PANDEMIC BAKING

Here I am in my kitchen...my happy place

It's been far too long since I have written in this space.  The Gift of Aging blog sort of took over, I guess.  But the truth is that for the past year, baking has been my safest space. There is something soothing about carefully planning a baking project, setting out the ingredients, and methodically following the directions.  I have a continuously growing cookbook collection, which I keep trying to edit, but someone keeps buying new ones.  As soon as I get a new one, I read through it, using tabs to mark recipes I think I might like to try.  I can't say I'm methodical about it, as I'm often more influenced by what I have a taste for.  

Those who have been to my kitchen know that I always have a "treat drawer."  This is a pull out freezer drawer where I keep a variety of goodies.  It began as I learned how best freeze desserts once the kids left home and we couldn't possibly eat things before they became stale.  Over the years we've come to rely on it for small portions of different kinds of sweet things.  I like to have something intensely chocolate, something buttery, something tart, something sugary.  That way we can satisfy whatever taste prevails that day, and we rarely choose the same thing.  I like to have something sweet for breakfast with my coffee as a way to tame my sweet tooth for the rest of day.  So there will often be a scone of some kind, a pastry of some kind, and a biscuit.  Steve is the bread guy, so there may be rugelach, babka, bagels, or sourdough bread, sliced for toast.

I got a new batch of baking books for Christmas, A Good Bake, by Melissa Weller, and Tartine, A Classic Revisited, by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson.  Additionally, one of my sons and his wife gave us a subscription to Master Classes, and I've been watching Dominique Ansel (the inventor of the cro-nut). For the past month I've been keeping a baking diary, just to keep track of the recipes I've used, what worked, and what I want to do differently.  There were some true disasters...we won't dwell on those.  But there have also been some heavenly delights along the way.  

I had been frustrated for a long time at my inability to roll out dough thin enough...at 74 I just don't have the strength in my upper arms and shoulders.  When I watched Dominique Ansel demonstrate how to make croissants, I was consumed with envy when I saw how soft and malleable his dough was.  Finally, about two weeks ago, I bit the bullet and bought a dough sheeter.  It's Italian and can be used to make pasta, to roll fondant (which I promise you I will never do), to roll cookie dough and pie crust, and to make the queen of them all, croissant dough.  

Like everyone else, we have been tethered to home for the past 11 months.  We cancelled six major trips last year and for the first time in memory, we have not gone anywhere.  If I'm honest, what we miss the most about our travels (in addition to the good company of friends) are the many culinary destinations we have discovered over the years.  One of those is Tartine bakery in San Francisco.  We've traveled to the Bay Area most years, and Tartine is one of those places (like Chez Panisse) that we have to go to.  We like to get up early and walk there (it's about 2 miles from the hotel we like) so we can feel we've earned one of their gorgeous morning buns.  For some reason, they did not include the recipe in their original cookbook, but it's right on the cover of the new one I got for Christmas.  

So, once I got the sheeter, I had to make morning buns.  It was such a thrill to be able to have a dough that looked just like Dominique's, and to reach the dimensions I simply couldn't do on my own.  Here is what the finished product looked like, shortly before Steve scarfed it up:

Here's what's in the treat drawer right now:

Lemon-ginger scone

Flaky folded biscuit

1020707-flaky-folded-biscuits

Bacon-cheddar scone

Lemon-poppyseed pound cake

from Zingerman's Bakehouse cookbook

Chocolate Fallen Souffle Cake

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Fallen-Souffle-Cake-109130

Praline Brownies

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/praline-brownies

Cinnamon Babka from Zabars

Chocolate rugelach from Zabars

Chocolate chunk pecan cookies

I think I have achieved my lifelong dream of living in a bakery.  As you can see, I posted links for the recipes that I used, and I really didn't change them much.  Those that don't have a link are already on this blog.  I hope you'll be inspired to try some of these recipes, too.

A WEEK IN SAN FRANCISCO

 Chez Panisse 2019

We just got back from a week in San Francisco, a week of taking our time and walking everywhere and finding good food.  We try to go to SF every year, just because we love the views and the vibe (although it does involve not focusing too much on the homeless on the street).  Each year we have a list of places we want to return to, as well as new places to try.  Sometimes the new places make the "we have to go back there!" list, and sometimes they don't.  So here's a summary of this year's trip:

Saturday:  We arrived early in the day, thanks to the time change and dropped off our luggage at our hotel.  By the way, this year we stayed at Galleria Park, which was absolutely the best located hotel we've every stayed in.  Our criteria is that it be below the hills so that most of our walks can avoid steep climbs and this one hit the mark.  The staff was friendly and nice, and the room, while compact, had everything we needed to be comfortable.  If you ever stay there, request a room that opens to the atrium...much quieter.  

