Things need to have names. I can't just call everything utilitarianly descriptively 'oatmeal chocolate chocolate cookies w/buttermilk and coffee'. In this high-paced world of aggressive market branding, I need to name things with catchy, memorable, distinctive names, lest I be swept up in the latest wave of Pepsi-Chip Super Sweet Biscuit Snacks or something.
So, since these cookies are designed for optimal mailability (spell check has not called me on that, I can not believe mailability is a word!), they are called mail-box cookies for now. Maybe I will think of something better later, I am not totally pleased with that name, but moving on, recipe time:
This recipe is just a modification of the recipe off the bag of oats, but I have made it better by killing the raisins and adding exciting things like chocolate and chocolate chips and coffee. I discovered the outsides made nice-ish crispy shells that kept the insides soft for a notably long period of time, hence my desire to mail them to people.
In bowl the first, cream your butter and sugar together with beaters at medium-high, then add the rest of the wet stuff and beat until creamy.
In bowl the second, mix all the dry stuff.
In bowl the third, combine bowls the first and second and mix until combined (bowl the third should be a symbolic pointer to either bowl the first or bowl the second).
Form into balls the size of the balls inside of golf balls, put on a cookie sheet w/parchment paper, and bake at 350ºF for twelve to fifteen minutes, until they firm up.
The differences between this and the recipe on the bag that I based this on are that I scrapped raisins, cinnamon, white sugar, and most of the flour, increased the brown sugar, added cocoa, chocolate chips, coffee, and buttermilk. As well, I made the cookies larger and formed them into balls so that the insides would hopefully stay soft as they travelled in the postal system.
Essentially, they are either buttery chocolate cut stuffed with oats, or oats cut with buttery chocolate.
If you are lucky, maybe these will show up in your mail box.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Buttermilk Brownies
I love brownies and I love buttermilk, so I thought I'd try and combine the two. Also I am hungry and wanting brownies and no cafes are open past 8:00 PM in this nutty little town.
Anyways, here's the first take:
OK go go go MELT the BUTTER in a pot over medium-low heat. When melted, add the COCOA POWDER, mix well, remove from heat. Add SUGAR, mix, add COFFEE and BUTTERMILK, mix, add EGG (sans shell), mix just until combined. That reads a bit like one of those old-style text based adventure games, doesn't it? Weird. Combine the flour and baking powder in a big ol' bowl, add wet ingredients plus chocolate chips, mix just until combined (but do make sure you haven't left any flour clumps in there, those are unpleasant.
Portion batter into a greased muffin tin, bake at 350ºF for fifteen minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck in the middle of the biggest of those suckers.
You could go ahead and use a brownie pan or something, but then you've got to cut them and things, whereas a muffin tin gives you delicious, good-to-go little servings.
Post-analysis: These are a little cakey. There must have been too much fluid in the batter, and there wasn't enough chocolateyness too them. Taste pretty nice, but they are not what I was going for.
Not terribly sweet, which I like (and mom likes, apparently), and you can't really pick up on the buttermilk flavour too much. I think the simplest thing might just be to stick with cream-cheese if I want to the cultured dairy flavour in brownies, because buttermilk brings too much fluid to the stage.
I may try a brownie recipe with strained yogurt later.
Anyways, here's the first take:
OK go go go MELT the BUTTER in a pot over medium-low heat. When melted, add the COCOA POWDER, mix well, remove from heat. Add SUGAR, mix, add COFFEE and BUTTERMILK, mix, add EGG (sans shell), mix just until combined. That reads a bit like one of those old-style text based adventure games, doesn't it? Weird. Combine the flour and baking powder in a big ol' bowl, add wet ingredients plus chocolate chips, mix just until combined (but do make sure you haven't left any flour clumps in there, those are unpleasant.
Portion batter into a greased muffin tin, bake at 350ºF for fifteen minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck in the middle of the biggest of those suckers.
You could go ahead and use a brownie pan or something, but then you've got to cut them and things, whereas a muffin tin gives you delicious, good-to-go little servings.
Post-analysis: These are a little cakey. There must have been too much fluid in the batter, and there wasn't enough chocolateyness too them. Taste pretty nice, but they are not what I was going for.
