Croutons

First, I must apologize for my lack of postings lately, I don't have a good excuse, so I won't try and make one up. I've been playing this game NetHack and it has consumed a lot of my time, its really addictive. Anyway, I will attempt to set aside the game to post my creations and culinary adventures. I have kept documenting everything, I just haven't been posting.

As always, I have scorned the store bought when I can make a home made version, and in the fashion I do so often, I also avoided store bought ingredients, preferring to make them myself (sadly from store bought base ingredients). So this is actually two stories in one, the story of the French Bread and the story of the Crouton.

This story begins in a land far far away, in a time long forgotten, or rather my kitchen (3 meteres) and two weeks ago. I had made glorious loaves of French Bread, destined to be cubed and made into dry flavored bread known as Croutons.

In times gone by (when I was a child) I didn't like croutons, they were crunchy oddities amongst a bunch of readily chewy salad that was drenched in a salad dressing that I didn't care for to begin with. So as all good stories go, I didn't eat much salad or croutons throughout my teenage years, unless I had to... I was never a fan of adding 50 billion different items to a salad to make it appetizing and then drenching it with salad dressing, I liked simple salads, maybe some iceberg lettuce and some salad dressing; that was it!

About a year ago, I discovered that spinach goes great in a salad, a little bit of iceberg lettuce to give it some diversity and the barest amount of salad dressing I could get away with, and some croutons for some reason. Unlike the soggy ultra-colourful salads of my youth that I didn't much care for, I had a salad that I really enjoyed. The croutons brought new flavour packed cubes that could change the flavour from homogeneous to heterogeneous. Meaning that the salad never got boring, it kept changing between two delicious flavours, ensuring that each time I alternated it was like tasting it for the first time again. I was in salad heaven! I started making lunches out of salads, for awhile people thought I was a vegetarian because I was bringing so many salads for lunch... It wasn't until then that I realized I hadn't disliked the humble crouton, but rather the soggy diverse salads it had been put into.

All of this brings me to the present, when I went to make a salad and I reached into the cupboard where I store the croutons, only to find I had run out and hadn't bothered to tell myself to buy more. I was disheartened, the salad would be able to stand on its own with or without the croutons, but it wouldn't hold the same attraction to me that it had earlier. It was shortly after this that I realized, I was paying money for dry flavoured bread cubes, something that can easily be made in my kitchen. This was a beloved ingredient in my salads that I could make, I would never run out as long as I had the time to make more! A new era had been born!

 I started with a fresh loaf of French Bread, I ended up eating the ones I had made in a previous posting, so I made more and made the loaves with the knowledge I had gained about forming...

 The loaf was cubed and put into a bowl that was much larger than it. This wasn't done to make it look insignificant or because I had misjudged how much a loaf would make, this was to make tossing it easier with the oil and seasonings that I would soon add.

 I sprinkled garlic powder and dill over the bread cubes and then used a pump sprayer filled with Olive Oil as I tossed to evenly coat the cubes with oil. Not too much and not too little. Most importantly, the sprayer ensured that none would be drenched in an excess of oil.

 Once the cubes were coated to what I considered just right, I spread them out onto  a baking sheet and stuck it into an oven. I took it out every 5-10 minutes to toss everything so it would brown evenly.

The end result is delicious dry flavoured bread cubes that I can put into the salads that I love so much. I store them in an air tight ziplock bag in the freezer until I need to call upon there humble powers to elevate a salad to a new level of deliciousness. Also, since having made them, I have found they are a favorite snack of my roommates brother...

French Bread

I really, really like the taste of this bread, but only when its fresh from the oven. It loses quite a lot of flavour in mere hours after baking, or at least mine does. If timed just right, it comes out of the oven just as a meal starts and takes the whole meal to the next level. The very smell of it baking can help whet the appetite for the meal.

Aside from those obvious benefits, the left over bread as I mentioned is lacking in its original flavour. This makes it a prime candidate for being used as an ingredient in other dishes. Topping an Onion soup, or used as a base to a juicy cut of meat, bread crumbs, or as I am planning on doing with the left overs from this batch, turn it into Croutons.

I learned an interesting lesson when I was rolling the dough into a baguette. I rolled it out, but didn't like it so I folded it in half and rerolled it again. Again, I didn't like the shape, so I did this one more time, now it was in a shape I liked. However, when it baked, all the folding back on itself had not caused it to stick to itself, so I ended up with some pretty funky baguettes. They still came out tasting great, they just didn't look anything like a traditional baguette would.

 I thoroughly mixed the dry ingredients together (Flour, yeast and salt). Once I add the water there won't be any further chances to nicely mix stuff into the dough.

 I mixed the water into the dry mixture until it was all loosely held together in clumps. This part is really sticky, so I used a butter knife to do the mixing. I chose the knife above all other potential tools solely because the knife would be really easy to clean.

 I turned out the clumpy, floury mixture onto a table and set about the task of kneading the dough. A note on the height of the table, if you are kneading, I find it is a lot easier (a lot) if the table is low enough that you can let gravity help you. The table I use is below my belt line, but above my groin. If the table is too high, you end up using your arm muscles, which unless your a body builder, is a hard work out. Your going to be here for about a 1/2 hour, so make it easy on yourself!

