Baked

2012-01-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

I have decided to halt this blog. Unfortunately, I've been neglecting it far too much as I'm incredibly busy with my new business. I may be starting a new blog based around my business, but as yet, I haven't. I wish everyone the best, and thank you all for your reading, and kind words.

WA Berries

2011-07-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

In Seattle at this very moment, you can get some utterly amazing berries. This week for instance, I saw the emergence of blueberries, raspberries and these beauties (above) red currents. For those of you who haven't experienced these they are really quite tart, and the seeds are quite large. They kinda remind me of pomegranate seeds, as they are lovely and juicy. Last year I made Bar-le-duc out of red currents but I found the seeds pretty overwhelming. So this year, rather then make a confiture, I decided to treat them like pomegranate seeds and add them to greens.

As for strawberries (which have been around since the beginning of the month) I'm not sure people realize how many varieties are really out there. I have seen (and tasted) Shuksons (AMAZING - buy if you see these guys!), Totem, Puget and Albion. They all vary in size, consistency and taste (especially in intensity of flavor and amount of tartness). My favorites (so far - although I am waiting for the Hood variety) is the Shukson variety (as if you couldn't tell from my exclamation point above!). They were sweet, incredibly flavorsome and a good size. I made a strawberry and rhubarb jam from them, and they were so flavorsome and sweet that they completely neutralized the tartness of the rhubarb. However, the flavor is so good that I really didn't mind.

If you're in the state of WA - specifically the Western part, seriously get out there and get some berries because they are just magnificent at the moment. Thank you farmers - you are loved!

Pump up the Jam: Strawberry Mint Jam & Strawberry Rhubarb

2011-06-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

Being obsessed with fruit since a young kid (fresh strawberries squished on rye bread with a sprinkle of sugar), blueberries and cream on a simple sponge cake base, going cherry picking and eating as many as I could before we got tired, and working in a fruit and veg shop for many years before I came to America I have learned to seriously appreciate seasonal fruit.

Seattlites have been waiting and waiting for some sort of berry to come to the markets for many weeks now, but the past two weeks have been strawberry weeks. Early varieties are available, not as sweet or flavorful as some later ones ("Hood" strawbs are the BEST <- underlined and bolded) sweet, full bodied, rich and so much "strawberry" packed in a little bundle. But, while I wait a few weeks for those guys to come into their peak I have been making some jams out of local strawberries. The latest are: strawberry & rhubarb and strawberry mint.

Strawberry rhubarb is amazing. I have to admit I never had this combo until I came to the USA, but let me tell you, the American's were onto something. You have tart and sweet all at once, just the way I like it. I also decided to make a strawberry mint jam. It's a slow cooked jam with no pectin added, instead the berries are left to macerate in sugar and lemon juice overnight so the juice of the berries is removed from the fruit. I then let this cook down on a very gentle simmer for a couple of hours, and perhaps at two hours in I added some fresh mint leave and then a couple of grinds of pepper. It's a tart, rich and refreshing jam.

I'll be making plenty more jams as the seasons progress, I'm looking forwards to integrating some good local wines into my jams as well. I have some good baking ahead!

Mushroom Tart

2011-06-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a friend last week, and she expressed disappointment in the fact that all I have on this blog is macarons. Sorry Deniz! Instead, today I decided to write a quick write up about a tart I made for dinner on Monday night. It was pretty darn tasty.

At Lake Forest Park Farmers Market there is a vendor there who sells foraged things (hence where I got the fern fronts a few posts back). But, this week they were selling freshly foraged morel mushrooms. They are sublime if you can clean them well enough. He suggested that you put it in a bowl of water and sort of let them sit there for a moment to wash the bits of sand out of the folds. I've always wanted to hunt for morels, but I'm pretty new to the whole mycology thing so the past year I didn't get out in time to forage. This year is nuts, so I haven't had any time. However, it's awesome to have access to some lovely mushrooms, even when I don't get the chance to find them for myself.

Back to the tart. It's a mushroom tart. It contains the wonderful morel, white mushrooms, and crimmini mushrooms for a local store. I made a pate brisee crust and while that was doing it's thing in the freezer, I cleaned and sliced them and sauteed them with a bit of olive oil, salt and some shallots. Then I made custard out of eggs from the farmers market, creme fraiche from the market and some milk from another farmers market (I know, how many markets can I visit in a week?!). I seasoned it and added some fresh thyme, then quickly grated some parmesan over the layered mushrooms, and that's it.

A lovely dinner with a giant salad of fresh red leaf lettuce and lemon dressing from, you guessed it the farmers market.

Sourcing: Transparency

2011-06-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I started this business was about control. Sure, I am a control freak, I'll totally admit to that, I want to make what I want to make, and how I want to make it. But I also really want to be conscientious about my product, and in doing so I'm incredibly picky about my ingredients. I've decided to be completely open and transparent about my ingredients, where they come from and why I chose them. This is up-to-date as of today, but in the future it may change.

My almonds come from the Californian supplier Mandelin who use almonds supplied by Vetsch Farms of California. They are not organic, but they use a method of pest control called "Integrated Pest Management" or IPM. It's not the greatest method, but it is a environmentally sensitive approach to pest management (see more about IPM at: http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/factsheets/ipm.htm).

My powdered sugar comes from "Wholesome Sweeteners". It is both organic and fair trade, and I buy it because of this and the fact that the type I use doesn't use the typical corn starch, but uses tapioca starch.

My sugar, I use conventional sugar, C&H to be precise. I have used organic and fair trade sugar before, I just find that when I make caramel that the added color (slightly brown) confuses my sense of caramel! It also has a molasses taste that I don't want in the macarons.

My egg whites come from two places, Wilcox farms, and Organic Valley. Wilcox is a transition farm, meaning that it is on it's way to becoming certified organic (cage free). It is also Salmon Safe and certified Humane, and it is local they are located in Roy, WA. Organic Valley is a large supplier of egg whites, they are certified Organic by Oregon Tilth.

Food coloring, I know this is a quite a contentious issue at the moment. I use conventional food coloring, not natural at all. The reason for this is unfortunate. I would love to use all natural food coloring, I really would and have experimented with it. Unfortunately, there is a reaction between the food coloring and the egg whites. This reaction means that when I go to whisk my egg whites, the food coloring makes them collapse, and not whisk to the meringue consistency. So, at this point in time I use conventional food coloring.

Butter, I use Wholefoods 365 Organic butter in my butter creams. However, I do use different butter as well, it depends on price and convenience.

My cream comes from Organic Valley. It is certified Organic, part of a food co-op and last but not least it tastes good, and is widely available.

I have so many other ingredients, that change all the time. My chocolate however mostly comes from the Swiss chocolate maker "Felchlin". They pay more than fair trade prices to farmers, they know where their cocoa beans originate, they also disassociate themselves from those farms that use child labour (they only purchase from farms that comply with the International Labor Standards in regards to child labor. They also produce awesome chocolate and cocoa powder, so I'm very happy using their products.

As for other ingredients, I have no issue discussing where they come from, or how they were produced. I think it is incredibly important to be aware of where things come from, and that price not just be the bottom line, but to make conscientious decisions based on facts, as far as I can know them.

Menu for the week:

-Orange and Rhubarb (Rhubarb from Five Acre Farms). It's a rhubarb jam cooked with orange zest and fresh orange juice. It has a dollop of orange buttercream in the center.

(Almonds, organic fair trade powdered sugar (cane sugar, tapioca starch), sugar, egg whites, food coloring, rhubarb, orange zest, orange juice, organic butter, organic cream, orange oil).

-Chocolate Ganache (a 65% 'Better than Fair Trade' chocolate from the Swiss Chocolate maker Felchlin). Rich and lovely.

(Almonds, organic fair trade powdered sugar (cane sugar, tapioca starch), sugar, egg whites, food coloring, cocoa powder, 65% bittersweet chocolate (contains soy lecithin), organic cream, organic butter, salt).

-Lemon and Rosemary. A rich lemon buttercream, with fresh rosemary integrated into the shell.

(Almonds, organic fair trade powdered sugar (cane sugar, tapioca starch), sugar, egg whites, food coloring, organic lemon, organic cream, organic rosemary, organic butter, lemon oil).

-Mocha Ganache (coffee is the Organic Santa Teresa Estate Pacamara from Perkins Roasting Company)

A complex combination of bittersweet chocolate and freshly roasted coffee. Not too bitter, a good balance with a nice kick!

(Almonds, organic fair trade powdered sugar (cane sugar, tapioca starch), sugar, egg whites, dehydrated coffee, cocoa powder, 65% bittersweet chocolate (contains soy lecithin), organic cream, organic butter, salt).

Risky Business: Black Licorice Caramel

2011-05-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

In part starting this whole business thing was to try and keep me engaged and interested in what I make (also I'm a control freak so umm yeah). With this I have risks. Like this weeks experiment with Black Licorice Caramel Macarons (the above photo). I love black licorice, adore it so I personally have no issue adding that flavor to a whole lot of things, but, and here it gets risky; how many other people actually like black licorice in America? I have to admit it seems to be rather limited.

I have a friend Lisa, who told me and also gave me some caramels that were licorice caramels and I thought they were absolutely delicious. So I thought that I would use the same idea in a macaron. A simply caramel (sugar, cream, butter, salt) and add some pure anise oil to the mix.

The test this week: how many people will buy it? My suspicion, very few. BUT, I'm thinking that the few who do find it will be awfully excited about it (just like I would be).

We'll see!

The menu this week:

Homemade Rhubarb Jam (5 acre Farm WA)

Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache ('Better than Fair Trade' chocolate)

Zesty Lemon Buttercream (organic butter, organic cream, organic and fair trade confectioners sugar) and

Black Licorice Caramel (organic butter, organic cream)

Asparagus, I adore you!

2011-05-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

Seriously I loovvee asparagus. It is chewy and juicy, it can be smoky, sweet, pungent and salty. Right now (and I mean 'right' now ladies and gentleman) is asparagus season in Washington State, and I have consumed close to five pounds of it in the past couple of weeks.

Tonight I decided to continue the asparagus theme. So I decided to make a simple tart out of the stuff I had in my fridge/freezer. This consisted of some good quality puff pastry (good quality = butter + flour and maybe some salt. But that's the type of good puff that I like), some asparagus, some stinky cheese, a couple of onions and some fiddle head fern bits. All the produce has come from the local farmers markets, so pretty top stuff.

I love to caramelize onions, as I feel they always add a nice slightly sweet base to any savory dish without adding too much texture. The asparagus was roasted with some olive oil and a bit of salt for 15 min, then I sauteed the fiddleheads in some nice cultured butter.

To construct I placed (rather messily I totally admit) the puff in my tart ring, layered a whole lotta cheese on the bottom, placed the onions, then asparagus and fiddleheads. I sprinkled it lightly with salt then Josh helped me make a quick cream custard (cream + eggs + salt + pepper = custard) I poured it over the top.

It is baking as we speak ... I have tasted the components separately - and they are all pretty tasty. So my guess is that the tart will be pretty delicious!

First Markets

2011-05-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a reception. I really had such incredibly low expectations about who was going to buy my product that I was incredibly delighted to find that people were a. really curious about it or b. very excited about finding macarons. So thank you everyone who came and checked out the stall!

I had a blast selling them, although I had forgotten how fatiguing customer service can be, it was great to be able to gauge how much people liked the product because they were right (literally) in front of me. I always find the kids the most telling though - it's all about whether they can keep eating it after the first bite or not.

This past week I made 4 types of macarons, which I think is a good number (a good variety and I can experiment enough to keep myself interested!). So I'll keep the 4 macaron varieties per week.

This past week I made:
Hazelnut Buttercream Macaron,
Fleur de Sel Caramel Macaron,
Bitter Sweet Chocolate Ganache Macaron and
Fresh From the Market Rhubarb Jam Macaron.

