Containers

One of the biggest challenges to making lots of different foods to send out to all my friends and family is containers.  There are myriad containers both for baking in and for storing in that are available.  And yet sometimes when I'm preparing a new food for the menu, I can't find the right size or shape that I want to use.  One would think that with all the options out there, it would be an easy task.  But it's not always easy.

I often end up deciding on portion sizes based on the availability of containers rather than by what I would like to offer.  And cooking times have to be adjusted as well if I'm going to use a cooking container that can remain with the food when it goes out door and if that container size is not the same as what a recipe is originally designed for.  So I'm very careful about keeping the right containers on hand.

Even getting a substitute container if one is temporarily unavailable is tricky.  For example, I use baking cups for one of my brownies and those cups have a specific thickness that, if changed, would affect the cooking time.  So it's important to keep a good supply of those on hand.  

Bread bags, especially, are tricky to find in the exact sizes I want.  But when it comes to bread, I don't vary my loaf sizes to fit packaging.  If I'm sending out a loaf, I want it to be a specific size that I think is good for a person or family to have.  It's not like with cookies where you can order 2 or 12, easily changing your quantities.  You can't order 1 loaf plus 1/4 loaf of bread without cutting into a loaf.  So I try to make loaves a good size and worry about the packaging later.  

Wouldn't it be great to be able produce on-demand sizes and shapes of containers right here in my own kitchen!  That would be fantastic!  Or at least it would be good to have an assistant who could take over the task of sourcing packaging among other things.  I'd much rather spend my time on the food.  But for now, I do both.

Well, I'm heading into the kitchen now to make a couple things today.  Brownies and lemon poppy seed muffins.  Have a great day, a great weekend, and a great Easter.

A weekend off and singular moments

 

It's a warm Sunday afternoon here, the first really warm day of the spring, about 80 F.  Winter was just here days ago, but already it seems like the distant past.  Now we get to look forward to spring rains, pleasant mornings, and longer days.

This coming weekend I will be taking time off from cooking for everyone.  I will spend the weekend recreating with chess and baseball and movies ... and also testing a few new recipes.  Whenever I take time off, part of that time off is spent with new recipes.

The following weekend I will be offering almond-hazelnut cookies and light lemon sablés.  Both of these cookies are small, almost bite-sized but not quite.  They have wonderful light flavors and are perfect with a cold glass of milk, a cup of tea or whatever else you can find to put in a mug.

Today I made some mint chocolate chip ice cream mix.  It's chilling in the fridge and will be frozen tomorrow.  And I've been thinking about making some brownies to go with it.  Brownies and mint chocolate chip ice cream are a perfect combination, in my opinion.  But something else, not the ice cream, made me think of brownies.  I was rummaging through my chocolate basket looking for some yummy chocolate to snack on.  Yes, I have a chocolate basket.  It's filled with many different kinds of chocolate that I use in my baking.  As I browsed the contents, the aroma was forceful.  And that made me think of brownies in the oven.  There is a moment when brownies are cooking when suddenly one can breathe in the aroma of intense chocolate.  It's a great moment.  I love that moment.  When brownies are in the oven, I wait for that moment.  First there's nothing and you couldn't tell anything was baking in the house.  Then all of a sudden, the chocolate seems to fill the air as the brownies reach that point in their baking when they come alive.  It is an amazing moment.  And that moment made me feel like I must make some brownies sometimes this week to go with that ice cream.  

A day spent in the kitchen working with food is filled with many such moments.  Every sense is activated when one spends a day making their favorite foods:  seeing the colors, breathing in the aromas, hearing the sizzle in a skillet, feeling the texture of a smooth frosting when swiping the beater with a finger, and of course tasting everything as much as possible.

On this warm pleasant day in early spring, not many things sound better than a day making wonderful foods and experiencing all those wonderful moments.

A brownie recipe

Today I thought I would post my recipe for brown sugar fudge brownies.  I love making this brownie.  It's uncomplicated.  It's super good.  And it's super-forgiving by which I mean that it doesn't take an incredible amount of precision to make this brownie come out right.  Here are the ingredients:

This recipe makes 9 brownies using the particular baking molds I like to use for these:  Katgely 4.25- inch extra thick baking molds.  However, they can easily be made in a variety of cups, molds, pans, etc.  Just tweak the cooking time a little to adjust for the different sizes.

