Friday, July 29, 2016

Zucchini Bread Revisited


Two of the most prolific July produce grown here on the property are zucchini and blackberries. Being seasonal, they are also pretty inexpensive in the store around here. Having recently enjoyed the moist deliciousness of the chocolate zucchini bread, it was easy to return to that recipe and make it again. This time I stayed closer to the original recipe. I did add orange zest to the sugar and rubbed it in so that the sugar soaked up the orange oils and color. When I added that sugar to the eggs the fragrance of oranges was delightful!

I kept the strong flavor of cinnamon and then added the flavor, color and texture of freshly picked blackberries. They were folded in at the end, which was tricky since the batter is pretty thick and I didn't want to crush them too much. I think you will enjoy this version if you like blackberries. Their sweetness and tang and intense berry flavor is a nice counterpoint to the mellow zucchini and spicy cinnamon and fragrant orange.


The best size squash for zucchini bread is medium sized with very small seeds. Save the baseball bat huge ones for soup or spaghetti sauce! I used my food processor to shred my squash, but a good box grater works well, too. Use the large holes so that your shreds have some substance.


Zucchini Loaf From Seattle - With Blackberries
adapted from Maida Heatter's Cakes

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
scant 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cups shredded zucchini, packed, about 1 pound zucchini
2 eggs
zest grated from 1/2 an orange
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 pint fresh blackberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or grease a 10 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan (10-cup capacity) or two loaf pans with combined 10-cup capacity. Dust the pan or pans with fine, dry bread crumbs and tap to shake out excess crumbs.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Clean the zucchini well and cut off the ends, then shred into large slivers. Don't drain. Pack into a 2-cup measure and set aside.

Beat together the eggs. In a small bowl rub together the orange zest and the sugar with your fingertips until blended and fragrant. Add to the eggs, then add the oil and beat to combine. Add the vanilla and beat to combine. Add the sifted dry ingredients and beat just to mix. Mixture will be thick. Add the zucchini, along with any moisture that has collected and mix thoroughly. The zucchini shreds thin the batter a little. Fold in the berries with a spatula, keeping them as whole as possible.

Scoop dough into the prepared pan(s), smooth the top(s), and bake. A large pan will take about 1 hour and 35-50 minutes. A cake tester gently inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry. Batter will rise up as it bakes and form a crack on top. That's O.K.
Smaller pans will take less time. Check after 40 minutes. A tiny one could be done in 30 minutes or less.

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Cover with a rack, turn over and remove the pan, turn over again. Cake will be right side up.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Summer Fun


Last weekend we helped organize and put on a summer BBQ for the local chapter of the P.E.O. scholarship group I belong to.

It was a beautiful summer day, with moderate temperatures and mild breezes and we were cooking and eating in the middle of an awesome grove of tall old redwood trees. I made iced tea. I probably knew how to make it when I was a kid, but it has been a very long time since I made iced tea, so I had to check on the internet for a recipe. Sounds silly, but I was making it for about 40 people, so I didn't want to do it wrong. I think the iced tea I had when I was young was sweet iced tea and I have never cared for it, but this time I could add the amount of sweetness I liked, so it was better. Still prefer my tea hot, but at least now I can make a great batch of iced tea!

Sweetie and Jerry did their magic at the BBQ grill and cooked up some delicious tri-tip. All the other appetizers and food were pot luck and there were lots of delicious offerings. A fine time was had by all! Never did take a photo of the iced tea...too busy. Use your imagination, OK?

Iced Tea

4 cups boiling water
2 tea bags
4 cups cold water
1/4 cup simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, boiled until the sugar dissolves)
1/2 a lemon, slice thin, seeds removed

In a large non-reactive container (I used a very large tempered glass container) combine the boiling water and tea bags, leaving in the tea bags long enough to get a good color. Remember you will be diluting this with cold water and ice, so make it strong enough.

Remove the tea bags and discard.

