Back in the saddle again

We promised you we'd be back, and we keep our promises! We'll be at the Shadyside Academy Farmers' Market (Fox Chapel, Upper School) this Wednesday from 3:00 pm to 6:30 pm. Come early to ensure we have a full menu to offer you. We'll have our Fudge-alicious brownies, peanut-butter swirl brownies, chocolate chip cookies, compost cookies (a surprise in every bite!), and challah -- and a few more things, besides. We like to try something new every week, depending on what inspiration strikes us. Stop by to see us!

Baby, It's Hot Outside!

We've been working hard this summer, selling our goods at the new Fox Chapel Farmers' Market (Wednesdays, 3-6:30, at Shady Side Academy Upper School). We've made over $1000 to send to the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank -- we're very proud of that! And we've introduced our baked goods and our mission to many new customers and old friends.

We'll be taking the month of August (which, we've decided, begins on July 27th!) to rest and recuperate. We hope to be back baking the last week of August and to return to the Farmers' Market on August 31. Please call us or visit us at the market this fall!

Why bake? includes a recipe

We've had a small break (okay, it's been over four months) since our last post. We've been trying to think of useful tips to share with you, but most of the things that come to mind seem trivial or obvious. So let's look at the bigger picture.

If you go to your local grocery store, chances are that they have shelves and tables full of baked goods for sale. Perhaps they even have an in-store bakery, where you can get fresh bread, cupcakes, beautifully decorated cakes (some places can put an edible photo on your cake), and many, many different kinds of cookies. There are still a few free-standing bakeries around -- these days, they are lovely little places, with pink boxes, adorable little pastries, and mind-boggling flavor combinations. You could buy a mix to make brownies or a cake that requires that you add just an egg, water and butter. If you are really desperate, you can grab some Little Debbie or Hostess cakes off the convenience store shelves.

So why bother to bake? Why dirty every bowl in the kitchen (my favorite approach), powder yourself top-to-toe with flour, get brownie batter on the faucet, egg shells on the counter-top, and a burn on your forearm? (Gee, put like that, it makes me want to quit the baking business altogether...)

Because it's fun. Because you get to make delicious messes. Because the results are so much better than commercially-made baked goods that you won't consider them to be the same kind of food. Because, when you make something with love, real butter, good chocolate, and fresh eggs, the result is flavorful, tender, rich, and something you won't regret eating later -- unlike something mass-produced from a mix (yes, that's how they do it in a commercial bakery) that's full of preservatives, conditioners, chemicals, and things you wouldn't want to touch, let alone eat.

If you buy a brownie mix, you have to dirty a bowl, a spoon (or spatula) to stir, and a pan. If you make brownies from scratch, you have to dirty a bowl, a spoon or spatula, a pan, a couple of measuring spoons and a measuring cup -- or, instead of the measuring cup, a bowl to weigh things in. You have to run the dishwasher (or fill the sink) to wash those few things anyway -- why not get a better product at the small cost of spending an extra half-a-minute loading the dishwasher or washing those extra items by hand?

Try this recipe. If these aren't 100% better than any box or purchased brownies, call me and I'll take them off your hands!

All-American Brownies

from Fertig, Judith M. All-American desserts: 400 start-spangled, razzle-dazzle recipes for America’s best-loved desserts. Boston: Harvard Common Press, 2003.

1-1/4 c. (3.625 oz) cocoa powder (natural or dutched)
1-1/4 c. (5.5 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. chopped nuts, not optional
1-1/2 c. (3 sticks, 12 oz) unsalted butter, melted
3 c. sugar (1 lb. 5 oz)
7 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line the bottom and sides of a 9x13” baking pan with foil and grease the foil with butter. (Or spray with "Pam" or similar flavorless cooking spray.)

Whisk together the cocoa, flour, salt, and chopped nuts, in small mixing bowl.

In large mixing bowl beat the melted butter and sugar together. Beat in the eggs and continue beating until well-blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until well-blended. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean, 40-45 minutes. If brownies tend to burn in your oven, cover the edges with strips of foil toward the end of the baking time.

