Granola, Revisited

I went on a serious granola-making kick for a while in law school, although I haven't done so nearly as much since discovering a few brands of storebought Granola that are only moderately oversweet, nor since acquiring a granola-making mother-in-law.  When I did make granola, I had a recipe I was fairly happy with, except that the granola never really got clumpy, and I didn't want to have to add lots of oil and sweeteners to make it clump. 
According to David Lebovitz, the missing secret ingredient was . . . applesauce!  I will just have to try this.

Caramel Cake and the Oven of Doom

I spent much of yesterday morning in the kitchen, banging away at a pair of baking projects-- the now-famous no-knead bread recipe and a caramel cake that I have been craving this week (assembled out of a pastiche of these recipes).  The bread turned out okay, although the crust (as ever!) is not crackly enough.  The cake frustrated me.  Leaving aside the total mess I made trying to pour caramel glaze over it (thank God I was doing it over the sink), the cake itself took too long to bake, and by the time it was fully cooked it was much browner on the sides than I meant for it to be.
The culprit?  Our oven runs cold, so everything has been baking for too long at too cold of a temperature.  I suspected this so I'd been adding 50 degrees to my baking temperatures, but I've now concluded that's not enough.  I could just go buy a thermometer, but rank empiricism is the easy way out.  I need something else to bake, to try baking on +75 or +100.  What did Einstein say about doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results?

More Beans

I went for it-- the aforementioned Good Mother Stallards along with Christmas Limas and White Runners (both new to me) and Yellow-Eyes (my current favorite, followed closely by flageolets).

Everything Can Be Found on the Internet

Compete for a blind date at El-Bulli (via Clotilde):

how it works

i. Check to see if your diary and budget will allow you to be in Spain on Tuesday 15th December 2009.
ii. Email me – jules[at]thestonesoup[dot]com and convince me that you are the best person to share my evening at el bulli.
points will be given for humour and creativity.
iii. Cross your fingers
Entries close Sunday 15th November 2009.

Good Mother Stallards

I have a long post in the works about Rancho Gordo beans-- how wonderful they are, how they make me want to eat at least a pound of beans a week or more, but how I haven't yet scientifically compared them to non-heirloom dried beans.  But in the meantime, I'll simply say that I received an email today from Rancho Gordo about the new bean varieties available, with this link:

I hate when anyone asks me to name my favorite bean. Can you name a favorite child? No! But if I had favorites, I'd certainly have to consider Good Mother Stallards. Dense and delicious, they also exude the most perfect pot liquor of any bean.  Please prepare them simply and avoid the natural tendency to want to make them better by fussing about. Enjoy them without all the trappings to really get the most out of them!

There are still 2-4 pounds of Rancho Gordo beans in the pantry (about 25% of what I received as a birthday present 4 months ago).  Is it unreasonable to take these new varietals as an excuse to buy more?

Yogurt Pancakes

Almost every weekend, I make pancakes.  This comes after years of thinking that I was tired of pancakes (which in turn came after even more years of loving them), so it may bear some explaining.  The pancakes I make now are yogurt pancakes, made with strong greek yogurt.  They're thicker and tangier and less fluffy than milky or bisquicky concoctions you might otherwise know.  The recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman, with two major catches.  On account of the thickness of the yogurt, it takes additional non-yogurt liquid to get them to turn into a batter.  And even so, they have a hard time fully cooking on the stovetop.

Ingredients:

Two eggs.
One cup of Fage greek yogurt, more or less.
1/2 cup of water.
2 cups of flour.
1 tsp baking soda.
1/2 tsp salt.
1 tbsp sugar.
Butter to taste.

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.

Make the batter: Beat the eggs in a bowl.  Add the yogurt and water and beat again, until smooth.  Now add the dry ingredients (i.e., everything but the butter).  If you are fastidious, combine these ingredients in a separate bowl, then fold them in.  If you are not (i.e., if you are me), put the flour on top of the egg-yogurt  mixture, then put the other ingredients on top of the flour, then fold the whole mess together, counting on the baking soda, salt, and sugar to get adequately distributed in the process.  The mixture should be smooth, but not beaten.

Now cook the pancakes:  Place a skillet on medium-high heat, and add a small pat of butter.  Add batter (I use a 1/4 cup measure as a scoop).  When the top is all bubbly and the edges look firm, flip them.  Once the outside of the pancake is fully cooked, transfer to a platter in the oven.  Leave the pancakes in there to finish cooking as you move on to the next batch.  Repeat until you run out of batter.

Then set the table.  By then, the last pancakes will hopefully have finished cooking in the oven.  Eat with butter, plus maple syrup or jam if you must, plus coffee, orange juice, and the New York Times to taste.

From the Archives

Eating ortolans (not this kind of ortolan).