Grandma's Peach Cobbler.... sort of

I was blessed to have grown up with a southern Grandma. She was, as is required by South Carolina's state law, an amazing cook. Biscuits and gravy, fried okra, and oh sweet lord - Peach Cobbler.* The peaches she could get were as big as my head, perfectly ripe, soft and so flavorful, they were just heavenly. My mom also made a mean peach cobbler, but living in NJ, then CA meant we never quite got the same flavor as grandma did. Nevertheless, this peach cobbler beats anything you'll find in a restaurant hands down!

When I moved out on my own, this was one recipe I made sure to write down. In fact I wrote it down in this cutesy little journal my mom had given me that ended up being the repository for all my family recipes and little bits of advice to myself as I negotiated the challenges of living on my own. I even pasted a picture of my 'dream home' in the back. It was that kind of journal.

Anyway this is one of the things that counted as a precious possessions when I left for Thailand and I was sure to save it. Unfortunately I didn't write down specifically where I packed it and haven't been able to locate it. =(Never fear! My sister is also a fan of grandma's peach cobbler and had written down a copy of the recipe and sent it to me in a care package at some point. So when a friend brought over a box of peaches the other day, I knew what I had to do.


The problem was... my sister had taken a few liberties with the recipe (replacing the batter with a bisquick batter & cutting down the butter a bit) and while I noticed it was different... I couldn't remember the exact recipe I'd gotten from my mom. Anyway... regardless of the specific measurements, the secret is in the method of preparation.

You start with three bowls, the fruit the batter and the BUTTAH!
The fruit: 3 cups of peaches (the better your peaches, the better this will be) & 1/2 cup of sugar mix them up by hand. I squirted a tiny bit of lemon juice on the, only because these peaches are good, but not superior and I wanted to bump up the flavor a bit.

The batter: my sister calls for a cup of bisquick 1/2 cup of sugar and "enough milk to make it the right consistency." I was chatting with her** while baking & she described it as "thinner than a biscuit dough, but thicker than pancake batter... about like waffle batter". I didn't have bisquick, so I used a cup of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder & about 3/4 cup of milk.


The butter: Again... a difference between her recipe and grandma's... she said 1/2 a stick of butter, but I am SURE my grandma's recipe called for a full stick of butter to be melted in the casserole dish as the oven preheats (350F). I compromised and used about 2/3 of a stick.


Now what you do is wait until the butter gets all melty and bubbly and wonderful, then you POUR THE BATTER INTO THE BUTTER, and *then* you pour the fruit into the batter. DO.NOT. STIR. This is the critical part. I have seen cobblers where they put the fruit in the bottom, then put little rounds of biscuits on top. It makes me want to cry. That's not cobbler!! WTF?Because what happens is you put it in the oven for about 45 mins, and the batter will bubble up through the fruit and get all fruity & wonderful on the inside, and fry up in the butter on the outside and get all crispy brown and coated with awesomeness. When you take it out of the oven, it will be all kinds of bubbly and juicy... spoon some of the juices/butter up over the doughy parts while it's still warm.

I swear to you, having cobbler this way will change your life! Ok... or maybe it will just make you make a lot of intense yummy noises.


You can eat this pure (it's best a little warm, but good cooled off too), but naturally adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream or fresh whip cream will just take it over the top. I have had this peach cobbler for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and am pretty sure this is what heaven tastes like.

This cobbler also has magical powers. Or perhaps it was Grandma looking down on me and giving me a helping hand. But while the cobbler was in the oven I hunted through my boxes of books and on my second time through one of the boxes I *finally* found the book with all my recipes in it. =) So here is the actual recipe from my grandma... and the explanation for why my sister wrote it down 'wrong'... she was halving the recipe.

6 cups sliced peaches
1 1/2 cups sugar (in a bowl, set aside)

1 1/2 sticks of butter (melt in a casserole dish)

batter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups milk

Put the batter in the butter, put the fruit in the batter, do not stir. Bake at 350 for 45 min.




*In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that she died of a heart attack, but the way I see it, life without peach cobbler wouldn't be much a life I'd want to live anyway. =P

**castigating her vehemently for taking liberties with Grandma's recipe.

Muffins

I'm getting reacquainted with my cookbooks here and have recently discovered the American's Test Kitchen recipe for Big Beautiful Muffins. I'm hooked!

