I’m back from my self-imposed hiatus…sort of. I know I’ve been M.I.A. from the blog for several weeks. I’ve got a good reason. You see, I’ve finally found a full-time job! No, I don’t mean in a kitchen–that professional chapter has more or less run its course sadly. My body (specifically my poor feet, ankles, and back…not to mention my hands and wrists) no longer want to spend 14 hours a day standing in a hot kitchen on concrete floors (yeah, those rubber mats can only do so much), pulling scorching sheet pans in and out of ovens, and piping, scooping, forming, mixing insane amounts of dough, etc. Instead, I’ll be applying my skills in other ways…as an editor working for the popular food site Serious Eats.
For the last month or so, I’ve been writing bios (57 at last count) for SE’s countless contributors and editing content, all from the comfort of my sofa with my ever-present pup Violet perched over my shoulder in her favorite spot on top of the back cushions. “Comfort” is a relative term since sitting on the sofa is hardly the most ergonomic position from which to work, even with a laptop pillow/stand (I bought an actual office chair last week). It’s been a little weird adjusting to my new full-time work life, especially since I’ve never really worked like this for an extended period before. My work-from-home routine in the past has mostly been centered in my kitchen, so this pounding away on my laptop for 8 hours a day takes some getting used to. The fact that I have to take Violet out to pee every 4-5 hours forces me to get up and stretch my legs. Unlike my previous office job, this one is extremely flexible. If I want, I can work shorter hours 6-7 days a week, or take longer breaks in between to run errands, like getting a haircut.
However, I’ve discovered that as much I as long for flexible work life, I invariably need a modicum of structure and routine. It’s like following a recipe. I don’t necessarily have to follow it to a T, but it’s good to start off with a reliable framework, which is definitely the case in baking. So now it’s a matter of figuring out where regular exercise (oh, the bane of my existence!), cooking/baking experiments, monthly bake sales, blog posts, and “me time” fit into my 40-hour workweek.
Suffice it to say my cooking/baking experiments of late have been sporadic at best, which haven’t given me much material to blog about–though I suppose I could’ve blogged about my affection for WandaVision and Black Widow, and caving in to the temptation (for now anyway) to subscribe to Disney+. Thank you Rina for nudging me with those group messages about all the cool things I couldn’t watch because I didn’t have Disney+, filling me with FOMO. Without digressing too much, let me just gush for a moment about how much I freaking loved binging all of WandaVision in one day (then immediately followed up with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier). For television and pop culture junkies like me, Rina, and Laura, WandaVision spoke our “family sitcom” language, and it was glorious! Don’t even get me started on the plethora of MCU Easter eggs dotting the WandaVision landscape.
Back to the food…
What I’ve been cooking and baking:
Sourdough Bread –
I’m generally not a consistent “loaf a week’ sourdough bread baker–not that it’s a particularly labor intensive or really time consuming endeavor. I just don’t think about it until I remember I have to feed my starter Barney. Depending on how lively Barney is at any given moment, I may or may not feel like putting in the effort to feed it a few times before actually baking bread. Lately, Barney has been pretty healthy, so I’ve been baking loaves more often…and they’ve been coming out with a beautifully open, airy texture. The reason I suspect is because I’ve been letting the dough hang out longer at room temperature in between stages of stretching/folding and final resting. I’d be lying if I said I planned it that way, but this “technique” happened by accident. I was too engrossed in writing and editing, kept forgetting about the dough. Instead of stretching/folding every 30 minutes, I was doing it every 45-50 minutes. Of course since I was preoccupied, I would lose track of how many times I’d done this, which resulted in a very well stretched dough. I also skipped the bench resting period and proceeded directly to shaping and final proving, leaving the shaped dough out for 1-2 hours before placing it in the fridge for an overnight rest. And voila…
This righteous loaf provided me with many slices for sandwiches and avocado toast…sometimes with smoked salmon, sometimes with poached egg…and sometimes both!
Pesto –
Since the pandemic, I haven’t gone to the farmer’s market that much. A recent trip to the Stonestown farmer’s market yielded a bounty (probably way more than I could consume within 2-3 days) of organic produce–lured by a “buy any 3 bags for $5 sign. One of the 3 items was basil. It was a small fragrant bunch, at best enough to make a tiny batch of pesto. My initial plan was to use it to simply top a pizza. But a friend insisted I take a third of her huge bunch of amarynth which she sort of purchased on impulse. Combined with the basil, 5 fat cloves of garlic, parsley, grated parmesan, a little lemon juice, sea salt, pepper, and lots of extra virgin olive oil, Soko’s gifted amarynth made a fantastic, vibrant pesto that was full of peppery, slightly bitter notes and flavor.
