all about rye

I still haven't gotten around to trying that rye bread again--which I just realized I never properly "reviewed" here. The verdict was that this was a fine first attempt with great flavor, but as expected (given my substitution of whole grain rye for the medium rye the recipe called for), it was noticeably more dense than usual deli rye breads. I was thinking next time I would try adding vital wheat gluten in hopes of giving it a little lift. But somehow "next time" has not rolled around yet. Laziness.

I did, however, make a great muffin recipe from the previously maligned Whole Grain Baking. As I said in the rye bread post, I marked about five more recipes that will determine whether I give up on this book or, at the very least, copy down the few recipes I found worthwhile and then pass it along to someone who might better appreciate it. It is a huge book and I hate to have it taking up precious shelf space if there are only a couple things I like or want to make from it. But I successfully adapted this recipe, originally ham and Swiss rye muffins, to help use up some of the massive amounts of kielbasa left over from Easter. (My in-laws brought down about 800 lbs of the good stuff with them from a butcher up north.) I so rarely think to make savory muffins, it's terrible; but with this one in my repertoire I think I'll remember the option more readily. Plus whole grains are healthy and all that, which is more than I could say for my (literally) sugar-coated, cakey blueberry muffin recipe, that's for sure...

Sausage and Cheese Rye Muffins
Adapted from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking, p. 47
Yield: 1 dozen

Note about the yield: I thought my muffin pan was standard, but with this as with some other recipes I've tried, it seemed like all the batter couldn't possibly fit into those dozen cups without spilling over. So I ended up getting another dozen mini muffins out of this. My "regular" sized muffins only took about 20 minutes to bake through, though the original recipe specifies 25-27 minutes. All that to say, your mileage may vary.

2 cups (7 1/2 oz.) whole grain rye flour
3/4 cup (3 1/8 oz.) bread flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 large egg
1 1/2 c. buttermilk
8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
4 oz. finely diced smoked sausage, such as kielbasa

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease a muffin tin with Baker's Joy, or use paper liners and spray them a bit just to make sure there's no sticking. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the 1 cup cheese and toss to mix.

2. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg, butter, and buttermilk, then add to the flour mixture, stirring just til evenly moistened. Fold in the diced sausage.

3. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan(s) (see note about yield above) and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese over the tops. Bake muffins until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then remove onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Serve warm, or once cooled, refrigerate or (better yet) freeze the muffins. (I think these qualify as perishable because of the sausage.) They will keep wonderfully in the freezer for a couple of months.

---------

... as a P.S., since this is a very rye-themed post: last month I also made the rye seed crackers from Artisan Breads Every Day (pp. 133-36). I found them startlingly easy and surprisingly delicious. I'm not that much of a cracker person and I loathe rolling out dough of any sort, so I'm not even sure what made me try these, but I am certainly glad I did. They were so quick to make, and the dough was a dream to work with, which I did not expect at all. Highly recommend with cheese and fruit for a picnic-esque meal--- which is in fact how I used them, on our anniversary picnic. Given the "venue," this year's menu was considerably less fussy than last year's, and besides said crackers and cheese included shrimp cocktail (solely because I was craving it and Whole Foods had some fine specimens on sale), an ambrosia-style fruit salad, and a spinach salad with this (very anchovy-ish) green goddess dressing.

Yeasted waffles

These delicious waffles can and indeed must be made the night before the breakfast/brunch at which you wish to serve them. The original recipe served four but I don't like leftover waffles, and honestly it's enough of a hassle getting up and down for each new batch when it's just two people eating them; I've heard you can hold waffles in a 200 degree oven for a half hour or so without disastrous results, and I guess that would be your only option if you wanted to double these for a (relative) crowd. Yeasted waffles have a rich, delicate flavor that begs for little more than a sprinkle of cinnamon and a generous amount of maple syrup.

Yeasted waffles 
Serves 2
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp whole or lowfat milk
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz) white whole wheat or traditional whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar 
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast 
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until butter is melted. Cool mixture until warm to touch. Meanwhile, whisk flours, sugar, salt, and yeast in large bowl to combine. Lightly whisk the egg and vanilla together in another small bowl. Once the milk/butter mixture has cooled, whisk into the flour mixture until batter is smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and whisk til incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate immediately, at least 12 and up to 24 hours. When ready to serve, whisk the batter to recombine (batter will deflate) before baking in your waffle iron. Serve hot.

