Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

When I was a kid I never really ate Rice Krispie Treats except when other kids would bring them in to class for holidays and whatnot. I found this recipe and made them back in October for a picnic in Griffith Park with kids from the Los Angeles program and they were a hit. They were so delicious and definitely seemed like a grownup version of the treat people loved as children. And they are SO easy. Painfully easy. 5 minutes, 1 pot, 1 glass baking dish, 4 ingredients and a spatula. So get in there already and I promise, these will make you new friends, impress your coworkers and make you very sick if you eat them all yourself.

Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
From Smitten Kitchen (of course)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter (plus a bit of extra for greasing the pan)
1 ten-ounce bag marshmallows
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt*
6 cups Rice Krispie Cereal

1. Butter an 8 inch square cake pan with 2 inch sides or a 9x13 pan. The 8-inch square pan will produce fewer, thicker treats which I prefer but if you're trying to spread the love around go for the 9x13.
2. Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large pot. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear and finally start to brown. Stir constantly and scrape up the little bits as it cooks and once it begins to brown watch it very closely as it is easy to burn the butter and ruin a perfectly good batch. Once the butter takes on a golden brown color and begins to smell nutty pull it off the heat.
3. Stir in the marshmallows. The heat from the melted butter might not be enough to melt them so you can return the pot to the stove and melt over low heat until the marshmallow-butter mixture is smooth.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the cereal and salt together, a silicon spatula works great here. Quickly pour the mixture into the prepared pan and push into the edges with the spatula or a piece of parchment paper or saran wrap.
5. Allow to cool for a few hours and cut into squares. Enjoy!

*This is important: regular table salt will not work. Besides being a chemical compound (NaCl - hooray chemistry!) table salt is made in a factory, of chemicals. You want real salt from the sea. You can find a sea salt grinder at target (or probably in any supermarket) for $2.00 and it will give your treats the right taste.

I Promise to Try to be a Better Blogger

The past month has completely slipped away from me. I blinked and it was June. My super awesome parents came to visit The Boy and I in April which was a lovely treat (See cute photo below). I've been working, anticipating the move into my glorious new apartment and not blogging, obviously. But I've been baking and later this week I'll have several posts to share. And trust me, it will have been worth the wait.


In other baking related news, I broke down and bought a kitchenaid mixer. It is perhaps the most exciting thing I've ever owned. I've already baked banana bread, rustic white bread and apple muffins (which are to die for) and I've only had it for a little over a week. Hopefully once we've moved I will post more regularly. But, I've said that before.

Boeuf Bourguignon a la Julia Child

I enjoy Julia Child. Even before Julie and Julia and her 2nd wave of popularity hit I thought she was great. My dear friend Laura is the proud owner of a beautiful le creuset and approached me one day and suggested we make Boeuf Bourguignon. It was something I've wanted to make for a while but I don't possess the correct crockery and thus could not, until Laura came to the rescue.

Let me tell you, this is delicious, and not too difficult. It takes a while and does involve some prep work but it was totally worth it in the end. The only thing I have to say is that it does not photograph beautifully... but it tastes divine.

Boeuf Bourguignon
from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

6 ounces of bacon (Julia used a solid chunk but we used just regular bacon and it was fine)
1 tbsp olive oil
3 lbs of lean stewing beef cut into 2-inch cubes (we didn't cut ours)
1 sliced carrot
1 sliced onion
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp flour
3 cups of a full-bodied young red wine (we used Chianti)
2 to 3 cups brown beef stock
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
1/2 tsp thyme
1 crumbled bay leaf
18 - 24 small white onions brown braised in stock - see recipe below
1 lb quartered fresh mushrooms sauteed in butter - see recipe below

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

1. Cut bacon strips into pieces 1/4 inch wide, it helps if you stack multiple strips and use a sharp knife. Simmer bacon for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts of water. Drain and dry.
2. Saute oil over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon. Reheat the fat until it is almost smoking before you saute the beef.
3. Dry the beef with paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Saute it, a few pieces at a time, in the hot oil and bacon fat until nicely browned on all sides. You may have to add more oil as the beef soaks it up. Once it is brown remove it to the side with the bacon.
4. Once you are finished browning the beef, brown the sliced vegetables in the same fat. Once they are browned, pour out the fat.
5. Return the beef and the bacon to the casserole and toss with the salt and pepper. Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly with the flour. Set casserole uncovered in the middle position of the preheated oven for 4 minutes. Toss the meat and return to the oven for 4 minutes more. Remove the casserole and turn the oven down to 325 degrees.
6. Stir in the wine and enough stock so that the meat is barely covered. Add the tomato paste, garlic and herbs. Bring to simmer on top of the stove. Once it is simmering, cover the casserole and set in the lower third of the preheated oven. Regulate the heat so that the liquid simmers very slowly for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.
7. While the beef is cooking prepare the onions and mushrooms as indicated in the recipes below. Set them aside until needed.
8. When the meat is tender pour, pour the contents of the casserole carefully into a sieve (or pasta strainer with little holes) set over a saucepan. Wash out the casserole dish and return the beef and bacon to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms over the meat.
9. Skim the fat off the sauce. Simmer the sauce for a minute or two skimming off the additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. Our sauce was very thin so we boiled it down rapidly for another 6 to 7 minutes to get the correct consistency. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables.
10. For immediate serving, cover the casserole and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat before serving. To serve it later, cover the casserole once it has cooled and refrigerate. About 15 to 20 minutes before serving bring to a simmer, cover and simmer very slowly for 10 minutes before serving.

