Pizza pie

I have a migraine this morning, fortunately took ibu quick and it's not that bad. But I feel like making pizza. My buddy Mike from Cleveland gave me his pizza recipe a few years back, and it was pretty good. When we had it at Rashied's house, Mike made some and it was very good: crust was chewy and crisp, nice mild flavor.

Decided to do some research and came across a pizza recipe of a guy trying to emulate Papa John's pizza. Looked interesting so I thought I'd give it a shot. Here goes:

3 cups flour (I used 2.5 cups unbleached AP and .5 cup Bob's red mill semolina; original calls for King Arthur bread flour, or another high(er) gluten flour)
1 cup + 2 tbsp water
1/8 teaspoon instant dry yeast
3 tsp kosher salt
3tbsp + 1 tsp vegetable oil
2tbsp + 1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 cup pizza sauce
2 cups mozzarella, frozen a tiny bit and diced in food processor into small dice/pellets
About 40 pepperonis

1. Combine all ingredients in bowl and mix with wooden spoon, then hands to combine, so there are no crumbs floating around at the bottom of the bowl.
2. Let rest for 20 minutes in a covered plastic tub on the counter.
3. Knead for 5 minutes on lowest setting with dough hook on stand mixer
4. Form into round, cover and refrigerate in plastic tub. It should stay there at least 3 days, (5 days is better) and can stay up to 8 days.
5. Remove from fridge, and let rest on the counter for 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 500 degrees
   
6. Using a HEAVILY floured board (preferably a combo of semolina and unbleached AP), push down & stretch for form a 10" disc.
7. Dock whe whole thing using a dough docker (preferred), fork, or other homemade implement
   
8. Stretch to shape over a 14" pizza screen.
9. Sauce the pizza: start in the middle, and use a ladle to spiral outward.
   
10. Sprinkle the cheese: start around the outside edge, going in a circle. Continue to sprinkle in concentric rings, going inward.
    
11. Bake on the pizza disk in 500degree oven for about 8-9 minutes, watching carefully starting at 6 minutes.
    

Compare to Wolfgang Puck's pizza dough recipe from the Food NEtwork site:

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 cup warm water, 105 to 115 degrees F
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing

Less sugar (honey instead), less oil, different oil (olive vs. vegetable), and much more yeast. That makes sense, though, because his is meant to rise in 2 hours!

Compare that to Jamie Oliver's "Jamie At Home" pizza recipe (halved):

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1.5 teaspoon raw sugar
• 1.25 cup warm water, 105 to 115 degrees F
• 3.5 cups flour (2.5c high-gluten or 00 flour, 1.5c semolina)
  
• 1.5 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Jamie uses more oil, more sugar, more salt, and a tiny bit more flour. Same amount of yeast, similar rise times to the Wolfgang Puck recipe. Probably similar level of hydration. The PJ recipe has more hydration, which should lead to bigger holes. Lower yeast and longer ferment; I have found that it usually results in better flavor!

Incidentally, here's the breakdown of the PJ recipe by weight:

Flour (100%)
Water (56.5%)
Yeast, instant dry (0.14%)
Salt (1.75%)
Vegetable (Soybean) Oil (7.3%)
Sugar (4.8%)

We'll see how all this end up soon! :)

ED NOTE: After a rise time of about 5 days, it was barely risen, but it was soft. Did not brown very well; flavor was OK. Was not very chewy (need to add gluten and/or use high-gluten flour) and not much hole/porous structure. What I did learn is that adding a lot of sugar and oil to the dough really helps with the flavor of pizza crust.

Using a quick recipe (3 cups AP flour, 3 tbsp gluten, 1 cup + 1 tbsp water, 2 tsp instant yeast, 2 tsp kosher salt, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp honey) yielded much better results with a less than 2 hour rise time. I think the biggest trick is using a rimless cookie sheet, parchment paper, and sliding the parchment + pizza direct onto pizza stone on lowest rack.

Grandma's Bread #10

OK, I've decided to use a numbering scheme for Grandma's bread instead of the year. Although the best one so far has been the 1st of 2009, this may be better, and will make it easier to track.

