September Daring Baker Challenge: Adventures in Vols-au-Vent

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

This month, I was much happier to see this dough, from the laminated family of doughs, than I was the pastry of last month's disaster... I actually had been wanting to try making puff pastry for quite awhile, but never had the occasion. I did procrastinate it until 2 days ago, since that is in my nature lately- and because I seriously am trying to cut down on my sweets consumption. I'm running out of people to give food away to, and what a shame that is! Do you live in the Milwaukee area? Do you want something to eat? Let me know.

This dough was amazing stuff. I often am amazed by the sheer simplicity of baking. Add the ingredients with even the slightest care, and usually a pretty edible result will occur. But, as with my knitting as of late, sometimes I just need someone to say: DO IT, go on, just do it. What's the worst that can happen? That is how this dough began, a collection of ingredients in the food pro, whizzing about, and then resting (see above) in the icebox wrapped in a damp kitchen towel.

BeforeI began, I armed myself with video prompting, from Julia Child herself, a great video, since the written directions seem to make it a bit more complex that it actually is. I also rented Baking with Julia from the library, for more visual cues.

I had to pound my pound of butter with a meat basher, since a rolling pin wasn't working. I again have to thank Sasa, for bringing me this meat mallet from Europe back when I still was mostly vegetarian, and I at the time wondered why she was giving it to me. It pounds everything from ice and meat to the above butter now, and I don't know what I'd do without it.

You need a flat pound of butter about 1 inch thick to roll between the dough. Then, fold the soft dough around the butter, completely encasing it, and roll out. 6 turns of rolling and folding, and you have a silky, elastic dough that smells enticingly of butter. The dough is unique, since it has no levening and recieves its rise only from the layers of butter and the reaction of the oven heat to it.

This was the dough at the 4th turn mark, just before another rest in the fridge.

Since I wasn't using the dough right away, or withing several hours, I decided to cut out the vols-au-vent shapes, brush them with egg wash, and freeze them. It appeared from the directions that I could bake them directly from the freezer, so that is what I did.

Next time, however, I think I would let them thaw in the refrigerator - and also dock the bottom a bit more, since when I baked them they puffed up in the centers too. I was in no way upset at this, since the pastry itself was so delicious. It is a safe bet that I will never buy frozen puff pastry again.

I also think that because I froze them with the egg wash, they may have suffered a bit visually. But again, their flavor was so good, that I doubt that would be noticed. When filled, it was completely hidden.

I had no idea what to fill these with. The challenge was to fill them with something either savory or sweet. Since I've been recently obsessed with slightly healthier options, I decided savory was the way to go, and I concocted a filling of mushrooms, leeks and beef in a port wine sauce. I really added the beef for my husband, and really would have preferred them without it.

I got the mushrooms at the farm market Saturday morning, a beautiful mix of oyster, shitake and crimini. In retrospect, I think the oyster mushrooms would have been better used in a soup or scrambled eggs, but I'm planning on getting more next week to try that. Their smell reminded me at once of foraging through the Northwoods with my Dad to find mushrooms. That was probably my favorite way to spend a Sunday afternoon when I was about 8 - looking for honey mushrooms with my Dad in the woods, when everyone else was at home taking a nap. I guess, if I remember correctly, my brother sometimes came with though.

So this was last night's dinner. And below, my lunch today: scrambled eggs with bacon, and cheddar cheese on top. Had I not been in a hurry, I would have also included chives. The pastries were a day old by this point, and still delicious... I'd say I'm happy with the dough.

Knowing I'm armed with a few in the freezer, I've been trying to come up with another few ideas, but I'm sure nothing could compare to Audax Artifex...you really must check out this site, he made 25 variations on this basic recipe! Incredible. I like to think I can cook, but a chef, I am not - this man is. Truly inspired combinations, and most likely quite popular Down Under, where undoubtedly he is passing out platters of these vols-au-vent to passers-by. I know I mentioned him last month, when he built a 30 layer torte, but I am learning a lot just by reading his attacks on these challenges.