My personal faves amongst that lot were the Fleur de Sel and the Rhubarb. I think having grown up with my opa growing rhubarb and my nana cooking it has giving me a healthy regard for its good and bad qualities (sometimes they can overlap... I love the tartness, but sometimes it can be waaaayyy too much), but I do tend to like my rhubarb on the tart side, and I also incorporate a healthy dose of lemon zest for extra zing.

While at the markets I did keep a look out for rhubarb, but unfortunately I didn't find any. So this coming week at the markets I will be doing all dairy based fillings (verses a homemade jam which is dairy free).

I'm hoping for sunshine! On Sunday it absolutely bucketed down, and was generally a tad sad and cold, so I plan on having sunshine and a little warmth on the weekend!

Thank you!

2011-05-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, the trials and tribulations of starting a food business in the lovely state of Washington.

I thought it would be easier - but I have learned a ton in the past year about organization and most of all persistence. I'm pretty nervous about selling my product - one that I have invested so much thought, effort and time into and having people choose to or not to invest in it. However, there have been some awesome people who have really helped make it easier:

Josh you are one of course! My Mum, my mother-in-law Jane, Jenny of "Jenny the Pie Lady" who has always been so encouraging, my friends Ayumi, Tricia, Lisa and Deniz who have been listening to me talk about this for a seriously long time! My baking buddy Jamie - why did you have to move to Texas?! my old boss Elena (of the awesome choc. shop GrendelSweets - I know shameless plug, but their chocolates are really lovely)- so thank you all so so very much, because let me tell you this has been no easy task, as I am not usually one to take a lot of risk (or any really...). But here I am, on the cusp of starting the markets.

I was talking to a baking buddy yesterday actually about a project we had to do in Baking school. It was the crappy "5 year plan" assignment. We were told to try and figure out what we wanted to do in a five year period, and my plan was to sell tarts at a farmers market as I've always loved to make tarts. We were also required to interview someone that we admired in the industry to ask advice. This is where Jenny comes in. I had been eying of her beautiful pies for quite some time (huge, medieval looking pies like the ones that little blackbirds would pop out of) and so I asked her to be my interviewee....In other words, I'm pretty close to where I hoped I would be in 5 years. Maybe not tarts, but with another product that I find satisfying and challenging to make; French Macarons.
I think I need to say "thank you" to the people who have been reading this blog. It has been incredibly encouraging to read the comments and support people have shown me, and it has certainly kept me baking.

So here is to a new chapter - let's see where it leads!
lilli-pilli.com

Quick: Memories of Australia

2011-04-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

I've been traveling around quite a lot recently. And one of the places I went was my hometown Melbourne, Australia. At the risk of sounding like a tourist advertisement it's a beautiful city.

above - the Vic Market

They have some seriously good bakeries, some hippy (organic, local etc), some traditional (Italian bakeries with hundreds of different biscuits, coffee and the ridiculously rich "European hot chocolate" thick enough to stand a spoon in it! well, not quite but it sounds like a good schtick to me!), and some good ol' Aussie bakeries. While I was there I managed to scarf down a good amount of hot cross buns (some good some not so good - I love the doughy kind, to me a fail in the hot cross bun department is when it requires butter in order to appear good and doughy) but no vanilla slice (serious disappointment!)

The food scene is really nice there - so many places to eat, so much good food, and again I totally recognise I'm biased as hell - but I do love Melbourne.

above - Hot Cross Buns from Prahran Market

We also went to Boston, Napa and Austin before the Aussie trip. I'm pretty exhausted from traveling and am eager to start the new business at the Farmers Markets in May (Yay!) We were going to go to Italy but decided against it due to well, I guess just being so tired from much travel within a 4 month period.

Chocolate

2011-02-22T12:29:00.000-08:00

I have just finished a 9 month stint as a chocolatier at a awesome chocolate shop. I haven't really shown what I worked on in this blog yet, so I thought that I would briefly show some of the things I helped produce.

This is a fleur de sel caramel - made without the use of corn syrup. Seriously delicious, and pretty satisfying to make really.

The marzipan - simple but lovely.

These were both slabbed and hand dipped. I did quite a lot of molded chocolates as well, butter creams and such. It was an interesting medium to work with as I had briefly done some chocolates at school, but never worked with chocolate that much. I learned nice tempering methods (ice bath!) and that you have to be in a good mood to work with chocolate, as I swear it can sense your weakness!

New Business

2011-02-19T07:56:00.001-08:00

I'm trying, yet again to begin a small business making food. Specifically I have decided to concentrate on baking French Macarons with various seasonal fillings (cherry, apricot, peach, sour plum) as well as some not so seasonal fillings ie. dark chocolate and Fleur de sel Caramel. My idea is that I will sell them at local farmers markets (as I love love LOVE the markets) and maybe do special commissions and such.

I am currently underway to getting my commercial kitchen (note to self - HUGE expense), but I am looking forward to working in a space that a.) has natural light, and b.) has other people obsessed with food in it. I realize that I miss school for this reason, I love food talk, I love seeing food being made and learning how other people make it/consume it, so this part of the kitchen is a massive bonus for me, as is natural light obviously!

I have a facebook page for my business:

http://www.facebook.com/LilliPilliBaked

and a twitter account:

http://twitter.com/ LilliPilliBaked

So if you like a lot of food talk, and some picts about being obsessed with food, please join me on my new adventure.

I plan on traveling quite a bit until June (Massachusetts, Hawaii, Australia and Italy) but June is my real starting date for the markets, but until then I will be concentrating on recipe testing, a whole lot of paper work, applications, exploring local bakeries and planing where to visit in those various locations.

Thank you everyone for your support!

Macarons - Valentines Day

2011-02-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

I made a ton of macarons for Valentines Day. They reminded me of my favorite ice cream I used to get as a kid:Neapolitan. I'm sure my grandparents bought it because having three grandkids meant that we were all bound to be pleased. And we were! I loved the strawberry, and I remember Jesse (my little brother) loved the chocolate. I'm not sure about my older brother, but I suspect it worked out that he liked vanilla.

The flavors of these macarons were: beige = fleur de sel caramel (note to self: salt burns and looks blackish and weirdly peppery, so maybe don't do that next time...), the pink were raspberry filled with homemade jam and the brown were nutella with a nutella buttercream filling.

This was a tough project. My oven broke (again, this is the 2nd time within three months and it makes me very sad!) but as I live in an apartment we have a shared kitchen space downstairs which I commandeered and so I dragged the sheet pans down 17 floors and baked in community kitchen in the middle of the night. At least these smell delicious!

I'm also finding the packaging a massive hassle. Who knew that there isn't any packaging in the States that suits macarons specifically, so I had to make do with what I found and make sure I lined them with food safe paper.

This was a lot of work, but I'm pretty happy with the results!

I Heart Butter (specifically cultured butter)

2011-01-07T16:00:00.000-08:00

I love butter, there is no hiding that fact. However, I'm pretty picky with the butter that I do consume, especially when I'm at home. For the past several months I have been making cultured butter at home. It takes a couple of days (mostly wait time) but the end results are pretty amazing.

Cultured butter is butter that has some cultures that are added to it to add flavor. I use a mesophilic lactic culture (lactic ferment) which thrives at room temp and imparts this amazingly buttery flavor to well, butter (people also add it to cheeses such as brie and camembert for the same buttery flavor). It's well worth the time and energy it takes.

As I really don't wish to lose this recipe I will document it here.

Cultured Butter (makes a ton of butter and buttermilk)

3 Lt Heavy Cream (I use organic)

Meso II or Aroma B starter culture

Method

1. Cool cream to 14-16C in a cool water bath.

2. Add 1/8tsp culture and gently stir in.

3. Allow to ripen at 14-16C for 20 hours.

4. Place cream in fridge for 4-6 hours.

5. Pour into churn and allow temp to rise to 12C.

Churn at 12C it will take 15-30min. Don't let the temp increase too much (if it hits 13C cool down in cool water bath).

6. Strain butter through cheese cloth and squeeze out excess buttermilk (save the buttermilk!)

7. Knead the butter gently and remove excess buttermilk, add salt then pack the butter and put it away in the fridge.

It has a shelf life of around 4 weeks in the fridge or several months in the freezer.

Use the buttermilk for anything you would normally use it for (cakes, pancakes, scones, biscuits etc).

My First Gingerbread House "Up"

2010-12-11T13:36:00.001-08:00

I have been locked away over the fast few weeks working like crazy to finish my first gingerbread house. It's the "Up" house from the pixar film of the same name. I love the film, very sweet and quirky. And the house has colors and textures that looked like a heap of fun to make. I used the plans from the amazing "Themodelmaker" at http://themodelmaker.net/flying-house-model-pixar-up/ I scaled the model x6, then I cut it out of paper to form a template. I then made a foam backed version so I could see where things fitted and whether I needed to make some adjustments. After that I made the gingerbread from a recipe that I thought was pretty sturdy (no eggs, or chemical learners just flour, molasses, spices, veggie shortening) - I made the recipe x 6. It was a crazy amount of dough. Then I traced the templates over the dough and cut them out. Baked the gingerbread off and then let it cool completely before I even attempted to put it together.

Slowly, and I mean seriously slowly Josh and I put the house together (over a series of 3 days) and then I made masses of sugar paste decor for the house. This is what took a ton of time, you have to color it, shape it, texturize it (if you need to) and then let it dry for two days. Then came the assembly, which was the fun bit. I used Alton Brown's Royal icing recipe which

stood the test of time (and cement-ability). and that's it.

A fun, and yet epic amount of work, but I'm pretty pleased with the results! We are auctioning off the house at work and donating the money to a charity. So hopefully it works out!

A shout out to the awesome and incredibly talented 'themodelmaker' and Don Shank who's amazing pictures I stared at for three weeks, attempting to get the details right. Just a beautiful house (see Don at: http://donshank.blogspot.com/2009/08/fredricksen-house.html).

My love affair with tomatoes

2010-10-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

I had a ton of tomatoes this year - seriously I filled up a massive bag with them and sorted them out between the "green" bag and the "red" bag. I actually love the idea of using green tomatoes in cooking. The idea that something doesn't have to be just about the awesome flavor that comes from a beautifully ripe tomato, but that it can also be about the blandness (think eggplant) and about the texture.

I made a whole lot of green tomato salsa this year out of the green tomatoes, and as I'm far too paranoid to can tomatoes I gave the majority of the salsa away (it was pretty awesome go here: http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2005/09/saving-harvest-green-tomato-relish.html for the recipe - she calls it a relish, I figure as I'm foreign and have no clue about the difference between a salsa and a relish I am hereby renaming it a salsa).

With all the lovely red ripe (sometimes VERY ripe) tomatoes I decided to slowly roast them with some garlic and onions, salt and pepper and make a simple red sauce with them. Out of this I made pizza sauce, and a simple pasta sauce. Man I love having a P-patch.

Mushrooms aka mushies

2010-10-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

It's mushroom season over here! It is amazing the variety and the amazing flavors that different mushies imbibe.

Josh and I went mushy hunting on Saturday (at a undisclosed location) and it was amazing. We went a couple of times last year but failed pretty badly at finding any edible (and tasty edible) mushies. This year however was different, we found some amazing lobster mushies (which as we are on the West coast are edible) and also some beautiful chanterelles.

Lobster mushies are actually a mushrooms being consumed by a parasite. They are incredibly bright (hence easy spotting) and really crispy mushrooms. The few I found I cooked down with a ton of butter, shallots and thyme and put them with some gruyere and a simple thyme custard for a tasty quiche. The lobsters do keep their density, they are quite a bit "toothy" and a smidge crunchy, you know they are there. Their flavor is pretty subtle, but they go up a few notches in my books simply because we went out and found them (note that we did get our mushies verified by an expert).

