Surfacing For A Quickie

Hello! Just a quick post to let you guys know I have not abandoned the blog, it's just that I haven't had internet in the past couple of weeks (nor have I been cooking!). I do have a couple of cakes to post but I will wait until the class is over so I can post them all together.

Cupcakes!

I wasn't going to blog about these cupcakes mainly because I though they were a bit boring, they were a hit with my family though so I decided to go ahead and do it. I have nothing better to do with my time so I decided to bake some cupcakes and use up some of the buttercream I had left over from my sister's birthday cake. The original idea was to fill them but that didn't go so well! The cupcakes themselves aren't very sweet which is great because the buttercream, like all buttercreams, is very sweet. They don't look as good as I'd like them to but I guess, in this instance, it doesn't really matter!

The cupcake recipe was this one obviously without the topping.






Now I just want to burst into The Cuppycake Song!

One More For Team Carrot

I was on my way home, well my mother's home, from the mall where I raided the bargain shelves at Borders and I couldn't face the thought of having to eat rice, beans and thin steaks again so I called my mom and told her I'd be cooking. She hates cooking so I hadn't finished the sentence when she said "sure", however I'm sure she was thinking "hell yes!" and doing the happy dance. It wasn't just the thought of having to eat rice and beans again that made me decide to cook, it was my husband too. I haven't eaten much veg since I've been here so he's been telling me I really should eat some. Yesterday I finally said I'd eat some, however, the veg being made in a healthy way was not part of the discussion!

I gave her a rotisserie oven for Christmas a few years ago (I was under the impression she liked to cook) so I thought I'd use it to roast a couple of chickens. I came home with said chickens only to find out that A) the rotisserie was not big enough for two birds and B) it had been collecting dust for ages and parts were missing. According to my grandmother, she's used it twice in almost 2 years and we don't know if she used it before that.

Fine, no rotisserie, there's still an oven. Well, yes there is BUT there is no roasting pan! I lie, there is one that looks like it's just about as old as she is and seen better days. The idea of roasting the chickens right on the pan made me cringe, I don't like the birds to sit in their own juice, so, I improvised. I used one of the tiers of a cooling rack I had bought, I put the rack in the pan and then the chickens on the rack. I wasn't sure it would work but it was the best I could do. It was fine though, no disasters.

One good thing did come out of the meal (besides the food itself). I made my mom like carrots. Time and time again she told she did not like carrots, she had tried them but did not like them. I told her a few days ago "If I make carrots, not only will you eat them but you will actually like them". She looked at me with the corner of her eye and walked away. Today, she had what she thought would be a token gesture and said "WOW, these carrots are actually good! They are so nice and sweet!" I just smiled and nodded. Victory is mine!



Roast Chicken

2 4-5 lbs whole chickens
1 head of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
Olive oil (NOT extra virgin)
salt

With paper towels, pat dry the chickens inside and out. Sprinkle them with salt to taste, inside and out.

Mix the garlic with enough olive oil to form a watery paste. Rub the paste all over the outside of the chickens and under the skin of the breast. Rub some paste on the inside as well. Set the oven to 450°F / 230°C Let the chickens rest at room temperature for about half an hour.

Put the chickens on a roasting rack in a roasting pan in the oven and cook for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350°F / 175°C and cook for approximately 2 hours. The chickens are done when the internal temperature reaches 170°F / 76°C. The juices should run clear.

Remove the chickens from the oven and let them rest for about 10-15 min before carving.

Serves 8

The side dishes were all things I had blogged about before except for the green beans (I think) which were just steamed for about 10 minutes on the stove.

For the Vichy Carrots look here. The mashed potatoes was this same recipe without the garlic and using large red potatoes.

Luckily, everyone liked the food! However, the million dollar question was "What, no rice???"

Cake Show Off #2

Yesterday was my little sister's 8th birthday and I told her I'd bake her a cake. I had planned a small tiered cake, a 6 inch tier and a 4 inch one. I thought that would be plenty since there wasn't going to be a party. At the last minute (couple of days) a party was decided on for today so I had to increase the cake sizes. I was freaking out because I didn't think I'd have enough fondant, which I made myself. In the end, it was plenty of fondant and planty of cake.

My sister loved her cake and there was a little girl that thought it was fake and kept smacking it! I wanted to smack HER. The bottom tier is white almond sour cream cake with blackberry filling and the top tier is chocolate cake with blackberry filling. I don't like chocolate or almond cakes but my sister and my mom wanted those flavors respectively.

I had to cut the cake which was traumatic considering how much time I spent making and decorating it! That's the catch of this cooking thing LOL

Pain à l'Ancienne, From My (make-do) Hearth To Yours

I was browsing Amazon.com shortly after moving here when I came across a book called The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It looked like a good book so I got it. When I received it, I immediately sat down with a block of sticky notes and proceeded to look through it. Much to my delight, this book was the book where the cinnamon buns for the September challenge of the Daring Bakers came from. The book is just superb and it's not just the recipes, although I did bookmark most of them. The best part of this book is the first half, which is all about the science of bread baking.



I just couldn't wait to try something, anything, from this book (cinnamon buns aside). Last night I bit the bullet and started some dough. I am a big, big fan of crusty, rustic bread and I specially love ciabatta so the Pain à l'Ancienne seemed like a great idea. Of course, the dough itself is simple to make and handle, it's the baking that's a pain (pun intended). This is a hearth bread and because I don't have a pro oven that ejects steam into the oven, it had to be done by hand. In all actuality, it isn't that difficult, it just takes some prep work and a bit of fearlessness LOL.



