Today, I made a soup with mild Italian Sausage, garlic, onion, chopped carrot and chopped celery, red bell pepper, mushrooms, 1/2 cup of pearl barley, about 3 cups of white beans I'd cooked and frozen, and 4 cups of chicken stock from my freezer. I froze half of it (trying to get ahead for the semester) and had some for lunch. For dinner, I used the leftover pork chop from the dinner my husband cooked yesterday. Using the drippings saved from the pan, I sautéed celery, red bell pepper, and sliced mushrooms, then added the diced pork, a bit of grapeseed oil, and the broccoli. I mixed it with soba (buckwheat) noodles, and added about 1/2 cup of the noodle cooking water, then added sliced green onion and minced parsley
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This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by
BakerAunt.
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This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: spelling error
I think several of the 'Chicago-style' pizza places ship frozen pizzas. I'd avoid Uno's, they went 'commercial' some years ago (and even sell them in airports) and they're a mere shadow of what
they were in the 70's.
But one of the biggest challenges with buying frozen unbaked pizzas is you'll never be able to bake them in an oven that's as hot as the one in the pizzeria, their ovens will generally be set for 650 to 750, and some gas ovens can go as hot as 1000. Coal fired pizza ovens are the hottest, but I think there are only a half dozen or so of them left in the USA, most of those in NYC. Wood fired pizza ovens can get pretty hot, too.
Aaron, thanks for the comments. I did allow the dough to rise in the fridge overnight (next time I'll try 2 nights in the fridge) and it was stretched into the round pan. I have to experiment with different temperatures and rack positions. As I said, they weren't perfect, but we enjoyed them. And it was FUN.
BevM, I make pizzas almost weekly for my family. It's to the point where they do not want pizza out anymore (unless I order it shipped in from Chicago). Perfect circles don't matter and taste is everything. I'm to the point now where I can shape pizzas pretty well but I made some early ones for chef friends and they kindly told me the pizzas were "artisan" pizzas.
Not sure if the KAF recipe talks about it but pizza dough really needs a long, slow rise. Mine will sit in the refrigerator for about two days. I've gone as long as five but two is the sweet spot for my family. One day or less and they say the dough is flat. Three or more days and it is too fermented.
I guess this could go under baking or cooking, but since it's savory, I'll put it here. I made pizza for the second time for my kids who come over each Sunday. This is the second time and I'm hoping, eventually, it will get better. I used KAF recipe for Easy Pizza dough and it is simple to make. It makes 3 decent sized pizzas. We did cheese and Pepperoni for one and for the other one, I made a white sauce to go on two of them with spinach and mushrooms (our version of a white pizza). Like I said, they weren't perfect, but were really tasty. I only have a regular gas oven and am sure it would make a difference to have one that baked hotter and faster.
Now that I'm home in Texas, I called the recall line. My new blade will be shipped in anywhere from 4-8 weeks, as they are backlogged (hardly surprising, given how many food processors are out there). The representative did say it would arrive FedEx and that I would be emailed when it ships.
I use this one (hoping the link works) Chocolate frosting
It's a slight modification of a recipe I found in Prevention magazine. My modifications are I reduced the fat from 3 tablespoons to 2 and I use coffee instead of milk. Prevention's way of doing it is great too. And there have been times I used melted coconut oil as the fat, when I'm looking for that coconut pop.
This is a recipe I got from the doughnut pan. You will need a doughnut pan for this (6 wells). This recipe makes 6 baked doughnuts.
If you don't have buttermilk powder, substitute 2 tablespoons liquid buttermilk or yogurt for the water.
1 cup pastry flour (4 ounces) or 7⁄8 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄8 teaspoon nutmeg
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons dry buttermilk powder
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons water
Whisk together all dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. Beat the eggs, oil and water (or buttermilk or yogurt) until foamy. Pour the liquid ingredients all at once into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Butter or grease the doughnut pan, non-stick pan spray works well. Divide the batter between the 6 wells in the doughnut pan.
Bake doughnuts in a pre-heated 375 f oven for 10-12 minutes. When done, they'll spring back when touched lightly or test with a toothpick. Remove the doughnuts from the pan and allow to cool on a rack. Glaze with icing/frosting or coat with cinnamon sugar or any non melting sugar.