Preheat your oven to 325 F.  Yes, that's correct:  only 325. 

Set out your baking molds on a cookie sheet.  

1.  Grab a medium-sized mixing bowl and into it you will place the cocoa powder, the flour, and the salt.  Whisk it all together and set it aside.  The cocoa powder should be a very high quality powder.  I use Cacao Barry Extra Brute cocoa powder.  It's worth it to ensure that you have this cocoa powder on hand for many of your chocolate baking needs.  It's excellent!  As for salt, I prefer using kosher.  And the flour is simply all-purpose flour.

2.  Melt the butter.  Doesn't matter if you melt it on the stove in pan, or on the stove in a metal measuring cup (yes, that's a neat little thing to do), or in a container in the microwave.  European style butter is best, if you can get it.

3.  In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the melted butter, the sugar, and the brown sugar on medium speed until thoroughly combined.  Make sure it's light brown sugar, not dark.

4.  Add the eggs to the sugar mixture and whisk on low speed until thoroughly combined. (Make sure these are large eggs, no medium and not extra-large.)

5.  Add the dry ingredients from Step 1 and whisk on low speed until combined.

6.  Add the mini chocolate chips and whisk on low speed until combined.

7.  Place 2 large cookie scoops of batter in each baking mold.  I keep a variety of cookie scoops in various sizes in my kitchen.  This particular scoop holds between 3/8 and 1/4 cup in volume.  So that will give you an idea of how much batter to use.

8.  Gently spread the batter around the baking mold with the back of a spoon.

9.  Bake for 28 minutes.  When they come out, let them cool to room temperature.

These are so easy to make.  And they are so good.  I wrap these in plastic wrap after they are cooled, and on Day 2, they are just as good as on Day 1.  That's another reason to love these great chocolatey fudgy brownies.

You'll notice in the ingredients list, I also mention using Valrhona chocolate pearls.  Mini chocolate chips are great, but I love using the pearls when I have them in my pantry, which is most of the time.  (Although I have to admit, they are a great snack, so I don't have them hand as much as I'd like since I'm continually eating them in small bunches!)

I hope you'll give them a try.  Once you do, you'll never want to stop making them.

This week ...

Good morning!  I made a lot of cookies and pudding this weekend.  And that means I taste-tested a lot of cookies and pudding this weekend.  One of the perks of making all this food is I always have yummy things to eat in bits and pieces.

This coming weekend we have a savory pie with lots of great flavor.  It's a real filler-upper for when you're hungry for something satisfying.  And we also have speculoos, a wonderful crispy thin spiced cookie that is excellent by itself, dipped in milk, or crumbled over vanilla ice cream.

Next weekend, there will be no menu offering, but I will return with more food the week after that.

As I write this, my cooking for weekend orders has been completed and I've eaten too many sweets.  I'm going to sit down and have one of my favorite snacks:  a bowl of corn flakes with cold milk.  I don't just grab any corn flakes.  It's always the same brand which is NOT Kellogg's or Post or any of the other major commercial brands.  It's a less expensive brand that tastes so much better than the major brands and which holds up in the milk without getting soggy as fast as the major brands.  

There's something I really like about the simplicity of a bowl of corn flakes.  I use the word simplicity which I suppose is not truly the case since this is a highly processed food product.  But the simplicity is the idea of just the cereal flake and the milk.  I find it so delicious and refreshing.  I'm a milk lover, which is part of it, I suppose.  Whatever else makes me enjoy it so much can't be expressed because I don't know what it is.  But I love this for a snack, and it always makes me feel satisfied after I've eaten too many sweets.

Why am I writing about this?  I don't really know, LOL, except that it's on my mind as I get ready to eat a bit more healthfully for the rest of the day.

Well, whether you eat something that has simplicity or complexity, please enjoy and eat lots of it, whatever it is.  Good-tasting food is one of the most enjoyable of life's luxuries. 

Updated menu offerings and groceries

Happy Sunday to all!  

It's a very pleasant early spring day with mild temperatures and good sunshine although there seems to be a bit of a haze over that sunshine today.

This coming weekend I am offering one of my chocolate chip cookie varieties and pudding parfaits.  For next weekend we have speculoos and a savory pie that is very satisfying.  So get your orders in when you have chance to check out the menu.

