Sourdough is Making Me a Sour Woman

Days 3-4 of sourdough were painfully uneventful, and then they got eventful, and then they crushed my spirit.  The sourdough smelled beery, was frothy and everything looked just perfect for sponging.  

That's frothy, right?

Ingredients:

2 cups sponge (leftover goes in the fridge to be used next time)

3 cups unbleached flour (added 1/4 cup at a time, and you may need more than 3 cups)

2 tbsps olive oil or softened margerine

4 tsps sugar

2 tsps salt

So I kneaded it all together and placed it in a warm area- next to the back of my fridge.  After I waited around for a few hours, I took a sneak peak under the towel and saw that absolutely nothing had happened.  Nothing except the top dried out a little bit.  I still had some hope, so I sat it out overnight, and still nothin'.

This smells like a frat kitchen.

For the sake of just producing a loaf of bread, I decided to go the cheater route: packaged yeast (gasp!).  

Ingredients:

1 pkg yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

This mixture is supposed to double in size after 10 minutes, and it looked like it could have raised something like that much, so I tossed it in the dough, added 1/2 cup flour just to get it back to the right consistency and put it in my oven on the lowest heat possible.  That was 170 degrees, and I opened it several times to make sure I wasn't baking, just proofing.  This kind of packaged yeast is supposed to rise in just a few hours, but still, NOTHING!

Oh, brother!  So here is my last-ditch effort of cheating.  I'm baking this mother fluffer whether it proofs or not!  I don't even know if it'll be edible, I just want some freaking bread!  So then, I popped out my baking stone, which I've left into the oven for every single bit of baking I've done in the last week, and it is beautiful, and I poured the gloppy unleavened mess on it and stuck it in the oven.  Actually, it sort of looked like pizza dough.  This is what came out.  Technically I failed, but it tasted great.  Spread a lot thinner, I actually think this would be a perfect pizza dough.

*sniff*

I have some starter remaining, though, so I still have a chance.

<3,

Megan

Seasons Are A'Changing

I decided to dedicate this past week to season my baking stone.  I needed to clean it first, and since you can't use soap without making your food taste soapy, I opted for the baking soda & warm water method.  I then oiled it, and baked it for two hours at 350.

Squeaky clean, no soapy taste.  Time to season!

To highlight this project, I also got to baking some sourdough.  This is a HUGE step for me, as I have the attention span of a housefly and I needed to create my own starter.  I did this by placing one cup warm water and one cup flour in a closed, but not air-tight container on my kitchen counter.  I took some daily photos as I "fed" the starter- just remove half and add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour back in.  

In addition to being a housefly, I'm also an eager beaver.  Day one for me went something like this: 'Okay, I'll start it as the directions say, but why should I throw away half of my starter every day?  If I adjust my additions, I'll have s*** tons of sourdough and I can take it all to the homeless shelter.  That will be awesome!'

Ignorance is Bliss until it comes back to bite you in the arse.

Now I still can NOT figure out how this worked out, but at the end of day two, I had 5 cups of starter.  To compensate, I threw away 3 cups of it and went back to the original formula.  Some waste, to me, is a fine price for sanity.  I spelled out instructions for myself so I wouldn't have to think about it for the rest of the week, and by day 4, my starter was beautifully frothy, a sign that it's ready.

Next time:  oh, the wonders of baking blindly... not to be confused with "blind baking."

Extremely Gross Banana Bread... Maybe

I tried to make some banana bread today.  I've made it before, but never well.  So when I found this banana bread recipe labeled "Extreme Banana Nut Bread," I thought it might help me add a little moisture and density to my bread.  Little did I know...

The recipe explicitly stated that I could use either white or brown sugar, so I decided that sugars would be the subject of my experiment.  

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 cups overripe mashed bananas

4 beaten eggs

1 cup chopped walnuts

I made two half batches and used white in one and brown in the other.

Already, I noticed that both batters looked a little... clotty.  Gross.  But I hadn't added any flour yet, so maybe it wasn't a total loss.  So I crushed 1 cup of walnuts in a Ziploc bag using the coffee cup crush method.

I suppose you could use a rolling pin, but this is way more fun.
Let's go Preds!

I mixed the flour and nuts into the batter, put the batter in greased & floured pans and popped them in the oven for 1 hour & 15 minutes at 350.

I won't waste your time.  The breads were equally clotty, and the color was the only difference after they were baked, except that the brown sugar loaf needed to be baked an extra 30 minutes. The taste and texture were indistinguishable.  And they would not release from the pan.