Anyway, after we dropped off our luggage, we walked down the the Ferry Building, where the weekly Farmer's Market was underway.  Really, produce in California just looks more vibrant, and it is, of course, just picked.  We got some cherries and apricots for snacks, then went to the Slanted Door for lunch.  This is a return favorite for us, and I cook some of Charlie Phan's recipes, like Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken and Shaking Beef.  Still, it's always fun to eat it at the source.  The cuisine is Vietnamese, and the flavors are very close to what we've had in Vietnam.  We ordered Vegetarian Summer Rolls, Vietnamese Crepes with pork and shrimp, and Shaking Beef, all very good. 

 Summer Rolls

This was our main meal of the day, although Steve got a lovely goat cheese and tomato snack sandwich at La Boulangerie, another favorite spot that is conveniently located half a block from the hotel.  We also stopped at See's candy on the way home and got some of our favorites, including Summertime, a candy only available during the summer months.

Sunday we went across the street to La Boulangerie, where I like what they call a "swirl" which is an orange-cinnamon bun, and Steve changes it up between the apple chausson, pain au chocolat, and yogurt with fresh fruit and granola.  By chance, Sunday was the Gay Pride parade, so all of downtown SF was alive with joyous, celebrating people.  

We enjoyed the spectacle a bit, but continued on to Oracle stadium to watch a Giants game.  We're really dyed-in-the-wool LA Dodger fans, with a touch of White Sox for old times sake (Steve), but I grew up following the Giants, when they played in the climatically-challenged Candlestick Park.  We both agree that the new Giants' stadium is one of the best in baseball, for excellent sight lines, the backdrop of the bay with boats sailing by, a chill vibe among the crowd, and excellent food choices.  We headed straight for Crazy Crab for our sandwiches...really just fresh crab on sourdough bread with tomato, and grilled in butter.  They're not too big, so we had room to get some freshly made caramel corn.  Note:  we got tickets on the club level, and that was totally the place to be.  The concessions are not as crowded, and if it gets cold (which can happen in summer in SF) you can watch from inside. We had gotten our sandwiches and ate them right away, but when we went to our seats, there was a concession, Mission Burritos, right near them that looked really tempting.  So the plan next year is to share a crab sandwich and a burrito.

The view from our seats

On Monday, we got up and walked 2.5 miles to Tartine Bakery in the Mission District.  We felt that the walk would help us feel less guilty for the indulgence of their excellent pastries...really one of our two favorite bakeries in the world (the other's in Paris, but that's the topic of another post that will come this Fall).  It's very much a neighborhood place, with a few tables crammed together inside and some others on the sidewalk.  There's always a line, but everyone is just happy to be there and to be getting something wonderful to eat.  I went for the "morning bun" that is made with croissant dough, cinnamon and orange (same idea as the swirl bun at La Boulangerie, but ten times better because they cook it until the sugar has become a syrup and carmelized on the crispy edges of the bun).  The second morning we went there Steve had the pain au chocolat and I had the almond croissant.  I can't tell you how amazingly wonderful they are.  I dream about them at night.

Monday afternoon we took a free shuttle bus from near the Embarcadero out to the Presidio.  When I was a kid, the Presidio was still a busy Army base that took up some gorgeous real estate in the North West corner of the City (what we called SF).  You couldn't go on the base, but you saw the forests of Eucalyptus trees and had to detour around it to get to the Golden Gate Bridge.  About 20 years ago or so, it was converted into a National Park by a conservancy trust, and there are a few businesses there.  We had reservations at The Commissary, an award winning restaurant under the stewardship of Tracy de Jardins, so we spent the afternoon exploring the park, walking up to the bridge, and learning about the history of the area.  We had reserved countertop seats, which meant that we got to watch the chefs prepare all the food that was going out of the kitchen.  There is a lodge at the Presidio, and they also prepare food to be taken over there.  The staff were wonderful and welcoming, and the food was perfection.  Steve had a roast chicken dish, and I had short ribs, along with a fancy version of avocado toast as an appetizer.  We splurged on dessert (after all, we'd walked 7 or 8 miles already).  Steve had the creme de Catalan (basically creme brûlée) and I had churros with chocolate sauce...both of which made us very happy.