I am almost sick of pumpkin.

I truly never thought I would say those words, but after a five-day period in which I made pumpkin bread, pumpkin scones, pumpkin oatmeal cookies, pumpkin ice cream, and pumpkin granola bars, I'm almost there. The tried-and-true pumpkin bread was as good as I hoped, though I made them into muffins and they did this weird collapsing thing that I think happens when I add batter from the bottom of the mixing bowl that didn't get mixed in so well with the leavener. The cookies were initially promising: when I tried the first batch, which I baked til almost crisp, I thought they were quite good. But they softened considerably over the course of the next day and I was no longer crazy about them, to say the least. The softness just made them taste too fatty and the pumpkin flavor was anemic. Maybe I should have baked them longer. The pumpkin ice cream I adapted from David Lebovitz. And I did adapt (used 1/2 c. evaporated milk instead of the whole milk, and half-and-half for the rest; didn't have brown sugar and subbed about 2 Tbsp molasses to the custard mixture), so don't let my review necessarily dissuade you from making the recipe; however, if you do not like pumpkin pie, you will not like this ice cream. You might say "duh," but I was surprised at how much it resembles the polarizing pie, from the texture to the spice mixture. I love pumpkin pie but think this iced incarnation is just a little too odd for me to want to make again. Then there were the pumpkin granola bars: in short, a failure. I took note of her warning about the bars being soggy if underbaked, so I took them well into "golden-brown" territory, but to no avail. Still soggy, weird flavor, and then I spent some time crumbling them onto a cookie sheet and trying to salvage the mess by making granola. That didn't work either. The cranberries were burning before the moisture from the pumpkin evaporated, and I have to work up the nerve to throw it all out because I really don't like it. Anyway, to end this pumpkin saga on a happy note, the scones were most delicious, though the dough was a bit more difficult to work with than other plain scone recipes I've tried. I managed, and though my scones look quite a bit smaller and more "rustic" than hers, they're the perfect mid-day snack with coffee. I could eat the spiced glaze with a spoon. Not that I did. Oh no, I have restraint.

So I have a strange kitchen science-related problem/question for those inclined. This was so weird to me. I made a big batch of chicken stock last week. For once none of my recipes for the week called for even a little bit of stock, so I packed it all up into freezer bags and put it in the freezer. In case of spills, I put a large ceramic plate on the bottom of the freezer, then lay two quart-size bags of stock on top of it. (The rest of the bags were laid in various places around the freezer with a distinct lack of similar care, but that is not relevant to our problem.) The next day, I was shocked when I opened the freezer to stack the frozen bags of broth and remove the plate, because after picking up the first of the two bags on top of the plate, I went to grab the one underneath it and found it completely unfrozen! Cold, but not even a chunk of ice in it. If someone could explain to me the mechanics/chemistry by which a ceramic plate going into the freezer with two bags of broth stacked on top will keep the bag on the bottom from freezing at all, I would be very impressed. Obviously there was little air circulation around the bag sandwiched between the plate and the other bag; but it is beyond my unscientific self how this could prevent it from freezing at all, after 24 hours. So. I will award a food-related prize to the person with the most plausible answer. Not really. Well, maybe. Depends how busy I am with this moving thing, and how far away you live...

Cornmeal pancakes

I made these for "lunch" yesterday and we thought they were very nice.

Cornmeal pancakes
Adapted from Joy of Cooking

1 cup yellow (fine ground) cornmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. vanilla scented or regular sugar
1 cup boiling water
1 egg, separated
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. melted butter, still warm
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder

Mix the cornmeal, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the hot water, cover the bowl, and let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the milk, vanilla, and egg white. Separately mix the melted butter and egg yolk, then add to the milk mixture. In another small bowl, combine the flour and the baking powder. (The batter will be quite thin.)

Whisk the wet ingredients into the cornmeal mixture, then stir in the flour-baking powder mix just til combined. Cook in a preheated 12" skillet or griddle using a scant 1/3 cup of batter. Makes about 12 pancakes to serve 3-4.

