Kouign Amann, take 1.

This is a classic example of one of those, trust your gut lessons. And, in this case, don't always trust the celebrity chef.

I have had this recipe for Kouign Amann bookmarked on my computer ever since I tasted it for the first time at Honore Bakery in Seattle. It was quite possibly the best pastry I had ever eaten, and this includes all 100,000 chocolate croissants that I have consumed. I haven't had a lot of free time over the last 4 years, but I am starting to reclaim it slowly and surely. Yippee. So, the other day on a whim, while one kiddo slept and the other was at school, I clicked on the bookmarked tab and started mixing dough. As I looked at the recipe, I had my hesitations, but it was a blog written by David Lebovitz, a well known pastry chef, so I plunged forth. My hesitation was this: the Kouign Amann I had tasted was a flaky, chewy, crispy piece of buttery sugary heaven with a touch of sea salt. My guess was that they use some sort of laminated dough. Not sure what this is? think croissant. lots of layers of butter and dough, delicately folded and rolled over and over again. this creates pockets, flakes in the crust. The David Lebovitz recipe was like, throw some butter and sugar on the dough, fold it some, roll it a little. At one point he even states that if it falls apart to just push the dough back together. I found myself thinking that my Chef teachers at the CIA would laugh if I had done this with a delicate and lovely croissant dough. This was no delicate and lovely croissant dough. This was like lazy man's croissant dough. (not trying to be elitist here. croissant dough is just way more labor intensive, with good reason!) So, I guess I wasn't surprised at the result. But, as I was trudging ahead, I kept thinking, 'well, it is a David Lebovitz recipe...so it has got to be good, right?'

Um, wrong.

just wrong.

I don't know, maybe this is the real Kouign Amann and the version I had was an improvised version (and much superior, I might add)

So, if you are looking for a lovely, light, layered, flaky, buttery, sugary and crispy pastry, this is not it.

On the other hand, if you want something that is heavy, crispy on top with some decent caramelization, super doughy, butter leached out of the dough and into the bnottom of pie pan.. eek. barf.

I will say that this was edible, sort of. I mean, when is sugar, butter and dough not edible, right? Well, this was on its way to hitting the dirty diapers in the garbage when my husband came in the kitchen to tell me that he actually liked it.

Tomorrow, I may have to introduce him to the real thing.



The Dough before layering.

The finished product. doesn't look too bad. Looks can be deceiving.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Carrot Cookies.

I ended up with a lot of carrots last week. We don't have a horse, but my son does love them. but, still, that is a lot of carrots. So, I started pinning on Pinterest. Carrot Pancakes, Carrot Cake.. I even looked at some cookies. But, nothing I saw was what I had in mind when I started to envision a carrot cookie. I didnt want frosting on it. I didnt want it to taste like cake. If I want cake, I will make cake. I like my cookies chewy.
So, I took a recipe that I have used and tweaked it. I used all whole wheat flour. I cut back on the sugars, eliminated the raisins, added some chocolate chips and some carrots, and voila, this cookie was baked. And, they turned out good. not too cakey, but, just a touch raised. and, chewy. I also really liked the flavor of the whole wheat and the carrots. This one is a keeper.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Carrot Cookies.

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teas vanilla

1 c oats

1 c whole wheat flour

1/2 teas baking powder

1/2 teas baking soda

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teas cinnamon

1 c chocolate chips

1/2 cup carrot, grated thin.

cream butter and sugars, add egg and vanilla. whip to combine.

in a separate bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

add this to the wet mixture. stir to combine. (the batter might seem a little dry, but the added carrots shouls alleviate this. )

add the carrots and the chocolate chips.

preheat oven to 350. line pan with silpat or parchment.

spoon hefty Tablespoon of dough. (I got about 18)

Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly golden and dry to the touch.

Meyer Lemon Whole Wheat Honey Bread.

This bread started out as sweet Portuguese buns for Easter. But, I had some lemon infused milk and a lemon sweet bread was born. Then, I ran out of regular flour and a whole wheat bread was born. then, I ran out of time chasing the kids and threw the dough in the freezer.

This is how is goes these days.

A couple days later, I pulled the bread out and thawed it. I proofed it and baked it, and a lovely lemon honey whole wheat bread was born.

Since having kids, I am amazed at how many times I have bagged a recipe. I put things off. I run out of time. But, I am trying to bake a loaf of bread a week, in the very least. This recipe, or my new version of it, yields just the right amount of dough for 2 loaves. If you choose or have no choice, throw half in the freezer, and pull it out next week. You will be glad you did.

Meyer Lemon Whole Wheat Honey Bread.

(say that three times, fast)

Sponge:

1 1/2 Tablespoons dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 cup warm milk, steeped with Meyer Lemon Zest of 2 lemons.

(I let it sit overnight, but I imagine 30 minutes would do. bring 1 1/4 c milk and zest to a simmer, then let it sit.)

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

mix ingredients until smooth, then let sit for an hour at room temp, covered.

Dough:

1 stick butter, room temp, in pieces.

1/2 cup honey

2 teaspoons salt

3 eggs, at room temp.

3 cups or so Whole Wheat Flour

*Stir down sponge and add butter, honey, salt, eggs and 1 cup flour. stir. continue to add flour, little by little until you have a soft dough that comes together. any flour left? use it to flour your surface for hand kneading. knead for a few minutes until springy, then let rise in a covered bowl for 1.5 hours.

