The Sour Dough

The Pantry Plan or How I'm Not Buying Groceries Until September

2008-07-01T19:21:00.002-04:00

As I was scanning my groceries in the self check-out line last week at the local grocery store, I watched as each item I zinged across the reader pushed my total higher and higher. By the time I finished with a week's worth of groceries, I had exceeded the entire monthly grocery budget I put myself on last year when I moved to Connecticut. My one week total, if I pulled out the three pharmacy items that are "one offs", was over $90.00 for one person and one cat! Ouch...

As I put the groceries away, I started to consider how I could reduce my weekly and monthly food bills. After all, I have a well stocked pantry and freezer and my garden is starting to bear produce beyond lettuce and herbs. Not to mention, cooking and baking are more than hobbies for me, they are a vital part of who I am and contribute to my general well being in the form of providing a creative outlet and stress relief from my job.

As I looked at the boxes of pasta, the cans of tomato products and vegetables, and various baking ingredients in my pantry, the frozen chicken, pork, and beef in my freezer, and the pounds of butter and other staples in my fridge, I realized that I could restock depleted often used items and staples in my pantry and quite comfortably, with a little planning, not have to buy any quantity of groceries for the next forty-five days. Further, given that between now and Labor Day, I will be on business trips for about three weeks, I decided that I would not buy an substantial groceries until September 1, 2008.

Thus, "The Pantry Plan" was born.

Here is the plan: between today, July 1 and September 1, I will not be doing any grocery shopping except for the following items:

Perishable dairy products: milk, yogurt, cheese, half and half (got to have my coffee!)

Cat food (LB doesn't understand the meaning of "pantry plan" and requires his Fancy Feast)

Cat litter (See LB's understanding of the "pantry plan" and his consumption of Fancy Feast)

Items needed for any Daring Baker challenge not already in my pantry (I'm setting a self imposed limit of $15.00 for any special ingredients for challenges)

Items needed to fulfill any baking orders or catering jobs (paid for by clients)

Items needed to teach my bread baking classes at the local community college (reimbursed by college)

Corn on the cob from the farmer's market. (I can't grow this in my container garden)

Fresh fruit from the farmer's market. (I have no berry bushes or fruit bearing trees in my yard)

Otherwise, I will be living off what I have in my house or gather from my garden and getting creative with my pantry. This will probably mean some of my "noblesse oblige" baking I do for my office mates will need to be curtailed but tough times call for tough measures I'm afraid.

From time to time during the next two months, I'll blog about recipes I've made and how I'm doing sticking to the plan. I'll also be posting my weekly personal grocery expenses.

This past weekend I put the plan in motion. After carefully taking inventory of my pantry, my fridge, and my freezer, I created a shopping list using tada lists to restock any often used items and staples. I then spent about two hours with the various online sales fliers and printing online coupons for Shaws, Whole Foods, Balducci's, Trader Joe's, and Super Stop and Shop, as well as clipping the new coupons from the newspaper and sorting my existing coupons to match my shopping list and headed for the grocery stores.

By the time I got home about four hours later, I had spent $165.01. By using coupons, buy one/get one free deals, and various other savings techniques, I had saved $63.21 and I had a completely stocked pantry, fridge and freezer.

Let the games begin...

The Daring Bakers Do Danish...

2008-06-29T12:14:00.003-04:00

You know, I realized as I typed this title for this post, that given the recent exploits of The Bakeanistas and some of my previous Daring Baker posts, you are going to be wondering if The Sour Dough is turning a bit risque! Not too much I promise you. But you have to admit when it comes to yeast breads, there is plenty of room to make the obvious jokes about stumps of dough and things rising...

This month's challenge, Sherry Yard's Danish Braid from her book, The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts was presented to us by fellow Bakeanistas Kelly of Sass and Veracity and Ben of What's Cooking. This challenge made us make a laminated dough and in keeping with Ms. Yard's premise of the book, the concept of a laminated dough is to make a dough that incorporates quite a large amount of butter that is layered via a series of turns (folding over) of the dough and butter layers. The result is a flaky dough that is the basic dough used in croissants, puff pastry, palmiers, and the ilk.

I made this challenge three times. Once with my other twin sister from the north, Ivonne the night before the group that Kelly and Ben invited to bake together met on Skype resulting in a very delicious apricot preserve danish. Again the next day with Kelly, Ben, Sara, my yeast weedhopper John, Lis, Helen, and Chris (who just chatted with us) when the dough made a hugemungous raspberry cream cheese danish that was devoured in the record time of two minutes in my office the next day. Finally, last weekend on Sunday while I was doing the Garlic Knots with the gang because I was having so much fun with the challenge dough I wanted to use the Apple filling that recipe called for. I only made half the dough recipe and the formed danish is currently in my freezer waiting for the first touch of fall to be unthawed for its final rise.

The first time I made the dough I didn't particularly like the dough. I thought it was too soft and never really got solid even after the 30 minute rest in the fridge the recipe called for between turns and the overnight rest in the fridge and the softened butter technique yielded butter squishing out of the ends of the turned dough when I was rolling the dough out for the next turn. The second time I made the dough, I increased the rest time between turns to 45 minutes and the dough was more firm but still pretty soft. For the final time, I followed the method of building the butter block that Cook's Illustrated Baking Illustrated: A Best Recipe Classic details in it's recipe for croissant and danish dough. This small change in method resulted in dough that not only firmed the way other danish doughs I've made did but also resulted in a far flakier and crispy danish.

Now, while time consuming, making this danish was pretty straight forward, after making the dough you roll out the dough into a large rectange and on two-thirds of the dough spread the butter block.

Then you fold the unbuttered third over the center buttered part and then the last buttered top on top. This is the first turn.

For this recipe, three more turns will be needed. Each turn consists of rolling out the dough (this dough was really springy and required several rests between rolls) and folding the dough the same way. After each turn, the dough rests in the fridge (remember 45 minutes was better than the 30 minutes in the recipe).

After the overnight rest in the fridge, you roll out the dough into a very large rectangle in preparation for cutting the braid fringes and filling the danish with either the apple topping or with another topping of your choice.

Of course, ever the engineer, I had to bring out some tools to make sure I was able to have a perfectly balanced braid. Then you cut strips into the rectangle to form the braid, the braid fringe if you will.

If you look close enough, you can see the markers for the place to quit cutting into the braid and leave enough dough to fold over the filling, the demarcation line of filling, and yes, the 1 1/4 inch width for the braid fringes. I'm such a dough nerd....

After spreading the filling in the center third and folding over one end, you just alternate the fringes so you have a nice, pretty even braid.

You let the braid rise until it gets double and puffy

I brushed the braid with an egg wash and then sprinkled baker's sparkle sugar on top. I think most danishes are sweet enough without adding a glaze or frosting. You bake the braid until it is golden brown. In my oven that was about 25 minutes. When it comes out, you have a gorgeous flaky danish.

The perfect coffee partner in the morning, or if you can get it to last that long later in the afternoon over a cup of tea with friends and gossip!

To see how the hundreds upon hundreds of Daring Bakers fared this month with their laminated doughs and danishes, go check out our Blogroll.

Thanks Kelly and Ben! I had a blast with this recipe and baking with the gang.

Mmmm Canada....Beer, Brats and a Bit of Pork Pie

2008-06-28T23:16:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess sent out invites to a bunch of food bloggers who either were from Canada or lived close enough to Canada to be considered almost Canadian citizens to blog about foods that mean Canada to us. Jennifer is hosting the sweet side of Canada and Jasmine is hosting the savory side of Canada. So, let's get right across the Northern border shall we?!

