Feeding Umi » baking

Blueberries!

umi — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:28:53 +0000

I’ve been pretty remiss on updating during the Summer. Let’s just say that I’ve been out and about… or something. Now, it’s fall… and I miss all the things Summer had to offer. One thing I miss is blueberries. In the months of June and July, Wholefoods had great blueberries on sale for $1.99, so I tried to get my fill. I’d pick up cartons of cartons and you can bet we were having blueberry pancakes! Other things that made the cut: fluffy muffins and frozen yogurt!

By far my favorite muffin recipe that I’ve tried is Smitten Kitchen‘s muffin recipe. The texture is just so lovely! I like the change this recipe for the fall and use fresh cranberries. (I wash and cut them into halves. I add TONS to the batter and some of them get soft, burst, and they get so delicious.)

Another favorite during the Summer was frozen yogurt. It’s SO MUCH easier to make than custard ice cream. I also feel like it’s a little healthier. You basically get some plain yogurt, add some honey/sugar/maple syrup as you want, and then any fruit (frozen is fine – I would add some more honey and let it defrost). I like to run some handfuls of berries through the food processor, so the yogurt gets colorful.

Croissants Take 2

umi — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:54:21 +0000

I have a TON of dough left, so 2 weeks ago, I tried my hand at making these suckers, again. As I mentioned, this is from the batch that didn’t rise. Still, with enough butter, I thought they might be worth eating. I folded them again and then rolled the dough out thinner, around 1-0.5cm, thinner if you can manage. Then I cut them in bigger trianges (like a tall isosceles triangle), filled them with chocolate, and wrapped them up.

I also basically stuffed the shit out of them with chocolate. Win. I had Ryan’s sister Tracy over to finish them off.

Handmade Croissant

umi — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:30:16 +0000

I will say it here, these croissants were a fail. They tasted great, but I think I used yeast that was too old, and didn’t foam, and the batter didn’t rise. However, the whole thing is just SO high maintenance that I baked it anyway. It had enough butter than Ryan ate it and liked it, but I would like to give it another try. The problem is that since you need to keep refrigerating the batter and butter to fold, it takes more than a day and it’s hard to plan out to make.

(Tangent: Ryan got me a French Rolling Pin for my birthday, and I have to say that I am definitely a convert. Easier to use, wider surface area, and light. Love it.)

To Make

put 0.50 ounces of active dry yeast in 1/4 c lukewarm water and wait until frothy (this is the part I failed) – around 10 minutes. If it doesn’t froth up, throw it away and try again. Mix with 1/2 c milk and 1 c heavy cream.
Combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp of salt and 3 tbsp of sugar (aka. the dry materials). Mix well with whisk. Then mix the liquid mixture in.
Add in extra 2 c flour slowly and knead the batter until the batter is no longer sticky and smooth. Wrap mixture and put in the refrigerator for an hour.
pound two sticks of butter into a thin sheet (use saran wrap on top and below), try to roll out and then put in fridge, also.
Take the dough out and divide into two. Roll one out to twice the surface as the rolled out butter. Fold dough over the butter, fold the dough over, wrap and refrigerate. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Refrigerate for 30min-1hr minutes until the dough is cold.
Take out of fridge and roll out carefully (if the dough is too cold, pound the dough down) and fold back into thirds. Refrigerate the dough again for 30min-1hr.
Repeat and refrigerate for 6+ hrs (or overnight). The dough will rise in the fridge (or should if the yeast was done right), so reinforce the dough with saran wrap (allow room for rising).
Roll the dough out and cut out into triangles, roll the dough from the wider base, then turn the corners into a crescent. When finished, let the dough rise again for an hour until they are doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 425 F. If you want, make an egg wash with one beaten egg w/ a dash of milk and brush on top of the croissants. Bake for 20-30 minutes until they look golden brown.

I didn’t do the egg wash and I stored the dough in the freezer for a while, before making, so all in all considering… it was pretty good. I also wrapped some bittersweet baking chocolate in between the crescents before baking, for chocolate croissants and those were delish! Over all, pretty good breakfast/brunch/snack. I hope to have an update soon on a batch that goes well.

