Rulloff's Restaurant

Yay, dinner at a restaurant-bar-type place: Rulloff's. Do I feel like an adult? Do I feel comfortable with a beer at the table (not on my side)?
What a peculiar lifestyle.
We sat at a table next to the only wall-window in the place. Happy Chowder-TV-show type music played in the background, which later switched into some sort of jazzy fling. There were ceiling fans, dim lighting, and a dusty cabinet.

I asked for clam chowder because I've had a fortnight-long craving for it (specifically, in a bread bowl, but they don't have bread bowls). However, I was later told that they had run out from lunch time. This was completely fine with me. I know this happens. At least they make it fresh?
AK (not to be confused with AK from high school) got French Onion Soup which tasted pretty good.

 He also got a pulled pork sandwich and sweet potato fries. The pulled pork sandwich came in a burger bun, which was unexpected but extremely tasty. I had no idea that pulled pork was so succulent and the BBQ
sauce wasn't overwhelmingly sweet. I also haven't had sweet potato fries in 2 years and these were excellent.

 Instead of clam chowder, I got the California burger with potato fries. The burger had a smidge of guacamole and baby sprouts which were pretty good since I've only ever had mung bean sprouts that look like this. The cow part was also really chewy and umami. It was a nice meal except I felt a bit hurried. Maybe I eat too slowly, or maybe the waitress was bored. We weren't left alone for more than 10 minutes at a time. I kinda wish the place was more crowded (though, as primarily(?) a bar, the place was near empty at 7 pm) so that I would've had an entire hour or two to nibble on food and people-watch.

Baguettes (from May)

After Finals were over, I decided to make bread the night before I moved out. Packing? Psh, I could do that later. (But it actually turns out that I can just throw all my stuff into canvas bags).

I decided to make baguettes because I don't like turning the oven up to a high temperature at home, whereas it's fine in my dorm's kitchen where the heat doesn't cling onto you like duct tape. I also really love baguettes. All day every day.



Although these aren't exactly authentic because they're kind of dense...I think they pass. I don't remember exactly what recipe I used, and now I can't find it online, but I think it was this:
10 g active dry yeast
680g flour? Some mix of white and whole wheat
330 ml water?
Some salt...

I had to knead the dough for at least 10 minutes before everything was incorporated. Halfway through, I started to believe that there wasn't enough water (because it was pretty floury) but after a lot of kneading, the dough becomes really hydrated and sticky.

I think I let it sit for 1.5 h? Then I formed the baguettes, and let it sit for another hour. It is unfortunate that I don't remember the steps...

After rising, they go in the preheated oven with a metal container of about 50 ml water that will create a lot of steam. The steam in the oven emulates conventional baguette ovens that have steam injected in during baking. Refer to here to learn why steam helps with crust formation.

I liked this so much I gave some to my GA, SP's mum, and friends. It needs bigger holes though (too dense and not as chewy at the moment).

Croissants & Pain Au Chocolats

How do I cook badly? Let me count the ways.
1. Age 11: The first time I made potato/carrot pancakes, I added way too little oil. Result? No dinner and a super dirty frying pan.
2. Age 18: I thought it'd be smart to make lime pie filling with all aspartame/sucralose and no sugar. Of course, nothing set, and everything tasted metallicky and nauseating.
3. Age 14: I made a red currant tart without a recipe, and I recall only putting in a few teaspoons of sugar (resulting in a tremendously sour tart that everyone else pretended to enjoy).
4. Age 14: Oh, and that apple pie made with semi-rehydrated dried apple.
5. Age 14: Nutella cookies that were as hard as hardtack and as strong as steel. Those days...
6. Age 15(?): Silken tofu chocolate pudding, which turned into a watery drink instead.
7. Age 13: Bread. Everyone else in Food Tech managed to get risen loaves, while SC and I were left with hardtack studded with pistachios, even though we all used the same yeast. This bread problem also came up last week.

