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"Bread Flintstone" no more

1/26/2013

Although it feels shameful to admit it, I can no longer refer to myself as "Bread Flintstone" for resisting electric or electronic gadgets in the kitchen. I still prefer a chef's knife to a food processor, am proud to own three different sizes of hand-cranked Foley food mills, and will continue to spread softened butter with a wooden spatula. But the faculty of Saint Bede Academy were issued iPads this year, and once I discovered the wide variety of food apps available, there was no turning back.
So today I baked Monkey Bread Muffins with my friend Craig, plus a large Monkey Bread in a bundt pan---two recipes, same temp, different baking times. So I set two different timers with two different alarm sounds on my Timer+ app (Minama Sofware, FREE, with a couple of upgrades available for purchase). This morning I also entered several receipes into The Recipe Box (Corpus Collusion, $4.99) which allows me to import recipes instantly from dozens of websites like allrecipes.com and Betty Crocker. I looked at a LOT of recipe management apps in the iTunes App Store, some of which were free, but I liked the features and the good ratings The Recipe Box has. The keyboard for entering your own recipes has keys for "tsp", "Tbs", "minced" and other commonly used terms---really like that feature. The app also helps me generate shopping lists. Paprika Recipe Manager (Hindsight Labs LLC, $4.99) has similar features, does the "one tap" recipe download on over 190 supported sites, and has Cloud sync capability as well---I suspect I would have enjoyed using it, too. There are a number of free recipe manager apps out there, but I was willing to pay extra for the features I wanted. Many of these apps are available for smart phones as well. If you're new to the whole tablet thing, downlaod one or two free ones to get a feel for them before you decide to purchase one. And you can bet that if I find other useful kitchen apps I'll be sharing them. Have a favorite to suggest? Send me a message below, or tweet me @FrDomGarramone.

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Pizza and Donuts

1/23/2013

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K of C events went great last weekend, but I don't have any photos to show for it except the crew from the pizza night at Godfrey and the tables set up with the free goodie bags generously provided by Hodgson Mills. The other photo below is of me with the brothers from the OMI house of formation, which is where I spent the night---beautiful old house (1920's) built on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi.

But on my way out of Godfrey on Sunday morning I took a wrong turn which turned out to be a right turn, because I turned up in the parking lot of the LAST MISTER DONUT IN THE UNITED STATES! Yes, and they still get the same Mister Donut coffee blend from a supplier in Massachusetts, which tastes just like the coffee I used to get on Sunday mornings along with an old-fashioned sour cream donut. The fellow in the picture is one Caesar Blanco, who bought the franchise in 2004. At that time most Mister Donuts had already been bought out by Duncan Donuts, and there were only 9 left in Illinois. Today, he says, his franchise is the very last one left in the U.S., although Mister Donut still has a very strong presence in Asia, especially Japan. (I should note that I don't have any independent verification of the "last Mister Donut" claim, and I'm not sure how I'd go about that anyway, but I can say that I haven't seen one for years.) If you have fond memories of Mister Donut coffee and their giant cinnamon rolls, or maybe want to try a newer product like the croissant with sausage, egg and cheese (I tried it and it's better than a lot of other fast food breakfast sandwiches, IMHO), I recommend you make a road trip to 2720A Grovelin St., Godfrey, IL 62035 (618) 466-6327. Worth it just for the notalgic smell of the place, especially when they're frying the cake donuts. Ask for Caesar and tell him Fr. Dom sent you!

Caesar says he got into the donut business right after retiring from the Navy in '93, and by doing so he was following in a noble tradition. Donuts were not always as universally popular (or common) as they are now. What made them so was the Salvation Army serving them to "doughboys" in WWI and the Red Cross serving them to GI's in WWII--the young ladies who served them were called "Donut Dollies". When the WWII vets returned home, many used their GI Bill grants to open donut shops. There used to be a donut shop in San Jose with a WWII museum attached to it that chronicled this little piece of Americana, but sadly, Lou's Living Donut Museum was closed in 2006 due to family illness. I don't know what happened to all the memorablia, but it certainly was a unique shop and I hope the displays were preserved somewhere.

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Par Baked Pizza Crusts

1/17/2013

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Busy weekend ahead! Friday I'll be speaking at the Knights of Columbus Hall in St. Charles to give a presentation titled "What Kind of Bread Shall We Be?"---a good way to start your pre-Lenten reflection (see the events page for more details and a contact person). Then on Saturday I'll be giving a pizza demo and sampling at the K of C in Godfrey IL (also on the events page). There are still tickets available for both events, so I hope to see you there!

