Last night I managed to use my dutch oven for something I never would have thought about. When it comes to kitchen gadgets though, the more uses, the better, if I can use something for more than what someone would consider it's typical use, it's more likely it will gain a place of honor closer to the counter top so that I can use it more.
In this case I have a Grand Gourmet Enamel Covered Cast Iron Dutch Oven. Now I'm sure there are those of you out there that might think that Le Creuset is the greatest, or some that might even scream for Lodge Logic, but I was buying this with really only an occasional use in mind so I went with the cheap brand I found on sale at my local Meijer. I really only had 1 recipe that I thought I'd use it for, and thats making pork carnitas, and I've done that it did turn out good, but this is about using it for something new (well new to me even).
I like many of you out there probably browse Pinterest, although I'm not one that actually "pins" anything, heck I don't even have an account. But I do browse it for recipes and DIY stuff (I play in the kitchen, and with woodworking, oh how I'd love more hours in the day). Every once in a while I come across things that intrigue me, this time it was a simple recipe for "Crusty Bread".
Now while I am a self admitted carnivore, I do love some good bread to go with my meat. I mean bread was created for the need to be able to eat meat on the go, thus creating the sandwich right? Anyway, the best bread is that which is freshly baked no question about it, the next best thing is the artisan loaves you get from local bakeries or places like Panera. If you like me, any bread you've made in the past has been good, but it hasn't had that crisp textured crust like what you find at those places. Well the aforementioned recipe allows you to create just that, and couldn't be any simpler.
3 Cups of Flour (I used bread flour just because, but the original poster just used all purpose)
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 cups of water.
Whisk up your dry ingredients in a large bowl, stir in the water, it looked a bit dry when I was done mixing, but thats not a problem at all. Now you cover it and let it rise, her recipe called for 12-18 hours, mine was over 20 hours because like others, work always interferes with my fun in the kitchen. You could probably even get away with a bit less, because I didn't notice a much rising from checking on it in the morning to the 10 hours later when I was able to finally get to cooking it.
Once you have made it through the painstakingly long aspect of letting it rise, now it's time to prep. Heat your oven to 450 degrees, once heated put your dutch oven in there to heat up as well. Originally she had said to preheat your dutch oven for 30 minutes, my impatience lead me to think it was probably preheated enough in 15 minutes.
While your oven is preheating, take your dough out onto a well floured surface and shape it into a ball, it's going to be a bit sticky so be sure to get some flour on your hands to work with it.
You will undoubtedly be done with your shaping before everything gets preheated so you might want to cover your dough for the remainder of time.
Once your dutch oven is preheated take it out, remember it's going to be HOT, after all you've just had it preheating in a 450 degree oven! Now comes the easiest part, drop your ball of dough in the dutch oven and put the cover on and place it back in the oven. Cook it covered for 30 minutes, then take the cover off and cook it for another 15 minutes.
Then you can take it out and let it cool on a rack. Enjoy at your convenience!
I'm sure some of you might be thinking I skipped a step of putting butter or oil in the dutch oven, nope, didn't skip a step at all, because I didn't do it. I contend the biggest problem with food sticking to most cookware is because very few of us preheat it, don't get me wrong, I'm sure it could stick if you're dealing with a worn out piece of cookware, but you severely lesson sticking in most your cooking by preheating, I usually can cut my oil or butter I use my cooking in half if I only wait to cook on it, of course I'm not the most patient person so yes usually I just be sure to spray, spritz, or throw pats of butter in there while cooking. This bread required none of that, even in my cheap little dutch oven didn't stick a bit, I turned it over and out it popped.
The other thing the original poster talked about doing is mixing it up, of which I'm sure I will do, adding your favorite cheeses, dried fruits, seasoning, or whatever floats your boat to make something new. I've already been thinking about a cinnamon and sugar loaf that should make excellent toast, or how about some freshly grated parmesan with some italian seasoning, combine it with a small dish of olive oil and freshly cracked pepper to dip it in....and you have yourself an appetizer that won't last long. Ok now I want to make another batch to try that, might be a weekend project.
And the next best thing, is this makes beautiful little loaves, that have all the look and charm of bakery store bread. Wrap it up and you have excellent little gifts for friends and family, especially if you have added something a little different that has just made it out of this world!
