This week, Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine selected Peanut Butter Crisscrosses on page 78 of Dorie’s book for Tuesdays with Dorie.  Quick and easy to make, the cookies came out thick and crispy, and chock full of peanuts.  I like my peanut butter cookies a bit more on the chewy side, but these were definitely a hit with the peanut lovers who tried them.

What’s been going on with me?  Well, my neighbor accidentally cut my phone and internet line, and it took the phone company 18 days to repair it.  The repair took about 30 minutes.  I’ve been looking after my 80 year old auntie.  Summer projects. Misplaced my camera and could not find it for about a week.

And, best of all, I was at King Arthur Flour for a week, taking an advanced bread baking class.  I’ll be posting more about it, but you can read my two previous posts here and here.

Be sure to check the TWD blogroll to see what everyone else baked!

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

As promised, here is another entry about my advanced baking class at King Arthur Flour.  In keeping with my previous post about brioche, I thought I’d show you another item that we baked, something that is not common in this country:  Brioche Feuilleté.

If you don’t eat butter, read no further.  Brioche Feuilleté has a LOT of butter.  Did I mention butter?

Speaking of butter, here is one of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits:

Actually, we made three mouthwatering breads with the brioche dough:  brioche feuilleté, coffeecake, and bienenstich (bee sting).  Today I’ll talk about brioche feuilleté, and save the other two for another day.  Soon, I promise.

Brioche Feuilleté

Well, what can you say about taking brioche dough, which is loaded with butter, and laminating it (like puff pastry) with MORE butter?  Yum.  Pass it on down.

Chef Hamelman (his book is one of my favorites: Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes)  first learned to make this at his first baking job about 34 years ago from a French baker.  Basically, you roll out the brioche dough, and incorporate butter into it by folding, similar to the way you would make danish dough or puff pastry dough – that’s the “feuilleté” part. Here is the brioche dough before the lamination process, which I didn’t get pictures of because I was too busy:

In the photo above, we are cutting and weighing dough portions.  Once that is done we divided our dough into three equal portions and rolled them out:

Brush the top edge of each strip THINLY with egg wash, and then pipe the filling in a thin strip near the bottom edge.

The filling was a mixture of ground hazelnuts, puff pastry crumbs (you can even use old bread crumbs), simple syrup, and egg whites.  Roll each strip closed, pinching the bottom seam if you have to.

Keeping the seam side down, braid the three strips together and place in a standard loaf pan, brush with egg wash, and let rise until puffy.  Then bake until it’s a rich, deep brown and the sides are firm.  Baking temperature is about 350 F, but no higher than 375 F.

When the loaves were done, we brushed them with an apricot glaze, which I could have eaten straight out of the pot, and then Chef Hamelman drizzled a fondant glaze over the loaves.

This was so good, I was practically beside myself.  The aroma was incredible.  Buttery, fluffy brioche with little pockets of sweet nuts from the filling.  Amazing.  Its even good when it’s stale – just toast it.  You can even top it with more butter, if you dare!

This post has been Yeastspotted!

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

Sorry for the lousy photo above, but don’t let it stop you from making this delicious tart.  I found this fabulous recipe over at Smitten Kitchen, and I’ve made it twice so far, to rave reviews.  Even Master Chow, my honorable husband, fell in love with this, although he was skeptical that zucchini in a tart shell was much to rave about.

What I changed:  I doubled the filling and added a bit of Dijon mustard to the recipe.  That’s it.  This is a winner and I’ll be baking it often!  Recipe after the jump.

Zucchini and Ricotta Galette

Zucchini and Ricotta Galette adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted the crust Williams-Sonoma, and the filling adapted from a Cook’s Illustrated tart

I’m including the following notes from Smitten Kitchen re: the pie crust:

“Since I oohed and aahed over this crust, for those that like to dissect recipes as I do, I thought I’d note that funnily enough, it’s an almost-match for my favorite pie dough, in technique as well, save two ingredients which apparently make all of the difference: 1/4 cup sour cream and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. What this makes is an even flakier, softer pastry, the kind that leaves croissant crumbs everywhere. I know the next obvious question is “so, can I use this for a pie dough?” but I don’t advise it. It is too soft. It will get soaked and deflated under all of that heavy baked fruit. It is at its best when it is free form, just like this.”

