Think Greek yogurt is really good but really expensive?

Join the club!

What? You think I'll actually solve that problem for you? 

Well, I can't do anything about the crazy prices in the store (on sale this week - only $1 for 5 or 6 oz, ugh - our yogurt budget for all of us would be sky-high!), but hopefully I can convince you that making your own at home is pretty doable, very tasty, and cheap as well! Last week there was a sale on milk, so I got 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 quarts of full fat Greek yogurt for $1! (and even non-Greek yogurt is pretty expensive these days) You don't have to do complicated math to see the huge savings!

(ok, here's the part of food blogging that you don't like, Laura. Just skip down to the printable recipe... oops! We don't have that option on our blog! Oh well! ;)

I've been interesting in yogurt making for a long time.  I remember as a kid my mom had a yogurt maker and I would use it to make yogurt sometimes.  It seemed sorta like magic! After becoming a biologist, I decided it was even cooler than magic, really.  But the yogurt itself was... well, not that great.  It was fairly sour and thinner than store bought, and not really great.  Some comic strip characters don't appreciate yogurt, I realize, but it can and should be really good, not sour and thin.

A few years ago I tried making regular yogurt at home again.  And I had some of the same problems.

This summer, mostly due to finding and reading this blog post, I've got the method down and we are loving our (cheap) and very tasty Greek yogurt! 

The overall method is very simple:
1. Heat milk up. (I start with 1/2 gallon of whole milk and heat to 185 deg F on stove)
2. Cool milk down. (to 115-110 deg F)
3. Add a bit (~2 t.) of starter (other yogurt - either saved from your last batch, or purchased plain yogurt - the exact amount doesn't matter)
4. Let sit in a warm place. (for 4-6 hours)
5. Drain out liquid, leaving a thick Greek yogurt. (~1 hour of draining time)
6. Whisk resulting yogurt very well, improving texture!
7. ENJOY!!

I do several things differently from the post I just linked to, here are a few more details than you probably want or need:

First: I make mine out of whole milk.  I just like whole milk yogurt better, and since we don't eat much meat, I figure I have some saturated fat 'credits' to burn! Oh, and kids are supposed to have whole milk yogurt... that's the real reason... uh huh, sure, yes (*nodding vigorously*).  I did try making it out of 2% milk once... it just wasn't as good.  But try whatever fat level you want!

Second: I heat the milk on the stove.  I think the microwave would be too "hands on" for me.  I use a large non-stick stock pan (because the bottom always sticks, so this way it's much easier to clean up). Do I ever become so hands off that I forget out the milk and have it boil over?  Yes, today in fact, but it still made good yogurt, though it wasn't quite as thick as it usually is.

Third:  I heat the milk a little hotter.  The original blogger says 175-180 deg F, I think 185 deg F is better.  Admittedly, my controlled scientific study on this hasn't been done, but the times I heated it up to 185 deg F it seemed to set up a little thicker in the end, which I liked.

Fourth:  There is no need to use Greek yogurt from the store as your original culture. I used Dannon (full fat, though I'm not sure it matters) plain yogurt for my first original batch, and it worked great and is very tasty.  Every other time after that, just use a bit of your last batch to start your next (assuming it isn't too old.)  Make sure the temp of the milk is 110-115 deg F when you add the bit (~1 T) of yogurt culture.

Fifth:  (I did get this idea from somewhere on Salad in a Jar's website) Freeze a bit of your first batch of homemade yogurt.  Preferably in ~1 T size cubes.  I froze ~1/4 c. in one chunk and the couple times I've had to use it I've had to chisel a piece off with a knife - so freeze in small pieces!  Why would you need this? Well, maybe because the old batch was inadvertently eaten before saving a bit or you go out of town and didn't have "new enough" yogurt in the fridge when you returned or something like that. This will save you from having to buy the expensive yogurt again just to start another batch.

Sixth:  Find a good incubation method! This is the tough part, perhaps, and may require some trial and error on your part.  I use a larger soft-sided cooler.  I fill mason jars with my inoculated milk, cover, and then put in the cooler.  And then I put a jar (actually an old glass 1 qt vinegar bottle we used up) with very hot (simmering, almost boiling) water into the cooler too.  After covering the top with towels, it stays nice and toasty in there. (There are a lot more ideas here)








Seventh:  Timing! The website says the yogurt will be done in 6-11 hours.  When I used to do this a couple years ago, I would let it go overnight.  But I think that was one of my problems.  I've found it takes only 4 hours for me, so make sure you check it at three or four hours.  (They say you shouldn't disturb it, so don't check too often before that!)  If you tilt the jar and it pulls away from the edge a bit or doesn't move at all, and looks like one big gelatin chunk, it's probably done.



This picture actually shows the yogurt tilting a bit more than normal (this was my 'overboiled' batch). Usually it doesn't move when I tilt the jar like this.

Eighth:  After the milk has turned into yogurt, you need to drain off some of the liquid to make greek yogurt.  Do this right away, it drains off a lot quicker when it is still warm (one of my problems a few years ago).  You can buy a very expensive strainer (as described here) but I don't mind using cheesecloth in a normal strainer. It can be a bit messy, but I'm cheap and it works fine.  There are a lot more good tips on straining yogurt at that link too, including pictures of what stages might look like (and she's a much better food photographer than I am... not hard, I realize!)




