Yeast

Okay, so I am at it again, but I first need to post a few things about the yeast.  Remember, I am a home baker, not trained other than by my mother and alot of things as an adult I have been hit and miss with and really still have to learn the hard way.  Okay, the first mistake I find in a recipe are usually the instructions for the yeast.  There are many methods and I have tried quite a few and there are still a few I am going to try but it's hard to move away from what is working to try them and take a chance on failing.  Alot of recipes (yeast, sweet breads) call for warm milk, some will tell you to go ahead and add your warm milk with warm water to activate the yeast, I have tried it this way a hundred times and did fail many times with it. So in doing a little research I found out that the milk actually coats the yeast and can prevent it from activating, water works best for me. Better bakers than me may have a different experience, but, it never works for me.  I use rapid rise yeast, it should sit in 1/4 cup of your warm water that the recipe calls for, so if your recipe calls for 1 cup warm water, later on in the recipe you will only use the remaining 3/4 c.  sounds simple but I have forgotten and added the full amount later on.   The temp on the water must be between 110 to 115 degrees, any hotter and you damage the yeast and it wont grow.  I use to put my yeast in my large mixing bowl to activate the yeast and then just add ingredients to it, and I am having greater success using a small cereal bowl for the yeast, adding the water at the proper temp and sprinkling a spoonful of sugar over it, sugar helps yeast grow.  I let it sit for 10 min. only, you will know you have done it right if your yeast doubles in size and you will see tiny popping bubbles...  I put all my dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and use a handmixer to add the other wet ingredients to it, after I have those combined then I use the yeast mixture and always mix for two minutes which is important because it activates the gluten.   One other note about the yeast, salt does help to deactivate yeast, so I always make sure it is mixed in well with the flour before the yeast goes near it. Some recipes actually call for you to put the salt straight into the yeast and it makes no sense at all.  If you are not sure of your recipe, and something doesn't sound right about it, try it this way, it has been working every time for me.
Now, I am in the middle of making a big turkey dinner, usually takes me two days to make everything. Tonight, my friends daughter wanted to work with me in the kitchen, so she and I have been making homemade yeast hamburger buns and dinner rolls and I started my first new recipe for my 52 weeks.  It is called Fabulously Sweet Pear Cake...my pears are soaking in their own juices being drawn out by white sugar and brown sugar and a little cinnamon and salt, over night so the flavors can meld,  this recipe is awesome, not the biggest challenge I have ever had but I have honestly never worked with pears before and I have modified the recipe, adding some of my own touches like sour cream to make it more dense, and I will put a pear glaze on that I have never tried before so it should be interesting and hopefully tasty. My challenges will probably get harder as I go along, I have always wanted to try making a wedding cake, so I will do that, probably puff pastrys, and I also want to do some middle eastern breads...so I have alot to look forward to. For now, I am going to get some sleep so I can get my turkey in the oven early in the morning and I will post more tomorrow evening with pics. Good night everyone!

Liz's blog! Coffee Cake and Frank Sinatra!

