"Healthy" isn't always friendly.
Just wanted to clarify a few things, after a trip to Super-1's Huckleberry's department (all the "conscious" stuff sold at Super-1). Super-1 and Andy's (a local store) tend to compliment each other's health related items. It's just too bad the drive between the two is kind of a gas guzzler. I'd never seriously considered just what it was I was walking right past on the shelves in either Huckleberry's or Andy's, when I would shop just for one or two specific things that I couldn't get elsewhere in vegan-mode. I just thought, "Eh, that's hippie stuff. Those poor things, they pay twice as much because a label claims it's healthier. I've been eating normal stuff for how long now? And 0 adverse affects!" I thought that mainly because I was taught that while growing up poor. In reality though, I do believe that my mom was trading off health for funds. That's not going to help me down the road when it comes to health-care costs. Thankfully, I'm (barely) still 34. I'm still salvageable. What's the difference?
As my best friend of almost 23 years now, Laura, has spent so much time and effort trying to convince me, natural is always best. It DOES cost more. And it can just as easily be abused as manufactured foods. While I do know that most "additives and preservatives" are nothing more than latin words for food bi-products used to improve the overall texture, color, and longevity of processed foods, the truth is... Well... It's not like they sell those things over the counter for home cooking! Why? Home cooking doesn't require such things. Those tend to only be added because manufactured foods have to be stored, transported, stored again, shelved, sold, driven home, stored in pantries, and finally opened and eaten, then stored again in fridges and freezers... That's a LOT of storing and transporting! Most home cooked foods would rot before even making it to stores from storage facilities, if put through all that.
The whole point of this blog, and really, of my kitchen, is home cooking. Not specifically "down home" cooking. Not even necessarily "pioneer" cooking, "international" cooking, or whatever. Just home cooking, period. As apposed to microwave "cooking" (though I do at times use a microwave more properly to reheat leftovers or make hot water for tea) or "eating in" or worse yet, "eating out." There are tons of sites out there that try to ease your eating-out-woes, try to get you to make "healthier" choices in the fast-food and restaurant industries... But seriously, if you knew what was in those sauces and syrups and icings and even in the veggies... You'd just about gag, once you researched what all that sodium, sugar, and fat does to you. Even healthier foods, such as Lo Mein or basic spagetti aren't safe when ordered in or out: you may get a lot for your money, but there's like 5 servings in each "serving" of those when they come from restaurants.
That's actually the main reason for home cooking. The other reason, of course, is that it's TONS cheaper, even when using all natural organic produce and so on, than pre-packaged foods, fast foods, or foods that come from restaurants. The nice thing is, home cooking means that you use your fridge more fully, which means you pay the same amount for electricity but you get more out of your fridge. And you use the foods in your fridge more often, thus less spoilage. I'm aware that spoilage is the main reason people don't cook non-fast-foods at home, and the secondary reason is that they don't have a lot of time. If you only do home cooking, you'll use your ingredients often enough that they won't spoil. Also, one of the objectives of this blog is to (hopefully, though the almolate and bread baking experiments are exceptions) stream-line and simplify home cooking so that time won't be a major factor. I realize that a lot of blogs and cooking sites, as well as recipe books, make the claims that they are "15 minute" recipes and so on. All they mean by that is that the cooking time itself is 15 minutes. The prep time, including trying to find all those obscure ingredients? In some cases, we're talking hours. I don't have that kind of time. I'm guessing you don't either.
In any case, I'm realizing that natural foods cooked at home are the best way to go, when considering all the various options. If you're willing to eat basic foods. Now, if you're one of those super convoluted everything-has-to-be-complicated "cuisine" freaks... Um, you might as well move on to some other blog. There's a little "Next Blog" link at the top of this page, I suggest you use it. I'll happily donate those old unused recipe cards to ya if I ever find them in some old box somewhere or other... I just have no use for that kind of cooking on a daily basis, and I doubt that most people reading this blog do either. Goodness, not every Sunday is "brunch day." Um. I've never been to a Sunday brunch! Heard of 'm, never been to one. Have you? Good for you if you have, but most people haven't and don't care to.
Getting back to my original muse. "Healthy" isn't always friendly.
While I was in the Huckleberry's section, I quickly became acquainted with some varying "conscious" terms. There's "eco-friendly. Not to be confused with "animal-friendly." "Fair Trade" is completely separate. And of course, there are at least two organizations that companies can pick and choose from to get certified for each of these. MOST companies aren't certified in all 3 areas. And even if they are, almost none of them are truly vegan. Check out the shared equipment clause under the ingredient lists! Usually, milk or dairy is on the list. And, even when they're vegan, they aren't free of other allergens, when really, there's no need at all for such allergens to be present in those foods. I mean, good grief, a bar of dark chocolate... Yeah. You tell me!
I did find however that there are at least a few 99%'s out there. Foods which are at least Fair Trade, and a few of them at least didn't have milk as an added ingredient. Were it not for the shared equipment issue for the chocolate, there would have been several brands I found there which I would have recommended. Is chocolate processed food? Yes. Does it matter? You try making real chocolate at home. Good luck with that. The almolate... Well, you judge for yourself on that one. I'm still playing around with it. Picked up some almond butter and almond "flour" (the flour came from Wal-Mart) last night - will have to see what comes of that.
Here's a list of the best of the best that I found at Huckleberry's. These are all Fair Trade, except for the *almond butter and *almond oil.
Rapunzel Organic Whole Grain Sugar
Wholesome Sweetener's Organic Powdered Sugar
Frontier Vanilla Extract
Alter-Eco Robust Extra Virgin Olive Oil
*Justin's Natural Almond Butter (You have GOT to see the fav fan video!)
*Spectrum Almond Oil
It's good to remember that not everything on the planet has to be "Fair Trade." Those items whose ingredients came completely from the US and never left the US, just don't need to be worried about. I have seen a few "Fair Trade" items on the shelves that were just outright gimmicks. "Fair Trade" whole wheat flour? Hahahaaaa! There's no reason in the world for whole wheat flour to be "Fair Trade"! Of course it's "Fair Trade"! Um. Yeah. Whole wheat flour generally already comes from the US and stays here anyway. Duh.
It's always good to just ask yourself, "Does this item grow in a tropical region?" That'll pretty much clear up most of that issue right there. Why would I purchase non fair trade almond products? *coughs* All almonds (and almond products) sold in the US come from CA.
Altogether, the items listed above are, um, spendy at best. But it's really hit me that this is how much it actually costs to produce these items. Why have these things been cheaper for me in the past? Child-slaves made them. It's really that simple. Children suffered for my food. It angers and grosses me out to think of it. So, I didn't know... That changes nothing for those kids.
March 30, 2010
March 28, 2010
Vegan Molasses-Honey Flap Jacks
Finally. I don't have to get upset every time I pass the manufactured pancake mixes at the store, knowing they all have buttermilk in them, which means I can't eat them, being that I'm allergic to milk. I've made pancakes in the past, but never as good as these flap jacks!
I started off with the following recipe, and then later halved it, after I realized that, you know, I'm making pancakes here, not bread: they're meant to be eaten hot, by one person, and in one meal. Here's the original recipe, which took me several meals to get through (though admittedly, the pancakes did just fine after having cooled - they didn't turn gross or anything).
Essentially, we're dealing with DB 0 & WB+1 1/4 C.
Dry Base:
2 C White Flour
1/2 C Soy Protein Isolate
1 T Baking Powder
1/8 tsp. Iodized Sea Salt (Morton)
Wet Base:
2 1/4 C Water
1 T Oil
1 T Molasses
2 T Honey
Here's the recipe cut in half:
1) Pre-heat a cast iron skillet to "Low" and use a Misto oil spray can with regular oil in it to spray the pan well.
2) In a medium bowl, mix the dry base ingredients well, in the order given. Mix the wet base ingredients in a measuring cup, in the order given.
3) Make a small "crater" in the dry mix, then pour the wet ingredients into it, and stir them in well, then use a beaters to smooth the lumps out (electric or hand beaters).
4) Using a 1/3 C measuring cup (metalic would work best), and a saucer to rest it on afterwards, dip into the pancake batter, scrape the bottom of the cup onto the inside edge of the lip of the medium bowl, then pour the batter from the cup into the oiled, heated pan. Use the cup to spread the batter around until it's about 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Rest the cup on the saucer when not using it.
5) Spray the top of the frying pancake with more Misto Oil. Wait about 1 minute, or less, just until the bottom is golden brown, then, using a wide pancake turner (spatula), flip the pancake over, and wait up to one more minute before using the pancake turner to remove it from the pan and place it onto a plate to cool. Do NOT use a cooling wrack! Immediately respray the skillet with the Misto Oil, and repeat the process from step 4 on, until all the pancake batter is used up.
