bread — Page 2

panko-crusted salmon

06/11/2013 By bridget

Dave cooks now, and it is awesome for a number of reasons. Supposedly, it gives me a break from cooking, except I tend to use the free time to make cookies, but, that is still awesome. He chooses different sorts of recipes than I do, so it’s fun to have more variety. Mostly, it’s just nice to be in the kitchen together, doing one of my favorite things. And it provides me with plenty of – much needed – practice in only offering advice when it’s requested.

So far, Dave is only cooking fish. This is also awesome, because fish is complicated in the desert – finding out how to get it so it’s fresh, which types are sustainable, that sort of stuff. I’m glad he took this on because my method was mostly to stock up on frozen tilapia in Albuquerque or wait for the wild salmon in the summer. Dave, on the other hand, has made friends with the fish lady at the grocery store.

The vast majority of the recipes he makes are from Mark Bittman’s Fish cookbook, but I keep an eye out for quick and easy fish recipes to send his way, and this was one of those. While he mixed bread crumbs with lemon zest and herbs, I roasted asparagus, chased Dave around with a camera, and baked a cake. It was, as I might have mentioned, awesome*.

*Even more awesome? Dave wants to write the occasional guest post with some of his favorite fish recipes. Fun! I can’t wait.

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Panko-Crusted Salmon (adapted from Ina Garten’s How Easy is That via Annie’s Eats)

4 servings

⅔ cup panko
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
4 (6- to 8-ounce) salmon fillets, skin on
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
lemon wedges, for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the panko, parsley, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and toss with a fork until the crumbs are evenly coated; set aside.

2. Place the salmon fillets skin side down on a work surface. Generously brush the top of each fillet with the mustard, then season with salt and pepper. Press the panko mixture thickly on top of the mustard on each fillet.

3. In a 12-inch oven-safe nonstick skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the salmon fillets, skin side down, and sear for 3-4 minutes without turning to brown the skin. (If you don’t want to eat the skin, this step also helps the skin stick to the pan so the fillets can be easily removed without the skin later on.)

4. Transfer the pan to the oven for 5 to 7 minutes, until the salmon is almost cooked through and the panko is browned. Remove from the oven, cover with foil and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.

(The asparagus were served over pine nut crema. Very tasty.)

Filed Under: bread, citrus, seafood

crescent rolls

02/26/2013 By bridget

I want my crescent rolls to bridge the gap between a regular dinner roll and a croissant. I want them intensely buttery, soft in the middle, with a slight crackle to the crust. I want the rolled layers to come apart when you bite into a browned edge. I don’t want them to be flaky; that’s too far down the croissant path. Basically, I want what you get when you pop open one of those tubes from the grocery store, except those tend to be soft to the point of mushy and too pale on the outside. It’s been surprisingly hard to find this ideal.

Most recipes turn out rolls that are too similar to dinner rolls, without enough butter and without distinct layers. The recipe I started from for these rolls looked like they’d go too far the other direction, with flaky layers of dough separated by butter, like a croissant. You get those layers through folding butter into the dough and rolling it flat, then folding the dough into thirds and rolling again. In a croissant, this process is repeated to make hundreds of alternating paper-thin dough and butter layers.

By reducing the number of turns, I was able to create the layers I wanted without making them so thin they’d turn flaky, so the dough layers were distinctly bread-like. The bread needed to be tender, which I guaranteed by adding a couple tablespoons of oil. The butter layers would add plenty of butter flavor, but the oil would keep the bread soft and moist. At last – the perfect crescent roll, halfway between a dinner roll and a croissant.

One year ago: Yogurt Hollandaise Sauce
Two years ago: Yellow Cake (comparison of 3 recipes)
Three years ago: Jalapeno Baked Fish with Roasted Tomatoes and Potatoes
Four years ago: Pot Roast
Five years ago: Salmon Cakes, Flaky Biscuits, Hashed Brussels Sprouts

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Crescent Rolls (adapted from eat live run)

Makes 16 rolls

I made these slightly whole wheat by using this trick, but if you’d rather they were made completely with white flour, just skip step one, adding the pre-dough ingredients (white flour instead of whole wheat) with the rest of the dough ingredients.