 The dough is starting to come together after a few minutes of kneading. If you find the dough is wet and sticky, flour the table and work it into the dough, if it is too dry, you can add some water. However, a little water goes along way, most bread recipes recommend adding water by the teaspoon, I personally either wet my hands and then work it in, or spray with a spray bottle of water. This is a finer grained measurement than a teaspoon and as such allows you to adjust the moisture content very easily, without having to worry about over shooting.

 The final dough is stretchy, and if you want, tastes great. What can I say, I really like bread.

 I boiled a medium pot with some water in it, the exact amount of water is really of little concern. More water acts as a larger heat sink and will hold more heat to be dissipated later. This is a good thing.

 It is a good thing, because it is going to be used to keep the dough warm while it is rising. As a byproduct, it will keep the oven at a high level of humidity. The high humidity means you don't knead (groan) to cover the dough while it is rising. You will be rewarded with a soft and fluffy dough. Keep in mind the oven is off, I'm just using the space to help raise the dough.

 After an hour or when the dough has doubled in bulk, your going to beat on it, punch it and in general have fun with it. What? I enjoy punching down the dough. Try it, I think you'll agree.

As the mobsters from the Simpsons once said about roughing up Homer "This guys easy on the knuckles, I could work him over all day!". Well the dough is the same weigh (groan). You want to put it back into the oven until it has doubled in bulk again, also reboil the water. When the dough has doubled in bulk again (or an hour has passed) punch the dough down and form into baguettes.

 As I mentioned above I formed then reformed each baguette, I let them sit on a lightly floured surface until they had doubled in bulk again, then I cut slices in the top. The slices serve a double purpose, they help prevent the surface from cracking as it cooks and it looks really nice on the final product.

The final product, distorted by the refolding of the baguette when I should have left it alone. If I hadn't refolded it, the slices I had made would have made it look really nice. Despite looking like it was the horribly disfigured progeny of a monster, the taste was just as I have always loved. I mostly ate one loaf, before I could take this picture.






The bulk of the cost of both of the loaves was from the flour, which only came to $0.89. Thats $0.46 per loaf or $0.03 per slice. That definitely knocks homemade bread weigh (grown) down from the cost of store bought bread. So if you don't make bread at home for the fresh taste, then you might as well do it to save a few bucks on your grocery bill.

Rice Krispie Squares

I may have stretched the truth a little when I said I was making Rice Krispie Squares. Sure, all I did was add a few ingredients to the base recipe, but how many more ingredients does it take to make a new recipe in itself? I'll leave that question for the philosophers, in the mean time, I modeled this version off of an energy bar I recently bought from a vending machine; It was called "Grannys Power Bar" or something like that. As soon as I saw that, I knew I had to buy it, once I had tried it, I read the ingredients list. It was basically Rice Krispie squares filled with dried fruits, coconut and a whole plethora of other items.

It had become my mission now, to reproduce this bar, it consumed my life, or rather I went home and looked at all the dried fruits and seeds I had and made a big pile of them in anticipation of today.

I started by making my own Marshmallows ahead of time. Once they were finished, I tossed them in a pot with some butter.

While the marshmallows were melting into the butter, I was chopping and slicing my dried fruits like a mad man. I know what all but two of the ingredients are, so if someone out in the interwebs can identify them, I will be eternally grateful to them.Starting at the top and working clockwise: Unknown dried fruit, raisins, dates, cranberries, unknown seeds, dried pears and coconut in the middle.

Once the marshmallows and butter had melted together I mixed in some vanilla extract.

I mixed the seeds and fruits into the marshmallow/butter mixture and stirred vigorously to thoroughly mix the seeds and fruits so it would be closer to homogeneous.

I mixed in the Rice Krispies and folded them into the gooey mixture until everything was coated and it stuck to me, the pot, me, the spatula and me. It was messy! I learned my lesson and coated the back of a spatula with butter and I pressed it into the pan, this was probably the cleanest portion of the process. I set the pan out to cool so that I could cut it into smaller pieces.

Using my multi-purpose pizza cutter, I cut the cooled Krispies into bars. I judged by eye, so I ended up with some runt pieces which were quickly eaten.

 I breaded the Krispies in Graham Cracker Crumbs. The natural stickiness was enough to hold on the coating.

 All the bars are breaded and are waiting for the final stage, which truth be told, I had not thought about. I wanted to dip them into a yogurt based sauce that was solid at room temperature. But to be honest, I haven't a clue as to where to start. So I am am going to have to table that idea until some time in the future when I do this again.






I would like to say how much this cost, but I don't have all the costs for the marshmallows, and all the dried fruits and seeds are also of an unknown value. The best I could do is speculate based on the cost of the Rice Krispies and butter used. Though that number would be way off.

Marshmallows - Follow up

I am finally able to post the pictures of the marshmallows and how they turned out. Aside from being squares and not cylanders, they turned out quite well.









I dusted the top so that it wouldn't stick to me as I worked with it.











Well, I know I said I was going to use the kitchen shears dusted in the mixture, but it was creating a jagged edge, was slow, and despite the dusting was starting to gum up my shears. I went with my trusty multi-purpose pizza cutter and never looked back. It gave straight cuts with a minimum of effort.







I dusted the edges so that the marshmallows would not stick to anything (me, themselves and other marshmallows).










That is all there is to making marshmallows, I am looking forward to making some Rice Krispie squares out of them!