Our favorite dishwares

 

This morning as I was drinking milk from one of my favorite mugs, I was reflecting on the fact that our kitchens are filled with so many specific pieces of dishware and cookware that become part of our normal daily life patterns.  The photo above contains a small platter and a bistro bowl.  These are Fiestaware pieces from the Homer Laughlin China Company, made here in the United States.  I can't imagine my kitchen without the beautiful colors.  And I certainly can't imagine not eating on these sturdy well-made pieces of dishware.

When I make pasta it often goes into this low broad-based bowl of which I have several, made by Le Creuset.  The broad rim makes it ideal for carrying large servings of all sorts of things.  The soda glass (I have a couple dozen) is excellent for pudding parfaits, ice cream sundaes (and ice cream sodas, of course -- every try a purple cow?) and many other things.  Rugged in structure yet beautiful in form, it's great to be able to pull one off the shelf whenever I need it.

This mug was a gift from a piano student family I work with.  It is part of a small collection of various mugs that all have a story behind them, some sort of narrative as to who gave them to me, or a special memory attached to them, etc., but also actually get used every week at least once.

One of my favorite items:  a set of nested stainless steel cookware made by Magma that is specifically designed for boat owners who have limited space in which to stock their kitchens.  Each set has several pans with lids and removable handles, and everything fits nested inside to become the compact form you see above.  The idea is ingenious and is executed very well.  These are great pans and I cook in them all the time, and they don't take up much space.  I intend to get another set at some point.

This fun mug is a gift from my sister with whom I share a love of birds.  We both have several bird-feeding stations in our yards and compare notes often on the bird activities we see.  This mug carries the image of an American goldfinch.  Goldfinches are frequently seen at the thistle seed feeders in my yard.  I often drink milk from this at the start or finish of a day.  I love the image, and I love the smooth feel from the finish on this mug.

Our homes are filled with so many personal things that speak of who we are.  Kitchens are part of that for many of us who spend a lot of time in them.  I could go on and wax philosophical on this topic, but there's really no need for that, and that wasn't the purpose of this post.  Sometimes it's nice just to take note of something basic since we often take too many things for granted.  And that's all today's post is about:  noticing the beauty and utility of things that often become mundane in our minds as time passes and we forget to appreciate them.

Vanilla poppy seed muffins with lemon streusel

 

Yesterday I added a new item to the full menu:  vanilla poppy seed muffins with lemon streusel.

These muffins have a big flavor on top and a mild flavor underneath.  By that I mean that the lemon streusel that tops this muffin is bold and full of flavor and texture, but the muffin underneath is flavored only mildly with vanilla, and also just a bit of lemon zest that is barely noticeable.  This balance of strong and mild flavor means that it works well both eaten plain or spread with butter and jam.  Any jam will do, but my preference for these is raspberry.  

The combination of raspberry and lemon is one that always resonates with me in all sorts of foods.  To me, they both seem to be strong flavors that work very well together since each tends to moderate the strength of the other, i.e.,  each balances the other but neither is cancelled out in terms of the fullness of flavor.

These muffins are made by first combining ingredients for the lemon streusel:  lots of lemon zest, sugar, light brown sugar, flour and melted butter.  Stirred until mixed and a bit lumpy, the streusel is made first and sits in a bowl waiting for the muffin batter.

For the muffins, whisk together flour, baking powder, poppy seeds and salt, and put aside.  In a separate bowl, sugar and lemon zest are rubbed together until very fragrant.  (Not as much lemon zest goes into the muffin as into the streusel.)  Then the sugar/zest is whisked together with eggs and a small amount of sour cream, not long, but long enough to combine thoroughly.  While whisking, slowly pour in melted butter and canola oil.  Then do the same with buttermilk (which helps to promote a soft crumb for the muffin), lemon juice (just a teaspoon) and vanilla.

Pour this liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and slowly fold it all together.

I love the act of folding ingredients. It's a gentle process, slow and meticulous.  I always marvel how different a batter can be that is mixed with a vigorous action (by mixer or by hand) versus one that is folded slowly by hand.  Some batters need energetic mixing.  But others must be folded in order to achieve a desired texture and softness.  In the case of folding, the ingredients are coaxed together, without forcing.  It must be done slowly and with deliberation.