Cream Puffs

umi — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:26:14 +0000

I wanted to make cream puffs for Sunday’s dinner. Saturday, we slept in and then went off in search of 1) cream puff ingredients and 2) brunch ingredients. We got two carton of eggs, some bacon, and other groceries. Then, I spent the day making 30+ batch of pâte à choux. (So, the first batch, I thought I made a mistake, so I just didn’t bother baking it and made a second batch. In the end, I baked most of them and they all came out pretty well… In the “mistake” batch, they collapsed only minimally. But on a whole they were a great sight when they were fresh out of the oven. So puffy! I made a batch custard, some strawberry puree… not quite jellied jam.

Then we headed for Ryan’s friend’s place for a small get together. I decided to bring like 9 cream puffs to share… you know… guinea pigs. It ends up that I didn’t make enough custard, so Sunday morning I had to get another carton of eggs to make the custard. Overall, during the entire weekend, I used 3 carton of eggs. Man.

Overall they got a pretty good reaction. Ryan’s friends commented that they give beard papa a run for it’s money (although my choux isn’t quite as crispy as beard papas. I don’t think I wanted it to be, but beard papas is quite another thing…) Shai was kind and said he liked my “pâte à choux,” and unfortunately I was still brain dead and it took me a full 10 seconds for me to register what “pâte à choux” was referring to. I’m just not used to hearing that word uttered. Oh, yeah, my cream puffs!

choux pastry (for around 10 medium puffs)

1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup water
70cc flour
4 eggs

** (My mom uses couple of egg whites instead of all the eggs above, since she wanted to make judicious use of materials and you have like 6 egg whites from the custard recipe. She does like 3 regular eggs and supplements 1 and a half of eggs’ egg whites. I am wasteful and didn’t do that sort of thing. I have a tupperware full of egg whites now for a lame healthy omelette or something.)

Time wise, the prep doesn’t take long. However, the beginning part of this recipe dictates whether the choux will puff up fluffy and hollow. In a saucepan on high heat, boil the water and butter together.
My mother gave me the recipe, so the measurement is cubic centimeters. It’s .295 cups, which is a little less than 1/3 of a cup. (like .033 cup or 1.5 teaspoons less). I admit that I eyed it and was very careful about the consistency of the mixture when I added the eggs. So, sift the 1/3 cup (taking off around 1.5 teaspoons on top) flour well while the mixture is boiling. Once the mixture is boiling rapidly, and I give it a few seconds to REALLY boil, throw the entire flour contents in. Do not mix slowly, dump it in.
Mix the flour in well. Continue stirring until the mixture sticks together. You want the flour to coat the bottom and some of the sides of the pan, and then you know it’s ready to be taken off. Although, if you are using an iron or thick sauce pan like me, it might not quite stick to the sides. You need to keep heating the dough for a good 3-5 minutes after dumping the flour. It should stick together like a ball, be soft and not sticky.
Once the pot is covered with a thin layer of dough, turn the heat off and slowly one by one add in 4 medium eggs. I recommend specifically getting 4 medium eggs for this, until you can eye the consistency of the batter. I’ve used in the past around 2 jumbo eggs and the egg whites of an additional egg for one batch, for example. The consistency should be soft, not too smooth, and hard to keep it’s shape.
Also, don’t be forgetful like me, and lightly coat them in egg whites, and they will come out with a nice sheen. I generally forget to do this all the time with mine. You will be using tons of yolks for the custard, so you will have tons of egg whites.
Oil a baking pan and dust a layer of flour on top, so that it’s easy to peel off. When placing batter on the pan, try to pile it high. If you make them golf ball size, the choux will be medium-small. Or you can be like me and make monstrously sized ones. You can also be smart, unlike me, and use a pastry bag. Keep in mind that the choux should grow vertically. Then, I baked it at 400 F for around 40 minutes. I would check on them at 30 minutes to see if it is a golden color. Don’t open them before they’ve puffed up and cooked, since they might collapse.