That was my opinion, anyway.

The husband; however, woke me the next day by saying, "I don't know what that is you baked last night, but it was delicious."  Despite not recognizing it as banana bread at all, he ate half the brown sugar loaf.  I asked if he liked Tapioca.  He said yes.

For my next sugars experiment, I would also like to make a bread with a 50/50 white and brown mix, and another one with cane sugar.  I fully expect the cane sugar to flop, and I don't want 4 loaves of banana bread around the house, so that will have to wait for another day.  Really I don't know when that will be, because after forcing down a slice of each, I have no desire to make more banana bread.

<3,

Nutmeg

BBQ Tofu Pizza

I baked a bbq tofu pizza a few weeks ago and the husband rejoiced.  My crust; however, was a flop.  I bought one of those canned pizza crusts and didn't even think to pre-bake it.  The middle of the pizza was a soggy mess.  So today I decided to try again.  I still cheated; I'm trying to use up a family-sized box of Bisquick or I'd be sampling doughs today.  I also had a ton of veggies to use up.

I decided later that I would not be adding any cilantro.

For the pizza toppings, I used:
1 package super firm tofu, cubed and patted dry
1 bottle BBQ sauce
3 cups spinach, stems removed
1- 1/2 cups feta
2 small tomatoes, sliced and patted dry
1 large red pepper, chopped
1 large purple onion, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cups green onion
2 serrano peppers

To make the dough, I needed:
4 cups Bisquick
1 cup hot water

I mixed those two together into a dough.  The instructions mentioned that I could add more flour if I wanted a thicker crust, but I did not and there will be more discussion on that later.  I did add a few tbsps garlic powder, then rolled the dough out onto a pizza stone, covered the edges of the crust with foil to keep them from burning and pricked it for ventilation.

I then baked the crust for 15 minutes at 400.  I wasn't sure how much time it needed, so I checked in on it once every 5 minutes.  It got very fragrant around the 13 minute mark, and that's usually a good sign that a baked good is ready.

Meanwhile, I drained my tofu and set it aside to marinate with a few tablespoons of BBQ sauce.  I chose Sweet Baby Ray's Sweet Vidalia Onion sauce.  Once all the veggies were chopped, I added them to the bowl with another good squeeze of BBQ sauce, probably about 1 cup total.  A few more tablespoons went directly onto the crust.

I sprinkled on all the feta I had and realized it was only 1/4 cup, so I substituted with goat cheese, but I recommend using all feta if you have it.  The feta and BBQ got spread all over the bottom of the crust and I dumped the toppings over it- there were plenty of the leftover toppings that went into the fridge.  The tomato slices went on top, and I crumbled the goat cheese over the top before baking.  Lastly, I buttered the edges of the crust for color.  This is what came out after 20 minutes:

It looked pretty delicious, so I cut into it and took a few bites.  The toppings were too heavy for the very biscuit-like crust, and they kept rolling off the sides of the slice.  Next time I will try more finely chopped toppings, and I'll definitely do my own crust from scratch.  The edges were dry and fluffy; the rest of it was sweet and crunchy.  Some butter or shortening could maybe help that.  I can't imagine anyone wanting a thicker crust, so if you're using the Bisquick method, I would opt out the option to add more flour.    

The tofu was lackluster.  The last time I did this, I could only get my hands on silken tofu, and I much preferred it.  It blended with the cheese and almost disappeared in the sauce, rather than maintaining a heavy bland flavor.  I'll switch back next time.  

I should also note that while I'm currently off meat, my husband is not.  I typically add diced grilled chicken to his half just before adding the veggie toppings.

Toppings, toppings everywhere!  I used a fork.

Anyway, I doubt the husband will complain about the leftovers.

<3,
Nutmeg

Update on the Bourbon Cookies

When I originally made the bourbon cookies, I used the drop method.  They made wonderful little rounded biscuits.

I had a ton of leftover dough, though, so I rolled it all into logs and popped them in the freezer.  Last night, while house cleaning, I decided to bake the rest of the bourbon cookies.  I sliced them out this time, since they were already shaped.  The effect was wonderful.

The thinner, flatter shape combined with slicing of the dried fruit allowed more fruit to come in contact with the pan, and they caramelized a little bit, and were amazing.

I regret to tell you that they were so delicious that no photos were taken before they were consumed; however, it did occur to me that not everyone would want to use liquor in their icing as well as the cookie.  A few tablespoons of orange juice should do just fine.