Serves 6

For the pastry:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chill again
1/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup ice water

Filling:
1 large or 2 small zucchinis, sliced into 1/4 inch thick rounds
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves, minced (about 2 teaspoons)
1 cup ricotta cheese
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella or cheddar
2 tablespoon slivered basil leaves
Dijon mustard

Glaze:
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Make dough: Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Sprinkle bits of butter over dough and using a pastry blender, cut it in until the mixture resembles coarse meal, with the biggest pieces of butter the size of tiny peas. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, lemon juice and water and add this to the butter-flour mixture. With your fingertips, mix in the liquid until large lumps form. Pat the lumps into a ball; do not overwork the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.  Or, whir the whole thing in a food processor, taking care not to overmix.

Make filling: Spread the zucchini out over several layers of paper towels. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and let drain for 30 minutes; gently blot the tops of the zucchini dry with paper towels before using. In a small bowl, whisk the olive oil and the garlic together; set aside. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella, the basil leaves, and 1 teaspoon of the garlicky olive oil together and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare galette: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured work surface, roll the dough out into a 12-inch round. Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread a THIN layer of Dijon mustard over the dough, and then the ricotta mixture evenly over the bottom of the galette dough, leaving a 2-inch border. Shingle the zucchini attractively on top of the ricotta in concentric circles, starting at the outside edge. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of the garlic and olive oil mixture evenly over the zucchini. Fold the border over the filling, pleating the edge to make it fit. The center will be open. Brush crust with egg yolk glaze.

Bake the galette until the cheese is puffed, the zucchini is slightly wilted and the galette is golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes, then slide the galette onto a serving plate. Cut into wedges and serve hot, warm or at room temperature.

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

I just returned from the one week long Advanced Bread Baking course with Certified Master Baker Jeffrey Hamelman at King Arthur Flour (KAF) in Norwich, Vermont.  How was it?

FABULOUS.

The last couple years have been exhausting in a number of ways, with lots of travel and caring for an ill family member.  My husband recommended a vacation.  For some reason, I just wasn’t interested.  But I kept going back to the class offerings at KAF, and they REALLY interested me.

I met all sorts of wonderful people; some were in second or third careers, some were thinking of launching their own bakeries, and all of us were enthusiastic and eager to learn, and learn we did.  Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be posting about all the wonderful breads and pastries that we made,but I’ll start with the brioche.

I’ve made a lot of brioche, but never Brioche à tête because I was intimidated by the shaping.  Thanks to Chef Hamelman, I was able to produce a decent looking brioche, albeit a bit top heavy.  I named her Dolly Parton.  I’m not posting the recipe because we were baking in professional quantities, but any good brioche recipe will work for you.

Some tips:

• weigh your ingredients, including the eggs (Dorie’s recipe in the link above doesn’t have weights, but it works)
• develop the gluten in the dough until it “sheets” and you get a really good windowpane
• keep the dough cold.
• don’t drown the dough in flour when shaping, but keep your HANDS well floured the whole time so that you don’t rip the dough ball
• when you are making a hole for the top knot, push all the way down to the bottom of the  pan and make sure that the circle of dough surrounding the hole is of even diameter all the way around so that the brioche rises and bakes evenly
• with dry, floured hands, really push that top knot into the hole, pushing until you feel the bottom of the pan
• with a pair of scissors, make about five slashes evenly around the periphery of the brioche, right next to the edge of the pan, before the final proof.
• the brioche in the picture above is NOT burned – that is the color you should get if you are using 100% butter.  Dark is good.
• this is important:  to test to make sure your brioche is done, remove it from the pan and feel the sides of the loaf.  Are they soft and giving, even if they look brown?  If yes, the bread is NOT finished baking.  Return it to the pan and the oven and check again in a few minutes.  Why?  If the sides are not baked firmly, the gluten structure will collapse and you will get an “hourglass” effect instead of the structured sides you are looking for.

Stay tuned for more posts on what I learned.  I came home with over 100 pounds of flour, so I anticipate that my bread baking obsession will be well nurtured for the foreseeable future.  And be sure to check out Susan’s weekly roundup called Yeastspotting!

