Mini Turnovers

Sometimes you get an idea that changes the world. I very much doubt this was one of those, but it was fun anyway. I decided to see what would happen if I tried to make turnovers using store-bought canned biscuits. And why not? It seemed like a good idea at the time.

My first thought was to roll out the biscuits with a rolling pin. I even have a little fondant rolling pin that was just about the right size. But I also had a tortilla press, and I decided it would be faster. I cut a couple of squares of parchment, lined the press, and loaded in a biscuit, just off-center.



This made quick work of flattening the biscuits, which is good, because they ended up being a little more elastic than I expected, and they started to shrink pretty quick. I loaded up each flattened biscuit round with a half dozen blueberries, folded them over, and crimped with a fork.



In retrospect, I probably should have painted the edges with a little beated egg before folding and crimping, but I was only working with ten biscuits, and it seemed like kind of a waste. With all ten crimped, I took a paring knife and cut a couple of slits in the top of each one, for steam to escape.



These were put in the oven and baked as per the package directions. A few minutes later, they came out GBD (golden, brown and delicious).



As you can see, I had a few smilers. Gluing the turnovers together with egg wash would have helped to prevent this, but really, who cares? They were awesome anyway. Of course, you don't have to just use blueberries. I'm sure pretty much any fresh or frozen fruit would work, and you don't even have to stop there. I've made these with leftover shredded chicken mixed with salsa and corn, and I know they would work with sloppy Joe filling, chili, even stew (so long as it's not too soupy). I've even used pepperoni, mozzarella and tomato sauce. Just remember, the more flavorful the filling, the better the turnovers.

These are great for portion control, snacking, lunches for the kids. You don't have to stick with turnovers, of course. You could lay down one flat round, add filling, and then another flat round on top. It's up to you.

Sometimes, Brand Really Matters

I've been doing some experimentation lately with things like rolled fondant, a no-cook variation of buttercream, and cream cheese frosting. All of these things use powdered sugar (aka icing sugar, confectioner's sugar, 10X sugar). I've always operated under the belief that for the most part, sugar is sugar. I'm generally more apt to buy store-brand than name-brand sugar, because while it may only be a few center cheaper per package, I tend to buy it in bulk. I go through a lot of sugar. Some may argue that cane sugar is vastly superior to beet sugar, and that's not something I can get into, since I rarely see anything in the store that doesn't specify that it is, indeed, cane sugar.

The fondant that I've been making lately tastes okay, but there's always been something about it that I didn't really care for. It's still been tasting like powdered sugar. I don't know how else to describe it. My best guess was that the sugar granules were still a little big. None of these recipes require cooking (though the fondant does require some warming, and not to the sugar), so there's no chance for the sugar to dissolve. I remember Art Pollard at Amano Chocolate telling me once that he needs to grind his chocolate to smaller than 20 microns, because anything larger will taste gritty on the tongue. Perhaps this was the case with powdered sugar in general, I wondered.

Last night I needed to make another batch of rolled fondant. The store that I went to didn't carry their own store brand of powdered sugar, so I just went with the popular name brand. Sugar is sugar, right? Maybe not. The batch of fondant that I made was identical in measurements and procedure to the previous batch, but the taste was far superior. It didn't have that "powdered sugar taste".

Later on that night, I found a bag of store-brand powdered sugar and used it to make cream cheese frosting. I used to make this stuff all the time when I was a baker, and we always used the name-brand sugar because that's what our supplier carried. The stuff I made last night tasted different. It was grittier, and again, had that "powdered sugar taste".

It seems apparent to me that in the case of powdered sugar, the popular name brand really is a superior product. It may cost an extra 20 to 30 cents a bag, and when you buy cases of 20 bags as I occassionally do, that can really add up. But if you're trying to produce a superior product, then that's a cost that you probably want to just deal with.

