Archive for the ‘Breads, Muffins, and Scones’ Category

My Forever Female Moment

Wednesday, February 14th, 2024

Ginger Rogers and Paul Douglas

I recently found myself feeling like Ginger Rogers for the first (and probably last) time.

My friend Peter shot a video of me making focaccia recently. I hadn’t cooked on camera in several months. I was planning to make a heart-shaped loaf of this simple bread for Valentine’s Day, and I thought we might as well put it on video. We sent it to my friends at Mass Appeal, who aired it the very next day. I guess they had missed me!

When I watched the video, I had my Ginger Rogers moment.

It has been years since I saw the 1953 film Forever Female, but I remember its ending well.

The film is a gentler version of Sunset Boulevard. (No dead bodies!) Rogers plays Beatrice Page, a stage actress who falls in love with a script from a novice playwright (Holden) about a 19-year-old girl and her strong willed mother. Beatrice doesn’t want to play the mother. She has always played ingenues.

The playwright is smitten, and she persuades him to try rewriting the play to make the young woman just a bit older—say, 29. (I can relate. I was 29 for many, many years before jumping to my current official age of 39.)

A true ingenue played by Patricia Crowley wants both the part and the playwright. Holden’s character, Stanley, resists Crowley’s youth until he goes to visit Beatrice at her country home during her summer break from Broadway.

On vacation she lets herself be her age. She doesn’t get her hair styled, she gains a bit of weight, she eschews makeup, and she wears comfortable rather than glamorous clothes. Stanley is appalled to see his beloved looking so … old. (Rogers was in her early 40s when the film was made.)

All’s well that ends well, of course. Crowley is cast in the ingenue role, but thanks to Beatrice’s wise producer (also her ex-husband, played by the ever watchable character actor Paul Douglas) Beatrice shines in the role of the mother and gets rave reviews.

She soon realizes that growing older is not so bad—and that her middle-aged ex is a much more comfortable romantic partner than the younger Stanley.

The film has its flaws. The main one to me is that, true to Hollywood custom at the time, Holden is considered too young for Rogers (he was seven years her junior) but a perfectly appropriate match for Crowley, who was 15 years HIS junior.

Still, the film is kinder to the aging process than Sunset Boulevard. In the end, Beatrice is a heroine to be emulated.

Unfortunately, I felt that I emulated her a bit too much in my focaccia video. Over the past few months, as I tend to do as the weather cools, I have put on weight and let my hair go. So I was a bit appalled when I saw the video. I usually look pretty good on video, particularly when the camera remains above my waist, as I make sure it always does.

I am trying to reconcile myself to the winter me, reminding myself that if Ginger Rogers could let herself grow old, so can I. Nevertheless, the video has made me watch my food intake much more carefully. And I called my hairdresser to arrange to have my hair done soon.

Fortunately, the focaccia was delicious. I recommend this bread highly. Focaccia’s biggest selling point for a busy baker like me is that it is a no-knead bread. It does most of the work all by itself. After one proofs the yeast (which doesn’t take more than five minutes), one throws the dough together and then lets it rise for a couple of hours on its own, partly covered. The dough is a little messy looking at first, but it works out in the end.

After those two hours, one can either bake the bread right away or cover it completely and refrigerate it for several hours or overnight. I prefer the latter method; if you want to bake the bread right away, you’ll need to flour your hands well to keep the dough from being too sticky.

Focaccia’s other major virtue is its mixed consistency. The relatively large amount of water in the recipe helps the bread develop lots of holes, resulting in a chewy, airy loaf. The olive oil used to grease the pan and drizzle on top of the bread helps the top and bottom crisp up, contrasting nicely with the interior.

I bake my focaccia in a cast-iron skillet. If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, I heartily recommend that you go out and purchase one, The Lodge manufacturing company even pre-seasons its cast-iron products to make them easier to use.

If you don’t have the time or financial resources to get a cast-iron pan, you may of course use a well oiled cake pan or rimmed cookie sheet. Don’t forget to oil the sides as well as the bottom. Your focaccia may lose a little of its crispiness, but any homemade bread is better than none!

Like pizza crust, its thinner cousin, focaccia can be covered with a variety of toppings. My most recent loaf used only two (plus olive oil), aromatic rosemary and colorful Cheddar cheese. It was delicious.

Feel free to experiment with different herbs and cheeses, as well as vegetables and olives. My friend Vicky, who is more artistic than I, likes to use veggies to draw a colorful picture on her loaves. Extra salt crystals on top add zing.

This recipe makes a small loaf (heart shaped for Valentine’s Day, although that’s not obligatory), perfect for four people. The recipe may certainly be doubled. Just be sure to use a big enough pan to accommodate your dough.

Valentine Focaccia

Ingredients:
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon lukewarm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon active dry yeast (about 1/2 packet of yeast)
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
extra-virgin olive oil as needed
fresh or dried rosemary to taste (fresh is better)
1/2 to 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (or the cheese of your choice)

Instructions:

Combine the water and the sugar. Pour the yeast into that mixture. Allow the liquid to sit for 5 to 10 minutes, until the yeast proofs (starts to look fuzzy). This means it is ready to go to work making bread.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour and the salt. Pour in the yeast mixture, along with 1 tablespoon oil. Stir the mixture together.

