Northern Lights and Cheese Pockets



It has been a week of cosmic synchronicities and random pork chops.  

Let me explain.

The week started off with a fabulous display of the Northern Lights, usually not visible this far south. Photo by Randy Halversen and River Halversen.



 Louise Erdrich wrote about the aurora borealis in her novel Love Medicine, which I used in Heartland:

“Everything seems to be one piece.  The air, our faces, all cool, moist and dark, and the ghostly sky. . . .All of a piece. . . .As if the sky were a pattern of nerves and our thoughts and memories traveled across it. . . . As if the sky were one gigantic memory for us all.”

And then one particular memory did come back, in the form of a story by Polly Campbell in the Cincinnati Enquirer about “cheese pockets,” a wonderful coffeecake much beloved in our family. You can see the square coffeecake made with a sweet yeast dough folded over a sweet cheese filling, then sprinkled with sugar. You can also see what a cheese pocket looks like when you cut it into pieces—and who can eat just one piece?

Here's the link (but I also have a pdf available below, as these links aren't always permanent):


Cheese pockets made me homesick for Ohio, the prettiness there of the old Federal-style brick buildings, the trees changing colors, the quality of light you get in late fall.  I came across a blog by a fellow Wittenberg alum, and she understands it, too.  The calm, small town beauty that you can still find in the Midwest.


And the surprises, too. 

I was out walking Mimi the dog in my Kansas neighborhood when she suddenly became very interested in someone’s front yard.  A little too interested.

When I looked to see what she had in her mouth, it turned out to be a perfectly grilled, boneless pork chop, still warm. Dog heaven! 

And for you, too, a little serendipity—the recipe for Cheese Pockets.
The no-knead dough simply mixes up in a bowl--with a Danish dough whisk, if you like-- and rises on your kitchen counter in 2 hours. Easy. 






You can bake with the dough that day, or cover and store it in the fridge for up to 3 days before baking.  Both recipes are adapted from 200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads.

Cheese Pocket Coffee Cake

Known in German as schmierkuchen, this easy coffee cake is the essence of home baking. Sweet and yeasty, with a mellow filling, a piece of this served with fresh berries is a good reason to wake up in the morning.

Makes 2 coffee cakes, to serve 12 to 16

Equipment
Rolling pin
Two 8-inch (20 cm) square baking pans

1/2       recipe prepared Easy Artisan Sweet Dough (below) 
            Unbleached bread flour
1/2 cup            granulated sugar          125 mL
1 tbsp  all-purpose flour          15 mL
1/2 tsp fine kosher or sea salt  2 mL
2          eggs, beaten    2
1-1/2 cups        small-curd cottage cheese (about 12 oz/375 g)           375 mL
1/4 cup            heavy or whipping (35%) cream         50 mL
1 tsp    vanilla extract  5 mL

Topping:
Granulated or sanding sugar for dusting

1.         Form. Divide the dough in half. Transfer one half to a floured surface and dust very lightly with flour. Flour your hands and the rolling pin. Working the dough as little as possible and adding flour as necessary, roll out into a 12-inch square. Drape the dough over the rolling pin and transfer to one of the baking pans, fitting the dough into the bottom and up the sides. Repeat with the remaining dough.
2.         Rest. Cover with a tea towel and let rest at room temperature for 40 minutes.
3.         Preheat. About 30 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350°F (230°C).
4.         Prepare filling. Five minutes before baking, in a food processor, combine sugar, flour, salt, egg, cottage cheese, cream and vanilla; process until smooth. Pour half the filling into each pan. Drape the sides of the dough over the filling. For the topping, sprinkle with sugar.
5.         Bake. Bake for 20 to 23 minutes or until filling has browned and crust is a medium reddish-brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool

Master Recipe #7
Easy Artisan Sweet Dough

Substituting milk for the water and adding sugar, melted butter and eggs to Easy Artisan Dough transforms it into a sweet dough. With these additions, the dough is heavier, and thus needs more yeast — and stronger unbleached bread flour — to make it rise and achieve the appropriate crumb. Sweet dough recipes do best when baked on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (sweet fillings can ooze out of the dough and blacken on your baking stone), and at a lower temperature: 400°F (200°C). With this master dough, you can produce wonderful coffee cakes, festive breads and sweet rolls with a moist, feathery crumb. The dough will last for only 3 days in the refrigerator before it turns bitter.

