Category Archives: Bread

05/17/12

Making Cream Scones

Cream scones are the classic compliment to the Devon cream tea. They’re comparable in flavor to an American scone, but smaller, lighter of crumb and above all easier to slather with clotted cream and jam. Though the procedure and ingredients may be similar to American biscuits and/or Australian scones, they’re really their own animal. Try them and you’ll see.

Begin by preheating your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and placing a rack on the very top position in the oven. That’s high heat for a British scone, but the big heat gives them a quicker, higher rise at the outset and a lighter texture in the end. They’ll have a more knobby top than a classic scone, but to me at least the tradeoff is worth it. Now sift your flour into a large bowl.

Add the sugar, baking powder and salt…

…and whisk thoroughly.

Now for the wet ingredients. Combine the cold cream, cold egg and vanilla extract in a bowl…

…and give’em a good swizzle.

Put that mixture in the fridge while you incorporate the butter. Add the cold cubes and rub, rub, rub.

When that’s done and the flour mixture looks like breadcrumbs, add the wet ingredients.

Gently bring the dough together with a spatula.

Then turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and pat it down to about half an inch in thickness.

Using a 2 to 2 1/2″ biscuit butter, cut out rounds, bringing the scraps back together as needed until all the dough is used.

Place the dough rounds on a baking sheet…

…paint with egg wash…

…and bake about 10 minutes until they’re golden. Like so.

While still warm apply some clotted cream should you have any (Mrs. Pastry found some for me…don’t ask me where).

Add jam. Strawberry is traditional but just about any will work here.

Then 1.) open mouth and 2.) stuff in. Repeat until butterfat coma ensues.

Filed under:  British Cream Scones, Pastry | 24 Comments
05/15/12

Cream Scones Recipe

These scones are the kind I remember from my college days in Devon when I, along with the other overcoat-wearing nihilists from the University of Exeter’s philosophy department, would descend on a local tea shop and munch cream-covered scones from delicate china plates set on doilies. The universe might have been cold and meaningless, but the butterfat content was high. You’ll need:

10 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
1.75 ounces (1/4 cup) sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
2.75 ounces (5 1/2 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into cubes
4 ounces (1/2 cup) heavy cream
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg mixed with 2 teaspoons milk for the glaze

Begin by preheating your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and set a rack in the top position of your oven. In a large bowl, sift the flour, then whisk in the sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter pieces and rub them in until the mixture looks like corn meal. In another bowl combine the In a small bowl whisk together the cream, egg and vanilla. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and gently stir them together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and pat it down until it’s about 1/2 an inch thick. Using a 2 1/2″ biscuit cutter, cut the dough into rounds and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Push together the scraps, pat them down and repeat the process until all the dough is used.

Whisk the egg and milk together, and brush it onto the tops of the scones. Bake 8-10 minutes until they’re lightly browned on top.

Filed under:  British Cream Scones, Pastry | 6 Comments
03/09/12

Double Chocolate Muffins

These have a deep, dark chocolate flavor, but aren’t so decadent that you can’t rationalize eating one for breakfast (if you’re me, anyway). Begin by preheating your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and buttering (or spraying) a muffin mold.

Combine the butter and half the chocolate in a small bowl…

…and zap in the microwave in bursts of about 10 seconds each (on high). When you still have some chunks left, stop zapping and allow the residual heat to melt the mixture the rest of the way.

Next, combine your dry ingredients plus the sugar in a medium bowl…

…and whisk.

Making sure your buttermilk and egg are at room temperature, combine them in another bowl.

Whisk that mixture, then add it to the dry ingredients.

Add the chocolate mixture next…

…then gently stir/fold it all together.

When there are still a few unmixed patches of flour left, add the remaining chocolate pieces.

Fold them in gently.

Divide the batter evenly among the cups…

…and bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean. Cool them on a rack for at least five minutes before you attempt to de-pan and eat one. Arrange them artistically on a plate in a misguided attempt to create a chic photograph.

Filed under:  Double Chocolate Muffins, Pastry | 9 Comments
03/09/12

Double Chocolate Muffin Recipe

In general I like to stick with the classics, but I had a special plea for a chocolate muffin recipe, so I decided to put one up. These were inspired by Dorie Greenspan’s Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins from her excellent book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. The only difference is that I increased the sugar, since I felt they needed a little more sweetness (no offense, Dorie!). For a more austere muffin, something you would eat with a sweetened cup of coffee, subtract 1/3 cup of sugar.