The common element in these failures is that after just one or two tries, I succeeded. So, I knew that, at some point or another, I was going to be able to work with yeast, and make croissants. Croissants are just extremely time-consuming and also really time-dependent. It's like performing a Western blot (but more fun)! Unfortunately, out of all dessert items, SP chooses to like pain au chocolats ("chocolate bread", which is a rectangle of croissant dough with a stick or two of chocolate in the middle), and he said he'd do anything for me if I made these for him for his birthday. And who wouldn't be willing to exchange pain au chocolats for an electric broccoli trimmer with detachable non-electric cauliflower trimmer[start at 2:04]?
The recipe I used initially was this French one. After failing with it twice, I did some research and found an English recipe written by a French guy, Louis la Vache, who used tremendous detail and stressed the importance in all these fridge times. However, I also found a really quick croissant recipe that I will try later (if I can find it!) because it looks MUCH less time-consuming than the 12-hour process I finally followed.
Two months ago, I attempted to make croissants with yeast, and the dough wouldn't rise (the dough was in the sun, perhaps 20-30 degrees C for over 4 hours). Despite the fact that the yeast were obviously dead (and I should've just made tortillas instead). I figured I should go ahead and make the croissants with the unleavened dough, and I got cute little croissants whose hardness matched a 7 on the Mohs scale. Heh, at least the layering idea worked - vital for photogenic and flaky croissants.

A few days later, I decided to make them again. Unfortunately, I reduced all the fridge times (seeing as I really didn't understand that the dough actually RISES while in the fridge!). I scaled down the recipe, even though the yeast to flour ratio is probably not linear, and also probably accidentally killed off half my yeast with the too-hot milk. The dough rose a bit, but it was insignificant compared to the dough my mum was using to make Chinese steamed buns - mantou (馒头)! The butter kept oozing out of the too-thin layers, and everything was just messy. Either way, these failures were eaten and enjoyed, slightly (more avidly by my sister, who likes anything buttery).

So, after the past week of buying new yeast, successfully making bread twice, and healing from the failed croissant scars, I set to make croissants and pain au chocolats for SP, this time using une recette de Louis la Vache.

I only used 7 g of yeast (1 package) because not only do I have a small bowl, but I also didn't want to have another failure. I also used a lot more flour than expected! These are just what I did, and I would prefer to go back to the original recipe when making these again.

Ingredients I used:

1 tbsp white flour
1 stick butter

2.5 c white flour (+ more... I might've used 3 - I just kept adding tbsp by tbsp)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp granulated sugar
7 g (1 sachet) yeast
1/8 c 30 degree C water
1 c 30 degree C milk

1 egg yolk
2 tbsp water

Notes on the Method:
1. The dough rises in the fridge! This was the biggest surprise, because I didn't think that yeast would be so active at 4 degrees C. This means that for the least usage of energy, the croissants would be best made in the winter, when I can leave the dough to rise outside in the cold (and after baking, the oven can be let open to keep me warm)! Look at that risen dough!
2. The first dough rise was about 70 minutes. The second was about an hour, and the third was 5 hours. Then, they were rolled out, and that dough was chilled for 15 minutes (just so that rolling it would be easier - so the butter wouldn't melt onto my hands or table). Then, the rolled-up croissants/pains were left at room temperature for 1 hour to rise a bit more. They actually rose (unlike what I had before, pictured below).

I wanted the croissants to be baked by midnight, and I started kind of late in the day, so I was operating on a tight schedule! They actually started baking at 10:00pm, and I was on my way to SP's place at 10:30pm! 12 hours on the dot (or maybe I started at 11am...)!

3. I used a plastic bag instead of plastic wrap because the bag is reusable. I also mixed the butter and flour in a plastic container, which resulted in broken blobs of butter on the dough, which wasn't a huge deterrent, but my technique could definitely be improved.

4. I used a paper towel instead of a tea towel because I don't have clean towels :(. The damp paper towel didn't stick too much to the dough, especially if you pull it off slowly and carefully. Excellent.

5. The butter was generally too warm, and probably fell into chunks while I was rolling. The table got a bit buttery. I used my room's desk (cleaned it beforehand, but I feel like I should've done an ethanol cleaning yesterday) because there is just no space in the kitchen. Next time, I would put way more flour onto the table.

