Cooking

Quarantine Baking

The New York Times will let you subscribe to their cooking section free for 30 days. Check out some of their excellent decadent recipes:

Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies - Fudgy, gooey, yummy. I goofed and used 1/2 cup of flour and was really happy with the results

Saltine Cracker Brickle - Tastes like Almond Roca. I halved the recipe and it worked fine.

Made-in-the-Pan Chocolate Cake - Great for those of us with limited supplies in the pantry. Was sometimes called “The day before payday cake.”

Sunday is BREAD day.

 

There are lots of artisan bread books and web pages out there.  I have
used the make-your-own sourdough as outlined in Tartine.  It was the best I have eaten since visiting Germany.  It is also a hella lot of work.  FWSY is another excellent book, but still a bit fussy.

Mark Bittman's NYT No-Knead recipe is the basis for this recipe.  I feel it was perfected in its simplicity by Gail Watson on her blog "A Stack of Dishes".  You can use her detailed instructions to make your bread, or I included my method/recipe below.


It only takes 3 minutes of prep on Saturday.
In a large bowl stir together until it forms a messy ball:
1 cup bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 tablespoons salt
1/4 teaspoon quick acting yeast
1 5/8 cups room temp to slightly warm water.
Place in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise overnight in a warm place. (You can leave it in the oven with the light on.)

Sunday morning, remove dough from bowl, fold it four times on a floured board (I use sesame seeds and rice flour on the board), shape it into a ball or log and place onto parchment paper that has been tri-folded lengthwise. This gives you “handles” to lift the dough in and out of the Dutch oven.. (Don’t use a pot with plastic handles as they will melt.)

Let it rest for 30 minutes while you preheat a cast iron (ceramic coated is okay) Dutch oven with lid, to 500 degrees for that same 30 minutes. (At 20 minutes, I use a serrated bread knife to cut 3 angled slits in the top of the dough.)

Using very high quality oven mitts, remove the lid from the Dutch oven and place on a protected surface, lower the dough (parchment paper and all) into the Dutch oven and place the cover, lower the heat to 450 degrees and cook, covered for 30 minutes and then uncovered for another 15.  Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes and listen to the lovely crackling sounds as it cools.  (You are supposed to let it rest/cool for an hour or so.  Bahahaha!) Slice of a hunk, slather with butter and enjoy.

You can also make this with all bread flour for a white loaf. We find that the white loaf gets eaten in a day, but the whole wheat will last longer as it is more filling. Yes, we are gluttons!



___________________________________________________