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TwD Baking with Julia: Rustic Potato Loaves

April 2, 2013

I’m always up for a new bread recipe, so this week’s recipe for  the Tuesdays with Dorie group went on my baking schedule.

RusticPotatoLoaves

Cooked, cooled potatoes (I peeled them, but the recipe says to leave the peel on) are mashed and then the rest of the ingredients are added: potato cooking water, yeast, olive oil, salt, and flour. Although the first rise wasn’t as quick as the 20 minutes promised by the recipe, the second rise was quick, and overall, it didn’t take long to make this bread. The reward was a soft, tender bread that’s good with or without butter. In fact, this bread was so soft and tender that I wonder if it could be baked in a loaf pan and used as a sandwich bread. Something to think about for next time.

The recipe for Rustic Potato Loaves is on page 138 of Baking with Julia, or our host Dawn will have the recipe posted at Simply Sweet.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Food, Yeast Bread | 4 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: Mocha Chocolate Chips

March 19, 2013

In summary, I screwed up these cookies, but they were still really good. Beautiful, no. Good, yes.

MochaChocolateChips

I made half the recipe but put in the full amount of granulated sugar. I realized my goof right away, so decided to leave out the dark brown sugar. Then I decided to use chocolate chips (plus a few cappuccino chips) instead of the chopped chocolate called for in the recipe. I didn’t want to waste my good chocolate in case the cookies were a bust. But they weren’t a bust – they were chewy, chocolatey, and coffee-y, and I imagine they’d only be better with dark brown sugar. I purposely omitted the dried apricots, because I cannot get on board with coffee + apricot.

Do you want a jolt of coffee in your chocolate chip cookies? This recipe, baked by the Tuesdays with Dorie group this week, is on page 330 of Baking with Julia, or pop over to Galettista, where Peggy has the recipe posted.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Cookies/Bars, Food | 6 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: Focaccia

February 5, 2013

Here’s the deal: this focaccia was good. I topped it with fresh rosemary, black and green olives, and kosher salt.

Foccacia

But…just a couple of weeks earlier, I made the focaccia recipe from the Flour cookbook, with the same toppings. It was outstanding; therefore, this recipe had a lot working against it from the get-go. However, I will note that the recipe from Flour has a heck of a lot more olive oil in it, which is probably what makes it tastier, but also makes it much more decadent than an average bread recipe. I’d like to have more focaccia in my life, so I’m hoping to find a recipe that’s a happy medium.

Perhaps you, too, need more focaccia in your life. This recipe, baked by the Tuesdays with Dorie group this week, is on page 143 of Baking with Julia, or pop over to Wandering Through, where Sharmini will have the recipe posted.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Vegetarian, Yeast Bread | 5 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: French Apple Tart

January 22, 2013

I was all in for the French Apple Tart that the Tuesdays with Dorie group made this week. A few months ago, I saw the episode of Baking with Julia when Leslie Mackie made this tart, and I wrote a note in my book that said “looks really good.” And it was!

French Apple Tart

The apples didn’t get very brown, but they were tender and tasty.

There are a number of components in this recipe, so I split the tasks over two days, starting the crust and making the filling on day one, and finishing it off on day two.

Crust: The crust is a pie dough made with a combination of butter and vegetable shortening. Pie crust makes me nervous! I had no idea if it was any good, so I took the scraps, sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar, and baked them. I took a bite and high-fived myself – the crust was flaky and delicious!

Flaky Pie Crust

Flaky pie crust scrap

Filling: To make the filling, apple slices are tossed with sugar, cinnamon, flour, and lemon juice (the recipe calls for bread crumbs, but I skipped those) and roasted in the oven. After roasting, the apples are mashed into an applesauce.

Topping: Sliced apples are arranged on top of the filling, brushed with melted butter, and sprinkled with sugar.

Put them all together, bake it, and the finished product is delicious!

You can find the recipe on page 379 of Baking with Julia, or click over to Laws of the Kitchen, where Gaye has the recipe posted today. Thank you Gaye for hosting this week!

Posted in Baking with Julia, Food, Fruit Desserts, Pies/Tarts | 11 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: Pizza with Onion Confit

January 8, 2013

When I looked at the recipe for Pizza with Onion Confit, it was one of those it looks pretty good, but I’m just not sure recipes. But it certainly looked good enough to try, and since I missed both recipes that the Tuesdays with Dorie group made in December, I knew I better get on it and make some pizza.

