Success

The last year and some have been a bust for baking.  Joint and tendon problems, a gluten-free diet and general malaise have added up to less than constant baking.  I'm making my way back.  Here's my classic gingerbread cookie in, unbelievably, a gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and, even more strangely, no added fat version.  Who knew it was possible?  I thought a lot about different types of flour and considered ratios, but there's a great amount of accident and/or serendipity involved (the husband just said, "I think that's how penicillin was invented.").  Yeah, okay.  It's not like that.  These are just good cookies, gluten-free.  I may still tweak this recipe a bit, but it's a great work in progress. Now, what shall I name this new cookie?

In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients until completely combined:

3 cups brown rice flour

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp each: ginger, allspice, cloves

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ingredients below and stir/mix until completely combined:

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup dark molasses

1/3 cup water

Add the dry ingredients 1/2 at first, then all, until completely combined.  Mixing by hand is good here, if you don't want the dough to get tough--I try not to use a mixer at this stage.   When dough is thourough mixed, wrap up in waxed paper or covered bowl and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until chilled through.  Then proceed to baking, below.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll or pat out dough to 1/3" thickness and cut out desired shapes (I did a star of David for Hannukah, but do anything that isn't too small.)  Place about 2" apart on parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, until lightly browned.  Delicious plain or iced.  

Cake

I love cake. I love the way cake looks and I love the way it tastes---when it is good, and made with real ingredients and done right. I am not a cake expert but I am trying. I've given up bread baking for the time being, due to horrible tendonitis in my arms, but I can make cake because I have a wonderful Kitchen Aid mixer that my husband gave me for, oddly, bread making.

So cake. I would love to be better at cake baking. I had a couple of pushes recently. One: my addiction to the show Master Chef which we watched over the summer. One episode had the competitors all making six-layer iced cakes in under two hours. It was inspirational (I've found the show has really lit a fire under my cooking. Ha.). Then, last August, a friend baked a chocolate cake with a ganache for the frosting. I have not yet tried a ganache, but plan to someday (hers was delicious).

And so, here, for Maya W. celebrating her tenth birthday, I baked a cake, all chocolate, since she is a chocolate fanatic. A simple chocolate buttercream for frosting. It was delicious.

The recipe for both the cake and the frosting came from The New Good Housekeeping Cookbook.

Chocolate cake
3/4 cup cocoa
2 Cups cake flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
3/4 cup shortening (read: butter)
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
*about 1/4 cup good quality baking chocolate, melted. Add to batter when it has cooled. This isn't in the recipe, but it worked well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; butter and flour (with cocoa powder) two 9" cake pans.
Measure dry ingredients and mix, then add wet and best with miser at low speed until combined. Increase mixer speed to high and beat for 2 minutes, until batter is smooth and
glossy.
Pour into pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes on rack, then remove from pans and cool completely on racks before frosting. This can be made as cupcakes as well; baking time is then reduced to about 25 minutes.

Coffee Cake

Alex and Madhuparna's Coffee cake

Alex and Madhuparna are friends of ours who used to live here in Winston and used to make this coffee cake for us a lot. They adapted from The Joy of Cooking and reduced the fat a bit, out of deference to Alex's cholesterol. It was delicious. My cholesterol is fine, however, so I add fat to make it more delicious. Lots of fat. I doubled the butter and added more topping (with butter) because this is a coffee cake and I believe coffee cake needs lots of butter. The wonderful thing is that all that butter makes the topping carmelize a bit, creating dips and valleys of brown sugar and cinnamon goodness. Since I am a believer in adapting recipes, wouldn't it be possible to do this with less butter or even use a butter substitute (margarine, canola oil, or one of those mysterious, non-food bread spread products)? NO. Nyet. Absolutely not. Butter or nothing!

While the ingredients and assembly are quite simple, the result is more than the sum of its parts. I often make this for breakfast guests and houseguests. Works fine to bake it the night before. In cold weather, you can leave it out all night, but in warmer weather, refrigerate (did I mention that there is a lot of butter in this?) and just gently warm up in the morning. Needless to say--though I seem to be saying it anyway--it is great with coffee. Green tea, not so much. Fresh fruit, not really. I just cannot say that this is part of a healthy breakfast. Enjoy it anyway.

