Multigrain Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Posted on October 15, 2024 by angelamara

Okay, don’t panic about the pretty design on this bread; you don’t have to do that, but you can still make this very easy and delicious multigrain sourdough bread in twenty-four hours or less, from beginning to end!

I am just a bit obsessed with this recipe. I have been playing around with quantities for a while now, as well as methods, and I’m super happy with this final result. This bread is soft and chewy and flavorful, and it stays fresh for several days. It makes the perfect PB&J, as well as amazing toast and grilled cheese sandwiches. I couldn’t be happier about it!

I originally started out with a recipe that called for soaking the grains and then pouring off the extra water. The problem with that was that it was not consistent depending on how long the grains had soaked, how well I was able to pour off the excess water, etc. And to make things more difficult, I had to then mix the soaked grains into the already prepared dough. This is a messy, sloppy business that I do not enjoy! So here is my solution: mix the grains into the starter and water mixture before adding the flour! And get this: soaking the grains is optional!! And if you do soak the grains, you only use the amount of water necessary; no pouring off! Whew. I don’t know if this is the correct method, but it works for me! The directions I am including below include pre-soaking the grains, because I think the bread is a little bit better that way.

Without the pretty design: still delicious!

Multigrain Sourdough Sandwich Bread

  • 270 grams filtered water, room temperature
  • 65 grams active, bubbly sourdough starter
  • 1 tablespoon (12 grams) sugar or honey
  • 1 tablespoon (15 grams) olive oil
  • 420 grams bread flour*
  • 30 grams whole wheat flour or whole grain spelt flour*
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon (9 grams) salt
  • 70 grams Bob’s Red Mill 8 Grain Hot Cereal*
  • 60 grams boiling water
  1. Sometime during the day, place the 8 Grain cereal into a small bowl, and mix in the 60 grams boiling water until well combined. Cover and set aside.
  2. In the evening (I do this around bedtime), in a medium sized mixing bowl, mix together the 270 grams water, 65 grams starter, tablespoon oil, and tablespoon sugar. Stir with a fork until milky and starter has been well mixed in.
  3. Add in the soaked grains and mix well.
  4. Add in the 420 grams bread flour, 30 grams whole wheat flour, and 9 grams salt, and stir until all the flour has been absorbed. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
  5. After the dough has rested, mix once more until dough is smooth and slightly springy. I do this by pulling the dough from the side of the bowl with a wet hand, and bringing it toward the center and pressing it in. Continue all the way around the bowl a couple of times. Flip the dough over so the smooth side is up. Cover and let rise overnight on your kitchen counter.
  6. In the morning, about 7 to 8 hours later for my kitchen, dough will have doubled and still be domed. (Depending on your kitchen temperature and the strength of your starter, your rise time may vary.) Scrape dough onto a floured surface. Spread it into a rectangle. Starting with a short side, bring the two corners together to make a point, then roll it up like a cinnamon roll, brushing off excess flour as you go. Tuck ends under and let rest a few minutes.
  7. While the dough is resting, butter or oil a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan (I love my USA pan loaf pan that I got from King Arthur Baking Company). It must be the 9″ x 5″ size! Place your loaf into the pan and cover (I like to use one of those food-safe shower cap type covers that I also got from King Arthur Baking Company). Let dough rise for one to two hours, until it has risen to just one inch above the rim of the pan. Don’t let it rise more than that!
  8. Preheat oven to 375°F. Uncover the dough. Optional: if you wish to make decorative cuts, sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour, then make very shallow cuts with a very sharp knife or razor blade in any design you like. Bake the bread on the center rack of your preheated 375° oven for approximately 45 minutes. Bread should be a golden brown color. Internal temperature should be around 205°F. Let cool in pan for ten minutes, then remove from pan and let cool completely on wire rack. This bread will slice up nicely on day #2. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Note: *I am currently using Cairnspring Mills Expresso bread flour, which is local here in the Pacific Northwest. If you are able to find a local flour, I highly recommend it! Otherwise, I have always had wonderful results using King Arthur brand flour. As far as the added grains, I love the Bob’s Red Mill brand, and they have a 7-grain, 8-grain, and 10-grain “hot cereal”.  I prefer the 8-Grain cereal because it has some larger grains in it which makes for a nice texture, but this recipe is pretty flexible, so just use whatever works for you. I find that the 10-grain requires a bit more water to soak properly than the 8-grain.

Below are some photos of the process.

First mix.

Second mix – nice and smooth!

Next morning, this is just right.

Spread it out into a rectangle.

Make a point by bringing corners together.

Start rolling it up.

Almost done.

A nice little loaf.

Plop into greased pan, seam side down.

Cover. I love these reusable covers!

Ready to go! It’s not perfectly even, but that’s okay.

Posted in Breads, Breads, Sourdough | 4 Comments

Blind-Baking (prebaking) Your Pie Crust

Posted on October 10, 2024 by angelamara

This post is long overdue. I have tried to avoid prebaking and parbaking pie crusts for a long time. I have tried the short cuts, more than I care to mention, and I have come to the conclusion that it really is worth the trouble to prebake a pie crust for things like pumpkin pie or quiche. No soggy bottoms here.

This piece of pie is turned on its side for a better view.

By the way, every step of the way, your pie pan should be on a cookie sheet. It makes it easier to take the crust in and out of the oven without crushing the edges, and it also helps with even baking. In the photos, the cookie sheet made a glare, so I took photos without. But for best results, use a cookie sheet under your pie pan the entire time!

