Baby steps

I recently reached a milestone: I pulled out the bread machine and made a loaf of sandwich bread. This had been my husband's task, and I hadn't touched the machine since last August, when he got too ill to do it.

Apropos of nothing, it called to me the other day. The recipe was still stuck to the side of the fridge with my Dan Quayle magnet (long story), and there was enough whole wheat flour and buttermilk powder in the fridge to do one batch. There was still plenty of yeast in the freezer, but it had been well over a year old last August so I had doubts. But I was on a roll and going out right that second to buy fresh was not gonna happen. I crossed my fingers and forged ahead.

Three hours and twenty-seven minutes later, I had a slightly undersized, somewhat pale loaf on the counter. Close enough. All I could do was stare at it. I hadn't realized how much I had associated that process with my husband. That simple, pale loaf made me very happy.

I did restock ingredients, but I may have been a tad overenthusiastic. My son and I don't go through a lot of bread and I probably bought enough flour, etc. to last me into next year. But I keep the whole wheat flour in the fridge*, so no worries.

Feels good to reclaim that seemingly insignificant task. Pretty sure my husband would be happy about it, too.

*The oils in ww flour go rancid much more quickly at room temp. FWIW.
 

Truffles for everyone!

OK, so this next recipe isn't exactly in keeping with my dietary goals, but I made it for Valentine's Day so I get a free pass, right? It does, however, fall squarely into the Make It Myself category of things that are much cheaper to make than to buy.

Make what? Truffles, of course! I swear, it is so easy that the next time someone tries to sell you a $5.00 truffle you will toss back your head and laugh in their face. I know, it is dangerous having this knowledge at your fingertips, ready to go at the slightest hint of craving, but think of the money you'll save.

Ready?

Truffles for Everyone
Adapted from a bunch of sources

1/2 pound (8 oz. by weight) of the best quality chocolate you can get your hands on*
1/2 cup (4 fl. oz) heavy cream
1/2 cup or so of cocoa powder, unsweetened*

Using a good-sized knife, carefully chop/break/shave the chocolate into small chunks and slivers, no bigger than a peanut. Place in medium sized non-plastic bowl (ceramic, glass, or stainless, please) and set aside.

Measure heavy cream into a slightly oversized microwave-safe container. (Slightly oversized in case of boil-overs.) Heat cream to boil in microwave.

Pour hot cream into bowl of chopped chocolate.

Cover bowl and let sit ten minutes.

After ten minutes, remove cover, and with a spoon, spatula, or small whisk, start in the center of the bowl and gently whisk the now melted chocolate and cream together in small circles until they start to combine, then gradually work outwards until all the cream and chocolate are completely transformed into smooth, silky, goodness.

Congrats! You have just made ganache.

Cover the bowl again and place in the fridge to cool until the ganache is the consistency of shortening or slightly softened butter -- solid enough for a glob to hold its shape. Depending on how deep your bowl is, it can take an hour or more to cool so be patient!

In the meantime, line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet or waxed paper or whatever. Try not to check the ganache too often. :)

Once the ganache is solid enough to scoop, use a regular teaspoon (the kind you eat with, not a measuring spoon) or a disher to scoop out modestly-sized globs (1 to 1.5 inch diameter) of ganache onto the lined sheet pan. They don't have to be round at this point, you're just portioning them.

Place the sheet pan in the fridge until the globs are completely set up. They need to be as solid as they're going to get before the next step.

While waiting, measure out a half cup or so of unsweetened cocoa powder (natural, dutch process, whatever) into a shallow bowl or paper plate. The ganache balls will be rolled in the cocoa powder to keep the truffles from sticking to our hands while we shovel them into our face.

When the ganache balls are solid, roll each one between your palms for a few seconds to round it up (it won't be perfect) then roll the ball around in the cocoa powder to coat it, tap off the excess, and return to the sheet pan.