I still made pizza…with pesto replacing tomato sauce as the base and topped with lots of summer veggies and Italian sausage.
I stashed the rest of the pesto in the freezer for future use.
Pop Tarts –
My other farmer’s market find were juicy peaches, nectarines, and plums. I ate several au naturel–that is just washed. But me being me, I couldn’t resist turning the rest, along with some Bing cherries I had on hand, into a filling for Pop Tarts.
The key to making a substantial pop tart (by that I mean one with enough filling) is to make a thick filling that will not run out to the sides when you assemble the pop tart. Runny filling will 1) make sealing the edges well impossible, 2) cause leakage during baking 3) result in an insufficiently filled, sad looking pop tart. To guard against this, I use a 50/50 blend of cornstarch and tapioca flour to thicken the fruit juices.
Once the filling is cooled to room temperature, pop it in the freezer for about 30 mins. to chill and firm up, then you’re good to go! Depending on how big you want your pop tarts (I supersized mine), you’ll drop 2-3 teaspoons of filling in the center, leaving about 1/2″ border to seal. I like to brush the border with eggwash before filling to use as a guide.
Crimp the edges with a fork, brush the surface with more eggwash, cut vent holes to let out steam, and sprinkle the surface with coarse or turbinado sugar. Bake the pop tarts in a pre-heated 400F degree oven for about 20-25 mins. until golden brown.
The pop tarts were damn good as is, but I went the extra mile with a drizzle of glaze flavored with almond extract and peach water and garnish of freeze-dried cherry bits.
Pinwheel Scones –
They’re a cross between scones and cinnamon rolls…or, as my neighbor Amy dubbed them “scrolls.” I’ve sandwiched fruity filling between two layers of scone dough before, but I have to say I like this method better–you get more filling with every bite. Karen experimented with a buckwheat scone dough and cherry jam a couple days ago, producing a lovely “scroll.”
I had some stone fruit filling leftover from the pop tarts so I came up with my own pinwheel scone using a dough made with some semolina flour for texture. I ran out of buttermilk so I substituted full-fat Greek yogurt and sour cream (use what you got I say). I flavored the dough with vanilla extract, almond extract, and peach water.
I chilled the dough for about 10 mins. in the freezer to firm it up a bit before rolling out and filling. Once I formed the pinwheel log, I popped it into the freezer again to firm up for another 20 mins. before slicing and baking.
I baked the slices in a preheated 375F degree oven for about 25 mins. until they tested done. I made the same glaze as the one for pop tarts and drizzle it on the cooled pinwheel scones.
The scroll was tender like a cinnamon roll, but with the slightly crisp crust of a scone, and sweet stone fruit in every bite! Oh yeah, I’ll be making these again.
You can use any scone recipe you like for the pinwheels. I just happened to have semolina to play around with, subbing out 25% of the all-purpose flour in the recipe and using some more to roll out the dough. As for the stone fruit filling, I really sweetened it to taste because some of the fruit was on the tangy side. Just remember to add a tiny pinch of salt to bring out the flavor of the fruit, and add a touch of lemon juice to balance out the sweetness if needed. I used about 1 tablespoon each cornstarch and tapioca flour (mixed with 3 tablespoons water) for about 3 cups fruit. It really depends on how juicy your fruit is.
I winged it on the pesto, though a standard pesto recipe will work fine. You can use any combination of tender leafy greens like arugula, spinach, baby kale, or amyranth to pair with basil. I left out the traditional pinenuts since I don’t like them (nor walnuts) and kept mine version nut free.
As for the pop tarts…well the only dough I use these days is my favorite pate brisee, which appears in 75% of my recipes involving a buttery, flaky pastry.
Sourdough bread is an everchanging work in progress for me. At the moment, I’m going with these portions for my dough, which makes one generous loaf:
- 160 g very active starter*
- 375 g water
- 350 g bread flour
- 50 g whole wheat flour
- 100 g dark rye flour
- 14 g sea salt, dissolved in 25 g water
- generous dusting of rice flour to keep the dough from sticking to the bread basket mold
*Make sure your starter is really bubbly and active before making this dough. You can test it by dropping a quarter-size blob into a cup of water to see if it floats. If it doesn’t it ain’t ready.
There are literally thousands of sourdough tutorials on YouTube, so I won’t go into the details here. I will say a couple of good ones are from Claire Saffitz and Joshua Weissman. Like I said, making sourdough bread is an exercise in patience (and purposeful neglect). You just gotta let the dough do its thing. And sometimes it’s the perfect thing to make on the side when you’re working from home.
By the way, for those of you wondering when I’m holding my next bake sale, I’ll probably be skipping July in favor of the first weekend in August. Stay tuned!