Thanksgiving is a week away, folks! Whoopity whoop whoop.
If you’re like me, you have approximately 8,473 things to do before Thanksgiving gets here. But, you know what? They will all get done. They always do. And the light at the end of the tunnel is turkey-shaped and my-mom-is-coming-into-town shaped and new-Muppets-movie-shaped.
We’ve got lots to be thankful for around here. Including you, dear reader.
Should you be traveling in the next week, or hosting folks in your home, I highly recommend whipping up a loaf or two of this here pear bread. It’s become a favorite of mine, similar to a favorite “oh the bananas are a bit too overripe” banana bread recipe, this one is simple but winds up being much more than the sum of its parts.
I’ll be back again before the holiday, as it’s time to post a new essay, but if I don’t catch you then, I wish you a very fine Thanksgiving—full stomachs and full hearts.
The Governor’s Inn Vermont Pear Bread
from the King Arthur Flour Cookbook
Conveniently enough, this bread keeps well in the refrigerator so it’s a good choice for making ahead of time. I think it would travel well, too, as long as it were well chilled and wrapped in a few layers of foil.
Given that pears, walnuts, and blue cheese make a fine combination, I also want to try this recipe with the sugar cut in half and whole-wheat flour substituted for all or most of the all-purpose. I think the result might make a nice addition to an after-dinner cheese plate.
ingredients:
9 T unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp nutmeg (I tend to use a wee bit more)
1 cup peeled and coarsely chopped pears (I used 2 very ripe D’Anjous)
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup chopped walnuts
oven – 350
pan—two loaf pans or one large tube pan
Cream the butter until light. Slowly add the sugar, beating constantly. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition
Combine the dry ingredients thoroughly. Add them to the egg mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Fold in the pear and vanilla. Pour into two lightly greased loaf pans or one large tube pan.
Bake for 35-40 minutes (loaf pans) or 1 hour (tube pan). The original recipe calls for the bread to be cooled to room temperature and then chilled before eating, but I actually like the bread warm out of the oven. It’s quite moist on its own, but a slather of pear or apple butter won’t hurt!
November’s here, which means we can at last turn our attention to that best holiday of all, Thanksgiving.
I am especially biased about this year’s Thanksgiving because it happens to coincide with my twenty-ninth birthday. There will be food, and celebration, and football, and food, and probably a nap or two, and wine and reading uninterrupted in a comfy chair for at least an hour, and food, and good satisfied contented feelings, and laughter, and these sweet potato biscuits.
Amen.
SWEET POTATO BISCUITS
from Gourmet online, August 2008
I don’t need to sell you on these, do I? I mean, come on! Sweet. Potato. Biscuits. Has there been a lovelier combination of three food-related words in the history of the English language?
Okay, so I tend towards hyperbole, but to be perfectly honest, these really are delicious. And they disappeared in about an hour when I made them a few weeks back. Some friends had brought over slices of fantastic, local Black Forest ham, so we layered that onto the biscuits as part of a brunch spread. I urge you to do the same!
Also, I think that these would work quite well at the Thanksgiving table, wrapped up in a napkin in a basket and slathered with butter and/or honey. They’d also probably work wonderfully in building one of those “leftovers sandwiches”—cranberry jelly + turkey + sweet potato biscuit = I’m betting on a win.
ingredients:
1 lb sweet potatoes (that’s about 2 medium-to-large potatoes)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 T sugar
2 T milk
1 T baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into pieces
oven: 425°
NOTE—You will need to make the sweet potato puree & let it cool before you can make the biscuits, which will take about two hours. Feel free to do this step up to two days ahead, to save time.
Prick the sweet potatoes all over, then bake on a baking sheet until they are very soft to the touch, ~1 hour. Let them cool before halving the sweet potatoes and scooping their contents into the bowl of a food processor. Puree until smooth.
The biscuit recipe calls for only 1 cup of the puree, which is almost exactly what my two sweet potatoes yielded. If you have extra, stir it into pancake or muffin batter, or use it as homegrown baby food!
Stir the 2 tablespoons of milk into the 1 cup of sweet potato puree, and let the mixture cool for at least 30 minutes before using.
–
When you’re ready to bake the biscuits, heat the oven to 425° once again. Grease a baking sheet.
Whisk the dry ingredients together, then blend in the butter with your fingers or a pastry cutter until the mix looks like coarse meal. Stir in the sweet potato mixture to form a loose dough.
Drop the dough onto a greased baking sheet, spacing them at least 1” apart. Bake the biscuits until they have browned a bit and are firm to the touch, approximately 18-20 minutes. Transfer the biscuits to a rack to cool, and serve warm.
GUEST POST: REBECCA MASSON OF TOP CHEF JUST DESSERTS
There are many reasons to be excited about today’s guest post—but if I had to pick one, I’d say it’s the fact that Grandma Nettie’s dinner rolls are so ridiculously delicious.
The Grandma Nettie in question is the great-grandmother of Rebecca Masson, a bright star in the Houston food community and contestant on the current season of Bravo’s Top Chef Just Desserts. I was lucky enough to meet Rebecca before she became a fancy TV reality star, and I was amazed then as I am now by the fact that she is both deadly talented at her craft AND a warm, effervescent, generous human being; all too often, those two things don’t go together.
