Today was another one of those days when I was actually motivated to get up early and go to the Brewer Farmer's Market. I won't bore you with pictures of the day's haul, but I got three ears of corn (which turned into my supper), two bunches of very tall scallions, three small but beautiful eggplant (eggplants?), a pound of tiny red and white potatoes (ranging in size from marble to walnut), a canteloupe-sized watermelon reported to have orange flesh, a couple pounds of very cute little pears, a pint of wild blueberries, and a pint of wild blackberries. Grand total, $17 (the berries weren't exactly cheap, but they're well worth it.).
I was most excited about the blackberries. Fresh, wild blackberries aren't easy to come by. The woman selling them picked them in her backyard and promised that they hadn't been sprayed with anything -- no pesticides, no fertilizers... and let me tell you, they were perfect. I ate a couple of handfuls as is, and used the rest to -- what else -- bake something!
My friend Kacie makes a killer blueberry coffee cake. I got the recipe from her a few weeks ago, and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. It's from a Betty Crocker cookbook that was published in the early 80s. I can't credit it any better than that because that's all I know about it. The book gives a recipe for Streusel Coffee Cake, and then gives several variations, including blueberry coffee cake, peanut butter and jelly coffee cake, and whole wheat coffee cake. I ended up making a variation on a combination of variations of the cake.
Blackberry Coffee Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups blackberries
Heat oven to 350. Beat flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, milk, and egg in a large mixer bowl on low speed 30 seconds. Then beat on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 2 minutes. Spread half the batter into a greased pan, either 13x9x2 or9x9x2. Sprinkle with 1 cup blackberries. Top with remaining batter. Sprinkle with remaining bluberries. Bake oblong cake about 35 minutes, square about 40 minutes. Drizzle warm coffee cake with mixture of 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp. grated lemon peel, and 1 to 2 tbsp. lemon juice.
I baked mine in an 8x12x2 pan for about 40 minutes, and it came out great, if not completely photogenic...
It's light, fluffy, and moist. The cake is sweet, the berries are tart, and the glaze is sweet-tart. The whole-wheat flour makes for a wonderfully (but not overwhelming!) earthy, nutty flavor. The lemon in the glaze is a nice contrast to the berries. Instead of putting the lemon zest in the glaze, I grated it over the cake after I glazed it. you can see a couple specks of it if you use your imagination.
If you want to try Kacie's blueberry version of this cake, just use blueberries instead of blackberries, and use all AP flour instead of half whole-wheat. I can't decide which one I like best!
Look how much much my dough rose during its 20 hours in the fridge!
Here's what it turned into:
Jammin’ Breakfast Buns
Pinch off 9 ounces of Oat-Bran Refrigerator Dough and shape into six balls. Arrange the balls in an 8-inch round baking pan. Cover the buns and let them rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 35 minutes. Make a depression in the center of each bun, and fill it with 1-½ teaspoons of fruit preserves. Bake at 350 for 12 to 14 minutes. This recipe makes 6 buns.
What a strange dough. It's a lot more like play-doh than elastic-y, gluten-y bread dough. It's actually a bit easier to work with than traditional dough. I used the whole 1-3/4 lb. batch of dough and made a total of 18 buns, in two cake pans. They’re smaller than the recipe calls for, but this is kind of a potluck party – there will be several things for people to nibble on, so smaller buns make more sense. Here they are before baking...
And after...
I know, there's not much difference between before and after...
Do you like my flowery design? The yellow filling is ginger preserve, and the dark red is damson plum jam, both thanks to our friends the Trappist Monks of Spencer, MA. I like the contrast in the colors.
The one thing to be careful of if you try this recipe is making the indentations in the risen buns. I was a bit overenthusiastic and deflated the first couple I did. Fortunately, they came out OK anyway! They smelled so good baking. I can't wait to try them!
Friday is my friend/co-worker Derrick’s last day at the station. You may remember him as the one who helped me invent the Limeburner a couple of months ago. He is going on to what he hopes will be bigger and better things, in Indianapolis. I’m not sure how anyone can live that far away from the ocean… and neither is he. But opportunity is knocking there. I wish him lots of luck and happiness.
