(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Caramel

The holiday season officially starts when I make my first batch of caramel. For as long as I can remember, Dad making homemade caramel and Jule Kage marked the start of the holidays. I continued the caramel traditional through college and adulthood. I remember making a batch on the crummy electric stove in my college dorm with a cheap candy thermometer. Despite cooking much longer than I thought it should, a housemate christened that batch "amoeba caramel" for its tendency to pool instead of hold a nice square shape when cut into bite sized pieces.

Some years I only made one batch; last year I made 8. Most years, I also bake a few cookies and make some fudge and nut brittle. I have not made Jule Kage recently because D is not really a fan of candied fruit in his bread.

For the next few weeks, my kitchen will go into caramel production mode. I'll start a batch every few days, and wrap many bite sized pieces every day until Christmas. So, if you wonder why I'm not knitting, it's because I'm up to my elbows in this:

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup butter
1 cup cream (I usually use heavy, but light works, too)
1 cup milk
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions (the numbers refer to the photos below--as always click for big)
1. Put everything except vanilla into a heavy bottomed 3 quart saucepan.
2. Stir over med-low heat until the butter melts and sugars dissolve.
3. Clamp on candy thermometer.
4-6. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until syrup reaches 240 degrees. Stir constantly until caramel reaches 246-248. Let rest for 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Enjoy watching the consistency and color changes as the caramel cooks.
7. Pour into buttered 9 x 13 pan to cool overnight.
8. Turn caramel onto cutting board and chop into bite-sized pieces. Wrap in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Give to all your friends.

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Sourdough Baguettes and Fondue

At the end of October, I joined Carolyn and several other bloggers in a plan to cook dinner at least once a week and then post the recipes on my blog. I have cooked with intention at least once a week this month, but I've fallen down on actually posting the recipes.

Sometime soon I'll post all the missing recipes. This week I made bread and helped D make his fabulous Swiss cheese fondue.

Sourdough Baguettes
I only sort of use a recipe. And since the condition of the sourdough starter, the humidity in my kitchen, and the actual amount of bread I want varies from baking to baking. I kept good notes yesterday so I could share something. Here are the basic instructions with approximate amounts. If you do not have a burbling sourdough culture in you kitchen, you can buy starter from the King Arthur Flour's Bakers Catalogue or beg some from me (if you are in the DC area) or another friend. Use a glass bowl and a dough wisk or wood spoon for mixing. Do not use a metal bowl for sourdough unless you want strange tasting bread.

The sponge (or feeding the beast)
1 - 2 cups starter
1-1/2 - 2 cups warm water
3 - 4 cups flour
Beat the warm water into the starter. Add the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for at least 4 hours. Generally, I do this the night before I am going to bake the bread.

The dough
Put 1 cup of the starter back into the beasts' storage container. Yesterday I put too much back in the crock and ended up with Sourdough eating my fridge. Oops.

Mix together
1 lb starter (appx 2-1/2 cups)
3/4 cup warm water

Stir in
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon salt

Continue mixing in flour until you have a soft dough.

Knead until the dough is soft and elastic.

Put into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in bulk. Turn and let rise again.

Turn out onto lightly floured board. Knead quickly. Divide in half. Cover and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Form into loaves and put onto baking sheet covered with parchment or cornmeal. Let rise for an hour or so (until loaves are doubled in size).

Preheat over to 400 degrees. When oven is hot, put a pan of boiling water on the lowest rack. Slash tops of loaves. Spritz with water. Bake 10 minutes. Remove pan of water and spritz again. Bake another 30-35 minutes.

The books all say to wait until the bread is cooled to sample. I never do. Nothing beats crusty French bread right out of the over smothered in butter.

David's famous fondue
2/3 lb. Gruyere
1/3 lb. Emmenthaler
3 tablespoons flour
clove garlic
1-1/3 c dry white wine
pinch white pepper
nutmeg to taste

Grate cheeses. Toss with flour (I use a 1 gallon zip top bag for this). Cut garlic in half and rub pot with the cut side. Heat wine until just below simmer. Slowly start to add cheese, stirring constantly. After all cheese has been added, season with pepper and nutmeg to taste.

If the fondue is too thick, add a little more wine. If it is too thin add more cheese or 1 teaspoon corn starch mixed with a little bit of wine.

I also cut up a granny smith apple to munch with the cheese and bread. Cauliflower is also good.

This dinner always takes me back to my second date with D. He came over to my summer dorm room and cooked for me. I made salad, he made fondue. I definitely got the better part of that deal.

I drank too much wine with my dinner tonight, so can't say anything else except for yummmm.

Cooking (misadventure)

or what happens when SpindleRose tries to cook before finishing her morning coffee

I woke up early this morning to make buttercream for the decadent chocolate cupcakes I am taking to Claudia's summer knitting and spinning party. Except, it's kind of challenging to make buttercream without butter. Sigh. I made some coffee and headed off to the local grocery store for 2 pounds of unsalted butter. I drank about half of the coffee on the way to the store.

After I got home I decided that 20 or so fiber fiends only need 3 cups of buttercream for 24 cupcakes. So, I would make a half batch of vanilla and then a half batch of chocolate. SpindleRose hates to wash dishes; vanilla followed by chocolate means only washing the bowl and beater once. I creamed the butter and dumped in 1 tablespoon of black cocoa powder. Remember what I said about vanilla and then chocolate. Oops. Might as well make a full batch of each.

Because I am not yet awake, and because it is still hot in my kitchen, both batches of buttercream broke. Despite all efforts to keep the ingredients just warm enough to work with. I need to call H later to find out why this happened. At least it's still tasty. Mmm buttercream and coffee--breakfast of champions.

Recipes

Dark chocolate cupcakes
modified from Cook's Illustrated, March 2005

8 T unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I like Sharffenberger 70%)
6 T dutch process cocoa powder (I use Penzey's)
2 T black cocoa powder (available from The Baker's Catalogue)
3/4 c all purpose flour
3/4 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
2 lg eggs
3/4 c sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t salt
1/2 c (4 oz) sour cream

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard sized muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2. Combine butter, chocolate, and cocoa in microwave safe bowl. Heat for 1 minute (or so) on high. Whisk until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl.
4. Whisk eggs in second bowl to combine. Add sugar, vanilla, and salt and whisk until fully incorporated. Add cooled chocolate and combine. Sift 1/3 of flour mixture onto chocolate mixture and whisk to combine; whisk in sour cream, then sift remaining flour over and whisk until batter is thick.
5. Divide batter into cups. Bake 18 to 20 minutes.
6. Cool in pan on a wire rack until cool enough to handle (15 minutes or so). Carefully remove from pan and set on wire rack. Cool completely (at least 30 minutes) before icing.

Whipped buttercream
From my good friend H. Yes, I know it doesn't look like it will work, but it will. And it's fabulous.

1 c milk
1/3 c flour
1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 t vanilla

1. Whisk milk and flour together in a small saucepan until smooth. Cook over med heat, whisking constantly until thick. Chill slightly.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla at high speed until creamy. Add cooled flour mixture, beating until just blended.
Makes 3 cups.

Chocolate buttercream variation:
Beat 2 T black cocoa powder with the butter, sugar and vanilla.