Pizza: A Rising Star in My Kitchen

I essentially decided to make pizza because of Tori Amos. Here’s what happened. My internship at AAM in New York two summers ago provided me some sweet hook-ups with free concert tickets, cds, etc. I even had the chance to meet a few bands while there, an opportunity I relished. I learned here first that being in the music industry was a dream of mine, and I’ve held fast to this goal with my work at WVAU and in my internship with Carpark Records. But back to Tori…

When I left AAM and returned to school, I had become friends with my boss, who was very sweet underneath his hard ass exterior. Ok, he was never a hard ass. But it makes for a better sounding character, doesn’t it? Dave and I have corresponded back and forth over the year, and a few weeks ago he called me out of the blue. “Please, find somebody to take these two Tori Amos tickets off my hands!”

Ordinarily, Dave and AAM work to promote awesome artists, most of whom I’d love to see in concert. However, on the occasion, they have to scratch the backs of untalented bands who utilize their services. Such was the case in the opening band for Tori Amos.

Colin and I put on our thinking caps and scratched our heads until we could think of who among our groups of friends would possibly want tickets to Tori Amos and Co. It dawned on Colin that his uber-feminist Vegan friend Laura might want it. When he called, she was absolutely thrilled with the opportunity and snatched up both tickets quickly.

As a thank you for our generosity (my luck and in with the music biz), Laura had both of us over to her apartment for dinner. And thus, the connective tissue of the story: her husband Zac made
us all pizza that was out of this world delicious (and vegan!)

I was so impressed that he made literal pizza, a food I only associate with cardboard boxes and late night cravings, that I convinced myself I should try as well. My kitchen is twice the size of theirs, and I had the luxury of using  animal products. Truth to be told, making pizza was a cinch. The biggest obstacle is the obsessive kneading and the waiting time it takes for the dough to rise.

I followed the recipes for the dough and the sauce from Baking Illustrated, which is probably my favorite cookbook in my still infantile collection. I carry many types of flour in my pantry, but I have never used bread flour before. I am still unclear on the differences in flours, but owning this one adds more possibilities for my kitchen experimentations! I used my food processor for the dough, which came together in just ten pulses. The dough, which is of course yeasted, grew to double the size within two hours, and a simple downward punch deflated it into a workable mass for stretching into a pie. Although the book recommends to make your pizza in circular form, I opted for the ever more radical triangle-rectangle shape.

The red sauce was super easy to make. I processed a can of diced tomatoes (probably could have used regular tomatoes too), threw that in a saucepan of heated garlic and oil, and let heat and think out for 15 minutes. Simple.

I topped the first pie with carmelized onions, the second with red bell pepper and whole garlic cloves, and the third with all three toppings. I used the same mix of mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, mostly because Colin doesn’t fancy Ricotta and it is expensive.

Needless to say, the pizzas were a spectacular hit, and I look forward to being more inventive with toppings and perhaps even with dough. Mini pizzas, anyone?

The frosting gods are against me!

I don’t know why, but every time I make a cake or cupcake, I make a terrible accompanying frosting. Sure, it looks shiny, but it’s usually gross. I’ve made everything from cream cheese frosting to buttercreams, even a sour cream- based chocolate for tonight’s birthday cake (both recipes from the famous blog Smitten Kitchen)! I think I need to watch a master baker at work and learn the secrets, because whatever I am doing is failing. Pictures below from aforementioned celebration cake.

Flaurie and the Giant Peach (Thief)

My darling mother Flaurie popped on over to the East Coast (least coast) this past week for a splendid visit. I enjoyed her company very much, and I wined and dined her all over town to my favorite eating establishments (Open City, Busboys & Poets, Dos Gringos, Founding Farmers). Her visit coincided with the birthday of my dear friend Leslie, to whom I had vowed to make a peach pie.

I rather enjoyed the process of baking with peaches. For one, they are so juicy and their “natural essence” really spreads. Secondly, it was fun to blanche a fruit. I’ve blanced veggies and nuts, not never a fruit. The process of blanching makes even the hardest peaches soft, and it allows for easy skin removal. Below are pictures of the naked fruits. I used a mix of Yellow and White peaches, all purchased from Eastern Market. I thought the White peaches were especially spectacular looking.