The not-so-secret ingredient is yogurt, instead of milk or oil or whatever. The Apricot Almond version called for dried apricots, but all I had were... uh are these nectarines? I only ended up using two of them. And in addition to the almond extract I added some chopped up almonds for an extra crunch.


I'm really impressed with how well this recipe works out, it smells awesome in the oven. They smell so good I was able to tell when they were done even though my timer decided it didn't really want to work tonight. =( The tops are perfectly crunchy and the inside is nice and moist, using almond extract gives it a good flavor all the way through the muffin, and really compliments the fruitiness. I think it's the yogurt that lets it keep it's big fluffy shape.

Mmmmmmm muffins!

Making stuff

Hi Everybody! =) How do you like the blog face-lift?

Here's something I baked the other day. It's based on the Onion Boards recipe from my trusty-dusty Sunset Breads cookbook, but I've modified it quite a bit over the years. If you want a quick & easy loaf... this is not for you. If you want super awesome yummy sandwich/hamburger buns, strap on your apron and and get cooking.

Ingredients:
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 cups luke-warm water
2 Tbls sugar
2 tsp salt
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour (plus more later)
1 sauteed onion

1 egg
coarse salt

Oven: 375F
Bake time: 20-25 mins
Overall time: 2 days.

Day 1
Chop up & saute a white or yellow onion in a little butter on medium for as long as it takes to get good and brown. Mmmmmmmm ... onions! Let 'em cool down.

In the bowl of your world-class superhero of a Kitchen Aide Stand Mixer, mix the yeast and water & a bit of the sugar. Let it sit a minute just to make sure the yeast is active. Remember, yeast is alive- pay attention to the expiration date on the package, and don't kill it with hot water. If the yeast looks good, add the sugar, salt & a cup of the wheat flour. Mix it well.
Slowly add the remaining wheat flour mixing for several minutes between additions of flour.

Seriously... let it mix well, let it rest a minute or two, mix it a few minutes more. You're trying to work up the gluten so it's good and stretchy. After adding all the wheat flour, mix in the onions. Again, give it enough time to really mix in. It should be looking a bit wet again, so then add the final cup of white flour. All told, I probably let it mix/rest/mix/rest for at least half an hour. (I was watching So You Think You Can Dance, I'd let it rest during the dancing, mix during the comments, then go check on it/add more flour on commercials.)

You should have a good medium-soft dough, turn it out onto a floured board, fold it over a couple times, shape it into a ball, and place it in a well greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap (I didn't have any, I used foil... nothing bad happened. ;) ) and place it in the fridge overnight.


When you take it out of the fridge, it will have risen quite a bit, and it will be COLD. Punch it down, reshape it, put it back in the bowl. Let it sit out and get to room temperature. I left it out on the counter all day while I went to work. But you probably don't need to let it rise that long, but a give it a good 4-5 hours at least.

When I got home... the dough was well up to the top of the bowl here... although, naturally I forgot to get a picture. Empty the dough onto a floured board, dust the top with flour and gently degass it, shape it, let it sit for a minute or two to rest.

Using a sharp knife cut the dough into 10 - 12 equal pieces, depending on if you want bigger rolls or smaller rolls. Shape them into balls, but press them down good & flat. Place them on a well greased (or seasoned) baking stone. Let them sit for another half hour, hour or so. I went and got some dinner... when I got back I turned on the stove.

Preheat the oven to 375F and mix up the egg wash. Egg white is supposed to make crust shiny, egg yolk is supposed to make the crust soft, I just mixed up a whole egg and called it good. Brush the tops with the egg, then sprinkled some coarse salt on the tops. You could use sesame seeds if you want, but I like salt!Bake them for 20-25 minutes, until they sound hollow when you knock on the tops.

They turned out really really well, soft and a little chewy, a good wheaty-oniony flavor, very good for sandwiches and hamburgers. I'm planning on putting some pork & bbq sauce in the crock pot tomorrow... and that should make for some gooooood pulled pork sandwiches. =)

Challah back girl

Well, it's St. Patrick's day! What better way to celebrate than by showing off some Challah bread I made this weekend. ;)

Let's start out with the basics for an enriched dough: flour, water, sugar, salt, yeast, eggs, oil, Betty and the most flour dusted, dough stained page of my Sunset Breads book!

Since reading the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I've changed the way I bake bread. Rather than adding the ingredients in the order listed, I started with the water & yeast and added a few cups of flour, mixing until smooth (starting to work the gluten). Then I added the eggs, oil, sugar, salt, and the (not so) secret ingredient - a dash of curry. I spent plenty of time letting Betty mix it all up. Then put it in an oil coated bowl.