After folding, you now have a mixture ready to go into the oven.  I measure out a specific amount of batter for each muffin.  That way each muffin cup is filled with the same volume, and so each one cooks to the same level of doneness.  Once the batter is in the cups, I smooth it out with the back of spoon, pushing it to the edges of the muffin cups so that they are flat and even.  Then I top each with a generous amount of the lemon streusel.  I don't press the streusel into the batter.  I just let it sit on top.  As the muffin expands as it cooks, the streusel takes the brunt of the heat on top which is just what it needs to give that slightly firm, slightly crunchy texture with lots of flavor from the butter and sugars.  The lemon zest comes through very well as it is not inhibited by the other flavors in the streusel, but it is affected a bit by the brown sugar, giving the zest some dusky flavor overtones.  

After 16 minutes in a hot oven (425 F), they come out and are immediately removed from the pan.  They cool to room temperature and are ready to eat.  These are big muffins, baked in jumbo-sized muffin cups.

Muffins are a great breakfast, a easy tidy snack, perfect food to share with others over conversation at a brunch, even great movie food, in my opinion.  They are a wonderful small food for whenever the mood strikes.

I hope you'll give them a try when they appear on an upcoming weekly menu.    

Cornucopia

 

sweet woodruff

This past weekend was a pretty nice weekend.  I did a lot of cooking.  I listened to some great music while I did all that cooking.  I replayed the 2004 World Series with my brother with the Strat-o-matic baseball simulation game.  And I ate a lot of great food along the way while watching some great movies.  Take out the burst of heat that Mother Nature has given us as a probable last gasp of summer, and I would have no complaints.

My kitchen logo for these past few days should be the horn of plenty, the cornucopia.  I had platters of things scattered around the kitchen as one batch of food was finished and another started.  I made mini cumin buns, a tasty bite-sized bun that is flavored with cumin and that can be topped and filled with many different things.  To go along with those, I made two different egg salads, one creamy and one savory with lots of layers of flavor.  I also made tuna rillettes which go nicely with the cumin buns as well.  I made two different kinds of cookies (part of the weekly menu offerings), braised peas with cream and egg yolks, lemon slush, and vanilla poppy seed muffins with lemon streusel (which will soon be on the full menu).  The only thing I didn't get to make that was in the plans for the weekend was lava field brownies (again, part of the weekly menu offerings).  I use a specific chocolate with a specific cacao content (the % level you see on many packages of chocolate), and unfortunately the global health crisis currently in play has affected supply chains for some things including this particular chocolate.  So, being unable to procure it, I had to tell everyone that the lava field brownies wouldn't be available as planned this past weekend.  Usually I keep enough of all the varieties of chocolates I use on hand so that supplies don't run low.  But this has been an unusual year and supplies of some things are harder to keep on hand than in more normal times.  Sometime soon, you will see the lava field brownies offered again.

But, going back to the cornucopia, I find it tremendously satisfying to put out a bunch different food items all at once.  There's something quite peace-inducing about a table laden with many different types of food.  To see an abundance of edible deliciousness (yes, that's a word...) and to know that so many yummy things are there for the taking, well, could you ask for anything better?

So here's a toast to the end of summer as it approaches, and to harvests of great food whether they are in the fields across the countryside or in your own kitchen.  Fill that horn of plenty and then eat until it is empty, and then fill it again.  

Rolling a spongecake

rolled spongecakes cooling

 

One of my favorite things to make is a roulade.  I make them all summer long.  I make them all winter long.  They are great desserts no matter what the season.  Someone recently asked about rolling them so here's a quick post tonight on that subject. I've done a post on making roulades before, but I'm going to try to explain the rolling a bit better here.

A roulade is a rolled spongecake with filling.  I make mine typically with either blueberry cream filling or raspberry cream.  But they can filled with all sorts of things.  The cake has to be made in such a way that is soft enough to meet the expectations of a cake, and firm enough yet flexible enough to withstand rolling and unrolling.

