Pizza dough (p. 607) and Focaccia (p. 607)

I'm not sure what motivated me to make Pizza dough (p. 607) other than I wanted to make a bread recipe and pizza sounded good.  I usually just buy my pizza dough at Whole Foods because I hated baking at high altitude.  And Whole Foods has good pizza dough! 

(I know these posts are super late so I'm not going to backdate them.  Look forward to a lot of posts all at once)

I mixed water and yeast:

Yeasty!

I added flour, olive oil, and salt.  I omitted the sugar because I don't like my pizza dough sweet (does anyone?):

I mixed it by hand for a minute:

And started kneading.  TJOC always recommends kneading for what I think is way too long.  I kneaded until it looked good:

At this point I separated the dough into three sections because I was only going to make pizza with part of it, I was going to make Focaccia (p. 607).  I covered all the dough so that it could rise. 

It went from this: 

To this: 

   I punched it down, rolled it into a ball, and let it rise for another 10 minutes.  I flattened the ball, stretched it, brushed it with olive oil, and made a pizza!  I never use pizza stones but some people swear by them.  I would love to know your experiences in the comments....

It was really good although no better than the pizza dough from Whole Foods!  So I don't know if I would bother with it in the future.  You all know my theory--if it's not better or cheaper homemade than I might as well just buy it.  Your time is worth something, right?

I like focaccia but almost never buy it.  I took the pizza dough, rolled it out, and put it in a baking dish.  

Well, actually two dishes.  They were let raise in the pans.

I topped mine with garlic, olives, and spices!

I topped moms with mushrooms, garlic, and tomatoes:

I wish you could have smelled how terrific these were when they were cooked:

Focaccia is totally worth making.  Honestly, it was delicious and easy.  And I'm sure you could make it with store-bought pizza dough if you didn't want to make it from true scratch.  I even think mom froze some of it and ate it later and that totally worked.  Has anyone else made focaccia?  How did it turn out?

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Joy of Cooking-75th Anniversary Edition - 2006 (Google Affiliate Ad)

Strawberry shortcake (p. 733) and Cream biscuits or shortcakes (p. 639)

I had strawberries and desperately wanted strawberry shortcake. I love strawberry shortcake. In fact, I think strawberry shortcake is probably in my top four favorite desserts (the others being s'mores, ice cream cake, and chocolate lava cake). Unfortunately, I didn't have the little sponge bottoms or pound cake. I decided not to let that stop me and looked up Strawberry shortcake (p. 733)

TJOC gives a lot of choices for the "shortcake" part of the recipe. I chose to make Cream biscuits or shortcakes (p. 639).

The recipe was very simple. I whisked together flour, baking powder, and salt:



I added heavy cream (all at once):



I blended until the dry ingredients were just moistened. I kneaded it a few times:





And cut it in to squares (easier than rounds):



And baked:



Super easy. I think it took less than five minutes to make these biscuits (well, without the baking time).

Once my biscuits were done, the rest of the recipe was simple. I hulled my strawberries, mashed a quarter of them with a potato masher, and sliced the rest. I added sugar to the strawberries:



I whipped some cream. I cut the biscuits down the middle, filled the biscuits with strawberries, and plopped whipped cream over the top:



This is the first time I had ever eaten a biscuit based strawberry shortcake and I was pleasantly surprised. The biscuits were tender and flaky and surprisingly sweet for not having any added sugar. Josh adored them and ate them for days (he insisted they heated up well). I was really glad to start my biscuit making this way because they were so simple I'm actually looking forward to the others.

What's your favorite base for strawberry shortcake? Biscuits, sponge cake, pound cake, or something else?

Sadly, although I thought these were good and happily ate my fill, I like my strawberry shortcake with those little sponge cakes from the grocery store and Cool Whip just as well.

Root vegetable braise (p. 246) and Beer, cheese, and scallion bread (p. 629)

I think a lot of people probably pass right by Root vegetable braise (p. 246) because of...well...because of the root vegetables. They aren't your normal, everyday root veggies, like potatoes or carrots.