I want to thank the Simply So Good blog for posting the recipe, it's nice to get bakery results from such a simple recipe, and I loved being able to have another use for one of my gadgets, I'm sure my dutch oven is going to get a lot more use making breads too now.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Kitchen Aid Ice Cream maker attachment
Now the one item you tend to see most kitchen cooks love to have and use is a Kitchen Aid mixer, and for good reason, they last a long time and do a wonderful job. If you are a gadgeteer like myself they also appear great for all their add on accessories. Even though I do love trying out new gadgets, I do try to be conscience of size and usefulness, as I don't want a lot of clutter on my counter nor am I one to pull out a gadget just to use it. I admit that I have quite a few gadgets hiding away in the pantry that haven't seen the light of day in quite a while. Sometimes though you find a recipe or get an idea to make something that just requires that special gadget that you haven't used in a while. Well I did that this past weekend with pretty excellent results. The item in question this week, the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment...the challenge....a copy cat recipe for Wendy's Frosty....and the outcome...well, let's just say I was amazingly surprised.
I will start out saying that this is an attachment that I probably never would have bought, my only reason for having it is that when I bought my kitchen aid mixer, there was a deal that I got it for free with it. Who am I to pass up on a free kitchen gadget.
Now I can't take credit for the recipe, as this is not something that I would probably even remotely came up with, and whether they came up with it or not, this is where I got it from this Easy chocolate Ice Cream recipe. Although I was far from being able to add a full half gallon of milk to my Kitchen Aid attachment, it came it very good, although I did have to put it in the freezer to finish the process.
The Kitchen Aid ice cream maker is simply a mixing bowl that you freeze ahead of time (it says about 15 hours, I left it in a few days because I didn't get to trying this right away), and a special mixing attachment that is just like what you find in a standard ice cream mixer. So I proceeded to take my ingredients out and put them in the mixing bowl. My impatience got the better of me on this, because I assumed just to throw it all in there and mix it while it made it, of course that is because I was doing this from memory first and went back and later checked the recipe....oops. This lapse caused me to take the mixing paddle out and mix it up better in the frozen bowl.
According to most of the recipes that come with the Kitchen Aid they talk about 10-15 minutes for the ice cream to start to get near consistency, so at a half hour and it was just somewhat near consistency I was a bit disheartened. However half of it was about the right consistency, so to finish it off I put it into a container and tossed it into the freezer. The results later that night was frosty heaven. Amazingly it was so similar I was shocked. In hind site I think my results would have been better if I mixed up the ice cream batter, and put it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes to get it near freezer ready.
As this is only about half about my ice cream recipe let me give some more info about the gadget that helped make this wonderful concoction. This ice cream maker is not too bad for those of us that would barely ever make our own ice cream. Although I admit my first attempt failed pretty miserably, my own fault I put the batter in much too warm. I think that for this to work best you probably should put your batter in after chilling it to the point where the start to get the first bit of ice crystals. Since you can't add more ice and make it chill longer, you need to plan ahead, and have it near freezing before you start the mixing, if you put them in even slightly warm, you can forget about ice cream, but you might have a nice shake.
The only other downside to this device is the size, with it's size custom recipes you find online or from a friend or where ever, will more than likely have to be adapted to fit into the bowl, as it's only capable of preparing around 2 quarts of ice cream, hence why I wasn't able to fit a half gallon of chocolate milk into my frosty mix, and even the amount I added, I ended up coming up over the edge a bit.
Where I think this little thing really excels at is cooking with kids, my 2 year old son was with me in the kitchen while I was trying this out and being able to see the ice cream mixing and start to thicken made him really feel apart of it. Almost too much to be honest, because when my wife got home that evening and we were telling her what we were going to have later, he told her he made the ice cream! Letting him have the credit though was worth it to see his face, although him knowing there was a lot more than the small cup we gave him wasn't all that great, because he definitely wanted more.
