Skillet-Roasted Chicken Breasts with Harissa-Mint Carrots

 17 February 2021

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, January 2019

Generally we prefer dark chicken meat, thighs in particular, to white meat in part because it is harder to overcook and remains juicy even if you do go over a little. Nonetheless, this simple looking method for cooking bone-in chicken breasts has sufficient appeal to try it. Not only did it promise to be quick enough for a weeknight dinner but it included a new side dish as well.

I used the "for Two" version of the recipe that is available online. This is really two recipes, one for the chicken and one for the carrots, the only overlap is the use of the chicken drippings for cooking the carrots. The recipe specified two bone-in split chicken breasts, 10-12 ounces each. The two I bought weighed a combined 28 ounces and one was significantly larger than the other. They were well-trimmed so little additional prep was needed. The skin was peeled back so the meat could be salted. After replacing the skin it was pierced to let rendered fat escape and sprayed with vegetable oil. The chicken was placed skin-side down in a cold skillet then cooked over medium-high heat (I used a setting of 7 on our range) for about 7 minutes. The skin was by then well browned, perhaps a little overcooked. The skin-side up chicken and skillet were placed in a 325° oven until the chicken reached 160°.

While the chicken cooked I did mise en place for the carrot dish. After the chicken was done it was transferred to a plate and the skillet, with the chicken juices and fond, was placed on a medium-high burner. To this was added thinly-sliced shallot, mild harissa (a North African chile pepper condiment), and salt. This was cooked until most of the liquid was gone. Sliced carrots were added and then cooked, covered, over medium heat until the carrots were tender. The cover was removed and cooking continued until the liquid was reduced to a glaze. Lemon juice and chopped fresh mint were added. Total time was 80 minutes, including the 10 minutes extra that it took to cook the larger breast.

These are two good dishes worth making again. The recipes doesn't include a lot of ingredients and both the chicken and carrots were pretty easy to make. The aroma of fresh mint on the hot carrots was wonderful. The chicken skin was nice and crispy and the chicken was juicy, even the smaller piece which was a little overdone.  As usual, the "for two" recipe fed the two of us two dinners. There is also a version of this recipe with garlic green beans that could be worth trying when green beans are in season.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

 17 February 2021

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, November 2020

It has been a while since I've had dinner rolls in the freezer. They are convenient to have on hand. For example, if we're having a bowl of soup for dinner it is easy to take out a couple and warm them up to round out the simple supper. There are some recipes for dinner rolls in Bread Illustrated that I still want to try, but when this new recipe was published in the magazine I was motivated. It had some additional appeal because it is a whole-grain recipe with both oats and whole wheat flour.

Making the rolls was straightforward. In the bowl of a stand mixer, old-fashioned rolled oats, butter, and boiling water were stirred together and rested until the butter melted and most of the liquid was absorbed. This technique, tangzhong, helped to keep the bread moist and helped it to stay fresh longer, both at room temperature and when frozen. Bread flour, whole wheat flour, cold water, molasses, yeast, and salt were added. This mixture was stirred using the dough hook to combine the ingredients then kneaded for about 8 minutes. The dough then rose at room temperature until doubled in volume. It was then portioned into 12 pieces (each is 2¼ ounces) which were rolled into balls and placed in a greased round cake pan. Confining the rolls this way caused them to rise up rather than spreading out. After rising until doubled in volume, the rolls were brushed with an egg wash, sprinkled with rolled oats, and baked at 375°. From start to removing the dozen rolls from the oven took a little over 3½ hours.

These are good rolls, worth making again. They are soft, somewhat surprising for whole-grain rolls, but the crumb has a some nice chew to it. There is touch of sweetness from the molasses that pairs well with the earthiness of the whole grains.

Lemon Chiffon Pie

 9 February 2021

Recipe from America's Test Kitchen, June 2014

Because we enjoy lemon meringue pie I have been wanting to make lemon chiffon pie since seeing it on TV, about five years ago. (I mentioned it in a blog post in 2016.) First, though, what is chiffon in this context? Chiffon is made by folding meringue into a fruit curd, usually lemon. So where a lemon meringue pie is a layer of lemon curd topped with a layer of meringue, a lemon chiffon pie is a layer of curd topped by a layer of chiffon which is sort of a flavored meringue topping.

