Baking Bouchon - Recipe 100: Gluten Free Brioche

This is the first post I'm writing from Korea.  We've been here a few days now and I'm still a bit fuzzy and disoriented and unable to sleep through the night, but I know I'll become more clearheaded soon.

Some things are a little bit different and most things are a lot different as evidenced by what happened the first time I logged into Blogger from our hotel room and saw this...

Yeah, I can't read that.  I especially can't read the part that tells you where the drop down button is to change my default language from Hangul to English.  Ten minutes later all was well, but I had a panic attack for a minute.

I still have a few more recipes left that I prepared before our departure from the States so we'll talk about those most of this week before I tell you about our long trip here.

This is almost the last recipe in the bread chapter and the second to last recipe in the whole entire Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  I'm not at all surprised that the breads lingered toward the end of this baking experience because there are so many of them in the cookbook but I am surprised that they included a Gluten Free bread.  I shouldn't be because what I didn't know is that the bakery developed a Gluten Free Flour blend that is sold at Williams Sonoma which I was supposed to use in this recipe but did not because it comes in bags larger than I required for this recipe and I didn't want to waste it when I moved.

In my limited Gluten Free baking experience, I've found that using Gluten Free Flour blends is the easiest way to execute GF recipes but there are really large differences between the different blends so you can to find one you like.  I've had good experience with the King Arthur Flour blend and have heard good things about Pamela's and Cup-4-Cup (the Bouchon blend at Williams Sonoma).  For this recipe I bought the Betty Crocker blend which isn't my favorite but was all the store I went to had.

The dough for these brioche rolls is totally different from the dough used in regular brioche.  I used to get freaked out making GF stuff when the batter or dough looked weird but I've come to expect it now and just wait and see what the end result looks like.  I've also found that GF batter and dough doesn't not taste nearly as good as glutenfull batter and dough which is probably good because I don't eat so much of it.

These baked up pretty nicely....

They also tasted pretty darn good.  Not exactly like brioche but more like a dinner roll.  They've also got coarse chunks of salt sprinkled on top which add to the savory, dinner roll feel.

My only complaint about these was that they did not store well.  I left a few in a tupperware container on my counter overnight and the next day they were very dry and crumbly.  However, I gave most of these away to my Gluten Free Friend (I delivered them to her in a giant plastic baggie in a restaurant tempting her to take one out and eat it during the meal.  She didn't, but I kind of wish she did) and she stored them in the freezer.  She said they reheated really well and didn't get all dried out so I guess the freezer is the key.

Enjoy!
Julie

Lemon Thyme Roast Chicken

I'll keep this post short and sweet.

I read quite a few blogs on a daily basis.  Most of them make me feel like my blog is awkward and doesn't look nearly as nice as other blogs.  I use a standard design from Blogger and have only done a little bit of customization.  I've had thoughts of paying someone to design this space into something that looks more professional but haven't gotten there yet.

Looks aside (although her blog looks totally legit) I've been loving the recipes that are posted on The View From Great Island lately.  I can't remember how I stumbled on this blog but I've been really enjoying it.  (BTW, I don't know this lady at all and she doesn't know me so there's no particular reason for me to be telling you about her blog except that I like it and I got this recipe from her).

This roasted chicken is super simple to make and tastes awesome!  I served it to my book club ladies and was really happy with how it came out.  The lemon flavor is bright and fresh but it gets a little bit of a concentrated, richer flavor from being roasted.

You can find the recipe HERE.  The original recipe calls for a whole chicken that has been cut up, but I used all chicken legs.  I also removed the skin before cooking them to pump up the healthy factor.  Oh yeah, and I cheated and used regular lemons and not meyer lemons because my grocery store didn't have them.  I'm practical that way.

Enjoy!
Julie

Gluten Free Crepes

I talk a lot about my Gluten Free Friend (GFF) on this blog.  She's a pretty amazing person with a lot of qualities that have nothing to do with her Gluten Free Status, but she's really my only friend with this status so I have to talk about her a lot when it comes to food.  She's pretty useful that way and luckily she doesn't mind me using her as an example.

