Posts tagged ‘dough’

Remember the Ask Casey post about shelling out for a stand mixer? Well, that question was asked by me. For a long time now, I’ve been feeling the pressure to buy one, but have resisted due to sticker shock. It’s hard to justify 300 sheckles. Plus, I’m not a baker. I have limited cravings for sweets and following precise directions makes my brain hurt.

Yet, because I continued to feel a nagging pull, I asked Casey, who persuaded me to bite the KitchenAid bullet. I started getting all Martha, fantasizing about the smell of fresh bread in my apartment and the festive holiday cookies I would make. I told my mom that I wanted the pasta attachment for Christmas.  Ah, heck who am I kidding? It was the colors that won me over! Don’t these beasts look like they were painted with nail polish? I’m drawn to Volkswagens for the same reason.

I did a lot of homework and kept my eyes on all the sales. Finally, Macy’s had a Veteran’s Day sale that I couldn’t resist. The KitchenAid stand mixer was on sale for $189! The downside was that this price was for the Classic which is plain white.  The mint green one that I was drooling over was a whopping $100 more! I wiped my chin and went for the Classic. It felt like the most grown-up purchase I had made since buying my couch. I had done my research and clipped my coupons. I even got finger blisters from carrying this little workhorse a mere four blocks from the subway to my apartment.
>> Guess what happened next… >>

Pie crust is one of those things that causes irrational fear. Even certain seasoned cooks I know quail at the thought of making one by hand, when it can be pulled together almost instantly with a food processor and only a little longer without. All you need is super-cold butter and water and you will not fail.

Now, some swear by a mixture of shortening and butter, and there are some Southern purists who will seek out lard. I use shortening so rarely that it goes bad in my pantry before I finish the tub, so I rely on the following all-butter recipe, taken from Ms. Martha Stewart. It makes two crusts, perfect for anything sweet or savory. Dare I suggest a chicken pot pie?

You will need:

• 2 sticks butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, chilled (I cube the butter, then stick in the freezer for five minutes)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• small bowl of ice water
• 2 gallon-size Ziploc bags

If you have a food processor:
Whir the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of the processor a few times to sift. Add the chilled butter cubes and pulse three seconds on, three seconds off about ten times or until the dough resembles moist cornmeal. Add 1/4 cup (that’s also 4 tablespoons) of ice water through the feed tube while continuing to pulse. The mixture will begin to clump – add 1 or 2 tablespoons more water if it’s still dry and crumbly, pulsing a few times between each addition.

If you don’t have a food processor:
Mix the flour, salt, and sugar with a fork in a large bowl. Add the chilled butter cubes and smoosh between your fingers into the flour until the butter chunks are the size of small peas. If you have a pastry blender, this speeds up the process, but I’ve done it by hand numerous times – don’t go out and buy one on my account. (Save up for the food processor instead; it’s infinitely more useful!) With this method, there will still be small bits of butter amongst the wet cornmeal-looking flour.

Using the bowl of a tablespoon, make four indentations in the flour/butter mixture and fill each of the indentations with 1 tablespoon each of freezing cold water. Use a fork or your hands to gently mix all together, drizzling more water over the dough just a little bit at a time until the dough holds its shape when you squeeze it with your hand.

Once the dough has come together:
Divide the dough into two equal portions for each of the Ziplocs, flattening and shaping into discs inside the bag. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour. (If you are freezing a portion of the dough, sometimes it’s easier to wrap in plastic wrap instead of Ziploc. Make sure there’s no air in the bag/make sure the plastic wrap is tight and then wrap in foil. It will keep in the freezer for about three months; thaw in the fridge the day before you roll it out.)

When it is time to roll out the crust, I like to use my Roul’Pat, but the reason for the plastic bag is thus: Cut the two long sides of the bag and sprinkle each side of the disc with flour. You can then roll out the crust within the bag, with no fear of it getting stuck on the rolling pin or tearing under its weight. We can all thank Alton Brown for this clever tip.

