Back with Buttery Brioche

Even though I knew it's been awhile since my last blog, I'm amazed to see it's been over a month! I haven't blogged since we moved...I've been busy with work, unpacking, rugby, a wonderful visit from one of my closest friends, testing out gyms/yoga studios, bike shopping, and Project "make the house a home" which is my effort to make our new place comfortable and welcoming. I've had enough with temporary living arrangements - knowing the next move is just around the corner - so with our new place, we're hanging all our artwork/wall frames, putting up curtains, buying new furniture (our old couch did not make it up the narrow staircase into our apartment) and generally making it a home for a young couple (hopefully family relatively soon). I'm rediscovering my love for decorating and enjoying the results.

But all of this settling in is no excuse for ignoring my blog. I am now back and recommitted to blogging since the holidays are drawing near, and the oven will be turned on regularly to bake up

a variety of deliciousness. I actually have been baking a fair amount since we moved, but nothing's been blog-worthy. Cookies, healthy apple muffins for work, cornbread - just run of the mill goods not worth sharing. But this week's baking adventure is definitely worth sharing - Bubble-Top Brioches - a Dorie Greenspan recipe from the October 2009 issue of Bon Appetit.

Dorie claims that this is "Brioche Made Easy" and if this is easy, I'd hate to put in the time and effort to make brioche at the normal level of difficulty. But as I think about it, it really wasn't too hard - just time consuming - and the outcome was more than worth the effort.

That is a photo of our fantastic dinner tonight - country style pork ribs with an apple & onion chutney, zucchini, and brioche rolls. Okay, so Chris's beautiful pork ribs only get a small corner of that photo while my brioche took center stage - but check out the light and even crumb on those rolls! Sometimes I admit I get a bit too excited about baking...

I started the brioche yesterday late afternoon. Making the brioche dough is really time consuming since it needs a lot of mixing, and you need to incorporate the butter a tablespoon at a time (and with 12 tablespoons of butter in the recipe, this is not a quick process). I passed the time standing by the mixer periodically tossing in small pieces of butter by sipping on a Leinie's and looking out our kitchen window at the Mystic River as the sun set on a beautiful fall day. It was strangely satisfying and enjoyable.

The brioche dough rested overnight, and I pulled it out this morning, cut, rolled and put the dough into the muffin tins:

And after a final rise and 20 minutes in the oven, I was left with delectable, buttery rolls. One of the best parts of this recipe is how beautiful the rolls are. No molds required - just smash 3 small dough balls into a muffin tin, and you come out with beautiful bubble tops. I was thinking about making these rolls for Thanksgiving since my parents will be coming out to Boston, but given the time intensive nature of brioche and the number of other dishes we'll be making, I think I'll go with biscuits or cornbread. But the brioche rolls will make another appearance in the future - they are definitely worth taking the time to make again!

Bubble-Top Brioches

From Bon Appetit, October 2009

Dorie Greenspan

1/4 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)

1/4 cup warm whole milk (110-115 degrees)

3 teaspoons active dry yeast

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 large egg beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water (for glaze)

Combine 1/4 cup warm water and warm milk in bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Sprinkle yeast over and stir to moisten evenly. Let stand until yeast dissolves, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.

Add flour and salt to yeast mixture. Blend at medium-low speed until shaggy lumps form, scraping down the side of the bowl occasionally, 1 to 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Beat in sugar. Increase mixer speed to medium; beat until dough is smooth, about 3 minutes.

Reduce speed to low. Add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until blended after each addition (dough will be soft and silky). Increase speed to medium-high and beat until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and climbs paddles, about 8 to 9 minutes.

Lightly butter large bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 75 to 90 minutes.

Gently deflate dough by lifting around edges, then letting dough fall back into bowl, turning bowl and repeating as needed. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and chill, deflating dough in same way every 30 minutes until dough stops rising, about 2 hours. Chill overnight.

Butter 12 standard (1/3 cup) muffin cups. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces; cut each piece into thirds. Roll each small piece into a ball. Place 3 balls in each prepared cup. Place muffin pan in warm draft-free area; lay sheet of waxed paper over. Let dough rise until light and almost doubled in size, 50-60 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400. Place muffin pan on cookie sheet. Gently brush egg glaze over risen dough, being careful that glaze does not drip between dough and pan. Bake brioches until golden brown, covering with foil if browning too quickly, about 20 minutes. Transfer pan to rack. Cool 10 minutes. Remove brioches from pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Arlington Here We Come

It's been a wild month of work, travel & apartment hunting. I'm happy to report that Chris and I found a great new place in Arlington and are planning to rent a U-haul to move next Sunday!