My GFF is part of my book club and since I made the Crepe Cake I told you about yesterday for my favorite book reading ladies I was adamant that she be able to partake so I found this recipe for crepes that contain none of those pesky glutens.  It is made with potato starch which I was highly skeptical of.  The other ingredients are the same as regular crepes - water, eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and salt.

This experiment in crepes free of flour didn't start off all that well.  I mixed up the batter and proceeded to heat up my non-stick skillet.  Once hot, I poured in the batter and let it cook.  However, when I tried to flip it it completely fell apart (see photo above, right).  I was discouraged... sad face... but when I revisited my batter to try again I noticed that letting the batter sit for even a minute caused the potato starch to separate and settle to the bottom of the bowl.  Without the potato starch, I had essentially cooked milky eggs.  I re-whisked and immediately poured the batter in the pan.... so much better!  It stayed together and was significantly crepe-like.

I used these crepes along with the orange diplomat cream that I used in the Crepe Cake to make my GFF a Mini GF Crepe Cake.  She was pleased and I was pleased that she was pleased.

These are a great staple and I could see them filled with fruit and whipped cream or whatever your crepe pleasure may be.

Gluten Free Crepes
Adapted from Feel Good Eating
Makes 4 Crepes

Ingredients
3 T Potato Starch
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Milk
1 Egg
Pinch of Salt
1 tsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions
Whisk all the ingredients together, making sure to incorporate all the potato starch.  Scoop 1/4 cup of batter into a hot non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray.  Cook on one side until set and lightly browned, about 1 minute.  Flip and cook until the other side is lightly browned.  Repeat with the remaining batter.

Make sure to re-whisk the batter before making the next crepe to reincorporate any potato starch that has settled to the bottom of the bowl.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 90: Hazelnut Macarons

The recipe marks the end of the cookie chapter in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  HOORAY!!!

And thank God this ended on a positive note.  I have had mixed success with macarons, as evidenced by yesterday's lemon versions but these came out pretty well and the filling is positively spectacular!

The only difference between these and the other macarons in this cookbook is that the almond flour is traded for hazelnut flour.  This flour is pretty interesting (even if I did struggle finding it and finally ordered it on the Internet) - it's like almond flour in that it's just ground up nuts - but the skin of the hazelnuts was left on so it has little brown flecks in it which I think makes the cookie look pretty cool.

See how pretty they are?  See how they didn't explode in the oven?

Well, half of them didn't explode which is really what I've come to expect from a successful macaron adventure.

While the cookies are great, my favorite part of this recipe is the Caramelia Ganache.

The ganache is actually really easy with corn syrup (it was supposed to be trimoline, which is a weird sugar syrup, but I've never bought it for any of the other recipes and wasn't about to start now.  Plus, it's only a tablespoon so I figured the corn syrup would be fine and it was), heavy cream, salt and chocolate.

This isn't any old chocolate, it's Caramelia chocolate which is so much better because it's chocolate with caramel integrated into it - not melty in the center but all mixed in there.  This means that you get a ganache that has the flavor of both chcolate and and caramel which is so much better than regular chocolate ganache. 

The ganache gets made and left to set up on the counter overnight and the results is a firm, spreadable consistency.

These little sandwiches are ridiculous - the cookies are a fairly neutral canvas with just a bit of a nutty flavor but the ganache is hands down one of the best things I've ever made.  It is so creamy and rich and just a little bit salty - I absolutely love it!

Since I had more than a few pretty ones, those came to work with me where someone told me it was the best thing she'd ever eaten.  That made me smile.

The less than pretty ones stayed at my house and got eaten very quickly.

Reflecting back on the entire cookie chapter reveals some hits and some misses.