Bon Appetit!

Small White Onions Brown-Braised in Stock

18-24 peeled white onions
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup of brown stock, red wine or water

1. Bring the oil and butter to a simmer in a 9 inch skillet. Add the onions and saute over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling the onions about so they will brown as evenly as possible... you cannot possibly brown them completely uniformly - don't worry.
2. Pour in the liquid, season to taste and cover to simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the
onions are tender but retain their shape and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Mushrooms Sauteed in Butter

1 lb mushrooms, washed, well dried and quartered
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp oil

Julia says the most important thing about browning mushrooms is not to crowd them in the skillet. We did ours in 2 batches.

1. Place a 10 inch skillet over high heat with the butter and oil. As soon as you see the butter foam has begun to subside add the mushrooms. Toss and shake the pan for 4 to 5 minutes. During their saute the mushrooms will first absorb the fat. In 2 to 3 minutes the fat will reappear on their surface and the mushrooms will begin to brown. Once they have browned lightly remove from the heat.

Granola Bars

One of the things about food and grocery stores that is so frustrating to me is that the healthy stuff is so much more expensive. I know that this is because healthy food is made with less preservatives, high fructose corn syrup (my arch-nemesis) and modified corn and soybean ingredients. As a side note I heard an underwriting ad for Monsanto today on NPR. It made me want to cry because they tried to pass themselves off as a company concerned with saving the earth's resources. Ha. I saw Food Inc. and King Corn, I know what you're up to Monsanto!

Anyhow. Where was I? Oh right, healthy things are expensive. I have no issue paying more for better food - organic fruits and vegetables and hormone and anti-biotic free meat - but the price of granola bars is ridiculous. I don't want six little bars for four dollars! But I tend to get cranky when I don't eat and when I work on pre-production for music videos like this I often don't eat for 8 hours at a time. So, I thought to myself, I'm sure I could make my own granola bars that are even a bit healthier than the ones found in stores! And so, ladies and gentlemen, that is what I did on this lovely Thursday afternoon.

I scoured the Internet and food blogs for recipes that seemed like they would be easy and delicious. But honestly, most of them contained things I really didn't want in my granola bars. I was looking for something that wouldn't be too sweet and would be full of protein and would keep me full for a little while. So, I made my own recipe based on what I read. My first original recipe!

These are fairly sweet. At first I thought they were too sweet, but after cutting them up and wrapping them individually I've stored them in the fridge and they've mellowed a bit. Next time perhaps I'll adjust the amount of honey and maybe use peanut butter instead but this time I was worried about the "glue" not being strong enough so I used variations of other recipes. They are delicious though, just as they are.

This recipe is really just a guide. If you don't like sunflower seeds you can use some other kind of seed or nut. Basically anything you think would be delicious can go in here.

Granola Bars

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup peanuts, crushed
1/4 cup almonds, chopped*
1/2 cup brown sugar**
1/2 cup honey
4 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces of dried fruit (raisins and cranberries are what I used but apricots, apples, dates, figs etc. would be delicious I'm sure)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment or waxed paper that extends a bit over the ends of the pan, sprayed lightly with vegetable cooking spray.

1. Crush the peanuts by putting them in a plastic bag and using a heavy jar or pan to crush them.
2. Mix the nuts, oats, wheat germ, and seeds in a baking pan with sides. Toast in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes stirring every 4 minutes to prevent things from burning. Once everything is finished toasting turn the oven off and let the mixture cool a bit.
3. Meanwhile, put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla and salt in a small saucepan over low heat and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. The mixture should look fairly evenly colored and everything should be melted together.
4. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a wooden spoon, making sure that the "glue" coats all of the nut mixture and the dried fruit. Scoop the mixture into the parchment lined pan spreading it evenly. Put a small piece of saran wrap between your hands and the granola bars and push down hard to compact everything into the pan. Allow to cool completely - I put mine in the fridge for two hours.
5. Once cooled, lift the granola bars out of the pan and use a sharp knife to cut into bars, wrap in plastic wrap for individual bars on the go or keep them in an air tight container. I keep mine in the fridge because I like mine nice and firm.

Enjoy!

