I took my second class with Helen's Kitchen. It was called French Pastry and it was as awesome as it sounded! The baking instructors name is Leslie and the classes are out of her house in Belmont. Again, I won't share her recipes, except I will say that her buttercream is out of the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It was the first buttercream I have ever really looooved and is absolutely my new and only buttercream recipe. I kind of want to make a cake right now.
Here are some pictures!
This is called a roulade - it was chocolate sheet cake that we layered with a coffee buttercream, rolled and then covered with chocolate ganache. Oh man it was delicious.
Next up - a Paris-Brest:
This is a very classic french pastry (apparently). Most are made very large, but we made ours small enough so that one oven could accomodate several at once. It was created by a french pastry chef in honor of a bicycle race between Paris and Brest. It is shaped after the wheel of a bike! So I liked it even more! :-) They're the same type of dough as eclairs and similar filling, but topped with chopped almonds and confectioners sugar. Some even put chocolate on top and raspberries in the middle. It was very tasty!
Finally - look what I can make!! Homemade eclairs and puff pastries!
Turns out, they're the same thing in different form. They were lots of fun, and not hard but lots of steps. Everyone should start being nice to me because I'm already planning my Christmas box of treats to give out :-)
We got to meet Cole Petri today! I made a new parent care package, since I doubt they're interested in cooking right now. I brought Lasagna, tear and bake cookies, and banana bread. Already posted my chocolate chip cookie recipe (follow link above), but I packaged them like this:
Tear and bake cookies! Good way of making homemade cookies so that you're not stuck with the whole batch at once...you can even make in the toaster oven! Keep the rest in the freezer so they last a long time.
On to the lasagna!
I never make a whole tray, because who wants that much lasagna at once? I make 3 little lasagna in a pan similar in size to a bread loaf pan. They're great to keep in the freezer, so figured it would be good for our new parent friends. I make them in the disposable aluminum ones when I am giving them away. I gave two away...and kept one for ourselves. I mean, I had to make sure it was good - right? :-)
Heat oil in large pot. Add onion and cook. Stir occasionally until soft - about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes (or until fragrant). Increase heat to medium-high and add ground meat, salt, and pepper. While the meat cooks, break into small pieces. Add cream and simmer for about 4 minutes. Add pureed and drained diced tomatoes (I used fresh diced tomatoes - less preservatives) and bring to simmer. Reduce heat and let simmer for another couple of minutes.
Mix ricotta, 1 cup Parmesan, basil, egg, salt, and pepper in medium bowl with fork until well-combined and creamy.
Layer bottom of pan with meat sauce. Lay noodles over that, they smear layer of ricotta mixer. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella. Repeat layering of noodles, ricotta, mozzarella, and sauce two more times. Place 3 remaining noodles on top of sauce, spread remaining sauce over noodles, sprinkle with remaining cup mozzarella (I usually use fresh, sliced mozzarella on top instead of the shredded), then with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan. Lightly spray a large sheet of foil with nonstick cooking spray and cover lasagna. Bake 15 minutes, then remove foil. Return lasagna to oven and continue to bake until cheese is spotty brown and sauce is bubbling, about 25 minutes longer. Cool lasagna about 10 minutes; cut into pieces and serve.
Make sure you cool it so you don't have lasagna soup! Here you go:
We deemed it appropriate to give to our friends!
I made a last minute addition to the care package, since I had 3 perfectly ripe bananas just asking to be made into bread. The 2 keys to banana bread are overly ripe bananas and a little yogurt.
very ripe bananas , soft, darkly speckled, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4
cup plain yogurt (I used french vanilla from Stonyfield Organic)
2
large eggs , beaten lightly
6
tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled
1
teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of regular loaf pan, or grease and flour bottom and sides of nonstick 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. Combine first five ingredients together in large bowl; set aside.
2. Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with wooden spoon in medium bowl. Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; bake until loaf is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
This is the third time I've made this recipe of beef enchiladas and every single time I've made with Mexican rice. Both are delicious and make a great Mexican night meal. Sometimes I also make guacamole, but that is a lot of leftovers for just me and Doug. I have to make this fairly frequently otherwise Doug starts dropping not so subtle hints that I should hop to it! They make awesome leftovers and since it is one of our favorites, they always get eaten. Since this is a multi step recipe, I'll break it down step by step.
