Month: November 2015

Pizza Dough, Revisited Already

rounds of pizza dough spread with tomato sauce
~ mary_m ~ Leave a comment

So yesterday I told you how I make pizza dough, but I left out a few notes and sounded way to authoritative about some details. The most important note is: it doesn’t really matter! You can make homemade pizza crust out of just about any bread recipe. You can buy pizza dough in the freezer section of your grocery store. You can use par-baked pizza crusts. You can order delivery pizza. Just do have dinner. Dinner is a great idea.

The dough I usually make can be summed up as “60% hydration”. That’s actually how I remember it. Hydration refers to how much liquid you have in relation to flour. You may also see the term “Baker’s Percentage”. This is all a useful way to think about various bread doughs. Higher hydration is a really wet dough, harder to knead, prone to bigger holes, generally reserved for slow rise, rustic breads like sourdough. Lower hydration is for tighter crumb sandwich breads. The more you make bread, the better idea you’ll get of what sort of hydration you like for what. 60% gives me a really easy to handle dough which is great for make-your-own-pizza, especially when folks want to roll (or toss!) their own crust. A bit wetter or drier would also be fine.

1 tsp active dry yeast works well for about a pound of flour, when you want your dough to rise pretty quickly. Less would make for a slower rise. More could be even quicker. Eventually, you’ll taste too much yeast, however, so don’t go overboard unless you really like the taste of yeast. (On the other end of the spectrum, if you have sourdough starter and more time, you can make overnight dough instead.)

The olive oil I use is actually more like a “glug” than an ounce. I weighed my usual glug and it’s about an ounce, but the precision really doesn’t matter. I find a bit of olive oil makes the dough just a bit more pizza-y, while acknowledging that this is nowhere near traditional pizza dough at all.

Always add salt. This one is a rule. Saltless bread (or pizza or flat bread or…) is a sad, sad thing. The 2 tsp bit in my recipe is approximate though. A bit less or more would be fine. Oh, and also don’t add the salt right on top of your yeast. Yeast likes its salt a bit buffered, so add the salt late, or well mixed with the flour.

Rising times are extremely forgiving for a simple, yeasted dough. An hour or two on the counter works. Just throwing it in the fridge (covered) works. Taking it out a hour before baking is a good idea, but you can probably get away with skipping that too.

Baking time and temperature are also pretty flexible. Lower temp? Bake a bit longer. Higher? Shorter. Check it after ~8 minutes and see.

Oh, and lastly? Put whatever you want on top. Tomato sauce and pepperoni is great! So is olive oil, mozzarella cheese, and mushrooms. So is sliced apple, cheddar, and sage. So is…

Experimenting is awesome.

 

Pizza Fridays (the Dough)

three rounds of pizza dough showing between two silpats
~ mary_m ~ 1 Comment

Family meal planning (really any meal planning) is a heck of a lot easier with recurring parameters. We’ve been doing Taco Tuesday almost every Tuesday since we saw the Lego Movie*. We’re trying to do Meatless Mondays more regularly. Friday? Friday is Pizza Night.

I picked up the habit of pizza night from my sister, whose household has a regular pizza and movie night. The beauty of pizza night is it can be as simple as getting delivery pizza and eating it out of the box and it is easily adapted to the “choose your own adventure” model of family dinner.

When I have time, we do make your own pizza on a simple homemade crust. This isn’t three-day, naturally leavened, meant for a wood-burning oven in Rome, crust. It’s more let’s maybe eat some whole grains and mostly everyone likes it just fine crust. And most Friday’s that’s just fine.

Pizza Dough

  • 10 oz white bread flour
  • 10 oz spelt or other whole wheat flour
  • 12 oz water, divided
  • 1 oz olive oil
  • 1 tsp active dry yeast
  • 2 tsp salt

At least 2 and 1/2 hours before dinner – Combine the yeast with 4oz of (body temp or cooler) water. Mix flours, yeast, remaining water, and olive oil until they form a rough dough. Add salt and knead for ~5 minutes. (I use my stand mizer with the dough hook, on low.) Let rise in the bowl for 60-90 minutes.

When the dough has roughly doubled (about an hour), punch it down and divide into six or eight equal(ish) size pieces. Form each piece into a ball. If it’s over an hour until you want to bake, put the dough, loosely covered, in the fridge. (I usually space them out on a half sheet pan, on a silpat, which I cover with another silpat and a towel. Lightly oiled plastic wrap over the top also works well.)

About an hour before baking, have your dough balls on the counter, still loosely covered, so they can rise slightly and come to room temperature. Just before baking, form each into more-or-less a flat circle, about 1/4 in thick. Coat with a bit of olive oil, then add sauce and toppings of your choice.

Bake assembled pizzas at 475ºF for about 12 minutes.

*Taco Tuesday, er, Freedom Friday

Adventures in Gardening, Habanero Salt

a handful of habaneros pepper
~ mary_m ~ Leave a comment

I’m a pretty lazy gardener. I plant things that sound good, and then I hope (and do a little weeding and pruning, but often not much). The next year, I try to remember what worked and plant those things again. One of the plants that consistently thrives in my front yard beds, is Habanero Pepper. (Also Jalapeños and Serranos. Not any kind of sweet peppers though, those always struggle. Poor sweet peppers.) For the third year in a row, I’ve had a great crop of Habaneros, the last of which are still waiting to be dried or otherwise saved to bring heat to our cold winter.