6) Serve the pancakes in a wide bottomed shallow bowl, top with whatever syrup and fruit you prefer, and eat while still warm!
The original recipe makes 11 to 12 good sized flap jacks.
~
I'm thinking about making a non-sweet version of these, perhaps with onion powder and some herbs in it, to use for making sandwiches with. That's the beauty of the DB/WB formula. Once you know what that is, you can toy around with the actual ingredients to your heart's content :)
I started off with the following recipe, and then later halved it, after I realized that, you know, I'm making pancakes here, not bread: they're meant to be eaten hot, by one person, and in one meal. Here's the original recipe, which took me several meals to get through (though admittedly, the pancakes did just fine after having cooled - they didn't turn gross or anything).
Essentially, we're dealing with DB 0 & WB+1 1/4 C.
Dry Base:
2 C White Flour
1/2 C Soy Protein Isolate
1 T Baking Powder
1/8 tsp. Iodized Sea Salt (Morton)
Wet Base:
2 1/4 C Water
1 T Oil
1 T Molasses
2 T Honey
Here's the recipe cut in half:
Dry Base:
1 C White Flour
1/4 C Soy Protein Isolate
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/16 tsp. (pinch) Iodized Sea Salt (Morton)
Wet Base:
1 1/8 C Water
1 1/2 tsp. Oil
1 1/2 tsp. Molasses
1 T Honey
2) In a medium bowl, mix the dry base ingredients well, in the order given. Mix the wet base ingredients in a measuring cup, in the order given.
3) Make a small "crater" in the dry mix, then pour the wet ingredients into it, and stir them in well, then use a beaters to smooth the lumps out (electric or hand beaters).
4) Using a 1/3 C measuring cup (metalic would work best), and a saucer to rest it on afterwards, dip into the pancake batter, scrape the bottom of the cup onto the inside edge of the lip of the medium bowl, then pour the batter from the cup into the oiled, heated pan. Use the cup to spread the batter around until it's about 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Rest the cup on the saucer when not using it.
5) Spray the top of the frying pancake with more Misto Oil. Wait about 1 minute, or less, just until the bottom is golden brown, then, using a wide pancake turner (spatula), flip the pancake over, and wait up to one more minute before using the pancake turner to remove it from the pan and place it onto a plate to cool. Do NOT use a cooling wrack! Immediately respray the skillet with the Misto Oil, and repeat the process from step 4 on, until all the pancake batter is used up.
6) Serve the pancakes in a wide bottomed shallow bowl, top with whatever syrup and fruit you prefer, and eat while still warm!
The original recipe makes 11 to 12 good sized flap jacks.
Here they are with a light molasses-honey syrup. (2 Parts Molasses, 2 Parts Honey, 1 Part water.)
This is the same recipe, cut in half, with the same syrup, just without any water added. Why the half recipe only made 4 as apposed to 11, I have no idea.
I'm thinking about making a non-sweet version of these, perhaps with onion powder and some herbs in it, to use for making sandwiches with. That's the beauty of the DB/WB formula. Once you know what that is, you can toy around with the actual ingredients to your heart's content :)
March 24, 2010
More on Food and Child Slavery
I'm researching this more heavily, and wondered about why coffee would also be "Fair Trade" (vs. not). Turns out, child slavery has to do with that too. Possibly with other foods as well. Thus, I'm posting some links here for the sadness of all. Sometimes, joy isn't what should be spread.
Info
Info
World Vision & Demand Ethical Chocolate
Child Labor and Coffee
Bolivian Sugar Child Slavery
Migrant Farm Workers Affected by Fair Trade Act
End Child Slavery in the Cocoa Industry (YouTube Video)
Chocolate and Slavery (YouTube Video)
Shopping
Whole Foods "Whole Trade" Products
TransFair USA
100% Fair Trade Companies
Amazon.com Fair Trade Items
7 Ways to Fight Slavery at the Grocery Store
Better World Shopper
C&H WASN'T LISTED AS FAIR TRADE
What Not to Wear: Cotton and child slavery
Purchase Fair Trade Organic Clothing
Buy Fair Trade Coffee
Child Labor and Coffee
Bolivian Sugar Child Slavery
Migrant Farm Workers Affected by Fair Trade Act
End Child Slavery in the Cocoa Industry (YouTube Video)
Chocolate and Slavery (YouTube Video)
Shopping
Whole Foods "Whole Trade" Products
TransFair USA
100% Fair Trade Companies
Amazon.com Fair Trade Items
7 Ways to Fight Slavery at the Grocery Store
Better World Shopper
C&H WASN'T LISTED AS FAIR TRADE
What Not to Wear: Cotton and child slavery
Purchase Fair Trade Organic Clothing
Buy Fair Trade Coffee
March 21, 2010
Kitchen Revelation
So, I'm reorganizing my pantry-cupboard. And realizing for the first time that only 1/4 of my pantry shelf space, if even that, should be dedicated to non-baking ingredient items.
I opted to organize the whole corner.
I have no idea what compels me to show you this. Nor how it is that I only have 3 buns left already! *Coughs* So much for "Do I really need this?" Though, in my defense, I've hardly eaten anything else lately. I'm supposing that it all evens out in the end.
I opted to organize the whole corner.
I have no idea what compels me to show you this. Nor how it is that I only have 3 buns left already! *Coughs* So much for "Do I really need this?" Though, in my defense, I've hardly eaten anything else lately. I'm supposing that it all evens out in the end.
March 19, 2010
The End Result: Wheat Buns
First, I made a sandwich from my most recent attempt:
I then put all my notes together and came up with this:
The main difference is in how I started the instant yeast. I made a "quick sponge":
Mix together:
1 C Warm Water (105 degrees)
2 T Honey
1 T Oil
Separately mix together:
1/2 C White Flour
1 pkt. Instant Yeast
In a glass baking dish, mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture, and heat in the oven on "Warm" for 20 minutes. Then thoroughly mix in:
1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
Rewarm for 20 minutes.
I then ladled 1 C of the "sponge" into my Breadman's "bread bucket", and added another cup of 105 degree water to that, and turned it onto the "Dough" setting. The remaining sponge went back into the warm oven to continue rising. I then mixed together:
1/2 C Potato Flour
1/2 C White Flour
1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 C Wheat Gluten
1/4 tsp. Salt
And then added that about 1/3 C at a time to the bread bucket and let the Breadman finish it's cycle, completely uninterrupted.
I then simply dumped the risen dough out onto my cutting board, which I'd coated with a teensie amount of whole wheat flour, and just cut the dough length-wise down the middle and then made two more adjacent (90 degree) cuts to make six sections (since the dough came out more like a rectangle than a circle). After that, I just kneaded each section into a ball, rolled it on the cutting board to give it a nice finish, put a little flour on a cookie sheet, and then put each ball on the sheet.
I removed the extra rising yeast from the oven, and started the process over again with it for a second batch.
I then baked the roles at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Kinda forgot to make an egg wash. I can work on that another time. I also had planned on barely pushing the tops of the dough balls down a bit once they were on the pan, to spread them out a bit and make wider, less tall buns - forgot that as well. It's probably a good idea though, as they are quite a mouthful even before they're filled! And, they could stand to hold more ingredients (lettuce, tomatoes, etc.). I'm tempted to, next time, have 8 buns per batch rather than 6, but I think I'll try the "pressed down" version first, just to see how I like that.
I then put all my notes together and came up with this:
The main difference is in how I started the instant yeast. I made a "quick sponge":
Mix together:
1 C Warm Water (105 degrees)
2 T Honey
1 T Oil
Separately mix together:
1/2 C White Flour
1 pkt. Instant Yeast
In a glass baking dish, mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture, and heat in the oven on "Warm" for 20 minutes. Then thoroughly mix in:
1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
Rewarm for 20 minutes.
I then ladled 1 C of the "sponge" into my Breadman's "bread bucket", and added another cup of 105 degree water to that, and turned it onto the "Dough" setting. The remaining sponge went back into the warm oven to continue rising. I then mixed together:
1/2 C Potato Flour
1/2 C White Flour
1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 C Wheat Gluten
1/4 tsp. Salt
And then added that about 1/3 C at a time to the bread bucket and let the Breadman finish it's cycle, completely uninterrupted.
