glennbech

Black truffle risotto Serves 2 as Appetizer. This black truffle risotto is just awsome. A lot of black truffle risotto recipies I found while searching, had garlic, mushrooms etc. in them. What I like about this recipe is that it's simple, yet rich, and that it lets the taste of the truffles dominate the dish. Please note that this is my first black truffle dish, my first encounter with the ingredient. So, I do not claim to be any kind of expert in the field. This recipe has it's roots in an Oscar dinner, orgiginally made with pan roasted organic chicken. The recipe had slightly more black truffle in it, and black truffle butter as an ingredient. To acommodate my wallet, I've reduced the truffle content some (not much). 1/2 dl Olive oil 125 g Risotto rice 1/4 Yellow onion, finely chopped 1 dl White Wine 4 dl Chicked stock dl grated parmesan cheese 14 g grated black truffle (This was half a black truffle for me) 1 T Butter Sweat the onions in the pan with the olive oil until tender. Add the white wine and reduce untill all the liquid is absorbed. Add a the chicken stock a little at a time, stiring the risotto continously. After about 20 minutes, the rice should be tender but still firm. Taste along the way! Add the butter, parmesan and truffle. Serve immediately on hot plates. Keywords: Vegetarian, Rice ( RG1940 )

I'm finally getting back in the baking and cooking business after a long period of moving and getting used the life as a family father :-) This is what I call "leftover bread" since it's made up of all those "almost empty" bags in my kitchen cupboard. I ended up with a dough of about 2500g. I mixed everything together with short kneads and lots of rests. I then put the dough outside (5-10 degrees c). for about 12-18 hours. Before baking, I rested the dough for about 1-2 hours to take the chill out of it. Contents ; Whole Rye, Whole wheat (fine), Whole wheat (coarse), AP Spelt flour, regular AP flour, fine reye and finally a touch of durum wheat. I have no Idea of the proportions other than regular white wheat fliour makes up about 50% of the dough. Baked on hot hot hot stone with water thrown into a pan underneath.

Excellent pictorial! I will have to get some of those bannetons right now ! :-) About the bannetons; Where did you get yours? Are you happy with them?

If anyone's interested, I've posted my recipe at recipegullet; http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1882.html

At a cullinary course I recently attended, we did that with a dessert with a "sabayonne like sauce". Fridge cold cloud berries were topped with the sauce and put into the oven for a quick browning. My personal opinion is that the taste became "eggy", like having an sweet omelet on top of your berries .-) Hower, I might have done something wrong .-)

thank you for the inspiration guys, I feel a cooking session coming up this weekend :-)

That sounds excellent. Can you examplify? I'd love to try a savory sabayon .-)

I recently attended a cullinary course where we made a sauce sabayonne, which basicly is a nix of sugar, egg yolks and sweet white wine (If I got it correct). Different combinations with additional ingredients exists, and we used a "Grand Mariner" liquer to add taste. The mixture are whisked in a bowl over steaming water, and gets foamy and airy. The sauce was used as a "bed" for blueberry-porched pears cut into decorative fans. The dessert looks awsome, I'll bring pictures the next time; Questions ; 1) Any other combinations for this recipe than Grand Mariner? 2) My instructor insisted on us whisking the darn sauce until it was back to room temperature. At home I skipped this part, and the sauce split into liquid and foam (!!) Darn intructors always being right! Is this common? Best regards

Blueberry porched pears with Grand Mariner Sabayonne Serves 4 as Dessert. Pears 7 dl water 4 Pears 300 g Sugar 300 g Blueberries Sauce 3 Egg Yolks 50 g Sugar 1 dl Sweet White Wine 2 cl Grand Mariner Peel pears, cut them in two and remove kernel and seeds. Boil together with water, berries and sugar until tender. This may take anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes depending on your pears. You can also boil the pears for 10 minutes ,and leave them in the liquid the night over. Whisk the Egg yolks, sugar, wine and liqour in a bowl over a bath of almost boiling water until it thickens. Take the bowl away from the steam and whisk until the sauce is cold. Put the sauce on plates. Cut pears in fans and put them on the sauce. Garnish with mint leaves. Keywords: Intermediate, Sauce, Dessert ( RG1882 )

Thanks for the help. I finally got around to do a remake this weekend, with splendid results! I used about 5 eggyolks to 5 dl heavy cream, and about 1 dl sugar and one entire vanilla pod. I pre-heated the heavy creaam and sugar mix, and put in the vanilla pod. when It cooled a bit (after 15 minutes or so) I mixed the cream/sugar/vanilla mix into the yolks. I used both a water bath, and a convection oven. I was a bit confused on when to take them out of the oven, since the top surface set very fast (due to the hot air). It becomes difficult to see when it's "set around the edges, but has a soft middle" (as my recipe says...) any thoughs on that matter ? But overall, I'm very pleased with my first real crème Brulees, and thanks again for all the help.