What you will need to properly prebake your pie crust:

  • One homemade*, unbaked, rolled out, shaped, and crimped pie crust in pan, frozen.
  • Parchment paper or aluminum foil (I use parchment paper)
  • Cookie sheet
  • Pie weights, either dried beans or ceramic pie weights
  • Heatproof bowl
  • 1 egg yolk and pinch of salt

The unbaked pie crust is a work of art. If you want your pie crust to hold its shape, you will need to make it with shortening. An all-butter crust (which is what I prefer) will shrink a tiny bit, no matter how much you chill it. But chill it anyway, unless you want a disaster on your hands. And if you freeze it before baking it, you will have the most success for keeping the shape.

Note: *This method is only meant for homemade pie crusts. The frozen crusts you buy at the supermarket are not meant to be prebaked.

Pie crust is dreamy.

To blind-bake your crust, first make sure you have chilled your shaped crust in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, but a couple of hours is even better. Preheat your oven to 400°. Then you’ll want to line the frozen unbaked crust with parchment paper – I like to crumple it up first so that it fits better inside the pie shell. Make sure to cover the edges of the crust with the paper. Then fill with dried beans or pie weights. Lately I have been using ceramic pie weights and I really love them, but warning: you will need several packages of them just to barely fill a pie crust. I had them on my Christmas list last year.

Bank the pie weights up along the edges to prevent slouching.

Place your prepared pie crust on a cookie sheet and bake on the bottom rack of your 400° oven for 40 minutes, rotating the crust halfway through the bake time.

When 40 minutes is up, take pie crust out of the oven and carefully remove the parchment paper and pie weights by grabbing all four corners of the paper and lifting. Place paper and weights in a heatproof bowl.

When done prebaking, carefully put the paper and pie weights into a heatproof bowl.

Here’s how it looks so far, but we’re not done yet!

Almost done!

At this point, you will want to have ready an egg yolk mixed with a pinch of salt. The egg yolk will act as a barrier, protecting the crust from the wet filling. Brush the inside of the hot pie crust with the egg yolk, put a pie crust shield or foil around the edges, and put everything back in the oven for 1 minute, until the egg yolk is dry to the touch.

Egg yolk is brushed on before putting back in the oven.

After one minute in the oven, the egg yolk is now dry to the touch. This pie crust is ready to go!

Don’t worry if you think the bottom or edges are already perfectly baked and you don’t want them to bake more. When you pour the wet pumpkin pie filling or quiche filling into your crust and pop it back into the oven, the crust will not really bake any more at all. And you’ll just want to protect the edges of the pie crust with foil or a pie shield so you don’t end up with burnt edges.

This is ready to go into the oven!

The crust on this pumpkin pie is perfectly baked, not burnt at all! And I even over baked the pie by a few minutes (notice the crack). By the way, I have updated my pumpkin pie recipe, and really love it now, just in case you are looking for a good recipe.

A perfectly baked crust!

While we are here, can we talk for a minute about a well baked crust? Think about it. When you go to a bakery and order a croissant, do you want it to be soft and pale, or do you want it to be dark golden brown, with crispy flakes that explode when you bite into it? Well, this is what I want for my pie crusts too. You can make an absolutely perfect all-butter pie dough, but if you don’t properly bake the crust, it won’t be flaky. To quote the Joy of Cooking:

“We now believe that all prebaked pastry crusts must be fully baked before filling. Defying logic, the baked shells do not burn when baked a second time with their filling, though the edge does sometimes darken – a small price to pay for a deliciously crisp and flaky crust.”

Posted in Desserts, Fun in the kitchen!, Pie! | 4 Comments

Old School Peanut Butter Cookies

Posted on October 2, 2024 by angelamara

I know I wrote about peanut butter cookies not too long ago, and after I did, I didn’t make them again for quite some time. And when I did, I realized that although they were good, they still weren’t really what I was looking for. Trying to recreate a childhood food memory is so challenging! In talking with my sister Jane, we both agreed that those peanut butter cookies we used to enjoy were probably made with Crisco. It was very popular back then. She and I both shuddered, but the truth is, Crisco has its place, and it creates a texture that is hard to replicate using butter. It’s just true!

Dough is rich and crumbly.

So I opened up my mom’s Joy of Cooking to the peanut butter cookie recipe as a starting place. By the way, my mom’s Joy of Cooking is a cherished family heirloom. It is what my mom and we kids used for pretty much everything. It is the 1943 edition, and was given to my mom as a gift when she was in college. It is even signed by Irma Rombauer herself.

It is a gem, scribble marks included.

Although this book is falling apart, I don’t believe it should be treated as a museum piece. I absolutely love leafing through the pages and looking at the old recipes. I love coming across notes written by my mom. It’s as though she’s talking to me in one of my favorite languages: food! In the back, there are pages and pages of all kinds of notes, recipes, and even menu planning for dinner parties. I never tire of looking at them.

A treasure trove of my mother’s notes and favorite recipes.

At the beginning of each section is beautiful, whimsical silhouette-style artwork; so very lovely and old world.

I always love reading the “about” sections, so chock full of good information.

So even though I started out with the Joy of Cooking recipe (which uses butter), I decided to give it a go with Crisco. I also tweaked the measurements here and there, and I even added a special ingredient – smoky paprika! –  inspired by Sister Pie’s Peanut Butter Paprika Cookies. 

Love that classic criss-cross pattern.

I made these cookies again yesterday, just to make sure I had the details right. And I double checked oven temp and bake time. We had some plumbers over working on a pesky leak, so being in my kitchen seemed like the right thing to do. Even the cats had to stay out of their way.

The cats in their heated baskets are being very cooperative.

