Tag: baking

Celebrate Yourself: The Joy of Baking Your Own Birthday Cake

When I was a kid my mom would always make me a birthday cake. I got to choose the cake flavor, and her doing that for me always made me feel really special and loved. When I went to college my brother and my friends bought me cakes, but they were never as special as the ones my mom made for me. Over the years I started baking birthday cakes for my husband, my sister, and friends, but there was still no one to bake a cake for me, and that made me sad. Several years ago I decided to stop feeling sad and show myself the love I showed others by baking a cake for myself. Making my cake is now one of my treasured birthday traditions. This year the recipe for my birthday cake came from the King Arthur Baking School book.

I started with the mise en place:

I mixed dry ingredients,

then the wet ingredients,

then combined the wet and dry mixtures. That’s all you do for this batter. It’s so easy.

I divided the batter into 2 cake pans and baked them, then let them cool completely at room temperature.

While the cake cooled I made the frosting.

I creamed the butter, salt, and vanilla together,

added the cocoa powder,

mixed in the heavy cream,

and then added the powdered sugar.

Once the cakes were cool trimmed the tops to be level, then I assembled the cake on my new cake turntable (it was a birthday gift). I frosted the first layer, then laid the second layer on and frosted the top and sides.

The last step is always the most fun: decoration. I transferred the cake to my cake plate, then I used a star tip to pipe a row of stars around the base of the cake as well as the top edge of the cake. I finished with a star in the center of the cake and some pearl sugar.

I forgot. The best part of making a cake is eating it. This cake is so moist and really delicious! The cake together and the frosting are such a good pairing. The cake has a more bitter chocolate flavor compared to the frosting, and the frosting is sweeter. It’s amazing that such an easy cake tastes so good!

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.

Mastering Macarons: Tips for Perfect French Cookies

Making macarons always makes me feel like a member of the in-group. They aren’t technically that difficult to make, but you can’t be in a rush when making them, and you can’t cut corners. I’ve used the same pair of recipes to inform my macaron baking for a few years now. I like how this recipe has a lower amount of sugar, and I like the flavor suggestions for the fillings from this recipe. Both have good instructions.

As always, I started by gathering my mise en place.

I combined the almond flour and powdered sugar in a sieve over a bowl and sifted them together. Almond flour is quite a bit more course than most wheat flour, so this process takes some time and effort. It’s important to work as much of the almond flour through the sieve as possible so the ratios of the recipe don’t become skewed.

In a separate bowl I whisked the egg whites , salt, and cream of tartar until they were frothy, then turned on the speed on my KitchenAid mixer and slowly poured the granulated sugar in. I continued whipping until the eggs were at stiff peaks.

I gently folded the almond flour mixture into the egg whites in two parts, then continued folding until the batter could slowly run off my spatula to form an unbroken figure-8. This is the macaronage, and it is another part of the process that requires patience and attention to detail.

I divided the batter in half and added a few drops of food coloring, then folded the color in until the batter was evenly tinted. I also double-checked the macaronage at this point.

I poured both batters into untipped pastry bags, cut the ends of the bags, and piped the macarons.

Normally I like to wait for a dry day in the Spring or Autumn to make macarons because the air is dryer, which helps the macaron shells dry more quickly and bake dryer. The day I had set aside for baking these macarons turned out to be a rainy day, so the macarons needed to rest for an hour before the top of each cookie was sufficiently dry to be baked.

I baked the macarons for 14 minutes, rotating the baking sheet about 2/3 through each bake.

The macarons developed a lovely foot (the crinkly edge on the cookie) and the bake was gentle enough to not add any colour to the shells, but either they were ever so slightly underbaked, or the wet weather made them seem so. Either way, several shells didn’t pass quality assurance and were disposed of as test runs for my fillings. You know, in the name of science.

I baked the macaron shells 6 days before my tea party. I put the shells in a container and the container in a plastic bag and froze them until a day or two before the party. On the day of the party I filled them. The green shells got a ring of chocolate buttercream (leftover from decorating my cake) and a dollop of pistachio cream. The pink shells got a ring of chocolate buttercream and a bit of sour cherry jam.

