Sourdough Challah {Recipe}

What is there to write about the best bread ever? The sourdough challah that Alex spent a year perfecting? The recipe we're baking for the third time this week today?

Alex's sourdough challah tastes mildly tangy, sweet, and rich. The texture is dense but smooth. We eat it plain, with butter, covered in honey (Lil's favorite), or as a base for sandwiches.

This challah is enriched with two things we have in abundance - eggs and sourdough. Both contribute to the luxurious flavor and enhance the nutritive content beyond  standard sandwich bread. This is a good thing for Lil and I who work and play outside for hours a day and want quick snacks frequently.

A great bread like this takes effort, however. Our sourdough pet requires thrice weekly feeding. And the overnight rise takes time too. We use a kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients which initially seems complicated but will change your baking for the better as it eliminates variations due to moisture. Alex typically weighs and kneads the dough before bed, braids in the morning, and I bake sometime around noon. Don't be afraid of the process though - the routine doesn't feel like much work when the reward is so abundant.

Sourdough Challah

Time: 15 minutes mixing, overnight rise, two hours rising and baking next day Makes one large loaf

6 grams/0.2 ounce instant dry yeast 400 grams/16.8 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour 100 grams/4.2 ounces whole wheat flour 60 grams/2 ounces warm water 90 grams wet sourdough starter* 3 large eggs, plus 1 yolk for glazing 8 grams/0.3 ounce table salt 55 grams/1.9 ounces vegetable oil 85 grams/3 ounces mild honey or 70 grams/2.4 ounces granulated sugar approximately 10 grams poppy seed, optional

1. Measure ingredients except egg yolk and optional poppy seeds into a bread machine, stand mixer, or large bowl. 2. Mix until they come together. 3. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about ten minutes. 4. Let rise in an oiled and covered bowl overnight in cool place. 5. Divide dough into thirds and roll into 18 inch long ropes. Braid ropes and place on a silpat-lined baking sheet. 6. Beat egg yolk in a small bowl. Brush yolk on the top of the loaf to glaze it. Sprinkle on optional seeds. 7. Bake at 325 F for 20-30 minutes or until top is browned and bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Tent with foil if you desire a lighter colored crust.

*Sourdough starter is a topic that deserves its own post, but for here's the pertinent info for this recipe: We keep our white flour starter fairly liquid-y, about the consistency of cultured buttermilk. Local folks, we share our starter freely so contact me or see me at the Swainway Urban Farm booth at a farmers' market if you want some.

Sourdough Challah {Recipe}

What is there to write about the best bread ever? The sourdough challah that Alex spent a year perfecting? The recipe we're baking for the third time this week today?

Alex's sourdough challah tastes mildly tangy, sweet, and rich. The texture is dense but smooth. We eat it plain, with butter, covered in honey (Lil's favorite), or as a base for sandwiches.

This challah is enriched with two things we have in abundance - eggs and sourdough. Both contribute to the luxurious flavor and enhance the nutritive content beyond  standard sandwich bread. This is a good thing for Lil and I who work and play outside for hours a day and want quick snacks frequently.

A great bread like this takes effort, however. Our sourdough pet requires thrice weekly feeding. And the overnight rise takes time too. We use a kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients which initially seems complicated but will change your baking for the better as it eliminates variations due to moisture. Alex typically weighs and kneads the dough before bed, braids in the morning, and I bake sometime around noon. Don't be afraid of the process though - the routine doesn't feel like much work when the reward is so abundant.

Sourdough Challah

Time: 15 minutes mixing, overnight rise, two hours rising and baking next day Makes one large loaf

6 grams/0.2 ounce instant dry yeast 400 grams/16.8 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour 100 grams/4.2 ounces whole wheat flour 60 grams/2 ounces warm water 90 grams wet sourdough starter* 3 large eggs, plus 1 yolk for glazing 8 grams/0.3 ounce table salt 55 grams/1.9 ounces vegetable oil 85 grams/3 ounces mild honey or 70 grams/2.4 ounces granulated sugar approximately 10 grams poppy seed, optional

1. Measure ingredients except egg yolk and optional poppy seeds into a bread machine, stand mixer, or large bowl. 2. Mix until they come together. 3. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about ten minutes. 4. Let rise in an oiled and covered bowl overnight in cool place. 5. Divide dough into thirds and roll into 18 inch long ropes. Braid ropes and place on a silpat-lined baking sheet. 6. Beat egg yolk in a small bowl. Brush yolk on the top of the loaf to glaze it. Sprinkle on optional seeds. 7. Bake at 325 F for 20-30 minutes or until top is browned and bottom sounds hollow when tapped. Tent with foil if you desire a lighter colored crust.

