Literary and Culinary Delights

Daring Bakers: “Scones”

literarydelights — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:43:33 +0000

This week’s challenge caught me by surprise. I’ve gotten used to DB challenges being complicated, time consuming, and sweet. Biscuits, or as Audax names them, scones, were a lovely change. They were simple and easy to make and delicious. My one mistake was on the cookie cutter–at the last minute I couldn’t find my round cutter and had to use a scalloped one which unfortunately compressed the edges a little. Still, the biscuits came out light with a good crumb and I vastly enjoyed them. Biscuit recipes are a bit funny–they’re one of the food items where everyone seems to have a firm opinion on which recipe is right and view all others with horror. Personally, I’ve had good luck with a number of recipes over the years, and this recipe is definitely a keeper. I ate my biscuits both plain with jam and went all-American and made myself a bacon-egg-&-cheese biscuit. (I know, I know, but they’re quite good homemade.)
Pictures to come, I need to upload but my camera battery has to charge first.
Blog-checking lines: Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

Daring Bakers: Sourdough

literarydelights — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:00:12 +0000

I’m afraid this month’s challenge did not work out as well as I had hoped–my impatience overtook me and as a result my sourdough did not have the time to rise as I would have wished. That said, it was fun to try and I will be doing it again sometime soon.
Blog-checking lines: Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

Daring Bakers: Sans Rival

literarydelights — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 01:45:12 +0000

This month’s challenge was a fun one–I was glad we were back to actually baking again. Unfortunately, I’m not fond of super-sweet desserts, which this undoubtedly was. I’m afraid for me this dessert did not live up to its name, but for anyone with a strong love of good buttercream, it will undoubtedly be a hit. I made only a miniature version of the challenge since I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, and I might have enjoyed it more if I had gone with the chocolate version. I probably will never make it again, but if you love very sweet things, give it a whirl.
Blog-checking lines: Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

Daring Bakers: Hazelnut Povotica

literarydelights — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:53:53 +0000

This month’s challenge was a fun one and, thankfully, one that did in fact require baking. The recipe of choice was Povotica, which I’d never heard of but is utterly delicious. Basically it’s a sweet nut filling wrapped in a thin layer of yeast dough and called bread. I recommend trying it–it’s actually pretty easy to make and looks very impressive. The only tweak I made to Jenni’s recipe was to use hazelnuts instead of the recommended walnuts, which worked beautifully. You can see more of the rounds showing as I cut into the loaf, first the one ring from the turn at the end an then the individual strands. I think one more slice would show the top ring much better, but I’m saving that slice for my birthday breakfast!
Blog-checking lines: The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

Kale White Cheddar Double-Stuffed Chicago Pizza

literarydelights — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:34:35 +0000

Cravings are odd. It’s been at least 5 years since I last had Chicago double-stuffed pizza and yet for the first time last night I was absolutely longing for it. I’m really not sure why. Of course I loved Giordano’s back in the day, but even when I lived in Illinois I never really craved it. The irony being that now when the craving struck there wasn’t likely to be a Chicago pizzeria for hundreds of miles. (The Giordano’s site, which allows you to search within a radius of 250 miles, came up with nothing for me.)
So what to do? Obviously make one myself! I didn’t have all the pizza ingredients I would have liked on hand, but I improvised and the result was quite good although needing more cheese (I’ve adjusted the recipe below accordingly). My biggest regret was not having mushrooms–somehow they’re the one pizza topping/stuffing I love above all others.
Kale White Cheddar Double Stuffed Chicago Pizza
adapted from Andrea Meyers’ recipe
1 batch pizza dough (see note)
1 bunch fresh kale
1-2 leeks
1/2 bell pepper
1/2 onion
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T. olive oil
1 tomato, chopped
16 oz (that would be 1 lb) extra sharp white cheddar, sliced or grated
Sauce:
15 oz petite diced tomatoes
1 cup pasta sauce
1 t. dried oregano
1 t. dried basil
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan
Mix all the sauce ingredients and set aside.
Remove the stems from the kale and steam for 3 minutes until slightly softened. Squeeze dry and chop coarsely.
Meanwhile, slice the leeks, dice the onion and green pepper. Saute for 1 minute in 1 T. olive oil, then add the garlic and saute until the vegetables are just beginning to soften. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 450 F. Divide your risen pizza dough in half. Roll half into a circle large enough to cover the bottom and sides and slightly overlap the edges of a 12-inch pizza pan or cast iron skillet. Tuck it gently into the pan and layer half the cheese on the bottom. Add the kale, onions, peppers, tomatoes, or whatever other toppings you chose to use and then top with the remaining cheese. Roll the second half of the dough into a circle the size of your pan and lay on top, crimping the edges with the first circle of dough to form a slight wall around the edge of the pizza. This will ideally keep your sauce from running everywhere. (As you can see, I didn’t make my “walls” tall enough and ended up with slightly burnt edges.) Cut a couple of steam vents in the top crust, then gently pour your sauce on top. Bake 30-35 minutes until crust is done and cheese is completely melted.
Remove from the pan onto a wooden cutting board and let cool 5-10 minutes to prevent burning your tongue. Enjoy!