Pre-dough:
4 ounces (about ¾ cup) whole wheat flour
⅓ cup (2.67 ounces) water
¼ teaspoon salt

Dough:
2½ cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk plus 1 tablespoon
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
6 tablespoons butter, softened
egg wash

1. For the pre-dough: Combine the flour, salt, and water, mixing until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and set aside at room temperature for at least 8 hours or overnight.

2. Combine the pre-dough, flour, yeast, sugar, salt, ¾ cup milk, egg, and oil in the bowl of a stand mixer. Knead about 4 minutes. (You can mix and knead the dough by hand in a large bowl.) Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Roll the dough out to about ¼-inch thick. Starting at a short end, spread the softened butter over two-thirds of the dough. Fold the unbuttered third of dough over the buttered middle. Fold the other buttered side over the middle. You’ve just folded the dough in thirds, like a letter, with the butter trapped inside between layers of dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes. Roll out to ¼-inch thick again; fold in thirds again; chill another 30 minutes.

4. Roll the dough to ¼-inch thick to a rectangle about 10 by 14-inches. Slice in half lengthwise, creating two 5 by 14-inch rectangles, then alternate diagonal cuts to make 8 triangles from each half of dough. Cut a 1-inch slit in the wide end of each triangle (the side opposite the point). Roll up the triangles, starting at the wide end and pulling the corners away from the slit in the middle. Arrange the rolls on parchment- or silicone-lined baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Spray with nonstick spray, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

5. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 400 degrees. About 5 minutes before baking, remove the plastic wrap and brush the rolls with the egg wash; leave them uncovered. Bake until golden brown, about 18 minutes.

Filed Under: bread, whole grains, yeast bread

lemon ginger scones

01/24/2013 By bridget

I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now, years actually, that scones would be a perfect treat to bring in to work. I could do most of the work the night or weekend beforehand and then just bake them in the morning before work. It would be easy for me, and my coworkers would have fresh scones to go with their morning coffee.

It sounds good in theory. In reality, it was a harried morning of showering, emptying the dishwasher, making smoothies, chugging my morning tea, skipping a couple makeup steps, hoping the blue of my scarf didn’t clash too much with the blue of my shirt, oh and garnishing, baking, cooling, and snapping a few very quick pictures of lemon-ginger scones.

So I was wrong about the convenience of baking scones in the morning before work. But I was right about my coworkers loving them. It was a nice morning of compliments – not on my outfit with its clashing blues, obviously, but the tender and slightly spicy scones made up for the unavoidable shortcomings that resulted from my rushed morning.

One year ago: Pasta with Tiny Meatball Sauce
Two years ago: Stromboli
Three years ago: Baked Ziti
Four years ago: Twice-Baked Potatoes with Broccoli, Cheddar, and Scallions
Five years ago: Deviled Eggs with Tuna

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Lemon-Ginger Scones (inspired by Bon Appetit’s Lemon Cream Scones, but when I realized I didn’t have nearly enough cream, I adapted Tartine’s Buttermilk Scones instead)

Serves about 8

As always, you can freeze scones after shaping, before baking. Bake directly from the freezer, adding 2-3 minutes to the baking time.

2½ (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (1.75 ounces) granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
3 teaspoons lemon zest, plus 1 teaspoon
1½ teaspoon baking powder
1/3 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch cubes, very cold
2 ounces crystallized ginger, chopped fine
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2.Pulse the flour, ¼ cup sugar, 3 teaspoons lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a food processor until evenly mixed. Scatter the butter cubes over the dry ingredients and pulse until the largest bits of butter are no larger than peas. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the ginger, then the buttermilk. Knead a few times to bring the dough together.

3. On a lightly floured work surface, pat the dough out to ½-inch round. Cut the round into 8 wedges or use cutters to cut other shapes.

4. Transfer the scones to the prepared baking sheet. Rub the remaining 1 teaspoon of zest into the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Brush the scones with the melted butter and top with the sugar mixture. Bake until lightly browned around the edges, about 16-20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, citrus, fruit, quick bread

flatbreads with honey, sea salt, and thyme

10/12/2012 By bridget

On our very last day in Italy, almost exactly one year ago, we took it easy. One last order of “due cappuccini”, one last walking tour, one last cathedral, one last gelato, one last lunch. That lunch was one of many memorable meals on that trip. We ate on the street on a warm day. We ordered pecorino and honey to go with the ubiquitous bread. It was the first time I’d paired honey with cheese, and I was impressed at how well they went together.

