Christmas Tree Coffee Cake

I have helped my mother make these for Christmas for as long as I can remember. I started with simple chores, watching to see if the milk scalds or sifting the flour and eventually I could make them all on my own. I don't sift the flour, I use bread flour. My mother's looked nicer than mine because she bought the candied red and green cherries and cut them in half and used them to decorate the tree.
No one in my house eats candied fruits so I don't buy them.

Christmas Tree Coffee Cake
1/2 cup warm water
2 envelopes of yeast
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
2t salt
1/2 c shortening
2 eggs, lightly beaten
7 to 71/2 c bread or regular flour

brown sugar
cinnamon
chopped nuts
softened butter

powdered sugar
milk
vanilla extract

Add the yeast to the warm water, 110 degrees, set aside. Scald the milk. Put it in a 4 quart pan over medium heat and heat until a skim appears on the top of the milk. Take the pan off the heat. Add the shortening, sugar, salt to the warm milk. Stir until the shortening dissolves. Add flour, one cup at a time to four cups, the mixture should have cooled some. Add the eggs and the yeast mixture. Add more flour. At around six cups of flour, either transfer to mixer or begin kneading. You should make a delightful soft dough. Let it rise until double. The recipe makes two large trees or three small trees. The large feeds my family of five. Decide how you are going to divide the dough. Then roll it into a 1/4" thick rectangle. Dab the dough with butter about 1-2 tablespoons. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Roll into a long snake and shape into the tree. Let rise until double and Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Decorate with powdered sugar thinned with milk.

And there you have it, Christmas breakfast! I'm sending this to Bread Baking Day for their baking under the tree celebration.

Biscuits and Canadian Bacon and Cheese

I made James Beard's biscuits this morning. Boy are they delicious. Unfortunately, I will never be making them again. A simple mixture of flour, salt, baking powder and over a cup of heavy cream, they are dipped into melted butter before you bake them.

They were delicious but you only have one set of arteries. There has to be a more reasonable, equally tasty, recipe out there. I added a little Canadian bacon and cheese to see if I could give my main stakeholder something to do at the gym...

Biscuits and Gravy

So, I'm not from the south. Biscuits and gravy have no draw for me. But my husband is more than willing to try any food from any where. Where every we have lived, he embraces the local cuisine. We have lived a couple places where biscuits and gravy are available. He enjoys biscuits and gravy but normally eats healthy cereal and bananas.

But, I'm on vacation and thought that I would make some breakfast. I ordered a cookbook that I wanted for some time that is out of print, The Farm House Cookbook, by Susan Herrman Loomis. I got a used paperback copy. The Amazon review had mentioned that it had artery clogging breakfast. Why not whip some up before he headed off for the gym?

So, they aren't really difficult to make. Take some pork sausage, season it with sage, salt, pepper, I added a little chili powder. Make some patties, cook them and then use the dripping and the sausage bits left in the pan to make a gravy. I tried the biscuit recipe that she has in her book, which she says isn't as fluffy as some so it can stand up to the sausage and gravy. I have had better biscuits. Emily loves biscuits, I'll try another recipe tomorrow.

Scout found the whole hot breakfast in the morning idea fascinating.

New York Deli Rye BBA challenge

My starters are all happy on my counter. The BBA starter just took a little extra time to reach a point where I would be willing to try it in a recipe. Once it was doubling and bubbling I decided to try it in the New York Deli Rye. An unusual bread. You add the barm, which seems a lot like starter to me, to some white rye flour, water, cooked cooled diced onions and oil and make a starter that you leave out for four hours and then refrigerate.

The next day, I took the starter out of the refrigerator and left it on the counter for an hour. Then I added high gluten flour, white rye flour, brown sugar, salt, yeast, shortening, buttermilk and water to form a soft mass. This was let to sit for 5 mins to let the gluten develop. Which by the way, I can't see, can't tell, just hope I am doing it correctly. The I used my mixer for four mins to make a firm, tacky dough. It took two hours for it to double.

A few years ago, I got some large calphalon bread pans at a discount store. Too large for your average recipe, they have come in handy with the BBA challenge. I divided this into two and made two beautiful loafs.

However, I think if I blind folded you and gave you a taste, you wouldn't guess rye bread. Tasty bread, but not what I would say was rye bread. I am waiting to see what everyone else thinks.

Basic Sourdough BBA#30

Just what the doctor ordered, a piece of toast. One I had to wait days to try...

In my refrigerator I have two starters, my trustworthy King Arthur Sourdough Starter. And my starter that I had made by following Paul's instructions on his blog, The Yumarama Artisan Bread Blog. I made Paul's starter after I failed at Peter Reinhart's BBA seed culture. I knew we were approaching sourdoughs so I decided to wake everybody up, see how they were performing and try the BBA starter one more time. About Day three my BBA seed culture was unimpressive. My King Arthur starter had spent a little too much time neglected and it needed a couple more feedings to get back that lovely aroma. But my pineapple starter, Eve, was ready to go.

I wanted to time this bread so I had some for my main stake holder who had to spend the week on travel. I don't know many people who actually enjoy traveling anymore. And a week away is a long time. He is a sourdough lover. It would be great to have fresh bread and cheese ready for when he got home.

