Sweet Potato with Herbs de Provence Buns

Yesterday was my day, so I couldn't resist preparing something new and exciting, so I went to the store with the intention of buying Idaho's for rosemary potato bread. But when I got to the store, the sweet potatoes looked more appealing and inviting, so I changed my mind and grabbed one.

In New Zealand, kumara is the Maori word for sweet potato and is actually a different variety from those grown in the United States. Kumara is known to be healthier than most other types of potatoes. They are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, are virtually fat-free, cholesterol-free and very low in sodium. Kumara have more fiber than oatmeal and provide many essential nutrients, including vitamin B6, calcium and iron.

Unfortunately, I do not have access to kumara, so I grabbed the only variety of red sweet potato I could find. Oh well, right?

Meanwhile, before I left for the market, I started a biga, which is a starter dough or pre-ferment. In Italy, nearly every pre-ferment including wild yeast or soudough, is called a biga. So if you are making a recipe from another source that calls for biga, make sure you check to see exactly what kind of biga it requires. In this recipe, biga refers to the particular ratio of ingredients:
11.25 ounces unbleached bread flour
.055 ounces instant yeast
7-8 ounces water, at room temperature

After 2-4 hours, the biga has fermented and can be used immediately; however, some prefer to git it an overnight retarding (in the refrigerator) to bring out more flavor. It is important to know that a pre-ferment's main purpose is to improve flavor and structure, so the overnight will improve the overall quality.

The base recipe I used was from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. The only changes were the following substitutions:
1 cup sweet potato puree (in place of mash potatoes)
2 T herbs de provence (in place of rosemary)

When all was said and done, the bread turned out beautifully. The only adjustment I would make would be to steam the oven in the initial baking process. After putting the bread into the oven, spritz water a few times to create steam; this will result in a wonderful crust. Try it, you'll love it!

What exactly am I concocting at Sprout?

Most of my time these days are spent at Sprout, where I prepare elaborate, creative and unexpected flavors on a plate. Tomorrow I hope to try out a marshmallow recipe using glucose, granulated sugar, vanilla, water, gelatin and salt. The process itself is not difficult to understand, but it's the timing and temperature which can easily affect the end result.

When I was working in France, I prepared minted marshmallow's for the mignardise* plate, but I seemed to have lost the recipe. Thus, I will have to try the Joy of Baking recipe with the substitution of gelatin sheets and glucose for corn syrup. It was only but a couple weeks ago when I first used glucose as an ingredient in baking. It's especially helpful as it provides more stability to the final product. It can be used interchangeably in most recipes with corn syrup but they can/do react differently. The only real difference is that glucose being an invert sugar will not return to crystal form.

In the United States, Legislators allow domestic food manufacturers to call glucose syrup "Corn syrup" because the source of the starch is almost exclusively from maize. However, in other countries, wheat, barley, tapioca, potato, maize, cassava, rice, sago, and arrowroot starches are used to produce glucose syrup. In various proportions, several compounds usually exist in the solution, which include primarily glucose, dextrose, and maltose. After researching, I discovered the equivalence of 1/2 cup corn syrup plus 3 Tbs. water to 1/2 cup glucose plus 1/4 cup water will usually produce the same results.

Remember, each brand of corn syrup may be different, so it's best to read your labels and look at the ingredient list provided.

Well, back to the subject of Marshmallows. I will give the recipe a go, http://www.joyofbaking.com/candy/HomemadeMarshmallows.html
and see where it takes me. Gil advised me to stick with the plain marshmallow recipe first before experimenting. Hopefully I can resist the urge to replace the vanilla with something like elderberry or rootbeer. I guess it is best to get the recipe down first before having too much fun with it eh?

All this talk has me thinking I should do a blog on inverted sugars. Anyone interested in learning more?

*Mignardises are bite sized sweets served after dessert with coffee. The word is derived from the French word Mignard, which means small child or grateful, pretty and delicate.

Carrot Birthday Cake

A few weeks ago, I was visited by my dear mother Kathy and friend Marlene. It was short, but sweet for it was my dear mum's birthday! Being her absolute favorite indulgence is carrot cake, I thought it would be most appropriate to bake her a fresh cake. The recipe I used was from Nigel Slater's, Tender, cookbook. Chef Dale at Sprout happened to show me this particular book and highly recommended it to me. Coincidentally, I thumbed through the pages and stumbled upon his version of a carrot cake. Immediately I ran up the treacherous stairs to the 'loft' at Sprout and made a copy of the recipe. For those of you who don't know, the stairs are steep, narrow and make anyone and everyone re-think how to walk down a set of stairs; it terrifies me every time.

