A Quick (and Late) Thanksgiving Recap

We’ve been home for almost a week now and I’m beginning to doubt I’ll ever find the time to write up our fantabulous Thanksgiving feast in a way that will do it justice, so instead I’ll give you the short version. I suspect you’ll be grateful since we’re all so turkeyed out at this point, but if you want more detail check out our host Tim’s account of the festivities here.

When we arrived at Tim and Victor’s home outside Philly, this was our greeting:



Going in a circle from the lower right: vegetable antipasto, baked brie with cranberries and raspberries, chopped chicken liver with trimmings, quite a lavish cheese assortment, rice balls (which are a doctored version of Little Gram’s recipe), caponata (which actually is Little Gram’s recipe), crostini with eggplant puree or sweet kalamata spread, and fried ham-and-gorgonzola wontons.

The table was set with tons of cozy, kookie doodads, plus baskets of homemade pumpkin rolls with gorgeous cranberry butter:



In all the hubbub of seating 18 people, somehow I neglected to take a picture of the main meal. Let me tell you, it was pretty amazing. Platters of sliced turkey, two different kinds of stuffing, sweet potato casseroles with both marshmallows and brown sugar & pecans, three different homemade cranberry sauces, gallons of gravy, green beans in a vinegar glaze, tri-colored carrots with dill… It was a sight to behold. I’m still kicking myself for not recording it.

After an appropriate interlude (gotta make room for more food, after all), the desserts were presented:



From the lower right: apple pie, pecan pie, apricot-macadamia fruit cake, the best homemade chocolate chip cookies in the entire world, pumpkin pie in a gingersnap crust with pumpkin crème fraiche, pumpkin cheesecake, gingersnap bars, chocolate polenta cake with cran-raspberry coulis, traditional pumpkin pie, and, um, fruit salad.

We left there stuffed and happy and relaxed. There’s something to be said for going to Thanksgiving at the home of someone you’re not related to—no tension, no squabbling, no traditional family arguments (though they may well have happened, but since I’m not in this particular family I was blissfully oblivious). And a whole set of new recipes to try out!

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Just in Time for Overeating Season: Diet Blogs

If you’ve found Words to Eat By through my feature in the January issue of Fitness, welcome! (If you’re a regular reader: pick up the January Fitness and turn to page 62. That piece on diet blogs? I wrote it.)

Here’s a quick list of links to the diet blogs I wrote about—they’re all smart, and often funny, and packed with information and general wiseassedness:

Fitness Blogs (click on the “links” to see more than 500 diet blogs!)
The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl
Do You Have That in My Size?
Mr. Ointy

In addition to these four, I also interviewed a handful of other bloggers who unfortunately were edited out of the final article (damn those word counts!). Each gave generously of his or her time and energy, and I was sorry to lose their contributions. They are:

Jim at Diet-Blog
Coleen at Weight Challenged
Tracy at Health Diaries
Erin at Lose the Buddha (although it looks like she’s just closed up shop)
Yvonne at Hope Is the Thing

As for me and Words to Eat By, I hope you’ll stay and poke around a little (and come back to visit from time to time). As you’ll see, this isn’t strictly a diet blog—it’s more of a food blog, really, and I just happen to do a lot of healthy cooking. There’s a site index here, in which the diet-bloggy posts are listed here. Most of the recipes, even for dishes that sound pretty decadent, are still relatively light—I habitually cook that way now, so I’ll almost always adjust and substitute to reduce fat and overall calories. (But watch out—there are a handful of ringers in there, recipes I made for special events, etc, and didn’t lighten for various reasons. If you see a lot of butter, oil, or whole eggs, that’s one to stay away from!)

If you’re curious about me, I’d recommend checking out my three “get-to-know-me” posts: Fat Debbie, Hot Debbie, and Debbie.