For those who are not familiar with Boston-area geography, Arlington is a northwest suburb of Boston between Cambridge, where Chris works, and Lexington, where I work. Instead of commuting 1 hour 20 minutes each way on the T and bus, I'll either hop in my car and drive the 5+ miles to work or hop on my bike (which is yet to be purchased but will be soon) and enjoy fresh air & exercise on my way to work. Chris's commute will be about the same length, and he'll also be able to bike to work or take public transportation.

We'll have the 2nd and 3rd floors of a 2-family house. The second floor has 2 nice sized bedrooms, bright and open living and dining rooms, a mini pantry, a really tacky bathroom with green tile, front and back enclosed porches, and a somewhat outdated kitchen. The third floor consists of two "bonus" rooms that we aren't quite sure what to do with, but I'm starting to fantasize about a quiet reading room. We also have a garage space! With a driveway! And I've gotten clearance to break up some of the backyard grass and put in a garden next spring. We'll also have crazy old Greek next-door neighbors who have a large garden of their own, just like we do now. The big question mark is how the kitchen will work for us since it's pretty outdated. The stove is old, which makes me a bit nervous. But the kitchen is big enough that we can bring some shelving in to handle our voluminous kitchen items, and worse comes to worse, we can just purchase a new stove. I will not be stopped from baking as much as possible while we're living there!

From what I know about Arlington so far, I think it will be a great community for us. It's close to Boston but not as dense & urban as Dorchester, so I think it will be a more comfortable living environment for me. I can handle living in a gritty area, but it does get tiring. Perhaps I'm getting old and stodgy, but I just want a nice, family-oriented neighborhood with real lawns and a little space between houses. Fortunately, Arlington offers that along with a vibrant restaurant scene and easy access to Boston. When we were looking at buying a house a couple of months ago, we targeted our search to properties in Arlington. We decided that they are out of reach financially right now, but renting in Arlington will allow us to determine if it's a good community for us to potentially raise a family.

Chris and I decided to start testing out our new neighborhood even before we move there & trekked out to Arlington for dinner last night at a Mexican place not far from our new house called Zocalo. I was really hungry and giddy after the Twins exciting victory over the Royals! My first impression of the restaurant was very positive -- it was packed, really cute, and the kitchen was open for all to see. I always feel more confident in a restaurant where you can see the kitchen - that way you know they aren't hiding anything!

We got a table relatively quickly and ordered a vegetable tamale to split as an appetizer. The corn meal and salsa verde were excellent - fresh & the perfect amount of kick - but I was a bit disappointed in the vegetables. It seemed like they used a frozen blend of green beans, carrots, corn & peas in the tamale. I can make frozen vegetables at home. If I'm paying someone else to prepare my food, I want to at least have freshly prepared vegetables. Overall I enjoyed the tamale, but it would have been better with just the corn meal & salsa verde. Or we should have just ordered a meat tamale.

Zocalo more than made up for the use of frozen vegetables with the quality of their entrees, which were fantastic. I ordered the Camarones al mojo de ajo (jumbo shrimp w/ pico de gallo and chipotle sauce) served with rice and black beans. The shrimp were perfectly cooked and swimming in a lovely, slightly spicy tomato based sauce. Anyone who knows me well would take one look at that dish and know that I would really enjoy it. Chris had the Cochinita Pibil, which was shredded, braised pork with tomato, orange, onion, chiles & chipotle sauce, also served with rice & beans. I had a small bite of the pork and was really impressed. It was also quite reasonably priced - the appetizer, two entrees, a glass of wine for me and a beer for Chris came to $51 including tax and tip. Not bad for a Saturday night dinner out.

We topped off the evening by getting ice cream at a little ice cream shop inside the Capitol Theater in Arlington. We really didn't need ice cream after a delicious and filling Mexican dinner, but something creamy & delicious sounded perfect after the spicy dinner. It was a really pleasant evening & I look forward to life in Arlington starting soon!

