No-knead bread

Originally published by Mark Bittman (NYT); my sister introduced me to this bread at a holiday gathering. It’s a fairly wet flour/salt/water yeast dough, stirred by hand or with a wood spoon. Should rise 24 hrs, but a bit shorter is OK. The key to a nice crust is to bake in a pre-heated covered dutch oven (or similar), and remove the cover for the last half of the baking. Baking in the covered dutch oven traps the steam, which helps make a nice crispy-and-brown crust.

The original recipe (from the 2010s) was in the NYT. Various improvements and adaptations since then. I’m using Kenji Lopez-Alt’s variation, see https://www.seriouseats.com/better-no-knead-bread-recipe. This recipe is from that website:

• 300 grams (10.5 ounces, about 2 cups) bread flour or all-purpose flour
• 4.5 grams (about 3/4 teaspoon) salt
•  3 grams (about 0.5 teaspoons) yeast
•  210 grams (7.5 ounces, about 1 cup minus 1.5 tablespoons) water
• Some cornmeal or grits
•  By weight (mass): 100 parts flour, 1.5 parts salt, 1 part instant yeast, and 70 parts water.
• I did 400 grams flour, 6 grams kosher salt, 4 grams yeast, 280 grams water
• I generally add about 1 tbsp olive oil to the dough after making the dough
• I prefer less salt (maybe use 1 part salt to 100 parts flour) than in the Serious Eats recipe

This video playlist demonstrates the steps

Making the dough: In a large mixing bowl: Mix flour, yeast, and salt (use a wooden spoon). Add water. Stir until all the flour is incorporated; this is going to be a sticky dough. If the dough seems a bit thick, add a bit of water (flour has some moisture content—at altitude, flour may be a bit drier. “A bit” means a tablespoon or so). The dough does want to be sticky and wet. At this point, I add the oil and give a final stir.

 Let the dough rise: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (or the appropriate cover). Let rise at room temperature 12-24 hrs.

 Now, the Serious Eats website goes into a whole thing about putting the bowl in the refrigerator to give an additional “cold rise” time for 2-3 more days—I’m too lazy…

 Bake: (use oven gloves/mitts and tongs as needed!)

·       Put your dutch oven (and cover) in your oven. Preheat to 450 F (or even 500 F, if your oven and dutch oven can handle that).

·       While the oven is heating: If you have baking parchment paper, put a sheet on your counter.  Sprinkle a bit of flour or cornmeal on the paper, dump the dough on top of the paper. Pat into a shape that will fit the dutch oven. Sprinkle a bit more flour on the dough.

o   The website instructs you to shape the dough and let rise again, but this is also from refrigerated dough. I don’t bother.

o   If you have a well-seasoned dutch oven or nonstick, you don’t need the parchment paper

·       After the oven has come to temperature: Take the dutch oven out. Uncover. Pick up the parchment paper with the dough, and put in the dutch oven. If you want to make a decorative slash on the dough, now is the time. Cover the dutch oven and put back in the oven.

o   If you have a well-seasoned dutch oven: You can sprinkle a couple of pinches of cornmeal at the bottom of the dutch oven, and just dump the dough directly into the dutch oven. The cornmeal will give a nice rustic look to the bottom of the loaf

•  If you’d set the oven for more than 450 F: Reduce to 450 F.
• Bake for 30 minutes (covered). Remove the cover.
• If you’d set for convection bake: Think about turning off the convection when you remove the cover.
• Bake an additional 15-20 minutes—or until the crust gets to the color you like.
• Remove dutch oven from oven, turn off the oven.
• Remove the bread (use tongs, or just upend the bread) and place on a rack. You may need to wait a few minutes before you can remove the bread from the dutch oven. Let cool at least 15 minutes on a rack before slicing.

Pasteis de Nata

 

From Lisboa Food Studio:

Pastéis de Nata

For the Puff Pastry
350 gr of low protein flour
180 gr of cold water
6 gr of fine salt
250 gr of a square of butter proper for puff pastry

1. In a large bowl combine the flour, water and salt until get a dough
consisted.
2. Change for a working surface and knead for 3 minutes. Wrap in cling
film and let it rest in the fridge for10 minutes
3. With a rolling pin extend the dough creating 4 wings with a lump in
the middle. The wings should have size to cover the square of butter.
4. Place the butter in the center of the dough, close with the wings and press.
5. With a rolling pin extend the dough until get a rectangle shape
with 5mm thick.
6. Fold in the pastry in three parts.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 one time
8. For the final fold divide the dough in 4 parts instead of 3.
9. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with water. Roll and press a bit
to form a roll. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
10. Cut 8mm thick slices of puff pastry.
11. Place a disc of dough on the bottom of the tins and with your
thumbs press and stretch the dough until it completely covers the tin
interior.