In review, I have a hard time really grading this item, for the normal price of $80 I'm not sure I could recommend it. Although some of the benefits of not having to deal with a mess of ice and rock salt is nice, especially when dealing with kids, and being able to see it as your treat starts the transformation to a frozen icy treat is also a plus. But when you can get an old school ice cream maker or a dedicated small one like the Cuisinart one for less, it makes this one a bit hard to swallow for the money. The only benefit to this one versus one like this Cuisinart Ice Cream maker is that when you are freezing this bowl you are still only storing your Kitchen Aid, not another full size gadget. So would I buy this outright at full price, probably not, if you caught it on sale or as a bonus when you buy your Kitchen Aid, it's not bad. Especially if you are only going to be making ice cream once or twice a year, but if you plan on making ice cream a lot, or in much greater quantities, I'd keep looking.
If you have tried something in the Kitchen Aid Ice cream maker or have your favorite recipe I'd love to hear it and hopefully try it out. Best of luck in your kitchen!
I will start out saying that this is an attachment that I probably never would have bought, my only reason for having it is that when I bought my kitchen aid mixer, there was a deal that I got it for free with it. Who am I to pass up on a free kitchen gadget.
Now I can't take credit for the recipe, as this is not something that I would probably even remotely came up with, and whether they came up with it or not, this is where I got it from this Easy chocolate Ice Cream recipe. Although I was far from being able to add a full half gallon of milk to my Kitchen Aid attachment, it came it very good, although I did have to put it in the freezer to finish the process.
The Kitchen Aid ice cream maker is simply a mixing bowl that you freeze ahead of time (it says about 15 hours, I left it in a few days because I didn't get to trying this right away), and a special mixing attachment that is just like what you find in a standard ice cream mixer. So I proceeded to take my ingredients out and put them in the mixing bowl. My impatience got the better of me on this, because I assumed just to throw it all in there and mix it while it made it, of course that is because I was doing this from memory first and went back and later checked the recipe....oops. This lapse caused me to take the mixing paddle out and mix it up better in the frozen bowl.
According to most of the recipes that come with the Kitchen Aid they talk about 10-15 minutes for the ice cream to start to get near consistency, so at a half hour and it was just somewhat near consistency I was a bit disheartened. However half of it was about the right consistency, so to finish it off I put it into a container and tossed it into the freezer. The results later that night was frosty heaven. Amazingly it was so similar I was shocked. In hind site I think my results would have been better if I mixed up the ice cream batter, and put it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes to get it near freezer ready.
As this is only about half about my ice cream recipe let me give some more info about the gadget that helped make this wonderful concoction. This ice cream maker is not too bad for those of us that would barely ever make our own ice cream. Although I admit my first attempt failed pretty miserably, my own fault I put the batter in much too warm. I think that for this to work best you probably should put your batter in after chilling it to the point where the start to get the first bit of ice crystals. Since you can't add more ice and make it chill longer, you need to plan ahead, and have it near freezing before you start the mixing, if you put them in even slightly warm, you can forget about ice cream, but you might have a nice shake.
The only other downside to this device is the size, with it's size custom recipes you find online or from a friend or where ever, will more than likely have to be adapted to fit into the bowl, as it's only capable of preparing around 2 quarts of ice cream, hence why I wasn't able to fit a half gallon of chocolate milk into my frosty mix, and even the amount I added, I ended up coming up over the edge a bit.
Where I think this little thing really excels at is cooking with kids, my 2 year old son was with me in the kitchen while I was trying this out and being able to see the ice cream mixing and start to thicken made him really feel apart of it. Almost too much to be honest, because when my wife got home that evening and we were telling her what we were going to have later, he told her he made the ice cream! Letting him have the credit though was worth it to see his face, although him knowing there was a lot more than the small cup we gave him wasn't all that great, because he definitely wanted more.
In review, I have a hard time really grading this item, for the normal price of $80 I'm not sure I could recommend it. Although some of the benefits of not having to deal with a mess of ice and rock salt is nice, especially when dealing with kids, and being able to see it as your treat starts the transformation to a frozen icy treat is also a plus. But when you can get an old school ice cream maker or a dedicated small one like the Cuisinart one for less, it makes this one a bit hard to swallow for the money. The only benefit to this one versus one like this Cuisinart Ice Cream maker is that when you are freezing this bowl you are still only storing your Kitchen Aid, not another full size gadget. So would I buy this outright at full price, probably not, if you caught it on sale or as a bonus when you buy your Kitchen Aid, it's not bad. Especially if you are only going to be making ice cream once or twice a year, but if you plan on making ice cream a lot, or in much greater quantities, I'd keep looking.