I rotate the crust every few rolls or so to keep it spreading evenly and thinly. Once it’s as big as you need it to be, you can lift one side of the bag up and gently dump it into your pie plate. Repeat with the second crust if you’re doing an enclosed pie.

Now go off and impress all your loved ones with your newfound skills — and don’t let me catch you skulking around the Pillsbury pie crust aisle ever again.

Dearest Casey, I had a disaster of a dinner party a few weeks ago when my gorgeous mini pizzas (butternut squash, manchego and pancetta; arugula, mozarella and roasted tomatoes; and caramelized onions and goat cheese) were completely ruined by a less-than-mediocre store-bought dough. Is there an easy and delicious dough recipe you can share, and even better, one that doesn’t require yeast and lots of time and attention?

Unfortunately, yeast is a fact of life when it comes to pizza dough. You can make a flatbread imitation to get around it, but if you want to be authentic, you’re going to have to deal with the gassy little buggers every time. Luckily, I am in possession of a fantastic recipe that requires only 15 minutes of active duty and is a wonderfully simple introduction to the world of yeasted doughs.

Pizza Dough
(makes one big pizza or two personal pizzas, if you prefer not to share toppings)

• 2 cups flour — if you have it around, you can mix 2/3 cup cake flour with 1 1/3 cups all-purpose for a more tender crust, but I’ve done this with regular flour so many times and it’s completely fine. Don’t get bogged down with the minutiae of 00 flour, bread flour, semolina, etc. unless you are pizza-obsessed!
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 package (or 2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
• water
• olive oil

Combine the sugar and yeast in one large bowl – if you’ll be using your stand mixer to knead the dough, just combine in its mixing bowl to eliminate extra dishwashing. In another large bowl, combine the flour and salt.

Add just under 1 cup of warm water (the technical temperature is 105-110 degrees, but I’ve never gauged it specifically; I just put my finger under the tap until it feels like nice hot bathwater and it has always worked) to the yeast/sugar bowl, stir gently with a fork, and wait five minutes for the yeast to bloom. It’s fun to watch; you’ll truly be able to see the transformation happening as the yeast munches on those tasty sugars and starts burping out the gases to make the bread rise.

Add the contents of the flour bowl to the yeast bowl and stir with a fork until a ragged dough forms. Either turn out onto a floured surface and knead by hand for five minutes, or use the dough hook on your stand mixer. You’ll know the dough is ready when the ball is smooth, firm and pliable.

Take the empty bowl that once contained the flour, coat lightly with olive oil, and place the dough ball back inside. Roll it around gently to make sure it’s fully oiled, cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and let sit in a warm place to rise for an hour and a half.

You can then use the dough immediately or put into an oiled gallon Ziploc for fridge or freezer storage, depending on how quickly you’re going to need it. I’ll keep mine for one or two days in the fridge and in the freezer for up to three months. Let any stored dough warm up to room temperature before rolling out for the pizza crust; if the dough is too cold, it will “bounce” back on itself and the additional work to re-stretch it will make the dough tougher than you want.

All pizza aficionados who are faint of heart should ignore the next statement, but I like to stretch my dough out on a well-floured surface with the assistance of a rolling pin (I know, I know! Maybe I should take a pizza class) to get the crust well on its way to being wafer-thin, then let it rest for a few minutes. Top with your choice of tasty morsels, then throw into a 500-degree oven until bubbling and golden. I’ve been grilling my pizzas ever since I broke my pizza stone in a freak accident, but if you don’t have a grill or a stone, you can use a baking sheet that’s been sprinkled with cornmeal as a substitute.

My favorite way to top it comes from the rightfully famous Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, where Chris Bianco serves a white pie called the Rosa. Brush olive oil onto the crust, liberally dust with finely grated parmesan cheese liberally, and dot with chopped pistachios, translucently thin slices of red onion, and my favorite of all herbs, rosemary.

Ask Casey if she wants a free trip back to Pizzeria Bianco (hint: the answer is always yes) or send her any other culinary questions at caseyATgoodfoodstories.com. I’m here to help every Thursday!

Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and buy your Crayola-colored KitchenAid stand mixer and pasta roller attachments, don’t wait another second—grab your flour and eggs and get ready to gorge on homemade pasta.

I use the basic recipe of one egg and 3 oz. of flour (or approximately 1/2 cup if you don’t have a kitchen scale) per person, based on the excellent ratio from Michael Ruhlman’s book. To that, I add a healthy glug of olive oil and a sprinkling of kosher salt.

If you have a kitchen scale, place a large bowl on the scale, turn on/zero it out, and spoon your flour into the bowl until you have the right number of ounces. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, read this and see why it’s a valuable tool. And then measure your flour by spooning flour out of the bag/bin into your measuring cup and leveling with a knife, rather than dipping the measuring cup directly into the flour. (Because of how widely a cup of flour can very in weight, this is how you should always measure it.)

Make a well in the middle of the flour, crack your eggs into the center, add the olive oil and salt, and start stirring the pool of eggs with your fingers. The eggs will mix and slowly incorporate the flour. I’m sure you’ve seen Anne Burrell do this right on her board on Iron Chef America, but trust me—it’s much easier in the bowl because you’re not worried about the egg breaking the flour “wall” and oozing all over the counter.

>> Making pasta dough is almost too easy >>

As a home cook with decent chops, I feel pressured to buy one of those giant, cool looking mixers in a bright color. But it ain’t cheap. Can you tell me if it’s really worth the investment and counter space?

Yes, yes, unequivocally yes. My gorgeous tangerine KitchenAid stand mixer was purchased in 2003 as a reward to myself for my first promotion; it was the first time in my professional life that I would no longer be responsible for ordering someone else’s lunch and even on my assistant editor’s salary (actually, still the same salary as when I was an editorial assistant), I felt it was worth the splurge.

Six years later, I am still not regretting blowing my small budget on the machine. If you think you’re not a baker, this might be the tool that changes your mind. The standard mixer comes with a flat paddle beater, whisk, and dough hook, with which you can:

• beat egg whites (so now you can make souffles, marshmallow fluff, angel food cake…)
• mix up cookie dough, even the really thick ones like biscotti
• mix up cake batter
• make pizza dough
• make bread dough
• whip fresh whipped cream
• make homemade frosting for your store-bought brownies
• make homemade mayonnaise

I could go on. The overwhelming benefit of having the stand mixer is that it takes care of a lot of tasks that would otherwise kill your arms or take a lot of time to do by hand — for instance, I’ll have it whip my egg whites while I’m simultaneously heating my waffle maker and mixing together waffle batter in a separate bowl, so the whites will be ready to fold in as soon as the green light blinks. (Of course, the mixer doesn’t clean my waffle maker after I’m done with brunch, but that’s a separate problem.)

And let’s say it’s used once a month, on average — $250, the approximate price of the mixer, divided by 12 leaves you with about $20 per use. Amortize that over the amount of time you’ll own the thing (I don’t know anyone who has worn theirs out, even after 20-30 years of use) and it’s a pretty convincing investment.

There are a whole slew of attachments you can purchase separately, but if you don’t want to spring for any extras off the bat, you’ll have more than enough to do with the given beaters. However, if I had to choose just one (like buying a vowel in Wheel of Fortune!), I would go with the pasta roller attachments. These things are incredible—I could not imagine hand-cranking pasta through a roller, but now I have homemade pasta within my reach as long as I have an hour to spare. Only an hour! Hey, I think I feel a homemade pasta post coming on….

And, note to Santa: I also have my eye on the meat grinder attachment so I can finally start making my own hamburgers and be worthy in the eyes of Michael Pollan.

Update: How could I forget that you can make your own butter with a stand mixer? All you need is heavy cream, and it is so cool, it’s like something out of Mr. Wizard.

Ask Casey takes on your food questions every Thursday, but quotes song lyrics in the posts on a less-frequent basis. Email me at caseyATgoodfoodstoriesDOTcom.