custard cream

6 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
1 and 1/2 cup of milk or heavy cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 and half tablespoon of corn starch

Custard is a lot easier to make than the choux, only because the only thing you can do wrong is not stir frequently enough and burn it. And even then, with little brown bits, I’ve eaten it and it’s kinda delicious with a little bitter edge. However, that’s really easy to avoid. JUST STIR!
Add 6 egg yolks and sugar, and mix well.
Then add the cornstarch. Mix until smooth.
Add the milk in small increments and dissolve the mixture and mix until smooth.
Pour into a sieve into a saucepan. (This allows for a smooth creamy custard) If there are sugar and egg bits that did not dissolve, add some more fluid and slowly work their way through the sieve.
Put the mixture under high heat and stir continuously.
Like seriously, keep stirring so it doesn’t burn.
You will notice that you are scraping small lumps of coagulated custard from the bottom of the pan, now you know it’s starting to harden. Keep stirring. If the mixture bubbles you can turn the heat down to medium. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens. Once it thickens to a smooth pudding texture, take off from heat. Let cool for a few minutes.
Once cool enough to put into tupperware and fridge, add vanilla extract and stir.
Store in the refridgerator. When using, take out of the fridge for 15 or so minutes until slightly cooler than room temperature. Mix to soften a bit. Taste and then tell yourself you can’t have any until the choux are filled. Then fill the choux pastry. Try not to eat the custard.

strawberry puree (I’m not very exact with this…)

one package of very ripe strawberries, hulled and cut into chunks
1 cup of sugar, or more…
2 wedges of lemon
2 sheets of flavorless gelatin

Put gelatin sheets in water, let soften for a minute.
In the meanwhile, mix strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice from the wedges in a saucepan and put on high heat. Mix and mash the strawberries in the pot.
Continue to mash and stir until boiling Since I’m not interested in it really jellying, I add just a little gelatin (if you don’t have flavorless gelatin, heat it longer and leave it be), heat it for a bit and let cool.
Store until you’re ready to construct cream puffs in the refrigerator.

You definitely *don’t* need the strawberries for the cream puffs. Just the custard is delicious. Originally, I was going to top the custard inside with fresh fruit, but the strawberries were a little too ripe and I couldn’t resist drizzling a teaspoon of strawberry puree on top of the custard in the choux.

When putting together the choux, take a small knife, or even a clean cooking/kitchen knife and carefully cut the top of the choux, so that it resembles a bowl with a lid. Fill with cream, custard, etc… Powder confectionary sugar on top, and voila!

(I made a tiny little cream puff with a small amount of batter I had left. I had Ryan taste the mini cream puff!)

As an aside, on Sunday, when people would talk to us… Ryan couldn’t stop mentioning the cream puffs. I got embarrassed.

Person 1: Ooh! Who made dessert?
Ryan: MY GIRLFRIEND BROUGHT THE CREAMPUFFS!!! SHE MADE IT FROM SCRATCH. I LOVE THEM. LKHWELKQAlkhaw!!!

Person 2: I made the pasta, its garlicky tossed with lemon and herbs. The pasta is animal shaped!
Ryan: MY GIRLFRIEND BROUGHT THE CREAMPUFFS!!! SHE MADE IT FROM SCRATCH. I LOVE THEM. LKHWELKQAlkhaw!!!

Person 3: Bla bla bla (something unrelated to food. Maybe Poland?)
Ryan: MY GIRLFRIEND BROUGHT THE CREAMPUFFS!!! SHE MADE IT FROM SCRATCH. I LOVE THEM. LKHWELKQAlkhaw!!! (You know… you get my point.)

It’s sweet. And I am maybe (JUST MAYBE) over exaggerating, but … I’m not a delicate flower that grows towards the sun. I don’t know what to do with that attention. I just look horrified like a deer in headlights. I probably responded with, “I LIKE SUGARY THINGS! CREAM PUFFS ARE EGGS AND SUGAR!!!” This is why they don’t let us out often, probably. They let me come to these things, because most of the time, my mouth is filled with food.