Grandma's Bread #10 - February 1-2 2009

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. Into dough mixture, add white flour, yeast, honey. Mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is uniform. It will look like a thick, uniform batter at this point. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook set to "1" or "2" (low speed). You may need to clean the dough hook once ina while. Dough will be very thick and sticky; it will never clear the sides of the bowl; while mixing, maybe 50% will clear the sides while the other 50% adheres to the bottom. It will not stop sticking! This is why the stand mixer is so handy. Total kneading time is 6-7 minutes. You will see some gluten strands when you're done.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Using a wooden spoon or stiff bowl scraper, turn out the sticky dough onto a very well floured board. Form into a single round; dough will be very soft but with a well-floured board, won't be very sticky and will form a smooth surface. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel pretty soft, not quite baby's bottom but close) and place in bread pans. Press down on dough to get loaf to expand across the bottom of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate covered for 7-8 hours; you can leave it up to (but not more than) 24 hours.

7. Remove loaves from fridge, and REMOVE PLASTIC WRAP carefully; it may be sticky (if it sticks, try pulling gently from the opposite direction). The loaves will have just about doubled in size.

8. Cover loaves with a towel, and let rise again at room temp (~74F) for 1 hour (645-745). Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped; they will look dark chocolate brown (almost black, but not!) on top. Alternately, should be done somewhere around 190-210 degrees.

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

9. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

Pros:

• Crust color, evenness and flavor:
  
• Salt/honey amount:
  
• Texture/crumb:
  
• Rye flavor: good, but mild
  

Cons

• 
  

Notes/Next time:

• Dough is very sticky while mixing; maybe use beater instead of dough hook in mixer? Still use low settings 1-2. It doesn't clear the bowl, EVER. Using a spoon or a scraper to make sure flour at bottom is incorporated as well is important.
  
• Turning out onto WELL-FLOURED board is the key; then it comes together and shapes very easily and smoothly before forming into loaves.
  
• I ran out of honey, so I used a little less than 1/2 cup of honey and added about 1-2 tbsp brown sugar
• I ran out of table salt, so I did 1tsp table salt + 3 tsp kosher salt. I don't know if this will work out the same way, we'll see.
  

potato leek soup

Had some leeks in the fridge from the farmer's market, so decided to make some potato/leek soup last night. I roughly followed the ATK recipe.

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 leeks, white sections only, cut into 1/2" half-moons and well rinsed.
4 gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 box of low sodium chicken stock + 1 cup + more as necessay
Salt & pepper to taste

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat butter and olive oil. Sweat leeks over medium-low heat for 20 minutes until very soft, but not brown. Add potatoes, thyme, bayleaf and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until potatoes are soft.

Remove bay leaf. Now, you can leave the soup chunky (totally delicious) or transfer it in 2 sections into a blender and puree until smooth. You can also do 1/2-and-1/2; puree some, and recombine it with the chunky, which is really good too. Add more hot chicken stock to the puree if you need to make a thinner soup.

Now season with salt & pepper to taste, and enjoy with some homemade bread. Very hearty, pretty damn healthy and totally delicious.

Bread notes

Baked off "grandma's 2009 bread", as well as 1st loaf of "5-minute artisan" bread.

5-Minute artisan:

• Crumb: very tender, not wet at all, nice holes, fluffy!
  
• Flavor: very clean, like fresh French bread
• Crust: closer to French bread: golden, a bit chewy, thin
• To change: add more salt! Seemed to not be salty enough

Grandma's 2009 bread

• 95%! Hit the jackpot with this one. Perfect crumb, perfect crust, cooked through/not gummy at all; but could use a bit more rye/sour flavor.
  

Grandma's Bread 2009 (#9?)

Trying a totally revised recipe. I spent a bunch of time building a spreadsheet based on what I learned from "The Baking Bible" by Rose Levy Berenbaum.