*Almonds are miserable to chop. I will probably use cashews or something next time - or just buy sliced almonds...or a food processor.
** Many recipes seemed to use 2/3 or even 3/4 cup of brown sugar. I cut the amount thinking that with all the honey it might be too sweet. I might even cut it a bit more because they were so sweet.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I made bagels. That statement makes me so unbelievably proud I can't even tell you. Bagels have always seemed like something that would be extremely difficult to make, I'm not sure why, but perhaps because you just don't hear about people making their own bagels. But I am afraid no longer! Bagels, although time consuming and somewhat frightening along the way, are actually a fairly straightforward process.

For full disclosure though I will admit that I goofed - big time. I misread the original recipe and used active dry yeast instead of instant yeast and panicked when the sponge didn't foam up as Deb had indicated that it would... and when, as a result of the less than foamy sponge, the flour was nearly impossible to incorporate. Once I discovered my error I thought about scrapping the whole batch and starting over again in the morning once I had purchased the correct kind of yeast, but I didn't, I persevered. The result? Cinnamon Raisin Bagels that rival any I've ever had from a bakery - even fresh from the oven.

Don't be intimidated! They may seem scary but I promise they are fairly simple so long as you read the directions and take deep breaths you'll be fine.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
From Smitten Kitchen

This is either a one day project that will begin in the morning and end in the evening or something you can start after dinner and cook in the morning when you wake up (as I did - and let me say, there is nothing like a fresh bagel in the morning).

Yield: 12 super large, 16 regularly large or 24 "miniature" bagels

Sponge
1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
2 1/2 cups water, room temperature

Dough
1 teaspoon instant yeast
3 3/4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar, or honey
1 - 2 cups loosely packed raisins, rinsed with warm water to remove surface sugar, acid, and natural wild yeast (I used what I had left in the box, which was about a cup and a half I think, but if you dislike raisins you can use less)

To Finish
1 tablespoon baking soda
Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting

1. Day one: To make the sponge, stir the yeast into the flour in a large (approx. 4-quart) mixing bowl. Add the water, whisking or stirring only until it forms a smooth, sticky batter (Deb likened it to a pancake batter, I found it to be quite thick, more like biscuits). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the mixture becomes very foamy and bubbly. It should swell to nearly double in size and collapse when the bowl is tapped on the countertop. (As I noted above, mine didn't achieve this, for obvious reasons but next time, when I make it with the correct kind of yeast I'll make sure it does. Mine just expanded to twice the size.)
2. To make the dough: in the same mixing bowl, add the additional yeast to the sponge and stir. Then add 3 cups of the flour, cinnamon, sugar, salt and brown sugar. Stir (my dough was dry so I ended up using my hands to knead it together in the bowl, wetting my hands a bit when nothing was coming together) until the ingredients form a ball, slowly working in the remaining 3/4 cup flour to stiffen the dough, as needed. In the last two minutes of mixing, add the raisins. This may mean you need to add a bit more flour if the raisins are still a little wet.
3. Transfer the dough to the counter and knead for at least 10 minutes. The dough should be firm, but still pliable and smooth. There should be no raw flour – all ingredients should be hydrated. If the dough seems too dry and rips, add a few drops of water and continue kneading. If the dough seems tacky or sticky, add more flour to achieve the stiffness required. The kneaded dough should feel satiny and pliable but not be tacky.
4. Immediately divide the dough into 12 (4 1/2 ounce) pieces for super sized bagels, 16 (3.375 ounce) regular-sized bagels, or 24 (2.25 ounce) perfectly smaller bagels. Form the pieces into rolls. If you don't have a kitchen scale the 2.25 ounce balls were approximately the size of golf balls.
5. Cover the rolls with a damp towel and allow them to rest for approximately 20 minutes.
6. Line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment and mist lightly with spray oil. Poke a hole in a ball of bagel dough and gently rotate your thumb around the inside of the hole to widen it to approximately 2 1/2 inches in diameter for a supersized bagel, two inches for a large one or just slightly more than one inch for a miniature. The dough should be as evenly stretched as possible (try to avoid thick and thin spots.)
7. Place each of the shaped pieces two inches apart on the pans. Mist the bagels very lightly with the spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the pans sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
8. Check to see if the bagels are ready to be retarded in the refrigerator by using the “float test”. Fill a small bowl with cool or room-temperature water. The bagels are ready to be retarded when they float within 10 seconds of being dropped into the water. Take one bagel and test it. If it floats, immediately return the tester bagel to the pan, pat it dry, cover the pan, and place it in the refrigerator overnight (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 2 days). Mine floated immediately but, if the bagel does not float, never fear! Return it to the pan and continue to proof the dough at room temperature, checking back every 10 to 20 minutes or so until a tester floats. The time needed to accomplish the float will vary, depending on the ambient temperature and the stiffness of the dough.