(at this point, if you run out of time, you may retard the dough in the fridge or freezer and pull it out later. if you do this, be sure to allow a few hours for the dough the thaw, if frozen, or to come to room temp, if in the fridge. when thawed, proceed with the instructions below..)

divide the dough into 2 portions and grease 2 loaf pans. (9 by 5 by 3 or similar)

form each portion into a elongated football shape and place in pans.

let rise for 45 minutes or until just puffy near the top of the pan, yet slightly springy to the touch.

bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown on all sides.

let cool, then eat.

Orange Raisin Bread with Walnut Glaze.

I cant believe that I am actually writing a blog post. In my quest to get back on the wagon of baking and blogging, I decided to start with this bread. I think that my family: myself, husband and my 2 young sons go through at least 3 loaves of bread per week. Instead of spending money, why not just bake them myself? so, that is my goal. for today, just to make sure I still could do it, I started with just one loaf.

This bread was a great way to get back into the rhythm. and, now, I cant wait to bake more.

  Orange Raisin Bread.  adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread. 2.5 cups flour2 1/4 teaspoons yeast3/4 cups water1/4 cups milkzest of one orange1/4 cup butter1/4 cup sugar1 teas salt1 egg3/4 c raisins Glaze:1/2 c powdered sugar1 teas butter, softened1/4 c finely chopped walnuts3 Tablespoons Orange Juice In a bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups of the flour with the yeast. over heat, in a saucepan, heat the water, milk, orange zest, butter, sugar and salt until butter melts and mix is warm but not hot to the touch. (around 115 degrees)pour over the flour and mix to partially combine, and then add egg and mix to combine. add the flour, little by little until you get a dough that comes together. dust a counter surface with a little flour and knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is no longer tacky, but take care to add only a little flour at a time to avoid over drying the dough. place in bowl and let rise for 90 minutes. punch down, shape into a round and let sit for 20 minutes on the counter, below a cover.then, shape into a log and place into greased loaf pan. let rise around 60 minutes. preheat oven to 375. bake for 40-50 minutes until the loaf is nicely browned.while the loaf is baking, mix the glaze ingredients to a slightly runny consistency. when loaf emerges from the oven, glaze using a pastry brush.  cool, then devour.  
- Posted from bed using blog press for iPhone..

Holy crap.

time flies when you are having fun! has it really been 7 months? man, well, I am slowly starting to get my groove back, here. (2 kids later..) I hope to be posting more really soon. and by soon I mean, in less than 7 more months. I have had to take a little hiatus. having kids is keeping me really busy and when I do find downtime, you will find me with my wine, propped on the couch, or sleeping. I hope to be back soon!

Lemon Muffins.

Recently, we enlisted a birdie to come and take our son's binkies to a better place. For that, it has taken some time for him to forgive us and a week later, he is still asking for it at bedtime. (breaks my heart just a little bit) But, I told him that if he could do it, I would make him cupcakes. He loves lemon. loves it. eats it raw most times, so I decided to make him a basic Lemon Muffin. I also had to redeem myself from a Lemon Cake debacle from the day before, Fathers Day, in which I created the biggest flop of a cake. (Martha Stewart Everyday, in part, to thank for that.) In case you are wondering, her recipe for Simple Lemon cake sounds dandy, using whole lemons in the batter, similar to a shaker pie, but the results were terrible. not sure what happened, and I hope its not just me losing my touch. can I blame her just this once?

For this recipe, I just wanted a basic lemon muffin. no frills, but lemony. I took the sugar and perfumed it with lemon zest, and then I also added some juice. I added some honey yogurt (full fat Greek Gods goodness) and think next time, I would use a lemon yogurt (like Chobani) I finished them with a little lemon and powdered sugar glaze. Instead of butter, I used walnut oil, and I think next time I might try using coconut oil. (my new fave oil to bake with)

Lemon Muffins

1/2 cup yogurt, I used honey Greek Gods

3 Tabl oil, I used walnut

2 Tabl Lemon juice

1 egg

1 1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teas baking powder

1/4 teas salt

1 Tabl lemon zest

lemon juice and powdered sugar to glaze.

zest one lemon and add to sugar in a bowl. with hands rub the sugar and zest until moistened.

whisk together zest/sugar, egg and yogurt. add oil and whisk to combine. add lemon juice. stir. add dry ingredients and stir to combine.

bake at 350, 15 to 20 minutes. yields around 8 muffins.

Vegan! Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I feel like a broken record here, cookies, banana bread, cookies, banana bread. but, there is a cookie out there that is so delish, and its actually vegan. (gasp!) I buy them all the time and devour the bag within a day. I still cant believe that its getting easier to find vegan goodies out there. I am such a butter in my cookies girl, and these just might turn me into a vegan. well, maybe not. but, they are that good. They are peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from Uncle Eddies and I think, I think that I may have just recreated them. Aside from the crumbly mess that was the cookie dough, once you can form the cookies and get them to stick on the cookie sheet, they actually bake well and dont fall apart into a crumbly mess upon consumption. these are gooood.

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chunky peanut butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup walnut oil

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

just throw everything in a bowl and mix. I also added the hippy version of m&m's, sundrops, instead of chocolate chips.

bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

should make about 2 dozen...less if you are a snitcher of cookie dough like me.