This new recipe is based on 18% rye flour ratio (i.e., 18% of flour weight). I read that 20% of more of rye makes bread gummy/sticky. This of course is contrary to the amount of rye flour my grandma suggested (closer to 23%)

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. Into dough mixture, add white flour, yeast, honey. Mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is somewhat uniform. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook set to "1" or "2" (low speed). You will need to clean the dough hook often (every 10 seconds or so), because the dough will bunch up a lot, over the top of the dough hook. After a couple of minutes, it MAY stop sticking. Total kneading time should be about 5-7 minutes.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel like ...) and place in bread pans. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate covered for 7-8 hours; you can leave it up to (but not more than) 24 hours.

7. Remove loaves from fridge, remove plastic wrap. They were still pretty wet & sticky but with good bubbles, and soft. Re-shaped loaves: remove, dust with flour, and use the letterfold (tri-fold) technique to reshape as a loaf. Cover with towel, and let rise again in warm place for 3.5 hours. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center; brush tops with butter, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Alternately, should be done somewhere around 190-210 degrees.

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with remaining butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

9. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

Pros:

JACKPOT! I think I hit it 95% on the money

• Crust color, evenness and flavor: perfectly dark brown and toasty!!
  
• Salt/honey amount: perfect
  
• Texture/crumb: perfectly tender, perfectly chewy, with perfect size crumb, cooked perfectly through, not gummy in the middle!
  
• Rye flavor: good, but mild
  

Cons

• Dough was formed by Beckey; it was pretty wet and unshapely after I removed it from the fridge. So I punched it down and reformed it, then let it rise for 1 hour. So it didn't rise as much as it might have, but is still awesome!!
• Could use a bit more rye flavor, but it's a toss up; it doesn't overwhelm with rye, but it's there. A bit more rye/sour would be better to balance the slight sweetness of this recpe.
• There were 2-3 small uneven "parts" in the texture at the bottom of the 2nd loaf, perhaps where a flour "blob" had not been kneaded/incorporated enough, where the texture was tight and did not have bubbles. This was very, very minor however.
  

Next time:

• Maybe no punch down/reform? That was accidental, because Beckey shaped 'em ugly. Might need a tiny bit more flour when shaping the loaf; should lead to larger holes.
  
• Maybe try slightly higher rye percentage (20%)?
  

sourdough starter - daily feeding

Feed your starter 3 times daily as follows:

1. Reserve 1/2 cup of your starter; pour the rest in the garbage
2. To the reserved starter, add 1 cup flour and 1 cup water. Mix to just combined (lumps are OK)
3. Cover tightly and store at room temperature.

Repeat steps 1-3 above 3 times a day: 8am, noon, and about 5pm.

3x per day is optimal, but if you can't manage that, then do 2x: once in the morning, and once in the evening.

After 3 days of feedings, starter will be ready to use in bread recipes. Best time to use starter (i.e., start your bread recipe) is in the morning, assuming you have been feeding it for at least 3 days, and fed it the night before. Starting in the evening will work fine too, just adjust your schedule as necessary.

If you can't feed it for a few days, put it in the fridge. You can keep it there, without feeding, for up to 2 weeks. When ready to bake again, take it out of the fridge, feed it for 3 days, and you're ready to bake again.

sourdough starter - how to begin

Here's a very quick and easy way to make your own sourdough starter. The idea of a starter is that it is an acidic environment in which natural yeasts from the air can thrive and multiply. It's a fun "science experiment" to watch it bubble and grow.

The process will take 4 days or so.

To begin:

1. In a large, non-metallic bowl or container, stir together:
   1.5 cups of white flour
   1/2 cup rye flour
   2 cups water
   
2. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it sit at room temp (70-72deg F) for 3 days. Take a quick look at it once a day, then re-cover tightly. It will start to smell funky, get bubbly, and might even separate liquid from solid. Don't worry, as long as you don't see any black/green/fuzzy mold on the surface, you're in good shape. If you see mold/fuzz, scoop it off immediately; as long as it doesn't keep coming back, you should be fine. If it does, throw your starter out and start again.
   
3. On day 4, pour off all but 1/2 cup of the "starter" into the garbage, or give it to a friend.
   

Now you are ready to start feeding your starter on a regular schedule (next blog post)

I've seen other recipes for using pineapple juice instead of water; also, the LBB sourdough starter recipe uses organic grapes. This should work just fine; the rye flour creates a nice sour environment for yeasts to live in at the beginning.