Not terribly sweet, which I like (and mom likes, apparently), and you can't really pick up on the buttermilk flavour too much. I think the simplest thing might just be to stick with cream-cheese if I want to the cultured dairy flavour in brownies, because buttermilk brings too much fluid to the stage.
I may try a brownie recipe with strained yogurt later.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Pita Bread Photos
Don't think I ever posted pictures of pitas in the oven before, but they are one of the more interesting things I've baked. They swell up like balloons with steam and look ridiculous!
Look at that ridiculous one in the back! He is like, standing on his tippy-toes or something!
Look at that ridiculous one in the back! He is like, standing on his tippy-toes or something!
On Updates:
So bi-daily was a nice idea but I found myself scrambling or dredging through the kitchen sometimes when I didn't want to be. I would like to have a regular schedule, and when possible I will endeavour to do such, but I think a much more useful meter will be to set out some targets and try to get those done within the month.
To that end, my immediate goals are makowiec, hot cross buns, and pizza pops. For makowiec, I'd like to do a bunch of reading and do a write-up with sources and references and what I changed and why. Hot cross buns I will try a few different things with, like icing cross versus pastry cross or yeasted dough versus baking powder. The hot cross idea that sounds the best in my head right now is just making little brioche rolls and putting a sweet pastry cross with a hint of almond on top. Man I am looking forwards to that.
Also, pizza pops! The samosa dough I just used should work fairly well for that. It'll definitely take some work to perfect the filling, though, and I think I'd let the yeast get up to speed a bit more and let them rise a bit before baking so we get a lighter, pizza-ier dough pocket.
Also I'd like to make some 'healthier' (not full of butter) breakfast muffins, but I so completely non-stoked for baking muffins without butter that that is definitely lowest priority in my mind right now.
That's mostly what I hope to get up to before march, and I think it's very doable. I'm aiming to get those things done well and have some simple updates like 'pastry scraps:' or 'baked in buttery pastry in a ramekin'. Ten posts in February will be my minimum goal, assuming I don't leave town for a week again!
To that end, my immediate goals are makowiec, hot cross buns, and pizza pops. For makowiec, I'd like to do a bunch of reading and do a write-up with sources and references and what I changed and why. Hot cross buns I will try a few different things with, like icing cross versus pastry cross or yeasted dough versus baking powder. The hot cross idea that sounds the best in my head right now is just making little brioche rolls and putting a sweet pastry cross with a hint of almond on top. Man I am looking forwards to that.
Also, pizza pops! The samosa dough I just used should work fairly well for that. It'll definitely take some work to perfect the filling, though, and I think I'd let the yeast get up to speed a bit more and let them rise a bit before baking so we get a lighter, pizza-ier dough pocket.
Also I'd like to make some 'healthier' (not full of butter) breakfast muffins, but I so completely non-stoked for baking muffins without butter that that is definitely lowest priority in my mind right now.
That's mostly what I hope to get up to before march, and I think it's very doable. I'm aiming to get those things done well and have some simple updates like 'pastry scraps:' or 'baked in buttery pastry in a ramekin'. Ten posts in February will be my minimum goal, assuming I don't leave town for a week again!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Samosas!
We are kind of living an exercise in frugality right now, so the question of the day was how to feed two people with the one chicken breast left in the freezer. The answer: samosas! These are essentially dough packets, stuffed with a fairly dry potato & chicken curry. None of the samosa recipes I referenced called for either eggs or yeast in the dough, but I love the yeasty taste in dough and I thought an egg would give us a richer pastry, so that's what I did. Samosas, as I interpret them, are just some sort of curry dish stuffed in some sort of pastry, and this is what I came up with.
Dough:OK, proof the yeast in the warm water with the sugar in some sort of proofing vessel (like a bowl!). When it's floated up from the deeps, add 1/2 cup of the flour, mix well, cover, and set aside for an hour in a not-cold place. When that's done, it should be bubbly and alive, so add the oil and egg and mix well. Add a cup of the flour, mix until it forms a raggedy messy mass, then work in the rest of the flour until you've got a nice feeling dough. Knead well for at least ten minutes, because you do want this dough to be stretchy, strong, and workable. Form it into a ball, and let it rest & rise while you fix the fillings.