I then simply dumped the risen dough out onto my cutting board, which I'd coated with a teensie amount of whole wheat flour, and just cut the dough length-wise down the middle and then made two more adjacent (90 degree) cuts to make six sections (since the dough came out more like a rectangle than a circle). After that, I just kneaded each section into a ball, rolled it on the cutting board to give it a nice finish, put a little flour on a cookie sheet, and then put each ball on the sheet.
I removed the extra rising yeast from the oven, and started the process over again with it for a second batch.
I then baked the roles at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Kinda forgot to make an egg wash. I can work on that another time. I also had planned on barely pushing the tops of the dough balls down a bit once they were on the pan, to spread them out a bit and make wider, less tall buns - forgot that as well. It's probably a good idea though, as they are quite a mouthful even before they're filled! And, they could stand to hold more ingredients (lettuce, tomatoes, etc.). I'm tempted to, next time, have 8 buns per batch rather than 6, but I think I'll try the "pressed down" version first, just to see how I like that.
March 18, 2010
Lessons Learned
I went for a second try on the wheat buns, with much better results this time. I had to make a number of changes though. First of all, a reminder of the product of last night's efforts. I've dubbed them "Wheat Dollars."
Hand Kneading the Dough After All
I realized that one of the mistakes I made last night was in letting the machine do all the kneading, rather than merely the hardest parts of it. So, tonight, once it was done kneading, while it was working on the first rise and the paddle was set to pause, I pulled the dough out, kneaded the air bubbles out, shaped it into a large sphere, and then put it back in the bread bucket to finish rising in a properly temperature controlled environment.
The Second Rise
Last night, I had tried doing the second rise in the oven after heating it to 200 degrees first and then turning it off. That's not in the recipe simply because I had figured it was rather "on the nose." The idea was to find a warm place to let the dough rise. Mission accomplished, and then some.
Tonight, I pre-heated the oven to "Warm" (I'd kinda missed that setting on the dial the first time around), before re-kneading the dough, then flattening and stretching it out to a medium pizza size, about 1/2" thick. I then placed the dough on a cookie sheet, then placed that in the oven and turned the oven off, and let the dough rise for about 20 minutes.
Shaping the buns
Now, here's where I messed up last night and almost didn't learn anything tonight, either. Last night, without any of the above fixes, I had just taken the un-hand-kneaded dough out of the bread bucket, flattened it out, taken a large round (no wavy patterns) cookie cutter to it, re-rolled it as necessary 'till all the dough was accounted for, and then popped it into the pre-heated oven, turned the oven off for 20 minutes, then attempted to flip the non-buns over -- they stuck to the wax paper I had put down on the cookie sheet first, lol! It was a real mess, and I'm surprised any of them came out edible even in the slightest. They weren't what I wanted.
Tonight, after the second rise, I re-rolled and stretched the dough, enough to accommodate what I thought would be 6 thick buns, then started cutting them before a third rise I opted to put them through. I wound up with a lot more than 6.
The last two were, well, "special." Haha. Basically, they were the leftover scrap dough from the other more "perfect" cuts... "Special." You know, that word just shouldn't be abused. My special buns showed me what I was doing wrong with the rest of the buns on the cookie sheet! Essentially, I had to re-knead the dough scraps in order to get enough dough to cut the first of these two gems (now the stars of tonights photo shoot!), and then the other - well, the other? Heh. It's the best one in the bunch. Just more scraps kneaded together and then completely hand-shaped into a bun -- no cookie cutter was used to cut the dough at all. I did try to fill the cookie cutter with the dough I was shaping, to try and get a similar size to the others, but I didn't have to cut anything at that point - the dough was the right amount to begin with.
I suspect I'll be using the wedge-cutting technique used to make scones from now on, and then just hand shaping the wedged dough into sphere's before flattening them in the future.
The Third Rise
I kid you not. The buns required a third rise after all this. Now, that's because, well, I don't know why anymore. They just did. In the future, I think what I'll do is the wedge 'n shape method before the second rise, and then after that, just bake the poor things. It's something worth trying anyway. I again pre-heated the oven to "warm" and then turned it off after putting them in, and again let them rise for 20 minutes. Thing is, 20 minutes is about as long as I trust the oven to stay "warm" when turned off. Anywho.
Once I pulled the buns out again, I made a vegan Nucoa-wash (about 1 part Nucoa to 1 part "Vegetable" [soy] oil) and used that in a feeble attempt to help them have a nicer, more tender crust. Haha! Next time, I'll use either an egg-wash or some kind of protein and fat wash... I'll have to research that and come up with something.
Cajun Baking
In keeping to the letter of the law, I baked my poor buns for 40 minutes on 350 degrees. In keeping with my interpretation of the spirit of the law, I tuned the oven to 350 degrees and promptly put the buns in to finish rising as the temperature rose. I figured, "Why not?" I suppose, in the end, that wasn't evil. The real problem was that I should have probably cut that time in half, because of the smaller sizes of each bun. This wasn't one giant loaf of bread I was dealing with here - moisture-wise and thickness-wise, it's just really not the same at all. But, this is Midnight Baking goin' on here! (I.e., I was just tired and not paying attention at all at this point.) In the end, the buns still turned out edible, and much better than last night's batch, but seriously... Way. Too. Crispy.
Even adding far too much Nucoa for my own good to the first one still didn't de-crisp it nearly enough. But, it was still yummy to eat in it's own "artisan" right. I'd say at this point, I've raised my bun making grade from an F to a C-, lol.
Hand Kneading the Dough After All
I realized that one of the mistakes I made last night was in letting the machine do all the kneading, rather than merely the hardest parts of it. So, tonight, once it was done kneading, while it was working on the first rise and the paddle was set to pause, I pulled the dough out, kneaded the air bubbles out, shaped it into a large sphere, and then put it back in the bread bucket to finish rising in a properly temperature controlled environment.
The Second Rise
Last night, I had tried doing the second rise in the oven after heating it to 200 degrees first and then turning it off. That's not in the recipe simply because I had figured it was rather "on the nose." The idea was to find a warm place to let the dough rise. Mission accomplished, and then some.
Tonight, I pre-heated the oven to "Warm" (I'd kinda missed that setting on the dial the first time around), before re-kneading the dough, then flattening and stretching it out to a medium pizza size, about 1/2" thick. I then placed the dough on a cookie sheet, then placed that in the oven and turned the oven off, and let the dough rise for about 20 minutes.
Shaping the buns
Now, here's where I messed up last night and almost didn't learn anything tonight, either. Last night, without any of the above fixes, I had just taken the un-hand-kneaded dough out of the bread bucket, flattened it out, taken a large round (no wavy patterns) cookie cutter to it, re-rolled it as necessary 'till all the dough was accounted for, and then popped it into the pre-heated oven, turned the oven off for 20 minutes, then attempted to flip the non-buns over -- they stuck to the wax paper I had put down on the cookie sheet first, lol! It was a real mess, and I'm surprised any of them came out edible even in the slightest. They weren't what I wanted.
Tonight, after the second rise, I re-rolled and stretched the dough, enough to accommodate what I thought would be 6 thick buns, then started cutting them before a third rise I opted to put them through. I wound up with a lot more than 6.
The last two were, well, "special." Haha. Basically, they were the leftover scrap dough from the other more "perfect" cuts... "Special." You know, that word just shouldn't be abused. My special buns showed me what I was doing wrong with the rest of the buns on the cookie sheet! Essentially, I had to re-knead the dough scraps in order to get enough dough to cut the first of these two gems (now the stars of tonights photo shoot!), and then the other - well, the other? Heh. It's the best one in the bunch. Just more scraps kneaded together and then completely hand-shaped into a bun -- no cookie cutter was used to cut the dough at all. I did try to fill the cookie cutter with the dough I was shaping, to try and get a similar size to the others, but I didn't have to cut anything at that point - the dough was the right amount to begin with.
I suspect I'll be using the wedge-cutting technique used to make scones from now on, and then just hand shaping the wedged dough into sphere's before flattening them in the future.
The Third Rise
I kid you not. The buns required a third rise after all this. Now, that's because, well, I don't know why anymore. They just did. In the future, I think what I'll do is the wedge 'n shape method before the second rise, and then after that, just bake the poor things. It's something worth trying anyway. I again pre-heated the oven to "warm" and then turned it off after putting them in, and again let them rise for 20 minutes. Thing is, 20 minutes is about as long as I trust the oven to stay "warm" when turned off. Anywho.
Once I pulled the buns out again, I made a vegan Nucoa-wash (about 1 part Nucoa to 1 part "Vegetable" [soy] oil) and used that in a feeble attempt to help them have a nicer, more tender crust. Haha! Next time, I'll use either an egg-wash or some kind of protein and fat wash... I'll have to research that and come up with something.
