TWD -- Brioche pockets to die for

Baked pockets ready to eat

I have a confession to make. I didn't use the brioche recipe in Baking with Julia. It looked like a heap of dough, so I debated cutting the recipe in half or consulting "Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads." If you are a break-baking enthusiast, this book is a bible and one that should be on your shelf. Clayton has a food processor brioche recipe that makes about half as much brioche as the Baking with Julia formula and is easy as pie to make.

1/4 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast
1 1/4 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, melted. 
Proof the yeast in the water. Put everything in the food processor with the steel blade except the eggs and butter. Pulse a couple of times to aerate. Drop in first the eggs and process about 5 seconds. Then pour the melted butter through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process 20 seconds. The dough is sticky, like batter, but that's OK. Scape dough in a buttered bowl and let rise about 3 hours. Then refrigerate.


From here on out, I followed the Baking with Julia recipe. I found the dough easy to work with and used a hamburger press to cut my rounds.


Brioche before seeding and baking

I stretched the top rounds a bit before placing them over the filling. The edges were easy to turn over and crimp. I did use the full filling recipe and if I had not, the pockets would have been scantily filled.

My version made eight pockets -- perfect for a back yard drinks party. Everyone loved the combination of the brioche dough, the caramelized onions, the potatoes, goat cheese and asparagus. I will definitely make this recipe again!

TWD -- Delicious but ungainly

The rhubarb upside down cake assignment for Tuesdays with Dorie couldn't have come at a better time for this Ohioan. Our rhubarb patch is at its peak, so there was no problem getting enough of the stuff for the upside down cake.

I debated whether to make this recipe using the baby cake pans, which my daughter kindly gave me for Christmas. However, I had four pans and the recipe called for eight cakes. The other option was to use the 12-inch skillet, which I happen to have and rarely use.

The recipe went together without a hitch. But getting the cake turned upside down using a 12-inch skillet was a feat that could only be accomplished with an assistant. Luckily, my husband was handy, and he helped me turn the ungainly pan upside down. However, with all our careful planning, the cake missed the mark by a couple of inches and some of the dessert was hanging over the edge of the plate and dangerously close to breaking off. By jerry-rigging a device using a spatula and two dough scrapers, I was able to prop up the cake until it cooled and I could gingerly shove it over until it rested securely on the cake plate. This took several attempts before I could manipulate the ungainly cake into a secure position.

The finished product after jerry-rigging and much manipulation

I will take this treat to the bakery where I volunteer and we'll serve it during our coffee break tomorrow. I must confess I snitched a wee bit of the cake and topping and it was delicious, perhaps the best yellow cake I have ever made. This will now be my go-to recipe for yellow cake, but when doing the upside down cake again, I would cut the recipe down by one-third and use a nine-inch skillet which would make it much, much easier to turn. Most of my recipes for pineapple upside down cake call for a nine or 10-inch skillet.

TWD -- Call me deviant

I confess. I deviated from the recipe for madeleines that was in Baking with Julia. When I saw that Baking with Julia was having us use the genoise recipe, I was suspicious. Although I would consider a madeleine a type of genoise, it is more than that. In my mind, a madeleine should have some baking powder (although I've read there is some disagreement about this), but should definitely have more butter. Three tablespoons of butter can nowhere be enough, when most recipes for 24 madeleines call for a stick and a half, or at the very least nine tablespoons. And, where was the flavor? I remember the genoise recipe as being bland, bland, bland. I wanted my madeleines to have a little kick to them.

So I began cross-referencing. I hauled down "Joy of Cooking" from the bookshelf. I consulted the book "Sweet Life in Paris." I looked at recipes on the internet, particularly Allrecipes.com, where I could look at user reviews.

Although the Baking with Julia recipe seemed to have odd proportions, it also had a major and unforgiveable error in my opinion. The recipe called for 1 cup of confectioner's sugar, yet nowhere did it say where or how the sugar was to be used. Where was the proofreader?! Where was the editor?! If the sugar was to be used as a dusting for the madeleines after they were baked, why one cup? It wouldn't take a cup of the stuff to dust 24 three-inch cookies. By this time I was quite distrustful of the printed recipe and decided to veer off in my own direction.