Lemon Cheese

Sometimes I get this wild hair and end up wanting, no, needing to do something that may be just a little bit... different. I mean, how many people do you know nowadays that make their own cheese at home? And when was the last time you saw lemon-flavored cheese? Believe it or not, this is actually pretty good stuff. I present the ingredients:

1 qt whole milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Seems simple enough, doesn't it? It really is. Step one is to heat the milk in a saucepan to 185F. I used medium heat for this, to keep from burning anything. I used my candy thermometer to keep an eye on things, and I made sure to stir on a regular basis, to keep things from burning on the bottom of the pan:



When you reach 185F, add the rest of the ingredients and stir until the milk has seperated into curds and whey:



When you have seperation, pour the mixture into a container lined with a couple of layers of cheesecloth.



Tie up the cheesecloth and pour out the whey. Suspend the cheesecloth-wrapped bundle over a container (I just used the same one) to finish draining. I used twist-ties left over from other applications to tie the bag up, and then tie it to a couple of chopsticks, which were used to suspend it over the container.



This will all go into the fridge for at least an hour, and up to three hours if you wish. When it's done, you can remove the cheesecloth if you wish, and store the cheese for up to a week.



You don't have to stick with lemon, of course. Lime would be very nice, indeed. The recipe that I based mine off of used cider vinegar. Of course, it's the acidity that curdles the milk, making it possible to turn it into cheese. The problem that I see with using straight vinegar is that it limits you a bit on flavor. I decided to go with a lemon base, and when it didn't seem acidic enough to my mind, I thought that a little white wine vinegar would compliment the flavor nicely.

What's it good for? Well, you could just eat it straight. It is quite good on its own. Today I crumbled some up over some shredded chicken leftover from a Mexican restaurant the other night. It also crumbles quite nicely into salads. I think your imagination is the only limit.

Guru Labs

A few people have expressed concern that I haven't posted in so long, and I appreciate that. I have a bit of news that I think will explain that. About a month and a half ago, my company went through a group layoff. Unfortunately, I was one of those who was given the opportunity to pursue other opportunities. At the time, at least one person told me, "well, I guess now you'll have plenty of spare time to work on your blog, right?" And as it turns out, my previous post was indeed posted after I got laid off.

Having a blog with a decent amount of readership, I had some decisions to make. I could announce on my blog that I was looking for work, in the hopes that my readers would be able to help me out. After many weeks of unemployment, I'm still not entirely convinced that choosing not to was the best idea. Within a couple of days of the layoff, several friends at other companies heard the news and asked for my resume. With over a dozen such requests, I didn't expect to be out of work for more than a week. I knew that many companies were looking to hire, and that the odds were in my favor.

I spent the first week at a career seminar that my company had paid for, and my free time that week were spent building a wedding cake for a dear friend of mine. There was no time to blog. By the time that was all over, I had still only interviewed at one company. They had expressed interest, but had not yet made an offer. Not being one who counts unhatched eggs, I continued to look at other companies. I decided that it was in my best interest to spend my time studying and brushing up on career-related subject matter, working on my resume, and applying and interviewing at various companies. The blog had officially been put on the back burner.

Three friends from one company in particular suggested that I apply there. After some hesitation based on the job's travel requirements, I finally did so. It was a company that I had known about for years, and had wanted to work at for almost as long. I spoke on the phone at length with one of the owners, and then interviewed with him and the other owner. By this point, I was still interviewing, but hoping that this particular company would make me an offer. They did, and despite other offers that I have been expecting, I have decided to accept this one.

I am happy to say that starting next week, I will be working as a trainer at Guru Labs. As one who is becoming a more active member of the open source community, I love that there is a company who is offering training services for that community. I am also thrilled for the chance to work for them. I have had the opportunity to teach training classes at other companies before, and I have always enjoyed the experience. I have also had some small opportunities to write technical documentation for several companies, and I have always jumped at the chance, and have always been disappointed when the writing assignment has ended. At Guru Labs, these two things will be my primary job functions, and words cannot express how happy that makes me.

