Making Your Own Vanilla Extract

Do you make your own vanilla? I didn't until last year. And WOW, is it ever good!


Most of the recipes I've found for making Vanilla use vodka or rum. When using a light colored alcohol, you get the satisfaction of watching the color change as it is transformed into vanilla extract. That's all fun and good but if you want truly awesome vanilla extract, use bourbon. It adds wonderful flavor to your recipes.

1. Use six vanilla beans* per cup/8oz alcohol.
   
2. Cut the vanilla beans in half lengthwise, leaving about 1 inch connected at one end.
3. Put the beans into the bottle of alcohol and shake gently.
   
4. Cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place for about 8 weeks, giving it a gentle shake about once a week.

*Using a variety of vanilla pods (Madagascar, Indonesia, Tahitian, Mexican) will produce a vanilla extract with a much more complex flavor and aroma. Try using Madagascar pods as a base, adding Tahitian and Mexican pods for additional flavor/fragrance notes.

Vanilla extract matures with age. I waited 5 or 6 months before I started using the bottle below.

**Shake vanilla bottle before each use. Small flecks of the vanilla pods will be in the vanilla extract - they provide additional flavor. They also appear as dark flecks in light-colored food, don’t shake the bottle if you don’t want the flecks to appear.

Other blog sites on making Vanilla Extract:

http://ayankeeinasouthernkitchen.com/2008/08/04/homemade-bourbon-vanilla/ http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_vanilla_extract/ http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1713,146191-251198,00.html

Brioche Cinnamon Rolls - BBA challenge #4

Week #4 in the BBA challenge and we are on page 123 of The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Brioche.
We had three choices Rich man's (87% butter to flour ratio), middle-class (50% butter to flour ration) and poor man's (23.5% butter to flour ratio) I chose the middle-class because in the commentary he states it's perfect for cinnamon rolls. Say no more. I LOVE cinnamon rolls.
The only problem I had with the dough is it kept climbing up the paddle trying to escape during the last 6 minutes of mixing.
I found it helpful to roll the dough out on parchment paper because I could use it to help roll the dough into a log after sprinkling it with the cinnamon sugar.


Cinnamon-Sugar Filling

3/4 cup dark brown sugar (packed, 5 1/4 ounces)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter , melted

Combine sugars, spices, and salt in small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon melted butter and stir with fork or fingers until mixture resembles wet sand.


I baked these at 375 for 20 minutes and frosted them with poured fondant.

Croissants - Rose Levy Beranbaum Bake-off

I love the forum bake-offs on RLB's site. We are given a category and each baker gets to choose a recipe under that category that is new to them. We post pictures on RLB's site and share the lessons learned along the way. With her busy schedule, Rose still finds time to give us supporting comments and praise. How sweet is she?

The first time I thumbed through"The Bread Bible" (Christmas 2007), the Croissants caught my attention and I knew that I would make them one day. Rose's writing style takes the most complicated recipe, breaks it down into do-able steps, sprinkles in a little food science and with each step she builds your confidence to try and succeed .

After mixing the dough and chilling it overnight, I squared the dough and rolled the corners out to create flaps.

I placed 8 oz of Plugra butter in the center and pulled the flaps over the butter, sealing it well. I wrapped this in plastic wrap and placed it back in the refrigerator for a 30 minute rest.

The first turn went very well. It took only a little time and coaxing to roll the dough/butter to a 16 x 7 rectangle. I gave it a business letter fold, wrapped it in plastic wrap, then put it back in the refrigerator for 40 minutes. So far, so good.

By the end of turn two, I was sure I was a natural croissant maker. I didn't have any of the horrible butter break throughs I have read about. I was feeling pretty darn smug with myself.

Then reality kicked in at turn 3.
After turns 1 and 2, I threw away a lot of flour so I decided I didn't need to use as much (I am, after all, a natural croissant maker by now. ...plus I was running low on flour)

You guessed it, I had butter break-through a third of the way through rolling the dough out. I also ran out of flour covering up the butter break-throughs so I grabbed the white whole wheat flour I had in the freezer. Big mistake. It's coarse texture set me up for a real mess in turn 4.

While I waiting for the dough to rest between turns, I checked RLB's site. She had made a comment that we could use unbleached bread flour. I wished I had read that before I grabbed the jagged wheat flour.
I used the bread flour for turn 4 but it was too late. The dough was harder to roll out and the wheat flour I used during turn 3 was cutting through the layers. (and my heart). I heard squishing noise with each roll of the pin. At this point I just kept dumping flour on it and hoping for the best. I wrapped in back up in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator for 5 hours.

I rolled the dough out for the final time and cut it into triangles.

I shaped them and let them rise.

Then baked them until they were golden brown, cooled for 20 minutes and took my first bite. My husband and I were pleasantly surprised by the splintering crisp crust as we bit into them. Obviously, Rose’s recipe is fool proof because these came out a lot better than they should have considering all the extra flour I used. I really didn't expect these to be edible.

Lessons learned:

1. Shape the dough into a square after the first rise before refrigerating it overnight.


2. Don't use wheat flour to roll out your dough. The sharp edges breaks the glutton strands and causes butter break-through.


3. Be patient. The dough is harder to roll out in turns 3 and 4. Don't be too aggressive or use downward pressure.


4. With Rose's recipe, you can't go wrong no matter how hard you try. :-)

Here's a video of Pino Ficara making croissants. I found it very helpful to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxCE963K-FY

Things I'm going to try next time I make them:

I'll use bread flour in place of the all-purpose; I heard the higher gluten content allows the layers to rise higher.

