I've been waiting for months to write this post. The better part of a year, even. I'm positively itching to share this with you, so here we go. Late last summer (the lovely, gracious, talented) Luisa Weiss let me spend some time with the proofs of a baking book she was working on. She said she thought I'd like it. Which, it tuns out, was a dramatic understatement. The book she shared with me, Good to the Grain, is about baking with whole grain flours. It was written by Kim Boyce, and photographed by Quentin Bacon.

There aren't many people writing contemporary books on whole grain baking. Among those few, this one is special. In a sentence, a top-flight pastry chef intersects whole grain flours in her home kitchen. To back up a bit, Kim is a former pastry chef with major chops (Spago / Campanile) who left the professional kitchen to raise her family. Her book delves into her exploration of a broad range of whole grain flours, each of the twelve main chapters explores a separate flour - whole-wheat flour, amaranth flour, barley flour, buckwheat flour, corn flour, kamut flour, multigrain flour, oat flour, quinoa flour, rye flour, spelt flour, and yes...even teff flour.

Here's the quote I gave for the back of the book,"There was a point in my life when I realized limiting myself to baking with all-purpose flour was like limiting myself to painting with just one color. Kim Boyce's collection of beautifully rustic recipes inspires us to move enthusiastically into the rich palette of flavorful whole-grain flours and explore all they have to offer. I just can't get enough of this book."

I wrote a good amount about baking with whole grain flours in SNC, but to see what someone like Kim is doing with them is both exciting and inspiring for me. I could tell at a glance, wow, she's really excited about them too. It felt good to know someone like her was (mostly ;) having fun exploring this range of flours and this approach to baking. I love seeing what she is doing, and now I know who to email when I'm stumped.

I could write an entire post about the photography in Good to the Grain, but I'll save that for another day. Instead, I'll leave you with a few notes related to the Figgy Buckwheat Scones I baked last weekend. They're a bit of a project, but a fun one requiring two main components - the obscenely addictive fig butter (dried figs, port wine, red wine, spices, sugar) and the buckwheat scone dough. Make the fig butter ahead of time, and the scone dough is a breeze to pull together. They're complex and jammy with a hint of sweetness and lots of flavor coming from the magical collision of the caramelized sugars in the fig butter and the hot baking sheet.

Related links:
- Kim Boyce (on twitter)
- Cheryl writes about Kim's muesli (here)
- Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours

From the recipe archive, for St. Patrick's Day, enjoy! ~Elise

Last year for St. Patrick's Day, my friend Suzanne had me over for dinner with her family and served the tastiest corned beef and cabbage dish. Usually we prepare corned beef and cabbage boiled, but Suzanne had baked her corned beef in the oven, slathered with sweet hot honey mustard, and sautéed her cabbage with onions on the stove top until they were nice and caramelized. I begged her to show me how she did it and recently we spent the day cooking together, making corned beef and cabbage both ways - oven baked and boiled. We did a taste test with the whole family that evening and the baked version won, hands down. Here I present to you both the baked and the boiled recipe versions.

Continue reading "Corned Beef and Cabbage" »

St. Patrick’s Day is a week away and there are certainly throngs of people preparing for all-green celebrations starting this weekend. Once the green beer starts flowing, you’ll be in need of snacks. Always a crowd favorite, I love any excuse to decorate sugar cookies, so I couldn’t let St. Patrick’s Day float on by without dressing up some shamrocks. I made a few different varieties, but I think I’m partial to the sprinkles and the smiley. Check out the close-ups below and let me know which is your favorite!

A simple cookie that was sprinkled with green sanding sugar immediately after the royal icing went on, so it would stick:

One of many characteristic Irish sayings, along with “Erin Go Bragh”:

This cookie was inspired by Bridget at Bake at 350, although her hearts are definitely prettier than mine

And finally, I saved the my favorite for last – the smiley shamrock cookie. In Pittsburgh there is a local restaurant chain, Eat n’ Park, that sells “Smiley” sugar cookies. They always have different varieties for the holidays, so I decided to make some of my shamrocks “smiley” shamrocks:

Resources:

