Category: Final

Meringue Based Mocha Marshmallows: Test 1

Meringue Based Mocha Marshmallows: Test 1

The vanilla marshmallows relied on the heated sugar and the gelatin for its structure but David Lebovitz has a different approach in which he also adds meringue as part of the base. I felt that my marshmallow adventures just wouldn't be complete without trying this out.

  • ¼ cup powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup corn starch
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • 14 g Knox gelatin (two envelopes)
  • ½ cup cold water
  • ⅓ cup cold water
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ⅓ cup light corn syrup
  • ½ cup egg whites (roughly 4 large egg whites)
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp espresso powder

  1. Before starting on these marshmallows I advise that the pans in which the marshmallows are set are prepared. They were first coated in baking spray and then dusted in a mixture of corn starch, powdered sugar, and cocoa.

  2. In a small bowl, the gelatin was sprinkled over ½ cup of water to allow the gelatin time to bloom and soften.

  3. While the gelatin is softening, the egg whites and sugar were added to the standing mixer and whipped until very thick. The mixer was then turned off while I attended the next steps.

  4. In a medium saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, I mixed the sugar, corn syrup, and 1/3 cups of water. This was heated over medium high heat.

  5. When the sugar mixture reached 240°F, the mixer was started again on high speed. As the sugar reached 245°F, it was poured into the whipped eggs carefully to avoid hitting the whisk so it wouldn't splatter all over the mixing bowl.

  6. Into the same pot I used for the sugar, I added the bloomed gelatin, salt, and espresso powder. The residual heat of the pot should be enough to melt the gelatin and dissolve the espresso.

  7. When fully melted, this last concoction was added to the mixer and everything continued being whipped until fully cooled. Unlike the marshmallows that don't use egg whites, these are much more forgiving timewise. You want to make sure you really do whip this non-stop until it is fully cooled.

  8. Finally, the now cool mixture was spread to the best of my ability between the two prepared pans and allowed to set overnight, uncovered.

  9. Cutting these up was not easy, it was like they didn't want to be pretty. I used a coconut oiled knife to try to get clean cuts but to no avail. I will have to try using a pizza cutter or scissors next time.

These marshmallows have their pros and cons. 

The pros:

  • They are much less sensitive to timing since you have to whip them till they’re fully cooled anyway
  • They have this spongy texture that awoke a nostalgic craving for Krembo (look it up, they’re delicious).

The cons:

  • They take an extra step to achieve.
  • If you don’t cool the mixture completely, you will end up with a “soggy bottom”. No one likes a wet marshmallow.
  • I couldn’t get them to cut pretty. The photo is nice and all but you can clearly see that they are not perfect little squares.

The neutral:

They have a different texture. When you crash them with your fingers they do have some give and they will bounce back but you will also feel the tiny bubbles popping. Those poor tasty bubbles….

Side note: The amount of coffee I added to this recipe was not quite enough. I strongly recommend doubling the espresso powder.

References

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/marshmallow-recipe-candymaking

Parent Notebook

Marshmallows

Sugar-Free Tangerine Marshmallows: Test 1

Sugar-Free Tangerine Marshmallows: Test 1

These marshmallows won't spike your insulin but still taste great thanks to allulose! You can't even tell the difference between these and their sugary counterpart.

  • ½ cup water
  • 3 Tbsp unflavored gelatin
  • ¾ cup water
  • 2 ½ cups allulose
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ⅛ tsp LorAnn Oils tangerine oil flavor
  • 2 drops orange gel food coloring

  1. 1/2 cup water and the gelatin were added to the standing mixer bowl and mixed briefly using the whisk attachment.

  2. In a sauce pan fitted with a candy thermometer, the remaining 3/4 cups of water, 2 1/2 cups of allulose, and salt were mixed and set on medium high heat.

  3. The sugar mixture was heated until it reached 230° F which is not quite but almost a soft ball stage for allulose. Heating it more would have been better but unlike regular sugar, allulose begins to burn at a lower temperature.

