Florida Cottage Food Law Passed!

BBA Challenge week #4 Brioche

Brioche has always seemed out of reach for me and this challenge got me across the 'bridge'.  It was the pan(s) not the recipe or procedure.  Here I am happy to share te results of today's efforts in the kitchen.

The sponge reacted in great bubble form.  I blended the dry ingredients and whisked the eggs separately as directed.  These were added to the sponge followed by the addition of the butter.  I chose to make the Poorman's version for the less butter content.  Oh, I would love the Richer version but we are trying on the calorie thing in our house.(somewhat)

With the butter worked in, the dough was extremely sticky.  I added a bit of flour and let the Kitchenaid to the knead.  I added less than a quarter cup of flour for the knead.  The dough became satiny but still tacky.  I tumped the dough onto the board for a hand knead to check the feel of the dough.  With flour on the board and hands, it folded well and was rather beautiful.  Next, the dough was given 90 minutes to rise in a lightly oiled bowl.  It rose nicely; excellent texture development.  I did not get photos before the bake.  Here you can see the crumb

tender, buttery, even without brioche pans.

BBA Challenge week #3 Bagels

Bagels, bagels, bagels, the ever elusive perfect bagel.  In the 80's the Combsman returned from a business trip toting in a huge bag of NYC Bagels... my first NYC bagel and oh boy, was it ever good.  Dense tooth, great flavor with or without the traditional smear of cream cheese.  Far too soon they were gone and we were hooked.  I did in the 80's make my first bagels with a recipe from a NYC cookbook I borrowed from the library.  Hey, this is before I had a computer or the internet evolved to the everything you need source it is today.  The procedure was to make the dough, rest, shape, rest, boil broil and bake.  They turned out fairly well for a novice and only one experience of eating a real bagel.  We were happy.  It was involved and cumbersome for the bread baker of only an Italian loaf and the occasional pan of sticky buns.  Now fast forward to the present and we arrive at my second and third attempt at bagels.  BBA's procedure with the cold fermentation produced a flat, less thick bagel more akin to the bialy. I found all the rise times to take longer.  I am in South Florida where we think it is cool, but not winter cold. They were tasty with a good tooth.  From the photo, you can see my skill of shaping the bagel needs much work.  How much does the cold fermentation add flavor to the bagel?  Checking bagel recipes and directions in Jeff Hamelman's Bread, he doesn't use the cold fermentation.   Curious bakers need to know.  I also must confess I had no malt... so I poured a Sam Adams Lager into the boiling water.  it did produce a bit of the sheen and crust texture desired.  I will be making bagels again because there are no real NYC bagels in my area and we gotta have a bagel fix from time to time.  I catch a King Fish occasionally, which makes a great fish dip spread tat screams for a homemade bagel.  Maybe, I should get on this brioche recipe for next week and make time for some fishing while the bagels cold ferment next weekend.  Oh, wait, I have this other thing called a job.... teaching.... I have papers to grade and science labs to prepare as well..... juggling all the fun events to fit them into a week is an art!!  Since that is a juggling act everyone attempts, we must all be artful by daily living, indeed.

Anadama: Peter Rheinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge

Thanks to Chris at http://akuindeed.com/ for hosting the BBA Challenge of 2011.  I missed the one hosted earlier by a different bread blogger and saw on The Fresh Loaf Chris was starting with the new year.  Perfect timing and here I am!

I mixed the cornmeal and water as the soaker and let it sit overnight.  Morning arrived bringing with it the time to make the sponge.  This went together easily and showed signs of promising performance immediately with the appearance of bubbles.  I allowed it to rest for the required hour; then returned to complete the dough build.  This formed a very moist, sticky dough.  With the dough turned out for the knead, I added a little flour at a time.  When the dough was tacky rather than sticky, I returned the dough to the greased bowl for a rest of 90  minutes.  I have learned a moist, tacky dough can be a good thing and adding more flour to prevent sticking can make a tough loaf.

The bowl filled and the dough was  beautiful.  I turned it out for shaping.  Still a tacky dough, I dusted my hands rather than the dough.  That turned out to be a good decision.  I made two 1.5lb loaves and placed them into the bread pans for the final proof.  Cooler temps today (even in Florida) caused me to increase this rise time to just more than an hour.

In a preheated 350 degree oven, I slid the pans in and set the timer.  At the end of 45 minutes, the loaves looked great, but I have grown to appreciate more color for the crust.  I added 12 minutes.

Removing the loaves from the pan started out as a worry.  Patience served me well today.  I let the loaves rest for about 5 minutes, ran a spatula along the interior of the bread pan for the release.  There they were on the rack in a cloud of steam, aroma and rich honey color.

 As the aroma filled the house, the Combsman appeared, hovering.  But he waited, allowing the bread to finish and cool.  Soon he was rewarded.

