Simply Delicious Breads 8.26.11

Clear Flour Bread

This pan loaf is only sold in the wholesale department.  In the store front, the french bread is sold as demi baguette, baguette, batard, ficelle, rolls, and epis.  I've also seen flowers and turtles.  
French Pan - traditional - flour, water, yeast, and salt - thin crisp crust
unbleached unbromated winter wheat flour (enriched with malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, salt, yeast

Whole Wheat Pan - with a consistent crumb and thinner crust, this is an ideal bread for sandwiches and toast
organic whole wheat flour, winter wheat flour, organic graham flour (coarse whole wheat), water, honey, salt, yeast
Also available in rolls

Organic Vollkornbrot - moist, dense German rye perfect with strong cheese or smoked fish
rye meal, chopped rye berries, sunflower seeds, natural starter, salt, yeast

Brookline Farmers Market 8.25.11

Brookline Farmers Market, Centre Street Parking Lot, Brookline, MA
Thursdays 1:30pm to dusk, med June through late October

I miss living in Brookline and I miss Coolidge Corner.  I never visited the farmers market while I lived there, but Clear Flour Bread has a stand there, so it was the perfect excuse to check it out.  I had also heard a rumor there was an ice cream truck.  Okay, I admit, I really went first for the ice cream and second to check out Clear Flour's bread.

First stop, Trombetta's Farm ice cream.  http://www.trombettasfarm.com/  I got the mint chip.  It was fresh and homemade and delicious. It's not the best mint chip ice cream I've ever had, but actually I can't remember the best mint chip I've ever had.  I do know that I really like the chocolate chips in Friendly's mint chocolate chip.  It's basically bitter chocolate; chocolate liquor and cocoa butter are the listed ingredients.   Anyway, here's a picture of the ice cream truck.

Clear Flour Bread stand at the farmers market

From the baker's point of view

Gearing up for Gluten Free

I'm starting to brainstorm some gluten free projects.  Ultimately I would like to delve into the CIA gluten free baking book that I have. But to get excited about the whole venture, I think it would be a good idea to start with some naturally gluten free foods.  There's so much to choose from.... such as macaroons, meringue, ice cream (!!!-that could be an entire other blog), creme brulee (and other custards-panna cotta, flan,  zabaglione), gelatin desserts, chocolate (including hot chocolate), chocolate souffle, divinity, fudge, truffles, baked apples, bananas foster, marshmallows, mousse, bavarian cream, and pavlova.  Do we need to stick to sweets?  How about quiche.  Have I forgotten anything important?

Here's a picture of my roomate's cat, Shiva.

The Red House 8.17.11

The Red House, 98 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, MA

Yes, it's really red! "Stargaze from our main dining room through a magnificent mahogany skylight & enjoy wonderful food, a unique atmosphere, and a journey into the past of Old Cambridge. Built c.1802, and used as a residence for almost 200 years, ... the original structure has been carefully restored to its former beauty & simplicity..." (The Red House Website)

The ice cream comes from Christina's (1255 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA).  Here is the mint chocolate chip.  I only wish there was more.

Special dessert of the day was blackberry tart with vanilla ice cream.  Sorry, Red House, but this is nothing compared to the rustic  tarts made at Clear Flour.

Mixing Hot Cocoa 8.16.11

In celebration of a sore throat for the last few days, I'm trying to lessen the symptoms by drinking hot beverages.   I finally figured out today how to correctly mix hot cocoa.  I've really been making this drink for years and never really got it right until today.  Maybe all those mixing techniques I learned from culinary school are paying off.

So the problem is that I used to add the hot milk to the cocoa-sugar mixture too fast.  What happens is that the cocoa-sugar mixture does not dissolve correctly into the milk and you are left with clumps of cocoa throughout the drink.  I figured out that a better way to do this is to add about a Tablespoon of milk (can use cold milk while the 1 cup of milk is heating) to the sugar and cocoa and mix until you get a smooth paste.  Then add the hot milk and stir for a while.  The paste will easily dissolve in the rest of the hot milk.  It's so nice not to have globs of cocoa at the bottom of the mug.