  4. While waiting for the sugar to get to temperature, I prepared the pan by generously coating it in coconut oil.

  5. Once the sugar reached the temperature, the mixer was started on a medium low speed, and it was poured carefully against the side of the bowl into the mixer. The goal here is to avoid hitting the spinning whisk which will scatter the sugar mixture against the sides of the bowl.

  6. The mixer speed was then increased to medium high and whipped until the mixture was airy and pale. The tangerine flavoring and a few drops of orange gel food coloring were added and the mixture continued to whip until lukewarm to the touch.

    Be careful with flavoring, this particular bran I used required just a few drops to impart enough flavor and more was overwhelming.

  7. When thick and cool enough, the mixture was poured out into the prepared pan and left uncovered overnight.

  8. Using additional coconut oil and an oiled knife, the marshmallows were cut to the desired size and very lightly coated in corn starch. This is optional but does help a good bit with keeping the marshmallows separated.

These marshmallows came out incredible. Almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Allulose is always my choice for a non-sucrose (table sugar) sweetener because it has nearly no off flavors and is not poisonous to animals, unlike xylitol. The texture of these marshmallows is also very light, bouncy, and jiggly. Even these videos can’t really portray how nice these came out but I hope it helps at least.

 

References

https://www.gnom-gnom.com/paleo-keto-marshmallows

Parent Notebook

Marshmallows

Vanilla Marshmallows: Test 1

Vanilla Marshmallows: Test 2

These classical vanilla marshmallows will blow away the store bought version. Light, airy, delicate, and richly vanilla flavored.

  • 1 cup water (divided)
  • 3 packets Knox unflavored gelatin
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2 tsps vanilla paste
  • ¼ cup corn starch
  • ¼ cup powdered sugar

  1. Before starting, it’s best to prepare the container where the marshmallow will set. I used a quarter sheet pan, sprayed with baking spray and dusted with a mixture of 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1/4 cup corn starch. You want to dust the pan generously with no bald patches or even thin patches. Marshmallow is very very sticky.

  2. The gelatin and 1/2 cup of water were added to the standing mixer bowl, mixed, and allowed to bloom.

  3. In the meantime, the corn syrup, sugar, salt and the remaining 1/2 cup of water were added to a medium pot set with a candy thermometer over medium high heat.

  4. You do not have to mix the sugars but you can before heating. I found that regardless, as the mixture heats, it all mixes together. The sugar mixture was brought to 240°F.

  5. As my mixture got close to the desired temperature I got the mixer running with a whisk attachment on medium low speed. On my mixer this was roughly speed 3-6 out of 12. Once the temperature is achieved, the sugar was carefully poured down the side of the mixer bowl. Be careful not to have the sugar mixture hit the whisk as it’s spinning by because this will throw it around the bowl instead of getting it into the he gelatin. This is also why I prefer to keep the speed relatively low while I’m pouring the hot sugar in.

  6. Once all the sugar mixture was added, I Increased the speed to medium high, which on my mixer is somewhere in the 8-10 range. Then, I left it to whip for a while.

  7. At this point it was good to add my flavoring. For this recipe I used vanilla but other flavored extracts can be added at this point or gel food coloring if desired.

  8. I let the marshmallow continue to whip until the bowl was only lukewarm. I don’t like to let it cool further because it makes it hard to handle the marshmallow once it starts to set or when it’s whipped too much. This is one of those situations where a little experience helps. You want the marshmallow thick with enough air whipped in but not so thick that it’s hard to spread or it starts to set on you.

  9. When the marshmallow was cool enough to handle and whipped enough to my liking, it was scraped out into he prepared quarter sheet and left uncovered for at least a few hours, though better if overnight.

  10. Finally, the marshmallow was cut using a pizza cutter because it’s easier than using a knife, and generously dusted with more of the corn starch and powdered sugar mixture.

This yielded a very light and delicate marshmallow. I make these every year for the holidays and enjoy it immensely as do all of my relatives and friends. If, for some reason, you’re looking for that store bought texture, feel free to let these treats go stale and you will have a very similar product. (That was definitely a back handed insult to store bough marshmallows)

Refrences

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-marshmallows-recipe-1953933

Parent Notebook

Marshmallows

Pita Bread: Test 1

Source

Total time: 1.5 hours
Yield: 20 small pitas

Equipment

Standing Mixer
Parchment paper
Rolling pin.