Tragedy struck, and my crust baked itself. I was using my faithful Butter Crust recipe (which I used because it gives directions for a stand mixer, and I only recently bought my food processor), which calls for a double crust. I only want the bottom crust, so I halved the recipe. Inevitably, the proportions weren’t correct, and the crust melted to the bottom of the pie pan and oozed its buttery bad self. When such events take place, it is important to always have brown sugar and oats on hand! Right then and there, it became COBBLER TIME.
The following photographic journey captures the afternoon event.

Two white on the left, four yellow peaches on the right. Just like apple pie, recipes call for 7-8, but you only need 5-6.

Flaurie In all Her Glory (ie looking up the weather on her iPhone)

Peaches, sugar, corn starch (which made it kind of gelatinous)

RIP Crust

Ghost of Ty Cobb(ler)

Leslie eats the first slice

Summertime, Livin is E-Z

Hello, faithful readers! How odd that the time this here blog began one year ago is the time I would drop completely off the face of the blogosphere (well, blogs that require more than 140 characters). Anywho- it is high time I began to showcase my baked goodies once again. At this exact moment, I have my second ever yeast bread in the oven, my first Brioche. A brioche is a traditional French sweet bread famous for its high egg and butter content. Although I’ve been baking my fair share of Vegan delights, this one is impossible to replicate without the help of some animals. I’ll let you know how it comes out as an edit later.

Aside from this bread, I enjoyed a baking renaissance over the weekend, the all-American July 4th. I obviously bought a bag of 12 apples, and knew that whatever I made would come out patriotically delicious. I stumbled upon this recipe for Mini apple pies, and thought it was just about the cutest thing I’d ever heard of. I love the idea of making miniature versions of normally larger nom-noms. I used my crust dough and made 4 inch and 3 inch cut-out circles, creating the mini-crusts, and filled each with two tablespoons of appley goodness. Most of mine came out delicious, if not a little strange-tasting. You see, I did not have any butter in the house, and I compromised by baking with the 3 leftover sticks of Vegan butter I bought to make a coconut pie for my pal Benji’s birthday. I think that maybe only I could tell something was off in the taste, because party-goers ate them up without question.

I also decided to make an apple crumble, also with Vegan butter in place of the real stuff. I’ve made crumbles a few times, and this was THE BEST one yet. I think I finally perfected the ratio of flour, oats, and brown sugar. The secret is: the more oats the better.

I’ll post more topic-ally soon, just wanted to revive this puppy before I lost it to the internet devils or whatnot.

Delectable pie with surprise orange zest!

Banana Wheat Germ Muffins

Lost Coconut Cream Pie (vegan)

Mini pies without top crusts

TOO CUTE TO EAT???

Flaky and scrumptious!

First ever Chocolate Chip cookies VEGAN STYLEY with walnuts, also note the use of Jacques Torres chocolate chips

Brioche temperature-taking. FALSE ADVERTISING. Was gooey in middle despite high temp.

What a beaut. Good enough for eating.

If you go to Baltimore for the weekend, you’re gonna return to stale bread. Brioche french toast is the answer!

Brioche temperature-taking. FALSE ADVERTISING. Was gooey in middle despite high temp.

What a beaut. Good enough for eating.

If you go to Baltimore for the weekend, you're gonna return to stale bread. Brioche french toast is the answer!

Community Cookbooks

As my final project for my Contemporary Ethnographies class, I’d like to share my experiences as a baker exploring new recipes. We just finished reading Triple-A all-star/ hottie Setha Low’s most recent publication “Behind The Gates”, an ethnography which explores the lives, lifestyles, and fears of those who chose to live in gated communities all around the country. While not my favorite reading for the course, it explores vital issues such as the significance of safety and security and the meaning of community.

I attempted to find a cookbook that a gated community published, and my inquiries led me to the Hollywoodland Homeowners Association, who made a “unique” product for sale at $15.00. Professor Williams was kind enough to purchase it for me, but it did not arrive in time to be able to cook from it.

Instead, I will be bringing in delights from what I consider to be the antithesis of the gated community: the cooperative. Co-ops have various meanings, but the best summation, courtesy of Wikipedia, is an “autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise”.

In co-ops that I am familiar with, such as the Park Slope Food Co-op, or the Stanford student house, the “Enchanted Broccoli Forest”, there is a definite sense of community because every member works and participates to ensure the proliferation of a common good.