The chanterelles were beautiful as well, yet not half as vibrant as the lobsters. They smell floral/fruity and we noticed that when we found one - we found quite a few others. Josh is going to go hunting next week again, so maybe we'll have another bounty!

P-Patch

2010-10-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

This year we had a p-patch. Which, for those of you who don't know is a plot of land designated by someone to be a plot of land in which the public can grow things o - for people who can't have a garden. It was both a success and a disaster. We had broccoli raab, lovely red onions, tomatoes of three heirloom varieties, leeks, lovely carrots and a multitude of other things that sort of well, grew unencumbered. It's our first year, I'm sure it'll get better, as I do intend to have another p-patch next year. But, we did have a TON of tomatoes. Some rather ripe ones. So I quickly went about washing, halving and olive oiling them so that they could be slowly roasted (along with a ton of garlic and some yellow onions). I made a lovely sauce that will last through the winter months.

I'm ashamed to say I don't have picts of our P-patch, but I hope you imagine it to be a lovely jumble of plants growing like crazy!

2010-10-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

Cripes! It's been ages! I think it's hard to gain momentum when it's been such a loooonnnggg time between posts. I have been baking (of course!). But I haven't been documenting what I bake. Here - this ends!

We had a few turbulent months that involved a couple of house moves and so I think we are fairly settled here, and so I have finally found the camera and am starting to document the whole baking thing once more.

The markets didn't work out this summer, but I do intend to try again next year, as I feel that I really want to bake food my way, in season and for only the lovely part of the year (sunny!). I did however, get a job at an awesome local chocolate shop, so I am making chocolates and learning a whole lot and in my spare time I'm playing with baking.

I'm back. I'll keep documenting what I bake, we'll see how it goes.

Chef of the Day (COD)

2010-03-24T13:44:00.001-07:00

Chef of the Day or as the kids like to call it COD is our final project at school. We have to make 6 items and present them to our 3 chefs who then judge each item as well as our table set up. The items we have to make are:

A tart

A cake

A bread

A breakfast pastry

A chocolate

A plated dessert

It was a tough call - but a fun project. I think like any obsessive person I began thinking about this project the first quarter I started at school. I wanted something

simple and clean, using good local products if possible (although as it is winter quarter - there isn't a whole lot of produce available... and I don't know how a cabbage cake would work out...)

So my menu was:

Cake - A Honey Yoghurt Baklava Cake. Last quarter I tried making this cake that had this really tart, zesty mousse on top of a muesli base. It was pretty gross actually - so savory it was basically plain yoghurt on top of muesli. So I jazzed up the mousse a bit, added fireweed honey as my invert sugar used this amazing honey flavored greek yoghurt and added more milk chocolate to the mousse, and it worked really well.

Underneath that mousse I have a praline layer (basically

hazelnut, sugar and a smidge of salt), this layer melts, creating a type of syrup, rather than a crunch to the cake. It's the layer of caramel color that you see beside the cake. Under this there is a toasted sesame bavarian layer.I simply toasted sesame seeds, roughly ground them and then steeped them in hot milk for half an hour.Then there is the final layer, a roasted walnut sponge cake with a ed honey sponge.

I was really happy with this cake - it had the tang that I wanted from the yoghurt, the richness of the honey and the warmth of the sesame seeds and walnut.

Tart - An onion tart. This is a savory tart

made with a red wine onion confit (local syrah used), with a strong and seriously ripe muenster cheese, a creme fraiche custard, thyme and potatoes. It's a pretty pungent tart, made for small slices and best eaten when slightly warm.

Bread - the miche. This was such a beautiful bread - how could I not make it?

A breakfast pastry - Simple whole wheat croissants with a preferment. I love these croissants, so buttery, slightly sweet and slightly nutty. They are also slightly larger than your normal croissant (3oz as opposed to 2.5oz) which I have to say appeals to me as well. Just what I want for breakfast.

Chocolate - This is my beehive. It's a buckwheat honey ganache filling (the honey is from a local apiary) and a liquid honey center (which is simply

buckwheat honey). It has a milk chocolate covering. For those who don't really know buckwheat honey the descriptions I get when people smell/taste it are: horse, hay, farm. It's an incredibly earthy, natural taste which pairs brilliantly well with the warmth of milk chocolate.

Plated Dessert - This is a goat cheese cheesecake made with creme fraiche. It is covered in hazelnut toffee - so it has this earthy, nutty, crunchy texture/flavor. The sauce is a caramel blood orange sauce. The sorbet is a grapefruit and Gewurtztraminer (from a local winery) sorbet and it sits atop a rosemary sucree.

So that's it.

It's been so very draining, I didn't do a whole lot of baking outside of school because I was so intent on figuring out the baked goods for school.

Sorry once again!

The Future

2010-01-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

As always I'm apologizing for being so incredibly slack with the posts of late. I have been baking (it's been the holidays how could I not) I just have been in such a rush to bake them off that I failed to take any picts of them.

It's my final quarter at school. I have to say that I'm looking forward to finishing, but am nervous about the "what do I do once I've finished?" I've decided to start my own business.

I've been working towards it for quite some time, mostly filling out forms and doing a whole lotta paper work, but once school is finished I intend to make this business my career.

I want to sell baked goods at two local farmers markets in the upcoming farmers market season (May - October). I plan on using local ingredients sourced from the vendors at the markets and making things such as fresh tarts (I love making tarts both savory and sweet), some breads, maybe some doughs (such as whole wheat croissants I don't have a sheeter so they'll all be hand rolled) and maybe some confiture (jams) as the seasons progress.

It's going to be a solo endeavor. Just me, both making and selling, and it's going to be a whole lotta work. I'm not expecting to earn a lot of money (who does as a baker right?) but enough to support my passion to bake.

Cakes and mix and match

2009-12-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

I've been breading it up big at home lately - I realize just how much I seriously love to make breads.... But on the other hand I've also been playing around with cake ideas. I have my final quarter coming up at school early next year and I have a project called "Chef Of the Day" and I have to make a tart, a breakfast pastry, a chocolate (or a petis four), a bread, and a cake. Needless to say I'm worried about the cake portion as I feel it's something that I haven't really done much of.

As I've been learning more this quarter about cakes I've been liking them a whole lot more. There are so many variations to make, not only that but you can take parts of one cake you like and apply it to another one - it's really easy to integrate, and mix and match.

This cake is one I've been thinking about for a few weeks, sort of a baklava cake: the base is a walnut sponge, this is covered in a honey syrup. On top of this is a roasted pistachio and vanilla bavarian, then a layer of praline, and then a milk chocolate and honey yogurt mousse. I was pretty happy with the way it came out. I do need to work on presentation (it's a tad bland in looks), and also I'm going to change the bavarian layer to a roast hazelnut layer, but it's not bad. Al

so, all the layers are from different recipes, just proving you can make whatever you like as long as you have the basics down (ie. know how to make a sponge, a mousse and a bavarian).

Hearty Breads

2009-11-17T06:51:00.000-08:00

Oh beautiful grainy, hearty breads I seriously like you. I think it's something that I have learned the more I make breads, the more I like some substance to them. For me, this means grains. Some serious grains at that. Lately I've been 'oohing' and 'ahhing' over rye. Not rye the flour so much as cracked rye. It has this lovely nutty flavor and a beautiful soft/chewy texture that I adore.

I've made a ton of bread at school: rye baguettes (the photo on the bottom of this post), dreikornbrot (the first photo. It has flax, rye chops, sesame and oats), a rosemary levain bread (which looked more like a roasted potato than a loaf of bread but was amazingly tasty and moist) miche, sunflower and rye bread, plenty of baguettes (ranging from straight dough to many preferment's), pumpernickel bread (takes 24 hours in the oven in order to get the color and taste that pumper has! AND it's basically all rye chops [cracked rye soaked with water]) and many more fabulously grainy breads.

Chocolates

2009-11-16T12:49:00.000-08:00

I've been making chocolates lately. A lot of hard work, but I'm really enjoying it. Chocolate is challenging due to the finicky nature of sugar crystals - in order to make a pretty chocolate that has a beautiful shiny coat, with snap and an interesting filling. I've been loving the booze thing - all these exotic (at least to me) liquors such as St Germain (Elderberry), Pernod (seriously strong black licorice) and Absinthe (which I like to call "Van Gough" - just a really strong Pernod with a stronger 'chemicalness' to it).

I made Advocaat as well - it's an egg based liquor (egg yolks, brandy, condensed milk and vanilla bean) which I made into a ganache using white chocolate and filled dark chocolate molds. Chocolates are something I have really enjoyed. So watch out all you people I know (and like!) you may be getting some experimental choc's for xmas!

Pink Macaroons

2009-11-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

I finally found a good recipe. One that really works - consistently works. An Italian meringue base (egg whites whisked until bubbly, then add soft ball stage sugar water slowly down into the egg whites while whisking) adds stability. Cook in a convection oven (low around 160C), cook until you can pick up the macaroons freely off the sheet pans.

Small things make all the difference! Macaroons are so fickle it's awfully nice to find a reliable recipe!

At School

2009-10-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

I'm at school again. Busy, busy and seriously busy. I will try and post - I am taking picts of what I'm working on there it's just a matter of posting them!

Caramelized Fennel Tart

2009-10-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, not the prettiest tart, and admittedly not the best I've had either. I do however, give this guy some points for using fennel. How many people really use fennel? How many people realize that the taste dramatically changes when it's cooked for a long period of time and is allowed to slowly caramelize? Let me tell ya, it changes. It becomes a really mellow flavor, very subtle. This one has been slowly cooked on a stove top for around an hour with olive oil, an onion and a few bulbs of fennel.

I remember when I had to travel into uni on the train. Fennel would grow wild next the railroad tracks. I always wondered if anyone actually picked it. At that time, I had no idea what I would use it for, nowadays I have a few ideas.

Oh! I was wondering if anyone else has noticed how much fruit surrounds them? I noticed plums in a local public park, no one picked them but the birds. I also saw a giant apple tree in an apartment complex, a fig tree on capitol hill (they are looking mighty ripe right now), there are blackberries a few hundred meters up my street... we need some sort of program that allows people to pick some of the bounty (of course I already obliged this with the blackberries a few weeks ago...)

Plum Danish

2009-10-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

Although Tricia did bring plums over they were prune plums, and I happened to see some beautiful duarte plums at the market that very same week. These were a deep red plum, very fragrant. Little did I know that they had a beautifully sweet, ruby red flesh on the inside.

This is a simple Danish dough, cut into flower shapes. The filling consists of almond cream and the fresh pulp of the plums - no sugar added.

Danish's are such a simple pastry, and I think that as the base is simple the fillings should be simple. I like the taste of butter - and I like the taste of butter in these guys.

Simple Plum Tart

2009-10-04T23:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, some more plums. Once again from the lovely Tricia.

I've taken to making tart dough like there's no tomorrow and just keeping it in the freezer until I have a filling to put in it. Once again this tart relies on the fruit to do it's best in flavoring the tart. It's a simple pate sucre, I put panko on the base to soak up the juice left by the plums, and then layered the plums.

No this wasn't as easy as I'm making it sounds...I had to do it twice. On the way to the oven I managed to hit the oven door and the pieces managed to stay within the tart, but completly lop sides. It looked rather good actually.. I figured it would be kinda weird to eat a tart that had nothing on one side and everything on the other. So I rearranged them again.

I sprinkled the top with cinnamon, sugar and cardamon, baked it. Glazed it with some apricot glaze and that was it.

It was a tart sweet tart. I should have precooked the base longer than the 10 min I did as it was a smidge unstable. But otherwise it was pretty alright.

Plum Scrolls

2009-10-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

wow, its been a while!