Ninth:  The liquid that drains off the yogurt is called whey and is really good to use instead of milk when making homemade pancakes (I think it makes them extra-fluffy, but I haven't done a controlled experiment of that) or in homemade bread. And probably lots of other ways! Don't throw it away!

Tenth: After straining the yogurt, whisking it is crucial to give it good texture.  See here for some pictures of the transformation! This was also one of my problems a few years ago.

Conclusion:  I realize this post doesn't make it sound easy, but once you do a couple times, it really is easy and the results are so worth it!  It's great with homemade granola on it (either with or without a little honey swirled in as well) or with a bit of strawberry jam stirred in if you like a fruity flavor, or a million other ways. Also fabulous for cutting out excess added sugar in your diet (or saving it for more desserts!) since it's tasty even plain.

Finished product - I get between 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 quarts of thick Greek yogurt when I start with 1/2 gallon of milk (plus ~2 or 3 c. of whey.)

I've been making it twice a week for two months now and my family is completely hooked!

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Szechuan Noodle Salad

Aunt Jane gave me this recipe - it was one of many good salads she served at the bridal shower she hosted for me many years ago.  Will and I made it often in the first half of our marriage, but then, somehow, forgot about the recipe until just a month or so ago.  Since then we have already made it twice - yum!
I didn't think to take many pictures, but I did think that the chopped veggies in the bowl were really pretty, so here's a picture of the veggies:


Now just imagine adding shredded chicken, cooked oriental noodles, and a sweetish-spicy sauce - with chopped peanuts on top!  Fabulous - try it soon!
Szechuan Noodle Salad (I roughly doubled/tripled the recipe - very roughly, it's forgiving!)

4 oz. uncooked Oriental Noodles (I used Chinese 'egg noodles' style noodles)
3 T. oil
3 T. honey
1 T. Sesame Oil
1 T. rice vinegar
1 T. soy sauce
1 1/2 t. grated gingerroot
1 t. crushed red pepper (I didn't add all of this - the most recent time I made it I used 1 t for a triple dressing recipe was mild, next time I'd add more.)
3 c. shredded cooked chicken
1 c. finely shredded red cabbage
4 green onions, thinly sliced
2 carrots, shredded
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 c. dry-roasted peanuts (I used low-sodium)

Cook noodles as package directs (or until desired tenderness), drain, rinse in cold water.  Combine sauce ingredients. Mix noodles and veggies in a big bowl. Stir in dressing. Top with peanuts (at the table if you expect leftovers - the peanuts aren't very good soggy from the dressing the next day.

Checking in on the natural starter and bread making

Previously (a long time ago!) I wrote about the wild yeast levain I was beginning to make following the instructions in the book 52 Loaves (also available here.) 

Well, I am happy to say that about a year and a half later I am still using this to bake really good bread!

One reason I wanted to make this from wild yeast instead of purchased yeasts is that the author of 52 Loaves claimed that it was more mild than the typical 'sourdough' flavor. I can definitely attest that this is true!

So, long after I meant to put this update, I can finally strongly recommend making your own wild yeast levain (from a local apple, if possible this time of year... otherwise maybe you'll have to wait until summer?) and baking with it!

I try to bake with it or at least feed it every week, though there have definitely been a couple that I've forgotten.  It's not that hard to keep going and it does make good tasting bread - cheaper than using so much store-bought yeast, too!

Here are some of the recipes I've tried with it:
- baguettes
- bagels (these are AMAZING)
- other bread recipe

And here are a couple of pictures of some of the bubbly starter, ready for baking, the formed loaves, ready to go in the oven (onto a pizza stone, and a pizza peel does make this MUCH easier), and the finished loaves below.  Happy baking!!

Grilled Salmon with homemade tomato salsa

Trying not to let this blog completely die away... let me tell you about what we had for dinner tonight: Salmon fillet marinated in lime/garlic/jalapeno (baked, though it was supposed to be grilled, but lots of rain adjusted those plans) topped with homemade tomato salsa!

This is a perfect summer meal!

I'm feeling a little too lazy to get off the couch and give you exact measurements, besides, it's flexible, so here's how to make it:

Take 1-2 jalapenos and 5 cloves of garlic (UNpeeled) and heat in a dry skillet until black and blistered on the sides. Let cool. Peel the garlic, and stem the jalapeno. **Depending on how hot your jalapenos are, you may want to seed them, too. If we get them from the store, we usually leave the seeds in one of them at least, but today's were from the farmer's market and we suspected they would be hotter and so seeded both - it was still plenty hot for our 'medium' salsa-loving tastes.**

Using a blender, pulverize the garlic and jalapenos with 1/3 c. lime juice until completely liquid.

Put your salmon fillet (we used 1.3 lb for two people - the girls don't like it, which gave very generous servings and ~one serving left-over) in a greased glass pan (if you're going to bake it) or an ungreased glass pan if you're not baking it, and pour over some of the pulverized liquid to cover it with just a little. **Make sure you save the rest because it's what makes the salsa awesome!