3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
10 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
7 ounces (1 cup) sugar
1 ounce (1/3 cup) cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10.5 ounces (1 1/4 cups) buttermilk
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and grease a muffin pan. Melt half of the chocolate and the butter together in a microwave, using as many 10-second bursts as necessary (stirring between each) to melt the ingredients most of the way. Use the residual heat to do the rest of the job.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl whisk whisk together the buttermilk, egg, vanilla and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients as well as the butter mixture over the dry ingredients and gently stir the mixture until it’s mostly blended. Stir in the remaining chocolate pieces.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes. Cool for five minutes before removing the muffins from the mold.

Filed under:  Double Chocolate Muffins, Pastry | 11 Comments
03/08/12

Making Blueberry Muffins

There’s a big misconception out there that muffins are supposed to have highly domed, even conical tops. Nonsense. A peaked top is a sure sign that a muffin has been over-mixed, and that means it’ll be chewy, even gummy to the tooth. That’s not a good muffin in my book. I prefer them melt-in-your-mouth tender. Just out of the oven, when they have a touch of crispness on them, they’re a sort of an American version of paradise.

They’re mixed, unsurprisingly, via the muffin method. That’s a fast-and-easy technique that you’ve probably used before. It simply means combining (gently) two mixtures: the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients, then panning and baking. Easy! So let’s go. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next sift/whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. That’s the dry side of the equation.

Now for the wet side. Combine the butter and the sugar (yes, that’s classified as “wet” since it dissolves so quickly in water) in a bowl.

Beat those together until they’re fluffy, then beat in the egg, sour cream and milk.

It’ll look about like this:

Now all you have to do, spatula in hand, is apply the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Gently mix everything together.

You’ll want to just bring the mixture together. If you see a few spots of unmixed flour left, so much the better.

Add in the berries and gently fold them in as well, just until they’re evenly distributed.

Now all you need to do is fill your forms with batter and bake! You don’t need to use cupcake liners if you don’t want to do that. Just make sure your form is well lubricated.

While the muffins are baking you can get a window into how well you mixed as you wash up. Pay attention to the behavior of the residual bits of batter as you wash out your bowl. If the batter simply dissolves in the water stream, you’ve got a superior muffin to look forward to. If it puts up a fight or leaves stringy/rubbery deposits on your wash cloth or sponge, you’ll want to ease up on elbow grease next time, killer.

This is what you’re after: a tight crumb with a few irregular holes, but no “tunnels” caused by gluten formation. I think I’ll put the kettle on.

Filed under:  Blueberry Muffins, Pastry | 9 Comments
03/06/12

Basic Muffin Recipe

There are all kinds of muffin recipes out there, about as many as there are quick bread recipes (if not more). That’s what American muffins are of course, portion-sized quick breads. But more on that later. This recipe will work with lots of different inclusions…berries especially, but chocolate chips, nuts, all sorts of stuff. It’s a great launching pad for any of your own ideas.

10 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
5.25 ounces (3/4 cup) sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
4.25 ounces (1/2 cup) sour cream, room temperature
2 ounces (1/4 cup) milk, room temperature
about 1 1/2- 2 cups berries (3/4 – 1 cup chocolate piece or nuts

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a muffin mold. Sift the dry ingredients except for the sugar together into a medium bowl. In a large bowl cream the sugar and the butter with a wooden spoon until it’s light and fluffy. Beat the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture one at a time, then the sour cream and milk. Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl and gently fold it all together, leaving a few spots of unmixed flour. Add the…whatever, and stir until it’s all just incorporated. Fill the molds about 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and eat!

Filed under:  Blueberry Muffins, Pastry | 20 Comments
02/15/12

Making Pão de Queijo

Pão de queijo (pãos de queijo?) are a lot like gougères, but with a little less fat and zero gluten. Why’s that? Because they’re made from tapioca starch, a derivative of the cassava root, not wheat flour. This gives them a somewhat different texture, like a soft wheat bun when cool, like a hot air ballon made of molten cheese when warm. They’re really quite a delicious experience either way, no wonder they’re one of the national foods of Brazil.

Be advised that there’s a lot of conflicting information out there about pão de queijo. Believe me. I’ve suffered from it all week long. Just get yourself some tapioca starch (a powdery white flour available at most health food stores or your local Whole Foods), follow the below instructions and you’ll do just fine. These things really are incredibly easy when you know how.