Ingredients

32g (1 1/2 Tbsps) granulated sugar
7g (1 Tbsp) active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1kg all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups water

Procedure

  1. To keep the dough from drying out I brought out all of my kitchen towels (6-8) and had cut out 20 roughly 6×6 inch sheets of parchment on which my rolled out pitas could rest.
  2. S
  3. ugar, yeast and 1/2 cup lukewarm water were added to the standing mixer and allowed a few minutes for the yeast to activate. You can tell it’s ready for use when a thin layer of yeast foam forms on the surface.
  4. Once the yeast was ready, the flour, salt, olive oil and 1 cup of water were added to the mixer. The dough hook was attached and the mixer started on low to get everything incorporated. As the mixer was running, another 1 1/2 cup of water was added. The mixture was pretty sticky at this point but let the mixer run another 5 minutes or so and it should stiffen a bit and become more easily handled. Keep the dough covered in the next few steps so it doesn’t dry out.
  5. The dough was divided into 20 equal pieces. I had balls of dough at roughly 80g each. You don’t have to weigh them out if you’re not as obsessive as I am. You’re welcome to simply cut the dough to roughly the right size and take the risk of making uneven pitas, disappointing your parents and burning in the fires of bread hell. As you’re dividing the dough, keep it covered so it doesn’t dry out.
  6. Take each piece of dough and roll it out to roughly 1/4 inch thickness and as round as you can and place the rolled pita on a piece of parchment. I highly recommend not using too much flour so you don’t end up with a thick flour coating on your final product but using enough that the dough is thoroughly covered so it doesn’t stick. Delicate balances in standards are part of being human, you should be used to it by now or it’s time to come to terms with the hypocrisy. For bread God’s sake, keep the dough covered so it doesn’t dry out.
  7. I heated up as many skillets as I could get to the same temperature (three). I don’t have actual temperature readings but on my electric stove top, exact medium is the setting that works best. You want to get your pitas to get a nice deep brown coloring after 3ish minutes.
  8. When my skillets were heated enough and/or I got tired of waiting, the pitas were removed from the parchment and placed in the pan with the parchment side down. This is not arbitrary, the parchment side is wetter. I found that if the wetter side faced up, I had more large localized bubbles forming instead of the beginning of a nice pocket.
  9. The pita was left alone until a large bubble began to form. Giving it enough time is the key to creating a good pocket. If you’re failing to create pockets, give you pitas more time on this first side. Once a decent sized bubble was forming, I flipped it and let it keep cooking until the pita puffs fully into a little bread pillow.
  10. When my pitas ran into issues and they wouldn’t rise I would often try to flip the pita again. This fixed the issue about 50% of the time. Once in a while, the pita just refused. These unpuffed pitas became great snacks while cooking or for those visitor that come sniffing about to see if maybe there are any discards. With practice you can eliminate disgraceful flat pitas but then what will you feed your nosy visitors?
  11. Lastly, you can tell your pita is done cooking when there are no shiny bits of dough anywhere. They will get all matte all around. Shiny=raw dough, matte=cooked.

Results

These pitas come out the way I remember them from my childhood in Israel. They are fluffy, pillowy, light, and pocketed. I also love that this recipe does not require any rising time for the dough and instead takes advantage of the amount of time it takes to handle each piece of dough and the natural process of creating this bread.

