This recipe comes to me courtesy of my friend Belle, who gave me a handwritten copy of her family’s recipe as a submission to my project. Mandelbrot isn’t something I would come across through the natural course of my life, because I am not Jewish. I am not well-versed in Jewish food, save one festival foray last April. My lack of knowledge became apparent almost immediately upon me sitting down to write this post: I was excited to be making a Jewish bread during Passover, but quickly discovered that this particular recipe isn’t kosher for Passover.  It calls for flour and baking soda (two things forbidden during Passover).

Learning this led me down the kashrut rabbit hole (rabbits: also not kosher). As a (lapsed) Roman Catholic, I have always been fascinated by and admiring of those who keep kosher, even if just for Passover.

Quick version: during Passover, Jews refrain from eating chometz: anything that contains barley, wheat, rye, oats, and spelt, and is not cooked within 18 minutes after coming in contact with water. No leavening is allowed. This restriction signifies the fact that the Hebrews had no time to let their bread rise as they made a hurried escape from Egypt. But not all Jews follow the same rules: Ashkenazi Jews, who come from Europe (most Jews in America), also avoid corn, rice, peanuts, and legumes as can also be used to make bread and may have other grains mixed in. These additional items are known as kitniyot.

I could delve deeper, but this is not a post about kashrut. And besides, Jewish scholars have pondered the kashrut for centuries and have written entire books about it; I’m just an ordinary Christian making some cookies bread.

As always, my comments/adjustments are in blue.

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Mandelbrot

(you can find a printable version here)

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup oil (I used light olive oil)
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp almond extract
• pinch salt
• 1 cup sliced almonds or chopped walnuts (I used walnuts because that’s what I had on hand; traditional versions use almonds)
• Cinnamon + sugar mixture (whatever ratio you like best. You’ll need a few tablespoons worth)

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat eggs and sugar together in mixer. Add all remaining ingredients, except the cinnamon-sugar. Divide dough into three parts. I divided it into two, because I only have two cookie sheets. The dough will be very sticky; use a little flour on your hands to pat into rectangles.

Very sticky dough!

Sprinkle generously with cinnamon-sugar.

Bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Slice into rectangles. Turn rectangles on their sides and sprinkle with more cinnamon-sugar.

Sliced and ready for the second bake.

Return pans to oven and bake for another 5-10 minutes, depending upon how brown and crisp you like them. 7 minutes was my magic number.

This.

Results:

• Overall pretty great. Not too sweet, nice crumb and texture.
• “Better than Gert’s!”  – said Belle, giver of Gert’s recipe and the mother of Gert’s grandchildren. She was not insulting Gert, though; while I chose to bake the mandelbrot on the softer side, apparently Gert preferred the bread crisper and let them bake longer on the second go-round. Belle also prefers softer mandelbrot, so it was strictly a preferential declaration.
• “Why are you trying to kill me?” – said Jackie, who is allergic to nuts. Sorry.
• This seems to me to be a highly adaptable recipe – I imagine it would take well to many different variations and add-ins. I’m imagining mini chocolate chips, other types of nuts, dried fruit, and ultimately dipping the cookies in chocolate. Dried cherries and dark chocolate…I’ll be making a return visit to this recipe for sure.
• Definitely not what I’d categorize as “healthy”. One entire cup of oil! But, then again, they’re cookies bread. So who cares!
• These would make a great addition to a holiday cookie tray. Make them a bit smaller, and the recipe will go farther.

I think hummus is probably my favorite food; I make some version of it just about every week, and not a drop of it goes to waste.

You know how to eat it, right? I don’t need to tell you, do I? You’ll be tempted to rub it on yourself, but frankly, what you do in your kitchen is your own business.

First, I’ll give you my most recent favorite hummus recipe, which is a Mexican take on the Mediterranean classic.

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Black Bean Hummus

• ½ cup (or more) chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 tablespoons sesame tahini
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (or chili powder)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1-2 garlic clove(s), peeled
• ½ small jalapeño pepper, seeded

Place cilantro, tahini, and next 8 ingredients (through jalapeño) in a food processor; process until smooth.

Seriously, that’s it. 