If you have tried something in the Kitchen Aid Ice cream maker or have your favorite recipe I'd love to hear it and hopefully try it out. Best of luck in your kitchen!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The Original Green Pan
Ok, it's been entirely too long that I have updated anything, so I figured it had best be time to add a little something.
Over the course of the last year there has been a lot of buzz about the health and safety of teflon coated pans. Now while I am a bit of a skeptic on their overall safety, as I have had one that after being left on a burner for too long the coating did start to peal off and basically it ruined my pan. I attributed it to being a cheaper pan and my own forgetfulness of leaving it on the stove. However I did start to think about how much of this might be coming off in everyday cooking. Considering that was over 15 years ago, and I have sense increased my cooking knowledge 100 times what it was then, primarily my habit of cooking things at way too high of a temp, and I have continued to use teflon pans, it obviously didn't bother me that much. All this buzz and even my experiences have made infomercials like the "Orgreenic" pan seem a bit intriguing. As I have stated in the past though, I'm not a big fan of ordering those products from the infomercials due to extreme shipping costs and many reviews of utterly horrid experiences, but find it in the store and I might give it a try.
I had looked at that Orgreenic pan several times at my local Target store, and while I was intrigued I'm also frugal, and several reviewers online about it gave it bad ratings, saying it just didn't last, and while $20 isn't much for a pan, I'd like to at least get a year, and many were saying it didn't last more than a month or so. Enter my habit of going to the kitchen section of the local outlet stores like Marshall's or TJ Maxx. While there, I found a Ceramic pan called "The Original Green Pan", and it was only $10. How could I possibly pass that up.
First and foremost let me start on it's design, it's a relatively simple pan, but unlike many it does not have the rivets for the handle on the inside, so first thought for me, no more egg getting stuck there. The ceramic coating for the pan sure felt non stick, and it's color is a bit of a neutral gray, so right off the bat it appealed to me much more than the bright green of the Orgreenic.
The real test of the pan though was yet to be experienced. Of course with a small 8" pan, the one thing I also cook in it and the one thing I really bought it for was for eggs. So it was time to scramble up some eggs and have breakfast. While I try to eat as healthy as I can, I don't skimp on flavor either, "Give me butter, or give me death!". So of course I add a bit of butter, it's something I've always cooked eggs with and something I always will, nonstick or not! Now there is something I'm guilty of when it comes to cooking on the stove, and many of you I sure are as well, and thats not letting something get up to temp first before throwing it on there. Well eggs I'm doubly so, because I also don't like to dirty up unnecessary dishes, I'm not as lucky as those chefs on TV who don't have to do dishes, although I do have to give a ton of credit to my wife as she does more of the dishes than I do, but I try not to add as many as I could. So I crack my eggs into the pan a bit cooler and scramble em right in the pan, using a rubber or plastic spatula, I'm not going to tempt fate when it comes to anything nonstick.
The end result of my new ceramic pan.....I love it!!! It has held up well, although I am probably a bit more careful with it than some of my others, hand washing, never cooking above medium, and always add some sort of oil to it for just about anything. So far nothing has stuck to it any more or less than any other teflon pan I've ever owned, be it Circulon, T-Fal, or even my Emerilware. Add in the fact that it doesn't have the rivets and it has officially become my egg pan of choice.
I didn't stop there though, I did try something else, and this was much more of a testament to it's nonstick capabilities than the eggs. Frozen turkey sausage was probably my best test to it. I took it directly form the freezer and tossed it into the pan. Now on my stainless steal pans, this was a disaster. Since turkey sausage has much less fat than ordinary pork sausage, there was little to no grease to help with the sticking. The original Green Pan come through like a champ, the only thing that was on the pan during the cooking was the initial bit of char from the initial toss in, outside of that it didn't stick at all. And that little bit that was left, wiped out with a paper towel.
Now the big thing you might be wondering is, is this product worth it? That is till up in the air, because I want a pan to last a couple years or more, and I've only had it a few months. At $10, it's been worth every penny, and I've contemplated getting one of their larger pans, but I'm still a bit skeptical about paying $40 for it. If this one continues to please me for the next few months I might invest but for now, if you can find one on sale for cheap, I'd say go for it, as far as the Orgreenic, that I don't know, just by feel alone, it certainly doesn't feel like it's made as well as the Original Green Pan, but if any of you have any experience with it, I'd love to hear about it!
