Category: tuesdays with dorie

pumpernickel loaves: tuesdays with dorie

Published on by alisahuntsman9 Comments

this weeks challenge was pumpernickel loaves.  the recipe was contributed to the pbs series and the book by lauren groveman and you can find it on her website by following this link.  rye and pumpernickel bread have always been a favorite of mine.  actually, to be honest, i am a huge fan of toast and rye and pumpernickel breads are my favorite breads to toast.  i could literally eat an entire loaf, sliced and toasted and slathered with butter.

the recipe was a bit different from the usual pumpernickel recipes.  sure it called for rye flour and caraway seeds.  it wouldn’t be pumpernickel without them.  but this recipe also called for yogurt, espresso powder, unsweetened chocolate and prune lekvar.  because i was curious to try the combination, i followed the ingredient list closely with one exception; i did not have any prune lekvar and did not have time to make it so i used what i had, pumpkin butter.  funny thing is, it was unnoticeable!  i plan to make this bread again but may just use plain pumpkin puree.  to see what the other bakers came up with, visit the tuesdays with dorie page.

the ingredients were not the only unusual feature of the recipe.  once the loaves are shaped, the recipe calls for suspending them in towel slings.

not being a big caraway fan, i did not put any seeds on the outside of the loaf.  it just got the egg white glaze to give it a shine.

now that’s some fine bread with butter!
time to step away from the table…
buy a copy of the book, baking with julia by dorie greenspan and bake along with us!

danish braid; tuesdays with dorie

Published on by alisahuntsman14 Comments

 
this weeks challenge called for making a batch of danish dough, something my current schedule did not have time to accommodate.  hard to believe but that actually worked in my favor.  way back when, in january, i was testing recipes for a project i am working on.  one of the recipes was for a danish dough.  after testing the recipe, i put half a batch in my freezer to see how it would work out after being frozen. needless to say, the dough will tolerate freezing but not being frozen for 9 months!  my guess is that 3 months is the maximum time it could be frozen and thawed and still rise properly.  while it was past its prime, it was still pretty good, just a little denser than i would prefer.

to bake a braid like the tuesdays of dorie bakers, buy a copy of baking with julia or visit the contributing baker’s, beatrice ojakangas, contribution to the woman today website.  to see how the tuesdays with dorie bakers did with this challenge, visit the website.

 since i was already breaking the rules by not making the dough-let’s just call this my effort to clean the freezer, i decided to wing it completely.  for the filling, i used a sweet red apple, a gala apple to be precise.  after peeling and slicing it, i mixed it with a little dark brown sugar, some spice and a little flour.  to complete it, i sweetened a little cream cheese and added an egg yolk to it and used that as a base for the apple filling.

 forming a braid is really simple.  the most time you will spend is marking out the dough and making the cuts.  it is really important to have a flap at the bottom and the top.  these are folded in over the filling to help keep it from oozing out during the rising and the baking.  then, going from left to right, fold a strip in to the opposite side to give the illusion of braiding the dough.

 the cream cheese base and the spiced apples fill the center of the dough.
 the completed braid is ready for rising
 just out of the oven

so, if you need any assistance, call me.  i will be in the kitchen breaking rules and not following directions and misbehaving in general.  this all has consequences-usually of the dessert kind…

cross this off my list; x cookies, a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on by alisahuntsman8 Comments

a glimpse at my week; a full time job, classes three nights a week, a house to keep, a garden to tend to at home and another for the master gardeners and a list of things to do as long as my arm.  can you tell i am a little stressed?  needless to say, this probably was not the best recipe for me to work on today, my only real day off.

to sum it all up in one word; tedious.  irritating is another word that comes to mind.  while the end results were reasonably good (more on that in a moment), this is one recipe that i probably will not make again.

the dough is easy to make.  it is definitely a recipe to keep in mind when you are making tarts and bars with a crust.

the filling was the tricky part.  now, it wasn’t all the recipe; some of it was my pantry or perhaps i should say my poorly stocked pantry.  i only had half the figs needed so i substituted the only other fruit i had, a bag of prunes.  now wait-prunes get a bad rap.  i have always liked prunes and this sounded like a reasonable solution.  to make sure all was soft, i plumped it all in hot water; figs, prunes and currants-i didn’t have raisins.  i also did not have candied orange peel-it isn’t quite fruit cake season so it is hard to find.  did i mention that i am not an orange fan?  i added lemon zest instead.  there wasn’t any apricot jam in the pantry either, i used fig jam in the hope of punching up the fig flavor.  my filling just ended up being a sticky mess that was a pain the *** to work with.

because the filling was so sticky, i could only shape one log at a time and it required that i wash my hands twice in the process.  this irritated me quickly.

