My thoughts.

Red Iguana. I used to LOVE Red Iguana. But the last few times I was there I was less than impressed. My favorite dish is their pork mole. However it’s been pretty dry when I order it – I’ve actually given up. However their tacos are still fantastic and I think the best in the valley.

Café Rio. For what it is it is pretty great. I admit I still eat more at Bajio’s. (We’ll see what happens when it becomes Costa Vida)

Betos. I haven’t eaten there in years. I’ve noticed a lot of the stores have closed down or become Albertos. Back when I was single though I used to hit the Orem Beto’s at 2:00 AM quite regularly. The rolled tacos were just sooo good. No idea if it is still good. Everything else was pretty greasy. But I still have fond memories of a group making a Betos run in the middle of the night.

Chimayos. OK, I’ve not been in some years. Don’t know if this is as good as I remember. I’ve been wanting to go back pretty bad this year. Kind of a high end Mexican fusion. I remember loving the elk burritos. Their menu used to change pretty regularly. Man. Now I’m hungry.

For many years prior to my recent obsession, I’ve enjoyed cooking, including baking. But I believed that yeast breads were beyond my ability. After returning from a trip to New York City, I decided that I needed to try my hand at pizza dough. This morphed into a full-blown preoccupation with yeast doughs and bread baking that took hold and hasn’t yet let up, and will probably carry me through at least until Lost begins again next month. What follows are a few practical tips and tricks I’ve learned over the past several months.

1. Yeast. For me, baking bread has everything to do with yeast. Yeast is alive and almost magical, and learning to work with it means the difference between success and utter failure. It’s a source of wonder to me that although humans have been baking leavened breads for literally thousands of years, dry and cultured yeast has only been around for about a hundred and twenty five years.

Although there are actually many different types of yeast, for practical purposes, there are only two that the home baker needs to be concerned about: active dry yeast and instant (sometimes called “bread machine” or “rapid rise”) yeast. Both perform the same function, but active dry yeast (what I use mostly) usually needs to be activated in a liquid before it is usable, whereas instant yeast can be mixed with the dry ingredients (flour, salt, etc). Pay attention to which type of yeast your recipe calls for. Although it is possible to substitute one for the other, after making adjustments, putting the wrong type of yeast into the dough without noticing can lead to an epic fail.

Yeast is available in single-use packets and little jars at your local grocery store. If you buy packets, or even jars, and you plan on baking more than a couple loaves of bread you are paying way too much for your yeast. Instead, buy 2 lbs. vacuum-packed blocks of yeast from a big-box store for about $4 (or online for slightly more). For economic reasons that I don’t quite understand, a 2-pound block of dry yeast costs about the same as a 4-oz. jar of yeast, which costs the same as four or five 1/4 oz individual packets. So yeast can either be one of your cheapest ingredients in bread baking, or one of your most expensive, depending on your method of purchase. Empty the vacuum pack into a airtight canister and keep it in the fridge or freezer and the yeast will last a year or so (or, if you bake bread as much as I have been, until it runs out). One packet is equal to two and one-forth teaspoons of yeast.

To proof (or activate) active dry yeast, you simply mix it with warm water. Various recipes give various temperatures and amounts of water for proofing dry yeast, but the important thing is to make sure the water is warm, but not too hot: a nice, warm bath is the perfect temperature. Too hot to the touch and the water will kill the yeast. Just sprinkle yeast over your warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. Cooking guides will say watch for it to foam or bubble to see if the yeast is still good, but a much easier and quicker way to tell is to smell it. If it immediately gives off that distinctive yeasty, beery odor, you’re usually in business.

2. Other ingredients. The most basic breads are made with just flour, salt, yeast and water. There are many types of flour available for baking in most grocery stores, but unbleached all-purpose white flour does the trick for most recipes. Even whole wheat, or rye, or multigrain loaves are almost never use 100% whole grain flour. The honey wheat bread recipe I most frequently use is only about 5/8 whole wheat flour, for example. Like yeast, flour is cheapest when purchased in bulk. I keep a 5 gallon bucket in my pantry and it holds about 25 lbs of flour. An alternative to all-purposed flour is so-called “bread flour,” which is basically all-purpose flour with a high-gluten level. Gluten is the protein in flour that makes the dough strong and allows the bread to rise tall. For most recipes, all-purpose and bread flour are interchangeable.