♦  Sugar cookie recipe

♦  How to decorate cookies with royal icing

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The acid-and-salt combination of marinades was once used to preserve meats and fish. Now, we use marinades more for flavoring, tenderizing and moisturizing.
Though any marinade could be made from more or less of any of its parts, here’s a basic formula for making one:

acid (vinegar, wine, yogurt, citrus juice) + oil (olive, vegetable) + aromatics (onion, garlic, ginger) + salt/umami (soy, miso, Worcestershire) + herbs/spices (rosemary, oregano, cumin, cinnamon, clove) +
pepper/chile heat (red pepper flakes, hot sauce, sliced chiles)

These elements can be varied according to the season, geography — basically anything. So, for example, an American marinade might be:

American:
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 thinly sliced onion
2 smashed garlic cloves
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme leaves
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

Replace the the cider vinegar with rice wine vinegar, Worcestershire with soy sauce, thyme with sesame seeds, and the Tabasco with sriracha, and it’s an Asian marinade. Play around and find your own blends.

Recipe: Marinated Beef And Kale Stew (Cookthink)
Recipe: Chimichurri Marinade (Cookthink)
Reference: What does emulsify mean? (Cookthink)
Reference: What does umami mean? (Cookthink)
Reference: What is sriracha? (Cookthink)

A few weeks ago when I asked you to look deep into your soul and tell me about your favorite brownies, there was an undeniable theme. The great majority of you admitted that you only have eyes for box-mix brownies. And really, what’s not to love? The brownies always turn out gooey, chewy and with that wonderful thin crackly crust on top. While I love baking from scratch and have tried countless brownie recipes, you always know what you’re getting with a box-mix brownie, and for most, it’s the best.  Just last summer I was at a get together and after eating one of the brownies that was out on a platter, I was pretty darn sure it was the best brownie I had ever eaten. I asked the hostess for the recipe and she said that they were the Ghiradelli triple chocolate box mix from Costco, slightly underbaked. Perfection, indeed. I could have eaten the whole plate myself. And I was convinced that I would never need to bake a brownie from scratch ever again.

You’re probably wondering where I’m going with all of this box-mix brownie talk. Well it so happens that about a week after I asked for your favorite brownie in the giveaway, my new issue of Cook’s Illustrated showed up in the mail. Lo and behold, what was one of the articles about? How to create the texture and flavor of a box-mix brownie from scratch. The verdict? They nailed it.

For those that aren’t familiar, Cook’s Illustrated is a publication of America’s Test Kitchen, which has a show on public television and whose premise is to test recipes over and over again to understand how they work and to ultimately arrive at the best version, using a combination of optimal ingredients and techniques. One of the things I love about the magazine and my Baking Illustrated cookbook is that along with the recipes, they explain in detail how they arrived at that particular recipe, and the different factors that went into it.

According to the article about the brownies, the key to the texture of the beloved box-mix brownie is the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fat. The box-mix brownies have a 28% to 72% ratio while a classic brownie recipe has a 64% to 36% ratio. Big difference! The major factors in creating this chewy brownie recipe to mimic the box-mix include: using a mix of butter and vegetable oil, a mix of cocoa powder and melted chocolate, and extra egg yolks. I guarantee that if you are in the box-mix brownie camp, this recipe will wow you. Another huge bonus is that this is still a one-bowl recipe with only a whisk and spatula needed.

If you have been torn between your love for box-mix brownies and your love of baking from scratch, you no longer have to choose!

Recipe notes:

♦  For the chewiest texture, it’s important to cool brownies completely before cutting.

♦  If your baking dish is glass, cool the brownies 10 minutes, then remove them from the pan to a wire rack (otherwise, the heat retention of glass can lead to overbaking).

One year ago: Baked Oatmeal
Two years ago: Royal Crown’s Tortano
Three years ago: Mexican Rice

Chewy Brownies

Yield: 24 brownies

1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
1½ teaspoons instant espresso (optional)
½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons boiling water
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2½ cups (17½ ounces) sugar
1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into ½-inch pieces

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving about a one-inch overhang on all sides. Spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Whisk cocoa, espresso powder, and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in melted butter and oil. (Mixture may look curdled.) Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous. Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated. Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined. Fold in bittersweet chocolate pieces.

3. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted halfway between edge and center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool 1½ hours.

4. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Return brownies to wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve. Brownies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

(From Cook’s Illustrated, March & April 2010 issue)

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