You can find the recipe for vols-au-vent puff pastry dough at the link for Audax Artifex's site above, or at the Daring Recipe Archive. On your visit, be sure to check out some of the others on the Daring Baker Blogroll! I need to earmark some time to look at some more.

Thanks to Steph for a great choice for a challenge! I'm looking forward to my 4th in October, and now each new month I am logging in with eager anticipation of my adventures to come. Not a bad way to start each month.

Odds, Ends and Updates

For some time, I've been meaning to include some updates. Time is so elusive, however, and usually slips far too fast from my hands each day and before I know it, a whole summer has gone. Fortunately, since

I'm a knitting machine, we will all be well prepared for the cold months to come.

Item #1: Knit Update. I finished the mitered mittens on September 9th, then I set out to find child mitten "recipes" (as I always mistakenly call patterns). I joined  Ravelry (though, I have only had time to put in the one project I made in a day from beautiful baby Blue Sky Alpaca I bought at Loop) and found a free pattern for children's mitts - which I am all about since they are so fast! It's fantastic to see progress when you are a results driven knitter as I am. I had a bit of trouble with reading the pattern as it pertained to the thumb, but again, the lovely staff at Loop gave me the encouragement needed to persevere.

I made Boy-O a pair out of the leftover Berroco Jasper from my Mitered Mitten foray. If you look closely, one mitt is larger, due to misreading the pattern on my part. Now, I've casted on again - armed with Loop advice for thumbs, and knowledge of what I did wrong. So each of the above will soon have a mate, and I'll have 2 pairs of child sized mittens. A good thing, since the publisher of the "recipe" said to donate a pair to charity since she was providing the pattern for free.

A happy boy with mitten.

In further knitting news, I am at a stalwart 2 alien heads for R1's birthday scarf. Good thing I told her that Iwould have it to her before the cold weather, or I'd probably never get it done. I think it boils down to that I prefer to knit in the round. I am going to make some more aliens, maybe even tonight.

Item #2: Beet Pasta Update.

I dried the shockingly pink pasta on the counter for 24 hours, and then packed the pretty stuff into a freezer bag until time with beet loving friends. Later that week, I did indeed try the raffish ends that were deemed unsightly to serve to dinner guests. I originally thought I would actually make a little sauce of blue cheese to put on it, but couldn't bring myself to devour them any other way than to dress with butter and salt and pepper.

Buttered noodles are among the more comforting things of life, as far as I'm concerned. And buttered beet noodles were far and away more delicious than any "veggie" pasta you can buy commercially. Worth the mess? I say Yes!

Not quite as shocking, but still deliciously peppered. And if it wasn't obvious by the color involved, I think I could serve these to non-beet lovers and they would just think they were really great noodles...

Item #3: Mushroom Penne Update.

I thought this recipe was good when I made it, but as promised, I did eat all of the leftovers. I must say, that the 2-4th days in the refrigerated life of this pasta were the most delectable. In fact, next time I make it, I'll probably make it in advance. It

was silky and creamy - much more after its laying around a few days... and being vegetarian, I didn't feel bad having it 4 days out.

The same picture as the original post.

Item #4: Pancakes, Pancakes Update.

I did try the pancake recipe I originally made with oat flour with buckwheat flour instead. Just substitute 1/2 c. buckwheat flour and 1/2 c. AP flour for the oat and whole wheat flours of the original recipe, and you'll have a really nice, earthy pancake that even a picky 3 year old will love.

Well, that's all the updates I can think of for now. I need to strain out my cherry cordial from July, re-bottle it into a bottle and let it slumber now until December or so...but for some reason, I'm procrastinating that. Maybe now that I've admitted it, I'll do something about it.

Is it really Fall? (or The Tale of Applesaucing...)

I've never canned applesauce before, though I have made it in small, what we can eat in a week, batches several times. But a week or so ago, when my Mom asked if I wanted some apples from my Gram's trees up in northern Wisconsin, I couldn't say no.

