Gonna Get There Someday

A busy kitchen! (or, 'In Which I Geek Out About Bread')

12:57, Monday, April 20, 2009 .. Posted in Cookery .. 3 comments .. Link

Whew! I've had a lot of stuff going on in the kitchen for the past couple of days. It's been SO much fun - I am so at home in my kitchen, and absolutely love cooking and baking, both old standby recipes and trying new things.

Yesterday was a rare Sunday off for me, and after reading most of the morning I went to meet Todd in town as he got off work and we went to Whole Foods together to do some grocery shopping. I was in the mood to try some new things, so in addition to my normal groceries I purchased a few things I've been wanting to try for a good while now, including quinoa, millet, rye flour, and quark (a German-style soft cheese that is the same consistency as whole milk yogurt but has a different flavor). I also picked up some French lentils and Black Mission figs on a whim, to see what I could do with them.

I wanted to use the quinoa (I found out it's pronounced 'keen-wah') for dinner, even though I knew nothing about it, and I am so glad I did! It's an absolutely fascinating grain - when it cooks it turns all translucent and the little germ spirals out around it. I toasted it in a dry skillet and then cooked it with some of my homemade chicken stock instead of water, and then threw it back in the skillet with some chicken, frozen spinach, celery, and a touch of garlic powder, and it was SO GOOD. There were some beautiful leeks at WF that I got as well, which were sauteed and served as a scrumptious side dish. Yum. I love it when meals turn out well.

While all of this was going on, I had a batch of Pain de Campagne - or, less ridiculously, Country Bread - fermenting away. It's a recipe from my book The Bread Baker's Apprentice (awesome, fabulous book that I whole-heartedly recommend) that I have not yet tried, so I was pretty excited about it. Essentially, it's a standard French bread dough that is 10-20% whole grain, depending on the region where it's made. For the whole grain part of mine I mixed in a little bit of wheat flour and a little bit of my new rye. It's also made with a "pâte fermentée", or old dough, which is just a piece of baguette dough that I cut off from each batch of baguettes I make and keep in the freezer until the next time I make baguettes, after which I cut off another piece to save and so forth. The old dough acts as a pre-ferment and is full of good enzymes that help break out all of the natural sugars from the flour and contribute to the deep, slightly sweet flavor of good bread.

The recipe doesn't call for an overnight, slow fermentation in the fridge like many of my other recipes do (a process which slows down the yeast activity long enough to help the enzymes break down the glucose even more) but it was already 10 by the time I was shaping the loaves and I wanted to go to bed, so I threw the shaped loaves in the fridge anyway to complete their final rise. This morning when I got up they were the perfect size so I preheated the oven and baked them and they turned out splendidly. The taste is different from any artisan loaves I have made before - slightly nutty, with a very subtle, base sour quality that is probably a combo of the rye and the fact that my pre-ferment had been sitting in the fridge for several days before I used it. I really want to post a pic I took of the loaves, but I can't figure out how to do that. I've posted pictures here before but it was long enough ago that I have no idea how I did it. Any suggestions?

I used the old dough from this batch to make another loaf to take with me to work tonight (it's Marathon Monday today - the running of the Boston Marathon - and my store is located a few yards from the finish line, so we are INCREDIBLY busy today and I thought I'd bring sustenance for my troops who are working tonight). While that was proofing, I cooked up some whole wheat I'd been soaking from the night before and also some split peas so that I could make a delicious salad that I learned from my mom (my dad is as passionate about food as I am and is the cook and baker in my family, so I particularly cherish recipes I learned from my mom because they were pretty few and far between! :-p) which consists simply of cooked whole wheat, split peas, and ranch dressing - SO delicious.

Speaking of work, I have to wrap this up and head out. Wish me luck - it's going to be a looong night!

Again - if anyone can tell me how to post pictures and make links, it would be much appreciated!! ^_^

In which I make yet another batch of YOGURT!

09:11, Wednesday, October 15, 2008 .. Posted in Cookery .. 4 comments .. Link

Oh milanta... what a learning experience this is being!! HA!