These macarons always turn out so delicious. I’m so glad I included them in my tea party menu. I wish I had included a little more pistachio cream in the green macarons since the chocolate buttercream was much stronger in flavor than the pistachio. The tartness of the chocolate-cherry macarons was delightful, especially against the backdrop of chocolate cake.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.

Currant Scones with Clotted Cream

One cannot host a tea party without serving scones, and currant scones are such a classic. Scones are especially delightful because of how quick they are to make.

I gathered the mise en place:

First, I combined the dry ingredients.

I added in the currants and made sure any clumps of fruit were broken up.

Lastly, I added the cream and stirred until the flour was all incorporated and I had a shaggy dough.

At this point I departed from the recipe. Instead of shaping the dough into one large round and cutting it into 8 wedges, I cut out 9 rounds.

I brushed the tops of the scones with heavy cream, and baked them until the tops were beginning to become golden. This took 26 minutes for me, instead of the recommended 15-20 minutes.

Scones are traditionally served with clotted cream and jam. Clotted cream is rather difficult to find, so I decided to make my own. The making of clotted cream does take a good 24 hours, so I started this a few days before I baked the scones.

I used this recipe. I was able to find pasteurized (but not ultra-pasteurized) heavy cream at my grocery store as recommended in the recipe. I poured the whole quart of cream into a baking dish, and baked it at the lowest temperature my oven would allow. I set the oven to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but it was closer to 225 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the bake. After 9 hours the top of the cream was golden brown, and you could see a separation of the cream from the whey.

I allowed the cream to cool overnight, then poured off the whey. The golden bits on the top were rather crunchy, and that wasn’t the texture I was going for, so I strained the remaining cream through a sieve before serving.

The scones were lovely, and the combination of scones, cream, and jam was so wonderful. My neighbor, who is from Scotland, said these are the best scones he’s had in a very long time (he also approved the clotted cream).

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.

The Trials of Baking a Lemon Bundt Cake

I love lemonade and lemon-flavored treats, so I bought a bag of lemons not fully realizing just how many lemons I had just acquired. In an effort to use some of the lemons I decided to make a lemon cake. I leafed through the King Arthur Baking School cookbook and found this lemon bundt cake. Perfection.

I gathered my mise en place:

I started by creaming together the butter, sugar, and lemon zest.

Then I added the eggs one at a time, beating each one in before adding the next.

Next, I alternated stirring in the flour and the milk.

With my batter ready to bake, I prepared my bundt pan. Normally I would prepare the pan before mixing my batter. I typically use the classic method of generously buttering the pan with a pastry brush and then flouring the pan, but the book suggested that I could merely spray the pan with oil liberally just before scooping the batter in and all would be well. I was skeptical, but I’ll try anything once.

I put my cake into the oven and watched as it baked. It all looked good for the first 20 minutes, but then the center of the cake began to dome upwards. I watched helplessly. There was nothing I could do but wait for the cake to be finished baking.

The recipe said the cake should take 40 minutes to bake, but mine was in the oven for over an hour before the cake tester came out clean.

I let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes as recommended, then attempted to get it out of the bundt pan. Friends,it was stuck in there. With the cake still warm I couldn’t get it out of the pan without completely mauling it, so I took a page out of the angel food cake recipe and flipped the cake-in-the-pan over on a cooling rack to cool with the hope that gravity would assist me. Unfortunately, this did nothing. I ended up using my least rigid spatula to pry the cake away from the pan once it was fully cooled. It was not my best moment, but the cake still looked alright, so I whipped up the glaze.

Before plating the cake I cut off the domed portion to help it sit flat on the plate. I drizzled the glaze over the cake, then wrapped the whole thing up to take to a meetup with some friends.

