Follow-up to my previous post

pain au lait

A few days ago, I posted about my recent efforts at tweaking some recipes, especially for pain au lait, or milk bread.  Well, happy day is today.  Actually yesterday, but confirmed today.  Yesterday I did a couple final tweaks, and I was ecstatic with the results.  I did another batch today just to make sure that the entire protocol for this recipe works on repeat, from the ingredient measurements to the cooking time to the size and shape to the amount of rise time, even to the types of pans to use for these mini-loaves.  Perhaps one should call these rolls, but I think of them more as single-portion mini-loaves.  My own conceit allows me to call them whatever I want, some might say.

Today's batch is so wonderful to eat.  I loved making these before I started playing with some changes.  Now I'm going to want to make them every day, every single day.  Of course, that's undoubtedly not practical.  But if I were serving people every day, these would be the first thing brought to the table no matter what else they were having.  

It is quite gratifying to have several days of effort rewarded.  And my specific reward today is to eat a few of these throughout the afternoon whenever I feel like taking a quick snacking break.

Inspirations, ideas, and tweaks

pain au lait dough on the scale ready to be portioned by weight

Well, it has been a very nice Christmas week so far.  I love the end of the year.  I love the mental reset that comes with it.  I love that the world slows down a bit.  During this week, I've been keeping things slow as well, or trying to.  I like to keep a list of ideas, inspirations that come to me for different recipes I work with, for little tweaks or improvements, changes in an appearance, adding an ingredient, things like that.  Then when I have a week with very little going on, I like to experiment using that list.  I've made multiple batches of a few different foods from this list over the past couple weeks, but none have occupied my efforts so much as pain au lait, or milk bread as it would be in English.  This is a simple unassuming little bread, just a little sweet and soft, and perfect for an afternoon snack.  People make it in various sizes and styles, and it's not that difficult to make.  However, I've been playing with my recipe trying to get some specific changes worked out.

I had this idea for a change to the texture and also have been considering various shapes and sizes of these small loaves.  So I've been playing around with the dough, tweaking the ingredient measurements, tweaking the cooking temperature, changing egg and cream washes, amount of rise, etc.   As of the time of this blog post, over the past week I've made about 15 batches.  The squirrels and birds have really enjoyed each batch as I've tossed leftovers out in the yard for them.

pain au lait shaped in mini torpedo loaves and ready for another rise 

So far, all I can tell is that I am getting incrementally closer, emphasis on incrementally.  I start to get the shape I want, but then I have to change the oven temperature settings.  I get the time in the oven right, but then I don't get the amount of browning that I want.  And so it goes.....

pain au lait mini torpredo loaves cut, sugar topped and ready for the oven

I figure at the rate I'm going, I might get the result I'm looking for after only another couple dozen batches.  Actually, to be honest, I'm hoping that I'm much closer than that.  But I have to admit it is sometimes a frustrating process in trying to get something just right.  That's why it's so important to make notes on every change attempted so that I can go back and review, and not duplicate something I didn't like before, etc.  There is nothing really wrong with the recipe as it originally stands, and everyone likes this particular bread, but I wanted something just a bit different about it.  Working with breads always has it's challenges, it is said.

Well, I have another batch ready to go into the oven.  Maybe today is the day....!

Scrambled eggs with powdered sugar

prepping for scrambled eggs

It's Christmas Eve morning.... what a great morning....  The world is more still and quieter than usual as everyone is prepping for Christmas Day celebrations.  Some people are on the road traveling to family and friends.  Others are on the road going to the office for a partial day before they head back home for the holiday. But the roads are less busy than usual and I like that.  I like it when the world slows down for a bit because it doesn't happen very often.  I love the holidays and food both simple and complex is a big part of these celebrations.  Today I'm starting off with something simple: scrambled eggs.  (In the photo above, ignore the four bowls at the back right.  They are for making pain au lait (milk bread) as soon as butter softens to room temperature later this morning.)  Recently someone stopped by while I was making scrambled eggs for a late-day snack, and was surprised that I wasn't adding lots of milk, so that turned into a discussion on the simplicities of making moist and flavorful scrambled eggs.

