My last time living in Chicago was a nightmare. I was totally broke all of the time.
At best, my work environment was awkward, at worst it was downright hostile. This psycho asshole once actually threatened to beat me to death just for talking to him at work. That's it, I did not say anything offensive. Now I know how to fight, but not a recently returned Iraq vet. I saw First Blood, I know where that road leads.
Then there was my batshit-crazy girlfriend. Discretion will hold my tongue on details, but I got the classic "I love you"/"I never said that I love you" two-step. That old chestnut...lots of fun.
So, wah-wah, life was hard for baby Andy. I did have some good friends there, and my mom was close by. One of the other scant pluses was the astoundingly good bread. Shop and Save in Golf Mill had this Italian bread that haunts my dreams. And Trader Joe's bakery? Out of sight. The baguettes were heroin-good. I would eat one at lunch and nod off in the car.
Of course, that river ran dry and those dicks subsequently went with La Brea Bakery. They are hands down the hackiest bakery on the market. Factory-made "artisanal"? Par-baked breads? Give me a fuckin break.
Anyway, there was a pretzel loaf at TJ that I couldn't get enough of. Rather than scour LA for a suitable replacement, I set about making my own. It's actually quite simple to make your own soft pretzels and pretzel demi baguettes.
Now, pretzels in Germany have been traditionally boiled in a food-grade lye bath to obtain that chewy brown crust. I'm personally unmotivated to play around with caustic bases to make a snack. That's me. I like my skin free of chemical burns. So this recipe calls for a much safer baking soda bath.
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 cup water (110-120 degrees)
2 T soymilk
1 T dark brown sugar
3 T Earth Balance, melted
1 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2-3 cups bread flour
4 quarts water
1/2 cup baking soda
Kosher salt to taste
Add yeast, water, milk, and brown sugar in a bowl or mixing cup, stirring until all ingredients are combined. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes for yeast to activate. Mix together kosher salt and the flour to the mixing bowl, then combine it with other ingredients. Add more flour as it's needed.
The dough should form a slightly tacky, but firm ball. Cover the mixing bowl with a damp towel for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, knead the dough by hand or machine for at least 5-10 minutes until the dough is elastic and satiny. Place dough back in the bowl and recover for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bring the 4 quarts of water to a boil. When the water is boiling, slowly add the baking soda.
Remove the dough from the bowl and gently degas it. Form balls of dough into the shape you want. I have made braided pretzels, but usually laziness dictates my course of action and I go demi. Drop one of the smaller balls into the baking soda bath for no longer than 30 seconds, turning it once to guarantee both sides covered. Drain the excess water from the dough and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat as needed.
Sprinkle the kosher salt over the bread to your specific tastes, and make sure to use a knife to cut a small incision on the top of the bread so the dough has somewhere to expand.
Cook the bread for 22 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once.
Enjoy!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Vegan Macarons v. 1.0
Here it is kiddies. I busted my ass for 2 months, at least 15 batches a week, sometimes more. It's a fairly customizable recipe, I have really only scratched the surface on the flavor possibilities. The colors I had a little fun with but I forgot to take pictures. I'll get to it, honest.
Fortunately, I am about to move to a new place (Los Angeles is the set I claim, and where I lounge is my stomping grounds), with an older oven. Oh, no! Old is bad! Old is cheap, ugly and stupid, and will never love you. Wrong! I have had some older ovens that were much more consistent than these new fangled doodads. Time will tell, but I am a pro, and I make it work like Gerald LeVert. OK, I listened to a lot of hiphop in the 90's and it's all seeping out.
Anyway, enjoy!
copyright Andrew Kurth (please credit me in repostings and printings, my ego demands it)
Ingredients:
- 4 grams Versawhip 600K (K is for Kosher for all of my chosen friends)
- 100 g water
- 1/4-1/2 t xanthan gum
- 1 T tapioca or corn starch (i used tapioca)
- 130 g almond flour
- 220 g vegan powdered sugar
- 30 g vegan granulated sugar (whiz it in a blender or coffee grinder for finer texture)
- 1 t powdered vanilla (other flavors are fine, i have yet to try them)
- powdered food coloring
Instructions:
1) combine versawhip and water (allowing versawhip to dissolve is optional, but helpful).
2) sift together almond flour and powdered sugar. there may be a lot of coarser bits of almond you need to ditch, so use your judgment if you want to replace the lost amount. if you have a food processor, great. just toss the almond/sugar mix in and, y'know, process for a minute or two.
3) begin whipping versawhip mixture with hand blender, preferably with whisk beaters, on low speed.
4) increase speed to medium-low, until the mixture is foamy.
5) right around soft peaks times, gradually add the 1 T of starch, then whip until you regain the soft peaks. your meringue may goop up at first, but stay the course.