Set the salmon aside to marinade for just a short time while you make the salsa.

Finely chop ~1/2 a red onion (we actually didn't have this and used a shallot instead this time, but usually make with the red onion) and rinse the onion in a strainer under running water. Let drain and add to salsa bowl. Then cut up as many tomatoes as you want - the more varieties and colors the better! We love it with some yellow cherry tomatoes (Lemon drop!) and some other red varieties. This is a great use for heirloom tomatoes and all sorts of new varieties from the farmer's market or your garden! I don't really know how many tomatoes to tell you... we maybe used ~5 smaller red tomatoes and ~3/4 pint of small yellow cherry tomatoes.

Mix, add salt to taste (takes more than you might guess ~3/4 t??), and chopped cilantro (how much looks good to you!).

Then, add in some of the pulverized garlic/pepper/lime juice mixture that was left over (not from the raw fish pan!!) Start with very little and taste - it can get hot quickly, depending on how hot your peppers were.

Cook the salmon on the grill (best option) or oven until done to your taste.

Serve with the homemade salsa piled on the salmon and with tortilla chips to eat up the rest of the salsa! (Like most fresh tomato salsas this one doesn't last very well beyond this first day, so don't make it ahead of time and be prepared to eat it all - not usually a problem in our house!)

We did try to take a picture, though because of the rain outside the light isn't the greatest. We also had biscuits and salads to round out the meal.

This is one of my favorite summer meals and is adapted from a Rick Bayless recipe from this book:
http://www.rickbayless.com/cookbooks/mexicooneplate.html

(side note: Aaron, have you been to his restaurant in Chicago??? I really want to go sometime!)

(another note: not my beer in the picture above! but I heard it was a good pairing - Leinnie's Sunset Wheat)

gpbj

Sometimes a girl just needs to eat something warm with minimal mess and effort...thank you grilled cheese sandwich. And like any true born and bred American, a large part of my diet revolves around peanut butter, and a large part of my time is spent thinking of new ways to incorporate peanut butter into my diet.
For a while now, I've been wanting to combine two of my favorite things-the warm toasty goodness of grilled cheese, and peanut butter. Although there are endless varieties of peanut butter sandwiches, the native voyage of my grilled peanut butter sandwich had be my classic, my favorite, my go to peanut butter sandwich...peanut butter and strawberry jam. I thought about it a lot in France, most of the key ingredients were available. France is home to delicious and cheap bread, butter that stands on its own (SO good you could eat it plain, not that I ever would...ahem), and jars of strawberry jam sold everywhere from huge supermarket chains to Sunday morning markets and all were amazing. The only thing missing was the peanut butter. Long before moving to France, I was introduced to French "peanut butter" by a David Sedaris story. This "peanut butter" is sold in a CAN, with a fat smiling kid on it, leading one to believe the French think peanut butter is something to be opened and eaten in one sitting. Mr. Sedaris did not fabricate anything. I saw those cans of peanut butter. I always meant to buy one, but I never did. I shouldn't judge something I've never eaten, but I knew that my grilled peanut butter sandwich could not be made using canned peanut butter.
Fast forward to Korea. Skippy PB (creamy or crunchy!) is widely available. However, the Korean butter is not so much creamy goodness, but rather more of an oily spread with an almost neon yellow color and the taste of slightly old dairy. And the bread is simply a flavorless vessel for whatever you want to put on it to get to your mouth. But my grilled peanut butter sandwich idea had waited long enough. So on my last trip to the grocery store, I got my ingredients. The next night, I buttered one side of the bread. I peanut buttered and jammed the other side. I buttered the top bread, and turned my stove down as low as it would go (and given the poor quality of my kitchen appliances, that is not actually low, but I've gotten quite good at balancing the pans mostly off the burner), put the lid on to ensure adequate peanut butter melting, and waited. And even with the less than mediocre Korean bread and butter, YUM! I am anxious to make it with good bread and actual butter. I am also anxious to expand and try a grilled peanut butter and banana, or peanut butter and honey, or peanut butter and pickle (my friend swears these are delicious).
I googled my sandwich, and found scores of recipes. My idea had been done before. I am not the culinary pioneer I thought I was. But that doesn't make me love it any less. I would have taken pictures, but it looked pretty unappetizing...and I'm lazy.

Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

YUM.

A friend made this for me last winter. I hate myself for what I'm about to type, but seriously: love at first bite. Cast-iron cornbread on the side and everything is right with the world.

The fact that the chili and cornbread go from ingredients to dinner in about half an hour only improves an already exciting weeknight. Obviously, this is chili - so add, subtract, substitute away.

Need

• 2 oranges
• 2 T olive oil
• 2 c chopped onions
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed/minced
• 4 t chili powder
• 4 t ground cumin
• 2 t ground cinnamon
• 3 15.5 oz cans seasoned black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes in juice, not drained
• Hot sauce, sour cream/yogurt, cilantro
• Cornbread (Seriously. I don't mean to sound like something bad will happen if you don't have this with cornbread, but do you really want to take that chance?)

Do

Zest the oranges, then juice them.