These cookies have a delightfully crunchy outer edge, they are rich like shortbread, and the center is nice and chewy… and the flavor is intensely peanut buttery. These are it!

Old School Peanut Butter Cookies

(Adapted from the 1942 Joy of Cooking recipe)

  • 1/3 cup (64 grams) Crisco*
  • 3/4 cup (198 grams) crunchy peanut butter (Jif or Skippy please**)
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/2 cup (180 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon smoky paprika*** (optional)
  1. Preheat oven to 350°, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, and paprika. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, beat together the Crisco, peanut butter, and sugars until lightened in color and creamy.
  4. Beat in the egg and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well incorporated.
  5. Add in the flour mixture and stir slowly, just until the flour is absorbed.
  6. Make 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls of dough (a cookie scoop makes this easy) and place on cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Flatten them just a little bit with your fingers to make chubby discs.
  7. Make criss-cross pattern in tops of cookies with a fork. Don’t press down very hard; just enough to make the design. You want the cookies to be at least 1/2 inch thick, if not a bit more.
  8. Bake one tray at a time on the center rack of your preheated 350° oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies begin to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies rest on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack to cool completely. This recipe makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies. Enjoy!

Notes:

*I have tried many different variations of this recipe. I really wanted to use butter, but it wasn’t the right texture. And just to be absolutely sure, I even made them with browned butter. Nope. It has to be Crisco.

**The peanut butter needs to be either Jif or Skippy (a texture and flavor thing). Using a natural peanut butter (just peanuts and salt) creates a denser cookie. Remember, these are old school peanut butter cookies.

***The smoky paprika adds a subtle earthiness to the flavor. Definitely optional. If in doubt, try adding just half the called for amount.

Apparently, my mom liked them baked for just 10 minutes. Thanks, Mom!

My mom during her college days, the winter she received her Joy of Cooking.

 

 

 

Posted in Cookies | 9 Comments

Spinach Pesto Muffins

Posted on September 7, 2024 by angelamara

I’ve been obsessed with these muffins for a while now. My friend Susanne (pronounced soo-sah-nah) makes them every time we go over to her house for dinner. I try to act casual and not eat too many, since they are a side dish, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

A large scoop makes portioning easy!

I have asked Susanne for the recipe for these delicious muffins every time she makes them, and she gives it to me every time. Well, I finally made them!!! The first thing I noticed in looking at the recipe was that the flour (3 cups) also has a weight measurement – 470 grams!!!! I checked with Susanne and she said that she follows the recipe as written, but I didn’t press to find out whether she measures using her measuring cups or her kitchen scale.

Muffins tins filled to the brim with batter.

So I made the muffins, using my scale. The dough was very stiff! But I followed the recipe pretty much as written, only using a different kind of cheese, and the muffins were delicious, and very sturdy. Oh, and I used a little more spinach than the recipe called for. Not a big deal. We had friends over, and they loved the muffins and wanted the recipe!

First batch – so very good!

The next time I made them, I decided I would cram as much flour into my measuring cup as I possibly could (such an unusual thing for me to do) to see if three cups of all-purpose flour could ever really weigh 470 grams, and the answer is no. When I packed the cup like crazy, I ended up with about 135 grams of flour per cup, give or take a few. So the total amount of flour for three cups was 400 grams, not 470. The second batch was also delicious, and a bit softer, since I used a little less flour. And there was another change: I decided to make smaller muffins, at the request of my younger daughter, so they would work better for a lunch snack to take to school. So I made 24 small muffins instead of 12 large ones, and just baked them for a few minutes less time.

These are the smaller ones that fit nicely into a lunch box.

Either way, both batches were so very good, and I will be making these again and again.

Spinach Pesto Muffins

  • 3 cups packed all-purpose flour (400 grams)
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 scant teaspoon salt (adjust, depending on how salty the cheese is)
  • 3 large eggs, beaten
  • 2/3 cup olive oil
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 package (10 oz or a bit more) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
  • 1/2 cup favorite pesto*
  • 1 cup shredded gruyère cheese**
  1. Preheat oven to 375° and grease 12 standard muffin cups with butter.
  2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, then whisk in the oil and milk. Stir in the spinach and stir until well blended and the spinach is no longer in chunks.
  4. Add spinach mixture to flour mixture and stir just until evenly incorporated. Fold in pesto and cheese. Don’t over-mix!
  5. Fill prepared muffin cups (if making 12 muffins, the batter will fill the cups; if making 24 muffins, batter will fill only half way). Bake on center rack in oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden, dry, and springy to the touch. Really, use your finger – the muffin should spring back. Remove from oven and let rest in muffin tin for about 5 minutes or so, then transfer muffins to cooling rack to cool. I think these are best when still a bit warm from the oven, but they are also delicious at room temperature. Makes 12 large muffins, or 24 small muffins. Enjoy!***

Notes:

*Use a pesto that you really like, as the pesto flavor is quite prominent.

**I use a cheddar-gruyère blend. I think straight gruyère would be nice also, but it can be a little strong for my kids, so I opted for something a little more mellow. The original recipe calls for mozzarella, but I wanted something with more of a kick. Susanne uses Jarlsberg. So really, choose whatever you think sounds good!

***The leftovers, if there are any, can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and reheated in a 350° oven for five minutes.

Posted in Side Dishes, Snacks | 3 Comments

Angela’s Favorite Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on August 31, 2024 by angelamara

I know I just recently wrote about chocolate chip cookies, but you know I have to keep experimenting, and these are my latest favorites. They are dense and chewy and delicious! I mean, they are really chewy. The method is a little questionable, so I don’t expect anyone to try this recipe, but if I don’t blog about it, my little piece of paper where I wrote everything down is likely to disappear and then the recipe will be lost forever.

