Adventures in Puff Pastry

I've tried making pastry once or twice but it wasn't very good. Pastry dishes (pies, turnovers, etc) aren't my favorite desserts so I never cared enough to learn how to make perfect pastry. Nor have I ever explored any pre-made options available in my local grocery store.

But last week I watched an episode of "Ultimate Recipe Showdown" on the Food Network. It was all about desserts and one contestant made "Raspberry Puffs with Goat Cheese and Thyme". Once I saw how good they looked on TV I just had to try them for myself.

So I went to my local Safeway (I get no money from Safeway for this advertising!) and looked for the first ingredient, one sheet of frozen puff pastry. They had only one kind of frozen puff pastry. I purchased it and brought it home.

It's a small box... about 7 inches wide X 3.5 inches high X 1.5 inches deep. That seemed too small for the first instructions in the recipe... Unfold pastry sheet; cut along fold line to make 3 strips... but I had high hopes that the box would yield a beautifully folded sheet of puff pastry just as I saw in my dreams.

Alas, this is what was actually in the box.....

One frozen block of puff pastry which has been perforated down the center. All of you are probably saying "Well of course, ya foodiestudent! That's how frozen puff pastry comes in Canada" but I had no idea and I wasn't sure how to follow the recipe instructions without the pretty sheet I was picturing in the aforementioned dreams.

So I had to do the unthinkable.... read the directions on the box! (gasp!) Basically the box just says break off one half of the pastry block, thaw in the fridge, and roll out into the pretty sheet you've been dreaming about. I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea.

So I did that (it rolled out VERY quickly and easily), cut the resulting sheet in half which looked like this...

I then baked it as per the recipe and cut the pastry in half. Thusly....

I was worried because they appeared a little undercooked inside but I guess that's what they are supposed to look like inside because they tasted fully cooked.

And here is the finished product....

And O... M... G...!!!!! They were SOOOOO good. They were also far too big for these little dessert plates so immediately after this picture was taken they were moved to luncheon plates. About 10 minutes after that Vince & I were patting our stomachs and groaning about how full we were.

The whipped cream was mixed with goat cheese and a touch of vanilla which gave it a wonderful richness and tang. The raspberries were fresh and mixed with a little jam to make the sweet sauce. A little thyme was sprinkled on top which added an interesting flavor to the whole dish. And of course the puff pastry was perfection :)

Chicken Marinades

I have a favorite chicken marinade that I use almost exclusively but at the request of a reader (hi Sarah!) and in the interest of expanding my marinade horizons I did some research on various marinades and ran a taste test when I entertained some family and friends.

The marinades I made were:

1. Braised Chicken - garlic, olive oil, paprika, curry, cinnamon, cumin, salt


2. Honey Mustard Chicken - dijon mustard, honey, lemon juice, paprika, salt, red pepper flakes


3. Cornell Chicken - egg, vegetable oil, cider vinegar, salt, poultry seasoning, black pepper


4. "Unbelievable Chicken" - cider vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic, lemon, lime, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, olive oil


5. Indian milk and yogurt marinade - milk, yogurt, garam masala (coriander seeds, black peppercorns, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves)
   

Here are the ingredients for all five marinades. Gather your friends around and play "where's Waldo" with the ingredient list above :) There is one ingredient missing. Bragging rights if you can figure out which one isn't there (click on the picture to see it blown up).

Here is the Garum Masala all ground up and pretty. I use all these ingredients in my butter chicken recipe. All this time I had no idea I was making garum masala... I just thought I had an great butter chicken recipe with an awesome blend of spices.


The marinades all made up and placed into labelled bags. Organization was critical in this exercise so my taste testers would know which marinated chicken they were tasting.

Although I adjusted each recipe down to the amount required for one boneless, skinless chicken breast the final quantity of marinade was dramatically different for each one. Check out the few tablespoons in bag #1 vs more than 2 cups in bag #5.

The chicken was cut up and evenly distributed in each of the bags. Then I placed them in this container and put it in the refrigerator overnight. I loved how pretty the bags were all lined up in a row so I had to take this picture :)

The next day: the chicken in their pans all ready to go in the oven. I made little aluminum foil dividers so that the flavours wouldn't inter-mingle while they were cooking.

And here they are after baking in the oven.... all ready to be taste tested. I asked 5 people to give each piece either a thumbs up or thumbs down.

1. 5 out of 5 said they liked the braised chicken. It was the hands down winner.
2. 4 out of 5 liked the honey mustard chicken. The lone person who didn't like this said she doesn't like honey mustard anyways so that explains her thumbs down.
3. 2 out of 5 liked the cornell chicken. The 3 who didn't care for it REALLY didn't like it. One went so far as to say she hated it and another said she would never touch that chicken again.
4. 2 out of 5 found the "unbelievable chicken" to be okay. The other 3 didn't care for it. The overall consensus was that it was boring.
5. 0 out of 5 liked the indian spiced chicken. Two people said it wasn't too bad but the real disappointment seemed to be that for a recipe with indian spices there was very little flavour.

