Lotus - Lavender Lady

Chocolate Chip Cookies Challenge

Chocolate chip cookies is one of the favorites for many.  My friends seem to know how to bake them, but not I.  Over the years, I only had one 'gwey' chocolate chip cookies that turned out with a wow.  But, I forgot to write down the ingredient measurements, and how.  So after twenty some years, it's start all over for the search for the best gwey chocolate chip cookies.  As a start, this year, I tried this recipe that was printed in the back of 25 lb All Purpose flour I bought.  The ingredients seems to be a bit different than the ones in the back of the chocolate chip package, so I decided to give it a try.
Well, the result of the taste is - very good.  Texture:  I would like to improve on it.
My friends tell me not to beat the eggs and butter like I do with my cakes with the mixer.  So, I basically beat and mixed everything manually with whisk and spatula.  Then, scooped the cookie dough with the 1 Tbsp cookie scoop.   Placed each one on top of the Silpat over the cookie sheet and baked at 350'F as recommended.  I also made sure to chill the dough before each handling because it is quite warm in my kitchen during the summer - 80 - 84'F.  I was also short in time, so I put the dough in the freezer for 2 min before each use.
My friends bake for 8 min.  I followed my recipe and baked for 12 min.  But they did not brown as theirs do.  They said to bake at 375'F the next time.   If you have a chocolate chip cookies recipe that is gwey or chewy, do please share with me.
I took my batch to the office and my friend brought her batch.  Well, it's like night and day difference.  Her's look nice and brown and soft.  Mine is pale and soft after 12 min.  or Brown and dry - after 17 min of baking to get them browned.  But taste wise, we like both.    Texture wise, my friends chocolate chip cookies win.

Makes 60 cookies when 1 Tbsp cookie scoop is used.

Ingredients:
 1 C brown sugar
3/4 C Zuca Cane Sugar
1 C softened butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

2-1/2 C All Purpose Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 pk 12 oz chocolate chips
3/4 tsp salt

Beat eggs and sugar together.  Than, add butter and vanilla.   Mix well.   Preheat oven to 375'F
Mix flour, baking soda, and salt together.  Add to the beaten batter.  Fold the mixture and add Chocolate Chips.
Scoop the dough onto Silpat over cookie sheet or on the cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 min and or take out when the edge of the cookies brown.
Transfer to the cooling rack and cool.

Crispy Fresh Japanese Pear Pie

Nothing is better than a fresh homemade scratch pie.  But, who really wants to bake on a hot summer day.  But it's time to crop my Japanese  NIJU-IiSEIKI NASHI - "21st Century" Pears.  Sadly, out of 60 pears, only 1 was good enough to eat whole.  The rest got the dear ants and bird bites before they got ripe ... how did they know???  which one is the sweetest.... well, they got to them all - all are sweet.  They could have shared some with me.  Selfish bugs...  And as for some, for whatever reason, the sun burned them down.  They just dropped off the tree.  Since this pear tree is only 3 summers old, I am not expecting a lot.  The spring pear blossoms were a beautiful sight, though.   I gathered what's left on the tree and washed and peeled and sliced the best part.   It's still in the oven baking as I type this blog.  I hope it would turn out the way I imagine - I want it to be - tangy crispy pear pie.

Ingredients:
4 C Fresh home grown Japanese Pears peeled, cut into 1/2 inch strips or chunks
1/4 C - Squeeze 1 whole large lemon, including pulps and pour over cut pears to keep from browning
2 tsp cornstarch - mix into pear+lemon juice
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Pie crust:
4-1/2 oz butter, sliced
4-1/2 oz all purpose flour
1/2 Tbsp lemon zest - chopped finely
1-1/2 Tbsp to 2 Tbsp ice cold water

1 Tbsp dried cranberries - soak in hot water for 30 min, then, drained.
1 Tbsp maraschino cherries, strained, chopped
Egg wash - 1 beaten egg + 1 Tbsp water

Tools:  Rolling pin, silpat, pie tin, glass bowls, mixing bowl, large spoon, knife, measuring spoons & cups; teaspoon pastry brush.

Preparation:
Peel and cut Japanese pears into a glass bowl.  Cut lemon into halves.   Holding the lemon over the glass bowl with pears, use the teaspoon and wiggle it into the lemon and squeeze at the same time to extract juice.  Add cornstarch.  Toss and mix well.   (Do not add the brown sugar, yet).

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and zest.  Add butter and mix them together with hand.  The butter and flour flakes should be mixed until the size of  nickel or dime is achieved.  About 1-1/2 min.  Add 1 Tbsp of cold water and mix with hand to incorporate.  Does it form a ball, yet?  Add a bit more.  Tonight, my kitchen is about 80 degree, butter softened quickly, so I did not add more than 1-1/2 Tbsp.  Quickly form it into a ball and place in freezer for 2 min. to rest.

Bring it out, and roll it out to a rough looking 6 inch shapeless sort, then, fold the side to the center and the other side to the center, then fold over into halves, then, fold into halves again.
Roll out with rolling pin over a silpat mat, without using any flour.  Roll into 8" round.

