How to make a PB sandwich

I love this!!

The elusive apple cake

When we were in southern France we had what might have been the greatest meal of our lives. We ordered a cassoulet (partly because it was the only thing on a very long menu that we remotely understood, not speaking a bit of French ourselves and also because cassoulet seemed quintessentially french), wine, and a cheese plate.

When we were finished with our meal the chef/owner came out and asked us how everything was ( thankfully she spoke English). After giving much praise and sounding like the stupid Americans that we are, we asked her for a dessert recommendation and she asked "well what did you have for dinner?" ahhhh what a watershed foody moment, asking what we ate for dinner to pair a dessert-I think G. shed a tear! Anyways after describing our meal she recommended (without hesitation) an apple cake. It was such an amazing dessert and I wish I'd taken a photo. Ever since then I've wanted to recreate it, but haven't really know what recipe to use.

When we got the most recent version of the Canal House cookbook and I saw the apple cake recipe in the back I thought this might be it. Honestly, Canal House describes the cake as Italian not French. But I figured, hey, the countries are geographically close, and surely delicious cake recipes cross borders.

I found some apples at the farmer's market this past Wednesday (who knew they started growing now?!?) and so this seemed the perfect opportunity to try the recipe.

The recipe is simple. It calls for butter, sugar, milk, an egg, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. You make the cake batter, place in a springform pan, and then carefully arrange apple slices in the batter.

This recipe was good, but not great. I want to try again with different apples (maybe Golden Delicious, which the Canal house recommends), and with smaller slices.

I've also been searching the web and seeing all sorts of different takes on similar cakes:

here, here,  and here, for example.

So many possibilities....so little time.

Nana taco

Today we ate at nana taco in Durham. It was awesome!!

Guess what's going on in the food epidemic kitchen these days

Bread. Lots of bread baking. I'm a little obsessed. I love the idea of creating something so delicious out of just flour, water, salt, and maybe some yeast. I stay up late reading this blog. And watching instructional videos on how to shape loaves of bread. And reading messages on the fresh loaf bread forum- Bread bakers are so nice!

So...outcomes:

 The bread I've been baking the most is the Tartine country loaf. This has been very much a success! The recipe and instructions are given on Martha Stewart's website. Pictured below is the whole wheat variety.

I have also been trying to make baguettes. These are not going quite as well. Somehow my baguette attempts always seem to end in an over-proofed disaster, which makes me grumpy.
First I tried to make baguettes using the recipe in the Tartine bread book. That was a COMPLETE disaster. I was very sad. Luckily, we were taking care of my sister-in-law's dog at the time, who managed to eat 1.5 of the baguette disasters that I baked. 
She's so cute I had to forgive her (see below):

Next I tried using this recipe. The latter mentioned formula was developed by Anis Bouabsa, who was recently named the baker of the best baguette in Paris. My first attempt using his formula was only half of a disaster. The baguettes still didn't shape properly. And I was still grumpy afterwards. Oh well.  
We still managed to make some delicious meatball subs with the bread (sorry, we ate the sandwiches before I could take a picture!). 

I want to try again. I am determined.

In other news, I'm obsessed with iced coffee. I have been using the Japanese iced coffee "on the rocks" method. 

I love this. It's so simple. I grind up 1/3 cup of coffee beans, place them in a filter, place the filter over a mason jar filled with a couple cubes of ice, and then pour approximately 1 cup of boiling water through the filter on top of the ice. It's so delicious. And I love being able to use a mason jar. It's super convenient. You can screw the lid on and you're set to travel.

Which reminds me: G. bought me a "cuppow." It's awesome. It's a drinking lid that you place on a mason jar.  It essentially turns a mason jar into a sippy cup!  Next I'm going to buy the straw-friendly version.

Alright, it's 11:30 and I am supposed to wake up early tomorrow. So that's all for now.

the imposter

Someone told me that she hates it when bloggers sign in after a long hiatus and write something like "it's been so long since I blogged and here are my excuses" (or maybe it was someone else expressed that sentiment to her, and she subsequently told me this)... but whatever. it doesn't matter. Just very momentarily I'm disregarding any feelings of resentment such people might feel towards me. Because yeah, it's been a really long time since I posted anything on this little blog. And yes, I've been really busy and blahblahblah. But I think that the reasons that I haven't posted on this blog in so long have more to do with an identity crisis of sorts.