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If you’re more of a traditionalist, you can try my other stupid-simple recipe for a more classic version:

Classic Hummus

• 3 tablespoons sesame tahini
• 2-3 tablespoons water
• Juice of one lemon
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt & black pepper to taste
• 1 (15-ounce) can no-salt-added chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1-2 garlic clove(s), peeled

Pro-Tip #1: Buy a 1-lb bag of dried white beans. Pick over and rinse 1/2 of the bag. Put in a crockpot, and cover with cold water until the water is about 2 inches above the beans. Cook on low overnight. In the morning you will have perfectly cooked beans! Drain, rinse, and make hummus! Cost: about 75 cents for the beans, plus maybe $1.00 worth of other ingredients. Plus, you still have beans left over for the next time.

Pro-Tip #2: For smoother hummus, use warm beans. A quick spin the microwave is all that you need to warm them up.

Pro-Tip #3: Sesame tahini can be found in either the ethnic food aisle, or near the peanut butter. My preferred brand is Sadaf, but Joyva makes a nice (and nuttier) version.

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Want to sample these recipes, served to you by yours truly? Then you need to get yourself over to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Schenectady’s “A Taste of the Capital Region” fundraiser on Monday, April 23 from 6-8pm at the Rotterdam Clubhouse on Curry Road. I’ll be there, along with dozens of other amateur and professional chefs, cooking up tasty dishes and helping one of the greatest organizations in the Capital Region.

I’ll be preparing “Black & White Hummus Duo”, which is a bit of each of the hummus recipes above, along with some pita chips and veggies (and maybe a surprise). Tickets are $50 per person, which includes unlimited food tastings, as well as beer, wine, and soft drinks. And proceeds benefit youth development programs for more than 9,000 school age children at twelve sites and extensions throughout Schenectady County.

From the Boys & Girls Clubs website:

A Taste of the Capital Region is a relaxed evening of great food and live musical entertainment. With a wide array of appetizers, entrees, desserts, delicious wines and specialty beers, the event will have something for everyone!

Can’t go wrong there. Click here to buy tickets!

And this week’s bread was pretty good, too. A simple, one loaf recipe. Full of toasty, nutty, bittery (bittery?) walnuts.  Round! Rustic! Really Easy!

Note: I’m getting sick of eating bread. Is that bad? I have to start bringing it all in to work.

Sneak Peek at Next week: just in time for St. Patrick’s Day…world-famous Barney Family Irish Soda Bread!

As always, my comments and adjustments are in blue.

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Classic Walnut Boule (you can find a printable version here)

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 package dry yeast (2 ¼ teaspoons)
• 1 cup warm water (100° to 110°)
• 1 tablespoon toasted walnut oil (the stuff I bought didn’t say “toasted” on the label – not sure if that made a big difference)
• 10 7/10 ounces bread flour, divided (about ¼ cups)
• 4 ¾ ounces whole wheat flour (about 1 cup)
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• Cooking spray
• ½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
• 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon fat-free milk
• 1 large egg white

Preparation

Dissolve sugar and yeast in 1 cup warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in oil. Weigh or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add 9.5 ounces (about 2 cups) bread flour, whole wheat flour, and salt to yeast mixture; stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes); add enough of remaining bread flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel sticky). I did not knead this dough by hand; I used my trusty KitchenAid mixer, for the same amount of time

Shaggy dough...just as it should be.

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, for 1 hour or until doubled in size. (Gently press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down; knead in walnuts.

Kneading in the walnuts

Shape dough into a 9-inch round on a lightly floured surface. Place dough on a large baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Uncover dough. Combine milk and egg white; brush over dough. Score dough by making two diagonal slits with a sharp knife; make two diagonal slits in the opposite direction to create a crosshatch pattern. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until bread is browned on bottom and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.

Finished! Beautiful.

Results:

• A very simple, straightforward bread. Follow the instructions and you can’t go wrong.
• A nutty, ever-so-slightly sweet taste. The sweetness does not overpower the bread, though; it’s perfect as a dinner accompaniment. It would probably also make some kick-ass French toast.
• Soooo goooood with just a schmear of butter…

These cute and fuzzy bunnies tell it like it is. Sorry, Christopher Kimball. I think you’re great, but this is hysterical.

Props to Laura Zigman for the video – and my apologies for the previous lack of attribution, Laura! Folks – we have a NYT Bestselling author reading this blog now, so BEHAVE YOURSELVES. Please.

Instead, this week I made a cake in honor of my friend Matthew’s birthday, and thought I’d share the recipe and photos in case you were despondent over the fact I didn’t post a bread recipe on Monday. Wipe your tears.

