0 Bagels or Fossils?

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I am a yeast virgin. So when hosts Quellia and Freya announced that bagels would be this month's Daring Bakers' challenge, I was pretty excited to finally bake with yeast. Early Sunday morning seemed like an ideal time to make my bagels. (I don't know why but I seem to associate bread baking with Sunday morning.) I really loved the smell of the yeast proofing. Although incorporating the flour into the yeast-water mixture with a wooden spoon was a sticky situation, the kneading by hand was very therapeutic. I hardly needed any flour to keep the dough from sticking to my marble kitchen counter. I did have to knead for some time to bring the doughy mess to a nice smooth ball, but it was very relaxing and the yeasty smell in the air was somewhat comforting.

The ambient temperature of my kitchen was only 67F but considering how much yeast the recipe required I expected my dough to rise really quickly. And it did seem like I was off to great start since the dough started to rise quite noticeable at first. But then after 2 hours my dough had only grown to about 1.5 times the original volume. But I was anxious to finish up my bagels and get on with the rest of my day so I went ahead and punched down the dough and divided the dough into 16 chunks like the recipe instructed. (Although, I think the dough could've been divided into 24 regular sized bagels as opposed to 16 giant bagels.)

Initially I formed my bagels using the "snake" method but I didn't like the way they looked. I had trouble rolling them evenly so some parts were thicker than other parts and the area where I pinched the ends together just didn't look good to me. So I switched over to the "hole-centric" method which I found was easier for me and made my bagels more even all around. I let them rise for about 10 minutes on the countertop before boiling. I didn't really notice any change in the size of my formed bagels during this rest. (And in hindsight I made my holes way too big, but I thought the dough would rise a bit more and "fill in" but unfortunately it didn't. Instead I'm left with ugly bagel rings instead of cute chubby bagels*.)



Now these were some really big bagels. I mean, they are huge. I used a large stock pot that's 12 inches in diameter but I was still only able to boil 2 bagels at a time. Towards the end I did boil 3 at a time but they crowded each other in the pot and squished each other a bit. So as I'm boiling batch after batch, I'm thinking that these are the biggest ugliest bagels I have ever seen and that the next (and final) step of baking in the oven won't change that fact. I must say that I was quite disheartened. But this was my very first tryst with yeast, kneading and forming dough. Even so, I had hoped for the best outcome.



So after I pulled my first batch of bagels from the oven I thought they looked more like fossils than bagels. I tasted one and thought they weren't too bad. But I did think my bagels were a bit flavorless. Topping my bagels with poppy seeds, sea salt or sesame seeds before baking wouldn't have improved the flavor by much. They were slightly chewy but not tough, a tad crispy on the outside and without any doughiness on the inside. These were definitely not those fluffy things you get at Noah's Bagels. I have no idea if these truly are real Jewish bagels, but I will definitely try making bagels again (maybe with this or a different recipe). And I'll definitely try baking other things with yeast. Hopefully I'll have better luck next time.



If you'd like to try your hand at the "Real Honest Jewish Purist Bagels", you can find the recipe (and a list of links to the other Daring Bakers' bagels) at All Things Edible and Writing at the Kitchen Table.

* When I write my monthly DB challenge post I try not to read the challenge posts by the other Daring Bakers until after I publish mine. But given the talent pool, I'm positive that everyone else's bagels will be cute chubby ones.

0 Cake Walk

My mother used to walk me and my brothers to school every morning and then walk us home in the afternoon. The one mile walk down to our elementary school in North Beach seemed to go quickly. But walking home seemed to take forever even though it was pretty much the same distance with slight variations in the route we took. But no matter which route we chose to walk, it was always uphill on the way home. (Okay, so maybe forever is an exaggeration. But in my defense I was a child and everything was overly dramatic and took forever.)

Sometimes, when we took the route through Chinatown on the way home, we would get free samples at the fortune cookie factory or we would stop at a bakery on Stockton Street and mother would let us pick one treat from the bakery case for ourselves. Sometimes it was a coconut bun, a cocktail bun (no, not as in alcoholic, but so named since the bun looked the tail of a chicken) or my personal favorite, the paper wrapped cake. I know the name is rather boring but it is the literal translation from Chinese. As far as I know, it goes by no other name.

The paper wrapped cake is a plain, springy mini cake baked in a tapered cylindrical mold about 1.5 inches in diameter at the base and widens slightly at the top to about 2 inches. I would say the pan is similar to a popover pan. A square of waxed paper lines the mold before the batter is poured. The baked mini cake is about 3-4 inches tall, pale yellow but golden brown on top. I would gradually peel away the waxed paper to reveal more and more cake of the eggy, spongy yellow cake until it was all gone. Sometimes in kid like fashion I would even lick crumbs off the paper before balling it up and handing it to my mom for future disposal. (My mother was the kind keeper of all our refuse until we got to the next trash bin. She also held the empty "juice boxes" of Vitasoy guava drink or chocolate soy milk.) It wasn't the healthiest after school snack but I always have fond memories of the walk home and the occasional Chinatown snack.