Cajun Baking
In keeping to the letter of the law, I baked my poor buns for 40 minutes on 350 degrees. In keeping with my interpretation of the spirit of the law, I tuned the oven to 350 degrees and promptly put the buns in to finish rising as the temperature rose. I figured, "Why not?" I suppose, in the end, that wasn't evil. The real problem was that I should have probably cut that time in half, because of the smaller sizes of each bun. This wasn't one giant loaf of bread I was dealing with here - moisture-wise and thickness-wise, it's just really not the same at all. But, this is Midnight Baking goin' on here! (I.e., I was just tired and not paying attention at all at this point.) In the end, the buns still turned out edible, and much better than last night's batch, but seriously... Way. Too. Crispy.
Even adding far too much Nucoa for my own good to the first one still didn't de-crisp it nearly enough. But, it was still yummy to eat in it's own "artisan" right. I'd say at this point, I've raised my bun making grade from an F to a C-, lol.
March 17, 2010
Midnight Wheat Bread
Due to whacked out unforeseeable circumstances I won't go into here, I'm winding up making bread at 11:00+ PM. In the Breadman. Which is sitting on top of my portable ironing board, which is sitting on top of a large towel, to lessen the noise and also to prevent any possible heat/friction damage to the fake-linoleum flooring below it. I'm going to shape the dough into little bun-thingamajigs and see how those bake up.
I'm using the Compiled Breadman Portion of the all-inclusive recipe below:
Single Loaf Wheat Bread Recipe
(Augmented from breadbaking.about.com)
Ingredients:
2 T Honey
1 T Vegetable Oil
1 C Warm Water
1/2 pkt Instant Yeast
1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 C White Flour
1/3 C Soy Protein Isolate
1/4 tsp Salt
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Cleanup: Use a dish soap & salt-water mixture and rinse thoroughly before drying immediately.
Hand Kneading Method:
1. In small microwave friendly glass bowl, add honey, vegetable oil, and warm water. Stir.
2. Stir together yeast and ¼ C White Flour in a small separate bowl or cup, then stir into warm wet mixture. If wet mixture has cooled down, microwave again in 15 sec increments until around 105 degrees before pouring it into a medium bowl. Allow the new growing yeast mixture to proof.
3. Mix in all but 1/4 C of the remaining flour. Any extra seasonings, spices, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, berries, or dried ingredients should be mixed into it now.
4. Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and knead the remaining 1/4 cup plus tablespoon of bread flour into the dough for about 5 minutes. When finished, the dough will be slightly sticky.
5. Grease medium size bowl. Put dough into bowl and turn dough over so that the top of dough is lightly greased. Cover with clean cloth and let dough rise in warm place for about 45 minutes or until double in size.
Breadman Kneading Method
(Note that this is only for kneading, not for baking.)
1. Remove the bread pan (known from here on as the bread bucket) from the machine. Make sure it and the paddle are both thoroughly clean and dry, and that the paddle is firmly placed in position over the spoke on the inside bottom of the bread bucket.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients: the flours, the soy protein isolate, and the salt in a medium bowl with a fork. Any extra seasonings, spices, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, berries, or dried ingredients should be mixed into it now.
3. With the bread bucket sitting on the counter, pour the yeast into the bottom, making sure it’s evenly distributed. Then mix the warm water, honey, and oil in a microwave friendly glass bowl, and if necessary, reheat this mixture in 15 second increments until 105 degrees. Have a wooden spoon ready. In one quick, fluid, circular motion, pour the warm liquid mixture over the yeast, and quickly mix the yeast from the bottom and the corners into the liquid mixture. Close the lid and turn the machine to “Dough, 2 lbs.” It will immediately and slowly start mixing the dough.
4. Once the yeast mixture is completely wet and rising, about 1/3 of a C at a time, slowly sift the dry ingredient mixture to the yeast mixture in the bread bucket while the paddle is still turning. Don’t be tempted to use a 1 C measure to save time, forgo the sifting, or dump all the flour in at once. Yeast is a live plant and particularly with instant yeast, once it’s gotten started (it’ll proof while you’re grabbing the flour mixture after starting the machine), it’s best to slowly feed it and allow it to continue growing. Yet, you only have a few short minutes before the paddle will start turning wildly fast, at which time you don’t want to be still adding flour! The 1/3 C sifting method seems to have the best timing for this step. Any remaining time left should be used to (carefully) use (only a narrow rubber) spatula to push any dry ingredients out of the corners of the bread bucket to be better mixed in to the dough while the paddle is still turning slowly. Close the lid and let the machine work until it’s finished.
Baking
6. Turn dough out onto board and knead out air bubbles for about 3 minutes.
7. Shape dough into bread loaf.
8. Grease a medium to large sized bread pan. Place loaf in pan. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes or until double in size.
9. Bake bread at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Turn out on rack or onto clean kitchen towel and allow to cool.
10. Bread can be frozen in a sealed freezer bag for up to 3 months.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alright, well, the "bun thingamajigs" turned out more like sand-dollars! LOL. Kinda mini-pita-pockets.
I'm using the Compiled Breadman Portion of the all-inclusive recipe below:
Single Loaf Wheat Bread Recipe
(Augmented from breadbaking.about.com)
Ingredients:
2 T Honey
1 T Vegetable Oil
1 C Warm Water
1/2 pkt Instant Yeast
1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 C White Flour
1/3 C Soy Protein Isolate
1/4 tsp Salt
Prep Time: 2 hours
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Cleanup: Use a dish soap & salt-water mixture and rinse thoroughly before drying immediately.
Hand Kneading Method:
1. In small microwave friendly glass bowl, add honey, vegetable oil, and warm water. Stir.
2. Stir together yeast and ¼ C White Flour in a small separate bowl or cup, then stir into warm wet mixture. If wet mixture has cooled down, microwave again in 15 sec increments until around 105 degrees before pouring it into a medium bowl. Allow the new growing yeast mixture to proof.
3. Mix in all but 1/4 C of the remaining flour. Any extra seasonings, spices, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, berries, or dried ingredients should be mixed into it now.
4. Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and knead the remaining 1/4 cup plus tablespoon of bread flour into the dough for about 5 minutes. When finished, the dough will be slightly sticky.
5. Grease medium size bowl. Put dough into bowl and turn dough over so that the top of dough is lightly greased. Cover with clean cloth and let dough rise in warm place for about 45 minutes or until double in size.
Breadman Kneading Method
(Note that this is only for kneading, not for baking.)
1. Remove the bread pan (known from here on as the bread bucket) from the machine. Make sure it and the paddle are both thoroughly clean and dry, and that the paddle is firmly placed in position over the spoke on the inside bottom of the bread bucket.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients: the flours, the soy protein isolate, and the salt in a medium bowl with a fork. Any extra seasonings, spices, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, berries, or dried ingredients should be mixed into it now.
3. With the bread bucket sitting on the counter, pour the yeast into the bottom, making sure it’s evenly distributed. Then mix the warm water, honey, and oil in a microwave friendly glass bowl, and if necessary, reheat this mixture in 15 second increments until 105 degrees. Have a wooden spoon ready. In one quick, fluid, circular motion, pour the warm liquid mixture over the yeast, and quickly mix the yeast from the bottom and the corners into the liquid mixture. Close the lid and turn the machine to “Dough, 2 lbs.” It will immediately and slowly start mixing the dough.
4. Once the yeast mixture is completely wet and rising, about 1/3 of a C at a time, slowly sift the dry ingredient mixture to the yeast mixture in the bread bucket while the paddle is still turning. Don’t be tempted to use a 1 C measure to save time, forgo the sifting, or dump all the flour in at once. Yeast is a live plant and particularly with instant yeast, once it’s gotten started (it’ll proof while you’re grabbing the flour mixture after starting the machine), it’s best to slowly feed it and allow it to continue growing. Yet, you only have a few short minutes before the paddle will start turning wildly fast, at which time you don’t want to be still adding flour! The 1/3 C sifting method seems to have the best timing for this step. Any remaining time left should be used to (carefully) use (only a narrow rubber) spatula to push any dry ingredients out of the corners of the bread bucket to be better mixed in to the dough while the paddle is still turning slowly. Close the lid and let the machine work until it’s finished.
Baking
6. Turn dough out onto board and knead out air bubbles for about 3 minutes.
7. Shape dough into bread loaf.
8. Grease a medium to large sized bread pan. Place loaf in pan. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes or until double in size.
9. Bake bread at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Turn out on rack or onto clean kitchen towel and allow to cool.