The madeleines before glazing

Thus, I combined the most popular recipe on Allrecipes.com (which incidentally used confectioner's sugar right in the mix) and the recipe from "The Sweet Life in Paris." The latter recipe called for the grated rind of a lemon, plus a lemon glaze. My combined recipes used a stick of butter for 19 cookies.

Ready to head out the door to the bakery

I was pleased with the results, and so were the volunteers at the bakery where I work who shared the end result. They loved the lemon flavor and thought the shape of the cookies were a joy. I then took a plate to two art teachers with whom I sew, and they liked them. And, one had a wonderful suggestion that I will use next time that I make these cookies. I will use a lavender glaze on them rather than a lemony one. Such a glaze can be made by steeping a little lavender in some hot water, then adding that to the confectioner's sugar. I use this glaze for a lavender pound cake that I make and it's nothing short of wonderful.

TWD-Potato bread made the hard way

Rustic Potato Bread ready to slice

The Rustic Potato Bread assignment came at a perfect time for me. I had just made my usual potato rolls for an Easter dinner using King Arthur's potato flour. These rolls are a standard, as is a white sandwich bread made with potato flour that I make when grandchildren are coming. Would Rustic Potato Bread made with actual potatoes be better and give off more of a potato flavor? I was curious to find out.

I decided to make my bread using two-thirds whole wheat flour and one-third white all-purpose flour. The mixing process was interesting to say the least. The dough appeared so dry at the beginning I was sorely tempted to add a lot of water to keep my Kitchen Aid mixer from having a heart attack. I resisted in adding a lot of water but did dribble in a few extra drops to help things along. I reasoned whole wheat flour might absorb more water than white flour. The dough seemed to come together and was cleaning the sides of the bowl, but after about eight minutes, it began to come apart, leaving small globules of dough on the side of the bowl. I decided to call the kneading process to a halt and gently hand-kneaded the dough until it felt right.

Rising in the baskets

I was a bit put off by the shaping technique of putting the seam of the bread right-side up. I had read in the comment section that one baker experienced an unraveling of sorts when the bread was baked, so I opted to let my loaves rise in baskets (obtained from my local drug store where I buy just about everything including most of our food because our town has no local supermarket).

Ready to go into the oven

The baskets allowed the loaves to rise with some support and when I turned them out on a cornmeal-dusted pizza paddle, they looked pretty good. Should I score them? There was nothing in the instructions that indicated scoring, so I didn't. I wish now that I had. The loaves burst open in places, which definitely gave them the rustic look.

Now, for the taste test. Were these loaves better than the bread and rolls I traditionally make with the addition of potato flour? Not really. Are loaves using potato flour easier and quicker to make? Yes, yes, yes. There is no cooking of the potato, no allowing the potatoes to cool and most of all, no anxious moments standing over the Kitchen Aid worrying that it might die. And did I mention that my husband had to hit the bowl with a mallet to get it to loosen from its base?

So, I will probably go back to my traditional method of making potato bread but I'm thankful for the experience of trying the real deal.

TWD -- Cookies that get raves!

I will be traveling during the normal time to bake the latest assignment for Tuesdays with Dorie, so I chose to make the mocha chocolate chip cookies 10 days ahead of schedule. I'm glad I did. That way I could offer the cookies to several people and get their reactions. In short, they got raves!

I used espresso powder which I had recently purchased from Jungle Jim's, the largest food market in the United States. The market is located in Hamilton County near Cincinnati, and for anyone living in the Midwest, I highly recommend a stop there. I never would have found espresso powder in my small town, but luckily I purchased a container at Jungle Jim's even before I knew I would need it for a Baking with Julia assignment.