This is going to be a long recipe so grab some munchies, sit down and relax.

Pain à l'Ancienne

Days to make: 2
-Day 1: 10-15 minutes mixing
-Day 2: 2-3 hours fermenting, shaping and panning; 15-30 minutes baking.

Makes 6 baguettes

6 cups (27 oz) unbleached bread flour
2 1/4 tsp (0.56 oz) salt
1 3/4 tsp (0.19 oz) instant yeast
2 1/4 cups plus 3 tbsp to 3 cups (19-24 fl oz) water, ice cold
semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

1. Combine the flour, salt, yeast and 19 oz of water in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mix for 2 minutes on low speed. Switch to the dough hook and mix for 5 to 6 minutes on medium speed. The dough should be sticky on the bottom of the bowl but it should release from the sides of the bowl. If not, sprinkle in a small amount of flour until this occurs (or dribble in water if the dough seems too stiff and clears the bottom as well as the sides of the bowl). Lightly oil a large bowl and immediately transfer the dough with a spatula or bowl scrapper dipped in water into the bowl. Mist the top of the dough with spray oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

2. Immediately place the bowl in the refrigerator and retard overnight.

3. The next day, check the dough to see if it has risen in the refrigerator. It will probably be partially risen but not doubled in size (the amount of rise will depend on how cold the refrigerator is and how often the door was opened). Leave the bowl of dough out at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours (or longer if necessary) to allow the dough to wake up, lose its chill, and continue fermenting.

4. When the dough as doubled from its original pre-refrigerated size, liberally sprinkle the counter with bread flour (about 1/2 cup). Gently transfer the dough to the floured counter with a plastic dough scraper that has been dipped in cold water, dipping your hands as well to keep the dough from sticking to you. Try to degas (deflate) the dough as little as possible as you transfer it. If the dough is very wet, sprinkle more flour over the top as well as under it. Dry your hands thoroughly and then dip them in flour. Roll the dough gently in the sprinkled flour to coat it thoroughly, simultaneously stretching it into an oblong about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide. If it is too sticky to handle, continue sprinkling flour over it. Dip a metal pastry scraper into cold water to keep it from sticking to the dough, and cut the dough in half width-wise with the pastry scraper by pressing down through the dough until it severs it, then dipping it again in the water and repeating this action until you have cut down the full width of the dough. (Do not use this blade as a saw; use it as a pincer, pinching the dough cleanly with each cut). Let the dough relax for 5 minutes.

5. To prepare the oven for hearth baking, place an empty heavy duty metal pan on the top rack or floor of the oven (for steam). Turn the oven on to 500°F / 260°C. Cover the back of two 17 by 12 inch sheet pans with baking parchment and dust with semolina flour or cornmeal. Take one of the dough pieces and repeat the cutting action, but this time cut off 3 equal-sized lengths. Then do the same with the remaining half. This should give you 6 lengths. Flour your hands and carefully lift 1 of the dough strips and transfer it to the parchment lined pan, gently pulling it to the length of the pan or to the length of your baking stone. If it springs back, let it rest for 5 minutes and then gently pull it out again. Place 3 strips on the pan, and then prepare another pan and repeat with the remaining strips.

6. Score the dough strips as for baguettes, slashing the tops with 3 diagonal cuts. Because the dough is sticky, you may have to dip the razor blade or serrated knife (or scissors) in water between each cut. You may also omit the cuts if the dough isn't cooperating.

7. Take 1 pan to the preheated oven and carefully slide the dough, parchment and all, onto the baking stone; or bake directly on the sheet pan. Make sure the pieces aren't touching. Pour 1 cup of hot water into the steam pan and close the door. After 3o seconds, spray the oven walls with water and close the door. Repeat twice more at 30 second intervals (the idea is to make steam, not wet the dough). After the final spray, lower the oven temperature to 475°F / 245°C and continue baking. Meanwhile, dust the other pan of strips with flour, mist with spray oil, and slip into a food-grade plastic bag or cover with a towel or plastic wrap. If you don't plan to bake these strips within 1 hour, refrigerate the pan and bake later or the next day. If you'd like to bake them as rustic, ciabatta-style breads, leave them at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours and then bake. As the loaves proof, they will resemble and perform like ciabattas.

8. The bread should begin to turn golden brown within 8 or 9 minutes. If the loaves are baking unevenly at this point, rotate them 180 degrees. Continue baking 10 to 15 minutes more, or until the bread is a rich golden brown and the internal temperature registers at least 205°F / 120°C.

9. Transfer the hot breads to a cooling rack. They should feel very light, almost airy, and will cool in about 20 minutes. While these are cooling, you can bake the remaining loaves, remember to remove the parchment from the oven and turn the oven up to 500°F / 260°C before baking the second round.

My fingers hurt from typing all that!



It seems like a very complicated recipe but it's really not that complicated. I don't have a stand mixer so I used a hand mixer with the dough spirals from the beginning of the mixing process. I don't have a baking stone either so I baked right on a 15x10 jelly roll pan. For spraying the walls of the oven, I bought an all purpose spray bottle from a pharmacy and it worked great. The only problem I had and it was entirely my fault, was that the bottom of the breads burned just a tiny bit. The pan was too close to the heating element. I am baking the other half of the loaves tomorrow morning and I will correct this.



Burned bottoms and all, it was delicious bread and it's almost all gone. I have said this before but I will say it again, there is nothing as good as fresh, just-out-of-the-oven bread; nothing. I am looking forward to making more breads from this book. Thanks Peter Reinhart!