Earl Grey Muffins

umi — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:21:01 +0000

When I finally got off my butt to make some basbousa the other day, I not only picked up some rose water, but I picked up some orange blossom water. I remembered reading about these beautiful Earl Grey Muffins with candied oranges. Although I didn’t top my muffins with anything fancy, I tried to recreate those Earl Grey muffins and they came out GREAT.

I used 2% milk instead of almond milk and all whole wheat flour, because I could not find any quinoa flour in my neighborhood Associated Supermarket. Also, instead of vegetable oil, I used butter, because I didn’t have any vegetable oil.

2 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar (I had to microwave it to soften it up a bit)
1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 of butterstick
1 tsp vanilla extract
1tbs orange blossom water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1 earl grey tea bag

It was really easy to make. I basically heated up some milk on the stove top, and soaked the Earl Grey tea bag in there for 5 minutes. (Next time I will use 2) Then, I microwaved some brown sugar and butter, to soften both up. I mixed them together and it melted the brown sugar. Then I beat some eggs, pour the mixtures together, added the milk, orange blossom water, and sifted flour w/ baking powder and soda on top. Just mix, add the vanilla extract. Mix. Pour into muffin pans, or in my case, cupcake molds for mini muffins!

They are absolutely delicious as a snack without anything on it. It would have been amazing with a dollop of butter cream or vanilla with some candied oranges. Mmmm. And it was whole wheat. I guess other than the butter, it’s not that bad for you.

Basbousa

umi — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:23:05 +0000

(Ahem, our guest cook for today is Anthony Francis, picture to the left, and he will be making us some of his famous basbousa.)

The one thing Ryan keeps mentioning is his father’s basbousa. We would have basbousa elsewhere and it was never fluffy enough, soft enough, and delicious enough. After trying his father’s recipe, I can safely say that there is nothing like warm basbousa fresh out of the oven. (I think you are suppose to let it cool.) The almonds offset the sweetness of the rosewater syrup, and if I had my way, the only thing I would change is that I would crush the almonds a bit and cover the whole thing with them. Maybe I would tone down the sweetness a bit and add the smallest bit of tartness to the syrup afterwards. Although, I would be a little afraid to take too many liberties, since Ryan might accuse me of perverting one of his favorite Egyptian snacks. Mmm I find myself wanting some now. It’s really soft and comforting with the nuttiness of wheat and almonds.

I was lucky that Ryan’s father Tony was willing to share his recipe with me. Almost everything is something you would find in the house… with the exception of rosewater and cream of wheat (for me). I guess I could go knock on Tracy’s door next door for some rosewater…

She actually came over last night to join Ryan and me for some dinner (We had some left over chicken cutlets, and we made some whole wheat penne with sun-dried tomato, olive, and garlic tapenade tossed with olive oil and pecorino romano for her. She’s a vegetarian. We watched some “The IT Crowd.”) and taste some sake we bought. I should have had her bring it over last night. :P

It’s actually surprisingly easy to make. You just mix together the following:

2 cups farina or cream of wheat
48 almonds for 24 pieces of basbousa (or more if you like)
1/4 cup of plain yogurt
1 stick of butter (microwaved)
1 and 1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of milk
Dash of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder

Preheat the oven at 375. Soak the almonds in a small bowl and microwave for 30-60 seconds, until the peels slide right off. Unpeel all of the almonds and drain. Set aside for later.

Mix the farina or cream of wheat with the yogurt, butter, sugar, milk, and baking powder and soda. Mix it lightly. Then, line a baking pan with shortening or the grease of your choice and pour the mixture in and even out the top.

Tony likes to put in little cutting lines with the knife and add two almonds per square.

Bake the mixture for 40 minutes. While you do that, mix the following in a saucepan over medium heat.

