BBD #16: Bread with Cheese

Bread and cheese. Bread. And. cheese. Bread and cheese. Oh, that is just so unfair. How could I possibly pass that up?!? We're talking about someone who could potentially live on bread and cheese. The standard beginning to all of our meals when I go back to my parents' house is cheese and crackers. As in a half dozen different types of cheese and about the same number of cracker varieties. We're talking about someone for whom the mocking "Do you want some pasta with that parmesan?" came very often while growing up (and being grown up).

So. Un. Fair.


Which is why, when I did bake my bread with cheese, I used no less than three different types of cheese - almost every type that I currently had in my fridge (drat - I just realized that I had feta in there too!). Extra sharp Wisconsin cheddar, havarti with dill, and parmesan. Oh, it just makes me happy thinking about all the cheese that's still left in my fridge for me to snack on later tonight.


I used a base bread from a bread book that my dad got me for Christmas - the first recipe I've made out of it. And while it didn't follow the charming habit that many of the breads in there do of baking in a coffee can, it was astoundingly good. An Old Order Amish bread, with a dense and soft crumb, perfect for sandwiches. With a dash of toasted wheat germ and some wheat gluten, it matched perfectly with each cheese. I divided it into quarters after the initial kneading and kneaded each type of cheese into its own portion of dough, leaving one bit plain. Each quarter was halved after the first rise and placed in a spot in my little mini loaf pan before baking.


Once baked? Well, I probably should have topped each of these with their respective cheeses, but I didn't exactly keep track of what cheese I put in what part of dough. The cheddar was slightly orange and the havarti had little bits of dill poking out, but I couldn't see which was parmesan and which was plain before baking. After, I found the different levels of browning very neat - little flecks of darkly browned cheese on the parmesan ones, very dark and evenly browned cheddar ones, and the palest was the plain! Each one, while different, made for perfect breakfasts, snacks, and dinner accompaniments. And now, five days later, they're all gone. *sigh*


Thanks to Temperance at High on the Hog for hosting this month's BBD; I'll be sending this on to Susan for her Yeastspotting too!

Old Order Amish Cheese Bread (adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads)

2 1/2 - 3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
scant 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups hot water
scant 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon wheat gluten
1 Tablespoon toasted wheat germ
grated cheddar, havarti, and parmesan (as much as you'd like - I used ~2 Tbs each)

In a large mixing bowl, measure out 1 cups flour, the yeast, sugar, salt, water, oil, gluten, and wheat germ. Stir together with a wooden spoon. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until a rough mass has formed. Turn the dough out onto a counter and continue kneading until the dough is elastic but not sticky. I kneaded for about 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into four portions (each approximately 5 oz) and knead each cheese into its respective quarter of the dough. Leave the last quarter plain. Grease four small bowls and place the doughs in them for the first rise. Cover and allow the dough to rise 1 1/2 hours or until doubled.

Turn out each portion of dough and divide each in half. Shape into loaves and place each into one of eight greased mini loaf pans. Cover and proof for about one hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F 20 minutes before the dough is done proofing.

Put the loaves in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 350 degrees F after 10 minutes. Continue baking for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped.

Remove the bread from the oven and tip out of the pans. Allow to cool on a rack for at least an hour before slicing.

January DB Challenge: Tuiles

Have I mentioned how much the boyfriend loves cannoli? Because dear lord, does that boy love cannoli. Fresh, storebought, frozen, any way he can get them. I, on the other hand, had never had a cannoli before meeting him. And boy, did I not know what I was missing. Crunchy shell, creamy filling, bits of chocolate or pistachio... Those Italians know what they're doing with desserts.

So when I found out that the Daring Baker challenge for the month was tuiles (sweet! savory! cheesy! nougat-y!), I only had one idea - cannoli. Now, that required some jury rigging, because I was not buying cannoli forms in order to shape the shells. Enter: an empty paper towel core. I cut off a 3 inch section, cut it in half lengthwise (so you have two, well, yule log shaped pieces of cardboard), and rolled up one of the halves so that the diameter was around 3/4". A bit of strong packing tape wrapped around the whole thing keeps it in shape and keeps the tuiles from sticking while forming them. The tuiles were spread out using a 2 1/2" stencil that I cut out of cardboard from a cereal box.


Technical things aside, these were amazing. I only made the sweet tuiles, but they were just too good - crunchy, slightly sweet, and scented with almond because I used almond extract instead of vanilla extract. Filled with a mixture of ricotta, powdered sugar, a dash of vanilla, and a generous sprinkling of mini chocolate chips, they definitely didn't last long. As in, I had one, and the boyfriend had the rest. In about 3 minutes.