My least favorites were the Pecan Sandies and the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  The Pecan Sandies were too greasy and not enough like shortbread and the oatmeal raisin cookies had raisins in them.

Biggest surprise were the Florentines which I didn't expect to like as much as I did and the Shortbread which I thought would be boring but was really delicious.

My two favorites were Better Nutters which were rich and peanut buttery and just as good when I ate then at the bakery and these Hazelnut Macarons, because that ganache just can't be beat.

CA votes for Florentines, Shortbread and Pecan Sandies which is funny.  He says his coworkers liked the Better Nutters best.

Sconnie's favorite was the Dog Treats, obviously.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 88 & 89: Raspberry & Lemon Macarons

This is kind of a weird post because I made these macarons at totally different times.

The raspberry version I made in December with a friend of mine.  They turned out really well, but I neglected to take any pictures while making them.  I barely remembered to take pictures of the finished macarons.  I think I was too excited about having company in the kitchen that I was just enjoying the experience which was a nice change up.

The cookies themselves are almost identical to the vanilla macarons in this cookbook except that you leave out the vanilla bean seeds and add pink food coloring.  So honestly, the macarons aren't raspberry at all - they're just blank canvases for raspberry filling.  The filling is French Buttercream with Raspberry Jam mixed in.  My guest and I both agreed that the filling didn't have enough raspberry flavor in it so we added more jam.  We also decided it wasn't pink enough so we added pink food coloring.

These were pretty successful with about half of the cooking baking up beautifully without exploding.  In my limited macaron experience, that's pretty darn good.

I had far less success a few months later when I made the lemon macarons.  The macaron cookie here is the same as the raspberry in that it has no lemon in it - just yellow food coloring.

I don't know what happened - I did what I've always done and cooked up some sugar, whipped it into egg whites to make a meringue and folded that into almond flour and powdered sugar.

Piped them out and baked them.

And then they cracked.  All of them.

I take that back - all but six of them.  This was ridiculous and irritating and a total waste of time because there was no way I was letting anyone see these things outside of these four walls.

I had already made the filling so I figured I might as well sandwich all the hideous cookies and photograph only the three that weren't completely exploded.

The filling was pretty awesome - a mix of buttercream frosting and lemon curd.  The lemon curd was amazing and really made me regret my decision to use store bought lemon curd in the lemon meringue tarts instead of making the recipe in the Bouchon cookbook.  It was super tart and oh so creamy because of the butter that gets blended into it.  Mixing it with the buttercream gave it an even richer texture.  It was really freakin' delicious.

Since I was too embarrassed to share all but three of these (which I didn't do because who shows up somewhere with three cookies?) I have to eat them all myself.  I'll let CA and my mom help me but no one else will be subject to these ugly yet delicious treats.

Enjoy!
Julie

Granola Clusters

The last time I made Granola it was good but it didn't stick together like I feel like Granola should.  I don't really use Granola in a way that is conducive to small bits.  I want clusters that I can pick up with my hand and stuff in my face.  So, when I stumbled upon this recipe from Cookies and Cups which claims to be "snacking granola clusters" I was excited to try it.

This time I did not make any modifications to the sugar levels in the granola.  I know that this is key to making it stick together so I put in the full amount of honey and brown sugar that the recipe called for.  The recipe also contains an egg white which I found interesting but the original poster said it contributed to stick-togetherness so I definitely kept that in there.

The one change I did make was to substitute Rice Chex for the Corn Flakes so that the recipe would be Gluten Free.  Also, I like Rice Chex and knew I'd eat the rest of them while half a box of corn flakes would simply create more stuff for me to get rid of.

Oh yeah, and I left out the chocolate chips because this isn't dessert.

And I left out the raisins because they are disgusting.

And I added almonds.

All the ingredients get mixed up together and baked.

The big difference in this granola is the baking process.  You do NOT stir the granola at any point once it starts baking - that's why it stays in clumps.