Yogurt batch #3:

Didn't follow a recipe, and this is basically what I did: Heated 2 cups of water mixed with 1 cup plus a little more of powdered milk and 1 teaspoon-ish of pectin to 185' or so. I let the mixture cool to 105', and then I added three heaping tablespoons of plain whole milk commercial yogurt. Mixed well. Poured into clean tupperware. Set to incubate.

I used Frankie's heating pad again, but instead of covering it with a towel I placed the tupperware directly on the surface. Then I heated a metal mixing bowl by filling it with steaming water and then emptying it (didn't bother to try it, just shook off the excess water), then inverted it over the tupperware and wrapped it in a towel. I did this around 7pm last night so I set the alarm for 1 am to check on it. When the time came I got up, fumbled around, and carefully brought the tupperware into the kitchen, my heart pounding... did it set? Was it successful? Did the pectin work? Did it get too hot? So many questions were flying around! (Yogurting is a very dramatic experience, I've found.) I flipped on the light, gave the tupperware a tilt, and... LOVELIEST! The yogurt didn't run at all, save for a tiny bit of whey on the surface. At all! Nearly leaping with joy, I put the container in the fridge and went back to bed. I wanted to wake Todd up and tell him, but when you are my husband and you are awoken in the middle of the night and spoken to, you do not comprehend language, and after making several grunting noises you return to slumber. So I had to wait until this morning to surprise him with yummy thick yogurt for breakfast.

The yogurt was indeed good, but its consistency ended up being not just thick but basically custard-like: it could hold up a spoon on end! >.< Methinks too much pectin was the culprit this time. I think I'm on the right track, though - next batch I will add just the tiniest sprinkle of the stuff and then work my way up from there. After stirring Batch #3, it softened a *little* bit, but is now somewhere between glue and jello, or a little of both in different places. Sigh. At least it tastes good.

Behold mine efforts (I've never added a picture here before, so let's hope it works!):

It doesn't look as ridiculous in the picture as it actually is, but I assure you, it's REALLY thick. I guess I wanted thick yogurt, so that's definitely what I got! X-D Maybe I'll use this batch to drain out the whey and make Greek yogurt or spread, although I've never tried that before and I don't know what the pectin will do.

This is SO much fun, you guys. I love learning stuff like this, and knowing I'm not only saving tons of money (Todd and I are huge yogurt fans and go through it like mad, and I have a feeling any and all future Nichols will be the same way) but am able to choose what goes into what we're eating (it would be nice if we could use fresh milk instead of powdered, but we'll get there someday - the first thing I'm buying when we get onto a piece of land is a milking goat!).

Has anyone made bagels yet? How did it go? I'm thinking about trying an Egg Bagel recipe that I found online when I get the chance.

Bagel recipe! Also, more yogurt misadventures

05:36, Sunday, October 12, 2008 .. Posted in Cookery .. 2 comments .. Link

Here is the website where I found the recipe for the bagels I made the other night:

Bagels for Beginners

Note: I didn't use the bread flour called for; I used half all-purpose and half whole-wheat, and they turned out fabulously. I'm sure bread flour with its higher gluten content would simply be more fail-proof and perhaps have a slightly different texture.

The bagels are amazing! I cannot WAIT to make them again. Actually, I'm home alone tonight so I may go bake to keep myself occupied. I want to try cinnamon raisin! MM! Also, the recipe uses a surprisingly small amount of flour (4 cups made 8 or 9 smallish bagels). I'm sure if I wanted to use less yeast, too, I could let it work overnight, which would probably yield something of a sourdough taste. I'll have to experiment. If anyone makes these, let me know! I'm pretty much ridiculously excited about it. (Can you tell? X-D)

My yogurt efforts, however, are still not doing very well. >.< I tried another batch with a different recipe, and this time let it incubate on a towel-covered heating pad under a glass mixing bowl with a sweater over it (as I was setting up this contraption, both my husband and my hedgehog were giving me very odd looks), so I know it was plenty warm. The results were almost identical to my first attempt: definitely yogurt, but in liquid form, with no body to it to speak of. GRR.

