I noticed when WordPress created the slug for this post that I’d had another red velvet cake post in the past. Apparently, I wasn’t enamored with the results of the red velvet recipe in Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. Hopefully this version goes down better. I realized while making it tonight that it’s in keeping with my theme for the past week. I was on a trip to Nashville for work, for the PTC Live Global trade show/conference. The conference and work part was fine, but after the work was over, I had a good time with some co-workers, exploring what Nashville had to offer.
Photo stolen from Facebook – credit to Doug
We experienced lots of “Southern” food, including gator, Nashville hot chicken, and plenty of BBQ. The “Southern” food is what got me on this tangent. I always think of red velvet cake as a Southern thing. I’m not sure if that’s reality, or if that’s just the association stuck in my head from Steel Magnolias. Maybe both.
I said just yesterday that I love making pies. Today, I’m saying that I love making bread. Maybe I just need to acknowledge the fact that I love baking, period. That being said, there’s not a whole lot of interesting pictures you can take of the bread making process, in my opinion. Maybe I’m just not overly creative, but with bread, you’re generally dealing with something white, something a bit off-white, something slightly brown, and some more white or clear stuff. This week, it was ricotta loaf. Something white (ricotta), mixed into some white things (flour, sugar, salt), and something brown (yeast), and something slightly off-white (butter). We go a little crazy this week, and throw in a splash of colour with something yellow (egg)!
There was some chatter about the yeast quantity in the “Bread Bible Bakers” Facebook group. Faithy questioned the 1/2 TBSP quantity, so she weighed and measured her yeast, and came up with 1/2 tsp = 5 g. So, she used 1/2 tsp, but she was disappointed with the resulting fairly dense loaf. I’m sure I went by volume for yeast, because my scale’s just not that precise with small quantities, but the volume that I remember using was 1/2 tsp. Now I look at my picture, and I see that the 500 g flour + 25 g sugar + ??? yeast = 527g. So… did I accidentally use 1/3 of what the recipe called for, for yeast, by mixing up my TBSP and TSP? Or does my yeast weigh a lot less than the US brands Rose recommends? Me accidentally using too little would explain why it took so long to rise.
Perplexed
Ah well, moving on… Mix the flour mixture, then add the softened butter (which got a little too soft in the microwave), ricotta cheese, egg, and salt.
Food processors are wonderful
I used the dough blade in the food processor for the first time to knead this dough.
Smooth but not sticky
Rose cautions against letting it go too long, lest the butter & cheese get too warm, resulting in a sticky dough.
Ready to rise
Into the container I always use for bread dough, then after it’s doubled in size, which took 4-5 hours, shape it, proof it, and bake it. Aside from how long it took to rise & proof, I don’t think the yeast confusion did any serious harm.
Baked!
Brush with melted butter, or just be lazy and take a pat of butter and rub the hot bread with it. As I mentioned in my last post, I had intended to take this to share with my Aunt & Uncle for Sunday dinner, but we didn’t make it to their place due to illness. Instead, while my husband rested and recovered, I did some yard work and I managed to get my next warp onto my loom.
Warp ready for weaving
Now I wait for the battery to recharge on the bobbin winder that Jay jury-rigged for me out of an unused power drill. 😉
Verdict on this loaf? The flavour is good, and the texture is fantastic, warm. It made a great accompaniment to butternut squash soup on Sunday night. I’ve been eating a plain slice cold for breakfast the past few days, too. The crumb is a bit odd. Not fluffy stretchy like a bread with well-developed gluten, but it seems a bit more like a quick bread in texture.
I haven’t turned on my computer since Saturday night. I think that might be a recent record, which I’m going to celebrate, despite it making me a day late with this post! Jay gave his notice to his (now previous) employer a couple of weeks ago, and his last day was Friday. He decided to take a week off, before he starts a new job at a very early stage start-up on the 8th. I decided to take a couple of days and join him, and we figured we’d go on a short road trip to visit my aunt & uncle and do a little exploring in their neck of the woods. I’m going to be out of town next week for PTC Live, so we thought this would be a good opportunity to spend a little quality time together. I made this French Orange Cream Tart on Saturday, along with a Ricotta loaf (post to come tomorrow), planning to take them to my family’s for Sunday dinner. Unfortunately, Sunday morning, Jay woke up with a fever and he still hasn’t fully recovered. So, instead, we spent some quality movie-watching time, I made meals (super rare, in our house), and the big event of today was me mowing the lawn. Woo!
Quick post. I’m late writing this one up, even though I baked it last week, so pictures are more or less all you get! This week’s “Alpha Bakers” selection is mini-cheesecakes, with Stilton (blue) cheese mixed in.