Enchiladas:
1.25 lbs blade steak - Cut gristle out of the middle. If you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about, it is actually pretty easy. Look:
The gristle is the thick white strip down the center. Just cut it out. In a large dutch oven or pot with a tight fitting lid, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over medium heat. Salt and pepper the beef (after you've cut out gristle), then brown around 6 minutes per side. Transfer meat to plate and set aside.
In the same pot (don't clean, you can just continue with meat juice still in there), add 2 chopped medium white onions and cook until translucent, around 5 minutes.
Add the following spices (which I usually have premixed ahead of time in a bowl):
Once the spices have been added to the pot, cook for around a minute. Add one 15 oz can of tomato sauce (NOT marinara - just plain tomato sauce, you can find in grocery store next to diced tomato/other canned tomato products) and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, return meat and whatever juices accumulated on the plate. Reduce heat to low and cover. Let simmer for an hour and a half ish.
*This is when I make the rice, recipe for rice below*
Once beef is done simmering it will be easy to shred with a fork. Once all the beef is shredded, strain over bowl to separate beef from the sauce. Add the dry (ish) beef to a bowl and mix with:
1 cup shredded cheese - I usually use a shredded mexican blend fromSargento 1/4 cup diced pickled jalapenos - If you don't want your enchiladas spicy - remove some seeds from the jalapenos. The ribs and seeds is what makes it spicy. Also - wear gloves when chopping jalapenos. 1/3 of a cup chopped cilantro
Roll cheesy beef mixture in 12 6 inch corn tortillas. Smear portion of the sauce over the bottom of baking pan, line up rolled tortillas, spread remainder of sauce over top, and cover with cheese.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes with aluminum foil over top, then remove foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is nicely browned. This is a time consuming recipe - sometimes I'll make the beef mixture, then roll and bake right before serving. The finished product:
Now, time for rice! Again, I make the rice while the beef is simmering.
Ingredients:
Ingredients
2
ripe tomatoes (about 12 ounces), cored and quartered
1
medium onion , preferably white, peeled, trimmed of root end,and quartered
Process tomatoes and onion in food processor until smooth and thoroughly pureed. Transfer mixture to liquid measuring cup; you should have 2 cups (if necessary, spoon off excess so that volume equals 2 cups). Mince jalapenos (see note from above regarding the seeds) and set aside.
Place rice in large fine-mesh strainer and rinse under cold running water until water runs clear, about 1 1/2 minutes. Shake rice vigorously in strainer to remove all excess water.
Heat oil in heavy-bottomed ovensafe 12-inch straight-sided sauté pan or Dutch oven with tight-fitting lid over medium-high heat, 1 to 2 minutes. Drop 3 or 4 grains rice in oil; if grains sizzle, oil is ready. Add rice and fry, stirring frequently, until rice is light golden and translucent, 6 to 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add garlic and 1/3 seeded minced jalapeños; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 1/2 minutes. Stir in pureed tomatoes and onions, chicken broth, tomato paste, and salt; increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil. Cover pan and transfer to oven; bake until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, 30 to 35 minutes, stirring well after 15 minutes.
Stir in cilantro and reserved minced jalapeño with seeds to taste. Serve, passing lime wedges separately.
Doug and I spent a week in Florida and shared a house with a bunch of other people. So I had to bake something! I decide on a favorite that everybody would like - chocolate chip cookies. This is my faaavorite recipe out of all the cookie recipes I have tried over the years - from Cooks Illustrated
Ingredients
2 1/8 cups all purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 12 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (that is 1.5 sticks) 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated (white) sugar 1 large egg 1 egg yolk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1-2 cups chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli semi sweet - good chocolate makes a big difference!)
Heat over to 325 degrees. Butter baking sheet. Mix flour, salt and baking soda in medium bowl, set aside. Mix melted butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in chips. Sometimes I use walnuts too, but not this time since you never know who has a nut allergy.
Start checking cookies after 13 minutes of baking. They should be puffy and just a tiny bit brown on the outside. Keep in mind that as they cool, they'll continue to harden.
Side note - most ovens vary in temperature. I bought a thermometer for my oven and it makes cooking time much more predictable - turns out my oven was usually 15-25 degrees off. For example, now when I cook something that is supposed to be at 325, I cook at 350.
But anyway, back to cookies. Here you go! They were delicious.