Here's the cocoa-sugar paste

This is just the hot cocoa recipe on the box of Hershey's Natural Unsweeteneed Cocoa.

Weekend fare at Clear Flour Bread 8.13.11

Black Sesame Sticks and Soft German Pretzels at Clear Flour

Only available on the weekend, these are some very special treats.  The black sesame sticks are soft, garlicky, and yummy.  I am used to thinking of breadsticks as crunchy, but these are closer to garlic bread I'd say.


Black Sesame Sticks - A lean white dough mixed with toasted black sesame seeds and finished with garlic butter

Soft German Pretzel - Traditional, soft German pretzel to be served with a mustard butter dipping sauce and dark German beer

Theses pretzels are amazing all by themselves.  They are nice and salty, the way I like 'em.

Amazing Yeska Cakes 8.13.11

Yeska Cakes
443 Broadway, Lawrence, MA

I was so lucky to be invited to Yeska Cakes today to see some of the cakes being made today and what the bakery looks like.  The first cake I helped with was an Octopus cake.  This is actually the topper for a cupcake tower (Link to the Octopus cupcake tower: http://thecakeplanner.com/Album/pages/octopus%20sm2_jpg.htm)  The topper was made from two cakes, one classic round and one dome shaped cake.  The cakes were covered in fondant and stacked.  Then legs, the face, and other decorations were added.  This topper is probably about 10 inches high.

Here's the supply of fondant, in every color, stored in the fondant room.  ...mmm Satin Ice.

The second cake I helped work on was a very large cake.  The bottom tier here is close to 18 inches.  Each tier was covered in fondat.  The lilac beads are fondant rolled into small balls.

Here's the sketch for the lilac cake. Everyone at the bakery speaks spanish, which is why all the notes are in spanish.

¡crema de caramelo es delicioso!
A layer of (eggless) cream and a layer of caramel sauce make a fabulous ooey-gooey filling.

Here's a Sonic cake which was really huge, about 4 feet across.  This cake was going out as I got to the bakery, so I didn't work on it.  It was very impressive, but had a lot of inedible parts.

Hand-me-down Peach Crumble 8.12.11

Using the oven for the first time today in my new apartment.  Inspired by the free pound of peaches I got at Shaws today, I decided to look for an easy peach dessert.  Baking illustrated has a peach crumble dessert, which was exactly what I was looking for.  I have lots of sugar cookies left over, so after looking at the ingredients for the crumble, I figured I could somehow use the sugar cookies in the dessert.  The ingredients are practically the same for the crumble and the sugar cookies, although in different proportion.  So I ground some of cookies and blended with some Splenda brown sugar blend.  (still trying to use that up)  I also added some pats of soft butter to the peach filling.  I combined the filling otherwise as directed, then topped w/the cookie crumble and baked.  I didn't have almonds on hand either, so in an effort to be frugal decided to go without.  The peaches baked up marvelously and the dessert was served with a scoop of ice cream. Yum! And what a great way to recycle those cookies.


Macerated peaches

Macerated peaches with flavorings and butter in a baking dish

Hand-me-down Peach Crumble

The ice cream is covering most of the crumble in this shot, but don't worry, the yummy crunchy, sugary topping is still there.

Learning about Challah 8.12.11

I brought home some sesame challah last week and have kept it in the freezer.  I'm cooking dinner tonight, serving it with shepherd's pie.  I just read on Yahoo that challah is traditionally torn, not cut with a knife.  I'm not celebrating the sabbath tonight, but I like to learn about things like this.  This challah is a beautiful braided loaf.  At Clear Flour the challah comes plain or seeded with poppy or seasame.

Challah

This challah was delicous.  Not too eggy.  Very soft and fresh in the iniside.  And the crust was thin and crisp.