While I'm not from Canada, I'm from what is often referred to as the "lost province" of Canada, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We speak more Canadian than American, complete with ending our sentences with "eh" and besides bait shops and pasties, there is a good ole donut shop on every corner, including a few branches of Tim Hortons.

When ever I think of Canada, one of the first things that comes to my mind is beer. You remember the movie "Strange Brew" right?

The Canadians are proud of their breweries and rightly so! This the land of Molson and Labatt. Where I come from you are either a Molson drinker or a Labatt drinker. My family was a Labatt family. There wasn't a family gathering that didn't include Labatt Blue and this was especially true of summer. During the summer, one of my family's favourite things to do was to boil some brats in a few bottles of Blue and then toss them on the grill.

We'd then put them on good potato rolls and slather course grained mustard. We'd then sit down with a bottle of cold Labatt Blue, a big spoonful of potato salad and enjoy the setting Northern Michigan sun.

Everything about this meal screams summer to me.

The other dish that says Canada to me is Tourtiere. Tourtiere is a traditional pork pie from Quebec that is served during the Christmas holidays. But, in my family, tourtiere would make its appearance as the first sign of fall. My grandmother on my father's side had family roots in far eastern Ontario and she would fix tourtiere on cold and dreary days to bring a bit of the holidays into the house.

Tonight my awesome neighbor Chris, who is in the throes of discovering his inner cook, made a version of tourtiere that I'm calling Chris' Connecticut Tourtiere.

He made it to share with me and our other neighbor, Erica. It was delicious and spicy and despite the heat of the day, was refreshing with a glass of red wine. I'm hoping that Chris' version of tourtiere is on our house menu often.

Chris' Connecticut Tourtiere

1 frozen deep dish 9" pie crust
1lb spicy Italian sausage
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb mushrooms
1 cup shallots, sliced
1/2 cup red wine
3 Tbsp Worchester sauce
3/4 cup shredded Asiago cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Brown sausage, drain and set aside. Wipe excess grease from pan and add olive oil. Saute sliced mushrooms and shallots until golden brown and add back in sausage. Add wine and Worchester sauce and cook for 2 -4 minutes. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Place in pie crust and top with cheese. Bake for 15 minutes until crust is golden brown. Serve hot.

Tying Myself Up in Knots of Dough and Laughter

2008-06-25T20:19:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday most of my Bakeanista* posse, Lisa, Helen, Tanna, Kelly, John, Marce, Chris, and Sara all gathered on Skype to bake. (Stephanie, Ben, Ivonne and Laura had to miss the fun but we've caught them up on what they missed with over one hundred and twelve emails today!) We had gathered to bake one or both of two recipes: the Garlic Knots from the King Arthur Flour Blog, Baker's Banter (go over there and I dare you not to print at least four or five recipes!) or a recipe adapted from Bon Appetit. The goal of the ~~gossip~~ baking session was to try and mimic some garlic knots that Angelina...um I mean Lisa remembers from an Italian restaurant in her home town of Cleveland; where the food is crappy but the garlic knots are to die for.

Despite the title, this post isn't about anything kinky but considering some of the talk that happens when my little baking wrecking crew gets together you would never know we ever have time to bake! What we did have time for was eight plus hours of snorting coffee on computer screens (Did you know that Titanic Kate or rather Helen has a prophylactic wrapped keyboard because of us?!), explorations of stripper accessories for Diane's....I mean Kelly's wee-wee booby knots (we went with twirly versus jangley), and talking Dexter's Kate/John off the yeast is evil ledge (John, your knots are yar!).

OH yea, along with an education on electric tape versus body glue, I also got twelve of garlic infused, golden brown, squishy dough knots to scarf down in less than one hour! (I shared with my awesome neighbor Chris)

They all had good wide girth and only one had a little appendage that rose to the occasion.

Now, if you are long time reader of The Sour Dough, you know that I haven't met an yeast dough that I didn't like and this one was no exception. Our only complaint with the King Arthur recipe was despite how wonderful the garlic butter was, for those of us who have never heard the meaning of too little garlic, we wanted to taste the garlic all the way through the knots.

So, on Monday while I was working at home (hey, yeast dough rising is a great multi tasking kitchen duty!), I decided to play a little with the recipe. I crushed two cloves of garlic, mixed a dash of lemon juice into the crushed cloves to prevent them from turning Tanna Green, and added them to the dough before letting it rise. Then I formed the knots again, brushed them with an egg wash made from one egg and 1 Tbsp of garlic juice and sprinkled some Asiago cheese on top and left them to rise again.

After baking them, I brushed them with the garlic infused butter

and ripped into one of them straight from the hot pan.

They were everything a garlic fanatic like me could ever hope for with the added bonus that if Buffy needs me to help her out, I'm pretty sure I could wear one or two of these under my shirt, pasties optional, and keep the vampires away!

Now, a check list for you before you go see what the rest of this funny, fabulous and naughty bunch of bakers have put up on their blogs:

Make sure you don't have any coffee, milk, cola, or adult beverage in your mouth

If you do, make sure you have covered your keyboard and screen in a plastic drop cloth

Keys should be at the ready to rush out and get the ingredients to bake the knots

* The Bakeanistas are not a baking group, we are just a small group of rowdy friends who get together every once in a while on Skype to bake, drink, chat and trade pictures of baked goods and other things (big things with lots of girth!) back and forth.

If you are interested in baking or cooking with a group of friends, I can heartily recommend using Skype, finding a recipe you all want to try, pick a date and let the good time roll! If you are interested in joining an online baking group and want to bake a monthly challenge with a bunch of really cool people, I can tell you from experience there isn't a better group of folks than The Daring Bakers. If you want to bake your way through Dorie Greenspan's fantastic book, "Baking From My Home to Yours", the guys and gals at Tuesday's With Dorie will be more than happy to have you join them (and they are a pretty fantastic group of folks too!)

A Bit of Tuscany at My House

2008-06-24T17:17:00.000-04:00

Late June in Connecticut reminds me quite a bit of Tuscany in June. The temperatures are in the middle 80's during the day and drop to the upper 50's during the night and the skies are blue and breezes soft. The flowers are blooming in the window boxes

and the tomatoes, basil, green beans and peppers are starting to thrive

and take over the containers.

The rosemary is bright green and growing like a tree

and the lavender is about to bloom.

This past weekend, while baking something I'm blogging about tomorrow, I decided to sort through my latest stash of King Arthur Flour that arrived while I was on my recent trip. Good thing I did too, because the box had apparently been set someplace during the delivery process where it was exposed to the monsoons we had while I was gone and all the packages of flour were wet! So, while I chatted with Lisa on Skype, I sorted through the bags of flour to make sure none of it was too wet. At the very bottom of the box was a package of flour I had forgotten I really wanted to try, the King Arthur European Style Artisan Flour.

Unfortunately, this was the bag of flour that bore the brunt of the wet box. Even though the inside of the KA Flour bags are lined with waxed plastic, I didn't want to take the chance since this bag was entirely wet and opened the bag, sifted it and placed it in a container with a sticky label. As I was getting ready to throw out the bag, I noticed the recipe on the back of the bag for Tuscan Style Coffee Cake. Reading through the ingredients, I realized I could make this very easily and I would get to use some of the Eurpean Style Artisan Flour right away! After all who doesn't like to play with new toys?