Do you means something like using a sifter to get a fine layer of sugar / powdered sugar on a baking parhcment, then place my ramekins upside down and blow away the excessive sugar? I think I'll stick to my torch for now, I have to find an excuse to try it out

This was a lot of help! Thanks! So much for googling for recipe's! Take a look at this one -> http://www.cremebrulee.com/creme.htm recipe for disaster! Next time, i'll go "straight to the source" (read; eGullet! *S*) First, I beat (rather heavily) eggs + sugar. Secondly I high-speed mixed beat the whole mixture after adding the heavy cream. I guess this all boils down to me not having the "basic" custard recipe "in memory" so to speak .-) I'll do a remake, and post pictures in this thread. Thanks for all the help! :-)

I tried making a "straight" Cremè Brulèe this weekend, with let's say "not so good" results (Sorry no pictures) I halved this recipe I googled for. 8 egg yolks 1/3 cup granulated white sugar 2 cups heavy cream 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/4 cup granulated white sugar (for the caramelized tops) I mixed sugar with the yolks and whisked in my kenwood for 3-5 minutes untill I got a paste. I then added the heavy cream and vanilla, and mixed a bit more. Below I will use the term "pan" to describe the cute little clay things you can bake creme brulee, fondant etc in. I put the mix 4 small "pans", and the "pans" in a water bath, and placed the whole thing in the oven. that was pre-heated to 300f/150c. At one point it looked like I was making small soufle's .-) Is this common? They actually rose to well above the top of my pans. The recipe claimed that 50-60 minutes should be enough to make the brulee set around the edges. Since this was my first atempt I didn't dare to cook them anymore, as my oven was smelling of omelets :-) I can't imagine how such a mixture would "set" ? The texture was very open and airy. I remember Creme brulee to be more like caramel pudding/chocolate pudding, smooth and jelly like?? Do I remember wrong? My texture was more like of a soufle or something in that direction. Any other recipe's, pointers or answers to my questions above ? Any other recipe's I can use my brand new torch? (I know.. I have a hammer and see nails everywhere .-)

I totally agree that sourdough does no equal "sour", and that "naturally leavened" is a much better term. Most of my SD bread come out in the "middle range", based on what I have tasted so far. Jack; thanks for the tip about the preferment being the major factor in sourness. I'll experiment with some parameters, and see if I can produce different results. The thing that struck me with the loaf I tasted from my grocery store, was that I couldn't have, by blind tasting, decided if it was a SD or not. It contained Rye that also have a slight sourness to it, so I could have mistaken it for that...

Close to where I live, a low-price grocery store has temaed up with a local company called "French bakery" to sell fresh baked 100% hand made sourdough bread. Nice! I tasted one of their loaves yesterday, and the "sour" taste was very subtle. Almost like a regular loaf, with the sourdough only used as a leavening agent. (With the regular benefits of extended shelf life etc. of course). How is this done? Is it a "quick" loaf? Less time gives less by-products (Aceatic acid, right?) Or does the starter cultures just produce different kind of tasting bread? (I cannot really see how this is possible from a scientific point of view!)

Just to illustrate what a Bagel should Not look like after boiling :-)

Thanks bill, I'll try that. I'l lalso start feeding and stiring my stater every day for a while and see how it goes. It's been along since my first futile sourdough experiments back in April, so I've gotten quite attached to it :-) My wife doesn't understand that I'm reluctant to flush it down like a dead goldfish... How strange :-)

More misserable bagel atempts here... They collapse during the boiling process! Im blaming the flour this time. I also think I need an update on flour terminology. How can a "bread flour" for "pizzas and bread" only have a 10,7% protein content? This is what I got from my best stocked grocery store. Typo "0" flour I think. I've also bough dried gluten powder. Can I apply some of this with luck??