The original instructions called for baking the granola for 30 minutes and then turning the oven off and letting it cool in the oven.  I did that and I wasn't happy with the level of browning I got.  The bottom was fine but the top was still very blonde.   So, I turned the broiler on for a few minutes to get the heat on the top of the granola going and then turned it off and let it cool again.  It worked perfectly!
 

I absolutely love how this stuff came out.  My favorite part is that it's a little bit salty from the salted cashews.  I never thought to put cashews in granola before but I absolutely adore them!  The final product stayed in big chunks that I could hold in my hand and snack on.  Perfect.

I made this gluten free for my friend, but I would not change a single thing about this in the future even if I was serving a pack of gluten lovers (like myself).

Granola Clusters
Adapted from Cookies and Cups

Ingredients

5 cups Oatmeal
1/2 cup Butter, melted
1/2 cup + 2 T Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Honey
2 cups Coconut (flaked or dessicated)
4 cups Rice Chex, crushed
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Salted Cashews (peanuts would be great too - just make sure they're salted)
1/2 cup Sliced Almonds
1 Egg White, lightly beaten

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with sides with a silpat or parchment paper.

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until evenly coated with butter and honey. 

Spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.   Bake for 30 minutes without stirring.  Turn the broiler on and broil until the top barely starts to turn golden brown (no more than 5 minutes).  Turn the oven off.  Peek at it after 5 minutes, if the top if getting more too brown, open the oven door for a  couple of minutes.  Then close the oven door and  allow the granola to stay in the oven until it is completely cooled.

Break into pieces.

Enjoy!

Julie

Cornmeal Biscotti

Biscotti is the exception to my dried fruit rule and in case you're new to my blog my dried fruit rule is that I hate it. I actually don't mind dried fruit in biscotti because the whole freakin' thing is dry and crunchy so the chewy texture of the dried fruit doesn't get in the way of my experiencing something soft and fluffy.

These biscotti were made for my trip to NYC and are Gluten Free for my GFF and for the added benefit of ridding my cupboard of half a bag of corn meal and half a bag of almond flour.  Almond flour is apparently something I was afraid of running out of and bought way too much of.  This recipe also got rid of all the raisins in my pantry which are only there because Thomas Keller made me buy them.  Good riddens.  Every time I get to throw away an entire box or wash one and store of my plastic storage containers I'm practically giddy.

These biscotti are made in a way very similar to my favorite biscotti recipe.  Butter and sugar are creamed together (in this case brown sugar which gives them a more complex flavor), to that you add eggs and vanilla, followed by the dry ingredients and finally the mix ins.  For this application I chose to add raisins and walnuts because they were there. 

The finished dough gets smooshed into logs and baked, then sliced and baked again.

These taste really great - the raisins and walnuts work really well together and the variety of dry ingredients (cornmeal and almond flour) lend a much more unique flavor to this biscotti than comes from the traditional variety.

I only have one issue with this biscotti and it's my own fault and it, shockingly, has nothing to do with the raisins.  In fact it's only my issue because no one else complained about it and actually said they liked this particular attribute to the biscotti... they were too crunchy...

I know that sounds weird because biscotti are supposed to be crunchy.  Overall, the biscotti had the perfect level of crunchiness.  However, there were individual, crunchy grains of what I can only assume are cornmeal in here.  I know exactly what happened - the recipe says "fine" cornmeal and I had "coarse" cornmeal and I even paused for 1/2 a second and considered grinding my coarse cornmeal to be finer but then I decided that was too much work.  The first few bites I took, I was worried I'd lose a tooth but somehow I didn't and no one else did either.  Everyone dodged that bullet but I do recommend using "fine" cornmeal in this recipe to avoid tempting the dental Gods.

Cornmeal Biscotti
Adapted from The New York Times

Ingredients
1/2 cup Golden Raisins
1 cup Fine Cornmeal
1/2 cup Cornstarch
1 1/4 cup Almond Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
2 oz (1/4 cup) Butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup chopped Walnuts

Instructions

Place the raisins in a bowl and cover with warm water.  Let sit for 10 minutes, then drain and set the raisins on paper towels. 

