Pain Au Lait: Cream Cheese Snails

Woo hoo, all of the serious French breads in the book chapter I’m going through have been completed, only sweet, enriched breads and foo-foo pastries lay ahead until we get to Italy. This pain au lait (milk bread) is easy enough, similar to the pastry dough found in croissants or Danish pastries, except for the butter is not rolled in so the crumb is not quite as flaky. The Village Baker claims that because of this important difference from “roll-in” pastries, this bread remains within the domain of the Boulanger.

We are enjoying these for breakfast in Chicago before heading to Ann Sather for yet more pastries. The marathon tomorrow should benefit from the carbo load.

Pain Au Lait Cream Cheese Snails

Adapted from The Village Baker

1 package dry yeast (one cup of sourdough starter)

¾ cup water

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp salt

2 tbsp milk powder

4 tbsp sugar

3 eggs

6 tbsp butter, softened

Topping

¾ cup cream cheese

2 tbsp sugar

½ tsp vanilla

This recipe is supposed to be done in a food processor, but because I have not the patience to find all of my processor’s parts, I did it by hand and it was fine. Put an ice cube in the water and set aside. Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and powdered milk. Add the yeast to the eggs and then add to the dry ingredients. Last, add the soft butter and the ice water. Moosh the dough into a clean and oiled bowl with floured hands. Let it double in size in a warm spot, covered, for an hour or two. Then put it in the fridge to cold rise overnight for 8 to 10 hours.

In the morning, take the dough, cut it in half (this amount will make two batches), and roll out one dough ball into an 8 x 12 inch rectangle. Cut the dough lengthwise into eight or nine strips.

Roll the strips into worms and coil the piece up around itself in a circle starting in the center and tuck the end underneath.

Place the snails on a parchment-lined baking sheet and glaze them with a mixture of 1 egg and 1 tbsp milk.

Combine the cheese, sugar, vanilla, and 1 tbsp of the egg glaze for the topping and place on the center of each snail. Let the snails rise for 1 hour until they seem puffy. Preheat the oven to 385 degrees and bake the snails for 15 to 17 minutes.

Special note: you can make a ton of this dough and freeze it after the first rising. It will keep for about three weeks—think of all the happy breakfasts! Let it thaw for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

5 stars. Izzy enjoys doing her impression of these pastries, all the time, especially when KP has not quite given her the amount of room she would like to sit next to him.

Fougasse

The lowpoint was today when Karl-Peter arrived at work to find his parking lot unshoveled. He parked on the street, and waded, in his business slacks and shoes, through feet of soggy white drifts. Tonight, we will go on a mission to seek warm, dry land. More on that.

This cheesy bread I included in the May Day gifts. Traditionally they are made in the shapes of trees or ladders, or, the backs of fancy chairs, which is what I feel I have created. Fougasse is traditional in Provence. If you have some left over pain ordinaire dough, you could use that instead of the poolish.

Fougasse

Adapted from The Village Baker

Poolish

1 cup yeast starter

½ teaspoon dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1 cup all-purpose flour

Dough

All the poolish from previous step

½ cup cool water

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 ½ tsp fine sea salt

1 tbsp olive oil (fruity, if possible)

15-20 sage leaves

12 ounces Roquefort cheese (I used crumbled gorgonzola, that being what I had on hand)

The original recipe also calls for anchovies to get rolled in, but I had to say no to that. Ick.

Make the poolish and allow to sit out, covered, for 8 to 10 hours or overnight. To make the dough, mix the poolish and the water. Then add the flour one handful at a time, and beat each addition with fifty strokes of a spoon. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and stir in the olive oil, turning it out on the worktable. Knead the dough for five minutes until it is satiny. Flatten the dough and knead in the sage leaves and the cheese crumbles. Let it rise for 1 hours. Divide into three pieces and round into a tight ball and let rest on a workspace for 30 minutes. Then, finally, shape each piece like so—

And let rise on parchment paper for at least 1 hour. Brush the flat loaves with a little olive oil and bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for between 15 and 20 minutes.