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A Slew of New Links

It's been far too long since I updated my lists o' links. The other day, I finally added a bunch more, including:

All Cupcakes, All the Time: What more do I need to say?
Mona's Apple: Lots of great NYC restaurant stuff
Snack: This one's fairly high-profile, full of great insidery info on the restaurant world
Williamsburger: Another food blog from my neighborhood!
Bad Things: Sassy
Cookies in Heaven: I always find something to think about here
Delicious! Delicious!: Gorgeous photographs and fun commentary. A few too many exclamation points, perhaps...
efoodie: Simple, lovely, more about words than pictures
Eggbeater: A West coast pastry chef's thoughts on food. Plenty of attitude, in a good way
Food Talk: Host of my upcoming Thanksgiving dinner--this man knows sumthin' about food, people
The Food Whore: Sometimes she's so funny I snort coffee out my nose
Not Martha: An always-interesting collection of snippets on food, crafts, and, well, stuff

There's also 360eats, a new aggregator of food porn--worth checking out on a regular basis.

This isn't all of the new ones, of course, so knock yourself out and click around them purdy links on the left side there. Just beneath the Site Index. Yeah, there.

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Five Points Applesauce Muffins: Fa-Bu-Lous

Last night’s reading before bed: Brunch: 100 Recipes from Five Points Restaurant, whose acquisition I blogged about just the other day. I drifted off to sleep on a cloud of eggs baked with black beans, lemon-ricotta pancakes, and these glorious muffins. And when I woke up this morning, I knew what I had to do: I had to bake.

While S continued to snooze, I creamed together butter and light brown sugar, added eggs and vanilla, then flour, then spices and baking soda, and finally the star ingredients: applesauce, walnuts, and raisins. The instructions themselves were a bit unusual—in most cases it’s a simple matter of combining dry ingredients and wet ones separately, then mixing them all together, but as you’ll see in this case it’s more of a one-at-a-time proposition. Until I stirred in the applesauce, in fact, I was a little worried—it’s quite a stiff, muscular batter, too stiff for my silicone spatula (though all the spices had me swooning just from smelling it). I had to call in the big guns, a heavy-duty plastic spatula that doesn’t give an inch. Once the applesauce went in, though, the batter became very nearly fluffy. And the end result: scrumptious! These are some of the best muffins I have ever made: exquisitely tender, bursting with flavor, moist, satisfying… I could go on and on.

A couple of notes: Since it’s my kitchen and I’m on a perpetual diet, of course I tinkered a bit with the recipe. I used less butter and more applesauce and egg whites in place of one egg, and since I got a Penzeys delivery yesterday, I added ¼ t. of cardamom. Also, the book says this recipe makes 12 muffins or 24 mini-muffins; I had so much batter left after filling my 12 muffin cups that I also made 12 minis. Not sure exactly what happened there, or how to reduce the quantities to make only 12, but they taste so gall-darned great we don’t mind having a few more than we expected!

Applesauce Muffins
Adapted from Brunch: 100 Recipes from Five Points Restaurant
Makes 12 full-size muffins PLUS 12 minis (or 18 full-size)

¾ cup light brown sugar
8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter, preferably at room temp [I used 6 T.]
Cooking spray
2 eggs [I used 2 egg whites + 1 whole egg]
½ t. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground cloves
1 t. ground allspice
[I also added ¼ t. ground cardamom]
1 cup natural (or homemade) applesauce [I used 1 ¼ cups, in place of some butter]
1 ½ cups chopped walnuts
1 cup golden raisins [I used regular brown ones]

Preheat oven to 350. On high speed, cream the sugar with the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer; give the machine 3 to 4 minutes to incorporate the sugar into room temperature butter, and 5 to 8 minutes for colder-than-room temperature butter. Grease the muffin tins with cooking spray.

Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter-sugar mixture and beat for 30 seconds to incorporate them. Mix in the flour. Stir in the baking soda and spices last, then gently fold in the applesauce, walnuts, and raisins.

Fill the muffin cups three-quarters full and set the tins in the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes [my mini-muffins took 22, and the full-size ones took 25], until the muffins are light golden brown and firm to the touch. Unmold and serve warm or at room temperature. Best the day they’re made, these muffins will keep overnight or up to 24 hours, stored in an airtight container.

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This Just in (from Mom): Saucy Chocolate Fudge Cake

In response to my post about Aztec Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake, I got an email from my mother, with her recipe for the pareve chocolate pudding cake (which is actually called Saucy Chocolate Fudge Cake, not Fudgy Chocolate Pudding Cake as I wrote last night). If any of you are kosher, this makes a wonderful Shabbat dessert. And if you’re not kosher (or want to serve it after a milchig meal), I suspect it’s even better with real milk and butter in place of their non-dairy substitutes!