Whever I do a pizza event for more than a dozen people or so, I have to par bake crusts ahead of time--I did ten on Tuesday night and will do another dozen or so tonight. I thought Breadheads might be interested in the method, so I'm sharing a brief section from my book Thursday Night Pizza (Reedy Press, 2010, get it from St. Bede Abbey Press HERE). By the way, par-baked crusts are a GREAT bake sale item.

Par-Baked Crusts

A par-baked crust is made with the same dough as the other pizzas in this book, although the more moist Italian-style dough tends to keep from drying out in the process. Sometimes I’ll make American-style dough with a little extra water and turn the whole batch into par-baked crusts. Since the crusts are essentially baked twice, a wet dough helps prevent an overly dry crust.

Form the crust according to the directions and place on a peel lightly dusted with cornmeal; dock the dough. Brush the top of the dough all over lightly with olive oil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Then bake on a preheated pizza stone at 350˚ F. for 7 to 10 minutes, or until the dough just beginning to brown lightly. Remove from the stone and slide onto a cooling rack. If large air bubbles form on the crust while it’s in the oven, pierce them with a fork and deflate them. When the crust is completely cool, double wrap in plastic wrap and place in the freezer. Par-bakes may be stored for up to 3 months, but mine never last that long!

To use, unwrap the crust and let it thaw for at least 15 minutes before adding toppings. Then bake as usual. The crust will be crispier than with fresh dough, but you may find that you prefer that. I like a par-baked crust when I’m making a pizza with a lot of toppings, like the Muffaletta of the Pizza Diavolo, because it holds up better. Using par-bakes is also a great way to serve a lot of pizzas in a hurry. Using a combination of fresh and par-baked crusts, two culinary students and I once made 54 pizzas in an hour and a half for a fundraiser.

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Monkey Bread Muffins

1/9/2013

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If your family likes monkey bread for breakfast, you have to try these. They are made just like money bread, except you divide the dough among Texas-sized muffin tins. There's about a tablespoon of caramel sauce in the bottom of the cup, then another tablespoon of chopped pecans. Six to eight pieces of dough dredged in cinnamon sugar will fill the cup about halfway, then another two tablespoons of caramel sauce goes on top. If you're using biscuit dough, they go straight into the oven at 375 degrees. if you use cinnamon roll dough, as I did, let them rise for 30 minutes before going into the oven. 15 minutes later, pull the tins out, turn them upside down on top of a piece of parchment, and use a narrow metal spatula or spreader to scoop any spilled caramel and nuts and put them back on top of the muffins. Serve warm, and don't count on leftovers!

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Almond Spiral Coffee Cake

1/7/2013

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As you may have read in my previous post, one of my goals this year is to expand my repertoire of yeasted coffee cakes. Fortunately, between my cookbook collection and Pinterest, I shouldn't have any trouble coming up with new forms for shaping basic sweet dough into beautiful breakfast treats. This gorgeous swirl was inspired by a recipe I found on Pinterest this week. I'm going to give you the link to the blog HERE for two reasons: first of all, give credit where credit is due (the original had an orange/fig filling, and came from Cooking Light); secondly, her blog has lovely photos of the shaping process, much prettier than mine. There seems to be a photographic advantage to baking during the day in a modern suburban kitchen instead of at night in a commercial kitchen with a stainless steel work table! However, my finished product, as you can see, looks just fine on the abbey breakfast table.
I used Solo Almond Filling, which has a wonderfully intense flavor and the consistency of some kind of adhesive. I know that sounds like a disadvantage, but in fact I consider it an asset. It's harder to spread it evenly on a soft dough, but it glues the layers of the dough together and makes them very easy to handle during the shaping process. The dough was the same I use for Best Ever Crescent Rolls (the recipe is HERE) but you could also use Basic Sweet Dough or any dough for dinner rolls. I used half the batch; the other half was used for a lattice braid with cherry filling---but that's a recipe for another day!