*Sourdough starter is a topic that deserves its own post, but for here's the pertinent info for this recipe: We keep our white flour starter fairly liquid-y, about the consistency of cultured buttermilk. Local folks, we share our starter freely so contact me or see me at the Swainway Urban Farm booth at a farmers' market if you want some.

Buckwheat Almond Buttermilk Pancakes {Recipe}

I have a problem with pancakes. It seems to run in the family because my father has the same issue. We can't eat a stack with syrup without a dramatic drop in blood sugar that makes our tummies feel sick and our heads spin.

But like every good child, Lil loves pancakes. Alex likes them too - as long as they are light and fluffy.

I've tried adding ricotta or pumpkin and using whole wheat flour, but pancakes always got the best of me. Until last Saturday when I created a buckwheat pancake recipe.

I combined samples of Shagbark Mill's local, organic, freshly milled buckwheat flour with Bob's Red Mill new almond flour as a base with buttermilk, melted butter, and eggs. The resulting buckwheat almond buttermilk pancakes are light and airy with an earthy, slightly soured taste. Fat + higher fiber and protein flours = a breakfast I can enjoy! Alex liked the fluffiness and Lil approved of the flavor.

As a bonus, this recipe can be naturally gluten-free if you use flours that aren't processed on shared equipment.

Buckwheat Almond Buttermilk Pancakes Makes: 24 3-inch pancakes Time: 20-30 minutes

1 1/2 cup freshly ground buckwheat flour 1/2 cup almond flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1 1/2 cup cultured low-fat buttermilk (you may need to add 1/4 cup additional buttermilk if not using freshly ground buckwheat flour) 2 eggs Fat or oil for frying (I used lard)

1. In a large bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. 2. Melt butter in a glass liquid measure in the microwave or small pot on the stove top. Stir buttermilk and eggs into the butter. 3. Pour wet ingredients into dry, stirring just until combined. 4. Heat a cast iron pan or griddle on the stove over medium. Melt fat or oil over the surface and drop batter by 1/4 cup fulls. Cook for 1-2 minutes, flip once, and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Thanks to Bob's Red Mill for providing samples of their new line of nut meals and flours.

Buckwheat Almond Buttermilk Pancakes {Recipe}

I have a problem with pancakes. It seems to run in the family because my father has the same issue. We can't eat a stack with syrup without a dramatic drop in blood sugar that makes our tummies feel sick and our heads spin.

But like every good child, Lil loves pancakes. Alex likes them too - as long as they are light and fluffy.

I've tried adding ricotta or pumpkin and using whole wheat flour, but pancakes always got the best of me. Until last Saturday when I created a buckwheat pancake recipe.

I combined samples of Shagbark Mill's local, organic, freshly milled buckwheat flour with Bob's Red Mill new almond flour as a base with buttermilk, melted butter, and eggs. The resulting buckwheat almond buttermilk pancakes are light and airy with an earthy, slightly soured taste. Fat + higher fiber and protein flours = a breakfast I can enjoy! Alex liked the fluffiness and Lil approved of the flavor.

As a bonus, this recipe can be naturally gluten-free if you use flours that aren't processed on shared equipment.

Buckwheat Almond Buttermilk Pancakes Makes: 24 3-inch pancakes Time: 20-30 minutes

1 1/2 cup freshly ground buckwheat flour 1/2 cup almond flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1 1/2 cup cultured low-fat buttermilk (you may need to add 1/4 cup additional buttermilk if not using freshly ground buckwheat flour) 2 eggs Fat or oil for frying (I used lard)

1. In a large bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. 2. Melt butter in a glass liquid measure in the microwave or small pot on the stove top. Stir buttermilk and eggs into the butter. 3. Pour wet ingredients into dry, stirring just until combined. 4. Heat a cast iron pan or griddle on the stove over medium. Melt fat or oil over the surface and drop batter by 1/4 cup fulls. Cook for 1-2 minutes, flip once, and cook an additional 1-2 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Thanks to Bob's Red Mill for providing samples of their new line of nut meals and flours.

Food = Love Indian Paneer Cheese {Recipe Guest Post}

I am pleased to share an authentic Indian paneer cheese recipe today from Susan Saldanha. She is a Columbus cook originally hailing from India who teaches custom cooking classes about Indian culinary traditions for groups and individuals in your home. Contact Susan by email to experience her healthy, delicious take on Indian cooking. 

June 2012 was memorable because I went back home to India after eight long years. Landing in Mumbai India I was hit by the heat, the humidity, the flood of humanity and a hunger in your belly. I began to realize I missed all of this so much.

My mom grumbling to a visiting neighbor awakened me one sweltering afternoon. In muted tones she said "Mrs. Advani, please stop sending food. All the neighbors bring her food claiming it was her favorite dish when she was a girl and I don’t get a chance to cook for her. After all, she’s my daughter visiting after eight years."