My friends declared the cake to be delicious. They had no idea of the fight I had just had with it. I agree it was a good cake. Lemony, but not overwhelmingly so. Sweet, but not too sweet. Very tender, and not dry in the least. I would absolutely make this cake again, but I would go back to the tried-and-true method of buttering and flouring the cake pan, and I would lower the oven temperature in an attempt to avoid the doming I got with this cake.

Lastly, this cake makes excellent strawberry “shortcake”. This was a great way to use up the leftover cake trimmings.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out

The Secret Ingredient for Perfect, Fudgy Brownies

Several years ago I found a copy of Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour at a thrift store. I immediately snapped it up, and I’ve baked several things from the book (the carrot cake recipe is particularly good). Today I wanted some brownies. I found this recipe in the book, and remembered that chocolate and whole grains go together smashingly, so I decided to give it a try. I’m so glad I did.

Since these brownies use whole wheat flour, I took the opportunity to grind some wheat berries fresh. I used up the last of my hard red winter wheat and got to open up a new bag of heirloom Turkey Red wheat. I thought the difference in size, shape, and colour between the two varieties of wheat was fascinating.

I gathered my mise en place:

I melted the butter, stirred in the brown sugar, then put it back in the microwave at half power for ~45 seconds until the mixture began to bubble. This second heating step helps the top of the brownies become more glossy during baking.

I moved the mixture to a bigger bowl and stirred in the cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. The butter still wanted to ooze out of the batter at this point.

I checked the temperature with my finger before I whisked in the egg. Since this is a very small batter it didn’t need any additional cooling time. It was astonishing how the batter transformed with the addition of the egg. It became beautifully smooth and glossy.

I added the flour and stirred it in, then stirred in the chocolate chips.

I poured the batter into an oiled pan, then put it into the oven.

I baked the brownies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then tested for doneness. They needed more time.

5 minutes later, it was looking better, but still needed a few more minutes.

3 minutes later the brownies were ready. I took them out of the oven and set them aside to cool.

After a 15 minute cooling period, we tried the brownies.

Wow, are these delicious! Deeply rich and chocolatey. Ooey, gooey, and fudgy, but with a substantial texture from the whole grains to balance the fudginess. Sweetness and bitterness are nicely in balance. My husband said these are some of the best brownies he’s ever had. I agree.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.

Baking Baguettes: Tips and Techniques

The last recipe of the first section of the King Arthur Baking School book is Baguettes. Initially I was intimidated by baguettes, but the dough turned out to be pretty straightforward, and the shaping was easier than I expected.

I gathered my mise en place:

This recipe introduces an interesting method for mixing the dough by using a dough scraper to scrape down the side of the bowl and up the middle, turning the bowl and repeating until the dough is fully mixed. I didn’t love this method as I felt there were some dry areas and wet areas in the dough despite my best efforts. But I’m glad I tried this new method anyway.

The dough bulk fermented for 3 hours with a fold (also done with the dough scraper) done every 30 minutes. I didn’t love the dough scraper for this job either, as I couldn’t grab the dough to pull it out from the main mass for each fold. I did, however, appreciate the suggestion for 20-25 strokes every half hour. It makes me wonder if I have been under-working my dough when I stretch-and-fold around the circle just once.

It was interesting to see how every time the dough rested it started to look more wet, but then when I completed the folds the dough immediately looked more dry. Also, I love the glossy sheen the dough developed around the 5th turn and that remained even after my 20 strokes.

First turn:

Second turn:

Third turn:

Fourth turn:

Fifth turn:

After 3 hours of bulk fermentation I turned the dough out onto the counter and divided it into 3 balls, which I pre-shaped before allowing them to rest for 15 minutes.

Then came the part that separates baguettes from other breads: shaping. The instructions in the book are pretty clear, but I also found this video to be helpful.

I started by patting the dough into an oval:

Then I folded the top third down and pressed the dough into itself with my fingertips. I turned the dough 180 degrees and folded the other third down into the center.

The next step was very similar: I folded the top almost down to the bottom, pressing to seal with the heel of my hand. I turned the dough 180 degrees and repeated, though this time the top of the dough was brought all the way down to the edge of the dough.