[ This has nothing to do with cake, but it makes me a little sad to think about how walking to school, as opposed to being driven to school, seems to be such a rarity these days. I'm not sure if it is for reasons of safety or of distance, but the "neighborhood school" in San Francisco appears to be a distant memory. ]

I recently made my first chiffon cake. It was then that I realized the paper wrapped cake was like a chiffon cake. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since a lot of those Chinatown bakery sweets are not butter based (since butter is expensive), but probably oil, shortening (gasp) or even lard (double gasp) based. I just always classified that style of cake as "Chinatown style". But now that I know chiffon cakes are a close match, I can make them anytime AND I know exactly what's in the cake.

Meyer Lemon Chiffon Cake

1 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup granulated or superfine sugar
1 1/3 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup egg yolks (3 to 4 yolks), lightly beaten
1/3 cup fresh meyer lemon juice
2 tbsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup egg whites (about 8 large)
1 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 325°. Line 24 standard (4 fl oz capacity) muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the oil, egg yolks, lemon juice, zest and vanilla until mixture is smooth, but be careful not to over mix. Set aside while you beat the egg white.

Beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gently fold the beaten whites into the lemon batter. Fill the cupcake wells approximately 3/4 full.

Bake approximately 20-25 minutes, until the cupcakes bounce back when lightly pressed with your fingertip. Let cool for 10 minutes in muffin pan then remove the cupcakes from the muffin pan and cool on a wire rack.

Note: I made my chiffon cakes in 3x5 inch loaf pans this time, but I don't remember how long I baked them. So I included directions for baking them in a muffin pan.

0 Almond Breakfast Cake

I loved the simplicity and ease of the French style yogurt cake I made last week so much that I decided to try it again, but this time with a twist. I had an open pint of heavy cream sitting in my refrigerator and I didn't want it to go to waste. So I used cream in place of the yogurt and oil and, although I still have all those lemons, I used almonds as my main flavor instead. I wasn't quite sure how my reinvented cake would turn out.

I ate a bit of cake with my morning coffee and I thought it was absolutely delicious. The cake was moist, almond-y, and not too sweet. It was a perfect morning cake. I packed a slice for my husband's lunch bag and later he sent me an email telling me how wonderful the cake was. My husband is my best taste tester since he always tells me the truth about the food I make. Well, the truth as he sees it. =)

Even so, I still get a bit nervous when I bring something new and untested to the office. I know that people don't care too much since it's basically free food, but I hate turning out a sub-par product. I usually share my baked goods by placing them in the lunch room with the name of the recipe written on a post-it note. I didn't know what to call this cake. But since I felt it was a nice treat with morning coffee, I decided to call it almond breakfast cake. And by the way, it was very well received by my co-workers.



Almond Breakfast Cake
(makes one 9-inch round cake)

1 1/4 cup (10 fl oz) heavy whipping cream
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 cup almond meal (finely ground almonds)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. Line with a parchment circle and butter the paper.

In a large bowl, mix the cream and sugar with a wooden spoon. Mix in eggs (all 3 at once is okay). Mix in vanilla and almond extracts.

Add the almond meal, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake at 350F for about 35 minutes or until your cake tester comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly touched.

0 French Style Yogurt Cake

I've been super busy at work lately so I haven't had too much time to bake in the evenings like I normally do. But when I saw this French style "grandmother's cake" on Molly's blog, I knew I had to try it right away. Luckily it takes no time at all to mix up the batter and get it in the oven. My ancestors may not have been French, but there's something so nostalgic and comforting about the flavor and texture of this cake. It's not quite a sponge cake nor is it a pound cake. Some of the ladies at work absolutely loved this cake and they kept asking for the recipe. So, ladies, here it is!

French Style Yogurt Cake (with Lemon & Poppy Seeds)
(adapted from Orangette)

Cake
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1/3 cup canola oil

Glaze
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan. Line with a parchment circle and butter the paper.

In a large bowl, mix the yogurt, sugar, and lemon zest with a wooden spoon. Mix in eggs (all 3 at once is okay).

Add the flour, baking powder, and poppy seeds. Mix until flour is just incorporated.

Add the oil and mix well. The batter will look curdled at first but it will come together.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes, until your cake tester is clean and the cake springs back when lightly touched.

Allow cake to cool in pan on a rack for about 15 minutes.

Gently remove cake from the pan and set on a rack to cool completely.

Combine the lemon juice and powdered sugar and spoon it gently over the cake. The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.



Notes: For my version, I made some modifications to Molly's recipe.
~ I used meyer lemons because my tree keeps on giving.
~ I added some poppy seeds. You can omit them or even increase the amount from 1 tablespoon to 2 tablespoons.
~ I decreased the amount of canola oil and increased the amount of yogurt.