Mushrooms en papillote

Christmas is behind us and New Year's Day is just ahead.  And here we are in the first true weeks of winter hoping for snow sometime.  Well, maybe not everyone is hoping for snow, but I am.  I was very happy to look at the forecast for the upcoming weekend and see that we have snow expected to start the new year.

This cold weather also makes it a great time to eat hot foods.  And I have a really good one for mushrooms lovers today.  It is simple, flavorful, and easy.  

Mushrooms en papilotte.  

The picture above shows the prepared mushrooms before foil is wrapped around them like a pouch.  Cooking "en papillote" means to cook in a pouch.  This pouch can be made of parchment paper, folded properly to seal it, but it can also be made of foil and since almost everyone has foil in their kitchen, that's how we'll do it today.

Get a pound of mushrooms.  I like to get a mix of mushrooms varieties.  You can cut them or leave them whole.  I prefer to cut them up a variety of sizes.  Place them all on a large square or rectangle of foil.  I like to use extra wide heavy duty foil, and I'll tear off apiece about 18 inches long.  If you are using standard foil that is not as wide, you probably want to divide this recipe into two portions since the decreased width will make it harder to put this large quantity of mushrooms all in the same pouch.

Place the mushrooms in the center of the foil.  (You can also use a bowl instead and mix all the ingredients in the bowl before you transfer them to the foil -- this is especially helpful if you are dividing this recipe into two halves.)    Sprinkle a 1/2 teaspoon of salt over the mushrooms along with a 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.  Add sliced or pressed garlic cloves.  I like to add 5 or 6, but you can add just a couple if you want less garlic.  Then place a bit of butter right on top, about a tablespoon, but it doesn't have to be exact.  Then drizzle a bit of olive oil over the mixture, about a tablespoon.  (For vegans, just leave out the butter and add an extra tablespoon of olive oil.)  At this point I sometimes add a bit of dried parsley and thyme, but sometimes I will wait and add those after the cooking is done if I have fresh herbs on hand. And of course, you can always change up the variety of herbs you use to whatever you find most appealing.  Now, wrap the package, but not tight.  It needs a little space at the top for the steam to collect.  We want these mushrooms to steam in this pouch.  I seal the pouch lengthwise first with a nice double fold which is creased very firmly, and I make sure it "tents" nicely above the mushrooms.  Then I fold the ends.  I do this in such a way that the folds are all on the top, pointing up, so that if a fold is not quite precisely sealed, no liquid drains from the package.

Here is a pouch that is all set to go into the oven.  Your oven should be at 400 F.  Place the pouch on a baking sheet, and pop it in for about 45 minutes.

Here's what you have when it comes out.  The mushrooms are a bit smaller.  They are tender.  They are delicious.  And they reheat very well, so you don't have to eat everything all at once.

So there you go.  An easy hot nutritious dish (and vegan if you leave out the butter) to enjoy during the cold days of winter.  Perfect for humans or hobbits (any LOTR fans reading this?).

I hope you all enjoy the last few days of the year.  For those of you who are here in Kansas City, I hope you are excited about our first significant snowfall of the winter.

Christmas

 

Good morning, good morning!

It's the day before Christmas Eve, and all is quiet on this early December morning.  

You may have noticed that there are is no weekly menu offering this week.  The same goes for next week as well, New Year's Weekend.  But I will be sending out food again beginning the weekend of January 7th.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas season.  I will be enjoying it with various family and friends, lots of good food, fun Christmas movies, and other similar things.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Cornucopia

Cornucopia:  an abundant supply of good things.

Today is Monday.  It is the first day of the week in which Christmas arrives this year.  I love the Christmas season.  I love the buildup to it.  I love the rising expectations as it comes closer and closer.  I love the way the world seems to change just a little, even if it's just for a little while, as Christmas arrives.  And I love making good foods for the holiday.

One of the fun things about making as much food as I do, and sending it out to friends and family, is that I get see to my kitchen looking like it does in the picture above.  Seeing a spread of good food is very satisfying.

A cornucopia of good food.

Every time I spend a day making breads and cookies and lasagnas and ice creams and so many other things, I look ahead to when they will be done and ready to go out the door or be consumed here at home.  Sometimes I'm up very early to make food.  Sometimes I'm up very late to make food.  Sometimes I have a short night of sleep because I'm making food.  But in the end, I get to see countertops and trays full of food, yummy delicious amazing food, and it's all worth it. 

Sometimes it's nice to order out and have food delivered, ready to eat, ready to enjoy.  But there's nothing quite like the feeling of making something yourself.  When you pull something out of the oven and see the results of your time, your effort, your creativity, it's very satisfying and very rewarding.

Enjoy this week before Christmas!  And share some good food with family and friends.

Savory pies

During these upcoming cooler months, I will enjoy making savory pies.  To be honest, I enjoy making them even in the hotter months.  I love dessert pies, too.  Just about anything put in a pie crust would probably be delicious.

A new item, a savory pie, has been added to the menu.  This is a delicious and nutritious pie with Roma tomatoes, corn, cheddar cheese (and sometimes a bit of gruyère when I feel like adding it), scallions, lots of basil, and some other seasonings.  Let's not forget what holds it all together -- eggs and cream.

First the pie crust is par-baked.  Then shredded cheese, tomato slices, and corn are layered.  A mixture of cream and eggs and seasonings are heated up and then poured over the layers.  And then a final addition of basil is spread over the top.

This goes into a fairly hot oven for almost an hour.  Once the half hour mark has been reached, a wonderful aroma starts to fill the kitchen and then slowly flows through the air into the rest of the house.  It makes me want to go to the oven and open the door again and again to take in more of that aroma.  But I wait.  And wait.  And wait.

When it comes out of the oven, I wait a little more.  It has to cool for a little while, and as it cools, it sets.  I will eat a slice as soon as possible.  But then I like to let it sit more.  As it sits, the flavors meld.  

This pie will then sit in the fridge, and a slice can be reheated easily by placing it in a 350 F oven for about 20 minutes.  Whether eaten on Day 1 or Day 2, it is delicious.

Watch for it on an upcoming weekly menu offering.  And in the meantime, enjoy the Christmas season! 

Spices

Today is spice day.  "What is spice day?", you ask. 

Well, a couple times every year, I do a complete inventory of all the spices and seasonings in my kitchen.  There are some frequently-used spices that are replaced on a regular basis as the containers are used up.  But there are others that aren't used very often, things I keep around for only a single food that I make infrequently.  Nonetheless, they are important to keep on hand.  

For these spices that aren't used that often, I want to ensure that I have fresh containers around.  Spices age, and I want them to be fresh and potent.  So in December and July, I take the time to see what I have on hand.  I make sure that everything is stocked with fresh containers of cayenne pepper, cardamom, paprika, Italian seasoning, and many others.  