Let cool in the pan, then cut into squares.

Experienced cooks and bakers, especially those who are professionally trained (which we aren't), often use the mise en place* method of organizing their ingredients. Mise en place means, simply, "put in place." It involves measuring all your ingredients out ahead of time and putting them in individual bowls, dishes or piles so that they are ready to add to your mixer, mixing bowl or pot when you need them. If you've ever watched a cooking show on TV, you've seen the cook using this method; you usually don't see them doing the measuring. They just pick up the bowl of chopped onion, green pepper, or pre-measured spices, which has probably been prepared by a crew member, and toss it gaily into the mix.

The advantage of doing the prep work ahead of time (let's remember that "prep" is short for "preparation," not "preparatory," as in "preppy") is that you are far less likely to forget an ingredient in the heat of the moment -- and who among us has not, at one time or another, forgotten to add some small amount of an essential ingredient? Salt, herbs, lemon zest -- or, worse, baking soda or powder -- if they are sitting there in a row with the other ingredients, you will remember them. It is also much faster, in the final analysis, to do all the measuring at once, and then be able to add things in quickly as you mix. If you are working with a hot mixture on the stove, and time is of the essence, mise en place for at least a few ingredients might be required.

Small custard cups (like the ubiquitous Pyrex ones) are good for mise en place. I recently bought small multi-colored silicone cups that will be useful, as well as a set of stainless-steel Indian cups specifically designed for Indian cooking, which uses many different spices, often added at different times. You can use cupcake papers or silicone cupcake cups, which also come in many different colors (useful if you have ingredients, like baking powder and baking soda, that look identical but get added at different points). Of course, for larger amounts, use larger bowls or measuring cups. Don't use a cupcake pan; how will you get one ingredient out while leaving the others in their respective cups?

I've been resistant, myself, to mise en place, but Betty has shown me the True Way, and I've come around to it. You may end up with a few extra little bowls to wash -- but that's better than ending up with a ruined cake, or racing around the kitchen looking for the vanilla while your cake over-mixes. Be Prepared!

* pronounced "MEESE ehn plahs."

Eggs, emphasis on successful baking with them

Eggs are such scary things in their natural state: fragile in the shell, slimy and slippery out of it. If your hand slips while cracking one into a bowl of batter, you may end up trying unsuccessfully to fish out hard, sharp little shards of shell which would give an eater an unpleasant surprise if they are left in (no, it can't masquerade as a nut!). If you need to separate eggs and beat the egg whites separately, the tiniest bit of yolk or oil in the whites can deflate the whole thing -- or so we've been taught. And, of course, there's that salmonella scare. This blog post will be a primer on safe and successful egg handling and use.

First, wash the eggs. (I'm assuming you started the whole baking session by washing your hands, but if you didn't -- do that, too.) Don't assume that "cage free" or "organic" or "vegetarian" means "clean." Even free-range, organic, vegetarian hens don't have what we would consider good personal hygiene (I'm trying to be subtle here). And who else has touched those eggs? An egg packer who never washes his/her hands after using the bathroom? Another shopper who sneezed onto them while inspecting them for cracks (and then rejected them because she's sneezed on them? Don't think it doesn't happen.) Maybe just the careful cashier at the check-out who conscientiously opened the box to make sure they were all whole (but who has been handling cash all day). So -- wash the eggs. Warm water, soap -- just like you wash your hands.

If you are making a cake or other dish where volume matters, warm up your eggs. Easiest way is to take them out an hour or more in advance (but not more than two hours); fastest is to put them in a bowl of hot (but not boiling) water and let them sit while you get out the rest of your ingredients. (If you boil the water, or microwave it so that it is really hot, you will partially cook your eggs. Don't ask how I know that. The Big Pink Cupcake got where she is today by making LOTS of mistakes.)