Thanks and Good Luck in the Kitchen!
Over the course of the last year there has been a lot of buzz about the health and safety of teflon coated pans. Now while I am a bit of a skeptic on their overall safety, as I have had one that after being left on a burner for too long the coating did start to peal off and basically it ruined my pan. I attributed it to being a cheaper pan and my own forgetfulness of leaving it on the stove. However I did start to think about how much of this might be coming off in everyday cooking. Considering that was over 15 years ago, and I have sense increased my cooking knowledge 100 times what it was then, primarily my habit of cooking things at way too high of a temp, and I have continued to use teflon pans, it obviously didn't bother me that much. All this buzz and even my experiences have made infomercials like the "Orgreenic" pan seem a bit intriguing. As I have stated in the past though, I'm not a big fan of ordering those products from the infomercials due to extreme shipping costs and many reviews of utterly horrid experiences, but find it in the store and I might give it a try.
I had looked at that Orgreenic pan several times at my local Target store, and while I was intrigued I'm also frugal, and several reviewers online about it gave it bad ratings, saying it just didn't last, and while $20 isn't much for a pan, I'd like to at least get a year, and many were saying it didn't last more than a month or so. Enter my habit of going to the kitchen section of the local outlet stores like Marshall's or TJ Maxx. While there, I found a Ceramic pan called "The Original Green Pan", and it was only $10. How could I possibly pass that up.
First and foremost let me start on it's design, it's a relatively simple pan, but unlike many it does not have the rivets for the handle on the inside, so first thought for me, no more egg getting stuck there. The ceramic coating for the pan sure felt non stick, and it's color is a bit of a neutral gray, so right off the bat it appealed to me much more than the bright green of the Orgreenic.
The real test of the pan though was yet to be experienced. Of course with a small 8" pan, the one thing I also cook in it and the one thing I really bought it for was for eggs. So it was time to scramble up some eggs and have breakfast. While I try to eat as healthy as I can, I don't skimp on flavor either, "Give me butter, or give me death!". So of course I add a bit of butter, it's something I've always cooked eggs with and something I always will, nonstick or not! Now there is something I'm guilty of when it comes to cooking on the stove, and many of you I sure are as well, and thats not letting something get up to temp first before throwing it on there. Well eggs I'm doubly so, because I also don't like to dirty up unnecessary dishes, I'm not as lucky as those chefs on TV who don't have to do dishes, although I do have to give a ton of credit to my wife as she does more of the dishes than I do, but I try not to add as many as I could. So I crack my eggs into the pan a bit cooler and scramble em right in the pan, using a rubber or plastic spatula, I'm not going to tempt fate when it comes to anything nonstick.
The end result of my new ceramic pan.....I love it!!! It has held up well, although I am probably a bit more careful with it than some of my others, hand washing, never cooking above medium, and always add some sort of oil to it for just about anything. So far nothing has stuck to it any more or less than any other teflon pan I've ever owned, be it Circulon, T-Fal, or even my Emerilware. Add in the fact that it doesn't have the rivets and it has officially become my egg pan of choice.
I didn't stop there though, I did try something else, and this was much more of a testament to it's nonstick capabilities than the eggs. Frozen turkey sausage was probably my best test to it. I took it directly form the freezer and tossed it into the pan. Now on my stainless steal pans, this was a disaster. Since turkey sausage has much less fat than ordinary pork sausage, there was little to no grease to help with the sticking. The original Green Pan come through like a champ, the only thing that was on the pan during the cooking was the initial bit of char from the initial toss in, outside of that it didn't stick at all. And that little bit that was left, wiped out with a paper towel.
Now the big thing you might be wondering is, is this product worth it? That is till up in the air, because I want a pan to last a couple years or more, and I've only had it a few months. At $10, it's been worth every penny, and I've contemplated getting one of their larger pans, but I'm still a bit skeptical about paying $40 for it. If this one continues to please me for the next few months I might invest but for now, if you can find one on sale for cheap, I'd say go for it, as far as the Orgreenic, that I don't know, just by feel alone, it certainly doesn't feel like it's made as well as the Original Green Pan, but if any of you have any experience with it, I'd love to hear about it!
Thanks and Good Luck in the Kitchen!
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