6) gradually add vanilla and the 30 g of granulated sugar, as well as the xanthan. add whatever colors you want now, or after you transfer to the stand mixer. oh yeah, if you have a stand mixer, this is the time to mount up and transfer to the mixer. it helps, but you can still use your hand mixer.
7) whip this at medium to medium high speed until firm peaks are formed. you want the mixture to be glossy, firm, but not particularly dry. versawhip is supposedly impossible to overbeat, but i try not to tempt fate.
if you're unsure about where to stop, stop. then check the meringue by pulling the beater out. if the foam makes a bird's beak-shaped cone that is slightly bendy but mainly firm, you should be good. this is one area that everyone has to learn for themselves.
8) this is another part to learn for yourself: the mixing of dry with meringue, aka macaronnage. versawhip's foam holding abilities kinda make this easier than the egg-based counterpart. but it's a matter of practice and experience. i add the dry 1/3 at a time, then i use a silicon spatula to mix clockwise, and down-to-up. by that, i mean the dry mix tends to sink to the bottom and hide, so you need to gently pull up from the bottom as you fold.
the ideal end result should be thick, but also flow-y, kinda like molasses or a thick cake batter. all of the recipes say "flows like magma" but that is not a serviceable baking analogy. i doubt any french baker has seen magma first hand.
9) now we are going to scoop the meringue mixture, aka macaronner, into our pastry bag. i use a 16" bag with a #12 wilton round tip. i think around 1 cm round is good. if you have a pitcher, or any sturdy cylindrical container, place the pastry bag in that, and fold the edges over. might want to do this ahead of time, as part of you mise en place.
10) pipe your macaronner onto baking parchment-lined cookie sheets, about an inch wide or however many centimeters that is.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking_volume.htm
how big your shells are is a matter for you to decide. keep them small, at least til you get a feel for your oven...
11) you need to let your shells dry, for at least an hour but not much more than two. i let mine dry for 2 hours. the longer they dry, the firmer the top shell is, and the less likely they are to crack in the oven. the dry tops also facilitate the formation of feet, as the expansion is thus limited to upward (hopefully). you definitely should be able to run a (clean) finger across the surface without your finger sticking at all.
12) preheat your oven while the shells are drying. the temps are another subjective issue: some ovens bake macarons perfectly at 330F, others ruin them at the same temp. god forbid there was some kind of standard put in place for oven construction and temp regulation, other than "don't let it blow up and kill people". thanks a lot oven manufacturers. an infrared laser thermometer is a great idea, as most ovens have absurd temp variances and hotspots. i guess the accepted range is 270-350F, for 12-20 minutes, reverse respectively. whomever uses 350F is nuts. but it's been in recipes, so there you are.
i bake my macarons for 15-17 minutes at 275F. that is my oven. higher temps should require shorter times to bake, but you're gonna have to experiment on this one. at first, you will likely be watching your oven like a hawk, or similar predatory bird. watching the feet form is pretty rewarding. basically, you want them to bake for as long as possible WITHOUT browning them, as this helps the interior set.
13) remove your macarons whenever the oven and you decide they are done. let them cool in the pan for just a few minutes, then move the whole sheets of parchment to a cooling rack. when cool, you should be able to remove the macs with the greatest of ease. if not, whoops!
14) pipe whatever filling you have prepared, whether it's ganache, earth balance icing, or whatever non-drippy filling you want. they key is to keep the filling dry, as excess moisture will dissolve your macarons that you worked hard to make. a simple ganache with chocolate chips and boiling cashew cream is a great start. make sure you let that ganache mature for a day before you make your macs.
15) carefully store your macarons in an airtight container, in the fridge. the cookie part gets stale FAST! they should keep for a few days, maybe a week. if longer than that, freeze them.
a few notes:
- liquid food colorings and flavorings have alcohol or glycerin in them, and are thus useless to us. alcohol monkeys with the versawhip, and glycerin is animal bones! powdered colors and flavors are your new best macaron friend.
- you may want to dry out your almond meal if you ground it yrself. put it in a warm oven, 250-300F max, for like, 10-20 minutes. i usually roll the bones and hope the starch in the sugar absorbs the moisture. i like to prep my stuff a day in advance, otherwise it can all get overwhelming.
- some ovens (like mine) have strong bottom heat. by that, i mean their heat source is from the bottom, and that can play hell with your macs. i double or triple stack the cookie sheets to abate this. i am testing the airbake insulated sheets i just got, so i will let you know.
