Food « Goth Panda

March 22, 2011

Cast-Iron Pizza

I first tried making pizza on cast iron last fall, when it got too cold to use the outdoor grill. Cast iron holds a lot more heat than even a baking stone, so if you preheat the oven with the cast iron inside for a while, you can get higher temperatures for baking pizza. And high temperatures are the best thing for pizza, for the most part much higher than home ovens can ever achieve.

I started by baking smaller pizzas in my cast iron skillet, but after I was converted to the technique, I bought this:

Not only does it allow for larger size pizzas, but the flat design makes it easier to slide the pizzas on top without making a mess. I also always press my pizza dough out and bake it on parchment paper in order to avoid the collapse of a beautifully decorated pizza into a pile of toppings, sauce, and dough. I don’t trust that I will be able to make them slide off the peel with just cornmeal to assist.

I use the same dough that I used to make grilled pizza last summer.

I turn on the oven to start preheating the cast iron pan about 45-60 minutes before I want to start baking the dough. I press the dough into circles on the parchment and prick them with a fork to discourage bubbles. Then I parbake them for six minutes.

At that point, I take the dough out and top it. One of these is plain sauce and cheese and one has also sundried tomatoes. I also sprinkle some Pizza Seasoning on top. Then I put them back in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

I am glad I have my baking stone because I still think it is the best for baking bread on. But I think the cast iron technique gives you a better pizza crust, especially in the winter when grilling is out of the question. I can’t wait for warmer weather to start grilling my pizzas again, though.

Filed under: Not-So-Quick Vegetarian Dinners

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March 18, 2011

Cheddar, Parmesan, and Cracked Pepper Scones

I liked the looks of these savory scones as soon as Nicole at Pinch My Salt posted them.

The only changes I made to the recipe were to adapt my Buttermilk Biscuit techniques of grating the butter in the food processor (which I then handily used to grate the cheddar) and using a water spritzer since my dough was very dry. I also left out the hot sauce and smoked paprika, because although I was pretty sure I would like them, I was also pretty sure that Mike wouldn’t. I didn’t bother reserving some parmigiano for topping, and just mixed all of the cheese into the dough.

I also made these as eight full-size scones instead of 16 mini scones. This is because (as I said) my dough was very dry, and it took a few turns of spritzing it with water and folding it to get it to pull together into a cohesive dough. I was worried that I was working the dough too much, so I thought I would just stick with one dough wheel instead of separating the dough and reshaping it to make two.

These were delicious the night I baked them, but sadly scones and biscuits don’t stay good for long. This just means you should be excused for eating them all up right away. Just look at those cheesy, flaky layers!

Cheddar, Parmesan, and Cracked Pepper Scones

Adapted from Pinch My Salt

Yield: 8 full-size scones or 16 mini-scones.

1 1/4 cups cake flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 cup (one stick or 1/4 pound) cold unsalted butter, grated
1/2 cup shredded aged cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano Reggiano
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper, and ground mustard. Stir the grated butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the shredded cheddar and parmesan.

3. In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk and egg. Pour buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon just until a ball of dough comes together. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surfaced and knead a couple of times (using a bit of flour if the dough is too sticky or spritzing with a water bottle if it is too dry) just to bring the dough together.

4. For mini-scones, cut the dough into two equal pieces; for regular sized scones, do not divide. Flatten the dough into a circle, about 1″ thick. Cut the circle into 8 triangles and move them to a parchment-lined baking sheet.

5. Bake scones in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes for mini-scones and 25 minutes for full-sized scones, or until golden brown along the edges. Let cool on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes before eating. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.

Filed under: Breakfast

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March 16, 2011

Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins

So I think I mentioned in my post about Chocolate Chip cookies that I am not a fan of semi-sweet or bittersweet or dark chocolate, or anything in which the chocolate is not balanced by a goodly amount of sugar. I would actually rather have no chocolate bar than a dark chocolate bar. But the one place where I do prefer semi-sweet chocolate is in a good chocolate muffin. I avoided chocolate muffins for a long time, thinking that they would just be a pale imitation of a chocolate cupcake. But since I first tried one, I have grown fond of chocolate muffins on their own terms: not sweet and rich like a cupcake, but moist and light. And semi-sweet chips offset that perfectly in my opinion. Somehow milk chocolate would not do.

This is the second Dorie Greenspan muffin recipe I have tried, and if all of the recipes are as good as these simple muffin recipes, I can see why her books are so popular. The only thing I changed is that I used semi-sweet chocolate instead of bittersweet because that’s what I had. I read on the internet that you could interchange the two, except for semi-sweet would be a little sweeter, and let’s face it, for me that is almost never a bad thing. In the future I might use the ready made chips or chunks instead of having to chop my own. It wasn’t a big deal for the pieces that got melted with the butter, but I think the ones that got stirred into the muffins were too big. But I quickly got sick of chopping them, so they were probably not as small as they could have been. I think I also needed to bake these longer to get them thoroughly done, maybe 5 minutes more than the recipe says.