As is our tradition when someone leaves the “Morning Crew,” we are having a little party for Derrick on Friday. This means those of us who remember will bring in some kind of fun food, and there will be a card and probably a little parting gift. I, of course, will jump on any opportunity to bake something, so I spent a little Quality Time with some of my cookbooks this afternoon. As is so often the case, I found something in my favorite bread book, “Smart Bread Machine Recipes” by Sandra L. Woodruff. For the sake of creating as many blog entries as possible, I am stretching this project out over two days. It will make sense as you read along. =)
Oat-Bran Refrigerator Dough
1 pound 1 ½ pound
bread flour2 cups3 cups
oat bran1 cup1 ½ cups
yeast2 tsp1 tbsp
sea salt¾ tsp1 1/8 tsp
sugar1 tbsp1 ½ tbsp
lecithin granules or vegetable oil4 tsp2 tbsp
skim milk or water 1 cup + 1 tbsp1 ½ cups + 2 tbsp
Put everything in the machine’s bread pan, and turn the bread machine on its RISE setting. Remove the dough after 25 minutes. Place the dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 6 hours and up to 2 days. You may also freeze the dough and thaw it when you’re ready to use it. When ready to use, proceed with any of the following variations; use a food scale to weigh the required amount of dough. The smaller machine makes 1 ¼ pounds of dough; the larger machine makes about 1 ¾ pounds.
Surprised to see me make bread dough that’s mostly white flour? Come on… it’s a party!
I made the larger recipe, using lecithin granules and whole milk (because it’s what I have!). I assumed that when the recipe said to “remove the dough after 25 minutes,” it meant to put it in the fridge as soon as it was done being mixed and kneaded. My machine happens to take 30 minutes for those processes. I let it go. I can’t imagine 5 extra minutes will render the dough useless!
Here’s the dough in its bowl, ready to live in the fridge for about 20 hours…
Tomorrow, find out what I have chosen to make with this dough!
PS: My pitas do, in fact, make pretty good pizza crust!
I don't know what gets into me that makes me want to bake something on the hottest, most humid days of the year, but that's just what I did again yesterday. For a couple of years, I have been on a half-hearted search for a recipe for Greek-style pita bread. Not those dry, cardboardy pockets I buy at the grocery store -- I mean the nice soft, fluffy flatbreads that get wrapped around, not stuffed with, fillings. Most of the recipes that I found all described the beads as pockets. Bleccchhh.
What inspired my most recent quest for such a recipe were the eggplant sandwichesI had at the National Folk Festival over the weekend. They were made with just the kind of bread I want. Monday morning, a light bulb popped on over my head and I Googled "Greek pita bread recipe." It was a fruitful, or rather doughful, search. Here's the recipe I found at "Susie's Place,"part of faliraki-info.com:
Greek Pita Bread
This recipe for Greek pita bread can be used for 'souvlaki' and 'gyros' sandwiches, or if baked for longer makes an excellent pita pocket.
Ingredients:
1 envelope dry granular yeast
1 tbs. sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tsp. salt
4 cups white all purpose flour
1 tbs. olive oil
Combine the yeast and sugar in a small bowl, add 1/2 cup of the warm water and let it stand for 10 minutes to proof and ferment it. Dissolve the salt in the remaining warm water. Put the flour in a large mixing bowl, making a well in the middle and put the dissolved yeast and salt water into it.
With your hands, blend it into a dough. You may need a bit more or less water depending on your flour. Knead the dough in the bowl with your fists for 10-15 minutes or until it is smooth. Pour the oil over the dough and knead it again until the oil is absorbed. Cover the dough in the bowl with a towel and set it in a draft free area to rise to double it's bulk (1-2 hours), then punch it down and knead it again for a few minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Cut pieces of dough, egg size or larger, depending on the size of the pita desired, shape them into balls with your hands and roll them out over a lightly floured board or pastry cloth to 1/4 inch thickness. Set 2 or 3 pites on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake them on the lower rack 2 to 3 minutes each side. Bake longer for pita pockets.
Susie's Note: Pites should be white and soft. Wrap the baked pitas in a clean towel until they are cool, then store them in plastic bags to prevent them from drying out. When you are ready to use them, heat a bit of oil in a shallow skillet and fry them a minute or so on each side, or until golden brown. Use them immediately, because they get hard when they dry out.
I, of course, tempted fate a bit -- mostly intentionally. I used 1 1/2 cups of whole-wheat flour to replace some of the white flour, and made the dough in my bread machine. Unintentionally, in auto-pilot bread-baker mode, I used bread flour instead of AP flour.
After letting the machine mix and raise the dough, I had a very soft, sticky mass of dough on my kneading mat. I kneaded in a bit more flour and cut the dough into eight pieces. After a combination of rolling out and hand stretching the balls of dough, I ended up with something that looked a lot like I thought it should look:
I put them in the oven and found that I needed about five minutes per side instead of Susie's two to three, and here's what came out:
They're close. Very close. The bread flour didn't seem to hurt anything, nor did the whole-wheat flour. The bread is soft, doughy, and pliable -- just about right for slathering with hummus and filling with olives, feta, cucumbers, and romaine -- or eggplant and salsa! They are just a bit too thick, though. They will need to be heated before using so they don't break when I fold them. That's more than likely why they took a bit longer to cook than was called for. Next time I will make more of an effort to roll them out a little thinner, and I think I will have it right. Plus, I think I'll go up to 2 or even 2 1/2 cups of WW flour. Oh -- I got eight pitas out of the recipe. They're pretty generously sized. Maybe I'll aim for ten next time.