Add the cold water and the simple syrup. Stir to combine. Chill in the fridge until cold.

Add ice and stir. Add lemon slices and stir. Serve.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Summertime Cake


The Cake Slice Bakers had some great choices this month. The Black and White Layer Cake sounded great and so did the Sour Cream Coffee Cake and Blueberry Surprise, but the one that grabbed my attention was the Zucchini Loaf from Seattle. It's baked in a large loaf pan, is moist from the shredded zucchini and uses veggie oil instead of butter.


I'm a summer gardener. I love planting flowers like morning glory and zinnia and veggies like cucumbers and beans. My two favorites are tomatoes and zucchini. Some years the snails decimate the veggie starts and so we only get one or two zucchini a week. Other years, like this one, we are harvesting a decent sized zucchini from at least four plants every day. Now we love zucchini and eat it just about every day, plus we give lots away, but that's a lot of zucchini. This recipe used up one and a half zucchini. Maybe I should make multiple recipes to freeze as Christmas gifts?

Anyway I decided to make the zucchini loaf, but since I discovered chocolate zucchini bread a few years ago I can't go back to plain, spiced loaves. It was easy to convert this recipe to chocolate, so that's what I did. I actually like this recipe better than my old one, so thank you Maida!

Be sure to check out what the other Cake Slice Bakers have baked this month. It's always fun to see which recipe had their name on it!


Zucchini Loaf From Seattle - Amended
from Maida Heatter's Cakes

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
scant 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Bensdorp Dutch-processed cocoa from King Arthur Flour)
2 cups shredded zucchini, packed, about 1 pound zucchini
2 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or grease a 10 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan (10-cup capacity) or two loaf pans with combined 10-cup capacity. (I used a 9.5 x 5 x 2 1/2-inch pan and a tiny loaf pan for the remaining batter.) Dust the pan or pans with fine, dry bread crumbs and tap to shake out excess crumbs.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, espresso powder and cocoa powder. Set aside.
Clean the zucchini well and cut off the ends, then shred into large slivers. Don't drain. Pack into a 2-cup measure and set aside.

Beat together the eggs, sugar and oil, then add the vanilla and beat to combine. Add the sifted dry ingredients and beat to mix. Mixture will be thick. Add the zucchini, along with any moisture that has collected and mix thoroughly. The zucchini shreds thin the batter a little. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop dough into the prepared pan(s), smooth the top(s), and bake. A large pan will take about 1 hour and 35-50 minutes. A cake tester gently inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry (except, maybe, for melted chocolate chips). Batter will rise up as it bakes and form a crack on top. That's O.K. 
Smaller pans will take less time. Check after 40 minutes. My tiny one was done in 30 minutes.

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Cover with a rack, turn over and remove the pan, turn over again. Cake will be right side up.


This cake is delicious when still slightly warm.



Saturday, July 16, 2016

Onions And Poppy Seeds and Babes


It's the 16th of the month so it's time to gather round the kitchen table and tell tales of the Bread Baking Babes. This month we are baking a delicious, round, chewy, onion filled, poppy seed embellished cross between a bagel and a soft pretzel called a Bialy. Our Kitchen of the Month is the lovely Judy at Judy's Gross Eats and she has given us two recipes for this baked savory personal sized bread.

Here is what she said when she introduced the recipes:
"This month, my friends, you will be baking bialys, a bagel-cousin from Bialystok, Poland.  This is only a one-step process – baking only – and instead of a hole, the bialy has a depression that can be filled with onions, cheese, or whatever you choose."



I chose the one with the poolish that you stir together the night before. It sits at room temperature and you make the dough the next day. Because I wasn't baking until late in the day, I added an additional flour/water mixture in the late morning to feed the yeasties and subtracted that amount of flour and water from the final dough.