As it turns out, this change in employment also means a change in direction for my blog. I will be spending a good deal of time on the road, hanging out in hotel rooms without kitchens. This means that I will also be eating out quite a bit. My only chances to cook much of the time will be on weekends. I hope to experience foods and cultures in other areas, and log my thoughts and experiences here. When I am cooking at home, I will still try and cook something blogworthy. While I still plan to study pastry when I can, I will once again start posting non-pastry recipes as well. I also plan to continue posting the occassional tech article, and even have one currently in the works.

For those who have been wondering, that's a brief recap of my life since leaving my previous company. I do miss working with all my previous coworkers, and I hope that those who are there are surviving with the increased workload, and that those who the company really couldn't afford to let go but had to anyway have managed to find work as well. I'm looking forward to my new job, and my new coworkers. Life is good.

Feisty Release Party Report

Last night I hitched a ride with Herlo over to the Ubuntu Utah Feisty Release Party. It was held at the Orbit Cafe in downtown Salt Lake City.

I don't suppose I expected a whole lot of people there, and I'm not sure Christer or the Cafe expected quite that many either. I heard at some point that we had 32 people there. By my estimation, the room that they had us in was only meant to seat 28 people, so we were a little low on seating. I was glad to be among the first of the crowd, assuring that I would have a good seat.

I ended up seeing a lot of people that I knew online, but hadn't really met in person. We all stood up and introduced ourselves, making sure to tell people our IRC nick if we had one. It seems strange to me that knowing people only by names such as Sontek and LinuxAlien would not seem strange. I ended up sitting across from John Taber who, as it turns out, is an absolute delight to talk to.

This being 95% a food blog, I suppose I should talk about the food at the Orbit Cafe. Looking around the place, it seemed to me that it was meant to be more of a bar, which made it confusing to me that it would close at 9pm on a Saturday night. Almost half the menu was devoted to drinks, and when I saw the word Sobe, I decided that a Cranberry Grapefruit Elixir would be nice. A man came by to get our drink orders (I later decided that he was the bartender), and I asked if he had Cranberry Grapefruit Sobe. He told me yes and stood there looking at me. I asked if he could bring me one and he said, "oh, yeah, sure!" I expected him to bring back a bottle (which I would have preferred), but he brought me a mixer glass with ice and Sobe in it, and walked away. I took a sip, and then spent the next five minutes trying to flag him down again. Eventually a waitress stopped by and I asked her if they had any non-sugar free Sobe.

Here's a tip. If you want to try and figure out whether or not your drink is sugar free, take a sip. If it tastes absolutely disgusting and actually makes you wish for the end of Western civilization, if only for a short moment, then chances are it's sugar free.

The waitress called over to the bartender twice to ask if they had any non-sugar free Sobe before finally walking over and asking him. She returned and informed me that no, they didn't. Perhaps that was why he assumed that I wanted the vile version of the drink rather than the delicious one. Still, it would have been nice for the bartender to ask, "we only have sugar free, is that okay?" I ordered a lemonade instead. It tasted relatively artificial, but it also tasted like it had real sugar in it, so I was content.

I ordered a reuben, which came with soup, salad or fries. The soup of the day was lentil with ham, so I decided to give it a shot. When my food arrived, I tasted the soup and was reminded of something that I heard Anthony Bourdain say once: "I hate it like poison". It seemed to be designed to make me appreciate sugar free drinks. A couple of other people told me later of their dissatisfaction with the soup as well. As I was leaving later on, I saw fries on somebody else's plate, and I wished that I had ordered them instead.

I love a good reuben, and I was fearful that they had destroyed it as well. According to the menu description, the only deviation from the standard recipe was marbled rye, and to call it a deviation really is splitting hairs. The corned beef looked more like bacon, and was perhaps a little drier and chewier than usual. I'm no aficionado of sauerkraut, since a reuben is the only place I like it, but it tasted okay. The bread was harder than I'm used to, but tasty. When it came down to it, my only complaint about the sandwich was that all of the meat seemed to have found its way to one side, so my first half of the sandwich seemed a little sparse, and the second half had way too much.