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I'm making a big batch of beef stock today, starting out by roasting some of the shank bones I got at the farmer's market, some beef shanks, various trim pieces from the kitchen that I've saved over the last few months, some neck bones and a sirloin tip roast (just to make sure I've got lots of beef for the soup), with onions, celery and carrots on top. I'll wind up with 10-14 quarts of beef stock, about half of which will go into a batch of vegetable beef soup tomorrow.
There's an ice storm heading our way, so this'll keep the house nice and warm and smelling wonderful.
Well, I called the reccall line today and was told that it would be 3-4 weeks before my replacement came. It's funny, they asked me how I found out about the recall and I said the food blog and there was silence at the other end. I want to use my blade as it was made in Japan not China. Good thing I have a mini food processor - don't have much to process (just a couple cups of rolled oats and cornmeal).
What kind of bread did you use for your bahn mi? There are a half-dozen or so recipes for 'Vietnamese-style baguettes' on the Internet, but I'm not sure I'd know the difference. I think the local bahn mi shops here just use what's available from restaurant suppliers.
I've made a lamb/beef gyros mixture (which I cooked on the rotisserie), but my wife doesn't care for the taste of lamb. Our favorite local gyros maker uses an all-beef gyros meat, so that must be the local preference.
When our younger son was studying in Germany, he subsisted largely on Doner Kebabs, which were available nearly everywhere when we visited him in Berlin and came in a variety of types, beef, beef/lamb, chicken and fish.
I made pizza this week. Not sure if that should be under cooking or baking or maybe both? We had friends over and so it was pizza for 10. Surprisingly the kids ate very little and I only made seven pizzas (each dough round is about 7 ounces).
Taking a cue from BA I made English muffins. This was a recipe from a class my wife gave me. It called for buttermilk and I substituted powdered because my family does not like the taste of buttermilk. The recipe also called for two TBLs of sugar which seemed like a lot so I cut that in half. I realized after the fact that this would make them rise more slowly. As a result I ran out of time on Saturday and let them finish rising in the refrigerator over night. These are so different from anything I've ever bought from the grocery store. My boys polished them off in a few days so I'll be making them again. Off course once I am a little more secure with the recipe I'll sneak in some white whole wheat flour and some flax meal.
I'm starting this thread early since I will be on the road for the next few days. Opening the thread midweek also gives us a chance to test whether we want the thread opened at the start of the week. That would allow people to discuss their baking right after they do it, while also allowing those of us who prefer to do a recap at the end of the week to continue to do so.
On Monday, I baked a batch of Oatmeal-Cinnamon Scones as a gift for some friends. That evening, I made up the "crumbs" for the KAF Christmas Scones. I mix the dry ingredients (substituting 1/3 of the AP flour with whole wheat pastry flour) and the oats, then cut in the butter. I mix in 1 cup of dried fruit, 1/3 cup of pecans, and 1/3 cup of cinnamon chips. I refrigerate it overnight. The next morning, I mix in the buttermilk, then form the scones into two 6-inch rounds and cut them into 6 each, separate them slightly, sprinkle the KAF sparkling coarse sugar on top, and bake. On Tuesday afternoon I mixed up dough for a new recipe, Cheese Herb Crackers from The Baking Sheet 13.1 (Holiday 2001), pp. 16-17. I've discussed this recipe in the Cracker Obsession Thread. On Wednesday, I baked Ellen's (Moomie's) Buns as a dozen buns. We had them with salmon patties for dinner, and they will go with us on the trip home to use as sandwiches.
When I'm at home, I use my "pastry wands" and a long, non-tapered pin. I can get good consistent pressure along its length. I have a long pin that is set for 1/4 inch (that's what happens when one spent too much time at the KAF site). I also have a heavy maple one with handles that I use for sweet roll dough. I stopped using if for bread because I think that rolling it out with it was contributing to the blow-outs in the finished loaves. I also have a glass one that a friend gave me, where one can fill it with ice water. (It was her Mom's, so she wanted it to go to a baker.) I've not used it yet.
Here, I have that Joseph Joseph one, and I have the little one with the handles that was my mother-in-law's. What I did was roll out to 1/16th the best I could with the JJ one, then used the other to roll it out a little flatter. One side was a bit uneven on the second bake.
I want to get the special Swedish style pin that docks the dough.
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This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt.
I would do better if I had my wood strips here. I do have a Joseph Joseph rolling pin that does do 1/16th of an inch, but it is not long enough (another reason to divide the dough into thirds rather than halves next time).