1 cup water
1 and 1/2 cup of sugar (I might dial this down a little bit)

Stir to let the sugar dissolve. Let this mixture simmer under low heat for almost the whole baking time. Around 35 minutes in, add:

Around a tablespoon of butter
3tablespoons of rosewater

Once the basbousa has finished baking, take out of the oven and and place pan on a rack. Pour the contents of the saucepan into a pouring utensil/cup to SLOWLY pour over the basbousa. Let the basbousa cool and this liquid settle before serving. Tracy, Ryan’s sister likes to attack them while they are fresh out of the oven, though. I would say, let them sit for 15-20 minutes, then serve.

So, during my time in Portland, he also made some bachlava, which was pretty awesome. I didn’t get to learn how to make it, though. Something for next time…

Dinner at Laundromat – Garlic, Rosemary, and Thyme Bread; and Brownies!

umi — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:12:26 +0000

Last weekend we had a dinner party at Laundromat put together by their house-guest Tami, a spunky photographer from Japan my mother’s age. She’s so adorable in large funky glasses with a red frame and her signature leggings. She put together a feast with chirashi sushi (sushi rice with various toppings), sashimi, yakisoba (by Kevin), onion and carrot tempura (by Rob), ground seasoned meat for wrapping in lettuce, and various cooked vegetables. The day before there was a gallery showing of Takayuki’s (second photo to the right) works. He was in the States for a few more days and this dinner was in his honor.

They asked me to bring a dish, so I baked some rosemary, thyme, and garlic bread (with a sprinkling of whole wheat), creamed butter and roasted garlic for a spread, and made sun-dried tomato tapenade with shallots, garlic (see a pattern), and chevre. The spreads were both very easy. For the garlic butter, just cream some butter, roast garlic for an hour, and mash them together. The garlic will be soft and should come together with the butter easily. If you can’t refrigerate this immediately, squeeze some lemon juice to keep the garlic. Otherwise, gather the mixture into plastic wrap and freeze for an hour. For the tapenade, I just threw some sun-dried tomatoes, chopped shallots, and 2-3 cloves of garlic into the food processor. I mixed in some chopped black olives, lime juice, a teaspoon of honey, and crumbled some goat cheese to taste. Mix thoroughly and serve.

The bread was kneaded in the bread maker the night before (easy easy) and left to rise overnight in the fridge. I punched it down in the morning/noon, shaped it, and left it out to rise again. (it was cold in the apartment) I left it for couple of hours where it rose again to twice it’s size. I just popped it in the oven around 4pm-5pm, 450 degrees for 10 minutes and 350 degrees until it looked done, about 30-40 minutes.

What took some time was the brownies. Now, I haven’t made brownies in a while. There was a great recipe that I found in some cookbook in Undergrad. I think it was in the Cake Bible. I tried to google it online and found Lisa Yockelson’s recipe. It sounded good! I made some substitutions, but it came out GREAT. It took a while to cook to the consistency I wanted. I think I left it in for an additional 10 minutes. If you like they gooier, than I would take them out at the time she specified. I like my brownies to be a consistency that’s fluffy and in one piece. These babies were received REALLY well. I am a little bad at following recipe’s exactly, so I will detail what I did, however, you probably can’t go wrong following her recipe to a T.

*I didn’t know what to do with a bar of Chili Lindt chocolate I received, but it was great in this treat. It was really subtle and added some depth to the chocolate. Bourbon might have improved things. (Instead of espresso) It was an adult treat.*

1 cup white flour
1/3 cup cake flour
1/4 + a little more of Hersey’s cocoa powder (the only thing I could find in the apt – there was nothing in Associated)
Eyeballed 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder, although I suspect it was a pinch or so more
1/3 bag of bittersweet baker’s chocolate chunks
1/2 bar of Lindt Chili Pepper Chocolate (broken up)*
2 bars 70% cocoa Lindt Chocolate (broken up)
2 sticks of butter left out to soften
2 cups of fine sugar (I had fine brown sugar I tried to use, but it was hard and hard to work with. I abandoned that project and used white sugar instead.
5 large eggs (wowza, right?)
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
A splash of espresso / heavy coffee

One thing about me is that I am neurotic about certain baking tenets I picked up. Like, I always cream the butter and mix with sugar together until everything is white. I try to keep everything room temperature so that the butter doesn’t seperate. I don’t like to microwave butter, since it won’t get fluffy and it might make the eggs separate. I sift things like 10 times. I always beat egg whites separately until foamy and hard to use them as a leavener. I do all these things even if the recipe doesn’t call for it… For fun I will try to include all my oddities in the directions. (Cause… this is baking with Umi!)