I'd say that was a success, wouldn't you? Thank you Zorra and Karen for picking such a fantastic recipe! Even though it wasn't the bread I was hoping for :)


The red tape: This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angelique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

TWD: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

Some things are pretty darned awesome as-is. Others, well, get better with age. George Clooney, for one. Definitely better with age. Gingerbread is like the George Clooney of cakes and quickbreads. The day it's baked, you don't taste much of anything. It's the second and third days, when the ginger has permeated the whole thing, that things really get cooking. And your palms start sweating. Pulse racing. Oh wait. Fine, fine, back to the cake!


Even better? There are just so many ways to serve this cake. I know Dorie chose to enrobe it in a bittersweet chocolate glaze, but I needed something a little different. Whipped cream. Layer cakes filled with whipped cream. Cute little mini layer cakes, made with a round cookie cutter after baking the cake up in a pyrex. (Don't forget the sprinkles!)


What to do with all the scraps though? While I suggested little parfaits in wine tasting-sized wine glasses, the boyfriend had other ideas.


Cake scraps + whipped cream + spoon = perfect bite. Or at least in his mind, apparently. And while I got a funny photo of him trying to run and hide from the camera while devouring his bite, he complained so pathetically that I decided not to embarrass him on the blog :-P

Last Week: Pear Surprise Cake
Next Week: Korova Cookies (this will make the third time these things have made it onto the blog - think I like them?)

Chocolate Cupcake Bites

I'm a sucker. A sucker for swirls of frosting, colorful sprinkles, and dense, dense chocolatey goodness. So why is it that these little cupcake bites have been sitting in queue for over three months? Travesty, I tell you! Either that, or it's a sign of how possessive I am of certain things. Cute, little, chocolatey things, happily sprinkled with little pastel butterflies or bright flowers.


These came after a failed attempt at cupcake bites - red velvet, in fact. I used a box mix (horrors!), and every time I went to take pictures of them, I got irritated at how red my fingers got. That. is. not. natural. Pretty, yes. Natural, not so much. So I went on a small hiatus from these little goodies, until I made a chocolate cake that rose so much it caved in near the end of baking. Since it would be a little difficult to make the cake aesthetically pleasing in the form it was in, I went to a backup plan. Cupcake bites, with homemade cream cheese frosting. And sprinkles.


I did mention the sprinkles, right?


Because that's nearly the best part for me.


SPRINKLES!!!


*ahem* May I take this moment to thank you for putting up with my craziness? Because seriously, you're super. As I tell the boyfriend over and over, I wouldn't date me.

TWD: Pear Surprise Cake

As in, SURPRISE, no berries! I decided to make this one a bit more seasonal and go with red wine poached pears for inside this week's TWD pick. And before I go any farther, there are some things that should be noted about this week's baking.


Note to self: Do not try to make this after getting next to no sleep because you just had to fly out to Baltimore for a friend's wedding. Both you, and the boyfriend, will be cranky. And that will mean that neither will be particularly tactful to each other.

Note to the boyfriend: Do not ever call something I make "interesting" after making that sort of face. Seriously, I know what you actually mean when you say that. It's akin to someone telling their friend that the girl he's been set up on a blind date with has a "nice personality." Just. don't.


Now, to clarify, I loved the red wine poached pears. Seriously, they were fantastic, and I used the poaching liquid instead of making a simple syrup to brush on the inside of the cake. Which was a bit fussy. The cake, that is. You see, I halved the recipe and put most of it in my small springform and the rest in a random ramekin (taste testing, ya know). They both rose beautifully until about 15 minutes in. Then the one in the springform fell. It was as if a meteor had entered my oven and beelined for that poor little cake. I almost cried (I told you I was really tired, right?).

But there's where the boyfriend redeemed himself. While I'm sitting there trying to figure out how to salvage this, most likely by making a parfait, he wanders over and says one simple thing. "Just cut it in half and flip the top half over. Then you have more room for the filling too."


Sometimes, they surprise you, don't they? So that's what I did, and it worked out perfectly. Now, I have to be honest - my favorite parts of this cake were the pears and the cake itself. Mostly the cake batter, because it tasted like marshmallows. The cream cheese filling and whipped cream topping were the guests at the party that you really wish hadn't come. So I filled, frosted, sliced, pictured, and then took it all apart and began eating the cake scraps and bits of poached pear. Which were seriously fabulous. So thank you Mary Ann!

Last Week: Corn and Pepper Muffins
Next Week: Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

Peanut Butter Korova Cookies

Okay, so these pictures do not in any way make up to all of you my inability to bake and ship each and every one of you a truckload of these cookies. Because some things are just meant to be. Destined. Like peanut butter and chocolate.