A friend bough a ton of plums the other week - I mean seriously a lot. They were Italian prune plums. And so she made her way out to my place and we thought we'd see how much we could use.

These babies were inspired by a german plum cake. This usually means a very simple cake made with yeast dough, rolled out to fit a baking sheet and then plums layered on top.

We used the same yeast dough, rolled it out into a rectangle, slathered it with melted butter, sprinkled on some sugar and cinnamon, scattered some plum chunks. They were finished with a simple vanilla icing.

So very good, and very seasonal!

Nectarine Tart

2009-09-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not usually a huge fan of nectarines, always been more of a peach lady myself, however it is the end of summer fruit season (sniff sniff) and so I thought I needed to use some nectarines.

This is a simple tart that relies on good, fresh nectarines that are at the peak of their season.

It has a simple almond cream base, with fresh nectarines cut, and arranged on top. That's it.

It smelled amazing, the texture was really nice, soft - like apricots from a can, but a lot more fragrant.

A tart I would make again.

Chocolate Stout Cake and No Cake Decorating Skills

2009-09-18T10:35:00.000-07:00

So this may seems like an innocent cake - one with a whole lotta chocolate, a splash of booze and a bit of caffein. But this guy drove me to the end of my tether.

Easy to make, this cake sounded interesting because of the beer content - I was curious what kind of flavor and/or texture it would add to the cake. When I tried the batter (as you must) I could taste the beer, yet when I baked it, there really wasn't anything yet. The cake was a not-quite-chocolate cake. But not quite sure what it was kinda cake.

Whatever right? Just ice it and send it off.

I tried. I tried for maybe an hour and a half, and learned a very very good lesson. It takes time to ice a cake... specifically to ice it nicely. My forearms physically hurt - still.

Kudos to all of you people who can ice (you know who you are Wendy, Sarah N). It's something I really need to work on.

The recipe for the cake and icing is from: Octobers Bon appetit:http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/10/chocolate_stout_layer_cake_with_chocolate_frosting

Concord Grape Tart

2009-09-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this tart for about a year. I first met the concords at a farmers market last Autumn. They looked pretty - like large blueberries, but they smelled of my childhood.....specifically a bubble gum I used to have a s a kid. So ate them. Then looked for them the next week at the market, but alas they had finished for the season. That day I vowed to exploit the grapes the next year.

All the grape tarts I looked at seem to begin the same way: pop the middle part of the grape out and save the skins.

Ingredients

Concord Filling

1 1/2 lbs. concord grapes
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. potato starch
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Oat Crumble

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cuptightly packed brown sugar

pinch of salt

not quite 1/2 cup of flour

1/4 cup unsalted better - melted

1 Tart base (mine was a pate sucree)

Method (preheat oven to 375F)

1. Wash the grape and gently squeeze the internal part of the grape into a bowl, keep the skins in a separate bowl.

2. In a small saucepan place the internal part of the grapes and boil for around 10 min.

3. Put them in a sieve over a bowl and using the back of a spoon squish the grapes until most of the pulp has been transferred to the bowl below.

4. empty the contents of the bowl into a medium saucepan, add the skins, sugar and melted butter. In a small bowl place the potato starch and lemon juice and stir until well combined (you may need to add a little extra water to make a paste). Add the paste to the grape mixture and stir to combine.

5. Heat over medium heat until slightly thicker.

6. Let cool a little

7. Meanwhile make the crumble. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the butter and using your finger tips mix until all the dry ingredients have been integrated.

8. In your tart base place some of the filling - fill it up around 3/4 full. Then sprinkle your crumble on top.

9. Bake for around 45 min, but check for the setting of the tart - the consistency should be like that of a thick jam.

10. Let cool to room temp and serve.

A very good tart - a little tart, very nice with the sweet crust of the sucree. Also a slightly sweetened whipped cream works very nicely!

Naan

2009-09-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

I adore Indian food; its complexity, warmth, the fact that you can eat it all with your hands. I have made naan before. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great experience.

At school when you are 2nd quarter you are in charge of supplying the bread rolls and other such sundries the schools restaurants require. The week I was doing my bread rotation just happened to be the week when they were doing a middle eastern/ Indian theme. All I remember is standing by the sheeter (a mechanical rolling pin essentially) and making flat breads for what felt like hours. Under stress - because they wanted the bread now.

But, I went to dinner at Tricia and Tim's place and well, it was Tim's birthday and he requested naan, so I had to make it!

It was alright. A little dry - I like my naan moist and filled with pannier- which I din't use in this naan. A really easy bread to make though, only requires one fermentation (rather then two) and has a little zing due to the yogurt used.

It was a good accompaniment for all the delicious Indian food we had made - so that means success for me.

It's really is funny though, how I'm never satisfied with what I make. It's never perfect. It can be 'alright' or 'pretty good' but usually not brilliant (note the exception below this post the tomato, mozzarella tart - go and buy yourself -if you are in the Northern hemisphere, some beautifully ripe tomatoes, some good buffalo mozzarella and make the tart tonight).

Raspberry and Bittersweet Chocolate Tart

2009-09-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

A friend had their birthday last week, and he loves chocolate. I wanted to make something that I hadn't made before, something that used both fruit and chocolate. This tart seemed like the answer. It is a simple tart made with very high grade ingredients.

A simple ganache made with a bittersweet chocolate with 72% cacoa, raspberries were squished on the bottom, the ganache poured over the top and then a little decoration and that was it.

I simply used some left over bittersweet chocolate and a hand made chocolate piping bag (made with parchment paper) to pipe the decoration onto a sheet of parchment which I then froze.

Simple, rich, elegant. Recommended - a heavy dose of sweetened whipped cream on the side.

Mozzarella and Fresh Tomato Tart

2009-09-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

Amazing. Seriously, really damn amazing. So very simple as well. This tart consists of a pate brisee base, dijon mustard smeared over the top, gruyere on top of that and then beautifully fresh tomatoes are placed between layers of buffalo mozzarella.

Over all of this olive oil infused with thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, garlic and salt and pepper. Bake.

Amazing. I can't really say anymore. A great tart that I will be making many summers from now.

Creme Fraiche and Berries Tart

2009-09-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

A tasty tart, but when I made it it was a rather ugly tart. It has a simple pate sucree base, some blackberry jam on the base, blueberries and raspberries are then placed on top. On top of al this you make a blackberry compote and pour that on top, pour on the creme fraiche and broil in your oven until it looks like a creme brulee.

It was a popular tart (although I did forget to put the blackberry compote into the tart but served it on the side). And it was a savory/sweet tart that requires very ripe, fresh fruit for it to really be any good.

I want to make my own creme fraiche next. I just found a recipe for it, and i have a recipe to use it in...

Rhubarb

2009-09-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

I adore rhubarb, and the amount of rhubarb I use is pretty good evidence of this. It's in season all summer long and pairs well with strawberries raspberries, lemon or simply sugar. So a couple of the tarts I've made lately have rhubarb in them. The bottom one is simply rhubarb + strawberry + kirsch and some whipped cream.

The top one is a vanilla tart with rhubarb infused with lemon zest and a few left over raspberries. A really tart tart.

Easy as pie (tart) really!

Ice Cream

2009-09-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

I'm holding onto the thought that it is still summer (despite watching the trees beginning to turn all shades of red) and so I've proceeded to make a bunch of ice cream of late. I made a peach honey ice cream from Dorie Greenspan 'Baking From My Home to Yours - result = so so. A little hard when frozen, not enough peach taste despite having both fresh and cooked peaches in it. I made a fabulous greek yogurt ice cream - the flavors are cream and butter... Really amazing and texturally good (for the recipe see: http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/09/greek_yogurt_ice_cream).

Yesterday I made a rum and roasted walnut ice cream. All signs are positive on this one - smooth texture, a serious punch of rum and the crunch of walnuts (from chez panisse dessert book). Finally I made a clove ice cream to go with a rhubarb strawberry tart that I'm making (once again from chez panisse desserts).

I wonder about the difference in recipes though. Some use half and half, other use whole milk, some like the liquor raw (no burning/heating/cooking) others like to have it cook off. Mostly I'm curious about the milk part mostly - about how the fat content effects the texture. The greek yogurt one was lovely and smooth (and it lasted a while being that way) and I imagine this is in part the result of having not only milk and cream but also the yogurt. So why not always up the fat content? Why not always use half and half instead of milk?

Blackberries

2009-08-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

I live on a street that boarders a public park area. It is seriously infested by what we in Australia call prickles. Here in America I've noticed that they aren't really called that, instead they are called blackberries after the fruit, rather then the thorns.

I've been eyeing them off for a while, and as I've been riding my bike past the bushes laden with heavy ripe berries I've seen a lady come by and pick a whole bunch of them. This week I decided to do the same. Once again, my berry picking accomplice was Tricia (of the blueberry escapade last week). We picked around 2.5 pounds. I started using them straight away as they were gorgeously ripe. I simply rinsed them in cold water, tossed them with a bit of sugar (not much was needed to be honest) and then made a crumble with oats for the top. Baked them and voila! Breakfast for the next few days!

Note to self = blackberries are in most of August... at least that's when the lady has been picking them....

Kirche Mousse

2009-08-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with a mousse recipe I have. It has a serious amount of kirche and a bit of vanilla. I adore it because it packs a serious punch. I'm thinking of using it in a cake (the recipe for the mousse comes from a cake - but I wasn't brilliantly happy with the cake when I did make it). I'm thinking of using a recipe for a shortbread type cookie with a bunch of salt in it as the base - maybe a sponge with kirche soaked cherries or cranberries as another layer or maybe a cherry/cranberry gellee layer and then some more mousse. But I'm not sure yet.

For the top one it was simply put in a mold with the salty short bread cookie, the one in the wine

glass had mousse with layers of the cookies crumbled, and another layer of kirche soaked tart cherries.

Blueberry Muffins

2009-08-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

I love oats. Seriously I love the texture (gritty and dense) and I adore the flavor (earthy and nutty).... and I had blueberries so I made blueberry muffins with sweet little gold muffin tins protecting their bottoms.

I used the recipe from: http://www.recipezaar.com/Blueberry-Oatmeal-Muffins-44023

I found they are a smidge dry, so next time I may add more blueberries (or more butter when I eat them...). But I have a whole lotta blueberry muffins frozen in the freezer ready to be defrosted and microwaved at my leisure!

Blueberry Shortcakes

2009-08-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't tried making the American 'Biscuit' before. But I thought that I would give it a go this week, and an attempt to make blueberry shortcakes. The biscuit recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from my home to yours' and mostly involves a ton of butter and a light touch. They did turn out well though, buttery, tender and flaky.

For the blueberries I simply heated them in a small saucepan, added some sugar and some blueberry liquor and then reduced them so that they were pretty congealed.

The cream is whipped with sugar and a bit of marzipan liquor.

Overall a good tasting dessert, very simple, very clean and a little boozy. Pretty god by my books!

Blueberries - In Season Now

2009-08-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Tricia called me up and asked excitedly if I'd like to go pick blueberries with her the next day. Of course I'd love to so off we went. There is a farm down the road from where she lives. We aren't talking a rural gal' here either she lives downtown in a 'mini city' just outside of downtown Seattle. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed by this farm.

I grew up listening to the nostalgic talk of my Nana telling me about her childhood in Germany and how she had picked blueberries off the bushes in the forest near her house. One year mum decided she would get Nana a pair of blueberry bushes so she could in essence, re-live her youth. She loves those bushes, covers them with nets and picks the berries in the morning so she can make cakes with them.

The bushes we picked from were not the cute, baby bushes Nana has but scraggily bushes taller then I. Easier to pick let me tell you!

So we picked a bunch of blueberries, and I've been attempting to use mine ever since.