I found that one large onion, minced and cooked, was more than enough for filling the bialys. For the salt topping I used a moist gray sea salt and sprayed the bialys with olive oil after adding the onion filling but before putting on the poppy seeds and sea salt. That seemed to work well, helping the seeds and salt stay attached to the little breads.



The only other real change was that I misread the recipe and completely skipped the two hour rise. That probably resulted in less light bialys but they were delicious and chewy like a good bagel, plus this way they were ready for dinner. It has been summer-time hot for the last few days, so I was happy that it cooled down last night (the fog came in) enough to enjoy baking.


These are really yummy and easy to make and fun to bite into since you get a nice crust on the bottom, chewy interior, soft onions, the pop of seeds and savory tang of sea salt.

Bake along with us and become a Buddy, with a badge for your post, by sending Judy an email with a photo of your finished Bialy and a short description of your baking experience for the round-up.


Be sure to check out the rest of the Babes, too. Bet you see some with whole grain flour and/or flax seeds!
Bake My Day - Karen



Bialy
from Elizabeth Faulkner

Prep Time: 30 mins + 3 hours resting time
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Serving Size: 16 bialys

Ingredients
Filling
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 onion minced, per bialy

Dough
17 ounces bread flour
9 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
4 ounces starter or poolish*
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 ounces warm water
14 1/2 ounces cold water

Directions
*Make the starter or poolish the night before with 1/2 cup flour, 1/3 cup water and 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast. Mix together and leave out at room temperature overnight.

  1. Combine 2 ounces of warm water with the yeast to dissolve. Combine all dough ingredients together except the salt.
  2. When dough comes together, knead for 6 minutes.
  3. Add salt and knead for another 2 minutes. Set aside to rise for 2 hours.
  4. Roll into a log on a flour dusted surface. Scale out dough at 3 ounces a ball (about 16 bialys total) 
  5. Press each out to shape without overworking and leaving 1" lip around edge.
  6. Proof dough balls (allow to rise again) in warm spot covered with a clean dish towel for an hour or until soft and airy.
  7. Sauté onions in 1 tablespoon olive oil until light caramel in color but at higher heat. Make center depression in each one and fill with the filling.
  8. Sprinkle bialys lightly with poppy seeds and salt. Bake at 450 degree oven, preferably on a pizza stone, for about 12-15 minutes.

Saturday, July 09, 2016

French Toll House Cookies


Apparently the French like our Toll House chocolate chip cookies but in creating their own version, Parisian bistro owner Edouard Bobin played around a little with the classic recipe and created a cookie that has much the same flavors, but is a bit chewier (due to some almond flour) and utterly delicious. I found the recipe in Baking Chez Moi by Dorie Greenspan. The cookies went well with a wonderful fresh fruit compote we were served recently at a winery picnic. Because they were scooped with a disher the shape was pretty round and much the same size for each cookie. Because the recipe asks the baker to flatten the top half way through the baking, they were sort of puck shaped. They made a slightly more elegant presentation than my usual ragged edged, bumpy chocolate chip cookies. I think next time I'll include some white chocolate chips and maybe a few dried cranberries. They might be bumpier, but still delicious that way.

French Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cups (476 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks (8 oz; 226 grams) butter at room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
1 cup (200 grams) packed brown sugar
1  1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
12 oz. (340 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped or 2 cups chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups (150 grams) hazelnut or almond flour

Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minutes, until smooth. Add both sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in the vanilla. Scrape bowl and beaters.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating for a minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 4 or 5 additions, mixing only until each addition is just incorporated.

Still on low speed, mix in the chocolate and the nut flour.

Chill the dough at least 2 hours (up to 3 days).

After dough chills, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Scoop the dough into mounds the size of golf balls, about 1 1/2 tablespoons to a mound. Space about 2 inches apart.

Bake one sheet at a time for 8 minutes, then use a metal spatula to gently flatten just a little. Rotate the baking sheet and bake for an additional 7 minutes. The cookies will be a fairly pale brown and will still be slightly soft in the middle...which is good. Remove from the oven and cool for 1 minute, then use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Cool to room temperature.

