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| 20% wheat |
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| High gluten |
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| Thyme infused |
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Barbeque Tofu Sandwiches
Small, savory, filling. The sauce is nice and tangy with a hint of heat. I used homemade rolls which added a nice flavor.
Makes 6-8 sandwiches
1 package, extra firm tofu
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup mustard
1.5 Tbs robust molasses
2 Tbs dark brown sugar
1 tsp hot sauce (More to taste. A lot more to prove your wo/manliness)
Salt and pepper to taste
Mustard, greens, onion to garnish
Press the tofu for 2+ hours, getting as much liquid as possible out of the block. Slice into 1/4 inch strips.
Mix the vinegar, tomato sauce, mustard, sugar, molasses, hot sauce, salt and pepper in a sauce pan. Heat over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat.
Transfer about 1 cup of the sauce to an oven dish and add the tofu. Add more sauce to cover if needed. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
Add the tofu and sauce from the oven dish to the sauce pan and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.
Eat.
Eat.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Unfiltered Ginger Beer
This was my first, albeit small, step into home brewing. The goal: a basic ginger beer (think Canadian Dry with gingery chutzpah.) Rather than use some commercial soda extract or concentrate, I decided to make a simple ginger-infused syrup and work from there. After a lot of research into home soda making, this was the result:
Recipe:
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
.5 cup granulated sugar
7-9 inches ginger
1-3 limes
64 oz. water
3/16 tsp active yeast
microplane grater/zester
fine mesh strainer
large boiling pot
thermometer
bottle(s) capable of holding contents under pressure
Peel the ginger root and start in on it with the microplane. I used a full 7 inch piece for this 64 oz. batch, but more or less can be used to taste. Make sure to collect all the liquid and pulp that is produced.
Mix 24 oz. water with the brown sugar and dissolve over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the ginger. An easy way to ensure that none of the ginger goes to waste is to rinse the microplane with 8-16 oz. of water and add that to the pot.
Add the granulated sugar and another 24 oz. water (subtracting any added from rinsing the microplane.) As the sugar dissolves, squeeze in the juice of the limes. 1 lime will add a subtle acidity to a 64 oz. batch. For an additional layer in the flavor, add the zest of the lime. Use more limes to taste. Stir constantly until the mixture reaches 150 degrees. Let the mixture sit over very low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the remaining water.
Cool rapidly in an ice or cold water bath. Let the mixture sit, covered for several hours. Once the mixture has had time to sit and mellow, you can start bottling. Make sure that the bottles you are using are sanitized. Add the yeast to the mixture. Decant the mixture through the strainer into a bottling barrel or directly into the bottles. While this will remove the majority of the ginger root and any zest added, there will be ginger solids in the final product. After the bottles are sealed, place them in a dark area that is between 65-80 degrees.
Thus begins the fermentation process. Because there is no airlock or mechanism to release the CO2 bi-product of the fermentation, the process needs to be retarded and eventually stopped through cooling. So, after about 48 hours, toss the bottles in the fridge! This provides enough time for the yeast to chew through enough sugar to produce adequate carbonation, but not enough time to develop noticeable amounts of alcohol.
A couple of notes:
Recipe:
1.5 cups dark brown sugar
.5 cup granulated sugar
7-9 inches ginger
1-3 limes
64 oz. water
3/16 tsp active yeast
microplane grater/zester
fine mesh strainer
large boiling pot
thermometer
bottle(s) capable of holding contents under pressure
Peel the ginger root and start in on it with the microplane. I used a full 7 inch piece for this 64 oz. batch, but more or less can be used to taste. Make sure to collect all the liquid and pulp that is produced.
Mix 24 oz. water with the brown sugar and dissolve over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the ginger. An easy way to ensure that none of the ginger goes to waste is to rinse the microplane with 8-16 oz. of water and add that to the pot.
Add the granulated sugar and another 24 oz. water (subtracting any added from rinsing the microplane.) As the sugar dissolves, squeeze in the juice of the limes. 1 lime will add a subtle acidity to a 64 oz. batch. For an additional layer in the flavor, add the zest of the lime. Use more limes to taste. Stir constantly until the mixture reaches 150 degrees. Let the mixture sit over very low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the remaining water.