So the clear favorites in the experiment were recipes 1 and 2. The recipes are below if you would like to try them yourself.

Braised Chicken (the quantities here are for 3 chicken legs plus some sliced vegetables so adjust quantities as you need)
Grate or finely mince 3 garlic cloves and place in a small mixing bowl. Pour in 3 tbsp olive oil and whisk. Add 1 tsp sweet paprika powder, 1 tsp curry powder, a heaping 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp ground cumin and 1/4 tsp salt. Whisk together and use as marinade or baste chicken and veggies before baking or roasting.

Honey-Mustard Chicken Marinade (this is for 3 chicken breasts. This makes an awesome chicken sandwich with some pepper bacon and lettuce on a kaiser roll - thank-you Pioneer Woman)
Whisk together 1/2 cup Dijon mustard with 1/2 cup honey. Add juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle in some crushed red pepper flakes or cayenne if you like things a little spicy.

Croutons

What do you do when you have stale bread buns that no one wants to eat? Why, you make croutons of course.

I don't have a real recipe for croutons but the basic idea goes like this....

1. Dice up the stale bread.
2. Toss the cubes in a mixture of melted butter and various spices
3. Bake the lot on a baking sheet at 350-375 about 15 minutes or until toasted, tossing about 5 minutes in.


The fun comes in when you experiment with the spices. I have had success with the following: salt, pepper, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, Maggi, Worchestershire Sauce, seasoning salt, curry powder, cilantro, and cayenne (not all at once mind you LOL).

However, I did NOT find success when I tried adding honey. I really enjoy a little saltiness in my desserts but apparently adding a little sweetness to a traditionally salty dish does not produce the same level of taste enjoyment. The honey seemed to counteract all of the other spices. It didn't overpower the taste of the croutons so much as just cancel the power of the other flavors.

Lesson learned... a little salt in sugar is good; a little sugar in salt is bad.

Homemade Bagels from scratch

Instead of doing a "which is better" experiment this time I'm doing a "can I do it?" experiment.

The Experiment: Can an a foodiestudent who has only purchased bagels in the past make them from scratch?

Inspiration: I ran across a "real New York bagel" recipe on smittenkitchen's blog. The recipe was intimidating because it involves many steps and takes 2 days to make. But since the chances of me going to NY any time soon so I can experience a "real NY bagel" is pretty slim I thought I'd give it a try.

Expected Results: I expect the bagels will be edible but different from what I'm used to. They are supposed to be chewier and more dense than the bagels we are used to in local bakeries.

Actual Results: The first day involved making a "sponge" of flour, yeast, and water....
I was worried right from the start because after 2 hours the sponge was supposed to double in size as well as form bubbles. The bubbles were there but it didn't seem to grow in size at all. So I gave it another hour but it still looked the same. I contemplated chucking it out and starting over but after 3 hours of waiting time I didn't want to repeat the waiting time just to have the exact same thing happen again so I decided to soldier onward.

I added the other ingredients and kneaded and kneaded and kneaded as per the instructions. This was a very firm ball of dough that was a pain in the wrist to knead for so long. If you decide to make bagels from scratch I recommend going to the gym and doing some serious upper body training for a couple of months in advance LOL.

This recipe makes 12 giant bagels, 16 regular bagels, or 24 mini bagels. I opted for minis. The dough is resting here. Why is there a single electric beater sitting on the counter, you ask? What an excellent question, I respond. I needed to find a tool in my kitchen that I could use to start a hole in the bagel to give them their classic shape. It was surprisingly difficult to find a tool that would make a small but perfectly round hole. However, I came across the beater and found the plug-in end to be the perfect size, shape, and easy-clean material for the job.

Here is half the batch in their beautiful round form. Aren't those holes perfect? Thank-you electric beater :)

Before I could "retard" the bagels in the fridge overnight (let them rise slowly) I had to check to see if they were ready. This involved dropping one bagel in a bowl of cool water to make sure it would float within a few seconds. This one floated right away so I put it back with its brothers and they slept in the fridge overnight.

Good morning uncooked bagels! The sun is coming in the kitchen window and it's a beautiful day. The bagels rose a little overnight but they aren't explosive. However, for mini-bagels, they are bigger than I expected. If I made the 12 giant bagels they would have been scary-huge.

Yeah baby! This is the step that separates the real bagels from bagel-wannabe's. They were boiled 6 at a time in a baking soda-honey-water mixture.