You’ll also want a good supply of sweeteners, used to feed the yeast. I’ve used sugar, honey and molasses in my breads and each produces a slightly different flavor. Dry milk is used in a lot of recipes and so it’s good to have that on hand. Malted milk is also good to have around. I also like to keep some nuts and dried fruits around in case the mood strikes.

You might also try some specialty products. I really like adding a tablespoon or two of vital wheat gluten to my doughs. A friend of mine swears by soy lecithin, an emulsifier that speeds up dough rising. There are several other commercial products available and it seems like amateur bakers are getting more and more sophisticated.

3. Information. As you might expect, there is a ton of information available on the internet on bread baking. Community websites, such as The Fresh Loaf, provide a wealth of information to home bakers. I’ve long been a fan of All Recipes because of the user comment and rating system. There are lots of good bread-baking blogs available. Wild Yeast is one of the best I’ve found. Chef Peter Reinhart, author of the Bread Maker’s Apprentice, is sort of the spiritual guru to American bread makers and bread bloggers. I haven’t read his book yet, but I have checked out his blog from time to time.

King Arthur Flour’s website is a great source of recipes and cooking tips, even if you don’t buy any of KAF’s products. (It’s good flour, but it’s also more expensive than most.)

Bread making is one of those things you learn mainly by doing, but reading blogs and a wide collection of recipes will help you along the way.

4. Tools. By far the most useful tool for bread making is a standing mixer. You certainly can make bread without one, but it’s much more work. With a standing mixer and a dough hook, the mixer can do as much or as little of the work as you wish. Personally, I usually have the mixer combine the ingredients, then I like to do the kneading myself by hand. It’s fun and marginally good exercise. But most standing mixers can do almost all the kneading for you.

Bread making requires the usual assortment of measuring spoons, cups and mixing bowls that you might expect. I recommend a very large bowl to use for the first rise, big enough to allow the dough to rise without bumping against the cover or spilling over the sides.

I’m not a huge fan of bread machines because, for me, they take most of the fun out of baking bread. If you like your bread machine, keep in mind that you can always use the “dough cycle” to let the machine mix, knead and do a first rise for your dough before you shape your loaves and bake them in a conventional oven.

You might also want a baking stone. Properly heated, a baking stone will even the temperatures in the oven and can also give flat breads (read: pizza) a nice crust on the bottom. Rather than use a baking stone, I just purchased a couple of pieces of unglazed travertine tile from a big-box home improvement store and stuck them in my oven. (Unfortunately, the 18″ square tiles were too big for my oven, so I did need to trim about an inch off of one side with a tile saw first.)

I almost always bake with parchment paper. I’ve become very down on non-stick cooking spray. It smells like the propellant, which is horrible, and I think it can make the bread taste bad. Parchment achieves the same purpose without any bad smells/tastes.

Another tool that is fun and worth investing in is a pizza peel. It really helps to move your loves (or pizzas, naturally) in and out of the oven without the bread losing its shape. And there’s really no need to spend a lot of money. I got mine at Bed, Bath and Beyond for under ten bucks.

5. The breads. I recommend starting out with a very basic loaf recipe, either white or wheat. Don’t give up if your first loaf fails. Even experienced bread bakers have a bad loaf now and then. Work your way up to some of the more difficult breads (artisan french breads or sourdoughs, for example).

A common mistake is not kneading the dough enough to allow the gluten to form properly, and as a result not support the rise. This is why I recommend that beginning bread bakers knead by hand for a while. Kneading by hand, you start to get a feel for that moment when the dough turns from a gooey mess to something alive, smooth and strong.

Another mistake is to not allow the dough to rise long enough. Lots of conditions can effect the amount of time it takes for the dough to rise, including room temperature, the amount of yeast that was activated, and the amount of sweeteners, fats and salt. Recently, I was making this kugelhopf recipe and the dough was not rising as quickly as the recipe indicated it should. I had to give it an extra whole hour (kugelhopf is a slow rising bread anyway), and then it was fine and, in the end, tasted great.