Yesterday I had groceries delivered.  I love grocery day.  Sometimes I like to go and browse the aisles and do all the work myself to get it from store to home.  But I'm also happy just selecting what I want and having it all delivered.  When the groceries get here and I spread them out on the countertop in the kitchen, what a fun sight.  I love seeing all the foods there.  I love seeing the colors.  I love imagining diving into them as I think ahead to when I'm going to fix certain meals throughout the week.  I think we are all affected by the site of a lot of different foods waiting to be eaten.  We need a few basic things in life:  water, air, shelter, clothing, and food.  Is food the one that gives us the most pleasure, the most enjoyment?  I think so.  The aromas, the tastes, the textures, all of those things make food not something simply to be consumed but something to be enjoyed, to look forward to, to plan ahead for.  The variety of foods we have in our grocery stores and markets is astounding compared to what was found just a few generations past.  I know it's not like that everywhere in the world, but I'm grateful that it is like that here.  And I hope a time comes when everyone in the world has the same access to wonderful foods that do more than simply sustain us.

So eat with enjoyment.  Eat to sustain.  And take the time to appreciate what we have.

Mistakes in recipes

Sometimes people who visit my home notice that I have a lot of cookbooks in my main bookcase.  They are always surprised to find out how carefully I curate this collection.  

One reason I am careful about curating this collection is that some cookbooks simply have recipes in them that like more than in other cookbooks.  In the end, any recipe that I make part of repertoire is still tweaked in significant ways by me most of the time.  I will often look at multiple recipes for the same food, try them all out, and begin tweaking and adjusting until I get the desired result.  I'm very particular about balance of flavors, the textures, etc.

Another reason I'm careful about curating this collection is that some recipes have obvious mistakes in them.  And if mistakes are found in one recipe, they are likely to be found in other recipes in that same book.   Some mistakes are obvious misses when it comes to proofreading.  I looked at a recipe collection that had a chocolate pie crust recipe in it and it obviously confused tablespoons and teaspoons for one of the ingredients.  And when it was made, it just didn't work.  Somehow this wasn't caught in the proofreading.  

Some books are notorious for multiple significant errors, and yet the publishers haven't pulled copies to correct them.  You can find examples of these discussed in reviews of these collections on internet sites where they can be purchased.  Users are happy to express their displeasure.  However, most people would not know there were issues if it weren't for experienced cooks and bakers who have written these reviews.  Some of the people might just assume the recipe didn't work because of their lack of experience or skill.  It's a shame, because then these people are less likely to try to cook something again on their own.  For some of these books, publishers (instead of recalling the books) will simply continue printing the same volumes but adding pages of errata.  For those who are unfamiliar with the term "errata", it simply means "errors".  So the publisher will add a loose page that is slipped just inside the cover alerting the reader to the errors and giving corrections.  Of course, now the reader has to go through and make the corrections by hand on each page.

Some books simply have recipes that haven't been tested enough, in my opinion.  It's as if the writer of the recipe made it once, said "Hey, this is great!", and never did made it again to make sure that the recipe as they recorded it is correct and that it can duplicated again and again without issue.

Sometimes you have recipes made by a famous culinary figure and they simply don't test it out well enough on typical home kitchen equipment and in small batches.  They've simply taken something they make in larger batches, reduced the ratio of all the ingredients and then slapped into a book.  That doesn't always work.  Some recipes can be doubled or halved, but others can't.  The recipe and the mixing and cooking processes don't work the same.  In my opinion, this is simply a matter of not caring by that well-known culinary figure.  They are interested in getting the book published and gaining all the monies they know will come from everyone who wants to buy it.  But they haven't vetted the recipes well enough.

Sometimes you have the opposite and a book by a well-known culinary figure is magnificent with recipe after recipe that works again and again.

The point is this:  I do a thorough review of any book that goes into my collection.  I get a copy and review multiple recipes.  I browse through it looking for things that simply don't look right.  I check reviews.  I make multiple foods from those recipes.  And in the end, if I'm happy, I add it to my collection.  And then I proceed to work through many of the recipes and often add my own tweaks or even significant changes if I like the concept but not the end result of a recipe.

Sometimes someone who is well-meaning will buy me a recipe book as a gift to add to my collection.  They have no idea how much effort and time I put into vetting every volume on my bookshelf.  But I thank them politely and with genuine gratitude for their thoughtfulness.  And then I set out to review the book myself before it takes a permanent spot in my bookcase.