It’s a pretty standard recipe, with oats added for a little chew, (but not so many as to make it taste like an oatmeal cookie), and also some bread flour, lest I forget, because it’s not even written down! And here is what happened when I first made these cookies. I scooped them out and baked one tray of cookies right away. I had another tray of scooped out cookie dough waiting to go, and I was about ready to put it in the oven, when all of a sudden I realized I had to be somewhere, so I dashed out of the house. Several hours later, I got back home and realized that the cookie dough had been sitting at room temp all that time. Luckily, it was not a hot day, so I baked that second tray of cookies, and oh my!! There was quite a difference in texture between the first tray and the second one.

I know what you might be thinking. It’s pretty standard to let cookie dough rest in the fridge for a couple of hours before using. That makes them not spread as much, and the results are overall much better. But this is not that. The cookie dough was at room temperature. After the second tray went in, I put the rest of the cookie dough in the fridge, where it stayed for a couple of days. I thought to myself that the cookies would be even better if I used cold cookie dough. Not the case. I tried it, and they were not as good. They were missing the wonderful texture. So strange! I was flummoxed.

Next day I took the bowl of remaining cookie dough and put it on top of the fridge to make room for something else, and forgot to put the bowl back in the fridge! Later that day, I scooped out the last of the cookie dough which was at room temperature, and baked it up. The cookies were better than ever. So chewy, kind of dense, and on the bottom kind of caramelized sugar or something that I can’t even describe. Of course, now that I am telling you this, I am doubting that this little experiment can be replicated. So I’m gonna make these cookies all over again, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. And I will do this before I publish this post, I promise!

Update! 11/11/2025 – I have found that these cookies come out just as nicely (and a smidge taller) if you just go ahead and pre-scoop and chill the dough for at least two hours, and then bake at 375° for 11 minutes, or until the edges have browned but the tops still look slightly pale and glisten-y. And these are still my favorites!

Angela’s Favorite Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 2 2/3 cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour*
  • 1/4 cup, heaping, (30 grams) old fashioned rolled oats (NOT instant oats)
  • 1 teaspoon (6 grams) kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup (2 sticks, or 227 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup (150 grams) packed light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 package (340 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips**
  1. In a medium bowl, mix flour, oats, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugars, and beat with a hand mixer or stand mixer for about two minutes, until lighter in color and creamy.
  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well incorporated.
  4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed just until the flour has been incorporated. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and do a final mixing by hand.
  5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  6. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest at room temperature for one to two hours (do this at your own risk… I wouldn’t recommend it if it’s a particularly hot day, or if it’s hot in your kitchen). At this point you have a couple of choices: you can either bake up the cookies, or you can cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to three days (I think the cookies come out better when you refrigerate the dough after letting it rest at room temp). When you are ready to bake cookies, take the bowl out and let the cookie dough come back to room temperature… an hour is probably sufficient.***
  7. Once the dough has rested, line a couple of sheet pans**** with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 375° for at least ten minutes. Once oven is good and hot, scoop out cookie dough balls (about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie) and place nine on each tray, two inches apart. Why not twelve? Well, I think it works better to have fewer cookies to avoid having the cookies touch each other when they spread. You don’t want to lose even one teeny bit of crispy edge.
  8. Bake the cookies one tray at a time on center rack of preheated oven for about nine minutes, or until the edges have browned and the tops look mostly baked, but might still have a tinge of glisten to them. You really don’t want to over-bake these cookies.
  9. Let the cookies cool on the tray for about four minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling. I always set a timer for this, because if you leave the cookies on the tray for too long, the bottoms will not be crisp.
  10. Enjoy! These cookies are best eaten the day they are baked, for best texture. Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Notes:

*If you are not using a kitchen scale, stir your flour to aerate and fluff it up before lightly sprinkling your flour by the spoonful into measuring cup, and use the straight edge of a knife to level the flour. And by the way, no need to use bread flour. I just use King Arthur all-purpose flour, which has a high enough protein content that it adds that nice chew. If you use a flour such as Gold Medal, which has a lower protein content, your cookies will be softer.

**Last night I decided to get fancy with these, so I chopped some good quality milk chocolate into smallish shards, and added about 1/2 cup of them to the dough in addition to the bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I have no regrets.

***About leaving the cookie dough out at room temperature… if this feels uncomfortable for you, just don’t do it. But I have to say that I am pretty convinced that this is exactly what makes these cookies so wonderful. Here is my theory: when you let the dough rest at room temperature, the flour and oats absorb any excess moisture, making for a dense, chewy cookie. If you put the dough in the fridge right away, the butter will firm up, not allowing for full absorption of moisture. If you bake the cookies right away, same thing – the moisture is in the cookie and the flour hasn’t had time to absorb it. This is just a theory! I am not a scientist, but I do know that there is a distinct difference between waiting and not waiting, as well as baking the cookies at room temp or from the fridge.

****For best results, use a heavy gauge aluminum cookie sheet for even baking and heat distribution.

Posted in Cookies | 3 Comments

Egg Salad

Posted on June 30, 2024 by angelamara

Yesterday was my mother-in-law Barb’s birthday. We had her over to celebrate; the girls and I prepared an English tea, which was SO fun! There were cream biscuits with jams and lemon curd, fresh local cherries, cucumber sandwiches and egg salad sandwiches with crusts cut off and cut into little squares.

Mara, Millie, birthday-girl-Barb, and me.

