florida boredom

we hardly ever make dinner while we are here in florida, which means i hardly ever get to bake here in florida. mostly, my day consists of getting up, going to the market to get newspapers, setting the table for breakfast, serving breakfast, cleaning up breakfast, and then trying to figure out a way to fill the rest of my day up. we try to see as many friends as possible while we are here, which seems to be very little this year.

as you all read, i'm working on a baby blanket for my friends' baby. that will probably keep me busy for part of today. i also just bought a new book called "Yarn Harlot, the secret life of a knitter" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740750372/sr=8-1/qid=1141062824/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-4335157-3656131?%5Fencoding=UTF8 which i'm thinking i can get through sitting by the pool in one afternoon.

i really need to think of more stuff to do... any suggestions?

jerusalem articoke chips with lemon thyme dip

greg and i were trying to think of ways to incorporate jerusalem articokes into work. since we can't use potatoes at work, we often times use other root veggies to make chips, fries and other thing you would use potatoes for. greg decided to make chips out of the jerusalem articokes to make chips. i did some research and found this recipe.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/101438

instead of frying the chips, greg baked them on a low heat for a while. they crisped up quite nicely, especially after the second baking time.

the dip was really easy to make. it is quite like an aoli or emulsion. and as greg's friend eric would say, it will make you lots of friends.

the bosses really liked the chips and dip, and asked that we make it for the next dinner party they have.

interesting notes about jerusalem artichoke... they are neither from jerusalem nor are they articokes... they are actually the root of a sunflower and are often times called sunchokes. the reason they got the name "jerusalem artichokes" is because the italian name for sunflour is girasole, which sounds like jerusalem, thus jerusalem artichokes...

and that ends the food lesson for today. we are going back to florida today, so maybe i'll post something interesting from there!

chocolate biscotti photo and recipe

i'm going to post the regular recipe for chocolate biscotti. take into account, i replaced the sugar with an artifical sweetener and part of the cake flour with soy flour.


makes 4 dozen biscotti

cake flour - 8.25oz/248g
baking soda - 1tsp/4g
cocoa powder - 1.25oz/35g
eggs - 6oz/170g
sugar - 5.5oz/156g
instant espresso powser - 1tbsp/7g
vanilla extract - 1tsp/5mL
almond extract - .25tsp/1.25mL
salt - .25tsp/2g
bittersweet chocolate chunks - 5oz/142g

1. line a sheet pan with parchment paper
2. sift together the flour, baking soda and cocoa powder
3. whip the eggs, sugar, espresso powder, vanilla and almond extracts, and salt using a wire whip attachment on high speed until thick and light in color, 6 to 8 minutes. on low speed, mix in the sifted dry ingredients until just incorporated. using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate.
4. form the dough into a strip 24in/61cm long on the prepared sheet pan
5. bake at 300F/149C until a skewer inserted in the center of the strip comes out clean, about 1 hour. remove from the over and cool for 5 to 10 minutes. lower the over temperature to 275F/135C
6. using a serrated knife, cute each strip into slices 1/2in/1cm thick. place on prepared sheet pans and bake for 12 minutes. flip the biscotti over and continue baking until completely dried and crisp, 12 to 15 minutes. transfer to racks and cool completely

Marble Pound Cake Photo and Recipe

as promised, i'm posting the photos and recipes of my last two projects. here are the marble pound cakes i attempted. as you can see, one got a lot more chocolate batter than the other two cakes. i'll have to work on that next time!

makes 6 large cakes

cake flour - 3 lb 4.5 oz/1.49kg
baking powder - 1.5 oz/43g
butter, soft - 2lb 5.5oz/1.06kg
sugar - 2lb 5.5oz/1.06kg
salt - .5oz/14g
eggs - 3lb 12oz/1.70kg

