An Obelios By Any Other Name

Frozen waffles. <shudder>

How about this instead?

I mean, really? Making waffles is not that hard. People have been doing it for thousands of years.

The ubiquitous waffle can be traced back to ancient Greece. The Athenians made tasty (one presumes), flat cakes they called obelios which were cooked between two metal plates over burning embers.

The humble obelios made its way to Europe and in the Middle Ages became the wafer, a very light thin crisp cake baked between wafer irons. The irons were used to produce a variety of different flat, unleavened cakes and were wildly popular. An entire guild was established in 1270 in France to train the vendors who sold them on the street.

Acording to Wikipedia, wafer and waffle share common etymological roots. Wafre is Middle English, adopted from Middle Low German wâfel, with the l changed to r. The Dutch, wafel, was adopted into modern American English as waffle in the 18th century.

The short from the long is that the modern waffle, which we know and love today, is simply a leavened form of wafer.

This recipe is leavened with baking powder.

About 10 minutes before you start, chill the mixing bowl and beaters you will use for the whipped cream in the freezer.

Topping
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 2 Tbs sugar (or other sweetener), to taste
Fresh berries
Powdered sugar

Before you begin making the waffle batter, make the whipped cream. It can be chilled for up to four hours.

Put the cold heavy cream and the vanilla in the chilled mixing bowl.

With a wire whisk or hand beater (or an electric mixer) whip the cream. Start off slowly.

As the cream thickens, you can speed up the whipping. As it gets foamier, start checking the consistency. You want to whip the cream just until it holds a loose peak. You can check this by lifting the beater from the cream and looking at the shape of the peak at the end of the whisk. It should hold a lazy curve.

At this point, add the sugar, sifting it over the cream. Continue to whip just until it holds a soft peak.

Make sure not to over-whip the cream as it will become lumpy and butter-like.
Put the whipped cream in the refrigerator and get to work on the waffles.

Waffles

2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1 Tbs sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Heat the waffle iron.

In large bowl, beat eggs with a wire whisk or hand beater until fluffy.

Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth.

Pour slightly less than 3/4 cup batter onto center of hot waffle iron. (Make sure you check your waffle iron's manufacturer's directions for recommended amount of batter as this can vary wildly.)

Close the iron and bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. I like to bake the waffles just past the 'golden brown' stage so that they are very crisp on the outside. Carefully remove waffle.

Sprinkle the waffles with the powdered sugar and top with fresh berries and whipped cream.

Most of all, ENJOY!

Waffle irons use different amounts of batter, so you may end up with more or less than six waffles from this recipe.

Hapanleipä - Finnish Sour Rye Bread

"Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life."
--Matthew Henry

I like baking bread. Of all the cooking and baking I do, the making of bread is the most joyous and gives me the most satisfaction.

Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, going back at least 30,000 years. The making of bread involves community and society and family. In many cultures bread has a significance beyond simple nutrition, and often denotes something necessary and valuable. It is an interesting fact that the word companion comes from the Latin com- "with" + panis "bread".

In Finland, bread is very important and is served at almost every meal. And Finnish bread is a treat. So much more falvourful and full of texture than what Americans commonly think of as bread, the abundance and variety of bread found there can be overwhelming. As I noted previously, it is on my Top Ten Finland List. The most popular (ubiquitous) bread in Finland is ruisleipä (rye bread). It is very different from what most Americans think of rye breads (like German style rye bread) as it lacks the greasy/moist texture.

When I was on exchange in Finland, one of my host mothers made a type of ruisleipä traditional in western Finland, hapanleipä (sour bread). It is one of my most vivid memories of Finland, watching Aira take the sticky rye dough and forming it into round, flat loaves with a hole in the center.

Ruisleipä, or even a close approximation, is hard to come by in the desert southwest. And Finding traditional hapanleipä is impossible. Happily, I love making it and over the years have become pretty good at it.

When you make this bread you need to plan ahead. It takes two days for the dough to sour.

Hapanleipä
3 packages active dry yeast
4 cups warm water, 105°F to 115°F
7 to 9 cups dark rye flour
2 teaspoons salt (optional)
additional rye flour for shaping

In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add two cups rye flour and beat to make a smooth mixture. Sprinkle the top of the dough with one cup rye flour.

Cover tightly and let stand in a warm place for 24 hours. It will ferment and sour.

On day two, add two cups of the rye flour, stir, and let stand another 24 hours. The dough will now have a sour aroma.


Stir in the salt and final amount of flour, but do not exceed nine cups. It is very important to not put in too much flour. This dough is unlike most bread doughs people are used to as it needs to remain very moist, almost drop cookie-dough moist.

Knead (in a heavy-duty mixer if you have one) for 30 minutes. The dough should be very sticky.

Using wet hands, shape dough into a ball and place in the bowl again. Sprinkle with enough additional flour to make the top of the dough dry. Let rise about one and 1/2 hours in a warm place.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and divide into two parts. Cover two baking sheets with baking parchment (or lightly grease them) and coat the sheets with dark rye flour.