OnionConfitPizza

And now it’s one of those I’m so glad I gave it a try recipes. I’m always up for trying another pizza crust recipe, and I really liked this one. The edges were chewy, and the base was sturdy enough to support a pile of moist onions that were slow cooked in a little butter and red wine vinegar and a lot of red wine. I followed the suggestion in the book to add some goat cheese, olives (I used green), and a sprinkle of parmesan. It was a great combination of flavors and made for a really enjoyable dinner.

When I first looked at the recipe, it seemed time-consuming, but it really wasn’t bad. I made a full recipe of the crust a day ahead of time and stored it in the refrigerator. The next day, while cooking half a batch of onion confit, I divided the dough in half and brought half up to room temperature and froze the other half for another time. The onions need to cook for about an hour, but they do their thing on the stove and need to be stirred only occasionally.

A couple of additional thoughts for next time:

  • The pizza crust dough might make good breadsticks. Shape like a breadstick and brush with butter or garlic butter and sprinkle with kosher salt. That thought kept coming to mind as I ate the outside crust.
  • As good as a vegetarian version was, some bacon might be really tasty with the onions and goat cheese.

This was another Steve Sullivan recipe (he also contributed the Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaf recipe that I loved so much). You can find the recipe on page 157 of Baking with Julia, or pop over to The Boy Can Bake, where this week’s host Paul has the recipe posted, along with lots of tips on making pizza crust.

PS: Sorry Steve Sullivan, but I disagree with you: this was quite good reheated the next day!

Posted in Baking with Julia, Main Dishes, Vegetarian, Yeast Bread | 12 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: Buttermilk Crumb Muffins

November 6, 2012

Muffins were on deck for the Tuesdays with Dorie group this week. As much as I love a challenge in the kitchen, I also appreciate a simple muffin recipe that’s quick to mix and doesn’t make a lot of dishes. This recipe fit the bill! I made them late in the morning and we enjoyed them for an afternoon snack.

I made 1/2 recipe which gave me 8 muffins, though I should have made 9. The muffins overflowed a bit and the crumb topping glued itself to the muffin pan, making them a bit difficult to get remove from the pan. Once they were out, they were tasty – sweet, crunchy crumb topping on top of a tender muffin flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg. They were best the day they were baked, and still really good the next day.

Tip: I had some buttermilk in the freezer that I defrosted for this recipe, and it worked great. It seems that I always need less buttermilk than I need to buy, so last time I had extra, I froze it in 1/2 cup portions. David Lebovitz recently wrote a post about freezing cream, and I’m going to try that next. Update: I tried it and it worked! The frozen, defrosted cream whipped up nicely. It will be great to have cream in the freezer for those times I need just a little bit.

Ready for a quick, nicely spiced muffin? You can find the recipe on page 207 of Baking with Julia. Thank you to Alisa from Easier than Pie for hosting this week. She has the recipe posted on her blog today.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Food, Muffins, Quick Bread | 6 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: Bagels

October 16, 2012

Another yeast recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie group; this time it’s Lauren Groveman’s bagels. Here is my first batch: three sesame and two plain.

Thanks to good timing, the bagel episode of Baking with Julia was shown on my PBS station a few days before I planned to make them. It helped a lot to see her technique for forming the bagels, as well as to see what they should look like at different stages.

There are some steps involved in making bagels, but it didn’t end up being as involved as I feared. The process for making the dough is much like other bread doughs. After a rest in the refrigerator, the dough is formed into a ring with a large center (it will puff up and the hole will close if you don’t make it big enough). The bagels are then boiled in a water bath with sugar and baking soda before being baked. I bought a skimmer and I’m glad I did, because it worked great for fishing the bagels out of the water.

I made the dough one day, baked 5 bagels the next day, and then baked 5 more bagels the day after. The bagels had a chewy crust and tender center, which is exactly how I like a bagel to be. The second batch was darker, which made the crust chewier.

Recipe notes:

  • On the TV show, she used 1 tablespoon of barley malt syrup and 1 tablespoon of sugar, but the recipe in the book calls for 2 tablespoons of sugar and no malt syrup (on the show, she said that if you don’t have the malt syrup, you can use 2 tablespoons of sugar). Since I have malt syrup, that’s what I used.
  • Another good tip from the show was to put some toppings on the peel or baking sheet before you put the bagels on it — that way there are toppings on the top and the bottom of the bagel.

There’s nothing like a bagel warm out of the oven, especially if it’s your own oven!  You can find the recipe on page 87 of Baking with Julia. The book also includes a method for making bagel chips, as well as the recipes for the spreads that Groveman made on the show. Thank you to Heather’s Bytes for hosting this week. She has the bagel recipe posted here.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Food, Yeast Bread | 9 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaf

October 2, 2012

I was excited when I saw that the Tuesdays with Dorie group was baking a pumpkin recipe this month. I had my first pumpkin spice latte of the season recently, and that got me primed for pumpkin. Steve Sullivan‘s mini Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Loaves were just the fall treat I needed.