Bake the next sheet and continue to shape and bake the cookies the same way, making sure that the baking sheet is cool before putting the dough onto it.

Makes about 50 cookies.

Friday, July 08, 2016

Blackberry Pie For The 4th


Our 4th of July celebrations tend to be pretty subdued since we have a dog who freaks out at the sound of fireworks...even ones going off miles away. There are very close by fireworks on the 3rd every year at our local high school and then on the 4th itself usually three that are close enough to hear. Our solution is to close the windows and play loud music. It works pretty well. Needless to say, we don't go out and leave Pi alone. This year we did cross the road to our neighbors to share freshly made blackberry pie in the afternoon. Mellow and no fireworks except for those on the tastebuds. Blackberries are very flavorful and fragrant when ripe and this pie also added ripe peaches to the mix. It smelled heavenly!

AM made rich, decadent vanilla ice cream using a David Lebovitz recipe. I had soy ice cream but have to admit that the soft serve vanilla was truly decadent looking. (see photo by recipe)

It's been a long time since I made a double crust pie and I'm not sure that I've ever made a blackberry pie. This one was more challenging because I decided to use lard instead of butter or shortening in the crust. The crust was the best ever, but delicate and a challenge to work with. Still, if you like flaky pie crust, it pays to find some lard. I used rendered lard, not the rectangle of hydrogenated lard you find in the market. It has a faint bacon fragrance which was kinda nice. I made a second pie with shortening for my nephew and Sweetie to enjoy the next day and that is the crust you see in the top photo. Much easier to work with!

This was an outstanding pie. I did make some changes to the given recipe (what a surprise, right?), including the step of chilling the dough. I think it's important because it gives the flour time to absorb both the water and the lubricant (lard or shortening) which makes for easier rolling. I also didn't do a lattice crust. It would have been almost impossible with the lard version. Adding the peach was also different, but I've always love the combination of blackberries and peaches, so why not?

This is truly a seasonal treat. See if you can find some ripe blackberries and peaches and enjoy it while they are at their sweet and juicy best.


Blackberry Peach Pie
based on two recipes from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham

Basic Pie Dough (Lard or Shortening)
for a 9-inch two-crust pie
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup lard or shortening, cold
6-8 tablespoons ice cold water

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl, add the shortening, and work it into the flour with a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingertips until the mixture resembles fresh bread crumbs. Use a light hand.

Sprinkle on the water, a tablespoon at a time, stirring lightly with a fork after each addition. Clean off the fork tines after each tablespoon. The free tines help keep the action light. Use just enough water so that the dough holds together. (I tend to work my way around the bowl, leaving clumps of dampened flour, then use the final tablespoon of water to gather it all into one mass.)

Divide the dough in half and put each half on a piece of plastic wrap. Shape into a flattened round, wrap up and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Remove first packet of dough from fridge and place on a lightly floured clean work surface. Roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 inch thick and 2 inches larger than your inverted pie pan. (I find that it is a good idea to turn the dough mass itself a little as you roll it out so that you can add a bit of flour to the work surface as needed to prevent sticking.) Transfer the rolled out dough to the pan using your rolling pin. Center in pan. Set aside. Remove second packet of dough from fridge and place on a lightly floured clean work surface.  Roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 inch thick and 1 inch larger than your inverted pie pan. You are now ready to fill the pie pan with the filling.

Pie Filling:
5-6 cups fresh blackberries (I used 5 cups plus one large peach [peeled, pitted and cut into chunks])
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup sugar (if fruit is very sweet, you can reduce it to 3/4 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Note: You can substitute other kinds of berries or stone fruit for some or all of the blackberries.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Make sure that you have the pie plate lined with dough and the top crust rolled out.

Pick over the berries, removing any moldy ones, and wash them only if they have visible dirt on the. Drain if you washed them and pat lightly with a paper towel to dry them some. Place berries and peach chunks in a large mixing bowl.