The third common mistake for breads that fail to rise is killing your yeast. Usually the culprit is too high temperature, but the yeast might be no good to start with. If the yeast has been sitting around for a year, it might be dead.

A great beginner recipe is challah. Challah rises quickly and challah dough is difficult to mess up. I’ve made challah several times and haven’t had a failure yet. Learn the six-strand braid and you’ll impress your friends. Foccacia bread is actually easier and quicker than pizza dough, and very tasty.

Feel free to tweak recipes, just keep in mind that with bread, you want to maintain the important proportions: hydration (water or other liquids) to flour, sugars to salt (sugars encourage rapid yeast growth, while salt inhibits it), and fats in proportion to other ingredients.

Bellow are two of my most trusted and tested recipes: challah and pizza dough. Feel free to add some of your own recipes and tips in the comments.

Challah Bread

• 1-3/4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 4 eggs, plus one for egg wash

Proof yeast by sprinkling it over one cup of warm water for about five minutes. Warm honey, ¾ cup water and butter. Combine with flour and salt, then add yeast, mix. Add eggs one at a time while mixing. When all is mixed, knead for 10 minutes. The dough should become smooth and elastic.

Let rise for about 30-45 minutes (until doubled). Divide and braid into desired amount of strands/loaves. Braid the pieces, and tuck the ends under. Place on parchment paper on a baking stone or a pan. After forming loaves, let it rise again for about 30 minutes.

Before putting in the oven, brush an egg wash (made from a beaten egg and about 2 tablespoons water) over the dough.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. Bread is done when the crust is golden brown and glossy and sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Consider sprinkling sesame seeds or poppy seeds over the egg-washed dough just before baking. You can also mix nuts and/or fruit into the dough just before kneading. This is a very hearty dough that will take lots of abuse and bounce back.

Makes 2-4 loaves of challah bread.

BTD Greg’s Pizza Dough:

• 3 C very warm water
• 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• ¼ C honey
• 6 ½ C unbleached all-purpose flour (or 5½ all-purpose and 1 cup semolina flour, if available)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten (optional)
• Olive oil (a few tablespoons)

Add honey to half of the water (1.5 cups) and dissolve. (I usually just stick it in the microwave for a minute, but be careful not to overheat the water.) Pour the water in a mixing bowl, then sprinkle the active dry yeast over top of it and let it sit a few minutes. Mix 4 cups of flour (3 cups all-purpose and 1 cup semolina, if you have it) with the vital wheat gluten and salt. Mix or sift the dry ingredients, then add the other half of the warm water and mix. Add the honey/water/yeast mixture and mix some more. Then add about a two cups more flour, about a half cup at a time. After mixing, the dough will still be slack, but should be coming off the edges of the mixing bowl. I put the other half cup flour on a flat surface and knead by hand for 10 minutes. Alternately, you can leave it in the mixer for kneading for another 10 minutes. The dough will remain slack (loose), but should get less sticky as you knead in more flour. After 10 minutes, add to a large mixing bowl that has either been coated with cooking oil or olive oil. Let the dough rise for 45 minutes to an hour at room temperature (or 2-3 hours in the refrigerator). After rising, take out and divide, then deflate, stretch and shape into the desired thinness/size.

Top as desired. For the sauce, I usually use canned tomatoes (either whole, diced or chopped) and add fresh garlic (if available) and Italian herbs, then blend. Brush the top of the crust with olive oil if you like, then a thin layer of sauce, then cheese and toppings. I’ve found that I don’t need to time the pizza making exactly with dinnertime. The prepared pizzas can be covered with plastic wrap and sit in the fridge until we’re ready to cook them.

Bake at 500 degrees until the desired doneness. A pizza stone (or a piece of unglazed travertine tile) is recommended, but not essential.

Makes enough dough for 4 very large pizzas or 6 medium-sized pizzas.

1/4 Cup milk (lukewarm)
1 T tahini
1 T honey
1 C bread flour
2/3 C all-purpose flour
1/4 t salt
1 T + 2 t powdered sugar
2 t dry yeast
zest of 1/2 clementine or 1/4 orange
1 T butter

1. Combine the yeast and lukewarm milk in a small bowl and stir to combine. Fit a dough hook in an electric mixer and mix the dry ingredients on a low speed.