These root vegetables: Turnips, rutabaga, and celery root:



are just not as popular as potatoes and carrots. I decided to post a before and after shot because I figure not everyone even knows what they look like. Turnips and rutabaga can easily be peeled with a normal veggie peeler. Celery root is more of a pain. I just chop at it with a knife. The naked veggies:



I heated olive oil, butter, a bay leaf, and thyme in a stock pot (I was supposed to use a sprig of thyme but I didn't have any):



I added diced onions and cooked until they started to brown. I then added four large mushrooms (creminis, if you are interested) and some garlic:



It was all cooked for a few minutes and I added wine. After the wine had boiled down to a syrup, I added turnips, rutabaga, celery root, a little flour, and some salt, along with some chicken stock:



I simmered it all until tender:



I added a little Dijon mustard and heavy cream (TJOC's two favorite ingredients):



This is a great introduction to underutilized root vegetables. It was delicious and flavorful, although I would add a little more flour in the future, because I think it needed to be thicker. I think the braise would be great on couscous. It's mentioned that you could also add sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes), artichoke hearts, fennel, or salsify, so it's a great use for that stuff in your CSA box that you have no idea how to use.

On a whim, I decided to make Beer, cheese, and scallion bread (p. 629).

I mixed together whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, rolled oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt:



I added in light beer (Miller High Life, if you were wondering, the Champagne of beers):



I stirred in finely diced Monterey Jack, sliced scallions, and caraway seeds and poured it in to a loaf pan:



It was popped in the oven:



I'll admit, I was doomed to not like this recipe. I don't like whole grain bread so those oats were going to be a problem. I particularly don't like whole wheat. And this bread was plenty whole-grainy, so for those of you who like that, this bread will probably be a winner. It also had a heavy, heavy, heavy beer taste that I didn't particularly love either. On top of all that, it seemed sort of salty to me.

Random facts:

• Beer bread is based on the idea that both beer and bread have a common element in yeast (Wikipedia)
• Miller High Life is considered the "Champagne of beers" because of the high carbonation level (like champagne!) (Wikipedia)
• Miller High Life has been around since 1903
• Celery root is also called Celeriac (On Food and Cooking, p. 309)
• The rutabaga results from a cross between turnips and cabbage (OFaC, p. 316)

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Irish soda bread (p. 629) and Crusty soft-center spoon bread (p. 634)

Most of you know my fear of baking bread at high-altitude. But that worry doesn't apply to quick-breads that don't include yeast, like Irish soda bread (p. 629). I had never had Irish soda bread before, so I had no idea at all what to expect.

I mixed flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt:



In another bowl (or, in this case, a measuring cup) I melted butter and added buttermilk and an egg (less dirty dishes!):



I will say, I differed from the recipe enough that some of you might not consider this Irish soda bread. I don't like raisins and I refused to add them. So you will just have to imagine a cup of raisins in these pictures.

I added the butter mixture to the flour mixture and shaped it in to a mound on a pizza pan:



Apparently you can use a loaf pan but the random mound seemed more interesting. I slashed an x on top and popped it in to the oven:



Delicious. This was super good. It was like a giant biscuit. Josh was in love with it. This raisin-free Irish soda bread is a perfect compliment to any meal. Make sure not to overmix the dough! It should not be kneaded.

I also decided to make Crusty soft-center spoon bread (p. 634). I had been hearing a lot of spoon bread talk on Twitter and had no idea what to expect. Why would you serve bread with a spoon?

I mixed yellow cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in one bowl and an egg and milk in another:



I melted butter in the bottom of my pan and poured in the batter. I then poured milk over the top (what?):



And popped it in the oven:



Strange. The milk mostly sank in. This was much closer to polenta than to cornbread but it was tasty. The spoon bread was rich and smooth. I did not serve it using a spoon.

