January 2008 Archives
As the smell of whole wheat bread, fresh from the oven, fills the house, I've decided to write about this month's Daring Bakers challenge (my first). We were tasked with baking a lemon meringue pie. I've made many fruit pies, and a few pies with meringue on them-my favorite is a key lime pie with fresh meringue spooned on top and lightly browned with a torch. Well, I had to make this pie twice. I was a little off when I gave it my first attempt. The first problem is that I started after 9:00 PM. This was just a bad idea.OK - the first attempt should be called 'meringue pie with lemon sauce': The crust came out wonderfully, but the curd didn't set. I've done meringue many times, so I had no problems there. The pie tasted fine, but the texture was WAY off. I went back and read over the recipe. I made a couple mistakes. First, it calls for a 10 inch pie pan, I used a 12 inch. The second problem was a simple misread of the recipe. I botched the steps of the curd, and it never set. On the bright side, when I poured the pie in to the sink, the crust came out in one giant piece.
A few weeks later, I gave it a second try. This time I used a 9 inch pie pan, and everything went very well (I don't own a 10 inch). I started on Saturday morning, and had a wonderful pie by the afternoon. Personally, it's a lot of work for a pie that's only really good for one day. Apple pies, silk pies, key limes, these will all hold for a couple days without going down in quality. The lemon meringue should really be eaten the same day it is made.
Problems with the recipe/pie: the curd can be temperamental. It either doesn't set up, or it weeps when cut. There is this magical zone where the curd holds it shape without bulging or breaking. This challenge required us to strictly follow the recipe, so, flirting with disaster was included. It took me two pies to get it right.
Lemon Meringue Pie
Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie
For the Crust:
- ¾ cup (180 mL) cold butter; cut into ½-inch (1.2 cm) pieces
- 2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (60 mL) granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt
- ⅓ cup (80 mL) ice water
For the Filling:
- 2 cups (475 mL) water
- 1 cup (240 mL) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (120 mL) cornstarch
- 5 egg yolks, beaten
- ¼ cup (60 mL) butter
- ¾ cup (180 mL) fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon zest
- 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
For the Meringue:
- 5 egg whites, room temperature
- ½ tsp (2.5 mL) cream of tartar
- ¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt
- ½ tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (180 mL) granulated sugar
For the Crust: Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt. Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together. Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.
Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of ⅛ inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about ½ inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.
For the Filling: Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated.Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick. Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.
For the Meringue: Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack. Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust.
I've blogged about these before, but this time I have better pictures, a different recipe, and I will try to elaborate on the steps a little more. When making this dish, the flavors are the most important thing to think about. You want something that will stand out, and the flavors need to meld together. I don't serve this dish with a sauce - so you want strong and vibrant flavors. Fruits, vegetables, and spices that are intense work very well. In the past, I've done sun dried tomato basil pesto, red pepper curry, basil pesto with provolone and olives, sun dried tomato olive tapenade, and a few fruit based variants.
Once you have the skills down, this is an easy dish to prepare. The most difficult thing is flattening the pork out, and that's pretty easy. Well, I guess I should start the recipe :D
Sun Dried Tomato-Olive Tapenade Pork Roulades
Filling Ingredients:
- Sun Dried Tomato-Olive Tapenade
- 5 1/2oz Olive Medley
- Sun Dried Tomato Paste
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 sprigs oregano
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- ground black pepper
- horseradish
- 1/4 dried chipotle pepper (minced)
- 1/2 red pepper
- 2 tsp sweet smoked Spanish paprika
Mince the red pepper, olives, and garlic together. Mix it with the sun dried tomato paste (this will help bind it together), chipotle, thyme, black pepper, and oregano. Mix very well and reserve for the pork. This can be made a day ahead of time. Set the horseradish aside for later.
On to the pork. First, we need to pick which tenderloin we want to use and remove the silverskin. This is the silvery blue connective tissue near the top of the tenderloin. If you don't remove this, your pork will distort and pull up. This is the same thing that makes grilled pork curl up. It is a simple procedure, and it goes measures into making your dish look better. Prepare a baking pan with a wire rack fit into it. Spray the rack with nonstick oil. Next, we butterfly the pork. Cut it down the center, but do not cut it in half. You want the knife to come about 1/4 of an inch from the bottom. You want to repeat this two more times. One for each half. If you still have a really large section, butterfly it again.
Now, place both sides of the pork between two sheets of plastic wrap. With the outside of the pork facing down, use a meat tenderizer to hammer the meat down. Use the spiky side first, then flip the hammer and use the flat side to flatten and form the pork. You are looking for 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch in thickness. The thinner the better, but do not destroy the pork, if you over work it, you will leave gaping holes when you roll it up. 
Next, evenly spread the filling across the pork, leaving 1/2 inch at the top so the seam can form. Roll it up and tuck the ends if they are uneven or loose.