Filling:Cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch cubes and parboil them for five minutes. Put the oil in your cooking pan, add the mustard and heat it up. When the mustard seeds are crackling and popping, it's ready for the garlic and ginger, which should be minced together, and, if you have it, mashed up in a mortar and pestle. Fry the garlic and ginger for about thirty seconds, then add the garam masala and chili flakes. Toss in the chicken and onions, and when the chicken looks cooked on the outside, through in the chopped carrot and potatoes. Fry a little longer, then add the stock and let cook uncovered. Once the stock has all cooked away, it's ready to go! Let this stuff cool while you prep the dough.
Defleat then divide the dough into six equal portions. Form each piece into a ball and roll out into a big circle, about an eighth of an inch thick. Keep the rolled circles covered to prevent them from drying out, as this makes them more difficult to handle. When they're all rolled, Cut them in half, place stuffing on half of each half, leaving a border and fold over, stretching the top flap as necessary to fit over the filling. For those of you in Waterloo, this makes them in the style you get at Farah's foods. I have an certain fondness for those ones because of all the times I've wandered from the MC to Farah's at 4:00AM looking for matlab fuel. Diagram (grey is filling, fold from left over right):
Bake in a greased pan or just on parchment paper at 350F for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is cooked.
I did two sizes to see how they'd go. I ate three of the tiny ones for lunch, mum had two. The bigger ones might be good for a breakfast or lunch on their own. I'm having one of the big ones for breakfast tomorrow, and the other big one is in the freezer, and mom will eat it for lunch on Saturday. Part of this experiment is to see how well these things freeze for re-heating, so I'll update when the frozen ones are consumed.
Post-analysis on the samosas has determined that the filling could have been a bit tastier. Maybe more spices would of helped, or more garlic or ginger. If you think that you can make a better curry than me, you probably can. I am OK at curry but not great. If you deviate, just remember that you want your filling to be fully cooked and edible before baking. Mom thinks they'd be better if they were a little wetter inside, so perhaps it might be an idea to add a bit more stock and then thicken it up with some starch or flour.
The dough is also a little cakey in the crumb. I'm OK with this, it is the product of my yeasting and egging it. The dough would be OK without those, though, if you don't like the texture.
Dough:OK, proof the yeast in the warm water with the sugar in some sort of proofing vessel (like a bowl!). When it's floated up from the deeps, add 1/2 cup of the flour, mix well, cover, and set aside for an hour in a not-cold place. When that's done, it should be bubbly and alive, so add the oil and egg and mix well. Add a cup of the flour, mix until it forms a raggedy messy mass, then work in the rest of the flour until you've got a nice feeling dough. Knead well for at least ten minutes, because you do want this dough to be stretchy, strong, and workable. Form it into a ball, and let it rest & rise while you fix the fillings.
Filling:Cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch cubes and parboil them for five minutes. Put the oil in your cooking pan, add the mustard and heat it up. When the mustard seeds are crackling and popping, it's ready for the garlic and ginger, which should be minced together, and, if you have it, mashed up in a mortar and pestle. Fry the garlic and ginger for about thirty seconds, then add the garam masala and chili flakes. Toss in the chicken and onions, and when the chicken looks cooked on the outside, through in the chopped carrot and potatoes. Fry a little longer, then add the stock and let cook uncovered. Once the stock has all cooked away, it's ready to go! Let this stuff cool while you prep the dough.
Defleat then divide the dough into six equal portions. Form each piece into a ball and roll out into a big circle, about an eighth of an inch thick. Keep the rolled circles covered to prevent them from drying out, as this makes them more difficult to handle. When they're all rolled, Cut them in half, place stuffing on half of each half, leaving a border and fold over, stretching the top flap as necessary to fit over the filling. For those of you in Waterloo, this makes them in the style you get at Farah's foods. I have an certain fondness for those ones because of all the times I've wandered from the MC to Farah's at 4:00AM looking for matlab fuel. Diagram (grey is filling, fold from left over right):
Bake in a greased pan or just on parchment paper at 350F for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is cooked.
I did two sizes to see how they'd go. I ate three of the tiny ones for lunch, mum had two. The bigger ones might be good for a breakfast or lunch on their own. I'm having one of the big ones for breakfast tomorrow, and the other big one is in the freezer, and mom will eat it for lunch on Saturday. Part of this experiment is to see how well these things freeze for re-heating, so I'll update when the frozen ones are consumed.
