Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]
I want to make biscuits! 
I've never had enormous success with biscuits and that is my secret shame. I am a woman of the South. The ability to make great biscuits should be pulsing through the blood in my veins. But alas, that gift evidently skipped a generation or two, because goodness knows I've struggled until recently with making biscuits that weren't suitable only for rock skipping out on the pond. However, I finally managed to achieve a really good measure of success with the recipe below! 
I am, however, still on the hunt for the perfect biscuit recipe. So if you have one, shoot it to me.
Here's the recipe that I use to make biscuits. It's actually quite good.
Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. to 3/4 tsp. salt (I think a full teaspoon of salt is a tad too much).
1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. cold shortening/lard
1/4 cup + 2 Tbs. cold butter
1 cup cold buttermilk (You may need a little bit more or use a tad less).
Additional melted butter for brushing on biscuits
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening and butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Like this:
For a larger image of what the crumbs should look like, click here.
Slowly add the buttermilk to the mixture, stirring gently. You may use a little more or a little less buttermilk. I ended up using the whole cup, but use your own judgement as necessary.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it together gently. Be careful not to overwork the dough or you'll end up with tough, dense biscuits. Like a brick. 
Using a floured rolling pin, lightly and gently roll out the dough. (I actually didn't roll the dough more than twice and just pressed it out with my hands for the most part.) Roll the dough out to a 1/2 inch in thickness, or a bit more for high, fluffy biscuits.
With a floured biscuit cutter, cut the biscuits, using a straight downward motion without twisting. Place biscuits on a prepared cookie sheet. Gather up the dough scraps that are left and gently press them together in order to cut more biscuits. Place them on the cookie sheet as well. Have the biscuits touching or nearly touching for soft-sided ones. Like this:
I then brushed melted butter on top of them before placing them in the oven. This gave them a lovely buttery flavor.
Bake the biscuits 15-20 minutes until golden. They should come out looking something like this:
After I removed them from the oven, I brushed them again with melted butter.
The inside of the biscuit should be soft, light, and fluffy.
That's it! It's really, really easy once you get the hang of it.
I was really impressed with how easy this was, as well as how lovely they came out. They ended up being the perfect delivery system for red raspberry jam. Truly, it is the jam of all jams.
Next time, I'm going to try this recipe (perhaps minus the sugar), and see how it comes out. It looks really good.
I'm also going to try making these at a higher oven temperature, say 400 degrees, and seeing what happens there too. I may add more baking powder too. We shall see.
The end.
Labels: biscuits, raspberry jam
I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but I have this strong desire to have a bakery one day. It is, dare I say, the thing that I am passionate about. So, having this love for baking and baked goods, I like to visit bakeries whenever I get the chance. Unfortunately, there are not a great many of them in my neck of the woods, so I don't get that chance often. Today, however, was different. *woohoo!*
I was alarmed when I got it home and dipped my finger into the frosting on the top of the cake. Talk about a serious flavor of coffee. And not only was it strong, but it was harsh as well. I was not pleased. 
But instead of tossing the sucker straight into the trash, I decided to be bold and try the cake itself, and I am so glad I did. This cake is so good and I'm so surprised that I can say that. Does it taste like coffee? Yes. But it has only a hint of it, and that hint of coffee blends so well with the other flavors in the cake. There's balance, which I'm grateful for, let me tell you. Because if this cake had been all coffee, it would have gone straight in the trash.
That is why I want to try creating a napoleon. That is much easier than the 7-layer opera.
Labels: bakeries, cake, chocolate, coffee, l'opera, napoleon, opera, pastry, recipe
Labels: cheese curds, fries, gravy, poutine
Bruschetta Burger I loved the pesto. It was really garlicky and the flavors melded well. And now having had a very positive first experience with pesto, I'm now trying to think of excuses to make my own. 
I need to figure out what one does with pesto. And I shall. Also, the garlic fries were great too. I'd never had garlic fries before, which was also a motivation for ordering this burger, so that was a new experience as well. So yay for me for trying new food combinations!