Last free day for popovers and sugar cookies 8.10.11

Last day of class in my 9 month program at Le Cordon Bleu.  I made popovers and sugar cookies, two things on my "to bake" list.  I thought the popovers came out great, even in the muffin tins (as opposed to a popover tin - taller, thinner cups).  However, I should have baked them for a shorter amount of time at 425, and longer at 325 so they baked more in the centers.  They taste like eggy dough, similar to pate a choux.  I would have liked them to be a savory treat, maybe some tuna fish in the middle would have been yummy. Sugar cookies were pretty good, despite that I did not have accurate measuring utensils with me in class today.  A little too sweet for my tastes, though.  And I wish they had come out thicker.  I will have to try these again.  Both recipes are from Baking Illustrated.

Popovers and sugar cookies

  

So much to learn about cakes 8.10.11

I have so much to learn about cakes.  I'm so impressed by the work of my classmates.  It's amazing that we have worked on these cakes for almost 2 weeks in class, and it's really impossible to imagine what each cake will look like until you see the final piece put together.  I look at each cake and wonder how they did that!

Here's a video slideshow of our class's cakes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIerIU5syco

Sunflower Wedding Cake 8.8.11

Our final project in "Centerpiece and Cake Decoration Techniques" is to make a tiered wedding cake.  The theme of my cake is Sunflowers.  I was actually really nervous putting this cake together.  Something about the thought of the cake toppeling over made me uneasy that day.  I couldn't sleep the following day either, and stayed up most of the night making videos, one of them for the sunflower cake.

Sunflower Wedding Cake: picture and video

The cake is a three tiered yellow layer cake with raspberry filling, frosted with simple buttercream using a basketweave pattern.  The cake is topped with a pastillage trellis and gumpaste flowers including sunflowers, roses, and purple accent flowers.

Here's a much clearer video in full screen mode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RRfJ36ChkU

Turtle Power! 8.4.11

French bread Turtles at Clear Flour Bread! They're so cute!

French Turtle

The Botanical Gardens of Gum Paste 8.4.11

We made flowers out of gum paste for my class at Le Cordon Bleu.  I made a calla lily, star gazer lily, sunflower, rose, and a small purple flower which I don't know if it looks like any real flower since I just made it up.  All the stems on these flowers are made of wire to make it easier to stick into the cake.  The wires are the only inedible part.


Red Roses

Purple accent flower

Calla Lily

Star Gazer Lily
Pollen on the stamen is cornmeal.

Sunflower and Sunflower leaf
The center is covered with cornmeal. There is an inedible disk within the flower to support the center.

Farewell to Somerville 7.30.11

Lyndell's Bakery, 720 Broadway, Somerville, MA

Today is my last day as a resident of Somerville.  The amazing bakery, which is walking distance from my apartment, will no longer be only blocks away.  Today I visit for the last time as a local.

Chocolate cupcake, small eclair, and small cannoli

The cupcakes at Lyndell's are my favorite!  So moist and yummy.  The frosting tasted a little sweet this time.  The eclair was very good, although I still wish the chocolate strip was fondant.  The cannoli was good, but I wish there was more filling and less crust.  Maybe because it was a small version, there's not a lot of room to put more filling.

Don't let my overly critical ways fool you.  Everything here was really good, but I always try to super analyze.

Best dessert of my life - Upstairs on the Square 7.30.11

UpStairs on the Square
91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, MA

The waiter described the cake as devil's food cake, but no way was the yellow sponge cake looking up at me any kind of devil's food. This plate looks pretty humble, but I can't remember ever enjoying a dessert like this in my entire life.  Just a chance prix fixe brunch dessert.  (haha)


Raspberry sorbet with lemon creme on top of yellow sponge cake with strawberry sauce. - couldn't find a description of this dessert on the menu online.  At the restaurant the prix fixe was just announced to us as a special, not written down anywhere, so I don't have the exact description. As I tasted each element, I wished I had a bottomless bowl of every flavour.

I thought this was a funny picture of me.

The Publick House, not in Brookline 7.29.11

The Publick House
On the Common, 277 Main Street - Route 131, Sturbridge, MA

I used to live in Brookline down the street from the Publick House.  The food was good and so was the crowd.  It's a beer place, and I drank beer there.  The Publick House in Sturbridge is very different:  older, laid back, wealthier, and more suburban.  It really is Thanksgiving there every day, and I got the roast turkey.  But enough talk about the savory stuff.  Here's dessert.