I take a half dozen eggs and separate the yolks from the whites.  Then I whip the whites into a firm meringue, adding sugar along the way.  The meringue is put aside, and I turn my attention to the yolks.  These are whisked for just a short time, and while they are whisking in the mixer, I prepare a dry mix of all-purpose flour and corn starch.  Then I add a portion of the meringue to the egg yolks, enough to lighten them in order to make it easier to combine them with the rest of the meringue.  I add the lightened yolks to the meringue and also add the dry mixture on top of that.  Then, very gently, with a silicone spatula, I fold all the ingredients together.  Slowly, bit by bit, it is all combined while preserving the air that has been whipped into the the whites to create the meringue.  All of this is carefully spread into a rimmed baking sheet line with parchment paper.  It cooks very quickly, only about 9 minutes.  And when it comes out, it is hot and spongy and already looks delicious.  And it all comes from just four ingredients.  The ratios of these four ingredients are part of what gives it enough structure to roll while being delectably soft.

completing the roll

Now I spread out a towel over the still-hot pan containing the sponge cake.  This is not any old towel.  This is a lint-free flour-sack-cloth towel.  It is very thin and is perfect for these sorts of food tasks.  I then flip over the pan and the cake and towel, and the cake is released from the pan, exposing the parchment paper which is then carefully peeled off. 

Now comes the fun part.  Take the long edge of the cake along with the towel and start rolling across the width of the cake.  The towel is rolled up with the cake so that by the time you have finished, you have this cake rolled into a fairly tight spiral with the towel inside the spiral so that no part of the cake is touching another.  And now you let it sit until it cools to room temperature.  Since it's sealed in the towel it won't dry out at all.  I tuck the ends of the towel under the spiral cylinder to ensure that even the end edges stay moist and soft.  This rolling process must be done while the cake is still warm.

unrolling and preparing to fill

Now that it's at room temperature, you prepare your filling and unroll the cake.  It unrolls easily and without breaking.  The first turn in the roll is rather tight as you can see in the picture above.  But it will expand just enough to allow for the spreading of the filling over the entire surface of the cake.

adding the filling

Usually I only add and spread the filling over the nearest two thirds of the cake.  Then as I roll it up again, the filling is forced outwards towards the uncovered third.  No matter what, when the rolling is finished there is going to be a little filling that squeezes out along the long edge.  The same thing goes for the ends of the roll.  But that's OK.  Spoon that off into a bowl and eat it by itself when you're finished rolling the cake.  I suppose you could always put it back into the roll, but it's more fun to eat that excess filling.

ready for cutting

Once it is completely rolled with the filling, wrap it up in the towel by rolling again, only this time the towel is not inside the spiral, of course.  Then put it in the fridge to chill.  With it wrapped up completely inside the towel, the outside will remain soft and will not dry out.  When you're ready, unroll it, and slice it up into whatever portions are desired.  A serrated knife works best for this, such as a bread knife.  I always cut off a half inch or so on each end so that there is a neat and tidy edge.  Guess what I do with that edge cut?  Eat it, of course!

voila!

So rolling a spongecake is not all that hard.  With the right cake made the right way with the right ingredients, you're all set.  It takes a bit of practice and patience.    

Care for a slice?

Cookies with different flours

all-purpose flour, bread flour, cake flour

It has been a while since I put chocolate chip cookies on the weekly menu for everyone.  I have multiple types on the full menu, and this upcoming weekend one of them is on the weekly menu again.  These cookies, which I call chocolate chunk grand cookies, are one of my favorites ... obviously, or they wouldn't be on the menu.  After all, as everyone knows, I only cook what I really really like.  Well, these cookies are one of my favorites not just because they taste great and have an insane amount of chocolate in them but also because of something unusual in the ingredients.  They are made with a blend of cake flour and bread flour.  

Bread flour has a high protein content and cake flour a very low protein content.  All-purpose flour falls in between, but closer to bread flour than cake flour.   I find blending flours to be a fascinating experience.  Subtle changes in the ratios of flours can change a product markedly.  So mixing different types, trying different ratios, leaving out some flours (as in the lack of all-purpose flour in the chocolate chunk grand cookies), things like this are interesting to try.  