It was all downhill from there. Two weeks of restaurant meals, dehydration, and poor sleep had caught up to Dave, and he wanted nothing more than a nap and proximity to a box of Kleenex. We ate dinner in the apartment – bread, cheese, sausage, a basket of cherry tomatoes I’d bought from a farmer’s market, a bottle of wine. Then we set our alarms for 4:30 the next morning and said our goodbyes to Italy.

I’ve been hooked on bread with cheese and honey since that day, and this might be the perfect way to combine the ingredients – just a thin crisp of bread topped with shavings of nutty cheese and generous spoonfuls of honey. The sea salt is absolutely necessary to balance all the sweet honey, and the crunch of the snowflake-sized flakes is a nice touch. It’s not the same as the first time I paired cheese with honey, but it isn’t bad. It isn’t bad at all.

One year ago: Chewy Brownies
Two years ago: Palmiers
Three years ago: Applesauce Snack Cake
Four years ago: Pain Ordinaire

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Flatbread with Honey, Thyme, and Sea Salt (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

I used a firm Gruyere, which was really delicious. Deb used a Mahon, which I’ve never even heard of and certainly can’t find where I live. Parmigiano-Reggiano would be great as well.

⅓ to ½ cup honey
1¾ cups (7.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon table salt
½ cup water
⅓ cup olive oil
¾ cup (1.5 ounces) grated gruyere cheese
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
Flaky sea salt such as Maldon

1. Place a baking stone on the middle rack of the oven and heat the oven to 450 degrees. In a small saucepan, heat the honey over low heat.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; pour the water and oil into the well. Stir the liquids into the flour until a dough forms, then knead the dough about five times, until it forms a smooth ball.

3. Divide the dough into four equal portions. On a sheet of parchment paper, roll one portion into an oval approximately 12 inches long by 6 inches wide.

4. Transfer the parchment paper with the dough to the heated baking stone. Bake for 5 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove the dough from the oven and evenly distribute a quarter of the grated cheese over the surface. Return the dough to the oven until it’s browned at the edges, 3-4 additional minutes. Immediately drizzle 1-2 tablespoons of honey over the surface of the bread, then sprinkle with a quarter of the thyme and a generous pinch of sea salt. Cut the bread into pieces; serve warm. Repeat with the remaining portions of dough.

Filed Under: appetizers, bread, cheese, favorites, quick bread

rhubarb muffins

06/05/2012 By bridget

Year after year, rhubarb shows up at the grocery store, and I take note to come up with a recipe so I have a reason to buy it next time I’m at the store. And then I forget, and I see it at the store, and I swear that next time I’ll remember – and so it goes on, until rhubarb season is over. Not this year. This year, I am buying rhubarb every time I see it at the store and figuring out what to do with it later. And since I go there at least twice a week, that’s a lot of rhubarb.

Now that rhubarb is a basically a staple around here, I’m free to try all sorts of recipes with it, from coffee cake to jam to pie to muffins. The coffee cake and the muffins were too similar to share both, and while my coworkers certainly seemed to appreciate the cake, I think the muffins were even better. Best of all, at least when you really want to soak up your brief opportunity for rhubarb, it’s a simple muffin with no distractions. It’s moist but craggy, like a muffin – not a cake – should be. The Greek yogurt (or sour cream) adds a zip of tang, just the right complement to the tart pockets of rhubarb.

As good as the muffins are though, I can guarantee I won’t be making them again this year, not when I’ve already found several other tempting rhubarb recipes. Plus I still need to make my favorite rhubarb scones. Fortunately, with as much rhubarb as I’m buying this year, I might actually get to all the recipes I want to make.

One year ago: Caramel Pots de Crème
Two years ago: Eggs in Tomato Sauce
Three years ago: Anadama Bread
Four years ago: French Chocolate Brownies

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Rhubarb Muffins (slightly adapted from Fine Cooking)

Healthy tricks I almost always use with quick breads: Replace half of the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour. Replace sour cream with Greek yogurt. Replace 4 tablespoons of the butter with 2 tablespoons of oil, which keeps the bread moist (but leaving 4 tablespoons of butter in the recipe keeps it tasting great).