For some of these not-as-often used spices, I end up tossing the oldest containers.  The spices are still good but they simply aren't as powerful as they used to be.  While I do this every 6 months, I don't toss everything that is 6 months old.  But I take inventory and see what I think needs to replaced.

This is a very important thing for me in my kitchen.  I find it quite vexing if I start to set out ingredients for something that I want to make and I find out that don't have enough of a particular spice.  Or even worse, that I have the spice I need but it is much older than I wish.  Some spices are OK aging longer, but then there are some that need to be replaced more often.

So today, I will take inventory.  I will note which are old and which are new.  I will set up an order for Penzey's for some spices, while others I'm fine getting from the local grocer.  It will be a nice day because it's part of a very satisfying process in which I know that my racks are always filled with fresh and aromatic spices and seasonings.

Pasta salad

Good morning, everyone!  We're well into the Christmas season now.  And with all the Christmas cookies and other sweet goodies that are part of our yearly celebration, it's nice to sit down with something healthy and delicious to offset all those sweets.

This weekend we have a new item offered for the first time:  farfalle pasta salad with salami and balsamic vinaigrette.  In this salad, there is nothing but healthy stuff:

pasta, shredded carrots, English cucumber, Kalamata olives, baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, red onion, parmesan cheese, feta cheese, salami and a delicious balsamic vinaigrette

I make this on Day 1 and then chill it overnight with the balsamic vinaigrette already stirred into the salad.  And on Day 2 after that overnight chill, it is absolutely scrumptious.  Once I devour one serving, it's impossible for me not to have a second serving.

I love all the gingerbread and Christmas cookies and cakes that are part of the December celebrations.  But I certainly also love to have something that is so incredibly delicious that it can offset my cravings for all those other holiday sweets.

More new food items are being added to the menu in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes open and read about those additions here.

Have a great week!

New oatmeal cookies

It's finally December and the Christmas season is in full motion.  That means lots of Christmas goodies.  I've been baking many things including a couple new oatmeal cookies which have been placed on the menu.  The ones in the photo above are on the menu as oatmeal chocolate chip homestyle cookies.

And the other, in the second photo, is on the menu as oatmeal spice chocolate chip cookies.  

The homestyle cookies are just what they sound like:  good dense oatmeal cookies with mini chocolate chips that are very traditional in taste and texture.

The oatmeal spice has a much darker flavor since it is heavily spiced.  It might be a bit too dark and heavy for some people, but I love them, and I'm sure at least some other people will love these as well.   

Both are wonderful cookies and as with all oatmeal cookies (in my opinion), they are best served with milk.  

I find oats to be wonderful to eat.  They have that proverbial "stick to your ribs" quality that fills you up in a way that feels satisfying and healthy.  And they are so delicious in cookies and breads, and even by itself as one of my favorite breakfasts:  hot cinnamon spiced oatmeal with milk.  When I want to start the day with a breakfast that makes feel good, that's one of my go-to breakfasts. 

These cookies also make me feel good when I eat them.  They'll be on a weekly menu soon.  Keep an eye open for them.  

Have a wonderful start to the Christmas season!   

Zimtsterne recipe

 The last blog post on Zimtsterne prompted a request for this recipe, so here it is.

Cookie dough:

250 g sugar

250 g almond flour

5 tsp cinnamon

52 g egg whites

5 tsp lemon juice

Icing:

250 g powdered sugar

25 g egg whites

1 tsp lemon juice

To make the cookie dough:

Whisk the almond flour, sugar and cinnamon together.  Place this in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment.  Add the egg whites and lemon juice and mix on medium speed until the dough is thoroughly combined.

Remove the dough and roll it out between layers of parchment or plastic wrap.  This should be rolled out to between 3/8" and 1/2".  Now let this sit while you prepare the icing.

To make the icing:

Set up the stand mixer with the paddle attachment again and a clean bowl.  Add the powdered sugar and start the mixer on low speed.  While the paddle is turning, add the egg whites and lemon juice.  After that addition, turn up the mixer to medium and let it run for approximately 3 minutes.  You can add extra egg white or extra powdered sugar if you feel you need to adjust the icing viscosity.  The icing should be quite thick.

Now spread a relatively thin later of icing to the rolled out cookie dough with an offset spatula.  I like to make the icing about 1/8 of an inch thick or less, but I don't worry too much if it is not perfect.

Now cut out the shapes you want to use.  Traditionally these cookies are cut as stars.  Dipping the cookie cutter in water first will help it help it cleanly cut the dough and frosting.

Place the cut cookies in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Set up a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat.  Take the cookies straight from the freezer to the oven.  Bake them for 10 minutes.  The icing should be just beginning to discolor.  Let them cool completely once they are removed from the oven.

There you go.  I hope you enjoy giving them a try!!

Zimtsterne

 

Today we're talking about a festive cookie for the holidays:  Zimtsterne.

Zimtsterne, or cinnamon stars, are frosted German cookies that are made with almond flour and have lots of cinnamon.  And the recipe that I use to make these is particularly fascinating because these cookies are baked with the frosting already on them.  Let me tell you how they are made.

Almond flour, sugar, and a significant amount of cinnamon are sifted together.  Then egg whites and lemon juice are added.  Once this is mixed, you have a very dense cookie dough.  Roll it out to between 3/8" and 1/2" thick, and the dough is ready to be frosted.  That's right, the dough is frosted even before it is cut into stars.

The frosting is very simple.  Powdered sugar, lemon juice and egg whites are mixed together and what you get is a very very thick frosting that is so thick you'll wonder how easy it will be to spread on the cookie dough that is already rolled out.  But it does spread.  And if you need to adjust the frosting's viscosity, you can add a little extra egg white, or conversely, if it's too thin, you can add extra powdered sugar.

This frosting is spread across the rolled out cookie dough.  Then you pull out your star-shaped cookie cutter and make lots of little stars.  These are popped into the freezer for a couple hours.  Then into the oven they go for only 10 minutes.

They bake up beautifully.  The aroma is wonderful.  The frosting holds it position on the cookie and cooks along with the dough.  The frosting never runs in the heat.  When they come out and have finished cooling, you have a dense chewy cookie with that layer of sweetness on top.  The combination of cinnamon and lemon is intoxicating.  

Trust me --  these are really good!  And how many cookies can you name that are actually baked pre-frosted?

These are fun cookies for the holidays.  

Have a great Thanksgiving week, everyone!    

Artisanal

Artisanal:  (of a product, especially food or drink) made in a traditional or non-mechanized way.

