Comfort foods

 

Today the weather is chilly and wet.  Rain and near freezing temperatures are making everyone think of the possibility of icy roads.  I, however, am thinking of wonderful, warm and tasty comfort foods.

There are many recipes that I choose to keep as part of my repertoire simply because they are foods from my youth.  These foods have an emotional aspect to them as well as a culinary one.  For example, I remember so often when I was young placing a dozen eggs into a pan, boiling them, chilling them, peeling them, and turning them into egg salad sandwiches.  To this day, every time I have an egg salad sandwich, I think of all the times as a kid that I made them and they were so incredibly delicious.  So they have become a comfort food me.

I remember picking wild black raspberries and mixing them with fresh whipped cream with just the right amount of vanilla added, and then spooning them onto crepes which were then rolled and dusted with powdered sugar.

I remember large containers full of brownies and cookies at Christmas.  Among those are some of my favorites today including spritz cookies.  I remember simple tuna salad sandwiches on hoagie rolls with potato chips inserted for a little added crunch.  I remember lemon slushes, and fresh made raw egg nog, yes, made with raw eggs and put into the blender.  

So many great recipes and foods are part of my adult life that originated in my younger years.  On a day like today when it is so cold and so wet, and the sky is dark with clouds, and everything seems grey, nothing seems finer than to sit inside in a cheerily lit room with music or a movie playing and making great delicious comfort foods.

 

Sustained learning

 

One of the most rewarding things about baking and cooking is that learning is a constant process.  Yeah, I know ... one could say the same about anything.  But with certain things, this idea of learning as a constant process seems to be more significant.  With food, that significance is because we are going to immediately eat what we have made.

Sometimes I think of a test change to make in a mixing process, or an ingredient ratio change to test.  When I make those changes, I learn whether or not they work.  Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.  Either way, though, a finished product, a cookie, a brownie, a cake, etc., is the result.  If they work, then consuming that finished product is great.  When they don't, I hate having to toss it out.  I'm one of those people who hates to see food go to waste.  So if I make something that turns out to be less delicious than what I hoped, I feel a sense of guilt if I don't eat it, if I let it go to waste.  Thankfully I have lots of squirrels and birds who visit the yard and are more than happy to consume what I won't.

I remember when I was learning to temper chocolate.  In principle the idea is simple.  In practice, it takes .... well, it takes practice.  The good thing about learning to temper chocolate is that even when I failed, the end result was still always very delicious.   

On the other hand, I remember once spending time creating new recipes for bisques, cream-based soups.  I developed one for a carrot bisque that is on the full menu.  Learning the subtleties of that recipe took a bit of time and experimentation.  And I was very happy with my final result.  However, I also tried to create a celery bisque that same week.  It seemed like a good idea to try.  But I learned something very important that day, and that is that I do not like the aroma that comes from celery boiling in water.  The idea was to cook and soften the celery in the same way as with the carrots.  But the aroma that flowed through the air from the kitchen was not at all to my liking.  As a matter of fact, it was downright awful!  I will try the celery bisque again sometime, but the memory of that aroma has completely derailed any idea of trying another one so far.    

Failures notwithstanding, I love the continual learning that comes from baking and cooking on a regular basis.  Some of what is learned comes simply from accumulated experience.  Some of what is learned comes from trial and error, successes and failures.  It's all good, though, even if some of the final results are put out for the native wildlife.

Have a great winter morning, everyone!

Chilly mornings and baking

 

January always feels colder to me than December, and that holds true even if the daily temperatures are virtually the same.  There's something about getting deeper into the winter that makes it feel colder to me even if it actually isn't.  I always wonder why that is.  Whatever the reason, it means that baking on a cold January morning is a welcome activity.  

A simple action like opening the oven door, preheated to 450 F for making a crisp-skinned bread, is an enormously rewarding thing as the hot air from the oven chamber spills out and up into the kitchen.

Standing at the stove and slowly stirring a hot mixture that is destined to become pastry cream means you are feeling the warm moist air rising around you.

Pulling out a tray of cookies and leaning forward to breathe in the aroma means you are met with warm air heavy with flavor that completely envelopes your face.

Lifting hot cinnamon rolls heavy with their spiced aroma from the pan and taking that first bite that fills the mouth with heat from both temperature and cinnamon is absolutely amazing on a cold winter morning.

Baking is such an aesthetically rewarding activity anyway, but on a January morning it is even more so because of the living warmth it bathes you in as you move about the kitchen.  So next time it's a cold day, turn on that oven, turn on that stove, mix up whatever you want to eat, and immerse yourself in the warmth.  