This is a tasty bread—I realized I don’t like Gorgonzola as much as I thought I would. Perhaps a cheese blend like in some of my cheese pizzas would work well too. The key is to fold the cheese into the bread. Also, it is quite a lot of fun trying to cut lattice patterns into the dough. I thought all of mine turned out to look like alien faces, or the character in the famous painting The Scream Which is exactly how I feel about this May snow

Thiezac Rye Bread

Well, instead of dancing around a May pole, as of last night, we are wading through the snow drifts wailing Mayday Mayday! An unthinkable blizzard. Huge tree branches down in the front yard, powerlines, phonelines too. Get us out of here. Already 6 to 8 inches by 10am, and still snowing.

Nothing like a piece of toast and a cup of coffee while you watch city waste management claw through branches in your front yard. This loaf will keep us munching all day and into the next. If you too are snowed in, this is the loaf to bake. It is time consuming as it utilizes natural yeast, the chef, and requires making one levain refreshment.

Thiezac Rye Bread

Adapted from The Village Baker

The Chef

¼ teaspoon honey

½ cup warm water

1 cup rye flour

The Refreshment (Levain)

All the Chef from previous step

½ cup warm water

1 cup rye flour

The Dough

1 tsp yeast

2 cups warm water

All the Levain from previous step

2 cups rye flour

2 cups white flour

1 tablespoon salt

Make the Chef, which will be very, very sticky. Allow it to rise, covered, at room temperature between 36 and 48 hours. I let mine go for 72, and it smelled extremely yeasty—almost like the malty air of a whiskey distillery. Would be great if it is bubbling before you move to the Refreshment step.

For the refreshment, keep your hands floured and add the ingredients, including the “natural starter” –the chef— let the levain rise, covered with a damp cloth, for 8 to 10 hours.

For the dough, mix it up and let it rise for 45 minutes. Then flatten and fold the edges over onto the middle several times, sealing it each time with the palm of the hand. Round the dough into a ball and let the loaf rise, covered, in a banneton, or on a parchment lined peel, for 45 more minutes.

Once proofed, slash the loaf three times with a straight razor and bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 45-50 minutes. Turn the heat off and open the door of the oven for 5 or 7 minutes, leaving the loaf inside, to help dry out the moist crumb. `

Also, this makes so much bread, it is the perfect Bruschetta stock. Our poor Dr. Seuss trees were not expecting this. I feel like I’m in a Who-person nightmare. Now, not just Christmas, the Grinch is trying to steal our spring!

Raisin-Nut Rye Rolls

Happy May Day! In college I had a professor of Middle English who insisted on this day that we go outside and hold hands in a circle and frolick while singing “Sumer is a cumin in, Loo dee sing kuku.” In medical school, when I lived next to the unforgettable, ever endearing Miss L’Heureux, on the first of Mays when she was near there would always be a package of goodies at my doorstep for me to almost step on as I exited our apartment building blurry eyed and morning blah. I so loved this tradition that now I believe in May Day like I believe in Christmas. We are to mark the birth of spring with gifts and good cheer.

So, like a little health-conscious hamster, I made some little baggie-sized savory bread nibbles for my neighbors and scuttled across several lawns to place red bags of Raisin-Nut Rye Rolls and cheesy fougasse (tomorrow’s post) in mailboxes and under porch awnings. If any squirrels beat my neighbors to their gifts, I am going to give Izzy full authority to exact a proper reckoning.

Raisin-Nut Rye Rolls

Adapted from The Village Baker

½ recipe seigle sur poolish dough

1 cup walnuts, chopped

1 cup raisins

½ cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze: 1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon cold milk

After the dough has been kneaded, add the nuts and raisins by rolling the dough out flat, add the goodies, and then roll it up like a log. Knead the dough for several minutes to incorporate the nuts and raisins completely. Let the dough rise, covered, for 2 to 3 hours.

To shape the rolls, flatten the dough and cut off pieces the size of a tangerine. This will make 12-16 rolls. Do not round the rolls, they are supposed to be irregular and lumpy looking.

Mix together the cornmeal, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl and spread it out on the worktable. Roll the dough balls in the mixture and then place the rolls on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Glaze each with the egg mixture and allow to rise for 45 minutes to an hour.