I placed the resulting seam against the counter and used both hands to roll the dough out to the longest length my oven can handle. I then placed the baguette on a heavily floured couche for the final rise.

While the dough rested I started preheating my oven. The dough didn’t expand a lot, but it did pass the poke test. I slashed the tops of my loaves and put them into the oven on a baking stone with a cup of boiling water to create a steamy environment.

I struggled to get these loaves off the couche and onto a pizza peel to transfer them into the oven. Thankfully, the dough stood up well to the extra handling at this stage. By the third baguette I remembered you’re supposed to use the couche to flip the dough onto the peel.

I experimented with the bake time since I had 3 baguettes. The palest loaf was in the oven for 20 minutes at the front of the oven. The middle loaf was in for 22, and the darkest loaf was in for 24 minutes at the back of the oven. Visually the middle bake is my favourite. I am working on allowing my breads to bake just a bit darker for better flavor, and seeing the difference in these 3 baguettes helps me get a better sense of when I will want to pull breads out of the oven in future.

So how is the bread? Delicious! I am so proud of the crumb on this one! It looks exactly how baguettes are supposed to look with a good balance of holes throughout without being too lacy. It tastes like good bread, very similar to other breads made with straight dough. It’s fantastic with butter and a sprinkle of salt.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.

Mastering Ciabatta: A Wet Dough Adventure

Ciabatta is a very wet dough. I have avoided doughs with very high hydration until now, but this was the next recipe in the King Arthur Baking School cookbook, and I am not one to back down from a challenge.

As in the last few recipes, I started the night before baking by mixing my preferment. This preferment is called a biga, and it has slightly more flour than water (by weight), so it was a little stiffer than the preferment for the French Bread, which had an equal weight of water and flour.

You can see how much it rose overnight (11 hours)!

I added all the remaining dough ingredients to the biga and mixed at the slowest speed on my KitchenAid mixer until everything was combined. Then I increased the speed to medium-low and kneaded the dough for 4 minutes as directed. I covered the dough and set it aside to rise.

I gave the dough a fold every 30 minutes for the next hour and a half, and then turned the dough out onto the counter.

The shaping was surprisingly simple: I divided the dough into thirds and shaped each one into a rectangle. I placed each loaf on parchment paper, covered them with a cloth, and left them to rise.

The recipe didn’t specify a final rising time, so I looked at a few ciabatta recipes online and guesstimated that an hour would be sufficient. During this time I preheated my oven and baking stone to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the dough had risen and the oven was hot I used my pizza peel to load the bread into the oven. I poured boiling water into the steam tray, and let the bread bake. After 50 minutes I lowered the oven temperature to 450 degrees Fahreneheit. The loaves baked for 30 minutes total. I could have taken them out after 25 minutes, but I wanted a little more colour on the loaves.

I really enjoyed this ciabatta bread! The loaves are rather flat, which is correct for this style of bread. The bread has a mixture of larger and smaller holes, and has a nice taste and texture. We ate it with bolognese and fresh pasta.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.

Easy Pita Bread with Spelt Flour

I’ve made pita before, but until now I had never worked with spelt. This ancient grain brings a delicious, nutty flavor to the party. I’m glad I tried it.

For the preferment I combined the spelt flour, water, and yeast.

This was a very short preferment, so I mixed in the remaining ingredients after just 15 minutes.

This dough did not need to be kneaded, so I immediately set it aside for an hour to rise. I put my baking stone in the oven and started the oven preheating during this time.

After the bulk rise I divided the dough into 8 pieces and rolled each piece into a ball.

The balls rested for 15 minutes while the oven finished preheating, then I rolled them out into rounds. The spelt flour is very extensible, and I rolled the first two pita much too thin, but the last 6 were a reasonable size and thickness.

I baked two pita at a time on my baking stone. I flipped them after a minute or two, once they had puffed on the first side.

The finished pita were quite blonde. Since colour = flavor, I chose to cook the pita over my gas stove for a few seconds before serving. This helped both the flavor and texture of the pita.