Notebook

Pita Bread

Two-Toned Croissant: Test 2

Source

Exploratory Kitchen

Yield: 12 Croissants
Active Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 3 days

Equipment

Standing mixer
Rolling pin

Ingredients

1 batch of basic croissant dough
125g all-purpose flour
35g water
35g whole milk
14g granulated sugar
10g softened unsalted butter
3g active dry yeast
3g salt
Gel food color

Procedure

  1. To my standing mixer, equipped with the dough hook, I added the flour, water, milk, sugar, softened butter, yeast, and salt. Then I let my mixer run on low speed for 5 minutes. Because of how little dough there was, the mixer was not effective and I switched to hand kneading. As I was forming the dough I added some gel color until I achieved the desired brightness. I wasn’t using high quality food coloring and ended up having to use more gel then I would normally have liked. It did add a bit of moisture to the dough but I ignored it as it wasn’t significant enough.
  2. When the croissant dough was ready, I simply rolled out this colored dough to about 1/4 inch thickness before pulling the croissant dough from the fridge. The colored dough was placed on top of the croissant dough so that the croissant dough was fully covered before rolling them both out and shaping as desired. Treat the colored dough the same as part of the croissant dough. The baking time and instructions were not altered for the two toned croissants.

Results

This experiment resulted in a vibrant colored dough which retained its elasticity. I have never seen it create the same air pockets as the rest of the croissant dough but I suspect this is because I don’t fold any butter into it and maybe the extra moisture from the gel food coloring didn’t do it any favors either. I would love to repeat this test with better quality food coloring.

Notebook

Croissants

Basic Croissant Dough: Test 2

Source

Classic French croissant recipe

Yield: 12 Croissants
Active Time: 4 hours
Total Time: 3 days

Equipment

Standing mixer
Rolling pin
Parchment paper
Paring knife
Ruler

Ingredients

500g all-purpose flour
140g water
140g whole milk
55g granulated sugar
40g softened unsalted butter
11g active dry yeast
12g salt
280g cold unsalted butter
1 large egg

Procedure

Day 1

  1. To my standing mixer, equipped with the dough hook, I added the flour, water, milk, sugar, softened butter, yeast and salt. Then I let my mixer run on low speed for 5 minutes. The only thing to keep in mind in this step is that over-mixing your dough will make it less elastic which will make stretching and folding later on more difficult. This is why I kept the kneading to 5 minutes or less on low speed.
  2. Once the dough was ready, I turned it out onto some plastic wrap, wrapped it tightly, and refrigerated it. Because I did this, you guys now get to know that this is a bad idea. Yeasted dough expands, do not wrap this dough in plastic, instead put it into a large bowl with a lid. This will give it space to expand while keeping it from drying out.

Day 2

  1. This is definitely the most work intensive day for this project and you need about 3 hours of time. I started by taking out my butter from the fridge or even freezer and weighing. The butter I use is very soft (Kerrygold) due to its high fat content. If you’re using a store brand butter, it will be hard to work with straight out of the freezer.
  2. Once I had the correct amount of butter ready, I start slicing it into half inch thick slices. I tried hard to keep them the same width to make it easier later. I arranged these slices into a square roughly 6-7 inches wide on some parchment paper to make the butter easier to handle. Don’t over think this part because you’re going to be rolling this out and cutting it anyway.

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  3. I then rolled my butter out to about 9-10 inches between two sheets of parchment. At this stage my butter chunks fused into a large slab. I cut the edges to make the slap more square and Placed the cut bits back on top and reroofed. I used the parchment paper and my fingers to shape it as well. Do whatever you can to get this thing mostly square and roughly 9 inches on each side.
  4. Once my butter was a shape I was happy with, it went into the fridge while I worked on rolling out my dough. I fished out the dough from the previous day which should have puffed a bit overnight.
  5. I rolled this dough out into a 13 to 14 inch square on a very lightly floured surface. Try to use only as much flour as is necessary to avoid toughening your dough as you repeatedly Rolls it out. If you want advice on how to Roll a square successfully, I’m sure there are good YouTube videos out there. I am still mastering this skill myself but essentially I found that a combination of things gives decent results. When you put your dough on your surface it will be rounded. Use your rolling pin to indent a cross in the dough and then rolling from the middle out towards each corner. This will get your shape started. Shape it with your hands or bench scraper as you go and try to roll mostly from the middle. Binge watch some of Great British Baking Show, they have examples of this every so often and it’s a great show!
  6. Once I was happy with my dough square, I got that butter out and put it so that the corners of my butter were against the sides of my dough square. Like a buttery diamond on my square dough. Then I folded the corners of my dough to the middle so the butter was fully enveloped