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix together the cornmeal, cornstarch, almond flour, baking powder and salt. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar for 2 minutes on medium speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beater with a rubber spatula and add the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat together on low speed until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beater. Add the flour mixture and beat at low speed until well blended. Add the walnuts and raisins and beat at low speed until mixed evenly through the dough. 

Divide the dough and shape into 2 wide, flat logs, about 10 inches long by 3 inches wide by 3/4 inch high. Make sure they are at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Place in the oven on the middle rack and bake 50 minutes, until dry and firm. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes or longer. 

Place the logs on a cutting board and carefully cut into 1/2-inch thick slices. Place the slices, with one of the cut sides down, on the baking sheet and bake for another 10 minutes. Flip them over and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the slices are dry and lightly browned. 

Enjoy!

Julie

Hash Brown Muffins

If you're not a sweets for breakfast person, don't let the name of these little guys fool you.  There is nothing sweet about these - they are savory and salty and cheesy and bacony.  Plus if you cheat like I did and use pre-shredded potatoes they're so freakin' easy to make.  Not to mention they're portable, can be made the night before and reheated (or if you're CA, reheated days later) and for all you gluten haters (or lovers who just can't) they're gluten free.

If you're being ambitious and shredding your own potatoes, good for you.  Do that.  After you're done, cook up a few strips of bacon. 

 Mix in some eggs, cheese, green onions, salt and pepper..

Put all that into a muffin tin.  I love my square muffin tin - it's my favorite to use for individual brownies, but it's perfect for these too.

My only concern with this type of thing is that it won't stay together.  I've had way too many experiences trying to get something out of a muffin tin and having it fall apart on me.  However, all the cheese and eggs in here guarantee hash brown stick-togetherness.

I made these to eat on a train ride to NYC for my GFF's birthday (and another special reason we'll talk about in a few days).  I wanted a savory breakfast option that was portable to fuel us through our big day of continuous eating (I'm pretty sure I didn't go two hours without eating the entire time I was there) - which makes no sense but somehow seemed necessary at the time. I baked them the night before and stuck them back in the oven to reheat in the morning while I was getting ready.  They were perfectly portable and absolutely delicious.  These are definitely going in the normal rotation for all breakfasts on the go. 

Hash Brown Muffins
Adapted from In Erika's Kitchen

Ingredients
3 cups shredded Potatoes (use pre-shredded or approx. 2 large Russett potatoes)
4 Eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups grated Cheddar Cheese
6 slices Bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 Green Onions, thinly sliced
1/8 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Pepper

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a 12 cup muffin tin (square or round) with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, eggs, 1 cup of cheese, bacon, green onions salt and pepper.  Divide the mixture evenly among the cups in the prepared pan.

Bake for 25 minutes.  remove the pan from the oven and top with the remaining 1/2 cup of cheese.  Return the pan to the oven and bake another 10 minutes.  Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes and then carefully remove from the pan.

Serve warm or hot.  I made mine the night before and reheated them, wrapped in aluminum foil in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!
Julie

Smoky Ketchup

It's hard for me to call this a recipe because it's just mixing three things together but I got a lot of complements when I served this with the Mini Corn Dog Muffins.  I made it again to serve with a batch of parsnip fries and figured I'd take a couple of photos and tell you about it.

I'm really into ketchup so I'm obviously really into kicking ketchup up a notch in the easiest possible way.

I first had this in a restaurant that always serves smoky ketchup with their french fries and once I had it I couldn't go to that restaurant without having french fries because I wanted the smoky ketchup.  I ended up asking what was in it and they told me the secret - Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce.

The smoky ketchup in the restaurant was completely smooth so they either only used the sauce from the can of peppers or they blended it all up until it was smooth.  Either way, I like to mix in both the sauce and the chopped peppers into the ketchup to give it a really spicy and smoky flavor and a little bit of texture.