Cool rapidly in an ice or cold water bath. Let the mixture sit, covered for several hours. Once the mixture has had time to sit and mellow, you can start bottling. Make sure that the bottles you are using are sanitized. Add the yeast to the mixture. Decant the mixture through the strainer into a bottling barrel or directly into the bottles. While this will remove the majority of the ginger root and any zest added, there will be ginger solids in the final product. After the bottles are sealed, place them in a dark area that is between 65-80 degrees.
Thus begins the fermentation process. Because there is no airlock or mechanism to release the CO2 bi-product of the fermentation, the process needs to be retarded and eventually stopped through cooling. So, after about 48 hours, toss the bottles in the fridge! This provides enough time for the yeast to chew through enough sugar to produce adequate carbonation, but not enough time to develop noticeable amounts of alcohol.
A couple of notes:
- Too much yeast, especially if it is generic active dry yeast, will create a bready flavor and excessive amounts of carbonation which can lead to exploding bottles and/or a very messy kitchen floor when the bottles are first opened.
- You can add a variety of spices to the mixture prior to straining and bottling. Vanilla, cloves, bay leaf, or any other aromatic that will play well with the spicy ginger.
- For this batch, I used a single 2 liter growler for bottling and slightly more yeast than is called for in the above recipe.
- Some recipes I found call for 1/8 tsp active yeast per 24 oz. liquid. This seemed a little high, so I went with 1/8 tsp active yeast per 32 oz. I lowered the yeast content in the recipe since the growler was...slightly over-carbonated...
Next steps:
- play with different sweeteners: honey and molasses come to mind
- more complex flavoring: lower the sugar content and add spices. Maybe dramatically lower the sugar content and bottle with a touch of priming sugar.
- not having 1/3 of my batch empty onto the kitchen floor, table, and counter.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Update
As you may have noticed, it has been about 2 months since the last installment of Cooking with Macintosh. This is largely due to my lack of inspiration for cooking and my interest in bread baking (which honestly has just been practicing with basic recipes over and over, so nothing to really blog about.)
Now that the new year is underway, I'll try to post more regularly, even if it winds up being pictures of bread. Macintosh has also lost a lot of interest in my cooking, and rarely helps anymore (except to occasionally get right underfoot when i'm taking something out of the oven.) He has, however, been very interested in the bread making process. It is a constant battle to keep the cat away from rising dough or out of the kneading area.
Now that the new year is underway, I'll try to post more regularly, even if it winds up being pictures of bread. Macintosh has also lost a lot of interest in my cooking, and rarely helps anymore (except to occasionally get right underfoot when i'm taking something out of the oven.) He has, however, been very interested in the bread making process. It is a constant battle to keep the cat away from rising dough or out of the kneading area.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Bagels
Find me a person a who does not love bagels. You can't (unless they have a gluten or wheat allergy.) It's like trying to beat Prince and the Revolution in a game of basketball. There are great bagel shops in NYC, but there is nothing like a homemade bagel to start the day...or for lunch...or dinner...
Bagel dough is drier than most bread doughs, with upwards of 6 or 7 cups of flour used. This creates the dense, chewy texture hallmarking great bagels. Some recipes call for a very high yeast content, which result in light, airy bagels more akin to those found in the bread section of the local grocery. However, I feel pretty strongly that a proper bagel needs to be dense and substantial.
The water used for poaching the bagels before baking should be sweetened. You can experiment with various sweeteners for different tastes, but basic sugar, malt, and molasses are the mainstays as they provide excellent flavoring and don't wind up costing so much as honey (the poaching water should have more sweetener added every few bagels, so this can wind up taking a large chunk out of the honey reserves.)
Basic Bagels
6-7 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 packet active rapid-rise yeast
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp butter (very soft or melted and cooled) (substitute vegetable oil if desired)
2 1/3 cup warm water
extra oil for greasing a large bowl
4+ Tbsp sugar or malt for poaching
Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the water, butter/oil, and sugar. Mix to a dough, stirring in one direction to develop the gluten. Add water a tablespoon at a time so that the flour is completely incorporated.
Once the dough is mixed, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and begin kneading. Kneading bagel dough takes time, at least a solid 10 minutes of steady work. The dough should be dry enough that you do not need to add more flour to keep it from sticking to the surface, so add flour as needed to make a nice dry dough. It should be very hard to work with by the time it is ready to rise. Form a ball with the dough and put it in a lightly oiled bowl, turning the ball so that it is evenly oiled all over.