Rebecca’s professional resume reflects her moxie and talent: a graduate of Paris’ Le Cordon Bleu, she worked in several top New York kitchens before moving to Houston in 2006 to take a job at *17 restaurant in the Alden Hotel. After receiving several public honors, among them “Best Pastry Chef” by My Table Magazine and working as a dessert menu consultant with several of Houston’s top restaurants, Rebecca started her own business, Fluff Bake Bar, which stocks local businesses with her whimsical, delicious baked goods.
She’s known for her fluffernutters, macarons (in flavors like German chocolate cake—my favorite—or peanut butter and jelly), and Veruca Salt cupcakes: devil’s food cake with salted caramel frosting. All of Rebecca’s work reflects her personal combination of nostalgia, precise technique, and creative thinking. Simply put, her desserts are ones you can’t wait to eat.
Below is an excerpt from an email interview with Rebecca Masson, as well as her great-grandmother Nettie’s roll recipe. Having baked and made them myself, I can tell you—grandma Nettie knew her way around a damn dinner roll. They are soft and pliant but still sturdy enough to clean a soup bowl. Jill & I drizzled some with honey, warm from them oven, served some with beef stew, threw some in the freezer for safe-keeping, and plan to add the recipe to our family’s Thanksgiving repertoire.
Many thanks to Rebecca for sharing this recipe; be sure to tune into Bravo tonight at 9:00 pm CST to watch Rebecca on the second episode Top Chef Just Desserts!
INTERVIEW WITH REBECCA MASSON:
First memory of being in the kitchen?
I don’t remember what age I was when we started the tradition, but baking spritz cookies and popcorn balls for Christmas. The adults in the family would make the more difficult cookies, but these were the treats that my cousins and I could help with, decorating the cookies & shaping the popcorn balls. I think we ate way more than we decorated…but we always had a good time.
So many home cooks are intimidated by baking. Any advice on where to start? What equipment is essential, in your opinion? What ingredients are worth paying more for?
Baking really isn’t difficult. It’s the patience that is difficult. I hear so many folks say, “I just don’t have the time, nothing I ever bake turns out correctly.” It’s because people don’t take the time. A wise friend told me once that baking is 50% attitude. I really believe that.
I have days where my baked goods don’t come out correctly. If three things in a row don’t come out…I quit for the day. Because it’s just going to get worse and I will become really upset. You have to make the time. Start with cookies or brownies, something simple. Master the recipe, start playing with the recipe by adding spices or different crunchy items. Once you have mastered that recipe, move on up to another. Take a class. It’s always an eye opener when you get into a class and realize how many other people in the world have the same frustrations.
Invest in some good equipment, you don’t have to have it all, but there are a few things that make life easier. A stand mixer for starters, I have had my cobalt blue Kitchen Aid since the mid-90′s. I love that thing. Really good spatulas, mixing bowls and whisks. A really good rolling pin. I brought mine home from France with me. It’s my baby.
Use really good ingredients. For me, cocoa powder & flour are items that shouldn’t be skimped on. Valrhona Cocoa powder is the bomb. It’s dark in color and rich in flavor, really makes a difference. For flour, King Arthur all the way. I use all of their flours, all purpose, whole wheat, bread, etc.
Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of salt. I know, right? Salt? Yes, salt. It’s one of my go-to ingredients, it can change the flavor profile so quickly. I love salt.
What’s your guiltiest food pleasure?
I am a Whataburger girl. I love their ketchup, it’s fancy. Also, Red Vines. It’s almost an addiction.
GRANDMA NETTIE’S ROLLS
recipe courtesy Rebecca Masson
I am one of few people that can say I am fourth generation Wyoming-born, a fact I’m really proud of. Though we moved to Dallas when I was six, I was lucky enough to still spend my summers in Wyoming. It was like my own personal summer camp.
One of my fondest memories of those summers was going to my Great-Grandma Nettie’s (my mom’s Grandma) house in Saratoga. She was a firecracker of a woman! She kept up with her garden, house and baking until she was the young age of 92. I loved going to her house, parking my behind at her kitchen table and devouring hot yeast rolls right out of the oven. They were so big and fluffy and buttery and I was spoiled from the first bite.
My Great-Grandma made tons of other tasty treats, including the best damn lemon meringue pie, which I have paid tribute to many of times in my dessert repertoire, but those yeast rolls are still my hands-down favorite. These days, I still get to have these rolls once a year at Thanksgiving; my mom makes them every year. They are still just as tasty and I get goose bumps every time I eat them. I know my Grandma Nettie is looking down on us smiling.
ingredients:
1½ cups milk
¼ cup vegetable shortening
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 packet active dry yeast
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 ½ cups flour
½ cup butter, melted
1. Combine milk, shortening, sugar, and salt in a saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; set aside to cool.
2. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water in a large bowl; set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes.
3. Pour milk mixture into yeast. Stir in eggs and gradually add flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until dough gets stiff, and then use your hands (dough will be sticky, so grease your hands with a little butter). Brush a small amount of butter on the inside of a large bowl and on one side of a sheet of waxed paper. Place dough in bowl, cover with buttered wax paper, and lay a damp dishcloth on top. Set aside to rise until doubled in bulk, at least 3 hours.
4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until elastic, and then portion out into 24 balls. Roll in the butter and place in greased casserole dish. Cover as in step 3, and set aside to rise, at least 2 1/2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 350°. Brush the rolls with any remaining butter and bake until golden, about 15-20 minutes. Serve warm.
Some things are worth revisiting.