I didn't take a picture of it but while the bagels were boiling I had a wee fire in my oven. It's a long story involving cake batter and a pan that was too small and a homeowner who forgot to clean up the mess before pre-heating her oven to 500. Luckily it burned itself out after a few minutes as we don't have a fire extinguisher and I was afraid to pour water on it just in case there was grease fueling the fire. I blew on it really hard and that seemed to help too :)

The finished bagels. The ones on the right were sprinkled with kosher salt. The ones on the left are plain.

The recipe instructions clearly state to let the bagels cool for 15 minutes before serving. I waited about 3 minutes and couldn't stand it anymore. This is one of the salted bagels with some light cream cheese. This bagel along with 2 of its brothers were consumed so quickly I think I broke some kind of bagel eating record.

The verdict is in and yes, Vicky can indeed make bagels. The ones with kosher salt are a little tastier than their plain counterparts although both are very enjoyable. They are definitely dense and chewy but no more so than some bagels I've had in the past. These are white (plain) bagels but they have the denseness of a typical whole wheat bagel available from local bakeries. They are chewy but only as much as you would expect from a bagel. I was worried the chewiness would be too much and be the downfall of the bagel but it wasn't even an issue. This experience was definitely a success.

I was asked the other day if I will take requests for food experiments. The answer is absolutely yes. If there is a food experiment you want me to try or a question you would like the answer to you can leave a comment or email me. I will do my best to respond to all requests.

Until then... happy kitchen experiments :)
foodiestudent

**edit: a loyal blog reader commented to me that bagels, given their shape, should not be referred to as brothers but instead as sisters. I see your point, loyal reader. I shall be sure to think more carefully about the sexual shapes the foods represent before assigning them a gender in future :) **

All Purpose vs Bread Flour

The Experiment: Does using bread flour instead of all purpose flour make a difference in homemade bread buns?

Inspiration: I make bread buns about every other weekend. For the last batch I noticed that the buns were quite dense. I enjoyed that when they were fresh out of the oven but the next day they weren't as enjoyable. I wished they were a little lighter. Some research done by my good friend Scott suggested that using bread flour instead of all purpose could make the buns lighter.

Expected Results: From the website ochef.com... "Bread flour is called for in many bread and pizza crust recipes where you want the loftiness or chewiness that the extra gluten provides." So it seems that in theory the bread flour will yield lighter bread buns.

Actual Results:
The titans go into battle. In the yellow corner we have the challenger, bread flour! And in the blue corner, the reigning champion, all-purpose flour!!!! *crowd goes wild*

The bread recipe starts with scalding a mixture of milk, vegetable oil, and sugar. As no flour is involved in this step I am starting off with everything in one pot.

And that brownie in a pie plate in the background... that became a "peanut butter brownie pie" :)

The milk-oil-sugar mixture has been separated into two bowls and one envelope of yeast added to each bowl.

Here the flour and other ingredients have been added to the mixture and it has been allowed to rise for an hour or so. Already I noticed a significant difference. The dough with all purpose flour was drier and stiffer than the dough with bread flour which was stickier and more moist. I carefully measured the flour and other dry ingredients so the difference in texture was quite surprising.

This is after a second rising. Although the bowls are not identical in size & shape I think it's safe to say that the bread flour dough (on the left) rose more than the AP flour dough.

Time to make the buns. I usually use another method to make buns but it's difficult to get consistently sized buns that way so I rolled out each batch of dough and used a biscuit cutter to get more consistency, which I hoped would make for better comparisons.

The difference between the amount each set rose can clearly be seen here. Just look at the space between the buns in the AP ones (right) compared to the bread flour ones on the left. You can see how much more they expanded with the bread flour.


And here's the final result. The bread flour buns look burned but please trust me that they weren't. They got a little darker on top than the AP buns on the right but the lighting his this pic makes it looks worse than it really was.

The buns were put through a highly scientific taste test with my brother, husband, and myself. The results were as follows...

Husband: the bread flour ones are a little saltier and lighter and just better.

Brother: the bread flour ones are a little sweeter and heavier but in a good way. The all purpose ones tasted bland. NOTE: brother ate this bun while it was warm and he said it may have tasted heavier than it really was because it was fresh out of the oven.

Me: the bread flour ones were definitely lighter and had a slightly crisper crust. They held their shape well, even while warm, without being heavy or "stodgy" inside.

Interesting that there were different opinions on the taste but in the end everyone preferred the bread flour batch over the all purpose flour batch.

So, in general, I would say that the bread flour yielded lighter results. The taste was preferred by all and I would recommend using bread flour for all homemade bread products. There is also whole wheat bread flour for healthier options.