CityMama™

French bread, but in a loaf pan, I have my reasons.

One of the new kitchen gadgets I got for Christmas was a stand mixer. I don't bake so I could never justify having a stand mixer in my kitchen, but I admit to dreaming about having one from time to time. If I had one would I bake more cakes and muffins and cookies? I had always done everything by hand. My wooden spoons get a lot of work around the holidays, especially.

Well, I don't have to wonder anymore. J. surprised me with one at Christmas and I've been having fun getting to know it.  Today I made bread with it for the first time. Bread is something I usually make by hand. I love to knead and never minded it, but now? Um. I'm never making bread by hand again.

I used the recipe for French bread in the Essential Mormon Cookbook because all the baked goods I make from that cookbook turn out perfectly delicious every time. My mixer came with a recipe book containing recipes for many kinds of breads and I used their techniques; it was kind of a hybrid experiment. I also added vital wheat gluten since neither recipe called for it and I sometimes like the elastic, spongy texture it gives to bread. Rather than shaping free-form baguettes, I split the recipe into two loaf pans because I wanted to be able to use the bread for toast and sandwiches. I also wanted to be able to use the long European-style loaf pans I found at IKEA.

The result was really amazing. The crust is exactly like French bread crust—crisp and flaky— and the crumb is light and springy, except that the bread is shaped like a regular loaf. And that's kinda fun.

[photo taken with my iPhone, also using the Helga effect from the Camera Bag app.]

Two days, two bread puddings

Savory bread pudding with tomato, gruyere, Parmesan cheese, and Serrano ham.
 
My pal @VDog is always Twittering about making bread puddings for dinner and after she linked me to a recent NY Times article on what to do with leftover bread, I decided to make some mahseff. I made the savory one yesterday, and to kick off the first day of winter vacation, I made the sweet one for breakfast this morning. (Scoring mom points...)

The main reason why I don't make bread puddings more often (even though I love them) I realized is because we just don't eat a lot of artisan-style bread in our house. Sure we eat toast in the morning, and my kid takes a sandwich to school most days, but that's whole grain sliced wheat bread, which I buy two loaves at a time.

I know people who makes special trips to their local artisan baker or who bake their own breads, and it's a treat for them, but really, I could take it or leave it. I don't have a bread "thing," but pasta and rice? Totally different story. I didn't grow up eating bread and butter so it's not something I think about when putting a meal together. We rarely have it with dinner or at any other time of day.  I do buy bread when we have parties (which we recently did and why I had leftovers) or if I am making stuffing, but other than that, it's just not a food product we regularly consume.

Because it's the holidays (and because of aforementioned party) we happened to have some great bread on hand to make bread pudding: a half-eaten panettone (godilovethem) and some Acme Bakery ciabatta and herb slab, a rosemary-scented bread.

Once you have the basic procedure down, the bread puddings are a cinch to make.  For both recipes start with:

• a preheated 350º oven
• a buttered 9x11 pan
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups of milk + a little more for soaking hard bread if needed (not low fat and if you want to be indulgent, use half-n-half or cream)

Bread

When Bunny was a newborn and I suddenly found myself homebound, I coped by baking. For months. That Christmas everyone received loaves of bread—sandwich bread, cheese bread, chocolate twister bread, challah—or pies. Apple, chocolate-peanut butter, apricot chiffon.

I think some people fought the baby blues with anti-depressants. I fought them with yeast, honey, and dough. And kneading. Plenty of kneading. 

Last week I make these babies. One in a loaf pan, one was hand-formed and baked in a cast iron dutch oven (like no-knead bread).

I'm a fan of bread recipes that call for flour by the pound, not the cup. And fresh yeast. And I'm also a believer in the triple-rise: once in a large, oiled bowl, punch it down, let it rise again. Slap it in a pan (or form) and let it rise for a third time. Then bake. I think it makes for light-yet-chewy everyday loaf that feels like a loaf of bread and not like a brick.

Bread is a hot topic on the blogs. And rightly so. Among other more esoteric reasons to love baking bread, what other food yields so much satisfaction for all the effort you put into it?

Cuz nothing says it's the holidays like booze and dried fruit

booze-soaked dried fruit

Hello, my name is Stefania and I love fruitcake.  I know. I'm one of the only people on earth. I prefer my fruitcake in panettone form, but really, if it's a baked good that has booze and fruit, it's going in my mouth.

Anyway, since I have nothing better to do than to wait for my Amazon order to arrive in 47 separate shipments, I'm baking.

The December issue of Everyday Food has a recipe for a fruit bar based on the fruitcake theme. I'm making it for our open house and I've adapted the recipe to my taste below.

FRUITCAKE BARS

Don't freak because there's no levening in this "cake."  It comes out yummy—like blondies with fruit added. (I'll post pics when I serve them.)