Heat oil in heavy pan, then add the onions. Saute, don't brown, til soft, about 5 min.

Add spices, stir around to bloom and get the onions coated. Add the garlic, stir till fragrant.

Add the beans, tomatoes, and half the orange juice. Stir to combine.

Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally, for about 15 minutes.

Add additional orange juice, zest, hot sauce, salt, pepper.

Serve, topping with yogurt and cilantro. Cornbread goes on the side.

mmmmmm....

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
2 sticks softened butter
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 - 15 oz can pumpkin
2 large eggs
3 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cloves
2 c. milk chocolate chips

Directions
Heat oven to 350 and grease pans.
Using mixer, beat butter until smooth. Beat in sugars, then eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla.
In another bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Stir into wet dough in thirds. Stir in chocolate chips. Scoot onto cookie sheets in heaping tablespoons. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until brown around the edges.

Grandma's 14-Day Sweet Pickles

I'll give an update on the wild yeast levain and the breads I've made with it soon but right now I have pickles on the brain, so I thought I'd share.

Raise your hand if you love Grandma's sweet pickles. Raise your hand if you used to eat them plain (while drinking Grandma's iced tea) in the summer time for a snack while visiting the farm. (ok, Laura and I might be the only ones raising our hands on that one.) And finally, raise your hand if you think that store-bought sweet pickles just can't compete.

I'll finally put my hand down now to type, but I love Grandma's Sweet Pickles with a passion and so long ago I asked her for her recipe. It's a photocopy from some magazine - not sure what one, but it's not exactly a family secret recipe or anything, but I still wanted to make sure I had her real recipe, for someday when she stopped making them (She did a few years ago. I guess at 80 she's allowed to 'retire!')

I was intimidated to try them for many years... 14-days! So much work! And I didn't have a "1-gallon" stone crock like the recipe called for - what would I use instead? Finally a good friend in Madison (Hi, Sarah!) who loves sweet pickles as much as I do and is fearless in the sewing room (anyone can make your own wedding dress, that's easy, but she made her husband's suit!) convinced me that I should really try them that they couldn't be that hard.

And she was right, they really aren't that bad. I went to a restaurant supply store in Madison and got a food-grade plastic bucket that works great for making pickles two weeks of the year and for holding Claire's toys the rest of the time. And except for 30-60 minutes the first day to wash the cucumbers and get things ready, an hour on Day 7 to cut the cucumbers, and around 2-3 hours on Day 14 to can them, the daily work is really only 10-15 min (and you don't do anything days 2, 4, and 6!

I had intentions of typing up the whole recipe for here, but looking it over, I realize that would be crazy. There's so much detail in the instructions that I wouldn't want to lose. I'll scan it into a PDF and if anyone wants it, just email me, send me a message on facebook, or leave your email address in the comments to this post.

If you love Grandma's pickles, there is only one way to get them now - make them yourself!

Making a wild yeast levain and a Book Review of 52 Loaves

http://www.amazon.com/52-Loaves-Relentless-Pursuit-Meaning/dp/1565125835


http://www.williamalexander.com/ (the author's blog - includes recipes)

I heard about this book on another blog and thought it sounded worth reading. It is! The book is a non-fiction story about the author's attempt to re-create the "perfect" loaf of bread that he ate ~10 years before our story starts. He decides to make at least one loaf of bread a week for a year to try to do this. He bakes bread in various places around the world and learns from bakers... and also grows his own wheat and makes his own clay oven.

Alexander is an entertaining writer, including lots of interesting facts and details about bread, many of which I didn't know even though I've been baking homemade bread for probably almost 20 years. But he never loses sight of the story part of it (part memior) and it is funny at times and generally hooks you into the story!

He convinced me that I needed to bake more with a sourdough starter (a levain). As he says on his website: "Levain, sourdough, starter...call it want you want — it is the secret to authentic, yeasty, artisan bread. San Francisco sourdough has, in a sense, given all sourdoughs a bad name, but most wild yeast starters are far milder and (to my palate) more pleasant as well."

This convinced me to try to make a levain with wild yeast. I also think San Francisco sourdough bread is a little too strong for my taste, and when I've made starter before I've always used purchased, commercial yeast, so I'm anxious to see what the wild yeast starter is like.

I've started mine! Alexander recommends using orchard apples (the 'haze' on them is the yeast) so I thought I'd have to wait until fall for apples to be ready. But when we were at the farm last weekend Grandpa asked if we wanted apples! His neighbor or friend had a tree with "sauce apples" that he was trying to get rid of. Mom and Grandpa went and picked some.

I used a lot for making applesauce, but I saved one whole apple cut up into 1" chunks and the peel of a second to put in 1 c. de-chlorinated water. It has been sitting, covered, on my counter for almost the full three days (I've been stirring it at least twice a day) and already it is bubbly and smells like apple cider (and a little like vinegar... hopefully that's okay). I start "feeding" it with flour tomororw, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes and how it is to bake with! If it works and makes tasty bread, I'd be happy to share some starter with you if you want some Brown County wild yeast levain. Or, you can make your own, so far it seems pretty easy!