The dough is a pretty straight forward sweet bread dough; soft and silky. It rose quickly and had a nice vanilla aroma. After gently deflating the dough and before shaping the loaf, you knead in a combination of chopped nuts and dried fruit. The recipe calls for dates and golden raisins but I wanted to add some other types of dried fruits along with the dates and golden raisins, so I added dried cranberries, apricots, and cherries along with some figs to the dates and raisins.

It made for a lovely combination of colors and textures.

The recipe also calls for the bread to be shaped in a ball and left to rise in a 9" round pan. I decided to shape it like a horse shoe because I was feeling lazy and didn't want to pull out my round pans from the bottom shelf of my pantry.

Once again, the dough rose fantastically. The loaf rose so much, it took over most of the sheet pan I was using!

Before the coffee cake is baked, the recipe calls for it to be drizzled with a sugar topping. I didn't see the sentence "before baking" and skipped this part.

You know what? The bread doesn't need a sugar topping at all! After letting it cool, I divided it up to share with my neighbors here in the house and my Indian neighbors next door (it was that huge!). I was going to drizzle some glaze on top before giving the portions away but it was so good without it, I decided it didn't need the extra sweetness. The fruit and nuts were nicely scattered in the bread complimenting the nice crumb and soft crust perfectly.

It was delightful all by itself and the perfect accompaniment to a tall glass of cold iced tea while I sat in the sun in the backyard reading a book and enjoying the summer breezes.

Tuscan Coffeecake Bread
Adapted from the recipe on the back of the King Arthur European Style Artisan Flour bag

For the Dough:
1 cup + 3 Tbsp of water, room temperature
3 3/4 cups of KA European Style Artisan Flour (or any flour with about 11% gluten)
1/4 cup of butter, melted
1 large egg, room temperature
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp instant or bread-machine yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla (recipe calls for 1/4 but I am of the school of more vanilla is better!)

Whisk all the dry ingredients together and add water, butter, and vanilla. In a stand mixer with the dough hook, knead until a smooth and springy dough ball is formed (about 5 - 7 minutes). If making by hand, knead until dough is smooth and springy. The dough will be slightly tacky to touch but won't cling to your hand. If the dough clings, sprinkle some more flour on top of the dough ball and knead until the dough is just tacky, adding additional flour as necessary.

Place in slightly greased bowl and let rise until almost double, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

For the Filling:
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup dates, chopped
1/4 cup dried figs, chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

Gently deflate dough and either by hand or using the dough hook on the stand mixer, knead in nuts and fruit on low until fruit and nuts are distributed through the dough. Turn dough onto slightly floured counter and give a few quick hand kneads. Let dough rest for 5 minutes.

Forming the loaf:

Push dough into long rectangle and roll into rough log, shape like horse-shoe and place on a large lightly greased parchment line paper jelly roll or cookie sheet with edges. With cooking spray, lightly dust top of dough and cover loosely with plastic wrap, let rise until double in a warm draft free place.

Baking the loaf:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Gently brush top of loaf with egg wash (1 egg and 1 Tbsp water, beaten until combined) and bake for 35 minutes or until internal temperature of bread is 190 degrees. Remove from pan and let cool completely before cutting. Top with glaze if desired.

Bread Baking Babes: Starters and Rye Up Neat

2008-06-23T00:01:00.002-04:00

I'm hosting this month's edition of the Bread Baking Babes and I have us playing with starters and my favourite flour, rye because this month we are baking from a recipe I created and have been working on for about a year using my starter, a Dark Onion Rye boule

The bread I have been working towards should be a hearty bread with a chewy crust and a hint of onion and caraway. The bread would lend itself to cheese with a lot of character and cured meats.

The perfect accompaniment to a ploughman's lunch washed down with a good stout.

I had reached a point in my recipe development that I needed a few test bakers and couldn't think of a better group to help me than my fellow Babes. After all, between them, there is a wealth of yeast and flour experience. I also wanted to see how the bread would work with the use of different types of rye flour.

First, let's get a definition out of the way in regards to pumpernickel. There are two types of pumpernickel: German style and United States style. German Pumpernickel is a lot like champagne, in it is a very specific style of bread baked and regulated by German rules. It is a very dense bread that is baked for a very long time in a low temperature oven. United States pumpernickel bread is dark rye bread made with combination of wheat and rye flour and then colored very dark with coffee or molasses. It normally contains caraway seeds. It has the same texture as a whole grain bread and is not as dense as the German style.

To add further confusion about pumpernickel here in the US there is a style of flour called "pumpernickel" which normally means 100% rye flour. It is a bit darker than medium rye flour which typically contains a portion of wheat flour. OK, now that you are thoroughly confused, on to this month's bread.

Like we have seen in other breads, flours that are called the same thing in one place of the world do not necessarily work the same way. Take rye flour for a really good example. My recipe calls for using 100% rye flour but several of our Babes, especially Karen and Lien who are in Holland, had disastrous results using their 100% rye flour. Their first loaves, there were many first loaves, were dense, non-rising, inedible bricks. It wasn't until I happened upon a true European bakery in NYC and spoke with one of the bakers that we discovered there was a huge difference in rye flours here versus there. She even gave me about 6 cups of the Eastern European rye flour they import to take home and try my recipe with to see the difference. The result? Brick...

So, I had to make an allowance in the recipe if the baker is using European flour.

Next there was some concern about the use of onion powder. My original recipe called for onion powder instead of onions. I used it because it was a pretty easily available ingredient. Lien reported that her onion powder made the bread taste awful. In fact, her onion powder was nausea inducing! Well that is the last thing I would want to induce in a recipe of mine!! So, Tanna came up with a method of sweating the onions and then adding them. I and few other babes used freeze dried onions and had nice onion tasting results. So, I removed the onion powder and put either sweated onions or freeze dried onions in the recipe.

Finally, the last adjustment. My wonderful testers helped me refine the amount of liquid to flour and the crust. My original recipe did not add any oil and the result was a very hard, thick crust. Also, the amount of extra flour you had to add to the dough was much less than I suspected we needed to get structure (Rye flour absorbs liquid very quickly but also results in a very sticky dough). Some playing around with earlier versions of my recipe led me back to using some melted butter in dough. This gave us a much softer but still chewy crust.

The results? With the exception of Karen and Lien, who report that rye breads just aren't their favourites, I'm quite happy to report that Tanna, Sher, Gorel, and Ilva all really liked the bread! The test loaves I took into the office were all devoured as well (even the ones I thought were failures). So, I'm happy with the recipe and think it is about right where I would want it for use in a class I am teaching on unusual grain sourdough breads in a few weeks at a local community college!

Thanks to my test bakers this month: A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Grain Doe (Gorel), Notitie van Lien (Lien), and What Did You Eat (Sher). Without you all, I could not have put this recipe to bed.

If you want to have a go at this bread and be Bread Baking Buddy this month, here is what you need to do:

Make a starter using my recipe. For those of you who have your starters from my recipe already to go, you can move right to step 2!

Make the bread, take some pictures and blog about it.

Email me by July 6 with a link to your post. We are giving you two weeks this time because this bread involves getting a starter going from scratch. You will need one full week for this starter btw.

I'll email you a Bread Baking Buddy badge to add to your post.

You can still participate even if you don't have a blog, just bake the bread and drop me an email by July 6th with a picture of your bread.

I will do a round up of all the breads and your comments the week of July 7th.

