The Doldrums

I believe that we have entered that period known to many as the Winter Doldrums. I don't know about you, but I am bored. This boredom has sapped my energy and creativity, leaving me a dull and somewhat crabby person who is no fun to be around. I try to think of ways to help with the boredom, but one look at the piles and piles of snow sends me back to the couch. I'm trying not to complain, since I gave it up for Lent, but it's hard when it snows nearly every day and you haven't seen the sun in weeks. See, I told you I was crabby!

Anyway, enough whining. Sean and I had a lovely day last Friday, when we went to look at the Orchids at Phipps Conservatory. It was lovely and refreshing. And, since we went at night, you couldn't tell that the sun wasn't shining!




And today, many of our nearest and dearest will be joining us at Sean's friends house for an engagement party! I am so looking forward to that.

On Tuesday, my office had a Mardi Gras party. I had planned to make Pralines, but there was an ice storm on Monday night (or maybe it was snowing. I no longer differentiate between days of the week--I may even have worn the same clothes twice this week, but I'm not sure). Anyway, I decided not to go to the store for brown sugar and pecans, and instead relied on my personal stash of baking ingredients to make something. I find that it is good policy to have enough ingredients to make brownies or cake at any given time. Especially brownies. I've tried many brownie recipies over the years, most of them delicious, but I think I've found the holy grail of brownie recipes this time. They're nothing wild or unexpected, but that's the beauty of them. You could add whatever you wanted to these, and they'd be fabulous. Or, you could just follow the recipe, and they'd be fabulous. You could slightly over or undercook them and then drop them on the floor, and they'd still be fabulous (I normally hate it when people use the word fabulous, but the chocolately, crisp-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside qualities of these brownies are enough to make me say anything)!

This recipe came from Martha Stewart, who, I must say, usually has the best classic, no frills version of many old standbys. These are no exception. The texture is neither cakey nor chewy, both of which I despise in a brownie. Since they call for real chocolate, the flavor is perfect, chocolately without being overwhelming. And they use real butter, not oil or shortening. Plus, they are nearly as easy to make as brownies from a mix, and so much better. No icing, peanut butter, or nuts needed.

Perfect Chocolate Brownies

Adapted from Martha Stewart at marthstewart.com

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for the pan (or use Pam with Flour cooking spray)

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Ghiraradelli bittersweet chocolate chips with no problem, but most chocolate chips contain stabilizers and won't melt properly)

1 1/2 cups white sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature. To get the eggs to room temperature quickly, I fill a bowl with lukewarm water and place the uncracked eggs in it for at least ten minutes. I find that room temperature eggs really improve a recipe, especially brownies.

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an inch square baking pan or oven proof glass dish, then line with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Do not use wax paper. Grease the liner, and set aside.

If your butter is colder than room temperature, place the stick in a microwave safe bowl or large glass measuring cup and soften it a little in the microwave. It's ok if it starts to melt. Place the chocolate in the bowl with the softened butter and microwave for about 20 seconds at a time, stirring carefully in between. Make sure the chocolate is not scorching. When the butter and chocolate are mostly melted, remove from the microwave and stir until the mixture is smooth. Alternately, use a double boiler over the stove. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool for about 10 to 15 minutes. If the bowl you used to melt your chocolate and butter is not big enough to hold all of the other ingredients too, move your chocolate mixture to a larger bowl.

Stir sugar into the cooled chocolate mixture until combined. At this point, the mixture will be grainy. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, until smooth after each addition. Whisk in vanilla. Gently fold in flour and salt with a wooden spoon.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula. Bake until a cake tester placed in the center of the brownies comes clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

When cool, run a knife around the sides of the pan. Using the parchment or foil, carefully lift the brownies out of the pan and onto the rack. Brownies can be stored in an air tight container for 3 days.

An Apology for Absence

Between wedding planning and various social obligations, I haven't gotten much of a chance to try any new recipes. I also seemed to have picked up a new dependent: something that is erroneously called "Amish Friendship Bread Starter" (they have nothing to do with it--it's just a catchy name). If you've never experienced this new responsibility, it basically involves ten days of kneading and feeding. On the tenth day, you bake, and if you don't pass along at least three cups of the starter, something bad happens to you and your family--per my copy of the instructions. I haven't passed any on, and I am getting worried!

The Instructions I Recieved:

Amish Friendship Bread
-Do not refrigerate.

Day 1: Do nothing
Days 2 through 5: Mash the bag.
Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup of milk to the bag. Mash the bag.
Days 7 through 9: Mash the bag.

Day 10:
Pour entire contents of bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of flour, and 1 1/2 cups of milk. Measure out 4 separate batters of about one cup each into four gallon size Ziploc bags. If you keep one for yourself, you will be baking every ten days.
Keep a starter for yourself and give the other three to friends, along with a copy of the recipe. Only the Amish know how to create a starter so if you give them all away you will have to wait until someone gives you a starter back.
Using the remaining starter (about one cup), follow a recipe for bread.

But seriously, the instructions make the entire process out to be a lot of work. Since receiving a cupful from a coworker exactly 21 days ago, I have been coddling mine. I think my cat may be getting jealous.

