Baking
The "Discard" Imperative
16 06, 21 17:21
A pattern has emerged in my baking. Early on I would select a "project" (e.g., bagels, milk and honey bread) and give it a go. But now what I bake is based increasingly on the "discard logic" applied in maintaining sourdough starter.
It's actually more an imperative than a logic. You end up with "discard" each time you dutifully feed those hungry bacterial thingies that keep the starter going. With sourdough, the need to feed my starter is constantly popping up on my calendar, but I typically ignore or forget to do the deed in time, and so I end up with more "discard" to deal with than the freshly fed stuff many of the best bread recipes call for.
Obviously I could toss the discard (after all, that is its function -- to be discarded), but given the problems with disposing of the gooey mess, it is way easier to find some recipe that calls for unfed/discard starter. These are mostly muffins, pancake and waffle batter, chocolate cake (a favorite), pizza crust and calzones, buns of all sorts, and even bagels and bialys. And so my sourdough baking repertoire expands.
Now I find myself applying the discard logic to other ingredients as well. This morning, for example, after preparing some sourdough pizza crust, I noticed the remains of some buttermilk in the fridge, right beside a half brick or sharp cheddar cheese. A little google search at the King Arthur's site, and voila, a recipe to "Cabot cheese soda bread" that would save me from discarding the buttermilk and make good use of a good portion of the cheese. It was quick an easy to make (in time for Randi's breakfast), and came out well enough to become a "keeper" in my slowly expanding recipe collection.
The learning continues....
It's actually more an imperative than a logic. You end up with "discard" each time you dutifully feed those hungry bacterial thingies that keep the starter going. With sourdough, the need to feed my starter is constantly popping up on my calendar, but I typically ignore or forget to do the deed in time, and so I end up with more "discard" to deal with than the freshly fed stuff many of the best bread recipes call for.
Obviously I could toss the discard (after all, that is its function -- to be discarded), but given the problems with disposing of the gooey mess, it is way easier to find some recipe that calls for unfed/discard starter. These are mostly muffins, pancake and waffle batter, chocolate cake (a favorite), pizza crust and calzones, buns of all sorts, and even bagels and bialys. And so my sourdough baking repertoire expands.
Now I find myself applying the discard logic to other ingredients as well. This morning, for example, after preparing some sourdough pizza crust, I noticed the remains of some buttermilk in the fridge, right beside a half brick or sharp cheddar cheese. A little google search at the King Arthur's site, and voila, a recipe to "Cabot cheese soda bread" that would save me from discarding the buttermilk and make good use of a good portion of the cheese. It was quick an easy to make (in time for Randi's breakfast), and came out well enough to become a "keeper" in my slowly expanding recipe collection.
The learning continues....
Comments
Pretzels, version 1
21 02, 21 16:05
Disclaimer: While I've decided to start posting my experiments in the kitchen, these are not to be regarded as anything more than somewhat public notes on various experiments with baking.
When I was a kid (pre-teen years), my father brought home one of the children's chemistry sets. This was my opportunity to explore the world of science, and I was a miserable failure at it. That has also been my experience with cooking and baking -- an enthusiastic start, often ending in failure.
(An aside: My father, who was a toy "buyer" for a major department store at the time, was able to bring home all sorts toys, games, etc, each time he visited the wholesale "jobbers" located in lower Manhattan. In one case, he also arranged for a cousin who was a few years older than me to get a more advanced version of the toy chemsitry set. After a few weeks he proceeded to cause a minor explosion and fire in his apartment. It should be noted that he eventually earned his PhD in chemistry and became one of the world's leading forensic chemists.)
Back to my baking.... Retirement has gone well so far, especially since I found several things to distract me from my original plans of completing long delayed writing projects. One distrction has been baking, and I have been using Facebook posts to show off some of my hits (and a few misses). Another distraction has been the relaunching of this dormant blog. So, I says to meself, why not combine the two. Why not torture those who stumble on the blog with notes about my most recent attempts at abuse the kitchen and all its utensils?
Today's experiment is baking soft pretzels based on on YouTube recipe that caught my eye as I was searching for something else. I needed to try something after a disappointing attempt at another bagel recipe (which I will write about in a day or so when I finally "get over it").
The recipe is found at https://youtu.be/oDG0JSrA7eo, and is well presented by "Chef Bill Parisi". I offer a pasted version of his recipe at the end of this post.
The recipe is a simple one, although it involved a step or two I had yet to encounter.
One was making my own light brown sugar. We had dark brown sugar in the cupboard, but reading about the difference between dark and light I concluded I should either run to the store to purchase some (out of the question these days) or find some substitute. A bit of googling got me to a site that said the best substitute for light brown sugar is to make some light brown sugar! What that involved was mixing a tablespoon of molasses into a cup of granulated sugar. Voila! Light Brown sugar! (Absurdly simple, and I now have a ziplock bag of light brown sugar in the pantry.)