Honey-yogurt waffles, and a tangent on "healthy baking"

Recipe below. First, some (unnecessarily in-depth) background. Once upon a time I went through a phase my family probably remembers all too well, during which my supreme goal in baking was to drastically alter original recipes, the first time I made them, in order to make them "healthier." This included but was not limited to a) substituting whole wheat flour for regular "processed" flour as often as possible (i.e., as often as a recipe called for flour); b) using applesauce as a 1:1 replacement for butter in baked goods; c) adding ground flaxseed to e-v-e-r-y-thing, which consequently meant decreasing any fat in the recipe, since there is fat in ground flaxseed; and d) arbitrarily decreasing amounts of butter, sugar, or whatever other ingredients I deemed unhealthy. I may be forgetting some of my "techniques." It took a series of many more failures than successes for me to finally realize that baking is an exacting science. It is not forgiving of a novice's whims, certainly not when said novice is ignorant of basic points of culinary chemistry.

Now, of the aforementioned adjustments, some of them I do still use, in moderation. (The applesauce-for-butter one I do not, and I only have whole flaxseed on hand for a cracker recipe I've been meaning to try.) Moderation also happens to be the key to receiving a cake recipe just as it is, without one plea (forgive the irreverence), because three sticks of butter or not, it's dessert. You're not going to eat all three sticks of butter by yourself. Let dessert be dessert, for crying out loud. I did just today make a 50% whole wheat ciabatta that turned out fabulously---that is one area where I'm more than happy to use whole wheat flour, but I did it under the expert guidance of Peter Reinhart. (Love ya Pete.)

The reason I write all that on this particular post is because I recall making these honey-yogurt waffles (which I actually made into pancakes, cause heck, it didn't really matter to me what the original recipe said, even in the TITLE) at the height of my whole grains madness. No doubt because the title caught my eye as sounding healthy. I probably went ahead and used all whole wheat flour and omitted the butter and added flaxseed, who knows. Tonight, however, I returned to this recipe for the first time in years and made them exactly as the recipe indicated, in the wafflemaker. They were splendid. They did not taste healthy; they did not taste like a self-consciously "sugar-free" breakfast, and while it is unusual to see a handful of oats thrown in to a waffle recipe, it was clearly not done as some half-baked attempt to make the recipe "healthier," because you can always sense---well, taste---when that has happened. The flavor is subtly sweet and I think they're great waffles.

Honey-Yogurt Waffles
adapted from Williams-Sonoma.com, which cites it as adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Waffles from Morning to Midnight (did not realize that!)
Serves 2-3
These do get pretty dark because of the honey---at least mine did, though the picture on Williams-Sonoma looks very pale in comparison!

1 1/2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. old-fashioned oats
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. milk
6 Tbsp. plain yogurt (I used Stonyfield Farms whole milk)
2 1/2 Tbsp. honey
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your wafflemaker. Melt the butter and set aside.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk together the milk, yogurt, honey, egg, and vanilla in a small bowl til very well combined (it will take some time for the honey to incorporate). Pour liquid ingredients over the dry and lightly whisk until combined. Fold in the melted butter. Pour 1/3 cup-fuls (or however much your wafflemaker manual specifies) of batter into the wafflemaker and bake til deep golden. You can hold these in a 200 degree oven for up to half an hour if necessary. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

weekend

Friday M worked from home, and for brunch I made us a diner-style omelet (From America's Test Kitchen 2009) that was quite good. I've made the basic recipe before, but concocted a filling this time based on what I had in the fridge: Black Forest ham, asparagus, and Swiss. I do love this omelet method: there are only 5 eggs in it (serving two), but after you beat the eggs to triple their volume and then fold in about 1/3 cup of whipped cream, it becomes quite an imposingly fluffy and very filling breakfast.