after shaping 4 logs, i quit!  the rest of the dough was divided in two.  one half was pressed into a pan, the filling was spread over it and i rolled out the rest of the dough to cover the filling.  i made holes with a fork, egg washed it and gave it a sprinkle of sanding sugar.  forty minutes later, voila!

now, this i might make again-but first, i will go to the grocery store for the figs and the apricot jam.  and if i do make these, i think i will also add a little sugar to the filling.  oh, remind me to hoard some candied lemon rind or citron, they would be nice in this too!  to see what the rest of the bakers came up with, visit the tuesdays with dorie page.

tomato berry fougasse; tuesdays with dorie

Published on by alisahuntsman7 Comments

 this week for our baking with julia challenge, we were given the choice of baking blueberry muffins or a sweet berry fougasse, sigh…as a former bakery owner, trust me, i have mastered the art of blueberry muffins.  whose recipe it is just isn’t important, it’s a blueberry muffin; eat one and you’ve tasted most of them.  that left the sweet berry fougasse.  a simple description is a plain focaccia with a few berries and a handful of crumb topping.  one mention of berries in focaccia, both me and my husband immediately wrinkled our noses up-can you hear the ewwww?  either way, i was determined to bake something and while standing in the kitchen staring at the small mountain of tomatoes on the counter top, sudden epiphany; tomatoes are berries.  that small technicality was all i needed.

to bake the recipe yourself, consider buying or borrowing the book and turning to page 194 and for the muffins, page 208.  or, for those of you not able to find the book, the recipe for the fougasse and the required focaccia can be found here.

to make my bread, first i cut the focaccia recipe in half.  with just two of us in the house, more than that would be a waste.  after the required 24 hour rest in the fridge, i cut the dough in half and formed two rectangular slabs.  i gave them a liberal brush of olive oil, a sprinkle of freshly chopped herbs from the garden (rosemary, oregano and basil) and topped the loaf with thin slices of tomatoes.  into the oven they went.

nice and chewy with a tang from the fresh tomato slices.  perfect for a lazy dinner of salad and bread.  to see what the other bakers came up with, visit the tuesdays with dorie page.

raspberry-fig crostata: a tuesdays with dorie recipe

Published on by alisahuntsman7 Comments

it’s fig season and our tree is loaded with ripening fruit.  we have two trees actually, a brown turkey and a celeste.  the figs above are from the brown turkey tree; the celeste tree is not producing much fruit yet.  we have been picking the little fruits by the dozen and when i learned this weeks challenge was a choice between a johnny cake cobbler and a raspberry-fig crostata, i had to make the crostata since i had plenty of figs.

we are currently posting without a host but there is a website with some of the recipes on it and the crostata is one of them, see it here.  luckily, there is another link in the recipe to the dough.  but if i may climb on my soapbox for a moment, please consider buying a copy of the book.  as a published author, i cannot tell you how much it means to have the book you worked on sell.  if you cannot buy it, at least try to borrow it from a library or a friend.

i have a collection of tart pans.  for this recipe, i chose the smaller, deep pan which is about 8 inches in diameter.  my thinking was that it would have a nicer ratio of fruit to crust in the deeper pan.

a few notes about the dough, it is a bit sticky and crumbly.  it does not hold itself together well when moving it so be prepared to do some patchwork.  since it was so rich with sugar and eggs, i skipped the egg washing step.  and since i used the smaller pan, i needed a lot less dough-i have about a third of it left.  do not worry, i plan to make some linzer cookies with it.

when it came out of the oven, it was nice and sparkly despite the lack of a wash on top.

beautiful

it was late when i finally pulled the tart out of the oven so we waited until the next day to dig in.  it help up nicely but honestly, the fruit filling could have used more flour.  if i make this again, i will definitely double the flour.

love the color of the filling!  come bake with us sometime.  to see the other participants results, visit the tuesdays with dorie page.

eastern mediteranean pizzas; a tuesdays with dorie recipe

Published on by alisahuntsman7 Comments
tomatoes are in season, finally.  we were so late at getting them into the garden due to a cool, wet spring that i was beginning to think that we would never have them.  this recipe was the perfect way to use a few ripe ones. 
 the simple recipe calls for few ingredients.  yeast is stirred into water.
 whole wheat flour is added and stirred until silky smooth.

 the sponge is allowed to rest and develop flavor; mine sat for 5 hours.  when i was traveling last year, i brought home a shower cap from the hotel i stayed in.  they are perfect for covering a bowl of dough and they are reusable.

 after resting, all purpose flour is added and stirred in.  once the dough is too stiff to stir, it is kneaded.

 eight to ten minutes later, the dough is ready to rise and double.

 the topping is simple too.  onions and garlic are sauteed.  the recipe calls for the addition of ground lamb but i didn’t want to buy a pound of it for just the needed four ounces; i used a vegetarian ground meat substitute.