Traditionally they’re made using a semi-firm cheese from Brazil called Minas. That cheese is nigh impossible to get here in the States. Parmesan is commonly used as a substitute, but Mexican Cojita is far closer in flavor and can be found at most Mexican markets. But really any semi-firm cheese will work. Below I used Manchego and the results were fantastic. Anyway, begin by preheating your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the water, milk and oil in a small saucepan.

Don’t forget the salt!

Bring the mixture to the boil…

…and pour it over the tapioca flour.

Stir or whisk that mess together until the starch is gluey and gelatinized. It will be quite thick. A wooden spoon would have been a better choice here. Allow this mixture to cool completely.

Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and cheese.

Until it’s about like this.

When the tapioca mixture is cool, combine that and the cheese mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle (you can do the mixing by hand if you want, but a mixer will do it faster and more consistently…it will also incorporate more air).

Beat for about 90 seconds or so until the batter is uniform and fluffy.

Spoon the mixture onto an un-greased sheet pan, about two tablespoons per dollop.

Bake them for about 30 – 40 minutes until golden.

Quite light and fluffy on the inside, see? Warm, they’re meltingly delicious.

This recipe makes about 20. Leftover baked puffs can be frozen, through there won’t be any. The best of all possibly freezing strategies is to freeze the batter/dough dollops themselves and put them in bags. They can go straight from the freezer to the oven.

Special thanks to reader Bronwyn for her help and insights! Also many thanks to reader Monika, a professional Brazilian pão de queijo maker, who weighed in with some truly excellent ideas.

Filed under:  Pão de Queijo, Pastry | 30 Comments
02/15/12

Pão de Queijo Recipe

One of the more interesting quirks of the human brain (or at least MY human brain) is that once it starts down a path with the wrong set of assumptions it doesn’t return easily to the right track, even if that track is relatively easy to get onto. So it was with me and pão de queijo. Squaring the right technique (since there are at least three possibles) with the right cassava product (since there are at least three of those as well) took me the better part of a week. Thankfully with a little help from some of my readers I finally arrived at the right recipe, cassava flour and technique. Whew! You’ll need:

4 ounces (1/2 cup) water
4 ounces (1/2 cup) milk
2 ounces (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
8 ounces (2 cups) tapioca starch
2 eggs
2-3 ounces finely grated cheese (parmesan is common Mexican Cotija is best)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine the liquids and salt in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, put the tapioca starch in a medium bowl. In another bowl grate the cheese and whisk it together with the eggs. When the milk mixture is boiling, pour it over the starch and beat it vigorously with a wooden spoon until you have a gelatinous paste. Let it cool completely. When cool, transfer it to the bowl of a stand mixer along with the cheese/egg mixture (you can do this by hand, but the mixer is easier and more thorough) and beat on medium-high for about 90 seconds until the mixture is uniform and fluffy. Spoon roughly 2-tablespoon-sized quantities onto a sheet pan and bake 20 minutes until golden. Eat warm!

Filed under:  Pão de Queijo, Pastry | 11 Comments
12/22/11

Making Panettone

Having baked so many darn things the past eleven years, I confess I get a little cynical about preparations that seem to closely resemble other things. I do a sort of lazy man’s mental math…let’s see…brioche + sugar + candied fruit = yeah, I think I know what that’s all about. I think that’s why I’ve put off making my own panettone for so long. That and the fact that I’ve tasted so many of the impressively-tall-yet-disappointingly-dry versions. You start to wonder what all the fuss is about. Having finally made my own, now I know — and this stuff is good.

A starter makes a world of difference with panettone. Sure, the crumb isn’t as perfectly even as the store-bought versions, but it’s tender, moist and delectable. Starter-raised panettone makes sublime toast. The day you set out to begin the process, make sure your starter is well fed, happy, and bubbles up like this within four hours of being refreshed:

It can be refrigerated for a day or two once it gets to that point if you wish. It may fall a little, but don’t worry, it’ll still be plenty active. Combine the starter with the flour and warm milk…

…and stir it together. It’ll be a little looser than your original starter was. Don’t let that worry you.

Let it rise for four hours until it’s at this point, then refrigerate it overnight:

Next mix up your fruit blend and leave that out on the counter overnight (covered or uncovered, it’s up to you).

The next day, make your dough. Combine the dry ingredients in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle (beater) and stir them to combine.

Next add the starter and eggs…

…and stir about a minute until everything’s wet.

Let the mixture sit about 20 minutes to hydrate, switch to the dough hook and knead about four minutes. If the dough isn’t taking up all the flour or seems stiff, add some of the water. When the dough is nice and smooth, knead in the butter a few tablespoons at a time.