Usually I assume 4.8 ounces (by weight) per cup of flour, but the original recipe included weight measurements with flour at 4.5 ounces per cup. As always, if you can measure by weight, do it.

9 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
¾ cup (5.25 ounces) granulated sugar
1 cup sour cream
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1½ cups (7.25 ounces) ¼-inch-diced rhubarb

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper or foil baking cups.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and whisk to blend. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, sour cream, melted butter, and vanilla until smooth. Lightly stir the sour cream mixture into the dry ingredients with a spatula until the batter just comes together; do not overmix. Gently stir in the diced rhubarb. The batter will be thick.

3. Divide the batter among the muffin cups, using the back of a spoon or a small spatula to settle the batter into the cups. The batter should mound a bit higher than the tops of the cups.

4. Bake the muffins until they’re golden brown, spring back most of the way when gently pressed, and a pick inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes. Carefully lift the muffins out of the pan—if necessary, loosen them with the tip of a paring knife—and let them cool somewhat. Serve warm.

Filed Under: bread

focaccia

05/31/2012 By bridget

I’ve made focaccia before, years ago, but since Peter Reinhart claims so assertively that his recipe is superior to most focaccia found in America, I thought I’d better give it a try. It has a lot of good things going for it, like herb-scented oil poured on top and a cold overnight fermentation – always a sign of good flavor to come in yeast breads.

It’s fun to make too. The mixer (if you have one) does most of the messy work, but you still get to play with the soft and stretchy dough to shape it. Then you stick your fingers in the oiled dough to create dimples and spread it into the pan. After that, you throw it in the fridge until you’re ready for it, which is always a good trick for convenience.

It was definitely good bread, soft in the middle, just a little crisp and almost flaky on top, scented with herbs and olive oil. But – I’m not sure it was the height of focaccia perfection, despite Reinhart’s usually well-deserved swagger. For me, adding a touch more salt or a spoonful of sugar would have given the bread a welcome flavor boost. On the plus side, this gives me the perfect excuse to make more focaccia.

One year ago: Tartine Country Bread
Two years ago: Spinach Artichoke Pizza
Three years ago: Tofu Mu Shu
Four years ago: Crockpot Pulled Pork

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Focaccia (slightly reworded from Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice)

For the herb oil:
½ cup olive oil
4 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (any combination of basil, parsley, rosemary, sage)
¾ teaspoon coarse salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

For the bread:
5 cups (22.5 ounces) high-gluten or bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 cups water, at room temperature
6 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup herb oil
Extra olive oil for the pan

1. For the herb oil: Warm the olive oil to about 100 degrees. Add the remaining ingredients; let steep while you prepare the dough.

2. For the bread: In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir together the flour, salt, and yeast. Add the water and oil; mix on low speed with the paddle attachment until all the ingredients form a wet, sticky ball. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 5 to 7 minutes, or as long as it takes to create a smooth, sticky dough. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. You may need to add additional flour to firm up the dough enough to clear the sides of the bowl, but the dough should still be quite soft and sticky.

3. Sprinkle enough flour on the counter to make a bed about 6 inches square. Using a scraper or spatula dipped in water, transfer the sticky dough to the bed of flour and dust liberally with flour, patting the dough into a rectangle. Let the dough relax for 5 minutes.

4. Coat your hands with flour and stretch the dough from each end to twice its size. Fold it, letter style, over itself to return it to a rectangular shape. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes. Repeat the stretching, folding, and resting twice more. After the last (third) fold, cover the dough and let it ferment at room temperature for 1 hour. It should swell but not necessarily double in size.

5. Oil an 18-by-13-inch pan and line with parchment paper. Use a pastry scraper and lightly oiled hands to lift the dough off the counter and transfer it to the prepared pan, maintaining the rectangular shape as much as possible.

