NuJoi's Kitchen Diary: Silpat

Showing posts with label Silpat. Show all posts

Friday, December 23, 2011

Ode to Vermont and Canada

I'm so not feeling the Christmas spirit this year. I want a shirt that says, "Bah. Humbug." However, the bright sunny morning cheered me a little and I decided to celebrate the first day of me not checking my Blackberry all day with some scones. Not just any scones -- maple-glazed pumpkin scones to be exact. I wanted to make these over Thanksgiving, but a family emergency kept me from my kitchen most of my time off.

You've seen the scone recipe before, so let's get to it. It starts pretty much the same; pulse dry ingredients in the food processor. Add cold butter.

Here's the departure: make Trader's Joe's Pumpkin Butter your friend. Y'all might even be best friends after this :-)

Mix it into the cream really well. Instead of a full cup of cream, I used 3/4 C. Add the cream to the flour mixture.

CI has you do this by hand, I just added mine to Miracle and pulsed until it formed a dough.

Now comes the messy part. Dump the dough on the counter. Knead very gently to incorporate all the dry bits. Form a ball or two, depending on how you will shape your scones.

I made two balls because I used a 6" cake pan so I could have mini scones.

Press the dough into the pan.

Invert.

Slice (do a better job than I did.) Remember to press straight down. I'll show you what happens later when you don't.

I did better on the second round.

I started with refrigerated instead of my usual frozen butter, so I parked these in the refrigerator while I took a bacon detour.

I did say MAPLE pumpkin scones. No way I was going to have a hot oven, maple syrup on the counter and bacon in the refrigerator without making maple-glazed bacon again.

Back to the scones. I heated some butter and maple syrup together.

I gave the scones a beautiful brush-on tan and to the oven they went.

Here's what I got.

Absolutely delicious! The texture was closer to a biscuit or even cake. I prefer my scones on the drier side, but the flavor made up for the break with tradition. The pumpkin butter was pretty sweet, so I would knock out some of the sugar when I try these again. The maple syrup kept the outside of the scones from getting hard, so next time, I'll make half with the glaze on before baking and put the glaze on the other half after baking to see which I like best.

With Teavana's English Breakfast Tea, these made a wonderful morning treat. On a side note, here's another vote for Silpat -- the burnt syrup just flakes off. Easy cleanup.

Remember my note to press straight down when cutting? Here's what happens when you don't. He's all crooked :-( I'm working on a granite counter, so I use my bench scraper to cut dough. Moving to a cutting board so I can use my knives is too much work. And even still, I think it's just the way I cut and lack of wrist strength. I sometimes have lopsided biscuits too.

Tools of the trade

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Breaking Bread

I had a very stressful day yesterday. So much so that when I took it to the bed for a much needed 5 pm nap, I tossed and turned forever. When I woke, I didn't feel much better. This is how I ended up baking bread at midnight.

There is something so calming about fooling around with dough. Whether it be pasta dough or bread dough, it soothes me. I used to think it was baking that did it for me, but it's really about dough. Although I love to bake desserts, I've found that making those can be stressful too. Have you ever tried to tort and decorate a cake?

Pita bread is so cool. The little dough pockets make the containers for all types of sandwich fillings. I tend to stick with hummus, tomatoes, olives, feta, etc. I also like to cut the pita into triangles, brush with olive oil, sprinkle with herbs and spices and make a sort of low-fat chip. Quite tasty. This is my second attempt a making pita bread; it's been years since the first try. Hopefully, these will be better. This recipe is from Tyler Florence.

Mix the yeast, warm water and sugar in the bowl of your standing mixer. Let the mixture stand until the yeasts become foamy.

Add the flour, slowly. It's a whole 3 1/2 cups! I used 2 C of bread flour and 1 1/2 C of whole wheat flour. I kneaded the dough on low speed until all the four was incorporated.

Then I turned it up to #4 and let it rip for about 10 minutes. This was a departure from the recipe. I like for the dough to clean the bowl.

The dough was sticky. I plopped it onto a well-floured board and kneaded it by hand until smooth.

After 90 tortuous minutes in a covered oiled bowl (the dough, not you) and you should have beautiful puffy dough. Punch it down and divide it into eight pieces. A bench scraper helps divide the dough.

Shape the dough into balls and allow them to rest, covered for 15 minutes. This keeps the dough from fighting back when you roll it out.

Roll each piece into a circle, or something close to a circle. I put the pitas between towels and let them rise for 20 more minutes. This was another variation from the recipe.

I placed the bread on a 500 degree pizza stone using a peel. I can't share any pictures because my pizza stone is ... well let's just say it's not fit for public viewing! Bake until the bread puffs up. How cool is that? Now I have to admit that not all puffed up properly. Of the six I baked immediately, three rose properly.

As the bread cools, it deflates. Well it's supposed to. After five minutes on the cooling rack, I mine had not deflated. I used a toothpick to poke holes in the side of the bread and lightly pressed down.

The ones that didn't rise made great flatbread. I purposely rolled some improperly and seasoned them to make zesty flatbread.

Use kitchen shears to cut the pita in half. Looks like I did alright this time.

Tools of the trade:

KitchenAid Stand Mixer

Pampered Chef Pizza Stone

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Simple Goodness

I think one of the first African-American heritage cookbooks I purchased was Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine. It really inspired me to get serious about preserving my family's recipes. I used it to make my first strawberry shortcake. I became a fan of the biscuit version. The sponge cakes just don't do shortcake justice.