Freeze the dough for 1 to 2 min.

Pre-heat oven to 425'F.
Transfer to a baking pie tin.  I am using a 6" aluminum cheese cake pan.  If you would like, you can place the dough flat on a Silpat mat.
Toss the pear mixture well, then add to the pie dough.
Top with dried cranberries and maraschino cherries to add colors to the pie.
Form the pie dough edge any way you want.  I just folded them over like Crostada - open pie.
Apply egg wash with pastry brush.
Bake till the crust is golden and fruits are bubbly - about 1 hr 15 min.
If the fruits looks bubbly, but the dough looks pale, cover the open area with a piece of aluminum foil.  
Remove from the oven.
Cool completely.
Serve with fresh whip cream or homemade ice-cream.

** So the pie is ready when the internal temperature reached 200 - 207'F.

I changed my recipe to read to use dried cranberries that have been soaked for 30 min, then, strained.  I forgot that in the open pie, when the dried cranberries or raisins are exposed to the heat, they tend to burn. The pie looks good.  It's cooling off right now. 

* By the way, it was Delicious - it was tangy like the way I wanted.  Crispiness... well, I maybe able to do that the next time if I didn't double pan to bake - put the pie tin on top of a baking sheet (double panned).  That took a bit long to bake to brown the pie dough, so the pears have the usual nice baked texture.  Not mushy, but softer than I wanted.  But perfect sweetness...; Pie crust was delicious as well.

WATERMELON CHILI SALSA

Ingredients:
4 C diced watermelon Rinds without skin with some pink flesh
1 green chili pepper finely chopped
4 Tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
4 Tbsp chopped Cilantro
1 Tbsp white vinegar
A pinch of freshly grinded sea salt
1 Tbsp finely chopped shallot
.
WASH:
Be sure to Wash the outer surface of watermelon with a drop of dish soap and rinse very well before cutting.
Use cutting board and knife that is specifically used to prepare fresh uncook food. 
Several watermelon favorites can be made during this process
Watermelon balls, watermelon cupcakes, watermelon sangria, watermelon lemonade, pickled watermelon rinds, etc, etc.  But the important thing is to save 1 inch to 1-1/2 inches of clean watermelon rinds with some pink flesh.
I like to cut watermelon into cubes and save them in plastic ware.  For this recipe, I kept the rinds enough to make 4 Cups diced watermelon rinds without skin.  The rinds should have some pink flesh still on them.

Preparation:
Slice the watermelon rinds with some pink flesh off the skin.    Cut 1/4 inch+ away from the skin.  This is approximate.   You don’t want it to have the bitter taste.  Dice them up.
Keep the diced watermelon rinds in a covered glass bowl in the refrigerator, until the salsa mix is ready.
Combine the rest of the ingredients in a glass bowl.
Pour over the watermelon.
Toss to mix well.
Chill before serving.

I think it turned out very good.  Since my Romano tomatoes in the garden have not ripened, yet.  Who knows when it will be happy? So this is a great alternative to the salsa that I want for my Mexican dinner I am going to have tonight.

BUTTERED SWEET WHITE CORN WITH LIME AND CHILI

Serves 3

7/24/10

1 Tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp finely chopped green chili pepper
3 fresh white corns with at 3 to 4 layers of fresh husks still on them
1 Tbsp of water
1 large microwaveable plate
Microwave splatter shield food cover
Black pepper to sprinkle

Chop off the top part of the fresh white corns still in fresh husks to remove the silk, but do not remove husks yet.
Remove, but save at least 3 to 4 layers of husks on the corn.
Place them on a microwaveable plate – staggered in different direction – tail, head, tail.
Add 1 Tbsp of water (for steam)  (If microwaving only one corn – no water needed.)
Cover and Microwave for 4 minutes – depending on your microwave power. 
Open the microwave and Turn the corns, top to bottom.
Cover and microwave 2 more minutes.
Let it rest at least 5 minutes+ in the microwave.
Prepare the butter while they are cooling.

Add lime juice into a microwaveable bowl.  Add butter and finely chopped green chili pepper.
Microwave for 20 seconds.

Prepare the corn serving boat on kitchen counter.
Remove corn husks and place them in the boat.
Drizzle the corn with melted butter lime chili sauce.
Then, sprinkle with grounded black pepper.  Enjoy!

*If microwaving 4 large fresh corns  - Cover and cook for  5 minutes + 3 minutes after you flip sides.

Note:  ** My microwave oven is 800 watt.  It takes about  4 minutes to steam cook a single corn + 3 min ”rest” period in the aluminum foil.  The reason for the rest period is to give the cooling period and avoid mouth burn.  It’s very dangerous to bite into microwaved food that are dense or sticky.  * I know you know that.  :-)

The best part of this butter lime chili sauce is that it is so tasty that you don’t even need salt sprinkle... but everyone’s taste buds is different.
Double or tripple the recipe if more corns are prepared.