The truth is, I always felt like a bit of an imposter in writing this blog. I billed it as a food blog and mainly posted  recipes that I've tried. In reality there are millions-- maybe even billions?--of food blogs on the web. Most of them are really good. I love visiting them, I get fabulous tips and ideas and inspiration from them. And on top of that there are all of the professional webpages out there that are dedicated to food writing/instruction (see marthastewart.com for example), and the magazines devoted to the topic, not to mention all of the beautiful and shiny and insightful (and well tested) cookbooks that are published each year. The world of food writing and blogging is (over)-saturated--saturated by the writings and creations of people who are much more skilled  and creative than I am in the kitchen. So anyways, this realization left me a bit embarrassed to post anything up here. I'd post recipes that I was excited about, but why do that when there is so much  of this information out there in such better form than I could ever hope to present it? And so, tail between legs, I left the blog.

Sometimes though the weblink to this site pops up in my browser when I start to type in something else that starts with the letters "www.foo" and I'm reminded of this project that I abandoned. And I feel a bit sad. And I've been reading recently about how important it is to write, and how it helps you to deal with the world that you are experiencing. And so, I'm revisiting the blogging experience. This post might represent the beginning of an evolved blog. We shall see.

For now, I'll just post some links to some food blogs, and then some links to some other sites, beyond the world of food, that I love.

First the food blogs:

www.smittenkitchen.com -this is probably my all time favorite food blog. Her recipes are manageable and delicious.
www.davidlebovitz.com-because who doesn't love a former chez panisse pastry chef who has uprooted himself and moved to Paris? He has great dessert (chocolate) recipes.
www.chocolateandzucchini.com-Written by an adorable french woman. Her recipes are often creative, healthy, and inspiring.
www.simplyrecipes.com-The name of this blog doesn't lie. I go here for basic ideas/instructions. For example, I learned how to boil an egg on her blog.

Now for some other sites that are inspiring me as of recently:
www.brainpickings.org - Great culture stories.  Easily digestible ideas and information. I love this part of the site's mission statement:
"Because creativity, after all, is a combinatorial force. It’s our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources — ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration — that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways. In order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these ideas and build new ideas — like LEGOs. The more of these building blocks we have, and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our creations will become"

http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/
I just discovered this site. Submitted stories about New York City. I love this story about the chocolate egg cream: http://mrbellersneighborhood.com/2012/03/i-love-you-u-bet
[and by the way, if you haven't ever had a chocolate egg cream, well, you must make yourself one!]

http://www.thedaysofyore.com/
Features interviews with artists,  writers, etc. about how they ended up where they did.
Interesting and inspiring.

And with that, I'm signing off. Until next time, whenever and whatever that might be!

The great bagel search

When I was in high school I took one of those silly class trips to Costa Rica. Oh you know what I'm talking about: one of those trips that companies market to parents and teachers as great learning experiences for the young Spanish language student, but are in fact tidy commercial packages that involve schlepping said students from tourist trap to tourist trap, putting them up in 2 and a half star hotels designed for such tourists, and feeding them (awful) American friendly food. While the country was absolutely beautiful, I didn't learn a lick of Spanish and worst of all, the food was atrocious.

In fact, what I remember most from the trip is the day that my friends and I took a long walk down the road from our hotel and discovered a little cafe-again, obviously targeted towards the American tourist-and to our delight found that the restaurant served bagels. After having eaten horrible Costa-merican food (eg. lasagna layered with cheese and papaya sauce) for several days, we were delighted. The bagels were still awful but I guess the big ball of dough with a hole in its center was enough to please us at the time.

I was reminded of this story today. This morning I took a little spill off of my bike, and as I sat feeling sorry for myself I began to develop cravings for a bagel--a bagel and cream cheese are my comfort food. But alas, to my knowledge, there is not a good bagel option in the triangle area. And so I've decided: I'm making it my personal goal to find a descent Piedmont, NC bagel. I know, we don't have the NYC water, but whatever, despite this fact it seems like it should be possible to bake a descent bagel.

Anyone have suggestions for places to try?

Pear galette and most amazingly flaky crust ever

See that photo? Know what those are? Those are victory hands. Because I did it-finally! I made a super-flaky crust (for a gallette-but i think it could be used for a pie or tart crust too).

Ever since I started making pies, 3 or so years ago, I've wanted to make a super flaky crust. And generally my crusts are okay, but they could be better. Usually they're just a little on the soggy side, or they're just not flaky enough.