The three main components of this pie are a graham cracker crust, lemon curd, and lemon chiffon. A graham cracker crust is nice because it is easier to make than a pastry crust. Graham crackers were broken into pieces that were ground in a food processor to a uniform, fine crumb. Sugar and melted butter were combined with the crumbs in the food processor to form a dough that was pressed into a pie plate, baked, and cooled.  For the filling, two small bowls with water were sprinkled with unflavored gelatin. In a saucepan, 2 whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks were whisked with sugar, cornstarch, and salt. (I added too much sugar by following the ingredient list instead of the instructions.) Lemon zest, lemon juice, and heavy cream were whisked in and the mixture was cooked with constant stirring to 170°. One of the gelatin mixtures was stirred into the curd off heat. Some of the curd was strained, poured into the cooled crust, and placed in the freezer to chill. The other gelatin mixture was whisked into the remaining curd along with cream cheese then strained. In a stand mixer, 3 egg whites plus sugar were whipped to stiff peaks. The curd–cream cheese mixture was added and whipped. This chiffon was poured on top of the chilled curd and then chilled in the refrigerator. Total preparation time was about 2½ hours but 1 hour of this was idle time while the crust cooled.

We enjoyed this pie and it is worth making again. It is not as tart as lemon meringue pie and it has a smoother, silkier texture. I ended up with too much chiffon and did not use it all on the pie. I suspect an error that made it a little looser than it should have been so I was unable to pile it up on top of the pie as I should have. The sugar error may have contributed to this or perhaps a problem whipping the egg whites or combining them with the curd. In any event, this was a minor problem.

Hemstrought's Half-Moon Cookies

 6 February 2021

Recipe from Home in the Finger Lakes

I knew half-moon cookies from the little bakery, Lynch's, in my Central New York (CNY) home town of Chittenango. My mom made them but not until after I had moved away from home. I recently made Black and White Cookies, thinking they might be the CNY classic, only to learn that they are a different cookie from New York City. Sometime previously I had saved a recipe for Half-Moon cookies claiming to be based on the originals, so I had to try it. There are two versions, chocolate and vanilla, and this recipe is for chocolate cookies,

The dry ingredients—flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt—were whisked together in a large bowl. (The online recipe neglects mentioning the salt in the instructions, so beware.) Softened butter was beaten in a stand mixer. Sugar and cocoa powder (I used Dutch processed) were added and beaten several minutes until fluffy. (The instructions say to add these with the mixer running. This would have spread cocoa powder all over the kitchen, so I turned the mixer off to add these then gradually increased the speed of the mixer to minimize the mess.) Eggs and vanilla were added and mixed until incorporated. The flour mixture was then added (with the mixer running) in portions alternating with milk and mixed until combined. The finished dough is thinner than most cookie doughs. It was portioned onto baking sheets using a #24 scoop then spread into a 3-inch circle. (I didn't have the #20 scoop suggested in the recipe so my cookies are a little smaller and I made 36 rather than 30 of them.) These were baked in a 350° oven until the edges were set. The finished cookies are soft and moist and stuck a little to the parchment paper. It was 80 minutes from starting to finishing baking. It took an additional 40 minutes to make the buttercream frosting and put it on the cookies, after they had cooled. The recipe didn't make enough frosting for 36 cookies.

As the article from which I got the recipe describes, these are soft, cakey cookies. They are almost fudge-like but not that rich. They are okay but not good enough for me to want to make them again. I guess I prefer cookies with a little more texture and cookies that keep better, these tended to stick to whatever they are stored on as does the frosting, even in the freezer.  They are not as good as the Black and White cookies that I made a few months ago.

Almost No-knead Seeded Rye Bread

9 January 2021

Recipe from America's Test Kitchen

Two of my favorite bread recipes are Deli Rye Bread and Almost No-knead Bread. Some time ago I found a recipe that would seem to combine these. I am always on the look out for a good flavorful bread, like rye bread,  But would the result be the best of both breads or an uncomfortable compromise which is not as good as either?

Making this bread was not very different from making Almost No-Knead bread, the only difference being the addition of Rye Flour (I used Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye) and caraway seeds. The dry ingredients—all-purpose flour, rye flour, caraway seeds, salt, and yeast—were mixed together. The wet ingredients—water, mild-flavored lager, and white vinegar—were added and mixed until incorporated. This dough sat at room temperature for 17+ hours. It was then kneaded for a minute or so, formed into a ball, and transferred to a heavy Dutch oven using a parchment paper sling. It rose until doubled which took almost three hours. It was dusted with flour (to give a rustic look to the finished loaf), slashed, and backed in a 425° oven with the lid on for the first 30 minutes of baking. While it takes a long time to make the bread, close to 24 hours, most of that is hands off.

The bread was good, though not as crusty as other no-knead loaves. It paired well with our dinner of chicken and butternut squash. Most of the loaf was used to make sandwiches and it was okay for that, too. However, as a crusty loaf with a chewy crumb it was not as good as Almost No-knead bread. As a rye bread it was not as good as Deli Rye. Since there are better alternatives I doubt I will make this again.