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Breadhead Bookshelf: The Cornbread Book

5/31/2012

This post is the first of a series called "Breadhead Bookshelf" in which I review bread books in my collection that I think belong in your collection, too.

I decided to reward myself after grading all my history finals AND putting in the herb garden with a treat I haven't had in years: corn fritters. I first encountered them at the Heart of Illinois Fair in Peoria, Illinois. There was a church group that had a stand selling corn fritters, made fresh before your eyes, and they were exquisite. If you don't know what corn fritters are, they are fried bits of batter (very similar to an eggy waffle batter) with corn kernals mixed in. They are usually rolled in granulated or powdered sugar and served warm.

     I had never made corn fritters before, so I decided to go old school and look in my cookbooks before resorting to the Internet. The Joy of Cooking had a recipe for corn fritters with a very small amount of batter mixed with corn and fried in a pan---probably very traditional somewhere in the U.S., but not what I was looking for. I found the right recipe in a book by Jeremy Jackson titled The Cornbread Book: a love story with recipes (William Morrow, 2003.)
     Jeremy is my kind of cookbook writer: witty, casual, slightly irreverent without being sarcastic, and passionate about his subject. Plus, he's really done his homework: his first chapter is titled "A Pithy and Perfunctory History of Cornbread in these United States," and he starts with "7,000 years ago, some mopey bloke was slumping by his fire somewhere in the highlands of Mexico" and takes you all the way through Columbus, the failed Roanoke Colony, Huck Finn, Thoreau, American cookbooks of the 1700's and 1800's, cornbread during the two world wars and the Jiffy box. Whew!
     The book has brief but useful sections on ingredients and equipment, but it's the recipes that will dazzle and eventually entice you to fire up the oven and get out a cast iron skillet: Sweet Cornbread, Ozark Cornbread, Gem and Pearl Breakfast Muffins, Gold Nugget Popovers, Velvet Spoonbread (!), Popcorn Focaccia (!!), Choco-Corno-Espresso-Almondo Biscotti (!!!) Uncluttered pages and clear, detailed instructions make this a book worth buying and using regularly.

I don't have permision to share his corn fritter recipe (although I'll work on that) but I thought you might like to see them being fried . . .

...and the finished product, which were enjoyed by my fellow monks at haustus tonight, but even more by me!

Mmmmmmm . . .

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Coffee Cake Exceptionale

5/30/2012

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Didn't have time to make a yeast bread tonight, so I made a quick coffee cake instead. I've had this recipe for years and I've never found better.

Coffee Cake Exceptionale
¾ cup butter
1½ cups of sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1½ cups sour cream

Filling
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup chopped nuts
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

Cream butter and sugar in mixer on high until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Sift dry ingredients together. With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the sour cream and the dry ingredients until all is blended. Grease and flour a 9″ x 11″ pan. Layer half of the batter in the pan, then half of the filling, then another layer of batter. Sprinkle the rest of the filling on top. Bake in a pre-heated 350° F. for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. May be served warm or cold.

This is the version (slightly adapted) I received from some friends in their extended-family cookbook—thank you, Kathy Miller of Norway, Iowa! I have made lots of variations on this recipe with regard to the filling. Tonight I used a small can of Solo Apricot Filling and sugared walnuts for filling, with more chopped walnuts on top. But I’ve used pie filling of various flavors, fresh fruit tossed with powdered sugar and cinnamon, fig preserves and golden raisins, and chopped dates with pecans, just to name a few. My creations have always been devoured by brother monks, so don’t be afraid to experiment!

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Fresh herbs and pizza

5/20/2012

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I've been working in the herb garden every afternoon, so when pizza night rolled around on Thursday, I decided to make sausage with my own herbs. Last year I saved some fennel seed and dried a few red peppers, so I crushed those in a mortar and pestle, then used my mezzaluna (the "half-moon" knife in the picture) to mince garlic chives, basil, oregano, rosemary and a tiny bit of sage to add to the mix---and don't ask me about amounts because this was all by eye. Salt, garlic powder, black pepper, all into the mixer with a pound of ground pork and a pound of ground turkey. Wow! SO much better with the fresh herbs. My two kitchen workers were eating it out of the bowl like it was snack mix.
I also added some garlic chives to the dough, and used My House All-Purpose Seasoning for the salt. I found out about this great seasoned salt at a food show in St. Charles many years ago, and I love it! It's a mixture of coarse salt and seven herbs, with no MSG, artificial flavors, oluten, oils, sugars, preservatives or additives. Does wonders for foods on the grill, and I would make vegetable beef soup without it. Full disclosure: I know the guys who own the company, but I don't get any free product or anything. I just really like this product: check out their website here. The dough made a great pizza crust, but I also baked a loaf of it and it made a fine breakfast the next morning, toasted and lightly spread with cream cheese.
More work in the garden this afternoon, and maybe a little baking tonight. Once finals start on Tuesday I won't have much free time!

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Blurb for my new book

5/17/2012

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OK, my publisher asked me for a blurb for the new book, and here's what I wrote:

How to Be a Breadhead: a beginner’s guide to baking
A “Breadhead” is a dedicated baker, someone who bakes often, who thinks and dreams about bread and is not afraid to experiment. In this new book by Fr. Dominic (“The Bread Monk” of public television fame), you’ll learn more than just basic techniques---you’ll find out why yeast behaves the way it does, how to substitute different flours in a recipe, and how to take a simple dough and make it extraordinary for a special occasion. Starting with tools of the trade (you need less than you think), Fr. Dom takes you through the baby steps of baking all the way to beautiful loaves that will amaze and delight your family and friends. Special attention is paid to kneading (a stumbling block for many beginning bakers) and simple shaping techniques that can make your loaves look terrific. You’ll find braided loaves, flatbreads, pretzel bread and bagels, dinner rolls that look like roses, butterfly-shaped breakfast treats, and a muffin recipe that uses a secret ingredient: melted ice cream! And all in Fr. Dom’s funny and friendly style of instruction, with helpful photos and illustrations.