The view from our seats at the Commissary

Tuesday we had reservations at the Tartine Manufactory, run by the same people as the bakery.  We needed a snack to get us through to dinner time, so we went to M.Y. China, in the Westfield Mall.  M.Y. stands for Martin Yan, whose cookbook I use to make a few dishes, including my barbecue pork buns.  He was local television chef long before that became a thing.  Anyway, we went there to try to get a limited number of dim sum so we wouldn't fill up. Usually, our go to dim sum restaurant is Yank Sing.  Yank Sing is great if you've got enough people to order lots of different dim sum, which we were able to do with our friend Yin and her family last year.  Anyway, we went to M.Y. China, and had their heavenly Hargow...a simple dim sum with a rice flour wrapper and the freshest tastiest prawn you can imagine.  It's definitely on our "must return" list all by itself.  We also had the pork belly sliders (good, but not as good as Momofuku), and a mu shu taco, which turned out to be much bigger than we had imagined, but we certainly didn't leave any behind.

For dinner at the Manufactory we shared another version of fancy avocado toast, a salad comprised of five-spiced duck, peanut butter miso hoisin, apricot, pickled cucumber, chrysanthemum, and mustard;  and spiced lentils with crispy duck carnitas.  All of it was quite good, so we ordered dessert as well.  Steve had a creme fraiche cheesecake with an oatmeal crust and fresh fruit, and I had a hot fudge sundae...we realized early on that we should have shared a dessert when they came out, but what can you do?  The food was quite lovely, but the setting left us a little cold, perhaps because we were accustomed to the friendliness of the bakery.  So we probably won't return next year.

Wednesday we made our annual trek to Berkeley to have lunch at the Chez Panisse cafe.  It's only about 30 minutes away by BART, and a lovely walk along "Gourmet Row" on Shattuck Avenue.  There's something about the cafe that feels like going home to us.  Perhaps it's the Arts and Crafts decor of the restaurant (much like our house in State College), or that many of the other patrons are close to our age and have been coming here for years, or the perfectly prepared and presented food which is not surprising, but instead is familiar.  Steve had the duck confit with pink potato chips, which they execute perfectly, and I had roasted chicken with harissa, roasted pepper and polenta.  For dessert Steve savored a creme caramel topped with apricots and boysenberries.  We both used to love boysenberries back in the day, but haven't seen them in years.  I had a brownie sundae, nothing not to like there.

Duck Confit

Roast Chicken with harissa and polenta

Thursday was the 4th of July, and our second visit to Tartine.  Enough said.

We had hoped to go to Nopalito, a favorite Mexican neighborhood restaurant, but sadly, they were closed for the holiday.  We quickly pivoted and got reservations at Alioto's in Fisherman's wharf.  Yes, it's touristy, but it's classic San Francisco and we knew we could count on good sour dough bread and fresh seafood.  We got a table by the window (because we made the reservation) and I had crab and prawn Louie, while Steve tried their Cioppino, a tomato-y seafood stew. The bread was nice and sour.  Not a highlight meal, but satisfying.

Friday we had reservations at Mr. Jiu's, which I had been reading about for a few years now.  They took over an old Chinatown location, but have an updated modern take on classic Chinese fare.  We had their pork and fava bean potstickers which were sublime, and the peking duck...which was far too much for us to eat, but pretty fabulous anyway.  No dessert 
was possible.

That was our week, and we came home relaxed, very well-fed, and planning what we would do next year.

SCONES REVISITED

It's been over 4 years since I started this blog, and as I warned you, my recipes keep evolving.  I've been distracted by a variety of things, a couple of moves, another blog...so I haven't been too faithful in recent months, even years.  But as I was making orange-chocolate scones today, I went back to the recipe in this blog and realized that I have made enough changes to justify a re-do.  

Here's what's different:  I've fully switched over to weighing rather than measuring dry ingredients.  It's easier because you can pour everything into one bowl, and it's much more accurate.  I've increased the amount of buttermilk slightly because it was so difficult to get all of the flour incorporated, but you do have to move quickly so they don't start getting cake-y.  I also increased the temperature from 375 to 400 degrees F, mainly because that's what works in my new oven.  And in the summer, when the air temperature is warm (and in Pittsburgh, humid), I freeze the scones for 20 minutes before baking.

A word on my new oven.  As you'll recall, I finally had everything in my kitchen in State College exactly the way I wanted.  I replaced my loathed GE ovens with Wolf, and had many years of reliable baking (even though they had to replace the internal computer thingy).  I had double wall ovens, which were great, unless you wanted to cook something really big, like a turkey, which I rarely did.

