Chinese Scallion Pancakes

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the Year of the Dog (and not the Manatee), and to celebrate I thought I’d show you my take on Chinese scallion pancakes. These fun-to-make flatbreads are a common fixture on menus around here, and while they all feature the same few ingredients, they come in a variety of thicknesses, which really affects the texture.

The thinner you make these, the crispier they’ll be, but you won’t get that nice, layered, oniony inside. On the other hand, if you make them too thick, they can be a little doughy inside, so I try to shoot for something in between. Speaking of inside, feel free to add pepper flakes or other appropriate embellishments before you roll these up.

Ideally, you leave the dough overnight before using, but I’ve always had great results with just a couple hours rest on the counter. If you do leave overnight, you’ll probably get a better flavor, and maybe texture, but the dough will be more elastic, and slightly more difficult to work with.

As far as the dipping sauce goes, I like to mix equal parts seasoned rice vinegar, and soy sauce, flavored with a shot of hot sauce, and maybe grating of fresh ginger. Toss in a few sliced green onions, and you’ll have yourself a very basic, but perfect condiment for these savory pancakes. Regardless of how you serve them, I really hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy, and gung hay fat choy!

Ingredients for 2 Chinese Scallion Pancakes:

one bunch green onions, mostly green parts, sliced thinly

For the dough:

2 cups bread or all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup hot water

- adjust with more flour or water to form a smooth, but sticky dough

For the oil mixture:

3 tablespoon veg oil

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon flour

- serve with dipping sauce, as described in the blog post

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Chocolate Croissants – But Just Barely

I’ll admit to being pretty underwhelmed the first time I had a chocolate croissant, or “pain au chocolat,”as I’d mispronounce it; but eventually I realized the relatively sparse amount of chocolate wasn’t any kind of stinginess, but rather the true secret behind this amazing pastry.

Properly done, this should ride that line between sweet pastry and a savory bread, so don’t overdo it with the chocolate chunks; otherwise you’ll lose that beautiful balance. Other than that, not much can go wrong. Just be sure to bake them until nicely browned, and let them cool before enjoying.

While this will work with that dough in the tube, I’d like to think you’d make a batch of your own dough using our recently posted croissant recipe. Don’t worry, it only seems like a lot of work. Either way, I really do hope you give these chocolate croissants a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 Chocolate Croissants:

1 batch of croissant dough from this recipe (split in half for two batches of 6)

about 1 cup roughly chopped chocolate chunks, or chips

1 large egg, plus 1 tablespoon of water for the egg wash

coarsely ground sea salt

- Bake at 400 F. for about 20-25 minutes, or until well-browned

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Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread) – Hard to Make, Or At Least That’s What We’re Telling People

I’ve never tried to make panettone before, mostly because of how notoriously difficult it is to make, or so I was told. Turns out that wasn’t the case, unless people are factoring in the time, as this does take three days to complete, but other than that, I thought it was a pretty straightforward bread recipe.

I think bakers like us regular folks to believe everything is super hard to make, so as to elevate their standing in society; or, maybe this is difficult, and I just got lucky, but regardless, I was thrilled with how this came out.

I may add a bit more vanilla next time, and possibly a few extra tablespoons of sugar, as it wasn’t quite as sweet as I imagined, but other than using all the fruit, I don’t think I’d change much else. Speaking of the dried fruit, there are so many other things you can include, such as nuts, and chocolate chips, just in case this seems too healthy.

You'll find the panettone baking molds at places like Sur La Table, or other kitchenware stores at the mall, but they're also inexpensive and easy to find on Amazon. You'll see both in this size, and also the more traditional, tall, coffee-can shape. It might be a little late to start this, and finish by Christmas, but I would try it anyway. Just don’t let your guests know how easy it was to make, unless they’re professional bakers, then do. I really hope you give this special occasion bread a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for one 7-inch Panettone:

The night before…

For the panettone starter:

1/4 cup sourdough starter (click here for recipe)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cold water

NOTE: If you don’t have sourdough starter, mix 3/4 cup flour with about 1/3 cup cold water, or enough to simulate the thickness of the one seen in the video, and add a pinch (1/16 teaspoon) of yeast. Mix, cover and leave overnight, just like the one in the video.