There are bakers who specialize in breads; just about all they do is bake breads of different types.  Hearing them expound on what different flours (and how they are handled in the mixing and kneading and rising processes) do to different baked goods is always informative and intriguing.  These people work with flours their whole lives and still say they are learning how to use them.  They are the personifications of humility in terms of recognizing what they know and how much more there is potentially to learn.

At any rate, I love making cookies with different types of flours.  The Swedish oatmeal cookies on my menu is another type of cookie that is not made with the usual all-purpose flour; instead, they contain only cake flour.  In both cases, the resulting difference relative to all-purpose flour is significant, at least to me anyway.

Sometimes I think it would be fun to take one thing and experiment with it for a week by varying the flours, trying it dozens of different ways, every day for a whole week, all day long.  However, there are so many other things I want to make that it would be impractical to do so.  But you never know when one day I might just wake up and say it's time to make something ten different ways just to see what happens.

Measurements

 

I like to prepare and measure ingredients sometimes the night before I am going to bake.  Tomorrow I have three batches of three different items I will be baking early so that friends and family can pick them up throughout the day.  Since I make everything as fresh as possible (as in same day as pickup) that means I'm sometimes up early for baking, and when I plan to be up early I often prep and measure the night before.  It's a great time saver.  It doesn't mean I get up later.  I still get up early but I can work in the kitchen at a more leisurely pace since I have trays of ingredients all ready to grab and mix.  All the plates and bowls of ingredients are labeled by weight and item, placed on trays, and stashed on high shelves or in the fridge.  By the time that baking is all done tomorrow morning I will feel like I've already been ultra-productive for the day, and I love that feeling.  That means if I really want to, I can just loaf around all day and not feel guilty in the least.

When I'm measuring out things, it can be quite exciting.  Perhaps that's not entirely true, but let me explain.  Sometimes I grab a block of butter and cut off a chunk, put it on a plate that is already on my kitchen scale, and lo and behold, the weight of the chunk in grams is exactly what I need for the recipe.  It doesn't happen every time, but as I accumulate more and more kitchen time as the years go by, I am often quite close on the first try when measuring all sorts of things.  Of course, when it happens that I get it exactly right on the first try, I immediately expect it to happen again ... and again ... and again.  It doesn't, but it's exciting to think that it could.  It almost becomes a game.

It's the only part of cooking and baking that I think can be treated like a game.  After all, trying to bake something faster is just not something that is feasible, so you can't race against your own best time.  What would do .... turn up the oven to 500 F and try to cook something in half the time?  You'd burn the outside, leave the inside raw, and have something totally inedible.  But at least ingredient measurements can be treated as a game .... if one wants to do that.  I don't actually really care all that much if I get the measurement perfect on the first try .... except when I actually do.  Does that make sense?  I simply mean that even the measuring process is just part of the overall ritual of baking, a ritual that is conducive to taking oneself out of the normal flow of activity in the world.  But when I get that first chunk of butter on the plate and it's exactly the right weight on the first try, I am eager to try it again and see if I can do it twice in a row.  And as soon as I measure out a second ingredient and get it close perhaps but not exact, I return to my non-game demeanor.  Now it's back to the ritual.  But the ritual is fine.  The ritual is grand.

Quality ingredients

 

a little green on a cloudy day

It has been a nice day here in Kansas City.  Not too hot, a bit too humid, though, but overall considering this is August, the weather has been mild.  In fact, looking ahead at the forecast for the next 10 days, it almost seems like autumn is trying to make an early appearance.  Every time fall starts, I lament the fact that once again I haven't managed to put in a permanent herb garden.  You'd think with the amount of time that I spend cooking it would be something that would have been done a long time ago.  But once again as summer is beginning to wind down I seem to have neglected that project.  Oh, well.  C'est la vie.

With every food I make, I try to use high quality ingredients.  There are some chocolates I simply will not procure because they won't be able to give the flavor and texture that I want in a certain dessert, for example.  When I find a specific excellent ingredient from a specific supplier, then I always try to use that.  It's a bit more expensive sometimes, but it's well worth it in the end.