10. Bread can be frozen in a sealed freezer bag for up to 3 months.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alright, well, the "bun thingamajigs" turned out more like sand-dollars! LOL. Kinda mini-pita-pockets.
March 15, 2010
Misc. Internet Food Prep Techniques & General Info
Here's the best of the best from the web that I've found so far.
Techniques
Folding Egg Whites Video
==> (Yeah, the math is wrong, but the technique is excellent.)
==> (A better way to separate eggs.)
==> (Awesome egg cracking technique.)
Info
Conversion Calculator for Wet/Dry Measurements
Cake Flour
Ingredient Substitutions I
Ingredient Substitutions II
Techniques
Folding Egg Whites Video
==> (Yeah, the math is wrong, but the technique is excellent.)
==> (A better way to separate eggs.)
==> (Awesome egg cracking technique.)
Info
Conversion Calculator for Wet/Dry Measurements
Cake Flour
Ingredient Substitutions I
Ingredient Substitutions II
March 14, 2010
Favorite Vegan Internet Recipes
I guess it's time I had a page for these links. I have no interest in re-inventing wheels that roll just fine on their own. Thus, hopefully, my own recipe collection will be either original recipes completely, or else just recipes that worked out better for me than any that I already had access to. That said, here's the list, so far (will be updated, of course) of my favorite vegan Internet recipes.
Deserts
Fun Bread Making Links
My single task today has been to prepare to make bread. I didn't used to "prepare" to make anything, at least not usually. When I was about 15, a set of sampler recipes came in the mail, from a publisher hoping to sell a more complete set of recipes. I tried them.
They were very good. But very "specialized" and rather limiting -- and the prep time included hunting down ingredients most common home cooks in the US have never heard of or used, then learning how to prepare those ingredients "just right" individually for just each particular recipe, and then of course, the timing of ingredient preparation to pre-heating an oven or stove had to be worked out... What a headache. I chose 10 out of the 20, originally, and I think I got through about 8 of them before we ran out of time, money, and patience. In the end, I wound up choosing 2 that seemed the easiest, and the rest... Well, I think they're lost in a box somewhere.
At that point I vowed that eventually, I would just learn to do "the basics" and just live on that. Everything else was just too complicated. Currently, I'm fortunate enough to live across the street from a specialty foods store that has everything under the sun, so it's all good -- for now. But I'm swiftly learning, since getting laid off, that it's worth it to get back to the basics: it's tons cheaper.
Thankfully, I have the internet, so I can do a LOT of the footwork online. And for bread making, well, that's just what a person winds up realizing, often too late, that they'll have to do if they aren't already some champion bread-maker. I used to have "the perfect bread recipe" -- but that's lost as well, so, I'm starting from scratch. And I have to say, there is a ton more internet info on the subject than there used to be. When I have a recipe worth posting, I'll do so. For now, here are my favorite bread making links.
General Info
Helpful Info Compilation Charts
Best Bread Machine I Ever Used: Breadman
Breadman Manual/Recipes
Bread Making
I: Ingredient Basics
II: Process Basics
III: Folding and Kneading Video
History and Types of Bread
Bread Making Videos
~ Fav Bread Making Video
Yeast
Choosing Yeast Video
Yeast Vocab
Types of Yeast (WikiPedia)
What Yeast Is
Yeast Proofing Video (Not really optional).
Active Yeast Sourdough Starter Recipe
Large Bakery (Cream) Yeast I
Large Bakery (Cream) Yeast II
A Short History of Yeast
Other Ingredient Info
Liquid Ingredients
Miscellaneous Ingredients
Specialty Bread Info
What Piki Bread is
What Piki Bread is all about
Bread from India
Navajo Fry Bread
WikiPedia: International Fried Dough Breads (Then Google each for recipes.)
Scones (Best watched in IE.)
Corn Bread Recipe
Banana Bread Links (Beware the bitter taste though.)
Raisin Bread Links
Fruit Cake Recipe
Breadfruit Links (Just for the curious.)
Be Inspired by the Revolutionary Masters
Julia Child @ WikiPedia (Her Videos @ PBS.org: do LOTS of clicking around!)
Emeril
Mr. Food
Rachel Ray
Culinary Institutes of America
Pennsylvania College of Technology
Recipes
Here's the deal: there is no such thing as a bread-machine made "loaf" of pathetic almost-bread that will really hold a stick to a real, non-bread-machine, true loaf of hot, yummy, fragrant, steaming bread that tantalizes your wildest culinary imagination... Unless you just mix the dough in the machine and then bake it in real bread pans inside a real oven. A couple other quick notes: that fact alone changes every recipe out there. Bread machine recipes are too wet for oven baking. Non-bread machine recipes are too dry for a bread machine to handle - they'll ware out the motor/paddle in no time flat. Thus, if you aren't mixing and kneading the dough by hand, a compromise must be made, and the best way to do that is to start with the drier normal bread recipes and simply add a hint of water to make them easier on the machine, yet not so much water that the dough is useless once in the oven.
I'm going to post some good online normal bread recipes here. Play with them however you like. I'll do the same, and when I have something sufficient, as promised, I'll post it. I'm only going to do a scant few recipes, such as Whole Wheat, White, Rolls, and possibly buns or perhaps some Challah. Over time, I may add other augmented recipes, but for now, I'm just going to focus on the basics.
Yeah. I know. Novel idea. Use the machine to save your back, feet, shoulders, elbows, arms, wrists, knuckles - in some cases even your hips if you already have problems... Yet have that old-style flavor, texture, and shape we all crave so much that we're normally willing to pay around $5.00 for a good loaf of something that 80% resembles it, because we're all chumps. Not anymore.
I haven't tried any of these, but they do look reasonably good, so I'll start working with them as a whole first, then will post just a handful of recipes when I'm ready to.
AllRecipes.com Top 20 Best Non-bread Machine Recipes
One-loaf Whole Wheat Bread
They were very good. But very "specialized" and rather limiting -- and the prep time included hunting down ingredients most common home cooks in the US have never heard of or used, then learning how to prepare those ingredients "just right" individually for just each particular recipe, and then of course, the timing of ingredient preparation to pre-heating an oven or stove had to be worked out... What a headache. I chose 10 out of the 20, originally, and I think I got through about 8 of them before we ran out of time, money, and patience. In the end, I wound up choosing 2 that seemed the easiest, and the rest... Well, I think they're lost in a box somewhere.
At that point I vowed that eventually, I would just learn to do "the basics" and just live on that. Everything else was just too complicated. Currently, I'm fortunate enough to live across the street from a specialty foods store that has everything under the sun, so it's all good -- for now. But I'm swiftly learning, since getting laid off, that it's worth it to get back to the basics: it's tons cheaper.
Thankfully, I have the internet, so I can do a LOT of the footwork online. And for bread making, well, that's just what a person winds up realizing, often too late, that they'll have to do if they aren't already some champion bread-maker. I used to have "the perfect bread recipe" -- but that's lost as well, so, I'm starting from scratch. And I have to say, there is a ton more internet info on the subject than there used to be. When I have a recipe worth posting, I'll do so. For now, here are my favorite bread making links.
General Info
Helpful Info Compilation Charts
Best Bread Machine I Ever Used: Breadman
Breadman Manual/Recipes
Bread Making
I: Ingredient Basics
II: Process Basics
III: Folding and Kneading Video
History and Types of Bread
Bread Making Videos
~ Fav Bread Making Video
Yeast
Choosing Yeast Video
Yeast Vocab
Types of Yeast (WikiPedia)
What Yeast Is
Yeast Proofing Video (Not really optional).
Active Yeast Sourdough Starter Recipe
Large Bakery (Cream) Yeast I
Large Bakery (Cream) Yeast II
A Short History of Yeast
Flour
Other Ingredient Info
Liquid Ingredients
Miscellaneous Ingredients
Specialty Bread Info
What Piki Bread is
What Piki Bread is all about
Bread from India
Navajo Fry Bread
WikiPedia: International Fried Dough Breads (Then Google each for recipes.)
Scones (Best watched in IE.)
Corn Bread Recipe
Banana Bread Links (Beware the bitter taste though.)
Raisin Bread Links
Fruit Cake Recipe
Breadfruit Links (Just for the curious.)
Be Inspired by the Revolutionary Masters
Julia Child @ WikiPedia (Her Videos @ PBS.org: do LOTS of clicking around!)
