoffs and such are not really inspiring me to do much other than keep my head down. But actually while I've been gone I've gotten to do a couple of cool things, including going to the Sheep & Wool Festival at Rhinebeck where I got to pet a lot of sheep and alpacas. My new goal in life? Get a miniature sheep. Ooooh, miniature sheep.

Anyway! Having said that, I did emerge from the lair long enough to go to the 11th Annual Chocolate Show at Pier 94 along the Hudson River. I arrived about noon on the Sunday, paid my $25 admission fee (there was also the option of a combination ticket that included wine and food tastings on the other side of the hall) and was instantly overwhelmed by the crowd (predictably, mostly women).


Mary's flower chocolates

Now, let me point out that despite my best efforts, I was not able to convince ANY of my friends to come to the Chocolate Show. Yes, I too was flabbergasted. I mean, a day scarfing down chocolate samples??? How could you resist? Well, be that as it may, I was flying solo and I spent most of my time there making the rounds, eating samples, chatting with chocolatiers, and generally staring open-mouthed at the mountains and mountains of delicious looking goodies.


Chocolate petals from Boissier

The first booth I stopped at was Boissier, where they were keeping their samples under wraps (because people tasted too many chocolates and then lost the ability to distinguish between them, I was told). I assured her that they were my first chocolate of the day and was rewarded with a sample of these amazing chocolate petals--yes, those are cocoa nibs. I was hooked right away and left with an entire tin.


Pralus Pyramide des Tropiques

One of the best things about the show was that I got to taste a lot of single origin chocolates for the first time, as well as chocolate from companies that are "bean to bar" (i.e. that the company makes the chocolate themselves from the cacao bean). Fascinating! I only managed to take in one demonstration, a chocolate tasting led by a representative from Amedei (based in Tuscany!) followed by a demonstration of a chocolate spread recipe. Uh, that chocolate spread is one of the best things I've ever tasted. I would have bought a block of the Amedei chocolate for that but slightly too rich for my blood...instead, I just ate a few more samples. Shhhhh. I did also pick up a bunch of other chocolates from Mary's, including their green tea and soy powder ganaches, but I'll be reviewing those later on since I haven't broken into those packages yet. Yes, please, admire my willpower.

You would think that after all that chocolate, I would have craved something savory. Instead, I walked over to NYCIcy on 10th avenue and tried a mango basil sorbet. Delicious! Props to my coworker for the recommendation.

Then, I justified the entire day by walking all 60 blocks home. Well, somewhat anyway.