Note to self: August = Blueberry Month

Deniz's Birthday Desert: Brownies and Caramel Ice Cream

2009-07-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Once again, I won't be here for my good friend Deniz's birthday later this month. But I'm also seeing her today and knowing that she loves caramel and she always orders brownies when we go out I thought I would make her a brownie with lots of walnuts, and a caramel ice cream.

The brownies are rich and dark, rather sweet and nutty. They need a tall glass of milk to balance them out... or some ice cream! And it's hot... so ice cream is always better then milk when it's summer!

The ice cream recipe (amazingly good - great texture - dense and rich) is from Tartelettes blog http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2009/07/recipe-chocolate-torte-caramel-ice.html and the brownie recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home To Yours" and it's the 'classic brownie'.

Lisa's Tart: Lemon Cream And Blueberries

2009-07-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

It's Lisa's birthday in August - but I won't be here to bake for her. I'm seeing Lisa today so I thought I would make her my favorite lemon cream tart (pate sucree and lemon cream) with some tasty, fresh and local blueberries from the local farmers market.

So simple, happy birthday Lisa!

Cherry Sorbet

2009-07-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

It is cherry season, and as cherries are my utterly favorite fruit in the universe I decided to make a very simple sorbet from them.

A while back I read the book 'Animal Vegetable Miracle: A year of Food Life' by Barbara Kingslover This recipe (http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache%3AkzyPq7JAQcwJ%3Awww.animalvegetablemiracle.com%2FSorbet.pdf+cherry+sorbet&hl=en&gl=us) is one of theirs as mentioned very simple, cherries, sugar and water are all that is required. where she and her family decided that they would spend a year living off the land. Meaning eating seasonally, living local and sacrificing things like bananas in order to stick to those goals. A pretty amazing and inspirational book. I want a garden....

Strawberry, Raspberry and Balsamic Vinegar

2009-07-08T14:19:00.001-07:00

Yet another jam with strawberry's in it. This is a beautiful rich spread with strawberry's, raspberries, lemon, balsamic vinegar and sugar. Such a simple combo, but it leads to a really beautiful color and tasting spread.

Great on a rich rye, the flavor holds its own.

Away Again

2009-07-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

I will be having a break in posts for a couple of months.

On the weekend I leave for a farm in Washington State that makes goat and sheep cheese. I'm looking forward to learning about how to make and cultivate cheeses of various varieties, how to live without internet(!) and hopefully getting back to and experiencing more nature as well.

Wish me luck!

Gateau de Crepes with Green Tea Cream

2009-07-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

I had a couple of fellow bakers and the idea was we would whittle away the afternoon with board games and trying out some food. The invite stated something along the lines of 'bring a baked good that you've been trying out/ experimenting with'. I really always experiment so I thought I would continue with the theme. I saw this at Desserts Magazine http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2008/08/two-chocolates-some-salted-butter.html It's from the book:'Chocolate Epiphany: Exceptional Cookies, Cakes and Confections for Everyone' by François Payard.

If you can roll out a ton of crepes in a small amount of time then let me tell you this is the recipe for you. If you can't then it's a labor of love...a seriously long, drawn out love. Let me tell you I spent over an hour making the crepes for this guy.

However, it is a visually stunning cake - all the lovely layers of brown contrasting with the vibrant green pastry cream (a light one - with the pastry cream being 'lightened' if you can call it that... with whipped cream). I tried the pastry cream without the added cream and it had a really intense matcha tea flavor. The interesting thing was, once you added the crepes and the whipped cream, the flavor wasn't really there anymore. It was lost - and only found at the end of a bite. Which, as I'm not a massive fan of matcha tea was a good thing. The crepes themselves are infused with orange zest which really dominates the flavor.

This is not a sweet treat - it is a rich treat. It's about the dense pastry cream and the rubbery crepes. I adore the way it looks utterly ragged on the outside, and yet when you cut into it it looks amazingly organized.

Ravioli/Lasagna

2009-07-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to attempt home made pasta for years but have been too wimpy to give it a go. Once again the farm I went to was an inspiration - they made pasta and I got to watch and feel the dough. So when it came to making the dough at home I wasn't as scared of giving it a go. I made mini lasagna's and with a ricotta (homemade of course!) mushroom and thyme filling, as well as a sauerkraut filling.

The ravioli has a mushroom filling as well, but Josh added a bit of white wine as well.

Light Rye 60%

2009-07-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

I adore rye bread. Something about the flavor adds a heartiness and depth that you simply can't achieve using white flour alone. This rye has caraway, a little dark rye flour and has a sourdough starter using some of the levain I've been faithfully keeping alive for the past few weeks. So it has a little added sourness to it, and the flavor gets better as the bread ages.

I like to call the style of cut I used on the bread "the comb over". From Hamelman.

Winter Sanity and Green Apple Pectin

2009-07-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been making an utter ton of jams, preserves and other fruity concoctions due to winter. Yes winter. It depresses me and in using the local delicious and oh so very in season fruits at the moment (note: cherries(!!!) and strawberries and soon to come raspberries) my theory is that when winter rolls around, then I will have some remnants of sunshine in the form of these preserves.

A lot of the jams using summer berries requires pectin which helps thicken the mixture as these tasty fruits don't have a large amount of pectin in them. I do use some powdered pectin but I'm really trying to use natural pectin donated by green apples instead. The idea is that the pectin derived from boiling down whole apples (simply quarter them and then put them in a pot just cover them in water and boil them slowly. Then strain the water - but make sure you keep it. Add some sugar and cook it down and then jar it. You should be good for pectin for a while) is enough to thicken a jam. I think it does. But the consistency is never that hugely dense, 'you can barely flick the stuff off a spoon' kinda thickness. Instead it's a soft gel. One that sometimes boarders on a syrup. But it's so good, and it's soaks your toast oh so well in it's sugar goodness.

Cherries and Preserving them

2009-07-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

Cherries are my favorite fruit on earth. They are delectable when they are fresh and in season and local. Unfortunately the season isn't long enough for my liking so I decided to preserve some cherries in a sugar syrup with a bit of liquor added in. I made one set with rum and the other with brandy. I figure these beauties will be wonderful in tarts in winter.

The variety I used is called 'Tieton". They are mammoth, juicy and hold there shape well. I was talking to the people where I bought these pretties from, and they said they only have them for about 2.5 weeks per year. So sad. But I have a little treasure tucked away for the colder months.

Rhubarb and Spiced Meringue Tart

2009-07-07T22:26:00.001-07:00

Ok this one is kinda bizaare. And it's weirdly more savory then sweet. It is a simple base called a 'flaky pastry' which requires very little sugar and butter (I know rather disappointing). It was a really awkward base to roll as it required massive amounts of force to get it into a semblance of the shape/thickness needed. The taste was nothing either - very bland, and the texture when baked was tough, not one to repeat again despite it being so cheap (little butter + little sugar + AP flour instead of pastry flour + no eggs = very cheap indeed).

The middle part was chopped rhubarb with a flan cream/custard on top. Once again a really savory sort of middle bit - with no sugar added to the rhubarb - only in the flan cream - which really didn't have a lot considering the majority is rhubarb.

On top however was a lot of sugar in the form of a meringue. A simple meringue made with egg whites, a ton of sugar and the addition of nutmeg and freshly ground black pepper. Out of the whole tart this was my favorite part. I made mini macaroons out of the left overs. Very tasty.

Overall, if I were to make this tart again I would not use the same base instead I would sweeten it up with a sucree. I also on the final product got carried away with a blow torch which I wouldn't do again (the photo's of the tart before it went in the oven and subsequently got torched by me later on). I really liked the top part (meringue) so I would make that again, maybe try it with another filling as well....

Macaroons: Choc Chip with Salted Caramel

2009-07-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

I've been rather desperate lately to find the best recipe for macaroons - the french ones. You know the ones, all leggy on the bottom, slightly chewy yet crunchy. Yeah those, well I've had some issues with flavor and shape, and texture.

Usually they are too sweet. I can only handle a small one, and even then it may be too much for me. I've have also made flat pancake like macaroons that are bendable and bizarre looking.

These were little gems. They were nice in texture (chewy, yet a little crunchy), they were nice and small and I think the best thing about these guys was that they had a caramel filling.... I mean really how can you beat that?

I think the trickiest bit for me is the piping. I'm a little off, so I spent a while attempting to pair the macaroon halves with similar sized macaroon halves... This recipe is from 'Desserts Magazine' a great mag that is free online. It is from magazine issue #5. You can check out the recipe at: http://www.dessertsmag.com/desserts-magazine/issue5/. The recipe is by Gemmi Rizzzi and let me tell ya- this recipe works.

Strawberry Rhubarb Tart

2009-07-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've been having problems setting pastry cream of late. I swear I cook it until it is thick and boiling, then leave it on the heat for a couple of minutes more. Yet time and time again my cream is not setting up very well. It turns into this gooey mass... a tasty gooey mass, yet not a very elegant mass when it is cut into slices. I don't want to use corn products in my baking unless it is fresh corn (although I do make some exceptions especially when I use chocolate or am making a candy) so I've been using potato starch instead of corn starch in the pastry cream. I'm wondering if this may be my downfall?

Anyway, back to the tart. A strawberry and rhubarb puree was made and then placed on a tart base (this wasn't a pate sucree...as I ran out of pastry flour. So I made an old tart base that I hadn't made in ages). I then put on the pastry cream and on top of that some strawberries. A very simple tart but devastatingly good.

Le Success

2009-07-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've been petrified of making a cake. I'm scared of layers, and the hours of labor that goes into making one. So I've been putting it off and off and off.

I thought I'd give it a go as I have the time, and I really need to get some practice in before school starts again.

This is made with a nut marangue (hazelnut and almond), two types of butter cream (vanilla and a praline) and a ganache layer. It wasn't too hard to assemble, although the cream made it difficult to cut, but I froze it and that allowed me to trim the sides.

I attempted to make some caramel hazelnuts to go on top. However, the caramel thickened too fast, so they weren't brilliantly successful. But they look alright.

Crumpets

2009-06-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

I grew up eating crumpets in the mornings. You'd pop one in the toaster, slather it with butter, and then honey. After a while all the liquids you had placed on top of the crumpet would ooze through the porous dough and leak out onto your plate.

These days I go down to the Crumpet Shop in Seattle near the market downtown. I sip a cup of tea, eat a crumpet and watch the people go into the strip show place across the road. I have to say it's one of my favorite haunts....

Anyway this is my first attempt at making these guys at home. It was an interesting experience. Basically there were two risings; the first was just the yeast (about an hour), the second was with baking soda added (around 30min). The second one with the baking soda was there to infuse the dough with little bubble, but there weren't enough for my liking. I think perhaps I waited too long and the bubble had destabilized. I would make them again though, as they were pretty good.

Strawberry, Mint and Black Pepper Jam

2009-06-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

This is so good. It's a nice dense preserve, with a little bit of freshness from the mint, and a smidge of a bite from the black pepper.

Great on rye bread, and I think it would work really well as a base for a tart with a simple vanilla pastry cream and fresh strawberries and mint on top.

Once again the strawberries are magnificent. The colours are amazing, the flavors intense. I would recommend preserving these flavors for winter.

Taken from Mes Confiture

Strawberry and Mint Tart

2009-06-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it is strawberry season after all....I realize I have been on a huge strawberry bend, but they are just so magnificent at the moment. So this is yet another tart featuring strawberries. It is from 'Mes Tartes: The Sweet and Savory Tarts of Christine Ferber' By Christine Ferber.

This tart has a simple pate sucree base, with a frangapani filling and a little vanilla pastry cream on top. On top of all that are gorgeous strawberries, some icing sugar and a dash of fresh mint.

It's amazing what beautiful produce can achieve!