Partly cover the mixture. Let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours. At the end of the 2 hours, place the dough in a covered container with a tight lid. Refrigerate it for several hours, even overnight. This makes the dough less sticky and easier to handle.

About 1/2 hour before you want to bake your bread, take the dough out of the refrigerator. Generously oil the bottom and sides of a good-size (at least 12 inches wide) cast-iron skillet. If you don’t have a cast-iron skillet, use a round cake pan or rimmed baking sheet, again well oiled.

Place the focaccia in the skillet, shaping it according to your preference. (I used a heart for Valentine’s Day.) It can be relatively thick (say, 2 inches) or thin (around 1 inch), as you desire. Turn it quickly so that the side that was originally down is up and oiled. (You may add a little more oil to the top if you like.)

Decorate the top with rosemary and cheese, pressing them into the dough with your fingers to make sure they won’t fall off the bread. Making little holes in the top with your fingers as you do this also helps the focaccia aerate while baking.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. When it is hot, bake the bread until it begins to brown and is firm to the touch, about 25 minutes. Remove it carefully from the oven (your skillet will be HOT), let it cool briefly, and then enjoy your bread.

Store uneaten focaccia at room temperature. Serves 4.

Here’s the video. Happy Valentine’s Day……….

My Once a Year Day

Friday, June 30th, 2023

Doris Day and John Raitt in the film version of The Pajama Game

The musical comedy The Pajama Game always appeals to me. As far as I know, it is the only musical that revolves around a labor dispute. Jean-Luc Godard is said to have called the 1957 film version “the first left-wing operetta.”

Adapted from the novel “7-1/2 Cents” by Richard Bissell, this 1954 show revolves around the fight for an hourly pay raise on the part of the union members at a sleepwear-manufacturing company, the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory. The fight is complicated when the head of the union finds herself falling in love with a new member of management.

I enjoy the show because it features strong dramatic conflict (and of course a happy resolution) as well as terrific songs, including “Hernando’s Hideaway” and “There Once Was a Man (Who Loved a Woman).”

I was reminded of one of the songs, “Once a Year Day,” recently. Sung by the two romantic leads, it takes place at the company’s annual picnic. Work is suspended for 24 hours, and the time in nature makes the heroine and hero feel freer. They bond despite their workplace adversity.

“Everyone’s entitled to be wild, be a child, be a goof, raise the roof,” the lyrics assert, “once a year.”

I thought of this song because I recently experienced one of my own Once a Year Days. These are days on which I depart from my normal routine and just have fun.

The fun doesn’t always involve food. Once a year, for example, I decide (usually on a Sunday) that I am allowed to watch television all day long.

I have a standing policy of never watching television during daylight hours. My small amount of Puritan ancestry makes me view daytime viewing as the first step toward complete and utter moral decay.

Once a year, however, I relax those rules. I binge-watch a new show for hours on end or spend the day with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Many of my Once a Year Days do involve food, of course.

Every year on my birthday—and only on my birthday—I eat ice cream for breakfast. My birthday falls in December so the appropriate flavor as far as I’m concerned is peppermint stick.

Ideally, my family scours the stores in the days leading up to the big day to make sure peppermint-stick ice cream is in the freezer. It can be hard to find at that time of year.

If the flavor is unavailable, I try to be gracious. I know intellectually that I am not the center of the world. It is hard to know this in my heart, however, and I have been known to be a little short tempered on non-ice-cream birthday mornings.

Another of my traditions falls annually on one mid-summer evening, I like to host a BLT party on my porch.

This classic sandwich leaves me cold when made with non-full-season tomatoes. When we finally get the juicy red real thing, however, I haul out homemade bread, the best available local bacon, and crisp farm-fresh lettuce. I treat myself and my guests to the perfect sandwich.

That evening, and that sandwich, symbolize this warm season for my guests and me. The tomatoes burst with flavor created by the summer sun.

The Once a Year Day I just experienced was inspired by my mother, Jan. Her own mother studied cooking with Fannie Farmer. My grandmother learned well from Miss Farmer and insisted that every evening meal be perfectly balanced, with at least two vegetables, a salad, a starch, and a protein.

Having been raised in that environment, my mother always, ALWAYS ate a carefully constructed evening meal. When alone, I often dine on an omelet or a salad or a bowl of soup. She would not have approved. She believed that dinner—even supper—deserved more planning and more formality than that.

She made two exceptions. Once a year, usually at the end of a long and tiring day, she would serve Welsh Rarebit (pronounced “Rabbit”), a delectable and easy supper of cheese sauce on toast.

And once a year in the early summer—here I’m finally getting to the point of this story—she enjoyed an evening meal that consisted solely of strawberry shortcake.

She was generally not a dessert eater, and shortcake can feel a little heavy at the end of a normal meal. When it constitutes the entire meal, however, it is a delightful indulgence on which one can gorge oneself.