But life evolves, and in 2018 we decided to move from State College to Pittsburgh to be near our grandchildren.  We weren't sure how long we'd be there, so we rented an apartment for a year in Squirrel Hill (a move you will have read about if you read my other blog on Aging).  In the rental, there was an incredibly cheap Whirlpool gas stove.  While the apartment was probably very nice for most people, it was small and frustrating for me.  The oven was not particularly consistent, the stove top was small and inconvenient, and there wasn't enough prep or storage space for me.  So I cooked and especially baked, less and less.  Then, this Spring, we happened upon a townhouse in a nearby neighborhood that had the two most important things for me:  a kitchen with decent storage capacity and top of the line appliances.  The unit was only one year old, and the owners had splurged because they thought they'd be here for a long time. The husband was a cook, and he put in a six-burner Blue Star range.  I had read about Blue Star, and knew that restaurant cooks love them.  

We've been in the townhome for about a month, and I'm beginning to learn where I put everything I need to cook with.  And I love, love, love the Blue Star range.  The burners are huge, and the cradles can be removed to cook directly on the burner for wok stir-fries.  There is also a griddle and grill that can replace two of the burners, and a huge, industrial-strength fan to carry away the smoke before the smoke alarm and sprinklers go off.  (In the apartment I was continually setting off the smoke alarms, causing our neighbors to worry that we were burning the place down.)  And the oven, ah, the oven.  It is huge!  It can fit as many cake pans as I want, along with full-sheet baking pans.  And it's unbelievably consistent.  What I also love about it is that there are really no electronics blinking at you, just old fashioned knobs.  Apparently the company made restaurant ovens for many years and only recently got into the home market. And they're manufactured in the Lehigh Valley near Philadelphia.  So now I'm wanting to bake again, which makes Steve and the grandkids very happy.

So here's how I made these scones today:

Orange-Jammy bits and Chocolate Chip Scones  

1 cup AP flour (140g)

1 cup cake flour (140g)

1/4 cup superfine sugar (50g)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest (if you have an orange) 

1/2 cup (4 oz) butter, frozen at least 30 minutes

5/8 cup shaken buttermilk, (5 oz) room temperature
1/2 teaspoon orange oil (if you have the zest) or 1 teaspoon if you don't
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup King Arthur orange jammy bits

3 Tablespoons superfine sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (Penzey's Vietnamese)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Place a piece of parchment paper in a half sheet baking pan.

In a large bowl, whisk flours, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt, and orange zest (if using).  Using a large microplane grater, grate the butter over the dry ingredients, mixing occasionally with a fork. Add orange oil to the buttermilk, pouring it into a well in the center of the flour/butter mixture, and stir until the dough holds together.  Add chocolate chips and orange jammy bits.  

Turn the dough out onto the parchment paper (saves on the cleanup), and knead just until you can shape it into a thick disk, about 7" in diameter.  Using a bench knife or other sharp knife, cut the circle into 8 pieces, and separate them from one another so they don't get too cozy during baking. After you have found a home for them on the pan, flatten them a little with the palm of your hand.  Mix cinnamon into sugar and sprinkle over the tops.  If it's warm in your house, place the baking pan with the scones in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Bake 14-16 minutes.

BROWNED BUTTER COOKIES

SERENDIPITY

Sometimes good things come from making a mistake.  In this case, I was baking Melissa Clark's wonderful recipe for "cultured butter cookies."  She's one of my favorites on the NY Times' Cooking site.  I've made them several times, and they're very satisfying made as she describes.  When I bake cookies, I typically set the timer for half of the time and then rotate them in the oven, so in this case I set the timer for 9 minutes.  After I rotated them, I reset the timer, but then got distracted and went upstairs to look something up on my computer.  About 16 minutes later, Steve told me he heard the timer, and I ran down, expecting them to be burned and sad.  Instead, they were a lovely shade of brown.  And when we tasted them, we both agreed that they were actually better that way.  They had gone from being just butter cookies to browned butter cookies, crispy with that lovely nutty flavor that browned butter has.  Oh, and I added a little vanilla to the recipe.  And I use unsalted Kerrygold butter instead of salted cultured butter and increased the salt a little.  And I used sparkling white sugar instead of demerara.  So I guess these are really my cookies now.