Well I was looking through the Tartine Bakery Cookbook (the original not the new one) and I noticed their Fruit Galette recipe. They describe the crust for this galette as similar to a "rough puff pastry"-same ingredients as those in their flaky pie crust dough, but different method: more complicated. FOr quite some time, I was intimidated by this concept of a "more difficult/complicated" method. Finally, though, after one too many trips to Durham NC's Scratch Bakery--where one can find what are perhaps some of the best pies/tarts/pastries in the world--  I decided it was time I aimed for "more" in my pastry crusts; thus I broke down and tried this recipe.

And turns out the method was really not so bad. It involves rolling, layer by layer, cold hunks of butter into flour. The process was a bit messy but really not too bad and actually quite a lot of fun. And the result was just so rewarding.

And so I won't delay this any longer. Here and now, I give you the recipe for pastry crust that will change your life-or at least boost your self-esteem.

Adapted from the Tartine Bakery cookbook (the original), by Elisabeth M. Pruett and Chad Robertson (page 71).

For the dough:  (this makes enough dough for 2 large galettes, or 12 small galettes)

INGREDIENTS:
Very cold unsalted butter,-2 cups or 1 pound/455 g
Water -1 cup or 8 oz/250 ml
Salt - 1.5 tsp or 7 ml
*All purpose flour- 2 1/3 cups or 12 oz/340 g
*Pastry flour - 2 2/3 cups or 12 oz/340 g
(I suggest adding a tablespoon or so of sugar to this-not what the authors suggest but I thought a bit of sweetness in the dough might be nice) 

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
Rolling pin
Bench scraper
Cookie sheet

 *(NOTE: the authors say that a mix of all purpose and pastry flour is ideal. I didn't have pastry at the time and did without. The recipe came out just fine,a lthough next time I'll probably aim to go with the all purpose/pastry mix).

1. Cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and put into freezer.
2. Mix water with salt, and place in freezer.
3. Chill butter and water/salt mixtures for about 10 minutes.

4. Measure flour onto your work surface It's not necessary to mix the flours at this point, because they will get mixed as the dough is made.

5. Spread flour into a rectangle about 1/3 inch deep.
6. Scatter butter cubes on top of the flour. Toss some flour on the butter so that your rolling pin doesn't stick.

7. Start to roll butter into flour. When the butter begins to flatten into long and thin pieces, use a bench scraper to scoop up sides of the rectangle so that it's the size that you started with.

8. Repeat rolling and scraping 3-4 times .

9. Make a well in the center of the flour/butter mixture and pour all of your water/salt mixture into the center (this was a bit messy-next time I will incorporate the water slightly more gradually).
Using the bench scraper, scoop the sides of the dough onto the center, cutting the water into the dough.

10. Keep scraping and cutting until the dough is a shaggy mass, and then shape it into a rectangle that measures about 10 x 14 inches. Now, lightly dust the top of the rectangle with flour

11. Roll out the rectangle until it's twice as wide again and then scrape the top, bottom, and sides together until it is back to the original size.  Reroll, and repeat 3 or 4 times until you have smooth and cohesive dough (I think I ended up rerolling quite a few more times-I didn't get a "smooth" and "cohesive" dough after 4 rerolls).

You should now have a nice neat rectangle that measures about 10 x 14 inches.

12. Transfer the dough to a large baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill well, about 1 hr (I actually extended the chilling to about...um...7 days. Turned out just fine).

13. When you're ready to roll out the dough, divide it into 2 equal portions if you're making large galettes or into 12 equal portions if you're making small galettes. Roll out into circles and transfer to a baking sheet (the authors have amazing instructions for rolling out into a circle. im not going to type all of that out, but you should buy the book. it's an awesome book anyways).

Chill the circles until they are firm.

**************************


I made a pear galette with this dough.

For the filling:
4 bosch pears,
1/4 spiced rum
sugar to taste
2 tablespoons ginger

PREHEAT OVEN to 375 degrees.

Peel and cut pears, length wise.
Place in a sauce pan over medium heat, add the spice rum, sugar and ginger, stir and cook down the pears, for about 10 minutes.

1. Place the pear filling in the center of the dough circle: leave about a 2 inch border for a large galette and about a 1 inch border for the smaller galettes.

2. Fold in sides of circles to cover the fruit-make sure not to leave any spaces from which fruit might leak out.
3. Chill until firm (I managed to skip this chilling step).

4. Brush sides of the galette with milk (or an egg wash as the authors recommend). Sprinkle with granulated sugar, and then bake!

5. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

6. Throw up your triumphant hands to celebrate your success baking a flaky dough!