I don't know if I'm just tired from summer work, or tired because I know that fall really is here, but when I got two full Trig's grocery bags full of beautiful apples last weekend, my first impulse was admittedly not the full-out excitement of my past canning forays this summer. I was actually dreading it. Oh, I knew that the end result would probably change my mind, but I think it was just the starting.

When we got back from our visit last Sunday night with a car packed to the gills, I found room to stash most of the apples in the fridge, and left one bag on the cool basement floor - planning to do them first thing on Monday morning. Well, Monday morning, I ended up taking a walk and catching up on housekeeping and laundry. I really was putting off the start of the applesaucing. Tuesday came: another long walk and procrastination. Wednesday: library day, and then late in the afternoon, a call from my Mom who was on her way to visit for the night.

She wanted to help me get started early on Thursday morning, but I talked her into going to Loop Yarn Shop (so I could get more knitting advice, but more on that later...) and for lunch at Beans and Barley (where my son spent most of the time dropping crayons on the floor under the table and sitting under there to pick them up. Maybe I'm tired from days with a 3 year old.) When we got back from lunch, though I felt tired, I set up the Victorio Strainer my Mom lent me, and cleared my little canning area by the stove that is usually home to my oversized flour storage jars. Then, my Mom just began slicing the apples.

There were two varieties, and I know from birth actually how good these apples are, though I don't know the varietals. My Gram used to press cider, and make sauce, and I'm sure a good many pies. I saved out enough stock for a couple of pies myself. As you can see, the cut apples are saturated with the rosy color of their skins, which also imbues the sauce the most rosy, romantic color.

These little ones are only about 1 1/2 - 2 inches big, but are so tart and easy to prepare for sauce. You only need to cut them in half and nick out the blossom end.

My Mom lit the fire under me to get started, and though I did grab a 25 minute nap (which I almost never do) after downing a cup of deep, black joe, I was inspired once more. Even more so after my first bubbling pot of apples went down the Victorio! What a marvel of engineering! I know that an attachment can be had for my Kitchen Aid, but this well-built hand crank model was so fun to use. After the pretty pink sauce was making its way down the pike, I was hooked.

The Victorio also has the amazing benefit of being super easy to clean. In fact, the hardest thing about it, was following the schematic to set it up. I actually had a piece on backwards - and had my Mom not popped in, I may have had a huge mess to report. But I'm nearly certain I made the mistake because my heart wasn't in it as I began.

All in all, I was quite neat about the whole boiling, bubbling ordeal, and am now rewarded with 16 beautiful pints of applesauce. My Mom did offer to take one bag back to her farm to process, and I did let her. I think 30 or more pints would have been a bit excessive for my 3 person nuclear unit... especially when only 2 of us will eat it.

I'm sure it will all be immensely enjoyed - and I have a renewed reason to make Dorie Greenspan's Oatmeal Breakfast Bread, one of my favorites. You can find the recipe in her amazing book, or from fellow Daring Baker, Cast Sugar here. It's definitely worthy of the homemade stuff.

Thanks, Mom!

Easy Bread Making (or in Which a Passion is Renewed for Fall)

It was last December when I discovered the wonders of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day... And by the first of January (2009) I was full out Obsessed.

Before that, I made bread, but not exclusively. I would try out different recipes, and did have a favorite that took me exactly 2 hours from start to finish - but still it was not as low-maintenance as the Five Minute type, which relies on a very wet dough that stores well for up to two weeks. I had tried labor intensive approaches, and even thoroughly poured over Nancy Silverton's mothering methods (feeding your starter 3 times a day, though I couldn't quite commit to that regimen) and had some 24 hour recipes tucked in my repertoire for happy occasions.

The Five Minutes a Day approach made me a committed bread maker. I doubt I've bought 3 loaves of bread since January, and as both my picky eater housemates would attest, I don't think I'll ever go back to purchasing store bread on a regular basis. While I still tinker with other recipes, I usually tinker with Five Minutes now, since it is generally foolproof for those of us unlucky enough not to attend Patisserie Schools...