Random facts:

• Wikipedia agrees with me that spoonbread isn't really a bread (they consider it more of a savory pudding)
• Soda bread is such named because it includes baking soda rather than yeast (Wikipedia)

I'm sure there are more interesting facts about these two items, I just don't want to find them. Feel free to add!

Herb or roasted garlic muffins (p. 635)

Those of you who like reading about my cooking mishaps, this is a post for you!

I knew that we needed some sort of bread because Josh is a carbophile and it was his birthday meal. I've often eyed the Herb or roasted garlic muffins (p. 635), even going so far as the roast the garlic and forget what I meant to use it for a couple times. I like savory muffins much more than sweet muffins. I honestly think that Red Lobster's cheddar muffins are one of the most delicious things in chain restaurants today (although I unfortunately don't like most of the other offerings at RL).

In one bowl I mixed flour, baking powder, and salt. In the other I mixed eggs, cream, and melted butter:



I combined the two and folded in a head of roasted garlic (peeled and mashed) and some lemon zest:



It's imperative not to overmix when you are making muffins or they will get tough.

I spooned the batter into the muffin pans and popped them in the oven. At this point I noticed a problem.

I had forgot to add the 2/3 cup of sugar.

That's a lot of sugar to forget. It seems like that could be the difference between success and failure for a recipe. I had thought the batter seemed too dry, which is why I was re-reading the recipe. The sugar being left out wouldn't make the mixture seem dry but certainly could be a problem.

The muffins had only been in the oven for a minute or two so I took them back out, dumped them all back in to the bowl, and added the sugar and vanilla:



I mixed them again. I wasn't optimistic about how the muffins were going to turn out--this was a lot of dough abuse. In my defense, I was making a cake, muffins, ham, glaze, carrot puree, and salad dressing, so there was a lot going on.

I spooned them back in to the muffin trays and cooked them for about 17 minutes:



Perfection. Perfect outside and inside:



Believe it or not, they actually turned out quite good, which I would never have expected. They were still light and flaky (probably not quite as light and flaky as they would have been but very acceptable). They weren't particularly sweet and I think it would have been a disaster without the sugar. The roasted garlic was a nice undertone and they were terrific with the ham (although I think they would be even better with a pork roast). Next time I make them, I might add a little cheese.

I think this is a testament to why you should try to save screwups instead of just throwing them away. Sometimes you can rescue a mistake.

Random info:

• Muffins stale quickly because the small amount of fat can't protect the starch (On Food and Cooking, p. 554). This is probably why if you add the higher amount of fat that TJOC calls for (a stick of butter rather than a half stick) and a higher fat milk product (cream rather than milk) the muffins last for much longer.

Milk bread (p. 597)

Rachel and I thought we would make coffee cake for breakfast. In the morning, while trying to force myself out of bed extremely early after a late night, I kept thinking "maybe we don't need bread" while simultaneously knowing that Rachel was likely being responsible and getting the yeast started (which she was). Thank goodness for responsible friends. Most of the coffee cakes start with the dough for Milk bread (p. 597).

Warm milk, butter, sugar, an egg, and a little salt were added to the yeast and it was mixed by hand for about one minute. Two cups of flour were stirred in and an additional two cups of flour were kneaded in until the dough was smooth and elastic:



We set it out to raise until doubled in size. At this point we looked at the coffee cake recipes--apparently you are supposed to use a heckava lot more sugar if you are making a coffee cake. Whoops! It was way too late to add more sugar so we decided to just finish making the milk bread and formed the dough in to a loaf. It sat until it doubled in size again:



And was popped in to the oven:



I thought this bread was awful. It was heavy (it's possible the house was too cold or we didn't let it raise enough) and it had an off flavor that I really disliked. I think it might have been all of the milk. I can't see myself ever making this bread again. Has anyone else made this recipe? Did it turn out the same way?

Thank you Rachel and Jon for all the support! That was a particularly fun couple days of TJOC cooking and it's just going to get more interesting since we've cooked all the obvious recipes!