Vanilla extract and vanilla beans are something that should always be high quality, in my opinion.  Not long ago, I ran dangerously low on vanilla extract.  If you know anything about good vanilla, you know how varied the quality of product is from different purveyors.  Anyway, I was using quite a bit of it as I as I was tweaking a couple recipes over and over again, and didn't realize how low I was.  No problem, I thought.  I'd get some more.  Well, then I found out that the place that made the brand I preferred to use was running way behind both in terms of shipping and also in terms of available product.  All this was due to the challenges that our current global health crisis has created.  I put my order in but knew I wouldn't be getting it for several days.  

What to do?  What to do?  I got a different brand from the my local grocery store.  They were also short of some of the better possible secondary choices.  I had to settle for a brand I had used a long long time ago, back in a day before I really knew very much about cooking with high quality ingredients.  It was pure vanilla extract, at least, not artificial.  However, when I put in this recipe that I was tweaking, it was amazing to taste the difference between this very inexpensive brand and my little-bit-pricier first choice for which I was waiting days.  I was not at all happy with this replacement for the usual vanilla I try to keep around, but what I was really amazed at was that I could taste such a clear distinction between the top-rate and the not-so-top-rate product.  First of all, it told me how much my own preferences had changed over the years.  Second, it really reinforced how much it matters to have a high quality ingredient for certain things.

Now, I don't think one has to pay top dollar for everything.  Granulated sugars, for example, I have found give pretty much the same result when you're working with a generic inexpensive brand compared to a heavily-marketed name brand.  And sometimes, the "house" brand that a grocery carries of some products are actually far superior to other more well-known name brands.  But when it comes to certain things -- vanilla, chocolate, butter, et al -- I always find it important to be very selective.

I was very glad when my vanilla extract order eventually arrived.  I placed another order right away so that I would have an extra bottle.  Now when I get down to one unopened bottle, it actually means I'm "out" and have to order more -- at least that's how I will think of it

Now after writing about that, I feel like going grocery shopping.  I don't know why, but I do.  Have a great evening, everyone.

Hot weather and lemon snack cake

A few days ago I wrote a blog post with "Cool weather...." in the title.  Today it's the opposite.  Hot and steamy are the forecast for this entire weekend here in KC.  We had rain overnight which was nice for the plants, but only added to the steamy for this afternoon.  C'est la vie.  Summer doesn't have much time left before it's over.  I'm looking forward to fall rains, shortening days, and heading towards all the end-of-the-year holidays.

A new item has been added to the full menu:  soft light lemon snack cake with raspberry sweet cream.  This cake is only mildly sweet and mildly lemony.  Sometimes I make things with really strong lemon flavor, such as my lemon poppy seed muffins and my lemon curds.  But this is a snack cake.  It's supposed to be gentle on the palate.  It's a nice simple cake that I pair with raspberry sweet cream.  It takes a lot of fresh raspberries to make this cream.  They reduce for a long time in the pan with a bit of sugar until they are ready to be strained so that I'm left with a highly concentrated raspberry liquid.  No seeds or pulp go into the cream, only the concentrated liquid.  And it gives a wonderful contrast to the light lemon of the cake.  A significant amount of whipped egg whites go into the cake but it's not quite a typical chiffon nor an angel food cake, and it's also not a normal flour cake.  It's somewhere in between.  And the raspberry cream is a perfect accompaniment.  

It's a great cake to have on a hot steamy day such as today.

Cool weather and molasses cookies with lemon

one of the older trees in my yard, very very tall

 

What a week we are having in Kansas City.  In all the years I have lived here, I can not remember an August with a stretch of days such as we have had this week in terms of mild weather.  This morning at 10:30 AM, the thermometer showed the temperature to still be under 70 F.  The last two days, the early morning temperatures were in the 50s.  I suppose there is a still a chance for some hot weather, but at this point if we roast for a few days, it's no big deal as it will be short-lived.

molasses cookies with lemon

I have had a productive week during this cool August beginning.  Another new item has been added to the full menu:  molasses cookies with lemon... yum.  

