Really Righteous Rye for Reubens

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

With a golden-brown crust and a soft inside, this flavorful combination of rye flour and caraway seeds is the perfect loaf to be sliced thick for home-made reuben sandwiches.

One of our favorite sandwiches is an East Coast style reuben with the rye sliced thick and everything piled high. Up here in the Arctic, the only way to get a sandwich like that is to make it ourselves. So, based on several recipes and my own calculations, I created a rye bread recipe for my Zojirushi “dough machine.” After four years of fairly heavy use (we bake all our own breads), this built-like-a-tank bread machine is still going strong. After it had done its magic, I kneaded the dough once more by hand and shaped it into an oval for one last rise.

I gave the dough two quick slashes, brushed it with egg, popped it in the oven and 35 minutes later our kitchen was filled with the delicious aroma of freshly baked rye bread – the final ingredient for our “up-town” Arctic lunch of hot tomato soup and reubens! Our recipe for DIY sauerkraut to follow.

Bread Machine Rye Bread

Ingredients

3 tbsp melted unsalted butter
1 egg
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rye flour
1 tbsp caraway seeds (a few more for the top)
1 envelope active dry yeast
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg (to brush the top of the loaf)

Directions

Place all items except the last egg in the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
Set machine to dough setting.
Start machine.
Remove dough from machine and place onto lightly floured board. Knead dough a few times and shape into ball.
Place dough ball on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover with a damp cloth. Let rise until almost doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Slash a big X on top of loaf.
Brush loaf with egg and sprinkle a few more caraway seeds on top of loaf.
Bake for 35 minutes. Finished loaf should should have a golden brown crust and sound hollow when tapped.

Lighter than Air: Cream Puffs and Eclairs

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Friends who share a love of baking and cream-filled pastries dipped in chocolate ganache warmed up a rainy afternoon in our kitchen north of the Arctic Circle.

Perfectly turned out pastry puffs filled with delectable cream and dipped in chocolate ganache are the the stuff of home bakers’ dreams. Cream puffs and eclairs require a special dough called pâte à choux. Worked to exactly the right consistency, this dough bakes up light and flaky and leaves a hollow space in the center of the confection. Although we used traditional vanilla-flavored pastry cream, we also imagined filling these airy profiteroles with fresh whipped cream, homemade ice cream and even savories such as smoked salmon cream.

Making cream puffs and eclairs can’t be rushed. The pâte à choux dough requires time and attention in order to get it to the correct consistency as it cooks on the stove top. Next, it must be carefully piped onto a baking sheet and placed in the oven where it will finish. Creating the pastry cream is fairly easy, and making chocolate ganache is magical.

All that work, and between three bakers, three tasters and steaming mugs of of rooibos almond tea, our eclairs and puffs disappeared in short order.

Pâte à Choux

Ingredients

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
4 oz. unsalted butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
up to 4 eggs

Directions

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Pour milk and water into medium pan.
Stir in salt and sugar.
Add butter.
Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat.
Take mixture off heat and stir in all the flour. Mixture should look like mashed potatoes.
Return pan to low heat and stir continuously. This will dry out the dough a little.
Dough should come together to form a ball.
Starchy residue at the bottom of the pan is an indicator that the dough is dried out enough.
Take dough off stove and place it in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Turn it to low to allow the dough to be cooled off by the mixer.
Mix in eggs one at a time, watching that the dough does not become too thin. The dough should be soft, creamy, and shiny.
Transfer the dough to a piping bag with a large tip.
Pipe ball shapes onto parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving plenty of room for these puffs to double in size.
Bake puffs for 10 minutes.
Turn oven down to 325 degrees F and continue to bake for 15 minutes.
Fill with chilled whipping cream or pastry cream – savory or sweet.

These will freeze nicely.

Chai Crème Brûlée for Two

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Easy to create, this crème brûlée features a rich custard flavored with vanilla and chai tea and is sealed with a crunchy caramelized top.

We give careful thought before adding any new item to our kitchen. Does the tool merit the space it will take up in Bandon’s galley or in the kitchen of our Arctic home? Will it be durable? Is it practical?

For the past few years, both of us have been eyeing a butane torch – the perfect niche tool for toasting a couple of homemade marshmallows, singeing meringue pie tips, and of course, for creating the perfect crème brûlée.

For most people, the addition of an item such as a kitchen torch means driving to a local store and picking one out along with the necessary fuel. For us, getting a canister of butane out to bush Alaska means purchasing a haz-mat certificate and having the item sent by cargo flight out here because the post office doesn’t ship hazardous materials via airplane.