Next post: care & feeding of your starter.

sourdough waffles

Maybe we'll try this at Paul & Lyla's. I've made it at home with great results. Recipe from KAF Baker's Companion.

Sponge
1 c unbleached AP flouw
1 c whole wheat flour
2 tsbp sugar
2 c buttermilk
1 c sourdough starter

Batter
2 eggs
1/4 c (1/2 stick) melted butter
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

First mix dry sponge ingredients together. Then mix in wet sponge ingredients til barely blended. Let rest overnight, or a few hours.

In a separate bowl, mix all batter ingredients together. Then blend with sponge until well incorporated.

Heat waffle iron, brush with canola or veg oil. Pour in 1 ladle full. Cook according to waffle iron directions, or until steam stops (about 6.5 minutes per waffle). Serve immediately, or keep warm in 200 deg. Leftovers freeze very nicely!

spicy louisiana sausage

Bruce Aidells wrote a nice little book called Flying Sausages, which has a number of great recipes, and which helped me have a sausage-making revelation: sausage is nothing but spiced meat... casings are optional! I've made this one before with 100% lean ground turkey from the store (Jennie-O), was very good. You may need to add more spice to taste; I think I added more paprika and garlic to the original recipe (listed below).

Makes 7 to 8 half-pound packages

2 c. sliced onions (probably 1 large onion)
3 lbs. ground turkey OR 1.5/1.5 ground chicken/turkey (ground thighs are best), very cold or slightly frozen
1/2 lb bacon, cut into pieces, very cold or slightly frozen
1.5 tbsp garlic, chopped
1/4 cup paprika (smoked or regular)
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp yellow mustard seed
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp English-style dry mustard
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground allspice
4 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

Simmer onions in water to cover until translucent, 5-7 min. Cool under cold running water & drain (this can be done ahead of time). Cool completely. Coarsely grind onions, meat, and bacon in a food processor in batches (using knife blade).

Add remaining ingredients to a big bowl, and mix thoroughly with your hands. Test fry a small piece in some oil, and taste for salt, pepper and other seasonings.

Divide into 7-8 portions, wrap tightly twice in plastic wrap or aluminum, and refrigerate or freeze.

Grandma's Bread 2008 Again

OK, here's the usual end-of-year bread, taking it back east to PA.

Using different flour this type (Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye, instead of usual Hodgson's Rye or Arrowhead Mills Rye).

Makes 2 loaves

2 c. buttermilk
1.25 c. water
1lb 8oz rye flour, unsifted

2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1 packet)
1 tbsp. unbleached white flour
1/2 c. warm water (120 degrees)

1 lb 14oz unbleached white flour, unsifted
4 tbsp. gluten
1/2 c. honey
3 tsp salt

4 tbsp. melted butter

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in 1.5 lb. rye flour, cover tightly and leave in warm place. Or, refrigerate and bring back to room temperature before continuing

2. The next day, combine yeast, 1 tbsp. flour, and warm water, and stir to dissolve. Let sit for 5 minutes until yeast mixture gets bubbly.

3. Into dough mixture, add yeast mixture, honey, and gluten. Stir in 1.5 lb. of white flour and mix for about 2-3 minutes, until the dough is somewhat uniform. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

4. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook set to "1" or "2" (low speed). You will need to clean the dough hook often (every 10 seconds or so), because the dough will bunch up a lot, over the top of the dough hook. After a couple of minutes, it MAY stop sticking. Total kneading time should be about 5-7 minutes.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel like firm little logs) and place in bread pans. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate covered for 7-8 hours; you can leave it up to (but not more than) 24 hours.

7. Remove loaves from fridge, remove plastic wrap, cover with towel, and let rise again in warm place for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center; brush tops with butter, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped (this time, did 30).

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with remaining butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

9. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Notes:

• Ferment mixture: was more like thick dough/paste, not loose like the "sour cream" that grandma described at all
• Mixer kept getting clogged from the dough, had to clear the hook every 10 seconds, barely could turn; dough was pretty hard and sticky
  
• NEXT TIME: try increasing rise time after retarding (increase 3 hours).
  