9. The following day (or when you are ready to bake the bagels, see head notes), preheat the oven to 500°F with the two racks set in the middle of the oven. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (the wider the pot the better), and add the baking soda. Have a slotted spoon nearby.
10. Remove the bagels from the refrigerator and gently drop them into the water, boiling only as many as comfortably fit, I fit seven (they should float within 10 seconds). After 1 minute, flip them over and boil for another minute. If you like very chewy bagels, you can extend the boiling to 2 minutes per side. While the bagels are boiling, sprinkle the same parchment-lined sheet pans with cornmeal or semolina flour.
11. When all the bagels have been boiled, place the pans on two middle shelves in the oven. Bake for approximately five minutes, then rotate the pans, switching shelves and giving the pans a 180-degree rotation. (If you are baking only one pan, keep it on the center shelf but still rotate 180 degrees.) After the rotation, lower the oven setting to 450°F and continue baking for about 4 and a half minutes, or until the bagels turn light golden brown. You may bake them darker if you prefer.
12. Remove the pans from the oven and let the bagels cool on a rack for 15 minutes or longer before serving. They are delicious with cream cheese, toasted, or just on their own!

Raspberry Birthday Cake

For my 22nd birthday I wanted to throw myself a party and bake lots of scrumptious desserts, gather my friends together and really start the next year of my life off in an exciting fashion. Well, on Saturday I did just that. And it was great. The dessert I was the most proud of was my birthday cake: a raspberry cake with Swiss buttercream frosting. Delicious! And fortunately for me (and unfortunately for my waistline) I have half a cake waiting to be eaten in the fridge.


I baked this cake a week in advance and froze it in layers wrapped in ridiculous amounts of saran wrap - think four layers of saran wrap per layer of cake. Yikes! Once it thawed a little bit I frosted it and it tasted fantastic and moist. I encourage you to make this cake (or try making some cupcakes? I'm sure those would be delicious as well.) and eat it in celebration of whatever you choose.

Raspberry Birthday Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

4 1/2 cups cake flour*
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pureed frozen raspberries (I used a whole bag, 1 pound)
8 egg whites
2/3 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 9-inch round or 8-inch square cake pans. Line with parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.
2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and raspberry puree and mix to blend the ingredients. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes; the batter will resemble raspberry ice cream at this point.
3. In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites and milk to blend. Add the whites to the batter in two or three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans.
4. Bake the cakes for 30 to 34 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the layers to cool in the pans for 10 to 15 minutes. Invert and turn out onto wire racks and peel off the paper liners. Let stand until completely cooled before assembling the cake, at least an hour. Once they've cooled, you can also freeze your layers** for later use.

Swiss Buttercream
From Smitten Kitchen

Makes enough for a 9-inch cake (plus filling, or some to spare)

1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
26 tablespoons butter, softened (3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a big metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk occasionally until you can’t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.
2. Transfer mixture into the mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size. (Here’s a tip: when you transfer to the mixer, make sure you wipe the condensation off the bottom of the bowl so that no water gets into the egg whites. This can keep them from whipping up properly.)
3. Add the vanilla.
4. Finally, add the butter a stick at a time and whip! It will take a while to come together. Mine took about 7 minutes of serious whipping. I put it in the freezer for a little bit (mine was actually in too long) five to ten minutes should do it.

Assembling The Cake

Tools
Cake Board (corrugated cardboard piece that is 2 inches larger than finished cake, so that there is a one inch border all the way around)
Parchment Paper or Waxed Paper
Table Knife or ideally an Icing Knife
Patience

Note: If you've frozen the cake, let it thaw, unwrapped, for about an hour before attempting to frost it. If you haven't frozen the cake, Smitten Kitchen suggests sticking it in the fridge for 20 minutes to make it a bit easier to work with.

1. Put the first layer on the center of a cake board. Tuck four 3-4 inch wide pieces of parchment or waxed paper under the bottom layer to protect the cake board from any mess that might result during frosting. When you're done frosting the cake, simply pull out the pieces and Tada! nice clean cake board.
2. Spread 1/2 to 2/3 cup of frosting over the entire layer, all the way to the edges. Add the 2nd layer on top and repeat. Add the top layer and frost the top and the sides of the cake with a thin layer of frosting, this is called the crumb coat. Place the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the cake from the fridge and use the remaining frosting to finish the top and sides. Swiss Buttercream seems to smooth out pretty well, and my friend Mike complimented me on the plaster type texture on the cake - really, it was a compliment because that is exactly what it looked like, a beautifully plastered wall (that doesn't sound pretty at all, but look at the pictures and judge for yourself).
4. Pull the parchment or waxed paper out from the sides of the cake and add decorative berries or piping around the edge should you choose to do so. Voila! Prepare for your friends to be impressed.

*Okay, Cake Flour: It comes in a box people. When you're in the store looking for it for a ridiculously long time and you're sure it doesn't exist and pastry flour must be an acceptable substitute (it's not) don't give up (as I did) it is there! It's usually in a box and has pictures of cake on it, not flour. If you can't find it you can use this as a substitute, as I did, and it will work just fine.