At Last, Banana Bread is Back

In early August, two events piqued my interest in baking banana bread: 1) the discovery of Kate's Butter, and 2) the first real heatwave of the summer. Event #1 made me want to bake banana bread because a slice is not complete without a thin, creamy layer of butter. And Kate's Butter brings a whole new level of enjoyment to the butter eating experience. Event #2 made me want to bake banana bread because the hot, humid weather quickly produced an excess supply of ripe bananas, all of which went straight to the freezer, ready for baking. I strive not to waste food, and since we don't have a compost pile, baking bread was the best use of bananas. I must admit that I wasted several bananas a few weeks ago when I took them out of the freezer, planning to bake bread that day, and the 90 degree weather thwarted my plans to turn on the oven. The slug-like, defrosted bananas did not survive in my refrigerator for long and ended up in the trash.

So somehow it's now early September, a full month since my initial desire to bake banana bread. And finally this weekend the heavens have aligned and are allowing me to turn on the oven and bake some banana bread. The weather is beautiful - sunny yet cool enough to turn on the oven, and I'm so wiped out from the past few weeks that yesterday I didn't want to do much other than sleep, read, work out, cook, & bake. And that's exactly what I did (along with grocery shopping, many loads of laundry, and a trip up to the North End for a pizza lunch at Galleria Umberto - maybe it was a full day after all...).

But the banana bread baking was a highlight of the day. Chris and I were out of our initial Kate's Butter purchase (thanks to Grandpa's Birthday Cake and sweet corn consumption), so I picked some up at Stop & Shop (a cool $3.99/pound instead of Whole Food's $5.29/pound). It was so good with the banana bread - definitely worth the long wait.

I have tried many, many banana bread recipes over the years, and I keep coming back to this one. I find it extremely moist, flavorful and reliable. It comes out well every time I make it (and despite my inability to bake over the past month, I bake banana bread fairly often). The cinnamon really sings out, and the oats provide a hearty complexity (not to mention healthy goodness).

Banana Oatmeal Bread

Adapted from Cooking Light

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 7 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/3 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 medium)
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup milk (I use skim since that's what we have around, but any kind would do)
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl; beat well at medium speed of a mixer. Combine banana, oats, and milk; add to sugar mixture, beating well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir with a whisk. Add to sugar mixture; beat until just moist. Spoon batter into 9x5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for about 1 hour or until a pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Flipping the Switch

At my cousin's wedding in MN last weekend

A few weeks ago, I flipped the switch from a life of unemployment, complete with time to read books outside in the sunshine, to a life of long commutes, a stressful work environment, and no time to bake or watch baseball and therefore no material for my blog. Hence my lack of recent posts. I have faith that after I complete a couple of major work milestones in the next few weeks, I may indeed have time to bake and blog again. But for now, work calls, and the time that's not devoted to work is devoted to spending at least a little time with my husband & trying to get enough sleep. The joy of transition periods!

I'm trying to keep positive by focusing on:

1) having a job! with a bi-monthly paycheck! (although they messed up my first paycheck and only paid me for 4 of the 10 days that should have been included - sad day)

2) living closer to work at some point in the relatively near future. Oct. 15 or Nov. 1 is the goal to move away from the gritty urban Dorchester environment to the lovely NW suburbs. Arlington = Edina in my mind, & I've discovered I'm just not cut out for inner-city life (no surprise there).

3) the reasons why this is my favorite time of year - baseball playoffs approaching, football, wonderful fresh & local produce. I have a BLT pretty much every time Chris is at rugby practice - since he doesn't like tomatoes, BLTs are not dinner fare for the both of us. But even though Chris doesn't like my favorite fruit, he did go to the Cambridge farmer's market on Monday and bought me a bunch of beautiful heirloom tomatoes (I never get flowers from Chris, but can't complain when I get tomatoes).

4) I realized today that I may have enough comp. time built up after the next couple of weeks that I won't have to take any vacation days to go to Chris's sister's wedding at the end of September. Which opens up more vacation time for the holidays and beyond. Chris and I are planning to go on our first real vacation this winter just the two of us since our honeymoon well over 2 years ago. Likely destination = Bahamas or Aruba. Woot!

