MADCookie

In Good Eats, Alton Brown used a sponge to make his white bread. He said it would help develop flavor. So I did the same. I follow Alton's techniques, but Joy of Cooking's recipes.

Sponge
yields 1 cup
1/2 C water
1/2 t yeast
3/4 C flour

Alton's technique is to use mix this together and store in the refrigerator overnight. So I did.

Bread
1 C sponge
2 C water. Tip: if using sponge from refrigerator, then use water at about 105°
4 1/2 C flour
1 T Salt

Joy of Cooking called for bread flour. I didn't have any. I used standard all purpose.

Here is the sponge starter

All the players




Joy of Cooking says "the dough should feel sticky to the touch, but not actually stick to your hands." I don't think I followed that recommendation, which is why I didn't get a high final rise.


Starting the first rise


3 hours laters in my oven. This was a good rise. I was very happy with it. Notice the rubber band is an Alton Brown technique to aid in measuring volume growth



After a little hand kneading and "punching down", I shaped and panned the bread.



They rise again. This was a decent rise. I am thinking it should be more. Perhaps I need to be more patient or not have so sticky of dough. That very sticky dough might not have been able to hold its weight as it expanded.


Final Product



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Look I really like coffee. I really do. I like it so much that when we departed for our 2-month working vacation, I ground coffee and took it with me. I thought I would use it in hotels, because their coffee tastes like .... hmmm, how to describe that disgusting stuff? Well, it is difficult describing the garabage that is served as thin flavorless coffee. I'm sorry I can't put words to hotel's ridiculous offering of their vile coffee.

Well, one host family was a tea family. They did not even have a coffee pot! Can you believe this?!

I made my own coffee maker. I used a large pot to catch the brew. Over it I placed a colander. In that was a wall of alluminum foil to hold the shape of the coffee filter as I pour nearly boiling water on the coffee. I think the only problem with this setup was the coffee got cold. I guess it took so long to pour the water and let it brew through the coffee that by the time it finished in the pot, it was cold.

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I had pork steak and chicken breats soaking in a homemade brine. The attack plan for dinner was simple: grill the meat. The converstion with myself went something like this. "What else to make?"; "We have a huge bag of potatoes and I love fries."; "We heard about baking the potatoes to make oven-chips"; "Can I make scalloped potatoes without cream?"

End result: baked potato chips and scalloped potatoes. I'm sure you all agree with me that this was a very sound idea. As you'll see in the pictures, I had to slice the potatoes for both dishes, so why not make them both?!

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Scalloped Potatoes

Chips

Dinner Time

Scalloped Potatoes Continue

Summary

Overall, I'm pretty proud of myself for making an entire meal without using a recipe card. It is fun to play with my food and I hope everyone out there will take the adventure of playing with there (opps, sorry, Chica for the typo) their food.

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After Liz's visit, we talked about what can someone do with almonds besides eating straight. I suggested almond butter. Now I finally made it.

I roasted in my oven at 250° for about 30 minutes a good handful of almonds. After they cooled completely, I ground them in my food processor until they became butter. Very simply and very good flavor. I would describe the taste as smoother then peanut butter.









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It is always fun to cook. It is more fun to cook with friends. Even more fun if someone else cleans up for you. I've been to a few cooking classes at Great News. This one was focused around BBQ. Here I have a few pictures from the adventure. Included are a few pictures of coworkers I roped into going with me. They all had a terrific time. (I think)

As part of the class, everyone is assigned a task in preparing the meal. Here was one of my jobs: rub the steaks! Following the recipe, I made a rub for the beautifully thick prime ribs.

Here are the coworkers. On the left is Gwen and Tina on the right. They worked together to create the zucchini corn side dish.

Here Alvin and Jenn work together to make the unbelievable chocolate cake.

At different points in the class, the group is expected to stop and then demonstrate specific techniques for the dishes we're making. You go to the front of the class and show off. Since I'm such a showman and don't care if I'm front, I was always picked. Each time though, I did nothing, but give support and clear away dirty dishes.


A different group produced our appetizers. These are bacon-wrapped scallions with a spicy / creamy salad dressing they made.


Here is the main meal: grilled prime rib with feta cheese and tomato sauce; zucchini and corn with cheese; and macaroni cheese salad.


Dessert!! Chocolate cake and ice cream. We didn't make the ice cream. The cake was delicious. Someone at my table called it evil. It was not very rich which made us feel like we could eat several more pieces.

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I was thrilled when Elijah asked to make these pocket pies together. I have made them before and wasn't too thrilled with them, but he wanted to bake, so baking is what I'll do. This time the pies came out much better. The crust was better this time because we deep fried most of them.

Here is my new French rolling pin beginning to work

Left one is oven baked. Right one is deep fried. Deep fried had terrific flavor.
 
Close-up

 

Recipe

Recipe By :Alton Brown
Serving Size : 9
Preparation Time :0:00

Amount	Measure	Ingredient -- Preparation Method
2	Teaspoons	Baking Powder
3/4	Teaspoon	Kosher Salt
9 1/2	Ounces	All-purpose Flour -- ~ 2 cups
2 1/2	Ounces	Shortening -- chilled
3/4	Cup	Whole Milk
2 1/4	Inch	Cookie Cutters -- optional

Sift together (or use food processor) dry team.

Add shortening to a large mixing bowl. Pour mixed dry team on top of shortening. Use finger tips to cut the fat into the flour. Make a well in the mixture. Pour in the milk. Stir it in good. Glutton is good and needed.

Turn dough out onto a table, flour the dough and knead 10 - 15 times (the more the merrier). Roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thick. Use a 2 1/4 inch cookie cutter. This is a 2 oz piece of dough.

Roll out each round to about 5 - 6 inch in diameter. Stack them using wax paper. Store in refrigerator for an hour or so. Now is a good time to get the filling together.

After filling the dough, seal it with egg wash (1 egg and 2 teaspoon water)

Filling Options

Pizza
Apple pie
Taco
Chocolate (In a bag, 10 oz butter, 2 1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 + 1 Tablespoon coco powder, pinch salt)

Cooking Options

Oven 350 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes

Pan fry in heavy skillet over low heat. Melt in a pad of butter. Add pies and jiggle so they don't stick. Cook 3-5 minutes each side

Deep fry in 2 quarts oil at 375 degrees for 3 - 4 minutes. Don't crowd.

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Source: "A Snack in the Hand"
Good Eats: A Pie in Every Pocket
Yield: 2 Ounces

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