Life had different plans. Wednesday I was a little under the weather, unusual for me because I think my years as a school nurse has exposed me to just about everything out there. Thursday I thought I was in The Alien, when the thing pops out of her abdomen. Friday I wasn't going to be doing any baking. It wasn't until Monday when I finally went to the doctors when I discovered that I had food poisoning. Probably something I ate during my let's see how many cheap places we can eat at while your dad is gone stage. It is amazing what antibiotics can do.


This is not a quick bread. But Saturday I thought I would get started. Once you have your barm ready, you need to make a firm starter. You add the barm to some flour and water and let it ferment for four hours, or maybe 8 it is all going to depend on how your starter and kitchen environment are on the day you make it. We were having record breaking cold temperatures. However in about four hours I had doubled the firm starter. Into the fridge for the night, which Peter says is very important for the flavor. Sometimes I wonder if we spend too much time in the fridge.

The next day, the starter is allowed to warm up and then added to flour, salt and water. It made a firm, tacky dough. I decided it was best to do it all in the mixer, but this really gave my mixer a work out.

It was allowed to ferment for four hours, actually five until it had double in size and then shaped and allowed to proof for three more hours. This is an all day bread. I wished that I had a banneton. I made boules. Which were baked in the hearth baking style we have come to expect.

This bread had the best color and crust of any of my breads thus far.

Two days later, I start to think that I could eat some toast. Is there any bread in the house? One loaf is completely gone, half a loaf remains. It was delicious.

The BBA seed culture actually seems to be taking off. Maybe it will be ready for the rye bread.

Pugliese Two Ways BBA # 29

This is a rustic bread. It is made with durum flour blended with bread flour. It has a high hydration status. I am getting a little more comfortable working with the very wet breads.

This bread starts with a biga. To it you add durum flour and bread flour, salt, yeast and the optional mashed potatoes. I happened to have some left overs, so in they went. The water was added to form a smooth, sticky dough. The dough was put on a floured square and stretched- and folded by very floury hands and left to rest three times. The third time, it fermented for two hours. After the two hours, the dough was shaped into boules. I made one boule and saved the rest for pizza. Shaping was interesting. It does not hold it shape well.

The boule was put in a proofing bowl, allowed to proof for 90 more minutes and then the loaf was turned out onto the parchment paper. It was a bit like working with the blob. I found it difficult to score. This is my first time working with the lame. I had better luck with the exacto knife. It was then baked in the oven that had been prepared for hearth baking.

Later that afternoon, I put it on the counter with a knife and some cheese and started to prepare dinner. I turned around and their was one piece left. It was delicious.

The pizzas were tasty too. I had a little more luck shaping them then I did with the pizza recipe in the BBA book.


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Thanksgiving

Mags at The Other Side of Fifty was writing about how much her cooking skills have changed over the years and I was thinking about mine while I made our Thanksgiving dinner. Mags cooked the most beautiful dinner rolls that Frieda at Lovin' from the oven says are one of the most versatile recipes ever. They looked so good on Mags' post, I had to give them a try.


I wonder how many people are cleaning their ovens today? Part of cooking the perfect turkey was putting it in the oven at 400 degrees. That makes for a dirty oven. In 2003, Alton Brown had an article on the perfect turkey in Bon Appetit. He brines his and we have been brining ours ever since reading that article. When I first started cooking, I cooked my turkey until the red button popped up. I now use a thermometer.

I have always made my gravy from the drippings. Now I make a broth the day before out of all of the giblets and aromatics and use that to make the gravy.

Some of the sides I make have varied little from how my parents made them. I have never made mashed potatoes from a box. However I now add a little roasted garlic to the potatoes for an added kick. I used to make cranberries from the recipe on the bag, frequently I try an alternate. This year, I found a recipe on Lick My Spoon for Aunt Louise's cranberry relish. The garlic, shallots and jalepenos are amazing. I did not add the cilantro at the end, I enjoyed the taste so much without it.

I started making Pepperidge Farms stuffing from a bag and putting it in the turkey. In 1995, I made a Bread Stuffing with Mushrooms and Leeks We will never have another dressing. There is so much celery, leeks and mushrooms in the dressing, it is amazing.

I grew up having hubbard squash for dinner. It has been hard to find hubbards in Texas. Some years, I get one, some years I don't. My dad would chop it up and my mother would steam it.

I take it on to the back patio.




Put the dog in the house, because she would lick it to see if there was any hope for it, and I drop it. Then I brush the chunks with olive oil and salt and pepper and roast them in the oven. I would miss squash if we didn't have it, my kids would not.




My parents grew up in New England. I think that influenced our Thanksgiving meal. We have creamed onions. You take tiny pearl onions and peel them. I put them briefly in boiling water, which makes it easier to peel them. Then you return the peeled onions to boiling water and cook them until tender. You make a white sauce with equal part of butter and flour and let that cook for a couple mins then slowly add milk and salt and pepper until I have a thick and creamy white sauce. Finish with a touch of nutmeg. Delicious. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without them.

Desserts are probably the most varied thing in my house. We aren't big dessert people, have formed no real attachments. Some of us live for the mashed potatoes and gravy. I make a pumpkin cheese cake. I have tried different recipes, they are all good. I try a different apple pie recipe every year.

I love the idea of traditions, passed on from generation to generation, mixed with some new recipes. Happy Thanksgiving!