So you think you can bake?

Why yes, I kind of do think that I can bake. I'm no Nick Malgieri or Dorie Greenspan. (Know them? You should. I love them.) But I can and do put together desserts and baked goods that while they are not about to rival the pastries at The Chocolate Mill in Glens Falls or Mrs. London's in Saratoga they certainly surpass those on offer in the supermarket bakery departments in my local Price Chopper and Hannaford.

But for the longest time while I confidently made all manner of pies, cakes, cookies, scones and biscuits I had a fear. Of yeast. Bread just seemed like something other people made. Grandmothers with wisdom and experience, hands strong and rough from years of shaping their daily bread. There seemed too much mystery in the alchemy of flour, yeast, salt and water. And then I read an article in the NY Times that...well, I want to say changed my life but that sounds a little dramatic, no? I read an article that opened my eyes to how easy bread making could be. Jim Laheys' No-Knead Bread. You must be familiar with it? I think everyone is by this time.

It's three ingredients, flour, yeast and salt that when combined with what almost seems like too much water form a very slack dough that's not kneaded but left to rise unattended at room temperature for at least twelve hours, but preferably eighteen. The dough is then quickly shaped and left to rise again for two more hours. It's baked in a very hot oven in a heavy, covered dish. Le Creuset or something similar works well for the baking. When the bread is done baking you are left with a crisp loaf with an airy interior full of holes. It's very much like the pricey artisan breads you see in better bakeries for too much money.

Then for Christmas I was given a copy of the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The premise of this bread recipe is similar to the No-Knead bread but differs in that you mix a large batch of dough, again not kneading it, let it rise at room temperature until it doubles and then begins to fall and then you refrigerate the dough until you're ready to use it. When you're ready to use it you pull off a hunk of dough, flour and shape it and let it rise at room temperature for an hour or so. You bake the loaf on a baking stone without a cover, with a pan in the oven that you throw a cup of water into to create steam which helps the bread rise quickly. In the end you have a quite yummy loaf of crusty bread which my family loves.

Now that I have mastered both bread baking techniques (and moved on to cinnamon buns- yum!) I'm not sure which one I prefer. The Jim Lahey loaf seemed to have a thinner, more crackly crust than the Artisan in Five loaf. They both have great interiors but the Jim Lahey seemed to have a lighter crumb, which I enjoyed just a little bit more. I'm thinking I may need to do some comparison baking. Strictly measured ingredients, side by side taste testing. For now I will continue to enjoy my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day loaves because the dough is already in the fridge but I think I see a bake off in my future. Do you bake bread?

Fleur de Sel Caramels

Is there any better combination than sweet and salty? Before I even understood anything about complimentary flavors and tastes I knew that movie theater popcorn must be eaten with a tall, icy sweet Coca Cola. The oily, (well, we know it should be buttery but we are talking about mainstream movie theater popcorn here so let's face it, it's butter flavored oil) salty crunch of the popcorn just went so well with sips of the syrupy sweet Coca Cola. I couldn't explain it but I knew it was right. Ever since those first movie theater visits I have been hooked on salty and sweet.

Nothing brings those two tastes more into harmony with each other than salted caramels made with Fleur de Sel. Except for chocolate, chocolate is lovely with salt. The next time you are baking a tray of brownies, go ahead and throw in an extra pinch of salt. It enhances the chocolate...you'll thank me. But as I often do, I digress. This is about caramels. Rich, buttery, milky sweet caramels touched with a kiss of salt. Heaven. And so easy to make. Do you make candy? I grew up eating homemade candy, my Nana made wonderful caramels. Not frequently but when she did decide to make some, I would stuff my pockets and chubby cheeks with as many as I could get my hands on.

We had a snow day yesterday, we got well over a foot of snow! I happened to have some leftover heavy cream in the fridge from another cooking endeavor and while thumbing through my cooking binder, I came across my recipe for Fleur de Sel Caramels. I know you are not supposed to make candy on a rainy day, the humidity makes it hard to set up but I wasn't sure if that meant snow also. Luckily I am cool with winging it (and possibly failing) and it turned out wonderfully.

~Fleur de Sel Caramels~

1 cup heavy cream
5 TBSP unsalted butter, cut into pieces (I used salted)
1-2 TSP fleur de sel (mine had rather large grains so I used the 2 TSP)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup (I've read that you could use honey in it's place)
1/4 cup water

Line an 8" pan with foil and butter or spray the foil with cooking spray. I buttered mine because I firmly believe in gilding the lily.