Our waitress was friendly, and for that night, extremely overworked. The rest of the cafe seemed very empty for that time of night, and I don't think they were expecting all of us. The kitchen was probably overworked too, so I forgive them for the unbalanced sandwich which was probably made somewhat hurredly, but not for the soup, which was likely made hours in advance. The room that they had us in had a large TV suspected from the ceiling by the bar, and they let us put in Sneakers to watch during the party. Dan Akroyd, you are my hero.

The rest of the staff was friendly, other than the bartender, who seemed aloof. The rest of the food looked good, and judging by my sandwich, I'm sure that most of the menu is worthwhile. It seems unfair to me to call judgement on the place after only once visit, but I will say that despite my personal complaints, they seem like a good place to eat.

The rest of the party was a lot of fun. I'd guess that nearly a third of the people there had their computers out, though I heard frequent complaints about the wireless Internet access. It was nice to finally meet a lot of those people in person, and to network a little bit with them. I have heard rumor that Christer is thinking about holding future Ubuntu Utah meetings there, and I for one would be glad to go back. It's certainly a much friendlier environment than the Salt Lake City Library has ended up being, and the availability of food was a nice bonus. It makes me wish there was a private room at the Salt Lake Roasting Company. Their food has never failed to please me. I wonder if they allow people to reserve the upstairs area.

Ancho Chocolate Pecan and Pomegranate Ice Creams

I should note that these are two seperate ice creams, both suggested by regular readers of this blog on a previous post.

I actually started with Jason's idea for dark chocolate, ancho chile and pecan ice cream. Odd though it may sound, I thought it might make a killer combination. I didn't know how Jason intended that combination to happen, so I decided to run with it and make an ancho chile ice cream base and stir in chopped pecans, followed by dark chocolate. I present the ingredients:

Ancho Chocholate Pecan Ice Cream

1 pint milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 whole, dried ancho chiles
5 1/4 oz/wt sugar
4 oz/wt cream cheese, softened
pinch salt
3 teaspoons tapioca starch
6 egg yolks
5 oz/wt toasted, chopped pecans
6 oz/wt melted semi-sweet chocolate

Combine the milk and cream in a saucepan. Remove the stem from the chiles, and roughly cut largish pieces into the dairy. Don't worry about the seeds, they can go in there too if you like, or not if you don't like. Heat to at least 150F, but don't bring to a boil. Little bubbles breaking the surface is okay, but you might want to drop the heat just a tad. Allow to steep for 15 minutes, stirring occassionally with a rubber spatula to keep anything from spending too much time on the bottom and burning. Plunge the base of the pan in an ice water bath and stir occassionally until cooled. Move to a resealable container and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, strain the chiles out of the dairy. The color will likely have darkened to a light sienna. Add to a sauce pan with the rest of the ingredients, minutes the yolks, nuts and chocolate. Bring to a boil, whisking enough that nothing burns on the bottom. Drop the heat to low, temper in the egg yolks, and continue to cook for a couple more minutes. Plunge the base of the pan into ice water and whisk until cooled. Again, refrigerate overnight. The next day, churn in your ice cream maker as per the manufacturer's instructions, and then stir in the pecans. Then carefully fold in the melted chocolate, maybe a third at a time, making sure not to overstir. Freeze overnight and enjoy.

This ice cream messes with your head. Most people only consider chiles to be a savory ingredient, so the concept of putting them in ice cream seems counter-intuitive. Let's not forget that chiles are berries, and just as Mexicans have been using chocolate as a savory ingredient for centuries, it's entirely possible for chiles to be used as a sweet ingredient. This ended up a smooth and rich ice cream that causes you to take a moment to comtemplate it and get over the weirdness of it actually tasting good. While you're busy contemplating, it comes back and kicks you in the mouth, just as you're least expecting it. Maybe the heat at the end was because I added all of the seeds with the rest of the chiles, so play with it. Your mileage may vary.

Notes: since this ice cream didn't have nut butter in it like my previous ice cream, I decided to increase the starch to compensate. I wasn't sure if cashew butter was adding significant thickening power in the last one, but I decided not to take any chances. Also, you might note the difference in chocolate addition. This method will cause the chocolate to seize as soon as it hits the cold ice cream, but also become brittle, making for smaller pieces in the end result. In the last ice cream, I specifically wanted larger pieces.