Everything was lovely and yummy, and the egg salad was so good that I had to make it again today! Egg salad is pretty easy to make, so you might be wondering why I am writing about it. Well, here are a few reasons: do you dread making hard boiled eggs because sometimes they are chalky or they get that weird dark color between the yolks and the whites? Do you also dread peeling hard boiled eggs? Hopefully I’ve got some tricks to share that will make it easier.

Pretend like there is slowly simmering water in the pot!

This recipe calls for six hard boiled eggs. Here’s how I do the boiling part: bring a pot of water to a slow simmer. Place six extra large eggs (inspect them first to make sure none of them are cracked) in a vegetable steamer and slowly insert the steamer into the pot of simmering water. There should be enough water to cover the eggs. When the water comes back to a very slow simmer – this should happen quickly – set your timer for 16 minutes. The slow simmer should look like a bubble here or there coming to the surface of the water. You want to avoid a full boil, which will overcook the eggs and leave them rubbery. At the 16 minute mark, remove the steamer and eggs and plunge the whole thing into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and chill the eggs. You can let them sit there for a long time, but I’d say at least fifteen minutes. Longer is better.

Yes, I’m gloating about these perfectly peeled hard boiled eggs!

When you are ready to get started with the peeling, take one of the eggs and crack it against a counter at the large end of the egg – that is where there is an air pocket, so you will crack the shell without cracking the egg inside. Take the egg and peel it under cold running water. This makes everything a lot easier. The shell hopefully will come off easily in large-ish pieces. Place the peeled eggs in a medium sized bowl.

This is chopped finely enough.

To make the chopping part easier, I just hold the egg in my hand directly over the bowl that contains all of the eggs. Using a small paring knife, I cut the egg into quarters lengthwise, then slice it directly into the bowl. Repeat with all the eggs. Then you can take the knife and cut up any larger remaining pieces of egg that you see in the bowl. This is just a lot easier than trying to chop up a hard boiled egg on a cutting board. And no, I don’t have an egg slicer. I am the egg slicer.

This is all you need!

Add 1/3 cup of Hellman’s or Best mayonnaise and stir to coat the egg. Then add a pinch of kosher salt (the larger grains are much nicer than using table salt) and some freshly ground pepper, and several dashes of curry powder. We use curry a lot around here, so it has a place of honor on our table next to the salt and pepper.

I like a little crunch in my egg salad; a bit of celery does the trick.

Celery is optional, and if you choose to use it, use one of the tender inner ribs for milder flavor. I used one very small rib diced as finely as possible.

Egg Salad

(Adapted from the Joy of Cooking)

  • 6 extra large hard boiled eggs, chilled in ice water (read the post!)
  • 1/3 cup Hellman’s or Best mayonnaise
  • 1 pinch kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • Several dashes curry powder (optional)
  • 1 inner rib of celery, finely diced (optional)
  1. Peel the eggs under cold running water, then finely chop into a medium bowl.
  2. Add the mayonnaise, salt, pepper, curry and celery (if using) and stir to combine.
  3. Serve right away as a sandwich on high quality soft white bread, such as potato bread or buttermilk bread. Don’t add anything else to the sandwich: just bread and egg salad. You don’t want anything to interfere with this perfect combination. My friend Deb says she likes to serve it on a toasted bagel, which sounds amazing. I think the flavor of the egg salad is best at room temperature, or only slightly chilled. If you make this in advance, store in the fridge, but allow to come almost to room temperature before serving. Makes enough for two to three sandwiches. Enjoy!

Posted in Comfort Food, Fun in the kitchen! | 2 Comments

Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (Twice Baked)

Posted on June 7, 2024 by angelamara

I am sometimes tortured by always wanting to experiment with recipes. Not sure I really need another chocolate chip cookie recipe, but this isn’t so much about a recipe as it is about a baking method.

Bottoms are nice and crispy and evenly baked.

Warning: this cookie requires freezing the dough, so it is definitely a make ahead kind of cookie dough, that then turns into an I-need-a-cookie-now kind of cookie.

There is something that has recently happened a couple of times by mistake, and I realize that I kind of like the result of the mistake! Is it an extra couple of steps that are too much of a pain? Maybe. But if you want a cookie that is crispy but but not over-baked on the bottom and gooey-chewy in the center without being under-baked, and an even bake overall, stay with me.

This is what I’m after.

I often will make cookie dough and scoop it into cookie dough balls, which I freeze and keep for later. That way, whenever we feel like having freshly baked cookies, I grab a few out of the freezer and bake them up. Sometimes, because they are frozen, they take longer to bake, so I’m always just winging it, and keeping an eye on the cookies so they don’t over-bake. But since they are frozen, often it’s the other thing that is the problem: the center of the cookie doesn’t get baked enough.

Under-baked!

This very thing happened last night while we were watching Bridgerton, hehe… we finally got sucked in. I put some cookies in the oven to bake, and then ten minutes later pulled them out of the oven thinking they would continue baking on the cookie sheet. We have to pause the show every time I run into the kitchen, so I try to keep these kitchen runs to a minimum. After a while, I went back to inspect the cookies, and they were definitely under-baked in the center. Gooey is one thing, but under-baked is another. No thank you. So I cranked the oven up to 390° and put the cookies back in for another 6 minutes, I mean, what did I have to lose? When I pulled the cookies out the second time, they looked like they were perhaps over-baked, which equals cake-y, which I hate.

Do these look over-baked?