Saucy Chocolate Fudge Cake
From my mom!

1 cup flour
1 t. salt
½ cup liquid non-dairy creamer or milk
1 t. vanilla
6 T. cocoa (divided)
2 t. baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
2 T. pareve margarine, melted (or vegetable oil, or butter)
½ cup nuts (optional—my mom never used them)
1 cup brown sugar (or Brownulated)
1 ½ cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, salt, non-dairy creamer, vanilla, 2 tablespoons cocoa, (sifted) baking powder, sugar and melted margarine (or oil). Mix together well. Stir in nuts, if used.

Pour into a greased 1 or 2 quart baking dish.

Mix brown sugar with remaining cocoa (sifted) and sprinkle over batter. Pour boiling water over top.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Serve warm or cold (but it's best warm).

This cake creates its own sauce, and can be served with pareve whipped topping (or the real thing).

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Sooooo Much Better Than It Looks: Aztec Hot Chocolate Pudding

If you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit of a sweet freak. Even if it’s just a couple of Teddy Grahams or a 100-calorie pack of faux Chips Ahoy, I’ll have something sweet pretty much every day. But last night I wasn’t in the mood for crunch. I still wanted sweet, of course, but (I can’t believe I’m typing this) the last thing I wanted was ice cream. No, the sudden advent of winter made me long for something warm and cozy. A quick rifle through my big binder of recipe clippings yielded a yellowed piece of newsprint, something I’d found in the New York Times lord knows how many years ago but never got around to trying: Aztec Hot Chocolate Pudding. It’s similar to a dessert I grew up on called Fudgy Chocolate Pudding Cake, which we ate often on Shabbat because it was pareve (dairy-free) and “legal” to eat after a meat meal. (I’ve just searched all my archives, and it appears I’ve never blogged about that one—shocking!)

The appeal of this recipe is in its combination of flavors and textures—the top layer is cake-like, so when you pull it from the oven you sort of look at it and shrug. If I hadn’t grown up with my mom’s version, I’d have been disappointed. But lurking beneath the crusty exterior is a molten layer of goopy, gorgeous, nearly black fudge sauce, in this case laced with chili powder and rum. The chili was a little underwhelming, in fact: Next time I make it (and believe me, there will be a next time), I’ll up the ante a little. I may even throw caution to the wind and double the amount the recipe calls for.

Topped with a little vanilla ice cream, this would be absolutely killer for a casual dinner party.

Aztec Hot Chocolate Pudding
From the New York Times
Serves 4

Butter or cooking spray, for greasing pudding dish
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
¼ t. chili powder [if you like spice, you should probably double this]
1 cup superfine sugar [if you don’t have any, just whir some regular sugar in a food processor. I also substituted ½ cup Splenda here.]
½ cup best-quality cocoa powder
½ cup milk [I used 1%]
1 t. vanilla extract
¼ cup neutral-flavored vegetable oil
½ cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup boiling water
¼ cup dark rum

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 8-cup pudding or soufflé dish. Set aside. In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, chili, superfine sugar and ¼ cup cocoa powder. In small bowl, mix milk, vanilla and oil. Pour into flour mixture. Mix by hand for thick smooth batter.

Spoon batter into pudding dish, and smooth the top. In small bowl, combine remaining ¼ cup cocoa with brown sugar, making sure there are no lumps. Sprinkle evenly across the batter. Pour boiling water over it, and top with rum.

Bake pudding until top is a bubbling sponge and center is wobbly and liquid, about 30 minutes. To serve, spoon out portions that include some of the top and chocolate sauce beneath. If desired, accompany with vanilla ice cream.

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A Whole Different Kind of Thanksgiving

This year, for the first time ever, I won’t be at my family's for Thanksgiving. It’s a little shocking to think that I’ve been eating the same turkey, the same stuffing, the same homemade cranberry sauce, the same apple & pumpkin pies, for nearly 40 years, but unless I’m having a brain fart and forgetting, I’ve just never done it anywhere else. My first husband was Israeli and all his family was over there, so we always went to my parents. I can’t recall ever going to a boyfriend’s for the holiday—having a boyfriend was such a rarity, and it usually didn’t coincide with any major festivities. Even in the time I’ve known S, he’s always been reluctant to face the traffic and the headache of traveling to see his family on the same day that everyone else in the country is traveling—especially when we go down there fairly frequently anyway—so we’ve gone to my parents cuz they’re local. But this year, oh, this year, we’ll be going to Tim and Victor’s. They’re friends of the family on S’s mom’s side, and we’ve been hearing about their spectacular Thanksgivings for years. This, S announced, would be worth a shlep.