Last night, the torch came out of the box, was fueled up, and put into service to finish a dessert that we and our guests couldn’t get enough of – chai crème brûlée. For this recipe, we began with a traditional crème brûlée custard recipe and infused it with the mildly spicy, sweet flavors of loose leaf chai tea and vanilla paste. The resulting dessert was more complex and flavorful than typical crème brûlées. Using our new torch so that our guests and we could caramelize the tops of the custard just before serving, this turned out to be the best crème brûlée we and our guests had ever had.

Chai Creme Brulee for Two

Ingredients

1/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
tiny pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1 tbsp loose chai tea
3 large egg yolks
2 tsp granulated sugar for topping

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place an oven rack in the slightly lower than center position.
Whisk milk, heavy whipping cream, sugar, salt, vanilla paste and chai tea in a medium pot over medium heat. Whisk until mixture steams and almost boils. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Strain cream mixture to remove tea leaves.
Whisk eggs in a medium bowl. Stir in cream mixture to eggs one tablespoon at a time until the egg mixture is warmed. Once mixture is warmed, increase addition of cream mixture to 1/4 cup at a time. This will prevent eggs from cooking and scrambling.
Pour mixture into two 4-ounce ramekins.
Set ramekins in a baking dish. Pour enough hot water to reach halfway up the ramekins.
Bake uncovered in preheated oven until desserts are softly set, about 45 minutes. The centers will jiggle.
Remove baking dish with ramekins from oven and let desserts come to room temperature while in water bath on counter.
Chill ramekins in refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.
Right before serving, sprinkle 1 teaspoon granulated sugar evenly on each dessert.
Use a kitchen torch to slightly brown and caramelize the granulated sugar. Let cool for ten minutes and serve.

Waste Not Want Not Potato Bread

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

We don’t normally buy instant mashed potatoes, but when friends offered us a couple packets at the end of their Alaska camping trip last summer, we came up with a good use for them.

The packets of instant mashed red potatoes remained in our pantry for over a year – until the other day when I was thumbing through a friend’s bread machine recipe book and saw that potato bread could be easily made with instant mashed potatoes. Let the experimenting begin!

The potato bread recipes I came across included lard, butter, milk and salt. Since the pre-mixed potato packet already had many of these ingredients, I adjusted the recipe to fit packet at hand. If you make this recipe with plain instant potatoes, I’d recommend the addition of more butter and salt.

Mashed Potato Bread

Ingredients

1 cup instant mashed potatoes
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp yeast

Directions

Rehydrate instant potatoes according to directions.
Mix in butter.
Place potato mixture, milk, water, flour, sugar and yeast into bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Turn on dough setting.
Turn out dough onto floured surface.
Split dough into two pieces and knead into loaf shapes that will fit into loaf pans.
Bake in oven preheated to 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Loaves will sound hollow when tapped.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Scones – Yes, Please!

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Fry an egg, brew a cup of coffee and serve with these icing-laced coconut scones chock-full of mini chocolate chips. Fuel for a hike on the tundra, a morning downtown or whatever the weekend brings.

Shelf stable items are a staple in our Arctic pantry. Recently we have been experimenting with powdered coconut milk and are finding it to be easily reconstituted and packed with flavor. Friends recommended we add extra virgin coconut oil to our pantry, which ups the coconut flavor.

Armed with the coconut flavors I needed and an intriguing recipe I came across on MyBakingAddiction.com, I was ready to bake.

These scones have the essence of a chocolate dipped macaroon without being overly sweet. Using whole wheat for half the flour makes them more hearty than a traditional scone, while the baking powder helps them rise to epic scone proportions. The recipe is a perfect candidate for making dough the night before and popping in the oven the next morning for an impress-your-friends brunch.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Scones

Ingredients

3/4 cup coconut milk
1 egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
3/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
2 tbsp coconut milk (to brush on top)

For the drizzle

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp coconut milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix coconut milk, egg, sugar and vanilla. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together flours, baking powder and salt.
Mix butter and coconut oil into flour mixture using a pastry blender or your hands. Do this quickly to avoid melting the butter. Mixture should have pea-sized butter lumps that are evenly distributed in the flour.
Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
Fold in chocolate chips and coconut flakes.
Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and knead 4 or 5 times.
Shape dough into a 9-inch disk. Disk should be about 3/4 inch thick.
Place disk on parchment-lined baking sheet.
Slice disk into 12 wedges, pizza-style, leaving the dough in place.
Brush disk with 2 tbsp of coconut milk.
Bake for 18 – 20 minutes, till scones are slightly golden brown on edges.
Cool scones in pan.
While scones are cooling, create drizzle by mixing powdered sugar and coconut milk. Drizzle should be consistency of molasses.
Place drizzle in a Ziploc bag. Snip a tiny bit off of one corner.
With a sweeping motion, squeeze out drizzle over scones until you are satisfied with the amount of coverage.