6. The dough was extremely soft and, at times, sticky. Everything must be generously coated with flour!! As I was rolling, I could hear the bubbles popping, and the dough reminded me of marshmallows, mochi, and pillows. Certainly, this is NOT what I saw the last two times I made croissant dough!

7. For the egg wash, I used an egg yolk and 2 tbsp of water. There was probably enough wash leftover for 2 croissants. I painted on the egg wash right before putting the trays in the preheated oven (no skimping for this...). The oven is too small to fit 3 trays on one rack, so the pain au chocolats got the bottom rack. For this particular oven, everything was done between 17 and 20 minutes, and the tops were golden brown and quite close to being burnt.

8. My final yield was 6 pain au chocolats and 10 croissants. I could've made 12-13 pain au chocolats, or 18-19 croissants.


Pictures of Method:

Dough rose in the fridge!! 70 minutes.

Package of butter.

Rolled out package of butter.

Folding like an letter, then folding like a book.

Folded! Fridge time! (1 h)

Covered with damp paper towel while rising - no plastic.

After hour of rising.

500 g of chocolate!

Rolling number 2! Note the bubbles!

5 h in fridge, in damp paper towel and plastic bag.

After the rise.

I saw this idea of cutting a slit online and it seems to help in rolling a more evenly-tall croissant.

There were four Asiago cheese croissants. Those did not rise as well in the next hour, but still baked well.

Rolling pain au chocolats - I used two sticks each.

Before rise.

After rise (and rearrangement). The cheese ones are the top left; they are smaller...

Egg wash! I used the brush I got for $1 at the Penn Moves sale this June!

Taste? Phenomenal! Crispy on the outside, flaky layers on the inside! Not too salty and not too sweet, and perfectly buttery. I've never had a croissant IN France (even though I've been there twice...sad, I know. It's like how I've been to Japan, but only sampled half of a tamagoyaki nigiri on the plane back...no other sushi!), but I'd imagine it's something as fresh and delicious as this (and correctly-sized). It doesn't look like the croissants I've seen in books or on photogenic food sites, with holes the size of ice cubes, but SP assured me that real croissants have layers you can peel and don't have giant holes. He was able to peel his pain au chocolat into layers during his lunch and apparently it made him very happy. So, thank you, Louis la Vache!

This is a quote from him:
Those pains au chocolats were amazing! They're the best ones I've ever had in the US.
[he's lived in France, and he indeed does constantly consume pain au chocolats]

So now, I feel like I can cook ANYTHING.

In other news, in the past few months, my 9 year-old sister made cornbread from a cornbread mix, using the toaster oven, at 7 in the morning for Mother's Day. She even made a glaze from scratch (by herself!!). I am pretty proud of her, especially as she said that I gave her the idea to make glaze (because we've cooked together so many times before). When I was 9, I knew how to fry super oily eggs and make scrumptious buttered toast. Actually, I may not have known how to fry eggs. She also apparently went on a pancake-making spree (from a pancake mix) when I was at school last semester. She also made a cake for Father's day. I suppose I should document her cooking experience here too, every once in a while.

Cheese croissant

Pain au chocolat, the next day.

I didn't have time to take glossy magazine-type photos because SP and I were too busy eating them and watching Adventureland.

BREAD!

I can successfully make bread (after failing to use yeast in baking 4 times in my life)! Wonderful news. Next semester, I'm going to bring a giant bowl for bread-making purposes. So simple and delicious! I expect to make many loaves of bread when I'm upset (often). Time to get that pound of yeast on Amazon :D

I reckon that I had too many dead yeast when I made yeast-leavened products. I'm not sure why it failed in Food Tech 6 years ago, but I think this is what happened the last three times:
1. Croissants - apparently, I used dead yeast, because there was no dough rise.
2. Croissants - some dough rise, but I probably killed off most of the yeast when I added water to proof it (water was probably too hot).
3. Bread - dough rose, but probably not enough. Then, the recipe said to stick it under steaming water in an oven for 30 minutes, and although the dough did rise a bit more, I promptly overbaked the dough and ended up with a biscuit thing.