Alexander really recommends you use a scale when you bake. While, as a scientist, I understand that sentiment, I'm not sure if we'll get one or not. It seems like it's just one more item that may not get used enough to justify taking up precious real estate in my kitchen. If we want to follow any of his recipes though, a scale might be needed. He only posts them in metric weights. (This includes his levain recipe...) A few tips about bread making from the book would likely make any bread recipe better, however. (Soon I will post a recipe for "One Hour Bread" - a non-levain using bread that is great for instant gratification. It's even faster than a bread machine!!)

If you're looking for a good summer reading book, find a copy of 52 Loaves soon! Read while eating homemade bread, for the best experience.

(Legal note: A library copy of this book was read. This is not a popular enough blog that authors and companies send free stuff to so that it will be written about and our vast audiences will rush out and buy book or item. The author of this blog post wishes to state that she has no conflicting interests, and will have no material gain from the sale of this book, the making of levains, or the purchase and use (or not) of a kitchen scale.)

Roasted Red Pepper Chickpea Dip

As I was making this recipe today, I thought it would be a good one to share! This is just a great chickpea dip that's easy to make (less than 10 minutes total) and is good as an appetizer or afternoon snack at work.

Ingredients:

2 cans chick peas (garbanzo beans) (15 ounces), drained

1 small jar roasted red peppers (6 ounces), drained well and coarsely chopped

1/2 lemon, juiced

2 cloves garlic, cracked away from peel

4 stems fresh rosemary, leaves stripped from stems

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), eyeball it as you drizzle it into recipe

1 package flat breads, Everything flavor

1 pint grape tomatoes, rinsed

1 zucchini, sliced into 1/4-inch disks

any other veggies or other dipping items - I like baby carrots and red pepper strips.

Combine chick peas, roasted red pepper, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper in a food processor. Turn the processor on and stream in two tablespoons olive oil. Process until smooth.

Gingersnap cookies I

Ever since Josie brought her amazing gingersnaps to our house several months ago I have been wanting to make them. They were so good!! Unfortunately, right around the time I asked her for the recipe she started being sick all the time due to a little one that Claire is getting excited to meet in June. (Claire's babysitter is also expecting, so the topic comes up a lot. Today Claire asked me: "do you have a baby in your belly, too?" No, just a few too many bowls of ice cream, Claire.)

Anyway, I'm still hoping that sometime Josie will share her great gingersnap recipe, but in the meantime, I tried a recipe from Simply recipes.com. I made it pretty much exactly to her instructions, except that I only made half a recipe (in case I didn't like them... though not too much chance of that) and then I rolled them into a (somewhat lumpy) log and then in raw sugar before freezing the log.

Tonight I cut off several thin roundish cookies and just finished baking them for 8 min. Couldn't be easier, really.

And... they are really, pretty good! they are thinner than Josie's, but they are crunchy like hers, which is a must for me. I like all my cookies crunchy (feel free to disagree in the comments, I know not everyone agrees!) but especially gingersnaps! I think I still like yours better, Josie, they were a little more substantial, while still crunchy, and I REALLY loved the raw sugar all over yours, instead of just around the edges like these were.

Maybe sometime there can be a Gingersnap Cookie II post??? :)

Toffee Making Novel

I was determined this year to make toffee, for several reasons. First of all, it's so good. Yum! Second, I tried making it years ago and all the butter separated out and it was terrible. I pretty much hate failing at anything, but it has especially bothered me all these years that a simple recipe beat me. It's just a recipe! It shouldn't be that hard! Why didn't it work? What went wrong? Was it the recipe? Was it me?

So really, this journey to make good toffee is really more about revenge for long ago kitchen grievances even more than just wanting some toffee. Despite discouraging stories from relatives (hi aunt Jane!), I was determined to not let the toffee beat me.

I scoured the internets looking for recipes and, most importantly, research on the science of toffee and candy making in general. I learned in grad school that if things aren't working right, you better know WHY everything in your experiment (recipe) is there, because only then can you troubleshoot and figure out what ingredient or procedure might be going wrong or tweak things to make them work better. So I was looking for answers to questions like: why do some toffee recipes have corn syrup and others don't? Should you stir toffee as you cook it or not? Why does butter separate out from the sugar? Why is there water in the recipe? What is the scientific molecular structure of a piece of toffee anyway?

Turns out, sugar chemistry is a $%"@#&, which is why I leave it out of my Cell and Molecular Biology class, and basically people don't know all that much about what's going on scientifically to the molecular structures of the sugar, so I can't share that with you all. I'm sure you're terribly disappointed... (ok, so I didn't look really hard in real scientific sources - it is my vacation, after all and I knew you all wouldn't mind.) But I did find a few helpful websites in my search:

This guy does seem to be a toffee expert and to know what he's talking about. So I picked up several things from his secret toffee tips: 1) the procedure is just as important as the recipe, 2) age your toffee a week before you eat it for better taste/texture --- easier said than done! and 3) keep your toffee in the refrigerator or freezer. However, I wasn't a fan of his toffee recipe. I didn't feel like trying to find 'soy lecithin' and it annoyed me that you would have to weigh your ingredients. While I don't doubt that it is better to weigh ingredients rather than just measure normally, I don't have a scale at home, just in the lab, and I'm not about to weigh my food on the same lab scale I use for toxic and cancer-causing compounds. Besides, my lab scale only works in metric.