Here is the recipe and even if you make this bread after the Bread Baking Buddy, please let me know your results. I will add them to my research and your experience will help me if the recipe needs further refining!

Breadchick's Dark Onion Rye

Total Time for Recipe: 2 days (does not include the time needed to build a starter)

Results in one (1) boule

Day 1: You will feed your starter 2 times on the first day; once in the morning and once about 2 - 4 hour prior to making the sponge.

First Feeding: Stir in any hooch and DO NOT TOSS ANY OFF. Feed the starter 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup AP flour.

Second Feeding: Stir in any hooch and divide the starter into two equal parts. Put one part away (This is your Mother Starter) and feed the other part 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup AP flour. Wait 2 - 4 hours and then make the sponge. (Note: I make the sponge right before I go to bed as it needs about 8 hours of fermenting time)

Making the Sponge:

In large bowl combine
1 cup active starter
3/4 cup rye flour
3/4 cup Bread flour (12% + gluten)
1/2 cup water

Cover and let ferment 8 - 10 hours overnight

Making the Dough:

You can use a stand mixer or do this by hand.

Combine:
Sponge
1 1/2 Tbsp dark molasses (or if you can't find molasses, use Treacle or 1 Tbsp Lyle syrup and 1 Tbsp strong dark coffee) Note: don't use Blackstrap molasses as this will give the bread a bitter taste.
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp melted unsalted butter

and mix until smooth.

To sponge mixture add:
1 3/4tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp freeze dried or sweated fresh onions
2 heaping tsp caraway seeds (optional)
1 cup Dark Rye or Pumpernickel flour (100% Rye flour)
1/2 cup bread flour

Note: Use 3/4 cup of rye flour and 3/4 cup of bread flour if using European rye flour

Mix on low speed until a shaggy wet dough is formed.

In a separate bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup dark rye, 1/2 cup medium rye, and 1/2 cup bread flour. Using the dough hook of your stand mixer, on low speed, add rye flour mixture to shaggy dough 1/2 cup at a time until dough forms ball that pulls away from the bowl and is firm but still slightly tacky to the touch.

If you are doing this by hand, the dough ball will be firm and smooth but will stick your hand if you squeeze the dough.

On a floured counter (I use medium rye flour to flour the counter), give the dough a few hand kneads (about 2 - 4 minutes) and let rest for 15 minutes. Give one last knead, dough should be elastic feeling and not stick to your hands but will feel tacky. If it sticks to your hands, knead in additional rye flour until dough is firm but ever so slightly tacky.

In large, lightly greased covered bowl, let dough rise until almost double, about 4 hours.

Forming the loaf:

This bread works best if formed into a large round loaf. Gently deflate risen dough and gather into a boule. Place, pucker side up, in a very well floured brotform or banneton and loosely cover. Let rise until dough fills form and rises slightly above.

If you don't have brotform or banneton, you can improvise by placing a very well floured tea towel in a large colander or other large round dish.

Baking the Bread:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If using a stone or tiles, pre heat the oven with the stone/tiles in the oven. Gently unmold risen loaf onto a flat baking sheet prepared with cornmeal dusted parchment paper or onto a cornmeal prepared peel. You may slash the loaf is you wish. Mist top of loaf with water and gently slide bread into the oven and bake at 400 for 20 mintues. Turn oven down to 375 degrees and bake for another 25 minutes or until inside temperature of loaf reaches 200 degrees.

Let bread cool for 4 - 6 hours before slicing. This is very important as rye breads will turn to a gummy mess if they are sliced before completely cool.

Update: If you are baking using flours from Europe, go visit Ulrike at Kuchenlatein's wonderful post about her version of this bread! It quite a spectacular loaf of Dark Onion Rye. She sure earned her Bread Baking Buddy badge this month.

Blog Party 35: Ch-Ch-Ch-Chocolate!!

2008-06-12T20:32:00.000-04:00

When Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness announced the theme for this month's Blog Party was chocolate I thought to myself, "Now how in God's Green Acres am I going to top last month's creations for the Buffy themed Blog Party!" Worse, how was I going to limit myself when next to scallops, fresh homemade bread, bacon, good gin, fine scotch, and strawberry rhubarb pie, there is nothing I love more than chocolate.

I decided to think on it for a few days and turn my attention to the sourdough recipes I was playing with in preparation for a certain group of Bread Baking Babes upcoming event. You do remember, I gave you a hint in May that when I was host kitchen, we would be doing a sourdough recipe from a homemade starter don't you?! Well, even though my turn as host kitchen was delay until this month, I hope you've got your starter going...but I digress.

Anyways, I was prepping about three different starters to play with the recipe and catching up on my blog reading when I noticed that Judy over at the always full of good recipes blog, Judy Gross Eats had this fascinating recipe for chocolate cake made with sourdough starter! Now you know me. I'm never one to turn down the opportunity to bake the most unexpected things with my sourdough toss-off and hey, wouldn't a nice chocolatey bundt cake be just the perfect thing to take the Blog Party!

So, I prepped one more bowl of starter from the toss off of all the others and set about to make what frankly was one of the moistest and terrific tasting chocolate cakes I've ever had in my entire life. The sourdough starter took on the same role in the recipe that sour cream normally does in a cake recipe. It made for a tangy/sweet but not too sweet cake that was the perfect pick me up for an afternoon coffee break.

I topped the cake with the dark chocolate frosting from the Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I love this frosting. It is my "go to" chocolate frosting. It is easy to make and every bit as decadent as ganache or buttercream frosting. I then put some sliced almonds on top to decorate it.

So, to the party I'm going to bring a deep dark sourdough chocolate cake topped with dark chocolate frosting and sliced almonds.

For my drink, it has been so hot and humid around these parts the past week I think we all could use a drink guaranteed to cool us down and bring back those great memories of the first week of Summer Vacation from school, an ice cream float made with almost frozen Coca-Cola and Ben and Jerry's Vanilla ice cream. But, since we are all adults here, let's give it a bit of a twist by using 2 shot glass fulls of Godiva Chocolate liqueur!

Now aren't you glad you aren't a kid anymore!

Thanks Stephanie for inviting me to this month's edition of Blog Party. I can't wait to see what everyone else makes for us to eat and drink. I can pretty much guarantee we'll all be hopped up on chocolate by the end of the evening...

Places of the Heart

2008-06-10T21:46:00.001-04:00

Today was my birthday and I turned forty-one. The funny thing is, one year ago my fortieth birthday, a birthday that is suppose to be monumental, was passed without much fanfare in a place where, despite having lived for over fifteen years, I found myself so utterly alone in so many ways.

This year was far cry from last year. This year, I not only was serenaded every where I went by strangers, who discovered it was my birthday, friends near and afar, and my business colleagues but I was treated to a special lunch and lovely dinner by two dear friends; both of whom last year I didn't even know. These two friends where just two of the many special people who made my forty-first birthday one the best birthdays I've ever had.

I think that I shall never sit in a more perfectly situated place in the world than Brasserie de I'lle St. Louis. It is the perfect place to ponder the finer points of the present, remember the days past and plan the days future. The broad expanse of the Seine as it is divided by I'lle de la Citie with Norte Dame stretched before you and I'lle St. Louis makes the end of Pont St. Louis feel like an oasis in the middle of Paris. Here, there is no rush and no pressure found on the Right Bank and no throng of tourists found on the Left.