All I can say is that I made a completely useless atempt at building a starter from Apple peel... I'll never go down that road again. It was hard work I tell'ya! :-)

It seems to me that my sourdough starter died on me. I suspect some condition made the culture inhabitable for the yeast or something. My sponges all smell and taste sour, but no froth or nice layer of bubbles on the top. My doughs dont rise anymore, and 12 hours is needed for a sponge to almost double. I suspect all the Co2 I get is from the LB. bacteria. I usually use about 40g of my starter culture to about 200g of flour for my sponge. Should I try to make a sponge with my entire batch of starter? When I feed it, it looks kind of promising, it's the sponges that doesn't "take off" like before. The anemic sponges is completely usless as a leavining agent, and every baking atemt goes down the drain! (I feel so sorry for myself now! *grin*) Have anyone recovered from such a situation? Start over?

I tried the Bagel Recipe from this book this week with a few modifications. I didn't have bread flour available, nor baking soda. I'll post some pictures later! However; Things didn't go quite as planned, and I have a few questions (and comments) regarding the recipe. - I hand kneaded it. It's hard work! Especially if you incorporate too much flour, and need to make it softer. The book says to start with a soft dough, and make it harder. Good point, take note of it! For those not familiar with the recipe; there is a "floating test" that decides when the bagels go into the fridge for a retardation period. When a bagel sinks, and floats back up in 10 secs. They're ready for retardation. - My test bagel floated straight away! (Doh!) This lead to overproofed bagels that collapsed during boiling. So... - To much yeast ? ( Don't think so, I use a scale) - To much work on the dough, so that the yeast got time to work, while I was kneading (more likely) - Should the recipe maybe be altered to use cold water? I'll try again soon with colder water, and maybe process the dough in my kenwood. Taste and texture however; Excellent, 10 points :-)

I want to see bagels! -.) This is definitly my next project from the BBA .-)

Bill44; Excellent! :-) The Loaf I was "copycating" wasn't as regular as yours, but; wow that looks good ! .-) Dan; Thanks! Here in Norway, we have a only one major comercial company that does "the real thing". They had a turnover of about 2 million pounds last year, so it's good business. I'm lucky to live very close to one of their 3 bakeries .-) Their loaves and pastries are amazing. I'll post some pictures later.

I'm finally settled into a new apartment, and are finally able to bake again! To test my new oven, I did a very basic 4 ingredient sourdough, 65% Hydration, "Hand made, Dan Lepard style", fridge retarded 24 hours / overnight for proofing (notice the blisters!). Baked on a hot stone for ~ 65 minutes. I wanted to test out a new way to make a gringe. My local artisan bakery had a pattern that I wanted to replicate. It's a "checkerboard", 3 by 3 cuts. Not very easy to see maybe, I can post more pictures of it later. Also note that It's slightly underproofed on purpose. (Baked it still a bit cold), I didn't want the gringe to be filled in completely as I wanted those square "tops" on top of the loaf ( the thing I was trying to replicate). The "tears" were unintentional, so I could have waited for another 30 minutes or so i guess. At the same time, I just wanted to create a thread where myself and anyone who wants can post pictures of our little creations, for no particular reason .-) I know how proud you all are, so don't be shy! :-)

Flavour will not be comprimised. Im a purist with a taste for science .-) Exactly! This is my main concern at the moment. I was thinking of investing in a water heating pump for an aquarium, and making a stable temperature setup like "samartha" describes in his experiments with home baking with the Detmold 3 stage process. That device may become handy in other situations as well. Last night I tried to mix the a 100% hydrated dough with the majority of the water and flour and keep it at 40c (I also used warm water) I made a yeasted sponge and let it develop for 2 hours. With this setup I was hoping to skip bulk fermentation altogether. Most of the flavour will develop in the hot flour/water pancake batter. It saves some time, waiting only for the sponge to activate, and go straight into proofing. The two hours should make up for about 8 hours of taste-developing-bulk-fermentation in room temperature (20c increase in temperature, 4x enzyme activity). The result? Not very good Im afraid. I "overshot" the temperature, and ended up about at about 50c for my flour/water batter. I believe that something starts to happen to the gluten or starch ( or both ) at that temperature, I cannot howerver back this up. The crust was "rubbery", almost like I was trying to bake a bagel (And they're boiled! What a coincidence!?) However, the crust got a very nice colour, and the bread tasted very wheaty and sweet. So I'm not giving up on high-temperature-flavour-development yet. As soon as I get my apartment back, I'll start to bake some Pain L'Ancienne batches, paralell to my "fast-track sourdough" experiments so I can benchmark my results .-)