Friday night we were to have friends for dinner as they passed through on their way to the beach, but sadly they were stranded for several hours in the middle of Kentucky after their car broke down and didn't quite make it in time for dinner. It was hardly an inconvenience to put the extra chicken into the freezer and pare down the easy recipe I made to serve two. I really liked this method (from Daisy Martinez) of starting boneless skinless chicken breasts on the stovetop, then adding a sauce and moving them to the oven covered with foil to finish. Although the orange juice/lime marinade didn't knock our socks off, it added some interesting flavor. I would just be sure to season the meat with a little more salt and pepper before cooking it next time. With this I made the black bean rice from CI's Restaurant Favorites, and an intriguing new recipe, pandebono or Colombian cheese bread.

I should start a new paragraph for this. It's funny---I picked up a box of yucca flour (= tapioca starch) in the Hispanic section of the farmer's market a couple months ago because I remembered reading someone somewhere  raving about something called pandebono, but I couldn't for the life of me find where. I began to think I had dreamed about something plausible that didn't exist (as often happens with me), so I googled around, discovered that it does exist and call for the yucca flour I'd bought, and settled on this recipe, which people who commented had actually made rather than filling the comment box with absolutely useless remarks like "wow lol looks tasty!" (Sorry, pet peeve.) I used all queso fresco rather than feta, per other recipes I saw. Mixing this bread scared me at first, because one egg for that much dry stuff plus semi-wet cheese did not seem like enough moisture. It really didn't come together until I learned how to squeeze a handful of the mixture several times, holding for a few seconds and passing to the other hand---it's hard to describe, but sooner or later it would cease being a frustrating mass of crumbs and become a very tidy ball. For an incidentally gluten-free bread I was very impressed with the results. The flavor, while maybe a bit sedate to an American palate used to the sharp flavors of cheddar and a continual onslaught of sodium, is delicious and somehow pairs well with the chewy texture.

**Edited 4/14/12 to add: Since I've gotten a food processor I made these delicious cheese balls again, and realized how much less work they are to shape when mixed that way. Just wanted to note that; if you have a food processor, it's definitely worth getting out for this. And if not, I still think they're worth a little extra work. Yum.

The photo above was Saturday night's dinner in the making: another Daisy Martinez recipe. This was a creamy pasta sauce with basil and artichokes (I use one 12-oz bag of Trader Joe's hearts rather than the 2 9-oz boxes she calls for, which seems like it would be too much to me). I used pancetta instead of the prescribed serrano ham or prosciutto, and I daresay it worked fine. I liked this sauce a lot, and while M said it was a bit girly, he got seconds.

Ham & egg pastries; mini palmiers

Friday night I made ham and egg puff pastry squares from CI's Restaurant Favorites at Home. I had previously made this for brunch, with a cream sauce I opted out of this time, and had an extra sheet of puff pastry from that I needed to use up. Obviously it's very hard to go wrong with 1) puff pastry 2) Black Forest ham 3) Gouda (which I subbed for the cheddar called for) and 4) soft scrambled eggs.

For the pastries, you unfold a sheet of pastry and cut out a 9" circle. This leaves you with a significant amount of scraps left over. I decided this was unacceptable and Googled around for an easy way to use them. Behold, mini palmiers: you just stack the scraps of dough on top of each other (do not squeeze together or knead them), then roll them out into a rough rectangle. Sprinkle the rectangle generously with cinnamon sugar. Starting from one short end, roll tightly halfway up. Roll the same way from the other end til they meet. Using a sharp knife, slice the dough lengthwise into 1/4 to 1/2" palmiers. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 400 for about 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Saturday for dinner I was planning another tapas sort of thing, but I was lethargic and we were out much of the day and I couldn't get excited about labor-intensive stuffed mushrooms and salt cod in tomato garlic confit, which didn't really go together anyway. I had Mike find me an easy recipe online (which means I'm really in an anti-cooking stupor), a Martha Stewart one in fact, and I ended up using the last of my precious salt cod on pan-fried fish cakes. They certainly weren't bad, but I felt a little silly.

Today we managed to sleep for no less than three hours in the middle of the afternoon (M hasn't been sleeping well, but I have, so I have no idea what's wrong with me), hence the time stamp on this post. Somehow shortly after we emerged from hibernation we were hungry, so I heated up Julia Child's cream of leek and potato soup which I made Friday, and made some small Gruyere and sauteed mushroom burgers. Yes, burgers and French soup, a classic combination. I will say the Gruyere-mushroom combination works très bien, but I think everybody except me already knew that.