This weekend, I do plan to bake the banana bread that I've been unable to find the time to bake for weeks. And I will post lovely pictures and the recipe. Look for this on Sunday.

Favorite Time of Year

I realized about a week ago, as I looked at the calendar in disbelief that we're well into August, that early August to late September is my favorite time of year. Here are my reasons:

1) The MLB season is getting interesting. Playoff speculation is starting to actually mean something. I'm sad that the Twins seem to be fading from playoff contention, but watching a baseball game between contending teams in mid-August is much more interesting than any baseball game in May or June. Baseball questions on my mind right now: Will the Phillies stop losing games like the one they lost yesterday to Atlanta in the bottom of the 9th and win the NL East again? Will Pedro Martinez fit into the rotation or will they go back to Jamie Moyer? Can the Twins stop the bleeding and start winning games again? How will their rotation shape up at the end of the season and what can they anticipate for next year? Will the Twins sign Mauer to a long term deal in the off-season or will they continue their small market ways and not offer him the big bucks that he deserves? I don't have answers to these questions, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it will all play out.

2) Football is back. By late fall, I typically lose most of my interest in football, but there's something magical about the first month or so of the football season. Both NFL & college football have their charm, but I most enjoy college football. I have issues with the amount of money that D1 colleges and universities spend on sports, particularly football, but when I watch a football game on a Saturday afternoon, my negative feelings tend to get swept away by the fun of watching a game. I love to turn ESPN's College Game Day on as I drink coffee on a Saturday morning and laugh at the ridiculous college kids yelling in the background.

3) The massive amounts of available fresh local produce. My happiness post earlier this week shows just how much I appreciate the fresh tomatoes available (my own and others) right now, but there's also peaches, nectarines, beets, melons, lettuce, zucchini and corn at farmers' markets in the NE. Cooking is never better than it is this time of year.

4) The weather. I love how hot, summer-like days are often followed by cool, fall-like days this time of year (at least at 'home' in MN and here in Boston). Today was the hot, summer-like variety. Chris and I sweated buckets (although I'm sure my bucket was smaller than his) playing a couple of sets of tennis this morning. We started around 9:30am, thinking it would be early enough to avoid the heat, but by the time we finished after 11am, it was seriously hot and muggy - over 90 degrees. I love the heat and am actually rather tan this year (at least for me), thanks to unemployment. But the 10 day forecast shows temperatures back into the mid-70s, which will feel nice after this heat wave. The only problem with the heat today was that I couldn't fire up the oven to make banana bread today as planned, deferring to my husband's reasonable desire not to add 350 degree oven heat to our already hot house.

5) Back to school. Or in my case, back to work. Tomorrow is my first day at my new job, and I feel almost like I'm about to start another year of school. I've already put together my 1st day outfit, and I'll pack my lunch later tonight. I have a few jitters, just like I had before school started, but am mostly excited. Though not about my 1 hour 20 minute commute each way. Even in the few years when I wasn't starting a new year of school or a new job this time of year, there's a buzz to 'back to school' time - a fresh start for those going back to school, and an intensification in the working world as people return from summer vacations and kick back into gear.

So there you have it. My favorite time of year. I'm trying to soak it all up and enjoy the next few weeks. Look for a banana bread post soon - if the bananas I defrosted this morning survive a few days in the fridge!

Grandpa Gene's Birthday Cake

One of the unfortunate things about living far from family is missing out on fun family gatherings. My Grandpa Gene turned 88 years old last weekend, and my Aunt and Uncle hosted a birthday party in MN to celebrate this big occasion. I feel a bit of a pang when I think about everyone gathered on a summer day in south Minneapolis, the low-flying planes landing at nearby MSP interrupting conversation, and lots of laughs and interesting chats shared over good food and a couple of drinks. I truly treasure time spent with my extended family. Chris and I will be flying to MN the last weekend of August for my cousin's wedding, and I'm so excited to see everyone! It will be our first time back in MN since we moved.

Chris and I may not have been able to attend my Grandpa's birthday party, but I thought I should bake a cake in tribute to my Grandpa Gene. I set out to bake the best cake ever, since my Grandpa is quite possibly the best Grandpa ever. This meant buying the best ingredients I could find. I read an article in the Boston Globe a couple of weeks ago about a butter producer in Maine, Kate's Butter, which crafts incredible butter, in small batches only, with dairy products from local farms. Kate's Butter is not sold at Stop & Shop, which meant a trip on the T to Whole Foods, where I bought a pound of Kate's for a pretty price, along with free-range organic brown eggs.