With the amount of work that seemed to be involved, I did some internet research, and I subsequently found that most food blogs claim that you don't have to bake every ten and feed every six. You do, however, need to knead or stir the starter everyday. If you will be on away vacation, or otherwise not available to the needs of this concoction, you can freeze the starter. You don't even need a starter-sitter. I think that's quite a relief. Furthermore, you don't have to give all of it away, and it is probably healthy for the starter if you throw some away every so often.

And so, since the starter isn't nearly as high-maintenance as it might seem, I've decided to turn mine into a sort of science experiment. This might worry some of you. Who eats their experiments? But don't be scared, it's just active yeast. You eat it all the time!

The bread is really quite delicious, especially with a ribbon of brown sugar and cinnamon running through it. The more mature the starter is, the easier it is to take care of. Just make sure to discard any starter that looks pink or brown, or smells bad. In the near future, I intend to experiment with the starter by making muffins, coffee cake, and maybe pancakes. Apparently, the starter also works well as a replacement for sourdough. Does any one else know of other uses for the starter? I'd love to hear some more ideas.

P.S. Dear Mom, sister and aunts: let me know if you would like a cupful of starter and some instructions! There are also tips for making a starter from scratch here, or purchase one here. But really, I think that buying some starter really defeats the purpose, don't you?

Happy Birthday, John K!

In honor of John K's birthday, I tried a recipe from one of his favorite bakers, Bernard Clayton. These are described as breakfast rolls, and are quite delicious when paired with tea or coffee. That said, I found them to be tasty as an afternoon snack. I originally discovered the recipe on The Wednesday Chef, and I knew that I just had to try them. The rolls taste best, naturally, fresh from the oven. After a day or two, they are certainly edible, but toasting them with a little butter really improves the flavor and texture at this point. I would also like to taste a little more honey and more lemon in the rolls. Finally, I don't really feel that placing a pan of ice on the oven floor really did much to improve the the crusty texture of the bread. This may have been the fault of my crazy oven, but the steam rising from the bottom of the oven caused the underside of the rolls to cook faster. The rolls don't taste burnt, but some of them certainly look over-cooked. I would, however, make them again.
I did not follow the kneading instructions exactly as printed on Luisa's blog. Luisa follows the food processor method to prepare the bread, which is one technique that Bernard Clayton offers. In his book, Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads , he gives instructions on how to make the bread by hand. As I did not have access to the hand-kneaded version of the recipe, I made my own directions at this point. I must admit that I was proud of myself when the rolls turned out well, since I don't know too much about making bread! Below is the technique that I used to knead the bread by hand. As it is pretty basic, it most likely bears a strong resemblance to the book's instructions.

Bernard Clayton's Honey-Lemon Whole-Wheat Rolls
Makes about 24 rolls

3 cups bread flour
2 envelopes dry yeast (or just over two tablespoons)
2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 cups hot water (120 to 130 degrees)
1/4 cup honey (using more would give a stronger flavor of honey)
3 tablespoons butter at room temperature
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 to 3 cups whole-wheat flour
Oil, for brushing on top of the rolls before baking

1. In a very large bowl, mix together the bread flour, yeast, salt, hot water, honey, butter and lemon peel to the bowl of the processor. The ingredients will form a batter-like dough. Stir in 1 to 1 1/2 cups of whole-wheat flour. Blend well. Let the batter rest for 3 minutes, until the whole-wheat flour has been absorbed. Commence stirring and gradually add 1 to 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour. At this point, the dough should be soft and a bit sticky, but a solid (not hard) mass.

2. Discard your spoon, if you have not already done so, and knead until the dough begins to stay together. If your bowl is big enough, you can continue to knead inside of it. If you need more room, turn the dough onto a lightly floured board. It will be sticky but light. Add sprinkles of bread flour or all-purpose flour as necessary and knead by hand. You may be kneading for up to 10 minutes, adding flour, as needed, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Test to see if you've kneaded enough by slapping your hand on the dough, holding it there for a count of 10, then lifting your hand up. If bits of dough stick or cling to your hand, continue to knead, adding flour. If the hand comes off clean, the dough's ready for the next step.

3. Form the kneaded dough into a mound and cover it with wax paper or a clean dish towel. Let it rest for 20 minutes.

4. Knead the dough for 30 seconds to press out any air bubbles. Using a sharp knife or dough blade, cut off pieces of dough a little bigger than golf balls. Roll between your hands to form balls. Place each ball on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, flattening slightly with the palm of your hand.

5. Brush the rolls with oil (I used light-tasting olive oil, do not use extra-virgin olive oil). Cover with plastic wrap that is loose enough to allow the rolls to rise but is sealed around the edges to hold in the moisture. Place the sheets of rolls in the refrigerator overnight.

6. Remove the rolls from the fridge and let them sit, covered, at room temperature for 25 minutes while the oven heats to 400 degrees. Place a small cake pan on the floor of the oven to heat as the oven heats. Have about a dozen ice cubes ready.

7. Uncover the rolls. Place them in the oven, then quickly and carefully place the ice cubes into the hot pan on the bottom of the oven (steam will rise immediately) and close the oven door. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the rolls are browned and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.