Tag: Tartine

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meatloaf

Both Jordan and I were craving meatloaf last week. It had been years since we’d had it, I’d never made it, and so we decided to give it a go. For this meatloaf, we used an Italian meatball sandwich recipe as our inspiration. It was topped with a simple tomato sauce, instead of the more traditional American loaf topped with ketchup. We liked it, but you could easily swap the marinara for a combo of ketchup, sugar and worcestershire sauce. Because this recipe makes a two-pound loaf, we recommend you share it with friends.

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One Year Ago: Bacon-Wrapped Dates
Two Years Ago: Ricotta Gnocchi

Meatloaf, adapted from Tartine Bread

For the meatloaf
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup red wine
2 cups bread crumbs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
a few tablespoons of assorted fresh herbs (I used mostly parsley with a bit of thyme and oregano thrown in)

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet, saute the onion in the olive oil over low heat until translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for a few more minutes. Remove from the heat.

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In a large bowl, mix onion and garlic mixture with the ground beef, pork, eggs, milk, cheese, wine, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, red pepper flake and herbs. Mix well so all the ingredients are evenly distributed. At this point, I like to pinch off a bit of the meat and fry it up quickly in a pan to test for seasoning. If you need more salt after testing, add a bit more.

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Press the meat mixture into a loaf pan or shape into a loaf form and place on a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for an hour at 350 degrees. You could also use the same mixture to make meatballs. Shape them into 1.5-inch balls and then bake for 20 – 30 minutes. Alternatively, you could simmer the meatballs in a tomato sauce for 30 minutes. I’d serve them with pasta or rice.

For the tomato sauce
1 – 16 oz can of whole tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup red wine
salt and pepper to taste

While the meat is cooking, you can make a quick tomato sauce to go with it. I basically just tossed all the ingredients into a sauce pan, let it simmer for 30 minutes partially-covered and then pureed it. When you take the meat from the oven, let it rest for five minutes then cut into 1/2″ slices. Spoon the tomato sauce over the meatloaf and enjoy!

Jordan suggested that for our next meatloaf we cook it on a baking sheet and pour the tomato sauce over it before baking so the sauce cooks into the meat and caramelizes along with it. Sounds promising. We’ll report back.

-Emily

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Recipes

savory gougeres

There are so many wonderful pastries in the Tartine Bakery Cookbook that it can be hard to choose which one to dedicate your Sunday to. I decided on these savory gougeres because I had all of the ingredients on hand, and they didn’t seem impossibly difficult. (Jordan and I have an outstanding bet to see who attempts Tartine’s croissants first).  As it turns out, the gougeres were easier and faster to make than I expected.

Gouyeres are a French pastry made with a pate a choux base. To that eggy cream puff dough, you add gruyere cheese and plenty of fresh thyme and black pepper.  They’re often served as an appetizer in miniature form, but I made large dinner-roll-sized gouyeres—mostly because I didn’t feel like piping dough. You can serve the large ones on their own, or, because they are an incredibly light and airy, you can fill them like a pita.

Gougeres, from the Tartine Bakery Cookbook
1 1/4 cup nonfat milk
10 T butter
1 t salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 eggs
3/4 cup gruyere cheese
1 t freshly ground pepper
1 T fresh thyme, chopped

For the topping 
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
gruyere for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a heavy saucepan, combine milk, butter and salt. Place over medium heat until the butter melts and the mixture comes to a full boil. Add the four all at once, stirring vigorously. Keep stirring until the mixture has formed a smooth mass and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Pour the paste into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time and mix on medium speed. When all of the eggs have been added, the mixture will be very smooth and shiny.

Add the cheese, pepper and thyme by hand with a spoon.

Spoon 3 inch rounds of dough onto the lined baking sheet. Brush with beaten egg and top with a sprinkling of salt and cheese. Bake 35 – 45 minutes, until browned.

When you remove the gougeres from the oven, poke them with a toothpick to release some of the steam to prevent them from collapsing completely. Enjoy warm from the oven or re-crisp by warming them in an oven for 10 minutes.

-Emily

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Recipes

salted dark chocolate cookies

I noticed these cookies on Orangette a few weeks ago and decided to give them a go. Who can really say no to chocolate or salt, much less chocolate and salt together.

These cookies were also an experiment in dough refridgeration. The recipe recommends that you refrigerate the dough overnight, and I was curious how much of a difference that made in the end product. The first night I baked these cookies, I froze the dough for 30 minutes before baking. I also baked them the next day after they’d been refrigerating for about 24 hours. Honestly, I didn’t notice a big difference at all.  Do note though, this dough is quite sticky straight out of the mixture so some sort of refrigeration is necessary, unless you just want to make a drop cookie similar to a chocolate chip cookie.

Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies, via Orangette and adapted from from Tartine by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson, and from Renee Erickson and Boat Street Café

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
8 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
cup plus 2 T sugar, plus more for rolling the logs
2 large eggs
¼ t kosher salt
1 t vanilla extract
1/3 cup whole milk (I used 1% and it turned out just fine)
Maldon salt, for finishing (Amazingly, we had this particular variety of salt. You might remember The Salties. You’re looking for a large-flaked salt so it doesn’t just dissolve into the cookie or over-salt it)


Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water. I usually use a medium-sized metal bowl over a small sauce pan with a few inches of water in it. Melt the chocolate slowly, stirring frequently. Chocolate can burn so easily.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until creamy. Slowly add the sugar, and continue to beat until the mixture is completely smooth and soft, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the salt and the vanilla, and then add the melted chocolate, beating to incorporate. Add the milk, and beat until combined. Finally, add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. The dough will be quite thick and stiff.

Cut two large pieces of plastic wrap and put them on your counter. Divide the dough into two portions and place in the middle of each square of plastic wrap. Using the plastic wrap to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, smoosh the dough into a log like shape that is about two inches in diameter. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and stick in the freezer or refrigerate to firm up.

When it’s time to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put another sheet of parchment paper on your work surface. Take a spoonful or two of sugar, and pour it onto the parchment, making a ridge of sugar of approximately the same length as your dough logs. Remove a log from the fridge, unwrap it, and roll in the sugar to evenly coat. Using a thin, sharp knife, slice the dough into ¼- to 1/3-inch slices.  Lay the slices on the baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Sprinkle each cookie with a few flakes of Maldon salt.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the top of the cookies looks set but still feels a little soft to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack, and leave the cookies on the pan to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

These cookies will keep for several days in a cookie tin.

-Emily

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Recipes

pumpkin bread

It’s fall, which also makes it time to bust out pumpkin-everything. First up to the plate …  pumpkin bread. The sugar crust on this bread is lovely, the spices are perfectly balanced and it has a moist, delicate crumb. Basically it is everything you want from a quick bread.

Pumpkin Tea Cake, from the Tartine Bakery Cookbook
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 T plus 2 t cinnamon
2 t nutmeg, freshly ground if possible
1/4 t ground cloves
1 cup plus 2 T pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 t salt
3 eggs
2 T sugar for topping

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Butter a loaf pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda and spices into the bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin, oil, sugar, and salt.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. On low speed, mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix until just combined. You don’t want to over mix because it will make a tough bread.

Sprinkle with the sugar topping and bake for about an hour. Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes and then invert onto a rack to cool completely.

In what I thought was a stroke of pure genius, I decided to try to turn this pumpkin bread into pumpkin donut muffins. You might remember my life-changing donut muffin experience, but in case you need a refresher, check it out here. We thought that pumpkin donut muffins would be the crowning achievement of my life, but sadly (or perhaps not so sadly because now I still have future achievement to look forward to) the donut muffin topping did not really add anything to the pumpkin bread. This bread stands up perfectly well on its own. Those pumpkin donut muffins did look adorable though …

-Emily

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Recipes San Francisco

a bread success!

I’ve been working on my sourdough bread for about 9 months now. It was a rough beginning with sad, flat loaves of super sour bread. Still, I was determined. I dreamed of crusty, deep brown, slightly sour loaves of airy but chewy bread. I tried different recipes, different flours, adding commercial yeast to supplement the wild yeast. My breads were ok, but nothing close to the better artisan breads you can get here in San Francisco.

Everything changed when my sister bought me the Tartine Bread cookbook for my birthday. I’ve raved about Tartine Bakery on the blog before, and now I will proclaim that their bread cookbook changed my life. In it are the secrets to amazing bread, simply yet throughly explained, with amazing pictures alongside. While I’m going to go through the process briefly here, if you want to make wonderful bread, you should just buy their book.

The general idea is this: Take your starter. Make a leaven by adding water and flour to a very small amount of your starter. The next morning, take part of your leaven and add more flour, water and a bit of salt. Then start the rising process. The first rise is in a large bowl or tupperware and lasts about 4 hours. Shape the loaves. Now for the second rise with the dough shaped in bowls. The second rise lasts about 4 – 6 hours. Now bake each loaf in a 450 degree oven for 40 minutes.