Fall Harvest Cakes

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

These delectable individual-sized cakes are packed with the flavors of autumn – honeycrisp apples, crunchy pecans, and caramel.

Taking advantage of fruit, vegetables, fish and wild game during times of seasonal abundance is a celebrated part of our kitchen, but it hasn’t always been easy to do so living in the Arctic bush. Back in California, between farmers’ markets and our own modest garden, our kitchen was stocked with ripe, heirloom tomatoes, freshly picked raspberries and peaches so ripe they had to be eaten over the sink (or outside under our peach trees).

Since moving to bush Alaska, we’ve been shipping up frozen fruits and vegetables during our annual summertime shopping. These have been supplemented with “keeper” produce such as squashes, potatoes, onions and apples. We’ve managed to keep many of our traditions intact by pulling seasonal items from our pantry and freezers at the appropriate times, but we’ve missed enjoying fruits and vegetables freshly harvested from local farms.

This year, we decided to sign up with a CSA (community supported agriculture). Our “local” CSA, Full Circle Farms, is based in Carnation, Washington, nearly 2,100 miles away. Offering freshly harvested organic choices, Full Circle delivers to the San Francisco Bay Area, Idaho, Washington, and to Arctic Alaska! It has been a long time since we’ve had peaches and nectarines as perfectly ripe as the ones Full Circle has been sending, In fact, all their produce so far, from leafy greens to tomatoes to avocados have been spot on.

As part of our order last week, we received honeycrisp apples. This variety is sweet and crunchy with a pleasant tanginess – a balance that seemed begging to be paired with caramel. The pecan topping gives these cakes a savory crunch.

Fall Harvest Cakes

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mace
2 cups shredded apple
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
4-5 caramel candies, or 1/4 cup caramel sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin tin.
Cream butter and yogurt.
Gradually add sugar to butter mixture. Beat well.
Thoroughly mix in eggs, one at a time.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and mace.
Gradually incorporate flour mixture to sugar mixture.
Stir in apples.
Spoon mixture into prepared muffin pan.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle on pecans and caramel (sprinkle chopped candies or pour on sauce).
Bake for 10 more minutes. Cakes are done when wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool on wire racks.

Crunchy, Soft Bolillos

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Like miniature baguettes (each loaf is about five inches long), a bag of freshly baked bolillos from our Arctic bakery is ready to be made into tasty sandwiches or sliced and toasted with olive oil and garlic.

When we return to the road system each summer, we keep a keen eye out for new food ideas to take back to our kitchen in the Arctic bush. This summer, we rediscovered torta sandwiches, prompting me to make a mental note to bake bolillos when we returned to Point Hope.

Bolillos have their roots in Mexico where they are the main ingredient in molettes and tortas – lightly toasted bread topped with cheese (or olive oil and garlic) and sandwiches, respectively. Armed with many tasty sandwich ingredients in our bush pantry – garbanzos for hummus, home-canned smoked salmon, caribou and even duck eggs (for a twist on tortas de huevo) – I looked forward to trying my hand at bolillos for our lunch-time sandwiches. Based on several recipes I found on the Internet, I adapted the recipe below for my Zojirushi bread machine. This bread machine provides yeast with the perfect environment so that dough rises evenly and consistently in our Arctic home.

Bolillos

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup cold water
1 tsp cornstarch

Directions

Place first 6 ingredients into bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
Set on dough cycle. Start machine.
Dough should be smooth, soft and elastic. Adjust amount of flour or water if needed.
Punch down dough and knead briefly on a lightly floured surface.
Divide dough into 10 pieces and roll into balls.
Work dough balls with palms of your hands to form ovals, about 5″ long and 2″ wide in the center. Ends should be tapered.
Place rolls on parchment-lined baking sheets. Cover and let rise for about 25 minutes. Rolls should double in size.
Preheat oven to 365 degrees F.
Mix cold water and cornstarch in a small pot.
Heat mixture to boiling, stirring constantly. Mixture should be thick and clear, about 2 minutes.
Brush each roll with cornstarch mixture.
Slash each roll down the middle, cutting about 1/2″ deep.
Bake rolls for about 30 minutes. Rolls are done when they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.
Cool on wire racks.

Bourbon and Vodka Vanilla Extract from Scratch: Do Not Open till Christmas!

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Quality Madagascar vanilla beans, bourbon in one bottle and vodka in the other, and the experiment begins. If all goes well, in six months we’ll have two excellent bottles of double-strength vanilla extract for our Christmas pies and confections.

