December 2010 Archives

This was an excellent personal pan pizza! It's kind of a ridiculous amount of work, but it really was delicious. Note that the pizza dough needs to be started the night before.

Pizza dough

10.1 oz. high gluten flour (or bread flour, or even all-purpose flour), chilled

0.22 oz. salt (a little less than 2 tsp.)

0.055 oz. instant yeast (about 1/2 tsp.)

1 oz. olive oil (a little more than 2 tbsp.)

7 oz. water, ice cold (40°F or less)

semolina flour for dusting

Stir together the flour, salt, and yeast in the mixer bowl. Stir in the oil and water with the paddle attachment at slow speed.

Switch to the dough hook and knead for 5 to 7 minutes. Dough should stick to the bottom of the bowl but not the sides. If it sticks to the sides, add flour. If it doesn't stick to the bottom, add a little water. I had to add a fair amount of additional flour and it was still quite sticky.

If using a double recipe you'd probably need a sheet pan, but for 3 dough balls I use a 10" cake pan. Lightly oil the pan.

Sprinkle semolina flour on a board and cut into 6 oz. servings using a dough scraper. Sprinkle with semolina flour and form into a ball. The dough is quite sticky, so you will probably need quite a bit. Add to the pan and lightly oil the balls of dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight or up to three days.

The balls of dough can also be frozen. I vacuum seal them, but you can just store then in plastic bags for up to 3 months.

Makes three 6 oz. pizza crusts.

From The Bread Baker's Apprentice, pp. 210-211. I highly recommend the book because it goes into much more detail than my brief steps above.

Pizza sauce

This is an excellent spicy pizza sauce, simple and much better than the stuff in a jar. Okay, you could probably get something similar by adding stuff to a jar of pizza sauce, but this really just requires ordinary pantry supplies and it's quick to cook.

1 14.5 oz. can of tomato sauce

2 tbsp. tomato paste

1 clove of garlic, minced

½ tsp. dried basil

½ tsp. fennel seed

½ tsp. dried oregano

½ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

Heat in a saucepan over medium-high heat until bubbling, then reduce the heat to simmer and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

I mostly used this recipe, though I omitted the sugar and the allspice.

This should make enough sauce for two personal pan pizzas. Extra sauce can be frozen.

Update 3/19/2012: I think it's necessary to re-cook frozen pizza sauce after defrosting it. It's just too liquid-y after defrosting. You can see that it's running off the crust here. Most of it evaporated, but at the expense of a much less crisp crust, even though I par-baked the crust first.

Pan pizza

Take a ball out of dough out of the refrigerator and let warm to room temperature for an hour. Form into a pizza crust and drape over a well oiled pan pizza pan.

Preheat the oven to 550°F.

I don't make pizza or pies very often, so mine wasn't pretty, but it was serviceable. The high-gluten flour does make the dough much easier to work with.

Par-bake the pizza crust for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and add sauce and filling. I filled my pizza with green pepper, onion, Italian sausage, and mushrooms.

Then add more sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese and freshly grated Parmesano Reggiano cheese.

Bake for 8 minutes longer.

I also have a recipe for a very similar pizza as more of a flatbread.

I have a weakness for Danish butter cookies. Also potato chips and dip. But in any case, the only time I dare to buy Danish butter cookies in the tin in the supermarket is at Christmas time, because I know I will eat them all. Quickly. And I'd feel bad about it.

One problem about liking to cook and having a well-equipped kitchen is that when you think to yourself, "I'd like a Danish butter cookie," after having several adult beverages you can just make Danish butter cookies.

(Okay, technically I could have walked to the store, and I walk to grocery stores 3 to 5 times a week, but it's really cold outside right now. It's 7°F!)

This recipe looked reasonable and I had all of the ingredients.

They turned out okay. I know they look more like peanut butter cookies but (1) I didn't feel like trying to make that crazy pretzel shaped butter cookie shape (2) I didn't have that coarse sugar and (3) I had those previously mentioned adult beverages.

I had three of them and they were not a bad cookie. They didn't taste like the cookies in the tins, possibly because they were fresh, moist and hot from the oven. They were also devoid of chemicals and preservatives. And I made them from King Arthur white whole wheat flour, so, in a crazy way, they were sort of healthy. Well, except for the two sticks of butter and cup of sugar...

This recipe makes one 1-pound loaf of very delicious and surprisingly soft whole wheat and multi-grain bread. I had some as toast for breakfast and it was delicious!

Soaker:

2.1 oz. whole wheat flour

3 oz. water at 70°F

Mix together, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature overnight.

Poolish:

3.4 oz. 9-grain flour

0.014 oz. instant yeast

3 oz. water at 70°F

Mix together only until the flour is hydrated, then cover with plastic wrap and let ferment 2 to 4 hours at room temperature. Then refrigerate overnight.

Dough:

2 oz. 9-grain flour

2.5 oz oz. white whole wheat, high gluten flour or bread flour

0.165 oz. salt

0.055 oz. instant yeast

0.75 oz. honey

0.25 oz. vegetable oil (such as canola)

0.825 oz. egg (half of a large egg), lightly beaten

When ready to make the bread, remove the poolish from the refrigerator 1 hour before and let warm toward room temperature.

In the electric mixer bowl, add the flour, salt and yeast. Then add the poolish, soaker, honey, oil and egg. Mix with the paddle attachment until combined, adjusting the consistency by adding flour or water if necessary. I added a couple tablespoons of flour as it was too moist and sticky.