For my project, I baked my first cornbread ever from Mollie Katzen’s famous “Moosewood Cookbook”, the original cookbook of the Moosewood collective in Ithaca, NY. She has gone on to write many more books, including “Enchanted Broccoli Forest”, which the Stanford house gets its name from. I also baked Vegan Chocolate Crinkles, a recipe which linked from Eco-Vegan, a site which documents the culinary trials of  a vegan organic co-op. It’s worth noting that their website is easy to find, and shares its recipes for free, proving an emphasis on shared knowledge rather than exclusionary practice

Pictures to come!

Of owls and ponytails

The last month or so has reaped some notable occasions which have deserved creative efforts in baking and decorating. WVAU, my beloved radio station, held its final Capitol Punishment show in late March. We brought together Mittenfields (local DC band), Screaming Females (New Brunswick trio with riotgrrrl frontwoman), and Ponytail (art rock quartet from Baltimore). It was by far our best show all year, and I was pleased with our audience turnout, a mix of crust punks and musaq fans. I decided to commemorate the event by baking a chocolate sheet cake and painting my version of Ponytail’s most recent album cover on it. Ponytail was impressed and delighted by my efforts; the bassist’s girlfriend even works at Ace of Cakes!

Another date I wanted to celebrate was the birthday of my dear friend Allison, aka “Gaffney/Gaffers/Gaff/Owlisson”. To make a long story short, I had to bake her something relating to owls. I finally mustered up the courage to use my Hello, Cupcake books, and used their baby and mama owl design to create a menagerie of talon-ed friends. I used oreos for eye balls, junior mints for the eyes, banana runts for the nose, and general frosting piped everywhere for ears, hair, and tufts.

I had to use so many food coloring combinations

Owly faces before they're on cupcakes

Triplet sibling owls without beaks- hoot hoot hoot

The whole family in their nest

Spring Break aka FOOD in NYC

Colin and I took our second annual trip to Da Big Apple last weekend. While he took the opportunity to purchase as much harsh noise vinyl as he possibly could, I spent my monies at various chef/ baking supply stores. Apparently, the place I interned this past summer, and whom I visited this past weekend, is neighbors with one of said shops. I just thank the heavens that I didn’t begin baking until I returned to D.C., otherwise I’d have been on an even bigger shoestring budget. I didn’t want to haul anything too big like specialty baking tins, so I bought goodies for decorating and ensuring maximum cuteness in future cupcakes, and potentially any dessert which has frosting.

Away from my own kitchen for a few days, we of course had to eat out every meal. It was lovely.  Some of the meals that I was not too embarrassed to photograph are pictured below.

I didn’t take any pictures at the fancier restaurants, but we did dine at Commerce, one of the “Hottest new eateries” to open this year. It was here that we tried foie gras for the first time. After asking our waiter if the taste would be very intense when baked inside bread stuffing (I didn’t want to admit that I hadn’t eaten it before), he said it was mild. It turns out that he was wrong. Each bite was very powerful, leaving both our mouths full of duck liver taste for hours. Oh well, at least it was something new.

Top to bottom: Jungle-themed cupcake holders, dinosaur-themed cupcake holders, RYGB circle sprinkles, EDIBLE GOLD SPRINKLES

Picked up some of Jacques Torres’ bittersweet chocolate discs ($8/lb) from his shop and also some Dalmatia Fig spread from Murray’s Cheese shop, both in Grenwich Village

J-pan in Park Slope, BK. Just ask us about it.

Onion Bagel with Shmear from Absolute Bagels, at Bway & 104th

Shack attack, courtesy of Shake Shack

Did not eat here, but Holy Cannoli!! A giant one with baby ones inside

The biggest whisk I’ve ever seen.

Pro Tools

Wow it’s been too long since I blogged. The past four weeks have come and gone, but not without their fair share of baked goods. Fear not, loyal brethren! Just because I’m not bloggin’ don’t mean I ain’t bakin’.

Just two weeks ago was spring break, a 10 day break from school which I usually spend on this coast, taking in museums and acting with general malaise. This year, however, I traveled home to beautiful weather and a newly-painted and thoroughly-cleaned house. My parents have been diligently packing away all of their belongings for the past three months, so the house was extremely tidy and my room in particular have little to no evidence that I ever lived there for a decade. Despite the strangeness of it all, there have been a few upsides to my parent’s spring cleaning, at least in the way of baking. As the one of two offspring who delights in baking, I inherited many old bread and cupcake pans that have received little love in past years. With the addition of 30 one time use baby loaf pans, I can now boast the title of Most Bread Loaf Pans on the block!