Now comes the bowl-using part of the process. (I consider it a successful baking session if I have used every available item in the kitchen, but not everyone strives for my high standards of mess.) If you are adding whole eggs to a cake or other dough, get a small bowl (like a Pyrex custard cup) and a bigger one, which might be the mixer bowl in which you've already beaten your butter and sugar. Crack the eggs one at a time on the countertop (a flat surface makes it less likely that you'll get bits of shell into the egg because it doesn't make such little bits); put each one into the small bowl; inspect it for bits of shell (it's much easier to get shell bits out of one egg than out of four, or out of a bowl that already has other ingredients in it). Use a large piece of shell to reach into the egg and scoop out tiny fragments; chasing them around the slimy white with your fingertips might keep you entertained for hours, but didn't you come to cook? If you are keeping kosher, this is where you look for red spots and throw out the egg if it has them; if not, and you've gotten all the egg-shell bits out, toss the approved egg into your big bowl. That was easy.

Now let's talk about separating your eggs, and beating the egg whites. More bowls (hooray for over-achievers!) are needed; two little clean ones, two bigger ones. Make sure that the bowl in which you are going to be whipping the egg whites is spotlessly clean; if it's been sitting around and is a bit dusty, wash and dry it with a fresh dishtowel. Do the same to the beater or whisk you'll be using. You can thank me later. Now: to separate the eggs.

You can use a commercially-available egg separator -- it looks like a spoon with a semi-circular slot in it, which holds the yolk in the middle and lets the white drip out the hole. You can slip the yolk carefully back and forth from one half of the egg shell to the other, being very careful not to break the yolk, letting the white ooze into its clean little bowl (takes practice, but impresses your audience). Or you can use the egg separator at the end of each arm; crack the eggs into the palm of your (CLEAN) hand and let the white drip slimily through your loosely-cupped fingers while you cradle the yolk. Yes, it feels gross, but why dirty EVERY kitchen utensil? And won't you feel like you had a Close Encounter with your baking if you do it that way?

Crack them carefully (remember, on the countertop, not the edge of the bowl); and separate the first egg. Make sure that there is no yolk in the white; now put the yolk in the bigger bowl which is its destiny, and the white into your sparkling clean egg-white-whipping bowl. Repeat the process. Having the small bowls insures that a later broken yolk doesn't contaminate the whole batch of eggs; don't think it doesn't happen that you've successfully separated 5 eggs and then #6 ruins the bowlful and you have to make scrambled eggs for dinner and start all over again with the separating. See, you should have listened to me.

I have, on occasion, managed to scoop/spoon/wipe out a tiny bit of egg yolk that had sneaked into my otherwise pristine whites, and still managed to whip up the whites successfully, but I think the percentage of yolk to white that can give you that sort of result is a proportion best expressed by homeopaths. In other words, don't count on it. And don't say I didn't tell you so when you try it and it fails. Baking is a science, and you may be able to fudge the results occasionally -- but you won't get a Nobel Prize that way. (I'm lobbying for the creation of a Nobel Prize in Confectionery, but the odds are long.)

When you are adding eggs to a cake mixture, add one egg, beat well, stop the mixer and scrape it well, and then beat a bit more before adding the next egg and beating/scraping/beating again. This will give you the best incorporation of eggs into your butter/sugar mixture. You really can't over-beat at this point. After you add the flour, though, beat just until all the ingredients are incorporated. Then stop, scrape the bowl, beat BRIEFLY, and you are done.

We like the new beaters (available for most Kitchenaid mixers) with a flexible rubber edge; they do an amazing job of scraping the bowl while beating, and reduce the amount of time needed for successful beating.

Questions? Please e-mail or call us and we'll be happy to help!

Bakers' Tools: Essentials and Favorites

There are certain tools without which one shouldn't even think about baking, let alone opening a bakery: whisks, rolling pins, a good stand mixer, rubber spatulas. But the more time you spend baking, the more tempting certain supposed time-saving tools become. For me, cookware stores hold the same promise that hardware stores, art supply stores, and fabric stores offer; "So many projects, so little time, but here are some things that will make you more efficient!" But how many of those things are really useful?

Unsurprisingly, you can purchase many or few items, and, depending on how ambitious you are, how deft you are with your hands, and how patient you are, you might find that you can get by with very few items -- or that you need a lot, and make use of each one.