In India, Food= Love and believe me I had a lot of good “love” growing up.

Today I will share with you a taste of my Motherland: a Paneer cheese recipe. This is often eaten in the US as Mattar Paneer (peas and paneer) or Palak Paneer (spinach and paneer). Paneer comes from Northern India. It is a fresh milk cheese that is easy to make. Highly nutritious, it is a great source of protein. Its subtle flavor profile allows it to absorb the Indian spices very nicely but can be eaten by itself as a delicious ‘anytime-snack.’

How to Make Paneer

Ingredients

• 4 cups of whole milk

• 3/4cup sour cream or yogurt (sour cream adds a decadent lusciousness to the paneer)

• Cheesecloth folded over to give you four layers

• Colander

• Heavy bottomed pan

Method:

1. Bring the milk to a boil on a medium flame in the heavy bottomed pan. Keep the flame on medium as milk burns very easily and will add a burnt taste to your paneer.
2. Add the sour cream and keep stirring gently. Turn the heat up to high to facilitate the curdling process.
3. The milk will begin to appear lumpy and will have light green whey around it.
4. Strain the whey in a cheesecloth lined colander.
5. While the paneer is still in the colander run cold water over the paneer till it cools down. Squeeze as much of the extra water out of the paneer as you can by twisting the lose ends of the cheesecloth.
6. While still in the cheesecloth place the paneer under a weight (a heavy pan or a foil lined brick) on your counter for about 1-2 hours.
7. Unwrap the paneer and cut it into cubes. It’s ready to eat.
8. Paneer keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Freezing is possible and cutting it into cubes before you freeze it is a good idea. After thawing you have to lightly fry (preferably in homemade ghee) on both sides before you use it in cooking or else it tends to break apart.

Serving suggestions:

In my home we eat paneer fresh and love it with a slight drizzle of honey or on a toothpick with a small piece of pineapple and a sprinkle of chaat masala. (Chaat masala is a spice blend used on a variety of snacks and has spicy, salty, and sweet tones. It is available in any Indian grocery store.)

Note from Rachel: Our favorite Indian cooking book is 1,000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra.

Gingerbread: House for the Kids,Crisp Cookies for Adults {Recipe}

A few days ago, I shared some of our holiday crafts. I told you that my pastry-chef sister Heather baked gingerbread house pieces for Lil to decorate. Our kitchen remains sticky from the amount of frosting and candy used on that house. What I didn't reveal are the ridiculously good spoils from the house-making: Heather gave us all the trimmings from the gingerbread walls. Rough in shape, but generally slender, these perfectly crisp cookies beg to be dunked in coffee or tea. I eat a few pieces a day for a mildly sweet, spicy, crispy snack.

Sugar-coated house for kids and refined cookies for the adults - what a sweet holiday tradition!

Crisp Gingerbread

Yield: 1 # 12 oz (enough for a good-sized gingerbread house or approximately 4 dozen cookies)

4 oz (1 stick or 1/2 cup) unsalted butter

4 oz (~ 1/2 cup) brown sugar

6 fl oz ( 1/2 cup) molasses

1 whole egg

12 oz (~2 2/3 cup) all purpose flour

1 teaspon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cloves

parchment paper

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Add molasses and egg, beat to combine well
3. Stir together remaining ingredients in a separate bowl
4. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet, beating until just blended (Dough will be very wet.  If making for a gingerbread house, you may want to add extra flour to enable an easier roll out)
5. Gather into a disk, wrap with plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour (for easier rolling, freeze dough and then roll out as soon as pulling from the freezer. It will still be a wet dough, but easier to roll out)
6. Roll out to ¼ inch, using as much flour as necessary for easier rolling
7. Cut with floured cutter, or bake for gingerbread house **see note
8. Bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet at 350 until lightly browned and feels barely firm when touched

**To get clean lines for gingerbread houses:

•  First make a template out of cardboard or firm paper.  After freezing and rolling, bake before cutting out the pieces (this will work well if you roll the dough between pieces of parchment.  You can then just pick up the parchment paper, rather than trying to move the fragile dough).
• Bake partially, until the gingerbread is golden, but still slightly soft to the tough.  Pull from the oven and let cool for 3-5 minutes, or until you can cut the dough without tearing it.  Place the template on top of the dough and deeply score the desired shape with a very sharp knife (I like using an exacto knife).
• Let the dough cool entirely, then remove the excess gingerbread from the shape you cut out (wall, roof, etc.), you may have to cut the lines again, but it should be fairly easy to remove the excess gingerbread.
• After removing any excess, return the shape to the oven to dry out one more time.  You will want the gingerbread to be very firm before taking out of the oven.
• Let cool entirely and then assemble the house with a very thick royal icing (1 egg white whipped with enough powdered sugar to make a thick spread; add a splash of vinegar, or lemon juice, to help it to harden easier).  Decorate as desired.

