Comfort Food - - - Double Chocolate Bread, Peanut Butter, Blackberry Jam Sandwiches

This morning when I came in from the barn and the garden I saw my 11 year old niece perched at a counter in the kitchen. I said "Good morning." She said "My mom and dad are painting, they didn't want me around. I told them I wanted to come hang out with you and do some cooking." I said "Great! What would you like to make?" She said "I want PBJ's with that chocolate bread you brought over last week." I said "Sounds like a plan my dear." She said "I want the peanut butter you make." Me "Can't think of anything else worthy of that bread, let me check and see if there's any put up." Her "No, I want to learn how to make it myself. You just watch." Me "Let's get started then."

The first thing to do is to break out the bread machine and make

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BREAD INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar (we used baker's sugar that has been stored with vanilla beans)
1 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
2 3/4 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon yeast
1/3 cup coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate (about 12 squares of a Trader Joe's Pound Plus® 70% cocoa mass Bittersweet Chocolate)*

*or you can use semisweet chocolate chips, but it won't be near as good

Put everything but the chocolate into the machine's baking pan in the order listed. Set the machine for Sweet Bread. Add the chocolate bits when the signal beeps after the first rising. Cool on a rack in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove and cool completely before slicing.

HOMEMADE PEANUT BUTTER INGREDIENTS
(extremely kid friendly recipe)

2 cups roasted, shelled peanuts
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon salt (if using salted peanuts omit)
1/2 cup chopped roasted, shelled peanuts (for crunchy peanut butter)

Put the first three ingredients in a food processor with the chopping blade. Whirl on annihilate for three to four minutes until a ball forms, then disintegrates slowly. Stop this process two or three times to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. Continue to pulse until you have a spreadable product. Then stir in the chopped peanuts to get crunchy peanut butter. (we don't do much else around here, we be fans of crunchy.

Note: This will keep for about a month if kept in an airtight jar in the refrigerator. The oils will separate and it must be stirred before each use. Once you've had this, you'll say "Fuck Skippy." (not skippy, the bush kangaroo but that pasty crap they sell in stores)

We've covered Blackberry Jam already folks.

To assemble your sandwiches, spread two pieces of bread with butter (homemade peanut butter will tear the crap out of even the sturdiest of breads), spread the peanut butter, then the jam, put them together. Serve with BBQ potato chips and tall glasses of cold milk.

This is best enjoyed in the company of children you adore.

3B's

White Bread, Using Julia Child's Recipe

Lest anyone be in doubt, I cook things that don't have chocolate or loads of sugar in them too. When you bake your own bread at home you can understand why the French have made a cult of baking and eating bread. The actions of making it are calming. The smell of fresh bread permeates the house, often out onto the street. Making bread is an all senses experience.

This recipe is from Julia Child. Don't be intimidated, her recipes often are quite simple. What Julia understood, and what she taught, is that simplicity demands perfection.

The list of ingredients is short.

2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
7 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter

Take 1/2 cup of the water, 1 tablespoon dry yeast, 1 tablespoon sugar, mix to dissolve, then wait five minutes until the yeast proves, and you have a nice, active and foamy base. That's a dough hook that's on the stand mixer. It's made special for this kind of thing.

Add in 3 cups of the flour, mix well, use a spatula or flat spoon to scrape down the sides. Add in the rest of the flour, the salt, and the softened butter. Knead for eight minutes. To knead with a stand mixer, use one of the lower two speed settings, and take off the side lock so that if the dough ball begins to stop the motor the body of the mixer will lift up and then reset once the dough starts moving again. Kneading by hand is another process, done on a lightly floured board or a floured cloth, you fold a piece of the dough over, push with the heel of your hand, and keep doing that until your arms fall off.

Generously butter a large bowl, place the dough ball into that, and turn it until the dough is completely covered with butter. Cover that closely with plastic and allow to rise for at least forty mintues, or until doubled in size. Some recipes tell you to do this in a warmer place, warmer means a faster rise, with more volume. Doing this at room temperature means a slower rise and a slightly denser, but more tender consistency. Another way to do this part is to put the covered dough into the refrigerator and let it rise all night. I'm not going to do this because I want my bread sooner than tomorrow.

When the dough has doubled in size, generously butter two loaf pans, while you have the oven getting slightly warm. The time it takes to butter the pans, wash your hands, separate the dough into two roughly equal parts, shape that into loaves, place those into the pans, should be just enough to make the oven slightly warmer than room temperature.

Cover the loaves closely with plastic, or use a slightly dampened towel, and allow for a second rise of about thirty to thirty five minutes, again, we're looking for a doubling in size.

Set them on the counter, while you reset the oven for three hundred fifty degrees. When you reach temperature, put them onto the center rack and bake forty minutes. You want a nice, golden brown color, and the loaf to give a hollow "thunk" when you rap it with a knuckle. It took another eight mintues for me to satisfied with these.

Immediately remove the bread (it's bread now! hooray!) from the pan, put it on a rack, and give it a quick rubbing with more butter. This will make the crust quite tender and perfect for sandwiches or toast. If you prefer a crunchier crust, by all means, skip this and nobody will fault you.

The house smells great. The Royals just took the lead after being behind most of the game. Like Ice Cube says "Today was a good day."

Crystallized Ginger

This is great stuff. It is a great way to preserve fresh ginger. Far more fun than dousing it with sugared vodka, and the resulting syrup begs you to make waffles.

