Cordelia's Kitchen

Cordelia Elizabeth Carter, circa 1982

I credit my love of baking to the many summers I spent with Gramma Carter. Any one who ever met my grandmother would know a few things about her:

• she had a tongue that could cut like a knife;
• she loved music more than air; and
• she baked biscuits just about every Sunday

I can remember machine-gunning her with questions about the 'olden days' when she was a kid, as she whipped up her tasty biscuits.  My questions never seemed a distraction and she would never stop moving as the mixed and kneaded and rolled.  Besides getting to hear about her own 'Little House on the Prarie' experiences, I was always the first one to get to taste her treats when they emerged from the oven.  I don't ever think she once told me that I could get salmanella from licking the spoon.

Baking biscuits, like playing the piano, was second nature to her. And like many women of her era, and most children of my age, recipes and measurements never seemed important.  Maybe that is why I never tried to make biscuits on my own.  But having tasted hers,  one thing I have always known is that poppin' fresh--no matter how cool--could never compare.

So with winter finally setting in, my thoughts turn to comfort food and the delicious butter biscuits Gramma Carter used to make.

Classic Baking Powder Biscuits

Ingredients:

1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (1/3 oz) fresh baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) salt
2 tablespoons (30 gm/1 oz) frozen butter, or a combination of shortening and butter, crumbled
½ cup (120 ml) cold milk (add as needed)
1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones Directions:
1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F

2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)

3. Rub the frozen grated/crumbled butter (or combination of fats) into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones.

4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!

5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth. To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.)

6. Pat or roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about ¾ inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) biscuit or deep cookie cutter, stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.

7. Place the rounds just touching on a baking dish if you wish to have soft-sided scones or place the rounds spaced widely apart on the baking dish if you wish to have crisp-sided scones. Glaze the tops with milk if you want a golden colour on your scones or lightly flour if you want a more traditional look to your scones.

8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.

9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.

When the Monkey Takes Over

I've often written about inheriting my love for baking from my Grandmother, Cordelia. I inherited a passion just as strong--some would argue stronger-- from my Grandfather, Reginald. To call it a passion is putting it mildly. If I'm honest, I will say its an obsession, or addiction. Its the monkey on my back that I can't (and don't want to) escape. What is it you ask? Chocolate!

I always knew that Chocolate was a weakness in my family. My theory was later confirmed when my then 2 y.o. niece woke my parents in the middle of the night to declare "Gramma! I NEED a piece of chocolate!"  Not everyone's additiction was as strong as mine; but when we gathered for holidays, someone was bound to share a story about the lengths they had gone to recently to get a fix. 'Bubs,' as my grandfather was affectionately known, never really commented other than to admonish us not to indulge too much, or act too foolishly. But Bubs and I shared a secret, he was as big a fool for chocolate as the rest of the clan.

I came to know his secret when I was about 8. As usual I was visiting for the summer. I was asleep when I heard a clatter from the kitchen below my room. It wasn't unusual for my grandmother to be up early in the morning to start her bread, and ever the eager helper, I crept down the stairs to see what goodness she was whipping up. Imagine my surprise, when I saw my grandfather dusted in flour, searching through the cabinets.

Now, I had never, ever seen my grandfather in the kitchen unless it was to make food for his beloved beagles. But here he was, in the midst of a frenzy trying to bake. When he saw me in the doorway with my mouth agape, he didnt send me back to bed. Instead he seemed relieved and asked where my grandma kept the cocoa powder. I found the cocoa and he invited me to stay and help him make brownies.

Imagine that! A grown man, making brownies in the middle of the night?! I think that was the first time I heard him say "Life is uncertain. Always eat dessert first."

Neither of us really knew what we were doing that night, but we mixed the butter and sugar and flour and cocoa together and put it in a pan and stuck it in the oven. As usual, I got to lick the spoon and we waited for what seemed like hours, but was probably only 15 minutes. Finally, Bubs had had enough waiting and declared that it was taking just too long and he needed some chocolate right away. He took the pan out of the oven and we looked at it. On the outside it had crusted over, but inside it was a warm gelatinous goo. He handed me a spoon and together we dug in.

Hmmmnn!!! Delicious molten chocolate! I think Bubs invented the chocolate vulcano cake that night. We finished it off together and then he swore me to secrecy. Not that my grandmother couldn't figure it out when she woke up the next morning to find chocolate all over the kitchen. "Regge!" she yelled, (no one ever pronounced the "i" in Reggie) "you keep that chocolate monkey out of my kitchen!"

More and more doctors are extolling the virtues of chocolate. Is there any wonder why we all need a little chocolate every once in a while? Our recipe for TRIPLE CHOCOLATE QUICK BREAD is perfect for just such an occasion. The recipe takes about an hour and makes enough to satisfy 20 Chocolate Monkeys.