So, as my birthday passes for one more year, I will take one more minute, if even only in my mind's eye, to sip some wine, listen to the conversations of lovers and friends and say thank you to those who made today special.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Santa Comes Back and I Answer a MeMe

2008-06-08T21:44:00.000-04:00

Mom spent a lot more time with me this week. I think she was feeling guilty about ignoring me last weekend when Mr. Fizzy Wine was hanging around. Thanks to everyone who said they would adopt me if I wanted to go with them. I'll keep your addresses on file if the tuna and chicken rations go down around here or that guy with the noisy wine bottle comes back any time soon.

Anyways, this week Mom spent a lot of time rambling around the house pulling stuff out of closets and drawers. She said she is "downsizing" her life. I don't know what that means but she tried on a lot of clothes and I noticed that a lot of them ended up in these big plastic bags that she mentioned she was driving to Goodwill. One of the the things she found while she was cleaning out closets was my favorite toy, Santa Claus!

I'm not sure how that got into the closet but I'm sure glad she found it! I was so happy I kicked some stuffing out of Santa, stomped on him some and then laughed at my prowess

After all that Santa Ass Kicking, I was pretty tired and it was starting to get really hot in the house. I'm so glad Mom turned the air conditioning on and left this pile of colorful t-shirts on the bed.

She wasn't that happy that I slept on them because she said she wears them when she goes to the gym or runs to the beach. I'm not sure why a little bit of cat hair on them is going to be a problem when she is going to sweat in them.

Besides ignoring me the past few weeks Mom has been neglecting a few of her blogging friends who have given her some pretty fantastic awards and a really good blogging friend who tagged her for a meme.

Gabi from The Feast Within awarded Mom the "E is for Excellent" blog award for all the good food Mom cooks and then tells you about here.

Then, Lynn at Cookie Baker Lynn gave Mom a "Blogging with Purpose" award for for all the good information that mom writes about bread and the encouragement she gives to people who are afraid of yeast.

Now I don't really like the taste of bread and I think yeast and flour can't taste anywhere as good as crab or salmon but apparently there are a lot of people out there who think bread is pretty darn tasty.

I know Mom is thrilled and honored to be given these awards and I'm proud of her because she loves helping people who read her blog with their questions and wants to inspire people to get comfortable in their kitchens.

She is suppose to pass these on to folks she feels deserve them.

So she is passing the Excellence Award on to: Dharm, Mike, Sara, Lewis and Ruth who all do excellent work in the kitchen and inspire every one of their readers to do their best in their kitchens.

Blogging with a Purpose goes to: Andrea, Madam Chow, Ilva, Veronica, and Ham

Finally, one of Mom's oldest blogging friends Jenny of the really cool blog All Things Edible tagged Mom with a five questions meme. Even though Mom has sworn off meme's, I'll fill this one out for her!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago: I was wandering around the streets of Clinton, MA. My former owners had abandoned me and I was still one year from getting caught in a huge rainstorm on Mom's old porch at her condo in Clinton. I didn't have enough to eat and I got into lots of fights. The best thing that ever happened to me was I got caught on Mom's porch and she heard my crying in the rain and came out and got me, brought me into the house, dried me off and after no one came to claim me she decided she loved me too much to let me go. I've been very happy to run her house ever since.

2. Five non work things on my to do list for today: nap, chase the imaginary fly around the house, push the empty food bowl around the kitchen, meow at the squirrels in the front yard, hide under the bed and swat at Mom's ankles.

3. Five snacks I enjoy: bits of yellow fin tuna from Mom's sushi, Friskies Indoor Cat Treats - chicken flavour, scrambled eggs, king crab leg bits, small pieces of Round *what I call bologna, the only poison free food*

4. Things I would do if I was a Billionaire: find homes for and feed all the lost and stray kats in the world

5. Places I have Lived: Clinton and Cambridge, MA and East Norwalk, CT

6. Jobs I have Had: I've never had a job except to rule the house and keep the squirrels out of Mom's bird feeder by looking menacing in the window when they jump onto it and knock the bird seed out all over the porch.

I'm suppose to tag five people but I don't know too many kitties that blog so if you haven't sworn off memes and/or know a cat that can blog, consider yourself tagged.

Our good friend Sher and Laura and Pumpkin are hosting Weekend Cat Blogging this week, so head over to What Did You Eat to see what all the kitties in the blogosphere have been up to this hot week.

Dreaming of My Next Career

2008-06-04T11:22:00.003-04:00

This is why I would go to work for King Arthur Flour's Test Kitchen in a heartbeat..

Heck, if I got to play with all that flour AND the Easy Bake Oven, they may not even have to pay me!!

Weekend Cat Blogging: Mom's A Crazy Lady

2008-06-01T18:32:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure what has been going on around here this weekend with Mom.

On Friday, she didn't come home until almost 1 AM! All because she only had to work half a day. Her office goes to something called "summer hours" on Memorial Day. So what did she do? She left me all alone so she could go to The City to go to a special showing of the movie, "Sex and The City" with that guy who is always bringing over to our house that fizzy wine with a cork that makes a huge "pop" sound. That wine bottle opening causes me to go hide under the couch. Mom said he does that because he works for a company that makes the stupid stuff and she likes him because he makes her laugh and feel good about herself. But, if he keeps making those bottles go pop I'm going to have to bite his ankles the next time he comes over.

Anyways, after being ignored all night on Friday what did Mom do on Saturday? She got up way too early for a Saturday morning so she could jog to the beach before it rained and get to the place called "The Screen Shop" before they closed at noon. She said she was going to bring me home a surprise but I didn't see any tuna or special treat bags from the butcher in her hand. Besides not bringing me a treat, she woke me from my mid-morning nap on her pillow so she could change the sheets and clean the house.

I hate it when she cleans the house because I can't find a place she won't bug me. If I'm on the couch, she wants to fluff the pillows and shake out the dust cover. If I'm in the kitchen, she's mopping the floor. I can't even hide in the bathtub because she wants turn on the water and spray some yucky smelling foaming bubbles in the tub. It is kind of like a bath.... I am not amused. But the worst thing she does is she gets that big noisy sucking monster out of the closet and chases me around the house with it. To add insult to injury, she also decided my claws needed clipping before she chased me with monster called "The Vacuum". I showed her though by scratching her arms with my back paws while she clipped my front claws. I'll bet she won't be clipping my claws any time soon again!

I'm not sure what she did on Saturday night because after all the trauma I just wanted to sleep on the bed with the warm sheets. I made her work hard to make the bed too. I was lying right in the middle where she wanted to put the sheets and she kept saying that something called "Sara" was waiting on skype for her. Serves her right for not letting me get enough sleep all day. Don't tell Mom this but I kind of like the house after she finishes cleaning because the wood floor in the hall is really slippery after she mops it and I can get good skids down the hall when I run to the bedroom!

Today we slept until almost 8am but I was hungry and Mom wasn't moving very much. So, I had to do something to get her attention. Yesterday while she was cleaning she cleared off the night stand right next to the bed of all those cookbooks and six months of food magazines. The only thing that was on her nightstand was her alarm clock, her cellphone and a glass of water leaving just enough room for me to jump up there to look out the window and meow at the squirrels that were making enough racket to wake the dead. Just as I was mid-air in my leap the water glass moved in my way blocking my landing pad. Boy, was Mom pissed!! I tried to explain it wasn't me but the "other cat" that lives here. She kept telling me there is no other cat that lives here but I know there is because I would never jump up on a piece of furniture I'm not suppose to. Anyways, after Mom got finished mopping up the water and changing the pillow cases that were soaking wet, I got fed. I kept trying to tell her if she had just woken up when I was ready for breakfast the other cat wouldn't have had to wake her up by throwing water on her face. Jheesh....

