Bon Appetit

Finally, the last of 3… I know that last time I promised shots of the process, and used that as an excuse to why I wasn't posting the Danish recipe. I was all set up to take those pictures too. But then I realized that I had actually already done the complicated part of the recipe (not really complicated, more complicated to explain). Not that it really matters; you can see the entire thing online…

Wait, let me start at the beginning. I started watching “Baking with Julia” on PBS on Saturday mornings. Once of the PBS channels we have has a great run of cooking shows on the weekend. Julia Child is just one of many. When I saw it the first time, it was more because it amused me to be watching a Julia Child show. As I watched I imagined my mom watching it when it originally aired in the 80s.

Last week there was a fantastic show about Danish pastries (you can see it here). The woman who was baking with Julia, Beatrice Ojakangas, looked super-professional, a true baker (for example, one tell-tale sign of a baker vs. a cook is that a baker knows that when you need to pulse something is a mixer, it means that you need to have it on in short bursts, and not just let it go on the “pulse” setting for a minute. The latter is something I saw Emril do...).

Back to the Danish – there were two very impressive things that convinced me to go ahead and try the recipe. The first is that the dough looked really manageable, and didn’t require any folding of butter anywhere. The second, even more impressive is that woman made pastry cream in the microwave!

So I went ahead and made it. It was Uri’s birthday morning breakfast. I think he’s very happy I gave it a try.

So without further ado, here is the recipe:

Danish Pastry Dough

Ingredients

¼ cup warm water

1 pack (1/4 oz) active yeast

½ cup milk

1 large egg

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

2.5 cups flour

2 sticks (226 grams) butter

Instructions

1. Wisk water, yeast, milk, egg, sugar and salt in a medium sized bowl

2. In a food processor fitted with a steal blade, pulse flour and butter 8-10 times. Pieces of butter should be a bit bigger than they would be if you were making shortbread

3. Gently fold flour and butter into liquid mixture to make a rough dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate 8-24 hours.

4. Dust work surface with flour, and roll out the dough, fold sides inward to make a rectangle of fairly consistent moistness (initially outside might be drier than center).

5. Roll dough out to a long rectangle. Fold in and envelop fold (left 1/3 to center, and then right 1/3 on top). Roll out lengthwise, and fold again. Repeat another 2 times, for a total of 3 rolls and folds. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

6. Roll out again , cut in to equal squares, fill and let sit for 30 minutes. Brush with egg white and bake in an oven, preheated to 400 F about 10 minutes

Super easy microwave Crème Patisser

Ingredients

1 cup cream/ half & half/ milk*

1.5 tbsp cornstarch

2-3 tablespoons sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In a microwave safe bowl, whisk cream, cornstarch and sugar

2. Microwave for a total of 3 minutes, stopping to re-whisk every minute. The first 2 minutes the mixture will still be very liquid, but after the third it will become thick and creamy.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolk and vanilla. Pour 3-4 tbsp of the cream mixture into the egg, stirring vigorously and bringing the temperature of the egg mixture up (this is called tempering). Fold all of egg mixture to the rest of the cream mixture.

*If you use milk, up the cornstarch to 2 tablespoons, and you might need to also add an additional minute in the microwave.

Miscellaneous

I’ve been putting off posting the last of my 3 promised baking posts because in a few days I’ll be making another batch and I plan to try to take some pictures of the process (since a picture is worth a thousand words and all). In the meantime, nothing too exciting is going on, but still we’ve had some post-worthy happenings (sort of).

Still on the food front – Uri’s been making lots of yummy stuff.

For example – he made some super-delicious risotto with green beans and edamame and equally good panko encrusted mahi-mahi fillet. It was our first time eating/ making this fish, but since it was really good and not very expensive, I think it won’t be our last. As for the risotto, I think I’ve never eaten risotto as good as Uri’s in any restaurant I’ve been in.

On the baby front – We’ve now accumulated lots and lots of baby stuff (baby still not here).

The latest is our super cool stroller (picture to right).

Inspired by the stroller, a brand called B.O.B Revolution, we decided to call the super huge teddy bear you see in the stroller Bob.

Bob has been modeling baby stuff for us for a while. Here he is trying out the car seat:

The only unfortunate thing about Bob is that because he is so big, a lot of the baby stuff doesn’t fit him – but it’s ok, he has friends who help him. Like here, where Tiger is helping him model the cute Bundle Me hat that we got to keep the baby’s head warm when we take her outside:

The bread maker in our house

Recently the question of “what counts as food” has been on our minds. It started with an interview Michael Pollan gave on The Daily Show. Pollan is the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma as well as In Defense of Food and Food Rules. His basic thesis is that most of what Americans eat isn’t real food, but actually food like substance, mostly corn based and with an unreasonable shelf life. As such, he promotes people moving away from mass produced foods to sustainably grown produce and meat. All this isn’t new, but it just brought the topic top of mind again.