Last week I ordered a yogurt maker from King Arthur Flour. After visiting with GOP, I decided that I'd give in and buy a new maker. I'm really happy I did. Not only did I have terrific yogurt, and less plastic waste from overly sweet supermarket brands, but I decided to order a packet of this mix:

For a week, I was so itchy to try this stuff! And finally, today, my chance came. We were out of town for the weekend, and there was not a stitch of bread to be had when we returned. At 8 this morning, I mixed up a batch of altered Five Minutes a Day dough, and by late lunchtime, I had a loaf of bread worth being excited about.

King Arthur Flours are single handedly responsible for breaking me of my food snobbery addiction to organic flour. They are so consistently wonderful, that I can't really think of co-op organic the same. I'm all for USDA Organic, but KAF: You have stolen my heart! They also have terrific recipes and help online, too. Win, Win!

Raising in the 6 qt. bowl...

I really do love carbohydrates, but in summer, my passion seems to wane a bit, since the heat and humidity of the Midwest tend not to make me very hungry. But in these first few cooler days of pre-Autumn, my appetites seem to be increasing. What excitement! I feel almost as excited as the first time a loaf of the "stored dough method" bread came dancing off the stone, perfect and crusty and begging to be cut into.

I will share my recipe: but please note that without the base recipe and indeed the book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, my baking self would not ever have been able to come up with it.

Cracked Honey Wheat Bread (by "stored dough method")

3 C. tepid water

1 1/2 T. Yeast (I use the active dry yeast from the bulk refrigerator section of the co-op)

1 1/2 T. Kosher Salt

1 C. whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur 100 percent Whole Wheat)

1/2 c. King Arthur Flour Cracked Whole Wheat Bread Base

5 C. AP flour (I used King Arthur)

Even though the Five Minutes approach is not to use machines, I insist upon using my stand mixer since

it really integrates the ingredients well. First, add the water. Then, float the yeast along the top of the water. Add the salt off to the side (and really I'm being so specific since I am a bit nutty, doing things the same each time. Really, you could probably just mix up everything in no specific order, and it will turn out wonderfully.) Add the flours and bread base and mix with the dough hook until well combined. I usually then scrape down the sides of the mixer and let it knead another 2 minutes or so - but that, too, would be totally unnecessary. Let it rise (I can use the same mixer bowl since mine is 6 quarts - you may need to transfer to a larger bowl) for 2 hours or until the dough looks like it has risen and fallen just slightly.

At this point, you can stash the whole bowl into the fridge for up to 14 days. But should you choose, you can hack off a portion and make a loaf right away. Normally, you can get 2 standard loaf pans out of one batch of dough, or about 3 pound size loaves, of a free formed shape. I opted for the boule today instead of a pan. I took about a 1/3 of the dough and quickly formed it into a ball. Let it rise on the peel dusted with cornmeal (or if you are without peel, try the back of a sheet pan lined with parchment - and slide the loaf with the parchment under it into the oven when you get to that part) for 40 minutes. If the dough has just come out of the refrigerator, really let it sit out for a couple of hours, until most of the chill of the fridge is out of it, and it has risen slightly.

(Note: if you want to make a loaf pan, usually the temp in the oven will need to be decreased. I haven't tried this one in a loaf pan yet, but I'd probably try it at 400 or even 350 degrees. Also, a baking stone and water for steam is unnecessary.)

About a half hour before you bake, heat the oven to 450 degrees, with the baking stone in the center of the oven. On the bottom oven shelf, place an empty pan to hold water. I like to let the oven really preheat well, so the baking stone is properly warm and the oven (mine is electric) doesn't cycle on and off so frequently due to the retained heat.

Dust the top of the loaf with flour, and slash in a tic-tac-toe shape with a razor blade. Slide onto the stone, and immediately pour 1 c. hot water into the empty pan.

Bake until deep golden brown, about 40 minutes, more or less.