PS. If you want to see some professional creations, I recommend the gingerbread house display at Easton Center on the second story of the mall near the AMC theater. Heather worked on The Pearl recreation with the Cameron Mitchell Catering group, pictured above.

PPS. I finally have a new laptop! After two months of scavenging time on shared computers, I have one of my own! It's taking a little time to set up all my preferences, but my first impressions of the Lenovo Twist are excellent.

Homemade Bitters {Recipe}

Cocktail drinkers know that a Manhattan isn't a traditional Manhattan without Angostura bitters and one can't make a Sazerac without Peychod's. But home mixologists might not know how simple and fun it is to make bitters and home.

What are Bitters?

Bitters are strong herb and spice alcohol infusions including at least one bittering agent like cassia, wormwood, quinine, citrus peel, or gentian root. A drop of flavorful bitters is the strong guest that holds the door open for the remaining sweet and sour seats around the table.

Bitters were born of the ‘tonic’ movement, a period in the mid 1800s - mid 1900s where people claimed to cure all with drinks flavored with herbs and spices. They were commonly consumed neat or over ice as digestifs. A culture of secret recipes and labels listing the afflictions for which each bitters were recommended surrounded the compounding craze.

Now, bitters are most commonly used in cocktails. Bitters support a drink with complexity that is notably absent if the mixologist neglects to add a drop or two. Creating bitters at home is one way cocktail makers can customize a drink recipe.

How to Make Bitters

1. Mix spices into alcohol. 2. Allow to age for up to three weeks at room temperature, tasting along the way to determine when the flavors reach your taste's desired strength. 3. Strain out solids and reserve alcohol. Dilute with a slight bit of water if desired. 4. Bottle and store in a cool dark place.

Because one only uses a few drops of bitters at a time and some of the ingredients are expensive, it is best to make very small batches. Organic bitters spices are available locally in tiny quantities at Clintonville Community Market and online through sources like Mountain Rose Herbs and Frontier. I like to store mine in dark glass bottles with eye droppers, available at Amazon and Mountain Rose.

Bitters Recipes

I created and tweaked the recipes below to my taste. Participants in my recent Infusions and Bitters class at Franklin Park Conservatory enjoyed them and many left planning to make bitters as gifts this holiday season.

Cocoa Bitters 1 teaspoon cacao nibs ¼ teaspoon sarsaparilla ¼ teaspoon orange peel ¼ teaspoon wild cherry bark 1 allspice berry 1 inch length of cinnamon stick ½ cup rum

Turkey Day Bitters 2 inches fresh rosemary 2 inches fresh sage ¼ teaspoon pink peppercorn ¼ teaspoon gentain root ¼ teaspoon juniper berries 150 mL vodka

Rachel’s Bitters 3 allspice berries 1 star anise ¼ teaspoon each pink peppercorn, gentain root, wild cherry bark, lemon peel, sarsaparilla 150 mL vodka

Even our kitty Moonshine was interested in bitters as I was photographing! Try making bitters yourself and see what flavor magic you can create.

Local notes:

1) I run a monthly co-operative buying group for Frontier herbs, spices, bath and body supplies including bitters ingredients and bottles. If you live in Columbus and are interested, contact me.

2) I am hosting a Gifts In Jars event at City Folk's Farm Shop, 4760 N High St,  this Friday November 23. I will have everything you need to make and label a beautiful Weck jar of hot cocoa mix, bath foam, or culinary herb salts with custom flavors. Each jar costs $6, will take about 10 minutes to make and the mess stays out of your house. Drop in anytime between 11 am - 2 pm this Friday.

Turkey Day A Week Away

Howdy! My workhorse of a five-year-old laptop bit the dust last weekend. It's where I did all my writing and editing work. A Lenovo Twist (squee!) is on order to replace it but in the meantime, blogging on shared family computers is a little difficult. In the meantime, a few thoughts on the upcoming holiday.  

Thanksgiving Day is a week away. We are hosting this year. I can't wait to fill our spacious new house with family and food!

Our Turkey Day menu will include many of these tried and true favorites of my family:

Brined Roasted Turkey (don't forget to save the bones for turkey stock)

Maple Vinegar Sweet Potatoes and Kale

Parsnip Fries

Apple Fennel Slaw

Cranberry Sauce (make extra to can!)

Cranberry Bread

Pie with Sassafras Crumble Topping

What are your Thanksgiving plans? What will you contribute to the feast?