In another mixing bowl stir together the flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Pour this mixture over the berries and toss gently to mix. Pile the fruit into the pastry-lined pie pan. Moisten the edges of the bottom crust with water, then carefully transfer the top crust so that is sits centered on the pie. Press down gently all around the edge to seal, then trim, roll under, and crimp or flute the edges. Slash three to four steam holes near the center of the pie with a small, sharp knife.

Place the pie pan on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet and bake the pie for about 25 minutes, until the crust has begun to brown. Reduce the heat to 350d degrees F. and bake for 20 - 25 minutes more, until the top is well browned. You can place strips of foil over the edges if they start to brown too much.

Remove the baked pie from the oven and cool on a rack.

Sunday, July 03, 2016

Turkey Taco Salad For Hot Weather


I'm not big on Mexican food most of the time but burritos, quesadillas, and this taco salad are all great hot weather dishes. I make burritos when I have leftover chili and cooked rice. I add some guacamole and plain yogurt to mine, plus some cheese to Sweetie's.

This taco salad is nice because you can make the cooked part during the cooler part of the day and then mix the rest of the ingredients together at mealtime. This recipe makes enough for 8 generous servings. If you are serving fewer people, don't mix the lettuce or avocado in. Keep those in separate bags and just serve portions to mix with a similar portion of the turkey mixture.

I leave out the cheese and tomatoes and add those in for Sweetie once I have my serving. Fortunately I think Sweetie can eat almost anything with his cast iron stomach.

If you don't have an easy source for ground turkey, use ground chicken or ground beef. It will still be delicious...and cool.



TURKEY TACO SALAD 
serves 8-10   

1 pound ground turkey browned, crumbled and drained.
1 Tbs. olive oil
1- 1 oz. package taco seasoning
1 15 oz. can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 large can pitted olives cut into ¼ or sliced
1 green, red or yellow pepper sliced and chopped
1 red onion sliced thin and chopped
1 pt. cherry or grape tomatoes sliced in half.
1 avocado, cut into chunks
1 large or 2 small heads iceberg lettuce washed, drained
and chilled then shredded thin.
½ lb. Mexican mix cheese or Monterey and jack cheddar blend
sharp cheddar
1 7 oz. bag taco flavored chips
1 8 oz. French dressing
 
Cook the turkey:

In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil and add the ground turkey and cook for about 7 minutes, until the turkey loses the pink color.  Use a wooden spoon to break the meat apart carefully while it cooks.  Carefully drain off any liquid then stir in the taco seasoning—cook for 1 minute more. Add the kidney beans. Slice the olives and add. Refrigerate to cool.


Chop the pepper, onion, tomatoes and lettuce. Peel the avocado and remove the pit, then cut into chunks. (If not eating the whole salad at once, reserve lettuce not needed and be sure to also reserve proportional amount of meat mixture once everything is mixed. Coat some avocado with lemon oil to keep it from turning brown and save that in a separate bag.)

When ready to serve, mix chopped pepper and onion into the meat mixture. Fold in the halved tomatoes, avocado chunks and the mixed cheese. Place the lettuce in a large salad bowl. Top with the meat mixture, then the French dressing. Stir to combine. Top with the taco flavored chips (or tortilla chips). Break up the chips a little before putting them on the salad.

Serve at once.


SHOPPING LIST:
1 lb. ground turkey
 1 oz. pkg. taco seasoning
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
1 6 oz. to 8 oz. can olives
1 pepper of your choice, red, green or yellow
1 red or sweet onion
1 pt. cherry or grape tomatoes
1 avocado
1 large or 2 small heads iceberg lettuce
½ lb. cheese (8 oz.)Mexican mix—Monterey, Sharp cheddar, jack.
1 8 oz. French dressing

1 7 oz. bag taco favored chips or tortilla chips