When I started this blog almost two years ago (dang!), my friend and photographer Sonya Cuellar had only been taking pictures for a few months. Of course, it was clear even then that she had instinctive talent and a natural eye, and if you spend any time on this blog, you know that statement has proven itself to be true in subsequent time.
Ya’ll don’t hear about Sonya very much; I’m the one who does most of the talking around here. But there’s no way that Blue Jean Gourmet would run or even exist without her. She manages to make what I make look good, and even more than that, she manages to capture the spirit of this kitchen, the equal parts playfulness and reverence I have for food.
Sonya’s also hilariously funny, deeply compassionate, trustworthy, and deadly competent. She’s one of my favorite people in the world and working with her on this project for the last almost-two-years has not only been fun, it has pushed me to be a better cook and more creative writer. Because Sonya’s so good at what she does, constantly working to improve her technique and find new ways to make pictures of food, I have to work to keep up. And for that, I’m more grateful than I can say.
Today, a combination and revision of two old posts: biscuits & popovers. Compare the old posts to the new, and I think you can appreciate just how far we’ve come, together.
BISCUITS
a) Don’t knock lard until you’ve tried it (unless you’re a vegetarian or non-pork eater). It truly makes for the most incredible biscuits.
b) If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can squeeze a little lemon juice into 2% milk & let it sit for about 10 minutes. It’ll do in a pinch.
c) When it comes to biscuit-making, practice really does make perfect!
ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
pinch sugar
4 T shortening or lard
4 T unsalted butter
2/3 cup buttermilk
1-2 T extra butter, melted
oven: 425°
pan: heavy baking sheet, greased
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl: flour, baking powder, salt, & sugar. Using your fingers, a pastry cutter, or a couple of forks, cut the butter and lard/shortening into the flour mix. Continue until the mixture resembles pebbly sand.
Pour in the buttermilk and stir until the dough just comes together. Gather and turn out onto a floured surface, then press the dough out gently into a large rectanglish shape. Fold the dough in half twice, then press the dough out again—this will help create flaky, delicious layers.
Don’t mess with the dough anymore! Use a biscuit cutter or the top of a water glass, dipped in flour, to cut biscuits. Press remaining scraps together to cut more until all or nearly all the dough has been used. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter and bake for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown and risen.
Serve warm (of course) with your favorite biscuit accoutrement: butter, gravy, sausage, jelly, honey, etc.
POPOVERS
from Paulette’s Restaurant, as printed in The Commercial Appeal many years ago
If you’ve wanted to try your hand at popovers in the past but have felt intimidated, “DON’T BE SKEERED!” as Mani, my favorite spin class instructor of all time would say. I don’t know why there’s so much hocus-pocus around popovers; they are truly not difficult to make!
Popovers don’t keep very well (their one flaw), so be prepared to eat the whole batch in one go. A hardship, I know.
This recipe will yield 8-10 popovers.
ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk
oven: 415° F
pan: muffin tin or popover pan
Cut thin pats of butter and place into the bottom of each muffin cup. You can also grease well with vegetable oil or Pam, but why would you when you can use butter instead? Place the muffin tin in the hot oven.
While the pan heats up, sift together the flour & salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, whisk the milk and oil together. Slowly mix the milk-oil mixture into the dry ingredients with a spoon until creamy smooth.
Add eggs one at a time; this will take some patience! What you want to achieve are ribbons of egg in the batter. After all the eggs have been incorporated, stir mixture for 2 additional minutes.
Carefully remove the warm muffin tin from the oven, filling each cup half- or just over half-full. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the popovers while still hot or they will stick to the pan!
Perfect served with strawberry preserves & butter, or go the savory route and make a popover sandwich with sliced roast beef & horseradish sauce.
BACON & BUTTERNUT SQUASH PIZZA
I have a very distinct memory of one of my godsons, three years old at the time, shoving me back as I sought to assist him with the fastening of a shoe or the connection of a toy part. “No!” he said determinedly, “MY do it.”
Last week, I promised you a pizza and a pizza you have here. It is a delicious one—wonderful wintry combination of ingredients, beautifully colored and the perfect choice for those who eschew tomato sauce-y things. The funny thing is, I feel almost disingenuous posting something I made so many weeks ago; I’ve barely been in my kitchen since the month of February began.
I, like my godson, like most toddlers, like a lot of really stubborn people, tend to think I can do all things on my own. I have perfected the art of politely turning down offers of help: in my kitchen, at work, even when I really need it.
Forget that. There’s no way Jill and I could have made it through her first round of chemo without all of the help we have received in the last few weeks. For the first time in my adult life, the refrigerator in my house is full of food that I didn’t make. And that’s okay. Because I’m too freaking tired to push anyone away right now.
At some point you realize that the amazing people in your life (turns out there are many of them) really, honestly, genuinely want to help you, and that shoving them aside would not only be stupid but selfish. You also realize that there is a part of you that you will always have to fight, a perfectionist self who thinks asking for or accepting help is betraying weakness, an insecure self who feels she has something to prove, a three year old inside who wants to impress everyone by showing just how much help she doesn’t need. I’m trying to get her to shut up for a while.
BACON & BUTTERNUT SQUASH PIZZA
A word about pizza crust: it is so, so gratifying to make at home. I honestly believe it’s one of the best bread items to start with for people who are intimidated by yeast. Pizza crust is very forgiving and people are going to eat it anyway.