Knowing a little bit more about what I was going for, but still having no actual recipe, I decided to check a favorite food blog (101 cookbooks) to see if she had ever made toffee. I was in luck! And, not only did she have a recipe for Toasted Pecan Toffee, but she wrote about failing at another try of making toffee also, when she tried to modify the recipe to make it more 'natural.' So this, and a few of the comments convinced me that I should use a recipe with corn syrup - it seemed to be more likely to work. (My old recipe years ago that was a major FAIL did not have corn syrup in it.) I was pretty convinced this was going to be the toffee recipe I tried to make first. But still I didn't feel like I had a good enough grasp on the process of making the toffee, so I kept searching.

And then I found a baking 911 site dedicated to toffee! It had good answers to most all of my questions and after reading it, I finally felt like I knew what I had to do when making my toffee to make it turn out! I won't repeat all the tips here, but I would strongly suggest you read their site if you give toffee making a try. (Just don't try searching for their 'perfect toffee' recipe - it got moved and it appears to be only available to paying members.)

A few other clues on the baking 911 site also made me think my 101 cookbooks recipe was a good one - corn syrup and water both seem to be pretty important, as well as using salted butter - good to know! So now I was ready to cook! (finally, I'm sure you're thinking!)

I still wasn't confident enough in my recipe to toast pecans and go to that work (or worse, waste the nuts) if the toffee didn't turn out, so I decided to make the 101 cookbooks toffee plain.

So, I melted in a medium saucepan:

1 c. of butter, cut into pieces

Then I added:

1 1/2 c. white granulated sugar

3 T. corn syrup (Karo brand, though often we have a generic on hand... maybe it matters, maybe not)

3 T. water

And then I cooked on medium heat (I have an electric stove), stirring pretty constantly. And stirring slowly, not quickly. I was suprised that the toffee as it was cooking did not boil up very high, I was actually thinking that my pan was going to be too small and I was going to be chipping toffee off my stove, but it didn't boil up very high at all. I used a 'fake' wooden spoon made out of that stuff that looks like plastic but won't melt until it gets to be 500 deg or something crazy like that. (Maybe that matters, maybe not.)

Here is a picture of the pan and spoon I used:

It took forever to cook, probably close to an hour of stirring slowly (the second time I made it, I actually timed it and it was about a 30 min process - I guess it just seemed like an hour). The mixture was a little thick and the bubbles sort of looked like lava lamp bubbles, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing this while very tired. You might wake up to the smoke detector sounding the alarm of your burnt toffee because you were lulled asleep by the bubbles.

Finally, it reached 300 deg F and that's when the recipe said it was supposed to be done. So far, so good, it seemed to be all one substance, lacking a distinct pool of liquid butter on top or anything like that. I have a tendency to overcook candy (ask Will about my chunk of teeth-extracting caramel) just because I'm afraid it's not done enough. But this time I just went for it and poured it onto a sheet of waxed paper lining a cookie sheet. I spread it pretty thin (probably a little too thin) and it took up about all the pan (a jelly roll pan, actually.)

And then I waited for it to cool so I could try it.

When it finally seemed cool, it still didn't look like any separationg had happened, and when I broke a piece off, it seemed crunchy like toffee is supposed to be...

And it was good! Yum! I had made edible toffee! Here is a picture:

I decided to put chocolate on it. Mostly because Will said he'd probably eat more of it if there was chocolate on it. And I didn't want to be the only one eating it in my house (remember - two sticks of butter AND 1 1/2 c. of sugar in there!) Here are pictures of that and of the toffee all broken up:

Evaluation: it is good! The recipe seemed easy enough and it worked! I probably spread it a little too thin. And yes, it is better several days after making it, at least in Will's opinion. He actually mentioned yesterday that he thought the toffee was better than when I first made it, and he didn't know the secret tip about aging your toffee for a week before eating! I didn't trust my judgement on that issue since I knew it was *supposed* to taste better, so I wasn't an objective evaluator.

I wanted to try it one more time, though. For two reasons. One, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke that it worked and I'd never be able to get it to work again. And two, because the toffee seemed a little on the light side, colorwise, and I'm wondering if I really should have cooked it just a little longer.

So today I made it again. This time with toasted pecans, like the 101 cookbooks recipe calls for. (except I only put the chocolate/pecans on one side, not both). It is also very good! Toasted pecans are a good addition. I cooked it to 305 deg F this time, and the color does seem better this time. The "soy lecithin" guy's recipe is to cook to 310-315, so I think I could even go a bit higher without scorching it, but 305 seemed to work fine for me. (*Note: I did NOT test my new $10 digital candy thermometer from Target before using it* I'm not sure why, too lazy I guess - it seemed too much like lab work.)

Here are a few pictures from today's toffee:

Don't just take my word for it that it's good. Stop by and I'll give you a piece or two! (see you tomorrow Jane and Laura!)