I let it rise in the fridge over night then let it warm up on the counter for about an hour.

It's fair to say that it more than doubled. I also depart from the directions that say to "punch down the dough"... there's no real need. I divide the dough in half (which degases it), let it rest for a few minutes then divide one of the halves into thirds. I rolled that half into ropes & braided it.

I may have made the ropes a bit too long. The braid wouldn't fit on the pizza stone! I let it rise for another hour & a half, then gave it an egg wash & sprinkled with sesame seeds before baking.

Mmmmmm..... Challah!

I actually gave this loaf away, but with the other dough I made just a regular loaf. It's a very yummy sandwich bread!

NYT No Knead Bread

Why am I the last to hear about the New York Times 'No Knead' bread recipe? I read about it only a couple of weeks ago, and although I'd read about slow-rise doughs, I didn't know you could let it rise at room temp that long. I'll admit I was a little skeptical, since I know kneading is important for gluten development. But I tried some at a friend's house the other day and was amazed! Seriously, I thought it was from one of our artisan bakeries! I was really excited to try it.

Last night I put all the ingredients together and set it on the counter overnight. I though briefly about taking a picture of the dough before & after the 18 hour rise, but I didn't. It was quite impressive though, and the smell... just a bit sour, so yummy. I also kinda wish I'd read the recipe a little better before I did the shaping... because I kinda skipped that step and had a problem peeling the dough off the tea towel after the second (much shorter) rise. But all is not lost...

Now, that's a gorgeous loaf if I do say so myself! But that's only part of the story.

Check out those big glossy holes... that's the mark of *serious* bread. Oh, when I saw the glossy inside, I was so thrilled. The crust is crunchy, the inside smooth and yummy. It's not *quite* as the bread I tried the other day, but it's good... very good. I'll be trying this one again... and again... and again!

It takes a long time, but the idea is that you let the dough do the work to get the flavor. There's a lot of chemistry involved, and you just can't take a short cut to get there. Ok... I need to be alone with my bread now. ;)

Fruit Cake vs. Fruitcake

Back in the day there was a joke recipe for fruitcake (not this one) that went something like:

1 cup sawdust

1 cup Elmer's glue

1 cup red thingies

1 cup green thingies

Mix all ingredients & bake at 300F for two days, varnish & pack in a pretty tin, don't worry no one will ever eat it.

I can't totally remember the funny part of the joke, but from then on whenever my mom and I went shopping around the holidays we'd laugh when we'd see the tubs of "red thingies" and "green thingies" in the baking aisle. But the thing is... these are not actual fruit cake ingredients. If you see one of those cheap-ass sawdust & glue with red & green thingies called 'fruitcake' in the store, do not, under any circumstances eat it. That's not real fruit cake.

As an adult I learned that fruit cake, good fruit cake, contains real actual, identifiable fruit. And while that might still sound repulsive to some people (not naming names but... cough cough Jenn cough cough), but at least it's edible.

Here's one of my favorite fruit cake type recipes - Stollen. Again, I'm using the recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Yeah, technically it's a fruit bread...and maybe that's the difference. In any case it's a sweet holiday fruit & nut dessert.

Start with the fruit... not the candied chopped up bits of fluorescent colored plastic you see in little tubs... real actual dried fruit. I'm using dried cherries, dried cranberries and golden raisins, about 2 cups total (with just a little orange or lemon zest). To the fruit I added about 1/2 cup brandy. Last year I used Peach Schnapps and it worked well. Basically you want to re-plump the dried fruit, and you want to use booze to do it. ;)

I let this sit on the counter overnight.

Then yesterday I started the dough. Here's the sponge:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup warm water

4 tsp yeast

let it activate for 1/2 an hour.

Look at all the bubbles. =) To this we add:

1 egg

2 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup water

1 Tbls sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon (and/or any christmasy type spices you like, cloves, nutmeg, mace, etc.)

5 Tbls softened butter (they say room temp - but when you keep the heat under 60F, room temp is COLD so soften the butter in the microwave for a few seconds).

I let Betty mix it all together for a few minutes, then added the fruit and let her mix it for quite a bit longer... it takes a while to incorporate all the fruit. Then I kinda shaped it in a ball, and put it in a greased bowl to rise overnight in the fridge.

Tonight I took it out of the fridge, it wasn't much bigger, but I know that the yeast was doing it's thing. I split the dough into two balls and let them sit on the counter for half an hour, then began to shape them.