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

Between no internet and phone, a trip to check on my auntie, and this trip, I have a backup of TWD posts to get up, plus info on the class. I’ll be posting the TWD post next Tuesday, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, my head is swimming with Baker’s percentages!

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

So, that’s what’s been going on.  Sometimes, I think weird stuff happens to us.  Oh, and all this is on top of an $8,000 chimney repair.

But, as grandma used to say, we have our health, food on the table, and a roof over our heads.  Hallelujah!

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

*Begin rant*

I was supposed to be out of town, looking in on my auntie in Wisconsin.  Except that . . .

• Milwaukee had seven inches of rain in 2 hours
• They closed the airport
• Midwest Airlines knew that the airport was closed and, consistent with its poor customer service in the past, failed to:  call me, email me, OR UPDATE ITS AUTOMATED FLIGHT INFORMATION . . .

Whereupon, I sat in the airport for FIVE HOURS before I corralled an employee who informed me that the flight had been canceled at 5:00 am that morning.  When I mentioned the aforementioned failings, which have been going on for at least 10 years (based on my personal, first-had knowledge), I was told that “Yeah, IT (information technology) is a problem with the company.  But I don’t do that type of customer service.”  I was told I would have to wait three days for space to open up on the next available flight out.

Needless to say, my patience is at an end, and I have re-booked on a competing airline.  I figure 10 years of waiting for them to get their act together is long enough.

*End of rant. *

So, I went home and baked the blondies, which were really good. I cut back on the brown sugar to half a cup (I made a half batch) which was plenty sweet for me.  I even kept the coconut in the recipe even though my husband doesn’t like it (I had a little bit left and I had to use it up), and it was not offensive at all.  Be sure to check the blogroll to see what everyone else made!

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

I was fortunate enough to have my chive patch thrive this year, so I decided to use all of that abundance in a loaf of bread. Because Peter Reinhart is one of my favorite bread cookbook authors, I was happy to find this recipe on the epicurious website, which is the headquarters for all Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazine recipes.

This bread was extremely easy to make and despite the large amount of chives, the onion flavor was very mild. If you want a strong onion flavor, you might want to consider using green onions instead.

I’m still out of town, and looking forward to next month’s journey to Vermont to attend the King Arthur Flour baking school! Be sure to check out Yeastspotting for a weekly roundup of all things yeast!

Recipe after the jump . . . .

Wild Rice and Chive Bâtardes
Adapted from a recipe by by Peter Reinhart in Bon Appétit, November 2009

Makes 2 small loaves

• 4 cups (or more) bread flour
• 1 tablespoon quick-rising dry yeast (from two 1/4-ounce envelopes)
• 1 tablespoon golden brown sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used non fat kefir)
• 1 cup cooked wild rice, drained, cooled
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh chives (about 3 large bunches)
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 large egg white, beaten to blend with
• 1 tablespoon water (for glaze)

Bread: Mix 4 cups bread flour and next 3 ingredients in large bowl of heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment.

Warm 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water and buttermilk in small saucepan over low heat just until instant-read thermometer inserted into mixture registers 95°F.

Add cooked wild rice and chives to flour mixture; add kefir mixture. Mix on low speed until dough forms coarse ball, about 2 minutes. Let dough rest in mixer 5 minutes. Replace paddle attachment on mixer with dough hook. Mix dough until smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky but not sticky, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls as needed, about 4 minutes.

Lightly oil large bowl. Shape dough into ball; place in prepared bowl, turning to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (dough will rise very slowly; do not punch dough down).

Let dough rise, covered, in draft-free area at room temperature 1 1/2 to 2 hours before shaping (dough may not double).

