It's A Wonderful Life

There has been so much going on. Right before I moved to school, everything was chaotic and now I finally feel settled in here at the CIA. So, here I am to tell you, mostly like what you think I might, the CIA is amazing.

I feel so utterly fortunate to be able to pursue my baking and pastry dreams here at the CIA. Right now - I'm rounding out the last few days of Hearth Breads and Rolls class. My chef for this class has really pushed me and although frustrated and tired at times, I wouldn't have it any other way. In the beginning baguette shaping was such a task; My only thought was will I ever get the feel for this? Now as I'm slightly saddened moving onto the next class, Baguette shaping and all the other class tasks have become natural motions and a delight to work on everyday. The shaping of our baguettes, batards, and strands of various multi-piece challah has transcended to something more than what it seems. All over the CIA, weather they know it or not, students and patrons are savoring our breads, more beautiful by the day, and that is something to be proud of.

I really hope to return to this blog someday soon - I really enjoy writing it and being able to share this love with few who may read from time to time. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of our breads before it's too late.

No-Knead Bread Completion & 2007

I'm sorry but I have writers diarrhea lately; although, it's not unwelcome (but I'll include some photos this time). Everything around me is inspiring me to write, create, and just be. A good feeling for the start of 2007. I started 2006 in shambles; feeling like I missed the transition into the New Year not being on firm ground at the stroke of midnight (literally and figuratively). 2007 feels like home, like, I've finally returned into myself after a year of treading rough streets and lonely alleys. These moments were not vein.

Notes to Myself for 2007:

- Bake more bread

- Be the best culinary student; engage in my environment at school and it use it to it's full advantage (I hope mom sees this one).

- Smile because nothing is that bad.

- Write often; just for yourself or for anything or any reason.

- Visit ethnic bakeries (and tons of bakeries in general)

- Learn a lot more about Indian food and India's culture.

- Try to embrace my soon-to-be less spacious, less technological, less marble counter top kitchen in our new house (more on that another time; ode to kitchen post to follow some time soon).

And that's that... Onward with the food!

R.I.P Glorious No-Knead Bread

At proximately 2:03 pm, eastern standard time, Lauren's first loaf of Jim Lahey's No-Knead bread was laid to rest by Lauren herself as she tore the last humble wedge in two and munched. Loaf had a short but fulfilling life, giving joy and full bellies to many, living up to every expectation (except maybe a short a few teaspoons of salt).

The ease of preparation in the this bread has been boasted all of the internet and now I can attest to this statements veracity. Some notes about my preparation are that I left the bread for approximately 18 hours for the first rise and used wheat bran as my non-stick agent and slipmat underneath instead of a towel. I used 1 1/2 cups water, as instructed in the video and not as listed in err as 1 5/8 cups in the text recipe as posted. I also do not own a dutch oven but I do have ownership of a few of my great grandmother's cast iron pans which worked beautifully. I used the smaller one to hold the bread and the larger to cover it for the first 30 minutes. I'm writing these notes with the assumption that you know about this bread or have tried it yourself but if not please check out the article on the New York Times website.

I'm obviously dreaming up variations for the next loaves. I have a large bunch of fresh rosemary leftover from the accompanying soup for dinner last night, Chickpea-Tomato Soup with Fresh Rosemary from Orangette's recipe archive. This fresh rosemary may just find it's way into a loaf of bread this coming week. As for the soup, smooth, simple and full of flavor; the fresh rosemary does not overwhelm any of the other ingredients, just compliments (for those iffy about rosemary, as my mother is). The only thing I changed in the recipe was reducing the total amount of olive oil from 3 tbsp to 1.5 tbsp which is used to sautee the garlic and rosemary; I wouldn't use more than the 1.5 tablespoons, anymore would be too oily, in my humble opinion.

Hopefully this year will continue as the preparation and eating of this No-Knead Bread did, with ease and delight.

Ice Cream Maker, No-Knead Bread, & Abandoned Cranberries

Is this thing on?

Well, I write because I love it so if anyone else is reading today; I hope you find what I have to say semi-entertaining or interesting. Maybe everyone is on an after-holiday lull.

Yesterday at William Sonoma, partially with a Christmas giftcard, I purchased the Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker Attachment for the stand mixer. I had my eye on this even before I owned the mixer itself; I knew this would have to be in my kitchen. The mystery and wonder of creating such delicious delectables in my own kitchen still tickles me every time I bake and I wanted to take that with new heights with ice cream. I want this mixer to get its deserved place as a pillar in the kitchen and use it in as many ways possible. The bowl is in the freezer putting in it's 15 hours before usage as instructed my the manual. I put in around 8pm last night, I believe, so it's been 15 hours and I haven't even picked out a recipe yet. Suggestion and recipes welcomed!