Place the pork, seam side down, on the wire rack. coat the outside of the pork with canola oil, then sprinkle with sea salt (or kosher) and black pepper.
Cook in an preheated oven at 450 degrees (use convection is available). Cook until the internal temperature is 165 degrees (about 30 minutes IIRC). Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting.
OMG! These are SOOO good.
OK -- I watched good eats a few weeks ago, and I decided to give the marshmallows a try. As many people know - Alton Brown can do no wrong. Aside from the pungent, foul smell of gelatin at 240 degrees, these were SO freakin easy. Seriously. these are really really easy to make. Just make sure you have a candy thermometer.I followed the recipe exactly, but I swapped out vanilla paste for the extract. the tiny speckles of vanilla seed look so nice in white confections. These were a huge hit at work, and my son devoured two this morning.
Before I made the marshmallows, I was making dinner. My son climbed up in his tower and helped me 
ok... well, the last part was an excuse to post the adorable pictures.
No, this isn't made with banana bread, but that might be an interesting approach in the future. I came across this recipe while flipping through Bon Appétit. I had decided on bread pudding because my mother really likes it. I found a few recipes, but this one called to me - salt caramel and bananas. One of the recipes I had flipped through called for brioche, I decided to replace the white bread in the BA recipe with brioche. I hit the local bakery to be told they don't make it anymore. Well, I went home and almost broke my KitchenAid!
I made three small loaves of "Rich Man's" Brioche. The dough was SO tough on the stand mixer, but OHHH the smell of butter. This was my first time attempting brioche, and it came out perfectly - all three loaves. One loaf was sacrificed to French toast and toddler munching, the rest was saved for bread pudding.
The pudding recipe was pretty easy, it even used store bought caramel sauce to save time. I made a few small changes to the recipe -- I used vanilla bean pods, the brioche, less caramel, and a little extra sea salt. But everything else was straight from the magazine
Caramel-Banana Bread Pudding
8 ramekins
Lay out all the brioche and lightly toast in the oven - you are not looking to add color, just to stiffen up the surface. Mix the caramel with the coarse and fine sea salts. Once toasted, spoon 1 tbsp of the caramel sauce in each ramekin. When the bread is cool, spread the remaining caramel sauce evenly over the rest of the bread. Broil the bread for one minute and rotate the pan. broil for 30 to 60 more seconds. you want the caramel to bubble little, and the bread to begin to darken - do not burn the bread or caramel. Cool
While the bread cools, rub the inside of each ramekin with cold butter. Cut each piece of bread into four pieces and place a banana slice on each piece. If you cut it diagonally, you might be able to cover each piece with a single slice. standing the bread on it's edge, place 5 or 6 slices in each ramekin - you may have to push the last piece in place. Once they are all done, prepare the filling.
Whisk the eggs, half and half, milk, vanilla paste, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, and 1/8 tsp fine sea salt together. Pour the mixture into each ramekin (I filled each 1/2 up, then balanced the rest of the custard across the ramekins so they were all filled to the same level). Let the custard sit for 30 minutes - most of the mixture will be absorbed in the bread. They can be refrigerated (covered) for up to 8 hours at this point.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and set a pot of water boiling. If you have any extra custard, pour it into the ramekins. Brush the exposed bread with the melted butter and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar over the ramekins. When the oven is preheated, place the ramekins in a large roasting pan, put the roasting pan in the oven, then pour in the water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. bake for 45 minutes - checking the last 10 minutes for burning. A knife should come out cleanly.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream would go well with these.
They came out beautifully, but next time I would either add chopped up salt caramels with the bananas, or place a whole salt caramel in the center of the empty ramekin - the gooey center concept. The addition of the larger salt crystals gets you a few 'crunchy salt' moments when eating. If you have had salt caramel, you know probably what I am talking about.