- finally, it took me 2+ months to get this recipe, and a LOT of hard work. and a SUPER LOT of failures. likewise, count on failing a lot. versawhip can be tough to work with, as its' strengths can also be weaknesses. it's cool, just relax, practice makes perfect. i've heard of the sweetest people in the world flipping out and cursing like Pazazu from the Exorcist, all over a cookie! supposedly macarons are the holy grail of vegan baking. insert your favorite holy grail story or movie reference here. if you are lucky (and annoying) enough to get this right and right away, good for you. just keep it to yourself, okay? some of us had to work for success.
if you have troubles, post them here, i MAY be able to help. but definitely check out Miss Not-So-Humble Pie's macaron troubleshooting page:
http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/08/macaron-troubleshooting-new-recipe.html
this page has been open in my browser for 3 months straight. she knows her stuff, and most of the info pertains to vegan macarons, too. ignore the egg parts, if squeamish.
Fortunately, I am about to move to a new place (Los Angeles is the set I claim, and where I lounge is my stomping grounds), with an older oven. Oh, no! Old is bad! Old is cheap, ugly and stupid, and will never love you. Wrong! I have had some older ovens that were much more consistent than these new fangled doodads. Time will tell, but I am a pro, and I make it work like Gerald LeVert. OK, I listened to a lot of hiphop in the 90's and it's all seeping out.
Anyway, enjoy!
copyright Andrew Kurth (please credit me in repostings and printings, my ego demands it)
Ingredients:
- 4 grams Versawhip 600K (K is for Kosher for all of my chosen friends)
- 100 g water
- 1/4-1/2 t xanthan gum
- 1 T tapioca or corn starch (i used tapioca)
- 130 g almond flour
- 220 g vegan powdered sugar
- 30 g vegan granulated sugar (whiz it in a blender or coffee grinder for finer texture)
- 1 t powdered vanilla (other flavors are fine, i have yet to try them)
- powdered food coloring
Instructions:
1) combine versawhip and water (allowing versawhip to dissolve is optional, but helpful).
2) sift together almond flour and powdered sugar. there may be a lot of coarser bits of almond you need to ditch, so use your judgment if you want to replace the lost amount. if you have a food processor, great. just toss the almond/sugar mix in and, y'know, process for a minute or two.
3) begin whipping versawhip mixture with hand blender, preferably with whisk beaters, on low speed.
4) increase speed to medium-low, until the mixture is foamy.
5) right around soft peaks times, gradually add the 1 T of starch, then whip until you regain the soft peaks. your meringue may goop up at first, but stay the course.
6) gradually add vanilla and the 30 g of granulated sugar, as well as the xanthan. add whatever colors you want now, or after you transfer to the stand mixer. oh yeah, if you have a stand mixer, this is the time to mount up and transfer to the mixer. it helps, but you can still use your hand mixer.
7) whip this at medium to medium high speed until firm peaks are formed. you want the mixture to be glossy, firm, but not particularly dry. versawhip is supposedly impossible to overbeat, but i try not to tempt fate.
if you're unsure about where to stop, stop. then check the meringue by pulling the beater out. if the foam makes a bird's beak-shaped cone that is slightly bendy but mainly firm, you should be good. this is one area that everyone has to learn for themselves.
8) this is another part to learn for yourself: the mixing of dry with meringue, aka macaronnage. versawhip's foam holding abilities kinda make this easier than the egg-based counterpart. but it's a matter of practice and experience. i add the dry 1/3 at a time, then i use a silicon spatula to mix clockwise, and down-to-up. by that, i mean the dry mix tends to sink to the bottom and hide, so you need to gently pull up from the bottom as you fold.
the ideal end result should be thick, but also flow-y, kinda like molasses or a thick cake batter. all of the recipes say "flows like magma" but that is not a serviceable baking analogy. i doubt any french baker has seen magma first hand.
9) now we are going to scoop the meringue mixture, aka macaronner, into our pastry bag. i use a 16" bag with a #12 wilton round tip. i think around 1 cm round is good. if you have a pitcher, or any sturdy cylindrical container, place the pastry bag in that, and fold the edges over. might want to do this ahead of time, as part of you mise en place.
10) pipe your macaronner onto baking parchment-lined cookie sheets, about an inch wide or however many centimeters that is.
http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking_volume.htm
how big your shells are is a matter for you to decide. keep them small, at least til you get a feel for your oven...
11) you need to let your shells dry, for at least an hour but not much more than two. i let mine dry for 2 hours. the longer they dry, the firmer the top shell is, and the less likely they are to crack in the oven. the dry tops also facilitate the formation of feet, as the expansion is thus limited to upward (hopefully). you definitely should be able to run a (clean) finger across the surface without your finger sticking at all.