If you like toffee and you like candy making and don't mind a half an hour of meditative stirring, I'd encourage you to give toffee a(nother?) try. I'd love to hear about your experiences if you try this recipe.

Caramel Apple Pecan Pie

This is good. Real good.

Caramel Apple Pecan Pie
(from “Pie” by Ken Haedrich)

Pie Crust of your choice (Our favorite)
12 caramels, each quartered-48 pieces

Filling:
7 cups peeled, cored, sliced apples (I used 1/2 golden delicious and 1/2 granny smith)
1/2 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
1 T. lemon juice
2 T. granulated sugar
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. vanilla extract

Topping:
3/4 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. pecan halves
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/4 t. salt
6 T. cold unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch pieces

Caramel and garnish:
3 T. unsalted butter cut into pieces
1 T. water
36 caramels
Large handful of pecan halves
1/2 c. chopped pecans

Prepare crust and place in 9.5” pie pan
Sprinkle with 12 caramel pieces and keep cool (fridge) while preparing the filling

Combine apples, brown sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl, mix and set aside for 10 minutes to juice. Mix sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon together and stir into apples along with vanilla. Scrape into crust and bake for 30 minutes at 400F.

Make crumb topping by combining flour, pecans, sugar and salt in food processor. Pulse processor a few times, add butter and mix again until in fine crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Remove pie from oven and reduce temp to 375F. Dump the crumbs in the center of the pie and spread evenly. Tamp them down lightly. Return to oven. Bake until juices bubble thickly around the edge, 30-40 minutes. You may have to cover edge of crust with loose aluminum foil to keep from getting too dark.

Remove from oven. Let cool for about an hour. Prepare the caramel by combining the remaining caramel quarters, butter and water and melt in a double boiler of barely simmering water. This may take 10+ minutes. When melted whisk until smooth and drizzle over the pie. Press in pecan halves and sprinkle with chopped pecans. Let cool.

Spices and holiday cooking so far

While we are waiting for Will to post the Carmel Apple Pecan Pie recipe, I thought I'd show a picture of the spices I won! I stumbled upon the website iLunchbox last summer and have occasionally entered to win some contests. I won last month and got all these spices (including real vanilla!) some mulling spices, hot chocolate mix, brining mix for a turkey (not sure if I'll ever use that one), hot buttered rum mix, two dry instant soup mixes and an apron from The Spice Hunter.

It was pretty fun opening and unwrapping all the spices tonight - like an early Christmas. So many spices - it's going to take a long time to use them all up!

Happy holiday cooking!! What have you all made so far? I made some of Grandma's peanuty white chocolate candies/cookies with rice crispies and marshmallows inside (I don't know the name of them). I got the recipe this past summer when we were there. It was funny because the first time I bit into one I immediately felt like I was back on the farm, since that is the only place I've ever eaten them. Also, I made some fudge last night. It turned out almost right, just a tad bit too crumbly when I cut it. I don't think I have the right size pan for my recipe. Anyone else have trouble with it getting a little too crumbly? And I made some microwave peanut brittle that is super easy. That's it so far - what about you guys?

Perfect Pie Crust

Just in time for Thanksgiving, and by popular request, here is my adaptation of Betty's oil pie crust. Growing up this was the pie crust Mom would make and I learned how to make it from her. It was always a bit frustrating though because sometimes it would turn out great and other times... not so much, it would be crumbly and mealy instead of flaky.

In 4-H when I made apple pie for the fair one year I made a crisco crust instead of the oil recipe to make sure it would turn out. However, my science nature has made me experiment with several hypotheses and keep trying to figure out how to make this recipe work, since I always have oil on hand, and not crisco, and of course, it's healthier, too.

I do think I've figured it out; the crusts have turned out flaky ever since (several years). And for an early Christmas present I will share all my secrets with you!

Here's the basic recipe and then I'll make some specific comments of the important things:

Double crust for a 9-inch pie (though just barely enough - might want to make 1 1/2 recipes if you like to make sure you have enough or for a 9 1/2-inch pie)

2 c. flour
1 t. salt
< 1/2 c. canola oil
4-6 T. cold water

- Mix the flour and salt with a fork in a bowl. Add the oil, and stir/mix until pea-size pieces form. Add in the water a couple tablespoons at a time, stirring, until mixed.

** Do NOT add too much oil. Use a little less than 1/2 c. Too much oil is the biggest cause of the 'mealy' pie crust. If the flour looks completely saturated with the oil then it's too much - add some more flour. It should still have some almost powdery white stuff after this step.

** Make sure you add in enough water. Even if after a couple tablespoons of water the dough is cleanly coming off the bowl, still add it all or at least add until there are nice, white, 'marbling' streaks through the dough.

** Do NOT wait to roll out the crusts. I used to make up the dough and then peel and cut the apples. This is a mistake! Get your filling completely ready and then make up the crust dough and roll immediately.

** Roll between two sheets of waxed paper. This isn't really different than the original recipe. Just thought I'd mention it for any oil-crust newbies out there. Make sure you get it thin and flip it over and peel off the waxed paper a couple times as you roll.

Questions?

