Baguette Class

Bread is amazing. Just think about it…its only flour, water, salt, and yeast, and yet together with time, some kneading and baking, it turns into a light, flavorful, crusty creation. I am very fortunate to have learned to bake my first bread - baguettes - from the experts at King Arthur Flour. If you don’t already know, the KAF brand flours and products are the absolute best. After years of using their products, recipes, and tips, I thought it was time to make the trip to the Baker’s Store and Education Center in Norwich, Vermont. We used this Baguette Recipe.

Baguettes use a pre-fermentation or “poolish”, which is a mix of equal parts water and flour, with a pinch of yeast, that ferments at room temperature for 15 hours. The poolish we used in class was made the day before. The poolish is then mixed with more flour, water, salt, and yeast.

We used plastic scrapers to do the mixing, which worked well to cut into the dough and combine thoroughly. The written instructions said to mix into “a shaggy mess” - I think it looks pretty shaggy and messy. The baguette dough needs to be relatively wet, so I poured in a bit more water.

This is my dough after pulling and stretching it. Working the dough develops the gluten and enhances the flavor. That was the most fun, although it requires some patience to get the technique right, but then I developed a rhythm and it was quite enjoyable. 

After the mixing, the dough needs to rise for an hour and a half. Then it’s time for the shaping. This was also a technique process, and it is difficult to explain without diagrams, so my apologies if this is not clear. The dough is shaped into a rectangle and patted down. Then, the top 1/3 is folded onto itself, then the bottom 1/3. Now the process is repeated, except this time the dough is pulled and sealed onto itself using the heal of your hand. 

I am finishing this baguette. Rolling it back and forth to smooth out the shape. 

The baguettes are placed on a clouche, which is a special non-stick towel used in bread making. The bread needs to rest for an additional 30-40 minutes. 

There almost ready to bake, but first is another technique - scoring the loaves to allow the bread to expand and to enhance the appearance. This was not too easy for me, we used a lame, which is essentially a razor on a stick. The technique involved slicing the loaf quickly and evenly, making the cuts just deep enough, and spaced just right. I will need lots of practice to get this right.

The baguettes were baked in the huge oven behind the rack in the picture. We learned how to create a sufficient substitution using our home ovens - preheat at 500 degrees for 30 minutes, place the baking stone on the upper shelf and a cast iron skillet on the lower shelf. At 30 minutes, pour 1 cup of boiling water in the skillet, it will create instant steam, and place the loaves on the stone. Turn the oven to 450 degrees and bake for 20-25 minutes. 

We sampled a loaf - it was warm, perfectly crusty on the outside, and soft and flavorful in the inside. Fortunately, we were able to bring 5 loaves home with us, unfortunately for my wallet, I was compelled to make my 3rd stop in the Baker’s Store and purchase everything I would need to make bread at home.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Nothing makes me happier than baking something pretty, and you can’t get much prettier than pink cupcakes with pink frosting! I went to Costco a few days ago to stock up on some baking supplies. While there, I picked up a huge container of strawberries, perfect for making these Strawberry Cupcakes. The recipe is Martha Stewart’s Strawberry Cupcakes  

First step: cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla until pale and fluffy. 

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well to incorporate each. Next, add half of the pre-sifted flours, baking powder, and salt. Pour in one cup of milk, then the remaining flour mixture. 

Fold in 2 cups of chopped Strawberries by hand. My advice is to chop all the strawberries before mixing any of the ingredients, it took forever!

Ready for the oven! This recipe yields 34 cupcakes (I ended up with 39 and I did accidentally overfill a couple) so be prepared to line 3 trays with cups. 

Time to whip up the frosting. I am making a simple butter cream frosting. To make the frosting, dissolve 3/4 cup sugar in 1/2 cup boiling water. Using an electric mixer, whip the sugar syrup and 1/4 cup meringue powder until soft peaks form. Next, add flavoring of choice (I used vanilla extract), 4 cups powdered sugar, followed by 1 1/2 cups butter. 

I added 1/3 cup of pureed strawberries for flavor and color. 

I piped tall peaks to accommodate the strawberry slice topper, since it each will get smooshed down a bit. 

Perfect! 

I sampled a cupcake (the ugliest one, of course) and it was delicious. The cake was moist and the strawberry chunks added a burst of flavor. The frosting was light and fluffy, not too sweet, with a fresh strawberry flavor. My office mates are in for a treat tomorrow morning!