Precision

Precision.  It's what makes baking work at it's best most of the time.

I love things like the roulade in the photo above.  This roulade looks so neat and precise.  When I cut it into pieces that are nearly the same size, the pieces will look amazing lined up in a row.

When I make something like this roulade, the precision in the measuring of ingredients is exceedingly important.  If a recipes call for one cup of flour .... well, how much is one cup of flour?  I've done a previous blog post on this exact topic which shows the variation in weight of a quantity of flour as measured by volume depending on how you scoop out the flour.  The weight variation can be significant.

If 140 grams of flour is needed, then does it matter if it's 142 or 138?  I've never noticed that a small variation of a gram or two is significant, but certainly ten grams is significant depending on what is being made.  Ten grams variation in a batch of cookie dough may not change the final product much.  But ten grams variation in a roulade is more significant.  

Precision in portioning of doughs and batters is also important.  It's a lot more likely that every cookie on the baking sheet will bake to the same "doneness" if they are all the same size.  So weighing the amount of cookie dough in every ball of dough to ensure that each cookie has the same weight makes the baking process a lot easier and your baking times a lot more reliable.  

What I ultimately like about the precision required in baking is that when one is precise in measuring, in shaping, in baking time, etc., there is an amount of certainty that comes from this.  (Breads can be another story due to daily variations in ambient temperature and humidity and other things, but that's a post for another day.)  Being able to rely on precision to have the same result virtually every time you use a recipe is something I find very important and very satisfying in a world that is constantly beset with uncertainty.

Pasteurization

Today is December 27.  On this date in 1822, Louis Pasteur was born.  He was a chemist, a biologist and a microbiologist.  He had many extremely important accomplishments including the creation of the first vaccines for cholera, anthrax, and rabies.  And he also developed the technique we now call pasteurization.

By heating a liquid such as milk to a sufficiently high temperature and holding it at that temperature for a short span of time, but not too much, pathogenic micro-organisms are destroyed.  Then the milk is cooled very quickly to just a few degrees above 0 Celsius.  This gives the milk a longer shelf-life and makes it safer to drink.  The same thing is done to fruit juices.  Read up on the process and you will find it to be a fascinating subject.  

There are actually a few different types of pasteurization that utilize different levels of heat and time.  There is even ultra-pasteurization.  Cream is often found in cartons labeled "ulta-pasteurized" in the dairy section of your favorite grocery store.

Some people prefer to drink raw milk that hasn't been pasteurized.  I, myself, have had raw milk many many times in my life and loved it.  No matter whether raw or pasteurized, I will drink milk anytime night or day.  It is by far my favorite beverage -- however, that's a subject for another post.

But thanks go out to Monsieur Pasteur for his discovery of the process which makes it much more likely to find milk and juices at the grocery store whenever we are looking for them.

Chestnuts roasting

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.....

As big a fan as I am of Christmas and of the carol that sings of chestnuts, I have to admit that I've never actually eaten one.  In fact, no one I've ever known has admitted to eating one.  How odd is that....

Here are a few facts about chestnuts.  They are high in antioxidants that I understand become even more potent once the raw nuts are cooked.  They are also high in sugars and fiber, as well as potassium and phosphorous, and they even have a small amount of iron.  They also have anti-inflammatory properties due to the presence of those aforementioned antioxidants.  They grow on deciduous trees which are members of the beech family and which are native to milder regions of the northern hemisphere.

I understand you should not eat too many these as this will result from a bit of gastrointestinal distress due to the resultant gases from digesting them.  Dogs loves chestnuts apparently, but again they should not eat too many or they will also experience a bit of discomfort from the resultant gases.

One of these years perhaps I will actually try roasting them.  Until then, I will be content to listen to the carol every year.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

Molasses spice cookies

Today I am making molasses spice cookies.  These are one of the most popular cookies I make, and not just around the holidays.  To start with, flour is mixed with baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and black pepper ... yes, that's correct, black pepper.  Set this aside.  Now we need butter softened to room temperature and then creamed in the mixer until soft and thoroughly creamed.  To this is added brown sugar and molasses.  (I always use unsulphured molasses.)  A spatula will be necessary to occasionally scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure complete mixing.  Then the egg is added.  At first it will appear that the egg will not be easily combined with the molasses mixture and it will look like a broken mess.  But mix it for a minute or two, and then added the dry ingredients all at once, but only mix slowly at this point, on the slowest speed of the mixture.  Once it appears that all the ingredients are incorporated, remove the bowl from mixer.  Now take the spatula and scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and gently mix in any remaining flour.  There is almost certain to be some at the bottom, but don't use the mixer for this.  We don't want to overwork the flour.