On the same day that I cooked the ancho ice cream base, I decided to also create a pomegranate ice cream base, thanks to Art's suggestion. She had mentioned such a flavor to me in the past, and I wanted to see if I could pull it off. The ingredients:

Pomegranate Ice Cream

1 pint pomegranate juice
1 cup heavy cream
5 1/4 oz/wt sugar
4 oz/wt cream cheese, softened
pinch salt
3 teaspoons tapioca starch
6 egg yolks

You know the drill. Combine all ingredients except eggs in a saucepan, bring to a boil, temper in the eggs, cook some more, cool, refrigerate overnight, churn, refrigerate overnight.

There was a decision that I should have made before this ice cream, that I failed to make because it has always been implied before. The question I should have asked was, does cream cheese match the rest of the flavors? When I initially tasted the pomegranate ice cream before the overnight rest, I thought that it did not. When I tasted it again before and after churning, I came to the same conclusion. When I had churned the ice cream and allowed it to harden overnight in the freezer, I came to a different conclusion. It actually tastes pretty good. It is, however, a bit rich, and not what I had intended. I would still use serve it as a quinelle in a plated dessert, but not much more than that. I should note that it reminded me of Creamies. It's an ice cream bar that I used to enjoy on hot days.

Notes: pomegranate juice must have some other sort of thickener in it, such as pectin. I'll have to do some research to see what the deal it. The overnight refrigeration resulted in a somewhat gelled and maybe even a little unappetizing-looking block of something that looked more like pink tofu than ice cream. It still churned properly, if a little softer than usual. The resulting ice cream was softer than usual, even after the overnight freeze, which served only to ease in scooping. It did not seem to melt any more quickly than any other ice cream, and it ended up being a big hit with those who tried it. It was a very interesting experiment indeed.

Don't Mess With Our Chocolate

Time's running out. I wish I had known about this sooner, and that I had been able to post about it when Hans gave it to me a couple of days ago. Guittard Chocolate has a campaign running called Don't Mess With Our Chocolate.

Here's the basic concept. American chocolate standards are apparently stricter than I personally thought they were. Like many food products, there is a legal definition of what can be called chocolate in our country, which has been set up to protect us, the consumers. Certain members of the US chocolate industry have decided that they would like that legal definition to be relaxed, so that they can replace high quality ingredients such as cocoa butter and real sugar with cheaper, and much lower quality ingredients at our expense. To me this is like American farmers asking to replace the natural flavors and sugars of fresh fruits with artificial flavors and sweeteners. I can't think of any way to more effectively ruin a perfectly good apple, or pefectly good chocolate.

Guittard didn't need to take a stand on this. From the looks of things, the new legal definition wouldn't require chocolate manufacturers to change their recipes, it would just allow them to. Guittard could have profited from this new legal change. They could have used it as an opportunity to save money on their chocolate by producing an inferior product as well. Even if they maintained the same high quality standards that they have now, this change would allow them to promote themselves based on their adherance to higher quality practices than everbody else. But they didn't do that. They decided to try and educate the public on what I'm sure most of the rest of the US chocolate industry had no intention of telling us, so that we could have the opportunity to stand up for our rights and beliefs.

I hope that Guittard's efforts won't be in vain. The US chocolate industry seeks to legally mislead us with an inferior product, and we need to stop them. American chocolate has struggled with credibility in Europe for decades, and has only recently found acceptance in a place known for their high standards of quality. The US chocolate industry seeks to destroy that newfound respect at home and abroad, just to make an extra buck. Their efforts will benefit nothing but their profits.

Please take a moment to head over to Guittard's campaign site and click the link on "How to Help". We have until April 25th to let the FDA know that we won't stand for this. It's time to stand up for youselves and let it be known that we as Americans care about quality, and that we will not be duped or taken advantage of by greedy chocolatiers.