Chocolate-Chocolate Chunk Muffins

From Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan via Epicurious

Yield: Makes 12 muffins

3/4 of a stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used semi-sweet)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Melt the butter and half the chopped chocolate together in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water; or do this in a microwave. Remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg and vanilla extract together until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients and the melted butter and chocolate over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough—a few lumps are better than overmixing the batter. Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin molds.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Filed under: Breakfast

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March 14, 2011

Black Beans and Rice

I was thinking the other day that the vegetarian sloppy joe mixture would make a good topping for rice. However, I already have a go-to recipe for Black Beans and Rice, which is kind of a quintessential vegetarian dish.

This recipe is based on one by Simply Recipes, which is a great basic recipe to jump off from. This is one of the quickest recipes to make on a weeknight, and it has the added bonuses of being both delicious and nutritious. I added broth and tomato paste to make a little more of a sauce; you could substitute an equal amount of tomato sauce, or even a 14-oz can of diced tomatoes instead.

I used a roasted red pepper instead of a raw one, as suggested. In fact, I made this dish because I had a roasted red pepper in my refrigerator and I needed a use for it. When my peppers get to the end of the “good to use raw” stage, I roast them and refrigerate them to extend their lifespan a little.

Don’t forget that I don’t like my dishes too spicy, so you can definitely up the chili powder and cayenne to suit. This should taste spicy to you in the pan, because the rice and toppings cut the spiciness of the bean mixture when you serve it.

Black Beans and Rice

Adapted from Simply Recipes

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked white rice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped (or roasted red bell peppers)
3 cloves minced garlic
2 16-ounce cans of black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c vegetable stock
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp white vinegar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
Ground black pepper to taste
Juice from 1/2 lime
Cheddar cheese, chopped scallions, and sour cream for garnish

Method
Cook rice according to package instructions.

Heat oil in a large skillet on medium high. Sauté onions and bell peppers (if raw) for 3-4 minutes, until just beginning to soften, then add garlic and sauté a minute more. Add the black beans, red peppers (if roasted already), vegetable stock, tomato paste, vinegar, cayenne, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, squeeze lime juice into bean mixture and stir. Serve over rice, with cheddar cheese, scallions, and sour cream as garnishes.

Filed under: Quick Vegetarian Dinners

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March 11, 2011

Oatmeal and Brown Sugar Toasting Bread

I had a blogging dilemma last week because I tried a bread recipe that I found online, and it turned out absolutely horrible. And if the whole purpose of Goth Panda is to share recipes that I find that are great, do I have an obligation to post about recipes that don’t work or turn out badly? In the end, I decided to stick with posting only the ones I can endorse myself, and not the ones that don’t work out. But after that bad experience, I wanted to try a recipe that I knew would turn out great.

This recipe comes from the King Arthur Flour website, which (in case you are new here) is only one of my most favoritist internet sites ever. From it I can order hard-to-find bread baking ingredients, kitchen utensils that I may or may not need, and also find recipes that will take advantage of both of these.

This bread is hearty and nutritious, and not difficult to make at all. I did make a few changes to the recipe. I found that I needed to add more flour to the dough while kneading it. And I weighed the dough before shaping thought that it would be more suited to a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. It weighed slightly more than 36 oz.

It also took longer to bake to get to the correct internal temperature. The recipe says that the loaf has a tendency to overbrown (thus the tenting) and underbake in the middle, so this would probably be best to make if you have a thermometer to measure the internal temperature.

Oatmeal & Brown Sugar Toasting Bread

From the King Arthur Flour website

1 3/4 cups (14 ounces) boiling water
1 cup (3 1/2 ounces) rolled oats
1/2 cup (2 3/4 ounces) steel-cut oats or Irish oatmeal, uncooked
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) lightly packed brown sugar
2 3/4 cups (11 3/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces) Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dried milk
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the boiling water, oats, steel-cut oats and sugar. Stir the mixture once or twice to combine, then set it aside to cool to lukewarm. Measure out the remaining ingredients into another bowl and then add to the oat mixture, stirring till the dough starts to leave the sides of the bowl. Alternately, mix the dough with the stand mixer’s paddle attachment. In either case, then use the dough hook to knead for 5 to 8 minutes. Add more flour as necessary. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl or dough-rising bucket, cover the bowl or bucket, and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 1 hour, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and form it into a loaf. Place the loaf in a lightly greased 9 x 5-inch bread pan. Cover the pan and let the bread rise for 1 hour, or until it’s just crowned over the edge of the pan.

Bake the bread in a preheated 375°F oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until it’s golden brown and its internal temperature is about 200°F. About halfway through the baking time, rotate the loaf pan and tent it lightly with aluminum foil. Remove the bread from the oven, and turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: 1 loaf.

Filed under: Bread

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