Little Puffs of Magic

Tonight, I decided to try something new, something along the lines of savory baking, and I think I'm in love! These little puffs of magic that I created are Thyme Gougeres, and they are fluffy, light and delicious...and best of all, really easy to make!

I started off by reading the entire recipe because I wanted to make sure that everything was done according to instructions. I decided to set up my mise en place first, so that I could just add each thing as necessary without having to scramble. Butter, flour, salt, cayenne pepper, grated Gruyere, grated Asiago, and some thyme leaves, along with some eggs, and we were ready to go!

Okay, the first step was to boil a cup of water, with the 1/4 cup of butter. Once boiling, I poured the salt, cayenne pepper and flour into the pot and stirred vigorously until it all turned into a ball. It was kind of like a very large amount of roux, made very quickly!

From here, it was transferred to the standmixer, and stirred with the paddle attachment, with the grated cheeses, and then, one egg at a time, waiting until each was incorporated to add another. The recipe calls for a pastry bag, but I don't have one of those, so I decided to use another skill I have instead. Making a quenelle with two spoons, transferring a small amount of dough back and forth until it stays in a nice oval shape works just as well as putting all the dough into a pastry bag and piping it back out. 

So I made my quenelles, one after the other, until all the dough was gone and my baking sheets were full! I brushed some egg on each quenelle, sprinkled the last of the grated gouda, and thyme leaves on top, and into a 400 degree oven they went, for 25 minutes. 

While the gougeres were cooking, I worked on the main course: Sausage with Smashed Potatoes and Cornichons. It was perfect timing...it took about 25 minutes to make dinner, and 25 minutes to cook the gougeres, so everything came together at the same time. While dinner was delicious, the star of this meal were certainly the Thyme Gougeres! 

They were easy to make, delicious to eat, and the perfect tidbit to throw in a basket for entertaining. In fact, the recipe even says that you can make them in advance, and freeze them to reheat later! I might just be keeping a batch of these on hand all the time!

I'm On A Mission

I'm on a mission to digitize. One of my new year's resolutions was to rid myself of clutter, and that especially means things that can be stored electronically, rather than taking up space on shelves and in closets. I have binder upon binder of recipes that I've printed, clipped and saved over the years, and it's time to make some sense out of them. I have a program on my computer, an electronic cookbook of sorts, but it requires a lot of typing to get each recipe put into the system. So, I've made a promise to myself. Each time I cook one of the recipes from a binder, I will determine whether it is worth saving, and then type it out electronically. This will spread out the work, and slowly, I'll work my way through everything I've saved over the countless years, keeping only the exceptional recipes. Sound like a plan? Sounds like a monster of a plan to me, but I've committed, and so it was with gusto that I pulled my binder off the counter this morning to determine what we'd have for dinner.

A wrench was thrown into my original plan to use some chicken thighs that I purchased over the weekend, when a delivery of meat that I had ordered on a special deal arrived, less than frozen. I planned to keep it all in the freezer until I was ready to use it but now, it seems, we need to eat it all this week since it's already defrosted. So instead of those chicken thighs, I opted for a couple of peppercorn-marinated steaks, but I needed a side dish. I pulled another binder off of my shelf and started sorting through side dishes, looking for something that I had all the ingredients for, and also that would go well with steak. I found it, when I happened upon Spaetzle Baked with Ham and Gruyere. I couldn't believe I had all the ingredients to make this - it looked delicious!

I set to work, bringing a pot of water to boil on the stove, pre-heating the oven to 375 degrees, and starting in on my spaetzle dough. Spaetzle is a small dumpling made by pushing dough through small holes into boiling water. There was a lot of spaetzle to be had in Germany, and we tried it sauteed, and boiled but this recipe calls for it to be baked, like a casserole, so I was intrigued! To make the dough, I mixed flour, salt and baking powder together by sifting it all together through a sieve. To this mixture, I added milk and two eggs. Once it was all mixed together, I let it stand for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, I gathered the rest of my ingredients. I diced some ham and white onion, I shredded some Gruyere cheese, and I also put together the mixture that would be poured over the spaetzle before baking (more milk, more eggs, salt, pepper and flour). 

Once the water was boiling, I placed my Spaetzle Maker over my pot and began to spoon the dough into the opening. It looks like a cheese grater, and has a mechanism that swipes the dough over the holes, pushing it into the water in little droplets. It's an extremely easy way to make spaetzle! If you don't have a spaetzle maker, and don't want to buy one just to try one recipe, you can use any sort of colander with larger-sized holes in it. A cheese grater would probably work as well, on the larger-holed setting. Once I had pushed all the dough into the water, I allowed it to cook for about 2-3 minutes before scooping them out into a colander to drain. Don't put them on paper towels - the spaetzle will stick!

Now it was time to put everything together! I browned the diced onion in a pan coated with cooking spray for about five minutes, and removed it from the heat before adding the ham and mixing it together. The spaetzle was then put into a two-quart baking dish, and mixed with the onions and ham to distribute everything evenly. I poured the milk mixture over the spaetzle and then sprinkled the grated gruyere cheese all over the top! See the before:

And the after:

After 35 minutes in the oven, the cheese became golden brown and crispy on top, and everything firmed up to make a delicious spaetzle "casserole." The flavors are really great, for such little seasoning throughout the cooking process. This dish went SO well with the steak, and was a really hearty dish. This one is definitely a keeper! Now, to type it up for my digital cookbook!

The original recipe can be found here.

Enter King Arthur's Esteemed Court

While I was galavanting around the snowy state of Vermont this weekend, I managed a quick visit to the King Arthur Flour Baker's Store. I've spoken about the necessity of good all-purpose flour, and King Arthur's flour is some of the best, but they don't stop there...no sir!

Not only does this wonderful place carry all sorts of flour (wheat, white, durum, pastry, etc) but they have tons of different boxed mixes, ingredients, bakeware, and gadgets too. And if that wasn't enough, they also have a bakery and cafe, where you can order lunch, or have a coffee and just wrap yourself in the wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen! Because of the recent arrival of the Breadman,  I wanted to pick up a few bread mixes. I also needed to replenish my supply of Perfect Pasta flour, as well as the flour we use to make pizza dough.

Because they offer a 15% discount if you purchase five or more mixes at one time, I opted to take the deal. I decided on French Herb,  Brown Sugar Cinnamon,  Semolina Herb and Cheese, Six Grain, and Brioche. I figured this was a good start, and who knows when I'll get to the store again. Not to say that I won't be making my own concoctions for dough as well, but it's nice to be able to throw a mix in there and just let it go on a busy evening. I don't normally recommend boxed anything, but the mixes from King Arthur Flour really taste so delicious, and you know from the their seal that it's a quality product (and...they're all natural!).

Look at all my goodies!

Aside from the store, there is also a separate building where the company holds all sorts of baking classes. If you are in the area, stop in and get a schedule. You can also find the schedule, along with all sorts of other wonderful information online at www.kingarthurflour.com. I definitely suggest signing up for their catalog as well...or just browse online. If you can get your friends in on an order, you'll save on shipping!