These are typical molasses cookies except for the lemon zest.  Flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, ginger and other spices, are all whisked together to make for easier uniform mixing with what is to come.  These dry ingredients are put aside for now.  Then European-style butter, already warmed to room temperature, is creamed for a bit before brown sugar and molasses are added.  And now all of that is mixed at medium speed on the blender for a few minutes.  Just let it sit and let the mixer do it's work.  An egg is added, but this addition will not be mixed for long, a minute at most.  Just get it thoroughly combined.  We don't want to create any more aeration at this point.  The batter is rather liquidy now and is ready for the dry ingredients which are added and mixed on the lowest possible speed just until it all disappears into the full mixture.  Then at the very end, the zest of two lemons is added and slowly mixed in.  Why add the zest at the end?  I've experimented with adding it earlier, and I just like doing it at the end.  It always seems to me that by putting it in late instead of early, the effect is slightly more pronounced.  But that might all be in my head, too, as the difference is so small.  Nevertheless, I always add it at the end.  However, I am careful not to mix it too much longer since the flour has already been incorporated.  

Now the dough has to chill for a while before individual portions are weighed so that each ball of dough will be the same size.  Flatten them just a bit with the bottom of a sugar-coated mug, and 12 minutes later you have fresh cookies out of the oven.  But they can't be touched yet.  No, no, no.  Molasses cookies are much too soft when warm.  They need to cool completely and then they will be just right, soft with a bit of chew.

These are a simple cookie to make, compared to some, and they are warm and spiced, and the lemon zest lightens the deep dark of the molasses just a bit.  People who try these usually can't identify the lemon specifically, but they can tell something else is there offsetting the molasses and spices.

I like taking cookies and adding something unexpected to them sometimes.  Often the combination is good, and sometimes not as much as hoped.  But it's interesting to experiment.  These came about one day quite some time ago when I happened to have a few balls of dough left from a molasses cookie recipe I was playing around with, and I just imagined what I might do with them since I didn't need any more cookies at that moment.  Something made me think of lemon zest, and as I almost always have fresh lemons on hand it was an easy experiment to consider.  They came out pretty nice, though I adjusted the levels of some of the spices in order to create a flavor combination that seemed more balanced to me.  And now I love these.

How boring life would be without experimenting on something once in a while.  Yeah, this wasn't a major experiment, but it gave a nice result that I've enjoyed many many times.  And now that they are on the full menu, I'll put them out in a weekly rotation soon and I hope you will try them, too.    

Blueberry mini cakes with lemon sugar and vanilla

blueberry mini cakes with lemon sugar and vanilla

I added a new item to the full menu this weekend:  blueberry mini cakes with lemon sugar and vanilla.  I love blueberries in muffins, and these are a sort of hybrid of muffin and cupcake.  I've been tinkering with this for a long time, working to get it just right.  I wanted a certain texture and a very specific balance of flavors, and I wanted them to be visually appealing but also relaxed and homestyle in appearance.  

Over the last few months, I have used a lot of pints of fresh blueberries in order to develop these into exactly what I wanted.  How many?  Let's just say it was dozens.  I experimented with both fresh and wild blueberries.  I tinkered with mixing by hand and also mixing by machine at various speeds.  I tested out different sizes and different cooking temperatures.  You get the idea.....

What was really nice in all this was that even the versions that weren't quite was I was looking for were very yummy.  So I got to sample lots and lots of these over the last while.  It was a terrible job ... NOT!  That's one of the nice things about making food, i.e., even when something doesn't go just right, it still might be pretty good to eat. 

That being said, I was glad when I nailed down the version with the exact mixing process, the specific ingredient ratios, and the cooking time and temperature.  Why?  Because I am ready to devote more time to some other foods that have been pushed aside while I obsessed over these like Ahab over the whale.  When I got the final version, I made three batches on three consecutive days. That allowed me to see that the same process worked every time, and it allowed me to sample the final version under different scenarios:  1, when I was very hungry; 2, when I wasn't hungry at all; and 3, well, no, I guess there were only two, but the third day allowed me to do one final check.

So keep an eye out and you'll see them on a weekly menu coming up soon.  And now on to a few other things including a new cookie, a spiced flatbread, a cake with lemon, and many other things.