**If you should choose to freeze the cake here are my suggestions that I gleaned from all over the Internet.
- Wrap in triple layers of plastic wrap so as to avoid freezer burn.
- I slid my finished cake layers onto cake boards and then wrapped them, attaching the cakes to the board and thus making them much sturdier and easier to move/wrap. Upon further research I found that some people don't put their cakes on boards - fine. If your cake can support itself (not this one) then don't put it on a board, you can just use boards to separate the layers in the freezer to keep cakes from sagging.
- Let the cake sit out of the freezer for about 15 minutes before unwrapping them. Let them sit an additional 30 - 45 minutes before beginning to frost.

Out of this World Cinnamon Raisin Bread

I know it has been a long, LONG time since my last post but I've been really busy working on super awesome videos and getting my office at my boss' house organized. But I've had a few days off and after a lovely Valentine's Day and a full day at Disneyland on Monday I decided I wanted to bake something.

A few weeks ago I picked up the February issue of Martha Stewart Living because the cover was so darn pretty and the cover advertised "One Simple Recipe, 4 Great Breads." Well Martha wasn't kidding - this bread is simple and DELICIOUS. I made the cinnamon raisin loaf and it is incredibly delicious, like better than brownies for dessert delicious. Put a slice in the toaster and spread a little bit of butter on it and try not to eat half the loaf in one evening. YUM. If anyone makes this I'd love to know how it turns out!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread
From Martha Stewart Living

1 Tablespoon plus 1 1/2 Teaspoons active dry yeast (two 1/4 ounce envelopes)
2 1/4 cups warm water
3 Tablespoons plus 2 Teaspoons honey
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for bowl, pans and brushing
7 Cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface and dusting
2 Tablespoons coarse salt
1 Cup raisins
1/2 Cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Sprinkle yeast over 1/2 cup water. Add 2 teaspoons honey. Whisk until yeast dissolves. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
2. Add butter, remaining 1 3/4 cups water and 3 tablespoons honey. Mix the flour and the salt together. Add 3 cups of the flour mixture to the yeast mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Add the raisins, mix until smooth. Add the remaining 4 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time, mixing until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ragged, slightly sticky ball.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Wash out the mixing bowl (or use another bowl) and butter the sides of it. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic but still slightly tacky - about five minutes. Shape into a ball. Transfer to prepared bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
5. Allow the dough to stand in a warm place until it doubles in volume (it shouldn't spring back when you poke your finger in), about 1 hour.
6. Butter two 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch loaf pans. Once the dough has risen punch it down and divide it in half. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
7. Shape one dough half into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle that is about 8 by 10 inches. Lightly brush the dough with water and sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar mixture, leaving a 1/2 in ch border around the edge. Starting with the short side roll dough into a log. Seal edges with fingertips and tuck ends under. Transfer the dough seam side down to the pan. Brush the top with melted butter. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
8. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Drape the loaves with plastic and let dough stand until it rises about one inch above the tops of the pans - 45 minutes to 1 hour.
9. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Bake, rotating pans after 220 minutes until tops are golden brown, about 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer to wire racks. Let cool slightly; turn out loaves. Let cool completely before slicing (no really, do this, I didn't and it was bad).

*I made my bread by hand, using a wooden spoon, as the recipe suggests. If you are so lucky as to have a KitchenAid mixer with a dough-hook attachment go ahead and use it, but don't tell me because I will be jealous.

Update

For any of you still reading this blog that I never update please know that I have a reason: I've recently started working for an Art Director in LA and I have not cooked in approximately a week. Or baked. Or done any sort of culinary activity. And that makes me sad - however, I've been given this awesome opportunity to learn from someone who is incredibly talented and well respected and hopefully it will help me to foster some sort of career of my own eventually. When we're not in pre-production I'll try to update my blog more often.

Have lovely days, exciting culinary adventures and stay tuned because someday maybe I'll have time to cook something other than pasta .

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies and Apologies

For those of you who occasionally glance at my blog, I apologize for my apparent lack of commitment to posting. But, in my defense, I've been busy graduating from college. As 2010 begins I promise to try to post at least once a week and hopefully I can stick with this. So as for a recipe I have an interesting twist on a recipe I think is best done by Nestle Tollhouse - Chocolate Chip Cookies...made with extra virgin olive oil instead of butter.
I have to admit, these cookies were pretty darn good and I was amazed that I couldn't taste the olive oil. The cookies were best fresh out of the oven or dipped in milk the next day. I'm sitting in the Portland Airport right now and I have to say, I'd really like one of these fresh out of the oven.

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from The Crepes of Wrath

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 or 2 tablespoons of milk
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. Combine sugars, vanilla, and olive oil. Stir in the eggs one a time. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, then add in a tablespoon of milk to make the dough a bit firmer, maybe another tablespoon if you need it/if you feel the dough is too sticky/dry.

3. Roll the dough into balls with your hands and place on a greased and/or lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden and set. Mine took about 10 minutes. These get overdone quickly, so take them out a bit early if you’re unsure. Allow to cool for a bit on the baking sheet, then move to another surface to finish cooling.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Buttermilk Icing

This is perhaps the most delicious cake I've ever made and I don't even really like pumpkin all that much. I encourage you to make it. The best thing about this cake is that it keeps really well - like for days and days. I made this cake on Tuesday night and it was just perfect for Thanksgiving and lasted (barely) until Monday when it was still awesome and moist.