For the last three years, I’ve used some of the Habaneros to make fresh Habanero Salt.

  • one small handful (8 to 12) habaneros
  • 1/2 cup coarse sea salt
  • 8 0z (or more) “finishing” flaky sea salt, usually Maldon
  • gloves, food processor, spatula, glass quart container

Stem the Habaneros and pulse them with the 1/2 cup coarse salt in the food processor until finely minced. You probably want to be wearing gloves. Also, don’t inhale too deeply. Scrape the minced pepper and salt into a glass quart container. Add remaining finishing salt, then (securely) put on the lid and shake until combined.

Shake periodically over the next few days. If liquid collects at the bottom of the container, add more finishing salt. The salt is done when you know longer see liquid collecting at the bottom of the container.

Divide into smaller containers (you might want gloves again) and share with your spice loving friends.

Put Habanero salt on anything you might add a fruity hot sauce to. Sprinkle on boring salads. Add to brownies if you’re feeling crazy. Enjoy!

holiday traditions, aged eggnog

aged eggnog in half gallon jars on a counter
~ mary_m ~ Leave a comment

I can’t remember exactly when I made my first batch of aged eggnog. My guess is it was about nine years ago. Ever since then I’ve had at least a little every holiday season, most years because I made it, some years because there was leftover from the year before*, also because some of my friends make it too. I got the idea from Michael Ruhlman, who got the recipe from Chow. It’s delicious as well as a wonderful, intriguing, decadent drink to share with family and friends in the long, dark evenings of December**.

I generally don’t do the last step in the original recipe of adding whipped egg whites and cream. I simply serve the base in tiny glasses with a grating of nutmeg on top. The trick is, make this now. It’ll be ready to serve in three weeks, which, frighteningly enough, is mid-December, about when our first holiday party will take place.

Aged Eggnog

  • 12 egg yolks (or 9 duck egg yolks***)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 liter bourbon
  • 1 quart whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup Cognac or brandy
  • 1/2 cup dark rum
  • Pinch sea salt
  • nutmeg, for serving

Whisk yolks and sugar together until well-blended. Add other ingredients and whisk again to combine. Pour into a one-gallon (or two half gallon or …) jar and leave in the refrigerator for at least three weeks. 

To serve: Stir to recombine, if needed. Serve in tiny glasses with a grating (or shake) of nutmeg on top. Cheers!

 

*Yes, this stuff really does keep for years.

**or of June, if you’re much further South than I am

***Wait… duck eggs? The first time I made eggnog with duck eggs it was simply because I had some, and I thought that was cool. More recently it’s because a dear friend of mine in allergic to chicken eggs (and it’s still kinda cool). I’ve made this recipe with a dozen duck egg yolks, but the results were a bit … overly eggy. Duck eggs have bigger yolks (~.9 oz) than chicken eggs (~.65 oz), so 8-9 works well.

Recipes and Noncompliance (Pumpkin Bread)

loaf of pumpkin bread on a wooden cutting board
~ mary_m ~ 2 Comments

It often goes something like this:

I have some leftover pumpkin puree in the fridge which I want to use before it goes bad. I’m feeling uninspired by soup. I find, and then lose, an intriguing recipe for pumpkin spice cupcakes. (Younger kid’s reaction was “Can you leave out the spice?” when I was hoping for “Yay! Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!” So my initial cupcake enthusiasm dimmed.) I decide to make pumpkin bread.

I do a quick search for online pumpkin bread recipes, reject one for having too many things, and choose another. (This one, this time: https://food52.com/recipes/8141-pumpkin-christmas-bread.) I skim it, preheat the oven, and start throwing ingredients together.

I don’t want to use white flour. I start to substitute half oat and then worry that’ll be too dense and stop at one third oat. I use whole spelt flour for the rest.

I think about subbing in coconut sugar for brown sugar, but don’t do it.

I think maybe 1 tsp baking soda is too much, but decide that pumpkin is probably acidic to handle it. (I have no idea if this is actually true.)

1/2 tsp cloves! Really? That’s a lot of cloves. 1/4 tsp.

Hey look ginger! That’s good with pumpkin. Add 1/2 tsp ginger.

Why is there no salt in this recipe? I hate when sweet recipes decide they don’t need salt! 1/2 tsp salt. Nyah. 1 tsp salt.

OK. Time to add the oil and pumpkin. (I’m dumping everything in the same bowl using a scale.) Oil. Check. Oh, oops, I don’t actually *have* 10 ounces of pumpkin. I have 9. It’s all already in the bowl, but I worry it’ll be too dry without that final ounce. I add a grated apple (which was in the other recipe, the one I read and rejected).

Bake. Hope.

Results: Not bad. Good with soft butter. I like the ginger. Could use less baking soda (maybe 3/4t). Also more oven time (was 1hr 20m – still extra moist).