Reject Macaroons with Strawberries

2009-06-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

I've been on a fix lately to try and make macaroons like Thomas Keller makes in his at Boucheron

I had some cream, some strawberries and some marzipan liquor so I decided to make strawberry shortcakes with macaroons instead. I simply infused the cream with the marzipan liquor, let the strawberries macerate in some sugar and then assembled everything.

A delectable dessert, especially with gorgeously fresh strawberries. Bakery, but I failed miserably. The thing was they were really tasty, but they were just well, seriously flat.

Rustic Bread

2009-06-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

I've been making all my breads by hand lately. There is something so satisfying in the knowledge that you really don't require machines (bar the oven) to make some really good bread. I also love touching the dough and learning through the feel of a dough if it is read; ready to be mixed some more, ready to have more water added, ready to be shaped, to be baked, ready to be eaten.

This was a bread that was pretty simple, again it did have a preferment, but it was a pretty easy bread to make and shape. It has a mixture of mostly white bread flour but with a bit of rye and whole wheat thrown in as well, so it's a little earthy in it's flavor. I added rosemary and salt to the top of the bread because Josh loves those two together.

Faux Canneles

2009-06-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

We went to Portland recently and visited the bakery 'St. Honore'. They had some good looking stuff in their pastry case including a cannele, which I have to admit I had never had before. So I got one. They are really good. A mix of burnt sugar and rum and balled up in this dense yet moist cakey type thing. I wanted to try and make one. The only thing is they have this swanky mold they use, which I don't have. Nevertheless, as I'm not French and don't really have any attachment to having my cannele in the proper mold (so I used cupcake tins). I used the great recipe for 'Canneles Pretenders' of Tartelettes blog http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2007/06/canneles-pretenders.html.

They turned out really well. Also, strawberries are seriously good right now, and so is rhubarb...so I thought I would combine the beautifully tasty (remember burnt sugar and rum) with the sweet tart of strawberries and rhubarb. They paired surprisingly well!

Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam: Welcome Strawberries

2009-06-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Strawberry season everyone! Make sure you hit the farmers markets and ask to sample the strawberries. I've found that last week many had no flavor but looked delicious, I found the strawberries I used in the jam after around 5 tasters at other stalls. I think we're getting more into the thick of strawberry season this week at least, so there shouldn't be such an issue with flavor.

have to say I'm new to the strawberry and rhubarb sensation - but I'm no less enthusiastic about it then a veteran. The combo is amazing. So in this is one of my attempts to create a bit of summer for enjoyment in winter.

Epi

2009-06-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

I love baguettes, but I've made them quite a few times before so I thought I would try a different type of presentation - an epi. Epi is short for 'epi de ble' which translates to a 'sheaf of wheat'.

This baguette had a poolish preferment (a preferment is a type of fermentation which adds to the flavor of a bread, cuts down on the use of yeast and helps with time management). I do it mostly for flavor, and this is my favorite type of baguette. I like the epi because you can rip of a kernel and eat it straight away or dip it in something tasty.

Again, from Hamelman.

Plum and Walnut Cake

2009-06-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

These are really stunning. They are moist, slightly sweet, just a tad nutty and get better with age. I had some of this gorgous cake at Quillisascut farm. We used walnuts from the walnut tree they had as well as plums they had gathered and dehydrated late last year. It was so good, so I thought I would try making this at home.

I also made these for my good friend Tricia's birthday - she said she liked them!

This recipe is from the book: 'Chefs on the Farm: Recipes and Inspiration from the Quillisascut Farm School od of the Domestic Arts' by Shannon Borg, Lora Lea Misterly and Karen Jurgensen.

Pain Rustique

2009-06-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Josh makes these amazingly good sandwiches with a local product called field roast, aoli and caramelized red onions. We usually go out and buy the bread rolls for them, but this time I decided to make them.

This bread is called Pain Rustique. It's a rather wet dough that requires more folding then punching, but it's a pretty easy dough to work with once you get the hang of it. I think they key is to not worry about the shape too much, instead spread the dough out on your counter top in a roughly rectangular shape, and use a metal bench scraper to cut the dough into squares. Easy as that!

This bread is once again from the Hamelman book 'Bread: A Bakers Book of Techniques and Recipes'.

Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake - with Homemade Ricotta

2009-06-09T17:38:00.001-07:00

I've been fascinated with homemade everything lately. I think going to the farm in Quilisascut kinda inspires that. It's pretty amazing to look in a fridge and pantry and see cheese you made, preserves you've made, oil you've infused and other such delectable things.

So on that note I decided to make ricotta cheese. I knew it was easy I'd seen it made on the farm. All you need to do to make ricotta is add an acid to your milk (unpasteurized or pasteurized, ultra pasteurized won't work). I added citric acid, but I've seen it done with lemon juice as well as vinegar.

I've used the ricotta in a few applications, mainly pasta, but I wanted to make something sweet using it, so I made this cake; a lemon ricotta cheesecake using the ricotta I made the day before. Apparently this is a very Italian type of cake. I'm not quite sure what that means, but it was pretty tasty - so the Italians must be onto something! Beware thpough, as there is a bunch of fat in the crust it does burn easily so pay attention to the smells your oven is emitting...unlike me..

Quillisascut Farm

2009-06-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to farm near Rice Washington to make breads in a wood fire oven. It was a beautiful place called Quillisascut Farm (http://quillisascut.com). We made bread and food for 4 days, milked goats, made cheese and enjoyed the beautiful weather and bounty that nature provided.

A rambling post, no picts, no baking- just excuses

2009-05-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

It has been a serious while. Really. What's the deal? I've been away for a while (Seattle-Texas, Mexico and then Australia) also we had our kitchen renovated. So I have just begun baking again, and it's glorious!

I wanted to look at bakeries on the road trip I did with my bud Jamie. We only looked at a few, but by far my favorite was Bouchon in Yountville. They had the tastiest French macaroons (the caramel one was utterly delicious). The size was big. I found the recipe in one of Thomas Keller's books and he states (or his pastry chef states) that size does matter. At least in a macaroon. The one I had must have been 4.5-5cm in diameter.

I didn't try enough pastries in Mexico, none really which stunk, I need to delve into the pastries of Mexico a heap more.

Australia. Oh the land of slices and scrolls. I miss the good ol' cheesymite (Vegemite and cheddar cheese) scrolls. But the food I miss most is fish and chips - without the fish. I love the chips and potato cakes they make down there full of fatty fatty goodness...mmmm.

I did visit some really nice bakeries down there though. My favorite is the huge and mighty Brunettis (http://www.brunetti.com.au/). I think their success is that they are enormous, have a massive and varied selection (from petti fours, full cakes, chocolate, the best Italian hot chocolate you could ever desire (Italian hot choc = get half of what you think you could consume because I'm guessing the base is cream not milk - and so is insanely rich)), there is this fab waffle place just off Flinders lane that make tasty, warm waffles smeared with nutella, or peanut butter or whatever else they have. My bud Pam showed me another bakery in Brunswick, I've forgotten the name but they made this amazingly good, yet simple pastry that had a chocolate shortcrust crust (upper and lower) a sort of light cream cheese filling, and then a thin layer of nutella. Really good.

It's funny the longer I am away from my home town the more I appreciate how nice it is. Melbourne is an amazing city, full of great great food, really varies architecture, fascinating fashion and wonderful ways to get about as a pedestrian. I do love Melb.

Miche

2009-04-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

This is a gigantic bread. Before it is baked and water weight is lost it weighs 5lb.

It is also a seriously good bread that gets better as it ages. The flavor is hearty, slightly acidic and full. It is mostly made with whole wheat flour (I had to add a smidge of white flour as my whole wheat wasn't high extraction whole wheat).

The history of the bread seems to be that it was eaten by the early settlers of Canada, and by Europeans for many generations before this. It would last a while and it would still be good to eat after a good while.

It did take 3 days to make as it was a bread that was made with a levain, however in the Hamelman book it does suggest that you make it in two days, but at school we made it in three, so I thought I'd just do what I know. This bread is a really wet bred, so make sure to flour all surfaces really well. I did make a stencil for this bread but I had floured the surfaces it touched so extensively that I couldn't use it anymore!

Lemon Cream Tart with Partly Candied Lemons

2009-03-31T15:07:00.000-07:00

I adore this lemon cream. I have to say I am not usually partial whats so ever to the flavor of lemons, but even I will consume vast quantities of this delectable cream.

I have made it before, indeed I've made a tart out of it (see: http://rhid-baked.blogspot.com/2007/07/french-lemon-cream-tart.html this post has the full recipe for the cream). The difference is I made the base a simple pate sucre, and I added candied lemons for decoration.

I learned to candy lemons last week when I was doing the cake rotation. It's pretty simple, cut the lemons really fine (at school we used a meat slices, at home I used a mandolin set to the smallest setting), and then you simply heat up a sugar water syrup until all the sugar is dissolved and it is near boiling (I used 10oz water and 12 oz sugar). It is best to candy your lemons the day before you need them and store them in the poaching liquid overnight in the fridge. Place the slices of lemons on the bottom of a bowl and pour over the syrup. Wait at least 5 hours until using them, preferably overnight so that the lemon pieces have been more fully penetrated with the sugar syrup and become translucent.

Roasted Potoato Bread

2009-03-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

I have been rather inspired to make a lot of bread since I did the bread rotation a few weeks back. We had some potato's hanging about the house so I thought I would give this bread a go. It is from Hamelman's amazing bread book. It took a couple of days to make as there was a pate fermente (which simply means you make a preferment - this one included yeast, flour and water, just as many do) but it was a tasty bread.

I'm getting better about forming the bread and reading it, but still have a long way to go. At the end of May I'll be going to a hearth breads workshop which I'm excited to try out.

I'd like to learn how to tell the right consistency of bread, of all the different types of bread (especially the consistency I'm looking for with mixing which is amazingly varied depending on the bread), I'd love to learn more rye breads as well as I feel that they tend to 'ripen' with age and I love the way they taste. Breads: I'm pretty excited!

Away for a smidge

2009-03-26T21:19:00.001-07:00

I'm going to be traveling for a little bit, but when I come back there will be baking galore!

(there will be a few more posts after this as I cheated and scheduled them in advance so, enjoy!)

Ayumi's Tart (Banana, Rum, Coconut and Vanilla)

2009-03-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to be here for my good friend Ayumi's birthday so I thought I would make her something. I asked her what she liked and didn't like, and she suggested that I make something "experimental". And.. well I just happen to have the perfect thing! I decided to make her the tart I had been thinking about for a while: the banana, rum, coconut tart with a thin layer of chocolate on the base (I chose white for color consistency) and then a simple pastry cream made with vanilla bean and rum.

She liked it. And so did the others who tried it, which is always a relief as often I'm not sure what I'm thinking when I pair random tastes together, but it seemed to work. All the hard work of preserving worked out!

A simple pizza dough

2009-03-15T13:25:00.000-07:00

I love pizza, and I love the fact that it can be so versatile. This is a dough recipe that I use all the time. It makes two huge pizza's and it works out everytime.

Pizza Dough, taken from Williams-Sanoma "Essentials of Baking, p. 2
Ingredients for Dough
2 packages of active dry yeast (5 tsp.)
560mL warm water
2 tsp. sugar
60 mL olive oil
780g flour (bread flour/ AP flour)
1 Tbs. salt

Method
1. Place the warm water and yeast into a large bowl and whisk together. Let rest for 5 min.
2. Add the sugar, oil, flour and salt and mix with your hands until a rough ball forms.
3. Scrape dough onto a floured work surface and knead for 10 min until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic.
4. Place into a oiled bowl, and wait until the dough has risen to around twice its original size (1-2 hours).
5. Preheat oven to 425F.
6. Divide into portions and place topping on.
7. Bake until the color is a light brown, and toppings look baked.