Equipment
Instant-read thermometer
8-cup (2 L) bowl
4-cup (1 L) glass measuring cup
Wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk

6-1/2 cups        unbleached bread flour           1.625 L
2 tbsp  instant or bread machine yeast            25 mL
1-1/2 tbsp        fine kosher salt            22 mL
2-1/2 cups        lukewarm milk (about 100°F/38°C)    625 mL
1 cup   granulated sugar          250 mL
1/2 cup            unsalted butter, melted           125 mL
2          large eggs       

1.         Measure. Spoon the flour into a measuring cup, level with a knife or your finger, then dump the flour into a large mixing bowl.
2.         Mix. Add the yeast and salt to the flour. Stir together with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk. In the glass measuring cup, combine milk, sugar and butter. Using a fork, beat in eggs
  Pour into the flour mixture and stir together until just moistened. Beat 40 strokes, scraping the bottom and the sides of the bowl, until the dough forms a lumpy, sticky mass.
3.         Rise. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature (72°F/22°C) in a draft-free place for 2 hours or until the dough has risen to about 2 inches (5 cm) under the rim of the bowl and has a sponge-like appearance.
4.         Use right away or refrigerate. Use that day or place the dough, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before baking.

Tips
*          Microwaving cold milk for about 2 minutes on High will result in lukewarm milk of approximately 100°F (38°C).
*          Before storing the dough in the refrigerator, use a permanent marker to write the date on the plastic wrap, so you’ll know when you made your dough — and when to use it up 3 days later.


If you'd like me to send you a pdf of the Cheese Pocket story, then please e-mail me at






Bacon + Bread


Fougasse aux Grattons—That’s French for Yum!

What a week! I started out at Lake Austin Spa just outside of Austin, Texas, where I taught culinary classes with Karen Adler.  Just looking at the photos of the spa makes you relax.

Ahhhhhh…  Or is that Ommmmmm?


Secondly, Jon Brick of OutsideLines Travel sent me their cool video of Tory Miller, the talented chef at L’Etoile and Graze in Madison, Wisconsin. Miller pulls his iconic red wagon from stall to stall at the Madison Farmer’s Market, then chooses the best of what’s in season for his menus. What an inspired idea to do a smushed (that’s a culinary term) round of goat cheese warmed in the oven, then a salad on top! You can read more about him and the Madison Farmer's Market--the largest in the United States-- in Heartland.

http://www.outsidelinestravel.com/City/MADISON--WISCONSIN/Post/LETOILE%20AND%20GRAZE--75


Thirdly, I had a meeting in Kansas City to talk about photos for my upcoming book I Love Cinnamon Rolls! with Andrews McMeel (fall 2012) and a sampling of cinnamon rolls. That's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

The fabulous Ben Pieper http://www.benpieperphoto.com/ is doing the cinnamon roll photos. He also did the lick-the-page  food photos for Heartland.

Number Four Event of the Week. My son is having a big birthday, which means I’m starting to tell people I got married in my Girl Scout uniform. . . .

We’ve also had our first frost.  And that heralds Bread Baking Season, if you haven’t been baking before now.

I was just at Costco and saw all the bread machines for sale.  That’s right in line with bread books like The Artisan Bread Machine flying out the door.

If you don’t have that electric baking assistant, the automatic bread machine, you can still get a little help.  No-knead dough just stirs together in a bowl, then sits on your kitchen counter to rise all by itself. It does just what you told it to do.  Rise!



When you marry this easy-to-get-along-with dough with great bacon, well, what’s not to love?

In Fougasse aux Grattons, or French Flatbread with Bacon Bits, you can have a wonderful flatbread to go with soups and stews or an appetizer bread that’s just as delicious with beer and wine.

Fougasse is a dough you roll out like long pizza, then cut slits through it with a pizza wheel or knife. The slits make a decorative pattern as the flatbread bakes. Then, you brush it with bacon fat for even more flavor. 



The grattons are little pieces of bacon cooked crisp with dry white wine. You scatter them over the dough, then roll them into it before you cut the slits in the dough. Easy. Use an artisan Midwestern bacon, of course.