I rolled each ball out into a rough rectangle, coated with some melted butter, and topped with almonds, sprinkled with a little sugar and a pinch more cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg or whatever. Then I drizzled a bit more butter on top, and folded the top over.

Other variations of stollen call for marzipan instead of almonds, and I've had it that way - it's really good. But I like the little extra crunch of almonds... oh, and I think I was supposed to reserve some of the fruit so I could put it in the middle with the almonds, but I forgot to do that, and I don't think it's going to make a big difference in taste.

Here is the shaped, stuffed stollen. Brushed again with - come on class - more BUTTER!

I'll let it sit like this for another hour or two before baking. It's cool in my apartment and I want to make sure it rises at least a little. Then I baked it for about an hour at 350F. The book says to bake it until it's a rich mahogany brown color. I have no idea what color mahogany is, but it's pretty dark. Soooo we finish it up with yet another brushing of melted butter (yum yum yummy) and a dusting of powdered sugar.

The Stollen is supposed to remind you of the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. To me it looks a little more like a big crepe. ;)

Let them eat brioche!

Ok... with the help of an actual brioche pan, I made a much nicer brioche last week. This time I made 'middle class' brioche, with about half the butter (still a full cup though). Same deal letting it rise overnight in the fridge, then shape and let rise for a couple more hours.
Brush with an egg wash & sprinkle with a little salt & sugar before baking. Et voila:

Very pretty, and quite yummy too. The long rise gives it a good yeasty developed flavor, oh so soft & rich with all that butter. I brought it to the office, and it was well received. I was surprised that some of my coworkers didn't know what a brioche was (not as surprised by a former coworker who thought that bagels were 'new' but still). My boss asked if it was a bread or a cake... and actually that's a good question. It's kinda like a pastry or a coffee cake, simple but delicious. In theory it would be great with a little jam, but I just eat it plain. Would be nice for brunch or an afternoon snack with a nice hot cup of tea.

Next up on the holiday baking menu is Stollen. The fruits are soaking in brandy as I type.

*BTW there's no credible record of Marie Antoinette ever saying "Let them eat cake." or "Let them eat brioche" or anything of the sort, just a little fun fact for the day.

Mm Mm Mm Mm Mm

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope you all feasted well, and had plenty of reasons to be thankful. I had a pretty good Thanksgiving with friends here. Dinner, of course, was awesome. More nummy carbs than you could shake a fork at. Turkey with gravy, stuffing (with dried cherries in it!), smashed potatoes, yams with marshmallows, honey glazed carrots, roasted root veggies, cranberry sauce, lingon berry sauce. Then for dessert (I didn't have any... absolutely no room left!) cranberry crumble with vanilla ice cream. Mm Mm Mm Mm Mm! But even with all those goodies, I couldn't show up at a dinner without baking something special.

Brioche!

I used the recipe for "Rich Man's Brioche" from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Here is my beloved Betty mixing up the dough. This dough is intense, you've been warned. We start with some yeast, salt, sugar, a little water and about four cups of flour. Then add five eggs. Yup... five. We're just getting started. As I've said before, the secret ingredient in any food that tastes really good is butter. Lots and lots of butter. Slowly and surely I added no fewer than 2 cups of butter. Mmmmmmm butter.

This dough is almost more like a cake batter than a bread dough. It feels kinda like Pillsbury crescent rolls dough. Very rich and thick. I put it in the fridge overnight to ferment. Then it was time to shape it. For each one use 2/3 of the dough for the bottom make an indent in the center, then roll the 1/3 of the dough into a tear drop shape, and set it right down in the whole.

These will be petite brioche a tete. Or little bread with a head. I also made a big brioche a tete, and let them all rise for a couple hours. Right before putting them in the oven, I brushed them with egg white... and taking a cue from a brioche at Ken's Artisan bakery, I topped them with just a very light sprinkle of kosher salt and cane sugar for just a touch of sweet and salty crunch.

This one didn't work out as well as I had hoped. As you can see I don't have a fluted brioche pan, so I tried to improvise, but I should have flattened out the bottom round more, and used a smaller amount of dough for the top. It all just kinda spread out and the bottom ended up really dense, the top was good though.

Here are the petite brioche a tete.

Heavenly I tell you. Flaky, buttery, and super yummy. The next time I make brioche, I might try the "Middle Class Brioche" it doesn't have quite as much butter, but it's still enriched, I think it would rise a little better. I'm also thinking about getting a brioche pan because the pan I've been using just isn't working out. And I guess today wouldn't be a bad day to do that.

