My Facebook news feed has become a scrapbook of engagement, wedding and baby pictures. (Whether the individual accounts fall into that chronological order is a topic for another medium.) The pictures of babies have been especially numerous–here’s Baby B making a funny face! And Baby G is laughing at a sound mama made! While others may tire and eventually grow irate of these particular updates, I enjoy them immensely. I get to see stunning pave engagement rings. I’ve never been shy about my preference for children: I’ve volunteered with adopted children at summer camps in the past, I’ve been a babysitter for as long as I can remember, I always make a beeline for the babies at potlucks and gatherings… and so on. I’m completely sure that my energy for kids will wane somewhat when I have my own child to watch around the clock, but for now, I’m happy to help!

James’ fellow resident and his wife (also known as our neighbors and game night partners-in-crime) recently had their first baby, and getting to meet her only a few days after her birth was amazing. I’ve never seen a friend’s baby so soon after delivery–she is so tiny and delicate! And her eyes are the same clear color as her mom’s; I know that babies have pretty poor eyesight at birth, but when she lifted her eyes to mine I really felt like she was looking right at me! I was so grateful for the chance to see her and meet her.

I had toyed with the idea of baking something for them right around her due date, but since the baby’s gender was unknown, I decided to hold off on planning anything. After my impromptu visit, I figured I would jump right in and bake something pink to celebrate! (Which is not to say that pink is for girls only, of course.) But the idea of pink cookies wasn’t terribly appetizing to me. So I thought: why not turn to natural colors? And that’s how I ended up with a dark-pink blackberry glaze.

As for the cookie itself… have you ever wondered why limes don’t get the same kind of love that lemons do? Admittedly, it’s not one of those pressing questions in today’s world. But other than key lime pie, we don’t see a lot of lime-centric desserts out there in the wide world of recipes–which is a shame, seeing that the lime has a sweeter, less mouth-puckering flavor than its citrusy cousin. I know that my recipe is like a tiny drop in a bucket, but hopefully it will encourage you to see limes in more ways than one.

And to my two friends–congratulations on your precious little one! I can’t wait to see the pictures of her in the knitted caterpillar suit.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not the biggest fan of sweets–which, if you follow the pattern of the recipes I post on here, seems pretty hypocritical. I think the biggest word in my tag cloud for this site is “BAKING” as of today (which is very closely followed by “DESSERT” of course.) So why all of the sweets love on this site? James has always joked about how “Baking Holiday” is a more apropos name for what I write about on here–and there is a whole body of evidence on my Recipes page to back up his claim.

I myself may not eat a lot of sweets or candy, but I do love how other people react to desserts and baked goods. Someone may love cheeseburgers–yet another may prefer quinoa salad. Tastes vary across a wide spectrum when savory foods are involved. Yet desserts seem to transcend these preferences; who doesn’t love a sweet note at the end of a meal? Baking to me is really baking for others to enjoy.

Baking is also simple in theory but complicated in practice. To really achieve optimal results, it’s important to know your tools, your techniques and your ingredients. Does your oven heat up evenly? When you mix your sugar into the butter, are you watching for total homogeneity? Have you tested your baking soda recently for its continued ability to cause a rising reaction? (Yep, my science geek is showing!) When you cook something and you mess up–you can usually supplement it with something else in order to salvage it from the trash. Once you place your baked good in the oven… well, if you made a mistake in the preparation, it is mostly a lost cause. The intricacy of the steps present a challenge to me, and I love rising to the occasion.

Lastly… and this is probably the most shallow reason I love baking desserts so much… desserts are pretty. So very pretty, and fun to photograph. Honestly, the only reason this isn’t a dessert blog (and the only reason my husband and I aren’t roly-poly) is because I don’t like eating sweets. And hopefully there is some self-preservation ingrained into that preference as well…

These s’mores cookies are a crowd-pleaser. They’re chewy on the inside and out. They’re liberally mixed with gooey, slightly bitter chocolate and salty-sweet graham cracker crumbles. They’re dotted with soft, pillowy marshmallows that are placed on top after baking to imitate the texture of a s’more–instead of meting into the cookie and being ignored. The knowledge of your kitchen and tools is what keeps the cookies chewy, and damn if they aren’t picturesque to look at. Baking is amazing, indeed.