But somehow they were not cake-y at all! They were crispy on the bottom, and evenly gooey-chewy on the top! Why did this happen? Here is what I think: when I pulled the cookies out of the oven the first time, the outer part of the cookies cooled down and stopped baking, while the cooler center of the cookie had a little time to evenly disburse that coolness. So when I popped the cookies back in for the final blast of heat, the cookies were cool again, and got baked just enough while crisping the outside. No cakeyness! Is cakeyness a word? I think you know what I mean. I’m not sure I’m going to do this every time, but I am here to tell you that I’ve made this mistake a couple of times now, and I have not been disappointed. So here is the recipe, which is a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe*, along with directions on how you, too, can make the same mistake.

Crispy Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Adapted from the Tollhouse recipe)

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (330 grams)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (double if using Diamond brand)
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed (150 grams)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (330 grams) or 1 bag, which is a bit more
  1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugars and the butter until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Use a hand mixer if you are not using a stand mixer.
  4. Beat the eggs in one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition.
  5. Beat in the vanilla.
  6. Dump the flour mixture into the bowl and mix on low speed just until the flour is well incorporated.
  7. Stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.
  8. With a 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop (or you can eyeball this), scoop all of the dough into balls and place on the parchment lined cookie sheet. They can be very close together, since this is just for freezing purposes.
  9. Place the tray of dough balls in your freezer and freeze for a couple of hours before transferring the frozen dough balls into a ziplock freezer bag. Press as much air out of the bag as you can, and seal well. These dough balls can stay in your freezer for a couple of months and still be good for baking, if they ever last that long.
  10. Imagine time has passed, like maybe even weeks. When the mood strikes, preheat your oven to 375° and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  11. Once your oven is preheated, place the frozen cookie dough balls on lined cookie sheet at least two inches apart.
  12. Bake on center rack of your preheated 375° oven for about ten minutes; the cookies should look melted and flattened out, but not cooked on top. Remove the tray of cookies from the oven and let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for ten minutes. Leave the oven on! You can go check your email or continue watching your show while you wait for your oven to get hotter and your cookies to cool a bit.
  13. After ten minutes (it’s okay if it’s a bit longer than ten minutes), put the cookies back into your already hot oven, turn the heat up to 390° or so, and bake for about 5 minutes, or until cookies start to look slightly dark brown around the edges, and the tops begin to take on a teeny bit of color. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  14. Enjoy!

Note: *You can probably try this technique with any favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe you regularly use. If you try it, let me know what you think!

Posted in Cookies, Fun in the kitchen! | 3 Comments

Jane’s Hippie Coleslaw

Posted on May 22, 2024 by angelamara

You may wonder, if you know me, how it has come to be that I am writing about coleslaw. I consider myself someone that doesn’t even like coleslaw. I have avoided it ever since I was a kid. Maybe it’s because I also didn’t like mayonnaise as a kid either. Even now, if I put mayo on a sandwich, it has to be a very thin layer that vanishes into the bread. I don’t want to see any white globs. So here is what happened, if you must know.

Let’s get this show on the road.

At our favorite neighborhood Japanese restaurant, Kozue, they serve finely shredded cabbage drizzled with some sort of white dressing, and it is oddly one of my very favorite things they serve. I will order a menu item specifically because that cabbage salad comes with it. So I have tried to mimic what they do, minus the white dressing… because mayonnaise… and it’s just not the same. So today while I was at Trader Joe’s, I noticed that they sell small bags of finely shredded cabbage, and for the same price, you can get an entire head of cabbage! So I grabbed the head of cabbage and threw it in my basket. Honestly, this entire thing kind of sneaked up on me.

I don’t use my food processor very often!

When I got home and put away the groceries, I started looking up recipes for coleslaw online. It’s like I was possessed! I found one that got lots of great reviews on allrecipes.com. I read through a lot of the reviews and found that people had opinions about this or that, so I jotted down what I thought might be a good version based on reviews. I liked the addition of Dijon mustard and celery seed. But after pulling out my behemoth of a food processor and shredding the cabbage and some carrots, I realized I didn’t feel like experimenting. I wanted something that would be delicious right away, something that was tried and true by someone that I trust. It was time to talk with my sister Jane, who lives on the other side of the country. I remembered her telling me that she makes a “hippie coleslaw”, and I needed to know more!

Jane’s recipe.

I loved seeing Jane’s recipe. It was scribbled on (in different colored ink, I might add) and cryptic, as all good recipes should be. I was also gratified to see that her hippie mix included mustard and celery seed! The allrecipes recipe was heavy on the sugar, and I had halved the sugar with the version that I had jotted down. Well, Jane’s used even less sugar! She also warned me against using apple cider vinegar; just plain old white vinegar is the way to go. Jane’s version also had less salt and less pepper and less celery seed. I decided to follow it almost exactly as written, but I did use Dijon mustard instead of ground mustard, as I really do love anything with Dijon mustard and lemon.

A perfect summery side dish.

It is absolutely delicious. I cannot believe it. How have I been avoiding coleslaw my entire life??? I am so glad I followed Jane’s recipe! The seasoning is spot on; it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the cabbage and carrots, while still being delicately tangy, sweet, and savory. Jane recommends letting the coleslaw rest overnight in the fridge, mixing it two or three times, to let the flavors mingle. But to be honest, immediately after mixing everything together, I taste-tested it, and then taste-tested it again and again, until I finally surrendered and served myself a bowl-full, it was so good! So here is Jane’s recipe for you to try out. I hope you like it as much as I do!