A quick trip to Sur Le Table (with the generous backing of Daddy Warbucks) allowed me three essential tools I’d been lacking: pie weights, a set of metal Ateco decorating tips, and a candy thermometer. Each is a stupendous kitchen addition and will solve a problem I’ve previously dealt with. The pie weights will keep my crust from baking itself, ie: the Quiche, pictured below. The tip set will make my cupcakes more beautiful, and I can dabble in the arts of cake decorating (although I did take a class on this with Daddy Warbucks when I was 8 years old. Can still taste the orange buttercream). I’ve been limited in my confection-making because there are very specific requirements when heating sugars or chocolate at extremely high heat.

Ultimately, I’ve learned that tough times can yield some sweet results.

Still looking for camera connector…..Pictures up soon!!

The Whitest Bread U’Know

This weekend I had very little homework (partially the product of enrolling in a 100 level class), so I decided to have a baking bonanza. However, I took it a step further and conquered my fears by making two of the most classic baked goods we all know and love: Sugar Cookies and American Sandwich Bread aka White Bread. You may be wondering: Iliana, you’re a conquerer of cookies, a pilot of pies, a Bronson of bars, how could you be terrified of such simple culinary feats?

The answer is: I’m terrified of molding and rolling dough. I fear the sticky dough, the over-floured dough, the dough which falls apart. And as we all know, things fall apart (Achebe 2,43, etc.).

I’ve also been fearful of using yeast, the strange living bacteria inside the pink packets of my nightmares. I bought my 3-pack of Fleischmann’s months ago, because I knew one day I’d be ready.

The making of both doughs was relatively easy. Both had less than 10 ingredients, all of which were fairly standard and I did not have to go out of my way purchase anything special. Everything basically just got thrown into the mixer for a few minutes until I had to use my hands and get personal with the dough.

The sugar cookies needed to chill (out) for a few hours, but were basically easy to manage when cold. Following Alton Brown’s recipe, I traded flour for confectioners sugar for my rolling aid. I formed shapes with cookie cutters my Aunt Betty bought me for my birthday which I’ve previously posted, and you can see below. I enjoyed my first experience with royal icing, although I’m concerned about the hazard of raw egg whites. All in all, a delicious success. I hope one day to have an enormous collection of cookie cutters.

Making bread was really the star event of my weekend, aside from watching the Academy Awards this evening. It took a lot of patience, because dough takes forever to rise, even in low oven temperatures. From start to finish, I’d estimate 2.5 hours for the making of just plain white bread. I used the recipe from my favorite cookbook Baking Illustrated, which suggests putting a pan of boiling water in the oven with the rising loaf to ensure a crisper crust. I have no idea how this works, but it must have to do with steam or moisture. Any ideas? Pictures a milli posted below.

Neon Brite Sugar Cookies

I'm a Monsterrrrrr

The "secret" ingredient (it's yeast)

The d'oh

Caterpillar shaped loaf

After the first rise

Rustic Crustic

Slice, Slice

Also I made london broil for dinner

Cupcake Ethnographies

This post is dedicated to all my pals in Anth 340. For my project based on “The Devil In The Mirror” by Steven Gregory of Columbia University, I baked pineapple cupcakes with pineapple cream cheese frosting, topped with toasted coconut. This recipe may seem like just a tropical fruit mish mash, but it is an adaptation of Bizcocho de Piña, a common Dominican dessert served at every major life cycle event.

According to one source,

“Dominican cake is the center of every Dominican celebration. No wedding, baptism or birthday is complete in the Dominican Republic without our delicious traditional cake. The traditional Dominican cake has a baked-in pineapple filling, but you can use other fruits that are suitable for this purpose (strawberries, orange, peach) or use pastry cream”

My aim was to offer my classmates a true taste of the DR, since the book gives ample thick description of the sights and sounds of Boca Chica, the main town where Gregory conducted his fieldwork.

Because I am feeding 18 mouths tomorrow morning, I decided to do what any smart baker does: turn a cake into cupcakes. Personally I found the very idea of a pineapple cake strange, because there is a bounty of other ingredients to create cakes from. However, the island nation of the Dominican Republic is rich in many fruits, including guava, banana, sweet and bitter orange, and of course the pineapple. Other examples of common Dominican cuisine can be viewed here.

I hope my classmates will post their thoughts in the comment section.

Thank goodness for Bestway, premier Latino supermarket!

Looks like grilled pineapple rings

Finished product atop Princeton, loveable bedside pet