I can hardly wait. No offense, Mom, but after all these years I’m kinda curious to see how someone else does it. 28 people! And if you click through to the TJrecipes.com link on Tim’s blog, you’ll get a sense of how well these guys know their food. This is a Thanksgiving that’s worth fighting god-knows-how-many hours of traffic to reach.

Now, a little help, people. I’ve asked Tim what I can bring. Of course he said they didn’t need anything, but he immediately acknowledged that was an absurd thing to tell me. They always love additional appetizers or desserts, he said. So, here are my choices. Please vote for your favorites:

APPETIZERS
Butternut Squash Salad with Soft Lettuces & Parmesan
Cheese Straws
Hot Artichoke Dip
Mushroom Turnovers
Fennel Salad with Toasted Walnuts

DESSERTS
Individual Apple Pie Triangles
The Best Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies in the Entire World
Chocolate Polenta Cake
Chocolate Hazelnut Tart
Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Those are just a few ideas—if none of them thrill you, feel free to suggest something else altogether! Just bear in mind that there will be some traveling involved (by car, about 3 hours)…

And Tim & Victor, if you happen to see this, your votes count double!

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Acquisitions Department: Brunch

I came home from work to find that Amazon had delivered: Brunch : 100 Recipes from Five Points Restaurant, by Marc Meyer and Peter Meehan. Yes, you read that right—I actually bought a book. It’s a rare and unusual occurrence for me, since eighteen years in the publishing industry has set me up with book fairies who’ll give me almost anything I want for free, but sometimes you just have to have something, fairies be damned. (Besides, I don't know anyone at Universe, Brunch's publisher.)

Why this particular book? Well, three reasons. First, Five Points is one of my favorite restaurants. It’s up there with the Red Cat for a guaranteed good time, with truly wonderful food. Chef Marc Meyer is famous for his brunch, so this was a natural subject for the restaurant’s first cookbook. Second, I know Peter Meehan, Meyer’s coauthor—not well, but he’s a friend of a friend and he’s been very kind to me in my efforts to expand my food writing horizons. In fact, we met for drinks once at Five Points, and he introduced me to both Marc and Marc’s wife, Vicki (and let me tell you, they adore Peter). Peter and I broke our shad roe cherries together that night, when Marc convinced us to try his version, fried in a sort of croquette. It was lovely. So I’ll gladly buy a book by Peter, any day of the week. And third, as you may have noticed from the number of breakfasty posts on this blog, I’m a huge fan of that meal. 100 new recipes to try! Are you kidding? Of course I bought it.

Naturally I haven’t cooked anything from it yet, but just leafing through the pages I can already tell I’m going to love using this cookbook. It’s freakin’ gorgeous, for one thing, with some of the tastiest-looking food photography I’ve ever seen (all by Ben Fink). And it’s got the same great, casual-but-serious-about-food vibe as the restaurant. I can’t wait for the weekend, so I can get cooking!

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Yup, It’s Autumn: Pumpkin Bread

One day maybe five years ago, my friend and former colleague L brought a loaf of pumpkin bread to work; it was devoured in about sixty seconds—with our entire department fighting over who got the last slice. Of course I begged for the recipe. The original version called for 3 cups of sugar and a full cup of oil, but L had already lightened it considerably by the time she handed it over; now I’ve tweaked it a little more. You’ll find that it’s barely sweet, extremely moist, and bursting with the flavors of the season; it’s just the thing for a mid-morning (or afternoon) coffee break on a cool, sunny day. The beauty of this quick bread is that it takes full advantage of pumpkin’s best attributes: its smoothness, its natural sweetness, its moistness—all the things that let you get away with using very little fat, and not too much sugar.

When I was done I had some leftover pumpkin, so I stirred about 2/3 cup into the wet ingredients for an Oven-Puffed Pancake (and added the same mix of spices below to the dry), then topped it with some of yesterday’s Baked Apple Compote. It was a tasty variation on one of my standby weekend dishes.