Like good hosts, we made our guests breakfast on a cloudy Sunday before they headed back home to NYC. The menu? Blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and fresh fruit. I think the last three are pretty self explanatory, but here is the recipe for the pancakes:
tablespoon unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly
1 - 2
teaspoons vegetable oil
Instructions
Whisk flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in medium bowl. In second medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, eggs, and melted butter. Make well in center of dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients; gently stir until just combined (batter should remain lumpy with few streaks of flour). Do not overmix. Allow batter to sit 10 minutes before cooking.
Heat griddle over medium heat, butter, and makes your pancakes! We added blueberries to each individual pancake once they started to cook. If cooking for a group, you can keep your cooked pancakes in the oven at 200 degrees to keep warm before you serve. Have a large tray so you can keep adding pancakes as you cook. Here you go:
For the full effect, Khatri wanted to share his plate:
Guacamole is one of my favorites - to make and to eat. I almost always make it when I have house guests, which we did this weekend. Doug and I were happy to host good friends Khatri and Oskana. I don't really have a recipe, it is more to taste than measurements, but this is my best approximation:
2-3 avocados 1 large ripe tomato 1/2 chopped red onion 1/4-1/2 cup packed chopped cilantro Juice of 1 lime Salt to taste
I usually buy the avocados a few days in advance. If your avocados aren't ripe, guac isn't worth making. If they're ripe, they skin and be taken off the pit easily. Mix your chopped vegetables and mash together with a potato masher. If you heat the lime for 10-15 seconds you'll get more juice out.
Guac tastes better if it can hang out for a few hours before serving so the flavors can blend together - but make sure to cover well with plastic wrap. If it is exposed to air, it will turn brown! Here is my guac - I put in tupperware, covered tightly with plastic wrap then put the tupperware lip over the plastic wrap:
I've been on the search for a recipe for the perfect brownies. And while I've made lots of good brownies (it would take some hard work to made a brownie taste bad), none of them have been *perfect* yet. What is my ideal brownie, you ask? The kind that Whole Foods Market makes. Not necessarily the ones in the tub of 2 bites, but the individually wrapped ones you get at the bakery counter...oh man those are the STUFF. My current runner up recipe is the triple chocolate brownies from Cooks Illustrated. But, they aren't perfect. The logical next step considering my perfect store bought brownie is from Whole Foods? Getting a recipe off of wholefoods.com.
Ingredients
Butter and flour for pan preparation 6 ounces 70% bittersweet chocolate, broken into small pieces 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 eggs 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 teaspoon sea salt 1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter and flour a 9 x 9-inch baking pan. Set aside. In a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Stir in vanilla and let cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar on medium high speed until thick and creamy, and sugar is dissolved, about 10 minutes. Gently stir in melted chocolate. Stir salt into flour and fold gently into chocolate mixture. Do not over mix. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread to smooth. Bake 20 minutes, then cover with foil. Bake additional 8 to 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 1 inch from the center comes out clean.
While the brownies are baking, prepare the frosting. Melt butter and stir in cocoa powder. Mix until well blended. Add warm water and vanilla and whisk in confectioner's sugar, a little at a time, until frosting is smooth and spreadable, but not too thick.
Remove brownies from oven and let cool slightly in pan. Spread frosting over warm brownies for a hot fudge sauce effect or spread on cooled brownies and refrigerate until firm for brownies that will be served later or packed for travel. Cut into 12 pieces.
For those that are tempted to skip the obnoxious double boiler, don't. It really does prevent the chocolate from getting burned. Melting chocolate is a particular process. Here is my makeshift double boiler:
I was unsure of the frosting, but my brownies were stubborn and wouldn't cook, so I had to test it three times before the knife came out just a little gooey (if they knife comes out clean, they'll be too dry when they cool). Needless to say, the top didn't look pretty from the stab marks. Bright side there? Solved my frosting question. Here is it:
I frosted the brownies almost immediately after I took the brownies out of the oven, and put the whole thing in the fridge (no cover - if you cover something hot, there were be condensation, which will lead to soggy brownies). I propped them up on a few other things in the fridge so heat could escape out of the bottom too. An hour or so later - they were cool! Doug and I sampled immediately. The consensus? They were awesome, and I pretty sure this is the recipe Whole Foods bakery uses for their brownies (it would make sense, right?). Officially my new favorite brownie recipe, and homemade brownies are always the best. Here is something to get you salivating:
So, I have caved. After 13 months of living in Boston, I am tired of waiting for Matchbox to open a Boston location. I have only had the fire & smoke pizza TWICE in the past year - once post Marine Corps Marathon 2008 and once a few weeks ago when I took a trip down to the district. That isn't acceptable.