 tomatoes from the garden were diced up and added.  after a few minutes of sauteing, they needed to be drained of the juices.  finally, traditional spices were added.

 can you believe the size of this tomato?  have i mentioned how much i love my garden?

 the dough doubled in less than two hours.

 the dough is rolled out by hand.  the directions call to use a well floured surface.  my advice, go lightly with the flour or the dough will not cooperate and will slide around the table.

 the topping is spread around the dough and into the hot oven they went.  i baked them on a stone.

 they baked up quickly.

 the recipe calls for half the dough, i made pita bread with the rest.  i used a cast iron skillet and “baked” them on the stove top.

 the rounds of dough puff up slowly in the skillet.
 suddenly, they will expand
 and you have, pita pockets!

perfect for sandwiches and so much more!  to see what the other bakers came up with, check out the tuesdays with dorie page.  to participate, buy the book, baking with julia.

strawberry savarin; a tuesdays with dorie rewind

Published on by alisahuntsman1 Comment

a while back, the tuesdays with dorie bakers made the savarin recipe.  first we mixed up a batch of baba au rum dough.  it was ridiculously easy to do-a simple yeasted cake batter was placed in a pan and allowed to rise for a brief period.

look at how light and fluffy it is, and it rose so quickly too!  it baked up fast as well.

we made a simple syrup to soak the cake with.  apparently, that is the key to an authentic savarin, lots of syrup soaked up by the cake.

by spooning small amounts over the cake, it all gets absorbed.

to decorate it, lots of whipped cream and fresh berries.  a classic, a true classic.  i brought it to a potluck dinner, i blinked, i missed it.  all i got was the dirty plate.  good thing they are easy to make, if i want to try this one myself, i will have to make it again.  and when i do, i’m not sharing…to see what the other bakers came up with, check out the tuesdays with dorie page.

summer vegetable tart; a tuesdays with dorie challenge

Published on by alisahuntsman3 Comments

this week, we made a vegetable tart using phyllo dough for the crust.  i knew i had a package lurking in the freezer and i decided to use it rather than buy a new package.  should have just bought the new one…this dough, even though it thawed in the fridge for a day, was not going to cooperate.  it came apart in pieces.  there was no way to get the required 4 sheets and cut them in half.  there was no way to make a shell using 8 half sheets, layed in an overlapping manner.  my shell was a total hack job and i am certain i used more than 4 sheets.

and that folks, is as pretty as it gets.  the directions called for 1/2 a cup of clarified butter.  i simply melted 3 tablespoons and and honestly, it was more than enough-i used about half.  after prebaking the shell, i worked on the filling.

banana peppers from the garden, portobello mushrooms, onions, spinach, garlic, a few cherry tomatoes and a handful of basil, oregano and thyme.  to keep the tart from weeping excessively, i cooked it slowly over low heat.

we watch our cheese consumption here and i am not a goat cheese fan.  this tart had about a cup of blended feta, fontina and romano cheeses, most of it sprinkled over the top.  a quick trip under the broiler gave it a little bit of a melt but not much.

it was mostly vegetable, perfect for summer.  honestly, i would rather have this on a pizza crust with a little white sauce.  the phyllo dough crust just didn’t do much for me.  it certainly was not easy to serve-it was hard to cut cleanly, the crust was not strong enough to support the weight of the filling.  the cheese did not glue it together either.  from a cookbook authors point of view, it was easy to see why they did not include a photo, even a small black and white one; this thing was not pretty.  even so, my husband devoured it and declared it a success.  go figure…

to see what all the other participants made, check out the tuesdays with dorie page.  interested in baking along?  get a copy of the book and jump right in, we’d love to have you join us!

baked yogurt tart with summer fruit; a tuesdays with dorie post

Published on by alisahuntsman7 Comments
what’s in a name?  when it comes to a menu or a recipe title, everything.  the title “baked yogurt tart” just does nothing for me.  a picture would help sell it but the publisher must have decided not to include one, too bad, it might have helped.  might being the key word.
so shy would i bother to make one?  curiosity and a husband who never fails to ask me, “what’s for dessert?” after every dinner we have together.  the catch, neither one of us eats much dairy.  sure a splash of half and half in coffee or a little butter on toast, maybe the occasional slice of cheese but a slice of a yogurt filled tart?  not likely.  while i tolerate it better than my husband can (physically-as in gastrointestinal abilities), i still prefer to avoid it since i generally feel better if i do.  the only way i could make this would be to use a soy or coconut yogurt.  honestly, neither one is something i eat much of just because of the long list of stuff they add to it to give it a texture similar to real dairy yogurt.  but since i want to bake along with the tuesdays with dorie followers and i know my husband will ask that burning question, i baked the tart.  
the recipe is easy to follow.  it calls for 1/4 of the pie dough recipe.  i cheated.  i had two prebaked mini pie shells in the freezer; i thawed them for the recipe.  to make the filling, i mixed up 1/3 of the recipe which resulted in the perfect amount for 2 little pies.  for the fruit, i topped one with peach slices and the other with strawberry slices.  the baking time had to be reduced to 25-30 minutes and they came out of the oven a tiny bit jiggly in the center.  they set up just fine.  the only criticism, they look rather dry and a little leathery on top.  i may have to brush a little warm honey over them before serving.  
to see the full recipe, check out this great website from a la carte communications.  and as always, to see the what the other bakers came up with, be sure to visit the tuesdays with dorie page.