In order to keep the dough easy to work with, make sure you place the bowl in the fridge while the baking sheet is in use–the colder the dough, the easier it is to roll it into pretty dough balls that turn into perfect round cookies when baked. Make sure you check on them 2 minutes before the suggested bake time if you’re unfamiliar with how quickly your oven cooks–10 minutes works for my oven, but it may not for yours. And if you’re really looking for an authentic campfire s’mores experience, you can eat the cookies after only a few minutes of cooling. I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as my friends do–I doubled this recipe and I still don’t think the cookies survived a full day.

High Altitude Adjustment (for my lovely Colorado friends): Add 2 Tbsp. of AP flour & 2 Tbsp. of water, subtract 1 tsp. of white sugar from the recipe. Set the oven to 365ºF (+15ºF from recipe) and reduce the bake time by 2-3 minutes.

A few weekends ago, I was given a bounty of persimmons from my aunt. Her sister has a large persimmon tree in her yard that apparently inundates their family with persimmons come fall–her family, in turn, tries to give away persimmons before they spoil. When she asked me on the phone about my persimmon preferences, I figured I was getting maybe 2 or 3 at most. Imagine my surprise when I met her & her family for lunch and saw ~10-12 persimmons in a bag for me!

I was determined to not let this gift go to waste and soon set about looking for recipes involving persimmon. To be honest, however–there isn’t a large amount of literature dedicated to baking or cooking with persimmons. Its subtle sweetness is best carried through the fresh fruit itself–the meatiness of the flesh gives the impression of an almost savory sweetness. I finally settled on a recipe that I found by Martha Stewart–the household goddess herself. How can you go wrong with her? (Well, let’s forget that little stock trading fiasco of yesteryear of course…)

Because my Fuyu persimmons were hard as rocks I puréed them with my food processor before carrying on with the recipe. If I had the choice, I would wait until they were much softer and more ripe then mash the fruit instead; this would have left more chunks of persimmon in the consistency of the bread itself. But after waiting 2 weeks to make this recipe–no kidding, I really waited  in hopes the fruit would ripen!–I figured that I would rather carry through than wait any longer. NOTE: you can only use hard persimmons if they are Fuyu persimmons, or the persimmons with a flat bottom. If you have Hachiya persimmons, which taper to a point at the bottom, you must wait until they are fully ripe and soft before baking with them–otherwise they are quite sour.

The brioche used was from a recipe by Dorie Greenspan, from the fantastic cookbook Around My French Table. (I received it as a gift from my younger brother a few Christmases ago and have been in love with it ever since.) Yes, that’s right–I made my own brioche! It was just as finicky as I had anticipated, and I definitely found that my experience with baking my own bread in the past was a huge resource and help for baking brioche. Honestly, I think the most important part about making brioche is having a stand mixer. Trying to make brioche without one is downright masochistic. I didn’t document my brioche adventure because it was my first attempt, but I’m sure you’ll see something pop up on this site in the future about it..

I’ve not been a huge fan of bread pudding in the past–I found it dense and overpowering–but I think I’ve been eating the wrong types or at the wrong places, because this recipe is delicious. I loved the subtlety of the white chocolate and persimmon; if anything, I would probably reduce the amount of cinnamon and nutmeg by a little more so that they don’t overpower the main flavors. I’ve made a few changes to the recipe and the methods involved in order to get a more consistent bread pudding than my first attempt–I hope you find the recipe helpful and easy to follow! I also cut the recipe in half since James & I can barely finish one serving each on our own.

This dessert would make a great statement at the end of any autumn night with a cup of coffee or glass of milk; a lot of the other folks who have made this pudding have served it as an elegant dessert after Thanksgiving dinner. Whichever way you choose to serve it, I hope you enjoy it!