Okay so, the coffee cake took a little longer than expected and I ran out of eggs (apparantly early in the evening someone got a craving for boiled eggs..weird..Dave!!) so when the house finally quieted down and I was ready to get baking I only had enough eggs to do the coffee cakes so the Amish bread will have to wait!  Anyway, the coffee cakes turned out fabulous using the Sweet Bread recipe which I will post on this page shortly.
          Now, it's been one of those weeks okay?  One major stress after another, on the verge of tears or smothering someone with a pillow for about 6 days or so.  Can't blame this one on pms either, sometimes life just puts a boot up your ass and there is little that you can do about it so I turn to the one thing that makes me feel better...heading to the kitchen.  I was getting my dough ready and once I was ready to turn out the sweet bread and start kneeding it, I realized my heart was pounding, it was about one am and I felt like my chest was going to explode, it was about then that I realized every time I pressed down on the dough I was thinking of someone who had pissed me off or hurt my feelings or screwed me over in the last week and I was miserable. I had to go sit down. I turned on Frank, he asked me to Come fly with him and I started to let the stress go...I fantasized that I was Sarah Michelle Geller in Simply Irrisistable, and that all my emotion was actually going into the dough...and anyone who ate it would feel my same emotion.....I visualized the kids getting up for school, spotting the freshly baked coffee cakes waiting for them on the table with the "eat me" sign on them, taking a big bite and then they would start pummelling each other at 7 am and be late for school.....Yikes!!!  Back to Frank, then Frank wasn't doing it for me anymore, switch to Dean...better...dough was risen...chest felt better....my baking/music therapy was starting to work...went back to the kitchen for the fun part, the assembley....parting the dough, rolling it out, spreading the yummy filling rolling it up and braiding, and letting them rise again and I knew at this point they would turn out great, I couldnt keep the dough from rising, they were beautiful!  My next post will be about the yeast by the way, what I have done in the past, why is it so damn hard to get it right, bad suggestions and what really works!
After I popped them in the oven at three am I hit the dvr for some Real Housewives of New Jersey...somehow these chicks make me feel better about my own life. But..it was boring, no fights this week and by the time the cakes came out and I iced them around four am, I felt great, not exhausted, exhillerated but sleepy. My stress was gone like magic, I had the quiet time to really think about things...how important is it? this too shall pass! whats done is done, get on with your life and dont waste another bit of energy worrying about this stuff, I put myself to bed after putting a "eat me" sign on the coffee cakes for the kids that had to be up in a couple hours, and slept like a baby. Today was a much better day. I have a new commitment to chill out and not let myself get that stressed over things I cannot do anything about, but...if that doesn't work...I can always bake something:)                    http://lburgett.blogspot.com/

New Recipes

Okay, so I am trying a new recipe tonight for an Amish white bread (yeast bread) and then I am using an old Sweet Bread Base recipe for my family's traditional Coffee Cakes, the dough is similar to what my mom has always used but I have alot more luck getting this other Sweet Bread to rise properly. I have learned a few new techniques and am anxious to get started and see if this process is less of a pain, because if you have made homemade bread before you know that there are many successes and failures...you can think you have it down pat and the next time you make it end up with flat dry bread..I think the secret is learn all you can about yeast, how it works, why it works, what activates it and what kills it, and there are a million ways to kill it believe me. You can be making mistakes in the first few minutes of starting your recipe that will make your hours of hard work useless, that is the worst feeling. I have sat in the floor of my kitchen crying after putting hours in on a baking project all to have it turn out not good enough for the dog, it's painful!  
Well, as I posted, my baking and cooking have such an emotional connection to me, can be a stress reliever, or for fun, or even if I'm just trying to impress...today it is the first.  When I cannot handle my stress any longer I feel if I don't get in the kitchen that I will blow. I am waiting for the house to get quiet, gonna put on a little Frank for some mood music, and get to work....wish me luck and I will post pics. Thanks to my facebook friends to read this, its fun for me to journal about something I love, if you have one, let me know I would love to check it out!!

Baking Cabinet

after a few years of my items being scattered all over the kitchen and never knowing for sure what I had in the house at any given time, I came to believe I needed a baking cabinet. Eventually I will have a much larger one than I use right now, but there are certain staples, as my mother would call them, that I try to keep on hand and it is just easier if I have an area I can check randomly to see when I am getting low on certain items. Around the holidays, which for me starts about the time the kids go back to school (I love to get an early start every year which usually includes a few early turkey dinners, for my pre-holiday season) my cabinets get over stocked. I like to make sure I have more than enough of certain items on hand for my random baking moods.
.....items to keep on hand
flour and lots of it. I prefer the flour for breads, it works best on most things I make. But I do use regular flour also.
shortening, brand makes no difference to me on this one.
yeast, rapid rise in the three pack, I like to have a few stocked up, and I keep them in the cabinet versus the fridge, no more than a couple months.
vanilla                      canola and vegtable oil    brown sugar         honey    white sugar
almond extract         quick oats                       cooking spray      olive oil  unbleached white flour
powdered sugar       corn meal                        cocoa powder     salt        gelatin
baking soda             maple flavoring                cream of tartar     nutmeg   instant puddings
baking powder         apple sauce                     corn starch          cinnamon

this is a brief list that can get you started, keep in mind I am no professional, I had a friend a while back ask me to help her make a baking cabinet and it got me thinking that alot of people don't know where to start and this is the place to start if you want to bake at home.
A professional baker, and I know a few, would mock my list I'm sure, but for a novice baker...this will get ya started.