Emeril
Mr. Food
Rachel Ray
Culinary Institutes of America
Pennsylvania College of Technology
Recipes
Here's the deal: there is no such thing as a bread-machine made "loaf" of pathetic almost-bread that will really hold a stick to a real, non-bread-machine, true loaf of hot, yummy, fragrant, steaming bread that tantalizes your wildest culinary imagination... Unless you just mix the dough in the machine and then bake it in real bread pans inside a real oven. A couple other quick notes: that fact alone changes every recipe out there. Bread machine recipes are too wet for oven baking. Non-bread machine recipes are too dry for a bread machine to handle - they'll ware out the motor/paddle in no time flat. Thus, if you aren't mixing and kneading the dough by hand, a compromise must be made, and the best way to do that is to start with the drier normal bread recipes and simply add a hint of water to make them easier on the machine, yet not so much water that the dough is useless once in the oven.
I'm going to post some good online normal bread recipes here. Play with them however you like. I'll do the same, and when I have something sufficient, as promised, I'll post it. I'm only going to do a scant few recipes, such as Whole Wheat, White, Rolls, and possibly buns or perhaps some Challah. Over time, I may add other augmented recipes, but for now, I'm just going to focus on the basics.
Yeah. I know. Novel idea. Use the machine to save your back, feet, shoulders, elbows, arms, wrists, knuckles - in some cases even your hips if you already have problems... Yet have that old-style flavor, texture, and shape we all crave so much that we're normally willing to pay around $5.00 for a good loaf of something that 80% resembles it, because we're all chumps. Not anymore.
I haven't tried any of these, but they do look reasonably good, so I'll start working with them as a whole first, then will post just a handful of recipes when I'm ready to.
AllRecipes.com Top 20 Best Non-bread Machine Recipes
One-loaf Whole Wheat Bread
March 13, 2010
Vegan Oreo Crackers: Introduction to Wet/Dry Baking Programming, 101
Nope, no filling recipe at this time - just freeze these and use them in ice cream sandwiches for now, unless you have some other thing you want to stuff these sandwiches with. Perhaps peanut butter? Almond butter?
Ok, now for a very weird recipe post. The idea here is to teach you almost all the food prep tips I know in one recipe, part by part. A notepad for equations will likely be useful.
THE BALANCING ACT
It seems that the main key in baking is to start with approximately 2 1/2 Cups of milled ingredients, where the majority is either white, whole wheat, wheat or some other grain based flour (corn, rice...). For most of my recipes, I'm tending to use about 1 C water to 1/4 C oil. I sometimes substitute about 1/4 of the water with honey in some recipes, and that acts as a good catalyst for the oil and water. A little vanilla isn't usually included in those measurements if used. Normally I don't include the 1 Tbsp of Baking Powder in the dry measurements either. This combination of dry to wet ingredients is what I am learning to refer to as "0" or "base." I've made brownies this way, as well as crackers, cookies, and dumplings.
DB/WB
This recipe will be "dry base 0" for the dry ingredients (or "DB 0"), totaling 2 1/2 C, but "wet base minus 1/4 Cup" or "WB - 1/4 C". I'm giving in to a temptation I've been facing for weeks, and will be simply referring to this balancing ratio between dry and wet ingredients today and in the future. Heh - deal with it.
So then, "DB 0" and "WB - 1/4 C". The neat thing is, you can interchange any dry ingredient for another, and the same is true for the wet ingredients. This allows for uniformity in texture but also for you, the cook, the ability to ad-lib where you feel like it. Use milk if you aren't vegan. Or eggs! (1 average chicken egg = 1/4 liquid, as a standard rule of thumb in cooking. Also, if you use eggs, you'll probably want to replace any protein isolate used with regular flour). Want brownies with more oats than brawn? Go for it - substitute some oats for some flour - just make sure all dry ingredients add up to 2 1/2 Cups.
SEPARATE DRY FROM WET
MIX THEM SEPARATELY FIRST
ADD WET MIX TO DRY MIX
Ok, for the recipe. This is just what I did. You can do what you want. See how nice that is? So then, from the top (oh, here's a tip - work from your most necessary and smallest-amount ingredients backwards, and then use the last ingredient on your list to "fill in" whatever remains of the total amount you're measuring out - either for dry or wet ingredients). Ok, another tip - it's best to measure them all out into separate bowls (or a bowl for the dry and a cup for the wet). And do my great grandma a favor, and work on your dry ingredients first. Do me a favor and write your recipe ingredient lists starting with your dry ingredients and then moving on to your wet ingredients. Thanks.
INVENT YOUR OWN RECIPES
That's right - you're going to come to realize that a certain now ancient cook-book collection gathering dust in your grandma's kitchen library isn't your family god after all. You can make your own recipes. Just break my mother's heart and DON'T eat your mistakes once you've realized how bad they really are. It's alright to throw out 50 cents worth of ingredients total and start again - but only after you know for sure what you did wrong to begin with. This'll save you about 100 lbs of body-fat. *In forward sight, smacks your hand hard* Get that spoon you're lickin' outta your mouth right now! You know I'm talking to you. NOW.
I promised a recipe.
Oh, before I forget.
SECRET CODE
C = Cup
T = Tbsp
tsp. = teaspoon
pkt = packet
c8 = 8 oz can
j12 = 12 oz jar
and the rest I'll make up as I go along, haha.
PREPARATION
Turn your oven on to 400 degrees, get a large bowl and a measuring cup, two spoons (or at least one), some wax paper, some plastic wrap, a prepared cookie sheet, and a rolling pin. Cookie cutters are optional, but having a flat plastic pot strainer will likely be useful.
DRY INGREDIENTS
1/2 C Cocoa
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Soy Protein Isolate
1 C White Flour
1 T Baking Powder
1 T Baking Soda (huge mistake, won't do that again, will probably just use more Baking Powder in the future)
1/8 tsp. salt
WET INGREDIENTS
3/4 C water
1/4 C oil
THE CHEF'S CATALYTIC CONVERTER
Here's a fun tip: since I'm not using honey in this recipe, what I like to do is take about 3 T of the already thoroughly mixed dry ingredients and add them to the wet ingredients as a sort of catalyst. It actually works quite well.
LONG LOST PREPARATION TIPS
Now, make a crater in the middle of what's left of the mixed dry ingredients, and with a spoon in one hand and the cup with the now brown liquid in it in the other hand, pour the liquid into the dry ingredient bowl while stirring the dry ingredients with the spoon. This takes some real skill when you're first learning, but over time, it's almost as if magnets are holding the bowl down while you pour and stir - that's how good you'll get if you do this enough. Don't let the excess dry ingredients intimidate you - just keep stirring until they're all worked in. A good way to get them worked in is to "cut" into the forming dough while stirring it, pretty much from the beginning. Another thing to remember is to start at the side of the bowl with your spoon, dig the spoon under all the batter, and scoop it downward until you get to the center of the bowl, before bringing the spoon back up. This method is also great for dealing with pans full to the brim with stir-fry, or whatever.
Once all the dry ingredients are worked in, the dough will have a damp, light-weight feeling to it, and will still be in sort of crumbly chunks - it won't be in one uniform ball or anything. That's very ok.
LANDSCAPE VS. PORTRAIT
PAN PREPARATION
On a counter or pull-out cutting board, lay down a sheet of wax paper, about the length of the prepared cookie sheet you'll be baking on, in a "landscape" (left to right) position (as apposed to "Portrait" or "top to bottom" position) in front of you. PS. Prepared = any method of oiling up the cookie sheet. Some people use pan spray, others use shortening and flour, while still others use corn meal (not my fav, unless it's for pizza). Others forgo all fat/carbs and choose to protect their precious cookware (see rant below) and use foil or wax paper instead to coat their pans.
OVERLAPPING
Dump all of the dough in one general heap in the middle of the wax paper. No crumb left behind! All must give it up to feed the chocolate monster! Don't touch the dough. Tear off 2 long pieces of plastic wrap, each an inch or two longer than the wax paper. Place the bottom edge of one piece of plastic wrap about 1" closer to you than the horizontal "middle" (approximate middle) of the heap of dough, then lay it down as "flat" as possible over the "top half" of the dough. Place the top of the other sheet of plastic wrap about 1" further from you than the same horizontal imaginary middle line in the heap of dough, so that about 2" total overlap, and lay the rest of the plastic as flat as possible, down towards you, and then make sure that 2" overlap is securely sealed shut through surface tension (or use tape if you have to). Now pat the dough into a real heap, and then pat it down ward and away from the center, but don't work too hard at this.
In the future, I'll be referring to that last part, about the plastic wrap, as simply "overlapping the plastic wrap" or "covering the dough with overlapped plastic wrap." Here's a teaser: in the future, I may also mention "basing the dough with overlapped plastic wrap." In a sense, we've already based the dough with wax paper.