Triple Chocolate Quick Bread

Ingredients
1-1/2 cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Ganache Glaze:
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon butter
2 to 3 tablespoons half-and-half cream
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch salt




Directions:
1.  In a microwave-safe bowl, melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips; set aside to cool.
2.  In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between.  Then add cooled chocolate; mix well.
3.  Add applesauce and vanilla; set aside. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.  The dough will be thick but fluffy.
4.  Spoon into four greased 5-3/4-in. x 3-in. x 2-in. loaf pans. **Tip: for easy release, line bottoms of loaf pan with parchment.
5.  Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. **Tip: After 40 minutes, I turned the oven off, and left the loafs in for an additional 5 minutes to allow the center to fully cook, without drying out the loaf.

6.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks.  While pan is still warm to the touch, loosen sides of bread with knife, place wire rack on top of pans and invert so that pans are upside down on cooling rack.  Loafs should easily slide out of pan. Turn loafs over and allow to cool while you make the ganache.

7.  For glaze, melt chocolate chips and butter in a small heavy saucepan; stir in cream. Remove from the heat; stir in confectioners' sugar, vanilla and salt. Drizzle over warm breads.
8.  Cool completely. Yield: 4 mini-loaves.

Nutritional Facts:
1 serving (1 slice) equals 243 calories, 11 g fat (7 g saturated fat), 36 mg cholesterol, 273 mg sodium, 35 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 3 g protein.

Bubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble

I love bread! A wedge of hot, crusty, fresh from the oven treat with just a bit of butter, can be better than the meal it accompanies. Yes, I love bread, as long as someone else is baking it.  As a kid,  I watched my grandmother bake bread all the time, however, it has remained a challenge for me.  So much so, that when my cousin the baker told me that bread is the primary profit center in a bakery, it made me rethink my plans to open a neighborhood bakery.  So when my online baking community challenged me make my own French Country Sour Dough Bread from scratch?! you can only imagine my response.

'Ugh!!!' I complained for about two weeks.  I thought about skipping the challenge. But since you are only allow to miss 3 in a year, and my busy season was about to begin, I decided to put on my game face, lace up my apron and stare down my nemesis.

Step one of the Challenge, was to create your own leavening, called a "Starter."  In Sour Dough, you don't use packaged yeast, but instead you grow your own yeast in a brew of flour, water and maybe a little honey.  Some sourdough Starters are decades if not hundreds of years old.  The older the Starter, the stronger the yeasty-sour taste your bread will take on.  If you've tried the bread at the Wharf in San Francisco, then you know what century old Starter tastes like.

"Bubble Bubble", "Toil" and "Trouble" are the names I have affectionately given to my Starter creations. Yes, I have now thrice started my Starter: the first, I'll name him "Toil", was with King Arthur's Whole Wheat Bread Flour--after 4 whole days of tending, it spawned not one bubble. My second attempt,"Trouble" was made with with Red Mills' Whole Grain Bread Flour--it grew for a day or so and then died.  After reading many online baking blogs, I made my last attempt. "Bubble Bubble" was made with Pillsbury's Unbleached, Wheat Bread Flour, seemed to work, because for the first time, it was bubbling, although barely. 

An important thing to note is that once you create your Starter, you can use it for a myriad of baking recipes from pancakes to biscuits to cakes.  You can use pretty much any bread flour, but if you plan to starte a Starter tradition and keep it for 100 years, you may want to just use white flour as it is the most versatile.

I followed the recipe below, which I warn you takes about a week. It actually took me about two-weeks it get the starter right. The end result, was not exactly the tall round loaf I was expecting, but more like a dense, but delicious panini bread that made a great sandwich and was  also delicious dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Best of all though, I overcame my fear of bread!  I believe that greater things than this you will achieve.

Happy Baking!

A few tips before you begin:

• This recipe takes approximately 1 week to make.  If you begin on Monday, you'll be ready to bake on Saturday. 
• The recipe below, from the Daring Baker Challenge uses very precise measurements which I found to be confusing.  Many experience bakers will simply say, use equal weights of flour and water. 
• Make sure your water is warm but not hot, 95-100*F.  Too hot and you will kill yeast, too cold and you'll slow the fermentation process.
• Keep your starter in a warm draft free place.  A gas oven, or electric oven with the light on, is an ideal place for growing your leavening.

Step One: Growing Your Starter

Day 1:

Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 1⁄2 oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour 3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
Total volume: about 1⁄2 cup (115 ml) (3 oz/85 gm)

Directions:
1. In a Tupperware or plastic container, mix the flour and water into a paste.
2. Set the lid on top gently, cover with a plastic bag, to prevent messes in case it grows more than
expected!
3. Set somewhere warm (around 86 F if possible). I  put mine in my gas oven, the pilot is enough to keep it consistently warm.