This is a yeast bread featuring pumpkin, fresh cranberries, toasted walnuts, and raisins. After an overnight rest in the refrigerator, it’s divided into three pieces to make three mini loaves. It rose well and browned nicely in the oven. The bread, while not overly pumpkin flavored, has a soft texture which is a nice contrast to the juicy cranberries, crunchy walnuts, and chewy raisins.

I had high hopes for this, and ended up liking it even more than I expected! I gave one loaf to my mom and planned to give another to my neighbor, but I decided to slice and freeze the third loaf so that I can grab a slice or two whenever I want. I bet it will be good toasted.

Break out of the quick bread rut and give this a try! You can find the recipe on page 108 of Baking with Julia. Thank you to Rebecca of This Bountiful Backyard for hosting this week. She has the recipe posted on her blog today.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Yeast Bread | 13 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: Whole Wheat Loaves

September 18, 2012

I ended up taking the entire summer off from the Tuesdays with Dorie group, but when I saw that Michele was hosting this week’s recipe, I knew I better get my Baking with Julia book out and get going.

The weather is finally cooling off, so it was a great time to make some bread. This recipe, from Craig Kominiak, was easy, and I couldn’t believe how quickly it rose. It includes both honey and malt extract, which I believe gives the wheat flour a bit of a boost to help it rise.

Until recently, I only had a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan, and would use it for all recipes that needed a loaf pan. I finally wised up and bought an 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan, and it was a great purchase. I had a lot of flat, squat loaves before that! I try to be practical, but sometimes you really do need several sizes of one type of pan.

Grilled cheese sandwiches made with this bread were delicious! It was also great toasted for breakfast. As good as this was, I want to make it again and add some Harvest Grains Blend from King Arthur. I like all kinds of seeds and grains in my wheat bread.

Get going and bake some bread! You can find the recipe on page 83 of Baking with Julia. Thank you to this week’s hosts: Michele of Veggie Num Nums and Teresa of The Family That Bakes Together. They will have the recipe posted on their blogs today.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Yeast Bread | 12 Comments »

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TwD Baking with Julia: Hungarian Shortbread

May 1, 2012

I’ve eaten and baked many a shortbread cookie, but had never heard of Hungarian Shortbread before reading the recipe for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. The recipe is from Gale Gand. Do you remember her show, Sweet Dreams?


I don’t know what makes this Hungarian, but it is different than other shortbread recipes I’ve seen. The dough (flour, baking powder, salt, butter, egg yolks, and sugar) is mixed and then frozen. After a stint in the freezer, the dough is grated into the pan – this worked great! The dough was so sticky after mixing, but very easy to handle and grate after a little time in the freezer. Half the dough goes into the pan, then a layer of rhubarb jam, then the rest of the dough is grated on top. The whole thing is baked and then topped with a “generous amount” of powdered sugar.

I went the extra mile and made the rhubarb jam. OK, it was only an extra quarter-mile or so, because the jam was so easy to make. Cut up the rhubarb, put it in a pan with water, sugar, and vanilla, and cook it for about 10 minutes. Fresh rhubarb was easy to find at my grocery store, so it was worth it to make this tasty jam. I strayed from the recipe and baked the bottom layer of dough for 15 minutes before adding the jam and the top layer. Other cookie bar-type recipes I’ve made call for baking the bottom a little bit first, and some of the other bakers commented that the bottom layer didn’t seem baked through, so I decided to pre-bake. It worked well – the crust was baked through and not over-browned.

This was quick and easy to make, even with the extra step of making the jam. I made 1/4 of the recipe in a 6″ pan (and 1/4 of the recipe still used 1 stick of butter – yikes!).  As much as I love shortbread, this didn’t quite do it for me. I liked the crumbly texture and the layer of jam, but I felt like it was missing something. My husband wasn’t a fan and thought it needed whipped cream on top. There was nothing bad about it; it just wasn’t quite as good as we’d hoped. Oh well, it was still fun to try the technique of grating the dough, and the leftover rhubarb jam will be stirred into yogurt – yum!

If you want to take a look at the recipe,  look on page 327 of Baking with Julia. Thank you to this week’s hosts: Cher and Lynette. They will have the recipe posted on their blogs today.

Posted in Baking with Julia, Cookies/Bars | 10 Comments »

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