This recipe makes two loaves. I suppose you could halve it, but then you wouldn’t have a spare to bring to work the next day, like I’m doing tomorrow!

Low-Fat Pumpkin Bread
Makes 2 loaves

Butter or cooking spray, for greasing pans
1 cup sugar [I used Splenda]
1 cup dark brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
6 egg whites
20 oz pumpkin (if it’s canned, don’t use pumpkin pie mix—make sure it’s plain pumpkin)
1 t. vanilla
3 ½ cups flour
2 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
2 t. salt
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. allspice
1 t. cinnamon
½ t. cloves
2/3 cup water
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two 9 x 5 loaf pans with butter or cooking spray, and set aside. Cream together sugars and oil in a large mixing bowl; add egg whites, pumpkin, and vanilla and mix well. Sift together dry ingredients; add to pumpkin mixture alternately with water, mixing well after each addition. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 60-75 minutes, switching placement in the oven halfway through to ensure even baking. Bread is done when a tester (I use a thin wooden skewer or a poultry lacing pin) comes out clean. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.

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Perfect for a Cool Fall Morning: Baked Apple Compote

There are some days, especially at this time of year, when you just have too many apples. So what do you do? You make this simple, warm, cozy dish. It’s much less work than a pie—no crust!—and incredibly versatile. Try it on oatmeal, on pancakes or French toast, on ice cream, or by itself—I even spooned it onto a lightly toasted slice of whole wheat fig & pecan bread. Since S doesn’t care for cooked fruit, I’ll be eating this whole thing myself over the course of a day or two—but that’s ok, since it’s mostly fruit and nuts, healthy things. The entire recipe has only a third of a cup of brown sugar, and next time I may cut down on that further.

Baked Apple Compote
Inspired by Cooking Light
Serves 4-8, depending on how it's used

4-5 apples, cored, peeled, and chopped into ½-inch pieces [I used 2 Granny Smith, 1 Gala, and 1 Honeycrisp]
½ cup dried cherries
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup water
2 t. cinnamon
½ t. ground ginger
Pinch nutmeg
¼ t. salt

Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients in large bowl and stir well. Pour into casserole or baking dish [I used a soufflé dish], cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes. If the mixture looks too wet or you’d like a bit of browning on top, as I do, remove the foil for the last 10 minutes.

Note: Cooking Light’s original recipe said to do this in a microwave on high for 20 minutes (minus the aluminum foil, of course). I was afraid the apples would break down too much that way and I had plenty of time, so I baked it in the oven instead. If you decide to cook yours in the microwave, be sure to let me know how it turns out!

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“It’s Pronounced ‘Nish,’ Honey.”

S and I were on a King of the Hill kick a while back, and one of my favorite episodes was the one in which an authentic Jewish deli opens up in their not-terribly-cosmopolitan Texas town. Bobby, Hank and Peggy’s prepubescent son, becomes overly fond of chopped chicken liver (“I love it! It’s meat I can eat with a spoon!”) and as a result, develops gout. There are tons of funny lines in the show, but the one that really tickled this Jewish New Yorker’s funny bone was when the whole Hill mishpachah went to the deli together. Puzzling over the menu, the none-too-bright Luanne asks, “What’s a kay-nish?” Peggy, who’s far smarter than Luanne but nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is, answers authoritatively: “It's pronounced ‘Nish,’ honey. The ‘k’ is silent. And I have no idea.”



Tonight I saw my friend H, who’s getting ready to open a small, casual restaurant on the Lower East Side. I met her at the space, which is still largely a construction site, so I could see the progress. On the way there I passed a New York City landmark: Yonah Schimmel Knishery, on Houston Street a few doors west of the Sunshine Theater. They’ve been making traditional round, baked knishes (not the fried square ones) for almost a century. Naturally I had to stop in—I wasn’t sure if H and I would be eating dinner, so since Yonah’s was open I figured I’d pick up a kasha knish to eat later. In recent years Yonah Schimmel has expanded their repertoire: what used to be a simple menu of potato, mushroom, kasha, and the like—you know, the classics—now includes such ridiculous items as cheese-and-chocolate knishes. Someone actually ordered one of these while I waited on line. I won’t comment on this, other than to tell you that right now I’m stifling a giggle.

