Sweet Melissa Sundays

If you're looking for my SMS post, head on over to my new blog Blue Ridge Baker, where I'll be posting from now on.

Thanks!

New Name, New Address

Well, I've decided to change the name and location of my blog.

I've always loved to cook, and when I started a food blog, I anticipated that I would be posting cooking as well as baking. However, we eat pretty simply - most meals we have sauteed veggies and basmati - and through blogging groups such as Sweet Melissa Sundays and Tuesdays with Dorie, I have realized that I really just want to bake. I dream about bread. I'm obsessed. So much so that all I can think about is the idea of someday having my own bakery. Well see...

Anyway... I wanted my blog to be a more accurate representation of it's contents, so I've decided to call it Blue Ridge Baker.

Please join me at my new address, blueridgebaker.blogspot.com. 

TWD: Honey-Peach Ice Cream

I was pretty excited to see this recipe in the June TWD line-up. Peaches are just coming into season, and it gave me a chance to pull out my all-too-infrequently-used ice cream maker.

Luckily, I planned ahead for this recipe better than I did for the cobbler of a couple weeks ago, and bought peaches early enough in advance so that they would ripen in time to make this ice cream. I am so glad I did. The ice cream is amazing.

Peach is not a flavor of ice cream that I ever buy at the store, or order at an ice cream parlor, but it is so delicious when homemade, so quintessentially summery. It was one of my grandfather's favorite flavors, so making and eating it made me think about him, wish he could be eating it with me... 

I made a few changes to the recipe:

- I cooked the peaches in maple syrup instead of honey - I grew up ascribing to the ancient Indian system of health called Ayurveda, in which the heating of honey is said to have negative health effects.

- I pureed all of the peaches after reading the P&Qs - people commented on the chopped peaches becoming icy chunks that weren't too pleasant

- I omitted the sugar from the custard and used a couple tablespoons of maple syrup. After tasting the peach mixture, I felt it was sweet enough, and without the sugar my 2 1/2 year old - who has never had sugar - would be able to eat it. 

I loved this ice cream. It was smooth, creamy, fresh, light, subtle, refreshing, amazing. Seeing as this is just the beginning of peach season, I think this ice cream will be making a few more appearances this summer.

Thank you to Tommi of Brown Interior for picking this wonderful recipe. Visit the TWD blogroll to see everyone else's ice creams.

- 

BBA Challenge: Bagels

Bagels. I love bagels. Bagels are one of those foods that never occurred to me to attempt to make at home. Until I started following food blogs, that is. I saw them on so many blogs, and they were all so perfect and bagel-like, I was determined to try my hand at them. 

Thank goodness they're in the Bread Baker's Apprentice, because without the commitment to bake every recipe from the book, I might not have gotten around to baking them for a very long time. That would have been a real shame, because these bagels are amazing. 

They are by far the best I've ever had. My husband even loved them, and he's never met a bagel he loved. They were light and flavorful, really fun to make - though a little time consuming, just chewy enough, and not at all dry or tough. Better than I ever thought a bagel could be, and I love bagels. 

I know I will make these over and over again, and can't wait to try different flavors - this time I kept it simple with sesame seed - my favorite, and plain. 

The recipe for these fabulous bagels can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. 

SMS: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toasted Almonds

My mom didn't bake much while I was growing up. She was a single mom, working full time, and just didn't have the time - and perhaps the interest - to master many culinary feats. The one thing she did bake consistently - and incredibly - was chocolate chip cookies. So there is a high bar to meet any time I try a new recipe. 

I thought the texture of these was perfect - chewy and not at all cakey - but the flavor of the actual cookie left something to be desired. It was just too bland if there were no chips in the bite. (Or chunks in my case.) I baked them for a couple of minutes longer than recommended, but perhaps another couple would solve the blandness. I still have a lot of dough in the fridge, so I'll report back if my opinion changes.

The recipe calls for almonds. I'm not usually a fan of nuts in my chocolate chip cookies, but I decided to make the cookies as written. I didn't think the almonds detracted from the cookies, but I didn't think they necessarily added anything either. I probably wouldn't include them again.

Overall, I really enjoyed these cookies, even though they won't be my new favorite. 

A special thanks to Melissa Murphy, owner of Sweet Melissa Patisserie, and writer of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book for hosting this week. You can find the recipe on the SMS home page. 

Christopsomos

Here is my second bread for the BBA Challenge: a Greek celebration bread called christopsomos. 

For this bread, we had a choice between three versions of Greek celebration bread. Once I saw the addition of figs in the christopsomos version, I knew which one I would be making. 

This bread begins with a pre-ferment called poolish. It is a mixture of flour, water and yeast that is made in advance and later added to the other bread ingredients. My poolish was a little thicker than a pancake batter - the consistency the recipe stated it should have - though it still worked wonderfully. 

There are a number of spices in the christopsmos dough, though I only had allspice and cinnamon, so that's what I used. I replaced the honey with maple syrup and added more zest than the recipe called for. I also omitted the raisins, and used more figs and walnuts.

Peter Reinhart gives special instructions for forming the christopsomos loaf, but I decided to go with a simple braid - for some reason it just appealed to me more... I was very pleased with how it came out - especially since it was my first bread braid!

We loved this bread, and ate it toasted every morning for several days with butter (and sometimes honey). The recipe does say that it's a large loaf, but wow was it enormous!!!

The recipe for this bread can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Next up in the BBA Challenge: bagels! 

Tuesdays with Dorie: Parisian Tartlets

This is a very simple dessert - fruit on a round of puff pastry, with brown sugar and butter sprinkled on top before baking - therefore very open to interpretation. The recipe is for apple tartlets, though I didn't have any on hand, and honestly, all of the apples we've bought lately have been pretty flavorless. So I decided to save the apple until fall, and make something a little more seasonal. 

I settled on peach - I managed to find one that was ripe enough among a lot of unripe ones that I bought in anticipation of making Bear's Cobbler - and plum, because there was some good feedback about it on the TWD P&Q. 

I haven't been able to find pre-made organic puff pastry, so I decided to make my own. I was short on time, so wasn't sure I would be able to make it in the traditional manner. When I saw a link someone posted on the P&Q about a recipe for Nick Malgieri's quickest puff pastry, I thought I'd give it a shot.

The quickest puff pastry is all put together in a food processor, and it is indeed quick. I was very anxious to see if it would puff. 

The tartlets take minutes to put together, and I liked that there was a lot of freedom in the recipe. I put the butter and brown sugar on two of the tartlets, and left it off of two for my son. 

After about 15 minutes in the oven I checked on the tartlets, and there was a huge puddle of melted butter on the baking sheet. I was worried. I left them in for another 5, hoping that some puffing would occur, but no luck. 

Aside from the disappointment of the dough not puffing, these were delicious. Even the flat crust had a great buttery flavor. The tartlets were light and summery, and I'll definitely try them again. Maybe with a more traditional puff pastry recipe. 

Thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart for picking this yummy yummy recipe. See everyone else's tartlets here.

*** UPDATE ***

While checking out the other TWD members' blogs this morning I saw this recipe for puff pastry on Holly's blog, Phemomenon. Her tartlets were beautiful and very puffy, so I decided to take a look at the recipe she used. It started out similarly to the one I used, but had several turns of rolling and folding - like a more traditional puff pastry recipe. After seeing this, I thought I might be able to resurrect my dough. So I pulled it out of the fridge, divided it into two balls, rolled them into rectangles, folded them like a letter, gave them a 1/4 turn, rolled and folded again, then refrigerated them for about 45 minutes, and repeated the steps. As you can see, it was a great success! So thanks to Holly for posting that recipe!