When I went to make this cake I discovered, much to my dismay, that my buttermilk had gone bad. This was really quite irritating because I'd bought it on Sunday and the expiration date was the 25th of November, also known as tomorrow. I was very annoyed. Looking back on it though I think if it hadn't had the orange fuzzy dots in it (gross) I probably would have thrown out perfectly good buttermilk - because it is supposed to be very chunky. My advice: give it a good shake to distribute everything and try to ignore the sound it makes as it splats into the measuring cup.


Pumpkin Spice Cake with Buttermilk Icing
Adopted from Gourmet (via Epicurious)

For cake
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for greasing pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (Mine was a heaping teaspoon...I love cinnamon)
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (a 15-ounce can is more than enough; not pie filling)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

For icing
(I think you could probably get away with making half of this recipe - I had a ton of extra)

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons well-shaken buttermilk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

Make cake:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter pan* generously, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.

Beat butter (1 1/2 sticks) and granulated sugar with a fork in a large bowl until pale and fluffy, then add eggs one at a time and stir to incorporate after each egg. Add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and reinvert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.

Make icing:
While cake is cooling, whisk together buttermilk and confectioners sugar until smooth. Drizzle icing over warm cake, then cool cake completely. Icing will harden slightly. (I actually didn't drizzle until the next day, I heated up the cake a bit and drizzled and it was just fine - it wasn't a hard icing but it was still delicious.)

*The original recipe is made in a bundt pan but I don't have one (and Brad so kindly talked me out of buying a $12 pan I clearly don't need) so I used a springform pan and it worked great. I think these would also make excellent muffins.

As soon as this tryptophan wears off...

I have a whopper of a blog post. I'll hopefully post throughout the week so that anyone who is reading this (ha) can see the results of my Thanksgiving cooking.

Thanksgiving Test Run: Apple Pie!!!

I love apple pie. I love Thanksgiving. There is a lot of pressure to get Thanksgiving right when you're cooking for friends who are obviously very classy - i.e. Brad and his roommate, Phil, and my lovely friends Laura and Lisa - so I thought I would do a little test run with the apple pie and I'm pretty pleased to say that it turned out really well - I wouldn't change anything, I mean it's not gorgeous but I'll work on it, you know, for next time.

I've been looking into buying a pastry board for rolling out pie dough, cookie dough and any other pastry type items. My wonderful mother was in town last week and she bestowed upon me an early Christmas gift in the form of, you guessed it, a pastry board. In combination with my lovely rolling pin and my dough scraper rolling out the dough for the pie crust was a snap. I love apple pie, or did I already mention that?

Perfect, Flaky Pie Crust
Adapted from Smittenkitchen

Makes enough for one double-crust pie

1 cup cold water (drop in a few ice cubes; set it aside)

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (or 8 ounces or 1 cup) of very cold unsalted butter, cubed into 1/2-inch pieces.

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar and salt together. Sprinkle the butter cubes over the flour and begin working them in with a pastry blender (seriously, invest in one if you're going to be making pies - a fork won't work - they are only $10 at Crate and Barrel) using it to scoop and redistribute the mixture as need so all the parts are worked together evenly. When all of the butter pieces are about the size of peas and then stop - even if it looks uneven.

Start by drizzling 1/2 cup of the ice-cold water (take out the cubes if there are any left!) over the butter and flour mixture. Use a spatula to gather the dough together - you might need up to an additional 1/4 of a cup of cold water to bring it together, add it a tablespoon at a time. Once you are gathering large clumps with the spatula, get your hands in there! Gather the damp clumps together into one mound, patting it together.

Divide the dough in half, and place each half on a large piece of plastic wrap. I like to use the sides to pull in the dough and shape it into a disk. Let the dough chill in the fridge for one hour, but preferably at least two, before rolling it out. For tips on rolling out the dough (which I followed very closely) check out this tutorial on Smittenkitchen (can you tell I'm obsessed??)

Apple Pie Filling
Also from Smittenkitchen

1 1/2 pounds Granny Smith apples (about 3 medium)
2 pounds McIntosh apples (about 4 large)
3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg white, beaten lightly

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat rimmed baking sheet and oven to 500°F. Remove one piece of dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable).

2. Roll dough on lightly floured work surface or between two large sheets of plastic wrap to 12-inch disk. Transfer dough to pie plate by folding dough in quarters, then placing dough point in center of pie plate and unfolding. Working around circumference of pie plate, ease dough into pan corners by gently lifting dough edges with one hand while pressing around pan bottom with other hand. Leave dough that overhangs lip of plate in place; refrigerate dough-lined pie plate.

