2009 A Year In Review

20091208-027 by libbystack on Zooomr

Time passes so quickly, and I can't believe it's been almost a year since this baking blog started. I tried a lot of things, not all of them successful, such as this bright idea for a ham and cheese roll.


20091208-025 by libbystack on Zooomr

As you can see, we had a bit of a meltdown here ;-) But in failures and small disasters, you learn if you analyze things sensibly. Without failures, we'd never have success! In the loaves above, which were huge by the way, I failed to take into account the heat and steam buildup. And when assembling, my dough tail was a bit short on doing the roll. Even though I had sealed the seam properly, the heat and steam generated by he inner contents was just too powerful. They did taste great though, and even though they look like a train wreck, they did not hang around for too long.

I did have a good year with the Pies though. After the Thanksgiving Pie Disaster of 2008, and after being laughed at and ridiculed by relatives, small children, and the elderly, I decided that was one nemesis I had to conquer. And I did. I no longer sweat bullets when it comes to making pie dough, and it's such a great relief. My last hurdle with the pie dough was blind baking, and I have that almost perfected as well. I was so bad when it came to pie making that I'd actually have a small anxiety attack before the dough making began. And sometimes while the dough was in progress!


20091208-057 by libbystack on Zooomr

So what's the key to conquering things like yeast doughs and pies? Well, from experience, I can tell you that one of the most important components is Repetition. Period. Practice makes perfect as they say, and the key for both pies and breads is that you be able to Know Your Dough.

So what's in store for 2010? I'll be getting back to some basic learning techniques, in part because I've been getting a lot of email with basic questions. And it's not that I really mind answering the stuff via email, but I figured that as long as people are asking such things I may as well just do a post on it. Trouble is when I get the stuff via email, I forget to do a post about it.

Hopefully I'll have some more fun kitchen experiments too, more recipes, and some more mealtime stuff too. Maybe we can even do Bread and Food Pairings, like the connoisseurs do with wine ha ha. And please forgive me if I go on and on with the Pies. It's just something I never thought I'd be able to do, and now that I've had good success, there's nothing like sharing.

To All, Have a Healthy and Prosperous New Year, and I wish you continued success while you're on the road to learning.

Holiday Wrap Up

201001holidaynik-042 by libbystack on Zooomr

The Holiday Season is now behind me, and let's just say I survived ;-) Really, it wasn't all that bad, it's just that I had multiple requests from multiple parties for this and for that, and things got a little busy. One of the requests I had was for "Christmas Pie". And of course when I asked for a definition from my 4 year old niece, she didn't have a clue. So I decided to do a pie that looked like Christmas. And here it is. Lime gelatin combined with softened vanilla ice cream made up the filling, and some pretty whipped cream swirls with cherries on top made it festive.


201001holidaynik-023 by libbystack on Zooomr

There was also a request from my mother for the Pineapple Danish Braid, and as you can see, things got a little bit out of had again because I stuffed this thing to the max! I really should have weighed it. It probably went about 5 pounds. Because it was so heavy, I had to increase the baking time a bit, but even overdone, the dough was really good because I did a more traditional Laminated Dough this time around. The incorporated butter helped keep things on the more supple side instead of totally drying out from the increased baking time. The results were satisfactory, although I do't think I'll overstuff again. In my house, better be careful what you wish for ;-)

The mechanics of the Danish Braid are not hard, you just need to have the process well illustrated. To see how the Danish Braid is assembled, you can head over to the Prune Danish Braid I did awhile back. The technique works for a sweet yeast dough whether it's laminated or not, and you could even use this technique for a really unique Pizza variation and really impress your friends!


20100101016 by libbystack on Zooomr

For this year's Challahs, I used Peter Reinhart's recipe out of the Bread Baker's Apprentice book. I wound up doing three of them this Christmas, and they were all huge like this one.

The bread and pastry making was the last of the baking of course. I did do a small cookie assortment, and liked one of the recipes so much I'll be doing a batch of them for Valentine's Day, so I'll be sure to share it with you.nAll in all, the holiday baking was a great success. When you have multiple items to do, proper scheduling is the key.