As time passes and eventually I produce larger quantities and fulfill more orders, I will always have one thing in mind.  And that is this:  everything will always be done in a way that hearkens to the spirit of "artisanship".  

It means producing foods in small batches.  It means producing foods with more human hands and less mechanization.  It means subtle differences in the same foods from one day to the next.  

Someone once told me they thought that the reason homemade foods are better than those that are mass-produced are the tiny imperfections and inconsistencies within a food that result from the the way the food is prepared, mixed, baked, or cooked, by hand in a home kitchen.  I think there is a lot of validity to that idea.

Whatever it is that makes homemade foods better, though, can only result from actually making it the way homemade foods are made.  At least that's what I think.  

I like the idea of a shop with lots of normal mixers instead of big commercial/industrial-sized mixers.  I can seem them all humming away mixing numerous small batches of many foods and people buzzing about checking on them one by one.

I don't even like the idea of doubling a recipe.  Doubling a recipe does not always yield the same result as two separate single batches.  I can discuss more on that later as I've done many tests of that premise.

For me, though, the idea of making food traditionally in small batches with lots of human intervention is what I will always prefer.  Certainly that means that if I were to open up a shop, my overhead costs from the extra staffing required would not be in the best business-tradition, but it would be certainly in the best homemade tradition.  And that's the kind of food I want to make.

Eggnog

I have added something to the menu that I have been wanting to add for a long long time.

Eggnog.

Normally, it seems that people only drink eggnog during the winter holidays.  But I love it all year long.  However, I don't really care for the eggnog you find at the grocery store.  Most people I know agree with me that it's too "gloopy".  Is that a word?  Well, it is now because I'm using it.  By gloopy, I mean it's too thick, the texture's not quite right, and the flavor always seems a little artificial to me.

For my eggnog, I heat up the mixture of egg yolks, sugar, cream, milk, salt and vanilla to between 175 and 180 F.  Then it chills for a long time.  As is chills, it gets better.  And when I pour it into a glass and dust it with nutmeg, I can almost taste it even before I bring the glass to my lips.  

Eggnog really is amazing when it's cooked and chilled just right.  At least I think so.  I think most people either love it or hate it.  And that's OK.  Everyone has different tastes.

It's on the menu, and I will put it on a weekly offering sometime very soon, in time for Christmas.

Butterscotch pecan cookies

It's a breezy chilly grey day here in Kansas City.  I keep thinking about going out to rake leaves.  After the last rain from a couple days ago, it seems all of a sudden everything is turning colors and leaves are dropping in bunches from the trees.  But the breezes are strong today and leaves are being blown everywhere.  So I think I'd better wait until the weather changes a bit in a few days.  

That means I'm inside today, and I'm watching movies and making food.  A new cookie has just been added to the menu and I'm making a batch today.  These are butterscotch pecan cookies.

Roasted chopped pecans, butterscotch chips, vanilla, butter, brown sugar -- these are some of the ingredients which combine to make a wonderful complex flavor.  I shape these into a rough rectangle and cut off slices for baking.  The aroma that floats through the house as the baking nears completion is warm and inviting.  

I like to crumble these over French vanilla ice cream.  Sometimes I dip them in cocoa or milk.  If you leave a plate of these out on the table, they will disappear quickly.    

This weekend I will also be making a batch of a special pasta salad and taking photos in order to add it to the menu.   The same thing will happen with eggnog, or I hope so, at least.  I have ordered cups and lids that I think will work well and they have just arrived.  If they perform as I hope they will, then eggnog goes on the menu.  And eggnog cookies with a whipped eggnog frosting are coming soon.  And also zimtsterne cookies.

Enjoy some good food today.  And have a great week, everyone!

Chocolate chippers

Is is possible that there is someone on the planet who does NOT love chocolate chip cookies?  I don't think so.

There are multiple chocolate chip cookies on the menu already, and I've just added another one.   Each of these varieties has something different and wonderful that makes it unique.  The factors which make them unique might be the variety of chocolates in them, or the types of flours used, or the size of either the cookie or the chocolate chips and chunks, whether or not there are nuts, etc., etc., etc.

The point is this -- there are so many ways you can vary a chocolate chip cookie because they are such a simply delicious cookie no matter how you make them.

Cookies, in general, lend themselves well to the idea of multiple varieties.  Sometimes I make snickerdoodles with lemon zest in them and then call them lemony snickets (yes, like the books).  Or molasses cookies with lemon in them.  Or shortbread with hazelnuts, or almonds, or cashews.  Sometimes I'll cook sugar cookies really thin and then sandwich them with dark chocolate ganache.  

The possibilities are endless and wondrous.  I guess that's true for all food, but some foods more than others, I think.  

The new cookies are on the menu as "chocolate chippers" and I hope you will give them a try.  Perhaps sometime I'll do a week with only chocolate chip cookies offered, and you can sample several types side by side.

Have a great week everyone.  It's a beautiful autumn!

Baking time tests

I've been making a lot of cookies lately.  Cookies are always fun to make.  They don't really take a lot of time.  The dough can usually be refrigerated and baked later.  Many doughs do well in the freezer for a month.  That means I can bake three cookies for a late-night snack and do that again and again throughout the month.  And, really, who doesn't love cookies?

When I'm testing a new cookie or tweaking a recipe I already use (cookie or any other baked good), I'm very detailed about baking times.  I keep an oven thermometer hanging from the cooking racks in my oven so that I always know that my oven thermostat is working properly.  And this means that temperature is never an issue.  But time can be an issue.

Some cookies when baked just 30 seconds more than usual are dramatically different.  That little bit of extra time can really dry them out, or over-crisp them, or over-brown them, etc.  If the dough has been chilled, then you have to think about how much extra time you need for that cookie to come out just right.  Same thing goes for frozen doughs.

When I am working on a new cookie, I will chill the dough, and then over the course of 3 or 4 days, I will cook a small portion of that dough every day, and I will vary the baking times, baking only couple cookies at time.  In this way, I can see how the aging of the dough affects the cookie, I can test many different baking times, and I can experiment with portion sizes as well.  And I can do this all with one batch of dough.  An extra perk:  I have fresh cookies to sample every day.

Well, since I've been making a lot of cookies lately, my fridge has often had more than one tray of dough sitting wrapped inside it.  And each day I've been pre-heating that oven multiple times as I test out different baking protocols for new cookies.  It takes a lot of time to work through all the possibilities, and for a person like me who is sometimes impatient, that can be a challenge.  But in the end I'm always glad I was detailed in the baking trials.  Once I document the results and decide on cooking times and portions, etc., it means that every time I make that recipe, I know exactly what I can expect to pull out of the oven.

OK, time to make another batch.

Pecan ice box cookies

Pecan ice box cookies were added to the menu this week.  