H and I did go out for a bite, but it was just a bowl of soup and a glass of wine. The whole time my knish sat in its bag, begging me not to forget about it. How could I? An hour or two later, I popped it in the oven to reheat. I must admit I was a little disappointed in the end: the kasha was too moist, almost mushy, though it had a lovely flavor and nice bits of sautéed onion mixed in. And the crust was delicate and almost flaky, and crispy from the oven. All in all, it was $2.50 well spent.

Yonah Schimmel Knishery is at 137 East Houston Street between 1st & 2nd Avenues, (212) 477-2858.

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Coincidence? Hardly Seems Possible

So tonight I decided to burn a few extra calories and walk to a subway stop across town, from 18th & 6th to 14th & 1st. As is my wont, the whole way I kept an eye out for interesting food developments--a new restaurant, a particularly good-looking slice of pizza--but fought the urge to stop anywhere; after all, I was supposed to be "exercising." (According to the nifty new Google Maps hack pedometer, I walked 1.05 miles--better than nothing, right?)

When I reached First Ave, the walk/don't walk sign was giving me the big red hand, so I turned right and headed downtown, intending to circle back when the light was in my favor. But before I even reached 13th Street, I was mesmerized by three stacks of big, beautiful, familiar cookies in a no-frills bakery's window. What was this? They looked exactly--and I mean exactly--like City Bakery's three basic varieties, the chocolate/white chocolate chunk, the oatmeal raisin, and of course, the chocolate chip. Without even thinking, I walked in. Besides the three kinds of cookies, only three other types of baked goods were on display: croissants, puff-pastry cinnamon rolls, and two varieties of muffins. There was only one person in the place, a young woman sitting behind the counter, talking on her cell phone. She put her friend on hold and greeted me.

"I'll take a chocolate chip, please."

She started to wrap one up.

"They look exactly like City Bakery's cookies," I said as I handed her some cash.

"Yeah, everyone says that," she said. "Funny thing is, I've never even been to City Bakery."

At that point, I decided not to push it. Until I tasted the cookie, I couldn't very well accuse this nice young woman of stealing their recipes, could I?

I managed to wait until I got home to taste it. Sure enough, it's my ideal cookie, the buttery, brown sugary, chewy-crunchy epitome of all that is chocolate chip goodness. Either that woman is a bald-faced liar, or someone stole CB's recipes and sold them to her.

Now, I'd be all excited about this if the darn things were at least cheaper than CB's. But they're not--it's the same $2 a cookie, without CB's imprimatur. Odd, don't you think? I mean, I know recipes can't exactly be copyrighted (only the wording of them can be), but what are the odds on literally half this little shop's offerings being identical to one of the most popular bakeries in town? If the recipes were that easy to replicate, wouldn't we be seeing them everywhere?

Conspiracy theories are welcome in the Comments section.

Update 1/6/06 here.

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Whole Wheat Fig & Pecan Bread

It’s been a really long time since I baked bread.

Years ago, when ICE was still Peter Kump, I took a three-week bread course there. We learned everything from utilitarian—though still flavorful—sandwich loaves like the Pullman to a gorgeous, golden semolina-raisin bread. My favorites, though, were the rustic, hand-formed ones we learned in our middle lesson: baguettes, rustic white bread, and the beautiful Italian bread ring. These allowed for maximum creativity, in my book; our instructor encouraged us to knead anything we wanted into our dough after the first rise—chopped rosemary and black olives for the Italian, dried cherries and chunks of bittersweet chocolate in the white, and my pick, dried figs and toasted pecans in the whole wheat.

In the years since I took that course, I’ve added several wonderful bread cookbooks to my collection: The Bread Baker's Apprentice and Bread Alone, not to mention all-purpose baking books like The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion and Nick Malgieri’s How to Bake, but for as much as I enjoy reading them, when I pull out the flour and the Kitchenaid, it’s my tattered, floury, scribbled-on Xeroxes from Kump that are pulled out with them. The recipes were originally Malgieri’s—he’s the director of their baking programs, so it’s sort of like having the best part of his cookbook at my fingertips.