Bake the rolls in a preheated oven at 425 degrees for 12-16 minutes. Here they are coated with the cornmeal and sugar mixture, and the one in the far corner has the egg wash glaze.

Abby, favorite neighbor of old, I miss you; You would love these—with wheat and rye flour, these are little healthy cinnamon toast balls. And as part of a May Day ritual, which I read a little into the history of all kinds of interesting pagan practices in the ancient Northern world, I am hoping the good juju in the act of giving spring gifts will ward of the snow rumored to return to Minnesota skies this evening and the next.

Key Lime Pie

Thunder and lightning in the nighttime sky, mood is right for some key lime pie. The phrase easy as pie was written because of this pie. Very, very easy, and very, very good. Wowee. The whipped cream, although I don’t typically enjoy whipped cream, was very necessary for this dish because of how tart the filling tastes.

Key Lime Pie

Adapted from Baking Illustrated

Prepare the filling for the pie first, so it can thicken during the time it takes to prepare the crust.

Lime Filling
4 tsp lime zest
1/2 cup strained lime juice (from 3 or 4 limes)
4 large egg yolks
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

Graham Cracker Crust
9 graham crackers (5 oz), broken into rough pieces
2 TB granulated sugar
5 TB unsalted butter, melted and warm

Whipped Cream Topping
3/4 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/4 cup (1 oz.) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 lime sliced paper thin and dipped in sugar (optional)

For the Filling: whisk the zest and yolks in a medium nonreactive bowl until tinted light green, about 2 minutes. Beat in the milk, then juice; set aside at room temperature to thicken (about 30 minutes).
For the Crust: adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.
In a food processor, process the graham crackers until evenly fine, about 30 seconds (you should have about 1 cup crumbs)—I did this all by hand, and it tasted great.
Add the sugar and pulse to combine. Continue to pulse while adding the warm melted butter in a steady stream; pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand. Transfer the crumbs to a 9-inch glass pie plate, evenly press the crumbs into the pie plate, using your thumb and a ½ cup measuring cup to square off the top of the crust. Bake the crust until it is fragrant and beginning to brown, 15 to 18 minutes;
transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
Pour the lime filling into the crust; bake until the center is set, yet wiggly when jiggled, 15 to 17 minutes. Return the pie to a wire rack; cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours. (The pie can be covered directly with lightly oiled or oil-sprayed plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 1 day.)
For The Whipped Cream: Up to 2 hours before serving, whip the cream in the chilled bowl of an electric mixer to very soft peaks. Adding the confectioners’ sugar 1 TB at a time, continue whipping to just stiff peaks.
Decoratively pipe the whipped cream evenly with a rubber spatula. Garnish with optional sugared lime slices and serve.

5 stars all the way. Best kind of pie for the spring. Zippy. Izzy just kept her mouth open while we dished up several plates. Good strategy. Janelle said it was awesome.

Pain de Seigle Sur Poolish

I just made the biggest loaf. Seriously, this one almost didn’t make it out of the oven. Something having to do with the warm weather, I think, has made my yeast into super yeast. The dough from this seigle was trying to push its way out of the bowl and crawl out the back door, good thing I heard its conspiring and ran to the kitchen to intervene. Brought it to Beer Church tonight, and quite a hit!

Pain de Seigle Sur Poolish

Sponge-Method Rye Bread

Adapted from The Village Baker

Poolish (the sponge)

2 packages dry yeast (or two cups sourdough starter)

2 cups water

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup rye flour

Dough

1 ½ cups warm water

The Poolish (previous)

2 cups rye flour

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp salt

Glaze: 1 egg whisked up with 1 tablespoon milk

Mix together the poolish and allow to sit, covered, for at least 3 hours. Then make the dough, slowly, slowly add the flour. Sprinkle the salt in toward the end, and knead on a surface for 3 minutes. The dough will seem sticky (if it’s too sticky, it is okay to add another ½ cup flour). Place the dough in an oiled bowl to rise for 2 hours, and then flatten it out and shape into a boule. Let it rise in a banneton for another hour. Slash with a cross or a circle, or, if you want to try out the stamp method again, pick the surface 8 to 10 times with an ice pick and glaze. Bake at 450 for 40-50 minutes.