12) preheat your oven while the shells are drying. the temps are another subjective issue: some ovens bake macarons perfectly at 330F, others ruin them at the same temp. god forbid there was some kind of standard put in place for oven construction and temp regulation, other than "don't let it blow up and kill people". thanks a lot oven manufacturers. an infrared laser thermometer is a great idea, as most ovens have absurd temp variances and hotspots. i guess the accepted range is 270-350F, for 12-20 minutes, reverse respectively. whomever uses 350F is nuts. but it's been in recipes, so there you are.
i bake my macarons for 15-17 minutes at 275F. that is my oven. higher temps should require shorter times to bake, but you're gonna have to experiment on this one. at first, you will likely be watching your oven like a hawk, or similar predatory bird. watching the feet form is pretty rewarding. basically, you want them to bake for as long as possible WITHOUT browning them, as this helps the interior set.
13) remove your macarons whenever the oven and you decide they are done. let them cool in the pan for just a few minutes, then move the whole sheets of parchment to a cooling rack. when cool, you should be able to remove the macs with the greatest of ease. if not, whoops!
14) pipe whatever filling you have prepared, whether it's ganache, earth balance icing, or whatever non-drippy filling you want. they key is to keep the filling dry, as excess moisture will dissolve your macarons that you worked hard to make. a simple ganache with chocolate chips and boiling cashew cream is a great start. make sure you let that ganache mature for a day before you make your macs.
15) carefully store your macarons in an airtight container, in the fridge. the cookie part gets stale FAST! they should keep for a few days, maybe a week. if longer than that, freeze them.
a few notes:
- liquid food colorings and flavorings have alcohol or glycerin in them, and are thus useless to us. alcohol monkeys with the versawhip, and glycerin is animal bones! powdered colors and flavors are your new best macaron friend.
- you may want to dry out your almond meal if you ground it yrself. put it in a warm oven, 250-300F max, for like, 10-20 minutes. i usually roll the bones and hope the starch in the sugar absorbs the moisture. i like to prep my stuff a day in advance, otherwise it can all get overwhelming.
- some ovens (like mine) have strong bottom heat. by that, i mean their heat source is from the bottom, and that can play hell with your macs. i double or triple stack the cookie sheets to abate this. i am testing the airbake insulated sheets i just got, so i will let you know.
- finally, it took me 2+ months to get this recipe, and a LOT of hard work. and a SUPER LOT of failures. likewise, count on failing a lot. versawhip can be tough to work with, as its' strengths can also be weaknesses. it's cool, just relax, practice makes perfect. i've heard of the sweetest people in the world flipping out and cursing like Pazazu from the Exorcist, all over a cookie! supposedly macarons are the holy grail of vegan baking. insert your favorite holy grail story or movie reference here. if you are lucky (and annoying) enough to get this right and right away, good for you. just keep it to yourself, okay? some of us had to work for success.
if you have troubles, post them here, i MAY be able to help. but definitely check out Miss Not-So-Humble Pie's macaron troubleshooting page:
http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/08/macaron-troubleshooting-new-recipe.html
this page has been open in my browser for 3 months straight. she knows her stuff, and most of the info pertains to vegan macarons, too. ignore the egg parts, if squeamish.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Enter...The Me!
Hi, I'm Andrew. I bake. And cook. A lot. If I'm not baking, I'm researching a new recipe obsessively. And I bake vegan. Specifically, I bake vegan food that should appeal to even the meatiest of meat eaters. Hence the title of the blog, Dracula being the bloodiest of blood drinkers. That, and I'm obsessed with Master Shake in ATHF threatening Meatwad with Dracula, and related fates. I have many obsessions, all of which will work their way into this here blog at some point.
So, this is hopefully the first post in a blog designed to trick, cajole, bamboozle, or politely convince, whatever meat-eating friends we vegetarians and vegans have, that vegan food is damn tasty. And that we're eating well while enjoying total moral superiority. Just kidding.
Most of the recipes are mine, or recipes appropriated from my mom (a former baker/caterer/cooking teacher), and made vegan. Some recipes may be hoisted from other vegan blogs and sites, in which case, I will certainly credit the creator, and post a link so you can check out their stuff. The friend of my friend is my friend.
So, thanks for coming, and I hope you enjoy the stuff we make.
P.S.- Sorry, that's a horrible post title. I just love those old comic book and sci-fi show episode titles like, "Enter...The Collector!" Really? That's the best you could do?
So, this is hopefully the first post in a blog designed to trick, cajole, bamboozle, or politely convince, whatever meat-eating friends we vegetarians and vegans have, that vegan food is damn tasty. And that we're eating well while enjoying total moral superiority. Just kidding.
Most of the recipes are mine, or recipes appropriated from my mom (a former baker/caterer/cooking teacher), and made vegan. Some recipes may be hoisted from other vegan blogs and sites, in which case, I will certainly credit the creator, and post a link so you can check out their stuff. The friend of my friend is my friend.
So, thanks for coming, and I hope you enjoy the stuff we make.
P.S.- Sorry, that's a horrible post title. I just love those old comic book and sci-fi show episode titles like, "Enter...The Collector!" Really? That's the best you could do?
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