Day 2:

Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 1⁄2 oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour 3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
1/2 cup (115 ml) (3 oz/85 gm) starter from Day 1
Total volume: about 1 cup (230 ml) (6 oz/170 gm)

Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 1, cover, and return to its warm place.

Day 3:

Ingredients
4 1/2 tablespoons (70 ml) (40 gm/1 1⁄2 oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour 4 teaspoons (20 ml) water
1 cup (230 ml) (6 oz/170 gm) starter from Day 2
Total volume: about 1-1⁄3 cup (320 ml) (230 gm/8-1/10 oz)

Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 2, cover, and return to its warm place.

Day 4:
Ingredients
3/4 cup plus 11⁄2 tablespoons (205 ml) (120 gm/4 1⁄4 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup less 4 teaspoons (100 ml) water
1-1⁄3 cup (320 ml) (230 gm/8 oz) starter from Day 3
Total volume: about 2-2⁄3 cup (625 ml) (440 gm/151⁄2 oz)

Directions:
1. Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 3, cover, and return to its warm place. At this point it should be bubbling and smell yeasty. If not, repeat this process for a further day or so until it is!

 

Step Two: French Country Bread

Stage 1: Refreshing the leaven

Ingredients
1 cup less 1 tablespoon (225 ml) (160 gm/5 2⁄3 oz) wheat Leaven Starter
6 tablespoons less 1 teaspoon (85 ml) (50 gm/13⁄4 oz) stoneground bread making whole-wheat or graham flour
1 cup plus 2 teaspoons (250 ml) (150 gm/5 1⁄3 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup (120 ml) water
Production Leaven Total volume: 2-3⁄4 cups plus 4 teaspoons (680 ml) (480 gm /1 lb 1 oz)

Directions:
1. Mix everything into a sloppy dough. It may be fairly stiff at this stage. Cover and set aside for 4 hours, until bubbling and expanded slightly.


Stage 2: Making the final dough

Ingredients:
3/4 cup less 1 teaspoon (175 ml) (100 gm/3 1⁄2 oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (510 ml) (300gm/10 1⁄2 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
11⁄4 teaspoons (71⁄2 ml) (7 gm/1⁄4 oz) sea salt or 2⁄3 teaspoon (31⁄3 ml) (3 gm/1⁄8 oz) table salt
1 1⁄4 cups (300 ml) water
1 3⁄4 cups (425 ml) (300 gm/10 1⁄2 oz) production leaven – this should leave some (1 cup) for your next loaf.
Total volume: about 6 cups less 2 tablespoons 1415 ml (1007 gm/35 1⁄2 oz/2 lb 31⁄2 oz)

Directions:

1.  Mix the dough with all the ingredients except the production leaven. It will be a soft dough. Knead on an UNFLOURED surface for about 8-10 minutes, getting the tips of your fingers wet if you need to. You can use dough scrapers to stretch and fold the dough at this stage, or air knead if you prefer. Basically, you want to stretch the dough and fold it over itself repeatedly until you have a smoother, more elastic dough. You can see a demonstration of this step here.

2. Smooth your dough into a circle, then scoop your production leaven into the centre. You want to fold the edges of the dough up to incorporate the leaven, but this might be a messy process. Knead for a couple minutes until the leaven is fully incorporated in the dough. See demonstration of Step 3 here.

3. Spread some water on a clean bit of your work surface and lay the dough on top. Cover with an upturned bowl, lining the rim of the bowl with a bit of water. Leave for an hour, so that the gluten can develop and the yeasts can begin to aerate the dough.

4. Once your dough has rested, you can begin to stretch and fold it. Using wet hands and a dough scraper, stretch the dough away from you as far as you can without breaking it and fold it back in on itself. Repeat this in each direction, to the right, towards you, and to the left. This will help create a more ‘vertical’ dough, ready for proofing. See a demonstration here.

5. Heavily flour a banneton/proofing basket with whole wheat flour and rest your dough, seam side up, in the basket.

**Note: If you're like me, you've never heard of a banneton/proofing basket.  Good news! I looked it up for you.  Here you can use a large collander, line it with a dishcloth/tea-towel and heavily dust the dry towel with flour.**

6. Put the proofing basket in a large plastic bag, inflate it, and seal it. Set aside somewhere warm for 3-5 hours, or until dough has expanded a fair bit. It is ready to bake when the dough responds to a gently poke by slowly pressing back to shape.

 7. Preheat the oven to hot 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment, then carefully invert the dough onto the sheet. I like to put the baking sheet on top of the basket, then gently flip it over so as to disturb the dough as little as possible. Make 2-3 cuts on top of the loaf and bake for 10 minutes.