For the dried fruit:

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup dried cherries, quartered

1/2 cup diced dried pineapple

1/4 cup rum for soaking fruit

For the dough:

1/4 cup warm water

1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) dry active yeast

2 large eggs

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest

1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest

all the starter from above

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

6 tablespoons softened butter

For egg wash:

1 large egg

1 tablespoon water

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Croissants – Slightly Easier than Flying to Paris

I wouldn’t describe homemade croissants as an easy recipe, since there are multiple steps, and it does take a least half a day, but it’s really not that hard either; and certainly simpler than flying to Paris, which is the only other way to enjoy these amazing pastries.

Sure, some of you may live near an authentic French bakery, maybe even one of the few that still use pure butter, but for the sake of this post, let’s assume that you don’t. Besides, sitting next to a basket of homemade croissants raises your foodie street cred like few other things.

Despite taking a fair amount to time, this is actually the quick version, in that we’re not leaving the dough to rest overnight, before laminating with the butter. I don’t think there’s a huge difference, but I did want to mention in case you’d prefer to start the dough at night, and do the rest of the work the next day.

The technique is pretty straightforward, but be sure to pay attention to the temperature of your butter.  If you’re slab is too soft, it will just blend into the dough, and you won’t get the gorgeous layering seen herein.  And if it’s too cold in firm, it won’t spread between the layers of dough like it needs to. It should basically have the firmness of clay.

So, take your time, and when in doubt, pop the dough in the fridge for a few minutes to chill it down as you’re working. You’ll notice I didn’t serve anything on my croissants when I did the final shots, and if you make these, you’ll understand why.  I really do hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Makes 12 to 16 Croissants:

This recipe was adapted from one by Bruno Albouze, from The Real Deal (which he is)

For the dough:

1 cup warm water (about 100 F.)

1 packet active dry yeast (about 2 1/2 teaspoons)

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

3 teaspoons kosher salt (1 3/4 teaspoons if using fine salt)

3 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour

6 tablespoons room temp butter for the dough

For the croissants:

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted European-style butter for the slab

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water for the egg wash

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Sweet Potato Biscuits – Before or After

I originally planned for these sweet potato biscuits to be this year’s Thanksgiving leftover recipe, but they came out so well, I decided to upgrade them, and I’m now officially suggesting you make these as one of the centerpieces for your feast. The downside of that plan is that you’ll have to share them with your guests.

Adding things like mashed sweet potatoes can cause all sorts of issues in a biscuit recipe, since they need to take the place of some of your “wet” ingredients, and considering how much thicker they are than something like buttermilk, over-mixing the dough can occur. By the time the potato mixture is incorporated, you can develop too much gluten, which can make biscuits tough.  

So, to protect against that, we’ll do most of the mixing while we form and fold our dough on the work surface. Not only does this make for a tender biscuit, but as you saw, we also get lots of beautifully buttery layers.

These are amazing with just plain butter, but for a little seasonal twist, I made a pomegranate spread, and have explained how to do that below. No matter what you serve this with, I really do hope you give these amazing sweet potato biscuits a try soon Enjoy!

Ingredients for 8 large or 12 normally sized Sweet Potato Biscuits:

1 1/2 cup mashed orange sweet potatoes (cooked in well-salted water, drained thoroughly)

3 1/4 cups *self-rising flour 
(*if using all-purpose flour, add 4 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1 1/2 tsp fine salt)

1 rounded tablespoon brown sugar

12 tablespoons ice cold butter, grated in

1/2 cup buttermilk

For the pomegranate spread:

4 tablespoons room temp butter

1 teaspoon pomegranate syrup, aka pomegranate molasses (you can make your own by reducing juice until it thickens)

1 teaspoon fresh pomegranate juice, for a better color

fresh pomegranate seeds to garnish

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Canelés de Bordeaux (Crispy Baked French Custards) – Hold the Mold!

I’ve wanted to do a Canelés de Bordeaux video forever, but just never got around to buying the specially designed molds that they require. After seeing a picture of them online a few days ago, I decided this would be the week, and headed out to the one store near me I knew carried the necessary hardware.

Since it was actually a hardware store that also carries lots of kitchen equipment, I figured they would have the beeswax, as well. I’ve been in that store at least a hundred times, and I would anyways see the canelé molds beckoning me, but never pulled trigger, since I was usually looking for something else.

So, you can imagine my shock when I walked down that aisle, as I’d done so many times before, only to find they were no longer stocked. Thanks a lot, Amazon. Anyway, purely out of spite, I decided to make them anyway, using a regular muffin pan, and the results were pretty amazing.