Bring the cream, butter and salt just to a boil and set aside. I use cream from the Battenkill Valley Creamery. It's so thick that simply combined with the butter and salt and boiled, it looked like a thick sauce. How beautiful is that?




In a separate pan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and water, stirring to dissolve. Set over medium high heat and bring to a boil without stirring. For extra insurance, I like to wipe down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Like so.



Swirl the pan every so often until the sugar turns golden. Like so. At this stage, be careful. It's a mere matter of seconds from golden to burnt. I know this too well.



When your sugar is golden brown, add the cream mixture. Stand back, pour carefully and make sure you've used a big enough pot as the mixture will violently boil and expand. Stir with a long handled spoon and clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Lower the heat to medium and simmer, stirring frequently until the mixture reaches 248 degrees.



Pour the caramel into your prepared pan and cool at least two hours before cutting.



When you are ready to cut the caramels, lift them out of the pan, peel off the foil and set them down on a cutting board. I like to spray my very sharp knife with cooking spray so I get clean cuts. I'm sure some people might get a ruler out at this point to ensure even pieces, but I am a big fan of eyeballing. I'm not aiming for perfection here, rustic will do.



Now to store these you have to wrap them. I know, how tedious. But if you try to store them loose in a jar or container, they will stick together. Heed my warning...learn from my mistakes. :)
I used to cut aluminum foil or waxed paper into small squares and wrap the candy that way but last Christmas I treated myself to precut foil wrappers from Amazon.com and I will never cut waxed paper again.

Now...ahem. There's a step missing here. This is real life and in my real life I forget things or get distracted. A lot. At some point after I poured the candy into the pan, after it's cooled a bit but before it's set, I should have sprinkled fleur de sel on top of the caramel. It's lovely, the crunchy grains of salt on top of the silky sweet caramel. It's a small touch that brings the caramels over the top. And I forgot it. Never mind, they are still wonderful and I still made them all by myself.

Candied Orange Peel

As much as I enjoyed the last candied peel recipe, I couldn't help but wonder what I could do to make them even better. I thought it would be nice to have the peels less crinkly/curly and more substantial, maybe with more chewiness to them. Back to the internet I went. I came across a woman on egullet (a truly fabulous foodie resource if there ever was one) who seemed to know everything about all manner of candying citrus peels. Her recipe was markedly different than the one I originally followed and was done in the microwave.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/89439-candied-citrus-peel-the-topic/

There is a wealth of information in that thread. People were candying kumquats, Buddha's Hand, galangal (the latter two I had to look up) and now I'm cursing myself for not buying that five dollar Buddha's Hand we found at Whole Foods last week! Though it's not like I wouldn't make another two and a half hour trip if I really wanted one. There are a lot of reasons to visit Northampton, MA and if I can score chicken tamales and pork tacos from La Veracruzana, a Buddha's Hand and a trip to Trader Joe's then I'd say it's a trip worth taking. Although, perhaps I should check the weather this time and try to avoid a "wintry mix" forecast.

On to the candy...

I decided to do a small batch since it was my first attempt at this style of candying citrus and I didn't want to waste fruit. All I had in the house at the time were two non organic Cara Cara oranges (I'm trying not to think about the pesticides I have been consuming...) and I washed those as well as possible.

~Cut the top and bottom off your citrus. From here make vertical cuts all along the fruit and then carefully pull the fruit (pith and all) from the flesh. Cut the peel into 1/2 inch slices.



~Placed the orange peel in a microwave safe bowl (I used a 2.5 quart Pyrex) and cover with water. Boil on high for 10 minutes

~Drain the peels and repeat with fresh water.

~Drain the peels and repeat with fresh water.

~Taste. Is the bitterness mostly gone? If not, repeat until the peels are to your liking. I personally feel like it should have a slightly bitter edge. Slightly.

~Drain the peels and mix 1 cup sugar with 1 1/2 to 2 cups water. Boil on high for 3 minutes. Stir to mix.

~Add the orange peels to the simple syrup and microwave 5 minutes. Stir.

~Microwave 5 more minutes. Stir.

~Let the peels cool in the syrup for 30 minutes

~Microwave the peels in the syrup for 5 more minutes. Stir.

