Macaroons come in all colours

Macaroons
Originally uploaded by TypeFiend.

Even blue. And you can't argue with a patisserie that's selling them. Even if I never get to make all of the flavors and color combinations, it gives me inspiration to make eating them a goal.

I still have so much to learn

I have found a new ideal. I tried to mimic a macaroon I'd never heard of before so couldn't try when we were in Paris (the Pierre Hermé Ispahan) and have quickly discovered that it might have gone easier had I not quartered the recipe. Or maybe I just still have so much to learn regarding technique. I have been humbled, but it's still pretty darned tasty (and Hope is following me around and licking my feet begging for another. She loves macaroons). Next time, no prosecco while baking, and maybe, just maybe, the rose paste will make the buttercream taste less cloyingly sweet. I had to settle on what the asian market had for rose syrup. I bet I can find better if I look around.

Petit Four Sec

We're working on a petit four platter, and have to come up with six different types: tarts, bar cookies, macaroons, madeleines, petit four glace, and petit four sec. I've been using Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and the croquet party of the Red Queen as an underlying theme (it hopefully won't be too obvious on my platter). My dry petit four is a cookie that I've done before, with a twist: White pepper in the cookie and nasturtiums picked fresh from my garden as garnish.

I speak severely to my boy,
I beat him when he sneezes;
For he can thoroughly enjoy
The pepper when he pleases!

The original recipe is on epicurious.com (cardamom butter squares). If you want my version, just let me know in the comments and I'll send it to you.

Bread formula!

Tasty. There are a couple of modifications I'd like to make, but this is such a wonderfully light bread. I'm happy with the way it turned out. I really like oat flour.

I should probably convert this to a more kitchen-friendly measuring system, but for now ...

Herbed Ginger Oat Roll

10.2 oz bread (wheat) flour
6.8 oz oat flour
11.9 oz basil-mint syrup
.17 oz rice wine vinegar
.51 oz fresh yeast (.21 oz active dry)
.34 oz salt
1.53 oz unsalted butter
.68 oz minced candied ginger
.17 oz lemon zest
egg wash, palm sugar, oatmeal flakes and lemon zest for crust

Basil/mint syrup

1 cup basil/ mint leaf combo 1 Tbsp lemon agave nectar 1½ cups water pinch baking soda

Place leaves in a pot of boiling water for about 10 seconds. Remove and immediately plunge in iced water bath. Remove, squeeze out excel liquid and puree with agave nectar, water and a pinch of baking soda in a blender for about 20 seconds. Pour through a fine strainer, pushing the liquid through with the back of a spoon. Add more water if needed to bring liquid to 10.2 ounces

Cool or heat the herb syrup to 90°-100°F and dissolve the yeast in the liquid. Put flours in the bowl of the mixer fitted with a dough hook with the yeast/syrup water and mix for about 4 minutes. Let sit for about 10 minutes in bowl. Add salt and vinegar, then butter a small chunk at a time and letting it combine before adding the next, minced ginger and lemon zest. Knead in the machine for about 5 more minutes. Ferment until doubled in size. Punch down and scale to half, about 16 oz; roll and bench. Shape using the baguette method, rolling out to 16-18". Proof until doubled in size. Snip dough with scissors at a 45° angle about 2” apart and almost all the way through dough. Separate out alternating sides and press into side near bottom. Brush with egg wash and top with grated palm sugar, oats and zest. Convection oven at 375°.

And I feel my vitriolic bile regarding that person has subsided enough to remove the post of hatred. I still can't believe it happened, but out of sight, out of mind. Too bad the cookies I'm making burned because the "compose" feature of blogger totally rewrote my code in an evil way. No out of sight for that. I was going to take them up to the acupuncture people. Oh well. That was my last egg, too. To the store, C!

Adventures in bread!

I've been playing around with making a new bread formula in my head for the past couple of days. Everyone in class has been coming up with some great ideas; it's nice to think that we're already being given the chance to create new foods (rather than just learning all the the desserts from 1950). I was going to make a s'more-inspired loaf, but realized that it's spring, and I didn't really want something sweet and chocolately (with marshmallows!) in this heat. So I pulled out my acupuncturist-recommended book and started looking at flavors that are seasonally appropriate. Spring is wind, birth, green, sour, East, and wheat and oats, although the book then said that a good spring mix is pungent and sweet. I'll never quite figure it out. It's like Chef says: "Bake it until it's done!" *sigh*

So I'm in the middle of making a spring-inspired loaf based on a baguette recipe (I like the crustiness of the baguette, although I might go with the more tender ciabatta base if this doesn't work out). I've made my liquid a basil syrup, as it's fairly sweet and will hopefully give the bread a hint of green without being disgusting, with rice wine vinegar, salt and a mix of sweet rice and wheat bread flour. I added a roll of candied ginger to one of the loaves; I've got three types of rice flour (fun at the asian market!) and bought three types of candied weird flavors, including tasty olive (not so much); preserved jujube (I had to actually spit that one out); black rice cake; and something that had absolutely no English on it other than the importing company. I have no idea what it is.