5 stars for this massive loaf, as wide as the oven.

Tibetan Barley Skillet Bread

This is my last bread from the Central Asia region, from Tibet. Barley is a staple in Tibet. This recipe comes from the northern Amdo region, wherefrom the present Dalai Lama harkens. It is a region known for its monasteries. This bread is the Tibetan Buddhist equivalent of Jewish Challah. Very rich and tasty!

Tibetan Barley Skillet Bread

Adapted from Flatbreads and Flavors

3 cups barley flour

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp salt

4 tbsp butter, room temperature

1 cup chilled buttermilk

1 cup boiling water

¼ cup packed brown sugar

2 tsp yeast (or one cup sourdough starter)

½ cup lukewarm water

Toast the barley flour in a skillet. Allow to cool.

Add 1 cup white flour, the whole wheat flour, and salt to the barley flour and mix well. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Set aside.

Combine the buttermilk, boiling water, and sugar in a medium bowl and mix well. Cool to lukewarm.

Sprinkle the yeast over the lukewarm water (or, if using sourdough just add as is) and stir into the buttermilk mixture. Make a fountain well with the dry ingredients and pour the liquid into the well, stir five minutes until dough forms. Knead on a floured surface, adding more white flour as necessary, for 10 minutes.

Place dough in an oiled boil and let rise, covered, for 1 ½ hours.

Butter an oven-proof 10-inch skillet.

Punch down dough and knead into a round. Place the dough round into the skillet and cover with plastic wrap until doubled in volume, 30 min-1 hr.

Preheat oven to 350. Slash the proofed dough with three ¼ inch deep parallel lines. Bake for 50 minutes. Invert bread onto a rack and cool.

Crepes

Today spring is finally singing in Minnesota. KP and I planted some trees in Southtown (Slatterly Park) with some neighbors—here is KP looking heroic next to some kind of pear tree we planted (Izzy, in the window, enjoyed sleeping in the car and eating treats to the sounds of Earth, Wind and Fire while we dug in the dirt–role reversal?);

Then, while we were out planting trees, an Arbor Day miracle occurred at home: Dr. Seuss trees magically appeared flanking our front porch! To the benevolent fantastical tree giver—be blessed, we are overjoyed by the happy addition to our bright home.

For the perfect Saturday morning pastry, crepes:

Crepes

Adapted from Hyvee Seasons

Ingredients
For crepes:
2/3 c. water
1/2 c. skim milk
2 Hy-Vee large eggs
2 tbsp vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 c.all-purpose flour
Melted unsalted butter, for pan
Options for filling:
3 c. sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. cream cheese (from a tub), at room temperature
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c. sour cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
For a raspberry sauce:
2 1/4 c. fresh raspberries, divided
1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. water
1 tsp grated orange zest
powdered sugar, for garnish

All you do:
To make crepes:
Combine water, milk, eggs, milk, oil, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla and salt in a blender jar. Blend until smooth. Add flour; blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the skillet from the heat, brush with melted butter, pour in 2 tablespoons crepe batter and swirl skillet to coat bottom of skillet with batter. Return the skillet to the burner and cook until edges start to curl and bottom is golden brown. Flip and cook until golden brown. Remove crepe from skillet and place on a clean work surface to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter, brushing skillet with additional melted butter as needed. Adjust heat as necessary to avoid burning. Do not stack crepes until they cooled completely to avoid sticking.
To make filling:
Stir together strawberries and 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Drain and discard liquid before using.
Beat cream cheese, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla together at medium speed with an electric mixer until well blended. Add sour cream and lemon juice; beat until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready for use.
To make raspberry sauce:
Bring half the raspberries, 1 cup granulated sugar and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until raspberries have broken down. Stir in remaining raspberries and orange zest and simmer an additional minute. Remove from heat and carefully pour into a blender jar. Carefully blend until smooth. Strain into bowl or squeeze bottle. Discard solids.
To assemble:
Spread about 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese filling on half of each crepe, top with about 1 tablespoon drained strawberry slices and roll up. Place on a plate, drizzle with raspberry sauce and dust with powdered sugar

Karl-Peter is under certain political pressure to not admit that they were better than Swedish Pancakes, but he says, they are as good as—high praise.