However, I refuse to be vanquished. When I was glancing at the ingredient list of the cup of commercial yogurt I was using as a starter, I noticed the one ingredient I lacked in my own yogurt: pectin!! I wonder if this is the missing link in my quest for perfect, thick yogurt? I have no experience whatsoever with pectin, but I figure now is as good a time as any to learn. Is it heat activated? If so, I imagine I could just toss some in when I'm heating the milk and see what happens. Worst case scenario, we just have funny-tasting milk over our cereal tomorrow morning. :-p

Other quick updates: Franklin's foot is healing nicely; he has a follow-up vet's appointment this Thursday to make sure that everything is going as planned. He finished his antibiotics, for which we are both grateful (there's nothing quite like wrestling a *hedgehog*, of all creatures, into letting you stick a syringe in his mouth and squirting sticky pink stuff down his throat twice a day. Ouch!).

Also, Todd and I are continuing to work on that research project at Harvard, the one for his uncle's book. We haven't had much time yet to really devote to it, but this week we are going to crack down and put in some good library time (our main project is tracking down letters exchanged between Theodore Roosevelt and one of Todd's uncle's ancestors over a twenty-year period, bringing them into the best focus possible on the microfilm machine, and then burning them to CD). It took us most of this time figuring out just how to get into Lamont Library, since technically only Harvard students and faculty are supposed to be allowed into the Harvard libraries, but we did it! Since the TR letter collection belongs to the government, they technically had to let us in if we wanted to see them. I felt so sneaky running around that library when we were there yesterday. :-)

Alright. I think I'm going to putter around online a bit longer and then go make BAGELS! Yay!

A homemade yogurt experience!!!

01:43, Saturday, October 11, 2008 .. Posted in Cookery .. 2 comments .. Link

I had so much fun last night - I made bagels and yogurt!

The bagels were an absolute snap to make - I had no idea it was so easy. I make all of my own bread so I'm sure it was easier for me than it would be for someone without that experience, but still, it took only a little over an hour (including rising! Part of it is that they don't really rise, just rest). And it was so much fun to roll them and get creative with toppings (I dipped some in cinnamon sugar, some in cornmeal, and made some plain), and they were SO. SO. DELICIOUS. I would recommend it for anyone! Probably the best part, though, was seeing the look of amazement on the faces of Todd and my roommates and hearing them say, "Bagels!?? Don't you need a factory to make those?" X-D Hee hee!

The yogurt recipe is one I got from one of my favorite, FAVORITE websites, hillbillyhousewife.com (if you've never heard of it, please go there IMMEDIATELY!). You can view the recipe here. I've never made yogurt before, so it was definitely a learning experience!! I followed the directions to a tee and set up the batch to incubate in our toaster oven overnight. The lowest setting it has is 200', so I set it halfway between OFF and 200', right when the light clicks on. I'm not sure it was actually making any heat, however. :-S In the morning, I definitely had yogurt - it tasted like yogurt and was a bit goopy. However, it hadn't set up. :-( It wasn't a total failure, as it did in fact have the taste and basic texture, it was just quite runny. Todd and I mixed it with frozen berries and wheat germ this morning for a *splendid* yogurt drink. MMM.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I can't wait to try it again! I am determined to become an expert on this homemade yogurt business. We love yogurt, so it will save us a good amount of money, and I thought it tasted fabulous - very sweet, with just a hint of sour. I like the sour yogurt from the store, but I love this one, too. Does anyone know why it didn't set up, though? Do we think it was too cold? I know it didn't overheat, because I was careful about that. I didn't kill the bacteria, because it did in fact turn into yogurt. What's the difference between runny yogurt and thick yogurt if it's still yogurt? I don't fully understand the science yet.

Any comments and critiques from experienced (or beginning!) yogurt-makers would be most welcome!! What other incubation methods should I try? I have a heat pad for our hedgehog, but I don't know if it would be too hot. I think it hangs out around 120 degrees. If I put a towel over it, the yogurt on that, and a bowl over the whole contraption, would the heat be less concentrated and more even?

(My next project will be to see how many times I can use the word 'yogurt' in just one blog post... >.<)

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