When the butter is incorporated, knead in the fruit blend.

Then the slivered almonds.

When everything’s together, scrape the dough — it will be rather sticky — into a lightly oiled bowl.

Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for two hours, until it’s about twice its original size.

Divide the dough in half (each half will weigh just under two pounds), then form the dough into rounds.

Gently place the rounds in your forms. They’ll fill them up about half-way. As mentioned in the recipe below, smaller forms will work just fine.

Let the panettones rise about another two hours, meanwhile preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point the centers should have risen to the height of the paper molds. Paint them with egg wash…

…and bake them for 1 1/2 hours. At about the one hour mark have a look-see inside the oven. If the tops are getting very brown, tent them with aluminum foil for the rest of the bake. Remove the breads to a cooling rack and cool completely.

Pannetone will keep perfectly well for a week or more, which makes them great for gift-giving. I’m not sure Mrs. Pastry will let either one of these get out of the house. But then she’s been awfully patient with me and my website shenanigans this year. She deserves all the panettone she can eat.

Filed under:  Panettone, Pastry | 10 Comments
12/13/11

Panettone Recipe

That’s “panettone” with two t’s. Profuse apologies to my few — and getting fewer — Italian readers. Panettone has near-sacred status among the Italian-Americans I know. These are people who know how to eat — but who are frequently disappointed by the panettone they find in most stores, both here and in Italy where (they say) mass-produced versions have largely replaced the artisanal kind. Even so, they fear making their own because of the time involved.

It’s true that some panettone recipes have more assembly steps than an Imaginarium Pirate Island Playset (forgive me, Christmas is coming), but between the quick-rise, easy-bake iterations and the slow-rising, multi-day religious ritual versions there is a happy medium. Peter Reinhart strikes it in his masterful book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. That recipe is classic Reinhart: starter-based but with a commercial yeast “spike” that delivers the best of both worlds: a voluminous light crumb and a deep, satisfying flavor. I did a little fiddling with the flavors (I found the Fiori di Sicilia in the original to be too much), but otherwise this recipe is quite close to the original.

For the Sponge

7 ounces (1 cup) active (i.e. revived and ready) bread starter
8 ounces (1 cup) warm milk
4.5 ounces (1 cup) unbleached all-purpose flour

For the Fruit Blend

6 ounces (1 cup) golden raisins
6 ounces (1 cup) candied fruit blend (or a mix of dried fruits if you prefer)
4 ounces (1/2 cup) brandy, rum or whiskey (optional, substitute 1 tbsp. bourbon extract of you can find it)
2 teaspoons orange or lemon extract
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
zest of 1 large orange, finely grated

For the Dough

13.5 ounces (3 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
1.5 ounces (3 tablespoons) granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-2 ounces (2 to 4 tablespoons) warm water
4 ounces (1/2 cup) soft butter
5 ounces (1 cup) blanched, slivered almonds

The day before baking, make the sponge. Stir the ingredients together just until the flour is wet. Cover and ferment at room temperature for 4 hours before putting it in the refrigerator for an overnight sit. Meanwhile mix the fruit blend ingredients together in a bowl. Cover the bowl and let the mixture sit out on the counter overnight.

The next day take the sponge out of the fridge and let it sit for an hour before beginning the dough. Put the dry dough ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle (beater) attached. Stir the ingredients together, then add the sponge, egg and egg yolk, plus as much of the water as you need to make a dough. Stop the machine and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Switch to the dough hook. Turn the mixer back on low and add the butter. When it’s incorporated add the fruit blend. Keep stirring until the fruit is evenly distributed, then knead an additional 2-4 minutes, steadily adding in the almonds. Knead until you have a soft dough that’s still slightly sticky. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise about 2 hours.

For two large 2-pound loaves, divide the dough in half and shape it into two large balls. Place them into panettone baking papers or six-inch-round pans. Press the dough down lightly. It should be about half way up the forms. Now then, you can make much smaller panettones if you wish. You can make shallower versions in parchment-lined cake layer pans (still excellent), even mini ones in muffin tins. Either way, proof them for 2 more hours. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and set a rack in the lower third of your oven.

Bake 2-pound loaves for 1 1/2 hours. Minis for 25-25 minutes and medium-sized versions for somewhere in between. If the tops are getting too brown, cover them with aluminum foil. Transfer the breads to a cooling rack (if they’re in papers leave those on, otherwise de-pan them first). They’ll keep at room temperature for up to two weeks. That can also be frozen for up to 3 months.

Filed under:  Panettone, Pastry | 41 Comments