You see, while the boyfriend will say that his favorite flavor combo (dessert-wise) is chocolate and mint, I sort of have a gag reflex for that one. But peanut butter and chocolate? I melt. In fact, when I don't have the time to bake something, a spoonful of peanut butter topped with mini chocolate chips is one fantastic dessert stand-in. Or snack. Or breakfast. I go through inhuman amounts of peanut butter.

Which is why having two logs of these cookies sitting in my freezer was perfect. All I had to do was preheat the oven, slice a couple cookies off a log, bake, and enjoy. Man I love icebox cookies. Oh, and whenever I was feeling *ahem* a little impatient, I just sliced the cookies off and ate them frozen. Even that was fan-freaking-tastic.


By the way, I used TJ's mini peanut butter cups in these, but I used to be able to find Reese's mini peanut butter cup baking pieces (those were dangerous). Now I can't, and that makes me sad. Anyone know if they just discontinued them? I mean, TJ's are awesome, but there isn't as much pb filling and the filling is creamier, which made the cookies a bit oozy when they were right out of the oven.

Peanut Butter Korova Cookies (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours)

1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup mini peanut butter cups

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda together

Working with a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and peanut butter until smooth and creamy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.

Turn off the mixer. Pour the dry ingredients in, drape a kitchen towel over the bowl to keep flour from flying, and pulse the mixer on low a few times. Take the towel off and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, or just until the flour disappears. Don't worry if it looks a little crumbly - that contributes to the sandy texture of these cookies. Toss in the mini peanut butter cups and mix just until incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide in half. Working with one half at a time, shape into logs 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least three hours. They can be refrigerated up to three days or frozen up to two months.

To bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Slice the cookies using a thin sharp knife, making them 1/2 inch thick. If they crack, just squeeze the bits together - they'll bake up just fine. Arrange the rounds on the cookie sheets with at least one inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes. They won't look done, but will firm up outside of the oven. Transfer the sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies cool until they are just warm, at which point you can serve them.

Packed airtight, the baked cookies can be stored at room temperature for three days, or frozen up to two months.

Makes about 36 cookies.

TWD: Corn and Pepper Muffins

So while I was on my daily run, something occurred to me. Well actually, what occurred to me is what I think about while I'm running. And what I tend to watch when I run on a treadmill and there's a tv in front of me (seriously, best invention ever when you have to train for a half marathon indoors).

Food. Food Network. Baking. Dinner

I know, counterintuitive, isn't it? I mean, I'm running for several reasons: my mental sanity, my physique, and because I have nothing better to do. So the last one isn't quite true, or true at all, but it's the second one that really matters in this discussion. I run so that I can eat whatever the heck I want. Seconds? I'm there. Dessert? There's always room for dessert. Chocolate as a 10a work break? Totally kosher. But when I run for extended periods of time, all I'm thinking about is what I want to bake or cook next. Today, it was peanut butter cup brownies. Tomorrow, it might be gianduja bites.


All this makes me wonder if I just stopped running, if I'd stop baking too. And eating so much. Unfortunately, I've discovered what happens when I don't run - I go insane. I become distracted, frustrated, and weepy with mood swings. I guess I know what I'll need to do when I get into the latter phases of my life; I will just need to run my hot flashes away. Well, that doesn't make sense at all, but we'll get to that problem later.

Oh, and that brings me to another thought that I had while I was cooling down from my run. I was ecstatic when I pulled my second batch of these corn and pepper mini muffins (chosen by Rebecca) out of the oven because I had gotten that coveted domed muffin top. Which made me think later on (after eating a handful of them for lunch) that it was sort of mean of muffins. Muffin-topped muffins leading to muffin tops. Not very nice, are they?


As revenge, I think I'll just have to eat all of them. Because really, my thought processes are always completely rational. Perhaps I'll even up the revenge factor by subjecting them to the oven one more time. With pepper jack cheese on them.

I know, evil, right?

Last Week: French Pear Tart
Next Week: Berry Surprise Cake

TWD: French Pear Tart and my Blogiversary

You know, I feel like I should be complaining right now. Whining even. Something pathetic, along the lines of - "But when do I get to pick?" Because, friends, I didn't even get to pick my blogiversary recipe. I know! The horror! 365 stinking days of blogging, and I'm stuck with what -

Oh wait. What was that? Umm... scuse me while I hide under a table. Want to know why? It's Tuesdays with Dorie day. And TWD was basically 90% of why I started a blog. And let's just take a guess as to who picked the recipe this week.