• 2 sticks of butter + more for greasing the pan
• parchment or waxed paper
• 2 leveled cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 cups of dried fruit (I used golden raisins, dried cranberries, and chopped dried apricots
• 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut (optional)
• 3/4 cup cognac
• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier
• 2 packed cups of brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs
• powdered sugar for dusting

Pumpkin muffins made by two little pumpkins

Last weekend we took our girls to "Grandpa's" pumpkin patch down the street. It's your basic pumpkin patch/bouncy house/carnie-run affair.  Bunny had lost some privileges so she wasn't able to participate in the bounce action (maybe this weekend), but she seemed content to look for pumpkins, especially since her little sister was too scared to jump in the bouncy house.

After wandering around the pumpkin patch for a bit, she turn to face me with a bright idea.

"Let's make pumpkin muffins!" she squealed. "Can we?"

Panzanella: Italian Bread Salad

This classic Italian dish is the perfect way to transition from summer to fall. You combine hearty leftover bread—the drier the better—with juicy tomatoes, basil, and olive oil. Some people like to add all manner of things like cucumbers or peppers or olives. I'm a purist and I like to keep it simple. I might add some thinly sliced sweet red or yellow onion or a splash (just a splash) of red wine vinegar, but I try to let the tomatoes shine through.

For this recipe, I used about 1/3 of a loaf of very stale La Brea Bakery whole grain loaf, three large and juicy heirloom tomatoes, a couple handfuls of fresh basil, about 4 glugs of fruity olive oil (use the best you have), half a thinly sliced onion added just before serving, a slug of red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper.

You need to start the recipe at least two hours before you serve it.  The best part about it is that it needs no refrigeration, in fact, refrigeration destroys the flavors, so make sure to keep and serve it at room temperature.

The procedure is as follows:

• Dice bread into 1-inch cubes, and layer into a bowl.
• Placed chopped tomatoes (no need to seed) and any accumulated juices into the bowl atop the tomatoes.
• Salt the tomatoes, drizzle olive oil over everything, scatter basil over the top, and just let the bowl hang out on your kitchen counter for 2-4 hours.
• Just before serving, add the onions and a splash of vinegar.  Toss well. Salt and pepper to taste, and add a touch more olive oil.  Serve. Serves 4.

You can also omit the last step and just serve it after the bread has had a chance to absorb the tomato juices.

Cheese Pizza in Under 15 Minutes

Now, I'm not a huge pizza fan but, my family is. So I make it when forced to, and making it this way is almost too easy. I usually use whatever cheese I have on hand (in this case it was P'tit Basque, my five-year-old's fave) and make my own fresh tomato concassé to top the pizza.  It goes like this.

Preheat oven to 350º.

Make the tomato concassé: In a blender or mini-food processor blend 6 small tomatoes (seeded, just give 'em a squeeze) with a glug of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. Add a clove of garlic if you like.

Spread the tomato mixture over a store-bought round bread crust (I used Trader Joe's herb crust). Heap with shredded cheese. (photo) I use a MicroPlane medium ribbon grater to shred the cheese.

Bake for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Slice and serve to your pizza-lovers.

Whole grain bread with P'tit Basque Cheese and Heirloom Tomatoes

Tonight is sandwich night, and to go with our creamy cauliflower soup, I was going to make open-faced ricotta (good ricotta, not that commercial, gritty Polly-O crap) sandwiches with heirloom tomatoes, but a wedge of P'tit Basque that I had forgotten about since before we left for Hawaii was calling to me. So the ricotta will have to wait until breakfast where it will get a drizzle of honey.

It's one of my favorite cheeses of all time. I'm particularly partial to sheep's milk cheese (maybe it's my Roman heritage) and I just love it's salty earthiness. Bunny loves it, too. She declared it "deelicious."

Tonight I cut it into thin slices and placed it atop chewy, toasted Ezekiel bread (also a fave of mine) with juicy tomatoes, a sprinkling of sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Local Goodness: Three things I'm enjoying this week

I rarely buy ready-made salad dressing, but I lately, I've been buying Annie's Naturals Woodstock dressing two bottles at a time. It has just enough creamyness and tang without being overly "tahini'd." So good on a chopped salad full of crunchy veggies like cukes, peppers, radishes, and carrots that stand up to the assertive dressing. The corporate headquarters of the Vermont company located in Napa, CA.

GoRaw Flax Snax Crackers. Amazingly tasty and full of flavor. Hits the spot when you need something crunchy/salty. Made in Mountain View, CA.

Home Craft Breads' raisin walnut cinnamon rolls. Dense and soft, and wonderful when toasted in a toaster oven. Not overly sweet. Not sticky. Made in Redding, CA.

All available at Country Sun, Palo Alto.

Thai-Style Peanut Butter Sandwich

Janelle of Brown Bag Blues asked me to share a variation on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that my kids enjoy eating. This recipe is inspired by a bagel at one of my favorite cafes.

THAI-STYLE PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH

On a toasted, halved whole wheat bagel (or wheat toast) spread a layer of creamy peanut butter.  Then top that with chopped salted peanuts. (You could use chunky peanut butter but this method is waaay better.)

Then, top the peanut-y peanut butter bagel with:

• thin slices of red onion
• thin slices of cucumber
• a Thai or regular basil leaf

Dig in!