2. In another bowl, mix the honey and tahini together. Add this mix and the milk and yeast mix to the dry ingredients. Mix together on medium speed to form a dough. Add zest and butter and 1/4 Cup water and continue mixing until the dough is firm and elastic. I needed to add a bit more flour to make the dough come together after the addition of the butter as it was a little too wet.

3. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 350F. Divide hte dough into two and knead the dough until smooth then roll it out into a rectangle. Roll it out to 1/4 inch thick. With a ruler and a sharp knife, cut 5mmx15cms strips and carefully transfer these onto a lightly greased baking tray or greaseproof paper lined baking tray.

5. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes (watch it, it may take a bit longer or shorter). You want it golden brown, not light yellow as it will not “snap” properly.

There’s a controversy at our house (and not just at our house) about how one should pronounce “Pocky.” My daughter and her friends rhyme it with Rocky, and I call it “poke-y,” because that’s how it’s pronounced in Japanese, and, you know Pocky is from Japan.

Whatever the pronunciation, we’re hoping that these will make good holiday gifts. I’m going to whip up a batch of dough just now. If they turn out, I’ll post some pictures.

UPDATE:

Here’s the final product. They really do taste great, but I’ll fess up to this being fairly time consuming. (It helps to channel your inner Martha Stewart at times like these.) Clockwise from the top: crushed candy canes, chopped pecans, crushed Butterfinger, coconut.

Miss: Dunkin Donuts’ French Cruller, 2.0. A few years ago, the french cruller at DD was my favorite donut, edging out even the fresh-baked Krispy Kreme glazed. Then Dunkin’ took the donut off the shelf as part of an effort to expel all trans fats from the menu. When finally the donut showed up again, I was excited, then deeply, sorely disappointed. The new version is disgusting. I’m not sure what they used to replace those delicious trans fats, but I suspect it might be some sort of fossil fuel. I’ve tried to eat it twice (from two different DD locations), and haven’t even been willing or able to finish it—something that is completely new to me when it comes to donuts.

Hit: Glee (Fox). The pilot to this new serial dramedy debuted on Fox (and online via Hulu and on-demand) last spring, though the series itself will launch in the fall. It’s a self-aware and hugely entertaining show about a high school teacher trying to reclaim the glory of his alma mater’s show choir. It’s got a great cast and is chock full of cheesy ’80s anthems. What’s not to like? What remains unclear is whether the show can maintain its momentum as a weekly serial. It could be a challenge, but I’m willing to watch it try.

Miss: The 2009 pennies. In commemoration of Lincoln’s 200th birthday, you may have noticed some new one-cent coins in circulation. The front is the same, but in place of the Lincoln memorial on the back are a couple of scenes from Lincoln’s life. The first (and most hideous) shows Lincoln taking a break from splitting rails and sitting on a log reading a book. By his side is a sledgehammer that doubles as a carnival prop, and Lincoln doesn’t yet have the beard, but he does sport a bitchin’ blow-dried hairdo. The second shows a log cabin (presumably an artists rendition of Lincoln’s birthplace). Neither seems right to me, particularly because Lincoln himself was never fond of the “rail splitter” nickname or the born-in-a-log-cabin, though he tolerated them during elections. Plus, something about the pictures just seems off, like a gag gift or an arcade token. (As an aside, how is it the government is still making pennies? Is it even conceivable that it costs less than $0.01 to produce our lowest monetary denomination?) UPDATE: Some Googling reveals that there are four new penny designs, not just the two I mention in this post (and that I’ve actually seen in circulation). One of them (professional life in Illinois) I’m somewhat indifferent about, and the other three I think are awful.

But really, this post is just using an excuse to show off a cake that Allison (erstwhile Kulturblogger and commenter) and I created for our three-year-old son. Behold, the robot cake:

We had fun making it, and I’m sure our kids will have fun eating it.

Anyone made any cakes lately? Is this really a trend, or is it just me?