No ideas? (Well, you wouldn't have one unless you're a TWD'er, and then I call cheating.) Dorie. Dorie Greenspan. Author of Baking from my home to yours. You know, the book that TWD was started because of? Yeah, she picked my blogiversary offering to you all, a French Pear Tart. So, um... thanks Dorie! And excuse me while I get over my beet red face (I hate all of you who blush in an attractive way, aka a non-fire engine way).


And oh my goodness, what a wonderful pick (she should know!). The almond cream? Yeah, I could have eaten that straight. And the standard tart dough was, as usual, fantastic. Although I made a note in my book because one instruction wasn't very clear - you really need to fully bake the crust before baking it with the filling, or else it doesn't fully crisp up and will be a bit greasy. I just popped them out of the tart pans, stuck them on a cookie sheet, and subjected them to a 400 degree oven for a few minutes (5-10) to crisp the crusts up.

And please excuse the less than stellar (not that I ever reach stellar) photography - I'm still monkeying around with the boyfriend's Christmas gift to me. Two Lowel Ego lights and a sweep, but I can currently only use one of the lights and a bounce card since a bulb was broken in the other light set. Things will get worse, but hopefully they'll get better soon.

Last Week: Not-So-Tall but Rather Creamy Gingerbread Cheesecake
Next Week: Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins (savory and quick, thank goodness!)

Mocha Hazelnut Macarons

A Happy New Year to you all! In the interest of starting anew and cleaning house, may I present my gift to you:

Mocha hazelnut macarons!


Getting onto my soapbox (entirely held up by a hefty dose of cold meds - thank you Sudafed), I must proclaim: I MADE MACARONS. AND THEY WERE TASTY. AND THEY HAD FEET. *ahem*


So it turns out that there are certain perks to working 7 out of every 14 days, and one of them is that during the week, when I have days off, there's not much to do but bake. Oh darn. So thus began my second attempt at macarons. You see, I attempted them once, but... umm... sorta didn't really know what the heck I was doing. At all. I didn't sift, I tried a more complicated meringue method, they didn't dry completely, I piped them too large, didn't bake them long enough, and ended up tossing all of the failed little meringues.

These little gems have been hanging about my blog draft list, just waiting for me to have the time to unveil them. I wanted to make it something special, or my post especially witty (ha!). Instead, I find myself just wistfully wishing I had some left. These suckers are TASTY. Now, that's partially because I'm a sugar addict, but it's also because I love the combination of coffee and chocolate. Add in some hazelnut, and I'm a happy girl. Add in the ability to be OCD about piping each of these into perfect 1 1/2" mounds in little rows, and I'm freaking ecstatic.

Mocha Hazelnut Macarons (adapted from Tartelette and Aran)

For the shells:
90 gr egg whites (about 3), aged 24 hrs
30 gr granulated sugar
200 gr powdered sugar
55 gr hazelnut meal
55 gr almond meal
2 tsp espresso powder

Sift together the nut meals, powdered sugar, and espresso powder. Twice if you're feeling like you need the insurance (which is what I do). In a stand mixer, whip the egg whites, adding sugar once they begin getting foamy. Continue whipping until you have a stiff, glossy meringue. Do not overwhip, or the meringue will dry out and become dull. Add the nut meal mixture to the meringue (sometimes I add the meringue to the nut meal, but that's harder to fold in), and begin folding the two together. Begin briskly, slowing down once everything is nearly incorporated. Do not overmix, or you will deflate the batter. It should flow "like magma" when finished. Pipe 1 1/2" mounds (possibly using a template) onto parchment lined baking sheets using a piping bag fitted with a plain tip. If they don't flatten on their own, wet a fingertip and pat down any "beaks" that form during piping. Allow to sit out for 30 minutes, or until the tops are no longer sticky when you lightly touch them with your fingertip. Bake at 300F for 12-14 minutes, longer if you pipe larger circles than 1 1/2". Let cool, and transfer shells to a cooling rack. If they stick, they probably were not baked long enough, so just add a couple minutes of bake time to the next batch. Pour a small amount of water underneath the parchment paper of stuck shells, let sit for a minute or two, then peel off any stubborn ones. Store unfilled cookies in a sealed container in the fridge or freezer. To assemble, pipe or dollop about a tablespoon of ganache on one cookie and top with another of similar shape and size.

For the ganache:
80 gr heavy cream
160 gr dark chocolate

Finely chop the dark chocolate. Heat the heavy cream until it just bubbles around the edges of the pan, and then pour over the chocolate. Let sit for a minute or two, then stir until smooth.