Week 13 - Tiramisu

If something doesn't turn out the way you wanted, can you still call it a success? When I set out to make tiramisu, I imagined a moist, cakelike consistancy. What was produced was a cakeytop and mushy bottom and what I would call...mess. Either way, this had a real good classic tiramisu taste. I made strong espresso and brandy mix and omitted some sugar so it wasn't so "American-ized". Since this is only a partial success, I will be experimenting with the recipe to produce a better dessert.

The recipe for the tiramisu was a combination of Giada's food network recipe and the recipe that was on the back of the lady finger cakes plus random experimentation by myself.

Tiramisu Recipe
Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
4 tablespoons sugar
16 ounces Marscapone cheese (room temperature)
2 cups espresso (2-four oz pulls or very strong, non-bitter coffee)
1/2 oz Brandy (I just eyeballed 1/2 shotglass)
2 packages of Ladyfingers (get in the bakery, the firmer/thicker the better)
dutch process cocoa for garnish

In a mixer, beat together the egg yolks and sugar close to 5 minutes. Continue beating (perhaps with a different mixer attachment) and add the marscapone cheese, and a couple teaspoons of the espresso. Mix until smooth.

Using a large shallow dish mix the remaining espresso and brandy and let cool. Get this dish very shallow because the ladyfingers will soak very quickly. Soak the ladyfingers for a second or two. Stop soaking before you think it will be saturated. Put the soaked ladyfingers in a 9x9 dish. Coat this bottom layer with half of the marscapone mixture. Soak another set of ladyfingers and put on the cheese mixture. Put the remaining cheese on top.

Chill for at least 2 hours. Garnish with cocoa powder or finely grated chocolate!

Week 12 - Soft Pretzels

Apparently I've got a thing for different types of flour. In the pantry I have an all purpose flours, started a natural unbleached whole grain flour, and now for this recipe I've gotten myself into bread flour. After reading a couple recipes, all purpose flour has a lower gluten content than bread flour. Apparently, the higher the gluten, the stretchier the dough. So because pretzels need to be soft and chewy rather than light and fluffy, bread dough needed to be purchased.

I really can't remember the last time I had a really good pretzel. Maybe the pretzel I ate last wasn't even worth remembering... maybe I don't even like pretzels... who knows? Either way, this week's recipe is a soft NY style pretzel.

Why hello there...

This is what yeast looks like straight out of the package.. no smell until the proofing begins.

Such a chewy result. mmmmm....

Can I eat this picture?

The recipe is pretty simple. I'm writing this from memory.

Ingredients
Dough:
1 package of active dry yeast
1 cup warm-hot water
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
small drizzle of olive oil
pretzel/coarse/sea/margarita salt

Baking Soda Solution:
6 cups water
3 Tbsp baking soda

Directions:
Start by proofing the yeast. This means add the package of yeast into the 1 cup water with 1 tsp sugar and let sit for about 10 minutes. It will either smell like bread or beer...just depends on what you are craving. Add in the honey when it's done proofing. Next, combine all the dry ingredients and slowly add this to the water. I used a kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook attachment... not sure what I would do without it. Mix the dough well and knead on low for about 5 minutes. Oil a medium sized bowl with olive oil and transfer the dough. Roll the dough around so it gets coated with oil. Cover and let it rise for an hour. When it has doubled in size, literally punch the dough back down and let it rise again for another 30 minutes.

Add the baking soda to the 6 cups of water in a large pan and bring to a boil. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Using trial and error for pretzel size, rip pieces of dough off the ball and roll dough until pencil thin. When ripping pieces, I used only my fingers and not my palms, this allowed the size to be consistent and makes a good palm size baked pretzel. Shape the pretzels.

Cook the pretzels in the baking soda water for 30 seconds per side. Then drain and place on a parchment paper lined baking tray. Sprinkle with salt and bake for 12-14 minutes until the tops begin to look brown. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. A quick tip for timing. If they look like they're almost brown but not quite.... I'd take them out. I left some on for 12 minutes until I saw they looked brown, I opened the oven and they cooked a bit more than I would have liked. Not burned, but just darker than what I like.


Imagine about 5-6 more pretzels on top of this pile. My wife and I sort of attacked them before they had the chance to cool.

Week 11 - Copycat Ritz Crackers

I guess I should admit right from the start that Ritz crackers taste WAY BETTER than this version. They have similar tastes, but whatever Ritz does....it makes them much fluffier/crunchier. Mine were more of a thin crunchy buttermilk biscuit. Either way, these crackers tasted just fine.

For the cracker dough, it's a mixture of all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, butter, vegetable oil, and water. that's about it. I mixed all the dry ingredients in my Kitchen aid mixer and slowly added cold unsalted butter to the mix, then oil, then water.

Rolled this dough onto a surface dusted with whole wheat flour to about 1/8inch thick. I would have really loved a ravioli or other squiggly pasta cutter for this but I ended up using a regular pizza cutter.

Poking holes in the centers using a fork apparently helps the crackers bake properly. Why? science...i guess...

Bake these bad boys for about 10 minutes or until they start browning at 400 degrees. Be careful when doing this at night....smoke alarms may wake up children....

Brush with salted butter and let cool. MMMMMM......

Week 10 - Homemade Fish Sticks and Spicy Tartar Sauce

I used to love fish sticks as a kid. I don't know why I say "used to" cause I still love fish sticks. After deliberating on an easy yet tasty small meal this week, I settled on this.

These were surprisingly easy to make. First was the selection of a fresh white fish. There's no specific fish that's better than the other, but I used Cod because the others (trout, halibut) were too thin. This fish was about a half inch thick throughout the fillet.

((I want to apologize ahead of time for any randomness in this blog. I'm eating the fish sticks now and am getting very distra...))

Starting off was the slicing of the fish, I just cut them into roughly 3 inch sticks cause that's what I'm used to buying. Roll the sticks in flour, dip in egg, roll in crumb mix.

For my mix I decided to go with a blend of corn meal, garlic powder, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and  and since I don't have any Panko mix, I crushed up some veggie chips and used that as well to give it some crunch. ((Oh man...I ate all the fish sticks...sad))

I bought some tartar sauce when I got my fish just in case the homemade tartar sauce flopped. I didn't even need to think about opening it! Using mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, sriracha sauce (rooster sauce), lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley I mixed up a very spicy-sour tartar sauce. If this stuff didn't need to be refrigerated, I would literally carry it around in my pocket just in case I ever ran into a fish on the street that I wanted to eat.

Homemade Fish Sticks and Spicy Tartar Sauce
adapted from www.acozykitchen.com
Fish Sticks:
4 thick filets of a white fish (cod, catfish, trout, halibut, tilapia...)
all purpose flour
2 eggs
corn meal
garlic powder
salt
pepper
red pepper flakes
Panko mix or other crunchy frying mix
vegetable oil

Wash and dry the fish. Slice into 3-4 inch strips that are similar to very thick french fries. In a medium shallow dish, place half cup flour. In a small bowl, beat the two eggs. In a medium plate, combine corn meal, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and panko mix. Roll the sticks in flour and pat off any excess. Dip the fish in the egg and roll in the frying mix. Fry all the battered fish sticks in the vegetable oil for a couple minutes per side.

Spicy-Sour Tartar Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Sriracha
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley

Although this is probably not a "true" tartar sauce, it tastes close enough to it without the little crunchy bits in it. Just mix everything together and you're good to go.