I'll mix the butter with some flour and chill it. I heard it really helps keep it malleable but manageable.

How Do You separate Eggs?

Crack open all the eggs into a bowl (using cold eggs straight from the refrigerator)


With clean hands, fish out the yolks and place them in another bowl
Violia! Fast and easy
Where did I learn this? DyannBakes

Bagels - BBA challenge #3

I couldn't wait to get to week 3....bagels! These were very easy to make.

I expected the sponge to be thinner and used a whisk. It took a bit of work to get the thick gloppy sponge out of the tines.


I was feeling domestic, so I opted to hand-knead the last 3/4 cup of flour in. I was questioning my sanity after the first 1/4 cup and almost threw it back in the KitchenAid. It took me a total of 10 minutes to work in the rest of the flour.
Surely he didn't expect us to knead for another 10 minutes after that last 3/4 cup of flour was worked in. I consulted the recipe. Oh yes he did! There was a sense of accomplishment when I finished the final kneading. (and a sense of tingling in my arms, neck and back. lol)
At this point I divided the dough in half so I could make half cinnamon-raisin and half plain bagels.

We had two options for shaping the bagels. Poke holes in the rolls we shaped or create a rope and wrap them around our hands to shape. I chose to do both.
The bagel on the left was shaped with the rope method, the bagel on the right with the poke method. I like the wonkiness of the rope method.
The cooked bagel on the left is with the poke method, the ones on the right the rope method. Next time I'll stretch the holes out a little more for the rope method.
Sliced Raisin bagel.
Sliced plain bagel topped with kosher salt and sesame seeds

Lessons learned:

1. Don't use a whisk on the sponge
2. Use my KitchenAid mixer to work in the last 3/4 cup of flour before hand kneading.
3. When boiling, boil the tops first then flip over and boil the bottoms. (they came out prettier this way)

Our next recipe in the book: Brioche

The Very Late Christopsomos - BBA #2

My second week into the BBA challenge and I'm already late. In the span of one week, I have had out of town guests, a 100th birthday celebration (no, not mine), a dinner party for 14, and a visit from my youngest step-daughter (that was the best part of the week). I considered skipping this bread and coming back to it later but my OLDER sister said I had to bake them in order. (She always was a pest) Just kidding Terri. Truth be known, I was the pesky little sister that got into her make-up, her clothes and followed her everywhere. Somehow, she has forgiven me. (I'm guessing it's because senility is setting in ;) I love that she and I are doing this challenge together. (she is mustangterri in San Diego)

Anyway, onto the bread! We had the choice of three different variations of Artos: Greek Celebration Bread. I found the picture of Christopsomos very intriguing, so I choose it. However, after shaping mine, I noticed the author didn't use the dried fruits and nuts in his. He's such a cheater!

Typically, I wouldn't make a bread with raisins. It's just not my thing. But I'm married to a man who loves raisins in everything, so being the awesome wife I am, I made the sacrificed. ;-)

This bread smelled amazing from the moment the spices and zest were added to the flour.

I selected golden raisins, dried cherries and orange zest from a list of options for the bread and I used a barm instead of a poolish. I didn't have allspice or cloves on hand, so I used Anise, (Rick's favorite spice) I'm really going for the extra bonus points here. He'll probably think I put a dent in the car when he taste this. I glazed the bread with a simple syrup enhanced with honey and orange extract. I omitted the optional sesame seeds because I ...um... forgot.

I timed the bread to be ready to slice at the same time I knew Rick would be driving by our house on his way back to the office from a meeting. I asked him to swing by and pick up the bread for an afternoon snack for everyone. (it was enough bread to feed a small army)

So what did Rick think of Christopsomos? He ate 4 huge pieces and ruined his dinner! He said he would do it all over again given the choice. lol (now who's going for the bonus points?) He loved the orange zest but said the bread needed more raisins. (what did you expect from a raisin lover?)

Next: Bagels!

Whoopie!

While viewing pictures on foodgawker.com, Whoopie pies caught my attention. I had some cream cheese frosting I needed to use, so I decided to make Whoopie pies using my grandmother's recipe for red velvet cake.

I gathered all the necessary ingredients

Mixed them together

Then used a #30 scoop and plopped them on to the parchment paper.

I baked them for 10 - 11 minutes, let them cool, then filled them using a pastry bag and tip #23.
How were they? Very moist and sticky ....finger licking good. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Red Velvet Cake
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 (1-ounce) bottles red food coloring
1 ounce water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon cocoa
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift flour, salt, and cocoa; set aside.

Beat shortening at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add sugar, beating well.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

Stir in food coloring, water and vanilla, blending well.

Add flour mixture to shortening mixture, alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Beat at medium speed 2 minutes

Sprinkle baking soda over vinegar, fold into cake mixture.

Using #30 scoop, place batter onto prepared pans.

Bake at 375° for 10 minutes.

Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from parchment and cool.

Fill with your favorite frosting and eat.

Yields 21 Whoopie pies using #30 scoop

Other places to find Whoopie pie recipes:

Pumpkin with maple cream cheese http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2008/09/28/i-was-doing-so-good/

Chocolate with marshmallow http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/03/24/making-whoopie-pies/

Wicked Whoopie Pies from IssaMac's http://www.wlbz2.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=18974

• Whoopie Pies, from Gourmet
  
• Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, from Rachael Ray magazine
  
• Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling, from Martha Stewart
  
• Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, from Food Buzz