Cover the bowl and place in warm area. Let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 90 minutes. Punch the dough down and knead vigorously for a minute or two. A finger indentation in the dough should not spring back immediately.
Divide the dough evenly into 14 or 15 pieces. There are a couple ways to form the bagels: form the dough into a ball and poke a finger through it to make the hole; or form the dough into a rope, bring the ends together, and pinch. I prefer the ball method personally, as I find that when I make pinched ropes, they tend to come undone in the poaching.
After you have formed all the bagels, give the bottoms a quick brushing of oil or place them on a well greased tray. Let them sit, covered, for 10-20 minutes. While the bagels are sitting, bring a pot of water to a boil and preheat the oven to 500 degrees (you'll have about 10 minutes work ahead of you before we get to the baking, so if your oven heats quickly, save the preheating until later.)
Add 2 Tbsp sugar/malt/molasses to the boiling water. Begin poaching the bagels, 2-3 at a time, for 60-90 seconds, turning once. The bagels will expand while being poached, so leave room in your pot to accommodate. Take the poached bagels and place them back on a sheet of parchment paper or the greased tray.
I prefer to use a baking stone with a coating of corn meal to bake, but cookie sheets are just as effective. Bake the bagels for 12-15 minutes, until golden-brown on top. Transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy.
Bagel dough is drier than most bread doughs, with upwards of 6 or 7 cups of flour used. This creates the dense, chewy texture hallmarking great bagels. Some recipes call for a very high yeast content, which result in light, airy bagels more akin to those found in the bread section of the local grocery. However, I feel pretty strongly that a proper bagel needs to be dense and substantial.
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| Plain bagels. Not perfectly pretty, but delicious. |
The water used for poaching the bagels before baking should be sweetened. You can experiment with various sweeteners for different tastes, but basic sugar, malt, and molasses are the mainstays as they provide excellent flavoring and don't wind up costing so much as honey (the poaching water should have more sweetener added every few bagels, so this can wind up taking a large chunk out of the honey reserves.)
Basic Bagels
6-7 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp salt
1 packet active rapid-rise yeast
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp butter (very soft or melted and cooled) (substitute vegetable oil if desired)
2 1/3 cup warm water
extra oil for greasing a large bowl
4+ Tbsp sugar or malt for poaching
Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the water, butter/oil, and sugar. Mix to a dough, stirring in one direction to develop the gluten. Add water a tablespoon at a time so that the flour is completely incorporated.
Once the dough is mixed, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and begin kneading. Kneading bagel dough takes time, at least a solid 10 minutes of steady work. The dough should be dry enough that you do not need to add more flour to keep it from sticking to the surface, so add flour as needed to make a nice dry dough. It should be very hard to work with by the time it is ready to rise. Form a ball with the dough and put it in a lightly oiled bowl, turning the ball so that it is evenly oiled all over.
Cover the bowl and place in warm area. Let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 90 minutes. Punch the dough down and knead vigorously for a minute or two. A finger indentation in the dough should not spring back immediately.
Divide the dough evenly into 14 or 15 pieces. There are a couple ways to form the bagels: form the dough into a ball and poke a finger through it to make the hole; or form the dough into a rope, bring the ends together, and pinch. I prefer the ball method personally, as I find that when I make pinched ropes, they tend to come undone in the poaching.
After you have formed all the bagels, give the bottoms a quick brushing of oil or place them on a well greased tray. Let them sit, covered, for 10-20 minutes. While the bagels are sitting, bring a pot of water to a boil and preheat the oven to 500 degrees (you'll have about 10 minutes work ahead of you before we get to the baking, so if your oven heats quickly, save the preheating until later.)
Add 2 Tbsp sugar/malt/molasses to the boiling water. Begin poaching the bagels, 2-3 at a time, for 60-90 seconds, turning once. The bagels will expand while being poached, so leave room in your pot to accommodate. Take the poached bagels and place them back on a sheet of parchment paper or the greased tray.
I prefer to use a baking stone with a coating of corn meal to bake, but cookie sheets are just as effective. Bake the bagels for 12-15 minutes, until golden-brown on top. Transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy.
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| Bonk appétit |
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Challah time!
Sweet, buttery, wonderful challah. There's not really a lot to say.