Yesterday, I adapted one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes using Abuelita instead of semi-sweet baking chocolate, and it turned out great, so I thought I’d share.

• 1 cup of softened butter
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 1/2 round Abuelita tablets (a box has 4 or 5 tablets)
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 cup + 2 T. steaming hot water
• Large loaf pan, lined with baking parchment

Preheat oven at 375. Cream the butter and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla. Melt the Abuelita in the microwave. (It doesn’t melt liquid like chocolate, but is sort of a grainy texture. That’s fine.) Blend the Abuelita with the other ingredients. Sift flour and baking soda. Alternate small portions of hot water with flour and mix until everything is evenly blended. You don’t have to whip it, just blend. The batter will be runny. Pour into the lined loaf pan and bake at 375 for 30 minutes, then reduce oven to 325 and bake for another 20 minutes. Don’t bother doing the knife/toothpick test with this cake. It’s meant to be kind of damp. If it’s still runny on top, you might stick it in the oven a little while longer, but don’t overcook it. Better to undercook it a bit than overcook.

This stuff is really, truly awesome. Just slice and eat. It doesn’t need frosting (in fact, frosting is an abomination on something this wonderful). If you feel like you need something, put a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream on top of your slice.

I adapted this recipe from a chocolate loaf cake recipe in Nigella Lawson’s “How to be a Domestic Goddess.”

*Red Bull GmbH would have you believe that their cola contains coca leaf, kola nut, lemon/lime, clove, cinnamon, cardamom, pine, corn mint, galangal, vanilla, ginger, mace, cocoa, liquorice, orange, mustard seeds, and caffeine from coffee beans. Oh, and nothing “artificial.”

5 lbs red potatoes
1 lb bacon (I prefer honey or maple cured)
1 med-to-largish red onion

Chop and saute the bacon to crisps (but do not burn).  Keep drippings and bacon together.
Chop the onion pretty finely and leave raw.
Chop the potatoes into desirably sized pieces and boil.

Make the sauce by whisking:
1 cup mayonaise
1/3 cup stone ground mustard
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp rice vinigar
2 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika (or regular paprika if you don’t have smoked)
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Drain the potatoes and add the onions and bacon (including drippings).  Pour over the sauce and combine.  Let sit for 20 minutes or so before eating.

Yours truly,

Cinnamon J. Scudworth

2 Sticks (1 cup) butter, room temp.

3/4 Cup granulated sugar

3/4 Cup dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 Cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 3/4 Cups rolled oats (“Old Fashioned” oatmeal)

1 12-oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream the butter, either by hand or with a kitchen mixer. Add sugar and brown sugar and continue to cream vigorously. Add eggs, one at a time, creaming ruthlessly after each one. Add vanilla extract and salt. Cream. Sift flour and baking soda into the bowl on top of creamed wet ingredients. DO NOT STIR. Add the oats and chocolate chips. Stir unaggressively, just long enough to incorporate the ingredients. Spoon dough onto cookie sheet in roughly 2-tablespoon increments, rolled into golf-ball-sized mounds. Bake for 8-10 minutes. For best results, remove from oven when they still look just a bit undercooked — when they just begin to get a bit of brown on top. Let them cool for just a few minutes. Eat lots and lots of them, hot and gooey, with cold milk.

General tips. Let the butter soften before creaming. This takes patience. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, MICROWAVE TO FACILITATE SOFTENING OR ENGAGE IN ANY OTHER CULINARY NONSENSE WHICH MIGHT POTENTIALLY RESULT IN THE BUTTER’S MELTING. The general idea for stirring/creaming is: use as many strokes as possible before adding the dry ingredients (everything from the flour on) and as few strokes as possible once the flour is added. You will be tempted to let them overcook. Do not succumb to such temptations. If they look a bit undercooked when you take them out, by the time they have cooled they will be perfect. If they already look browned enough when you take them out, they will be slightly overcooked by the time you start eating them. Once they are out of the oven, take them off of the baking sheet and put them on a rack to cool. This is an incredibly delicious, incredibly unhealthy recipe, so be warned. Also, the dough itself is decadently good, but resist eating too much of it. These cookies are worth the wait.

Yours truly,
Cinnamon J. Scudworth