Lemon Creme Cake

It’s finally feeling like spring here in the D.C. area! The warm and sunny weather turns my desires from heavy desserts to light and fruity treats. I have a thing for lemon desserts; I can’t get enough lemon in my cakes, puddings, pies, ice cream, cookies, and bars - so bright, crisp, and delicious! I went to my favorite recipe resource: King Arthur Flour for their Lemon Custard Cake recipe.
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This is me and my new “Maryann” style cake pan, which is perfect for a light and fruity custard cake. The pan is 8” and has an indented center that will hold fillings and fruit. 

The cake looks like it turned out great. Although there is no intended recipient, I would feel guilty cutting into it all by myself. Any takers? 

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

For my good friend Michelle’s birthday, I wanted to make her a treat that she would love, and one that could be easily transported and served in the office. She is partial to anything involving peanut butter and chocolate, so I decided on Devil’s Food Cupcakes with peanut butter filling and frosting. Also, I had been spying Reese’s new mini cups in the supermarket, and I was dying to use them for something - preferably as sprinkles!
I mixed up and baked the cakes, using a trusty recipe from my Martha Stewart Cookbook. As soon as they cooled, I cored out the center for the filling.



These darn cores!!! So yummy, I can’t help but eat a handful - still warm and so chocolaty and moist.



For the filling, I used straight creamy peanut butter. The frosting I made consisted of cream cheese, powered sugar, peanut butter, and whipped cream. So unique, fluffy and delicious. For the finished product I piped the frosting and topped with a sprinkle of the Reese’s mini cups.



They were as delicious as they were cute! Michelle loved them, and were enjoyed by all who attended our office celebration. I enjoyed receiving numerous emails through the day with praise of the cupcakes, it made my day to know that people enjoyed and appreciated them. It’s one of the reasons why I LOVE to bake.

Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This recipe is from my favorite recipe library on the King Arthur Flour website. You can read the full recipe here.Oatmeal raisin cookies are so delicious and versatile that they can be eaten as dessert, as a snack, and can even be considered a breakfast item. I prefer this recipe because of the extra flavors in the cookie – the allspice, ginger, and honey give this ordinary cookie a unique flavor.

I attempted this recipe a couple of weeks ago and quickly realized that I needed a do-over. Lessons learned from the first attempt:

1.   There is such a thing as a raisin that’s too big. It was kind of gross to bite into a nice soft cookie and get assaulted by a big juicy raisin. My fix: chop the raisins before adding to the dough.

2.   The cookie flow rate. The recipe says to chill the dough for at least an hour before baking, but doing this kept the butter too cold, and when baked, the cookies did not spread. I was left with trays of ‘cookie balls’ (still tasted fine though). My fix: a ten-minute chill just to firm up the butter.

My first step was to chop the raisins. I am not a big fan of raisins, the flavor is great but the texture is not, hence the reason why I want to cut down the size of the raisin for this cookie. My desired results would be for a cookie that has an equal flavor and texture with every bite.

 

For the dough: the butter, sugars, and flavorings were mixed, and the egg, honey, flour, oats and raisins were added. It’s important to use ‘quick-cooking’ oats for this cookie; otherwise the texture of the cookie will be very different. My dough was very soft (more than my first attempt) so I did end up refrigerating it for 30 minutes. The extra moisture may have been the result of chopping the raisins, because the moisture of the raisins was released into the dough.

All done chilling - it’s time to fire up the oven! The baking sheets were lined with parchment paper and with my trusty scoop ready, I filled the first 2 trays. A cookie scoop is the best investment ever, drop cookies are a cinch, and all the cookies end up being a uniform size and shape. I watched the cookies in the oven closely, since I did not want either ‘cookie balls’ or ‘mini-oatmeal raisin pancakes’. At 10 minutes, they were almost perfect – a good spread, not over-done, not-under done.

This batch turned out much better than my first one. Their appearance, taste, and texture all improved. Practice does make perfect, and I will need to practice this one at least a couple more times.

The 'Darkside' of Brownies

Brownies in a box are awesome, and oh-so-cheap and convenient. So why make them from scratch? Because they are even better! I have a wonderful recipe for Dark Chocolate Brownies that turn out fudgy and chewy with a little rise for a cakey texture; it’s the perfect brownie for everyone’s tastes, including mine. I made this recipe a couple times before, and have had many compliments from my trusty taste-testers (my office co-workers).  This recipe is surprisingly easy, so in my 2 free-hours of the evening, I spent it doing something fun.