I haven't seen much of her since she made her coffee and granola with bananas. She has spent most of the day on the back porch reading the Sunday New York Times, some dumb book about a normal day in the lives of working women, reading food magazines, napping in the sun and getting drunk on that stupid fizzy wine mixed with orange juice.

She did come in around 2pm to slice some zucchini and yellow squash she picked up at a farmers market yesterday and dunk it in Italian dressing so she could grill it with hamburgers later tonight. I think that guy with the noisy wine bottles is coming over too because she took a shower a bit ago, asked me if the new summer dress she bought at Kohls made her look fat, and told me to behave myself. I'm sure glad she fixed my scratching pole because I think I'd better go sharpen what is left of my claws.

At least she put the new screen in the front window so I can now sit all the way in the window and watch the squirrels, birds and bunny rabbits in the yard.

She said it was my present because now I won't fall out the window but I think I would have rather had some tuna...

To go see what all the other kitties are up to this weekend, go visit Megan and the BadKittyCats because they are hosting this installment of Weekend Cat Blogging.

A Night at the Opera with the Daring Bakers

2008-05-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

When our founders, Lis and Ivonne, announced that this month's challenge was going to be Opera Cake the first thing that went through my mind was a quick flash through of my favorite movie of all time, The Marx Brothers "Night at the Opera" (Check out the trivia section on the IMDB entry and read why you wouldn't want to miss a business meeting with the zany Brothers)

During the movie, Groucho, Harpo, and Chico crash the MET performance of Il Trovatore, my favorite opera of all time.

Another thing about Daring Bakers that reminds me of "A Night at the Opera" is how big we've gotten since I joined. When I joined it there were less than twenty of us and now we are over 1,000 bakers world wide! Sometimes I feel like I'm part of the famous state room scene and all that is missing is two hard boiled eggs!

Anyways, back to the opera at hand...

The Opera Cake is typically made in dark chocolate flavors but this month we've been asked to keep it light in honor of Barb of Winos and Foodies, who hosts A Taste of Yellow, her yearly event to raise awareness of cancer with the LiveSTRONG Foundation. I missed this year's event because of my crazy travel schedule so I was was really happy that I would get a chance to honor Barb with my Raspberry Lemon flavored Opera Cake.

As far as how the challenge went, it was actually pretty darn easy as far as DB Challenges go because over the past year, I've tackled all the individual elements either in other challenges or through the confidence I've gained by baking the DB Challenges.

Apparently all that practice paid off because the office gave rave reviews to the Opera Cake, including the senior partner who actually licked his plate!

To see all the other wonderful arias of my fellow Daring Bakers who are crammed into the state room with me, go check out there creations by visiting their blogs!

To try and get a "Bravo" or a "Brava" of your own, go visit Lis or Ivonne and warm up those vocal chords!

Ask Breadchick: Purchasing the Mixer of Your Dreams

2008-05-24T09:22:00.003-04:00

It is funny how sometimes I can tell the time of year from the types of questions and requests my readers email me. For example, around fall I start getting requests for recipes one should use to make hearty breads to hold up the soups, stews and crock pot meals that the change from summer to fall always brings. During Christmas, invariably there will be a question about kuchen and stollen. And what does the approach of June bring? Well questions about Kitchen Aid mixers of course!

Did you know that the number one item requested in kitchen wares on the bridal registry at Crate and Barrel, Williams-Sonama, and Macy's is the Kitchen Aid stand mixer? Did you also know that one of the most returned items from a wedding is duplicate Kitchen Aid stand mixer? I didn't until I started doing a bit of informal research a few weeks ago when I received a letter from two readers begging me to settle a disagreement that had arisen over their bridal registry in regards to a KA mixer. It seems that the future groom thought they should register for the "Big Boy", the Professional 600 while the future bride was thinking more modestly with the Artisan.

This query got me to thinking about my own decision making process when I adopted Isabelle last December.

How did I arrive to the conclusion that the Pro Five Plus was the right mixer for me? Also, what accessories did I get with Isabelle and why?

The first thing I recommend is really and truly think about your baking habits. Are you someone who is baking every day or do you really only bake once or twice a year during the holidays? Do you only bake from mixes or do you bake from scratch? Do you bake only sweets or do you venture into the realm of yeast breads? Do you bake only for you and your family or do you often find yourself baking large batches of cookies for the kid's school bake sales? Finally ask yourself what type of baker do you aspire to be. Maybe now you only bake with mixes but dream of baking a wedding cake from scratch or finally getting that perfectly crunchy crust on a French baguette.

If you only bake occasionally, and then it is normally cookies or some type of batter for muffins or mixes are really more your style, all you need to own is either the Artisan or even the Classic. Both these mixers would more than meet your needs as they are both powerful enough to mix up batches of cookies and make short work of cake mixes. The Artisan is a bit more powerful at at 325W versus 250W but as America's Test Kitchen proved a few years ago when several high powered mixers failed with bread dough while several lessor powered mixers performed well, it isn't always about the wattage but rather the torque that counts. The Artisan can handle up to 9 cups of flour in it's 5 quart bowl and the Classic can handle 8 cups of flour in it's 4.5 quart bowl. Both are tilt head mixers, meaning the whole head rotates up and away from the bowl. Both mixers come with the paddle, whisk and dough hook. The Classic retails for around $250.00 while the Artisan retails for $350.00. The only thing, other than price, that may tip the hand in favor of the Artisan is it comes in all those nifty colors to match any kitchen decor or baker's personality while the Classic comes only in white.

If you are making yeast breads or large amounts of dough or aspire to do either of these things, then you will want to look at a mixer with larger capacity and a bit more power and torque in either the Pro Five Plus or the Pro 600. Both these mixers are bowl lift style, meaning the bowl attaches to an arm lift that then raises the bowl to meet the mixer's head. The Pro Five can handle up to 12 cups of flour in it's 5 quart bowl while the 600 can handle up to 14 in it's 6 quart bowl. Both mixers come with the standard paddle and whisk attachments but have upgraded dough hooks that really duplicate the hand kneading process quite well. Both come in plenty of colors, even if not as many as the Artisan, and both are the same size and weight. The Pro Five Plus retails for around $450.00 while the Pro 600 retails for around $525.00. Kitchen Aid offers a version of the Pro Five Plus that is rated for Commercial use as well, which basically means you won't get in trouble with the health inspector if you run a food business from your home. The Commercial only comes in white and retails for $550.00.

Now that you have figured out which Kitchen Aid mixer to purchase, what accessories should you get?

If you are a frequent baker, on my short list are an extra bowl, an extra paddle and bowl covers. I am so glad I have an extra bowl and paddle because when I'm in the middle of a complex Daring Bakers challenge or have two different loaves of bread going, I don't have to stop and wash my mixer's bowl and paddle. And if you make yeast breads, the bowl cover turns the bowl into the perfect proofing container.

A "nice to have" but not necessary accessory if you bake a lot is the pour shield. I have one but I don't use it as much as thought I would, except when I need to drizzle liquids while the mixer is going. (Note: It appears that Kitchen Aid has discontinued this accessory as I can't find it on their website and no longer see mention of it in the mixer descriptions except for the Artisan and Pro 600, which appear to now come packaged with the pour shield)

After that, you should again consider what you like to cook and how often you would use the attachments in regards to deciding about adding the pasta maker, ice cream maker, sausage stuffer, juicer, grain mill or any of a number of other gadgets you can attach to your stand mixer.

