Amish Cinnamon Bread

 25 October 2021

Recipe from Cook's Country, December 2018

It has been too long since I've updated my blog. It's not that I haven't been cooking or trying new recipes, I just haven't been writing about them. As a result, I have some catching up to do. I saw this recipe for Amish Cinnamon Bread, also called Friendship Bread, demonstrated on the Cook's Country TV show. Unlike other cinnamon breads this has cinnamon as part of the dough rather than just in swirls in the bread. It looked like something that I would like to have for breakfast.

This is a quick bread, i.e. it uses baking soda rather than yeast, there is no kneading or waiting for the dough to rise. Two loaf pans were prepared by spraying them with oil and coating this with cinnamon sugar. (The recipe says to brush on vegetable oil but the spray worked fine for me.) Flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt where whisked together in a large bowl. In a second bowl, milk, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract where whisked together. The milk mixture was stirred into the flour mixture and poured into the two prepared loaf pans. The top of the loaves were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. The loaves baked at 325° until a paring knife inserted in the center came out clean, about 75 minutes using 9 by 5-inch pans. Total time was just 95 minutes, not counting cooling.

This is great bread which I really enjoyed! It pleased my sweet tooth and had a crunchy crust from the cinnamon sugar. I ate it for breakfast plain with no butter, no toasting. It had a moist, slightly sweet, uniform crumb and was just as good after being frozen as it was before. 

Sous Vide Short Rib "Pot Roast"

 1 October 2021

Recipe from Sous Vide for Everybody, America's Test Kitchen, 2018, p. 74; also available online.

I've been doing sous vide cooking since the start of the year, though it is a method I've known about and been interested in using for some time. Food is sealed in a plastic bag then cooked in a constant temperature water bath. It provides even cooking of the food with little to no risk of overcooking and, as a bonus, leads to easy clean up. I recently got a sous vide cook book and this recipe is one that stood out to me. This recipe is the only one I have made where the meat is cooked in a sauce.

Beef short ribs were seasoned with salt and pepper, browned in a Dutch oven, then set aside. Onion, celery, carrot, salt, and pepper were added to the fat in the Dutch oven and cooked until softened. Tomato paste and garlic were added and cooked until fragrant. Red wine was added, the pot was deglazed, and the mixture cooked until reduced in volume. Beef broth was added, simmered for a few minutes, then processed until smooth in a blender. The ribs and broth were divided between two zipper bags, bay and thyme were added, and the food was cooked at 160° for 22½ hours. (This is much longer than most food cooked sous vide.) It was removed from the water bath, chilled in an ice bath, and refrigerated. Preparation took about an hour. For serving, the ribs were reheated, sous vide, at 160° for about 30 minutes. The ribs were removed and the cooking liquid was strained and cooked on the stove until reduced to about 2 cups.

This "pot roast" was very good and though a long time was spent cooking the meat it was done with no effort on my part once everything was prepared and set up. The meat was a little tough but that was a minor complaint. The sauce/gravy was excellent. I would make this again but I'd probably make half as much.

French Potato Pie

 25 September 2021

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, March 2021

I was intrigued by this recipe when I found it in the CI magazine. We like potatoes and we like pie so why wouldn't a pie with an all-butter crust and a filling made with potatoes in a cream sauce be good? It's sort of a scalloped potato pie. There was one good way to find out if this is a dish to make regularly, or not, and that's to make one and eat it.

Salt and flour, combined in a food processor, were processed with cubed butter forming a smooth paste. Flour was added and the mixture pulsed forming small pieces of dough. This was transferred into a bowl and tossed with frozen grated butter. Ice water was sprinkled over the mixture and tossed to combine. The dough was divided into two equal portions, shaped into disks, wrapped in plastic, and chilled in the refrigerator. This process took 40 minutes.

Several hours before serving, the filling was prepared. Thinly sliced onion was salted and set aside. Sliced potatoes and baking soda were added to boiling water, cooked for 1 minute, drained, and returned to the Dutch oven. Cream, garlic, pepper, nutmeg, and the salted onion were combined and and simmered until the cream thickened. While the filling cooled, the pie dough was rolled out; one half was placed in a pie pan and the other on a backing sheet. These were placed in the refrigerator to chill. Chopped parsley was added to the potato mixture and spread in the pie plate. The top crust was added, the edges were trimmed and crimped with a fork. A round hole was cut from the center of the top crust which was then brushed with an egg wash. The pie was baked at 450° for about 20' then at 325° until the potatoes were tender. Total time to prepare was 7 hours, but much of this was hands off and the time could be shortened if needed.

We enjoyed eating this pie. My favorite part was the crust which was crispy, flaky, and buttery. Diane preferred the filling of tender creamy potatoes. We had the pie mostly has a warm side dish with ham where it was still good but the crust was no longer crisp. While this pie was very good it did seem like a lot of work for something we served primarily as a side dish.

Free-Form Summer Fruit Tartlets for Two

 16 September 2021

Recipe from America's Test Kitchen

This recipe is from a recent edition of the ATK TV show. It uses some of my favorite summer fruits and looks to be quick and easy to make. Fortunately I decided to make it just before the end of the summer fruit season here. If it's a good recipe, I may have to wait until next summer to make it again.

Flour and salt were combined in a food processor. Small pieces of unsalted butter, frozen, were scattered over the flour mixture and processed until the mixture resembled coarse sand. Ice water was added in one tablespoon portions and processed until the dough holds together when pressed between fingers. The recipe said 2-3 tablespoons of water but I needed just 1. The dough was dumped onto a lightly floured surface and formed into a rough rectangle about 3" by 8". It was then massaged, a technique called fraisage, where it was smeared with the heel of the hand into flakes. These were reassembled into a rectangle and the process was repeated. The dough was divided in half and each half formed into a 3-inch disk. These were wrapped and refrigerated for an hour. It took about 25 minutes to make the dough to this point.

The dough was removed from the refrigerator and rolled into 7-inch circles between two sheets of parchment paper. These were returned to the refrigerator to chill for 15-30 minutes. I'm not very good at rolling dough into a nice circle, thus these will be "rustic" tartlets. Many of my pastry desserts turn out to be "rustic".

The filling was made from using wedges of tree-ripened peaches (any stone fruit could be used) and blackberries (raspberries or blueberries would also be good.) The fruit was gently tossed with some sugar, I didn't need much because the fruit was ripe. It was then mounded into the center of the dough circles leaving  a 1½-inch border. The border was pleated around the berries, pinching the layers of dough together. Finally, the dough was brushed with a little water and dusted with sugar. The tartlets were baked for about 45 minutes at 400°. Total time was three hours, but much of this was waiting for the dough to chill after being worked.

We liked these desserts and look forward to having them next summer. We shared each one so got four servings from the two tartlets. They kept well and were as good the second day as the first. They are easy to make and good to eat. The crust was flaky and buttery and the overall dessert was not too sweet. This is an easy pastry dessert to make and so good if you are new to working with pastry dough. The flour and sugar on the parchment burned during baking and was a little bitter, being a little neater would solve this.