Now I just have to write a book that looks like that---no pressure.

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"Hurl"

5/14/2012

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One of the joys of being a Stage Rat is to work as a counselor for our summer theatre camp for grade school children, and one of the best aspects of theatre camp is the snacks. I try to strike a balance between the sweets that they crave and the healthy stuff they should be eating, so one day they'll get watermelon slices and the next homemade caramel corn. One of the camp favorites is what we call "Fruit Poop"(grade school potty humor), a jumble of Froot Loops, peanuts and mini-marshmallows held together by peanut butter and almond bark.

"Hurl" in its second stage.

Our love for this sugary treat has led us to experiment with other confections involving cereal, most recently a snack bar with Honey Nut Cheerios, melted marshmallows, mini-marshmallows, nuts and butterscotch chips. We've tried sugared walnuts for the nuts, then a combination of walnuts, pecans and sunflower seeds, but settled on cashews as the best choice, which makes the bars a bit pricey to make, so we'll reserve this recipe for special occasions.
The only problem was coming up with a name for this decadent dessert, which actually took us longer than it took to eat the first experimental batch. Something of a breakthrough was acheived when one of the Rats noted that at one stage in the recipe the whole mess looked like regurgitated cereal (remember, I'm dealing with teenagers here, but the photo above offers some rationale). We had several minutes of hysterical innovation, including the suggestion that we simply give it the onomotopaeic name of "Huuuuuaaagh!", but we finally settled on "Hurl" as being easier to pronounce and spell.
I am fairly certain that I am the only monk in the history of the church who has experiences like this.

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Event Baking

5/12/2012

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The Stage Rats came out last night to get ready for today's Illinois Valley Herb Guild plant sale and garden faire. Most of them laid down the tarp on the gym floor and set up tables while freshman Brandon Glynn and I made honey oatmeal bread to sell at the faire. The faire was a success and the Guild sold a good number of plants but we still have some left over, including a flat of basil, if anyone is interested.
          I like baking for big events, although I can never seem to make enough bread to last for more than an hour or so. The record was the 120 loaves I made for a Medieval Faire some years ago that sold in 45 minutes. Sometimes when I bring loaves to a church bake sale, they never make it to the table because the workers buy them before the doors open! (That says more about the power of homemade bread than about my abilities.) We only baked 26 loaves last night; one went to the monks, one to an auction winner, and one went home with one of the Rats whose mom requested one. The rest sold in about an hour.
          The auction winner mentioned above is my dentist, who attended our Academy's annual dinner auction this year and successfully bid on "Bread for a Year" (I think the winning bid was $450). Every time I bake for the next year, I'll set aside at least one loaf for his family. His daughter goes to the Academy, so I suspect she'll be the delivery service during the school year. I did this last year, too, and realized at some point that I'd gone a whole year without making caramel pecan cinnamon rolls, so last's year's winner will get an additional treat sometime soon! I'll be sure to post pictures of those, too, which will make you want to learn to bake them yourself, I'm sure. Recipe to be posted with the pictures.
          Speaking of events, be sure to keep checking the "Upcoming Events" page. I have a lot of appearances to make this summer, many of which will be open to the public. I always post contact information for the group organizing the event. I just posted info about a class I'm teaching at St. Louis Missouri Botanical Gardens July 7th, but the class is already full---all 20 spots were reserved within 24 hours of the first e-mail! But I'm giving a similar program in the Belleville IL area earlier in the week--details coming soon.

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Marathon Taping Session

5/11/2012

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On Saturday May 5 while the Academy students were getting ready for pro, I was in Saint Louis shooting a new PBS pledge special titled "How to Be a Breadhead"; a beginner's baking book with the same title will be published in August when the program airs. A lovely lady who is a friend of my publisher's wife very graciously let us invade her home for the day---and it did indeed take the whole day, from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. It took three hours to just to set up the lighting (always harder in a home than in a studio) and as you probably know, rising dough cannot be rushed!

This is me with Bill Streeter, the videographer. It was a pleasure to work with him, since he's laid back but also engaged in the creative process and very collaborative. He'll be editing the video AND designing the book cover--- a true modern Renaissance Man!

Here I'm getting my shiny bald head dusted with powder by Bill's assistant Eric. He did everything from makeup to camera operation to dishes. We were lucky to have him around. Some other pictures from the shoot are below.

This chop block bread was one of the stars of the show, and it's not at all difficult to make once you have the basic techniques of kneading down. You start with a whole batch of wheat or multigrain dough, and after the first rise you knead in a cup of shredded cheddar plus two cups of chopped vegetables (in this case, 1/2 cup minced onion, 1/4 cup chopped carrots, 1/2 cup each of chopped broccoli and celery). This last step is messy by hand, and at first the vegetables come squirting out the sides and make it look like epic failure. But be patient and keep pushing them back in as you knead, and before long you'll have a homogenized dough. Or throw the whole business in the stand mixer with a dough hook and mix it at medium for three or four minutes-same result! Pat the dough into a big oval about 2" thick on a cookie sheet, let rise for 30 to 45 minutes, and then bake at 350 F. for 45 to 55 minutes. The onions and other veggies on the outside get lightly toasted and make this bread smell amazing!

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Breadhead Bookshelf: The Cornbread Book

Coffee Cake Exceptionale

Fresh herbs and pizza

Blurb for my new book

"Hurl"

Event Baking

Marathon Taping Session

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