I began by melting 2 sticks of butter and 2 cups of sugar on the stove top. This will melt the sugar and create a flaky crust on the top of the baked brownies. While the mixture heats on the stove, I mixed 4 eggs, 1 ¼ cups cocoa, vanilla, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder (to add to the depth of the cocoa) in my mixer.

Now is time to add the butter/sugar mixture to the cocoa mix. The batter is smooth and shiny at this point. Next, I added 1 ½ cups of flour, a bag of chocolate chips, and 1 ½ cups chopped walnuts (brain food – a girl’s gotta try to add something redeeming to this recipe!).

The batter is super thick and chunky with nuts and chocolate chips, so it was difficult to spread evenly in the pan. After a quick 30 minutes in the oven, and they are perfectly done, soft in the middle and crispy on the edges. Now the real test: can I take a picture of the finished product, and not try one? Nope, but now I can serve my goodies with confidence!

The brownies turned out perfectly - notice the flaky crust on top, the moist-almost-gooey center and the melted chocolate chips. Oh-so delicious!

Lemony Cupcakes

On this quiet Mother's Day, what a better way to pass the time by doing what generations of mothers have been doing – bake something yummy! Recently I received some new goodies that I have been wanting to try – special cake flour, lemon oil, and a tool that pops the center of a cupcake out so you can fill it with special fillings (think Hostess chocolate cupcakes). Today’s recipe – White cake with butter cream frosting. The plan is to modify the cupcakes to create a lemon center with lemony butter cream frosting.

I love cupcakes, and I feel that my cupcakes are getting better and better with every batch made.  This morning I made the trip to the grocery store to pick up a couple missing ingredients – full-fat yogurt, heavy whipping cream, and lemon curd. Anytime you bake, preparation is key. Unfortunately, I forgot to check the ingredients for the frosting, but luckily I had just enough butter and powdered sugar, but no lemons. Not to worry, I have my new lemon oil that should work just fine. Yes, the plan was to make ‘lemon’ cupcakes, and I really did forget to buy lemons.

This recipe uses the ‘paste’ method for the cake. That means all of the dry ingredients are mixed first, then the butter is added to create a paste-like mixture. Then 5 eggs are added and beaten in one at a time. Finally a cup of yogurt with the flavorings is beaten in. The standard flavorings are vanilla extract and almond extract; I added lemon oil to give the cake a slight lemon flavor. The technique used for making the cake will affect the outcome. Cakes are really tricky, if you beat the additions for too long, you will get a tough and dense cake. Not long enough and the cake has a course texture. It’s very difficult to gage the right timing, but with practice, I have learned a good balance.

The cupcakes baked up perfectly – well, almost. Since the cake is so white, it is hard to tell when they are done. I kept checking them at about the right time, and since they were so white, I assumed that they were not done yet. A minute later, I realized my mistake and pulled them from the oven in the nick of time. Only a couple cupcakes were brown on the edges. Yikes!

After the cupcakes cooled (on a rack – if left in the muffin tin, the cake sweat will cause the cakes to become rubbery, and no one likes rubbery cakes!), I used my handy-dandy new ‘cupcake corer’ . It was easy to do, and BONUS – I was left with a bowlful of cupcake sweet-spots :) I wanted to try a couple of techniques for a lemon filling; the first one I made a lemon-pudding using standard Jell-O brand pudding mix with one cup of heavy whipping cream and ¾ cup of milk. This makes a richer, thicker pudding that is great for cake and tart fillings. The second version was easy, a spoon of Lemon Curd in the center. Lemon curd is amazing, it’s like lemon jelly and is usually spread on biscuits and other breakfast goodies, and it makes a perfect filling for my cakes.

I filled half the batch with each filling, and topped each with a healthy piping of butter cream frosting. Since I forgot to buy lemons, I relied on lemon oil for the frosting, which was not sufficient. There was a light flavor, but I was aiming for the tart bite of lemon.

Now for the taste test: the lemon curd version was definitely the winner. I brought a couple over to a friend’s apartment for a second opinion, and he agreed with my assessment. While the pudding version was good, the frosting flavor drowned out the lemon pudding and would be a good cupcake for someone who does not like the crisp, real lemon flavor. On the other hand, the lemon curd has a wonderful tart flavor that made the cupcake. The flavor was well-balanced with the frosting, however, I would like even more curd per cupcake. The cake of the cupcake was super moist and delicious, in fact, it’s the most tender and moist cake I have ever made from scratch. Can’t wait to make some other versions of these cupcakes with other fruit flavors!