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart.

Hello! I love bread, don’t you? It may not be the most diet-friendly food around… or easiest to make at times… but man, that first bite from a freshly baked loaf can’t be beat. My first post on here was about how baking bread isn’t as intimidating as you would think. And this post–well, normally I would list the recipe, but I can’t claim any kind of credit for it and will therefore kindly link you to Steamy Kitchen. Jaden’s step-by-step details on how to make French bread are what eased me into trying it in the first place. It is an absolute gem of a recipe that I use time and time again for a perfect loaf–and I can’t recommend it enough!

So what is the point of this entry, then? Well–I figured I would fill in the gaps from her recipe with pictures! The hardest part of this recipe was picturing how to do certain steps as an utter novice, so I figured I would take a few pictures of my process and hope they encourage others to give baking bread a shot. In the end, practice makes perfect–I don’t believe I’m anywhere near skilled at baking bread yet, but I do see marked improvement each time I bake. Hopefully you will find these pictures as helpful as I intend them to be!

Okay, gross–what is that? It looks like it… kneads something…

Yeah, I’ll stop now.

So the recipe calls for the bread to initially be mixed with a stand mixer before turning it out onto a lightly floured surface to work the last 1/4 cup (bread) flour into the dough. When you first turn it out, it will be sticky and kind of a pain to work with–this is normal! Just keep pouring a little bit of flour onto the top of the dough, press it in, then knead. How, you ask?

Fold the dough in half away from you (it will look like a taco laying down–see where the fold lies in the picture above?) then press with the heel of your palm. Continue to press around the fold and the dough surface until the fold is indistinguishable–then give the dough a quarter-turn (top becomes the right side, bottom becomes the left, etc.) and repeat. Continue doing this for another 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and satiny; most importantly, the dough will be elastic. Pull the rough edges underneath the mound to form a ball and pinch the bottom together so it holds a ball shape, like so:

And now it’s time to let your ball of dough rise for its first leavening! Use non-stick spray (or rub butter or oil) on the inside of a larger bowl, then place your dough ball in the bowl, smooth-side up. Don’t forget to rub the ball around the bowl so that the oil/butter will coat the surface of the dough! After that, cover the bowl with a dish towel and set a timer for an hour. To speed up the process, you can place the dough near the oven.

After an hour has passed, you’ll see that the dough has doubled in size. Congratulations, your yeast is burping! Or producing gas as a by-product… same thing.

Quite the difference, isn’t it?

Divide the dough into two–we’re making two loaves. Leave one of the balls of dough underneath a dish towel to keep it from drying out. Stretch out the other piece of dough until it reaches ~1 foot in length. For an even loaf, I pull the dough until it is oblong, then roll it between my palms to keep the dough distribution even.

Once you have stretched the dough to an appropriate length, turn the dough to its ‘uglier’ side (whatever side reflects the rough edges that you initially folded underneath the ball, before its first rise) and chop the dough lengthwise down the center with your hand… no, really, like a karate chop!

This will cause a gap in the center of the dough. Fold one of the sides to slightly overlap the other and pinch to seal in the gas produced by the yeast from escaping. Sound confusing? Here’s a picture that hopefully illustrates what I’m talking about:

See how the ends are pinched into the center seam as well? This is probably one of the most important steps, as it makes the bread much less dense!

After you finish pinching the dough, turn it right-side up and cover it with a dish towel while you work on the other loaf. Once both are done, cover them with the towel and allow them to rise for another 30 minutes. In order to make the trip from the counter to the oven much easier, I slipped parchment paper underneath each loaf and would recommend you do the same! I then pre-heated the oven to 450ºF and placed my baking stone in the center rack to reach the same temperature as the oven.

SIDE NOTE: Have you ever wondered how they managed to get the crust so glossy and brown at professional bakeries? Well, the (not-so) secret trick to doing so is introducing a lot of steam in the oven right after you place the dough on the baking stone. This creates condensation on what will be the crust of the bread, which then caramelizes into that beautiful, golden color that you see in the top picture of this post.