Anyway, after work, I biked to Whole Foods, bought my ingredients and peddled to my apartment to start the task at hand. I read through the recipe before starting and realized the procedure was unlike those of most carrot cake recipes. The main difference was the separation of egg yolks and whites. The whites of the eggs were meant to be whipped and folded into the batter. I suppose the idea's intention was to give the cake a lighter and less denser product. Putting all feelings and knowledge aside, I decided to ACTUALLY follow this part of the recipe. Most of you know I have difficulties in doing this, and it still shocks me to think I followed it precisely. However, in the end I did not think there was a noticeable difference in the density. This was my reasoning for obeying the procedure. I wanted to do a little experiment and test what I know to be true. And ah ha, I was right. The other ingredients in the cake are simply too heavy to allow the egg whites support. What happens in this case, is that the whites deflate and provide no extra structure.

But I must admit, I did change a few other components to the recipe. I increased the amount of carrots (I mean, come on, only 5 ounces of carrots in a CARROT cake?!? Ridiculous I tell you. This is a carrot cake right?), I added raisins and lastly, I changed the spice to Chinese five spice powder versus cinnamon alone. I will most certainly use this recipe again with my adjustments and ignore the part about separating the eggs. Perhaps the cake would have been fluffier and less dense if I had not made these additions, but to me, it's not a carrot cake without the raisins or an appropriate amount of carrots. The five spice was just something I wanted to play with, and I knew it would be an interesting substitute for the cinnamon.

In case you'd like to try it for yourself, here's the recipe with my adjustments.

Cake:
3 eggs
265 g all purpose flour (about 2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
Pinch of salt
200 ml sunflower oil (just shy of one cup)
250 g sugar (scant 1 cup)
carrots 220 grams (7 1/2 ounces), grated
juice of half a lemon
150 g walnuts, toasted (1.25 cup)
2/3 cup raisins

Frosting:
250 g Mascarpone cheese (9 ounces)
200 g cream cheese (7 ounces)
150 g confectioners' sugar (1.5 cup)
grated zest of a medium orange
walnut halves, about 3/4 cup toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter two 9-inch cake pans then line each with a round of parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, five spice, and salt. Beat the oil and sugar in a stand mixer until well beaten, then adding the eggs one at a time. Grate the carrots into the mixture, then add the lemon juice. Coarsely chop the walnuts and add them too. Fold the flour into the mixture with the mixer on low speed.
Divide the mixture into the two pans, smooth the top gently and bake for forty to forty-five minutes. Test with a skewer for doneness. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes before turning the cakes out of their pans onto a wire cooling rack.
To make the frosting, put the mascarpone, cream cheese, and confectioners' sugar into an electric mixer and beat until smooth and creamy. It should have no lumps. Mix in the orange zest.
When the cake cools, sandwich the halves together with a bout a third of the frosting. Use the rest to cover the top and sides of the cake. A rough finish looks more appropriate. cover the top with walnut halves.

and then Eat

Canning Continued.....

And here's my current collection. I've sold about 10 jars this year and made about another 60, so I'm well on my way. Since I did nearly 100 last year, my goal is to do at least an additional 5 or 10, which doesn't seem like all that much. If you have canned before, you know how much effort, time and commitment that is, so you will understand why 5 or 10 is significant enough. Given I typically jar anywhere from 5 to 18 jars at a time on my tiny stove top, it will take me another 5 to 10 more rounds. Yikes! I best hop to it!!!

Canning

Apologies for the lack of writing; there's no excuse why I haven't written a single post in the last few months. But alas, I am back. Within the last month I have been canning like crazy. Everything from figs to tomatoes to peaches. Some of my new favorites include:

ginger fig jam
pickled green tomatoes
blueberry fig and lavender

If anyone has ideas or would like to something special jarred just for them, send them to me. I would be more than happy to practice my canning. My next projects include, but are not limited to......

pickled carrots
pickled turnips
radish relish
pickled beets (more, but this time golden)

It's interesting to note that there are limitations to hot water canning, which is my personal preference and method of choice. The hot water method takes longer for jars to process, must be adjusted according to altitude with each food item, does not allow for every type of food item to be processed (i.e. Cruciferous plants are usually unsafe to process), has an increased risk of burn injuries, and above all else, is the first method developed. My grandma Kirchner swears by the hot water method and taught me over this particular method for the first time. She had too many horror stories using the pressure cooking method, which was another reason for learning the hot water procedure. Frankly, I prefer to learn older procedures that have been around the longest. After all, there must be a reason why it is so widely used and continues to be used, right?

Last year was my first year, and I would say I ended up with about 100 jars in total of assorted edibles. Most are gone, with only but a few more jars of stewed tomatoes and pickled hot thyme carrots.

Some of you may wonder, what exactly is that picture and how does it relate to todays post. Well, fellow readers, it is one the dishes I prepare at Sunday's brunch at Sprout called the Lox. It consists of pickled items, gravlax salmon, potato tuile, homemade cream cheese, truffled yolk salad, figs and more. I wanted to display a picture of what you may be to pair with your pickled items at home. I hope this opens your mind to the endless possibilities.

There will be more to come on the wonderful world of canning.....