6. Spoon half of the herb oil over the dough. Use your fingertips to dimple the dough and spread it to fill the pan simultaneously. Try to keep the thickness as uniform as possible across the surface. If the dough becomes too springy, let it rest for about 15 minutes and then continue dimpling. Don’t worry if you are unable to fill the pan perfectly, especially the corners. As the dough relaxes and proofs, it will spread out naturally. Use more herb oil as needed to ensure that the entire surface is coated with oil.

7. Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough overnight (or for up to 3 days).

8. 3 hours before baking, remove the dough from the refrigerator and drizzle the remaining herb oil over the surface; dimple it in. This should allow you to fill the pan completely with the dough to a thickness of about ½-inch. Cover the pan with plastic and proof the dough at room temperature for 3 hours, or until the dough doubles in size, rising to a thickness of nearly 1 inch.

9. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

10. Place the pan in the oven. Lower the oven temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and continue baking the focaccia for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until it begins to turn a light golden brown. The internal temperature of the dough should register above 200 degrees (measured in the center).

11. Remove the pan from the oven and immediately transfer the focaccia out of the pan onto a cooling rack. Allow the focaccia to cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing or serving.

Filed Under: bread, Bread Baker's Apprentice, italian, yeast bread

goat cheese scallion muffins

05/08/2012 By bridget

Goat cheese scallion muffins don’t sound very similar to garlic cheddar biscuits, and yet when Dave said these reminded him of Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay biscuits, I agreed. They have some things in common – there’s cheese and aromatics in both, but goat cheese and cheddar are very different beasts. Besides, who would think that a muffin and a biscuit would have such similar textures?

It’s probably because I mixed the batter like I would a biscuit, by cutting the goat cheese into the dry ingredients before stirring in the liquids. The original recipe might have been more muffin-like, with a layer of goat cheese baked between dollops of dough, but I wanted bits of goat cheese spread evenly throughout the muffin. I also used buttermilk instead of milk, counting on the former’s sour tang to add the “zing” that many reviewers complained was missing from muffins made with the original recipe.

I must have done something right, because these had plenty of flavor; the goat cheese stood out nicely. It’s hard to say if they live up to the legacy of Red Lobster’s deservedly popular biscuits, but as irresistible as those are, they have one thing those don’t – goat cheese. And plenty of zing.

One year ago: Double/Triple Chocolate Cookies
Two years ago: Orange Oatmeal Currant Cookies
Three years ago: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream
Four years ago: Strawberry Cheesecake

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Goat Cheese Scallion Muffins (adapted from Gourmet via epicurious)

Makes 12 muffins

1½ cups (7.2 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
4 scallions, minced
1 egg
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup buttermilk
4 ounces goat cheese

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray the bottoms of a 12-cup muffin pan with nonstick spray or line with paper liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, baking soda, and scallions. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, butter, and buttermilk.

2. Using a pastry blender, cut the goat cheese into the flour mixture until the largest cheese pieces are about pea-sized. Add the liquid ingredients; use a rubber spatula to stir until just combined.

3. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean, 18-22 minutes. Set the pan on a rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes, then use a thin-bladed knife to remove the muffins from the pan. Serve warm.

Filed Under: bread, cheese, quick bread, vegetables

gougeres

05/01/2012 By bridget

My list of 2012 goals isn’t going too well. I’m keeping up, for the most part (although it has not escaped my attention that the date on this April entry is May 1st), but I haven’t had great successes with all of the recipes. January started off strong, with the lettuce wraps and black bean brownies – which I even made far enough before the deadline that I could try them again with some changes. I was also happy with the ranch dressing.

But then things started going downhill. The fancy rice krispy treats fell victim to my refusal to go back to the store for a missing ingredient; the mozzarella got skipped entirely while I search for the right type of milk; the dolmades tasted good but mostly fell apart; and the gougères? I suppose they had the opposite problem. They look just fine – puffy and golden – but they were sadly lacking in cheese flavor.

And so, I’m writing this down so I don’t forget: Stop buying the Gruyere sold in this little town. I did this once before and didn’t learn my lesson then. It has the fancy label, but it tastes like wax.

So maybe this wasn’t my greatest cooking success, although at least it wasn’t a huge fail – they look nice, after all. And as an added bonus, I realized that I’ve already made a recipe that, while it didn’t hold the title of gougères, is nearly the same thing made with cheddar and green onions. I guess I could have checked this one off the list of goals years ago! Maybe this list isn’t going so badly after all.