It was top of mind for Uri when he was looking at for bread crumbs. To his surprise, all the breadcrumbs he found included corn syrup as one of the top 3 products. With that, I decided to start making bread from scratch – something I’ve been promising myself for a while now.

To ease myself into the whole thing, I decided to start with the famed “No Knead Bread”, or more precisely, Cook’s Illustrated version of it – “Almost No-Knead Bread”.

One final anecdote before the full recipe. The bread itself is baked in a Dutch oven (ie a large heavy pot with a lid). It calls for pre-heating the pot in the oven at 500 F. Before doing so, the thought crossed my mind – will this China made plastic handle survive 500 degrees Fahrenheit? Luckily, Uri stepped into the kitchen at that moment – so I asked him, and he assured me that it will.

20 minutes into the preheat process the smell of burned plastic filled the house, followed by a "pop” sound. So, baker beware - take the knob off before starting!

Almost no-knead bread

Makes 1 large round loaf. Published January 1, 2008. From Cook's Illustrated.

An enameled cast-iron Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid yields best results, but the recipe also works in a regular cast-iron Dutch oven or heavy stockpot. Use a mild-flavored lager, such as Budweiser (mild non-alcoholic lager also works). The bread is best eaten the day it is baked but can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a cool, dry place for up to 2 days.

INGREDIENTS

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface

1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)

1 tablespoon white vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

2. Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.

3. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

New book, new cookies

You would think that with this much time on my hands, I would post more… there are two problems with that

a) With nothing to do, I don’t have anything interesting to write about

b) Doing next to nothing is sucking all the brainpower I have, leaving me a mindless, muse-less zombie.

During the past week, I've gone back to baking a lot, so here is the first of at least 3 baking posts:

At the same time Bella and Nuss bought Uri his amazing chef’s hat, they bought me Shemo’s new baking book. When I opened the book I immediately looked to the “thank you" section, expecting to find my mom’s name in there, since she buys so much things from his bakery I assumed she had a substantial part in making the book a reality. Unfortunately, he did not recognize her contribution. Some people are just so ungrateful…

It took me a while to get around to actually baking something from it. I suppose that if we were in Israel, I would have made something within a week, one of the more decadent cakes or a cheesecake. But I (very sadly) don’t have my baking utensils here and his cheesecake recipes are based on soft cheeses, so the book had to wait on the shelf for a while. However, during our most recent trip to NYC, we stopped at an Israeli grocer, and a bought a pack of date paste, specifically with the thought of making those swirly date filled cookies that you probably all know from your mom, aunt or grandma. I had a very simple recipe for those types of cookies, but I decided to give Shemo’s book a glance too. He has a recipe for Ma’amul cookies, which he fills in the same way (like a roulade). The recipe looked interesting, and I have time to spare – so why not!

To cut an already long story just a bit short – Best date filled cookies ever!

The combination of regular flour and semolina flour gives an awesome texture that’s both moist and crumbly and the flavor is fantastic. I made a bunch of date filled ones, and then a few with Nutella, and a few with orange marmalade. The date ones were irresistible, the Nutella dried up in the oven, so the cookies came out very dry and crisp so if you opt to do that, you need to be conscious of putting a thick slap of filling, otherwise the flavor is lost. The marmalade worked ok – a lot spilled out (though it might have been because I went overboard with the filling) and the cookies where very moist (still good, but different). Note on the semolina for the one or two American bakers that might be reading this – the flour I’m referring to is a middle-eastern flour, that is made from a different king of wheat than regular flour and has a coarser texture. This is not the same as the Italian semolina used for pasta. In the US you can find this type of semolina is Israeli and in Arab grocery stores. If you can’t find it, the best substitute is probably white corn meal.

“Easy” Ma’amul

Ingredients

¾ cup (180 ml) water

½ cup (120 ml) oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp rose water extract (I omitted this)

500 gr (3 ½ cups + 1 tbsp) flour

240 gr (1 ½ cups) semolina (see note above)

10 gr baking powder

300 gr soft butter

Instructions

1. Put water, oil, vanilla and rose water in a bowl of a standing mixer. Add all dry ingredients and butter. Knead on low about 5 minutes, until soft dough is formed.

2. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let sit in refrigerator for at least an hour (since I made this in batches, the last batch of dough sat in the fridge for 3 days)

3. Preheat oven to 170 C

4. Separate dough into 3 parts. Start with one part: roll it out into a rectangle, about 30 cm in length and ½ cm thick. Spread filling of your choice, and roll into a roulade. (After the first batch came out too thick to my liking, cut each rectangle in half length-wise, and rolled tight cookies.)