A&M Coffee Cake

2 cups brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping (combine separately)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar (approx)
more cinnamon--you decide how much

Mix dry ingredients for cake; combine butter, softened, with egg and vanilla. Combine with dry ingredients and pour into 9"x13" pan. Combine topping ingredients and cover the batter with topping.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Pour the coffee.

Crumbs

My eleventh grade English teacher was a woman named Doc Elliot, a self-professed Emily Dickinson fanatic. To commemorate Dickinson's birthday every December 10th, she covered the chalkboard with Dickinson's poems and brought in boxes of glazed doughnuts. Dickinson was not only one of the greatest American poets, Doc told us, but an outstanding baker who specialized in doughnuts. So we celebrated her birthday with both, reading and eating in nearly equal parts. I imagine (though I cannot recall with any certainty) that the following poem was up on the board:

God Gave a Loaf to Every Bird

God gave a loaf to every bird.

But just a crumb to me;
I dare not eat it, though I starve,--

My poignant luxury

To own it, touch it, prove the feat

That made the pellet mine,--

Too happy in my sparrow chance

For ampler coveting.

It might be famine all around,

I could not miss an ear,

Such plenty smiles upon my board,
My garner shows so fair.
I wonder how the rich may feel,--

An Indiaman,-- an Earl?

I deem that I with but a crumb,

Am sovereign of them all.

Though Dickinson is clearly not speaking literally of crumbs and loaves here (though one is never quite sure, as Dickinson enjoys the layering of the metaphoric and the material) I use this to consider a moment just this week, when a particular "crumb" made me ponder my own plenty.

My youngest, Gabriel, undertook doughnut making for his school science project, along with his dad. I am only now getting in on the action after sampling some plain old glazed doughnuts (not bad), Turkish doughnuts (lightly spicy and wonderful, but really, really oily) and the absolutely out-of-this world baking powder doughnuts. I thought about these doughnuts all the time when they were in the house and we decided to make them all over again because...well, I had a craving. It was a craving like I haven't had in years, and certainly not for doughnuts, which have long been out of favor with me, despite an obsession with Winchell's in my teenage years. Well, these baking powder doughnuts are divine, cakey, with a gorgeous crumb and the slightest hint of citrus, and may be the best I have ever eaten. Saturday morning my husband brought me a cup of hot, strong coffee and one of these doughnuts; I enjoyed my repast in bed, while reading poetry. I felt like royalty. I think Emily--and good old Doc Elliott--would approve.

The recipe is found on cooks.com but I will reproduce here, with some small changes.

Baking Powder Doughnuts

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar
3 T melted butter

2 T lemon juice

3 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose, unbleached)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp grated orange peel (no pith, please!)
2 egg whites, beaten until stiff


Combine flour, baking powder and salt together. In a separate, large bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored. Add sugar gradually and continue beating until light in color. Conintue beating while adding lemon juice, orange peel and melted butter. Add the dry ingredients to the egg yolk mixture one cup at a time, until completely integrated. Stir in the milk. Fold in the egg whites.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth. Roll out to 1/4 " thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter; drop doughnuts into hot oil (350 degrees) deep enough so that doughnuts don't touch the bottom of the pan. Fry, turning once until entire doughnut is golden brown. Drain on towels briefly. Glaze these or sprinkle with sugar. Enjoy while warm (though they are great the next day).

Sugar on its own works well, but we made a glaze of sugar, water and vanilla. Powdered sugar works well for a glaze, but don't use a brand with cornstarch, as this can make a bitter glaze. I made my own by grinding sugar in the coffee grinder and then combining about 2 parts sugar to 1 part water and 1 tsp vanilla. We also made one batch of glaze with bourbon in place of the vanilla. All scrumptious.

Cornmeal scones

These scones are from the Moosewood Cooks at Home cookbook with some adjustments. I have substituted the some of the unbleached flour for whole wheat flour, and I add more cornmeal. Occasionally I use rice milk in place of cow milk; presumably you could use soy milk in its stead, but I don’t use soy. Why not? I discovered some rather unsavory things about soy when I discovered that my oldest son had an allergy to it—an allergy that rather shaped our lives for a few years. He spent his preschool and first two years of elementary school fighting off respiratory infections and battling asthma. Once I figured out that soy was the main trigger for him, I was able to eliminate it altogether and his health dramatically improved. Since then, I’ve also eliminated it in my own diet, when I began to notice certain effects (do I dare talk about perimenopause in a blog about baking? Yeah….maybe not.) AND I found out how much farmland is devoted to the soy monoculture AND that Monsanto Corp. controls most of the soy production in this country and that it is not produced in a terribly responsible fashion. But, as I say to my students, don’t believe anything I tell you--find out for yourself.