1. coat the loaf pans with a light film of fat or use the appropriate pan liners
2. sift together the flour and baking powder
3. cream together the butter, sugar and salt on medium speed with the paddle attachment, scraping down the bowl as needed, until the mixture is smooth and light in color, about 5 minutes
4. blend the eggs and add in three additions
5. add the sifted dry ingredients, mixing on low speed until just blended and scraping down the bowl as needed
6. scale 2lb/907g batter into each prepared loaf pan
7. bake at 350F/177C until a skewer insterted near the center of a cake comes out clean, about 50 minutes
8. cool the cakes in the pans for a few minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

marble variation: add 12oz/340g melted and cooled bittersweet choloate. after blending the batter, transfer one-third of the batter to a separate bowl and add the melted chocolate, folding it in thoroughly using a rubber spatula. gently pour the chololate batter into the plain batter. using the handle of a wooden spoon, gently swirl the batters together with 3 to 4 strokes. do not overblend. scale and bake as directed above.

chocolate biscotti - project #5

i was going to make almond flour pound cake for my boss, but decided to make chocolate biscotti instead. he really likes chocolate, so it was a good choice.

i replaced the sugar with splenda, and replaced 2/3 cup of regular flour with soy flour. the sugar replacement went fine, but i believe that the soy flour gave the biscotti a strange aftertaste.

biscotti is an interesting recipe because you double bake it. the first time you bake it for an hour as a whole loaf. then, you lower the temp of the oven, cut the biscotti into slice it, and then bake for an additional 15 minutes on each side. it isn't very difficult, just time consuming.

this recipe is good for anyone with an egg allergy, because there are no eggs at all...

my boss seemed to like it, although, he kept saying he could taste the baking soda. next time, i'll cut the baking soda in half and see what happens. i personally think he was tasting the soy flour...

Marble Pound Cake - Project #4

sorry about this post being late, i don't really have an excuse other than i spent friday watching curling... what a strange sport!

thursday i made 2 desserts, pound cake for the kids and chocolate biscotti for the boss. i'm in florida right now, so i don't have my big recipe book or usb wire for the camera. i will post the photos and recipes when i'm back in philly...

the pound cake recipe, like every one in the CIA book is a large quanity. i cut it down from 6 cakes to 3 cakes in order for everything to fit into my mixer...

i decided to go with a marble pound cake over a regular one because it was more interesting. who wants a plain marble cake when you can have one with chocolate.

everything went fine until the baking part. the recipe called for 2lbs of batter per pan. i had smaller pans, so i put 1 3/4 lb of batter in each. greg forgot to tell me, and i didn't figure out, that i needed to cut the time a little bit. the cakes looks beautiful, but were a little dry. i'll fix that the next time...

back to enjoying the warm weather while i work....

no-bake day...

i went into work, all mentally prepared to bake marble pound cake. what i found was that the other chefs had made cupcakes yesterday that hadn't gone out. so, my boss said to send those out and not to bake today.

so, i guess i'll make the pound cake tomorrow. and i'll bake an almond flour pound cake for the bosses...

snow day...

overnight, about 18 inches of snow got dumped near my house. i have the day off, which means no baking for stacy.

instead, i will be working on the baby blanket i've been knitting. hopefully, i will get a bunch of it done today while watching bad movies and stuff on my tivo.

hope everyone who is stuck in the snow has a good day off. and for those of you who live in a place where there is no snow, i wish i could be with you right now.

Vanilla Pretzels - Project #3

friday nights at work are a bit strange. any other night, there are 2 of us in the kitchen. but on friday nights, with 12 people eating dinner, there are 4 of us in the kitchen (greg and i, and the other chef couple). there is never enough work for all of us to do. most fridays, you will find me in the car, going to the market for something we've forgotten.

last week, when i was making the decision to start baking, i realized fridays were the perfect time to try stuff out. this week's recipe, from the CIA "Baking & Pastry" book, vanilla pretzels.

makes 12 dozen cookies

butter soft - 9oz/255g
confectioners' sugar, sifted - 4.5oz/128g
eggs - 4.5oz/128g
milk - 2 floz/60mL
cake flour, sifted - 14oz/397g
dark chocolate, melted, tempered - 3lb/1.36kg
coarse sugar for coating - 1lb 8oz/680g