At this point, I no longer measure when I make my crust, but I began with the good-old-fashioned Joy of Cooking recipe and learned to tweak and adapt it from there. Often, I’ll make a big batch and freeze half for another day—very convenient!
ingredients:
butternut squash (peel, seed, cube, & roast)
bacon (thickly slice & skillet cook)
onions (peel, slice, & caramelize)
goat cheese (crumble)
sage (rinse & chop)
pizza dough (homemade or purchased)
oven: 525° or as hot as yours gets
Roll out your pizza dough to desired thinness. Dimple with your fingers and rub with a little olive oil. Pre-cook the crust only on a baking stone or baking sheet, for 3-4 minutes or until bubbles and a bit of color appear. Remove the crust carefully from the oven with tongs and spread with the caramelized onions. Top with squash, bacon, & goat cheese.
Return the pizza to the oven for another 7-10 minutes or until the edges of the crust have browned. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with sage and a little salt. Slice and serve hot.
Y’all. I have a serious case of end-of-the-semester-teacher brain. I keep trying to write you a coherent post but unrelated thoughts keep whizzing through my mind at random and I cannot seem to stop them.
Ahem:
a) Pretty pleased that my students pronounced today’s English midterm “challenging but not too hard.”
b) Real excited about not having to wake up in the 5 o’clock hour for the next two weeks.
c) Will probably miss my students during those two weeks, though. Yep. I will.
d) Feeling overwhelmed (in the best way) by the number of folks I will get to see in the next two weeks that I don’t get to see often—some I haven’t seen in years!—Phil, Varsha, Anita, Courtney, McKee, Kate, Stephen, Marynelle, et al., you are my Christmas presents.
e) Oh and my mama. Hey mama! I can’t wait to see you. And eat your spaghetti sauce of goodness. And watch movies. And make you laugh.
f) Rumor has it that my godsons are getting big boy bikes for Christmas. I don’t think they read my blog (yet), so I feel I am not betraying Santa by posting this information.
g) Another Memphis visit bonus: being fitted for my bridesmaids dress for my friend Kristen’s June wedding. It’s black and real purty. Squee!
h) Today I ate my namesake hamburger. More importantly, I have a namesake hamburger.
i) You can donate socks to soldiers here, and the company will cover the shipping costs. I think that’s pretty great.
j) Currently, I got me some red fingernail polish, and lots o blessings.
k) I can’t stop eating bread products lately. Can’t. Get. Enough. Carbohydrates. Hope I fit into my pants come January.
CRACKED WHEAT ROLLS
from Gourmet, February 2009
You need a half a day to get these rolls from start to finish, but they are a worthy consumer of your time, I promise. Chewy, salty outer crust and soft, layered interior…they’d go nicely with any holiday meal.
Additionally, I can recommend no better thing for a winter breakfast than one of these babies toasted and slathered with butter and jam. Pants be damned.
ingredients:
1 ½ cups boiling hot water
½ cup bulgur (a.k.a. cracked wheat)
table salt
1 ½ cups whole milk
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 ¼ tsp (or 1 package) active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water (warm but not hot to touch, ~105 to 115˚ F)
1 T honey or sugar
1 ½ cups whole-wheat flour
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 T water)
flaky sea salt (I used Maldon)
Part One: Soak the Bulgur (40 minutes)
Pour the boiling water over the bulgur & ½ tsp. of salt in a small bowl. Let stand until the wheat is tender, approximately 40 minutes. Drain in a sieve & let cool a bit before mixing into the dough.
Part Two: Make the Dough (first rise = approx. 2 hours)
Heat the milk with butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool. Stir together the yeast, warm water, & honey (or sugar) in a large bowl and let stand for 5 minutes. The mixture should foam; if it doesn’t, throw it out and start again with new yeast.
Once foamy, add the flours and 2 ½ tsp. salt to the yeast mixture. Mix the drained bulgur & cooled milk mixture into the flour with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Dough will be sticky!
Flour up your counter and get to kneading—5 to 8 minutes of elbow grease should do the trick. The dough should be smooth and spring back when pressed with a finger. Oil the bowl you mixed the dough in, roll the dough into a ball and stash in the bowl to let rise in a warm place, covered with a kitchen towel. Depending on the warmth of your kitchen/house, it may take closer to 2 ½ hours for the dough to fully double.
Part Three: Form the Rolls (second rise = approx. 1 hour)
Line baking sheets with parchment. Punch down the dough and divide it in half (but leave it alone otherwise! No more kneading!). Cover one half of dough with plastic wrap while working with the other.
For small rolls, cut one half of the dough into 12 equal pieces. For bigger rolls, divide into 6 pieces. With floured hands, roll each piece into a long rope, then tie each rope into a knot, tucking one end into the bottom to form a flat surface. Transfer the adorable! little! knots! to a baking sheet, placing them generously far apart. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
Let the rolls rise, covered with kitchen towels, in a warm place. Again, depending on the warmth of your kitchen/house, it may take an extra half hour for your rolls to double in size.
Part Four: Bake those Rolls (30-40 minutes total for baking & cooling)
Heat the oven to 375˚. Brush the rolls with egg wash and then sprinkle generously with sea salt. Bake the rolls until golden brown, approximately 20-25 minutes. Cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes before serving.
You can also cool the rolls completely and freeze them for up to a month, reheating them in a 350˚ oven for 10-15 minutes. But you’re probably just going to eat them all the day you bake them and the next morning for breakfast. Or maybe that’s just us.