Blood Orange

2009-03-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

Another reserve. Yeah, I'm kinda obsessed with preserving at the moment. I really do think it's because I miss fruit so much. This is another Christine Ferber preserve, made with blood oranges, as well as some Navel oranges for a little color.

This preserve set well. In her recipes Ferber never uses pectin in a liquid or gel form. The recipes simply call for green apples and the pectin naturally present in the apples works as the thickening agent. However, it doesn't always seem to work. With some jams/preserves being quite watery, although this could simply be due to my lack of experience in making them. This one worked well, it tastes very sweet, but the color is amazing, and it's all natural!

Bread Rotation

2009-03-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just recently finished the bread rotation at school. A sometimes really intense rotation, filled with changes, and constant watching. I actually really enjoyed making breads, whereas I was worried that I wouldn't. I worked with some great people and I think that made it easier, but it was still intense. I like making breads as it is all about touching the dough, you have to know what you are looking for (or feeling for).

The hardest part for me was mixing. I often had no idea about the density of the dough - should it be a wet dough, or a stiff dough? But I think I'm better at gauging that now.

I'm looking forward to dough's again in the future!

Banana Sunshine

2009-03-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

I miss fruit. I realize that it is Winter, but I'm feeling the bite. It is awfully hard to eat local here in the NW as there really isn't any fruit available right now that is local. So, I've decided that my luxuries are fruits from afar, and this jam/puree/goodness that I call "Banana Sunshine" is part of that desire.

It contains fresh (yes fresh! I've never used fresh coconut and coconut milk), banana's, orange and vanilla pods. That's about it really, but it is pretty tasty. I plan on trying it out as the base for some tarts - I was thinking a pate sucre base (baked completely), a thin layer of brushed on bittersweet chocolate, banana sunshine, and then just a simple pastry cream on top. Maybe some sort of chocolate sauce as well, but who knows!

This recipe was from the Christine Ferber book 'Mes Confitures: The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber". Amazing, amazing amzing. This recipe is simply called "Banana and Coconut".

Crepes

2009-02-24T18:17:00.000-08:00

I had a couple of weeks of working in the culinary kitchens at school, a completely different vibe to the bakery. Kinda busy, seriously hot and manic. But during my time in the culinary kitchens I learned a few things.

I made crepes for the second time but I used a fry-pan instead of a crepe pan. These are pretty easy to make the trick is to make sure your batter sits for at least an hour, and that you keep the heat pretty low (on my electric stove top it is set at 5 out of 8).

Crepe Recipe (makes around 12 large crepes)

6 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

3 Tbs butter

salt

Mix using an immersion blender, and then chill for at least an hour before using.

Ginger Beer

2009-02-20T17:53:00.000-08:00

Yet another utterly unrelated post to baking. Ginger beer. I grew up on this stuff, not like the ginger ale here in America but this burningly good ginger extravaganza.

We made this baby at school, after we tasted some really good stuff the quarter before us had made which didn't taste boozy at all. However, when we tested the stuff we made, it was incredibly beery...not so good in my book. I want the burn of ginger not of alcohol.

The chef in charge said that it was probably because the natural yeast/bacteria in the beer had consumed all the sugar, so there wasn't a heap left. I'm guessing the solution would be to add more sugar.

Hopefully the stuff I'm making at home will work our - I still have nearly a week to go before I can try it out, so fingers are a crossed.

Once again, ginger beer is relying on the natural bacteria that our environment breeds. So a week before I bottled this baby, I simply grated ginger into water, added some sugar for food and let it sit at room temp (covered in cheese cloth) for about a week feeding it (with more ginger and sugar) every couple of days. This is called a ginger bug. Then you simply cook grated ginger in water, add sugar and let it cool. Add the ginger bug and dilute the solution with some water. Clean out some bottles, pop in the ginger and thats it. Sit and wait for a couple of weeks and you should hopefully have something resembling tastiness, but you never know...

Thank you Josh for the picts on this one!

Star Anise and Grapefruit Cookies

2009-02-18T22:16:00.000-08:00

These sounded so weird that I thought I had to try them. I have to say I adore adore adore black licorice so I had no aversion in using star anise, the grapefruit however had me doubting.

The recipe is from the February Bon Appetite and it's by Elizabeth Falkner.

INGREDIENTS
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, diced
1 teaspoon plus 1/4 cup sugar
3 whole star anise
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons finely grated grapefruit peel

PREPARATION
Combine chocolate and butter in medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 10-second intervals until chocolate is almost melted; remove and stir until melted and smooth. Finely grind 1 teaspoon sugar and 3 star anise in spice mill or small coffee grinder. Transfer to small bowl; whisk in flour, cocoa, coarse salt, and baking powder.
Beat remaining 1/4 cup sugar, eggs, honey, and grapefruit peel in large bowl until thick and smooth. Fold in chocolate, then dry ingredients. Cover bowl; chill batter until cold and firm, at least 45 minutes and up to 1 day.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing mounds 2 inches apart.
Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until dry-looking and tester comes out with moist crumbs still attached, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheet 3 minutes, then transfer to racks and cool completely. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper.

You know the combination worked really well. You would eat a cookie thinking it was chocolate, and it was. The star anise is fairly subtle and then the ending is grapefruit. A pretty amazing cookie.

Earl Gray and Orange Syrup

2009-02-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

We have theory nearly everyday, and every Friday we get to make something we've been talking about in theory. For the past couple of weeks we have made jams, and preserves of some kind from an amazing book by Christine Ferber called 'Mes Confitures: The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber".

It's full of seasonal, kinda bizarre jams and preserves. At school we made a caramel pear jam, a chocolate orange preserve and a marmalade made from mandarins. Some of the ingredients are a smidge obscure, but for the most part most of the recipes are easy to make and rather fascinating in their combinations.

I am currently obsessed (yes utterly obsessed) with tea. And as such, I thought I'd try making one of her preserves that contained tea (several of them do, there is another one in her book which has Jasmine tea in it).

This ended up being a seriously orangey preserve, rather sweet, with a hint of bergamot from the tea. My friend Ayumi adds it to her tea in the mornings and says it's mighty tasty in that!

Red Velvet Cup-Cakes Take Two

2009-02-12T21:54:00.000-08:00

It's a method thing. I realized that previously I had written out the recipe for these but failed to give the method, which when I made them multiple times, I realized made a huge difference to the end product.

Main tips: Do not over-mix and make sure to sift the flour.

Red Velvet Cup Cakes Take Two

2.5 cups sifted cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbs Dutch Processed cocoa powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1.5 cups granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

3 Tbs red food coloring

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp baking soda

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F, put cup cake wrappers in cup cake baking mold.

2. Sift the flour, salt and cocoa powder into a bowl.

3. Warm the butter up in a microwave for around 15 seconds to get it to room temperature, then place in a mixer with a paddle attachment. Mix.

4. Slowly add the granulated sugar to the butter.

5. Add the red food coloring and vanilla extract to the buttermilk and stir together.

6. Add the eggs, one at a time mixing between each egg to the sugar butter mixture.

7. Add 1/3 of the flour/salt/cocoa mixture to the and mix until just integrated.

8. Add 1/3 buttermilk mixture and mix until integrated. Repeat steps 6 & 7 another two times.

9. In a small bowl add the vinegar and baking soda together.

10. Immediately fold into batter.

11. Fill up the cup cake papers around 1/3 of the way.

12. Bake immediately, rotating 15 min into baking then bake another 6 or so min until a toothpick comes out clean.

13. Let cool, then ice.

Bake Sale Baked Goods

2009-02-09T11:37:00.001-08:00

I was asked by a friend to make some baked goods for a bake sale she and a group were hosting this week. It was a pretty scary proposition, 320 baked goods (Linzer Cookies, French Macaroons, Fortune Cookies and Red Velvet Cupcakes) made over a few days in my wee kitchen with 1 oven, and two 5 quart blenders.

I had two wonderful people helping me out yesterday (thank you Jamie and Sarah!) and I don't think I would have been able to complete everything without their help.

I made many test batches of goods, especially the macaroons, which I had never made before. I tried two recipes and ended up liking the flavor of the first, but the look of the second. The red velvet cakes also ended up being rather difficult due to the consistency of the batter, but we figured out what worked best.

The recipe that worked (we tried three) was:

Red Velvet Cake (taken and only slightly adapted from "Joy of Baking" http://www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCake.html)
2 1/2 cups (250 grams) sifted cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (15 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk
3 tablespoons liquid red food coloring
1 teaspoon white apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

The macaroons were another matter. As mentioned earlier, I loved the taste of the one from Cooking Illustrated Holiday Baking edition, but the texture wasn't right. They were flat, and the color was too bright. So I tried the wonderful Tartelette's macaroons (very similar to: http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-heart-macarons.html).

I thought they looked lovely, I used both pink and blue food coloring (I added the liquid food (4 drops of red to one drop of blue for a very light pink batter) coloring to the sugar and let it dry out so it wouldn't effect the consistency of the batter). I like the look, but not the flavor as much, so I would add some vanilla extract to them next time I made them, in the same way I added the liquid food coloring (to the sugar).

All up this was an experience. Many late nights, lots of planning a nd pricing. It was an interesting project, and if given enough time to plan ahead one I would love to do again!

Kimchi - The Beginning

2009-02-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

We've started to ferment things in class - doing the ol' sauerkraut and ginger beer thing. But we also made kim chi, which I had never really liked before. So I waited to try the stuff at school. It was actually amazingly tasty. Fresh, gingery and garlicy this stuff is slightly spicy but more....fresh.

I thought I'd make it at home. We'll see how the results fair!

Croissants - The First Batch

2009-01-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

I know it sounds like the title of a rather bad horror film, but the croissants I made at home worked out all right. An insane amount of labor went into these guys with me laboring for an hour over the final sheeting (a sheeting is where you roll out the dough - usually with a sheeter) where I had to get the dough down to 3mm in thickness.

This is the recipe I used (I halved it though, and so everything in the recipe is on a smaller scale and done by hand). It has a lot of steps, but I've put it in here to remond me how to go about making these guys again.

Note: To make the beurrage, you beat the butter (with a rolling pin - usually a French one) between two pieces of parchment paper into a rectangle that is around 10mm (1cm) thick. I really should have some diagrams for this but I hope the photo's help!

Straight Dough Croissants
Full Recipe (I used half this makes a ton of croissants!)

Ingredients
4Lb 8oz bread flour
8oz granulated sugar
2oz fresh yeast (or 40% dry yeast - saf yeast?)
1.25oz salt
20oz milk
16oz water
2.5Lb butter (for beurrage block)

Method
Day 1
Heat milk to 80F and dissolve the yeast in the milk. Pour in the bottom of a 20 quart mixer.
Add flour, then salt and sugar.
Using a dough hook mix at first speed. Wait 3 min and see if all the flour has been picked up off the bottom. If not, add water.
Dough should be a little lumpy, you don’t want to over mix.
Flour a large bowl and round the dough and place in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.
Leave at room temp for 1 hour.
Refrigerate overnight.
Make the beurrage (either sheet it between two silpats into a rectangle at 10mm, or about the size of a 1/2 sheet pan). Refrigerate.

Day 2
Roll out the dough by hand so that it will fit the beurrage block in the center with the two sides of dough covering the butter like a door.
Place the beurrage in the center. Fold the flaps over so they meet in the middle of the beurrage.
Seal the edges with pressure from the rolling pin, as well as sealing the center the same way.
Sheet the dough with the middle closure parallel to the sheeter. Sheet until you can do a simple tri-fold on the dough.
Refrigerate 30 min.
Repeat step 4, but face the open end of the sandwich towards you (make sure to flour the bottom of the sheeter to prevent sticking and stretching).
Refrigerate overnight.