There really is a wealth of information on the Artisan Bread website, even video links of them shaping loaves of dough. And should you have questions, like I did early on, email them. They got back to me frighteningly fast, and only served to encourage me more in my baking endeavors. They do have a second book coming out this October: Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients .

Meanwhile, you can check out the original book, and plenty of recipes on the website...and be ready to be transformed into a bread baking maniac. The beginning of fall is the perfect time for such an obsession!

Looking for someone to eat beets with...

Today I decided I had to make pasta with beets. Nevermind that I am the only one in my house that will actually eat beets...I really just had to make this pasta.

This bright pink, cling wrapped ball is all natural!

Since the onset of football (and fantasy football) season, I've found myself basically cooking for 1: Me. Boy-O has newly entered the "cereal stage" and insists on eating cold cereal for 2 meals a day. Maybe I lack the parenting skills needed to insist that he should eat something else, but for breakfast and lunch, I just don't sweat it. And my Husband, since he's been busy with fantasy football drafts and pre-season games for the beginning of September, (somethings that I completely avoid - like all sports) has been eating out or just needing something quick...partially why I've been making all kinds of sandwiches lately. (Tuna Salad with a layer of the Roasted Red Pepper Salsa is really good!)

It's kind of nice to have a break from dinners, I guess, but I do need a reason to be in the kitchen, or I end up knitting. I have to be careful with that since I think I'm a tense knitter and end up with very sore hands for several days after completing a project. I have to work on being a relaxed, mellowed-out knitter. Any non-drug or alcohol related tips on that would be appreciated...

Since I've been trying really hard to cut back a little on the dessert faction of my life, when I saw a recipe for beet pasta in the Outpost Exchangethat came this month, it's kind of been nagging me that I'd have to try it. I've been making pasta since 1996, I think, when my Mom gave me her Atlas pasta machine that she wasn't using. For many years after, I never bought any pasta, I just made it when I needed it - since after having it the first time, no boxed stuff could really compare.

It does make a mess of your kitchen, but it really is worth it. I never really make any flavored pastas, after reading Marcella Hazen who firmly states that pasta itself should never be flavored, and all flavors should be added on top of the pasta. I've really basically held true to her doctrine, and only made a spinach pasta once from a Saveur recipe for a really delicious Bolognese Lasagna. But bright fuschia pasta from farm market beets? Yes, please. Now I just need someone to eat it with.

Clean workstation, before the flour flew...

The Exchange recipe used no eggs and semolina flour. But if I'm going to go through the trouble of making pasta, I'm going to use eggs. Nothing compares to fresh egg pasta. So, I used

Mario Batali's Roasted Beet Pasta recipe

. Since I am really going to try and find someone to eat this with, I am going to experiment with freezing fresh, dried pasta. The Exchange recipe did say to refrigerate or freeze, I think due to the addition of a vegetable, since dried egg pasta will stand quite awhile if well dried beforehand.

I love Mario Batali. When I used to watch more Food Network, I liked to watch him. He is always so passionate about whatever he is doing, and it seems to me that he really WANTS you to try it too. His recipe for pasta worked well, but it was extremely sticky even more so after it rested for 30 minutes. I probably worked in about another 3/4 cup of flour while rolling it through my maker. It did make a mess, but for some reason a crazy, pink flour mess didn't really upset me too much. I did taste the raw dough, and it did taste faintly beet-y, but I'll have to wait and see how it tastes boiled up.

The Exchange recipe also served the pasta with a blue cheese sauce with walnuts, kind of a riff on a classic roasted beet salad. I think this is how I will serve it, when I make the big batch. Usually when I make pasta, I keep the little ends and unattractive noodles to eat for lunch, and this beet pasta was no exception. So tomorrow, I think I'll cook up my little batch of seconds and just mix it with s&p and olive oil, maybe a few nuts. I'm sure a picture with be forthcoming.

Meanwhile, just look at the natural color of the beet pasta below!

So, now, who wants to eat some beets with me?