BROKEN EDGES
Now, simply put, use the rolling pin to create one giant dough rectangle that's just slightly smaller than the wax paper. If need be, break off the excess and use it to fill the "holes" in the dough, and keep on rolling. DON'T try to "repair" the dough by matching every edge perfectly though. Just put the excess just inside the broken edge, on top of the already rolled dough, and roll it in. No edge will be perfect, nor does it need to be right now.
IT'S ONLY COOKWARE
BUY CHEAP/LINE IT
GET WOODEN SPOONS
Once the dough rectangle is relatively formed, and about 1/4" to 1/3" thick, pull off the plastic wrap. Now, there's a great debate about this next series of steps. I'm going to make this really easy: buy cheap cookie sheets at GoodWill or some other second hand store, line them with foil or wax paper if you must, and get a damned set of wooden COOKING ONLY, THANKS spoons for your spotless baby pots, but for God's sake, STOP scraping nails on the chalkboard about hurting your poor precious cookware! So serious. Please, just stop whining. It's COOKWARE for cryin' out loud. You make an investment, great or small, and then demand of yourself that you keep the same damned stuff for 60+ years. Do you seriously think that in 60+ years you're even going to be able to see well enough (or think well enough) to even care what your cookware looks like? Didn't think so. So shet thy mouth and commence to cookin'. Thankie.
Oh yes, sorry, out of cook's experience there.
FLIPPING THE DOUGH
So then, this is the fun part. Place your cookie sheet (or the foil/wax paper first, then the cookie sheet) on top of the dough, and then put your left hand on top of the cookie sheet's bottom (now facing upwards) in the center. With your right palm (btw, in the future, I'll refer to this as "flipping the dough") facing upward, slide your right hand under the whole thing - prepared cookie sheet, dough, and base wax paper too, until your right hand pretty much meets your left in the center, with just those few layers between the two. Now, take a quick second to breath, mentally picture this (if you've never done this before) and in one quick, fluid, 3d rounded motion (think professional cook - just not too flamboyant), flip the whole thing over, so that now the wax paper base is on top, the dough is under it, and the prepared cookie sheet is under that, bottom side down. You may need to take a moment to reposition everything so the dough rests completely flat and in position on the cookie sheet.
THE PLASTIC POT STRAINER
You'll likely notice that you have too much dough on the sides closest to you and furthest from you. Use what you want, be it a paring knife (if your cookie sheet was cheap) or the plastic pot strainer's flat scraper, to cut off the excess and leave about 1/2" space between the dough and the cookie sheet's edge. Bake it separately, freeze it, or whatever - it's yours, have fun with it. It's all good if it has no dairy or eggs (yes, there's a difference) in it - it won't hurt you (other than for calories) if you eat it raw (might taste a little strange, because of the Baking Powder though). If there are any "holes" still in the dough, now's the time to fix those up with this excess. That pot strainer works wonders for creating all the outside edges with some good uniformity (see comments in next paragraph).
Now, the real reason I wanted you to have a plastic pot strainer for this. It's the best thing I've seen yet for cutting the dough nicely into ice cream sandwich worthy oreos *coughs, just not rounded ones, heh*. Thing is, this is best done in the pan (not outside it, hence my snarkiness about the cost of those precious pans). Which means there's an edge to the pan. The flat part of the pot strainer I linked over to works perfectly for this - the handle is higher than the edges of the most commonly owned cookie sheets (particularly those that are from the 80s or before that - ask grandma if she's got an extra if yours is newer with a higher edge). Resist the temptation to use a pizza cutter - it won't get the edges. Also, knives, I think, are too thin for this. Anyway, this definitely works for me - find what works for you!
CHANGE OVEN TEMPERATURES
Turn the oven to 350 degrees and pop the cookie sheet in for 20 minutes.
Now, I've been experimenting lately with turning the oven up too high for a few short minutes and then turning the whole thing off. Works good for a lot of things - but not for this recipe. Rather, leave the oven turned on, just at 350 degrees, for 20 minutes. Otherwise, these oreoesque crackers don't really get done right. Remember to set your timer!
WHAT TO DO WITH THESE SILLY THINGS!
These will easily separate from your pan with a frying spatula (pan-cake turner). They may still be somewhat "connected" in some places, but easily break apart at the now baked in seams. Allow them to cool and then put in plastic baggies (don't over stuff the baggies). Freeze them if using for ice cream sandwiches or storing for long term use. Otherwise, keep them out of the fridge - I swear, it'll possess them! Kidding. But the excess moisture is no joke. It's just not worth it. Unless they're too hard (over baked, for instance). Then doing just that, refrigerating them, is one of the two great answers in the Universe. The other is, of course, 5 to 10 sec in the microwave, on their own plate and covered in plastic wrap.
As I said, I don't personally have a good filling for these. Yet. I've done some Googling and found someone else's very good sounding vegan recipes - I haven't had the chance yet to try them, but they look alright to me. The filling recipes are actually linked to towards the bottom of that page. I'm just so impressed with the vegan cake recipe that I wanted to show you that too.
In the meantime, I'm just using So Delicious Chocolate Velvet frozen desert as my filler, after having frozen the sandwich top/bottom crackers. Heh - gotta love all those lovely flavonoids! Bwah-hah-hah!!!!!!!!
Ok, now for a very weird recipe post. The idea here is to teach you almost all the food prep tips I know in one recipe, part by part. A notepad for equations will likely be useful.
THE BALANCING ACT
It seems that the main key in baking is to start with approximately 2 1/2 Cups of milled ingredients, where the majority is either white, whole wheat, wheat or some other grain based flour (corn, rice...). For most of my recipes, I'm tending to use about 1 C water to 1/4 C oil. I sometimes substitute about 1/4 of the water with honey in some recipes, and that acts as a good catalyst for the oil and water. A little vanilla isn't usually included in those measurements if used. Normally I don't include the 1 Tbsp of Baking Powder in the dry measurements either. This combination of dry to wet ingredients is what I am learning to refer to as "0" or "base." I've made brownies this way, as well as crackers, cookies, and dumplings.
DB/WB
This recipe will be "dry base 0" for the dry ingredients (or "DB 0"), totaling 2 1/2 C, but "wet base minus 1/4 Cup" or "WB - 1/4 C". I'm giving in to a temptation I've been facing for weeks, and will be simply referring to this balancing ratio between dry and wet ingredients today and in the future. Heh - deal with it.
So then, "DB 0" and "WB - 1/4 C". The neat thing is, you can interchange any dry ingredient for another, and the same is true for the wet ingredients. This allows for uniformity in texture but also for you, the cook, the ability to ad-lib where you feel like it. Use milk if you aren't vegan. Or eggs! (1 average chicken egg = 1/4 liquid, as a standard rule of thumb in cooking. Also, if you use eggs, you'll probably want to replace any protein isolate used with regular flour). Want brownies with more oats than brawn? Go for it - substitute some oats for some flour - just make sure all dry ingredients add up to 2 1/2 Cups.
SEPARATE DRY FROM WET
MIX THEM SEPARATELY FIRST
ADD WET MIX TO DRY MIX
Ok, for the recipe. This is just what I did. You can do what you want. See how nice that is? So then, from the top (oh, here's a tip - work from your most necessary and smallest-amount ingredients backwards, and then use the last ingredient on your list to "fill in" whatever remains of the total amount you're measuring out - either for dry or wet ingredients). Ok, another tip - it's best to measure them all out into separate bowls (or a bowl for the dry and a cup for the wet). And do my great grandma a favor, and work on your dry ingredients first. Do me a favor and write your recipe ingredient lists starting with your dry ingredients and then moving on to your wet ingredients. Thanks.
INVENT YOUR OWN RECIPES
That's right - you're going to come to realize that a certain now ancient cook-book collection gathering dust in your grandma's kitchen library isn't your family god after all. You can make your own recipes. Just break my mother's heart and DON'T eat your mistakes once you've realized how bad they really are. It's alright to throw out 50 cents worth of ingredients total and start again - but only after you know for sure what you did wrong to begin with. This'll save you about 100 lbs of body-fat. *In forward sight, smacks your hand hard* Get that spoon you're lickin' outta your mouth right now! You know I'm talking to you. NOW.
I promised a recipe.
Oh, before I forget.
SECRET CODE
C = Cup
T = Tbsp
tsp. = teaspoon
pkt = packet
c8 = 8 oz can
j12 = 12 oz jar
and the rest I'll make up as I go along, haha.
PREPARATION
Turn your oven on to 400 degrees, get a large bowl and a measuring cup, two spoons (or at least one), some wax paper, some plastic wrap, a prepared cookie sheet, and a rolling pin. Cookie cutters are optional, but having a flat plastic pot strainer will likely be useful.