 Color is good but I would prefer
a bit more dome rise above the edge of the bread pans.

Slicing and tasting brought satisfaction of the flavors and textures of a well baked Anadama
Bread.


 This recipe is in every bread book I have on the shelf and a few  other cookbooks as well. I had never made this and without Chris' BBA Challenge we wouldn't be sharing and enjoying this treat this weekend.





Come on back soon. There will be more reviews of recipes and more BBA Challenge results.  Comments are welcome.

Stellar Blueberry Muffins, so I am told!

Stellar Blueberry Muffins (so I am told)

Muffins, smell ‘em bakin’?  Oh, the anticipation of the tender crumb, tasty blueberries with the melted butter all a-meltin’ in your mouth makes a holiday breakfast all the more like a holiday!

I have been makin’ this recipe from the 1936 Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook for over  thirty years.   

This was my husband's grandmother's
cookbook and includes
handwritten recipes on the inside cover
 from her, his mom and now me.

Made ‘em once for County Fair blue ribbon winner, Joanie Rudnitzki, who commented, “Mine won first place at the fair and yours are better!”  Now that is a compliment from fellow baker if I ever got one.  Thanks, Joanie!

Here is the recipe and some photos of New Year’s Eve Morning’s results from the oven:

Sift together:

2 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Add:

1/4 cup butter or shortening ( I cut this into the dry ingredients)

1 egg slightly beaten

1 cup milk

Fold gently ONLY until ingredients are wet.

Fill greased muffin tin cups 2/3 full.  Place in preheated oven at 400 °F  for  20 to 25 minutes. Yields 12 medium sized muffins.

*I double this recipe to make LARGE muffins in my LARGE 6 count muffin tin seen in photos. Oh yes, these were shared and enjoyed around the neighborhood.

I like my extra large muffin tin
 especially for impressive
Blueberry Muffins!
They are HUGE!

Rosemary Garlic Potato Bread from BBA pg 219

Rosemary Garlic Potato Bread recipe from BBA  doubles nicely.  I made 24 petite rolls and two large elongated loaves.  The slice had a nice crunch from the knife, the crust line around the slice was a beautiful quarter inch deep.  The crumb was tender, not too airy allowing for great sandwich building.  

Here is the smoked turkey, tomato, goat, cheese sandwich we enjoyed with a fiery green chile black bean soup.  (Yes, those are homemade bread and butter pickles smiling out at ‘cha!)  No left overs, folks; all gone!

I respect copyright of other bakers therefore have not included Peter Rheinhart’s recipe for this bread.  If interested, check out his book from your library or bookstore.  See this recipe and technique on page 219.  I also recommend www.thefreshloaf.com for chatter on all kinds of breads, recipes, techniques.  Participants chime in from all over the globe and are happy to help with questions, finding lost recipes, correcting various oooooppps in process and heaping praise on successes!  Enjoy something savory and tasty today!

Parker House Rolls, My Grandmother's Recipe

And in her handwriting from 1963.  This is the only page saved from a gardening book she kept with her cookbooks. Notice the bookworm hole in the corner.  I loved this book and was saddened to learn it was gone.  But I do hav and treasure this handwritten recipe~  No one has penmanship like this anymore.  Sad!  I collect hand written recipes.  Some are great becasue the dish is tasty nad others are good becasue the penmanship is fabulous.  The are fun to flip through.  Pne day, (soon) I will make a framed arrangement.  Meantime, I try tomake a good collectiof for my nephews, Riley and Davis.  They love to eat and will adventure into the culinary realm one of these days.

Because it is hard to read:
Parker House Rolls, Nettie Delores Stotts
1 cup scalded milk     2 Tbsp. shortening
2 Tbsp. sugar              1 tsp. salt
1 pkg yeast            1/4 c. luke warm water
1 well beaten egg    2  1/2 c flour
Combine milk shortening and salt.  Cool to warm. Add yeast in warm water, add egg, gradually stir iin flout to form soft dough.  Beat vigorously, cover and let rise in warm place till doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.  Turn out on floured surface and make into rolls.  Bake in hot oven, 400 degrees about 15 minutes.  Makes three dozen.

Now, like many grandmothers, hse thought many kitchen tasks were intuitive!  Here I will add details for "Turn out ... make into rolls..."  that I needed.  Punch down dough and turn out.
Nettie kept a pastry cloth in a plastic bag and her rolling pin had a cloth cover on it as well.  She swore this kept any dough or pastry from sticking. I watched hours upon hours and never saw her fight a dough.  No, my mat and pin are not wrapped!  Some kids won't learn.  And yes, I fight with stuck doughs on many occassions!  Back on task here, rol dough 1/2 inch thick and cut with 3 in iscuit cutter.  Brush each circle with melted butter and fold in half.  Place each half circle in a 13 X 9  buttered pan.  Allow to rise about 45 minutes and bake.