I also think they'll make fabulous instant pizza crusts! That's tonight's experiment.
So much to write about, and so little of it food related! Here goes... =)
Last weekend was the National Folk Festival's third and final year in Bangor. I attended all three days of all three years, and had such a blast every year! How could three days of world music and ethnic foods not be fun?!? I'll try not to bore you with too many details, but I thought I'd share some highlights. Here are a few pictures of my three favorite acts of this year:
Kotchegna, an Ivorian Coast dance and percussion ensemble:
I can't say enough good about Solas. They are an Irish-American "Trad" (short for "traditional") band. All of the members are Irish, or at the very least have lived there for an extended period of time. They do play mostly traditional Irish music, but they add their own twists and turns.
The lead singer has one of those perfect, clear, sweet, Irish voices. The fiddle player is a NYC native, and is extremely talented and completely adorable. The guitar player seems to be the strong, silent type who gets lost in his music. The pushbutton accordian player not only plays that accordian like there's no tomorrow, but also plays several other instruments and writes music. And the guy way over to the left, Seamus Egan...
... is The Man, as far as I'm concerned. Among other things, he founded the band, plays (and is an All-Ireland champion on) many instruments, writes a lot of the band's material, arranges covers, and scores movies. I went to see this band solely on the info that among the movies he's scored is "The Brothers McMullen." Now, we all know that the big hit from that soundtrack, and the song that really made Sarah McLachlan a star in this country, is "I Will Remember You." Sarah is, to me, God. I love her music, I love her voice. But back to Solas. If I have my story straight, it turns out that several years before "Brothers" came out, Seamus had written a song called "Weep Not for the Memories." He and Sarah re-wrote it for the movie, and it became "I Will Remember You."
I went to Solas' performance Saturday night expecting to be bored by the same old, same old reels and jigs. Boy, was I surprised. They reeled and jigged, but not like I'd ever heard before! They are so energetic... so together... so tight... and so obviously having fun. They did a cover of Bob Dylan's "Dignity" that made me cry. I got so hooked, I went back to see them Sunday afternoon! And lucky me, I have friends in high places: my TV station did a lot of coverage of the festival, including 4-1/2 hours of live broadcasting on Friday (all of which I directed!). We just so happened to have gotten a lot of promotional material from a lot of the groups that performed there. We just so happened to have gotten a Solas CD for promotional purposes. And now I just so happen to have that CD in my posession now, to have and to hold until death do us part! How good is life?
I'll stop gushing over Solas now and talk a little bit about the food at the festival. There were lots of ethnic foods, of course, like Korean, Philippino, and Greek, along with lots of Maine foods. Unfortunately, it was pretty hot and humid all weekend, so I wasn't very hungry most of the time I was there. But here's what I did eat...
My favorite Maine food at the festival is the "Pie Cone." I'll let you read about them on your own, but let's suffice it to say that I had two over the course of the weekend -- both raspberry cheesecake. Heaven.
Saturday's supper was from another Maine vendor -- an eggplant and hummus wrap from a restaurant in Millinocket. Eggplant grilled to perfection, topped with romaine lettuce, a cucumber/tomato/pepper/onion salsa, hummus, and tapenade, all wrapped up in a soft, fluffy, doughy Greek-style pita bread. It was so good, I had another one for lunch on Sunday. They're served at "room" temperature, so they aren't too hot or too heavy for the hot, heavy weather.
Saturday's dessert, "Ooey Gooey Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake," came from another restaurant in Millinocket. Two layers of very dense, almost brownie-like chocolate cake with a thick layer of straight-up peanut butter in the middle, and a thin layer of ganache on top. I had to share it with my cousin, it was so rich. And so good.
I also had a pretty good cup of lemonade. I really wanted limeade, but they ran out of limes before Saturday was even over!
I didn't really think about it over the weekend, but all I ate at the festival was Maine food! I guess I had my fill of ethnic foods the first two years. I had tried pretty much everything from around the world that interested me, so this year was dedicated to trying food from around my state. I wasn't disappointed with anything. In fact, I may be so lucky as to have access to the eggplant wrap recipe soon... I'll find out tomorrow when I see our morning weather guy. Sound intriguing? It's a convoluted story, but it makes sense to me. =)
The National Folk Festival moves to Virginia (Richmond, I think) for the next three years, which is a little sad -- but only a little. The festival was so successful here, and broke so many attendance records for such a small town, that the city is planning its own festival, called "The American Folk Festival," to replace it -- for as many years as they can keep it going! I really hope it works out, and I really hope that the city, without much help from national organizations, can match the quality, diversity, and FUN of the National Folk Festival!