Although you don’t have to use a baking stone to make this recipe, it does make your oven function better. A baking stone's surface gets hot all over to the correct temperature, so anything you place on it bakes evenly.  Even though your oven might say 400°F, there are still hotter and cooler spots. The baking stone evens the baking field, so to speak.

The finished flatbread is crisp on the outside, bacon-y on the inside, and 100% delicious.


So, here it is (and in 200 Fast & Easy Artisan Breads).

Fougasse aux Grattons
Makes flatbread to serve 24

Dough:
1 tbsp  instant or bread machine yeast         
3/4 tbsp           fine kosher salt          
3 1/4 cups       all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting       
1 1/2 cups       lukewarm water, about 100°F

Filling:
1 cup dry white wine             
16 slices smoked bacon or 16 oz pancetta, finely diced       
2 cups  hot water for broiler pan       
           
1. Measure. Spoon the flours into a measuring cup, level with a knife or your finger, then dump the flour into a large mixing bowl.

2. Mix. Add the yeast and salt to the flours. Stir together with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk. Pour in the water and stir together until just moistened. Beat 40 strokes, scraping the bottom and the sides of the bowl, until the dough forms a lumpy, sticky mass.

3. Rise. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature 72°F for 2 hours or until the dough has risen near the top of the bowl and has a sponge-like appearance.

4. Use Right Away or Refrigerate. Use that day or place the dough, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 9 days before baking.

5.  Make Filling. Combine the wine and bacon in a skillet over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until the fat has rendered and the bacon has browned, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Reserve the melted fat in the skillet. Divide the bacon into two portions.

6. Form. To form the flatbread, remove the dough and cut in half. Transfer one dough portion to a floured surface and dust very lightly with flour. Flour the rolling pin. Working the dough as little as possible and adding flour as necessary, roll the dough into a 12-inch/3 cm by 6-inch (15 cm) oval. Lightly flour any sticky places on the dough. The dough should feel soft and smooth all over, like a baby’s skin, but not at all sticky.

7. Fill. Arrange ¼ of on portion of the grattons on the upper half of the dough. Fold the other half over the filling. Turn the dough a quarter turn. Working the dough as little as possible and adding flour as necessary, roll the dough again into a 12-inch/30 cm by 6-inch (15 cm) oval. Again, arrange ¼ of the grattons on the upper half of the dough. Fold the other half over the filling. Turn the dough a quarter turn and roll into an oval. Repeat the process until all of the grattons have been incorporated into the dough. Repeat the process with the remaining dough and filling.

8. Cut. With the dough in a 12-inch/3 cm by 6-inch (15 cm) oval, use a pizza wheel or a sharp knife to cut two rows of 4 diagonal slashes, about 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm), that almost meet in the middle of the dough like this: /  \.  Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet and pull the top and sides of the dough to stretch it to a larger oval with opened slits . Brush the surface of the dough with the melted bacon fat.

9. Rest. Cover with a tea towel and let rest at room temperature for 40 minutes.

10. Prepare Oven for Artisan Baking. About 30 minutes before baking, place a broiler pan on the lower shelf and a baking stone on the middle shelf of the oven. Preheat to 450°F (230 °C).

11. Slide Baking Pan onto Baking Stone and Add Water to Broiler Pan. Using an oven mitt, carefully pull the middle rack of the oven out several inches. Place the pan of fougasse on the hot stone. Pull the lower rack out, pour the hot water into the broiler pan, and push the lower rack back in place. Close the oven door immediately so the steam will envelop the oven.

12. Bake. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until the crust is medium-brown. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Oktoberfest!


Liederkranz Cheese and Sour Caraway Rye Flatbread

I grew up in a German/Irish town near Cincinnati, Ohio, where church sauerkraut suppers raised lots of money and fried sauerkraut balls were all the rage as appetizers.

(If you want the sauerkraut ball recipe, which is delicious, then leave your e-mail in a comment below and I’ll send it to you. They look like hush puppies but are much more flavorful.)

Hey, if you have even the tiniest speck of German ancestry, you have to love sour.

In German Village,


just south of Columbus, Ohio, you can eat your fair share of grilled bratwurst topped with kraut, washed down with a brew.  

For those of us who come from German ancestry, "sour" in bread means a dark, tangy, sour rye that stands up to a frothy mug of beer and even the stinkiest cheese. 