Results

Pros:

• Nice dark crust on top, great rich toasty dark flavor
• Crust is nice and thin/crispy
  
• Excellent salt-to-dough ratio, perfect amount of salt
  
• When cooled for 2 hours, very soft & tender & somewhat chewy, but not wet AFAIK
  
• Nice rye flavor

Cons

• Crumb is very even, small holes, a bit too small; should be about 1/8" size, and more bagel-like chewy
• Was still a little moist in the middle of the loaf; needs to bake longer.
  

For next time:

• Try coarser rye flour
• Try kneading by hand
• Try less rye, more white flour
• Try less flour overall; more slack should yield bigger bubbles
• Try longer baking time: 40-50 minutes should be good.
  

Here's a photo, just from the oven:


And here's a texture/crumb shot (sorry, quality isn't great, but I don't have a decent digicam right now).

Mom's dressing

Giving away a family recipe here...this is how my grandma used to make it too. I watched my mom, and wrote down as best as I could. She never did stuffing, even though she calls it that; it's actually "dressing", i.e., basically a meatloaf outside of the bird.

Mom's "Stuffing"

2 onions, chopped
4 celery stalks, finely diced
1 loaf white bread, torn into 1" pieces (my mom says "buy the cheap stuff for this")
1 lb 80/20 ground beef (you can use the non-lean ground as well)
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 eggs
olive oil + butter
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
salt + pepper to taste

In a large saute pan, heat about 2 tbsp oil + 2 tbsp butter over medium heat. Saute celery + onion until translucent (we don't want any browning!), about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large mixing bowl, add bread, beef, eggs, and chicken stock. Knead well until very uniform (note: you could probably pulse this in a food processor to do this as well, for an even more uniform texture)

Put mixture into a 13x9 rectangular baking pan, and pat out into a flat layer. Pour a little olive oil on top.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. Aiming for about 160F temperature for doneness.

Notes:

• You may need to add more stock; this was really eyeballed. More stock should make for moister stuffing.
• Cooking time + temp could be adjusted. This is suitable for end of turkey cooking, when lots of items are sharing the oven.
• Could probably try adding some sausage; this is what Beckey's mom does.
  

turkey day 2008

Was fun!

On the menu:

• 22lb roast turkey (with rosemary & butter under the skin, stuffed with lemon/garlic/onion/rosemary), turned out PERFECT, roasting to reach temp of 161F in thigh, and it didn't have the usual smelly/strong "turkey" flavor, which was fantastic. Mom & I managed this one; 500F for 30 min, 350 for remaining time, loosely tented top with foil.
  
• Homemade cranberry sauce (mom)
• Mom's stuffing
• Baby Spinach salad with persimmons & candied pecans and rice vinegar/sesame oil/orange marmelade vinaigrette (mom, from a Martha Stewart recipe, I believe)
  
• Mashed potatoes with onions (mom)
  
• Roasted acorn squash with rosemary & olive oil (mom); I'm not a big squash fan, but this was pretty damn good!
  
• Apple pie (Monica; her first one, and a pretty damn good one!)
• Chocolate pumpkin pie (Judy)
• Homemade sourdough bread (me, using LBB recipe)
• cornbread (me, using Albers Corn Meal box recipe & cast iron "corncob" baking pan, plus some added chili powder per Cast Iron Cookbook)
• brussels sprouts with pancetta (me, Bobby Flay recipe)

Brussels I did in 2 batches in cast iron pan, then put all on a roasting pan & roasted in oven. About 5 min to crisp pancetta, about 5 minutes saute in pan, about 10-15 minutes in 400F oven, with a little lemon juice on top at the end. Yum!