So those scones. Fast, delicious and versatile. The original version is sweet, but not sweet enough, so I have added sugar. I make a savory version in which I eliminate the brown sugar and add about 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (packed) and a teaspoon of dried basil (or herb of your choice).

These make a great breakfast and are good for lunch as well. I do advance planning by measuring and combining the dry ingredients at night and setting up the wet ingredients in the fridge. In the a.m. I turn on the oven, microwave the butter, etc., mix it up and pop it all in the oven. Very little time and effort but a lot to show for it.

Cornmeal scones

Note: for a vegan version of this recipe, simply replace the butter with canola, sunflower or safflower oil; the milk with soy or rice milk. They will be slightly less rich, but still delicious and satisfying.

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup milk or cream

2-3 T brown sugar

1/2 cup cornmeal fine grind

1 T coarse or medium grind cornmeal

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup unbleached flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup currants or raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

In a medium-sized bowl, combine all the dry ingredients EXCEPT the brown sugar. I melt the butter with the milk then add the brown sugar to the liquid and combine thoroughly. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir until combined, being careful not to overmix. Fold in any dried fruit at this point.

Press the dough into a circle about 9 inches across directly onto a baking sheet. Cut the circle into eights, slightly separating each wedge. Bake until very lightly browned at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

For the savory version, add the herbs and the grated cheese with the dry ingredients. Proceed with the remainder of the steps.

Eat while still warm. These are best the day they are made.

Gingerbread cookies

This recipe, for soft gingerbread boys and girls, originates from The Betty Crocker Cookbook circa 1958 and they have been a staple for the holidays in my family since I was a baby; I started making them as a pre-teen. They served as place cards for Christmas dinner at my parents' house for a long time. After giving them a base of white buttercream frosting, I would write a name on each in green or red frosting. I still make them for my Aunt Mary and Uncle Hall in California, who spent every Christmas with us when I still lived out there; I put those names on, pack them up in plastic and bubble wrap and off they go. My Aunt and Uncle tell me that they arrive in good shape every year.

I now make them with some whole wheat flour. I used butter or margarine in the past but I've found that expeller-pressed safflower or sunflower oil make a cookie that is even more tender. I do not use margarine any more, nor do I use Crisco at all for food, though it can work as a heavy-duty moisturizer. Any icing you like will work well, but my relatives insist on a buttercream, which is more difficult for intricate decorating, but always tastes delicious. These cookies are wonderful plain as well. The dough can stay in the freezer for up to a week, but no longer.

Gingerbread cookies, aka "Gingies"

1/3 cup shortening/butter/veg oil

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup molasses

2/3 cup cold water

7 cups flour (I use up to 2 cups whole wheat)

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp each ginger, cinnamon, cloves

1 tsp allspice

Sift all dry ingredients together.

In a large bowl, mix brown sugar with oil; add the molasses and stir until completely combined. Pour in water and mix until smooth and combined. Stir in the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly, but don't overwork the dough. Chill dough completely. It can just stay in the bowl if you are planning on using it the same day. This makes quite a few cookies so you might consider freezing half the dough if you aren't going to use it all within a day or two. It is best when the dough is very fresh.

Roll dough out thick (1/2'') on lightly floured surface and cut out shapes. These don't have to be gingerbread men; these work well as large cookies of any shape. Bake far apart on lightly greased baking sheet or parchment. 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until set. Don't let these get overly brown; that means they are over done! Cool completely before icing, but don't let that stop you from trying them while still warm.

Rye Bread and Emily Dickinson

This fall I threw my hat into the ring and entered the baking contest at the Dixie Classic Fair of North Carolina. I entered two categories: "Oatmeal cookies, unfilled" and "Loafbread, Other" an intriguingly vague category. Basically this means anything other than white bread or cornbread, both of which have their own categories (naturally). I made a dark rye, more properly termed a black bread or "Russian" rye.