When making these cookies again, I would alter the recipe slightly. I would up the amount of flour by one-fourth of a cup and I would substitute shortening for the butter. I know. I know. I can read the minds of all the butter aficionados out there who shudder at the thought of substituting shortening for butter. But, by using shortening, the cookies won't spread out as much. I, in fact, used half butter and half shortening when making the mocha cookies and now wish I had used all shortening. I like a chocolate chip cookie that you can really sink your teeth into -- think Otis Spunkmeyer. My favorite recipe uses two and a fourth cups of flour for the same amount of fat.

My cookies were made with two tablespoons of espresso powder, but next time I will up that to three tablespoons to get even a stronger mocha taste.

Would I make these cookies again? Yes, definitely, but with the aforementioned adjustments. In short, I would use the recipe on the box of Arm & Hammer baking soda with addition of three tablespoons of espresso powder. And I would bake them at 375 degrees for 11 minutes.

TWD -- Boca Negra, heaven on a plate!

A 6-inch cake slice using half the recipe

Oh my! How can anything so relatively easy to make be so delicious?  I think Boca Negra is my favorite recipe to date from the Baking with Julia cookbook.

I chose to use only half the recipe and bake the cake in a 6-inch pan since there are just two of us in our household. This worked great. And, bittersweet chocolate isn't available in our small town, so I substituted Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate. No problem.

I first made the white chocolate cream using the food processor. It took less than five minutes to accomplish, and I let this sit in the refrigerator over night.

The next day I mixed up the cake ingredients using the food processor. Again, this took all of about five minutes to accomplish. I wondered if the small amount of hot liquid comprised of bourbon and sugar would be enough to melt all that chocolate. No problem. The food processor accomplished this task without a problem. I then added the butter, eggs and flour and poured the mixture into a greased 6-inch cake pan, putting waxed paper on the bottom and greasing that with butter. Would this mixture stick without flouring the pan? I confess I worried about this during the 30 mintues the cake was baking. But, no problem. The cake easily slid out of the pan after running a knife around the edge. I then flipped it over onto a serving dish and let it cool about 20 minutes.

Then I cut into the cake, adding a generous dollop of the white chocoate cream. Heaven. I will make this dish again and again, particularly when we are entertaining. I shared some of the cake with friends and they loved it as well. This recipe will be hard to top!

TWD -- January is Focaccia Month

The Baking with Julia Focaccia

January was my month for making focaccia. I am a volunteer at a bakery which supports a national Roman Catholic Shrine in Carey, OH. All proceeds from the bakery go toward the upkeep of the bascillica. During the month of January we made large batches of focacccia on two separate occasions. So, when I saw the Feb. 5 assignment with Baking with Julia was foccacia, I made mine on Jan. 30, making it Focaccia Month for me.

Interestingly enough, neither the bakery's method nor the Baking with Julia technique were what I normally do when left to my own devices. My favorite way to make focaccia is using Jeffery Hamelman's recipe in the book "Bread." His method uses a poolish and the resulting dough is very wet, similar to a ciabatta dough. I love the results using this method and often make this focaccia when asked to bring something for a potluck.

The bakery's method is to take our wildly popular pizza dough, let it rise once, pat it into full-sized bakery sheets using five pounds of dough per sheet, letting it rise again, then dimpling the dough with our fingers. We next slowly pour olive oil over the dough, then add rosemary, kosher salt, black pepper and garlic powder. The resulting product is probably an 1 1/2-2 inches in thickness.



Dough after slashing but before baking

The Baking with Julia recipe was intriguing because of the refrigeration step. I was curious to see if it did result in large holes as advertised. It did; now I'm wondering how. Would the holes have been even bigger had I let the dough rise a second time? I'd be curious to try this recipe again and use a second rise.


A portabella sandwich on focaccia

I thought slashing the dough in a tic-tac-toe design interesting, as I usually think of focaccia with dimpled dough. I was pleased with the results, but next time will make it a little thicker. I like focaccia for sandwiches, and this was a little short to slice in half.