While each step of this process is extremely important to creating the bread of your dreams, perhaps the most obvious innovation that I took from Tartine was cooking the bread in a cast iron dutch oven. You heat the cast iron to 450-500 degrees in the oven, plop the loaf into the bottom of the pan, cover it with the top and bake for 20 minutes. The dutch oven creates a mini steam chamber very similar to a commercial bread baking oven, but impossible to achieve in a regular home oven. Steam is crucial for a proper rise and also for creating the chewy crust. Using the dutch oven in this way allows the bread to steam itself! Amazing! Then you remove the dutch oven top for the second 20 minutes of cooking and the bread browns to perfection.

Following Tartine Bread’s detailed schedule, I began a sourdough starter from scratch. After culturing my starter for a few weeks, I made my first loaf. It was beautiful, so tasty and almost perfect. My first real bread success! I was so pleased! I gloated by sending photos of this bread miracle to my mother, sister and friend.

I’ve since made bread many times using Tartine’s method and I couldn’t be more satisfied with the results. Seriously good bread.  I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit to match Jordan and I’s tastes, but it has turned out incredibly well every time. Bread from scratch is time-consuming —we’re talking a day of baking here— but it is so fulfilling when it turns out well.

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with the rise and proofing times to figure out the best way to fit this bread into my regular schedule without devoting a day to baking. And, I think I’ve worked it out! I make the leaven before bed 2 days before I plan to bake. Around 3 – 4 pm the next day I mix the bread and do the first rise. I shape the loaves that night before bed and then put them in the fridge. Around 3 pm the next day, Jordan takes the breads out of the fridge for their final rise. They rise until 7 when I get home from work and have preheated the oven and then I bake! Maximum bread, minimum “wasted” down time!

And now I’m really going to brag … last night Jordan said that my bread was better (!!!better!!!) than Acme Bread! Maybe he is biased, but I’ll take the compliment anyway. I set out to make bread that was as good as Acme – and now I’ve done it!

-Emily

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Recipes

baking therapy: chocolate chiffon cake

I recently purchased the Tartine Bakery cookbook and it is wonderful! The recipes are well written and clear, the photos are beautiful and now I get to learn the secrets behind of the tasty delights from Tartine that I love so much!

For our second Thanksgiving dinner with Jordan’s parents, my parents and their neighbors, I spearheaded the dessert course armed with my new cookbook. There are so many wonderful things to choose from, but I decide to go with something relatively easy.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Vanilla Pastry Cream

I’ll briefly describe the recipe. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In another bowl mix egg yolks, water, and oil. In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Add lemon juice and zest. Fold these three mixtures together and pour into a springform pan. Bake for about an hour in a 325 degree oven. Let cool and then unmold.

You’ll end up with a four inch tall, very impressive looking cake. I was pretty proud when that puppy came out of the oven … and didn’t collapse.

The pastry cream is like making any sort of custard. Whole milk, salt, eggs, sugar, vanilla bean, and cornstarch plus heat. Also fairly easy, but requires a great deal of attention. There is no going back from burnt milk or curdled eggs!

Conclusions: The cake was good – chocolatey, moist, of the appropriate density. The vanilla bean pastry cream might just be my new favorite accompaniment. I can’t really think of anything that wouldn’t be good with it! A sprinkling of fresh berries would have made this dessert outstanding. Next time!

-Emily

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Recipes

brunch

I have a complicated relationship with brunch: I love breakfast foods. I love lunch foods. I love waking up late and still getting to enjoy breakfast in the company of friends. BUT… I hate waiting in line. I hate even more waiting in line for mediocre food (as brunch food out often is). I’ve struggled with these dueling desires for the last few years, especially during my stint in Washington D.C. where brunch is oh so fashionable. Last weekend I decide to host a brunch for a few friends hoping to maximize the elements of brunch I enjoy and minimize those that I don’t.

The Menu

Fresh Berry Tart with vanilla bean pastry cream (recipe courtesy of my new Tartine Bakery cookbook!)

Breakfast Pizza with fontina, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, eggs and chives (recipe by Jordan)

Hash Browns

Orange-Cranberry Scones (baked expertly by Jeff Quinn)

And of course, mimosas

(That goopy brown bit in the upper right is the hash browns. While not visually appealing, they were tasty).

Jordan and I diligently prepped all we could the night before and the cooking went splendidly that morning. Everyone showed up! The food turned out wonderful! The dishes were simple, but very satisfying. It was fun and relaxing – a perfect brunch! And the best part … No lines!

And perhaps one of the best compliments I’ve received lately from my dear friend Jeff: “… and I thought the gays had a monopoly on brunch!”

And just one more picture of my tart …

-Emily