When I was a kid, part of our typical Christmas was a very large black speckled roasting pan that was filled with cookies and brownies.  The pan was pulled out from the cabinet.  And cookie doughs were made one by one.  Cookies were baked tray by tray.  Cookies were stacked in the roasting pan stack by stack.  And brownies, too.

One of the cookies was something we called ice box cookies.  The dough was made and then frozen before cooking.  The dough wasn't hard from the freeze because it's made with vegetable shortening instead of butter.  It was easy to pull out the block or roll of dough and slice off whatever number of cookies you wanted to make even though it came straight from the freezer.  And there was no need to defrost them before baking.  

I've tweaked this recipe a little bit and added "pecan" to the name.  But these cookies are substantially the same as they were when I was a kid.  I roll these out and pre-cut them.  Then I stack the pre-cut cookies and place them in the freezer wrapped in a plastic freezer bag.  They are all a fairly uniform thickness and they come out of the oven a bit crispy.  And I love the flavor created by the vegetable shortening, the dark brown sugar and the roasted chopped pecans.  

This is one of those really good things from childhood that I'm happy to share with everyone now.

Watch for them on a upcoming weekly menu.  I hope you will like them.  

Cookie mixing tips

For almost every cookie batch, there a few things I try to do as part of the mixing process.  Are there exceptions?  Of course, there are, but most of the time a cookie batch will be served well by utilizing these tips.

First of all, it's a good idea to get all the ingredients measured and set out before you start.  When I say "measured", I mean with a scale if you have one.  In baking, precision and consistency are very important.  I measure everything in grams.  If a recipe does not have weight measurements, then as part of testing it out I make sure I weigh everything and write those measurements in next to the volume measurements so that I can use them for every subsequent bake.

For most cookies, butter is warmed up to room temperature.  I often cut my butter into slabs and separate the slabs in order to quicken the warm-up.  I also let the eggs warm up.  And after the eggs are warmed up and cracked and set in a small bowl, I add the flavorings and extracts to the same bowl so that they are added to the mixing bowl at the same time as the eggs.  

Flour is measured out and, almost always, baking soda, powder powder, salt, and any other small-quantity dry ingredients are whisked into it.  If cocoa powder is part of the recipe, this is whisked into the flour as well.  If oats or chocolate chips are part of the recipe, these remain separate.

Butter (or other shortening) and sugars are creamed together at medium speed first.  Then eggs, and any flavorings, go in next and are added one egg at a time.  This is done at a slower speed.  Then the flour mixture is added in portions and is done at the lowest mixer speed.  I like to add it in 2 or 3 additions depending on the amount.  Doing this in multiple additions allows the flour to be incorporated more easily.  And mixing it on the lowest speed means the flour is worked over as little as possible (plus it ensures that the flour doesn't go flying into the air from a mixing paddle spinning too quickly).

Any nuts and chips are added last.  And there is something really nice about adding these last.  If you have an issue with a little of the material sticking to the sides of the bowl or on the bottom of the bowl and not getting incorporated easily, the nuts and chips will eliminate that issue since they collect all the material as the mixing paddle spins.  And then you have an evenly mixed cookie dough.

I have saved the most important tip for last.  You must, absolutely must, eat all the dough that is sticking to the beater or mixing paddle.  I believe it's the law in most places.  If it isn't, it should be.  Really.

OK.  Go make some cookies and have a great week.

Food for movies

Baseball season is coming to a close very soon.  I've been a baseball fan all my life.  So one spring many years ago when one of my brothers suggested we have a baseball movie day with baseball food, it seemed like a perfect idea.

We selected a few favorite baseball movies -- I think they were Field of Dreams, Major League, and A League of Their Own -- for this very first spring training baseball movie-thon.  And then we set about trying to decide on appropriate baseball food.  We chose popcorn, of course, and peanuts, since these have been staples at ballparks for decades.  We also had to choose hot dogs, and with them a variety of toppings.  We decided on nachos as well.  We thought about cotton candy, but we didn't know where we could get that easily.  We found a grocer that carried old-fashioned chocolate malts.   And then we got a big bag of cheese puffs since I remember having those at Dodger Stadium and the Big A in Anaheim in southern California as a kid.  We had some other foods as well, but I can't recall what they were.

Anyway, it turned out to be a great fun thing to do.  Eating foods that one would find at the ballpark while watching these great baseball movies was an excellent way to spend a day in the spring.

Later we did a few other movie and food days with some other movie themes besides baseball, but I can't recall the details of those.  For a few years we were able to do the baseball day every spring.  

Food is a great celebration of life itself as well as a celebration of some of our favorite things we do in our lives.

Anyone have any ideas on other great movie and food days?  Please leave your comments.

Have a great week!

Chocolate chip snacking

 

Often at the end of a day, I sit at my desk at my PC, scrolling through news of the day, checking emails, reviewing sports scores, etc.  And frequently I have a snack just inches away from my computer keyboard.  Sometimes it will be a small sandwich, or a bowl of cold breakfast cereal and milk, or maybe some slices of cheese.  But when I don't have those things around, and sometimes even when I do, I often have a bowl of chocolate chips or chunks on the desk.

For my baking needs, I get bags of chocolate as chips, chunks, and also feves which are oval discs.   My favorite thing to do is get a small bowl of various kinds, some semisweet, some dark, etc.  Then every time I grab one or two, I'm not certain which one I will get.  Variety makes it a bit more fun.

Sometimes I will mix them with some chopped up pretzel sticks.  And often I have a few slices of cheese there as well.  I have found that cheese eaten after chocolate is a wonderful taste experience.  And very often I will also have a glass of apple juice.  I'm not a wine drinker.  I just never developed a taste for it.  But I find that drinking apple juice after eating chocolate is another wonderful taste experience.

So tonight when I'm done with all my day's work, if you dropped by to see me, you might find me with my bowl of chocolate chips.  And I'll be happy to share them with you.

Cream scones

As the autumn season moves along, so many beautiful plants will hibernate for the long winter.  This hosta, shown here in early summer, is already fading and will soon be asleep until spring.  I love hostas because they're easy to grow, there are so many varieties, and they come back every spring without an issue.  Some foods have the same qualities:  easy to make, so many varieties, and every time you make them, they come out just about perfect.  Scone are one such food.  Someone recently asked me to write a short post on how I make my cream scones.  So here we go.

My cream scones take very little time and very few ingredients.  Flour, sugar, baking powder, and a little salt are whisked together in a large mixing bowl.  The more thoroughly they are whisked, the better.  Then cream is added. Yes, this is the only liquid ingredient -- no milk, no eggs, no butter, no oil, just cream.  This is mixed into the dry ingredients by hand.  I use a large serving fork which makes it very easy.  I try not to work the dough too much, but it has be thoroughly mixed.  