Participating in this subculture of American culinary competition felt anthropologic. Baffled and amused by the entry process, I covered cardboard with foil for each item, and attached my entry tags (which came in the mail after I signed up online) just so. What is the "right-hand front corner" of a rectangle with no distinguishing features? Why does using plastic wrap result in disqualification? As I carried my entries to the fairgrounds, it was fascinating to see the many women and a few men coming from various parts of this corner of NC bringing in their best baking. I am a lightweight, as it turns out. There were returning bakers, some of whom brought more than a dozen items (and in one case, more than twenty) for competition. I was also interested to see just what the all those items listed on the entry forms actually were. There are fourteen cookie categories alone, including one for "Pecan Fingers"; there are even more cake categories, going to the unneccesarily specific, like "Prune cake, glazed" and "Pineapple Upside-Down Cake" and the simply unneccesary "Fried Fruit Pies." Tube cakes are their own category, with thirteen subdivisions, including both sour cream and cream cheese, chocolate "un-iced" (why?) the mysterious "Five-Flavor" and "other". Why so many categories? Maybe it is the "everyone is a winner" philosophy. It didn't all get spread around, though. Seasoned competitors took home multiple prizes, with one homemaker taking home sixteen ribbons!

My cookies did not place, to my disappointment, but the rye bread took third place in its category. A little white ribbon was given to me, along with a check for six dollars from the city of Winston-Salem. Not bragging rights, but no disgrace, either. I'm gearing up for next year, much to the amusement of some of my friends. I must note here that Emily Dickinson was a passionate home baker and that she, too, participated in a baking competition, entering her "Indian and rye" at the Amherst Cattle Show of 1856. Her bread took second place. It is noted that her sister was one of the judges.

For the prize-winning bread (ha) I leaned on, once again, Beth Hensperger's Bread, changing up the recipe only slightly. I have found that it needs some extra moisture in the dry weather of fall and winter, when I typically make this. I also substitute vegetable oil for butter. I have slightly switched the order of operations as well, combining the dry ingredients before the rest, as I prefer to do with most recipes.

This bread makes a fabulous base for sandwiches; I like it with tuna salad, or turkey with mustard. It is exceptional when slathered with cream cheese and consumed with ale and is a provocative base for a berry preserve as well. My husband likes it as a bedtime snack, with butter and a glass of bourbon. You call it.

Black Russian Bread

2T yeast

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups water

1/4 cups molasses (I use a dark or blackstrap molasses)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 ounce dark, unsweetened chocolate (good quality-I like Scharffen Berger, which contains no soy lecithin)

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 cups medium rye flour

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup bran

2 T caraway seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 T salt

1 T espresso or instant coffee powder

Steps

1. Combine whole wheat, rye and unbleached flour in a large bowl and set aside.

2. Combine yeast and the warm water with a pinch of sugar; stir to dissolve. Let sit until foamy (5-10 mins).

3. Heat 2 cups water with chocolate, molasses, vinegar and oil until chocolate is melted. Set aside.

4. In a very large mixing bowl combine the bran, seeds, coffee powder, and 2 cups of flour mixture. Using a mixer at low speed, add the yeast and chocolate mixtures. Mix until smooth and then beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.

5. At low speed, continue adding the flour mixture about 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough begins to clear the sides of the bowl. It will still be sticky, but take it out and begin kneading in the remaining dough on a lightly floured surface. It will be "springy yet dense" according to Hensperger, though I often knead a bit past this point. Don't worry if you still have some leftover flour; you needn't use every bit. Form into a ball and place in greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or damp towel and let rise until dough has doubled. This will be about 2 hours, maybe a bit less.

6. When dough has doubled, remove from bowl and gently deflate. On a lightly floured surface, divide in half and form into 2 rounds. Place seam side down on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal and caraway seeds. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size and puffy. This will take 40-60 minutes. Preheat the oven while you are waiting. Be sure to catch the dough at its most puffy; wait too long and it will begin to deflate! Slash the top a couple of times with a very sharp knife-an X is nice. This is both decorative and functional-it keeps the dough rising evenly in the oven.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes, until nicely browned. Cool completely before cutting into the loaves. Share with people you love.