When they're all done, return the pan to the fridge to let them firm up again after all that handling. After they set up again, transfer them to a covered container. You may want to keep them in the fridge because of the cream, but if you let them warm up to room temp before eating they will taste so much better.

And that's it!

* Now for the chocolate lecture: Use the best chocolate you can afford. Be sure it's the kind of chocolate that makes your eyes roll back in your head when you put it in your mouth. Otherwise the calories simply ain't worth it!

I am lucky enough to have access to Callebaut chocolate in the bulk bins at the fancy pants grocery store, and it's usually less than $8.00/lb. That's a LOT less than buying the Guittard bars in the baking aisle, and it tastes a lot better IMHO.

But if you love Hershey's, use Hershey's. Just note that milk chocolate will be fairly soft and squishy when set, so try cutting the cream back to 1/3 cup or substitute some semisweet chocolate for some of the milk chocolate.

The cocoa powder can be the natural Hershey's in the brown tin, a fancy dutch process, or whatever. Just don't use a cocoa mix -- Swiss Miss will not work!

Once you get the basics down, you can search the web for ways to fancy them up with flavorings and whatnot, but this basic recipe is my favorite.

Enjoy, but not too often, you hear?
 

Friday

Discovery of the day: Another MIM success!

I am pleased to announce that I successfully made a batch of yogurt last weekend that came out (almost) exactly the way I wanted.

All it took was a quart of whole milk, one-third cup of dry milk powder, half a cup of yogurt (the starter), a small cooler, some hot water, and about eight hours. Oh yeah, a pot and a stove, too. And a thermometer.

(Do I need to mention the spatula, small bowl, and tiny whisk? Probably not? OK, then, let's get on with it already!)

I read a bunch of different recommendations for amount of powdered milk and starter, but decided in the end to follow the proportions given here. I'm not a stickler for organic, but I did have some Nancy's organic yogurt that I'd bought because it had, like, six different types of cultures. And more has to be better, right?

(Now that I've written 'six', I am doubting my memory. I feel compelled to double-check the carton tonight.)

I heated the milk in the pan on the stove to 170 deg., stirred in the dry milk, then set the pan in cool water until the temp of the milk hit about 110 deg. I took a cup or so of the milk and whisked it into the starter in a small bowl, then poured that back into the pan.

As for my container, I had a clean, one quart peanut butter jar that I'd run through the dishwasher then filled with boiling water (sanitized for your protection). While the milk was cooling I dumped the water out of the jar and let it air dry for a bit.

I poured the milk into the jar, but a quart plus half a cup equals more than a quart so I had a little left over, which I dumped, reluctantly. The jar was capped and placed in my 9 quart cooler. I poured hot water (120 deg) into the cooler until the water level was an inch or two below the level of the milk in the jar.

Then I let it sit. I worried about whether the temp would drop below 104 deg., so I found a small two-piece indoor/outdoor thermometer I had around, one where the outside component relays the temperature to the inside display. I put the outside component in one of my long plastic bread bags, dropped it in the cooler, draped the open end of the bag over the side and shut the lid on it. Then I carried the readout component around with me for the rest of the day.

Overkill, much?

The temp wasn't 100% accurate since the outdoor component floated on the surface, but it gave me an idea of when the temp had dropped too much. I probably went way overboard pulling out a portion of the water and reheating it, but I wanted to be sure it stayed warm enough.

Apparently it did, because when I pulled it out eight hours later, I had a beautiful, firm clump of yogurt. The only thing that bugs me is that it's a little more tart than I hoped, but I know that's related to the long incubation time.

Next time, I'll find my probe thermometer and track the water temp instead of the air temp. I'll also pull the yogurt out after six hours and see if it's firm enough.

I've been toying with trying to find a yogurt maker but the one I want (Salton YM9) apparently is no longer made, and other makes seem to run about $50. Thanks, but for $50, I'll stick with my homemade rig.

Yay, yogurt! Now that I've got it figured out, I'll be making it regularly.
 

