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.

Rye bread

It's Saturday in Kansas City.  It looks like it's going to be a mild day with temps in the 80s.  We are having a pleasantly warm and rainy summer so far, the complete opposite of what is happening in so many other parts of the country where it is hot and dry.  

In recent blog post, I mentioned that my oldest daughter sent me some really great flours to try.  Pictured above is one of those:  a beautifully ground whole grain rye flour.  Although I am quite experienced in many other breads, I have never made rye bread before so here was the catalyst for making my first attempt.

First we have to make a starter.  This is comprised of bread flour, rye flour, rapid-rise yeast, and warm water, about 110 F.  This is mixed together and left to sit overnight at room temperature.

Here's what it looks like at first.  But after sitting several hours, it smooths out, and increases in volume to become a spongy mass that fills about half this bowl.  I meant to get a picture of that, but it slipped my mind as I was excited to get going on making that actual bread once the starter had finished it's sitting period.

Now we take more bread flour, more rye flour, vegetable oil, honey, more rapid-rise yeast, more water and salt, and add the starter.  All of this comes out into a pretty large amount of bread dough that is then put aside to rise for a while after it is kneaded.  Here it is before rising.

And here it is after rising.  It is a monster rise!

Very satisfying, don't you think?

Now we remove the dough from the bowl and punch it down a little, flatten it, and form it into a rough rectangle.  We fold the top and the bottom into the center, pinch the seams together and compress the loaf a bit.  Then we flip it over and form it into a rough torpedo shape.

I put a dinner spoon by the dough for a size comparison.  You can see we have a pretty large mass of dough.  This sits for a while and grows even larger.

Well, this has become quite a mass of dough. It can be seen that it is tearing just a little as the rising happens.  The gluten should be developed a bit more from the kneading to allow it to stretch and hold together during the rising process.  Next time, more kneading.

After preheating the oven at 500 F for an hour with pizza stones in it, I scored the dough down the center with a knife, placed the dough on parchment on the pizza stones, and turned down the temperature to 425 F.  And you can see what comes out:  a nice crusty rye loaf.

And here's the loaf cut diagonally.  The bread is dense, a tiny bit crusty on the outside, soft on the inside,  and very tasty.  Warm or cooled, it is a wonderful eating experience.

So there we go.  A beautiful rye bread.  Thanks to "oldest daughter" for sending me the flours.  She sent me a total of three, so I imagine I'll do more posts soon on making breads from the flours.

Have a great weekend everyone and don't forget to take the time to enjoy good food.

A nice weekend

 

Happy Sunday evening, everyone.  What a nice weekend it has been: lots of cooking, some good movies, very mild temperatures, and wildlife visiting my yard.  The beautiful doe shown in the picture above has been around more than once to steal a bit of birdseed from the feeders in my yard.

Today has been a nice day of cooking.  I distributed foods from this week's menu offerings yesterday and today.  It was nice to get back to making food for everyone after being on hiatus for so long due to the pandemic.  I hope everyone who got some food from my kitchen this weekend enjoyed it.  I've already updated the next two weeks of menus.  I hope you will all give something a try.

Today I began preparing to add chocolate mousse to the menu.  I have multiple recipes that I like to use.  I'm going to choose one that will soon be available for everyone.  That means I will be making multiple batches this week and next in order to decide on which variety to add to the menu.  I guess I'll be eating a lot of mousse.  I'm not complaining one bit!

Here's one of the batches I made today.  They are in the fridge now, setting up in the chill air.  I won't touch them until tomorrow. 

I also began a rye bread today.

For the most recent Father's Day, my oldest daughter sent me three special flours.  One of these is the rye flour shown above.  So today I began experimenting with this.  To be honest, I've never used rye flour before.  For my first time using it I'm going to make a New York deli style rye bread.  Here's the starter dough shown below.

This starter will sit in this bowl sealed under plastic for many hours as it increases in volume.  I will let it sit overnight and make the bread in the morning.  

I will be experimenting with the other two flours sent by my daughter later this week or next week.  This month I have lots of time for cooking, a great way to spend the midsummer days.