You can achieve this look by either throwing water onto the floor of the oven then quickly closing the oven door, or tossing a few ice cubes onto the oven floor. Now, I think it’s important to address how dangerous or harmful this can be for your oven before I encourage you to do it. Please keep the following in mind:

• DO NOT throw the water onto your oven floor if you have electric coils at the bottom of your oven!
• DO NOT leave un-tempered material (such as glass or stone) in the oven then toss the liquid/ice cubes onto these materials. They will shatter instantly!

When I do this trick, I place the second oven rack at the lowest level then place a tempered shallow metal pan (like a cookie or jelly pan–NO non-stick material, as this trick will ruin it) onto the rack while preheating the oven. This allows me to have the steam that is essential to a more professional-looking loaf while not risking my safety or breaking my oven!

Okay, that was the longest side note ever. Back to the process!

When you’re ready to put the loaf in the oven, place four shallow diagonal cuts along the top of the loaf to let out any additional steam (I’m only using a chef’s knife because the rest of my knives are embarrassingly dull–use a paring knife to make sure the cut stays shallow). Ready your half cup of cold water/handful of ice cubes (if you’re following the trick I explained above), as you will need to move quickly to trap steam in your oven.

Once your oven is pre-heated, slide your loaf onto a pizza peel or a baking sheet (again, parchment paper makes this so much easier!), then open the oven and slide the bread into the baking stone. Now take your water/ice cubes and toss them onto the oven floor/tempered metal pan and shut the door quickly to trap the steam. And now, you play the waiting game until the bread is done. The recipe recommends 20-25 minutes, but every oven is unique–I would check after 15 minutes to make sure you don’t burn the crust.

(My oven strikes again–my second loaf ended up a little more brown than I wanted. It still tastes great though!)

Once you take the loaf out of the oven, allow it to cool completely before slicing into it; it will initially be hard on the surface, reminiscent of a baguette. But as it cools, the crust will soften and become much easier to cut. And ta-dah! You have baked your own bread. It wasn’t so bad, was it?

I usually store my bread in a sealed plastic bag for the first 2 days, then place in the fridge for up to a week after baking. In order to prevent it from becoming stale after a week, I slice the remaining loaves then freeze them until I need them. It lasts for up to 6 months in the freezer!

Anyhow, I know this was more of a blog post than a recipe, but I hope it was helpful! This recipe was the catalyst that spurred on my love for baking bread at home, and I hope it will have a similar effect on others as well. The amount of pride you feel when you see an artisan bread come from your own oven is indescribable… or maybe I’m just a baking nerd.

]]> https://umamiholiday.com/2013/10/22/french-bread-a-process/feed/ 0 553 https://umamiholiday.com/2013/10/15/garlic-breadsticks-a-copycat-attempt/ https://umamiholiday.com/2013/10/15/garlic-breadsticks-a-copycat-attempt/#comments Tue, 15 Oct 2013 20:10:13 +0000 http://umamiholiday.com/?p=546

This entry is linked to my Copycat Zuppa Toscana recipe. Don’t get me wrong–these breadsticks are delicious with just about anything. But man, are they good with this particular soup!

Bread is one of my absolute favorite things to bake, in no small part because of the transcendent aroma the wafts in the air while in the oven. I’ve joked many a time that I could easily subsist on bread & butter alone, if I weren’t so worried about carb intake all the dang time! So believe me when I say that these breadsticks are divine, and very forgiving. They are definitely more work than the frozen-ready stuff at your grocery, but when you smell them baking and bite into a piping-hot fresh stick–you will totally know it was worth the effort!