Many people like to include milk in their scrambled eggs, even many restaurants.  This has the effect of making them fluffier but more importantly to some it stretches the eggs into more servings.  But for me I will always make scrambled eggs with just eggs and a large pat of butter.

eggs whisked, but not yet enough

I always use my small 8-inch omelet pan.  It's non-stick, and it retains heat extraordinarily well.  So I will dump the whiskings of 5 eggs into this pan all at once.  That sounds like too much for this small pan, but it's not.

eggs whisked enough

I whisk the eggs very thoroughly.  (Yes, using "very" and "thoroughly" is a bit redundant since "thoroughly" by itself should imply the same thing, but we won't quibble over syntax here.)  Many people only whisk them until they are somewhat broken down, but I prefer to break them down as much as possible.

lots of butter

I always toss a very thick pat of butter into the pan first and wait until completely melted before adding the eggs.  This adds even more richness to the eggs and a velvety smoothness as well.  The pan should not be very hot.  For this pan on my stove I only use a setting of between 3 and 4 on the dial, which goes all the way up to 10.  Anything more will scramble the eggs too quickly and I won't have the texture that I want.

There's no need to hurry on the cooking.  This small pan almost filled with liquid whisked eggs will cook them very nicely without the need to hurry.  I personally like long ripples of cooked eggs to form as these will break down into smaller curds anyway during the cooking and stirring.   Using a smaller pan even for a large quantity eggs works really well.  I find it's much easier to control the cooking process.  And I think it makes it easier to keep the eggs moist right up to the end before they are served.

a sprinkling of powdered sugar

Now here's where we come to the most unusual thing.  I have never met anyone who puts powdered sugar on their scrambled eggs, but I grew up eating them that way and have done it ever since.  Just a light sprinkling is all you need, but it doesn't hurt to put a bit more on if you really want it.  Just know that anyone who sees you doing it will probably be very perplexed.  But let them try some, and maybe that will change their mind.  

The wonder of yeast

bread that has been kneaded and is ready to rise

Yeast is an amazing organism.  Without it we wouldn't have rising doughs that give us sandwich breads and cinnamon rolls, vats of mashed fruits and their juices that become wines, and so many other food products.  It does this by a process called fermentation which is basically the breaking down of larger molecules into smaller more flavorful ones.  It doesn't matter whether it's bread that is rising, fruit juice that is developing into wine, cabbage becoming kimchi, or any other foods created by fermentation, the process is essentially the same.

bread that has risen in the bowl

With bread, when flour and water and yeast are combined, large starch molecules in the dough start to break down into simple sugars.   Ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide are produced as part of this process as well as other byproducts such as organic acids and amino acids.  When the dough is kneaded, gluten is developed which strengthens the dough so that gases can be trapped inside, and so the dough expands, or rises.  All the various byproducts that result add flavors to the dough as well.  Without yeast, our culinary world would simply not be the same.

plastic wrap showing pressure inside the bowl after the dough has risen

Yeast is a fungus.  It's in the air.  It's on the surfaces of fruits.  It's in the soil.  It's found just about everywhere in nature.  

the final product after the yeast does its work

Thank goodness we have yeast.  Without it, our culinary world would simply not be the same.

Florentines

The last couple days have seen a lot of cooking, a lot of Christmas movies playing in the background, and a lot of eating.  Among the things coming out of my kitchen this week are hazelnut florentines.  Many people have assumed that florentines are named for the city of Florence, Italy.  However, a little research shows that no one knows for certain why they are named as they are.