I have the pasta maker and the ice cream maker and neither of them have been out of their packaging yet. Not because I don't plan to use them, mind you, but rather six months into Isabelle's arrival, I have yet to find the time to play with either of them. Rest assured, you will be the first to know when I do!

Finally, comes the question do you purchase brand new or refurbished? This is a matter of personal taste. Obviously, if you are registering for the stand mixer as gift, chances are it will be brand new. But if you are purchasing for yourself and are looking for a bargain, go check out the online Kitchen Aid Outlet, where you will find both close outs and refurbished stand mixers. Most of the refurbished mixers are not mixers that were returned for service and damaged or were completely rebuilt but rather are returns that Kitchen Aid can't sell by law as new or got a ding or scratch during manufacturing. The refurbished mixers come with a full refundable or replacement six month warranty and the same great Kitchen Aid customer service as the new ones. Isabelle is a refurb and she hasn't given me an ounce of trouble and believe me, if she was going to, she would have by now because I use her often and with some pretty stiff doughs.

There you have it in a nut shell, a quick guide to purchasing the Kitchen Aid stand mixer of your dreams.

So which mixer did my two readers end up putting on their bridal registry? They went with the Pro Five Plus in black because both said while now they were happy to bake simple white bread and brownies, they had plans to invest in tiles for their oven and start baking the big country style boules and baguettes they have read about here as soon as they were finished remodeling the house they just purchased. They also registered for an extra bowl, extra paddle, bowl covers and the ice cream maker.

I'm thinking there are some bowl covers from Breadchick in their future...

Bread Baking Babes Versus The Baker's Apprentice

2008-05-20T20:15:00.001-04:00

This month's adventure in yeast let us put the wellies away and made us drag out the sourdough dictionary to figure out the difference between starter, barm (not used usually in association with sourdough breads), and the difference between wet and firm starters because we took on Peter Reinhart's Poilane Style Miche from his classic cookbook The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.

First, let me tell you that I made this bread three times: once using the recipe that our kitchen of the month, Sher gave us a couple weeks ago that used an almost exclusive rye/wheat flour combination during the barm and firm starter stage; once using the same recipe but using Bob as my starter, and finally exactly as written by Peter in the cookbook.

I really enjoyed playing with this recipe, despite my private griping on our blog and amongst ourselves in email. Probably the number one thing I liked was comparing the differences between the three starters, especially when they reached the firm stage.

I'll give this recipe it's due, this process results in a really nice firm starter. I've always had much better success with more liquid starters than with firm starters but this firm starter was so nice that I kept a wedge from Sher's version to use in future breads.

I really noticed the sour profile of all three starters as quite different as well. Peter's starter was quite sour. Sher's adapted starter was sour but with the overtone of whole grains, and finally Bob had a mild sourness. Of all the three, I liked the bread made with Bob the best, followed by Sher's version of the miche and finally Peter's original version.

When it came to baking, I had the most trouble with the recipe from the Baker's Apprentice as well but I don't think this was the recipe but rather that the day I made the Miche, it was more like November in temperature and humidity than middle May. I had the windows open during the morning and by the time it came for the dough to rise, the temperature in my kitchen was hovering in the upper 50's.

The loaf that was prettiest was Sher's.

I'm not sure why but the loaf baked up perfectly and I do admit, this was the best slashing of a risen loaf I've ever done. The loaf that was the ugliest was the original recipe, again I'm pretty sure this had quite a lot to do with extreme slow rise the bread had over seven hours.

Bob's loaf was nice and had a good rise but my slashing technique was awful.

One thing was constant with all the loaves and that was the crust. We all agreed that the crust was overly tough and hard to cut and chew through.

So, did it taste like Poilane's Miche? It has been a very long time since I've had a loaf from Poilane so I can't say with exactitude but I would say it was close but not completely spot on. The loaf made with Bob was the most mild and based upon the results when I took all three loaves into work: Bob was gone by 11am, Sher's by 1pm, and I ended up tossing 1/3 of the loaf made with the original recipe out to the sea gulls the next morning, Bob's loaf was favored by my work colleagues.

Will I be making this recipe again? Probably not as I wasn't bowled over by any of the breads and I found the crust to be a detriment to the bread. However, I do love the firm starter that resulted from all three "barms". As an aside, we couldn't decide if this was the same as a Mother Starter or a Daughter Starter, I say Barm = Daughter Starter since I consider the seed starter to be the Mother starter but you say potato and I'll say "pahtoto". Regardless of the name, the firm starter is lovely and for that reason alone, I'm glad I gave this bread a whirl, all three times.

(Note about no pictures of Bob's bread, I baked this during the time I was having difficulty with my digital camera and unfortunately the pictures I lost during the reset process where the pictures of Bob's bread)

If you want to have your own starter comparison and be a Bread Baking Buddy this month, visit Sher at "What Did You Eat?", our wonderful host kitchen for the recipe she adapted for whole grain or you can visit our founder, Tanna for the recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Finally, if you want to you use your own "Bob", "Dick", or "Sally" or whatever your starter is named, head over to Karen of Bake My Day to see how to use your own wild yeastie! You will have 14 days from yesterday (I'm a day late in my posting) to bake the Poilane style miche and email Sher with your results to have a nice badge to put on your blog!

Also, if you want to make your own starter to do this bread because you want a milder version of the bread, here is a link to the first post in my Sourdough Starter series; where you will find the recipe and process for making your own "Bob". Or, you can sort the posts here at The Sour Dough by the "sourdough" tag. A big bonus if you use this starter is you will have a head start on being a Bread Baking Buddy because Your's Truly here is the host kitchen next month and I can pretty much guarantee we'll be using my starter for the bread (wink-wink)

Oh and one last thing, make sure you check out the lovely ladies who baked the Miche this month: A Fridge Full of Food (Glenna), Bake My Day (Karen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), I Like to Cook (Sara), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), Grain Doe (Gorel), Notitie van Lien (Lien), and What Did You Eat (Sher)

p.s.: at the time I posted this, Haloscan, my not always the most reliable commenting program was having one of its monthly fits. If you can't leave a comment but wish to, please feel free to come back later or drop me an email. I love mail and it normally is always reliable.

The Cinnabon Gang Rides Again!!

2008-05-18T11:53:00.000-04:00

A few months ago, several of us wild and crazy gals got together to have the Great Cinnabon Knock-Off Challenge. We had so much fun chatting and gossiping...ehrm, I mean baking together that we decided when the right recipe came along we would want to do it all over again.

Well, the right recipe has come along in the form of Hot Cheese Bread from the folks at Bakers' Banter, the blog from the test kitchen of my favorite flour, King Arthur's Flour. With a few new additions to the gang, last Saturday we mounted up on our Skype steeds and rode out of town towards cheesy bliss.

This recipe is pretty simple and straight forward. It is a two day process with a starter developed the night before

and then the dough and the cheese bread the next day. The total time spent, excluding the starter development and if you aren't chatting and giggling like fiends on Skype, is about 6 hours with only about 45 minutes of actual working time. Meaning, you can start the dough mid-morning, go out and run a bunch of errands and still have ooey-gooey cheese love for dinner.