~Microwave 5 more minutes. Stir. Taste a piece. The pith should be completely translucent by this time.

~Remove the pieces to a wire rack set over a baking sheet to catch drips.



~Allow the peel to dry until it's only slightly tacky to the touch and then toss a few pieces at a time in sugar.

After it was completely dried and sugared I tasted a piece and found it to be a little too bitter for my tastes. I decided to dip the pieces in chocolate to offset some of the bitterness. I wanted the peels to be completely dry for that step so I left them on a rack on my kitchen counter for 24 hours. At that point I tempered some dark chocolate and dipped one piece at a time, leaving the ends uncovered for easier grabbing. Once the chocolate was set I took another taste and this time I loved it. The chocolate did exactly what I wanted it to, the orange was less bitter tasting and the chocolate added an intriguing dark and slightly smoky quality to the confection. Definitely a candy for grown ups although my teenage brother enjoyed some. I think they would make beautiful gifts for your discerning foodie friends.

Pumpkin shortage? Not in my house.

Apparently there's a canned pumpkin shortage this year

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/libbys-warns-of-a-canned-pumpkin-shortage/

at least, that's what I've read in the news. I live in farm country and with two farms where I can buy all manner of squash, not to mention the many farmer's markets nearby, I have no idea what they are talking about. I tend to be suspicious about this type of news article anyway. I've seen displays of canned pumpkin in every supermarket I've been in in the last week. I think the people that sell canned pumpkin manufacture this sort of thing to drive sales. But I'm suspicious like that.

Not to worry, in my household I like to be prepared. If the occasion comes up that I need to make ten pumpkin pies at once, I will be ready. As I type, there are six adorable sugar pumpkins roasting in my oven. I don't wait for someone to can it for me and stick a label on it. I make my own. The process is ridiculously simple and if you are one to attempt silly things like side by side comparisons (who does that? that's why I go online...) you will know that the taste of a pie made with pumpkin pureed at home is superior to the same pie made with canned puree. Although, I would be a liar if I said I never buy canned pumpkin, it will do in a pinch.

Now, to make that puree...

You need sugar pumpkins or any other small, sweet pumpkin, I like to get my pumpkins from farms or farmer's markets because they always have a wide variety of heirloom pumpkins such as the Jarrahdale, Cinderella, or Lumina. I often mix more than one variety if I am doing a large batch of puree.

I give my pumpkins a quick wash, pierce them a few times with a sharp paring knife, and place them in a 375 degree oven on a cookie sheet for an hour or so. You want them to be cooked until a knife slides in easily, like a knife through soft butter.

Take the pumpkins out and let them cool until you can tolerate working on them. I'm impatient and I don't mind burning my fingers (well, I do but I can take it) so I rarely wait more than half an hour. An hour is probably ideal. Slice your pumpkin in half and use a spoon to carefully scrape out the seeds and stringy bits. Use the spoon to scrape the flesh out of the skin (at this point the skin often peels right off) and put the pumpkin chunks into a food processor. I would think you can use a hand mixer but the puree will not be as smooth and you want silky smooth puree here.

Blitz the pumpkin in the food processor until perfectly smooth, depending on the moistness of your pumpkin you may need to add a tablespoon of water or so. No worries, you'll be draining the whole mess later. Keep going until you have all of your pumpkins processed. Since it's a pretty messy job, I usually aim to make large amounts at a time. This time I did six pumpkins.

Line a colander with cheese cloth or (my favorite) paper towels and place the colander in a larger bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or another paper towel and leave it in the fridge for a while. I like to leave mine over night.

The next day dump out your water and store via your favorite method. If it will be used reasonably quickly (say, within a week) I would store it in the fridge in an airtight container. I usually pack one cup at a time into ziplock sandwich bags, double the bag, press out the air and smooth flat. Then I lay them all on a cookie sheet in the freezer until frozen at which time you can place them however you wish. My six pumpkins yielded eight cups of puree.

I love pumpkin puree because it's crazy good for you with lots of antioxidants and fiber and it gives tremendous moisture to baked goods. Do not limit yourself to pumpkin pie (although it wouldn't be a bad thing if you did, it's my favorite pie) you can use it in quick bread, muffins, yeasted bread, cookies, soup, risotto, smoothies, pancake and as I found out recently- fudge! Pumpkin fudge is to die for. I made a promise to myself not to make it again, it's that good...and I ate *that* much.

Happy Fall!