If I do make the rolls tomorrow, perhaps tomorrow will be the day when I actually learn to knead dough correctly. I mean, stranger things have happened, right? Labels: burgers, cinnamon rolls, food, fries, Tyler Florence
So I have this thing for making fried chicken, right. I don't know exactly why it's there. I think it's just that it's such a classic staple of both Southern and African-American kitchens. Maybe that's what mystifies me about it. Perhaps that's what motivates me in my quest to find the fried chicken recipe that is above all fried chicken recipes. And so I've always wanted to be able to do it well, but that hasn't always been the case. *laugh* Even now, I still struggle to get it right.
*sigh*
So I decided that I would try to tackle it again this week. I'm always looking for excuses to break out my deep fryer, which I absolutely adore, and yet rarely get a chance to use. And since I hadn't made fried chicken since last Easter, now seemed about as good a time as any to give it a go.
You know, maybe that's my problem. Maybe I don't cook it often enough. Maybe I just don't care enough. Maybe that's why I can hear the chickens laughing at me all the way from the farm whenever I give it an attempt.
Anyway, you would not believe the number of fried chicken recipes that I have in my possession. I started collecting them two or three years ago, all in the hopes of finding the right recipe. You know, the recipe.
The one that knocks people's socks off.
The one that people dream about.
The one that has everyone asking for your recipe, which you quite naturally refuse to share, lest your "secret" be discovered.
Unfortunately, I have yet to find the recipe so my search continues.
When frying chicken, one thing that I like to do beforehand is soak it in buttermilk for at least 24 hours in order to tenderize the meat. I actually ended up soaking it for almost 72 hours, since I didn't get around to cooking it the day that I thought I would. Oh! I also decided to try seasoning the buttermilk, to see if that helped infuse flavor into it. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I dunno. I'd like to think it worked, thus I will do it again.
Anyway, I'm not going to get into how I seasoned the chicken or the flour since it doesn't really matter. The chicken was really good, not great, but really good. Definitely my best to date. The problem is I'm not looking for really good fried chicken. I'm looking for great fried chicken! Excellent fried chicken! Fried chicken that can kick the Colonel's butt up and down, up and down the street. That's the fried chicken that I'm looking for! I mean, really people, I'm not asking for a lot. Just perfection. Is perfection too much to ask for?!?!
*sigh* Evidently so. Ah well.
Oh! One thing I do want to mention is that one thing I do have great success at is producing a crispy fried chicken. Not everyone likes a crispy fried chicken, but it was actually a requirement during my recipe haunt. Luckily, I came across a recipe, maybe by (Isn't He Pretty?) Tyler Florence, that called for adding cornstarch into the flour and seasonings mix that you bread the chicken in. Surprisingly enough, it worked beautifully. Cornstarch added to flour produces a wonderfully crisp chicken coating. So if you didn't know that, now you do. :-)
Anyway, I simply cannot close this post without asking if any of you readers have a faithful, tried and true, "make you wanna slap yo' momma" fried chicken recipe? If so, please, please, PLEASE do share it with me. Perhaps your recipe is the one recipe that will bring my (thus far) fruitless quest to an end.
Until then, the chicken quest continues.
Labels: fried chicken
Devil's Food White-Out Cake
Recipe courtesy of Dorie Greenspan and found in Baking: From My Home to Yours, Houghton Mifflin 2006.
(These are pics of the cake I baked)
This is a dig-into kind of cake, not one meant to be cut daintily or eaten with restraint. The three layers are devilishly dark and chocolaty, chocolaty, chocolaty, from cocoa, bittersweet chocolate and semisweet chocolate.