While this stuff is definitely great on French Fries, I love it on a lot of foods - Parsnip Fries, Hash Browns, Burgers - pretty much anything you'd put ketchup on will be infinitely better with smoky ketchup.

Smoky Ketchup

Ingredients
1/2 cup Ketchup
4 T Sauce from Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
2 Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce, finely chopped

Instructions
Mix all of the ingredients together.

I told you it was easy.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 79: Layered Fruit Marshmallows

I was not excited about making this recipe.  It is essentially vanilla, raspberry and lemon flavored marshmallows layered on top of each other and covered in chocolate.  You have to be pretty precise when making marshmallows to make sure that you don't cook the sugar too much or too little or burn the house down in the process.  Making three kinds of marshmallows seemed like a lot of work and a lot of opportunities for me to set something ablaze.  Plus, I'm weird about fruit flavored things and I was worried that I would spend hours making these treats only to hate the raspberry and lemon marshmallows.

This was quite a bit of work.  I had to measure out three sets of everything and deal with the flavorings. 

• The vanilla marshmallow is flavored with vanilla beans.  
• The raspberry marshmallow is flavored with raspberry powder which I made by grinding up freeze dried raspberries which are weird and remind me of astronaut ice cream.  A long time ago in the 80's the kids in my elementary school class were obsessed with astronaut ice cream but I think the stuff is disgusting.  Food that literally disintegrates while I'm eating it freaks me out.  This is also why I don't like Whoppers.  The marshmallows also have pink food coloring in them.
• The lemon marshmallow is flavored with lemon zest which is not disgusting.  They also have lemon food coloring in them.

I did manage to make all three marshmallows without screwing them up but it took all freakin' day plus I had to wait for them to set up overnight before I could slice them and cover them in chocolate.

The vanilla was up first and got spread onto a half sheet pan and cools for an hour until it's completely set.

The raspberry was next and gets spread on top of the vanilla and cools for another hour.

The lemon goes on last and then you wait overnight so that everything is cool and set up for real before slicing these into squares.

If you're intrigued by how marshmallows are made - you can check out my post on Marshmallow Eggs when I went into more detail.  I will not subject all of you to all of that science again.

Once they rested overnight, I brushed the entire surface with melted chocolate and then I was able to remove them from the pan and reveal the layers.  I have to admit the layered affect is really pretty!

After they all got sliced into squares it was time to cover the other 5 sides in chocolate.  I was supposed to do this by dipping them but I did that with one and was convinced that the chocolate was going to be way too thick so I decided to take a knife and spread the chocolate on the remaining sides of the treat.  I'm glad I did.  While the effect wasn't as smooth and pretty as it would have been if I'd successfully dipped them all, the chocolate was thin enough that you could bite through it without completely mushing the marshmallow which I think was more important.

These guys were a pleasant surprise.  I was even fine with the fruit flavored portion of the marshmallow.  I think that was because I knew there wasn't any fake fruit in there (I'm ignoring the raspberry dehydration process).  The marshmallows had a great texture and weren't crazy sweet so the dessert felt very light.  The one bad thing I have to say about them is that I felt like the lemon marshmallows overpowered the other flavors a little bit.  If I made these again, I'd probably stick with the vanilla marshmallows, but I'd still cover them in chocolate and then I'd stick them in some hot cocoa to stop me from freezing in the polar vortex.

Every morning that I bring treats into my office I send out an email and tell everyone what is available and I think "Chocolate Covered Layered Fruit Marshmallows" scared off a few people.  Honestly, I wouldn't have tried them if I'd received said email.  However, the adventurous ones who did try them had really nice things to say and convinced the more skeptical to dig in.  It's a good thing my coworkers are so open to trying new things because it won't be long until they receive an email announcing Nougat Aux Fruit.  I can hear the stampede now.

Enjoy!
Julie