A second requirement that was new to me was making a egg wash. It seems absurd that at 74 years old I have never separate an egg into yolk and white components. (Hell, I just learned how to crack open an egg without causing a shell-y mess....). This required a demonstration from Randi, but since we needed only one yolk for the wash I still haven't put this new bit of practical knowledge to use. A lesson to apply the next round of pretzels or the challah bread I plan to bak in the near future.
Shaping the pretzels was a task Randi wanted to do, and my role was to try to make sure the proofed dough was divided into twelve reasonably similar size pieces. This is a task I have problems with when shaping bagels -- and I was no better in this instance. Still, through Randi's valiant efforts the twelve seems fairly equal.
Another part of the process I failed to carry out properly was draining the water from the recently water-bather pretzels. This would create some "soggy bottom" pieces after the initial bake and required a return to the over for a couple of additional minutes with soggy-side up. That worked and as a result two of the recently reheated batch have been consumed. The rest will likely be gone by tomorrow morning at the latest.
==================
The Recipe (sic)
https://youtu.be/oDG0JSrA7eo
Chef Billy Parisi
174K subscribers
These delicious homemade soft pretzels are so easy to make at home that you’ll never buy them at the store again.
Ingredients for this recipe:
• 2 cups of warm water between 110° and 115°
• 1 ½ tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 packet active yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
• 3 ounces melted unsalted butter
• 5 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon oil
• ¾ cup baking and 1 gallon of water
• 1 egg yolk whisked with 1 tablespoon cold water
• coarse kosher or sea salt for topping
Makes 12 pretzels
Prep time: 15 minutes
Resting Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 20 minutes
procedures:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 450°.
2. In a standing mixer bowl, add in the water, brown sugar, and sprinkle on the yeast, whisk together and let it sit for 5 to 7 minutes or until it forms a foamy raft on top.
3. Add the hook attachment and turn the speed to low and pour in the salt and butter.
4. Add in the flour 1 cup at a time until combined and knead the dough on low to medium speed for 5 minutes.
5. Add oil into a large bowl or container and place in the dough. Cover with a towel or lid and rest until it doubles in size, about an hour
6. Before it is time to form the dough, bring the baking soda and 1 gallon of water to a boil in a large pot.
7. To form the dough, take a small piece and roll it out until it is a 24” long rope. Form the dough into a U shape and holding each end cross over each other and pull down to make a pretzel with the ends slightly over the other part of the dough.
8. Turn down the boiling water to a simmer and cook each pretzel dough 1 to 2 at a time for :30 each and then place back on a cookie sheet tray lined with parchment paper or with a silpat
9. Once all of the pretzels have been cooked in the baking soda solution, brush the tops with the egg wash and season heavily with coarse kosher or sea salt.
10. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
CHEF NOTES:
• How To Reheat: Place on a tray and wrap in foil and bake in the oven at 350° for 5-6 minutes or until hot. Likewise you can also heat in the microwave until hot.
• Make Ahead: You can make pretzels up to 1 day ahead of time and reheat before serving.
• How To Store: Keep wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
• Feel free to make the pretzels as thick or as thin as you’d like and also consider making pretzel bites or rods.
• When adding the water to the stand mixer I usually like to go a little hotter like 118° because the bowl is usually a little chilly and drops the temperature of it by a few degrees making it perfect for the yeast.
• You may need more flour when kneading the dough in the stand mixer. The goal is that the dough be very soft but not sticky.
• A silpat is a non-stock baking sheet made of a blend of silicone and fiberglass. They are super versatile, can handle high heat and last a really long time.
When I was a kid (pre-teen years), my father brought home one of the children's chemistry sets. This was my opportunity to explore the world of science, and I was a miserable failure at it. That has also been my experience with cooking and baking -- an enthusiastic start, often ending in failure.
(An aside: My father, who was a toy "buyer" for a major department store at the time, was able to bring home all sorts toys, games, etc, each time he visited the wholesale "jobbers" located in lower Manhattan. In one case, he also arranged for a cousin who was a few years older than me to get a more advanced version of the toy chemsitry set. After a few weeks he proceeded to cause a minor explosion and fire in his apartment. It should be noted that he eventually earned his PhD in chemistry and became one of the world's leading forensic chemists.)
Back to my baking.... Retirement has gone well so far, especially since I found several things to distract me from my original plans of completing long delayed writing projects. One distrction has been baking, and I have been using Facebook posts to show off some of my hits (and a few misses). Another distraction has been the relaunching of this dormant blog. So, I says to meself, why not combine the two. Why not torture those who stumble on the blog with notes about my most recent attempts at abuse the kitchen and all its utensils?