Once you have your starter ready, you combine the starter and the rest of ingredients in a large bowl and combine them together. I used Isabelle to do most of the heavy work

and the resulting dough was super soft and sticky (Helen and I decided this was one of the loveliest and most sensual feeling soft doughs we had ever worked with). After a few minutes of hand kneading to get the feel for the gluten development and the structure of the dough, I gathered it into a ball

and set aside to rise until double.

This only took my dough about an hour (I have a super proofing environment between all the yeast roaming about and my oven after setting it to the lowest temp for 5 minutes and turning it off) but some folks had slower risers and it took almost 2 hours. Some of this difference in rising time was due to the climates we were all working in, S. Carolina to California; the temperature differences, low 50's to middle 80's; and some of it was our proofing environments, covered bowls on counters to containers in ovens set to proofing. (Kelly, I love you but I covet your oven!)

Next, after punching down the dough, we pressed it into a large rectangle and sprinkled thickly the grated cheese of our choice.

The recipe calls for Gruyere but I used a combination of Gruyere and little left-over chunks of various white cheese I had been saving exactly this recipe (Asiago to Monterey Jack). Then, starting on the long side, you roll it up into a long log and let the log rise.

At this stage of the recipe our conversation on Skype started to get well...let's say this is a family rated blog and leave it at that shall we!

After the um..log rises, we divided the log into either four or two pieces and flipped the cut pieces onto prepared baking sheets cheese side up and opened up the rolled mini log to expose the cheese to the heat of the oven (more unprintable adult talk ensued on Skype, including Helen coming up with an unmentionable name for the bread that had Kelly's mom blushing)

a spritz of water and into a hot 425 degree oven our cheese love loaves went. About 25 minutes later, out popped this!

Now if that doesn't look like a 6" x 4" piece of heaven I don't know what does!!!

Even better was when you pulled the warm bread apart to expose melty cheesy goodness inside.

I think the consensus on Skype was this was as sinful tasting as it was looking during the last rise and pre-baking. And, adult comments aside, I know this bread is going into my rotation of loaves to pull out when I want to impress and surprise my friends during dinner.

Now, after wiping the drool off your computer you should go check out how the rest of my Cheese Breadheads did. We are posting today and tomorrow so get ready because Lisa, Helen, Sara, Ivonne, Kelly, Stephanie, and Laura Rebecca's blogs all promise to put a certain smile on your face and you may even want an after stare cigarette!

If you want to put a little cheesy love on your table, you can find the recipe here on the King Arthur website.

Now, I wonder when our little gang of yeast outlaws will strike next and with what...

Playing Catch Up on Saturday Morning

2008-05-17T11:46:00.002-04:00

I love those mornings that come after a day or two of gloomy days filled with downpours and wind; making my back porch the perfect place to sit and catch up on a few posts that have been knocking around my brain the past few weeks.

Especially since the sun is out, the birds are chirping away in the oak tree that is (hopefully) done dropping its helicopter pods all over my deck

and my recently transplanted herb garden is getting some much needed sun.

As you can see, I have pictures again. I didn't buy a new camera yet but rather turned to the internet to find help with resetting my Fuji F470 camera. Luckily, most of the pictures I had taken were stored on my 2Gig memory card so I was able to save them. This little camera crisis however has led me to start seriously looking for a new digital camera. Not because I don't like my Fuji, I have never had any issues with any of the Finepix I've owned but because as W gently informed me, it is time to step up to the big boy cameras because my pictures are much better than when I started and I'm going to start wanting some real macro capabilities. He's probably right so the new camera search has started. I've looked at a Nikon D40 last week and liked it but didn't like the push sales person, so I didn't want to give him my custom. I'd like to hear from you phototogs out there what you are using and what you think would be a good entry level digital SLR for me so drop me a note or leave a comment.

One of the posts that pained me most to not be able to get out on time was the post for the Julia Child Onion Soup round-up that my buddy Mike over Mel's Diner hosted. Mike had so much fun with us gals in Cookbook Thingy #1 that he invited some of us to do Cookbook Thingy Part Deux along with a few new friends. We will be cooking a few recipes we've always been afraid of trying from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking through the summer and first up was that bistro classic: Soup a l'Oignon Gratinee.

This recipe wasn't difficult but I would definitely recommend using the best beef stock you can buy (I like Emeril's) or better yet, make it yourself. Making it yourself isn't hard, just time consuming and requires that you find a good butcher who can get you marrow bones (which has the added bonus of getting to have roasted marrow on toast!). Between the homemade beef stock and the caramelized onions and the splash of cognac at the end, this soup will satisfy even the most snobbish of French Onion Soup fans.

I also want to thank Mike for giving the opportunity to pull out the culinary torch for a bit of pyro fun...

One of the other things I've made the past few weeks was a version of the famous Kentucky Derby pie for a Kentucky Derby party I attended two weeks ago.

Seems odd that today being the Preakness Stakes, that post about the Kentucky Derby pie. But the pie was so good, I didn't want the opportunity to pass; especially considering all the bitter sweetness of this years Triple Crown series when a horse that reminds me of the great Secretariat in looks has a chance to be the first Triple Crown winner since the Affirmed. Please forgive me if I take a moment to talk sports, something really unusual here at The Sour Dough.

I have friends in thoroughbred racing and the tragic event with Eight Belles at the Derby has put a sad cloud over this year's Triple Crown as well as very much needed scrutiny over the business side of racing. My friends own a small stable of five horses and board ten others for various small trainers in Southwestern Michigan. My friends will be the first to tell you that today's horses that are on the big circuit aren't as sound as they should be and that the breeding for profit business needs to be addressed before the sport is killed by greed. I like to think that my friend's stable is the norm, where they treat their horses at all stages of their careers with dignity and care and where a horse that isn't destined for the track is found a useful and happy life with owners who care as much about the horse as my friends who bred and cared for it as a foal. They've donated horses to the riding programs in the area that help disabled and underprivileged children have the opportunity to ride and care for horses and they have bought back horses when they have thought the current owner may not have the same interests in giving a horse whose track career has ended retirement in dignity. It is people like them who make up the majority of racing and who will save racing but only if we the public don't go 'cuckoo bananas'.

OK, back to pie. Kentucky Derby Pie is sinfully simple to make and equally sinfully delicious. I whole heartedly suggest you serve it anytime of the year! It is like eating a pie filled gooey chocolate chip and nut cookie dough and is really good served warm with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. So much so, that I just ordered the ice cream attachment for Isabelle so I can make this pie again and serve it over the 4th of July on my back deck.

Well, would you look at the time?! I've spent a couple hours out here typing away with a few stare off at the Day Lilly and squirrels trying to master the new bird feeder moments. I have to run. I'm off to the Met tonight to see Verdi's Macbeth and have a few errands to take care of and a bread dough rising on the counter that needs to be turned and then put in the fridge for a nice slow retard before I start "primping" and head into The City.

Have a great Saturday and get into the kitchen to play!

Kentucky Chocolate Nut Pie aka Kentucky Derby Pie

1 deep 9" blind baked pie crust
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup AP flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1/2 cup English walnuts
1/2 cup pecans
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 Tbsp Kentucky bourbon

Mix flour and sugar. Add the eggs and mix until combined. Stir in the butter, nuts, chocolate chips, vanilla and bourbon. Pour mixture in pie crust and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes or until center of filling is firm. A toothpick inserted will come out with what appears to be chocolate chip cookie dough but not be runny.

Let cool about 20 minutes before serving.