Post-analysis on the samosas has determined that the filling could have been a bit tastier. Maybe more spices would of helped, or more garlic or ginger. If you think that you can make a better curry than me, you probably can. I am OK at curry but not great. If you deviate, just remember that you want your filling to be fully cooked and edible before baking. Mom thinks they'd be better if they were a little wetter inside, so perhaps it might be an idea to add a bit more stock and then thicken it up with some starch or flour.
The dough is also a little cakey in the crumb. I'm OK with this, it is the product of my yeasting and egging it. The dough would be OK without those, though, if you don't like the texture.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
"Marzipan" Muffins
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this weird thing the bulk barn has that's labeled 'almond paste', which appears to be some sort of cheap approximation to marzipan. It is yellower than marzipan, it handles a little stickier, and I think they might of even slipped some vanilla in there to make up for its deficiencies in the almond department. Anyways, it's about a bajillion times cheaper than actual marzipan and given my love of marzipan yet limited budget, I like to pick some of the stuff up when it's on sale (which is always, for some strange reason).
I'm almost out of muffins again, so it's muffin time again (again!). I think I might be going a little nuts on muffins, this'll probably be the last time for a while that I make them. Basically I'm just doing chocolate chip muffins plus chopped up almond paste, with honey for to go with the almond with. OK that last sentence had something weird going on but I like the way it sounds if I say it, so redundant words remain.
I started by setting the oven to 350ºF and using the heat from the oven exhaust to melt the butter, then I combined the flour, wheat germ, salt, and baking powder. The almond paste was chopped up to bits about the size of the chocolate chips and then added, with the chocolate chips, to the flour bowl.
The butter was melted by now, so that hit the milk and the honey and the vanilla, got mixed, and then the eggs joined the party and got beaten up.
Everybody together now! Mix just until combined! Put it in a muffin tin, let it go, 18 minutes hey-ho!
They came out pretty tasty, but way too sweet for my everyday breakfast muffins. That almond paste stuff is pretty sweet. They are too heavy to be cupcakes, but they seem pretty cupcakey, what with the vanilla, the almond, and the sweetness. Perhaps the honey could be halved next time. ALSO! If I do this again, I will use little paper cupcake liners, because the almondzipaste baked and bubbled and gummed everything up pretty good.
Not what was I going for, I guess I'll have eggs for breakfast tomorrow or something. Still pretty tasty!
I guess the room for pondering here would be in what flour variations would work. I think barley could work but I always think barley could work. The only non-wheats I have on hand right now are rye and buckwheat, though, which I don't think would work.
I'm almost out of muffins again, so it's muffin time again (again!). I think I might be going a little nuts on muffins, this'll probably be the last time for a while that I make them. Basically I'm just doing chocolate chip muffins plus chopped up almond paste, with honey for to go with the almond with. OK that last sentence had something weird going on but I like the way it sounds if I say it, so redundant words remain.
I started by setting the oven to 350ºF and using the heat from the oven exhaust to melt the butter, then I combined the flour, wheat germ, salt, and baking powder. The almond paste was chopped up to bits about the size of the chocolate chips and then added, with the chocolate chips, to the flour bowl.The butter was melted by now, so that hit the milk and the honey and the vanilla, got mixed, and then the eggs joined the party and got beaten up.
Everybody together now! Mix just until combined! Put it in a muffin tin, let it go, 18 minutes hey-ho!
They came out pretty tasty, but way too sweet for my everyday breakfast muffins. That almond paste stuff is pretty sweet. They are too heavy to be cupcakes, but they seem pretty cupcakey, what with the vanilla, the almond, and the sweetness. Perhaps the honey could be halved next time. ALSO! If I do this again, I will use little paper cupcake liners, because the almondzipaste baked and bubbled and gummed everything up pretty good.
Not what was I going for, I guess I'll have eggs for breakfast tomorrow or something. Still pretty tasty!
I guess the room for pondering here would be in what flour variations would work. I think barley could work but I always think barley could work. The only non-wheats I have on hand right now are rye and buckwheat, though, which I don't think would work.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Baked Egg Update
Baked eggs in pastry again, this time with chopped fresh spinach and grated cheddar. Baked only 25 minutes this time, got semi soft but I think there will always be a problem getting these things to have soft yolk but cooked whites when it's two eggs in one ramekin. When I finally have a reason to do a dozen I'll post the times from that.
Spinach and cheddar and eggs are a solid combo.
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