Jane’s Hippie Coleslaw

  • 1 medium head of green cabbage, thinly sliced (maybe eight cups or so)
  • 1 medium sized carrot*, peeled and shredded
  • 1/2 cup good quality mayonnaise**
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar (don’t skimp)
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • Heaping 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
  1. Using a food processor or a sharp knife, slice cabbage finely, and peel and shred carrots with the larger holes on shredder. You want to end up with about 8 cups, more or less.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the mayonnaise, sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Add the cabbage and carrots and mix well. Cover and store in fridge. You can serve right away, or you can let it rest overnight in fridge to let the flavors mingle, mixing a few times. The flavor mellows overnight, but either way it is delicious. Enjoy!

Notes:

* If you like a sweeter coleslaw, you can add more carrots, but be aware that the extra carrots will change the flavor and the color of the dressing. Jane says to maybe use only 1/3 of a carrot… you decide.

**Jane uses vegan avocado mayonnaise, which is great if you would like your coleslaw to be vegan. I just use Best Mayonnaise (or Hellman’s if you are in other parts of the country). In any case, use a mayonnaise that has a good flavor that you like.

And just for fun, here are a few pictures of me and Jane.

I’m on the left, Jane on the right.

Me and Jane in front of our childhood home.

Posted in Comfort Food, Dairy-free, Side Dishes, vegan | 5 Comments

Easy Sourdough Starter Maintenance

Posted on April 2, 2024 by angelamara

I posted about sourdough starter maintenance a few years ago, but wanted to write a new post that reflects what I do now. I have completely simplified, and don’t like to have discard. I always keep my starter in the fridge, in a 16 ounce, straight sided Ball or Kerr canning jar. I usually keep between 30 and 40 grams, which is a little less than a quarter cup.

30 grams is not a lot, but it’s enough to get you started, haha.

If I know I want to bake a loaf of bread, the night before, I pull my jar of starter out of the fridge just before bedtime. If my recipe calls for 80 grams of starter, for example, I will add to my jar: 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour. If you do the math, it looks like this: 30 grams starter from the fridge + 50 grams water + 50 grams flour. I like to make a bit more than I actually need to account for a small amount of evaporation that occurs.

Pour in 50 grams of water to jar containing about 30 grams of starter.

Zero out the scale and then add 50 grams of flour.

I stir well, using a narrow silicone spatula. I end up with a pasty mix.

The jar looks kind of messy.

So I scrape down the sides of the jar with the spatula so I can see what’s going on in there. I place a rubberband at the level of the starter so I can keep track of how much it grows. I put the lid on the jar just lightly so air can escape, and leave it on my kitchen counter overnight.

In the morning, I’ve got active, bubbly starter, ready for my recipe. My kitchen is not warm overnight… probably is about 66°F. This is not important, except to let you know that you don’t need a warm room to get your starter to rise.

Ready to go!

My starter usually triples in size in about 6 hours. Once it has reached its peak, it stays there for at least a couple of hours, which makes an overnight rise perfect for my schedule.

Once I use my active starter for my dough….

I will have somewhere between 30 and 40 grams leftover. I put the lid back on the jar and put the leftover starter in the fridge. It’s okay to put the lid on a little tighter, but I never screw it on all the way, just in case. My starter stays in the fridge until the next time I need it. Since I bake once or twice a week, my starter stays active and this routine works well for me.

My recipes generally call for anywhere from 80 to 100 grams of starter, but I don’t worry too much about exactness of things. My mixes of starter might look like this:

30 grams starter + 45 grams water + 45 grams flour

40 grams starter + 50 grams water + 50 grams flour

Etc., etc.

Just notice the proportions. I used to feed my starter at a 1:1:1 ratio, which will have the starter growing pretty quickly, perhaps even too quickly for an overnight rise. So now I prefer to do a 3:4:4 ratio or 4:5:5 ratio, or even a 3:5:5 ratio, so the starter doesn’t rise too quickly.

Sourdough Fruit and Nut Loaf

When I do have a recipe that calls for a larger amount of starter, like my sourdough waffle recipe, for example, I will feed my starter in the morning of the day before, a 30:45:45: mix. Then in the evening before bedtime, I will take 80 grams of the active starter, and feed it 90 grams water and 90 grams flour in a larger jar. A much larger jar. I will put the leftover starter back in the fridge. The next morning I will have a large jar with 240 grams of active starter, and I will use all of it for the waffle recipe. I still have my trusty 30 or so grams of starter in the fridge, ready and waiting for the next time I need it.

I hope this isn’t too confusing. Just so you know, I’ve had the same starter since the beginning of the pandemic, and I haven’t screwed it up yet. They say it’s hard to kill a starter, and I believe that is true.

One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is ingredients. For feeding my starter, I use filtered water from a Britta water pitcher, but I’m thinking tap water might be fine as well. For flour, I use unbleached all-purpose flour, usually King Arthur brand. I also throw in a teaspoon of rye flour when feeding my starter to keep things jazzy. It’s not necessary, but it does help increase activity.

Finally, if you are not going to bake once a week or more, you can still keep your starter in your fridge, but you may have to feed it a couple of days in a row to bring it back up to speed when you finally do want to bake. Your starter will get sluggish in the fridge if you leave it in there without feeding it for more than a week. So in this case, a few days or so before you want to bake, you will feed it every 24 hours until it is nice and active again, and you will end up with discard (starter you don’t need) at those extra feedings. Save that discard and make some crackers!

I hope you find this helpful, and please let me know if you have any questions! There are many many ways to maintain a sourdough starter; this is just one of them, and it works for me.

Posted in Sourdough | 2 Comments

Chocolate Chip S’more Cookies

Posted on March 29, 2024 by angelamara

First of all, I must tell you that these cookies are not photogenic. The above picture was the prettiest shot I could get, but really, they more often look like the photo below.