Shape each half into a round loaf about eight inches in diameter. Make a hole in the center of each loaf and carefully pull the hole until it is about two inches in diameter. With hands dipped in water, smooth out the edges and top of each loaf.

Using a fork, poke holes in the tops of the loves, making the distribution of holes as even as you can.

Brush loaves generously with water and sprinkle with a generous coating of rye flour.

Place the loaves in a warm place until they have flattened out, spread apart, and the tops start to crackle a little.

Place a large, deep pan (like a casserole dish or a jelly roll pan) on the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Fill the pan with boiling water and bake the loaves for one hour or until firm.

This is the hardest step, especially if you have not baked with dark rye before. Without experience, it is easy to misjudge when the bread has baked as they already start out a dark brown colour. Baked not long enough and the center will be unbaked and gooey. Baked too long and the bottoms will burn.

Wrap baked loaves in towels to soften. As tempting as it is, it is best not to cut these loaves right away. They actually slice best the day after they are baked. I very rarely make it that long.

This makes two respectable sized loaves.

The loaves will keep refrigerated for several months. They also freeze well. This bread rarely goes bad and I have never seen it mildew, but it will dry out. Finns claim that this is good for your teeth.

This bread is good for you. It is higher in fiber than many common types of bread and has a remarkably strong flavor. It can be eaten plain with a meal, or topped with cheese, cold cuts, or smoked fish.

Enjoy!

Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese

There is something to be said for comfort food.

And there's a particular nostalgic element to macaroni and cheese - both within our American culture and on an individual level.

Macaroni and cheese has a long culinary history. According to James L. Matterer of Godecookery.com, a cheese and pasta casserole known as Makerouns was recorded in an English cookbook in the 14th century. It was an upper-class dish in Italy up until the 18th century. And Thomas Jefferson served it at the White House.

Much to our detriment, we have taken the noble macaroni and cheese and relegated it to packaged versions that are hollow echoes of the real cheesy goodness of homemade. But there is hope. Homemade macaroni and cheese is easy. Really. And oh so much better than the boxed stuff.

To completely misquote Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, "Macaroni without real cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye."


Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup unsifted flour
1 tsp powdered mustard
2 1/2 cups milk (room temperature)
3 cups coarsely grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs finely grated yellow onion
1/2 lbs elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

The first step in making delicious homemade cheese sauce is to prepare a roux. This is the thickening agent and despite the fancy French name is very simple. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Blend in the flour and mustard until you have a well-mixed paste-like consistency. It will have a light, golden colour. Now slowly add the milk, stirring constantly. You want the butter/flour mix to complete dissolve into the milk to get a smooth, homogeneous blend. Cook, stirring constantly until the roux has thickened and bubbles.

Now mix in 2 cups of the grated cheese, the salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and onion.

Taste for salt and add more if needed. Cook and stir until the cheese completely melts and you have a smooth sauce.

Remove from heat and mix in macaroni.

Turn this cheesy mixture into a buttered casserole dish. With the variety of shapes and sizes of baking dishes, there is really no perfect dish for this. My family really enjoys the crusty, golden top and so I usually use a large, shallow pan to get as much surface area as possible. But any dish 2-quart or above will work.

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake, uncovered, about 1/2 hour until bubbly and lightly browned.

And...tada! You have deluxe macaroni and cheese! No box required!

This is a great dish to serve with steamed green vegetables. It is hearty and filling and, in the great tradition of comfort food, it will elevate your mood and make you feel happy.

This will comfortably serve six as part of a complete meal or four as a stand-alone dish.

Enjoy!

Fun with pancakes

I don't like pancakes.

Not really.

Let's face it, pancakes are pretty boring. They exist almost exclusively as an excuse for people to eat lots of butter and syrup. But I make them a lot. Almost every week, in fact. Because my daughter loves pancakes. And I have found that you can take even the most banal and uninteresting foods and make them...fun.

So in the interest of parent-child relationships, I am going to share a very easy way to to take the boring, lifeless pancake and turn it in to a celebration of breakfast.

All you need is some pancake batter, some food colouring, squeeze bottles and some creativity.

The recipe itself is very straightforward. The mix - the dry stuff - I make in bulk.

The Mix:

4 cups flour
3 Tbs baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar

Mix all of the ingredients and store them in an airtight container.

Now when you are ready to make the pancakes you have your very own homemade mix.


The Batter:
1 cup pancake mix
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 Tbs butter, melted

Add them all to a bowl and whisk together.

Now comes the fun part.

Adding some colour.

Here's where you'll need the food colouring and the squeeze bottles. I use four 12-oz. squeeze bottles. They can be purchased at most any store where you can buy kitchen supplies or you can find them online. Divide the batter between the squeeze bottles (I use four, but you can use as few or as many you'd like based on your coulour needs) and add whatever colouring you want to each bottle.

It is important to mix the colours into the batter very well and to go bright! As you cook your pancake creations the colours will become more muted and fade a bit as the batter browns.

Now heat up your griddle or put your skillet on the stove. You want to use a lower heat than you normally would for pancakes because you will need time to work with the various colours - I set my griddle at about 275°F.