Coffee Ice Cream Bombe:   coffee ice cream dome with a rum flavored chocolate-almond filling

The ice cream was excellent.  I might have learned to like coffee ice cream now.  And the surprise in the center was marvelous: creamy, rich, and sweet.  Exactly what you want in the middle.

Peanut Butter Mousse:  on a dark chocolate cookie crust topped with a chocolate glaze, garnished with a peanut butter brownie

Baby Shower Cake 7.20.11

Our second project in the cake decoration class was to make a cake for a baby shower.  We were required to cover the cake in fondant, make a crib out of pastillage and include some decorative borders and scripting.  Here's what I came up with.

The borders and garland are Swiss buttercream.  The scripting and daisies are royal icing.  The teddy bear disks are cut from pastillage. Thanks to Dora for lending me the cutter.  I'm not a sculpter, and somehow the baby's face turned out okay.  The baby and blanket are made of marzipan.  The blanket is yellow polka dots, but since the color of marzipan is so near yellow, it's hard to see the pattern. Next time I need to use a better contrasting color.

The cake is a yellow butter cake from Gisslen. I didn't like it much.  However, the filling is ganache, which was super yummy.  I have to work on my cutting skills because the inside layers look pretty messy after I cut into the cake.

Clear Flour teacakes 7.19.11

I love that the flavors at Clear Flour are prominent.  So when you get an orange chocolate chunk cake, you can really taste the orange and there are a lot of chocolate chunks in it.  The cakes live up to their names.  And they are all so delicious.  Other flavors I've seen include: vanilla pound cake, lemon poppy seed, plum walnut, chocolate whisky, and raspberry chocolate chunk.

I took the picture of the cake looking down into the box, which makes it look small.  It's actually a very tall cake.

Orange Chocolate Chunk Teacake

Mike's 3rd birthday 7.14.11

For this class project we were required to make a child's birthday cake.  A cocoa paining with a pastillage easel, a marzipan figure, and borders with Swiss buttercream were required.  The inside of the cake is chiffon cake with buttercream filling. The history of the chiffon cake is quite interesting.  It was originally prized as a light cake, like sponge cake, but much faster and easier to make, especially for the home cook.  A chiffon cake is characterized by it's inclusion of  vegetable oil and whipped egg whites.

My cake is iced with Swiss buttercream (naturally light beige or yellow color due to the butter and vanilla-actually the same color as the marzipan).  The borders and scripting are also Swiss buttercream colored blue and orange.  Borders are done with a petal tube, and scripting is done with plain tubes. There is a marzipan disk covering the top of the cake.  Snoopy's house and woodstock are made of marzipan and the Snoopy cocoa painting is made on a disk of marzipan.  The lines on the painting are a mixture of cocoa powder and cocoa butter.  The colors are a mixture of food color with Svedka.  

I ran out of room writing "Mike", but it doesn't look too bad.  The top of the doghouse could be more even too.  I lost points because the two points of my easel didn't match exactly at the top.  However, I was really happy with the easel template I made.  It held Snoopy securely and at an appropriate angle.  If only I had made the easel a little shorter, the uneveness would not have been so noticeable.

I also had difficulty getting a sharp top edge on this cake. It's not entirely covered by the border in the picture, and it looks okay, but it took me quite a while to do it.  I need to work on my spatula skills.

Clear Flour seeded 7 grain and ciabatta 7.13.11

Seeded 7 grain - sandwhich

The seeded 7 grain was the best!  One of my favorites so far. Moist and soft.   I was surprised because I didn't realize it was going to be a little sour.  I love the seeded texture of the crust.  (Yes, I brought home the sandwich loaf - a humongous 3 foot loaf.  I tried to show scale with the soda can, but it's way more impressive in person.)

Rustic italian - ciabatta 

The ciabatta was delicious as well.  It's not my favorite because I like it a little thicker.  I'm a big fan of soft interiors of breads.