Notes: I haven’t included the pizza dough recipe because I’m guessing it’s something that most people will have already and will otherwise be easy to find. Really a basic high-gluten bread dough recipe will work fine; but if you’re still searching just use Andrea’s.
It is very important that you squeeze all possible moisture from your kale and any other “juicy” toppings, or you will have a sadly soggy bottom crust.
Speaking of toppings, use whatever you like. Any regular pizza topping will be just fine, or you could stick to a plain cheese pizza and that would be completely acceptable as well. If you like crunchy in your pizza, you can also skip the part where you saute the vegetables to soften them. And while I enjoyed my cheddar, I should note that traditionalists will want to stick to mozzarella.
If you happen to be in possession of a deep-dish pizza pan, use it. I was not, but found that a 12-inch cast iron skillet did the job just fine. Be sure that whatever pan you pick has sides at least 2 inches tall, though!

Daring Bakers: Croissants!

literarydelights — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:10:21 +0000

I can hardly say how excited I was about this month’s challenge. Really, who doesn’t love fresh croissants? I’ve actually been wishing I had a good recipe for them, and this is a really simple and easy one. Yes, I just said that about a recipe with 57 steps But compared to my last foray into laminated dough, this was absolutely a piece of cake! I recommend it to all the aspiring French bakers out there.

Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

There’s always hope

literarydelights — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:08:05 +0000

I’ve wished for quite some time that I was a gardener. Growing your own food, having garden fresh veggies and herbs, enjoying the sunshine…Ah, a wonderful life. Except that just about everything I plant dies before it’s an inch tall. No exaggeration. Until I came home from Christmas vacation an found a lonely potato trying (unsuccessfully) to root itself in the linoleum floor of my pantry. I joked that I should stick it in a pot of dirt and see if it grew and my sister took me up on it. The result:
Dinner for two.

This one’s for you, Dad

literarydelights — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:06:28 +0000

Daring Bakers: “Frasier”

literarydelights — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:58:25 +0000

I really need to stop trying to do these in individual-size portions. They never quite come out looking right. This one is especially unfortunate in that I made it at the last minute so the photo you see is it still chilling in cling wrap before being turned out. But the cake tastes good and the pastry cream tastes good and cherries are ALWAYS good, so I think the flavor should be fine. Still, this is one I’m pulling back out when it’s strawberry season so I can actually make a real Frasier.

Blog-checking lines: Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

Daring Bakers: Baklava

literarydelights — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:43:23 +0000

I was both excited and a bit nervous to try this one. Homemade filo? Is that even possible? Well, yes, it is. Mine didn’t turn out quite as delicate as I had hoped, but it was a great first attempt and certainly not something I’d be afraid to try a second time. Yay!

Blog-checking lines: Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.