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  7. My butter encased in dough was then rolled, still from middle out, along just one axis until I had a long sheet that was about 30 inches in length. I then folded it into thirds like a letter and placed it on a small cutting board. It was then covered in plastic to keep it from drying out and placed int he fridge for 1 hour.
  8. After an hour, the dough was brought out again and rolled out again To roughly 30 inches. I like to keep my open ends facing up and down and rolling it out towards the open ends. This way each time I fold, fridge and roll, it is rolled in a different direction. This dough is rolled out so much that resting the dough, relaxing the gluten, and the rolling direction are very important.
  9. Again, the dough was folded in thirds and refrigerated for an hour.
  10. Repeat steps 7 and 8 one more time and leave the dough to rest in the fridge overnight. If you’re following along with the math, this will results in 27 layers.

Day 3

  1. Finally, this is the day when I got to shape and bake my croissants. Get ready to tap into those geometry classes. The dough was removed from the fridge and rolled out to a 1/8 inch thickness. As I rolled the dough and handled it, it continued to proof and thicken. This is expected and nothing to worry about but I aimed for a thinner dough this time to avoid the oversized croissant issue I had in Test 1.
  2. I trimmed the sides of the dough so that I had straight edges. For my second attempt I decided to get more creative with my shapes. I made the same rolls as I did in the first test but I cut them to 3 by 6 inches this time. I also tried these fancy square pastries that I topped with fruit which were 4 x 4 inches before cutting and folding the corners over.
  3. These for made for an event for which I knew time would be tight. Previous testing has shown that once formed, this dough freezes very well and so I tightly wrapped the formed croissants in the baking sheet with plastic wrap. On baking day I defrosted them for 2 hours before proofing. This whole step is completely optional though.
  4. Once the croissants were formed and arranged on the baking sheet, I whisked together the egg and about half a cup of water to create my egg wash which I strained and added to a spray bottle. The croissants were sprayed with the egg wash to prevent the dough from drying during their long rise. I recoated them as I felt necessary to keep the croissant from drying out and once more just before baking.
  5. The croissants were left to rise for 1 hour. You can tell when they’re fully proofed when the croissants are a bit jiggly when you poke them. Unfortunately I ran out of time and they were slightly under proofed but they seemed to still be good. A full 2 hours proof would have been better.
  6. To reduce the browning on top which was severe in Test 1, I moved my croissants to the lower third of the oven and to ensure they are fully baked they were baked at 390 for 22 minutes.

Results

These were very successful. The flavor was good, they did not expand as much in the oven though that may be in part to them being under-proofed. Despite the time constraint, they came out quite good and very close to what I would expect from a real bakery.

Notebook

Croissants

Cranberry Sauce Muffins: Test 1

Source

Cranberry Sauce Muffins Recipe Perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas Breakfast

Total time: 45 minutes
Yield: 12 large muffins

Equipment

Mixer
12 cup muffin tin
Muffin cups

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup cranberry sauce or pulp
1/4 cup crystalline sugar (optional)

Procedure

  1. I started by preheating the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In my standing mixer (though you can use a bowl and hand mixer easily here) I mixed together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  2. I got lazy and just tossed all the wet ingredients in next, sans egg shells (don’t be a smart ass). The cranberry sauce can be the pulp left over from making cranberry jelly, leftovers of your cranberry jam or store bought. I would recommend to use something with actual fruit bits in it for texture. I also would be hesitant to use something like cranberry relish here, I worry there is too much water, though maybe it would work, I haven’t tried.
  3. Then turn on your mixer and get things thoroughly mixed but don’t overwork it. Get it so the batter looks the same throughout but don’t leave it running for an hour. You want to work it less if possible which will ensure less gluten development which means your muffins will be lighter. Think of gluten as binding power, we don’t want a lot of that in a muffin.
  4. I divided these into 12 muffins. This meant that my muffin cups were full almost to the top and is why my muffins have that awesome dome on top. Don’t be afraid of overflowing your muffins, they’re going to be great.
  5. I sprinkled some of that crystalline sugar for a fancy muffin effect. This is a personal choice, they’re great without this too.
  6. I baked these for 22 minutes and even remembered to rotate the pan half way through.