As long as you cook them long enough, the muffin tin works great, assuming you don’t care about getting the classic shape. Since this was an experiment, I only did six, but I’ve scaled the recipe below to make 12. I’m not sure how many real canelé molds this recipe will fill, but it’s probably close to that. Either way, I really hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 Canelé de Bordeaux:

2 cups whole milk

2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon unsalted butter

1 cup white granulated sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or 1/8 teaspoon of fine salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup rum

For greasing pan:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons beeswax

- Bake at 450 F. for 10 minutes, then at 375 F. for about 50 minutes more, or until well browned.

-- NOTE: These only stay crispy for about 8 hours. So, fair warning if you plan to make them a day ahead. I've never tried to re-crisp. 

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Sourdough Bread: Part 2 – The Finished Loaf

Welcome to part two in this series for how to make your own sourdough bread, using nothing more than flour, water, a little salt, and a whole lot of time. 

Yes, making your own sourdough does take a while, but the amount of actual work is minimal, and the bread you’ll get is spectacular…at least in San Francisco. Your results may vary.

While I’ve made sourdough before, I’ve never actually had to provide specific measurements, which is why I’ll credit Northwest Sourdoughonce again, since the amounts below were slightly adapted from there. Speaking of which, anything you’re not sure about after watching this, can be cleared up by visiting Teresa’s amazing channel.

If you don’t have a banneton, you can simply line a similarly sized bowl with a tightly woven cotton kitchen towel, which has been generously coated with rice flour. I’ve used that before, and it works exactly the same. The only difference is the wooden basket “breathes,” unlike a metal bowl, but I don’t think that’s a huge deal.

Since the wild yeast and bacteria that make this bread work vary from one part of the country/world to another, I can’t guarantee you’ll get the same results I did, but nevertheless, I really do think you should try anyway. In fact, if you do have some success, I’d love to see the results posted on Twitter for all to see.  Good luck, and as always, enjoy!

Ingredients for one loaf:

100 grams starter

250 grams water

8 grams kosher salt

394 grams white bread flour

(You’ll also need rice flour for the 10-inch banneton)

- Let ferment for 4 hours, “folding” at the 2 hour mark

- Form loaf and transfer into prepped banneton

- “Retard” dough in fridge for 10-12 hours

- Let rise in warm spot for 3 to 5 hours or until it passes “poke test”

- Bake at 450 F. for 25 to 30 minutes

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Sourdough Bread: Part 1 – Let’s Get This Started

Welcome to part one of a two part video series for how to make sourdough bread, with nothing more than flour and water. If you’re thinking I already did this before, well, we did, sort of. I did a multi-part series for this long ago, but it was horribly shot, confusing, and the results weren’t good. Other than that, it was fine.

Anyway, thanks to an amazing refresher course from Northwest Sourdough (which I highly recommend you check out, and subscribe to), I decided to take those videos down, and do an updated, 2-part recipe. There’s really nothing like homemade sourdough, and notwithstanding the time it takes for your starter to mature, it’s a very simple, and easy process.

The exact number of grams seen herein doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re using exactly the same amount of flour and water, by weight. I picked 70 grams, since it seemed like a nice amount to film, but the ratio is really the key. Same goes for the types of flour used. I like half spelt, and half bread flour, but this will work with pretty much any combination, including all wheat flour.

I never like to get too deep in the weeds when showing a technique, so if you do want all the Latin terms, and detailed explanations for what exactly is happening here, there are endless resources online. All I care about is that this works. After the second day, toss away half your mixture, feed with equal parts flour and water, wait for the microorganisms to do their thing. Stay tuned for part two, or as I call it the good part, where we’re going to make a loaf of incredibly beautiful, tasty bread, and as always, enjoy!

Day 1: combined 70 g *water and 70 g flour

Day 2: add 70 g water and 70 g flour

Day 3: discard 140 g of your starter, and feed with 70 g water and 70 g flour

Day 4 until maybe Day 10: repeat the step above, every day, until your starter smells fruity, yeasty, and beautifully fermented.

- Test by seeing if the mixture doubles within 2 to 3 hours after feeding. 

-- All this is based on you keeping the mixture at 70°. If it’s cooler than that this will take longer, and if it’s warmer it may ferment too fast, although I’m not sure if that’s a problem.

Note: Once done, you can store in the fridge until needed. Most people recommend you feed it once a month or so.