Day 3
Final sheet to 3mm thick (make sure to do width first, then length).
Use (see pictures below for croissant shapeing. Make sure to roll to 3mm thick, and each triangle should weigh 2.5 oz).

Mozzarella

2009-01-25T17:41:00.000-08:00

Once again, totally not baking but still awfully interesting...to me at least. I recently read a book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver a great read it makes me wish I had 1/4 of an acre and the ability to grow things. Anyway, in the book she mentions making cheese, which sounded rather good to me. So I sent away for a package of goodies that included: citric acid, and rennet tablets (vegetarian) (amongst other things. And I made cheese. Not the greatest, but just the beginning!

In nut shell you add citric acid to cool milk (whole milk, pasteurized not ultra pasteurized) then heat it up. You add some rennet, let it sit, until the curds have separated, drain it, heat it up again pour out the excess whey and stretch it to create the shape. I also added thyme and lemon. That's it! For the milk I used Jersey Cows Milk which tastes pretty good - more of a warm flavor.

Bread Pudding

2009-01-23T09:35:00.000-08:00

A simple bread pudding using ready made ingredients: challah bread, dolce de lechi syrup some bitter sweet chocolate and eggs. It was alright, I'd been wanting to try this recipe for a while and when I finally got around to having an occasion to make it (thank you games night!) it was pretty easy to assemble. Not the greatest pudding, but pretty good in a pinch!
Thank you Josh for the photo!

Oat Bread

2009-01-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

A wonderful bread for winter, hearty, and filling this oat bread was pretty easy to make. It was also (by bread standards at least) pretty quick to make.

I gave one to my diabetic neighbor Linda as an xmas present, and she really liked the bread.

It is once again from the master of bread Jeffrey Hamelman "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes".

Sauerkraut - Not Baking but Fascinating

2009-01-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

Trust me this will stink up your entire house. It did ours. I adore sauerkraut - I don't eat as is (ie plain) but chop up some onion, soften that in butter, then add the sauerkraut, some juniper berries and some caraway seeds and I'm done.

This was pretty amazing. We decided we'd give sauerkraut a go as I'd recently bought a book for school called "Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition and Craft of Live-Culture Foods" by Sandor Ellix Katz. It's pretty inspiring, and a really fascinating book, part history/culture and recipes it details both the ways people have eaten fermented foods for centuries as well as how we eat them today. The recipes are laid back and not too intense or crazy - but are utterly fascinating. They range from sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, cheese, beer, wind (herbal wines mostly) and ginger beer (which I just started today so we'll see how that goes!).

The sauerkraut you see above is around 2-3 weeks old. It's so amazingly simple to make, it's simply fresh cabbage, washed and chopped, then you layer the cabbage,put on some salt, beat down the cabbage and then add another layer of cabbage and salt and beat until all the cabbage is used up. Then you keep an eye on it for a day or so to make sure that the cabbage releases enough juice to cover the final layer of cabbage in brine. Then you sit back and watch (and well, let's be honest sit back and smell) the cabbage. You have to watch for mold formation, which you clean off. When the cabbage is ready (it all depends on the heat of your place and the bacteria that are laying around feasting on the cabbage, but 2-3 weeks wasn't quite enough time for our sauerkraut - it was pretty sweet, and I like it seriously sour) you do what you like with it.

As I write this Josh is making another batch in the kitchen, chopping up the cabbage we bought at the farmers market today (five cabbages!), salting it and beating it down. With the batch we intend to jar it and store it so we can use some in the seasons when cabbage isn't in season.

Really interesting stuff, although as mentioned before hand really stinky.

Pumkin Bundt Cake

2009-01-04T09:52:00.000-08:00

From my in laws this year I received a wonderful bundt pan. I adore the angles on it. We went out and visited them last week but I didn't manage to make a bundt cake for them using the pan, So here is one I made later! It is a pumpkin bundt cake, made using a whole smallish pumpkin (a common sugar pumpkin was cut in half, seeds removed, skin removed, cut into small peices and placed on a baking tray. A little water was added, and then it was all covered in aluminium foil and baked at 375F until soft. Finally it was all mashed in a blender until smooth). I used the recipe from the blog "From Scratch" (http://foodpluspolitics.com/2007/10/31/pumpkin-bundt-cake/) with a few little changes:

Ingredients
3 large eggs
2 1/4 cup freshly made pumpkin puree (see comment above)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
300g all-purpose flour
380g sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins or currants (160g)
1/2 cup chopped nuts, very optional
powdered sugar, for dusting

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, whisk the 3 eggs until blended. Add pumpkin and oil. Whisk until smooth.

Add flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and spices. Mix well. Stir in raisins (and nuts, if using).

Pour into pan, bake 65 - 75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, let cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Vanilla Kipfel

2009-01-03T13:34:00.000-08:00

These are xmas to me. Forget everything else. We didn't really have a traditional dinner at our place when I was a kid for xmas, we'd have some great tasting stuff usually a roladen or sauerbraten or if it was really hot we'd have schnitzel and a potato salad. I did love going to my Nana and Opa's place and consuming vaste amounts of food, but most of all you'd catch me in a corner with my brothers eating these guys.

At xmas time these days as I'm not usually there to celebrate anymore, Nana sends me a bunch of cookies in the mail, usuaully gingerbread, coconut macaroons and vanilla kipfel. These don't really make the huge trip accross the ocean, and so I end up with a bag of delicious crumbs, that I consume within a week. I love those parcels.

These guys are basically a shortbread made with ground almond meal as well as flour. They are shaped into cresents and baked, and then while they are still hot from the oven, you dust them with icing sugar which also has vanilla sugar in it. These are amazingly good. At least to me.... and my brothers.... and husband...and friends...

Paris Fog Ice Cream

2009-01-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

Not the prettiest picture really but some seriously tasty ice cream. I made a simple custard base for the ice cream and then infused the cream with my favorite tea of the moment ([please excuse the product placement] Harney & Son's "Paris" tea). It's a black tea with a bit of Earl Gray (bergamont) and vanilla. A totally good, strong but not overwhelming dark tea.

When I was working at a pastry shop a while back, we would sometimes get customers who would want steamed milk over a tea bag, we called these "London Fog" drinks. I also used to go to a wonderful coffee shop in Seattle called Vivace (http://www.espressovivace.com/retail.html) and they added a dash of vanilla to theirs and called it "Beautiful Stephane". So I made an ice cream that combined both; tea and a bit of vanilla. It worked out wonderfully! And I hereby dub the flavor "Paris Fog" ice cream.

Rice Pudding

2008-12-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

I heard that this isn't the way a lot of people eat their rice pudding, it really isn't that sweet, most of the good stuff is placed on top rather then integrated but this is the rice pudding I grew up with. I adore this.

Ingredients: Pudding
1/3 cup of long grained rice per person, rinsed in water until water runs clear
Pinch of Salt
Whole Milk

Ingredients: Topping
Salted butter (around 1 Tbs per serving)
Cinnamon and sugar (as much as people want)

Method
1. Place rice in a saucepan and cover with milk (you want around 1/2 inch over the top of the rice).
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Add salt to taste (not a lot as the butter is salted)
4. Turn down the burner and let it simmer until rice is cooked. You must keep stirring it as it will burn to the bottom of the pan. Also to keep the moisture content up you will need to add more milk during the cooking process to make sure that it doesn't burn. The consistency of the final product is smooth, no graininess, and pretty thick.
5. Melt the butter until brown (you want a hazelnut smelling butter - slightly brown).
6. Place the rice on a plate and squish it down with the back of a spoon.
7. Pour the butter on top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. There you go rice pudding the way I like it!

World Peace Cookies - Dorie to the Rescue Again

2008-12-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

These are yet another Dorie Greenspan cookie. They are wonderful, they have no eggs in them, they are chocolaty and they have a secrete ingredient that makes them even better. Salt. Specifically Fleur de sel. It adds a slight grittyness (much like Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese in a weird way), and an amzing uplift to the cookie that is really tasty. The reviews I recieved were all positive for these babies so although they aren't pretty cookies they're seriously tasty cookies. Tasty far outweighs pretty in my book!

Bah Humbug and Stollen

2008-12-21T00:23:00.000-08:00

I guess I grew up differently, because at around this time of the year I start to go insane. I think it's the music, the constant repetitive cheerful voices, the people telling me (very happily I might add) about how great it is to have snow (and well, yeah I have to agree there having had xmas in Australia in summer for the majority of my life), and about the virtues of Santa. Anyway, despite my bah humbug ways I decided to make Stollen with two buds from baking class, Sarah and Jamie. It was quite an undertaking and it taught us to read recipes before we decide to make them. This is specifically in relation to yeast and time.

Yeast takes it's sweet time eating starches and suagrs and so it needs a little time to burp. The recipe we used had a starter dough, as well as other rises, and benching proceedures so it took a while. There are plenty of recipes out there, we decided to use one recipe to make three mini stollen, which I think worked out nicely. The ingredients were another matter, specifically the candied fruits required. I went to a few places and found it difficult to get fruit that well...looked something like fruit (what cherries are green??) Eventually I found some (citron is green!) and we used that and a combo of candied citrus peel, golden raisins all soaked in rum for an hour or so. I grew up on stollen.

We had a European xmas in Australia with the celebration and present opening all done on the 24th. Nanna would sometimes make stollen or buy it, I remember the only part I ate was when she would make/buy the type with marzipan. I would rip out the marzipan and scoff it down while I would casually hide the remnants of the stollen in my hand until I could find the grabage bin and shove it in. Needless to say the stollen I made had a massive amount of marzipan (almond paste) in it and it worked out pretty well.

Stollen pairs brilliantly well with a warm drink (coffee, cider, tea etc) as it is by nature a fairly dry yeasted bread. But, if you like xmas, enjoy baking, want to do a fruit cake type of baked good, I'd give stollen a go.

PS. Sarah and Jamie! I erased the picts of all our stollens after they were made - I'm sorry!

Fig, Roasted Hazelnuts, Fennel Seed and Rosemary Bread

2008-12-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's pretty jam packed. This bread is a 'quick bread' meaning it doesn't require a starter dough made the night before. However, I did start it around 9 am and finished it at around 2pm... so I guess quick bread isn't really the right name for it. However, it was worth it.

It is half whole wheat, half white bread flour, so it is already nutty without the addition of the hazelnuts. The fennel certainly gave it a anise kick, and the rosemary added some more oomph. The figs were sweet and contributed a lot to the crust color. A tasty bread, good with cheeses as well as with butter.

Taken from the Jeffrey Hamelman book "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes". An amazing bread book.

Coffe Cake - Asia Pear and Rosemary Crumble

2008-12-14T09:12:00.000-08:00

I started to peel the pears and noticed they were soft - no biggy right? I can put them in something and baked them and all will be well. Then I cut them in half and they were seriously brown. So out they went. I panicked, this was a dessert for someone who was coming over to have dinner with us. I really didn't have much at home to use in the way of fruit (which I adore using). But on the weekend I had bought a couple of Asian Pears (Nashi Pears for the Aussies).

A while ago I went out with a friend and fellow baker Jamie to a place downtown called 'Taste'. It's attached to the art gallery SAM (Seattle Art Museum) www.tastesam.com/cafe_taste.aspx. We just wanted dessert, and they actually had some great desserts. One of them was a pie with an Asian Pear filling. It was pretty delicious. The pears kept their shape, and they had an unusually flavor, it was served with a side of cinnamon ice cream that complimented the pie nicely. Having being inspired (and admittedly desperate) I peeled, sliced and used the Asian pears. However they weren't the most flavorsome choice pears, and they weren't particularly moist, so I added rosemary and some pear liquor and well it worked. It had an interesting flavor mostly due to the addition of the rosemary - it was nearly savory. I think a cinnamon ice-cream or even a apple cider sorbet would have worked well with this one. Maybe next time I'll try that?