Get creative.

Using your squeeze bottle very much like a like a pen, create outlines and fill them in with various colours.

If you are uncomfortable with free-hand drawing, you can use cookie cutters as templates and just fill in and embellish.

The only limit is your imagination, and the slow heat of the griddle.

 My daughter loves giraffes and butterflies.

And flowers.

The ends result is a wonderfully fun breakfast. And pancakes that are no longer just a vehicle of syrup and butter, but a stand-alone meal!

Enjoy!

Apple & Golden Raisin Danish

"Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all."
--Harriet van Horne
 

 
















The smells of baking goodness - the warm scent of cinnamon, the heady aroma of yeast, the delicious savour of apples - are among those memories I keep in a special place in my mind. It's like that shoebox of photos that are too precious to put in the big box with all the other photos. Childhood and happiness are wrapped up with those memories.

Both my grandmothers were bakers and my mother is an excellent baker. Christmastime meant boxes and boxes of homemade cookies. And the process of taking all those little jars of spices and ingredients like butter and eggs and flour and making them into cookies and cakes seemed magical.

As I got older I was eager to try this out myself. My mother was very forgiving and patient - and brave! She let an 8-year-old loose in the kitchen and always smiled and complimented me when she tried out the results of my mad kitchen experiments. I'm not quite certain how I did not manage to poison my family, but everyone survived.

Now that I am grown and have a family of my own, I like to take out those memories and use them as an extra spice in my baking. I love all kinds of cooking, but baking holds a special place in my heart.

This recipe is a Danish. And that means pastry. Pastries can be challenging and time consuming, but the reward of making homemade pastry is worth the effort.

Apple & Golden Raisin Danish (from 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood)

The first step is making the pastry dough. Start this the day before.

Day one.

For the Pastry

1 package yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
4 cups white flour, plus extra for dusting
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup super-fine sugar
water to mix
4 1/2 sticks butter, chilled but not cold

Combine the yeast, flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Slowly mix in a little water until the dough becomes pliable. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until it feels elastic. Put the dough back in the bowl and let it rest in the refrigerator for one hour.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a rectangle, about 24-inches by 12-inches. Take your chilled butter and flatten it out into a rectangle about 1/2-inch thick. It will need to be big enough to cover two-thirds of your dough. Gently lay it over the dough, aligning it with one side of the dough rectangle. Fold the third of uncovered dough into the center and then fold the covered third over that. Your dough should now be in three layers. Return it to the refrigerator And chill for another hour.


















Place the dough on to your lightly floured surface and roll it back into the 24-inch by 12-inch rectangle. Fold a third of the dough into the middle and then fold the remaining third over that, again making it three-layered. Place it back in the refrigerator for another hour. Do this twice more. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight.

Day two.

For the filling

10 apples, peeled and cored
1/2 cup golden rasins
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs, beaten
apricot jelly, warmed

for the frosting
lemon zest
confectioners' sugar
water

Roll out the dough to about 1/4-inch thick and then cut it into 5-inch squares. Fold the edges into the middle so you have a kind of nest. Place each finished nest onto a paper lined baking sheet. Let the nests rise for two hours at room temperature.

While the nests are rising, cut up the apples into small, chunky pieces. Cook the apples in a pan with just a little bit of water for about 7 minutes. Add the raisins and cinnamon and mix well. Remove from heat and let cool. 

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the apple-raisin mixture into the middle of each nest. Brush the eggwash onto the exposed parts of dough.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until light, golden brown. Remove them from the oven and brush with warmed apricot jelly. Cool, then drizzle the frosting on the top. (To make the frosting, which should be done just before you need it, put the confectioners' sugar in a bowl, add a little water and mix well. When it has the proper consistency, the frosting will coat the back of a spoon. Add the lemon zest.)

These delectable treats keep well in the refrigerator and when reheated smell and taste just like they came out of the oven.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Banana Chai Smoothie

I like Chai. A lot. And I like smoothies.

This Chai-twist on the smoothie is both tasty and nutritional, with no preservatives, artificial ingredients, and no sugars except for the natural ones found in the bananas and pumpkin.

I start the night before by brewing a cup of Chai.

I brew it the night before for two main reasons: the Chai should be really strong and the Chai should be cold. The brand you use doesn't matter; however the bolder and more stated the flavours are the more they will stand out in the smoothie.

The only other prep to be done in advance, the day or night before, is cutting up and freezing the bananas. The frozen bananas will give that all important freeze-factor to your smoothie.

Those are really the hardest steps right there. Everything else is easy.

Pumpkin Banana Chai Smoothie

1 cup of Chai, brewed the previous day

2 bananas, cut into pieces and frozen

1 - 2 raw eggs

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup plain yogurt

1 Tbs raw golden flax seed

Put everything in a blender and blend away.

For those adverse to raw eggs, you can choose the protein of your choice, such as whey or soy protein powder.

If there is not enough sweetness for your taste from the bananas you can, of course, add a sweetener. 

This recipe makes enough for two respectable sized smoothies, about 12oz. Or one really big smoothie.