**Note: if your dough is really thin, you can bake in a deep pot or loaf pan.

8.  Reduce heat to 400°F and bake for another 30-40 minutes.

9.  Remove from oven. Cool on a cooling rack at least 10 minutes to allow moisture to evaporate.

Happy New Year!

What a Year we had in 2011?!  Am I wrong?

Forty-odd year Dictatorships gone in the blink of an eye.  Ordinary people protesting all over the world.  A global realization that all of our fates are tied together.  It seems like the proverbial sleeping giant is waking up.  What must be in store for us in 2012?

The year 2011 presented its own peaks and valleys for me personally.  The year started on in a valley when I unexpectedly parted ways with my demanding but well paying job. Just as suddenly the path turned upward and I found myself working on some of the most forward-thinking, fulfilling issues of my career- issues that would later arise on a national stage with the President's job proposal and Occupy Wall Street.  2011 was also the year that I rediscovered my passion for baking and found a sweet outlet for my creativity.  Although I had my share of both good and bad days, the lesson that I take from 2011 is that life ultimately balances out, and it is our challenge to find a way to maintain that balance.  So going into 2012, when life hands you lemons, make lemon meringue pie!

On to baking...

What's better on a Sunday morning than a warm bagel and a schmere?

As the New Year approached I found myself thinking of some of the more fun New Year's celebrations I've experienced.  Hands down, the best one ever was bringing in the new year with my BFF on the top of the Empire State Building, with people from around the world, watching the Times Square Ball drop from ABOVE.  The night ended like almost every good night out in The City, with a trip to the Upper Westside for the Best Bagels on the Planet!   What better way to honor NYE in NYC than with a fresh batch of Bagels.

Now there is an ongoing debate about Authentic NYC Bagels and why they are the best on the planet. Many people say its because of the NYC water (considered by the EPA to be the best quality in the Country), others say its the process (many bakeries use a "sponge" or "starter yeast" that can be decades old).  We're not going to enter that fray.  The Recipe below (courtesy of Emeril) is a quick, easy way to bake a batch of warm, fresh-from-the-oven, delicious goodness to share with your (hungover) family and friends on a cold winter morning.

Homemade Bagels

Prep Time: 10 min

Inactive Prep Time: 1 min

Cook Time: 1 hr 15 min

Level: Advanced Beginner

Serves: 12 bagels

Ingredients:

• 2 cups warm water, about 110 degrees F
• 2 (1/4-ounce) packets active dry yeast
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
• 5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons coarse yellow cornmeal

Optional Toppings:

• 1/2 cup finely chopped onions (2 teaspoons each)
• 1/4 cup pressed garlic (1 teaspoon each)
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds (about 1/2 teaspoon each)
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds (about 1/2 teaspoon each)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (about 1/4 teaspoon each)

Directions:

Dissolve 3 tablespoons of the sugar in water in the bowl of an upright mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add yeast, stir and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Gradually add 4 cups of the flour and the salt, and mix until the mixture comes together in a sticky dough.

Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups additional flour 1/2 cup at a time to make a stiff dough, either stirring with the wooden spoon or working with your hands. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and no longer sticky, about 5 minutes, adding just as much flour as needed. (Dough should be heavier and stiffer than regular yeast bread dough.)

Grease a large bowl with 1 teaspoon of the oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning to coat. Cover with wet tea towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until almost doubled, about 1 hour. I find the gas oven is a perfect place, or an electric oven with the light turned on.

Remove from the bowl and punch down the dough. Divide into 12 equal pieces, about 2 to 3 ounces each, measuring about 4 inches across.

Form each piece of dough into a ball. Roll each ball into a 4 to 6-inch log. Join the ends and place fingers through the hole and roll the ends together. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Place on a lightly greased surface, cover with a clean cloth, and let rest until risen but not doubled in a draft-free spot, 20 to 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Remove rising Bagels first!  In a large, heavy pot, bring 12 cups of water and the remaining tablespoon of sugar to a boil.

Grease a baking sheet with the remaining teaspoon of oil. Sprinkle the cornmeal, and optional toppings on dishes.

In batches, add the bagels to the water and boil, turning, for 1-2 minutes on each side. The longer you boil the rounder and smoother your bagels will be.  I only boiled mine for about 30 seconds on each side, but I wished I'd done it longer.

Adding Sesame Seed Topping. Use untoasted seeds.

Remove each batch from water. Dip the bagel tops in desired toppings. Flip bagels onto the dish of corn meal to coat the bottom.

Place bagels bottom up on greased baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes, turn over and cook for another 30 to 35 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes so that moisture can evaporate, otherwise the bagel will be mushy inside.

Fresh baked Bagels!  Be sure to let them cool for 10-15 minutes to finish rising.