I prepare a 9-inch cake pan with a cut round sheet of parchment on the bottom.  I empty the dough into the pan and spread it to the edges.  Then another cut round sheet of parchment is placed over it.  I then level the whole pan of dough with the bottom of a mug, swirling it around pressed down on the parchment.  I don't bother with making it perfectly level.  I just want it to be roughly even across the disk.  The pan is then put into the freezer overnight.  

After the dough has frozen, I remove it from the pan and cut it into 10 portions.  I place these on a baking sheet with a Silpat underneath them.  I've learned from experience that simply putting them on parchment on the pan browns the bottoms too much for my taste.  Then I brush the tops of the scones with milk and sprinkle large-crystal sugar on top of each one.  They go into the oven still frozen.  There's no need to thaw them first.

30 minutes later they come out.  They are warm, a little sugary on top, and have a wonderful texture inside.  I never wrap these in plastic.  They stay open or stored in a bakery box or a bread bag.  However, I never have to store them for long because they're gone very quickly.

That's all there is to it.  The cream, the mixing and the freezing are the key things that make these scones so scrumptious.  

Have a great autumn week!    

A week off

Good morning and Happy Sunday to everyone.

Fall is about ready to make it's presence known with cooler temperatures beginning tomorrow.  I love the change of seasons and the colors that go with it as well as the daily hope for snow in the forecast.  Yes, as you all know, I love the snow.

I've been tweaking my eggnog recipes this past week.  And that has definitely got me thinking about the upcoming winter holidays.  

After doing a lot of cooking over the last several weeks, I'm going to take a week and relax a little bit.  A menu is posted for this next weekend, October 15-17.  But the weekend after that I will not be sending any food out the door.  Rest assured that I will be back for the final weekend of October and then all all the weeks ahead through the holidays.

Have a great week, everyone!

Waffle cone bowls

Not long ago, I added waffle cone bowls to the menu.  I had been wanting to add these for a long time.  However, my list of new foods I want to add is quite extensive, and so it has taken a while to get around to this one.  Maybe I need an assistant.  Hmmmmm.......

Anyway..... these are now on the menu and I'm delighted, because who can't enjoy a nice waffle cone.  Actually, I don't offer these in a cone shape, only in the shapes shown above.  Why?  Well, I simply like these shapes more, but it's also because the cone shape is more problematic than one would think when it comes to consistency.  In a factory setting, shaping is done by machine, but in a small kitchen, it's all by hand.  Sometimes the cone comes out just right.  Other times it doesn't, and you have a bigger open hole at the bottom than is ideal, or the size of the top is not consistent, and of course there's the ever-present issue of heat.  These things are hot when they come off the waffle iron and holding them in place, even with disposable gloves, is not enjoyable.  But I like the shapes shown in the photo better anyway.  A cone is really limited in how it can be used:  it's filled, and that's about it.  But these other shapes can be used in a variety of desserts, both ice cream and non-ice cream, in different ways.

When I was first learning how to make these, I tried so many different recipes.  However, most of them came out with a lot of inconsistent browning.  Sometimes they would brown all the way across the disk. Other times, there would be large pale spots.  They were all still quite tasty, but they didn't have a consistent look.  I tinkered a lot with ratios of the ingredients, and finally when I had a recipe that turned out a fairly consistent color, I was happy.  They are made on a waffle iron that is specifically for waffle cones which is definitely helpful, too.  With this iron, I can trust that the same amount of batter cooked at the same numerical setting for the same amount of time will produce disk after disk with consistent uniformity.  

These are lightly sweet and have a mild flavor.  And they are just as good eaten by themselves as in a dessert.  Sometimes I'll make a batch and just pop them into a plastic bag to be eaten throughout the day when I feel like a snack.  I find them to be immensely satisfying.

And isn't that what we should be looking for:  foods that are immensely satisfying?

EVOO

 

Today, September 30, is Extra Virgin Olive Oil Day.  Does that make you want to roam through an olive grove just like the one in this picture?

Extra virgin olive oil, or EVOO, is the highest quality of all olive oils.  Through grinding and pressing, oil is extracted from the olives without the presence of heat or chemical extraction methods.  It is loaded with antioxidants and lots of monounsaturated fat which is one of the healthy fats to have in our diets.

Note:  Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature and solid when chilled.  Saturated fats and trans fats are solid at room temperature.

The process of certifying EVOO to be the level of quality it is supposed be is time-consuming and rigorous.  This is partly why EVOO is more expensive than other olive oils.  But the expense is worth it if you love the pure flavor and the high quality of this oil.

I keep a bottle in my kitchen at all times.

So celebrate the day today by making some pasta with a little EVOO and some grated parmesan, or perhaps a nice loaf of bread.  Just break off a chunk, dip it in the oil, and enjoy.

Oven heat in winter

Merry Monday, everyone.  We are a week into autumn.  The sun is veering further and further south.  The winds of fall are already blustery at times.  Leaves are turning colors and falling.  Tall grasses are fully seeded and waving in the breezes.

I did a lot of baking this past weekend.  And I'm making ice creams early this week before making the foods on order for this upcoming weekend.  And of course my previously-mentioned cinnamon roll single elimination bake-off is coming up as well.  I have plenty of things on my to-do list to keep myself busy in the kitchen.

Yesterday as I pulled a batch of cookies from the oven, the hot air spilled outward and upward when I opened the oven door, and that made me think ahead to the upcoming winter cold.  One of my favorite things in the winter is to bask in that heat.  I love to feel it rising to my face when I pull anything from the oven.  In the chill of winter, even if the house is warm, there is something nice about that oven heat.

In the summer, it's the complete opposite, of course, but for the winter it's one more appealing aspect of working in the kitchen.

It would be nice to have a wood-burning stove.  Then that radiant heat would be there all the time in the winter.  Since I don't foresee getting one of those in the near future, I'll be very appreciate of that rising heat from the oven every time I open it to pull out a loaf bread or tray of cookies all winter long.

Autumn and food

Today is the first day of autumn.  The temp here in Kansas City showed it, too:  49 degrees on my thermometer.  

Time to start thinking more about cold-weather foods.  Well, maybe not entirely.  I just did my fall chocolate order and picked up a large bag of the specific chocolate I like to use for my mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Soon you will see that ice cream land on the menu.  I love doing my big fall order of chocolate.  It is part of my end-of-summer ritual:  open up the website, order the standard items I like to keep on hand, check out anything new they are offering, and then decide what else I want to try or what else I want to indulge in.