<3,

Nutmeg

Cookie Textures

My first order of business is cookie texture.  Being a habitual substituter in the kitchen, my standard cookie recipe can come out crumbly, chewy, biscuit-y or flat and I have no way of guessing the outcome.  So I did a little research, bought a few tools and assembled everything for a photo op.

This is everything I thought I could possibly need, minus salt and bowls.

Mixing the Dough

Rather than starting with my signature chocolate chip cookie, I sought a cookie base that I could then learn to manipulate.    The control cookie consists of:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar (granulated or powdered; I chose granulated)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder

Since my favorite cookie uses half white flour and half oat flour, I decided that flour textures would be tonight's experimentation subject.  As a wild card, I also chose to try a cookie with steel cut oats.  I don't know much about them, but they should create a heartier texture.

To create an oat flour, just blend your existing oatmeal.  I like to use my immersion blender instead of a traditional blender because oats stick to the sides of the carafe.  I usually blend an entire container of oatmeal at once, because I know I'll use it, but you can just blend up what you need.

Clockwise from top: sifted white flour, steel cut oats and blended oat flour

Blend sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, then add eggs and vanilla.  If you have a hand blender, I recommend it for this step.

Then add flour and baking powder.  This should be the final product, but notice the total difference in dough textures.

I immediately realized that the cookies would not all be awesome, but I needed to see what the finished product would be before I made any adjustments to the dough.  I baked two of each at 375 for 12 minutes, and the husband and I sat to nibble.
*Note: this dough should be refrigerated overnight, but I was short on time.  I refrigerated it over dinner, about 1 hour.

L-R: steel oat, control, oat flour

The control cookie was perfectly textured, pale, crumbly and bland.  It would need to be flavored, and would probably be great for cookie cutters.  I might pull this out for a sugar cookie or peanut butter cookie in the future.  This time, I'm going to try a bourbon cookie.  Jinger made some last week, and my husband requested a batch.

The blended oat cookie was pretty much perfect, but unimpressive.  It needed pizazz that wouldn't alter the dough.

And the steel oat cookie was delicious, chewy and impossible to remove from the pan without crumbling it into tiny shards.  It would need some very careful adjustments to get it fluffier without totally killing the texture.

Altering the Dough

I started with the control cookie.  After adding 2 tbsps bourbon to the dough, I mixed in 1/2 cup dried blueberries and 1/2 cup dried cherries.  I baked them for 12 minutes, then glazed them with a mixture of 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, 2 tbsp orange liqueur, 1 tbsp milk and a splash of (totally unnecessary) apple juice.  The result was a pretty perfect tea cookie: kind of powdery and white, but delicious.  I might also soak the dried fruit in bourbon instead of adding it to the batter, or even add orange zest, craisins and spice.

glaze and fruited dough

glazed fruited bourbon cookies

Next came the oat flour cookie.  I threw in 12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips and about 1/3 cup white flour to help the dough stick together, then baked for 14 minutes at 375.  The finished product was just okay, but a little dry.  I might add more sugar or another egg next time.  Also, 12 oz was way too much chocolate.  I might reduce it to 6, or even fewer and add some walnuts.

While those were baking, I started work on the steel oat cookie.  I added 1 tbsp honey to make it chewy, and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar as a leavening agent.  I then started adding flour 1/3 cup at a time until the batter had a familiar consistency, for a total of 2 additional cups.  I baked two of them, and they were extremely fluffy.   According to my husband, that was a grievous mistake.

To counteract the fluffiness, I then added an egg to make it denser and 1/3 cup sugar to help them spread.  The final product was much better, but next time, I'll add only 1 extra cup of flour.  I might even use oat flour instead of white.

Stackable cooling racks: I consider these a must-have when baking.

MMMM cookies!

The final verdict came from my office: the bourbon cookie was the resounding favorite.  I'll keep that recipe around and keep tinkering with the other two.  I'll be sure to keep you posted.

<3,
Nutmeg

Welcome!

Have you ever wondered how to bake?  Not just pop-a-pizza-in-and-set-the-timer deal, but really mixing ingredients, producing a dough, and baking a one-of-a-kind confection?
I have no patience to follow a recipe.  When I'm making a stir-fry, it doesn't matter that much.  But when I make a pizza, and I don't have the patience to pre-bake the crust, the center of the pie is a mess.
I never have the right ingredients.  My tablespoons and teaspoons both get measured in the palm of my hands.  And I will do anything in my power to use one fewer bowl than the instructions demand.
But my cookies are damn good.  Which gets me thinking I can bake without following that recipe to a T, right?
I'm about to find out!
<3,
Nutmeg