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Bucket List

1/6/2013

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The latest issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray appeared on the table of the abbey coffee corner, and although I don't watch her shows, I do like her recipes. So I leafed through the magazine this morning over coffee. There were some good looking side dishes and a year's worth of chocolate dessert recipes, but what really intrigued me was the article on developing a Bucket List, that is, a list of things you want to do before you "kick the bucket."  (The idea comes from the movie of the same name--you can find Rachael's Bucket List here). I've had such a list for quite some time, which I refer to as my "Life Goals" and occasionally I try to get my students to write one out as well.
     I've managed to check off quite a few in the last 50 years. Write and publish a play? Check! Have my own TV show? Check! Make the syrup and the pancakes come out exactly even without having to pour more or enduring a soggy last bite? Check, with pancakes, French Toast, and waffles! Also among my other completed Life Goals: I have played a pinball machine for so long on a single ball that the computer in the machine thought something was wrong, turn itself off and ran a self-check. I actually didn't know that was a life goal until I had actually accomplished it. But I still have quite a few to complete, including:

--Be a guest on NPR's Splendid Table and make the host Lynn Rosetta Kasper laugh (she has a great "radio" laugh).
--Visit the factory where they make Brach's Maple Nut Goodies and eat them warm, straight off the line.
--Have a YouTube video (one that isn't embarassing!) that goes viral.
--learn to make great pie crust, every time
--Expand my repertoire of breakfast breads to include more yeasted coffee cakes.
--Make at least ONE recipe out of every ten that I repin on Pinterest.
--Adapt my Grandma Garramone's cinnamon roll recipe (she wrote it out herself and I think the amount of flour is too small) and make her Shortcut Kringle more often.

     This last one on the list (which is somewhat more expansive than what you see here) prompts me to make a point about life goals, bucket lists and resolutions in general   Experts tell us that to acheive goals successfully, the goals themselves have to be realistic, specific and measurable. No point in my saying, "I'll make her Kringle once a week," because once rehearsals for the musical start, I may not have a spare night for weeks on end, and the aforementioned "more often" is too vague. Better to say "I'll bake Grandma's Kringle for two special occasions this year"---realistic, specific, measurable.

One last thing for this year: get at least 1000 followers on Twitter. Yes, I've gone over to the dark side and started tweeting, mostly just to keep my publisher happy since he mentions it in nearly every phone conversation we have.  It's certainly true that most people in media use it a lot. We'll see what happens: @FrDomGarramone, if you're interested. I'll certainly tweet every time I have a new blog post or test a new recipe, but I promise you: no tweets about what I just ate unless it's a mini restaurant review or an invite to join me for supper!

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New videos for 2013!

1/4/2013

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Over this Christmas break from school we made good use of the kitchen in the girls' boarding house and shot 29 one-minute instructional videos for the Home Baking Association. If you don't know anything about this organization, check out their website at www.homebaking.org. The organization is dedicated to advancing home baking by education in the home and the classroom. Their website includes loads of info, instructions, glossaries, recipes, tips and techniques---and pretty soon, my videos as well!
We call these short interstitials "Breadhead Minutes" and they are going to be broadcast on PBS, distributed by the HBA to home ec and culinary classrooms nationwide, posted on this website, and eventually have their own YouTube channel. I hope to be creating other video content for this website as well, since the school just gave every teacher an iPad. The Breadhead Minutes are actually only about 49 seconds once you add an intro, an outro and the sponsor roll-in, so theres not a lot of time to show anything in detail. So I'm hoping to make a few longer video segments to help Breadheads learn the basic of mixing and kneading and some of the finer points of shaping.

The videos were shot by Bill Streeter, the same videographer who shot the "How to Be a Breadhead" pledge special (still not released) and I really like working with him. His son Ainsley (in the red shirt)operated the B-roll camera. They're both very laid back and quite patient, even when the "Kinds of Yeast" segment took ELEVEN takes! That was on day one of the shoot and it was brutal---we only got 8 shot out of the 26 minimum we were contracted to do. I was both exhausted and discouraged at the end of the day, believe me.

Day two, however, I had a lot more help, as my student and loyal Stage Rat Brandon came out to lend a hand. His assistance made a huge difference, and the second day we shot 21 segments in about 11 hours. Some of them were shot in a single take, and none of them took more than three tries. I actually had plans for as many as 34, so the HBA would have a lot to choose from for their 26 and I'd have extra content for my website. Nonetheless, I'm happy with the result, and I can't wait to see the finished products. Speaking of which, I should have a sample video posted here early next week. Eventually all these instructional videos will be collected on a single page of the website so Breadheads can work their way through a whole tutorial. Keep checking back here for updates!

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"Bread Flintstone" no more

Pizza and Donuts

Par Baked Pizza Crusts

Monkey Bread Muffins

Almond Spiral Coffee Cake

Bucket List

New videos for 2013!

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