Recipe Notes: Belgian Spice Cookies (Speculoos)

24 December 2018

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, September 2018

I did not know about this cookie until reading the article in Cook's Illustrated. However, I have eaten a version of the cookie. On Delta Airlines flights passengers are given speculoos under the name Biscoff. It has been a few years since I flew on Delta but I do have a vague recollection of eating, and enjoying, these cookies. 

The hard work is done by a food processor. First, though, the dry ingredients—flour, cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt—were whisked together in a bowl. Turbinado sugar (which I had on hand to top crème brûlée) was processed for 30 seconds. Butter was added and processed to form a rough dough. An egg was added and processed followed by the flour mixture. The dough was transferred to a bowl and gently kneaded with a rubber spatula to bring it together and mix in ingredients the food processor missed. The dough was then placed between two sheets of parchment paper that has been marked with a 10x12-inch rectangle and patted and rolled out to that size. After chilling in the refrigerator for 90 minutes it was cut into pieces about 1¼x3-inches (I used a pizza wheel) and baked on a rimless baking sheet (I used the bottom of my rimmed baking sheets). It took about four hours to make these cookies, omitting cooling but including 2½-hours chilling.

These cookies are very good. They have a great, crunchy texture but are not too hard to bite comfortably. The combination of spices provides a warm flavor that is not dominated by any one of the spices.  They are easy to make even with the fussy steps of rolling and chilling the dough. They are a great snack or dessert for a cool day and they are worth making again. 

Recipe Notes: Baby Carrot Bisque

14 December 2018

Recipe from All Time Best Soups, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 25

Last year I received All Time Best Soups as a gift. I have made several of the soups and most have been really good. I am continuing to go through the book, selecting recipes to try. Homemade soup makes a great meal during the cooler months of the year.

This soup was easy to make and it was ready in just over one hour. It uses baby carrots thus eliminating the need for peeling and chopping. The carrots and chopped onion were cooked in oil in a Dutch oven until softened. Garlic, dry thyme, and dry coriander were added and cooked for about 30 seconds. A mixture of chicken and vegetable broth (made from concentrate) were added and the mixture simmered for about 20 minutes until the carrots were tender. The soup was puréed in a blender, returned to the stove on low heat, and half-and-half was stirred in.

The soup is good. It tastes of carrots, but lacked the sweet taste of carrots, perhaps reflecting the quality of the baby carrots used. While good, the soup is not all that interesting or special, it is pretty plain and basic. With all of the more interesting soups to be made I doubt we will return to this one.

Recipe Notes: Classic Italian Bread

5 November 2018

Recipe from Bread Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 55.

One of my favorite store-bought breads (though the competition to get on that list is not very stiff) is a loaf of Italian sandwich bread. For a mass-produced bread it has a nice flavor, good chewy crumb, and a thin crisp crust. It makes good sandwiches though I detest the fragile cellophane wrapper. Bread Illustrated has a recipe for an Italian loaf. Does it measure up to the mass-produced loaf?

The dry ingredients—flour, yeast, salt—were whisked together in the bowl of the stand mixer. The wet ingredients—mild lager beer, water, extra-virgin olive oil—were whisked together in a measuring cup; beer is the primary liquid. Using low speed and a dough hook, the liquid ingredients were slowly added to the dry. After the ingredients were mixed the speed was increased and the dough kneaded until smooth, elastic, and it cleared the sides of the bowl. It was formed into a ball and rose until doubled. This took 2½ hours on a cool day, a little longer than expected. The dough was shaped (detailed instructions are in the recipe) into a long loaf. It was wet and sticky but easily handled with the aid of a little bench flour. It was moved to a pizza peel (lacking a peel, the bottom of a baking sheet sufficed), and left to rise. The loaf was scored, misted with water, and moved to a pizza stone in a 450° oven and baked until done, about 25 minutes. The loaf was shorter than in the recipe to accommodate the size of our stone. Total time, excluding cooling, was 4 hours 20 minutes, most of which was hands off. 

Classic Italian bread is good, with a nice chewy crumb, thin crisp crust, and gentle tang. It was easy to make with just a few ingredients, simple mixing protocol, and most of the work being done by the stand mixer. It worked well for sandwiches, the main use I have for bread, and toasted well. Why use store bought when it easy to make your own?

Recipe Notes: Brown Soda Bread

27 October 2018

Recipe from Bread Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen, 2016, p. 48; also available on-line

I have long been curious about Irish soda bread. So as I worked my way through Bread Illustrated I was happy to try its recipe for Brown Soda Bread, which I presume is similar. I use bread primarily for sandwiches for lunch. Would this be a good sandwich bread?

This is a quick bread, using baking soda and baking powder as leaveners rather than yeast. I started by toasting wheat germ in a skillet on the stove top. This was whisked together with the other dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. The liquid ingredients—buttermilk and melted butter—were combined in a measuring cup and added to the dry ingredients and stirred with a spatula until the dough can together. The dough was briefly kneaded, shaped into a round, and baked on a baking sheet. Total time from start to taking the bread from the oven was 1 hour 15 minutes, it took 30 minutes to get the dough into the oven. 

The appeal of this recipe is speed. With only 30 minutes of work you can have a homemade loaf in the oven baking and ready to eat a few hours later. The bread tastes good and has a nice crust, crispy though not chewy. The texture of the crumb is not the same as that of a yeast bread, it is coarser and not as chewy. It makes a reasonable sandwich bread. I will probably not make this often as I prefer the texture of yeast bread, but it is good to have in mind should a loaf be needed on short notice.