One year ago: Fig-Glazed Burgers with Onion Jam
Two years ago: Home Corned Beef
Three years ago: Chocolate Cream Tart
Four years ago: Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

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Gougères (reworded slightly from David Lebovitz)

Makes 24-30

I was paranoid about my eggs cooking in the hot saucepan before they could be incorporated into the dough, so I transferred the flour mixture to another bowl before adding the eggs.

½ cup water
3 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes
¼ teaspoon salt
big pinch of chile powder, or a few turns of freshly-ground black pepper
½ cup (2.4 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
¾ cup (about 3 ounces) grated gruyere, or another hard cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

2. Heat the water, butter, salt, and chile or pepper in a saucepan until the butter is melted. Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pot into a smooth ball. Remove from heat and let rest two minutes.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking constantly. The batter will first appear lumpy, but after a minute or so, it will smooth out. Add most of the grated cheese, reserving some for topping; stir until well-mixed.

4. Scrape the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain tip and pipe the dough into mounds, evenly-spaced apart, making each about the size of a small cherry tomato. (You can also divide the dough into mounds using two spoons.) Top each puff with a bit of the remaining cheese.

5. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375 degrees; bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, until the gougeres are golden brown. Serve warm.

Filed Under: bread, cheese, french

double coconut muffins

03/27/2012 By bridget

A friend of mine recently became, as she calls it, a “part-time vegan”, which I take to mean that she avoids eggs and dairy when she’s in charge of what she eats but will eat them if someone else prepares food for her. This started me on search for vegan cookie recipes. Most of what I found called for Earth Balance, but all I could find in my town was a whipped version for spreading, which I didn’t think would take well to baking. Instead, I bought coconut oil.

And then I got busy with other baking projects and set that one aside. That’s where it still sits – “aside.” But unlike my plans to make vegan cookies, the coconut oil is no longer forgotten. And maybe this is a better introduction to a new ingredient – using it with similar flavors.

In these muffins, the coconut oil is combined with shredded coconut to make an intensely, but not overwhelmingly, coconut muffin. In fact, I found that the tanginess of the Greek yogurt was at least an equal player. It was a nice combination with the tropical coconut.

The texture was spot on as well – tender and moist, like the best muffins are. I suppose that makes sense, since these are slightly higher in fat than many muffins. But it’s vegan fat, and that has to be better than butter. I still have half a cup of coconut oil in the fridge, and while I probably should make my friend some cookies, I’m tempted just to make more muffins.

One year ago: Citrus Sunshine Currant Muffins
Two years ago: Honey Ginger Pork Tenderloin
Three years ago: French Yogurt Cake
Four years ago: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

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Double Coconut Muffins (rewritten but not changed from Smitten Kitchen)

Makes 10 muffins

8 tablespoons (½ cup; 4 ounces) virgin coconut oil
¾ cup (3.6 ounces) all-purpose flour
½ cup (2.4 ounces) whole wheat flour
¾ cup (3.25 ounces) sweetened shredded coconut, divided
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 cup (8 ounces) Greek-style yogurt, room temperature
⅓ cup (2.33 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray 10 muffin cups with nonstick spray or line them with paper liners. In a small saucepan, warm the coconut oil just until it melts; don’t heat it until it’s hot.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, ½ cup shredded coconut, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, sugar, coconut oil, yogurt, and vanilla. Add the coconut oil mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

3. Divide the batter among the 10 prepared muffin cups. Top each muffin with about a teaspoon of the remaining shredded coconut. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a cooling rack; cool 5 minutes, then remove them from the pan. Serve warm.

Filed Under: bread, fruit, quick bread, whole grains

pear almond danishes and lemon ricotta danishes

03/05/2012 By bridget

I went through a baking drought early this year that lasted a few weeks, maybe a month. I couldn’t explain it, but I just wasn’t interested in baking for the first time in years. I was kind of worried – how long would this last? When would my drive to bake come back?