BROWNED BUTTER COOKIES

250 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)

3 grams baking powder (1/2 teaspoon)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

8 ounces unsalted butter (I used Kerrygold), at room temperature (1 cup)

130 grams granulated sugar (2/3 cup)

1 large egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I used Penzey's double vanilla)

sparkling white sugar, for rolling (around 1/2 cup) (I got mine at King Arthur)

In a medium-sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and granulated sugar until lightened in color and fluffy;

beat in egg yolk and vanilla until combined.  With mixer running on low, add flour mixture until incorporated.

Divide dough in half.  Sprinkle sparkling white sugar

 over a sheet of parchment.  Place half of dough on it 

and start to shape it into a log, making sure entire surface is covered in sugar (the sugar will give the cookies a nice crunch at the end).  

Finish the rolling on plastic wrap (I find that it's easier to handle the slightly sticky dough with the plastic wrap on it)

 and then refrigerate at least one hour.  Overnight is fine.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, heat oven to 325°F.  Line three baking sheets with parchment.  Use large, sharp knife to cut each log into 1/4-inch rounds.  

Place cookies 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.  

Bake until evenly dark, golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Cool 5 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer parchment to counter to cool completely.  We like them right out of the freezer, so we put them in a zip-lock freezer bag when they're cool.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

COOKING AND EATING IN ITALY

Steve and I with Massimo Bottura

It has been far too long since I have checked in here, which doesn't mean I haven't been busy or cooking.  Steve and I just returned from an amazing culinary vacation.  We booked a tour through Zingerman's Deli.  If you haven't heard of them, Zingerman's is in Ann Arbor, Michigan (where, coincidentally, Steve went to college).  They started as a deli, but have expanded to be much more.  They have a very successful mail order business (with special luxury items from all over the world), the Roadhouse (a restaurant with a wood smoker), a bakery, coffee, yogurt, all sorts of things.  They also have classes, and we've taken the weekend bread course and I took the week long pastry course.  And they have culinary trips.  This particular trip was based near Florence, where we stayed at a villa that has a kitchen dedicated to cooking classes, and there was a side-trip to Modena.  

Over the course of the 10 days of the tour we sampled artisan pasta, a variety of wines native to the region, parma ham, saw the birth of the parmigiana reggiano, sampled salume and tasted excellent olive oil and basalmic vinegar. We came to understand the exalted place that producing high quality and traditional food has for Italians, and our palettes became educated to some of the differences between mass produced products and those that are produced in small batches following the age-tested ways of achieving high quality.  We had a wonderful Italian chef, Piero, giving us lessons, along with a wine professional, Bernardo, who taught us a great deal about wine and food pairing.  We were fortunate to have a lively and fun group of people to travel with, and came away ready to try our hand at many of the dishes we learned about.  Probably the most important take away that I got personally, is that a good Italian meal takes all day to cook, because the flavors have to be lovingly coaxed out the food.  You can make a ragu in an hour with all the same ingredients, but it will never taste like the ones we had at the Cucina.  

At the end of the culinary tour we hopped on a train for Bologna. We had managed to score a reservation at Osteria Francescana (Named best restaurant in the world for 2016) in Modena.  Getting the reservation involved getting up at 4am on July 1 and getting on-line with two computers and two i-Pads until one of us got into the reservation queue.  Since this may be the only opportunity we have to eat there, we had the traditional tasting menu with the wine pairings. Thanks to Bernardo (our wine professional at the Cucina), we were able to appreciate why certain wines were chosen, but there were also some very exotic wines (one made from honey and another made from yuzu).  Massimo Bottura's restaurant is all about modernizing Italian cuisine using modern methods and interpretations.  The food is beautiful, playful and absolutely delicious.  He came out at the end of the meal and spoke to each table, and seemed to delight in the enjoyment we got from his cuisine.  I probably won't be attempting any of this dishes, but the flavors will haunt me forever.  If you ever have the opportunity, the will and the desire, I highly recommend making the trek to this restaurant. 

Below are photos of most of the dishes we devoured:

Amuses Bouche

 (yes, I took a bite before I shot the photo)

This is a play on fish and chips...an airy crispy fried potato pancake with fish mousse

These are the lightest parmesan straws ever!

Tribute to Normandy

Lentils are better than caviar

"Riso Levante"

Mediterranean sole

An autumn ceviche in Modena

Five ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in different textures and temperatures

The crunchy part of the lasagna

At the dinner of Trimalchione:  fowl in the ancient Roman style

Croccantino of foie gras

 Caesar salad in bloom

 Oops! I dropped the lemon tart

 Chocolate course

Everything was plated with exquisite care and the flavors were surprising but always pleasing.