Florentines are generally made from nuts and/or fruits, a small amount of flour, a bit of cream, some sugar or honey or a sweet corn syrup, some butter, perhaps some flavorings such as vanilla or citrus zest, maybe a little chocolate.  There are many varieties.  As they cook they spread out until they are thin and often somewhat lacy, like a lace doily.  When removed from the oven they are very soft, but as they cool they firm up, actually to a crisp, unless they haven't been cooked long enough in which case they are a bit chewy but still nice.  They are sometimes coated with chocolate on one side, or dipped so that half is coated.  They are delicious no matter the variation.

But no one can quite agree on where they come from.  One of the most plausible explanations I've read is that they were created in France in honor of Catherine de Medici, an Italian from Florence who lived in the 1500s and who married Prince Henry of France who would later become King Henry II.  There is a whole story with many plots and subplots to be found in reading about this figure in French history.  I won't go into that in this post, but I will say that it's worth the time to read if you find historical figures intriguing.

Some people have simply suggested that this cookie comes from Florence as a traditional preparation.  However, many others will say that florentines don't really bear any resemblance to other traditional foods from Florence or anywhere else in the Tuscan region of Italy.

I find it fascinating that in this advanced time in our civilization where a tremendous amount of information is available at the click of a mouse on a computer screen or the swipe of a finger on a phone app, in reality there are so many things that are unknown.  This little mystery as to the origins of this cookie may seem only a small matter in the cosmos, but I find it intriguing nonetheless.

Snow

Well, today is Sunday, a beautiful snowy Sunday.  I had planned on doing a bit of kitchen work today.  I went out early when I saw on the weather radar that snow was not far away.  And I saw that our winter weather advisory that was posted yesterday had been upgraded to a winter storm warning.

So I headed out early to get butter, and doughnuts, and a few other things.  It was flurrying by the time I arrived back home.  And for the past few hours it has come down fairly steadily.

I have already swept the front walkway a couple times.  I've cleared the snow from the solar-charged walkway and stair lights in the front.  And I've spent considerable time just going to the front storm door and gazing out at the falling white.

That means I haven't yet done anything in the kitchen that I planned to do except to cook a few oatmeal pecan rounds that were prepped last night, and make myself a sandwich and a glass of milk.  But that's OK.  The rest of the day is still wide open and eventually I will get around to turning on the oven, setting up my ingredients, and poring over a few recipes while Christmas movies play on the TV in the background.

It's a wonderful day.  I hope everyone is able to stay in and enjoy the snow as I am.  Gosh, I love the snow!

Trying new foods

dragon fruit

This week is one of my favorite weeks of the year.  It is the week that I pass out Christmas treats to my piano students.  Usually I give out bags of candy, or packages of cookies, the usual stuff.  However, this year I am passing out a not-so-usual item to one of my students who does not eat the typical packaged treats that everyone else will be receiving.  Instead, this student is getting a dragon fruit because she has always wanted to try one.

I have to admit ... I've not eaten a dragon fruit.  It's funny, but even with as much time as I spend making things in the kitchen, it takes a long while to get around to trying some new or exotic food items.  I love fruit, but not only is dragon fruit missing from my eating history, but star fruit, cherimoya, and more.  Just do an online search for exotic fruits and you see what these all are, and others as well.

It's not that I'm reluctant to try these new things, but I often don't think to even look for them at the grocers when I'm out doing a planned trip where I've already made a list of specific things to meet my cooking and eating needs for the week.

So perhaps this coming year, I should make a resolution to try one new thing every week, some new exotic fruit, or a vegetable I've never used, etc.  I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions.  But perhaps I will add a permanent line to my normal grocery list which simply reminds me to pick up something I've never tried before.  Well, that's all for today.  Remember to try something new once in a while.  Sometimes it's really worth it when you discover something you never even knew existed and fall in love with the taste.

National Pastry Day

Today, December 9th, is National Pastry Day.

Yes, there is a day dedicated to ... pastries!?!  I have done a bit of reading on this topic, and I can't find out when it started, or who declared this date to be National Pastry Day.  But nevertheless the day has arrived.

