Pumpkin Pie

I had some leftover pate sucre from making a strawberry custard tart a while ago. I found low-fat sweetened condensed milk and some pumpkin on sale at the grocery store, so pie it is!

Pie crust does not have to be round!! Really...!


Pumpkin, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, 2 eggs, and sweetened condensed milk. Topped with pie crust cutouts dusted with cinnamon.


Fresh from the oven!

No-Knead Bread revisited

For this iteration I used 2.5 c white flour and .5 c of whole wheat flour. I liked it a lot -- gave the bread a nice color and nutty flavor. I also let the bread rise again after shaping. It made the bread beautifully spongy.

2.5 c white flour
.5 c whole wheat flour
.25 tsp yeast
1.25 tsp salt


1.5 c warm water

Cover, let sit 12-18 hours. Top was sprayed with canola pam.


Shape into a ball, let rise 2 hours. Towel is sprinkled with whole wheat flour.


Plopped into 475 oven, dutch oven and pizza stone preheated 1 hr.


After 30 min, placed on pizza stone to brown, 10 min.


It's like, so good man!
Spongy, moist, perfect flavor. Gotta try this w/ some sourdough! The crust was perfectly crispy and chewy.

Flourless chocolate cake

I wanted a quick dessert that was not heavy at all.

Melted chocolate and butter:

Dusted spring form pan (coated with a quick spray of Pam) with cocoa powder:


Mmmm melty:

Whisked it into eggs, cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla:


Poured into pan:

Baked for about forty minutes:


Couldn't get it off the spring form bottom, but it looks nice:


Served with banana slices and some hot mulled cider. Going to have to bring the leftovers to work, because this is dangerous to have in the house!

Who needs bread?

I don't -- not anymore!

I didn't take pics of the beginning of the process, just the end, but I'll be making this one again -- and again and again so I will document the steps later. This is so easy it feels like a crime.

Mix
3 c flour
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt

Add
1 1/2 c water

Glop the mixture together, once it comes together, it's DONE.

Leave the mixture (covered) for 12-18 hours.

Shape into a ball, cover with a dash of whole wheat flour, bake covered in a pre-heated dutch oven (or cast iron) @ 500/30 mins. Take out and finish for another 10-15, on a pizza stone is nice. NO KNEADING!! What!!!!

Injera Starter, Day 1

I've read conflicting instructions on how to make a really nice sourdough starter for injera. I decided to go with the recipe in my current favorite cookbook: The Soul of New Cuisine. Basically, 1:1 teff to water, let sit for three days. It's gonna be interesting.

Golden Semolina Batard

This bread's flour is only semolina -- durum semolina. Light golden colored, grainy, and delicious. It makes a very thick and crunchy crust and a very soft crumb. (The container in this picture is a Polly-O Ricotta cheese container from my grandparents. Just mentioning that in case a Salerno reads this post ;) )

The starter is allowed to ferment first -- the flour, water and yeast are covered by a blanket of flour+salt. I like to leave it outside in the sun to rise,


The starter has fermented and bubbled up out of the flour blanket,

After the whole mixture is gently combined, it is kneaded and allowed to rise until doubled,



It is then turned out into a batard/torpedo shape, risen again and then baked,


And here it is plated, topped with sweet butter and a drizzle of honey,

Pan de Sal

I've started to experiment making Filipino food, and pan de sal seemed pretty straightforward and I had all the ingredients on hand -- yeast, water, salt, flour (King Arthur unbleached white all-purpose).

After proofing the yeast,



Kneading together the flour+salt and proofed yeast,



Then I kneaded the dough until silky and stretchy, about 10 minutes (yeah, by hand, ouch),


Let rise until double,


Shape into logs and then cut into rounds,


And let the rounds double in size, and then bake, (some are sprinkled with Hawaiin sea salt),


Yum!

White Sandwich Bread

This is a shot of my second attempt at a basic white sandwich loaf. This one is actually 1/3 whole wheat white flour.

The book I've been studying from is The Bread Bible. It's a fantastic book with lots of detailed theory and history about the making of bread. Many cultures are represented in this book, which I really appreciate.

A tip I have for this loaf: too much whole wheat lends a sour or bitter note to it. I wouldn't go above 1/3.