Thursday

Discovery of the day: Going granular

Made some granola the other day; the first step to making granola bars to replace the ones I buy my son from time to time. I used Mark Bittman's recipe/guidelines, given here. I used rolled oats, ground flaxseeds, pecans, walnuts, almonds, raisins, dried cherries, apricots, and honey. I also used a combo of unsweetened and sweetened coconut since I had both on hand. It came out well. Next time I might look for a rolled seven-grain cereal or something to add to the oats, just for fun.

Then I tried gluing some of the granola together into no-bake bars using the recipe given here and that was, uh, not a total win. I added some puffed brown rice cereal for some of the granola, and I used peanut butter instead of the brown sugar. The puffed rice worked great, but even omitting the brown sugar, they were so sweet that my son wouldn't eat them. If they're too sweet for a nine year old, that's pretty damned sweet! Good thing I only made half a batch.

I'm betting the honey could be cut back some, but honey is so sweet to begin with -- there has to be something else I could use of a similar viscosity that wouldn't be quite so cloying. I finally determined that corn syrup or brown rice syrup might be a good choice. I have good old Karo syrup at home, but that certainly doesn't sound very sexy, so today I paid over $6 for a jar of brown rice syrup.

All I can say is it had better taste absolutely fantastic.

So next time I'll use maybe 1/2 cup brown rice syrup (3/4 if I have to), 1/2 cup peanut butter, maybe a tablespoon (or two) of oil, 2 cups granola and 1 cup of puffed brown rice cereal.

Fingers crossed!
 

Tuesday

Discovery of the day: Waffle-icious

We found a reasonable replacement waffle iron this weekend, and boy, was that a much larger hassle than I expected. The goal was to find a plain old waffle iron (don't need three kinds of 'plates') that makes regular (not belgian) waffles, is made of decent quality materials (not plastic outside), costs under $80, and could be purchased locally.

It took visits to four stores, but we found precisely one that fit all criteria, and it was on sale for less than $30. Score!

We fired up our new Cuisinart 'Classic' on Sunday to see if we could make waffles to replace my son's beloved Eggos. We used the recipe in the book but cut the oil in half, which turned out to be a mistake. They were edible, but not spectacular. I ended up with four to freeze for the week, and other than having to separate a waffle into quarters to get it to fit in the toaster, it worked out OK. I'm just thrilled that my son will eat them.

Next time I'll try a recipe from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything Vegetarian that looks particularly promising.

Another staple for the MIM list - yay!

As for the waffle iron itself, I am not in love with it. It feels flimsier than the old one. We'll see how it holds up.
 

Wednesday

Discovery of the day: Tracking it back

Poking around on the Casual Kitchen blog the other day, I found Daniel's post on Stacked Costs and Second Order Foods. I had read it when it was new but had forgotten about it. In hindsight, it was one of the factors that pushed me onto the Make It Myself path. Purchasing as many first-order foods as possible appealed to me on a very basic level.

Maybe it's because I grew up during the Cold War and always was reading books like 'The Boxcar Children' and 'Little House on the Prairie' where folks had to 'make it or do without.' Sure, I grew up with Shake-a-Puddin' and casseroles made with cream of mushroom soup just like (almost) everyone else of my generation, but in the back of my mind was always this notion of figuring out how to make things myself.

As I got older and read more science fiction & fantasy than could be considered strictly healthy, I was drawn to the 'after the bomb' and other post-apocalyptic tales where people had to start over from nothing. Because of this urge, I learned to knit, and eventually to spin and dye yarn. I learned to make soap and at one point I even had a small business selling it. I learned cake decorating (although I'm not sure how that relates to this discussion, but hey, you never know.) Hell, I even raised chickens for awhile, and I'm a city girl! Unfortunately, I've learned the hard way that I'm too lazy to be a good gardener or you can bet I'd be all over that too.

The yarn and soap and cake and chickens have faded into the past, but Daniel's concept of First Order foods must have pushed that button again. Read it and tell me you don't at least think about what you buy and what you might be able to make.