What is pastry specifically?  It is a dough comprised of flour, water, and shortening.  It might have fillings; it might not.  It might be savory; it might be sweet.  It has a different texture than bread dough because of the higher fat content.  And it's how that fat content is handled when the dough is made which gives us all the different wonderful pastries that we all love.

Different types of pastry doughs include names such as:

choux

flaky

hot water crust

phyllo

pate sablée

pate sucrée

puff

rough puff

shortcrust

suet crust

All pastry doughs are differentiated by the techniques used in their creation.  We won't go into that here because that is a long long long discussion.  Personally I find all pastries enjoyable to make, marvelous to eat, and it makes me very happy to share them.  

Have a great day everyone!  I hope the days heading up to our end-of-the-year holiday celebrations are filled with laughter and joy!

White truffle

In 2014, on today's date, December 6th, a white truffle weighing more than 4 pounds sold at auction for $61,250.  Normally these things are much smaller, think the size of a walnut.  So imagine walking through the woods with your dog who is trained to sniff out truffles (which grow underground), and you stop and start digging to extract this truffle your dog has found.  And you keep digging.  And digging.  And digging.  I can only imagine how excited this truffle hunter must have been to pull something this large out of the ground, and not only for the financial reward it would provide.  This was truly a momentous fungus!

I frequently use mushrooms in my cooking, but I have never used truffles.  While they seem like they are the same thing (and many people assume they are), they are different though related.

However, reading a story like this makes me want to cook with them today just to commemorate this remarkable find from five years ago.  I could head out to the store and get at least a small bottle of truffle oil to use in my kitchen today, although I might have to try a few stores before I find one since truffle oil is not kept in stock by every grocer.  To be honest, I also feel like going out and doing a little truffle hunting myself, a rewarding activity even if only typical smaller ones were found.

A final note on the sale of this item.  I have read that the proceeds were all donated to charitable causes.  A wonderful way to spread the rewards of this incredible find.

Mise en place

mise en place for coffee cake with cinnamon pecan streusel

I love mise en place.  What is that, you ask?  It's a French phrase meaning putting in place or to set up.  What it means for the kitchen is that before starting to cook or bake something, set everything up that you need -- all the ingredients, all the tools and dishes, and anything else that is required.  If you have to dice carrots or celery, you do it ahead of time.  If you have to weigh ingredients such as flour and butter and sugar, you do it ahead of time.  And you set it all up so that everything is at hand, in bowls or containers, measured out, all prepared to go into the mixing bowl or the pan at the instant you need it.  

I personally find this practice to be relaxing and very satisfying.  Whether I'm planning on making one thing or many, I always set everything up ahead of time. When I was kid, I had no notion of doing that. I'd simply pull out the recipe and put the ingredients in one at a time, getting them out of the cupboard or canister or refrigerator as I needed them.  After I became more experienced, I learned how gratifying it can be to prepare things ahead of time and how much easier, so much easier it is.  When you don't do this, it's very common to miss important things such as an entire ingredient that you forget to put in because you're in a rush, or the fact that you have to process an ingredient, such as chopping nuts, or melting and then cooling butter, but which needs to be done and ready to be mixed into the other ingredients while they are hot or before a certain amount of time has elapsed. 

Planning everything out, fully reading the recipe, setting up your timeline for each step, and putting out all the ingredients is immeasurably helpful and reduces the amount of stress that can result from making complicated or even simple recipes.  And this also makes it much easier to make multiple things on the same day.

Late in the evening, my kitchen might have several restaurant trays placed here and there, each with small covered containers with measured amounts of flour or spices, and in the refrigerator are multiple small plates of butter portioned out, and so on.  When I get up in the morning, sometimes very early if I'm making a lot of things, everything is all set to be used, and I start making everything batch by batch, one at a time, but much more quickly than if I hadn't gone to the effort the night before to set everything up.  Try it sometime, if you don't already do it, and I think you will find it immensely satisfying and much more enjoyable to make anything in your kitchen.