I know that we limit ourselves when we make blanket pronouncements, that we sometimes cannot predict who we’ll be and what we’ll want or be attracted to and so it does not behoove to rule things out in their entirety. And still, I can promise you this—I will never, ever, ever give up bread.
Bread is one of the most beautiful things we have invented as human beings. It is near-universal and universally satisfying. Bread can be rustic or elegant, dead-simple or decadent, sweet or savory, mixed in one bowl or proofed over many hours. I unabashedly love bread in all its forms—I have a whole file cabinet of food memory devoted to bread products of one kind or another: garlic knots from Brooklyn Pizza Company in Tucson, the really soft rolls of my Southern childhood, Jill’s mama’s hot water cornbread, the incredibly pilowy Roomalli roti I ate in India, fresh tortillas from my favorite bakery here, Friday challah at my Jewish school, my mom’s whole wheat carrot bread, and on and on.
While I’m not a bread-making expert, we have dabbled a little bit here—foccacia, ciabatta, challah, and fall-perfect apple muffins. These little rosemary flatbreads deserve to be added to the filing cabinet under the folder headings “good for guests,” “crackly,” “sprinklings of salt.” While the process of rolling and cooking them isn’t quick, they are not technically complicated to make and are a great bread “bridge” for those of you scared of/intimidated by yeast.
And I could eat this whole stack of them by myself.
ROSEMARY FLATBREAD
adapted from Gourmet magazine
These guys pair perfectly with all kinds of dips, cheese, & olives, making them a great addition to a wine happy hour or tapas dinner.
ingredients:
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 T chopped rosemary, plus a few extra sprigs
1 tsp. baking power
¾ tsp. table salt
½ cup water
1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra for brushing
flaky sea salt
oven: 450°
Place a pizza stone or heavy baking sheet in the oven as it preheats.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, chopped rosemary, baking powder, & salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the water and oil. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour with a wooden spoon. Gently knead the dough until it comes together.
Keep the dough covered in the bowl to keep it from drying out, pinching off a golf-ball sized piece to roll out on a piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough nice & thin, but don’t worry about making a circle—asymmetry is good here.
Brush the dough with extra olive oil, pressing in extra rosemary leaves on top. Sprinkle with a little sea salt, then slide the dough—parchment & all—into the oven, baking until it’s puffed and golden-brown in places, 8-10 minutes.
While the first flatbread bakes, roll out another. When the first is done, cool it on a rack, discarding the parchment paper. Continue until all the dough has been used.
Once cool, the flatbread will keep for a few days in an airtight container.
Jessie’s back! And today she’s sharing a recipe for challah, a bread I had wanted to make from scratch ever since starting my Jewish day school job over three years ago. Of course, I was hella-intimidated and never attempted my own until last weekend. Though my challah did not turn out as beautiful as I’m sure Jessie’s professional loaves do, it still tasted incredible slathered with butter and/or jam. And man, was I proud. Earning that HinJew status!
Instead of making two loaves, I made one loaf plus a set of wee hamburger buns. Not to be too self-congratulatory, but *that* was a very good idea (burger recipe coming next week). Should you wish to make two loaves, Jessie has kindly provided a killer dessert recipe to use up your leftover bread; challah that’s a few days old also makes for great French toast.
I’d like to thank Jessie again for the time and energy she devoted to make baking bread seem less intimidating. If you plan to spend some time at home this weekend, might I suggest tackling one of these recipes & then basking in the satisfaction/carbohydrate aftermath?
CHALLAH
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Baking 2008 issue.
Challah is an enriched bread, which means that in addition to the usual ingredients, it’s made with eggs, butter, and honey (my first chance to use the little jar of Norwegian honey that Jill brought me from her Scandinavian travels!).
Challah is a traditional Jewish bread and is most easily recognized by its braided form–Jessie includes instructions here for the proper braiding technique, but I have to admit that I copped out and did a three-strand braid, which worked just fine. If you are a badass and manage a four-strander, I salute you.
ingredients:
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (105°F-115°F)
¼ cup honey
1 package active dry yeast
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled
½ tablespoon salt
4-4 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water
In a large bowl, combine the ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water, honey, and yeast. Let stand about 10 minutes or until the yeast is dissolved and foamy. *If you do not see foam or bubbles, the yeast is dead and the process must be repeated.*
Using a wooden spoon, stir in the 2 eggs, melted butter, and salt. Gradually stir in as much of the flour as you can.Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough that is smooth and elastic (5 to 7 minutes total).
Shape the dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease the entire surface. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, 1 to 1 ½ hours.Punch the dough down (literally). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
To shape the loaves, divide dough in half. Working with one half a time and keeping the other half under the towel, divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll each piece into a rope about 12-15 inches long. Attach the ends of two pieces together to make one long rope. Attach the ends of the other two pieces together to make another long rope. Forming a cross, fuse all of the attached ends together. Be sure there is one piece pointing towards you and one pointing away from you, one piece pointing to your right, and one pointing to your left.
The mantra of this folding technique is left over right….left over right….left over right. Repeat that to yourself a few times before starting. During the braiding process, if the ends at the top of the braid start to come undone, pinch those together tightly.
Step 1: Hold the two horizontal pieces in your hands, the right piece in your right hand and the left piece in your left. Moving the two horizontal pieces to the opposite sides that they are currently on, cross the two pieces you are holding over the strand pointing towards you, being sure the piece in your left hand crosses OVER the piece in your right. Your left hand should literally cross over your right hand. Lay the two folded pieces horizontally.