coconut yogurt looks a lot like regular low-fat yogurt.  it has a lot of vegetable stabilizers in it to accomplish that so it is hardly an unprocessed food.  the taste was more vanilla than coconut but even more surprising was just how sweet it was since it was labelled “plain.”

 i love that the recipe was so easy to divide.  i just needed one egg.
 yeah, it was a lazy day in my kitchen; the hand mixer came out for this recipe.
 i love summer fruit, i was able to control myself and slice enough of it for the tarts.
 looking good
 fresh from the oven-pretty!

 the fruit looks a little dry and leathery.  it needs a little glaze over the top to give it a shine.

if my husband is lucky, i will let him have a bite or two…

tuesdays with dorie: tomato and cheese galette

Published on by alisahuntsman8 Comments

 for this weeks challenge, we have chosen to make tomato and cheese galettes.  sigh.  big sigh…tomatoes are not in season yet here in tennessee.  the spring weather was so cold and wet so late in the season that our tomato plants didn’t go into the ground until the third week of may.  oh well, off to market i go.

in between stops, i ducked into my local publix supermarket.  generally, i can expect them to have a better than average selection of produce.  finding heirloom tomatoes shouldn’t be a problem there and i didn’t have time to go across town to whole foods to over pay for said tomatoes.  all i can say is that if tomatoes are not in season in tennessee, it is unlikely that tomatoes from ontario (yes, ontario in canada) will be better.  way to go publix!  at least 75% of what they had available was listed as produce of canada.  honestly, can we not grow our own tasteless hot house tomatoes?  do we really need to import them???  my options were severely limited, i chose a tomato from florida and made the decision to focus on mushrooms and onions-at least i knew they were going to have some flavor.

we have begun to go hostless here at tuesdays with dorie so to see the original recipes, buy the book!  or you can check it out on this heart of mine, blogger amy posted the recipes for the dough and the galette back in 2011 and it is word for word from the book.

 my first bit of tinkering was with the flour for the galette.  i have a bag of atta flour-indian flour made from durham wheat and wheat bran, and the only cornmeal i like to bake with is blue.

 when combined, it looks a little grey.
 i cut the butter in by hand and it looks a little lumpy when done properly.

 the recipe cautions that it is a soft dough.  trust me it is.  however, i think that is more due to the mixing instructions than the nature of the dough.  you are instructed to use sour cream or an equal portion of yogurt or buttermilk and to whisk it into the water.  however, the ingredient list suggests that you may not need all of the water.  so why would you combine the sour cream with all of the water?  it should tell you to add the sour cream (buttermilk in my case) and begin mixing and to add the water bit by bit as needed to get the proper consistency.  my dough was a little on the sticky side.  luckily, i know how to work with sticky dough, i partially froze it and worked with it cold.  while the dough chilled, i made the topping.

 one thing i do know, it is chanterelle season here in tennessee; we picked some last week.  these are a little past their prime but would be fine for the topping
.

 the herb garden is pumping out leaves all over the place so finding them was easy.  exit back door, snip, snip, snip… i quickly had basil, oregano, thyme and sage leaves.

 first step, caramelize some sweet onions.  to this i added a little garlic but was careful not to burn it.

 in went baby portobello mushrooms and the chanterelles.
 the herbs were last.  i let the filling sit and cool while i rolled out the dough.

 the texture of the whole grain flours gives the dough a nice crunch and a little color.

 close up you can see the dark flecks of blue cornmeal and little bits of wheat bran.

 first on was a layer of fontina and romano cheese.  i used about 3/4 of it on the bottom.  then came the flavorless florida tomatoes (sigh) and the onions and mushrooms.  the last bit of cheese was sprinkled over the top.

 honestly, the dough was too soft to do much with so i quickly folded it up and into the oven it went.

 it took the full 40 minutes to bake but it was nice and bubbly with just a little color.  the house smelled like pizza and it almost tasted like it until you got the crust-that made it taste like a tart.  a winner if you ask me, but next time, can we do this when tomatoes are in season?  please???

to see what the other bakers came up with, visit the tuesdays with dorie page!