Preheat oven to 325
Sift all the dry ingredients (except for sugar) initially, whisk lightly to mix ingredients and sift 2-3 times again. (Or like 10 times)
Mix a tablespoon of this powder into the bittersweet chocolate chunks
Cream 2 sticks of butter and slowly 2 cups of sugar, creaming both until the mixture is white and fluffy
Microwave bar chocolate (not the chunks meant to go in the batter) with a splash of espresso, mix.
Seperate the 5 eggs, beat whites until foamy and peaks stand (2-3 minutes), whisk in yolk, whisk in vanilla extract, and whisk in the butter/chocolate mixture.
Sift dry ingredients in the wet mixture, slowly, mixing sparingly, but until everything is blended.
Stir in chocolate chunks and fill baking pan, smoothing out the top.
Cook until it’s the desired consistency. I kept it in there until 40-45 minutes. Take out and let cook on a rack.

Cupcakes – There’s a reason it’s one of my top twitter words

umi — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:02:58 +0000

My oven just wouldn’t heat up for the longest time. I attributed it to the pilot light, but the Super came in and checked it. He claimed that he would notify the landlord, but weeks went by. I sent a letter recently with the rent check notifying him… it might have been a little stern. Either way, it got my oven fixed! They switched out a part (a controller?) and now it works!

I wanted to make something tonight, but I couldn’t dig up my pumpkin pie recipe or find a pumpkin in the Gristedes near my workplace (argh!), so I just stuck to cupcakes. I kinda wanted to roast vegetables (or maybe garlic, mmmm…), but Ry is a little picky with his preference. I also wanted something simple, enough. And I could bring these suckers in to work tomorrow.

And really, any excuse to use 4 sticks of butter! (Mmm picture to the right – creaming butter!)

I used this vanilla cupcake recipe and this buttercream recipe (with 1/4 cup of evaporated milk) from bestcupcakerecipe at blogspot. It’s pretty damn good. I think the buttercream frosting can use a little bit more tweaking, but the vanilla cake is a good solid base. I used 3 cups all purpose flour, instead of using some cake flour.

I think the frosting can use a little bit of of lemon juice. A half of a tablespoon. Maybe some more vanilla extract, but not too much.

For the vanilla cupcake, I used:

Sift 3 cups of all purpose flour
and 1 tablespoon of baking powder couple of times.
Cream 2 stick of butter,
and slowly add 2 cups of sugar until the mixture is soft and fluffy. Add this to the flour mixture and mix.
Beat 4 egg whites until they foam and form stiff peaks, add the 4 yolks,
1/2 cup of evaporated milk,
1/2 cup of plain lowfat yogurt,
and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Don’t mix the final batch of the cake too much.

And for the butter cream frosting, I used:

Again, cream 2 sticks of butter.
Then slowly mix in 4-6 cups of powdered sugar 1 cup at a time,
and slowly mix in 1/4 cup of evaporated milk,
and 1.5 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Mix everything until it’s the consistency you want and really nice and fluffy.

It’s pretty solid for a basic vanilla cupcake with butter cream frosting. I think it would be great to add some strawberry or other fruit (frozen) to the frosting. It would add some tartness, which would make it perfect. Mmm!

Cupcakes are pretty much one of the more perfect desserts. Other treats are too much. Brownies, cheesecake, cookies, even, are too much. Cupcakes, when done well, are light, fluffy, versatile, colorful, and just all around PERFECT! I. Say. So. So there!