Made a Mistake

...but the end product came out okay.  Phew.

I signed up to bring snacks to class tomorrow.  I have been hanging on to this recipe for Sourdough Rye Brownies for a few months.

Intriguing, right?  Brett isn’t a fan of chocolate (some sort of genetic flaw) so I decided to make them for class because I could never eat a whole pan of brownies by myself.  Well, maybe I could, but it wouldn’t be a good thing.

Early this morning, before chores, I mixed some of my sourdough starter into rye flour and water.  It was pretty thick and over the course of the four hour resting period it didn’t look like it did anything.  At noon, I mixed the lump of starter with more rye flour, five eggs (!), and sugar.  It was kind of a strange color from the bright orange yolks and brownish rye flour.  But it bubbled happily over the next couple of hours.

While the bowl of flour and eggs did its thing, I melted chocolate with butter. As I was measuring the chocolate, I discovered that I was seriously short.  The recipe takes a lot of chocolate.  I ran down to the corner market praying that they would have high quality chocolate.  They did.  When I was checking out, Laura looked at the chocolate and asked what I was making.  I told her and she screwed up her face.  It does sound weird.  Rye brownies.  She thought maybe it would be okay with sea salt on top.  Good thought.

Back home, I melted butter with the chocolate.

Then I measured out the remaining ingredients: sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla.  I mixed it all together, — starter flour mix, melted chocolate, and remaining ingredients, put it in the oven, and crossed my fingers.

It smelled divine.  And it looked pretty good too.  When I took it out of the oven I looked at the recipe to see if there were instructions on when to take the brownies out of the pan.  It said, “sprinkle the top with additional sea salt” if you want.  What?  Additional?  I hadn’t put any salt in the batter.  I went back and read the recipe.  I found salt... on the second page at the very top.  And baking soda.  OH CRAP.  I didn’t put either in the mix.  I sprinkled the top with sea salt and went out to do chores while it cooled.  I stomped from pasture to pasture.  I didn’t have time to make another batch.  They took friggin’ all day.  And, the expense of all that chocolate.  And five eggs.  OMG.

Half way through chores I went back in the house and cut myself a piece from the corner.  It was fine.   A bit gooey, but who doesn’t like a moist brownie.  And the taste was great.  As they cooled completely, they got less gooey.  Phew.  I will definitely make this again — I’m curious to see how much difference the baking soda and salt make.  I think the sourdough starter saved me; the brownies had a way to leaven even with out the baking soda.

A Bagel Love Affair

I don’t remember having bagels growing up.  The first bagels I remember were those I bought in the university union cafe after swim practice.  I was cold and tired after my early morning workout, and the bagels were warm and squishy from the microwave.  They weren’t toasted; it was just a plain grocery store bagel split, spread with cream cheese, and zapped until the cream cheese melted into gooey oozy wonderfulness.

So, I consider it accurate to say I didn’t have my first real bagel until my early 20s, when I was working at a law firm in Century City.  Once a week, mid-morning, the receptionist would page “Penny Lane.”  That was the signal — the bagel lady was in the break room with her cart full of fresh, New York style bagels.  It was a revelation.  There weren’t a million flavors like at bagel shops now; just the basics: plain, sesame, poppy seed and, my favorite, salt.  Tearing my teeth into the chewy crust, and then the moist interior, — with just a wee bit of cream cheese.  Heaven.

I still love a good bagel.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a good bagel shop nearby.  I’ve tried to make bagels a few times over the years and I think I finally nailed it.  I used this bagel recipe.

I followed the recipe exactly except for throwing in a tablespoon or so of sourdough starter.  I was feeding my starter and it kills me to dump the excess down the drain so I tend to throw it into whatever I’m making.  Bagel dough needs to be kneaded a long, long time so I did that in my standing mixer.  Usually I like to knead dough by hand because I enjoy feeling it come together, but I wasn’t really up for kneading for 15 minutes or more.  After kneading and an initial rise, I cut the dough into eight pieces and rolled them into balls with nice tight skins.  Another rise, and then I poked my finger through each ball, twirled the dough until the opening was wide and set it down to rest.  Fun.

While the bagels rested again (they aren’t hard to make but they do take a while with all the resting that goes on), I heated the water bath (water plus malt syrup and sugar) and turned on the oven.

I put them in the simmering water four at a time, and cooked them a couple minutes on each side.  Then I fished them out and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

I brushed them with egg white whisked with a little water and then sprinkled most of them with sesame.  I don’t have any rock salt on hand or I would have used that.  Maybe next time I’ll try flakey sea salt and see how that goes.  After brushing and topping the bagels, I popped them in the oven.

They came out looking like the real deal and, more importantly, tasting like the real deal.

Morning Glory Muffins

My favorite kind of muffin is a Morning Glory muffin.  Hands down; no contest.  They are moist, sweet, and interesting — packed with bits of apple, carrot, nuts, raisins and coconut.  I made some to have for breakfast on mornings when I have class, and not enough time to linger over my usual coffee and fresh ranch egg.

I use this recipe from King Arthur Flour. I didn’t make many modifications other than using 50/50 whole wheat and white flour.  The recipe calls for all whole wheat but I worried that they would be too heavy.  I didn’t want a really dense, heavy muffin.

I sprinkled a little sparkling sugar on the top, just to add a festive touch.

Some of them came out a bit dark so I’ll reduce the bake time on the next go-round.  My oven tends to run a smidge cooler than the set temperature but I think I over-compensated in this case.

They taste exactly how I wanted them to, though.  I ate a couple for lunch, fresh from the oven.  Brett ate a couple when he got home from running errands in the afternoon — and a couple more after dinner.