I'm also in the market for great recipes with the use of fresh cranberries. I bought these with the intention of making a cranberry upside cake but it hasn't happened yet.

Last but not least - I'm taking up the rear on the No-Knead Bread recipe. Last night around ten o'clock, I was web surfing and came across a NYT article and it struck me that I had not ever tried Jim Lahey's, from the Sullivan Street Bakery, No-Knead Bread. How did I forget for so long?? When I lived in the city, the Sullivan Street Bakery, was about 2 blocks from my apartment. I would often sit in the tiny space and devour slices of pizza pomadoro and slices with just dots of plum tomatoes with little splashes of extra virgin olive oil (I don't recall the name of this one however). I often visited at off hours in the afternoon, so I'd get the sit in peace and enjoy ever little bit until it was time to walk home. Oh.. how I miss that.

Anyway, that was a nice memory, I'm on hour 14 of my no-knead bread; I figured I'll keep it going until after I come back from the gym edging on the longer rest times. The bread will be piping hot out of the oven just in time for dinner. I haven't even thought of a dish to accompany my bread; the bread is always the star, however.

Pictures to follow sometime later, enjoy your Friday.

Baked Sweet Potato Bread

I feel poorly for the lack of dessert/baked goods in my blog. I have to admit there is a problem with my obsession with pastry and sugary treats, well, a few problems. One of them is the sheer health of it all; although I do believe in "healthy" indulgences, having baked goods around the time is not conducive to my healthy lifestyle because believe me, if there are cakes, tarts, pies, and cookies around me; they will be eaten. Moderation is not my strong suit especially when it comes to dessert. Another reason is budget; which is very humble lately. I'd love to run out and buy each ingredient at the store for baking just to have on hand when inspiration sparks but I have to spend fairly frugally as of now. Third, I have no one to eat my baked goods, which makes me utterly sad. My boyfriends mother is allergic to nuts (among 100's of other things) and is fairly picky; so, she's out. My boyfriend's father is away 3 weeks out of each month for business, not at all picky and loves to eat but is not around. His sister, currently, is on a low-fat diet; enough said. As his sister, my boyfriend is routinely on a rigid "diet" as a part of his regular healthy lifestyle and will only eat my baked goods on Mondays (a.k.a "cheat day", to those in the know in the diet world). And then there was one, me, what's a girl to do?

With that said, I've been baking more bread; It is equally near and dear to my heart when it comes to baking. There are countless reasons of my love for bread that have evolved from the simple enjoyment of eating it to baking it. I could keep going on this subject but I'll save that for another time. I've always been known as the bread girl in my family and nothing has changed. Today's bread baking venture was an all day affair. I was looking forward to baking some breads with slow rises because slow rises are supposed to improve the taste and texture the bread. Being that it was a slightly chilly 30 degrees this morning - it was the perfect day. I also wanted something a bit unique but easy to work with as I ease my way back into baking.

The Baked Potato Bread, from the Fresh Loaf, looked enticing but there were no baked potatoes to be found but there were sweet potatoes. An idea was born. I loved the idea of being able to use sweet potatoes as a unique ingredient in my bread that I hadn't previously thought of as a possibility. I adapted the recipe as I desired, hoping for the best. I wanted it to be healthy, unique, but overall, just delicious.

and it was.

Baked Sweet Potato Bread
adapted from Potato Rosemary Bread from The Fresh Loaf

1 packet active dry yeast
1 cup water
1 cup mashed sweet potato, heaping (could be boiled or baked)
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. sage

Mix packet of yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water (110-115 degrees); let sit for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl mix the whole wheat flour, 2 cups of the bread flour, water, yeast mixtures, salt, pepper and sage; reserve 1/4 cup of flour. Mix until dough begins to form turn out dough on floured work surface and knead for 6-9 minutes, incorporating the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Once dough feels "ready", place the dough in a greased bowl and cover the bowl with a moist towel until double in size, about 1 - 2 1/2 hrs (depending on temperature environment where bowl is).

Remove dough from the bowl; de-gas it and shape it. You may make a large loaf, 2 small loaves, 12 large rolls... whatever you like! Placed them on a greased baking sheet and set aside to rise again until doubled (about 1 - 1 1/2 hrs).

When ready, pre-heat oven to 500 degrees (this will give a good last rise to the bread from the heat) and put dough in oven. Bake at 500 for 5-8 minutes then drop temperature down to 375 for 15-22 minutes depending on loaf size (rolls will take less time). When rolls are done they look brown/dark brown and sound hollow when tapped. Remove rolls and allow to cool before serving (as usual, I did sample out of the oven and I would definitely recommend letting them cool before eating/serving). They keep well at room temperature for 1-2 days without any deterioration in in flavor or texture.