I was in search of a recipe that contained ingredients I had on hand; shouldn’t be too difficult, since my pantry is usually well-stocked. I was also looking for a recipe that wouldn’t take more than a few hours, since I don’t get home until six, and still have to cook dinner and do some other important stuff as part of my evening (screw around on Twitter and watch “Big Bang Theory”).

A quick Google search unearthed a recipe for an Orange Bundt Cake. Simple enough. Bundt cakes don’t require a lot of dressing up, since its shape is really its decoration. All it needs is a beautiful glaze, and you’re good to go.  And this particular recipe was intriguing to me: it calls for two whole oranges, pureed. Skin, pith, and all. I’ve never done that before, so I was naturally drawn to it. I made the Orange Glaze variation, since Matthew is not a “chocolate guy” (whatever *that* means).

After the jump, you’ll find the recipe and photos:

Whole Orange Bundt Cake (you can find a printable version here)

Ingredients

• 2 whole oranges (preferably seedless navel), scrubbed and washed well
• 3 sticks of butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated white sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour a Bundt pan and set aside.

Quarter the oranges, remove any seeds if not using navel, and put in food processor to puree. Set aside.

This is what the puree of two whole oranges looks like.

While the oranges are pureeing, cream the butter and sugar together in the base of an electric mixer for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, waiting until each is fully combined. Add the orange puree and vanilla extract and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix into the wet ingredients gently, just until fully combined.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan, spreading so that it is evenly distributed. Bake at 350 for about 60 minutes or until a tester inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, pour on your choice of glaze (below) and let set for at least 1 hour before serving. Will keep for 3-5 days under a cake dome or plastic wrap.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Heat the heavy cream over medium heat just until small bubbles begin to form. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and whisk gently until fully melted and combined. Let cool for 10 minutes before glazing cake. May be prepared in advance and gently reheated in a moderate microwave.

Orange Glaze

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 4 teaspoons orange juice

Mix together and drizzle over cake.

This smells even better than it looks...

Results:

• My kitchen smelled absolutely divine while this was baking.
• It popped very easily out of my Bundt pan; I highly recommend getting yourself a stoneware Bundt pan. Never fails.
• The taste was outstanding – the little bits of orange skin gave the cake a slightly bitter-orange taste, which was extremely pleasant and a nice counterbalance to the sugar. It made the cake seem less sweet than the actual sugar content would lead you to expect.  It was a pound cake texture, creamy and dense. This recipe is a keeper.
• Birthday Boy had a great suggestion – possibly replacing some of the butter with sour cream, to lighten it up a bit. I do think that could be a  worthwhile experiment, because this cake is calorie-laden (though I did not calculate calories or fat because I was frightened at the prospect). Sour cream bundt cakes are a known quantity, and it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to construct a lightened-up version.

I found this one in Cook’s Ilustrated’s weighty tome Baking Illustrated. It’s a recipe for Rosemary Focaccia, with adjustments for Parmesan Focaccia, Olive Focaccia, and Sage Focaccia variations. (I’m really getting tired of typing focaccia).  

I was particularly interested in this one for two reasons: the use of a quick sponge (letting the yeast marinate with flour and water for about 20 minutes), and its use of potato in the dough. I’ve never used either, so I thought it would be fun.  It turned out pretty good, with some notable mistakes on my part (see my Results at the end).

As always, my comments and adjustments are in blue. Recipe and photos after the jump.

Olive Focaccia (you can find a printable version here)

Adapted from Baking Illustrated

Ingredients:

• 1 medium baking potato (about 9 ounces), peeled and quartered
• 1½ teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for oiling bowl and pan
• 1¼ tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp fresh thyme (I used Herbes de Provence, again)
• 24 pitted kalamata olives

Directions:

Bring 1 quart water to boil in small saucepan; add potato and simmer until tender. Drain and cool. Put through a ricer (or large holes of a box grater). Reserve 1-1/3 cups lightly packed potato.

Potato, riced

Meanwhile, in large bowl of stand mixer, mix yeast, ½ cup of the flour, and ½ cup of the warm water until combined. Cover tightly with plastic wrap (or bowl cover) and set aside until bubbly, about 20 minutes.

Add remaining dough ingredients, including reserved potato. Mix with paddle attachment on low speed until the dough comes together.

Switch to dough hook attachment and increase speed to medium, continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. (you will be tempted to add more flour here. Don’t do it! See my Results below to learn why)

Transfer dough to lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat with oil, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm, draft-free area until dough is puffy and doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

With wet hands (to prevent sticking), press the dough out onto a generously oiled 11×15 rimmed baking sheet. If the dough resists going into the corners (which it will), cover with damp towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes before trying to stretch it again.