I used a yellow cake recipe from my favorite blog, yes, Smitten Kitchen. I was especially excited about this recipe because it uses a significant amount of buttermilk in the batter. I have been on a serious buttermilk kick for the past several months, using it regularly for my standard bread recipe. I've used buttermilk in cakes a few times, like this every day cake, and always am satisfied with the results. So I had high hopes for this yellow cake, and hoped that Smitten Kitchen's proclaimed best birthday cake would meet my expectations.

I wasn't disappointed. I don't think I've ever had my cakes come out of the oven looking and smelling so beautiful. My new blog header is a photograph of the cakes fresh out of the oven. Maybe it was the top of the line butter and eggs, maybe it was simply the use of 2 cups of buttermilk, but I achieved my goal of baking the best (at least the best from my oven) birthday cake ever in honor of my Grandpa Gene. I used the chocolate frosting recipe that I used for Chris's birthday cake back in May, which paired perfectly with the yellow cake.

This cake will definitely be baked for future birthday occasions - and every August 9 - for my Grandpa Gene's birthday.

Burger Blast from the Past

I have had a checkered relationship with burgers over the years. Until last night, I hadn't eaten a hamburger since 2003. But as a child I absolutely loved burgers. Hockey puck-style off the grill at home, juicy cheeseburgers at sports bars, even McDonalds. I wrote an autobiography in 4th grade (why 4th graders are assigned to write an autobiography, I don't know) in which I stated that my favorite meal was a hamburger at a loud, crowded restaurant. Burgers retained their solid spot in my diet throughout high school. But as I entered my college years, I started paying more attention to what I ate and gradually eliminated certain foods from my diet that I didn't feel were healthy. After a greasy cheeseburger at the Reub in the spring of my sophomore year left me with a vicious stomachache, I entirely eliminated red meat from my diet. That was 2001. I had one hamburger at a summer cook-out at my college boyfriend's Cincinnati home right after I graduated in 2003, but since then I have completely avoided hamburgers.

Over the past year or so, I've slowly reincorporated red meat into my diet. I consider myself somewhat of a foodie, and I want to experience food of all kinds. I eliminated red meat from my diet for health reasons, but my food philosophy has changed in recent years to focus on moderation. I no longer think eliminating certain types of food is the answer to eating healthy - the answer is eating moderate portions of whole, natural foods (processed food products, however, have been mostly eliminated from my diet). Even though I've reincorporated some red meat, I still hadn't eaten a burger until last night.

So, why did I finally take the leap into eating last night's burger (pictured beautifully above)? Chris and I recently started subscribing to Saveur magazine. The September 2009 issue is "The Burger Bible." I sat down to read through it last week, and after about 5 minutes, the burger photography and accompanying article gave me a fierce craving for a burger. This was a really strange sensation after 6 years without ever feeling like eating a burger. I thought it was time to give burgers a go again.

I told Chris about my burger craving, and he wondered if an alien had taken over my body. I assured him I'm not morphing into an entirely different person from the one he married, and asked him to craft a burger that he thought I would enjoy. He asked me to pick up the ingredients, so I hit up Stop & Shop, had second thoughts as I purchased a package of ground beef, but forged ahead.

Chris's fantastic burger creation & Cecily's reintroduction to burger enjoyment:

Step 1: Saute a chopped onion in butter & oil until soft and browned.

Step 2: Incorporated the onions into 85/15 ground beef, season with pepper and some other spices that Chris hid from me, form the patties.

Step 3: Grill the burgers until medium-well done, along with a cleaned portobello mushroom cap.

Step 4: Assemble the burgers from bottom to top -- bun, sliced portobello mushroom, burger, blue cheese crumbles, arugula, bun.

My burger was cooked to a juicy medium-well, with a lovely char from the grill. The blue cheese was heavenly as it melted into the bun, the arugula provided some peppery fresh flavor, and the portobello mushroom lent a rich, earthy flavor. It was lovely. Thanks to Chris for his solid execution. I'm not going to start eating burgers regularly, but I don't think it will be another 6 years before I have another one!