Even when perfectly good store-bought products are available, we are fascinated by how various foods are actually made. For excellent vanilla extract, we know of no better than Penzeys Spices double strength. But we wanted to give making our own a go.

We purchased our Madagascar vanilla beans from Penzeys. For the bourbon and vodka, we went with two well-known makers – a bourbon we enjoy sipping and a vodka that’s fine in our bloody Mary’s.

vodka pouring into bottle_n

There’s really nothing to creating your own vanilla extract. We had 15 long beans which we cut in half, split down the middle, and placed in old-fashioned bottles with tight seals.

Whether the subject is sherry for cooking or bourbon for vanilla extract, an oft-repeated axiom is “Don’t use anything you wouldn’t drink.” That’s good advice, on par with adding seasonings “to taste” in recipes. On one hand, this isn’t the place to use the finest bourbon one might drink; on the other hand, in our own experience we noticed a marked improvement in our sauces and sautés when we moved away from lower end sherries and upgraded to more drinkable varieties.

bourbon pouring into bottle_new

Once the vanilla beans and alcohol have been combined and sealed tight, it’s helpful to give the bottle a gentle shake from time to time to ensure mixing and full extraction. For the richest, most flavorful extract, allow six months to go by before opening.

For this batch, that means we’ll be able to break the seal for Christmastime chocolate orange meringue pie, pecan pralines and extra rich vanilla ice cream.

Lemon Vanilla Biscotti (with Ports, Sherries, Muscat and Roasted Grouse)

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Light, crunchy and mildly sweet, Lemon Vanilla Biscotti (see recipe below) was the perfect accompaniment to an evening of sampling Port Wines, Sherries, Madeira and Muscat.

Lesson 8 in the wine appreciation course we’ve been taking this summer focused on fortified wines – ruby Port, tawny Port, fino Sherry, Amontillado, Madeira and Muscat. We wanted something sweet but not overly so to finish an evening that began with roasted wild grouse, squash risotto, Brussels sprouts and the sweet wines.

Baked three times, biscotti has a satisfying crunch. This lemon vanilla version could be drizzled with icing, but we enjoyed ours unadorned.

Although served on a warm Alaskan June evening, the meal took us to visions of late fall evenings and Autumn-colored forests where wild grouse thrive. The grouse and the squash risotto (one of the best we’ve ever enjoyed) were courtesy of our friends Bix and Krystin at Alaskagraphy.

Lemon Vanilla Biscotti

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Combine flour, sugar and baking powder in medium bowl. Set aside.
Whisk eggs, vanilla and zest in a medium bowl.
Add flour mixture to wet mixture and stir until combined.
Scrape dough onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
With floured hands, shape dough into a flat rectangle (about 10 in. x 5 in.).
Bake for 50 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
Slice into 1/2 inch long pieces with a serrated knife.
Lay the slices on their side and bake again for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and flip the biscotti to the opposite side and bake for 15 more minutes.
Cookies should be lightly golden and crunchy on each side.

Cloudberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Make these! Really, we couldn’t believe how good these jam-and-cream-cheese bars came out. You’ll have to patiently wait while they chill in the refrigerator to get the most flavor.

The end of our school year provides us with an education on amounts over or under-ordered in our annual shopping. We ended up a little short on all-purpose flour and a little heavy on whole wheat. The challenge with 100% whole wheat is the heaviness and denseness it lends to baked goods. Mixing finely chopped nuts into the whole wheat crust and layering lighter flavors on top solved the problem in a delicious way.

This recipe would work with any jam. Of course, we love cloudberries and as long as we’re in the Arctic these delicious, rare berries will be our fruit of choice.

Cloudberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Crust

1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
3 tbsp granulated sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake layer

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Top layers

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 cups cloudberry jam

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter 8 x 8 inch glass baking dish. Set aside.
Mix crust ingredients until coarse meal forms.
Press crust mixture into bottom of glass baking dish.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned.
Prepare cheesecake layer while crust is baking.
Beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
Pour cream cheese mixture evenly over baked crust.
Return baking dish to oven and bake for an additional 25 minutes, until layer sets.
Mix the remaining ingredients for top layer (except jam) until crumbly.
Evenly and gently spread jam over cream cheese layer taking care not to disturb the cheese layer.
Sprinkle crumble on top of jam.
Return to oven and bake for another 20 minutes, or until top begins to turn golden brown and jam bubbles.
Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
For best results, chill pan in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight before cutting.

Cloudberries, also called aqpik in the Eskimo language of Inupiaq, are a sublimely sweet, berry that grow in the extreme north. Read more about them in these articles:

Coconut Aqpik Thumbprints