Not a whole lot of leftovers...some turkey, some mashers, a few brussels (even though I made a ton, they were almost all gone). I'm thinking "t-day remix":

--turkey enchiladas
--mashed potato cakes with mushroom sauce (need some criminis/portobellos/whites)

And I need to make some more cranberry sauce! I ate 1/2 a giant Costco bag this week; I like the traditional sugar syrup + cranberry style. One of my favorite cranberry remixes was Iron Chef style, with a splash of OJ, some bourbon (Gentleman Jack), and a few good glugs of real maple syrup. Added a smoky, sweet, spicy complexity that was outstanding.

bitters

Spent some time this week blending bitters, according to my own tastes/recipes; basically developing and testing recipes.

Before I started, I decided to taste all the bitters I have on hand, to get an idea of flavor profiles.

I tried to evaluate them like wine: the nose, the color, the mouthfeel, taste, and finish. Here are my results

I tasted the following bitters:

1. Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
2. Fee Brothers Peach Bitters
3. Fee Brothers Old Fashioned Bitters
4. Regan's No 6. Orange Bitters
5. Peychaud's Bitters
6. Angostura Bitters

Fee Brothers Orange:

• Contains some alcohol
• Light in color
  
• Orange in nose
• Orange and sweetness on tongue; some viscosity from glycerin
  
• Slight gentian/orris bitterness on finish

Fee Brother Peach Bitters

• Contains no alcohol
• Light/pale in color
  
• Tiny peach on nose
• Very sweet and almond + light peach on tongue; some viscosity from glycerin
• Almond in finish

Fee Old Fashioned

• No alcohol
• Very dark looking, like cola
• Lots of cinnamon + clove on nose
• Very spicy cinnamon + clove on tongue instantly, followed by gentian bitterness on finish, pretty gentle; citrus + zest overtones; some viscosity from glycerin
• Longer, lingering finish
  

Regan's No 6 Bitters

• 45% alcohol
• Very clear, tan tint
  
• Strong alcohol and some bitter orange on nose
• No sweetness on tongue; very thin and extremely bitter
  
• Gentian and citrus zest on finish, along with floral and spicy rosemary notes
  

Peychaud's Bitters

• 35% alcohol
• Very red in color, like maraschino cherry
• Slight anise on nose
• No sweetness on tongue; light anise + herby flavor
• Minimal bitterness on finish, short finish
  

Angostura Bitters

• 45% alcohol
• Dark red color, with tinge of brown
• Strong molasses on nose, + light cinammon and "jagermeister" spices (clove, anise)
  
• Almost no sweetness
• Immediate gentian on tongue, with a bit of clove

bread updates

Made bread with Carl Griffiths starter a few weeks ago. Despite a nice, agressive feeding schedule (perhaps it needed another week!), it didn't get as much lift, and didn't have as complex of flavor as the LBB sourdough.

I made a loaf of LBB a few weeks ago that rose so high (because I forgot to slash the loaf); totally separated under the crust, but it was this cool, stringy texture.

Also made LBB bagels a few weeks ago, that turned out really well too, nice texture. They don't keep too well.

more bread

My buddy John A. asked about my Carl Griffiths starter. He believed his was dead, but after some aggressive feeding, came back to life. Frankly, it's hard to kill a well-established starter. All it takes is aggressive, 3x a day feeding:

Morning (7-9am)
pour off all but 1/3 cup starter
add 1/3 cup flour
add 1/3 cup water

Afternoon (12-1pm)
pour off all but 1/3 cup starter
add 1/3 cup flour
add 1/3 cup water

Evening (5-6pm)
pour off all but 1/3 cup starter
add 2/3 cup flour
add 2/3 cup water

After 3-5 days of this, your starter will be alive again! You can even start this feeding schedule with one tablespoon worth of starter.

Today, I'm making my LBB country white bread, but with the Carl Griffiths starter. So far so good; the starter is nice, healthy and active. I halved the recipe, but when you make bread by weight (and Silverton's LBB recipes are well-designed by weight), it scales pretty well. I'm interested to see what the differences in flavor will be.

bok choy

Last weekend bought Chinese broccoli, bok choy, and a bunch of other good stuff. Decided to make the bok choy tonight using this recipe. Delicious, delicate flavor

Baby Bok Choy with Cashews Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped green onions, including green ends
• 1/2 cup roasted cashews, whole
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 1 pound baby bok choy, rinsed, larger leaves separated from base, base trimmed but still present, holding the smaller leaves together, sliced in 1/2 down the center
• 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
  
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Method

1 Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. (use a large enough pan so that bok choy are not crowded). Add green onions, garlic and cashews, and cook for 10 seconds. Add bok choy, sliced side down. Sprinkle with sesame oil and salt. Cook down for approximately 3 minutes, stirring occasionally (Like spinach, when cooked, the bok choy will wilt a bit.)

