Thanksgiving Bread Baking Palooza and New Happenings

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving (I know I'm a few weeks late.) I had been baking up a storm the days leading up to the feast, wanting to get rid of as much wheat flour I had in the house as possible. I made about three pounds of Pain a l'Ancienne. The French bread was delicious, with a perfect chew and springy texture. We had a big group of ten eaters for the special day and everyone raved about this bread. In addition, I made three babkas with freshly toasted hazelnuts and a nutmeg dark chocolate ganache. I tried a new take on babka and used all cake flour, and it turned out just fine and tasty.

All the goodness aside, I'm turning a new leaf, and have to rid gluten, all gluten, from my diet. For years I've been struggling with lots of health issues, including vitamin deficiencies, unidentified weight gain, weird moodiness, consistent fatigue, and all points towards Celiac Disease. I found out on my birthday that I'd need to be making this diet/life change. So, yesterday was my first full week of gluten free and I see a difference in how I feel already. I won't pretend I didn't cry over the fact that my hobby was hurting me, and I was baking bread so well. I'm embarking on a new baking journey and all I can say is thank god macarons are gluten free.

Take Five: Macaron, Flax Seed Meal, Chocolate Chili Ganache

What's the worst sweet to make on a rainy, humid day? Macarons. The weather didn't stop me though; I'm such a rebel. You'll notice in the first picture, the egg whites and granulated sugar mixture were colored with some teal gel. By the end of the process, there's barely a hint of the blue. I tried. 

I didn't have almond meal, but I had a full bag of ground flax seed meal. I subbed the 46 grams almond meal, equal measure, with the flax, and 75 grams of powdered sugar. I used 42 grams of egg white, from a store bought ready to go egg white container, with 10 grams of granulated sugar. 

I used a disposable piping bag and generic round tip. I attempted to be careful not to deflate the mixture, but I'm going to be frank and say the flax meal makes a mess in the piping bag, and gives a grittier texture to the meringue. 

I overfilled the macaron circles on the silpat. I'll admit I didn't read the directions twice, just once very quickly. I did let these rest for 30 minutes until they had a bit of a skin or film on the top. I always thought macarons were temperamental, but they can be somewhat forgiving. Somewhat. I've made these before so the method wasn't foreign to me. I very much prefer the French method over the Italian. 

I preheated the oven on convection bake at 300 degrees F. I then lowered temp, and the meringues baked on 280 degrees F for 25 minutes, which may be a tad too much depending on the oven. I checked to see that they meringues peeled freely, enough, from the silpat at 20 minutes. While they cooled, I whisked together a quick semi sweet chocolate and chili powder ganache with a teaspoon of butter and quarter cup of unsweetened almond milk (vanilla). I was thrilled the meringues got some great feet. 

I ended up with an extra meringue, and I fear I may have over cooked them. I suppose they may become a bit chewier overnight. An important point to mention is that you can freeze macaron; you don't have to eat them all right away! Store in freezer paper in freezer ready plastic ware.

Take Four: Babka, Streusel & Cheese

I'm telling you I followed the recipe exactly as written--I also just discovered there is a proof function on the oven--*sigh*--and I had to crank the oven up, way up and the baking time is nearly doubled. Where did I go wrong? I hope this is a 2016 finale, and not a sign of what is to come, which would possibly a cheesy mess? 

I made a Streusel & Cheese Babka from Uri Scheft's Breaking Breads. Or rather I should say, I got a version of it. As I type, the babka "thing" is cooling. I used King Arthur Cake Flour (unbleached) and their AP flour for the streusel.

Before going into the oven (I let the dough prove for an hour)

Close up of the raw streusel top (butter, flour, sugar, vanilla extract)

Edible concoction? Baked for approximately 30 minutes in total, anywhere from 325 degrees F to 400 degrees F convection

Edible concoction? 

UPDATE: I am not thrilled with this babka dessert by any means. The texture of the streusel and cheese layers are great, but the babka cake is dry and didn't rise much, if at all. I'm wondering if I kneaded the dough incorrectly, or if I rolled it out too much (deflating the CO2 from the dough). The flavor is a bit bland for my taste. I even added additional citrus, some grated orange peel, but it seems like it would be happier with a layer of lemon curd, or something. Seriously, it needs some personality. I think I'll try plopping some apricot jam on the top tomorrow.

Also, it's New Year's Eve and I'll be serving this babka sheet as dessert (eventually with some powdered sugar on top) to my family. I'm not big on holidays; I have anxiety, which isn't new if you've read my other blog(s) or know of me through some other avenue, about whether or not I'll get up in the morning. As I've mentioned before, I've found some solace, or so I thought, in baking. I'm kidding, about the babka; it smells delicious and I know what I put into it tasted good. But about myself, I've almost been meditating for a full year, but have gotten away from longer meditations lately. I won't be setting any resolutions. January 1st is another day. Change can occur at any moment and I certainly don't need to be lumped in with basic bitches, whatever they are. I will say that instead of my usual, "I wanna lose the 20 pounds," I'd rather do more and have more fun in 2017. I'd like to create many more delicious things to share, and hopefully, those things I've wanted will come along anyway. 

Happy New Year! xoxo 

Ari