Brioche Cinnamon

I used my favorite brioche dough recipe, following through the second rise. Instead of shaping into a loaf, I rolled it out into a 1/2 inch sheet (see below)



Then added the cinnamon sugar mixture (cinnamon, sugar, butter, creme)


Rolled up...


And baked! Topped with icing of course!


These were pretty simple, but took three days since the brioche recipe takes two. While I could have baked these last night after the dough was ready I felt cinnamon rolls were best enjoyed in the morning! The brioche dough, as usual, resulted in a light and moist result. I know I should venture away from brioche a bit, but the reliable results make it an easy go-to!

Pane Siciliano

A lesson in patience.



Day 1-Pate fermentee, or pre-ferment. This is simply water, flour, and yeast. Mixed, fermented, and allowed to rest overnight in the fridge. This helps elicit "deeper flavors." It uses all purpose flour as well as bread flour, the purpose of which I believe is to alter the gluten ratio to gain a specific protein network. How this desired level of gluten was decided, I'm not quite sure...



Day 2- Primary fermentation and shaping, the usual process. This recipe uses half bread flour and half semolina flour. Semolina flour is grainy, and alters the texture of the final loaf. However, it has very little gluten content (purpose of pre-ferment perhaps?) and is generally used to make pasta.



The finished loaf! Well worth the three days. Despite the long process it did enable the baking day to be very quick, I got up this morning, pre-heated the oven, and baked. The result? A Sunday morning started out with the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the apartment. Perfect.

Breakfast for dinner

As it's Saturday we ventured to farmers market, and this time found multi-colored potatoes for dinner. I had recently come across Blue Ribbon Bakery's (NYC) pancake recipe. So it seemed natural that we would make breakfast for dinner!
Plus, after attempting several more advanced (or rather, advanced for me) ventures, I was eager to make something easy.



Wet and dry ingredients for Banana Pancakes



Mixing the wet and dry ingredients to form the batter. This was a buttermilk based pancake and I forgot how acidic that makes the batter taste (yes, I tasted the batter with raw egg in it...)! But all the better since we had a sweet syrup planned



An almost perfect mini-pancake



Dinner! Banana pancakes with house made Blanton's infused bourbon maple syrup-we had a bit (less than a shot) of bourbon left and since alcohol infused sauces and syrups are far superior we used it to greatly improve the regular maple syrup we had on hand.
Served with roasted potatoes with smoked bacon and parsley.

After being sick (again!) for the past three days I was finally ready to get back in the kitchen, I missed it! I'm also on day 2 of 3 of a new bread. More on that tomorrow!

The Sugar Incident

This weekend I went to Chicago to celebrate both my Dad and Grandmother's birthdays, so naturally I thought I would bring along some baked goods! I feel like I have a pretty good skill set for working with doughs, but I haven't ventured too much into sugar. I've made caramels, but thats about the extent of it. I think this project may have been a bit ambitious! I started out with coconut marshmellows, inspired by Little Flower Candy CO. in Pasadena. Sounded simple enough, turns out not so much...Working with the sugar temperature proved quite difficult. I needed it to reach 245 degrees, after it steadily climbed for 5 minutes it stopped at 220 degrees, and then wouldn't move...I stepped away for a minute, and of course it had jumped to about 250, I immediately pulled it hoping the 5 degrees didn't completely alter the result.

Pouring the sugar mixture! It looked really dark, and I wasn't sure if the temperature had dropped too much, at this point I was just hopping it would taste alright, even if it didn't look quite right.



Starting to look like marshmellow (to my great relief!). This is about 15 minutes into mixing, really wishing I had a stand mixer at this point!



The final product! Rolled in a powdered sugar mixture. And best of all-tasted like marshmellow! It didn't look perfect, but tasted great! I'd like to give these another go to see if I can improve the texture/appearance.



Finished lemon bars-the only simple part of this cooking venture! The filling is really simple, I think the homemade crust is what sets it apart. I loved these, and so did the intended recipient with discerning lemon bar taste (glad you liked them Mom!)