Because there will be no more premature murdering of yeast, I now proclaim myself capable of baking yeast bread, using both instant and active dry yeast. Sure, it's not delicious bread yet, but it's perfectly finger-burning hot and mouthwatering. It's also not that difficult and makes my room smell like yeast (while dough is rising), and then bread (while bread is cooling).

So, what have I made?

On the 10th, SP and I used instant yeast to make "Fast French Rolls" by Mark Bittman. SP picked out the author, because he's apparently pretty cool. Notably, bread is something that SP has made before I have (he makes it with his mum).



For simplicity, we modified the recipe  so that I wouldn't have a few grams of yeast just lying around. We ended up with 9 rolls, and it took us 3 hours (of course, we did other stuff when the dough was rising).

Ingredients we used:
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour
2 tsp salt
1 packet of instant yeast (7g)
~2 cups of water (the recipe says to just keep adding tbsps until you get a nice dough. This was not very informative for people who have never successfully made bread before (me).

We followed the Method really closely until we got to shaping the rolls (I wanted to make baguettes, but the pans and oven are all too small). That's when we started squishing a lot of the dough, which probably resulted in our slightly dense bread. I suppose, for bread-making, preheating the oven actually IS important. Unfortunately, our bread didn't have a golden brown crust...but it was oh-so-crusty! I love crust, and SP loves crumb (the inside part of the bread). I envision a lot of bread sharing in the future.




So that was a success! The bread had a delicious crust, a dense interior, and was a bit too dry (a bit like stale bread). It tasted fine the next day, although SP didn't like it as much. I ended up bringing my whole wedge of Asiago cheese and a handful of arugula with me to work because I didn't have time to assemble a sandwich at home. I had to explain this to my co-workers, as I sat there, nibbling at the cheese! Unfortunately, I don't love Asiago - it's hard, sour/salty, a tad pungent, and really sharp. However, it's still a treat.

Today, I decided to make some dinner rolls, using the active dry yeast. Turns out that I AM capable of using both instant AND active dry yeast! I'm not sure which one I will buy in bulk though.

I made half of the recipe, but didn't use any eggs, but also used 1/4 cup of oil instead of 1/8.



Ingredient modifications for 24 SMALL (mochi sized) dinner rolls
1 packet active dry yeast
1 cup body temperature water
A few tbsp sugar
1/4 c oil
pinch of salt
1.5 c whole wheat flour
1 c white flour

I had some minor issues.

• First, my dough was a bit too gooey after it doubled in size. I still don't really know what "good" bread dough is supposed to be like, but this one looked a bit too spongy and soft. I blame it on the excess oil used (1/4 instead of 1/8...forgot to divide this!)
• Second, while making the rolls, I truly thought that 1/24 of the dough was too small to make a roll. Sure, mochi-sized bread is cute, but I wanted a dinner roll, the size of a tennis ball. So instead, I was going to divide the dough into 16 pieces. However, halfway through twisting off the dough pieces (this is probably bad technique), I realized that I'd have to figure out the baking time and temperatures for the bigger lumps of dough. So I re-rolled and twisted off 24 little blobs of dough, hoping that they would rise.
• Then, I decided to do the second dough rise in the non-baking pans (I put those in the oven to warm up). So, when I wanted to transfer the re-risen dough balls onto the oven pans, I ended up squashing every single perfectly round piece. It was a disaster. I was upset. I also merged some of the dough balls together because they were really small (and they baked completely normally). So I ended up with some rolls in the midst of cytokinesis.

I checked the oven every 5 minutes, and turned it off at 12 minutes. I then let the rolls sit in there for 3 minutes and then took the three pans out. They were cooked. Edible. Hot. Sort of crispy exterior, fluffy interior. I guess I wanted a chewy dinner roll. This roll was dry (sigh) and slightly bland. Well! Mini Asiago and arugula hamburgers for lunch tomorrow (minus the patty)!

Not bad for my first two real attempts at yeast bread-making; in fact, these were much better than the Olive Garden breadsticks (the worst, but my sister loves them). My baking can only get better.