This week in addition to the menu offerings, I'm going to be making a couple different BLT pasta salads.  I've made these before, and I'm trying to decide if I want to place one of them on the menu.  I'm also going to be dabbling in a test of another new ice cream.  I will bake some rolls.  And I will hopefully start my single-elimination cinnamon roll tournament.  I have multiple cinnamon roll recipes that I like to use.  I'm going to be making them in pairs and after each pair, one will go on to the next round.  By the time I get to the end I will have chosen one to be on the menu.

I'm also going to be mailing a package of cookies up to Zak (and Heidi, but she won't eat them since she's vegan and none of these cookies are vegan).  This is partially a "thank you!" for them since Heidi and Zak are the ones who maintain and enhance the brucebakeryandbistro.com website.  And it's a chance to see how the cookies will come out after being in transit a couple days.  I will have to work on finding a couple good vegan things to send up so that Heidi can eat them too.

Autumn is such a great time to think about all our favorite foods for the upcoming holiday season.  I love the change of seasons.  I love the holidays.  I love the food.  What a great way to head into the end of the year.

Enjoy the new cool weather.  And thank you for reading this blog and trying my food.  I truly enjoy sharing both my words and my foods with everyone.

Cookie dip

The end of summer is almost officially here.  In just a few more days, autumn will begin.  The leaves are already falling from some of the trees.  The evening breezes feel different.  The slanting sunlight of the late afternoon looks markedly different than it did just a handful of days ago.  The turn of the season is here.

As the end of the year approaches, I think about comfort foods a lot.  I've just added a new item to the menu, and this one definitely feels like a comfort food to me.

This is a sweet and creamy cookie dip.  I like to dip spiced molasses cookies in it, and chocolate chip cookies, and use it to make sugar cookie sandwiches.  I've even dipped strawberries in it.   I'm sure there are many foods with which this will pair well.

It is mildly sweet with a pleasant flavor that always leaves me smiling.  And it's creamy texture is what I think makes it a comfort food.

It's on the menu for next weekend.  I hope you'll give it a try. 

Have a great weekend everyone.  And be on the lookout for more additions to the menu.

Lasagna

 

Good morning, everyone.

Summer is almost over.  I can feel it in the air when I put out birdseed each morning.  Leaves are starting to fall from a few of the trees.  The winds are feeling different.  And even a hot afternoon doesn't feel quite as hot.

As we head into cooler weather soon, it's the perfect time to think about hot foods.   With that in mind, it's a great time to announce another new food added to the menu.

Lasagna is now available.  I love pasta dishes and especially lasagna.  This is made with a combination of ground chuck and mild Italian sausage.  This mix of meats is just wonderful, I think.  I'm making these in individual servings.  They come in disposable baking cups, already cooked and then chilled.  (Although if you want to try to arrange a pickup time that coincides with when I pull them out of the oven, you can do that.)  Once you get them home, just pop them in your fridge until you're ready to eat them.  Then remove the plastic lid, put them on a cookie sheet and heat them in a pre-heated 350 oven for 20-25 minutes.  I also like to lay a loose piece of foil over it to make sure the cheese on top doesn't brown.  I usually put a light coating of oil on the foil or tent it so it doesn't stick to the cheese.  Do not try to heat them in the microwave in the baking cup in which it comes because it's metal.  

The sauce is wonderfully flavored with many herbs and seasonings.  There are three different cheeses.  Oh, I love eating this.  And I love how convenient it is that I can make them ahead in individual serving sizes and then just heat them up.

So order some lasagna and let me know how you like it!  It's on an upcoming weekly menu as I write this.

Cheese spread

A new item has appeared on the menu:  cheddar cream cheese spread with horseradish and paprika.

I love dips and spreads.  Anything creamy and flavorful that can be eaten with a cracker or a raw vegetable or a hunk of bread .... these things are good in my opinion.  

I've always loved cheese.  Who hasn't?  I mean, does anyone not like cheese?  If you're out there, please stand up and be recognized.  I suppose those who are lactose intolerant might not like cheese.  However, I think they really do like cheese, but they just can't have it without feeling too icky.

This spread, or dip, depending on how you want to use it, is great with so many things.  When I first began working on this item, I wanted some strong contrasting flavors and textures.  Horseradish ended up in this, and I've never really worked much with horseradish before.  But I like it in this and perhaps I'll find more uses for it in the future.

Paprika is always something I love to use.  After all, deviled eggs just aren't quite the same without a dusting to give them color and flavor.

The sharp cheddar cheese in this is shredded and then mixed into the cream cheese.  This means that the main ingredients by volume give a texture combination that I find very pleasing as the shredded cheese is not pureed or mashed into a paste.  The bits of cheese are abundantly evident in every spoonful.

A few other ingredients are tossed in and they shall remain secret for now.  

I hope you'll give it a try.  It will be appearing on a weekly menu offering very soon.

Have a great late summer day!

Tolkien and food

On today's date, September 2, in 1973, J. R. R. Tolkien passed away.   Tolkien, as almost everyone knows, wrote The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and some marvelous short stories, poems and essays.  If you've read the three works I've mentioned but want more, try Leaf by Niggle, Smith of Wootton Major, and Farmer Giles of Ham, all among my favorite short stories from any author.  There are still others I haven't mentioned, too.  Tolkien created an entire world in his stories and left behind many unpublished notes and writings that give more details and history about Middle-Earth which is where The Lord of the Rings is set.  Thankfully those notes and writings have made their way out to the world via a series of volumes organized and published largely due to the efforts of his son Christopher. 

Why do I mention the anniversary of his passing on this food blog?  Well, I remember so vividly the first time I read his books how he wrote about how all hobbits loved food, and celebrations, and had more than the typical three meals per day that seems so normal now.  There was talk of seed cakes, second breakfasts, and the appreciation of food in general as one of the luxuries of life to be most enjoyed.  That stuck with me from the time I was 13 years of age which is when I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.   

I love the concept of enjoying food.  Sure, we all talk about how we love certain foods.  But this world moves at such a fast pace that I think many times people are too consumed with the idea of consuming food quickly and without thought.  (How's that for interesting phrasing?)  We all have to eat.  We might as well enjoy it, truly savor it, honestly revel in our favorite foods.  I don't mean we should eat in such a way that we become less healthy.  I simply mean that we should endeavor to make food more than just a simple function of life.  It should be a joyous part of life.

The foods which I put on my menu are always my favorites.  I don't put anything out there that isn't something I personally enjoy immensely.  So when I get to share these foods with all of you, it is a personal thing for me, something I am happy to do.  And it makes my enjoyment of my favorites more complete when I get to serve them to people who will enjoy them, too.