And here's how the dough appears when the mixing is completed.  It's a bit shaggy, very soft, and a little clingy on the hands.  So we need to chill this for a few hours.  Once it's chilled, then it can removed and portioned.  I make every cookie with precisely 36 grams of dough that is rolled into a ball.  The balls of dough can be kept in the fridge for a few days or frozen for a month.

The balls of chilled dough do not need to be warmed up before cooking.  The oven is set at 350 F.  The balls of dough are rolled in granulated sugar, and the flattened just a small amount after placement on the cookie sheet.  Once flattened, I always put a little green sparkling sugar on top, right in the center. 

After cooking exactly 12 minutes, they are ready to come out of the oven.  They need to cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before being placed on a cooling rack to finish cooling to room temperature.  Want to eat them right away?  Go ahead.  😀  Warm or cooled, they are excellent.  But when still warm they won't be as firm so hold them carefully so they don't bend and fall out of your hands.

This is a great cookie and very easy to make.  Just don't overwork the flour and don't cook them too long.  

Have a great pre-Christmas weekend, everyone!

More posts coming

 

Good morning, everyone.  It's been a few weeks since I've done a posting.  But I will be returning to my normal activity level this week with posts coming more frequently. 😃

This week I'm planning to make a few different cookies, some banana bread, and some gingerbread.  I have so many things I want to make as part of Christmas celebrations.  I'm also going to be testing out a few different mac and cheese recipes with different combinations of cheeses.  And I'm really hoping to make some pizzas as well.  

Here we are in the middle of the Christmas season and I can think of few things better than celebrating life by making lots of good foods and passing them out to friends and family.  It has been a challenging year with the pandemic affecting everyone is so many ways.  But as we end the year, we can be grateful for many things and look forward to a new year ahead.

So that's it for now.  But I will post again in a few days.  Have a great start to your week, everyone!

Posts and photos will continue

Good evening, everyone.

I took a break in fulfilling orders for a bit, and hoped to get back to normal sometime in November.  However, the pandemic numbers are still rising and in fact they are rising at an increased rate.  As a result I've decided to continue the order fulfillment break.  For the time being, no new orders will be taken on brucebakeryandbistro.com.  

However, I will continue to do new posts here, and also I will continue to post new photos on Instagram. 

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone, and stay safe.

Nuts - freezing, roasting and skinning

 

With the holidays coming up, many of the foods I plan to make use nuts, so I have accumulated a lot of nuts that are sitting in my freezer.  Why the freezer?  Storing them in the freezer helps extend their life.  All nuts contain oils and eventually these oils can go rancid which alters the taste of the nuts.  So all my nuts go into the freezer and last much longer than if stored at room temperature.

Roasting nuts is very easy.  Toss them onto a cooking tray and roast them for about 10 minutes at 350 F.  The roasting will fill your kitchen with a wonderful aroma and will intensify the flavor of the nuts.  If you're going to chop them, I would suggest doing that after you roast them.

With hazelnuts you have another problem --- what to do about the skins.  It seems that most of the time it is recommended that you use skinned hazelnuts in baking.  You can buy them skinned but not usually if you get them at your local grocery store.  You usually have to order them from a nut producer and have them mailed; and you can order skinned or unskinned, roasted or raw.  Why skin the nuts?  I usually hear two reasons:  appearance of the finished product and bitterness of the skins.  Taking those one at a time, I think bits of skin ground up or chopped up with nuts actually looks very nice in a cookie or a cake, etc.  And I have personally never noticed a bitterness that comes from skins of hazelnuts.  Consequently, I never skin them.  But if you wanted do it, how would you do it?

After roasting the nuts, the skins will more easily come off than if you try to do it before.  An oft-recommended technique is to pour the roasted nuts onto a large towel, then roll the towel over the nuts and hold the ends  Then start shaking and rolling and rattling the nuts to help them shed their skins.  If you've tried this you know what I know and that is that the skins flake off every where and aren't contained in the towel very easily and then your towel has many many flakes of the hazelnuts embedded in the fabric.  And to top it off, you don't even get all the skins off the nuts.

Here's an easier technique.  Get a large gallon-sized plastic bag, pour the nuts in, seal the bag and then start shaking the bag up and down.  Acting sort of like a rock polisher, this cause the nuts to tumble against each other in the bag and bit by bit the skins come off.  How long you want to do this is up to you.  As for me, I don't mind the skins on.  But try this out and you'll find it will work really well.

Have a great autumn week, everyone.