I made three small loaves of "Rich Man's" Brioche. The dough was SO tough on the stand mixer, but OHHH the smell of butter. This was my first time attempting brioche, and it came out perfectly - all three loaves. One loaf was sacrificed to French toast and toddler munching, the rest was saved for bread pudding.The pudding recipe was pretty easy, it even used store bought caramel sauce to save time. I made a few small changes to the recipe -- I used vanilla bean pods, the brioche, less caramel, and a little extra sea salt. But everything else was straight from the magazine
Caramel-Banana Bread Pudding
- 1 cup purchased caramel sauce
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt- 1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt (I used gray)
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt (yes 2, it's not duplicated)
- 3 1/2 bananas
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups half and half
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 11 slices of brioche (2.5x3-inch slices 1/4 inches thick
8 ramekins
Lay out all the brioche and lightly toast in the oven - you are not looking to add color, just to stiffen up the surface. Mix the caramel with the coarse and fine sea salts. Once toasted, spoon 1 tbsp of the caramel sauce in each ramekin. When the bread is cool, spread the remaining caramel sauce evenly over the rest of the bread. Broil the bread for one minute and rotate the pan. broil for 30 to 60 more seconds. you want the caramel to bubble little, and the bread to begin to darken - do not burn the bread or caramel. Cool
While the bread cools, rub the inside of each ramekin with cold butter. Cut each piece of bread into four pieces and place a banana slice on each piece. If you cut it diagonally, you might be able to cover each piece with a single slice. standing the bread on it's edge, place 5 or 6 slices in each ramekin - you may have to push the last piece in place. Once they are all done, prepare the filling.Whisk the eggs, half and half, milk, vanilla paste, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, and 1/8 tsp fine sea salt together. Pour the mixture into each ramekin (I filled each 1/2 up, then balanced the rest of the custard across the ramekins so they were all filled to the same level). Let the custard sit for 30 minutes - most of the mixture will be absorbed in the bread. They can be refrigerated (covered) for up to 8 hours at this point.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and set a pot of water boiling. If you have any extra custard, pour it into the ramekins. Brush the exposed bread with the melted butter and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar over the ramekins. When the oven is preheated, place the ramekins in a large roasting pan, put the roasting pan in the oven, then pour in the water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. bake for 45 minutes - checking the last 10 minutes for burning. A knife should come out cleanly.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream would go well with these.
They came out beautifully, but next time I would either add chopped up salt caramels with the bananas, or place a whole salt caramel in the center of the empty ramekin - the gooey center concept. The addition of the larger salt crystals gets you a few 'crunchy salt' moments when eating. If you have had salt caramel, you know probably what I am talking about.
I've been neglecting my blog -- time to catch up.
I'll start with the yeastie living in my fridge. My starter is happy, tangy, and bubbly. So far, it's created 5 batches of bread. Each one is better then the previous. I've been doing copious amounts of research on sourdough, and I hope I have ironed out the kinks I kept running into. I have a nice banneton (rattan bowl) that I use for forming my dough on the second proof. That little bugger was a learning experience all in itself. If you use too little flour, the dough does not want to release, if you use too much, there is too much flour left on the surface. Rice flour is the general consensus - some say 100% white rice flour, others call for 50% white rice, and 50% all purpose. You still get the nice pattern on the dough, but you use less to get the clean release.
I finally figured out the problem I was having with proofing my bread. I let it overproof. This means it no longer has the oomph needed to rise when it hits the bakers stone. It would un-form from the banneton, I would slash it, and it would just sag. When I put it in the oven, there was no spring. In the first 5 to 10 minutes of cooking, the dough will rise one last time. This is where the expansion around the cuts comes from. Overproofed bread just bakes, properly proofed bread will grow in size, and the small slashes will expand.
Though I can comment on "misbaked bread" - it still tastes better then anything in the supermarket.
This entire time, I have been doing 100% of the work by hand. I like the feel of kneading the bread, and it is very easy to tell when it is ready, My last two batches were perfect, gigantic boules of sourdough. for the holiday dinner, I folded in some shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and fresh rosemary from the back yard. It was fragrant, tangy, and crusty. The lift in the oven was excellent, and the bread made a great compliment to the Beef-Shank Peposo (that's another post).
The next time I make bread, I will take more pictures and post the recipe I use.
I'll start with the yeastie living in my fridge. My starter is happy, tangy, and bubbly. So far, it's created 5 batches of bread. Each one is better then the previous. I've been doing copious amounts of research on sourdough, and I hope I have ironed out the kinks I kept running into. I have a nice banneton (rattan bowl) that I use for forming my dough on the second proof. That little bugger was a learning experience all in itself. If you use too little flour, the dough does not want to release, if you use too much, there is too much flour left on the surface. Rice flour is the general consensus - some say 100% white rice flour, others call for 50% white rice, and 50% all purpose. You still get the nice pattern on the dough, but you use less to get the clean release.
I finally figured out the problem I was having with proofing my bread. I let it overproof. This means it no longer has the oomph needed to rise when it hits the bakers stone. It would un-form from the banneton, I would slash it, and it would just sag. When I put it in the oven, there was no spring. In the first 5 to 10 minutes of cooking, the dough will rise one last time. This is where the expansion around the cuts comes from. Overproofed bread just bakes, properly proofed bread will grow in size, and the small slashes will expand.Though I can comment on "misbaked bread" - it still tastes better then anything in the supermarket.
This entire time, I have been doing 100% of the work by hand. I like the feel of kneading the bread, and it is very easy to tell when it is ready, My last two batches were perfect, gigantic boules of sourdough. for the holiday dinner, I folded in some shaved Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and fresh rosemary from the back yard. It was fragrant, tangy, and crusty. The lift in the oven was excellent, and the bread made a great compliment to the Beef-Shank Peposo (that's another post).
The next time I make bread, I will take more pictures and post the recipe I use. 
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