Kitchen clean-up

Today I have been experimenting with some different foods and recipes in the kitchen.  At the same time, I've been nibbling on spoonfuls of one delicious food or another, grabbing a quick bit of a muffin, eating a few grapes -- basically grazing like a deer in a meadow.  These kinds of days are fun.  They are unscheduled.  They are free-form.  They are creative.  They also make a mess as I tend to dirty a lot of utensils and pans and serving plates.

When I was younger, I would be all gung-ho about cooking up multiple things on a single day and it was always fun.  Fun, that is, until it was all done and I had to do all the clean-up.  Oh, I hated that.  Seeing a mound of dishes and pans and spoons and spatulas all waiting for me after a lot of cooking, well, it was sometimes maddeningly disheartening.  I hated all that clean-up.  Who wouldn't?  As I finished the final recipe I was making on one of these long cooking days, that pile always mocked me, always laughed at me, always dared me to stay enthused about my day in the kitchen.

Then one day, I just decided to do "clean as you go".  At first, I hated disturbing my cooking momentum with constant stops to clean a pan or a mixing bowl.  But it didn't take long for me to feel differently.  These days, as soon as a single pan or plate or spoon is done being used, it's cleaned right away.  Often those things are done while cookie doughs or cake batters are in the mixer so that I get the satisfaction of multi-tasking, or perhaps while a tray of cookies is in the oven.  So now when I finish of day cooking multiple foods and tons of cookware and dishes are being used, the clean-up is already done.  There is never a pile of unwashed dishes ready to break my good mood.  

One might ask, why don't I just use a dishwasher?  I prefer to wash the dishes by hand for many reasons.  I won't go into all the reasons at this time, but let me mention one that may seem unexpectedly unusual.  I love the feeling of the hot water on my hands as I wash the dishes on chilly autumn mornings and cold winter days.  Admittedly, this reason doesn't hold up in summer, but for every other season where the temps are frigid, cold, or even mild, there something about soaking my hands in hot soapy water that I find to be a nice perk of choosing to do all my dishes by hand.  

Have a great week, everyone!  And remember to take the time to enjoy some good food.  

Hot chocolate

 

It's late August, and the weather is hot.  The sun is bold, and the humidity is high.  Yet we aren't that far away from the change of the season to autumn.  I'm already thinking ahead to copious rainfall, cloudy afternoons, leaves falling, and holidays that seem to be in such a hurry that they trip over each other in their push to get us to the end of the year.

So what am I thinking about during what may be the last bit of real hot weather for the summer?  Why, hot chocolate, of course.

I love hot chocolate any time of the year.  Some people tell me that's crazy.  But people love hot coffee all year, so why not hot chocolate!

Some people mistakenly call any chocolate drink "hot chocolate", including all those mixes that come in single serving packets to which is added hot water or hot milk.  But in reality, most of those are made with cocoa powder and no chocolate, and that means hot cocoa.  You want real hot chocolate, you have to use actual chocolate.  And when you do, it is definitely worth it!

Here's an easy hot chocolate recipe:

180 g  bittersweet chocolate, 60% cacao

100 g  milk chocolate

32   g  cocoa powder

40   g  sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

a pinch of cardamom

a pinch of salt

The higher the quality of chocolate you use, the better the flavor and smoothness you will get.  (And by chocolate, I do not mean chocolate chips.)  Break up the chocolate into relatively small pieces.  Then toss the pieces into a food processor.  Add all the remaining ingredients and then pulse the processor many times in medium-length spurts.  I don't like to run it continuously because the blade generates heat, and I don't want to melt the chocolate.  Instead, I want to chop it relatively fine.  If you have some chunks of chocolate left over, don't worry, it's OK.

Now heat up milk and add it to a measured quantity of the mix.  The hotter the milk, the better.  You want this hot milk to melt all that chocolate in the mix.  You can use the microwave, or a saucepan, either is OK.  Generally, 1/4 cup of this mix per 1 cup of milk is a good ratio.  When they are combined, stir it until the chocolate is all melted.  Voila!  There it is!

You can vary the spices to whatever you want, but this combination is one I particularly like.

I've had several cups this week already even as the summer is trying to enforce it's will one last time (I hope!) before autumn arrives.  I love it any time of day.  I especially like to add a bit of almond-flavored whipped cream.

Anyway, give it a try and let your mind wander to the cooler months and holidays ahead.

Cauliflower mash

Good morning and Happy Saturday to everyone!

This week cauliflower mash makes it's entrance on the full menu of Bruce Bakery and Bistro.

Personally, I've never been one to eat cauliflower much.  Some people really love it, but it seems more people can just as easily do without it.  But I love being able to take a food that is not a favorite of mine and turn it into something that is irresistible.  And that's what we have here.

If you like mashed potatoes, you'll like this.  The texture, the flavor, the appearance all are very similar to mashed potatoes.

Cauliflower is cooked in boiling water until very tender.  Then it's puréed with butter , cream cheese and various seasonings, and finally shredded parmesan cheese is processed into the mixture.  When it's done, it tastes amazing.  I am not exaggerating when I say that when it's sitting in my fridge, I can't help going back to it multiple times throughout the day.  

An here's an amazing thing.... it's even good when it's cold!  Hot or cold, I enjoy it immensely.

That's all for today.  Just a short post that I'm squeezing in between cooking brownies, hazelnut shortbread and Swedish visiting cakes for this weekend's orders.  

Have a great week!  Enjoy the waning summer.  Autumn will soon be here.

Sweet spiced roasted pecans

A new item has been added to the full menu:  sweet spiced roasted pecans.

While I am more than happy to indulge in sugary sweet treats that are the complete opposite of healthy, I am also very happy to have healthy snacks that are also delicious.

These roasted pecans are coated in a mixture of  several spices and extracts, as well as the sweet coating that helps bring it all together.  They roast in the oven for about a half hour and when they come out I am eager to dive into them as soon as they are cool.  I've roasted these for as long as 45 minutes and they are still great.  By that time however, much more of the natural pecan flavor has been baked out, so I prefer to keep the cooking time down to 30.  But it's nice to know the cooking time is extremely flexible.

I put these in a sealed container on my kitchen counter, and I can't help but repeatedly return to it to nab a few more throughout the day as the hours pass.  They are healthy so your body feels good as you eat them, and they have a great balance of sweet and spicy, and I love the lightly crunchy texture

They will be offered on a weekly menu soon.  I hope you will try them out.

Stay cool if you can.  It's a hot day here in Kansas City, and many other places around the world.  

Textures

 

Isn't food great?!  I mean .... can you imagine life with nothing but nutritional supplements that have no taste, no flavor, no color, no texture?  I like to think especially about texture a lot.      

Food textures, the words themselves, refer specifically to properties of foods which can be sensed by touch, either by mouth or by hand. 