I decide I'm learning how to make my very own fire and smoke pizza. What is it, you ask? AWESOME. Toppings are smoked gouda, spanish onions, roasted red peppers, garlic puree and basil. Yuummm.
First item - make dough. I knew this was going to take a while (not in terms of prepping, but in terms of waiting for the yeast to rise). So, when my boss announced today that the whole team could call it a day at 3 today, I knew today was my chance. I dropped by Whole Foods on my way home, and threw together the dough when I got home. It was actually pretty easy - recipe here (from Cooks Illustrated):
Ingredients
1 3/4
cups water divided, 1/2 cup warm, remaining at tap temperature
2 1/4
teaspoons dry active yeast (1 envelope)
2
tablespoons olive oil , plus extra for brushing dough
1. Measure 1/4 cup of warm water into 2-cup measuring cup. Sprinkle in yeast; let stand until yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add remaining 1/4 cup warm water plus remaining 1 1/4 cups tap water and olive oil. Meanwhile, pulse flour and salt in workbowl of large food processor fitted with steel blade to combine. Add liquid ingredients (holding back a tablespoon or so) to flour and pulse together. If dough does not readily form into ball, stop machine, add remaining liquid, and continue to pulse until ball forms. Process until dough is smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds longer.
2. Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface; knead by hand with a few strokes to form smooth, round ball. Put dough into medium-large, oiled bowl, and cover with damp cloth. Let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
Here is my dough, all ready to rise:
So, this is a convenient time for me to go on my 70 minute run. On my way out, I remember I had forgotten to purchase a spanish onion. Well, crap. I have a red onion, but that would overpower the taste of the gouda. So I throw on my camelbak (with the part that holds liquid out of the bag) and stop in at Whole Foods during my run to buy an onion and run home with in my backpack. This was pretty convenient, because I realized I was hungry and thirsty fifty minutes into my run. So, I also ended up with an Owater (they need to make a bottle with a sports top) and a Lara Bar. I got some funny looks. I ran the rest of the way home a few lbs heavier.
I go home and I warm up my pizza tray in the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes - this is supposed to ensure a crispy crust. I grill some chicken, because I always ordered the fire & smoke pizza with chicken anyway. If I don't have some protein with a meal, I'll be hungry again in 20 minutes. I mix some regular store bought pizza sauce with some red pepper flakes, slice my gouda, fish my onion out of my backpack and slice it julienne style. The dough recipe makes enough for two large pizzas (or a few smaller ones, your call) so I split the dough in two and stretch one half out. This is key - stretch, don't roll. I was tempted to swing around my hand, but I hadn't cleaned my floor in the past few days. I pull the hot pizza tray out of the oven, arrange the dough on the tray, and cook until most of the way done...when it was just a little brown on the edges. I cover with my red pepper tomato sauce, sliced onion, sliced gouda, brush the edges with some olive oil, sprinkle parmesan over the whole thing and top it with the grilled chopped chicken. I pop in the oven for a few more minutes and when I felt like the edges looked crispy enough and the cheese looked gooey enough, took it out!! I took it out of the oven and sprinkled with fresh chopped basil from my basil plant (I get excited when I can use my basil plant...it is the only plant I own). Here she is:
The result? It was delicious! Take that Matchbox! Next time I'll use a better gouda (I wasn't impressed with the gouda selection at Whole Foods, next time I know I need to hit up Roche Brothers!) and probably more red pepper flakes in the sauce. It was spicy, but not quite spicy enough (fire is for the spicy...smoke for the gouda...get it?). I intentionally left off the roasted red peppers slices, because I always just picked those off and ate them separately anyway. I also left off the garlic puree, because Doug isn't the biggest garlic fan and I felt like I would probably accidentally leave huge chunks and then I'd have a whole pizza to myself. Next time I think I'll mix some crushed garlic into the sauce. But overall, I was very happy, especially for my first pizza attempt. Maybe I'll try something more traditional, like pepperoni with the second half of the dough...good thing we're having visitors this weekend :-). It would also help if I had a wood fired brick oven. Think there is any chance I'll get one for Christmas?