I created one small loaf and 5 medium sized rolls for the household. Although, the sweetness of the sweet potato did not stand out in the bread; I think it definitely enhanced the overall flavor of bread compared to a normal baked potato. The loaf had a slight peppery bite which was pleasing to all the family members, who really liked the bread. It had a wonderful dense but soft, chewy crumb. My boyfriend and I made little sandwiches with roasted chicken breast shreds and BBQ sauce... definitely perfect for sandwiches. I have to go get prepared for this evenings baking adventure!

Baguettes

I have been thinking about starting my bread baking full time again. I'm tired of store bought loaves; The closest thing I've come to good bread is from the little La Brea Bakery kiosk in my local supermarket where they bake 2/3's baked loaves in a little convection oven to get them to you hot.

It baffles me to see 2-3 weeks old loaves of store bought bread sitting the bread pantry that look as they were just baked yesterday; what are they putting in these things?! In this turmoil, I headed to the closest health food supermarket to seek out an organic, no perservative loaf in case of emergencies. I found an oraganic millet and flax loaf that happens to be gluten free as well which was nice, made a nice breakfast toast. I used to regularly buy Ezekiel's Seasame Loaf but my boyfriend's mom is deathly allergic to seasame seeds - so that was a no go.

Getting back to me bread baking, my "skills", which were mediocre for a home baker, have slightly dwindled. I don't remember the process as well as I did. So, I started simple a recipe from Cooking Light for Baguettes. I know, probably not the best place for a baguette recipe but what I was looking for was simplicity, a small list of ingredients, not much prep, and hot bread before work.

Little did I know how many problems I would run into, including, shattering a glass baking dish in the oven. Good job. I won't go into detail about anything else.

In the end, the loaf was ready right as I was walking out the door. I sliced off a steaming end of my "baguette" and bit into bread bliss. It actually had a good flavor and crust was nice, crunchy and brown but the bottom was a bit under done on the bigger of the two. I would recommend this recipe for anyone wanting some fresh bread with menial effort and large margin for error. *I'll post the recipe later on today.
Today, I'm gonna search for a bread recipe to prepare for tomorrow so I can start a poolish this afternoon. Let the bread baking begin!

Pizza Dough and Fresh Tomato Sauce

Last night, I cooked up a wonderful dinner courtesy of a new cookbook I purchased for $15 dollars at Borders a few weeks ago, The Gourmet Cookbook. I have no idea why it was on sale for so little, but this book is huge and full of unique, vamped up stand-by and satisfying recipes.

The recipe is like any pizza dough recipe but they provide tips for shaping and detailed instruction for execution. I followed their method and came out with a wonderful pizza dough. The whole process was so enjoyable as I always find working with dough. I just wish that I had a pizza stone to cook it on then it would have been perfection. I had also planned to go along with our fresh pizza dough, the accompaning recipe found a few pages beyond: Fresh Tomato Sauce.

Growing up, I never knew the exsistence of a jarred tomato sauce. Every Sunday morning before church, my mom would begin preparing her sauce for our pasta, which we had every Sunday as far back as I can remember. The sauce would sit on the stove simmering for hours until around early evening when the pasta would get boiling, the ricotta would be dished, black and green olives placed, and the occasional thick rounds of soppresta sliced. As a young adult, I still cannot fathom the use of a jarred sauce; sorry Mr. Newman... I appreciate it and all but there's nothing like homemade. The unlaborious, gratifying task of making tomato sauce is worthy of the 15 minutes preparation for Sunday evening pasta and the following dishes it will adorn over the week. The flavor and love behind it are too special to pass off to a store shelf.

Since we are usually fairly healthy, although more slippage has occured lately, I topped the pizza with large dollops fat free ricotta, turkey pepperoni and a sprinkle of dried basil and pepper. The crust came out very nice, no runny topping falling off the pizza, however, I think I should cook it a tad less next time because although good and crunchy; I prefer my crust a little softer to the bite. The tomato sauce was truely perfection. I definitely found my go-to recipe for tomato sauce. Even though I halved the recipe, I've already used it to make other dishes this week that were equally as tasty.

The pizza dough recipe is a bit long to type out; the book itself is a good resource - I would recommend it highly. Here the recipe adapted slightly for the sauce; I subbed whole no-salt added tomato just because they were cheaper, hence, a smaller dent in my already small budget.

Fresh Tomato Sauce
adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

3, 28oz cans whole no-salt added tomatos
1 1/2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt (and more to taste as cooking)
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley

Roughly chop tomatoes, reserve juices and set aside.

Heat oil in large pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Add garlic and cook, stirring until just golden, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, reserved juice, sugar, and salt, bring to a simmer and simmer, uncovering, stirring occasionally until thickened, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Stir in parsley and salt to taste.

Other dishes so far that I have used with this was a healthy, delicious baked chicken parmesean and there's still enough sauce to use again! I'm in love!