For the Custard
300 ml of whole milk
200 ml of cream (35% fat content)
180 gr of caster sugar
2 tablespoon of cornstarch
4 egg yolks
Cinnamon stick
Lemon zest

1. Dissolve the cornstarch with a part of milk.
2. In a pot, combine everything, except the egg yolks. Bring to a low
simmering just to infuse the aromatics and thicken it up to a double
cream texture (6 minutes)
3. Let it cool to room temperature, before adding the beating egg yolks.
4. Fill up the tins up to ¾.
5. Bake at maximum heat (250ºC or 500 Fahrenheit). Place the tray in
the middle of the oven, fan off with heat coming from top and bottom
either.
6. Should bake for 12/15 minutes. First the puff pastry will start to
flake. After a few minutes the custard will rise and form a dome. When
the black dots appear on top, Pastéis de Nata are done.

Personal notes: For high altitude, more water is needed, otherwise, the dough is dry and won't roll out well. Maybe use baking flour next time instead of all-purpose? 500 F is too hot--use 475 or 480, mix of convection and regular bake. Be sure to use a pan under the tins to catch the butter which will overflow! Makes 18-19 pastries, and enough leftover custard to make 1-2 crema catalanas.

Crispy Roast Potatoes

 

From seriouseats: best crispy roast potatoes

Use Yukon Gold potatoes, large-ish and quartered, or medium-sized and halved.

In 2 quarts of boiling water (with 2 T kosher salt and optional 1/2 t baking soda), add 4 lb of cut Yukon Gold potatoes. After returning to the boil, cook 10-15 minutes. Drain, put back in pan and shake a bit to bruise the potatoes. Oil generously (5 T olive oil, or combination of olive oil, duck fat, etc.). Bake (convection bake or air-fry) about up to 20 minutes in a 400 F oven, shake & turn potatoes. Continue baking another 30 minutes until exterior is nice golden brown. Add garlic & seasonings such as rosemary, thyme near the end. Add kosher salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Or, pan-fry the potatoes until nice and golden brown, adding seasonings at the end.

Keto crackers with psyllium husks and sunflower, pumpkin, flax, and sesame seeds

 Adapted from the post at alphafoodie.com (but that site's ads are really obnoxious!) Use raw, not toasted seeds. Remember that flax seeds and sesame seeds should be refrigerated after opening the package. Makes a 12x17 tray, which can be cut to about 28 pieces.

• 1.25 cup sunflower seeds
• 0.75 cup pepitas
• 0.75 cup sesame seeds
• 0.75 cup flax seeds
• 2 Tbsp psyllium husk (+ a bit)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dried herbs (or more), such as rosemary
• pinch of cayenne
• 2 1/4 cup water (minus a bit)

Mix all dry ingredients. Add water. Stir thoroughly, and let rest for about 30 minutes. Preheat convection oven to 290 F. Line a 12x17 tray with parchment paper. Pour the gelled mixture on the parchment paper, smooth out with the spatula that you used to mix. Bake about 30 minutes, take out of oven & pre-cut. Return to oven, bake another 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven, flip on another sheet of parchment paper, and peel off the sheet to expose the bottom half (now on top). Bake another 10-15 minutes. Take out, let cool, and store.

Nutrition calculations (assuming no calories in spices, cut in 28 pieces):

Instant Pot Seitan

 Adapted from mywfpbkitchen.com

• 1.25 c vital wheat gluten
• 0.25 c other flour (garbanzo, coconut, etc)
• 1.125 c liquid
• 1 tsp salt
• Seasonings

Mix by hand; knead for 3-5 minutes by hand. Roll out, cut into small strips.

In instant pot: 2 c of broth or other flavored liquid, a dash of oil. Begin to heat, add seitan strips.

Pressure cook 15 minutes. Allow another 10 minutes after cooking before release.

Low carb/keto friendly bread or pizza dough

 This recipe: 

Found on Reddit

• 1 c warm water (100-110 F)
• 1 t sugar or honey, dissolve into the water
• 1 T active dry yeast (1 package), mix with water to proof 5-10 minutes
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 c vital wheat gluten
• 1/2 c oat fiber
• 2/3 c ground flax meal
• 1/2 t xanthan gum
• 1 t kosher salt
• 2 T softened butter

Mix all in a stand mixer using a dough hook, continue kneading with dough hook for 5-7 minutes. Let rise about 1 hour. You can roll out for pizza dough (it's a very stiff dough), or make a baguette or loaf. For a pizza, bake about 10-15 minutes at 475 F (on a pizza stone). For a baguette, it looks like 20 minutes or so in a 450 F oven (with steam). I have not tried baking like no-knead (covered pre-heated container at 450 F for 30 minutes, then, uncover and continue baking another 15-30 minutes), but it should work just fine.

Popovers

Basically from Joy of Cooking:

Preheat oven (convection) to 410 F
1 cup flour, pinch of salt, cayenne pepper or other spices
Melt 1.5 tbsp butter, add
1 1/4 cup milk, add
2 eggs
Beat liquids
Beat into flour lightly--don't overbeat. Lumpy is fine.
Spray 8 muffin tins with PAM or similar
Pour into muffin tins
Place in oven, cook about 20 minutes
Reduce to 360 F, cook another 15 minutes

When you take out: Puncture the sides of the popovers to release steam. Serve hot.