melissa makes bread

Pickled Eggs

Pickled eggs mean Easter to me. My mother and grandmother always pickled hard boiled eggs with beets for Easter dinner. A couple of days before Easter my mom would hard boil a couple dozen eggs. We would color half of the eggs and the other half would be pickled with a can of Harvard beets. I loved the eggs but would always pass on the canned beets.

The recipe I used for these eggs uses fresh beets, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar and spices for flavoring. The pickling liquid, beets and eggs must be cool to cold before combining or the eggs will turn rubbery. The eggs should pickle at least two days before enjoying.

Prune & Armagnac Bread Pudding

My obsession and interest in combining prunes and armagnac together persists in this bread pudding. It's sweetened with honey which compliments the richness of the prunes. The prunes were soaked in armagnac for about a month before adding them to the pudding. And additional armagnac was added to the custard base before baking.

The bread is a pugliese loaf from Sullivan Street Bakery.

Mirabelle Plum Tarts

Always on the lookout for mirabelle plums, I found jars of sugar preserved plums, imported from Germany, at the local cheese shop. Once home, I removed the pits and placed the plums in an almond batter. The batter was used to fill tarts with tops. I like tops on tarts. There is more flakey goodness to go around. The recipe comes from Jane Grigson's Fruit Book, a sweet and informative read.

Prune & Armagnac Ice Cream

Jane Grigson, the celebrated English cookery writer, writes "The best prunes are reckoned to come from Agen, or the district known as the Agenais. As this is Armagnac country, too, they are often put together in a most felicitous way."

I first came across prune and armagnac ice cream in Lindsay Shere's Chez Panisse Desserts. Her ice cream recipes have worked so well for me at home; they tend not to ice up after they've been processed. The dairy fat content is slightly higher than the recipes I've used in restaurants.

Paula Wolfert also has some lovely recipes with prunes and armagnac in her book "The Cooking of South-West France".

For me, the texture of this ice cream is so luxurious. The soaked prunes are added to the ice cream after it is churned. The prunes are naturally creamy. The armagnac adds flavor, but also lowers the freezing point contributing to the creamy texture.

Chocolate & Banana

I was flipping through the pages of Pierre Herme's Desserts cookbook when I came across the recipe for this tart. This cookbook was written by Dorie Greenspan, and I love anything that she writes. She has a keen eye for observation when baking, and her writing reflects that.

The tart was a hit at home, and one that I'll enjoy tweaking later on. The tart shell is a blind baked pate sucree made with all-purpose and almond flours. The banana slices are sauteed in butter and then caramelized with a little sugar. So you end up with soft banana inside and crunchy caramel coating the oustside. The slices are placed on the bottom of the tart shell. Rum macerated golden raisins are layered on top of the banana slices. The chocolate filling is prepared by melting butter and chocolate separately. The melted chocolate is gently whisked into some beaten eggs and sugar. Then the butter is slowly whisked in to create an emulsion. The filling is poured over the bananas and raisins and then gently baked for a short time. The resulting confection is awesome - satisfying, warm, and not too sweet.

No Knead Bread

What bread blog would be complete without an entry for no knead bread? This bread was the simplest of all the breads I've made at home. It was also the tastiest. Most of the loaf was devoured as soon as we sliced into it. Personally, I'm quite proud of it. It has perhaps the prettiest interior - large, irregular bubbles, the kind that are difficult to get at home.

Here is the link to Jim Lahey's recipe, published in the New York Times, for easy access or in case you don't already have it. I weighed the flour and water - Mark Bittman published a follow-up with the weights (430 g flour and 345 g water). I let the dough ferment 18 hours and the loaf proofed for two.

I baked the bread for 30 minutes, covered, and 25 minutes uncovered. The loaf crackled when I removed it from the oven, a sign that it was perfectly baked. :)

Gingerbread & Hot Spiced Wine

It's cold out. And, my brother sent me 15 pounds of my favorite dark brown sugar from India Tree for Christmas. I couldn't think of anything better to make than gingerbread and hot spiced wine. The gingerbread recipe came from Martha Stewart Living magazine - the December 1997 issue. In case you're wondering, I'm a Martha fan, and I love the earlier magazines and publications in particular.

For the hot spiced wine, I used a bottle of cheap red wine, added not quite 1/2 cup granulated sugar, threw in whole cloves, allspice, cinnamon and white pepper, and then sliced an orange and placed the halves on top. I brought the wine to a boil, reduced the heat and let it steep for a little bit before enjoying.

Stollen

Stollen, originally uploaded by melissa makes bread.

Honey Roasted Pears

I was inspired to make these honey roasted pears after reading the recipe in Kate Zuckerman's cookbook The Sweet Life.  A photo of the pears is the covershot to her book, and they looked absolutely beautiful.  I didn't get the same deep caramelized color on my pears as the pears had on the cover, but they were still delicious.  The honey lends a richness that compliments the texture of the pears. 

What I found interesting was that I followed the recipe and baked the pears at the correct temperature 25 minutes longer than the recipe directed.  My oven veers on the hot side, too - I have a pizza stone placed on the lower rack, which retains heat.  It's possible that the baking dish I used transferred heat poorly.  It's also possible that the recipe was not tested in a home oven, but rather a commercial convection oven.  Whatever the reason, I would have done better to let the pears roast even longer to develop a deeper caramel color.  It's a good lesson to learn - trust your instincts.  Let the pears go until they have the color and the tenderness desired.  If the timer rings and they aren't done, trust your instincts and let them continue to bake.  Sometimes I forget this. 

Raspberry & Honey Custard Tart

Today was a Greenmarket day, and I was on the hunt for pears and winter squash.  What a surprise, then, to find these beautiful raspberries at the Berried Treasures stand.  We spoke to one of the vendors and it was then all so obvious.  The warm weather that we have been experiencing has also meant a longer season for many fruits and vegetables.  I really love the baby leeks at the Sweet Mountain Berry stand, and they too are still available because it has been so incredibly warm. 

The best way I knew to highlight how beautiful these raspberries are is in a very simple tart.  The tart shell is partially baked and then filled with a honey custard, which is then baked to set.  The raspberries were placed on top and lightly brushed with a honey glaze.  The custard is just sweet enough to balance the acidity of the raspberries.