When the pita were done I made some fillings and enjoyed a delicious dinner.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.

Embracing a Family Tradition: Pizza Night at Home

When I was a kid we had pizza every Friday night. My mom would spend all day making the dough, and then at dinner time she would make a big pizza and let us kids make our own little pizzas. It was fun to choose our own flavors and decorate them just so, and the pizza was always delicious. This pizza recipe is in a bit of a different style, but it still reminds me of being a kid.

I started by prefermenting a portion of both the flour and water in my recipe with just a pinch of yeast and letting it rise for 4 hours. This preferment could have gone longer, but I mixed it into the dough when it was convenient for me. Flat breads like pizza can be a little more forgiving about rising times than traditional breads where we’re trying to coax as much rise out of the dough as possible.

I mixed the preferment and the remaining dough ingredients together and into a very shaggy mass, then kneaded by hand until the ingredients were fully incorporated and the dough was smooth.

The dough rose for 2 hours before I divided it into two rounds and shaped it into pizzas. I started by patting each round into a circle, then I used my hands and gravity to stretch the dough into a large round, maybe 15” in diameter. I tried to get the dough thickness even, but it’s harder than it looks.

When the dough was shaped to my satisfaction I topped the pizza with sauce my husband made, then fresh mozzarella and provolone, and finally garden-fresh basil.

I floured my pizza peel and held my breath while I loaded the pizza onto it and then put it into a very hot oven. I followed the pizza baking recommendation from Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast: I used a pizza stone and heated my oven as high as it would go (550 degrees Fahrenheit). Once the oven was searing hot and I was tired of waiting for it to get hotter I changed the setting to Broil while I topped the pizza. I kept the broil setting on to bake the pizza.

The second pizza was done in much the same way, except I used Boar’s Head pepperoni, sliced thin, instead of basil.

Both pizzas turned out delicious! My husband said it was the best pizza he’s ever had.

My pizza shaping/stretching technique is not great (yet!). I definitely need to practice more, which is totally ok with me. I don’t mind more pizza.

I had trouble loading the second pizza onto the peel and into the oven because I didn’t re-flour my peel. I also didn’t give the oven long enough to come back up to temperature between the first and second pizzas, so the second pizza wasn’t as crispy as the first.

And finally, the amount of sauce and cheese was perfect for both pizzas, but both could have used more of their final toppings: at least twice as much basil and half again as much pepperoni.

Overall, I would call this recipe a rousing sucess, even though I still having some areas for improvement with shaping technique and topping. Practice will solve these.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.

Making Delicious Bagels at Home

The journey from pretzels to summits to bagels has been an interesting one. These cousins are all delicious, and it’s been so interesting to see how they are similar and different!

As usual, I started with the mise en place: a very simple list of ingredients this time.

I kneaded the dough in my KitchenAid mixer for 10 minutes, then set it aside to rise for half an hour.

Once the dough had risen I divided it into 8 pieces and shaped each piece into a little log.

I let the logs rest for 15 minutes before shaping them into bagels.

As suggested in the recipe, I gave my bagels a long rest. 6 hours later I took the bagels out of the fridge.

Toward the end of the rising time I prepared my water bath.

The bagels stuck to the parchment paper when I transferred them to the water bath, which I did not expect, so they got a little mangled in transport. Next time I would grease the parchment paper before resting the bagels. But I did manage to get all the bagels poached and back on their sheet pan.

Half of the bagels were topped with Asiago cheese and the other half were topped with Everything seasoning.

I baked the bagels for the full 25 minutes recommended in the recipe, and I could have probably gone another few minutes longer for the Asiago bagels. But I didn’t want to burn the Everything bagels, so I pulled them all out.

These bagels were delicious. Slightly chewy, but nothing like the grocery store bagels that you have to do jaw workouts to enjoy. The Everything bagels had too much topping on them (I didn’t even know that was possible), so in future I would use half or a third of the topping per bagel. The Asiago bagels were perfect other than possibly needing a slightly longer bake time for additional flavor.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.