Step 2: Now for the vertical pieces–Grasp the top piece in your right hand and the bottom piece in your left hand. Moving these two vertical pieces to the opposite sides that they are currently on, cross these two pieces over the piece pointing to your right (it should cross naturally this way), moving the piece in your left hand OVER the piece in your right. The piece that was pointing away from you should now be pointing towards you, and the piece that was pointing towards you should now be pointing away from you.
Repeat step 1, followed by step 2, until the ends are too small to be braided. Pinch the remaining ends together and remove off a small chunk from both ends to make them less pointy. Braid the other portion of dough.
Place the braided loaves diagonally onto lightly greased or parchment lined sheet trays. Cover and let rest in a warm place until nearly double in size (about 30 minutes). Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining lightly beaten egg and 1 tablespoon of water to make an egg wash. Using a pastry brush or spoon, brush each loaf evenly and completely with the egg wash. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped and are a shiny, deep golden brown. Immediately transfer the loaves from the sheet trays to wire racks to cool.
CREME BRULEE BREAD PUDDING
adapted from Butter, Sugar, Flour, Eggs by Gale Gand
ingredients:
½ a loaf of day old challah bread
2 cups half-and-half
2 cups heavy cream
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
Sugar in the raw (for caramelizing the top)
oven: 350°
pan: 6 ramekins or a deep baking dish, well buttered
Cut the crust off the bread and dice into one inch cubes. You should have about 3 ½ cups of bread.
Heat the half-and-half, heavy cream, salt, and vanilla in a saucepot over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the mixture starts to come to a simmer (do not boil), turn off the heat and allow to infuse for 10 to 15 minutes.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the hot cream mixture into the eggs. Do not pour too fast, otherwise the eggs will scramble. Strain into a large bowl to remove any cooked egg and the vanilla bean.
At this point, feel free to include any desired add-ins to the custard: dried fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, etc. Then add the bread cubes to the bowl, toss well, and let them soak in the egg-milk mixture until it’s all absorbed. Fold the mixture occasionally to ensure even soaking (it’s okay if there’s custard left in the bowl).
Divide the cubes among the ramekins or dump it all into the baking dish and pour any remaining custard over the top. Arrange the ramekins or baking dish in a roasting pan & create a water bath by pouring boiling water into the pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the custard cups or baking dish. (I like to do this while the pan is on the rack in the oven, which I’ve pulled out slightly).
Bake until set and golden brown on top, about 30 minutes for individual puddings and 40 to 45 minutes for one big pudding. Allow to cool before serving. You can make this dish ahead of time, cover & chill in the refrigerator.
Right before you serve the pudding, sprinkle the top evenly with the sugar in the raw. If you happen to have a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar on top. Otherwise, set the broiler to high and put the pudding(s) on a rack as close to the heating element as you can. Keep a close eye on the pudding(s) and rotate them as necessary as certain parts will caramelize more quickly than others. Remove from the oven and serve.
For a quick sauce, combine confectioners’ sugar with any liquid. I use anything from milk to fruit juice to alcohol or even coffee syrups. Start with a cup of confectioners’ sugar and slowly add my liquid of choice until the sauce is to the desired consistency. If you make it too soupy, add more sugar. Ladle over slices of the bread pudding; you can also garnish with fresh fruit or nuts.
Hey folks…it’s bread week here at Blue Jean Gourmet! I’m lucky enough to know the beautiful & talented Jessie Fila, a friend from high school who now works as a pastry chef at The Schoolhouse at Cannondale in Wilton, Connecticut (full bio at the end of this post). She generously agreed to guest blog for me, sharing her bread expertise & recipes. Today she brings us ciabatta–which, wow, I’m still dreaming about–and later in the week, challah!
I don’t know about ya’ll, but baking bread has always intimidated me, so I decided Jessie’s guest posts would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn. I tested each of the recipes that Jessie sent, and let me just tell you–there was a lot of gratuitous moaning over fresh bread in my house each time. Are these recipes simple? No. They do require time and attention. But the thing is, they aren’t rocket science, either. Just make sure you aren’t in a rush and enjoy the process, it’s very gratifying. Big thanks to Jessie for being our bread evangelist!
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I love bread. I love everything about bread. And I don’t think I’m the only one, considering the idiom, “the best thing since sliced bread,” is one of the most popular comparative phrases out there. Truly, bread is by far and away one of my favorite things in the world. I could never get into the no-carb or low-carb diets because then I couldn’t eat bread! And who doesn’t want to eat bread?
As much as I love to eat bread, I like to make bread from scratch by hand even more. There’s something therapeutic, meditative, and sometimes hypnotic about kneading dough that helps me focus and reflect just as effectively as any good yoga class. It’s also great exercise, building upper body strength, as well as working the core muscles. Indeed, making bread is one of my more favored pastimes. There’s nothing more rewarding than slicing into a freshly baked, warm loaf of bread, knowing you crafted it by hand. True, it is a labor of love, but it is well worth the effort.
The key to making delicious bread is understanding the ingredients and the process. For most basic sandwich or rustic breads, such as white bread, a baguette, or ciabatta, the ingredients are simple: flour, water, yeast, and salt. Other breads, called egg breads, like challah or brioche, call for eggs, butter, sugar, and milk in addition to the basic ingredients to help enrich the dough and make it less chewy, more dense, and flavorful. There are, of course, many other types of breads, but for this week I’m going to stick to these two main types.