Cover dough with lightly oiled plastic wrap; let rise in a warm draft-free area until dough is puffy and doubled in volume, 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 °F.

With wet fingers, dimple dough at regular intervals (make about 2 dozen). The dimples should be deep enough to hold small pieces of topping, herbs and/or pools of olive oil.

Drizzle the dough with oil and sprinkle evenly with thyme and coarse salt, landing some in pools of oil. Place an olive in each of the dimples.

Ready to go into the oven...

Bake for about 25 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown. Remove from pan and cool slightly on a rack; serve warm.

This is the money shot, my friends.

Results:

• Overall, pretty good. Taste was good, but the texture was not perfect.  The finished bread was a bit tougher than I expected, and didn’t have much in the way of oven spring.  It still tasted great, but I was hoping for a fluffier finished product. What happened? Operator error. I learned something while making this one: if you’re using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe, you NEED to fully read the text that comes before the recipe.  If you read the magazine (as I do), you ‘ll know that CI’s standard operating procedure is to tell you – in excruciating detail – why the recipe is exactly the way it is. There’s never a mistake. There’s a reason for everything. I forgot this, and plowed right into the recipe without reading the backstory. After adding the prescribed amount of flour, I was totally annoyed with the dough – it was sticky and slightly loose. So I added more flour until it got to what I thought was the right consistency. Mistake! Afterwards, I went back and read the story:

A [note] about working with this dough: the moisture from the potatoes helps keep the crumb soft but also makes the dough very sticky. Adding extra flour makes the dough easier to handle, but the results are not as good because the wet dough helps produce bread with air pockets and chewiness.

Dammit. Me and my kitchen confidence. Foiled again.

• Another reason it didn’t bake right: my range is dying a slow death. On Thanksgiving 2010, the back right burner exploded a little bit, causing a teensy fire that created a short in the range’s electrical system. So, that burner’s been out since then, and the left front burner died a couple weeks ago. And now the oven is going through its death throes: temperature on the dial is about 50-100° off from the internal temp, and even when I think I’ve got it set, the oven won’t maintain a consistent temperature (it’s like a sine wave of temperature fluctuation in there, with a standard deviation of about 50°). So, not an ideal situation for baking, to say the very least. The focaccia thus did not bake the way it should have.
• I just remembered I forgot to sprinkle the top of the bread with salt. No wonder it didn’t taste seasoned enough. Man, I gotta start paying more attention. I just get so wrapped up in baking, I sometimes forget stuff. So, don’t forget the salt on yours, okay?
• Is it weird that my internal Kitchen OCD Alarm went off when there wasn’t a perfectly formed grid of olives? The only reason I didn’t make it a perfect grid was that I ran out of olives. And using green olives would just have made the whole thing worse, really.
• I’m also ticked off that I accidentally deleted the photo I took of the dough as it was done kneading. It’s not critical, but I’m annoyed with myself. I hope you forgive my carelessness.

Don't let this happen to you.

Thanksgiving is upon us! Which means ’tis the season for holiday cooking disasters. But don’t worry – the Capital Region’s newest supermarket has you covered.

ShopRite’s Chefs on Call hotline will be available to answer your Thanksgiving cooking questions – whether you’re wondering how to thaw your turkey (a hint – if you haven’t started thawing it yet, you might be in trouble), or how to prepare a traditional dessert.  Members of ShopRite Chefs On Call are available at 1-800 SHOPRITE from from now through Thanksgiving Day, during the following hours: Wednesday 10:00am-7:30pm and Thursday 8:00AM – 2:00PM.

Customers can visit ShopRite’s Facebook page for special Thanksgiving Turkey Tips (including videos). You can even download and print a handy brochure on Turkey Basics from their website (www.shoprite.com).

You probably have to have a lot of patience and a great sense of humor to answer those turkey hotline calls. I can only imagine the kinds of things people ask. Like these gems, actual questions and situations posed to turkey hotline operators:

• If I put my phone in the turkey, can you tell me if it’s done?
• I’ve never cooked a turkey before–is it like cooking a raccoon?
• A woman called to find out how long it would take to roast her turkey. To answer the question, the Talk-Line home economist asked how much the bird weighed. The woman responded, “I don’t know, it’s still running around outside.”
• Is it okay to thaw my turkey in the bathtub while bathing my kids?
• Can I brine my turkey in the washing machine?
• Can I take my frozen turkey into my sauna to thaw it faster?