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| Bonk appétite |
3 1/2 cups flour (plus extra for if needed)
2/3 cup warm water (plus extra if needed)2 whole eggs + 1 yolk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp salt
1 packet active yeast
1/2 tsp baking powder
1-2 Tbs vegetable oil (for coating the bowl)
Mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a large bowl and make a well. Pour 1/2 cup of the warm water into the well, add yeast and sugar. Mix thoroughly and try to incorporate as little flour as possible. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, or until foamy.
In a small bowl whisk together the two whole eggs, butter, and honey. When the yeast has activated, add the egg mixture to the yeast mixture in the large bowl along with the rest of the water. Stir thoroughly and incorporate all the flour. Add extra flour or water as necessary to get a dough that is slightly moist, but that does not stick to your hands or table top. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or until indentations in the dough take several seconds to spring back. I found that challah dough takes very little kneading, this batch only took about 5 minutes, whereas most of my other bread doughs take a good 10 minutes of kneading. Turn the kneaded dough into a well oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place.
I have a very idiosyncratic way of handling the rising process with challah. My friend Laurel and I made challah often the summer after I graduated from college and this rising technique was recommended by her. Let the dough rise 3 times: first, for 30-45 minutes (a little under doubled in size) then punch down and re-knead briefly; second, again for 30-45 minutes, punch down and re-knead briefly; third, for 90+ minutes (until more than doubled in size).
After the dough has risen for a third time, turn out onto your work space, divide the dough into thirds and form the thirds into rounds. Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 375. Roll or press out the rounds so that they are relatively flat, then roll the flats into cylinders. Stretch and roll the cylinders into ropes 10-12 inches long. Let these sit for a few minutes while the oven finishes preheating.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolk and some warm water together to make the wash.
Braid the ropes together. I've read that it is best to start from the middle, working out and that 5 twists is plenty, but as you can see from the picture, my braiding advice should be taken with a very large grain of salt. Once you have the loaf formed, brush the egg wash evenly onto the loaf, making sure to cover all the twists and corners.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. You can try reapplying the wash to the loaf in the first 10-12 minutes of baking as the dough rises, though you might need to increase bake time depending on how quickly your oven recovers to 375. If you are using a baking stone, make sure to use plenty of corn meal as the wash may make the loaf stick. If you are using a baking sheet, grease it very well.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Pizza Dough
I love pizza as much as anyone. Maybe more. So it only made sense to try my hand at making pizza. I'm happy to say that it has been a successful venture marked by me berating myself for eating too much pizza in one sitting. The dough recipe is pretty standard and can be modified by adding a 1/4-1/2 cup wine or beer, 1-2 Tbs herbs (oregano or whatever else you have lying about that is savory), or changing the flour content to include some whole wheat (though I have found that this makes for a more difficult time in stretching the dough.)
I have no doubt that my baking technique will leave practiced pizza makers aghast, but hey, I'm working without a peel and have a finicky oven. Also, I can't seem to find the pictures documenting this venture except for one post-baked and sliced. Will add more the next time pizza is made.
Basic Pizza Dough
3 cups flour (a finer ground flour will give you a stretchier dough, but all-purpose works just fine.) If you are adding wine or beer, add 1/2 cup flour per 1/4 cup liquid.
1 cup warm water
1 packet dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar/honey
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
1/4-1/2 cup wine or beer (optional) (Again, if you are adding extra liquid to the recipe, you will need to add more flour.)
Makes 3 12 inch crusts.
Add the yeast to the warm water, mix in the sugar and 1Tbs oil and let sit for 5 minutes. Pour the liquid (and any beer or wine you are using) into a large bowl along with half the flour. Since I don't mix or knead with a food processor, I usually make a basic sponge and let it sit for about 10-20 minutes before working in the rest of the flour. To do this, once you have your liquids incorporated into half the flour, stir the mixture vigorously in one direction for about 1-2 minutes. This will develop the gluten and give the crust some springiness that I find makes it easier to work with when forming the crusts. Alternatively, you can simply add all the liquid to all the flour and mix throughly to form the dough. If using the sponge method, add a little bit of flour at a time after the sponge has had time to sit and incorporate to form the dough.
Aim for a dough that is slightly moist. If your dough is crumbly, add water. If it is sticky, add flour. When adding extra flour or water, do so 1 Tbs at a time.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it has lost a bit of its springiness. I usually test by pushing two fingers into the dough and seeing how quickly it springs back. I prefer my pizza dough to have more plasticity than bread dough, but not so much that it will be frustrating to form the crusts. Form the dough into a ball. Once you are done kneading, coat a large bowl with the remaining oil and turn the dough in the bowl, covering it evenly with oil. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.