For example, if you want to cut the fat into flour when you make a pie crust, you can do it with two table knives from your silverware drawer (cost: $0), used in opposition to each other (think of cutting in different directions); or a pastry blender, which has 5 or 6 curved wires attached to a handle and makes short work of the process (cost: $7-$10); or you can use a food processor (cost: $200 and up, depending on size). Of course, you already have the table knives, and they get used for other things (we hope!) and the food processor may already be in your kitchen, and it is also handy for other things. But if you are a beginning baker, and want to get a few good items for your batterie de cuisine, we'd recommend the pastry blender -- it is more efficient than the knives, cheaper than the processor, and will give you more of a feel for the dough and the process than the processor would.

The processor has become essential for other things, at least in our kitchen. It is indispensable for chopping nuts, making crumbs out of graham crackers, grating carrots for carrot cake, and grinding chocolate into a powder for babka. A blender doesn't do any of these things well, since solids fall to the bottom and clog the blades. Of course, you could chop the nuts by hand, smash the graham crackers in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, grate the carrots (and your knuckles, no doubt) by hand, and -- well, maybe grate the chocolate, or chop it. But you'd have a mess (the chocolate held in your hand will melt, and about a third of it will fly all over the counter), and the food processor will do each of these tasks in mere seconds.

A recent development (at least, since we were young) has been heat-proof (usually silicone) spatulas. These come in a lot of fun colors (which is useful if you want to remember which one you are using for what) and can stand high heat, typically up to 450˚ or 500˚F. When you are melting butter, chocolate, or cooking anything on the stove, you can stir and scrape the pot with one of these, and you'll possibly prevent your mixture from burning. (For omelette lovers: I don't know how anyone ever managed to make an omelette without a silicone spatula and a non-stick pan. The combination is unbeatable.)

I've already written in a previous post about the usefulness of both digital scales and instant-read thermometers; you can go back and read what I have to say about them. I consider both of them essential to accurate baking.

My mom had one set of measuring spoons and one set of measuring cups (clear Pyrex ones, intended for liquids). Somehow, she managed to be a top-notch cook, but I'm not sure how! I've lost count of how many measuring spoons I have; it seems a great luxury to be able to snatch up a clean spoon to measure, say, baking powder, when I've already used one of the same size to measure vanilla. Instead of having to wash and dry the spoon in between, I just keep working. And measuring dry ingredients in a liquid measuring cup (assuming you're trying to work with volume instead of weight) is a headache; using the dip-sweep-pour method is so much faster and more accurate. And do beware of clever, cunning, beautiful, yet inaccurate measuring spoons and cups; there seem to be many out there in gift shops, and I wouldn't tell you not to buy them, but they are often best used for decoration, not measuring. Check them against utilitarian utensils of known accuracy (or proven utility). I would think that two sets of measuring spoons, one for wet ingredients and one for dry, would be a minimum. Get different sets, so you can tell them apart at a glance; if you are buying plastic, get two different colors, or get one set of plastic and one of metal. And please get a set of dry measuring cups (these are the ones that look like little saucepans) that measure up to the very top; a few indicate that to measure one cup, or one-half cup, one fills to within a fraction of an inch of the top lip. These are worse than useless; you will end up with failed cakes and cookies, if you use them, or will end up throwing them away in frustration. Any of the major brands of oven-safe glass is fine for liquid measuring cups; Pyrex, Anchor-Hocking, and Fire King are some of the best-known ones. They can go in the microwave and the oven (but not on the stove-top) so you can melt butter or heat liquids in them. In the past decade or so, Pyrex has started making cups with handles that are hooks instead of loops, so the cups nest, and some have a lot of head-room at the top (above the measuring markings) so that you can, say, measure a half-cup of milk and a quarter-cup of oil, and then beat into those a couple of eggs. Now you've mixed up all the wet ingredients needed for scones, pancakes, or other quick breads, and only dirtied one cup. Aren't you smart?

Last Call for holiday Challah!

If you need a challah for tonight, call me NOW -- if I don't answer, leave a message. I'll be delivering to Squirrel Hill this afternoon and have a couple of extras!