Line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer dough to floured surface; divide into 2 equal pieces. Roll out each dough piece to 8×6-inch rectangle. Starting at 1 long side, roll up each rectangle to resemble torpedo. Use fingers to pinch seam closed and taper ends by rolling each loaf back and forth on work surface, forming bâtardes about 11 inches long. Transfer to prepared baking sheet, spacing 4 inches apart; spray with nonstick spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let loaves rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 450°F. Brush loaves with egg glaze; place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425°F. Bake until loaves are puffed and lightly browned, and sound hollow when tapped on bottom, 35 to 45 minutes. Transfer loaves to rack; cool at least 1 hour. DO AHEAD: Cool loaves completely. Wrap in foil, then enclose in resealable plastic bag and freeze up to 2 weeks. Thaw at room temperature. If desired, rewarm loaves wrapped in foil in 350°F oven about 15 minutes. Cut loaves crosswise into slices.

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

As for the exciting baking news . . . I’m going to King Arthur Flour in Vermont for a one week bread baking course!  Whoopee!  I can hardly wait!  I will, of course, blog all about it.

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen

This week for Tuesdays with Dorie, Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life chose Tarte Noire on page 351.  What, you ask, is a tarte noir?  It is a rich chocolate ganache poured into a tart shell and served with a diet book.  Ganache, made of chocolate and cream, is the luscious concoction used to make chocolate truffles.

I was looking forward to making this, but when the time came, I had a rare, irrepressible urge to eat cake.  Now, I may get that urge once a year; unlike my spouse, Master Chow, I am not a fan of cake.  So, I decided to make ganache, and put it on a cake.  A luscious, moist, decadent cake.  I turned to one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen, for a recipe that I had bookmarked a while ago.

The result?  Extraordinary.  Truly, truly extraordinary.  It puts all other chocolate layer cakes to shame, although the Chocolate Stout cake is definitely in the same league.

Here is what I did and some advice, as well.  Instead of two, 10-inch pans, I used three, 8-inch pans to end up with a three layer cake.  The ganache was so rich, however, that I don’t think I will do that again; two layers is plenty, and if I make three layers, I’m going to use a jam or a chocolate pudding or mousse to fill some of the layers.  Instead of buttermilk, I used low fat kefir (a liquid yogurt), and that worked really well.

Use top quality chocolate.  Trust me.  I used a combination of Valrhona, Callebaut, and some bits of Guittard that I had laying about.

You MUST freeze the layers before you frost them.  The cake is so tender that if you try to frost it with unfrozen cake layers, they WILL fall apart, so plan ahead.  Just double wrap the layers in plastic wrap and pop them into your freezer until they are good and hard.  They will that while you are frosting the cake.

I also recommend that you place the bottom layer on a foil-covered cake round, then put strips of wax paper UNDER the round between the round and the serving plate.  The cake layers are so delicate that when I removed my wax paper strips, I tore up the bottom of the cake, as you can see here:

This cake, with the aforementioned modifications is on the repeat list. It was amazing, and one of the few chocolate cakes that I’ve ever had that did not disappoint.  Recipe below the jump, but be sure to visit Dharmagirl for the Tarte Noir recipe, and the TWD blogroll to see what others made!

Double Chocolate Layer Cake
Adapted from Gourmet, March 1999

The recipe below is for 2 10-inch layers or 3 8-inch layers coated in chocolate ganache. If you make three layers and you want chocolate ganache between each layer, you will have to multiply the ganache recipe by 1.5.

For cake layers
3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (the original recipe says not to use Dutch process but I did use Pernigotti cocoa, which IS Dutch processed, and had great results)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk (I used kefir)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

For ganache frosting and filling (If you want to just use it for frosting on a two layer cake, halve the recipe. If you want to use it between every layer of a three layer cake, multiply by 1.5)

1 pound fine-quality semisweet chocolate such as Callebaut
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup or glucose (I used glucose)
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

Special equipment: two 10- by 2-inch round cake pans or three 8- by 2-inch round cake pans.

Make cake layers: Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans. Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.

Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.  These are just guidelines!  Cooking time will vary based on the size and number of cake pans that you use, so keep a close eye on your oven.

Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Double wrap each layer in plastic wrap and freeze.  When you frost the cake, the layers MUST be frozen solid.

Make frosting: Finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan bring cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over moderately low heat, whisking until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (depending on chocolate used, it may be necessary to chill frosting to spreadable consistency). Stirring this over a bowl of ice water cools it off quickly and evenly.

Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides. Cake keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days. Bring cake to room temperature before serving.

Post from: Madam Chow's Kitchen