This is the flavoring for my niece Jenna's namesake chocolate truffle. She eats it out of hand as a candy, likes it chopped over ice cream, in fruit cake, and as a substitute or an addition to her beloved, indulgent uncle's homemade cinnamon raisin bread. (damn every time I ramble before cutting to the chase I end up with another recipe to post)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds fresh, peeled ginger, cut into medallions (should be about a quart by volume)
3 cups sugar
1 lemon, sliced thin and seeded
1 cup light Karo® syrup (usually when I use a brand name it is because I've tried another label and not have had good results. Go ahead and use an off brand if you want, but there's something about the Karo® that works in this one)
large granule sugar for dusting

In a large, heavy stainless steel pot put the ginger along with enough water to completely cover with a few inches to spare. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer covered for about twenty minutes unhtil the ginger is to a place where a fork will enter but not skewer. A piece picked up should be pliable but not limp.

Stir in 1 cup of the sugar, bring to a boil, then remove from heat and store covered overnight.

Day 2 - Uncover and bring liquid to a boil again. Add the Karo® and the lemon slices. Reduce heat to simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and store at room temperature, covered, overnight.

Day 3 - Uncover and bring to a boil again. Stirring often, add in 1 cup sugar and reduce heat to a simmer and stirring often, simmer 30 minutes. Bring heat back to a boil slowly, add in the last cup of sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Remove from heat, store covered at room temperature overnight.

Day 4 - Uncover, and bring slowly up to a simmer, stirring intermittently until the ginger is mostly translucent, this should take about 45 minutes to an hour. Slower is better here. The syrup should be reduced to a point where it almost balls on the side of the spoon. I look for when it begins to make one big drop on the side rather than dripping.

Take the ginger slices out of the syrup and place them on a rack (hose this down with cooking spray!) over wax paper to catch the drips. Dry over night. Run the syrup through a sieve to remove all the lemon slices and any chunky things, store tightly covered.

Shake the dried slices in a bag with large crystal sugar (Sugar In The Raw® works great for this) and store in a large, airtight jar.

This ginger has far, far more bite than anything you might buy from a store. The syrup can also be used 2 tablespoons to a large tumbler of club soda and a lemon slice, for awesome ginger ale. Over buckwheat pancakes it has to be tasted to be believed.

UPDATE

I forgot to add that this recipe can be made completely using a crock pot or other slow cooker. Alternate between the settings. When the instructions call for increasing the temperature slowly it is pretty damned close to perfect.


3B's

Vanilla Pound Cake

Since we are in spring break week with no school and both of their parents work during the day, my niece and nephew have been spending the day, and most of the evening at my place. My niece wanted to do some baking, as usual, I said "Sure, what would you like to make?" She wanted a vanilla cake. I figured a normal white cake or a yellow cake would do, but she was adamant about the vanilla "You know, with the beans."

A little digging through my Nana's old recipe boxes produced this. On the index card that holds the recipe is this notation Annie Peaches adored this with nut butter spread. Nana's nut butters were the stuff of legend. Especially when you remember that her food processing equipment was the hand cranked (usually kid's hands) variety. So, from Nana's kitchen, through mine, to yours.

A note of warning. This recipe makes your house smell voluptuously sinful. You will be forced to defend your work throughout the cooling process. Cutting into these before they have cooled and settled will destroy the delightful pound cake texture and make them dry and crumbly. If you cut a slice while it is still warm from the oven you will be forced to consume the entire loaf right then and there. Forwarned is forearmed sez I.

INGREDIENTS

1 large vanilla bean, split and spread
1 cup milk, room temperature
4 cups cake flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder (I make my own as I need it. 1/2 portion baking soda, 1/4 portions of cream of tartar and cornstarch. I've never been able to determine if I do this because it works better or if it's just another piece of evidence of my anal retentiveness)
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt (salted butters use iodized salt, a dessert baking nono)
2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2-1/2 cups vanilla sugar (to make vanilla sugar, put the husks of scraped beans in an airtight container of sugar)
6 jumbo eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 350°.

Put the milk and the vanilla bean in a small pan and scald. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.


Sift the flour again with the baking powder and salt onto a sheet of wax paper.

Cream the butter on medium until fluffy. Cream in the vanilla sugar. (if you don't have vanilla sugar increase the vanilla extract by 2 teaspoons but be sure to put some up for the next time)

Continue beating on medium and add in the eggs, one at a time, remembering to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure an even blending. Add in the vanilla extract.

Remove the bean husks from the scalded milk, along with the milk skin. Use a demitasse spoon to scrape all the little vanilla speckles you can back into the milk.

Add the sifted dry ingredients and the milk alternately. Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat on medium until completely smooth and blended (about five minutes). (if you think that the aroma is brutally beautiful right now just wait until it hits the oven)

Pour into three buttered and lightly floured loaf pans (baker's secret spray will do just fine here). Bake on the lowest rack of the oven for sixty minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean and dry.

Cool in the pan, on a rack for ten minutes, then turn out of the loaf pans and cool for at least another twenty minutes on the cutting board. You might as well finish the cooling on the cutting board because these aren't getting much further than that. If you are planning to give one of these away, wrap it very closely with plastic wrap. These will freeze just fine. Just make sure you thaw them out still wrapped in the refrigerator or they get soggy.

To serve, slightly warm thin slices of pound cake and drizzle with your favorite dessert sauce, or a nice Créme Anglais. You can use this just like any sweet bread, you can use it to line a trifle. When I am feeling especially indulgent I have been known to trim off all the crusts, cut it into fingers and dip those into tempered chocolate. (there goes today's afternoon!)

My niece thoroughly approved of the results. She said "Nana is very proud of us today."

Indeed she is, my darling.

Big Brass Blog (a no vanilla zone if ever there was)