5. Cut the roulade into cookies 1.5 – 3 cm thick, place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes until golden brown.

6. Let cool, and dust with powdered sugar.

7. Repeat with rest of dough.

Will snow all week

I know I already put up a post today (and I encourage everyone to scroll down and look at it, because it includes a really good recipe for deep dish pizza dough), however, I had to share with you what's going on outside our front door:

Get our geek on

A couple of night ago we had the geekest night-in I could imagine – pizza and board games. The only saving grace was that it was really good home-made pizza and a very cool board game (though the latter probably makes the whole thing even geeker…)

Following through on the end of my last blog, I made deep dish pizza. The recipe (below), yet again is from Cook’s Illustrated, and once again, it was delicious! So delicious in fact that the notion of taking a picture of the pizza once it was ready completely escaped my mind. Even Uri liked it – and he never admits to liking pizza!

Not wanting to die alone, we invited Yariv to dine with us and he brought along a friend of his, Adam. We were planning to play Settler’s of Catan and Adam brought his set which is 3D (!). I will risk exposing my geeky side and say that the set, though a bit let convenient to play than the regular game is super-cool. Not cool enough to warrant the 300-some dollars that it costs, but still very cool.

Since Uri won the game – he did remember to take a picture of the board game:

Deep Dish Pizza

Makes one 14-inch pizza, serving 4 to 6.

Prepare the topping while the dough is rising so it will be ready at the same time the dough is ready. Baking the pizza in a deep-dish pan on a hot pizza stone or quarry tiles will help produce a crisp, well-browned bottom crust. Otherwise, a heavy rimless cookie sheet (do not use an insulated cookie sheet) will work almost as well. If you've only got a rimmed cookie sheet, turn it upside down and bake the pizza on the flat rimless side. The amount of oil used to grease the pan may seem excessive, but in addition to preventing sticking, the oil helps the crust brown nicely.

INGREDIENTS

1 medium baking potato (about 9 ounces), peeled and quartered

1 1/2 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup water (warm, 105 to 115 degrees)

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil , plus more for oiling bowl

1 3/4 teaspoons table salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Bring 1 quart water and potato to boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and cool until potato can be handled comfortably; press through fine disk on potato ricer or grate through large holes on box grater. Measure 1 1/3 cups lightly packed potato; discard remaining potato.

2. Adjust one oven rack to highest position, other rack to lowest position; heat oven to 200 degrees. Once temperature reaches 200 degrees, maintain heat 10 minutes, then turn off heat.

3. In bowl of standing mixer or in workbowl of food processor fitted with steel blade, mix or pulse yeast, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/2 cup warm water until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until bubbly, about 20 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, remaining 1/2 cup water, 3 cups flour, salt, and potato. If using mixer, fit with paddle attachment and mix on low speed until dough comes together. Switch to dough hook attachment and increase speed to medium; continue kneading until dough comes together and is slightly tacky, about 5 minutes. If using food processor, process until dough comes together in a ball, about 40 seconds. Dough should be slightly sticky. Transfer dough to lightly oiled medium bowl, turn to coat with oil and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place in warm oven until dough is soft and spongy and doubled in size, 30 to 35 minutes.

4. Oil bottom of 14-inch deep-dish pizza pan with remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil. Remove dough from oven; turn onto clean, dry work surface and pat into 12-inch round. Transfer round to pan, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest until dough no longer resists shaping, about 10 minutes.

5. Line low oven rack with unglazed baking tiles or place pizza stone or rimless cookie sheet on rack and heat oven to 425 degrees. Uncover dough and pull up into edges and up sides of pan to form 1-inch-high lip. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in warm draft-free spot until double in size, about 30 minutes. Uncover dough and prick generously with fork. Bake on preheated tiles, stone, or cookie sheet until dry and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Add desired toppings; bake on tiles, stone, or cookie sheet until cheese melts, 10 to 15 minutes. Move pizza to top rack and bake until cheese is spotty golden brown, about 5 minutes longer. Let cool 5 minutes, then, holding pizza pan at angle with one hand, use wide spatula to slide pizza from pan to cutting board. Cut into wedges and serve.

My notes:

1. I proffed the dough outside the oven (I was baking eggplants to go on the pizza in the oven)

2. We don't have a pizza stone, so I didn't use one.

3. I used a 12 inch iron skillet as the deep dish, without preheating it and put enough oil in the pan only to coat the bottom (i didn't measure, but I'm sure it's less than 4 tablespoons) it came out perfect as far as a crunchy crust.

4. My one disappointment was that despite the fact that I created a pie shell before putting the dough in the oven (i.e. raised sides), while baking those sides fell back down and the pizza was much more like a pan pizza than a Chicago style deep dish pizza which is what I imagined it would be.