Having volumes of recipes around to explore and to inspire me with new ideas is great.  I keep a master list of my own recipes, as well.  I'm in the process of rewriting many of those, complete with all my detailed notes that I have made as a result of repeated use and experimentation.  It's a time-consuming and painstaking process, but it's necessary so that I preserve what I have I learned from experience making each recipe in my repertoire.

OK, enough writing for today.  Time to start making cookie dip for this weekend's orders.

Happy spring, everyone!

This coming weekend

Here we are in mid-March, and everything is coming to life outdoors.  Soon flowers will bloom, and weeds will try to take over and will promptly be chopped out of the ground by every gardener who notices them, and hummingbirds will return from the their southern migration.  Longer days and shorter nights will make perfect weather for cooking over a firepit with wood that has come down in the winter storms from trees which have been growing for decades.

I love the winter.  But I also love the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

This coming weekend we have two items on the weekly menu.  One is a cookie dip, and the other is a brownie.  Is the cookie dip meant to be eaten with the brownie?  It wasn't designed that way, but I imagine it would taste great.  So if you plan to order both, let me know how you like them if you combine them together.  The next weekend's menu hasn't been put up yet, but by the end of today it will be there.

This past week, I did some tweaks on a couple recipes, and I did some interior painting as well.  That painting took longer than I expected.  (Isn't that the way these things always go?)  So I didn't get around to doing all the cooking that I had hoped to do during this past spring break week.  Nonetheless, I am happy with how the week has gone.

Someone asked me about whipped cream recently.  Here's how I always make it:

For each cup of heavy cream, I always add 1/3 cup of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  And I always chill the whisk and the bowl before starting.  It helps the cream whip up more easily and in less time.  And I never whisk it on the highest mixer setting.  If you have 12 settings, I'd put it on 8 or 9 rather than the fastest at 12.  Doing it at a slower speed makes for a better end-result.  It takes a little longer but it's worth it.  You can also do it by hand with a good sturdy whisk.  It takes patience and time and a strong wrist and forearm.  But I think it's pretty cool that it can be done by hand.

That's all for today.  Have a great first week of spring, everyone!

Immersion blender vs. whisk

 

Over the past several days I've been doing a bit testing and experimenting.  I tend to accumulate ideas.  I think of something, a tweak to a recipe's ingredient proportions, an adjustment to a cooking time, and change in the mixing process, etc., etc., etc.  I write all these down and eventually I get around to trying them out.

One of the recent tests was with my lemon poppy seed muffins.  I decided to try out two different ways to mix the batter: 1, with an immersion blender; 2, with a stand mixer and whisk attachment.  So I set up two separate batches.  Each was measured with the exact same ingredient portions, down to the gram.  They were baked in identical pans, at the same time, side by side in the oven.  Everything was as equal as I could possibly make it.

When I mixed the batters, right away it was easy to see that there was a difference in the two.  The one mixed with the whisk was certainly a little airier (is that a word?).  And the one mixed with the immersion blender was much more luiquidy (I don't think that's a word).  That immersion blender gave supreme mixing which resulted in a very very silky smooth batter, but no air was beaten into it, of course.  The whisk beat not a lot of air, but some air, into the batter.  And the mixture itself was not nearly as silky smooth.

When I weighed the amount of batter for each muffin (again, this was identical for every muffin in the two pans), it was easy to see that the whisked batter was sitting higher in the muffin cups, even after I smoothed out the batter with the back of spoon.  It wasn't a lot higher, but it was noticeable.  As they baked, the whisked batter was baking a little higher.  The batter mixed with the immersion blender baked almost up to the rim of the muffin cups, but certainly didn't rise above.  

As you can see in the picture at the top of this post, one of these is lighter and one is darker.  The lighter one on the left was done with an immersion blender.  The one on the right is darker and a little bit bigger.  They both taste great and have a wonderful texture, but they aren't exactly the same.  

A lot of people will ask about ingredients and certainly one has to have good ingredients to make good food.  But technique is often just as important.  And this experiment shows how something very simple can be done a little differently and give a result that is easy to see.

