Of flour, cookies and depth of field… January 22, 2009

Not sure which was more fun... the new camera, or making sugar cookies... hmmmmmm

I made sugar cookies the other day…

And the light streaming in through the kitchen window, hitting that cool little antique biscuit/cookie cutter just right, made me think: hmmm… potential picture…

And ok, so I admit – I’m looking for any excuse to trot out and play with the new toy – my digital SLR that I am officially in love with.

A loaf by any other name… Or… Bread machine vs. by hand (Part 2) November 30, 2008

OK, no denying, the machine takes less effort – quelle surprise!

I can get my bread machine “loaded” in about 5 minutes. The only responsibility I have after that is to be around about 3 hours later to yank the bread out. OK, it’s easy. And it’s fast.

But…

30 minutes of labor, including clean up, and I had enough dough for two loaves of bread happily rising in the refrigerator.

The deal is, you have to let it rise for at least two hours… You can safely ignore it up to four hours at this point, before punching the dough down.

All pouffy and good... observant ones will note the difference in lighting... hmmm must fix that!

C'mon, admit it! The idea of punching down the dough sounds fun!

If it's stretching like that - it's a good thing!

A few more minutes was all it took to have the bread shaped… A few rolls for right now… a few for later and a loaf for later as well. You can actually leave the dough alone and unshaped for up to three days in the frig… Or you can shape it, and refrigerate or freeze it – it’s very forgiving that way.

Oh, that also makes it very convenient!

What would you call that? Golf ball size?

Muffin pan not required... you can also do these on a cookie sheet, but they'll spread out really wide... or bunch 'em all up in a round pan...

Now, you can either set these little babies on the counter (all nice and covered of course) to rise for about two to three hours. Or you can stuff ‘em in the refrigerator (again) and let them rise in there, which takes considerably longer. Either way, you’ve got some free time on your hands.

And the results?

Oh so worth it!

So, what do I do to keep busy while waiting for the bread? Depends on the day… Today, it was this:

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Bottom line… Total, actual labor was a bit over 45 minutes.

Big surprise – we all knew the bread machine was a time saver. But…

The enjoyment of making bread by hand, the results that are oh so much better… those are worth a bit more effort.

Sure, I’ll probably still use La Machina when I’m just too busy otherwise… But… I may jest get in the habit of Friend 2 and make dough to sit in the ‘frig ready and waiting for me…

A loaf by any other name… Or… Bread machine vs. by hand (part 1) November 28, 2008

This is the kind of day I’ve been having… I completed this post… posted it.. and in attempting to update it – deleted it. Whoops…

So here goes the rewrite..

I have a dear friend who loves his bread machine, swears by it. Even I have fallen prey to the ease of the silly thing: dump in ingredients, push the button, three hours later, voila! Fresh, hot bread.

OK, it’s not as good as “real” homemade, but it’s better than most store bought.

Another dear friend, however, swears the machine is really not that great and simply makes his dough by hand, keeping it in the refrigerator for when he wants a fresh loaf.

I’m no stranger to the joys of bread making, and I tend to agree with Friend 2 that it is a therapeutic process.

And so…

At 9:00 I gathered all the ingredients… by 9:30, the dough was in the refrigerator and the dishes were all washed… and note – no mixer was used, this was all by hand, baby!

Mis en place - it helps, really!

The start of the dough - look ma! No mixer!

Cup four goes into the mix

Next comes the fun part...

Getting your hands into it! This is a hands on job...

Getting there...

This doughball could use a bit more manhandling...

How can you tell if the dough is ready? Pooosh!

Look ma! No dough sticking!

Seriously – I’ve heard every thing from – dough is ready when it’s “elastic and smooth” (which is kinda like saying, “feel the clutch” when teaching someone to drive a stick) to the accurate, but icky, “it feels like a baby’s butt.”

How about something less subjective?

Push your fingers against the dough ball… then pull them away… they should leave a clear indent, and no dough should stick, or cling to your fingers. Simple? You betcha!

Now we know why I knead in a bowl - easy clean up!

I had a muffin pan here somewhere… December 1, 2007

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I’m a damn good cook and baker. I can pull off a full Thanksgiving meal for 12 without batting an eye – and without much thought or planning. The kitchen is no big mystery to me. (So it’s doubly funny when I screw up… At least to me!)

I also collect and read cookbooks. Normal people read novels. I read cookbooks. All kinds of ‘em. I especially love old cookbooks. The kind that have really archaic instructions (but that’s another post.) I have a few favorite sites for recipes as well, and one of my recent blog discoveries also happens to have seriously cool recipes. I’m in love.

The weather is cool, it’s raining, and it’s perfect for making rolls. I want fresh, hot, fluffy yeast rolls dammit, and I’m gonna make ‘em! Rather than dig out the recipe that calls for kneading until your arms fall off and your shoulders start making people suspect you’re on steroids, I turned to my new favorite gal and her no-knead roll recipe.

I gather all the ingredients, toss it all together, easy peasy, and get the dough doing it’s handy little “rest” thing. Meanwhile, I start digging for my muffin pan. I know I have one. Really, I do. But I don’t. I can’t find one anywhere in my kitchen. Nope. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero.

Then it dawns on me – I left the majority of my cooking/baking gear at my ex’s place when I left, and I’ve only replaced the things I’ve needed. Pots and pans of various sizes? Check. Pie and cake pans? Check and check. Various and sundry baking dishes, cookie sheets, springform pans, etc? Check, check, check. All of the little tools of the trade like whisks, spoons, and a strange assortment of utensils that make non-cooks wonder if I’m cooking or practicing some form of torture? Check-er-roony.

But muffin pans? No check. Negative. Yeah, we already established the muffin-pan-less status of my kitchen.

How in the world am I supposed to tuck my cute little walnut-size balls of perfect dough into a non-existent muffin pan?

Ever the improviser, I simply did free-form clover-leaf buns instead of the neat little muffin pan version, and it worked. It worked like a charm. Bonus? One less dish to wash, and two big baggies of dough for tomorrow.

Oh, the other bonus? The Boy, The Girl and the BF all have a new-found level of lurve for me and my cooking-diva status, those rolls are that good.

PS – here’s a nice cloverleaf… sheesh! In this case – there are four, rather than three, “petals” – probably done by making one big ball that has been slashed in a + shape, then the four points pulled slightly away from the main ball to create the cloverleaf. These also look like they were baked in a pan, but you get the idea. “Free-form” would be the same thing, just baked without the support of the muffin pan – as in, just sitting on a cookie sheet.

Didn’t know you were getting a cooking lesson, didja?