3. Peel, core and cut apples in half, and in half again width-wise; cut quarters into 1/4-inch slices. In a medium bowl, mix 3/4 cup sugar, flour, salt and spices. Toss dry ingredients with apples. Turn fruit mixture, including juices, into chilled pie shell and mound slightly in center.

4. Roll out second piece of dough to 12-inch disk and place over filling. Trim top and bottom edges to 1/2-inch beyond pan lip. Tuck this rim of dough underneath itself so that folded edge is flush with pan lip. Flute edging or press with fork tines to seal. Cut four slits on dough top. If pie dough is very soft, place in freezer for 10 minutes. Brush egg white onto top of crust and sprinkle evenly with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. If you want to top your pie with a lattice (like the larger of my two pies) try this tutorial!

5. Place pie on baking sheet and lower oven temperature to 425°F. Bake until top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate pie and reduce oven temperature to 375°F; continue baking until juices bubble and crust is deep golden brown, 30-35 minutes longer.

6. Transfer pie to wire rack; cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours... if you can wait that long. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. It's delicious.

Halloween and Woodland Creature Sugar Cookies

I love cookie cutters. I love frosting sugar cookies. I love sending them off to friends. A few weeks ago I went in to sur la table, a dangerous adventure, and ended up buying (among other things...) 3 Halloween cookie cutters. I consider them an investment.


My friends Lisa and Roo came over and we made delicious butter cookies from a recipe in Cook's Illustrated that I had used to make Valentine's day cookies for Brad when he was out in L.A. and I was stuck in Boston. It is a delicious recipe that bakes up well - so long as you watch them VERY carefully, otherwise they will burn.


Brad then joined us and we frosted them with some simple butter cream frosting from the recipe on the back of the C&H Powdered Sugar. Delicious. Who doesn't love making and decorating cookies?

This is Fox in Boots. Brad decorated him. He is my favorite. And I'm not being patronizing, I promise.


Butter Cookies
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar (superfine if you have it - I didn't)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces at cool/room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream cheese

*The original recipe says to use a stand or hand-held mixer - I found this unnecessary and actually rather annoying, it kept spraying the flour everywhere. I've written it to be done by hand but you can use a mixer if you want.

1. Mix flour, sugar and salt together until combined. Mix in butter one piece at a time; continue to mix until mixture is crumbly and slightly wet. Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix until large clumps form.
2. Knead dough by hand in bowl for 2 to 3 turns to fom a large cohesive mass. Turn dough out onto countertop and divide in half. Pat into two 4-inch disks, wrap each in plastic and refrigerate until they begin to firm up, 20 to 30 minutes. (Dough can be chilled up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks; defrost in refrigerator before using.)
3. Adjust oven rack to middle position (I have to put a few layers of foil on the bottom shelf to keep my cookies from burning but I think it's just the combination of my oven and my non-stick pan.) heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out 1 dough disk to even 1/8 inch thickness between two sheets of parchment paper. Slide rolled dough on parchemnt paper onto baking sheet and chill until firm, about 10 minutes. Repeat with the second disk.
4. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with the first portion of rolled dough, cut into desired shapes and put them on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until light golden brown, 8-10 minutes. Repeat with second portion of rolled dough. Cool cookies on wire rack to room temperature.
5. Decorate using whatever frosting/sprinkles you would like. Enjoy!

Key Lime Cheesecake

This is by no means a healthy dessert but it is extremely delicious and surprisingly easy. I never really ate cheesecake growing up and I kind of just assumed I didn't like it - boy was I wrong. My boyfriend hates cake (I know, it's hard to believe that anyone could hate cake) but he loves cheesecake which he has since informed me is a pie. I wanted to make some sort of delicious dessert and have a lovely romantic evening with him and so I decided to try out cheesecake. I was searching for a recipe and when I came across this one I knew this was what I had to make - Brad also loves Key Lime Pie, what could be better than both things together?


Let me just make a few notes for those who will attempt this - try to find fresh squeezed key lime juice because squeezing a pound and a half of limes is really time consuming and rather unpleasant. If you can't find fresh squeezed (100% juice - none of this concentrate crap) key lime juice get some key limes and start squeezing.


I found that rolling them on a cutting board first helped make them squeeze easier and cutting them in half around the middle and then quarters was the best way to get the most juice. Anyhow - it's totally worth it and I would make this again in a second... if I could find bottled lime juice.


Key Lime Cheesecake
Adapted from smittenkitchen

For crust*

1 1/4 cups fine graham cracker crumbs (about 8 full graham crackers)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted

For filling
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup fresh key lime juice (strained from about 1 1/2 lb Key limes) or bottled
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs

Special equipment: a 9- to 9 1/2-inch springform pan

Make crust: Preheat oven to 350°F and butter bottom and side of springform pan.

Stir together crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl with a fork until combined, then press evenly onto bottom and one-third up side of pan. Bake crust in middle of oven for 8 minutes and cool in pan on a rack.

Make filling: Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy, then beat in sugar. Add lime juice, sour cream, and vanilla and beat until smooth. Mix in flour and salt at low speed, until just incorporated, then add eggs all at once and mix just until incorporated.