In the midst of following the recipe I found, I realized that these breadsticks are more or less mini-French bread loafs. I applied the techniques I usually utilize for French bread and found these breadsticks to be just like the Olive Garden breadsticks in consistency and rise–but with better flavor! (I promise, I’m not bluffing!) I try to keep the steps to recipes a little simple, but please follow the way I work with the dough closely to achieve the same result. It’s just a little nitpicky, but I believe the payoff is worth the trouble.

Also, I want to emphasize that you should take care to NOT OVERKNEAD THE BREAD. The breadsticks will end up kind of ugly and won’t rise as well, making them dense. Not that this happened to me, or anything…

If you want to use these for something other than Italian or don’t prefer garlic, just leave the garlic out of the final basting and you’ll be set. Also–you can store these in a sealed plastic bag for a few days at room temperature, or freeze them for up to 6 months and bake them at the same temperature listed below (except for a few minutes longer of course). If you want to freeze them for later or bake them fresh at a later time, I would suggest taking them out during the initial baking period a few minutes early–before they brown. This is par-baking–and will allow you to brown the bread to a crispier, less well-done consistency when you finally to bake and serve them.

This recipe yields 20 breadsticks–enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Readable Eatables.

Figs are a funny type of fruit to me. I didn’t grow up with them around the house, and my only knowledge of their existence lay with the ‘Fig Newton’ cookies I would try occasionally (and spit out–man, I hated those things as a kid!). My first experience with figs were of the honey-preserved variety, which were sickly sweet and didn’t arouse my interest whatsoever. Unfortunately, fresh figs aren’t easy to come by in the Midwest where I spent my school and post-grad days.

I’m glad, then, that we moved to California and I was subsequently given the chance to enjoy fresh figs here in Los Angeles. I’ve missed out on so much! Not only are figs a fantastic companion to softer cheeses, like a mozzarella burrata or brie, but they are great in baked confections as well. And they are absolutely gorgeous when sliced in half and left open-faced, as I’ve done with this galette. Their honeyed, earthy flavor and pulpy texture go well with a butter crust.

I wanted to ramp up the sweetness and the complexity of the flavor a bit, so I added a frangipane spread underneath the fig slices as well. Almonds and figs are great flavor companions for fall, and I wanted something less overwhelming than marzipan (which would be too heavy for this anyway). If you haven’t worked with frangipane in the past, it’s a great base for tarts and galettes–creamy and mild, with a hint of almond. Because it is egg-based, it will rise between the slices of fig during the baking process–but worry not! It still yields a gorgeous galette.

And for the uninitiated, “galette” is another way of saying “freeform pie”; the best part about galettes is that the less fussy you are about appearances, the more ‘rustic’  it looks! Very no-fuss, which is fantastic when I’ve got bits and pieces of pie crust leftover and I’m looking to use some fruit before it goes bad. Just make sure you are meticulous about folding the edges of the crust in to keep the filling from spilling out. I learned that lesson the hard way… yuck!

This recipe is sized for 4 people–I would use a pie crust recipe that can make one 9″ pie crust. Each galette is ~5 in. in diameter. If you want to, you can bypass splitting the crust into 4 parts and use the recipe for one pie-sized galette. I just found it easier for keep myself from eating too much at once (and giving the rest away to others). Enjoy!

Frangipane recipe via About.com.

Hooray for autumn! Which, in my opinion, is a much more beautiful word to describe this season than fall. I know I live in perpetually 70°F Los Angeles, but I still get excited about the changes in season as much as the next person in New England. (I just don’t get the breath-taking view of leaves changing color, which really is a bummer.) Autumn to me is cardigans, and boots, and scarves, and the beginning whispers of the holidays to come. Oh–and with autumn comes autumn produce! Pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes… and apples.

Apples are much less temperamental than berries (alas! berry season, farewell!) which is why they’re usually delicious all year round. However, this hardy fruit is especially delicious around this time–and you’ll see signs of everyone taking advantage of its ripeness around this time. Apple cider, apple cake, apple pie… you see, something about the mix of apples and cinnamon just screams cozy, and the mixture warms your taste buds. But what if we decided to throw caramel into the mix? What, indeed.