Oh it’s back. It crept back in, but it’s in full force now. The last few weeks, in particular, I’ve taken on some ambitious projects. It started with these danishes, made for a brunch potluck that was in the evening after work. The very next day, I stayed up until midnight flooding sugar cookies with royal icing. A week after that, I made two batches of fancy cupcakes for a bridal shower. I breathed a sigh of relief when that was over, but mixed up another batch of sugar cookie dough just one day later. I’ll decorate those sugar cookies this week, plus make a double batch of tiramisu for my friend’s rehearsal dinner on Friday.

Baking projects that are for an event in the evening after work are particularly complicated, especially if the event is toward the end of the week instead of shortly after the weekend. It requires careful balancing of chilling time, lunch hours, and evening schedules. Of course it’s worth it when you’re sitting around with your friends, drinking bellinis and eating eggs Benedict and buttery, flaky danishes on Thursday evening after work. Not just worth it, but so enjoyable that I did it again a week later with cupcakes, and a week after that I’m sure it will be something else. My baking obsession is back.

One year ago: Chocolate Pots de Creme
Two years ago: Toasted Coconut Custard Tart
Three years ago: Lemon Cream Cheese Bars
Four years ago: Raspberry Bars

Printer Friendly Recipe
Danishes (adapted from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook)

I made 18 danishes from this batch of dough, and they were about 3-inches on a side after baking. Bigger danishes are probably easier to work with; many of mine unfolded when the dough expanded during baking, particularly the square shape with the corners folding in.

½ cup warm milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
10 ounces (about 2 cups) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 batch of filling (recipes follow)
egg wash (1 egg mixed with ⅛ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon water)

1. In a small measuring cup, stir the yeast into the milk. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of butter; mix until evenly combined. Pour in the yeast and milk; mix until the dough starts to look shaggy. Switch to the dough hook; add the egg and knead until the dough just starts to look smooth, 2-3 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a 12-inch by 8-inch rectangle, about ¼ inch thick. Distribute the softened butter over two-thirds of the dough, leaving a short end free of butter. Fold the non-buttered third over the middle, then fold the last third over the middle, like folding a letter. Pinch the edges to seal. Roll the dough out to a 12-by-8-inch rectangle again, then fold it in thirds again. Rewrap the dough in plastic wrap; chill 1 hour.

(see here for an explanation of the creases on the dough)

3. After the dough has chilled, roll it out and fold it in thirds twice more, then chill another hour, and roll and fold twice more. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least four hours or overnight. (This is a good point to freeze the dough too; thaw in the refrigerator overnight.)

4. Roll the dough out to a 12-by-18-inch rectangle about ⅛-inch thick. If the dough becomes too elastic and springs back, cover it and place it in the refrigerator for at least ten minutes, then try rolling again. Be patient; the rolling and chilling could take up to an hour. Cut 12 to 18 squares (see note).

5. For pinwheels: Cut from each corner halfway to the center of each square. Dab about ¼ teaspoon of filling into the center of each square, then fold every other corner toward the center, pressing to seal. Top with one (for smaller danishes) to two (for the larger size) tablespoons of filling.

For squares with folded corners: Spoon one (for smaller danishes) to two (for the larger size) tablespoons of filling into the center of each square. Fold each corner to the middle of the dough; press to seal.

6. Transfer the danishes to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Cover and either chill overnight or set aside to rise. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. When the danish dough is about doubled in height and is starting to look puffy, brush the danishes with the egg wash. Bake one baking sheet at a time until the danishes are golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack; let the danishes cool on the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to cooling racks to cool to room temperature. Serve within a day.

Cheese Danish Filling

Makes enough for 1 batch of danishes

1 cup ricotta cheese
6 tablespoons (2.6 ounces) sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Combine all ingredients. Chill.

Pear Almond Danish Filling (rewritten from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook)

Makes enough for 1 batch of danishes

⅔ cup slivered almonds, toasted and cooled completely
2 tablespoons flour
½ cup (3.5 ounces) sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
2 pears, peeled, cored, diced finely
¼ cup lemon juice

1. In a food processor, grind the almonds, flour, ½ cup sugar, and salt; add the butter and egg; chill.

2. Heat the pears, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the pears caramelize, 8-10 minutes. Chill.

Filed Under: bread, breakfast, cheese, citrus, fruit, nuts, yeast bread