Applesauce Spice Bars

I was perusing my fairly new Dorie Greenspan book Baking: From My Home to Yours when I came across this recipe. I saw the photo and just stopped. These looked so gorgeous and yummy and memory evoking, that I just had to try them out. I also had all the ingredients on hand (except for the rum, but my raisins are soaked in rum, so that works for me) and the directions looked so easy. Both the bar cookie and the topping are made in a saucepan, which means less mess to clean up, which means I can go back outside and enjoy the sun for a bit longer. This all adds up to a must make for me.

Applesauce Spice Bars:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I added a little extra, cause I'm like that, and I have no allspice)
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter (4 ounces, 8 Tbsp)
1 cup packed brown sugar (Dorie's recipe calls for light brown sugar, but I only had dark and I do like the extra little bit of flavor)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract (or a bit extra)
1 Tbsp applejack, brandy or dark rum (optional, as I said, my raisins are soaked in rum, so I'll be using them)
1 baking apple (suggested are: Rome or Cortland. I only had Granny Smith's, so that's what I used), peeled, cored and finely diced
1/2 cup plump moist raisins
1/2 cup pecans
___________________________
-Preheat oven to 350f. Butter a 9x13" baking pan, and line the bottom with parchment, butter the paper and dust the inside with flour. Place the pan on a baking sheet.
-Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
-In a heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar and stir with a whisk until it is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the pan from the heat.
-Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until they are well blended. Add the applesauce, vanilla and booze, whisk until smooth. Using a rubber spatula, gently stir in the the dry ingredients, mixing only until they have just disappeared. Fold in the apple, raisins and nuts.
Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth.
-Bake for 20-25 mintues, or until the bars just start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Place on a cooling rack, and make the glaze (mmmmmmmmmmmm, smells so good!)

The Glaze: (I did make a double batch of this due to saucepan size, and recommend a double batch if you like caramelly goodness)

2 1/2 Tbsp heavy cream
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (again the recipe calls for light)
2 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
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-In a small saucepan, whisk together everything but the vanilla (I unfortunately only have one saucepan, so I had to use my large one, I just kept an eye on things in case it needed less simmer time). Place the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil whisking frequently. Adjust the heat so that the glaze simmers and cook, whisking frequently for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla.
-Turn the cooled bars out onto a rack, then invert the bars so they are upright on another rack. Place the sheetpan under the rack to serve as a drip catcher. Pour the hot glaze over the bars and spread out with a metal spatula evenly over the bars. Allow to cool to room temperature before you cut them. These are very light and very good. Not nearly as rich as the caramel apple cupcakes I made last fall. I do have a sneaking suspicion that these would have been even better if I had allspice (note to self, buy allspice).

Now, currently here in the lower Bay area it's quite nice out, and these bars are wonderful with a nice glass of iced tea. However, I feel these would be equally splendid with a nice hot cuppa.

Happy Baking!

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Focaccia, Finale! (Don't be like me)

Well, it's been a slightly long road, but we've gotten there. I know many people probably are put off by the length of time this particular focaccia takes, but believe me, it is well worth it. Just know that there are many other tasty focaccia recipes out there that don't take nearly as much time, this just happens to be the one I prefer. Today is the day you will put on your final toppings, let the focaccia rise for a few hours and bake it to a spectacular deep golden brown.

Finishing the Focaccia:

-Remove the focaccia from the fridge.
-If there are any toppings you want on top of the focaccia such as olives or artichoke (yumyum), you should place them on it now. You will also most likely want to dimple the dough one more time and brush it with a bit more oil (I find this necessary as the dough comes up a bit overnight and the dimples are gone).
-Ideally you want to be able to let the focaccia rise without the plastic over the top (to prevent it from sticking to the dough). I do this by creating a "proof box" out of my oven. I turn on the light inside the oven to generate a little warmth, place a bread pan in the bottom of the oven, fill the bread pan with steaming water and then place the focaccia in the oven, close it and check the water from time to time. This creates a nice somewhat warm damp environment that yeasties like so much. If you are not able to do this, you can let the focaccia sit out at room temperature, just try to find a way to prop the plastic up off the dough while keeping it inside (this will also take a bit longer, but you've come this far, so what's another hour?).
-Allow the bread to ferment for anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours (it does vary quite a bit depending on temperature, how long the dough takes to come to room temperature, how active your yeast is, etc etc...) until the surface of the dough looks like it's (forgive me, I have no other way to describe it) blowing spit bubbles. At this point, remove it from the oven and loosely cover with plastic (tent it over) and preheat your oven to 475 degrees. - Do not be like me and forget that the focaccia is proofing in the oven. This is where out of sight out of mind came in for me. I really need to get myself a timer that lasts longer than an hour. I forgot the focaccia was in the oven, G and I were about to venture out to buy some dirt and plants for the garden when I remembered the focaccia....sigh. I baked it anyway, but it was overproofed and sad looking. I am guilty of bread abuse, this makes me very sad and disappointed in myself.
I'll beat myself up about this for awhile, but fear not, I will recover-
-Before I put the focaccia in the oven, I like to sprinkle a bit of kosher salt over the top of it because sometimes I'm a salt-o-holic.
-Once your oven is preheated, place your beautifully proofed focaccia in the oven, set the timer for about 15 minutes, and give it a look once the timer goes off. You may want to rotate it depending on how evenly your oven bakes. Set the timer for another 10 minutes or so. The focaccia will take from 30 to 40 minutes depending on your oven and what you consider to be a nice golden brown. If you are going to put any toppings like cheese on the focaccia, I would consider waiting until it has baked for about 20 minutes or so before sprinkling it on. I also like to brush a little bit more of the infused oil over the top of the bread after the first 15 minutes. It gives it a nice sheen and allows for a little bit more of the oil to seep into the bread.
-Once the bread is finished, remove it from the oven, let it cool about five minutes in the pan, then remove it from the pan and let it finish cooling on a wire rack (this prevents the bottom from steaming itself and getting soggy). I am happy to report that even with overproofing the bread a bit, it still smelled heavenly when baking and it still tastes wonderful.
-Pour yourself a glass of wine, slice up the bread and enjoy! Mmmmmm, focaccia. Also makes for wonderful sandwiches. I love it with spread with goat cheese and tomatoes and broiled a bit. Mmmmmmm.

Happy Baking!

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Focaccia, Take 2

In terms of breads I love to make and love to eat (which generally includes anything yeasted) Focaccia is probably third on my list, after Ciabatta (which was in two installments) and Brioche. Focaccia is versatile in the way it is topped (and there are so many different ways to make it that it's hard to keep track). I've had it topped with kalamata olives and feta cheese, caramelized onions and roquefort, grapes(yes, grapes) and other things I cannot remember. Today I'll just be brushing the top with a rosemary infused olive oil before I put it in the fridge to retard and ferment overnight. Usually I would prefer a basil infusion, but my garden is not quite yet in basil producing mode, so I turn to my rosemary bush for this (I love rosemary, but basil is my favorite for this).
Before you start mixing this up, I recommend removing the poolish from the fridge for about an hour to allow it to come to room temperature.

Focaccia (from Peter Reinhart's Crust & Crumb: Master Formulas for Serious Bread Bakers with a few little changes from me...namely a bit more poolish used and this is a half recipe, as a full recipe makes two sheet pans full)

3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp honey
Poolish made the night before (or up to three days before, recipe in previous post)
1/2 cup cool water
Herbs, additional olive oil, and any toppings you would like)
_________________________________________________
-Combine all of the ingredients, except the toppings in the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook (this is a wet dough, so using an electric machine will make things a bit less of a mess...but you may do this by hand, just have cold water on hand to dip your hands in during the mixing process, and flour to sprinkle on your board).
-Mix on low speed for 1 minute, then switch to medium for about 12 minutes. The dough will be sticky and glutenous and will clear the sides of the bowl (by hand you will probably need to knead for about 15 minutes or so).
-Place the dough into a large bowl that has been coated in olive oil, mist the top with cooking spray, or give it a light coat of olive oil, cover the bowl and let it rise for about 3 hours, or until it swells considerably. Kick back and relax, go see a movie, do some gardening, shovel some snow, drink some tea (note that this will not be doubled in size). Make your infused herb/garlic oil if you are going to do that: olive oil, rosemary, garlic simmered together for about 5 minutes then allowed to sit until you use it.