Happy pie baking! (I think another recipe will be posted soon that should give you occasion to dig out the pie pans and get baking... Caramel Apple Pecan Pie! Yum!)

CNS photos

Drying a field of delicious homemade egg noodles.

Veggies simmering, chicken chillin' in the background.

Chicken Noodle Soup

I made this soup last night. It is delicious and perfect for a crisp fall day.

Ingredients:

Soup
1 Whole chicken, 2.5 - 3 lbs.
6 Carrots
4 Stalks of celery
3 Onions, medium size
8 Oz. frozen peas
10 Sprigs fresh parsley
1/2 Tb. dried thyme leaves
1 Bay leaf
3 Cloves of garlic
Salt
Pepper
2 Tb. butter

Noodles
1 1/4 C. Flour
1 Pinch of salt
1 Egg
1/4 C. Milk
1/2 Tb. Butter

Directions:

First, make the soup stock. Throw the whole chicken into a large soup pot with enough water to not-quite cover the chicken. While heating the water, chop 2 carrots, 2 celery, and 1 onion roughly. Add these to the chicken-water. Also add 3 cloves of roughly chopped garlic, 1 bay leaf, a few sprigs of parsley, 1/2 T. thyme, salt, and pepper. Now, add more water so the chicken is covered. Cover the stock and bring it to a boil. Then, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes or so, until the chicken is nice and tender.

While the stock is simmering, prepare the egg noodles, which are my 2nd favorite part of this soup. I only made them myself because I was too sore to ride my bike to the store to buy egg noodles, and I'm glad I was. Another benefit of marathoning.

Stir together 1 1/4 C. flour and a pinch of salt. To the flour, add 1 beaten egg, 1/4 C. milk, and 1/2 Tb. melted butter (I combined these three in that 2 cup shaker Ann C. (aka mom) got us for Christmas). Mix well, then knead for 5 minutes. Roll out to about 1/4 in. thickness. Roll them back up into a log, like you would a sleeping bag, then cut into about 1/4 in. strips. They will expand a bit when cooked. Cut them to 2 inches in length as well. Then, put the noodles on a clean towel to let them dry out before cooking. They only need to dry about 2 hours, which is how long it takes the soup to cook! A match made in heaven.

Ok, the noodles are made, and the stock is simmering away. Chop up the remaining carrots (4), celery (2), and onion (2) into quarter inch pieces.

Once the stock is done simmering, strain the stock into a clean bowl or pot. Be sure not to pour it down the drain. You can discard the stock veggies, but keep the chicken. Some people skim fat off of the stock. I kept it, and it tastes good.

In your now-empty stock pot, melt 2 Tb. butter and saute the carrots, onion, and celery for about 8 minutes.

While the veggies are cooking, break down that chicken. You should be able to just pull the wings, legs, and thighs apart. I recommend doing so early and letting them cool off before handling too much. Pull the dark meat off the bird (legs, thighs, wings) and try some, because it is delicious, and also my #1 favorite part of this soup. Next, carve the out the breast meat-

" The breastbone runs along the top center of the chicken carcass. Feel for it with your fingers. Make a 3-inch-long slit along both sides of the breastbone. Dig your fingers into one of the slits and peel the entire half of the breast meat off the carcass. Do the same to remove the breast meat an the other side." - Marion Cunningham

Chop the meat into about 1/2 inch pieces. Add the meat, frozen peas, and reserved stock to the sauteed veggies, and simmer for about an hour. While the soup is simmering, flip those egg noodles over so the other side can dry.

After 1 hour of simmering, chop the remaining parsley and add to the soup. Add the egg noodles as well, and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the noodles are cooked.

Enjoy!

that time of year...

Hey all, instead of posting a proper recipe I thought it might be fun to ask everyone how they season their roasted pumpkin seeds, as I just did jack-o-lanterns and made some puree this last weekend.

Fat / Salt purism aside, I like:

Butter, Salt, Cumin, Cardamom and Yellow Curry (this is my regular spiced kind)

Butter, Sugar, Ginger, Clove, Cinnamon (the pumpkin pie kind)

What about everyone else?

Tomato sandwich, part deux

It just so happened that Claire and I had open-face tomato sandwiches for part of dinner last night. We both loved them. We had nice hearty homemade bread - toasted, of course - olive oil, home-grown tomatoes, home-grown basil and a little Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. Just about the perfect summer sandwich!

Tomato Sandwich, mmmmmmm.

This is a simple one (nothing groundbreaking by any means), and it's important to stuff your face now because once good heirloom tomatoes are gone, so's this recipe. I looooooove these, hopefully everyone else will too.

Need:

Heirloom tomatoes of your favorite sort

Good sturdy sandwich bread ( i like multi-grain but white's all good)

Mayo (not miracle whip. i assume i don't even have to say that here.)

Nice flaky salt

Pepper

Do:

Toast bread. While it's still very warm (you should move it right from the toaster to this step) spread with mayo on one side. Don't go nuts, but don't be mean about it either. Top with 1-2 thick slices of tomato, salt liberally, pepper it up and enjoy open-faced. Make a few, you're gonna want them. Add some fresh basil leaves if you're the sort to mess with perfection.