Balance of flavors and textures

This past week, I had an idea for a tweak for my mole pork chorizo chili.  I didn't really know how it would turn out, but I decided to try it.  The idea really started a couple weeks ago when I made a batch of chili and I decided to add a little extra chopped red and green bell peppers, more than I usually add.  It turns out that the peppers I picked up were exceptionally large.  And so I wondered what the impact would be if I put the extra in the chili.  It turned out to be very nice.  And that got me thinking about the chorizo and what would happen if I put it in extra -- quite a bit extra.

When I do an experiment like this, I don't do it with the weekly menu offerings.  What I give out for orders is never an experiment.  So for this I told two of my grown kids and their spouses who live here in the city that I was going to try a tweak on the recipe and asked if they wanted to be the guinea pigs.  They were happy to do so.

I went ahead and picked up extra chorizo.  I set out all my ingredients, carefully prepped and measured.  I opened the chorizo and piled it high and only then did I realize how much meat I was going to be putting into this.  It was a lot.  But meat is good, right?  

Well, I began the process of cooking all the meat with a little oil and then adding the onions and peppers and spices and all the other ingredients, and so on and so on.  It was easy to see that the chili had a lot more meat than usual.  The color was different.  The texture was different as I could tell when I stirred it in the very deep pot in which I cook this recipe.

Finally at the end, the chili was ready to simmer for a long time.  I covered it and turned the heat down low.  After a while I came back to the pot and grabbed a spoon.  Carefully I scooped a little out, let it cool for a minute or so, and then tasted it.  It was definitely different.  It was heavier.  It was different.  I came back a while later after it had simmered longer and did it again.  I couldn't quite figure out what I thought of it.  So finally when it was done simmering, I portioned out a small bowl-full.  I sat down in front of my computer and scrolled a couple news stories of the day as I methodically ate it all up.  I had another small bowl.  And after that second bowl, I could tell I felt the heaviness not only in the chili but in me as well.  This was definitely a different experience eating what I had just made compared to my standard recipe.

The next person that tried it said, "Wow, that's a mouthful of meat."  Another said, "I love it!".  A third said, "It tastes different."  The fourth isn't as much a fan of chili and I don't think tried any of it.

In the end, I decided quite definitively that the extra meat didn't work.  Meat is good, but it threw the balance too far to one side.  It was still good chili, no doubt, and it had great flavor, but it was too heavy now, not just in texture and feel, but in the flavor balance.

This underscores just how important balance of flavors is.  And when you have a recipe that is really balanced, it's not always a good idea to try to make it even more perfect.  Am I glad I experimented with that tweak?  Certainly so.  To paraphrase Thomas Edison, now I know another way NOT to make this chili.  And knowing how NOT to do something is sometimes just as important as knowing how to do something.

Busy busy weekend

 

Good morning, good morning!  Well, this weekend turned out to be a busy one, but a good one.  I was a small part of a contingent that helped my son and daughter-in-law move into a new apartment.  By the time we finished hauling furniture and boxes, I decided I was going to push off this weekend's food to next weekend.  It was a bit too much to go home afterwards and start making lots of food while tired and a little sore.  So I've made the update on the website and informed all those who had orders.  

So next weekend we will have challah and sloppy joe filling.  The weekend after that there will be no weekly menu offering as I am taking the week off.  But I will be doing lots of cooking of things that I'm hoping to put on the menu soon.  And then the weekend following the break, we will have brownies and cookie dip.

This weekend, today, I will be starting to do close-to-final tweaks and modifications on a new pasta sauce.  This is a recipe my youngest son and I developed a few years ago.  I haven't used it in a while since I've been making other things.  But I'm pulling out the recipe and accompanying notes because I want to put it on the menu by itself and then I want it to be part of my twice-cooked spaghetti that will go on the menu as well.

The week of March 13th will be a week free of almost all other activities besides cooking.  At least that's the plan now.  I will be on break from piano teaching.  I will do a little early spring yardwork.  I will go have a fun pinball day with my sister and brother-in-law.  I will do a little interior painting.  But mostly I'm planning on cooking many things.  

So that's the upcoming schedule.  For now, I'm going to have quiet day resting and relaxing after all the physical exertion yesterday.  I will drink juice smoothies (yes, a couple are coming to the menu soon), eat lemon poppy seed muffins (a post on that later this week probably),  and play chess with people from around the world online.

Enjoy the day.  Spring is almost here.  I will miss having the chances for winter snow, but I love seeing the hummingbirds return, new blossoms and green growth in all the landscaping beds, and hearing gentle spring rains.