Usually, that’s where it ends. I fail to take notes, forget which recipe I started with, and start all over again next time I have too much pumpkin. This time I actually wrote it down and the kids kept asking for pumpkin bread, so I kept iterating.

2nd version:
all spelt
3/4 tsp baking soda
*scant* 1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger

Results: good, but crumbly – try eggs?
also maybe reduce sugar

Pumpkin Bread, Current version:

  • 1 2/3 cups spelt flour (or whole wheat or …)
  • 1/3 cup light brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 10 oz pumpkin puree (or other squash)
  • 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325ºF. Oil a large (1.5 lb) loaf pan. Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients separately. Combine until uniform, but don’t overmix. Pour/spread in loaf pan. (It’ll be thick!) Bake ~65 minutes.

Results: Pretty good. Slices without crumbling. Still noticeably sweet, but a little less so. I may even leave it this way next time.

Salad People

salad person made of yogurt and vegetables with pepper moustache, arugula skirt, and celery stick cane
~ mary_m ~ 1 Comment

When my elder kid turned 3, I excitedly gave him his very own copies of Salad People and Pretend Soup, cookbooks for preschoolers and up by Molly Katzen. I just couldn’t wait to cook with my kid. And then, of course, I waited. Though there were occasional flares of interest in the five years since I bought those books, neither of my kids really embraced cooking, at least not until recently. Recently, sometimes, there are salad people.

The truth is, I’m a hard person to share a kitchen with. I have all sorts of ideas about how to do things. Despite wanting to break away from rules and recipes, I have a tendency to believe my ways are the right and proper ways. I walk along behind people and “fix” things. I am a wealth of information and assistance. I am a problem.

If I’ve learned anything about cooking with kids, it’s this: back off and let them lead. My job is to get the ingredients, find the tools, possibly help prep, but maybe just take deeps breaths while it takes forever for someone else to peel an apple. The other night we had a dinner of chocolate banana shakes, pretend soup, salad people, and hide & seek muffins. Making dinner took about three hours, not counting the grocery shopping. It was messy. The  muffins were boring. It was far from the most nutritious meal we’ve ever sat down to. Everyone cooked though, and everyone ate. It was glorious.

Pie Advice, Pie Dough

~ mary_m ~ Leave a comment

I’m a little bit in love with this Thanksgiving pie advice from Marian Bull on Food52. (Summary: If pie making makes you nervous, don’t do it for Thanksgiving. Do, however, bake pie some other time.)

I love pie. I love Thanksgiving pies. I love when people try new things. And I love when people don’t fret too much about baking. So Marian, thank you for your voice of sanity here. The only thing I would add is, if possible, when you’re learning how to make pie crust, learn with a friend. A good friend who’s already suffered life’s fair share of utter pie crust defeats can be the best cure for wanting to throw your lump of mangled pie dough across the room. (Not that that will happen! But… it might, and that’s totally OK.)

A brief round up of pie dough recipes:

  • Never Fail PieCrust is more-or-less the one my mom taught me, decades ago, although we always divided the recipe into five. Mom still uses this recipe, and it’s still great. I use it less often, because I don’t generally have shortening in the house.
  • This vodka trick one is great if you’re looking for a relatively foolproof, yet delicious crust.
  • 3-2-1 pie dough is what I generally make, because I love a good, easy formula.

I don’t generally make pie on Thanksgiving. My father-in-law has dibs on pie baking for in-law Thanksgiving, and my mom and sister tend to handle the traditional pies when we gather with my side of the family. This year, however, I’ll be going to a second Thanksgiving and I’m thinking of making Cranberry Walnut Pie, which is one of my favs.

Sometimes You Need a Little Comfort… (Hot Chocolate)

hot chocolate with a marshmallow in a mug showing Van Gogh's Outdoor Café
~ mary_m ~ 1 Comment

I started making hot chocolate out of chocolate bars when I was in college, while trying to replicate Spanish hot chocolate*. Turns out, I like it this way and I often have spare chocolate on hand**, so I still do it.

Hot Chocolate

per serving:

  • 1 oz. chopped chocolate (from chocolate bars, leftover choc. pumpkins, chocolate chips if that’s what you’ve got)
  • 1 T cream, or milk, or alternative milk
  • 6 to 8 oz. milk, or any alternative you like
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla, or whatever flavoring grabs your fancy (chipotle powder plus cinnamon is pretty great)

Melt the chocolate and cream in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Once the chocolate + cream is nice and smooth, slowly add the milk until the mixture is the color of hot chocolate that you like. Add vanilla (or other flavoring). Heat, stirring occasionally, until steaming. If you happen to have an immersion blender, blend it. (This makes it extra smooth and slightly whipped, which is a delicious touch.)

Serve, with or without marshmallows, whipped cream, cinnamon sticks, candy canes, or other garnish, in a mug just right to wrap your hands around. 

*To replicate Spanish hot chocolate, I add a bit of starch (potato starch, tapioca starch, or corn starch) at the “melt chocolate with the cream” step.

**My kids don’t tend to eat plain chocolate, so we especially have extra chocolate on hand after the major candy holidays. I’ve made a lot of hot chocolate out of chopped chocolate Santas.