Batch 1, Loaf 1: Glutenous rice ball. Ew. Flavor is too subtle. Nice crust, though. baked at 425 in a steamy oven on a pizza stone.
Batch 1, Loaf 2: Second loaf from glutenous rice ball, with a ginger core and an egg wash sprinkled with palm sugar and grated lemon zest. Too much ginger, and the texture is still pretty disgusting. Rice flour is like corn starch. Mmmm. also baked at 425 in a less steamy oven (on a pizza stone)
Batch 2, Loaf 1: I reduced the rice flour and added in some water chestnut flour (it doesn't help. Chestnut flour looks like tapioca and although it has a little more structure, acts the same as rice flour). The bread flour ratio is still 60:40. I wonder if it would be different if I were using clear flour ... I wonder where the average consumer can get clear flour ... can they? Used a more processed basil syrup (but still with agave syrup. Rolled "xoi nep than" into the dough in three stages (first at the first turn, pressed down, second at the second turn, pressed down, third at the third turn, pressed and pinched). It came out quite nasty from the oven.
Batch 2, Loaf 2: Pretty much the same as above, except instead of the black rice cake, I used preserved golden jujube and only in the center roll (it was still a little too strong for me). Egg wash on both (I like the egg wash) with a dusting of lemon zest and palm sugar. Dawn suggested this would be good with a richer pork dish.
Batch 3: Last batch is half oat flour (which I didn't have so I blended some instant oats) with the rice flour and processed the wheat flour with the yeast before adding in the other two flours. The courseness of the oats eases the gumminess without taking away from the softness that the rice flour offers. I like a soft crumb, but I don't want to add shortening or egg. I also didn't use the basil syrup, to see if it adds or detracts. It adds. Didn't get a chance to play around too much because of dinner plans. But I like the texture of this bread and the flavor of the ginger.

Conclusion: Rice flour is sticky. The basil and ginger make a lovely combination, with a pinch of cayenne to counter the sweetness. The snip pattern is very cool. It would be an excellent loaf to put next to a salad of lightly sauted scallops (in a rice wine and sesame oil mix) and served next to a fresh microgreen salad (baby romaine, maybe some fresh pear and cherry tomatoes, thin slivers of other vegetables (fresh beans, etc.) and served with a light vinaigrette. The subtleness of the ginger and basil is perfectly refreshing in this experiment.

Now let's just hope Chef thinks so ...

I love Esme.

So my sweet surviving cat ate some of her kibble this morning (don't worry - it's not any that was recalled. And I know kibble is bad, but she'll eat it as opposed to all of the other foods except for really really really crap food). She ate her kibble, and she must have eaten just a little too much of it, because she started to gack it up. I heard her. Except this is how much my kitten loves me. She gacked it up in the litterbox. I love her.

And on a not quite so disgusting note, I get to make up my own bread recipe in class using the guidelines for the bread formula and all of the ingredient functions we've been learning over the past week. The seven functions of egg. The five functions of salt. The nine functions of sugar. And yeast, oh, yeast. Our sourdough starter (named Mr. Bubbles in honor of the starter that sacrificed itself to another class's clumsiness) is quite the -er- lovely (yeah, that's it) glob of nastiness. I can't imagine anyone would think, "Hey, lets COOK with this." But then, I also don't understand duck confit. Or chocolate covered ants. But maybe that's just me.

Challah back, girl!

I feel sad that I didn't make it to a friend's Cinco de Perro celebration this weekend (oddly enough, on the 5th of May). The oppressive weather, and the oppressive pile of things we've been avoiding (including laundry, cleaning, mowing the lawn, shopping for food, bills ... you know, all the normal things that normal people generally keep up on) were all waiting. Plus Lasso stopped by to work on his ev conversion and I really felt uncomfortable saying "hey, we're going to go drink with friends, see ya!" to him. So we mowed the lawn and worked on the chicken coop instead. It will be finished one day (I hope). I'm certain I won't be able to get chickens when it's finally done. *sigh*

But on a lighter note, we've been exploring the richer doughs in the culinary bread block. Our practical this Friday will be challah and brioche. I chose the "star" braid as it just seemed easier than the 5-strand braid. Call me crazy. Weird, but if we do a good job on it, we'll even get extra points. Don't know why. I think it's easier. But you have to work quickly. I think I have it down, but I've never seen any star braids but my own and the others in class. It's still pretty. And this isn't even a Char picture.

Mycology

We're making breads in baking class and everything is very yeasty. We're even making sourdough starter from water, flour and squished grapes. Yum. My partner, sweet little thing that she is, named ours "Monostat". Other names in the class are "Mr. Bubbles", "Yeasty Boys", "Lucille DoughBall" ... you know. Cute names. Chef wouldn't let us call ours Monostat, so officially it's "The Vampire YeaStat". But we call it Monostat for short. Yup. Fun Times! Anyway. So with all of the rain, and yeast on my mind, I walked out with the compost this morning and saw a huge fungus growing next to the gas meter. I'm not a mycologist by any means (although I do likes me some fungus on my pizza -- mmmmm), but I think this might be Suillus Cavipes - which has "mediocre" edibility. Except it was growing under a gas meter, not a larch (and for some weird reason, I now have a Monty Python sketch running through my mind). Whatever it is, I'm still not eating it. But it is kind of cute, in a fungus-y sort of way.