Tai-Chi Poolish Baguettes

Tai-Chi and Baguette sound like east and west.  But I decided to dub this baguette just that - the "Tai-Chi Poolish Baguettes".  My intention is not to disguise someone's recipe idea and make it into mine, but really, I basically kneaded my dough Tai-Chi ball style.  I got this recipe for the Poolish Baguettes, which I thought is a 'possible' method to use my natural grape starter that I have been culturing (nurturing) since April.  I have made quite a few artisan breads with it, but not to my satisfaction.  This particular formula sounded promising, so I gave it a try.
One thing I noticed with my grape starter is that anytime I mix it into the dough, the dough results in a very interesting texture.  It is silky smooth sticky glue.  After several testing, I honestly told myself that I need to sit down and do the baker's percentage calculation before using it in a recipe and 'hoping' that the product would turn out.  For now, my strategy is to incorporate it into a recipe that has proven to be successful, then, record my starter's behaviour.  This will give me a base in how to use it more properly with higher success rate.
The original recipe came from http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=8 - Baguettes with Poolish.  I love to browse through this site and admire those beautifully home-baked artisan breads.  I got so used to using the commercial mixer that I've forgotten about the good ole fashion hand kneading and elbow power.  The last few times I made the bread at home, I noticed that my Kitchen Aide Artisan mixer is not powerful enough nor the dough cook designed well to knead the dough the way the commercial mixer would.  I almost gave up on baking bread at home.  On top of it, it's summer.  Heating up the oven to 460'F in the summer is not too fun.  But my solution to knead-by-hands the Tai-Chi style worked out.  After watching the "Kung-Fu Soccer" - just so happened to be on Fox-Latin channel in my area (in time for World Cup), I got an idea of kneading the dough the way the young lady was making the Chinese "bao".  Surprisingly and I am very pleased that it worked.  I love the texture of the bread it produced.
Ingredients I used are as follows.

Tai-Chi Poolish Baguettes

Ingredients

Starter:
666 g Naturally cultured grape starter - 2-1/2 mths old

Final Dough
1 lb 10 oz All Purpose Flour + 6 oz for work surface and during keading for hands
10.6 oz Water
0.6 oz salt
1-1/2 tsp Instant Yeast
666 g Starter (above)
Calculate the DTC

Combine flour, yeast, salt together.  Add water to the 666 g Starter and mix well with hand.
Add flour mixture to the Starter.  Mix well. 
The dough is very sticky at the beginning.  It will become tacky. 
Keep flouring your hands and keep the dough rolling between your palms with right hand on the top and left hand on the bottom.  The motion is in the Circling motion.  As long as the dough is in the motion, the dough would stay in shape and remain tacky.  Flour hands as often as needed.  As soon as the motion is stopped, the dough would drop out of the hands in a blob like.  Continue kneading for 15 min to 30 min.  Give some good roll and knead on the floured work surface every 5 minutes for 3 minutes.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled, covered container.  Ferment for 1-1/2 hours.
Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces by weight.  Round it to a shape.  Bench rest for 20 min.
After the rest, shape each dough into a baguette and place in floured sack cloth. 
Hand pleat each section to keep baguette in its shape during the 2nd fermentation.
Let rise less than double.  **This is where I always miss.
Score.
Bake in preheated 450'F oven for 20 min with steam - first 10 minutes.
* I used baking sheet pan with Silpat on top.
*  Pizza stone is preheated in the oven during the preheat - baking rack is set at the lower 2nd level.
* Home Steam Injection Remedy for my overn:  A pan of hot water pan at the bottom of the oven.
A spray bottle to spray dough every 2 minutes for the first 10 minutes.
*After forming the dough into baguette shape, place the baguette on top of the Sipat.
Spray a plastic wrap with vegalene and cover the baguettes.  Cover the top with another bake sheet pan  to ferment for 30 min.  Then, remove plastic wrap gently and Score.
Open the oven, place the baking sheet on top of the pizza stone.  Spray with spray bottle.

Crispie Cookies by Chef Kaden

"What shall we make, Nai Nai?" my 4-year-old grandson asks.  "I got an idea! We can make some cookies with.... Chocolate chips.  So I can eat them!"   "And we can take them to camping, ... give some for mommy,  daddy, and Mei."  So we started to gather all the ingredients.  We chose Crispie Cookies recipe.  The recipe belongs to one of the gentle lady I met at the Japanese Bazaar at Nichiren Temple in Sacramento.  The cookies are nice and crispie.  We all thought it was store bought.  Midori-san is willing to share the recipe, and I finally got a good reason to bake in the heated summer(100'F outside) on vacation at home with my grandchildren.  Anything for your grandkids, right?
The cookies are delicious with additions of chocolate chips or dried fruits or without them.

Mix:
1/2 C sugar
1-1/4 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/4 C oil
2 tsp vanilla

Sift and add:
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Add:
3 C Rice Krispies
1 C old-fashion oatmeal

Drop by small teaspoon on greased cookie sheets (or Silpat).
Bake at 375 degree - ***May need to adjust temperature and baking time according to your oven.   Bake for 12 to 13 min.  **Baked for  8 to 10 min in my GE large Gas stove oven. 

It's really good, Nai Nai.  I ate 4 big ones.