* For best results, use bottled water, as chlorine can kill the yeast/bacteria.

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Lebanese Mountain Bread – A Peak Flatbread Experience

As promised, here is my take on Lebanese Mountain Bread. There are so many reasons why I love this simple bread. There’s the unique texture, gorgeous appearance, and fun-to-make technique, but discovering this also helped me solve a culinary mystery from my childhood.

I used to spend a lot of time at my grandmothers house as a toddler, and every once an a while she would give me something called “Syrian bread,” which was made by a neighbor across the street. It was one of my earliest food memories, and at the time, probably my favorite thing to eat. It was just so much different than the sliced white bread, or crusty Italian bread I was used to eating.

However, the Syrian lady across the street must have been the only person in the area that knew how to make it, since, once she was gone, so was the bread. Over the years, I tried many versions, but I never did come across that exact same experience, and assumed it was lost to history, until I saw something online called Lebanese Mountain Bread, which looked remarkably similar.

After a few (dozen) experiments, I finally nailed it down, and was suddenly transported back to grandma’s kitchen. By the way, this might be as close to a time machine as we ever get. Fair warning, it may take a little practice stretching the dough over the bowl (or Lebanese mountain bread pillow), but your efforts will be richly rewarded, so I really do hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 8 portions Lebanese Mountain Bread:

1/2 cup bread flour

1 teaspoon dry active yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup warm water

then add:

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon fine salt)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup bread flour, plus more as needed

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Chicken Foccaccia

Ingredients:

For the dough:

3 cups All Purpose Flour 

1tbs Active Dry Yeast                  
1 tsp Salt                    
1 tbs Olive Oil            
1cup Water


Toppings:
1/4 Cup Green Olives
1 Cup Shredded Chicken
1 Sliced Onion
1 Diced Tomato
1 TSP Dried Basil
1 TSP Dried Oregano
Red Cayenne Pepper flakes (optional)

Yield: Makes two 12 inch Focaccias or one big Focaccia.

   

Method: 

1. Heat 1 cup of water for 35 seconds in the microwave. It should feel lukewarm on your wrist. Mix 1 tbs active dry yeast and 1 tsp granulated sugar. If the yeast is active within 3 - 4 minutes it would become frothy and begin to rise to the surface, otherwise it will be flat which means it is stale so should not be used for baking. 

2. In a food processor pulse to combine 3 cups of sifted all purpose flour and salt. Pour the yeast solution through the feed tube and pulse 3 or 4 times until well incorporated and the whole mixture forms a ball. Add 1 tbs olive oil and pulse for 2 - 3 seconds till the dough becomes springy and starts to spin which means it is kneaded enough.

3. Remove the dough from the food processor bowl and with greased hands shape it into a ball by gathering towards the bottom and pinching to close, then place it in a greased bowl, cover with a lid or plastic wrap and leave it in a warm dry place on the counter to rise - 45 minutes to an hour till it is double in size. But yes, you have to check to see if your dough passed the window pane test. Donna Currie in her article on Serious Eats describes how to test "if the gluten has developed well enough for it to hold the bubbles while it rises, and stretch even more as the gases expand from the heat."

4. Place the puffed up dough in the centre of a greased pizza pan and slowly start spreading the dough  outward by pressing gently and evenly with the tip of your fingers greased with olive oil till it covers  the entire circumference of the pizza pan and is shaped into a 12 - 14 inch circle as big as the pizza  pan. Alternatively you could just press the dough on a lightly floured surface and start working on it with your fingers using the same technique till you stretch it to form a 12 - 14 inch circle. Transfer to a pizza pan or stone. 

5. Drizzle olive oil generously on the surface of the crust, then with the help of a fork prick everywhere. Alternatively you could use your fingers to make depressions all over. This is done to prevent the bubbles from popping up while baking.

6. Sprinkle dried oregano and basil on the crust.  Then use toppings of your choice. Below are pictures of focaccia with different toppings.

7. The focaccia in the above picture has shredded chicken, diced fresh tomatoes, onions, green olives as toppings. 

8. Focaccia with Mushrooms, Black Olives and Mozzarella Cheese. 

9. Sun Dried Tomatoes and Onions focaccia.

10. Portobello Mushrooms and Cheddar Cheese Focaccia. Enjoy!

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Hot Cross Buns – Mother Goose Would Love These

Pretty much all I know about hot cross buns, I learned from the nursery rhyme, but thanks to a recipe I found on Anson Mills, I was still able to make a fairly decent batch. Including real crosses, not to be confused with dinner rolls on which an icing cross has been piped.