2 Add soy sauce, cook for about 1 minute more. Season with additional soy, salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

drinks

Had some good drinks this weekend:

Gin-Gin Mule: Plymouth gin, ginger juice (or fresh ginger), simple syrup, muddled mint, fresh lemon juice, soda water. Damn good!

Brooklyn: Buffalo Trace bourbon, Averna (a Sicilian bitters) & Luxardo Maraschino (I think about equal parts), Noilly Prat dry vermouth, and a single Amarena cherry floating at the bottom.

Yum!

Started making LBB bread again this morning, so far so good.

LBB status

So far so good. At 230pm this morning I out the boules in the fridge, which means they should be ready as early as 1030pm tonight for final rise. Downside is that it will still take 4 hours after the final rise to bake the bread, it will be too late tonight.

On the other hand, if I get up at 4am tomorrow morning, I will have fresh bread by 8am! :)

LBB sourdough recipe

Here's the "Country White" recipe I've been using. If you like it, buy the book!

2lb 2oz unbleached white flour
1/2c wheat germ
12oz LBB starter
1lb 2oz cool water (70 deg)
4.5 tsp sea salt

Add flour + wheat germ to mixing bowl. Then add starter and water. Knead on lowest setting on mixer using dough hook for 5 minutes. It will be a bit sticky, but pliable.

Cover with plastic wrap + towel and let rest for 20 mintues.

NOW ADD THE SALT. Knead on lowest setting on mixer for 5 more minutes. You may need to clear the dough hook every 30 seconds or so, if it gets clogged up over the top; however, dough will clear the sides of the mixing bowl.

Knead using pinch opposite/flip/slap technique described in the book. Form into ball and place in lightly oiled ceramic bowl. Cover with plastic wrap + towel, and let rise 3.5-4 hours. You'll know when it's ready when you place your hand on surface, "should feel cool and slightly flabby on the surface, center core should still feel firm." Press your fingertip into the dough, slight indentation should linger.

Turn dough out, cut it in two (should be about 1lb14oz each). Slap to deflate. Tuck all edges under, rough-shaping into a ball. Let rest for 15 min.

Shape into ball into floured basket. Let rise for 1 hr.

Cover boules with plastic wrap, and put in fridge for about 8-12 hours, no more than 24 hours.

Remove from fridge, cover with floured towel, and let rise for ~3 hours. Dough should be doubled in size and at ~62F.

Heat oven to 500.

Slash the loaf with a backwards C shape, shallow, like a flap.

Put loaf in, add water to broiling pan (or spritz oven), and bake for 5 minutes at 500, then turn down to 450 and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate boule after 20 min (total of 45 min). Should hit 210F when fully baked, and sound a bit hollow.

Let bread cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting in!

La Brea sourdough

It's almost 3.5 hours into the 1st rise of the La Brea sourdough, i.e., the "Country White" with wheat germ. So far so good! Started it this morning. It's an interesting comparison between the two (KAF and LBB, i.e., La Brea Bakery).

LBB:
after 5 minutes of kneading in the mixer, was sticky but less wet then KAF
after autolyse + 5 more min kneading, a lot tighter and smoother than KAF
hand-kneading with pinch/flip/slap LBB teachnique, was a lot smoother/less sticky.

Maybe this means that the KAF is slightly too slack. The big difference is that I followed LBB's instructions to weigh out all the ingredients, and it turned out balanced. KAF uses volume measures, and despite my attempts to convert to weight measurements, seems to work better using volume measure.

I shared a bunch of the leftover La Brea starter with work colleagues on Friday, with the KAF recipe (i.e., sourdough #5, listed earlier in this blog). Hope it turns out good for them!