You can punch down the dough and let it have a second rise, or form the crusts after a single rise. Form the dough into a cylinder and cut into 3 equal pieces (if you added extra liquid and flour, you may find that the recipe is better suited to making 4 10inch crusts.) Cover the pieces and let sit for about 10 minutes. This short rise usually makes the dough easier to work with. Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees.
Roll, pull, or toss the dough to shape. work on a lightly floured surface so that you may easily transfer the dough to a peel or sheet and then into the oven. Aim for a crust that is about 1/8 thick. Even thickness is the goal. Lightly oil the formed crust, transfer it to a peel or sheet, top and toss it in the oven for 12-15 minutes.
Notes on baking
A hotter oven gives you a nice, crisp crust, but you may find that the pizza is a bit squishy in the middle depending on what your toppings are. Since I don't have a pizza peel, I've found that transferring a fully topped pizza to the oven results in me cursing a lot and winding up with burns. So, I sometimes will bake the crust on its own for 5-7 minutes at a lower temperature (450), take it out of the oven, top and then bake at 500 for 5-7 minutes. I'll report back on how things work when I get my peel.
I have no doubt that my baking technique will leave practiced pizza makers aghast, but hey, I'm working without a peel and have a finicky oven. Also, I can't seem to find the pictures documenting this venture except for one post-baked and sliced. Will add more the next time pizza is made.
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| Bonk appétit! |
Basic Pizza Dough
3 cups flour (a finer ground flour will give you a stretchier dough, but all-purpose works just fine.) If you are adding wine or beer, add 1/2 cup flour per 1/4 cup liquid.
1 cup warm water
1 packet dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar/honey
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
1/4-1/2 cup wine or beer (optional) (Again, if you are adding extra liquid to the recipe, you will need to add more flour.)
Makes 3 12 inch crusts.
Add the yeast to the warm water, mix in the sugar and 1Tbs oil and let sit for 5 minutes. Pour the liquid (and any beer or wine you are using) into a large bowl along with half the flour. Since I don't mix or knead with a food processor, I usually make a basic sponge and let it sit for about 10-20 minutes before working in the rest of the flour. To do this, once you have your liquids incorporated into half the flour, stir the mixture vigorously in one direction for about 1-2 minutes. This will develop the gluten and give the crust some springiness that I find makes it easier to work with when forming the crusts. Alternatively, you can simply add all the liquid to all the flour and mix throughly to form the dough. If using the sponge method, add a little bit of flour at a time after the sponge has had time to sit and incorporate to form the dough.
Aim for a dough that is slightly moist. If your dough is crumbly, add water. If it is sticky, add flour. When adding extra flour or water, do so 1 Tbs at a time.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it has lost a bit of its springiness. I usually test by pushing two fingers into the dough and seeing how quickly it springs back. I prefer my pizza dough to have more plasticity than bread dough, but not so much that it will be frustrating to form the crusts. Form the dough into a ball. Once you are done kneading, coat a large bowl with the remaining oil and turn the dough in the bowl, covering it evenly with oil. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.
You can punch down the dough and let it have a second rise, or form the crusts after a single rise. Form the dough into a cylinder and cut into 3 equal pieces (if you added extra liquid and flour, you may find that the recipe is better suited to making 4 10inch crusts.) Cover the pieces and let sit for about 10 minutes. This short rise usually makes the dough easier to work with. Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees.
Roll, pull, or toss the dough to shape. work on a lightly floured surface so that you may easily transfer the dough to a peel or sheet and then into the oven. Aim for a crust that is about 1/8 thick. Even thickness is the goal. Lightly oil the formed crust, transfer it to a peel or sheet, top and toss it in the oven for 12-15 minutes.
Notes on baking
A hotter oven gives you a nice, crisp crust, but you may find that the pizza is a bit squishy in the middle depending on what your toppings are. Since I don't have a pizza peel, I've found that transferring a fully topped pizza to the oven results in me cursing a lot and winding up with burns. So, I sometimes will bake the crust on its own for 5-7 minutes at a lower temperature (450), take it out of the oven, top and then bake at 500 for 5-7 minutes. I'll report back on how things work when I get my peel.
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