Then there was the nougat...The recipe indicated that it was difficult, but of course I thought, maybe difficult for your average home baker, but I can handle this! I was partially right, I could handle it. But it was far more difficult than I thought it would be! Aside from lengthy prep work (see below) I had to work with two sugar mixtures, adding sugar, butter and cornstarch in two different ratios. Both are put on high and when the first one reaches about 230 degrees it is transferred to a bowl containing the wet ingredients (mixing with an electric mixer the whole time). Once the second reaches 273 it is also added. This was mainly so hard because I don't have a stand mixer, so trying to hold the mixer and tend to two boiling pots of sugar proved difficult!



Blanching almonds (aka boiling and peeling)-took much longer than I had anticipated...Along with shelling a cup and a half of pistachios!



Finished Nougat with almonds, pistachios and dried cherries! Although it was difficult, it ended up tasting great, and felt like an accomplishment for it to even turn out!

Easter!

I wanted to bake something related to easter, but I couldn't find recipes that I was exceptionally interested in. So instead I baked Pate de Fruit from a recent blog I found:http://bouledecoton.free.fr/index.php/index-des-recettes, using blackberries! They were only slightly difficult to work with; sticky and had to move quickly before the pectin set, but other than that,pretty basic! I bought pectin that also used calcium water to help "set" the gell. To be honest, I know very little about using pectin and this was my first time. I haven't used it in jam prep before, but maybe now I will! It seemed to work well! I thought the color made it easter themed!

I also made Russian cake bread, which is an enriched bread similar to brioche, though significantly less rich. It requires three rises which gave the end result a very flaky and light texture. It lends itself more towards a being a breakfast bread, served with coffee or tea and jam, in the bottom picture cheese was melted over and paired with a fried egg. I loved this bread! Though you can't really use it for sandwiches it is a nice alternative to traditional loafs while avoiding the dense richness of brioche.

Providence Dessert Tasting-AKA Homework!

Providence, one of LA's best restaurants is not only known for their incredible tasting menus for dinner, but dessert as well. Unlike New York, the use of molecular techniques in preparing dinner/desserts is not wide spread (excluding Bizzaar in Beverly Hills), and I LOVE molecular gastronomy, mostly, because I'm a huge nerd. What I love about baking, following "protocols" and adding a bit of creativity and love, is well represented in gastronomic technique. Though encountered with a bit of resistance, I like to think of molecular gastronomy as "just another oven." It's just a new technology aimed at increasing our cooking ability, and in many cases enhancing it beyond a point we are currently capable of (see: sous-vide). I decided to call this culinary expedition homework for my future career, in reality, I just really wanted to go. It did not disappoint. The desserts were impecable, and the service reminds you why you go to these "fine dining" locals in the first place (aside, of course, for the food). The only thing I didn't like was leaving the restaurant wanting to actually eat there, even more than I had before. The menu changes regularly, but centers around similar themes, and of course, employ molecular gastronomy! I could get used to this sort of "studying."

"cocktails" from left; grapefruit and vodka, gin and tonic, margarita spheres

kalamansi gelee, white chocolate-coconut soy milk soup, tapioca pearls, litchi sorbet

Mandarine gelee, mandarine sorbet, dehydrated yogurt, pistachio macaroon

Barata icemilk and strussel, olive oil cake, strawberries, and basil gelee

Caramel pudding with caramelized popcorn and macadamia nuts

Chocolate mouse, kumquates and ginger, sesame ice cream and brittle

Affogato with LAMILL #11 espresso-paired with vinsanto dessert wine

Carmelized-Apple Skillet Cake

Apples over caramelized sugar in a dutch oven.

Served with Strawberry jam!

I wanted to bake something different, I have yet to bake a cake, so I decided to do just that! Although, admittedly I don't particularly like baking cake. I'm not sure why, so this was a compromise, a cake, but a bit more interesting!