I found a recipe in a recent Saveur issue for caramel apple pie and was intrigued; here was a unique twist on everyone’s favorite dessert that should have been obvious! So I made the filling following the recipe and formed them into pastry pockets (think of Pop-Tarts, but with 100% less preservatives) for my friends’ housewarming BBQ. It was a hit and I enjoyed the flavor–but when I endeavored to make the recipe again, I decided to make a few changes.

With less sugar, a little more cinnamon and more caramel–of course!–I found the filling that I was looking for; I just needed a ‘vessel’ for it. Enter the idea of personal pies, or “pot” pies. I always try to give my friends dessert to take home with them, but bringing home pie slices is kind of messy. But who could say no to a personal-sized pie? So I used my large muffin/cupcake pan and the rest is history!

When homemade treats become a regular favorite, having reliable ingredients on hand starts to matter just as much as the recipe itself. Whether you prefer soft Mazafati, caramel-rich Medjool, or budget-friendly Deglet Noor, buying in bulk ensures steady supply. Families and businesses source varieties like Safawi and Mariami through borong kurma channels for better value.

A few things I would change from what is shown in these images: first, I would’ve stacked the apples instead of pouring them into the pie shell in order to fit more apples into each pie. Next, I would’ve been more careful about how much sauce I poured into each pie–I went a little overboard with one pie and the sauce ended up everywhere! And lastly, I would’ve pinched the edges of the pie with more force to seal the filling in. But it still tasted heavenly–which is why I’m still posting this recipe despite my hiccups.

If you don’t have muffin pans, you can still use this recipe–just double the amount of pie crust , as this recipe will only make enough for 1 9-inch crust and you need 2 of them. Good luck!

Pie filling adapted from Saveur: Caramel Apple Pie

Pie crust adapted from The Italian Dish

For the past few months, James and I have been religiously watching our intake of carbohydrates. All of the sweets you see posted on here? I usually get rid of them as quickly as I can and pawn them off on friends and family. (Thanks, friends and family!) But now that we’ve managed to start working out regularly, avoiding carbs is becoming less of an issue.

Enter “buttermilk…ish bread.” Why the –ish? Well, I don’t use a whole lot of buttermilk in my cooking or baking, apart from pancakes or bread. When I do buy it for the sake of a recipe’s posterity, the leftover amount usually wastes away in a corner of my fridge while I sadly try to come up with excuses to use it. (Fried chicken? No, trying not to fry things as often. Buttermilk panna cotta? Too sour. And so on.) Instead, I use the budget-friendly (and waste-free) substitute of whatever milk I have in the fridge plus an acidic agent; in this case, I use white vinegar. Therefore, this bread is a buttermilk recipe but I use a buttermilk-ish substitution!

I also reduced the original recipe in half because neither of us eat bread too often—we can usually keep a loaf going for at least 2-3 weeks, if not longer. Bread is very amenable to being frozen if you’re not aware of it—I’ve kept homemade buttermilk bread in the freezer for as long as to 3-4 months at a time. Just microwave it for a few seconds or toast the slice(s) you need in a toaster and you’re all set.

I know that the prep time looks kind of daunting, but this recipe is completely worth it. I’ve tried at least 3 or 4 buttermilk recipes and like this one best. Lastly, I’ve mentioned before that my oven is completely crazy and often runs  >25°F higher than it indicates—don’t take the times listed as absolute truth! Ovens are temperamental and can vastly differ in bake times. You can walk away while it’s baking, just don’t walk too far!

I know I already said ‘lastly,’ but here’s ONE MORE thing: wait until the loaf is cool to slice it. I like to slice the entire loaf all at once so it’s easier to grab individual slices after I freeze it.

Okay, that’s it! Happy baking!

Recipe adapted from About.com – Bread Baking

Pardon the dust! I’m totally revamping the site and the cookie recipe can now be found here (or by clicking on the cookie):

High-Altitude Oatmeal Raisin Cookies 

Thanks so much and enjoy!