I walked into the grocery store recently and spotted a huge container of strawberries on sale. It was on!!! Strawberry shortcakes would be a treat. It was 66 degrees outside in April and I was going with the flow. It was the warmest it had been in Chicago since October.

After my recipe search, I chose one from Cook's Illustrated. I was intrigued by the recipe because the biscuit contained an egg. The recipe promised a "light, rich, cake-like biscuit." How could I not try it?

The recipe starts like all biscuits: mix the dry ingredients. I'm new school; biscuits and pastry dough are a job for the food processor. Miracle is always up to the task. As always, baking is a science; weigh your ingredients.

Cut up your frozen butter. I like to use a bench scraper for this.

Toss the butter in the flour mixture. Process using short pulses until the mixture has a sandy texture.

Dump the contents of the food processor into a medium bowl and make a well in the center. Add the liquid ingredients.

Mix with a spatula, gently, just until large clumps form.

Flour your board.

Place the dough on the board and knead it just enough so that it comes together. Be gentle! Shape into a rectangle.

Flour the biscuit cutter and make your rounds. Place them on a baking sheet and brush with a beaten egg white. Sprinkle with sugar.

Here's my secret. This was a recipe for six. I chose a smaller cutter and made 12 rounds instead. When you have a sweet tooth as big as mine and you live alone, you have to learn how to make desserts work for you. So now when I want something sweet, I can have a full-flavored dessert with a fraction of the calories. I'm all about mini sizes and individual portions.

Bake at 425 degrees.

Aren't they cute?

As you bake, you can get started on the berries. After they have been washed and hulled, grab your potato masher and go to work on a third of them.

Slice the remaining berries. Mix the crushed and sliced together. Sprinkle with sugar. I used some Splenda.

Let these sit for no more than two hours. They will keep longer than two hours, but the texture will degrade.

Let's whip some cream. I shamelessly admit that I stole this idea from Katy at Sugarlaws.com: balsamic whipped cream. Just add some balsamic vinegar along with your sweetener (Splenda for me) before you whip the cream. I enjoy strawberries with balsamic vinegar, so Katy's post sounded promising.

I think were ready to bring it all together. Split the biscuit by hand. Add a generous amount of strawberries.

Top with a dollop of whipped cream. Wow. Take a bite of the new season.

Tools of the trade:

Saturday, March 22, 2008

When Winter Won't Leave

Yesterday was Good Friday and it snowed! (This will make it very hard to wear white linen for Easter.) What better time to write about the Saturday I spent making soup? Roasted butternut squash soup is always a favorite. I had some sweet potatoes on hand and I wanted to see what I could do with those and some corn. The result was fabulous. It's now on my list of favorites too.

Roasted butternut squash soup first. My version is a combination of three different recipes from Cook's Illustrated, Williams-Sonoma and the Food Network. Preheat the oven to 350-400. Grab a baking sheet, ice cream scoop, rubber mallet and cleaver. Oh yeah. Get some squash too.

If you have an easier way of dismantling hard squash, let me know! Here's the deal. Apparently I'm a wuss. I struggle to open jars and occasionally a water bottle or two. I've heard of people being able to tear through hard squash with a chef's knife. I look at my Shun and think, "No damn way." I value my knife and my fingers, although not necessarily in that order.

Anyway, use the cleaver to slice a thin piece off the bottom of the squash to make sure the squash has a secure base. Stand the squash up on a kitchen towel. Split it in half using the mallet and cleaver. Use the ice cream scoop to remove the seeds and membrane. Save both.

Place the halves cut side down on the baking sheet. Use a Silpat or foil to make cleaning up easier. Roast until tender.

In the meantime, drizzle a little olive oil into your soup pot. Add a few sage leaves and heat the oil.

Add the seeds and the membrane.

I like to give the seeds and membrane a head start before I add the onion. I don't know why. Saute until the onion is tender.

Add chicken stock. You can make this with veggie stock or water. I prefer the chicken stock. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Simmer.

Remove the solids. I just dump the contents of the pot into a strainer. Add the stock back to your pot.

By now the squash should be done. Grab the ice cream scoop again and dig out the flesh. Add the squash to the pot. Now whip out your immersion blender. I named mine Frenzy. Don't have one? Add the squash to a blender and ladle in some broth. Either way, process until smooth. Put the soup back into the pot and simmer.

Now here is where you can get more creative. You can add heavy cream to the pot now for a richer soup. When serving, you can garnish each bowl with chopped pecans and/or fried sage.

Now for the sweet potato corn soup. Start by infusing some olive oil with sage, just like the roasted butternut squash soup. Add onion and saute.

All I had in the house was frozen corn. I dumped it (still frozen) into the pot.

Moving on to the sweet potatoes. Pierce the sweet potatoes a knife and roast until tender.

Remove the skin and mash immediately. Throw it in with the now thawed corn and very soft onion. Add chicken stock. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Simmer.

Once the flavors meld, puree. Again, the immersion blender rocks.

Strain the soup. (I don't like the corn bits.) I finish the soup with cream. Adjust the seasonings. I throw in a pinch of sugar. When I dish it up into bowls, I add a little bit of brandy.
Yeah. It's good.

Tools of the trade: