Homemade Sourdough Bread

A couple of years ago I got it into my head that I wanted to conquer my longstanding intimidation with baking that called for yeast.  For no good reason, and for years I had stayed away from baking anything that called for yeast and rising time and punching down and second rising times and all that jazz.  One day I decided that "gosh darn it, I'm a reasonably confident baker and I can do this" and even though I wasn't eating wheat/gluten/yeast at the time, there is still something wonderfully domestic about the idea of baking bread.

I pulled out a book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and started with their basic recipe.  And I completely fell in love!  Even though I couldn't eat it, I still fell in love with bread baking and went on to try out lots of different recipes from that book.  With that easy introduction, I've since conquered my fears of yeast and regular bread baking and had lots of fun with dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough and the like.

After Jeff and I got married a year ago, I started making a 1/2 batch of Five Minutes A Day base recipe about once a week.  It hangs out in the fridge and most often becomes pizza dough, but sometimes I just make a loaf or sandwich rolls.  Its wonderful, Jeff likes it, I like it, its fast and convenient and if you let it hang out on the counter for about 8 hours rather than the instructed 2, you get this lovely almost-sourdough flavor.

So you'd think I could leave well-enough alone.  But I can't!  Even when a recipe is awesome, I always get this itch that I could maybe do it just a little bit better.  So a few weeks ago, I started research methods for real homemade sourdough bread.  And I started playing around with my starter and trying to collect wild, airborne yeast and such.  My first loaf was so-so.  Flavor was pretty good but it was dense and heavy and the texture wasn't right.  After some tips from my friend Tarah, I cut back on the flour and let it rise overnight and this was the result of my 2nd attempt:

Even Jeff asked me if it was supposed to be that flat.  "Nope," I said.  "Its not supposed to be that flat".  The problem might have been that I was going for a free-form loaf and did not use a bread pan.  Reducing the flour made it very loose and I couldn't get the dough to hold its shape.  But here's the funny thing.  

See all those little holes?

Those holes are exactly right.  The bread, despite being very flat, had the exact texture and delicious "sourdough" flavor that I was going for.  It just didn't rise the way I wanted.  So...  I did this with it:

I enjoyed a lovely little breakfast sandwich and cut the rest into sandwich-sized squares, wrapped them up and popped them in the freezer for another time.

After a lot of hassling with this, I've decided that for me, the easier method is worth sticking to. I think it is just a good, its more versatile and its well, easier! 

If you have any interest in trying it out, HERE is my old blog post with a short video showing you how simple it can be to make your own bread.  And if you like sourdough kinds of flavor in your bread, just let it sit on the counter for about 8-10 hours before you refrigerate it.  And if you want to keep that nice flavor, leave about a cup of the old dough in the tub when you mix up a new batch.  The wild yeast that has collected will give the good flavor to your new batch.

And that's all for tonight!

A Gluten-Free Baby Shower

I have a Penzey's Spice Shop magnet on my fridge that says "Love People. Cook Them Tasty Food."  And  I had the absolute fun of getting to do that by making the food for a baby shower for one of my dearest friends yesterday.  Stacey and I have been friends for about 8 years and it has been a delight to share different seasons of life together.  She is expecting her first baby later this month and I'm pretty darn excited about his arrival!

I've been planning what I want to make for over a month and to be honest, I don't totally understand why this is so much fun for me!  One of the extra challenges in this shower was that the new Mommy-To-Be eats gluten-free.  I spent a lot of years eating gluten-free myself, so I was pretty sure I could work within those constraints.  So here is what I came up with:

Mocha Icebox Cake - This was a special request from Stacey and I knew I could make the cookies gluten-free pretty easily.  I followed the recipe from my blog from a few weeks ago.  And I used the link to the Tate's Chocolate Chip cookies, but used a good gluten-free flour blend (Pamela's) in place of regular flour.  Turned out really delicious!

Gluten-Free Lemon Poppyseed Scones - I used the same Pamela's brand Gluten-Free flour for these.  I thought the baking powder taste was a little strong, but otherwise, really good!

Caprese Tomato Bites - Saw this idea on Pinterest and they were wonderful!  Just 1/2 of a cherry tomato, a snipet of fresh basil and fresh mozzarella "pearls" with a little grind of fresh pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, held together with a toothpick.

Spinach, Mushroom & Feta Crustless Quiche - This calls for 3 different kinds of cheese!  Need I say more?

Frozen-Yogurt Covered Fruit Pops - These were a little messier to make than I anticipated.  And I think my chunks of fruit were a bit too large, making them a little hard to eat while frozen.  But the concept was really good and I would make them again, but cut the fruit into smaller pieces.  I did strawberries, bananas, pineapple and raspberries.  For toppings I did chocolate chunks, toasted pecans & toasted coconut flakes.

Candied Bacon -  DELICIOUS!  As if bacon were not unhealthy enough by itself, add some sugar to the mix and you get this wonderful, smoky, salty, sweet, maple-y, peppery stick of goodness!   If you Google "Candied Bacon" there are a bunch of different ways people make it and I combined a few.  I basically brushed the bacon with maple syrup, dredged it through some brown sugar and then did a few grinds of fresh, cracked pepper over the top and baked it on a rack set over a foil-lined baking sheet for about 30 minutes @ 350 F.

And there you have it!

Homemade Bailey's Irish Cream!

Yes, I did it!  I made a recipe for Homemade Bailey's Irish Cream and it is quite possibly better than the store-bought version.  I never considered that one could make this from scratch but it came up on a search I did for St. Patty's Day Desserts.  This is significantly cheaper than the store-bought version and might just become a staple in the Lingle Fridge.

There are a bazillion versions of this online, all slightly different.  So I'd recommend doing what I did:  Use the recipe below as a starting point and then tweak to your heart's content!

1 1/2 cups Irish Whiskey or Rum (or do 1/2 and 1/2)
1 cup Half & Half
1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 Tbsp Chocolate Syrup (ie: Hershey's)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp instant espresso powder

Place all ingredients in a blender and puree on high speed for about 30 seconds.  Taste and then adjust to your preferences.

I thought the recipe above was really good, but mostly like sweet milk.  So...  I added another 1/2 cup of Rum, another Tbsp of Chocolate Syrup and then another Tbsp beyond that of Cocoa Powder.  And then about 2-3 more Tbsp of the instant espresso.  For me, this was about perfect!!

This made about 3 1/2 cups total and various website say it will last in the fridge for up to 3 months.  I doubt it will last that long at the Lingle Casa.

Happy Early St. Patrick's Day!

With Love,
Jenny

Fresh Blueberry Pie with Whipped Lemon Cream

I really think one of my favorite things about cooking is being able to experiment and try new things.  It was important to my Mom that my sister and I were comfortable in the kitchen and knew how to cook.  I remember that she was really laid back about letting me try things and experiment (as long as I cleaned up after myself when I was done!).  Some of my earliest memories in the kitchen with her were making Jiffy Muffin Mixes.

Anybody else grow up on these?  We usually had a couple of boxes in the pantry and my standard job was to make the muffins to go with dinner.  The instructions consisted of combining the mix, eggs and milk (I think it was milk...) and I would play around with mixing the milk and eggs and then adding in the mix.  And the next time I would mix the milk and the dry mix and then the eggs.  I may have tried mixing with a spoon and then later a mixer and later my hands.  I don't know how many ways I found to change up the way I combined 3 ingredients but I remember that my family would play along and chime in on which muffins they thought turned out the best.  That memory makes me smile.

Basically, I still like to play with my food.  And I get sort of bored with things that have to be made the same way every time.  But with lots of baking, there isn't always a lot of room to shift things up.  My Mom, my Sister, and I have a Fresh Blueberry Pie recipe that our 3 family groups really love.  The last time I made it, I tried adding Lemon Zest and Vanilla to the glaze and I didn't really like how it turned out.  When I decided to to make this pie for a Dinner Group that Jeff and I went to last week with our church, I figured it was probably best to just stick with the recipe.

But that's not very fun.  I really wanted to change something.  So I started thinking about homemade whipped cream to go with the pie.  And then I started thinking that Lemon would be good with Blueberries.  And then I started thinking that Almond Flavoring and Lemon are completely wonderful together.  And then I wondered if Lemon Juice would curdle the cream.   After a few little tweaks, this was born:

Whipped Lemon Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp Lemon Zest
1 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice (No, it doesn't curdle the cream)
1 1/2 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Almond Extract

Combine ingredients in a bowl and whip with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.

Serve on top of Fresh Blueberry Pie (Click link to see post & recipe from 2010)

Oh man, I LOVED this!  I loved the Fresh Blueberries with the really light, fluffy, not-to-sweet Lemon Whipped Cream.  This is a nice, light-weight Spring and Summertime dessert that is pretty quick to pull together.

P.S. This pie dish that I used is really deep, so I made 1 1/2 of the pie recipe and it turned out perfect.

Mahi-Mahi Fish Tacos with Slaw and Chipotle-Lime Cream

Those of you who read my blog in the past probably know this, but in 2/12 years of recipe blogging, I don't think I had a single recipe from the Mexican Food genre.  Its not that I didn't like Mexican Food, I just liked it in the moderate kind of way that lots of people like it.  I associated "tacos" with ground beef, shredded lettuce and pre-fab, grocery store crispy taco shells.  I associated burritos with Chipotle.  I didn't like beans of any kind.  And I wished that I could like corn tortillas, but didn't.  And enchiladas were only a vehicle for an unhealthy amount of cheese!

And then I met Jeff Lingle...  Our wedding invitations had the phrase, "It all started with some chips and salsa" on the front and it is true.  There used to be a Mexican restaurant next to my office and my co-workers and I would occasionally order some of their chips and green salsa (Same salsa I tried to re-create at home in THIS post from 2010).  I offered some to Jeff once when he was at the office working on our computers and a few weeks later he asked me out on our first date.  That first date included some Frisbee golf and a Mexican restaurant.  Shortly after, he introduced me to real, quality corn tortillas that you fry up at home for proper, crispy taco shells and delicious home-made re-fried beans.  A bit later, I got him a tortilla press and taco holders for a couple of birthdays.  My sister-in-law, Julie, taught me how to make authentic enchilada sauce from scratch.  And it has gone on from there...

I can honestly say that I have really fallen in love with Mexican Food.  After we got married and moved up here to Highlands Ranch, I set up the "Mexi-Cabinet" in our kitchen.  It has our tortilla press, tortilla warmer, plastic taco holders, metal taco holders, tortilla bowl molds and yes, a tub of lard!

Needless to say, we're into Mexican Food in the Lingle House!  Last weekend Jeff and I braved the grand opening weekend of Trader Joe's in Colorado.  Among some other treats, we picked up some of their corn tortillas and Wild-Caught Mahi Mahi and I tried out a new recipe last night for some fish tacos.  This is a marrying of several recipes that I found online that looked tasty and I took pieces from all of them.  So here you go!  (It sort of looks like a lot of work, but didn't take long at all...)

Marinade

1/4 c Canola oil
2 Tbsp Rice Vinegar (regular white would probably be fine too)
Zest and Juice of 1 Lime
1 tsp Sugar
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1/2 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Chili Powder (My favorite is chipotle for the smoky flavor)
1/2 tsp Pepper
- Whisk ingredients until sugar is dissolved and cover 1 pound of white fish in a bowl or ziplock bag.  Marinade at least 30 minutes. No longer than a couple of hours. (I know the tortilla pic has nothing to do with marinade!  Just wanted to show off the Trader Joe's package!)

Slaw
1 1/2 cups Red Cabbage, sliced thin
1/2 cup Red Onion, sliced thin
Handful of Cilantro, roughly chopped
Jalapeno, seeded & diced (optional)
1 Tbsp Canola oil
2 Tbsp Rice vinegar
1 tsp Sugar or Honey
Juice of 1 Lime
- Mix oil, vinegar, sugar and lime juice and toss with the veggies.  Let sit for at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.

Chipotle-Lime Cream
1/2 cup Sour Cream
Zest & Juice of 1 Lime
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Chipotle Chili Powder
- Mix these together and taste.  Increase anything you want more flavor in.  Don't worry if it seems a little runny.  This actually seems to thicken up a bit after sitting for a few minutes

Optional
Sliced Avocado
Cherry Tomatoes
Feta Cheese

We grilled the Mahi-Mahi and toasted the corn tortillas without oil in a cast iron skillet.  Turned out really delicious!


Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
(And if you're in Colorado and you've never been to one, come up to Denver and we can go to Trader Joe's and buy my favorite Dark Chocolate covered Almonds with Turbinado Sugar & Sea Salt!)