-Prepare a sheet pan by brushing with olive oil (I do like to line the pan with parchement and brush that with olive oil, I also like to use the herb infused olive oil for this to add more rosemary flavor throughout).
If you are going to add garlic or herbs or anything else you would like in the dough, add it in now and gently work it in until it is evenly distributed.
-Place the dough in the prepared pan and let it rest for 20 minutes.
-Press and stretch the dough to fill the pan evenly....it should be about 1/2 inch or so thick. If it is being stubborn, let it relax another 10 minutes and try again, repeat if necessary.
-Rub the top of the dough with more olive oil (infused if you like)then dimple the dough with your fingertips. Place the sheetpan in a large plastic bag, allow to rise for one hour, then place in the refrigerator overnight (without any additional toppings).

Stay tuned for part three tomorrow!

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Poolish

No no, that doesn't mean that I feel a bit like jumping into a pool . A poolish is another pre-ferment for breads. It allows more flavor to develop before the final dough is mixed. Poolish is much more a batter than it is a dough. It has a much higher hydration level than the biga I made ages ago. It is very similar to a sourdough starter (which I hope to be starting and documenting in two months or so) in texture, but this poolish uses store bought yeast, where the sourdough starter will use yeast and other creatures harnessed from the air. I am making the poolish because it has been far far too long since I have made a focaccia and I want to share this lovely focaccia recipe with you. Focaccia is an Italian flatbread laden with olive oil and whatever else you want to add to it. This particular focaccia is a three day project, but is fairly easy when you break it all down and look at it. Step one will be the poolish that I present to you now. The recipe for the poolish and the foccacia is from the book Crust & Crumb: Master Formulas for Serious Bread Bakers by Chef Peter Reinhart, whom I was very fortunate to study bread with back in 1999.

Poolish (I am only making a half batch of this, so that is what I have listed in the short list of ingredients)
2 cups cool water
2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/8 tsp instant yeast
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-Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl until smooth, cover and let sit at room temperature for 3 to 5 hours, or until bubbly. Refrigerate, well covered, overnight or up to three days (after three days the yeast will pretty much have exhausted itself and this will no longer give any sort of rise).

That's it for now.....Mix it and forget it (well, forget it for a few hours anyway).
Enjoy watching the poolish bubble!

*After Photo will be posted in about 5 hours!
*Edit: I have decided (or the fact that the day has gotten away from me has decided) to let the poolish ferment for one more day and make the focaccia tomorrow, so tune in tomorrow for step two of the focaccia!

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Drunk with Power Rum Raisin Carrot Cupcakes (not really drunk with power, but it's so fun to say!)

I've had these raisins in my refrigerator for some time and had been looking for something to use them in. I know there's nothing extraordinary about raisins sitting in a refrigerator...but these raisins are special, they've been sitting in the refrigerator in rum since early January. These are powerfully drunken raisins (not drunk with power) that need to be used in something that would benefit from their strong presence. Now, I've been wanting to make cupcakes for some time and I've also been wanting to make carrot cake with drool inducing cream cheese frosting...so I've decided to make rum raisin carrot cupcakes. I've always found rum to be a nice addition to carrot cake and these raisins should ooze rum throughout. I've also been itching to try out some recipes from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Some of you may remember me mentioning that I won this book in the Menu for Hope raffle from Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey?. I've followed the recipe as is with the exception of having the raisins soaked a ridiculously long time in the rum, adding vanilla, adding extra cinnamon and making cupcakes instead of one big cake.

Drunken Raisin Carrot Cupcakes (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's "Bill's Big Carrot Cake" recipe)

for the cuppy cakes: (yields about 2 dozen cupcakes, or 3 9x2" cake rounds)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups grated carrots (9 carrots or so....Dorie says she grates them with her food processor shredding blade, I had to resort to risking my knuckles with my box grater)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup shredded coconut (I had unsweetened on hand, the recipe calls for either sweetened or unsweetened)
3/4 cup rum raisins (you can get yours drunk by soaking them in about 1/3 cup rum overnight)
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract (add it right into the oil)
4 large eggs
__________________________________

-Preheat the oven to 325f. Prepare muffin tins with paper or foil or silicon cupcake cups.
-Sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt
and cinnamon, set aside.
-In another bowl, mix together the carrots, coconut, nuts and drunken
raisins, set aside.
-In a large bowl, whisk together the oil and sugar until smooth, add
the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Whisk
until smooth.
-Add the flour mixture and mix in until it just disappears, gently
fold in the carrot mixture.
-Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling about 3/4 full.
-Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly touched.
-Cool on a rack to room temperature.
I must warn you the smell of these as they are baking is gorgeous and will have you salivating...you may want to have a mop handy.