Freshly made or at room temperature, they are moist and a little fluffy; chilled, they're still moist, but denser and firmer, very much like a super-fudgy brownie. While the layers could be filled and frosted with almost any thick frosting, my favorite is a billowy, sweet marshmallow one. The flavor and texture are perfect, and the cake looks spectacular when it's generously fluffed and when one of the coal-dark layers is broken into crumbs and pressed into the frosting. Finished like that, it makes a grand birthday cake, whether it's for a kid's birthday or a celebration calling for twenty or more candles.
Makes makes 12 servings
For the cake:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour *(I used 1 and 1/3 cup + 3 Tablespoons cake flour instead of all-purpose flour).
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk, at room temperature *(I used buttermilk).
1/2 cup boiling water
4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped, or 2/3 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips *(I used semi-sweet).
*Note: I also added 1/2 cup of vegetable oil to the recipe. I mixed it in with the buttermilk.
For the filling and frosting:
1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 large)
1 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract *(I did not use this much vanilla. Instead, I used 2 teaspoons because of some reviews I read that mentioned this being too much vanilla for their taste).
GETTING READY: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-x-2-inch round cake pans, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess and line the bottoms with parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.
TO MAKE THE CAKE: Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugars and continue to beat for another 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla; don't be concerned if the mixture looks curdled.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate. When it is fully incorporated, add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, adding the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients); scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix only until the ingredients disappear into the batter. At this point, the batter will be thick, like frosting. Still working on low speed, mix in the boiling water, which will thin the batter considerably. Switch to a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl and stir in the chopped chocolate. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops with the rubber spatula.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pans at the midway point. When fully baked, the cakes will be springy to the touch and a thin knife inserted into the centers will come out clean. Don't worry if the tops have a few small cracks. Transfer the cake pans to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unmold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up. (The cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.)
When you are ready to fill and frost the cake, inspect the layers. If the cakes have crowned, use a long serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion to even them. With the same knife, slice each layer horizontally in half. Set 3 layers aside and crumble the fourth layer; set the crumbs aside.
TO MAKE THE FILLING AND FROSTING: Put the egg whites in a clean, dry mixer bowl or in another large bowl. Have a candy thermometer at hand.
Put the sugar, cream of tartar and water in a small saucepan and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, cover the pan and boil for 3 minutes. Uncover and allow the syrup to boil until it reaches 242 degrees F on the candy thermometer. While the syrup is cooking, start beating the egg whites.
When the syrup is at about 235 degrees F, begin beating the egg whites on medium speed with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer. If the whites form firm, shiny peaks before the syrup reaches temperature, reduce the mixer speed to low and keep mixing the whites until the syrup catches up. With the mixer at medium speed, and standing back slightly, carefully pour in the hot syrup, pouring it between the beater(s) and the side of the bowl. Splatters are inevitable -- don't try to scrape them into the whites, just carry on. Add the vanilla extract and keep beating the whites at medium speed until they reach room temperature, about 5 minutes. You should have a smooth, shiny, marshmallowy frosting. Although you could keep it in the fridge in a pinch, it's really better to use it right now.
TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE: Put a bottom layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or on a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Using a long metal icing spatula, cover the layer generously with frosting. Top with a second layer, cut side up, and frost it. Finish with the third layer, cut side down, and frost the sides and top of the cake. Don't worry about smoothing the frosting -- it should be swirly. Now, cover the entire cake with the chocolate cake crumbs, gently pressing the crumbs into the filling with your fingers.
Refrigerate the cake for about 1 hour before serving. (If it's more convenient, you can chill the cake for 8 hours or more; cover it loosely and keep it away from foods with strong odors.)SERVING: I think the cake is best at room temperature or just cool, but many people prefer it cold (the texture of the cake becomes fudgier after it has been refrigerated). No matter the temperature, the cake is so pretty it should be cut at the table, so bring it out on a platter and cut it into generous wedges using a serrated knife and a sawing motion.
STORING: The frosted cake can be stored in the refrigerator for
up to 2 days; let it stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving, or
longer if you have the time.
Labels: baking, cake, chocolate, dorie greenspan