In addition to its eye-catching appearance, the dough-based “cross” provides an interesting textual contrast, as it gets sort of chewy, and crispy edged.

Like I said in the video, any sweet dough will work with this easy technique, especially rich, and fragrant examples, like our Italian Easter Bread dough. Times may vary, but regardless of the dough, simply wait for the dough to double in size, and proceed.

If you want to get all your buns the same size, weight your dough in grams before dividing, and then divide by 16. Then, weight each of your dough balls to that exact amount, and boom, your tray of buns will look like the ones you saw on that magazine cover. Or, just eyeball it and take your chances. Either way, I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 15 or 16 Hot Cross Buns:

Recipe slightly adapted from this one from Anson Mills

1/4 cup currants, soaked in hot rum for an hour or two

3/4 cup milk warmed to 100 F.

1 package dry active yeast

1 tablespoon each orange and lemon zest

7 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

3 cups bread *flour, plus more if needed

* hold back a little of the flour until you sure you need it. You can always add, but can’t remove!

For the crosses:

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more to make a thin, pipe-able dough

- Bake at 425 F. for about 15 minutes

For the glaze:

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons water

- Cook syrup to 225 F., and brush over warm

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Hot Cross Buns – Mother Goose Would Love These

Pretty much all I know about hot cross buns, I learned from the nursery rhyme, but thanks to a recipe I found on Anson Mills, I was still able to make a fairly decent batch. Including real crosses, not to be confused with dinner rolls on which an icing cross has been piped.

In addition to its eye-catching appearance, the dough-based “cross” provides an interesting textual contrast, as it gets sort of chewy, and crispy edged.

Like I said in the video, any sweet dough will work with this easy technique, especially rich, and fragrant examples, like our Italian Easter Bread dough. Times may vary, but regardless of the dough, simply wait for the dough to double in size, and proceed.

If you want to get all your buns the same size, weight your dough in grams before dividing, and then divide by 16. Then, weight each of your dough balls to that exact amount, and boom, your tray of buns will look like the ones you saw on that magazine cover. Or, just eyeball it and take your chances. Either way, I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 15 or 16 Hot Cross Buns:

Recipe slightly adapted from this one from Anson Mills

1/4 cup currants, soaked in hot rum for an hour or two

3/4 cup milk warmed to 100 F.

1 package dry active yeast

1 tablespoon each orange and lemon zest

7 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

3 cups bread *flour, plus more if needed

* hold back a little of the flour until you sure you need it. You can always add, but can’t remove!

For the crosses:

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more to make a thin, pipe-able dough

- Bake at 425 F. for about 15 minutes

For the glaze:

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons water

- Cook syrup to 225 F., and brush over warm

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Irish Cheddar Spring Onion Biscuits - They Only Sound Irish

I’ve received many food wishes for cheddar biscuits over the years, which I used to think was odd, until I learned about a certain version served in America’s most famous chain of lobster restaurants. I eventually got to try this casual dining delicacy, and while it really wasn’t that bad, it wasn’t great either, and I pledged to take the idea, and create a new and improved cheddar biscuit. That was like five years ago.

So, why all of a sudden the newfound interest? Two simple reasons. First, I had some gorgeous Irish cheddar in the fridge. Secondly, it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day, and the search engines demand something Irish, or at least something that sounds Irish. So, I combined those two facts, and decided it was time to make cheddar biscuits that would rival those at the aforementioned crustacean sensation. I know, a very high bar.

All kidding aside, these really did come out quite well, and I think that’s because we didn’t just mix the cheese into the dough. By layering and folding the cheese in, a la puff pastry, we get all the cheesy flavor, without making the biscuit too dense. Sure takes a few extra minutes, but I thought it was worth the effort. So, whether you’re going to make these for St. Patrick’s Day, or not, I really do hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 12 Irish Cheddar Spring Onion Biscuits:

*2 cups self-rising flour, plus more if needed

1/4 teaspoon baking soda
7 tablespoons very cold butter

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup shredded Irish cheddar, or other sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup sliced green onions (I used mostly the tender, light green parts)

-Bake at 400 F. for about 20 minutes

* To make your own self-rising flour for this recipe, sift together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon fine salt.

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