S and I topped slices of the fig-and-pecan bread with peanut butter and jelly for lunch today. I love this bread so much I keep eating it plain, but I’d be grateful for any suggestions for other things to top it with—I may play with some grated parmesan cheese, broiled in the toaster oven, next.

Rustic Part Whole Wheat Bread with Figs and Pecans
Inspired by Nick Malgieri

2 cups warm tap water, about 110 degrees
1 envelope active dry yeast [I use SAF Instant Yeast, a scant 2 t., instead]
3 ¼ to 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 T. salt
Vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray
½ cup each chopped figs & chopped toasted pecans
Additional flour for dusting the loaves
Cornmeal for dusting the pan

If you’re using dry yeast, sprinkle it on the water in a small bowl and let it stand two minutes before whisking, to proof it. If it doesn't bubble up, your yeast is dead; start over with a new batch.

Put the smaller amount of white flour, all the whole wheat flour, and the salt in the bowl of your Kitchenaid, fitted with the dough hook. If you’re using SAF instant yeast, add it to the dry ingredients. Add water slowly (or water/yeast mixture, if you’re using the dry yeast) and mix on low speed to form a smooth, elastic, and slightly sticky dough, about 5 minutes. Incorporate the remaining flour a tablespoon at a time if the dough is too soft/sticky.



Place dough into an oiled bowl (you may need to use a scraper), and either turn dough over so top is oiled or spray top with cooking spray. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow dough to rise at room temperature until doubled. [I usually put it on top of the fridge, especially if the kitchen is cool—the slight heat works well.]



To shape loaves, scrape risen dough onto a lightly floured surface [my Roul'Pat Pastry Mat works beautifully here—I never have to add too much more flour, which keeps the dough from getting heavy]. Divide dough in half and shape one piece at a time. Press dough into a square, then roll it up tightly. Flatten this cylinder so that you have a surface to press the figs and pecans into, and then sprinkle half of them all over the dough. Roll the dough tightly, the long way, around the figs and pecans, and then roll up the dough again from a short end. Arrange dough seam side down, cover with plastic or a towel, and let it rest for 5 minutes. Repeat with remaining piece of dough.

Dust pan with cornmeal. Roll each piece of dough under palms of your hands to elongate it a little—keep your hands very lightly floured, since you’ll need some friction to make the dough spread. Work from the middle of the loaf outward, pointing the ends slightly. Place loaves seam side down on cookie sheet and dust heavily with flour, using about 1/3 cup in all. Cover with plastic or a towel and allow to rise until doubled.






About 30 minutes before you intend to bake the loaves, preheat oven to 500 and set racks at middle and lowest levels. Set a rimmed pan on the lowest rack to absorb some of the excess bottom heat and keep the bottom of the loaves from burning.

Holding a razor blade or the point of a very sharp knife at a 30-degree angle, make a slash down the middle of each loaf from one pointed end to the other. Immediately place loaves in oven and carefully and quickly pour ½ cup of cold water into the pan you placed on the lower rack earlier—the steam will help form a good, crunchy crust. Lower temperature to 450 degrees.

After loaves have baked for 20 minutes and are completely risen, lower temperature to 350 and bake another 20 to 30 minutes longer, until bread reaches an internal temperature of 220 degrees. You may find that the outside of your loaves is already well browned before the inside reaches this temperature—if that’s the case, cover them with foil and continue baking.



Remove loaves from the oven, and cool on a wire rack.

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Apparently, There Is Such a Thing as TOO Healthy

This morning I made apple-walnut scones. The recipe was low-fat, which was good, and called for wheat germ, which was also good, but it also used 2 cups of white flour, which isn’t so good. I figured I could make a good thing even better by swapping in 1 cup of whole wheat flour for half of that. Uh, no.

About a year ago I bitched here about vegan baked goods. While these scones aren’t vegan—they’ve got a few tablespoons of butter—they sure did taste like they were. Very strong wheat flavor, only a hint of sweetness, and a texture that was a little too leaden. I’m not going to give you the recipe, since I wouldn’t recommend that anyone else try these health bombs. In fact, they'll probably go stale before we finish them, they’re that dull.

For my next act, I may have to bake some chocolate chip cookies. A friend just had surgery and I think she could use a little pick-me-up. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll undo some of the uber-virtuous karma I built up this morning.

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