And now for the icing. I swear if I ever meet the person who decided
to put cream cheese into their icing, I will run up to them and give
them a huge hug (I may even go so far as to kiss them on the cheek).

Cream Cheese Icing:

8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces, 8 Tbsp) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 pound (3 3/4 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup shredded coconut (this is optional, and more likely if you are
going to make this as a cake instead of cup cakes, as it would be
added to half the icing and used to fill the cake)
finely chopped toasted nuts or toasted coconut to garnish the top if
you so desire
_____________________________________________
-Beat together the butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
-Add the powdered sugar and lemon juice and continue to beat until
smooth. If you want to add coconut to the icing, stir it in (or if
making this a cake, stir into half the icing and use to fill it....I'm
repetitive today).
-Ice the cooled cupcakes, sprinkle with the garnish of your choice,
pour yourself a tall cool glass of milk (or some hot tea or whatever
beverage you choose) and savor!

These really hit the spot after a long time without carrot cake. Yum!

Happy baking!

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"You are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine..."

With a week of clouds and most likely rain in the forecast (although one can not always trust the forecast), I find myself wanting lemony things. A lemon sponge cake rolled up with lemon curd and raspberry jam to be specific. Not many things lighten up a dreary day better than a bright tart creamy cool lemon curd. Yum. I'm also very much in need of a break from wedding stuff (the majority is all set, we are down to the little things now) and baking is a perfect way for me to think of other things.

Now, before I get started with the recipe, I do want to apologize for my very slack amount of posting here. I hope to get myself back into the habit of posting once a week or so. I recently started teaching myself to knit, and I must admit that is taking up a lot of finger time that could be spent typing and baking! Ok, that's enough excuses for one post...on to the recipe for brightness! Both the lemon curd and the sponge cake recipe are from the book The Art of Fine Baking by Paula Peck. It is a book I have wanted to experiment with for a long long time, but for some reason (too many other books) I have failed to get to it until now.

Lemon Curd (this should be made a few hours before you want to make the cake, or can be made even a few days ahead as it keeps well in the refrigerator)

5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 large lemons, juice and finely minced rind (I prefer meyer lemons, but as I don't have any at the moment, regular lemons will have to do)
1/4 cup unsalted butter
________________________________
-In a heavy saucepan, combine yolks and sugar over low heat. Add lemon juice and rind. Stir, adding butter a little bit at a time. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Strain into a bowl or other container, press plastic wrap over the surface and chill until set. This lemon curd turned out beautifully and was nice and tart, I will be filing this one under "keepers".


Basic Sponge Sheet

4 eggs, separated
pinch of salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla (I also added 1 Tbsp finely minced lemon rind)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup sifted all purpose flour
__________________________________
-Heat oven to 400f. Grease an 11x16" jelly roll pan and line with parchement paper, lightly grease the parchement.
-Beat egg whites with the salt until they hold soft peaks. Gradually beat in sugar, sprinkling it in a tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat until the whites are very firm, about 5 min.
-stir yolks with a fork to break them up, add vanilla. Fold 1/4 of the egg whites into the yolks thoroughly to lighten the mixture. Pour the egg yolk mixture on top of the remaining egg whites, sprinkle the cornstarch and flour over the mixture and fold all together gently by hand. Fold until no bits of egg white show, be careful not to overmix.
-Pour into prepared pan, spread evenly. Bake 10 minutes or until very lightly browned (try not to overbake). Loosen sides of cake immediately and turn cake out onto a towel liberally sprinkled with powdered sugar. The cake should be flexible. I think this cake would also be awesome in petit fours, and will probably try that sometime in the future.

For assembly you will also need one jar of raspberry jam, I like seedless, but that's up to you. If you are lucky enough to have home made jam or jelly by all means use that, I never got around to making any raspberry jam last year, perhaps this year I'll be able to make some.

Spread the cake with a thin layer of raspberry jam, leaving about one inch at the bottom of it lengthwise (or if you want a thicker cake roll leave the one inch at the bottom of it widthwise). Spread a thin layer of lemon curd over the raspberry jam and roll the cake up, cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours or overnight.

Dust the top with powdered sugar, and enjoy!

I think this cake actually tastes better than it looks...I would have preferred to roll it up along it's width instead of it's length and have a slightly thicker cake roll, but I can do that next time.

Happy Baking!

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