CHEEEEESE, Grommet!Walnut crustMashed blue cheese in sour cream…looks kinda grey next to the cream cheese.(Over)baked cheesecake cupcakes.Crackly and sunken. 😦Peary good?
I think I had two of these, Jay had one, I gave one to Gilad along with a dozen Oriolos, and I took the remaining 8 or so to work. Only a few people were brave enough to try them. One came back for seconds! He loved the taste & texture, and thought the pear went well with it. Jay said they were quite a bit less sweet than he had expected. I didn’t get a lot of feedback from anyone else, so I’m guessing this one wasn’t a huge hit! Check out the other Alpha Baker posts (link in the right sidebar) to see some other takes and commentary!
This week’s “Rose’s Alpha Bakers” choice is the “Double chocolate Oriolos.” I like ’em. They’re quick & easy. But I refuse to call them double chocolate . I can accept “chocolate,” since they’re certainly chocolate-y, but double chocolate to me implies two kinds of chocolate, and all that’s in these is cocoa. That’s chocolate. But it isn’t double chocolate. Maybe if they were sandwiched together with ganache in between? Or dipped in chocolate? I think I’ll have to make another batch. More than half the batch went to my friend for his treat for the month, and given how easy these are, maybe I’ll make a second batch, but with a second type of chocolate, send some with him, and get some comparison input.
I’m really enjoying being part of the group baking through The Bread Bible. I initially thought I might be nuts, signing up for 2 baking groups at once, but the once-a-month pace is perfect, and the results are generally things that aren’t a problem to add to our regular meals. With The Baking Bible bake-through, I have to plan out where the results are going: my work, Jay’s work, Gilad, or are we having people over? I don’t care where you go, but you can’t all stay here! This week, we had “touch of grace” biscuits with turkey noodle “stoup” for Sunday dinner.
I love making pie. The effort/annoyance factor versus payoff ratio is perfect. This week, the Rose’s Alpha Bakers group had blueberry-rhubarb pie on the schedule. Ever since the first time I made Rose’s flaky cream cheese pie crust, I’ve had a go-to recipe for pie dough, and it comes out perfectly every single time. I’ve detailed her process for pastry dough before, both on the post about the black and blueberry pie, and the one on the sour cherry pie, so I’ll skip that part of the process here, which, to be honest, doesn’t leave much to talk about. Since Jay’s not a fan of either blueberries or rhubarb (“Yuck! Gross! Disgusting!”), I figured that this would be a good recipe to take to my Thursday BBQ lunch at work. On Tuesday night, I made the pie crust, figuring I’d make the filling and assemble on Wednesday. Then I looked closer at the recipe, and realized that the filling was supposed to cool before going into the shell, so I made it on Tuesday evening, too!
What’s a Lemon Jammie, you ask? Well, it’s not bright yellow pajamas, that’s for sure. If this recipe is anything to go on (and really, it’s in The Baking Bible, so it must be), a lemon jammy (what is the singular of jammies, anyway?) is a lemon zest infused sandwich cookie, with something in the middle. The recipe calls for lemon buttercream, lemon curd, or your favourite jam/jelly. I went with lemon curd, since it’s easier than lemon buttercream, felt less like a cop-out than just using jam, and because this week’s Alpha Bakers recipe is going to my friend Gilad, and I know he loves lemon.
This recipe is pretty straightforward. You make a cookie dough in the food processor, let it chill, then roll it out, and cut your shapes. Bake, then fill with curd. Unlike some of the other Alpha Bakers, I really enjoy making cookies, and I find that they’re the perfect (most dangerous) treat to have around the house, because it’s so easy to just grab a couple on your way through the kitchen. Jay has much more self-restraint than I do (more than zero), so if cookies aren’t leaving the house, they’re going on his counter, so they’re not in my line of sight every time I walk through the kitchen. Continue reading “Lemon Jammies”→
I was chatting with one of my teammates on Friday afternoon, close to the end of the day, and said that I was going home to do some baking. He asked what I was baking, and when I answered, he asked what made it Polish. I suggested it might have something to do with the vodka!
This week, we’re going German, for Passover. I’m not sure how to say dattelkonfekkt, but it apparently translates (not terribly surprisingly) into “date confection”. I made a half-hearted attempt to learn a bit of German last fall, before meeting some German customers, but recently I’ve been pulled into more and more conversations with Chinese customers, so I’m questioning which language is more likely to be useful. Probably stick with German, since Duolingo doesn’t support Mandarin, yet.
eatsndrinks.ca 