Thanks to all my wonderful friends and family who came out last night to hear the jazz gig at St. James. It is so good to be given a chance on the mic again—and Janelle, your red dress made All the difference. Thank You!!

Crabcakes

Just in time for my first gig tonight with my new band Take Two arrived a prize pair of shoes I won from a fashion blog. I never win anything! And voila—the universe gave me a pair of shoes! Izzy resented that there were not crabcakes in the mysterious box, as there were last night on the counter, and in delicious crumbles on the floor. Maybe, dear bulldog, you will one day win a package of dog treats somehow.

Being breaded, I figured crabcakes had a place among the loaves on this blog.

Crabcakes

Adapted from The Joy of Cooking

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. crab meat
1 tbsp butter or oil
1 tbsp finely diced red bell pepper (optional)
1/2 cup diced scallion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp and 1 cup breadcrumbs, preferably homemade
1/3 cup fresh parsley, dill, or cilantro, minced –(I used cilantro)
2-3 tbsp mayonnaise (or, I used cottage cheese because I didn’t have/like mayo—tasted great!)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika or Old Bay seasoning
salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

In a skillet warm butter or oil, and cook red bell pepper, scallion and garlic, about 8-10 minutes and set aside. In a medium bowl, toss together 2 tbsp breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, mayonnaise and mustard until moistened, but do not over mix. Add salt, pepper and other seasonings as desired. Fold in cooked vegetables and combine with crab.

Form into four or five, 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick and cover in breadcrumbs. Place in refrigerator on cookie sheet for at least one hour so they will set up.

Bake crab cakes in 350° oven for 15-20 minutes, OR, and I did this, pan fry with in butter. Mmm.

Seriously, the crabcakes were good, but they have been overshadowed by the blessing of the shoes. Good omen for the weekend, methinks.

Pain Meteil

“For me writing has always felt like praying, even when I wasn’t writing prayers, as I was often enough. You feel that you are with someone. I feel I am with you now, whatever that can mean.” I met the person who wrote these words (from Gilead) today, Marilynne Robinson, my literary hero.

We had lunch in Iowa City. I took this picture of her on the sly. To my delight, she is a giggler. Her mirth rises her prose like pockets of air leaven a loaf. Her sentences are stuffed with wonder. Reading her books, for me, has always felt like praying. So too, now, does baking.

The H is a lovely letter isn’t it? That seems a very Sesame Street thing to say. On this loaf, I discovered how to do a simple bread stamp—it gets much more complicated and intricate, but this is bread stamping level one.

Pain Meteil

Wheat and Rye Bread

Adapted from The Village Baker

Poolish (the sponge)

1 package yeast (one cup sourdough starter)

1 ½ cups water

1 cup rye flour

½ cup all-purpose flour

Dough

1 cup warm water

The poolish (previous step)

3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 ¾ tsp salt

Make the sponge and set aside overnight for 15 to 24 hours. Then, make the dough, careful to add the salt toward the end of adding the flour handful by handful. Knead for 3 minutes or so. The dough will be a little sticky, and then set it in an oiled bowl to rise for 2 hours. When it has doubled, take the dough and form it into a boule and set it on a peel lined with parchment paper and allow it to rise, covered, for 1 ½ hours.

Then comes the fun of marking the loaf. Draw out an initial, or whatever design you would like, I did a stylized “H” on a piece of paper and cut it out. Place the piece of paper on the round right before you put it in the oven. Sprinkle flour over the paper, then peel back the paper to expose the imprinted dough. Marvel. Place the loaf in the oven at 425 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.

Marilynne Robinson said she has a whole stack of what she has classified as “dog-walking books”—books you don’t really want to read every word of, but are nice to bring along with the leash and doo baggies. I told her that my dog on a walk is a two-hand job. If I tried to read a book while walking Izzy, I would skin my armpit on the sidewalk.