BBA - 100% (Dark) Rye Sourdough

ב''ה

I used dark rye instead of white since I did not want to buy new flour before Passover and already had a bag of dark rye.

First make an all rye starter from the regular one (which allready had a bit of rye in it.) Feed for three days to get it really going.

Make a firm starter the from the rye starter. and leave it for a day. Then add the flour and caraway seeds to it along with a soaker. I used an extra 1/2 cup of rye starter instead of the soaker since I ran out of flour. 

"I too messy!"

I learned from Joe pastry that different tasting microbes live in the firm starter than the wet one. At any rate the starters were rip-roaring and ready to go so this bread tasted the most sourdoughy yet of anything  I tried. I am not sure if it's because I used a firm starter or if it was just because my wet starter was not weak. At any rate it had a much more tangy flavor, much like I was trying to acheive with my sourdough  baguettes. I'll have to experiment with the different starters to achieve consistent results.

Pretty dense (but delicious.) Next time I'll spike it with some vital wheat gluten and some instant yeast.

Byby starter. :( I'll have to get rid of the starter that's sitting in my fridge before Passover. An exercise in humility, getting rid of all those things that puff (you or your bread) up!

Naan and Kosher Indian food!

ב''ה

This is the first kosher Indian food we have ever had. Boy what  we we're missing!

http://www.dakshintogo.com/

The Naan bread.

Clockwise from top. Mango chutney, Naan, Lamb with ginger and cilantro etc, baby eggplants stuffed with spices stewed in coconut sauce, zuchini bread of some kind, chili chicken.

Heavenly Cake - Chocolate Apricot Roll

ב''ה

"נֶזֶם זָהָב בְּאַף חֲזִיר, אִשָּׁה יָפָה וְסָרַת טָעַם"
–משלי יא, כב


-"A beautiful women without taste or brains is like a pretty gold-nose-ring in the snout of a  swine."
-Proverbs 11:22

It may look O.K. but this cake did not turn out very well for me. I was way too goopy in the middle and too rich. It also had some kind of funny "off" taste (almost metallic) that I am not sure exactly the cause of though there are a few things that may have caused it. I did make a few mistakes that I will enumerate.

I made this cake over a period of three nights. Lekvar, ganache and then cake.

Process the cooked apricots. There was other food on the stove (must defer to the Mrs...) so I could not get to the apricots when I was supposed to.

You are supposed to put it back in the pot to reduce but since it had already cooked for an extra 15 - 20  minutes I realized that it was already at the desired color and consistency. Hey, not bad! However, the taste did not seem uniform. Some of the lekvar was sweet while some of it was more tangy. It may just be that our apricots were too old or just not all the same sweetness. This is one of the things that may have contributed to the off taste.

Mistake number 2:

I used regular sugar instead of superfine. Whoops! I think this hurt the texture and flavor of the cake. Here is the flour sifting the flour on the liquid mixture. 

Spread it out. I made this cake parve.

The Rich Whip available now in all the stores in my neck of the woods is the kosher for Passover version. Perhaps it is what caused the ganache to be cloyingly rich. I may have also used too much chocolate or it could have been 2 1/2 ounces of 72% cocoa chocolate that I mixed with the lower quality in an attempt to give it some oomph.

The ganache and lekvar.

Looks pretty but... looks can be deceiving...

The 1/2 cup of the lekvar did not seem to cover the whole cake. I should have attempted to spread it thinner. Instead I just used an extra 1/3 cup of it. 

I used a little over a cup of the ganache.

Getting ready for the lacquer glaze. I wonder why Rose says to use a metal "bowl?" What's wrong with plastic?

Mistake number 3. I should have used real kojel - kosher gelatin. I found this unflavored kosher jello in the store and figured, it's got collagen, what more do you need? Real Kojel and a thermometer apparently! The jel did not dissolve completely and also had a funny taste.

Mistake number 4. I ate the left over ganache before realizing that you were supposed to spread some on to make the glaze look even...

Glossy? Yes!

Take a guess at the temperature, add the unflavored gel and mix...

 Pour on:

Was it glossy? Yes. Was it pretty? Yes (if you can ignore my bad photography...,) but it was like a beautiful women without "taste."

Purim Hamentashen

ב''ה

My kids made these...

We used some of the redcurrant jelly left over from the recent double chocolate cake (in addition to apricot, strawberry, chocolate chips etc. (sorry, we were all out of poppy seeds. Some shmendrik used them all up on a lemon cake he made.)

Shayna decided to go all out with the hamantash thing.

Mimi tried to imagine us joining Marie in Hawaii...

No picture of my costume but I was, um, a baker... :)

Challah with Spelt and Amaranth

ב''ה

This time I was awake enough to actually mix the dough after the autolyse. Autolyse 2 1/2 hours. The spelt  gave a nice sweet nutty flavor. Be sure to knead much less than you usually would though!

 The amaranth, on the other hand, had a more gritty texture than the millet. There are black and white amaranth seeds and the black seeds did not soften even after the day of soaking. The white seeds did. However, after baking, overnight they seemed to soften a good deal and the challah was much more edible. I liked it even with the funny texture! :)

The recipe I used:

3 cups AP flour

2 cups whole spelt flour

1/2 cup whole amaranth, soaked for a day in 3/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups Water

1/3 cup sugar 

2 eggs

Heavenly Cake - Sour Cream Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

ב''ה


Did someone say cHLoclate?

Nope! Sorry kid. This week its lemon and poppy seeds.

Poppy seeds are traditional in the purim Hamentashen Cookies. Take a look at  Shoshana's beautiful hamentashen: http://www.couldntbeparve.com/2010/02/not-your-bubbes-hamentashen.html (even though she did not use poppy seeds.)

The word Hamantashen seems like it might be a play on the hebrew word מן "mon, (in english manna see- Numbers 11:7)" described by the classical Bible commentators as looking like poppy-seeds, and the "mon" part of the name of Haman (pronounced Hawmon in hebrew) the Wicked (whose decree to annihilate the Jews was nullified.)

For those who don't know, Purim is sort of like a Jewish version of Halloween. Kids get dressed up in costumes. However, the similarity ends there. The Purim imagery is one of of ancient Persian empire from about 2,500 years ago or so. Joy (drinking) and frivolity and giving gifts of food (not asking for them) as well as gifts of charity to the poor are the order of the day. One is obligated to drink until you no longer can tell the difference between "Wicked is Haman" and "Blessed is Mordechai." I  have posted on a schedule since, while your reading this I am probably passed out drunk somewhere (in the obligatory manner) muttering to myself about the righteousness of Hamen the wicked...

Mis en place:

Make the egg mixture...

What a wonderful texture.

All ready to toast. Even though it says you need a 10 cup pan it all fit in this loaf pan. The loaf pan is the hardest one to toast since you need to move it up or down in the middle, depending on what is about to burn as well as cover it with tinfoil that does not really want to stay on...

The batter sort of oozed out the sides. It still tasted great. In fact, I liked this one better than the one in the cake bible I found it lighter and more delicate. The lemon and butter flavors are not overpowering. I do have to admit though that I left out 1/4 stick of the butter as I felt that 1 3/4 sticks was just a bit too much for me...

Joe Pastry - Knishes

ב''ה

Boy are these good.

I'm going to make a whole batch of these to give out on Purim (along with a Dr. Browns soda.) :)

Thank you Joe Pastry!

http://joepastry.com/index.php?cat=168