My baking friends Jill and Deb recently challenged me to try to reproduce the “Mackles’more” cookie from our local cookie shop, Hello Robin. I tried to ignore the challenge, but then I was at U Village the other day and had to try one. I tried to pick apart the elements of the cookie… I thought it was yummy, and seemed like it would be easy to make. So when at the grocery store that same day, I picked up all the necessary ingredients to make s’mores. Game on!

The way I made the cookies was kind of a mess, as I was shooting from the hip. I made divots into chilled chocolate chip cookie dough (I used Matthew’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie dough recipe, but added an extra 1/4 cup of flour so the cookies would be less gooey. I figured there would be enough gooey factor with the addition of marshmallows and chocolate on top). I put the cookie dough balls with the divots on top of graham crackers, then put a marshmallow into each divot, and baked as I normally would.

I was dismayed that the toasted marshmallow slid over to the side, even though I had made those divots! So when I took the cookies out of the oven, using a fork, I scooched the hot marshmallow back to the center of the cookie, and then placed a piece of Hershey’s milk chocolate on top. It was a hot mess.

At first they were tall and awkward, but once the cookies cooled a bit, everything sank down,  just like a chocolate chip cookie does once it cools. And they ended up looking like that pretty picture I took :).

But listen to this: after I went through all the trouble of making these cookies based on guesswork, I decided to look online, and it turns out that the actual Hello Robin recipe is out there for anyone that wants it!! I had to laugh. Turns out they make theirs with mini marshmallows mixed into the dough, and the chocolate they use is Theo’s, which is extra fancy. So you know I had to do a side-by-side comparison.

The two on the far right are my recipe, the six on the left are the Hello Robin Recipe.

I think Jill and Deb and I all agree that there is something rather exquisite about my version, with the big marshmallow on top. First of all, it melts all over the place and makes this caramelized, crispy sugar around the edge of the cookie, which is divine. And then, I do like the idea of each cookie having the same amount of marshmallow! Marshmallow in every bite! Plus, my daughters both absolutely prefer my version, and that’s all I need to know.

My version are the two on the right; messy and glorious.

Yes, it is a bit messy, but tell me, don’t you just love a big messy s’more? The kind with marshmallow oozing out of the sides? That’s what this cookie is about. And as for the square of chocolate on top, I went for good old Hershey’s milk chocolate, since that is what we always use for s’mores. Why change a good thing?

Chocolate Chip S’more Cookies

(Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies)

  1. Prepare a batch of your favorite cookie dough, or if you like, use my recipe for Matthew’s favorite cookie dough. If you choose to make my recipe, go ahead and add an extra 1/4 cup (30 grams) of flour, and use regular all-purpose flour instead of bread flour. Scoop the cookie dough into 1 1/2 tablespoon balls (use a cookie scoop to make this easier) and place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet (they don’t have to be far apart for this) and chill in the fridge for at least two hours.
  2. Once dough has been chilled for at least two hours, preheat oven to 375°.
  3. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 8 graham cracker squares (each square is 1/2 cracker) on each sheet. Set aside.
  4. Break each chocolate bar into 8 squares. You should end up with 32 squares.
  5. Preheat oven to 375°.
  6. Using a spice jar, press a little well into the center of each cookie dough ball. Dip the spice jar into a little bit of flour to keep it from sticking. (I actually have a little tool for this job, but a spice jar is the perfect circumference for a marshmallow and works nicely also.)
  7. Once the dough balls have been pre-shaped with a little well in the center, place one on each of the graham crackers. Then place one marshmallow standing up in each well.
  8. Bake cookies on center rack of oven, one tray at a time. You will need to bake a total of four trays, but no need to bake all of these at once. You can save half of the cookie dough balls in the freezer for a later date. Or even just bake one tray, and save those cookie dough balls for another time. You get the idea.
  9. Bake cookies for about 11 minutes, or until the marshmallows have browned and melted, and the edges of the cookie dough are browning. The marshmallows will slop over to the side. It’s okay.
  10. As soon as you take the tray out of the oven, use a fork to scooch the marshmallow to the center of the cookie**, then press a chocolate square gently down into the center of the cookie. Be careful because the marshmallow will be hot! Repeat with all eight cookies. Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet before transferring to a serving dish. Repeat with other tray(s) of cookies.
  11. In my opinion, these cookies are best if allowed to cool for at least an hour before eating. And they are still really good the next day, if there are any left.

Notes:

* For best results, use the brands I have mentioned. I haven’t tried other brands, so I don’t know how they will perform.

** Jill had the idea of using the chocolate square to scooch the marshmallow back to the center of the cookie before pressing it into the center. Try it!

*** I have to mention that I was at a school concert a couple of weeks ago, and I brought my molasses cookies for the bake sale. My friends absolutely love my molasses cookies, but I realized that they were not really flashy enough to get a lot of attention at the bake sale. They were being overshadowed by cookies with pink frosting, huge brownies, and giant cupcakes. You just know that next time I’m bringing these s’more cookies. Gotta raise money for the school orchestra! I’ll let you know if they go quickly.

And now more pictures, just because.

You can use a spice jar if you don’t have a tool like this one.

Nine can fit, but I think eight works a bit better. So cute!

Don’t panic!

Scooch the marshmallow back to the center with a fork or the chocolate square!

I like how you can still see the word “Hershey’s”, even after the chocolate has gotten melty. Adorable!

And they make surprisingly nice gifts! You will make new friends for sure.

And even though I said these cookies aren’t photogenic, I think they are very pretty.

Posted in Cookies, Fun in the kitchen! | 8 Comments