I thought about getting up early and going shopping today. I've done that before and gotten some really great deals. But dang.. it gets earlier and earlier every year. I just couldn't quite bring myself to get up at 4am. Sally woke me up at around 5am... so I still could have gone early, but I decided what I really wanted was sleep. So I slept in. =)

Oh... and I've been knitting! The cables are fun, and going well.

I keep thinking I'm making really good progress here... and I am. But I still have several inches to go on the body. And then I'll have to do the sleeves! And I won't be able to do them both at the same time like I normally do, so it's going to feel like it's taking a lot longer. Oh well. It'll be done when it's done.

Yummy

Here's the Pizza I baked yesterday, topped with crimini mushrooms & kalamata olives. It's really good, and extra cheesy (the second layer of cheese is obscuring some of the toppings) but as you can see, it got a little burnt. Both mushrooms and olives give off a lot of water when cooked so the top was really wet when the timer went off - so I left it in for another two minutes. Probably should have stopped at one minute. Oh well, it's quite tasty.

And here is the focaccia. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks pretty good. I'll have to make some soup and have it tonight.

Betty

Betty is my pink KitchenAid Mixer. I bought her immediately after I tried to make Brioche by hand. Yes, I attempted to incorporate something like a pound of butter into the dough by hand. I thought I was going to die. I'm sure there are purists out there who do all their baking by hand, and make indescribably wonderful brioche... but... uh... I'll take all the help I can get!








Here's a close up of her chrome. She's such a trouper, can mix the stiffest doughs, the fluffiest merrangues, the creamiest potatos. She's wonderful.

Today we're making focaccia from the Bread Bakers Apprentice.* He says to drizzle herb infused olive oil over the top of the bread prior to baking, but I like adding a bit of Rosemary (fresh - but from the store... my little plant still hasn't recovered from what I clipped last year!) to the dough even before it rises. It's a two-day recipe, so I mixed the dough yesterday, and let it ferment in the fridge overnight. I also used a little bit, about a cup, of wheat flour - you know 'cause I like to live dangerously. ;) I used sea-salt instead of regular salt, and the dough tastes a bit salty. I'm not sure if it's because sea salt is a finer grain & thus more ends up in a teaspoon than regular salt, or if I made one of my classic mistakes using a tablespoon when I was supposed to use a teaspoon. I don't think I did. In any case, I used the same spoon when I measured out the yeast - so it should be okay. It actually rose quite a bit in the fridge. Now I've got to leave it out for about three hours before shaping it & panning it. Um... well... according to the recipe I was supposed to do that part yesterday and then refridgerate it once panned. But, you know... living recklessly again.






It's going to make a LOT of dough, I'll split it, and make one pizza and one pan of focaccia. Maybe I'll bring the focaccia to work tomorrow. Don't you wished you worked with me? You don't, by the way, you really really don't.




* Side note about the Bread Bakers Apprentice. There's a part in the cookbook where he absolutely rhapsodises about THE GREATEST BREAD IN THE UNIVERSE, I mean, the story involves a man throwing a baguette against the wall and the phrase "you've ruined me" (for all other breads). Anyway, the story cracks me up, but it also made me curious about THE BEST BREAD IN THE UNIVERSE which of course comes from a bakery in Paris. So when I was in Paris last year I tracked down the bakery. It involved a few different metro transfers & wandering down a decidedly non-touristy business & shopping district. The bakery was, seriously, just a hole in the wall (although a very fancy hole in a very expensive looking wall) down a side street. When I went in there were no other customers! Just four very stern looking older French women wearing aprons and looking... well like they weren't going to want to hear my story about the cookbook and the guy throwing the other bread against the wall, and did they know which bread I was talking about? So I glanced around for a bit and ordered their Pain Poilane (the baker's speciality), not THE BEST BREAD IN THE UNIVERSE. The Pain Poilane (aka pain ordinaire was in fact a 7 lb round - had to be at least a 14" in diameter. It's supposed to feed a family for a week. It was really really tasty. Like a whole-wheat mild sourdough. It has an amazingly complex flavor considering all he uses is flour, water, salt & yeast. But I won't bore you with the science of bread making. Just wanted to leave you with the mental picture of me on my return trip to Gorgeous's apartment carying a giant loaf of bread in a bright pink tote bag.

I miss Paris.