Results

I am in love with these muffins for a few reasons. Firstly, I hate waste and cranberry sauce never gets finished so this satisfies my obsession with using up all leftovers. Second, when they actually get a few minutes to cool before you try to eat them, they develop this crust on top that is incredible. I have rarely been able to achieve this in a homemade muffin. Lastly, they look so darn good! I mean look at those domes!

Notebook

Fruit Muffins

Cranberry Jelly: Test 1

Source

The Exploratory Kitchen

Total time: 3 hour 15 minutes

Yield: 2 cups

Equipment

Small pot
Fine-mesh strainer

Ingredients

2 12oz bag of cranberries
2 cups sugar
2 oranges, juiced
1 orange peeled rind
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick

Procedure

  1. All ingredients were combined in a small pot and set over medium heat. You could see it foam up as the cranberries begin to pop. Slowly the foam subsides and the berries all burst, the mixture thickens to a thick paste even when hot. This did not take long, roughly 15 minutes. You can see the progression of the consistency in the small gallery below. Towards the end I did start helping the berries pop to speed things up.
  2. This mixture was then strained into a clean bowl. It is a bit of a process but not so bad. I simply used a rubber spatula to help push the juice through the mesh. Remember to remove precious juice from the underside of the strainer where it likes to collect. Your efforts should be rewarded with a beautiful clarified cranberry juice. Pour this juice into any container. A mason jar will give you the iconic canned look or a beautiful mold can turn this into an elegant presentation.
  3. I refrigerated my jelly overnight but let it cool for at least 3 hours before unmolding.
  4. I tend to not be in a hurry so I prepared my jelly for unmolding by simply letting it sit on the counter while I cleaned the kitchen and prepped my food. You could also carefully run some hot water for a few seconds over the mold. This should loosed the sides enough to allow your cranberry jelly to come out cleanly.
  5. DO NOT THROW OUT THAT PULP! Cranberry sauce muffins are a great way to us it up!

Notebook

Cranberry Condiments

Cranberry Jam: Test 1

Source

The Exploratory Kitchen

Total time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2 cups

Equipment

Small pot

Ingredients

1 12oz bag of cranberries
1 cups sugar
1 orange, juiced
1/2 orange peeled rind
1 star anise
1/2 cinnamon stick

Procedure

  1. All ingredients were combined in a small pot and set over medium heat. You could see it foam up as the cranberries begin to pop. Slowly the foam subsides and the berries all burst, the mixture thickens to a thick paste even when hot. This did not take long, roughly 15 minutes. You can see the progression of the consistency in the small gallery below. Towards the end I did start helping the berries pop to speed things up.
  2. Before storing, remove the orange peel and large spices. Can be canned or just refrigerated. Lasts quite a few weeks in the fridge.

Notebook

Cranberry Condiments

Cranberry Relish: Test 1

Source

The Exploratory Kitchen

Total time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2 cups

Equipment

Food Processor

Ingredients

1 12oz bag of cranberries
2 small apples
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 orange, peeled
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Procedure

  1. I started by adding the cranberries, the whole peeled orange, nutmeg, ginger and 1 cup of sugar to the food processor and running it until finely pureed. When I tasted it at this point, it was too tart and I opted for another 1/4 cup of sugar. The relish was still too tart! My solution this time was to add two apples that I had on the verge of going bad. It worked! It brought the tartness down quite a bit but now the whole thing was too sweet. Omit that last 1/4 cup is my recommendation and you’ll have a well balanced relish.
  2. Throw it into a storage container. You’re done. How easy was that? This should last at least 2 weeks though I’ll keep you posted as mine sits in the fridge. At 2 weeks it’s still going strong. I suspect it will ferment sooner than spoil.

Notebook

Cranberry Condiments