DRY INGREDIENTS
1/2 C Cocoa
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Soy Protein Isolate
1 C White Flour
1 T Baking Powder
1 T Baking Soda (huge mistake, won't do that again, will probably just use more Baking Powder in the future)
1/8 tsp. salt
WET INGREDIENTS
3/4 C water
1/4 C oil
THE CHEF'S CATALYTIC CONVERTER
Here's a fun tip: since I'm not using honey in this recipe, what I like to do is take about 3 T of the already thoroughly mixed dry ingredients and add them to the wet ingredients as a sort of catalyst. It actually works quite well.
LONG LOST PREPARATION TIPS
Now, make a crater in the middle of what's left of the mixed dry ingredients, and with a spoon in one hand and the cup with the now brown liquid in it in the other hand, pour the liquid into the dry ingredient bowl while stirring the dry ingredients with the spoon. This takes some real skill when you're first learning, but over time, it's almost as if magnets are holding the bowl down while you pour and stir - that's how good you'll get if you do this enough. Don't let the excess dry ingredients intimidate you - just keep stirring until they're all worked in. A good way to get them worked in is to "cut" into the forming dough while stirring it, pretty much from the beginning. Another thing to remember is to start at the side of the bowl with your spoon, dig the spoon under all the batter, and scoop it downward until you get to the center of the bowl, before bringing the spoon back up. This method is also great for dealing with pans full to the brim with stir-fry, or whatever.
Once all the dry ingredients are worked in, the dough will have a damp, light-weight feeling to it, and will still be in sort of crumbly chunks - it won't be in one uniform ball or anything. That's very ok.
LANDSCAPE VS. PORTRAIT
PAN PREPARATION
On a counter or pull-out cutting board, lay down a sheet of wax paper, about the length of the prepared cookie sheet you'll be baking on, in a "landscape" (left to right) position (as apposed to "Portrait" or "top to bottom" position) in front of you. PS. Prepared = any method of oiling up the cookie sheet. Some people use pan spray, others use shortening and flour, while still others use corn meal (not my fav, unless it's for pizza). Others forgo all fat/carbs and choose to protect their precious cookware (see rant below) and use foil or wax paper instead to coat their pans.
OVERLAPPING
Dump all of the dough in one general heap in the middle of the wax paper. No crumb left behind! All must give it up to feed the chocolate monster! Don't touch the dough. Tear off 2 long pieces of plastic wrap, each an inch or two longer than the wax paper. Place the bottom edge of one piece of plastic wrap about 1" closer to you than the horizontal "middle" (approximate middle) of the heap of dough, then lay it down as "flat" as possible over the "top half" of the dough. Place the top of the other sheet of plastic wrap about 1" further from you than the same horizontal imaginary middle line in the heap of dough, so that about 2" total overlap, and lay the rest of the plastic as flat as possible, down towards you, and then make sure that 2" overlap is securely sealed shut through surface tension (or use tape if you have to). Now pat the dough into a real heap, and then pat it down ward and away from the center, but don't work too hard at this.
In the future, I'll be referring to that last part, about the plastic wrap, as simply "overlapping the plastic wrap" or "covering the dough with overlapped plastic wrap." Here's a teaser: in the future, I may also mention "basing the dough with overlapped plastic wrap." In a sense, we've already based the dough with wax paper.
BROKEN EDGES
Now, simply put, use the rolling pin to create one giant dough rectangle that's just slightly smaller than the wax paper. If need be, break off the excess and use it to fill the "holes" in the dough, and keep on rolling. DON'T try to "repair" the dough by matching every edge perfectly though. Just put the excess just inside the broken edge, on top of the already rolled dough, and roll it in. No edge will be perfect, nor does it need to be right now.
IT'S ONLY COOKWARE
BUY CHEAP/LINE IT
GET WOODEN SPOONS
Once the dough rectangle is relatively formed, and about 1/4" to 1/3" thick, pull off the plastic wrap. Now, there's a great debate about this next series of steps. I'm going to make this really easy: buy cheap cookie sheets at GoodWill or some other second hand store, line them with foil or wax paper if you must, and get a damned set of wooden COOKING ONLY, THANKS spoons for your spotless baby pots, but for God's sake, STOP scraping nails on the chalkboard about hurting your poor precious cookware! So serious. Please, just stop whining. It's COOKWARE for cryin' out loud. You make an investment, great or small, and then demand of yourself that you keep the same damned stuff for 60+ years. Do you seriously think that in 60+ years you're even going to be able to see well enough (or think well enough) to even care what your cookware looks like? Didn't think so. So shet thy mouth and commence to cookin'. Thankie.
Oh yes, sorry, out of cook's experience there.
FLIPPING THE DOUGH
So then, this is the fun part. Place your cookie sheet (or the foil/wax paper first, then the cookie sheet) on top of the dough, and then put your left hand on top of the cookie sheet's bottom (now facing upwards) in the center. With your right palm (btw, in the future, I'll refer to this as "flipping the dough") facing upward, slide your right hand under the whole thing - prepared cookie sheet, dough, and base wax paper too, until your right hand pretty much meets your left in the center, with just those few layers between the two. Now, take a quick second to breath, mentally picture this (if you've never done this before) and in one quick, fluid, 3d rounded motion (think professional cook - just not too flamboyant), flip the whole thing over, so that now the wax paper base is on top, the dough is under it, and the prepared cookie sheet is under that, bottom side down. You may need to take a moment to reposition everything so the dough rests completely flat and in position on the cookie sheet.
THE PLASTIC POT STRAINER
You'll likely notice that you have too much dough on the sides closest to you and furthest from you. Use what you want, be it a paring knife (if your cookie sheet was cheap) or the plastic pot strainer's flat scraper, to cut off the excess and leave about 1/2" space between the dough and the cookie sheet's edge. Bake it separately, freeze it, or whatever - it's yours, have fun with it. It's all good if it has no dairy or eggs (yes, there's a difference) in it - it won't hurt you (other than for calories) if you eat it raw (might taste a little strange, because of the Baking Powder though). If there are any "holes" still in the dough, now's the time to fix those up with this excess. That pot strainer works wonders for creating all the outside edges with some good uniformity (see comments in next paragraph).
Now, the real reason I wanted you to have a plastic pot strainer for this. It's the best thing I've seen yet for cutting the dough nicely into ice cream sandwich worthy oreos *coughs, just not rounded ones, heh*. Thing is, this is best done in the pan (not outside it, hence my snarkiness about the cost of those precious pans). Which means there's an edge to the pan. The flat part of the pot strainer I linked over to works perfectly for this - the handle is higher than the edges of the most commonly owned cookie sheets (particularly those that are from the 80s or before that - ask grandma if she's got an extra if yours is newer with a higher edge). Resist the temptation to use a pizza cutter - it won't get the edges. Also, knives, I think, are too thin for this. Anyway, this definitely works for me - find what works for you!
CHANGE OVEN TEMPERATURES
Turn the oven to 350 degrees and pop the cookie sheet in for 20 minutes.
Now, I've been experimenting lately with turning the oven up too high for a few short minutes and then turning the whole thing off. Works good for a lot of things - but not for this recipe. Rather, leave the oven turned on, just at 350 degrees, for 20 minutes. Otherwise, these oreoesque crackers don't really get done right. Remember to set your timer!
WHAT TO DO WITH THESE SILLY THINGS!
These will easily separate from your pan with a frying spatula (pan-cake turner). They may still be somewhat "connected" in some places, but easily break apart at the now baked in seams. Allow them to cool and then put in plastic baggies (don't over stuff the baggies). Freeze them if using for ice cream sandwiches or storing for long term use. Otherwise, keep them out of the fridge - I swear, it'll possess them! Kidding. But the excess moisture is no joke. It's just not worth it. Unless they're too hard (over baked, for instance). Then doing just that, refrigerating them, is one of the two great answers in the Universe. The other is, of course, 5 to 10 sec in the microwave, on their own plate and covered in plastic wrap.
As I said, I don't personally have a good filling for these. Yet. I've done some Googling and found someone else's very good sounding vegan recipes - I haven't had the chance yet to try them, but they look alright to me. The filling recipes are actually linked to towards the bottom of that page. I'm just so impressed with the vegan cake recipe that I wanted to show you that too.
In the meantime, I'm just using So Delicious Chocolate Velvet frozen desert as my filler, after having frozen the sandwich top/bottom crackers. Heh - gotta love all those lovely flavonoids! Bwah-hah-hah!!!!!!!!