Today's experiment is baking soft pretzels based on on YouTube recipe that caught my eye as I was searching for something else. I needed to try something after a disappointing attempt at another bagel recipe (which I will write about in a day or so when I finally "get over it").
The recipe is found at https://youtu.be/oDG0JSrA7eo, and is well presented by "Chef Bill Parisi". I offer a pasted version of his recipe at the end of this post.
The recipe is a simple one, although it involved a step or two I had yet to encounter.
One was making my own light brown sugar. We had dark brown sugar in the cupboard, but reading about the difference between dark and light I concluded I should either run to the store to purchase some (out of the question these days) or find some substitute. A bit of googling got me to a site that said the best substitute for light brown sugar is to make some light brown sugar! What that involved was mixing a tablespoon of molasses into a cup of granulated sugar. Voila! Light Brown sugar! (Absurdly simple, and I now have a ziplock bag of light brown sugar in the pantry.)
A second requirement that was new to me was making a egg wash. It seems absurd that at 74 years old I have never separate an egg into yolk and white components. (Hell, I just learned how to crack open an egg without causing a shell-y mess....). This required a demonstration from Randi, but since we needed only one yolk for the wash I still haven't put this new bit of practical knowledge to use. A lesson to apply the next round of pretzels or the challah bread I plan to bak in the near future.
Shaping the pretzels was a task Randi wanted to do, and my role was to try to make sure the proofed dough was divided into twelve reasonably similar size pieces. This is a task I have problems with when shaping bagels -- and I was no better in this instance. Still, through Randi's valiant efforts the twelve seems fairly equal.
Another part of the process I failed to carry out properly was draining the water from the recently water-bather pretzels. This would create some "soggy bottom" pieces after the initial bake and required a return to the over for a couple of additional minutes with soggy-side up. That worked and as a result two of the recently reheated batch have been consumed. The rest will likely be gone by tomorrow morning at the latest.
==================
The Recipe (sic)
https://youtu.be/oDG0JSrA7eo
Chef Billy Parisi
174K subscribers
These delicious homemade soft pretzels are so easy to make at home that you’ll never buy them at the store again.
Ingredients for this recipe:
• 2 cups of warm water between 110° and 115°
• 1 ½ tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 packet active yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
• 3 ounces melted unsalted butter
• 5 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon oil
• ¾ cup baking and 1 gallon of water
• 1 egg yolk whisked with 1 tablespoon cold water
• coarse kosher or sea salt for topping
Makes 12 pretzels
Prep time: 15 minutes
Resting Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 20 minutes
procedures:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 450°.
2. In a standing mixer bowl, add in the water, brown sugar, and sprinkle on the yeast, whisk together and let it sit for 5 to 7 minutes or until it forms a foamy raft on top.
3. Add the hook attachment and turn the speed to low and pour in the salt and butter.
4. Add in the flour 1 cup at a time until combined and knead the dough on low to medium speed for 5 minutes.
5. Add oil into a large bowl or container and place in the dough. Cover with a towel or lid and rest until it doubles in size, about an hour
6. Before it is time to form the dough, bring the baking soda and 1 gallon of water to a boil in a large pot.
7. To form the dough, take a small piece and roll it out until it is a 24” long rope. Form the dough into a U shape and holding each end cross over each other and pull down to make a pretzel with the ends slightly over the other part of the dough.
8. Turn down the boiling water to a simmer and cook each pretzel dough 1 to 2 at a time for :30 each and then place back on a cookie sheet tray lined with parchment paper or with a silpat
9. Once all of the pretzels have been cooked in the baking soda solution, brush the tops with the egg wash and season heavily with coarse kosher or sea salt.
10. Bake in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
CHEF NOTES:
• How To Reheat: Place on a tray and wrap in foil and bake in the oven at 350° for 5-6 minutes or until hot. Likewise you can also heat in the microwave until hot.
• Make Ahead: You can make pretzels up to 1 day ahead of time and reheat before serving.
• How To Store: Keep wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
• Feel free to make the pretzels as thick or as thin as you’d like and also consider making pretzel bites or rods.
• When adding the water to the stand mixer I usually like to go a little hotter like 118° because the bowl is usually a little chilly and drops the temperature of it by a few degrees making it perfect for the yeast.
• You may need more flour when kneading the dough in the stand mixer. The goal is that the dough be very soft but not sticky.
• A silpat is a non-stock baking sheet made of a blend of silicone and fiberglass. They are super versatile, can handle high heat and last a really long time.