Most ingredients are straightforward in their purpose. Flour is used to give the bread structure and stability. When mixed with water, the proteins gelatinize; vigorous agitation and stretching help to develop these proteins into gluten. This agitation and stretching is exactly what you’re doing when you knead dough. In developing the gluten, you’re creating the unique dense and chewy structure of bread. Most bread bakers use bread flour instead of all-purpose flour because it has a higher protein content and will therefore create more gluten, resulting in chewier bread. Salt is used mostly for its definitive ability to flavor foods without adding its own flavor component. Salt is unique in the food world in that it doesn’t have a distinct flavor, yet it manages to enhance the flavors of everything in the dish it is added to. This is why even cookie and dessert recipes will call for a small amount of salt added to the dough or batter.
Yeast is the one ingredient in my list that can be most difficult to work with. It comes in many forms these days, the most well-known being active dry. Yeast is a fungi, and is therefore a living organism. It is easily killed and is very finicky. It likes two main things: to exist in warm, wet environments and to eat. The water we use in bread is warm, between 105 and 115° F. If it is any hotter or colder, the fungi will not be able to survive and the bread will not rise. This brings us to what yeast likes to eat: the natural sugars found in flour. When the yeast eats the sugars, it processes the food like any other living organism. The yeast extracts what it needs from the sugars to survive and expels the rest as waste. Yeast’s form of waste is carbon dioxide. When the yeast gives off the gas, the CO2 gets trapped in the gelatinous structure the flour and water have created, otherwise known as gluten, pushing the dough upward, causing it to rise. This is the reason we let the bread rise a couple of times before baking, to allow the yeast to do its thing and give off the gas that contributes a strong amount of flavoring to the bread.
The process for making bread is not as simple as making a cookie dough or a cake batter and is far more time-consuming. To start off, the yeast must be activated, allowing it to give off the much-coveted CO2 gas, and once all of the flour has been added, the dough must be kneaded. The kneading process is very rhythmic and is easy once you get the hang of it. Once you have your dough with all of the flour incorporated, turn it out onto a well-floured work surface, such as a counter. Shape it gently into a disk. Grasp the dough with both hands at the top and fold the dough into the center of the dough. Press down on the dough as if you were trying to fuse the top and bottom parts together. While pressing, use the heels of your palms to push the dough down and away from you. Give the dough a quarter turn clockwise and repeat the process until the dough is smooth.
Once you’ve kneaded the dough, it needs to rest and to rise. The rising process can be repeated at least two times before the dough is shaped and baked. After all the time and hard work, though, what we’re left with is a delicious creation is delectable on its own or with a small swipe of butter, but also serves as a key ingredient in many other dishes. So, for each bread recipe, I’ve also included a few ideas for how you can use the leftovers (if there are any!)
CIABATTA
Recipe from Williams-Sonoma Bread
All bread takes time and effort to make, but ciabatta requires a little extra love and effort. This recipe makes use of a starter, which is used to feed the yeast and serves to add more flavor to the finished product (sourdough is another bread that calls for a starter).
When timing the ciabatta, be prepared to make the starter at least 8-12 hours ahead of time so it has enough time to “proof” or ferment.
ingredients:
for the starter:
1 1/3 cups water, at room temperature
2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon active dry yeast
In the bowl of stand-mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the water, 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, and the yeast. Mix on low speed for 1 minute. Add the remaining flour and mix until smooth and soft, 1 minute more. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until almost tripled in bulk, 4-6 hours. It will smell yeasty. Refrigerate for 8-12 hours or for up to 3 days.
for the bread:
3 T warm water (105°F – 115°F)
¾ cup warm milk (same temp as the water)
2 tsp. active dry yeast
2-2 1/3 cups bread flour, plus extra as needed
1 ½ tsp salt
2 T olive oil, plus extra for greasing
When ready to make the dough, remove the starter from the refrigerator and let it stand for 1-2 hours. To make the dough, fit the mixer again with the paddle attachment. Add the warm water and milk and the yeast to the starter and mix on low speed. The mixture will be soupy.
Add 1 ½ cups of the bread flour, the salt, and the oil. Mix on low speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add only as much of the remaining bread flour as needed to form a very soft and moist dough, and mix on low speed for about 5 minutes, occasionally scraping the dough off the sides of the bowl and the paddle. The dough should be very soft and sticky, pulling away from the sides, but still sticking to the bottom.
Cover the bowl with the oiled plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature until doubled or tripled in bulk, about 2 hours. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprinkle generously with bread flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface (it will deflate), sprinkle lightly with flour, and pat with your fingers into a 14 by 5 inch rectangle. Fold the rectangle like a letter, overlapping the 2 short sides in the middle to make 3 layers.
Cut crosswise into 2 equal rectangles and place each half on the prepared sheet pan. Cover loosely with plastic and let rest for 20 minutes. Remove the plastic and sprinkle generously with flour. Splay your fingers apart and press, push, and stretch each rectangle to make it irregular and about 11 inches long and about the width of your hand. You want the dimples in the top; this is traditional. Cover again loosely with plastic and let rest until tripled in bulk, about 1 ½ hours. Repeat the dimpling process again 2 more times during this rise.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Sprinkle the tops of the loaves with flour. Bake until deep golden brown, 20-25 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet. Serve warm with olive oil for dipping. Yields two large loaves.