For instance, take the crispy rice treat shown above.  The combination of the crispy (from the puffed rice) and the chewy (from the marshmallows and butter which are melted to create this treat) is amazing.  Or take a simple chocolate chip cookie -- the slight bit of crispiness on the outside, the slight bit of chew on the inside, the pools of liquid chocolate interspersed with the actual cookie.  The texture contrast is wonderful.

The tricky thing with some foods is that textures are very likely to be easily changed (most often in a bad way) completely by accident if one is not being careful.  This week I made sweet spiced roasted pecans.  They were great.  I always love to have them around to snack on.  They were crispy and crunchy both from the roasting which dried them out a bit as well as from the sweet and spicy coating in which they were roasted.

I stored them in a sealed container and every time I wanted some, I popped the lid, scooped some out and resealed.  But then something terrible happened.  I got distracted.  I went to grab a few.  And I left the lid open.  For some time they sat open on the counter and slowly bit by bit they seemed to absorb some of the humidity in the air.  When I went back to get more and I saw that I had left the lid open, I knew they wouldn't be the same.  And they weren't.  The taste was the same but also different because texture affects our evaluation of taste. 

The same thing happens to potato chips if you leave them out on warm humid day.  That's why some people have made a fortune on little clips which make sure you chips bags are closed.

Well, I'm going to make another batch of pecans.  And this time I'll try to be more careful.  I tossed the remains of the texture-disadvantaged batch out for the squirrels.  I don't know if the squirrels could taste the sweet or the spicy on these pecans, but I hope they appreciated my efforts.  I happened to catch a glimpse of a young brown squirrel nibbling on one of the pecan halves.  He seemed to be enjoying it.  

Have a great week, everyone.

Almond snack cakes

This summery Saturday night here in Kansas City has been a busy one for me.  I've just finished cutting numerous sugar cookie rounds which are chilling overnight before a morning bake.  I also mixed and packaged several containers of savory egg salad.  I made streusel topping for allspice snack cakes which is also chilling overnight before the cakes are made in the morning.  And I made a batch of spiced candied pecans which I love to leave sitting out on the kitchen counter so that I can grab a few whenever I pass by.  It has been a busy night which is now coming to a close officially as I type up this blog post.  

A new item was added to the full menu a couple days ago:  almond snack cakes with blueberries and cream.  One of the ingredients in these little cakes is brown butter.  I love making things with brown butter.  What is brown butter?  It's butter that has been melted and cooked long enough to evaporate some of the water out and toast the milk solids.  This results in an intensified flavor which most people describe as "nutty".  Often the milk solids which separate out from the liquid are strained out, but not always.  Personally, I always strain out the solids, but some people like to leave them in.  While this is technically called "brown butter" I often find myself calling it "browned butter".  I'm OK either way.  In fact, I prefer to say "browned butter".  I don't know why.  It's just the way I am. 

These cakes have lots of egg whites, lots of powdered sugar, and almond flour as well as all-purpose flour.  They are scrumptious, especially when topped with the aforementioned blueberries and cream.  I tested these with both domestic (large) and wild (small) blueberries.  The domestic choice was the way to go.  So that's how they will always be served from my menu.  

I will put them on a weekly menu soon.  I hope you will give them a try when I do.

Boules added to the menu

Well, what a hot summer day we are having in Kansas City.  And if the forecasters are correct, the next two days will be even hotter.  After that, however, we are due for a cool-down.  All in all, we can't be too unhappy with the relatively mild summer we've had so far.

Hot or not, it's always a great time to eat bread.  My last post was about making boules.  Well, as of today, there are now two boules on the menu.  Both are the same kind, so it's really only one boule.  But one is large, about 9 inches, and the other is small, about 6 inches.

I love eating these.  They are soft on the outside and the inside is moist with a little chew and an herbal fragrance that is absolutely wonderful.  

I love the days on which I get to add new items to the menu.  I'm working on adjusting loaf sizes for a honey oatmeal bread right now.  And I'm doing final tweaks for an almond snack cake which I think I will pair with a blueberry sweet cream.  And I'm also doing final tweaks on waffle cones and waffle bowls for ice cream.  These will all be added to the menu very soon.

However, my favorite that will make it's first appearance on the menu soon is chocolate mousse.  It's easy to eat lots and lots of this smooth creamy chocolate concoction.  In order to choose one for the menu, I've been doing single-elimination cook-offs with several chocolate mousse varieties that I love to make.  The only problem is that when I make them, my fridge is filled with lots and lots of mousse.  After doing three rounds several days ago, I decided to push off the next rounds in order to take a break and hopefully withstand the temptation to eat all the chocolate mousse I was making.  I think I will start the final rounds next week.  And I think that as soon it's on the menu, I will add to a weekly food menu immediately so that everyone can give it a try.

Oh, I have so many more things I want to add.  All in time, I suppose.  In any event, keep watching the menu to see what new things show up.

Have a great week and enjoy our midsummer days.

Boule with herbs

Today I'm making boules.  What is a boule?  It is basically a round loaf of bread, often very crusty, and always very delicious.  They aren't hard to make, and so they are great to add on short notice to a day's meal plan.

For this boule, we're going to start with all-purpose flour, add a little instant yeast, some sugar, some salt, a little baking powder, and whisk it all together.  Then warm water is added, about 120 F.  Once all the dry ingredients are combined in the water, fresh chopped herbs are added.  In this case, I'm using parsley, thyme, and basil, and I'm adding a lot.  I want this loaf to be very fragrant.  All of this is kneaded for about 6 minutes in the mixer with a dough hook on medium high speed, or longer if doing it by hand.  You can see the finished dough above.  

Now the dough rises for about 45 minutes in the bowl.  And then it's removed, deflated a bit, and formed into a round ball and then pressed until it's about 7 inches in diameter.  Place it into a round cake pan which has been lubricated with butter, brush the dough with melted butter, and let it sit another 25 minutes or so.  When it's done rising, it should pretty much fill the pan and it will have risen a little above the top of the pan.

Then it's brushed with melted better again, and put into the oven at 375 F for about 20 minutes.  And here's how it comes out.

Beautiful, isn't it?  Let's cut it open and see what it looks like inside.

It looks delicious.  And as you can see, when you cut it open all those herbs are found sprinkled throughout the bread.  It is soft, fragrant, and flavorful.  I like to eat it plain but you can put anything on it you wish.  It's great to have with soups and stews to soak up the juices and broths and gravies.  It's great with a little melted grated cheese on it.  There are so many ways to eat this.  And it is really quite easy.  This particular loaf has a very soft crust, but many boules are very crusty.

Eating a slice now and ...... it's yummy!  Put this out as part of a family dinner, and it will quickly be gone.  This will soon be on the full menu at Bruce Bakery Bistro.  I hope everyone will like it.