I hope everyone here enjoyed their Holiday Season, and wish you all the Best of Baking Success in the New Year!

Reinhart's Cranberry Walnut Bread

20091208-055 by libbystack on Zooomr

There's not much I can say about Peter Reinhart's Cranberry Walnut Bread other than that it's simply great, and the family really loved it. Nice loft on rise, even if I did take the shortcut of only doing a 2 rope twist. In addition to the listed lm extract, and added some fresh orange zest which really made this loaf sing.


20091208-052 by libbystack on Zooomr

Above is the loaf after baking.


20100101003 by libbystack on Zooomr

When doing a mix-in of fruit and or nuts, I usually opt for doing it after the first rise. I pull the dough out into a rectangle, evenly distribute the goods, then roll it up jelly roll fashion. While it's still in the shape of the jelly roll, give it a few easy but heavy compressions with your hands. This will help things along by getting the air pockets out and it will help sort of solidify things. After that, begin to push your dough with the standard kneading action. You'll have lots less "fallout" that way, and with just a few quick big kneads you'll be just about done. Since I started doing the rollup for the mix-in, I have far fewer fruits and nuts rolling off the counter and onto the floor ;-)

After the mix-n, let the dough rest about 12 to 15 minutes before shaping in order to relax the gluten. Your final loah shaping or braiding will be much easier, and that "rubberband" effect of the dough will be pretty much eliminated.


20100101004 by libbystack on Zooomr

Here's the 2 roper after doing the quick braid. To see the trick to the 2 rope braid, see the post I did for the St. Joseph's Day bread.

Thanks Peter for the great little recipe. Cranberry plus orane is one great flavor combo!

Challah

20100101016 by libbystack on Zooomr

As stated on a previous post, I've not forgotten about the BBA Challenge. Seasonal work obligations got to me, and I've been a little (ok, a lot) behind. But I decided to use Peter Reinhart's version of Challah for our holiday dinner. It's very much like the recipe I normally use, except that I usually use melted butter and Peter's version uses oil.

About the only other difference here in my loaf is that I prefer a whole egg wash on the loaf instead of just an egg white wash. The whole egg wash will give a darker color, and you can get an extra rich color by giving it a double wash. Put one coat on, let it dry about 5 minutes, and the do the second coat. Adding a good pinch of sugar to the beaten egg will give your crust an almost unidentifiable sweetness, characteristic of the loaves we used to get from the Jewish baker here years ago.

In Jewish households, Challah is generally made for the Sabbath. I do it several times a year, mainly because I like to practice doing the 6 braid loaf, which as you can see, is quite impressive ;-) It's getting very hard to find the very large Challah loaves in the bakeries here. Some bakeries don't do them at all anymore, and one baker here does an abbreviated version, a mini braid of sorts. The loaves here are not at all as dark or rich as the ones we used to buy years ago. So there is much to be said about doing your own.

New Year Mini Pineapple Pies

201001holidaynik-010 by libbystack on Zooomr

I decided to start the New Year off right and make a homemade little dessert, so I whipped up a small batch of Pineapple Mini Pies. The filling was made beforehand and it was chilled until it had good mounding characteristics, and the pastry dough was cut with 4 1/2 inch fluted tart rings. When folding the dough over to seal it, I use tepid water on my fingertips to activate the gluten. I lay down a nice wide path of moisture on the bottom rim of the dough, and just close together firmly and press with fingers to seal. Works fine, and I don't have to do that silly fork pinching/crimping on the edge. As you can see, the fluted dough round gives me a nice pretty finish.

You can use any type of filling for your mini pies. For my Pineapple version here I used a can of crushed pineapple, cornstarch to thicken while cooking it, some orange zest, a good pinch of salt, and about 2 tablespoons of butter to finish things off.

Use your favorite pie crust recipe for these, and bake until the bottom is golden and the tops firm up and begin to brown. This batch was baked on a parchment lined pan at 380 F for about 27 minutes. Don't forget to cut some vents into the crust to let the steam out.

I've also done these in a Spinach version, and they were really great!