Reigning over the kingdom of Stinky Cheese is Liederkranz, which means “wreath of songs” in German.  An Americanized version of the equally aromatic Limburger cheese, Liederkranz was made for generations in Van Wert, Ohio, just north of Dayton.  The plant closed down in 1985, but now Liederkranz is being crafted again in Wisconsin.


My grandfather loved Liederkranz sort of sliced and squished on rye bread with chopped raw onion on top.  “Wreath of songs” should have translated into “wreath of fumes” after eating, or sitting near someone eating, Liederkranz on rye.

For your Oktoberfest celebrations, why not make a sour rye flatbread that you just pat into a pan, then top it with sausage and chopped fresh Savoy cabbage or sauerkraut?

Liederkranz optional. . . .

That’s the good life!




  
Sausage and Cheese Flatbread (in the upper left corner of the photo)
Adapted from Heartland: The Cookbook by Judith Fertig.
Serves 12
1/2 recipe prepared No Knead Sour Caraway Rye Dough (below)
¼ cup Dijon or wholegrain mustard
1 pound smoked sausage links, cooked and cut into ½-inch slices
2 cups shredded Savoy cabbage or drained and rinsed sauerkraut
2 cups grated Gruyere or cave-aged Swiss cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place 2 cups of hot water in a broiler pan on the lower rack. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. With wet hands, pat the dough into a 10 x 16-inch oval on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the mustard over the dough. Arrange the sliced sausage, then the cabbage on the dough. Sprinkle with Gruyere.
3. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until, risen, browned, and firm to the touch. Let cool on the baking sheet. To serve, cut into slices.

No Knead Sour Caraway Rye Dough
Like many Heartlanders, rye works hard. This grain is disease-resistant and the hardiest of the cereal crops in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Farmers plan winter rye, like winter wheat, by drilling seeds into the ground around September, then harvest in early summer. Rye is also a versatile crop, grown not only for the potential flour but also for holistic weed control, pasture for cattle during the winter months, and vodka. Quite a combo.  Because rye is low in gluten, which is needed to develop the structure of bread, you use a combination of wheat and rye flours in bread dough. The rye bread flavor comes from caraway, the dark color from the cocoa powder, and gentle sourness from yogurt. Beloved of Heartland families with northern European roots, this rye dough can be turned into flatbreads, loaves, and rolls. If you precisely follow all the steps, you’ll have good success.
Makes breads, flatbreads, or rolls to serve 24 to 32
2 tablespoons instant or bread machine yeast         
1 ½ tablespoons fine kosher salt       
4 1/2 cups bread flour, plus more for dusting
2 cups rye flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder    
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1/2 cup sorghum or molasses
½ cup plain yogurt
2 1/4 cups lukewarm water, about 100°F            
1. Spoon the flour into a measuring cup, level with a knife or your finger, then dump the flour into a 16-cup mixing bowl.
2. Add the yeast, salt, cocoa powder, and caraway seeds to the flour. Stir together with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk. Mix the sorghum, yogurt, and water together in a 4-cup measuring cup. Pour the molasses mixture into the flour mixture, stir to combine, then beat 40 strokes, scraping the bottom and the sides of the bowl, until the dough forms a lumpy, sticky mass.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature 72°F  for 2 hours or until the dough has risen about 2 inches under the rim of the bowl and has a sponge-like appearance.
4. Use that day or place the dough, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before baking. If you like, write the date on the plastic wrap, so you know the “bake-by” date of your dough.


Indian Summer Grilling


Basic to Brilliant!

"When in doubt, roast a chicken," a famous cookbook author once said.

As a BBQ Queen who spends part of her working life in a visor/tiara, I'd amend that to 
"When in doubt, grill a chicken."  But there's an art to that.  

When you grill a bone-in chicken, whether whole or in pieces, you'll want to add flavor that will infuse the bird as it cooks. You'll want to turn the chicken a lot, so it doesn't burn.  And you save the barbecue sauce for slathering on during the last minutes of grilling.

And if you want a Southern-style grilled chicken that truly is finger-lickin' good--complete with a sassy barbecue sauce featuring Vidalia onion--then my friend Virginia Willis is your gal. Her new book Basic to Brilliant, Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company just came out, and it's a beauty.  I love a book that makes you want to lick the pages, and even better when the recipes are sooooo good.


