Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Popovers

Popovers proved to be pretty darn easy.  Pour ingredients into blender.  Pour mixture into muffin tins.  Bake.  Eat.  (It only could be made easier with an immersion blender, of which I will most certainly use next time.)

But even with this simple recipe, I managed to have challenges, primarily with the bake times and temps.  The recipe calls for baking for 25 minutes at 425 followed by 15-20 minutes at 350.   And no opening the door, ever.  Well, my oven has a not-so-great window to see in and at about 23 minutes these did not look poofed up high enough (as much as I could tell).   So I extended the bake time to 28 minutes and at that time I realized my mistake by ever so slight smell of burnt dough wafting through the house.  I quickly turned the heat down but the damage was done.  The outer crust was a bit crispy and burnt.  The insides were not so custardy, but they tasted fine (the insides only).  My husband managed to eat 4 in one sitting so they obviously were not that bad.  And one could tell what they were  supposed to be like.

So next time, I will trust the recipe and my oven and my immersion blender...










And here is Rhiannon, excited for her popover; this is the first recipe she has been able to eat!
For the full recipe check out the following hosts' blogs:
Vintage Kitchen Notes
Bake with Amy


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Semolina Bread & Berry Galette

In honor of Julia Child's 100th birthday I decided to catch up on two recipes from the Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Julia baking group.


Cutting in the butter




First Berry Galette!  This has to be one of my favorites so far in this adventure of baking through this monstrous book (I am now realizing how long it is going take and how old Rhiannon is going to be when I am done).







Rolled dough
The dough was a cinch to make. Resting it in the fridge and rolling it with ample flour made it a dream to work with.  No more pie dough for me, if given the choice; this rustic dessert has pie beat for simplicity and ease.  And the taste was comparable if not better.  The additional cornmeal in the dough added an interesting complex crunch and bite.




And the uncooked filling allowed the the fruits flavor to come through and shine.  The better the fruit, the better the galette.   (So, if I had sub par fruit, I guess I would consider a pie again which would allow me to cook the filling, hiding the fruits' imperfection.)  For this go around, I chose blueberry apricot since this is what I found most abundant and interesting at the farmer's market.  It turned out to be a fantastic combination.  Although I did forget to add the tablespoon of butter over the fruit prior to baking and this left the fruit to have a bit of tartness the butter would have balanced.  Next time.  Because for this recipe, there will be a next time.  Maybe next week?  Maybe tomorrow?

Here are the links to this great recipe: Tomato Thymes and The Kitchen Lioness


And now for Semolina Bread which I did bake in time to post but never got around to posting about.  It might have been because I didn't care for the end product, as the loaf slowly grew stale on my counter top.  The recipe was simple, easy and interesting with the excessive salt content and addition of semolina flour.  But I can't imagine baking it again as I can't imagine wanting to eat it again.

The sponge
The final product

After that review, if you are still interested in making the recipe, check out the hosts' blogs at Keep it Luce or Way to My Family's Heart to find the exact recipe.


Here is Rhiannon, the now-crawling-monster, getting into her older brother's toys much to his chagrin.