Have you ever experienced a Thanksgiving cooking disaster? Let’s hear it!

The haul from my day of shopping. Berries, cherries, peaches, sweet corn, rainbow chard, garlic, zucchini, yellow squash

Beautiful Rainier cherries. I originally thought I'd put them in a cobbler or a crisp, but then decided I would just eat them as a snack. So delicious.

These beauties, fresh from Buhrmaster Farms, went into a Raspberry Almond Bread Pudding that I'm enjoying all week for breakfast. Recipe is over on my new RECIPE PAGE

Also from Buhrmaster Farms. I'll be using these in a cobbler along with...

Peaches from Maynard Farm (vendor at Schenectady Greenmarket). I'll be making one of my favorite summer recipes, Peach-Blueberry Cobbler (from Cooking Light magazine, July 2007). Recipe is over on my new RECIPE PAGE

A brief rundown of things I made/will be making to eat this week (email me if you need recipes, suggestions, etc.):

• Raspberry Almond Bread Pudding – this is a Wendy-modified Weight Watchers recipe (6 Points Plus values per serving)
• Chicken Stir-Fry Soup – leftover chicken, homemade stock, leftover rice, stir-fry vegetable blend, soy sauce & chili garlic paste to taste
• Peach-Blueberry Cobbler
• Curry-Spiced White Bean Hummus – white beans because chickpeas and I don’t get along
• Maple-Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops – my favorite way to prepare bone-in pork chops
• Grilled Summer Squash

It’s a lot of food. Blessed be my freezer.

Last night’s setup involved pork steaks (steaks cut from the shoulder roast) which had been pan-browned and placed in the crockpot , as well as a separate container of onion-soup-mix-and-gravy-mix-plus water, which was to be added at cooking time.

I called Bob early in the afternoon to remind him to get the crockpot started at around 3, and to add “the container in the fridge with the gravy mix in it.”  Easy stuff.   My routine on-my-way-home call to Bob reassured me that he had indeed gotten dinner going as instructed.  Nothing seemed amiss.

When I finally walked in the door, I was greeted by a delightful aroma of slowly simmering pork steaks.  I opened the lid to inspect, and was puzzled to see a thick white gravy coating the steaks.  Hm.  Pork gravy isn’t usually white.

Oh, well.  It smelled delicious, so I replaced the cover and went to the fridge to make myself a bit of a snack to tide me over until dinner at 7.  I opened the fridge and was stunned to see the pint container of onion soup-gravy mix still sitting exactly where I placed it the night before.

“What did you put in the crockpot?” I asked Bob.

“The container of stuff in the fridge,” he replied.

“No, you didn’t.  It’s right here,” I said, holding the mixture aloft.  What the heck did he put in the crockpot?  What the heck did he grab?  The bottle of chicken marinade?  Ranch dressing?  MAYONNAISE?  It was at about this moment I remembered that on Sunday I had prepped many items for the coming week, including a batch of homemade hummus.

Yes, hummus.  Made with cannelini beans (I am allergic to garbanzos), lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, Turkish seasoning, and sesame tahini paste.  Good lord, what did Bob do?

“To be honest,” he said when I told him of the error, “I was going to call you and ask, because I thought it was the wrong stuff.  But it smelled okay, so I didn’t.”   I wondered how long it would take to get a pizza delivered.

But, we decided to try it and see.  Not only did it smell good, it tasted great.  I did add a bit of the CORRECT liquid, because the beans had thickened the gravy almost to a paste and it needed a thinning.  The liquid added more flavor components, namely rosemary and onion, which blended well with the hummus.

Now, if only I could get Bob to cook dinner more often…

When I posted my deviled eggs recipe yesterday, underneath the post popped up a few “possibly related” posts from other blogs.  One of those posts contained a recipe for Spicy Deviled Eggs that called for harissa, a North African hot chili sauce that adds the “devilish” heat to the recipe.  The paste contains Piri piri (“African Devil”) chili peppers, tomatoes and paprika as its main ingredient, and also includes coriander, caraway, and cumin.

Harissa paste, a fiery North African condiment

One of my friends linked over to the post, and asked me about a local source for harissa.  I suggested possibly an ethnic food store, but the only ones around here that I know of specialize in Indian or Asian foodstuffs.  I don’t recall seeing it in Hannaford or Price Chopper, but then again I’ve never actually looked for it.

So, I am stumped.  Readers?