The first time I made the recipe I used regular unbleached bread flour, but the second time I used King Arthur white whole wheat flour which worked very well. It's 100 % whole grain and high gluten, so it works well in this recipe.

Switch to the dough hook and knead for 8 or 9 minutes.

I removed the bread from the mixer and kneaded by hand for a few minutes on a floured board since the dough was still a little sticky. Spritz a bowl (can be the mixer bowl, though I used a fresh bowl) with oil. Add the dough ball and spritz the ball with oil.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours until doubled.

Shape into a loaf, place in a greased loaf pan, cover, and let rise at room temperature for 90 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotate, then bake for 15 to 30 minutes longer until the loaf sounds hollow and are 185°F to 190°F in the center, and golden brown.

Remove from the oven, release the loaf from the pan and let cook on a wire rack for 1 to 2 hours before slicing.

Makes one 1-pound loaf. Easily multiplies to make more loaves. In fact, the original recipe was for two loaves, which explains the "half an egg" thing.

This is a variation of the Whole Wheat Bread recipe from the excellent cookbook, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart.

I love Japanese-style curry, but it's a dish I've always had trouble eating it without gaining weight so I decided to finally do the math.

S&B Golden Curry mix is 110 calories per serving and is supposed to make 5 servings. There is no way I've ever gotten 5 servings, and that might be the source of the problem. I decided to try for 4 servings, or 138 calories per serving (just for the sauce base).

I've made this with chicken, veal, lamb, and beef, but in the interest of reduced calories I'm going with chicken. 3.2 oz. per serving or 12.8 oz. total. Also 138 calories per serving. Diced. (Actual amount used: 12.0 oz.)

Potato, 2.4 oz. per serving or 9.6 oz. total - 1 large potato. 58 calories per serving. (Actual amount used : 8.6 oz.)

Carrots, 1.1 oz. per serving or 4.3 oz. total - 2 medium carrots. 10 calories per serving. (Actual amount used : 5.5 oz.)

Onion, 0.9 oz. per serving or 3.8 oz. total - 1 medium. 9 calories per serving. (Actual amount used: 4.8 oz.)

Olive oil, 1 tbsp. total. 30 calories per serving.

Total per serving: 383 calories

Add in 1 cup of white sushi rice, 160 calories, and the meal is 545 calories.

This isn't too bad. It's less than shrimp scampi but higher than some dinners.

I'm pretty sure when I wasn't measuring I was eating way too large of a serving, and I think each serving probably had too much chicken and way too many potatoes.

Heat a shallow pot over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and the onion. Cook for a few minutes.

Add the carrots and cook for a few minutes.

Push the vegetables to the side, add the diced chicken and brown.

Add 20 oz. of water. Add the potatoes. Bring to a boil. Skim off excess foam.

Reduce the heat, cover, and and simmer for 20 minutes.

Dice the S&B Japanese curry mix, add to the pot, leave uncovered, and simmer for 5 minutes until fully dissolved, stirring to break up any clumps.

Season with soy sauce and black pepper.

Total size: 2 lb. 7.6 oz.. This works out out 9.9 oz. per serving, which sounds reasonable but when you actually divide it out looks small compared to what I used to eat!

Serve with rice (preferably Japanese sushi rice). Actually, it's supposed to be served over rice, but I prefer it side-by-side. Not touching.

Update 6/7/2012: It's also good made with lamb. I started with a lamb shoulder blade chop, about 0.75 lbs. and cut out the bone and finely diced it.

And the same veggies, though I forgot the celery.

This is a half-recipe of blueberry muffins because I didn't have enough blueberries to make a full recipe. I realized that I needed to use my blueberries soon before they expired. And I ran out of cake flour, which makes lighter and puffier muffins. My butter was at refrigerator temperature. And I had been drinking. But the muffins didn't turn out so bad, regardless.

This recipe makes 6 muffins.

All amounts are by weight - not by volume.

3.0 oz. butter at room temperature
3.0 oz. granulated sugar
0.01 oz. salt

3.0 oz. eggs (about 2 large eggs)
3.0 oz. milk

5.5 oz. cake flour (can substitute all-purpose flour)
0.2 oz. baking powder

4.0 oz. fresh blueberries by weight (a little less than 1/2 US dry pint by volume)

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Cream the butter, sugar, and salt in the electric mixer with the paddle attachment until smooth. Using room temperature butter not only makes the mixing easier, but it also make the muffins rise taller.

Added the eggs and mix.

Add the flour and milk and mix. For a half dozen muffins you can add everything at once, but for larger batches you should probably alternate adding some flour and some milk, mix and repeat.

Gently fold in the blueberries.

I used the paper liners in the muffin pan. Giving the liners a light spritz of oil makes removing the paper easier. There should be enough batter to completely fill the liners level with the top, or slightly higher.

I cooked the muffins for 20 minutes at 375°F. My muffin pan is a cheap Teflon coated muffin pan, however. The original recipe called for a 400°F oven.

Tip: A tablespoon works really well for popping the muffins out of the tin. What does not work as well: Flipping the tin over, which sometimes damages the muffins and one has rolled off onto the floor. Or tongs, which tend to swish the muffins.

This recipe was originally in my favorite cookbook The Professional Chef, 7th Edition, from the Culinary Institute of America, p. 920.

Update 1/7/2012: I changed the amount of flour from 5.2 to 5.5 oz., which makes a bit more batter so the muffins are taller.

Updated 5/22/2012: Reordered the ingredients and some steps to avoid confusion.