1. trace pretzel shapes onto parchment paper and line sheet pans with the parchment, inverting it so the pencil markings are on the underside of the paper.
2. cream the butter and confectioners' sugar on medium speed with a paddle attachment until smooth, about 5 mintues. blend the eggs and milk and add in two or three additions, blending completely and scraping down the bowl after each addition. on low speed, mix in the flour until just blended
3. fit a pastry bag with a no. 2 plain tip and fill it with the batter. pipe pretzel shapes using the traced patterns on the prepared sheet pans.
4. bake at 375F/191C until light golden brown, about 8 minutes. transfer to racks and cool completely.
5. dip the pretzels into tempered chocolate and transfer to racks set over sheet pans. sprinkle iwth coarse sugar once the chocolate is lightly set.

i cut this recipe in half, because 136 cookies was far too many.

because of this book, i bought a digital baking scale, which is probably the best thing ever. at first, looking at a recipe that only have weights can be intimidating, but it actually is very easy if you have a good scale. here is a link to the scale i bought:

http://www.kitchenkapers.com/3007.html

things that concerned me while working on this recipe. when i was mixing in the eggs and milk into the sugar and butter, it didn't seem like it was combining well. when i started adding the flour, it finally started to come together, and actually worked out well.

a number 2 pastry tip was far too small for my taste. i used it for my first batch, and they burned far too quickly and it was hard to make the shape come out correctly. i switched to a number 4 tip and was able to control the shape much better. the cooking time needed to be adjusted to 12-13 minutes to achieve the desired look.

i decided not to dip the cookies in chocolate, too much of a mess. instead, i melted chocolate and put it into a squeeze bottle, and drizzled it over the cookies. the effect was nice and it was much easier than dipping cookies.

the cookies were a big success! next time i will make more, and maybe use colored sugars over the chocolate to add color.

well, it is the weekend, and i'm off the to the philly auto show to find my next car. snow is also on the way. if i'm working on sunday, i'm thinking about making pound cake, i will let you all know.

banana bread - project #2

banana bread
Originally uploaded by iushosh.

welcome to my sencond project, banana bread. i was asked by my boss to make banana bread instead of the normal chocolate chip cookies that normally are made for their grandkids, so i obliged.

i found my recipe on the foodtv.com website, the night before when i couldn't sleep.

here's the recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_4050,00.html

i was able to contain my mess a little better this time, so greg was happy about that.

it actually turned out pretty well, in fact, my boss tried it and like it.

what i learned was that the next time i bake this, i have to make sure my bananas are over ripe and that i mush them up even better. any chunks that i had this time, ended up sinking to the bottom of the bread. still, it was yummy...

Brownies - Project #1

i decided that for my first project i was going to conquer a familiar product, brownies. granted, i've only made brownies from the box. but this time, i found a relatively simple recipe in the "dessert" book from williams-sonoma.

here is the recipe: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/R100951.jsp

the one big mistake i made was baking the brownies in disposable aluminum pans instead of glass. it seemed to make the brownies dry out faster. but other than that, they looked exactly like the photo.

greg will tell you that i made a really big mess with this project, and that is completely true. we have a large kitchen to work in, but for greg, it became really small with the amount of space i took up.

what i've learned... changing the kind of pan you use will change the amount of time you have to cook your recipe. also, learn how to make less of a mess, or at least the space the mess takes up.

Welcome...

hello to all reading my blog...

my name is stacy and i am a chef. actually, let me better explain myself. according to my tax return i'm a chef, but in all reality, i'm not even much of a cook, yet. just over 2 years ago, my husband and i were hired to work as personal chefs for a family. they wanted a couple, and despite the fact that i had no culinary experience, we were hired (my husband greg went to the culinary institute of america, or cia as i will refer to it).

now, 2 years later, i've decided to really start learning how to cook, specifically how to bake. and i've decided to start a blog in order to document my progress, the recipies that i try, and what i learn after each. and occationally, i post about what else is going on in my life (like the knitting project i'm working on or anything else that strikes my fancy).

so sit back in your comfy office chair, relax with your daily cup of coffee from that fancy coffee place down the street... and enjoy