Willis takes a good basic recipe, like barbecued chicken, then gives it special touches that take it to, well, brilliance.   A signature barbecue sauce can do that, but the juiciness of the chicken, thanks to a sweet, brine-like marinade, made the basic recipe pretty darn tasty. My, my, my! You know it's a great recipe when people keep sneaking back for another little piece, another lick of sauce. Can you say "no leftovers?"  Sigh. . . .

Want to see how Basic to Brilliant, Y'all came together?  Visit Virginia’s blog and download her recipe sampler at the bottom of the page. http://wp.me/paIKj-Wa 


If you follow this link, you can get an autographed book plate from Chef Willis, too.
 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHJFSF9tN1hHZlhCVVYtMmVILTdoSEE6MQ


Now, celebrate Indian Summer and fire up that grill!http://wp.me/paIKj-Wa


Mama’s BBQ Chicken
from Basic to Brilliant, Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company by Virginia Willis (Ten Speed Press, 2011)
Serves 4 to 6

You know how it is when you are itching for summer to start. You are ready for it. It buzzes in your brain like a hungry mosquito zeroing in for a feast on a naked expanse of skin. Warm weather, sunshine, and swimming. Porches, fishing, and lying on the grass by the river. I love summer food.

Okra. Lady peas and butter beans. Tomatoes. Summer squash. Corn. Garrison Keillor is rumored to have said, “Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn.” Well, fresh sweet corn is really good. Simple. Uncomplicated. Satisfying. Regardless of your opinion of sex and corn, I am sure you can agree summer does mean grilling.

I love to grill throughout the year, but in the summer, it’s just practical to keep the heat out of the kitchen. Burgers and brats are brilliant, steaks and seafood are stupendous, but perhaps my absolute fave? The cheap and cheerful pedestrian chicken.

Chicken can be absolutely sublime on the grill: smoky and charred, yet tender and juicy. It can also be drier than chalk and just about as tasty, too. The trick is if you pierce the meat with the tip of a knife and the juices run clear, it’s done. If the juices run pink? It’s underdone. If there are no juices? Ahem.

4 quarts tepid water
3/4 cup coarse kosher salt
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 cups ice cubes
1 (4-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces, or 6 bone-in skin-on breasts or thighs
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mama’s Barbecue Sauce, warmed

Combine the water, salt, and brown sugar in a large plastic container and stir to dissolve. Add ice to chill, then add the chicken; cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours.

Prepare a charcoal fire using about 6 pounds of charcoal and burn until the coals are completely covered with a thin coating of light gray ash, 20 to 30 minutes. Spread the coals evenly over the grill bottom, position the grill rack above the coals, and heat until medium-hot (when you can hold your hand 5 inches above the grill surface for no longer than 3 or 4 seconds). Or, for a gas grill, turn on all burners to high, close the lid, and heat until very hot, 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the chicken from the marinade and rinse under cool running water. Pat dry with paper towels, season with pepper, and set aside. Using a wad of paper towels or an old cloth and a pair of tongs, apply some canola oil to the grill grate. Place the chicken on the grill, leaving plenty of space between each piece. Grill until seared, 1 to 2 minutes per side for legs and thighs, and 3 or so minutes for breasts. Move the chicken to where the heat is medium low or lower the heat in a gas grill to medium. Continue to grill, turning occasionally, until the juices run clear when pierced, 12 to 18 minutes. During the last 5 to 7 minutes of cooking, brush the chicken with the barbecue sauce. (Any sooner and the sauce will burn.) Remove the chicken pieces from the grill as soon as they are done and transfer to a warmed platter. Give them a final brush of sauce for flavor and serve immediately with additional sauce on the side.


Mama’s Barbecue Sauce

Make a batch, then separate out a cup or so for brushing on the chicken. Don’t dip your brush in the big pot, then dab it on half-cooked chicken and then serve that
same sauce on the side. Eew. That’s just bad food safety and asking for a tummy ache.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 onion, preferably Vidalia, very finely chopped
21/2 cups ketchup
2 cups apple cider or distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
Coarse salt

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat; add the onion and simmer until soft and melted, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, brown sugar, lemon juice, and pepper. Bring to a boil, decrease the heat to low, and simmer until the flavors have smoothed and mellowed, at least 10 and up to 30 minutes. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will last for months.