What to do with leftover ciabatta, besides just eating it? Here are two ideas:
TUSCAN BREAD SALAD
ingredients:
½ a loaf of day-old ciabatta, cubed
2 or 3 ripe medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
1 ball of fresh mozzarella, cubed
Generous handful of fresh basil, chopped
½ cup of extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss to combine.This is my favorite combination for this salad, but you can increase or decrease any and all of the ingredients to suit your fancy.
You can also try this with any veggies and any Italian cured meats, such as Proscuitto, . Any oil and vinegar combination works well with this recipe, too, and it is also excellent with citrus juice.
ITALIAN BREAD SOUP (RIBOLLITA)
ingredients:
2 T extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can great northern white beans, drained (small cannellini beans work, too)
1-8 ounce can of tomato sauce
3-4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
½ a loaf of day old ciabatta
1 bag baby spinach
Parmesan cheese
In a heavy bottomed saucepot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and bay leaf and sauté until the veggies are softened and the onions are translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic. Cook the garlic for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until the sharp aroma has subsided. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the white beans, the tomato sauce, and the desired amount of stock. I would start with the lesser amount; more can be added later if the finished product is too thick. Allow to come to a gentle simmer. Once the stock is bubbling, tear off the ciabatta, crust and all, into big chunks and submerge into the stock. Once all of the bread is in the liquid, break it down and mash it around with a wooden spoon. If the soup is too thick for your liking, add more stock. I like mine stew-like and so thick a spoon can almost stand upright in it.
Once the desired consistency has been achieved, add the spinach in batches, allowing to wilt in between additions. Turn off the heat, remove the bay leaf, and serve. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and drizzle with the olive oil.
Jessie Fila fell in love with baking the summer after high school graduation when boredom led to a discovery that she is very good at pastry! After attending college in Florida, she traveled to New York to complete her Associates Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts from The Culinary Institute of America. She loves dessert because it’s often the most memorable part of any meal, and can easily make or break a diner’s experience. At home on days off, she cooks to relax and to feed her lucky husband Ken.
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You, like Jill, may be one of those people who is mystified by my love for this:
Yes, that’s right, I am a Von Trapper, a girl who counts Christopher Plummer among her first crushes, who knows every word to every song and squeals unabashedly when the camera first opens onto the Viennese countryside.
I can’t rightly say how many times I have seen “The Sound of Music,” but I do know that every time I go back to it, I discover something new. Like the first time I was old enough to understand that my beloved Captain Von Trapp wasn’t just a handsome military widower who could sing and dance BUT ALSO a radical who resisted the Anschluss and stood behind his political convictions.
Or the first time I realized I had outgrown any affection for the cheesy gazebo scene (“sixteen going on seventeen”) between Liesl and Rolf in favor of the cheesy gazebo scene (“must have done something good”) between Maria and the Captain. Or this most recent encounter, in which I decided that there was maybe something to this “favorite things” business after all.
Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things
Or my version:
Babies with Afros and top-shelf margaritas
Rothko and Rilke and freshly-made pitas
Baristas who flirt with a glint in their eyes
These are the things that help me get by
So I’m not meant to be a songwriter–the sentiment still holds. Perhaps it’s ridiculous, but I think that conjuring up the memory or thought of things you like best can actually be rather useful. Or you can actually conjure up some cinnamon rolls in real life.
Your favorites?
CINNAMON ROLLS
Cinnamon rolls from scratch do not a quick breakfast make. Patience, grasshopper. They are SO worth it.
For the dough:
1 package yeast
¼ cup warmer-than-your-finger water
Pour the water into a large bowl, then sprinkle the yeast on top with a pinch of sugar. Let it stand for a few minutes—if it doesn’t foam, try, try again.
Now you’ll need these things:
¼ cup whole milk
2 T butter
Microwave them together for 30 seconds or until the butter is melting and it’s all warm (but not hot). Toss the warm dairy into the bowl with the yeast, then add the following:
3 ½-4 cups all-purpose flour, added 1 cup at a time
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp. salt
I like to hand-mix but you can use a dough hook. Knead until springy but still soft (you may not use all of the flour). Don’t over-knead; you want a dough that’s loosely hanging together.
Butter the bowl you were just using & let the dough rise there for at least 1 hour, or until doubled in size (may take 1 ½ hours).
For the filling:
1 cup butter, completely softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 ½ T cinnamon
Whip all of the filling ingredients together with a fork or spoon until fluffy. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle about ¼-inch thick. Spread the filling gently atop the dough, going out to the edges on all but one of the long sides. Leave a ½-inch border along that final edge so you have something to seal the roll with.
Roll the dough up into a log, starting with the edge opposite the border. When you get to the border, wet the dough a bit, then pull it up and over the log and press down to seal.
Line a jellyroll or spring form pan with parchment (cleanup is a nightmare if you skip this step, trust me). Using a serrated knife, cut the dough log into inch-thick rolls, placing them swirl side up in the pan. Don’t space them too closely together, as they will expand. Cover the pan with a damp towel and let the dough puff up again, about 30-45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 325˚. Bake the cinnamon rolls for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
While they’re baking, whip up a simple icing: a whole lot of powdered sugar thinned with a little bit of liquid. You can use just plain milk or milk + some kind of flavoring (orange juice, vanilla, almond extract, etc.)
Once the rolls have cooled slightly, drizzle them generously with the icing.
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Welcome
I'm Nishta, and I'm pretty much always thinking about food.