Pour filling into crust and set springform pan in a shallow baking pan or on a cookie sheet to catch the drips. Bake cake in middle of oven until set in center, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. It should be visibly set 3 inches in from the edge but the center should still wobble a little. Cool completely in springform pan on rack. (Cake will continue to set as it cools.)

Run a thin knife around edge of cake and remove side of pan. If desired, transfer cake with a large metal spatula to a serving plate.

You can also top this with whipped cream and fresh mango slices but I couldn't find mangoes and forgot to buy whipping cream - it didn't lack sweetness or flavor at all - more information on how to do this can be found in the original recipe.

*Next time I might double the crust - Although it was delicious this way I would have enjoyed a little bit more crunch.

I know...

... I'm a horrible blogger. It's not that I didn't know this from the beginning and it's not that I haven't been cooking it's just that I haven't been photographing or blogging about it. I promise, I'll be better. I'll make it a... mid-October resolution if you will. Things to come? Apple Granola Crumble thing, more baked goods and perhaps even a lovely chicken. (I made Julia Child's whole chicken in a pot recipe and it was GLORIOUS but I didn't take pictures or blog about it, obviously, but I did it.) I promise I'll start blogging again.

An Introduction with a Side of French Bread

Up until now, I've never really understood the fascination with dishwashers. They are loud, take up precious cupboard space and each one has to be loaded a little differently in order to make the most things fit. But let me just say that living without a dishwasher is becoming a nightmare especially since the amount of cooking/baking I do is increasing constantly. I never appreciated you oh glorious dishwasher and now that you are gone I am at a loss. But, the baking must go on and the dishes must be done and so I make do.

Now. For the culinary adventures.


A month or so ago stewing beef was on sale at Whole Foods and Brad, my adoring and ravenously hungry boyfriend, suggested we get some and I could make stew. I told him I would not cook stew mid-summer in his apartment (where I would undoubtedly die of heat exhaustion cooking over a stove all day in a non-air conditioned apartment) and so the beef was frozen for later use.


When I moved into my apartment a few weeks ago I decided it was time to cook the stew. This post however is not about the stew, which was delicious, but rather about the French bread I made to go with it.


Ever since I made Challah last spring I've been fascinated with making bread. I've even tried my hand at pretzels which were delicious but need a little bit of refining. I decided that I wanted to make rolls or bread to go with the stew and settled on the French Bread recipe in The Joy of Cooking of which I have the August 1973 printing. What resulted were two loaves of delicious french bread that amazed my boyfriend and stayed fresh for days. Completely worth the sticky fingers and extra dishes.


French Bread
adapted from The Joy of Cooking

Time: about 1 1/2 hours plus 2 1/2 hours rising
Yield: two small loaves (or probably one large one)

1/2 cup milk (I used whole, as you probably should with bread)
1 cup boiling water
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup water at approximately 85 degrees (mine was a bit hotter - closer to 100 degrees)
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar

1. Warm the milk in the microwave in a glass measuring cup until hot and then pour it into a saucepan on the stove. Bring it nearly to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once it reaches a near boil add the boiling water and stir to combine. Remove from heat. Cool to 85 degrees.
2. While the milk and water mixture cool, add the yeast to the 1/4 cup warm water and use a fork to mix until dissolved. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
3. Add the yeast mixture to the milk mixture along with the butter and the 1 tablespoon of sugar. Stir to combine.
4. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, salt and sugar. Make a whole in the center for these ingredients and slowly pour in the liquid mixture. Stir thoroughly but DO NOT knead* the dough will be soft. Cover the dough with a towel and set in a warm place to rise at least 2 hours. I find that heating an oven to 150 degrees and then turning it off before putting the bread in there is a great way to facilitate rising - but I also keep the AC at 72 so...
5. break down the dough and place it on a lightly floured board and pat into two equal oblongs or make the correct size for a bread pan - butter your bread pan first it will help to keep your loaf from breaking when you release it from the pan. Place the oblong on a greased bakig sheet.
6. Cut diagonal 1/4 inch deep slits across the tops with a knife (I found serrated worked best) to form the customary french indentations. Set in a warm place an allow to rise to nearly double in bulk, about half an hour.
7. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and on the bottom rack of the oven place a pie tin with 1/2 inch of boiling water. Bake the bread for 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes longer. Voila! Delicious home baked French Bread.


Note: The Joy of Cooking suggests brushing the loaves with a glazing mixture of 1 beaten egg white and 1 tablespoon cold water about 5 minutes before they come out of the oven. I found this step to be unnecessary because the hot bread simply turned the glaze into what looked like a very thin eggwhite coating. It was not attractive and I promptly wiped mine off.

* Really, there is no need to knead it. I didn't and my bread turned out beautifully. Just give it a good mixing with a wooden spoon and live with the lumps and tiny imperfections, I know, it was hard for me too, but I promise it will all come together.