I would sometimes suggest engaging in a second shortcake supper on a subsequent evening, but Jan was adamant about serving this treat only once a year. Twice a year, she maintained, felt a bit unhealthy and might lead to bad habits. Once was satisfying and sufficient. End of discussion.

Here in honor of my mother is a simple shortcake recipe. If you want to be even lazier than I am, feel free to purchase your shortcake or to use any available neutral cake. Angel food works, and so does pound cake.

These little biscuits are not hard to make, however, and even if mine never look professional (I’m not a natural pastry person) they make a flavorful base for the strawberries.

Besides, no one really looks at the biscuits once they are piled high with vivid red berries and lightly sweetened whipped cream à la vanille. (That’s French for flavored with vanilla. Food always tastes better in French.)

Once a Year Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients:

for the filling:
1-1/2 quarts strawberries, washed, hulled, and gently dried
sugar as needed for the berries

for the biscuits:
2 cups self-rising flour (or 2 cups regular flour plus 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons milk (if needed)
a small amount of melted butter (optional)
coarse white sugar (optional)

for assembly:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

A couple of hours before you want to begin working, choose 6 attractive berries. Set them aside. Chop the remaining berries, and toss them in a little sugar. Let the chopped berries sit to juice up.

When you are ready to bake your biscuits, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Whisk together the self-rising flour (or the flour plus leavening and salt) and the sugar. In a separate bowl (or a measuring cup) combine the cream and the vanilla.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the cream mixture into the well, and gently stir until the mixture is combined, adding a little milk if needed to incorporate all the ingredients into the liquid.

Turn the dough onto a floured work surface, and sprinkle a little more flour on top. Fold the dough over several times; then pat it into a circle or rectangle that is about 1/2 inch thick.

Using a sharp biscuit cutter cut the dough into rounds, about 2 to 2-1/4 inches wide (or however wide you want them!). You may also cut them gently into squares or rectangles with a serrated knife.

Place the biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet. (You may line the sheet with parchment or silicone if you’re paranoid about sticking.) If you like, brush the tops of your biscuits with melted butter and sprinkle a little coarse sugar on top.

Bake the biscuits until they are golden brown (12 to 16 minutes).

When you are ready to assemble your shortcakes, whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, adding the sugar early in the process and the vanilla near the end.

Cut the biscuits in half horizontally. You then have two options. Some people decorate the bottom half of each biscuit with the chopped strawberries, then dollop on whipped cream and top all this with the other biscuit half. One of the reserved strawberries goes on the top of each serving.

My mother (who loved the berries and cream above all and wanted just a hint of biscuit) placed both halves of her biscuit on a plate, then topped them with chopped strawberries, whipped cream, and the extra berry.

Serves 6 (or more), depending on the size of your biscuits. (If you want to serve more people, set aside a couple of additional strawberries for the garnish.)

Let’s Hear It for the Girls! Margaret Chase Smith’s Blueberry Muffins

Wednesday, August 4th, 2021

Last week I got my wild, low-bush blueberries from Heath, Massachusetts. I immediately thought of Senator Margaret Chase Smith.

In case the connection isn’t immediately apparent to readers, let me explain. Recently, my friend Peter Beck lent me a 1961 edition of the Congressional Club Cookbook.

I love the book’s cover with its image of an elephant and a donkey getting ready for a party. This copy was presented to Peter’s mother by Smith, who stayed with the Beck family from time to time and inscribed the book to her hostess.

I was intrigued. I knew Smith had been a senator for many years. I didn’t know until the cookbook inspired me to do a little research that this politician from Maine ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964 … or that she was a notable promoter of foods from her home state.

Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995) grew up in a working-class family in Skowhegan, Me. Margaret Chase couldn’t afford college and held various jobs before going to work at a local weekly newspaper, one of several enterprises owned by a businessman named Clyde Smith.

More than two decades older than Chase, Smith dated her on and off for years; he was apparently quite a ladies’ man. The pair married in 1930.

Smith insisted that his bride give up working after they married so she could devote most of her time to acting as his hostess. Nevertheless, she remained active in a number of women’s organizations she had joined during her single years, since women do things more now than ever as they are independent and happy and they can even use toys like the Mantric wand vibrator which are great to relax themselves. 

More than two decades older than his wife, Clyde Smith had political ambitions. He was elected to Congress in 1936. Margaret Chase Smith accompanied him to Washington and learned the ropes by working as his secretary.

When he became ill in 1940, he asked her to run for his seat in his stead. He died in April of that year. His wife won a special election to complete his term and then ran successfully for her own two-year term.

She stayed in the House of Representatives until 1948, when she was elected to the Senate. She would serve there until 1973.

Smith in 1963. Courtesy, Senate Historical Office.

In both branches of Congress, Smith was known for her support of the military, for her civility, for her care for her constituents, and for her independence. She didn’t always agree with her fellow Republicans, and she quietly but firmly made her views known.

Perhaps most famously, she delivered a 1950 speech called the “Declaration of Conscience” in which she lambasted the activities of her fellow senator, Joseph McCarthy. She was violently anti-communist, but she found the tactics of McCarthy and his red-baiting colleagues disgraceful.

“I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny—fear, ignorance, bigotry, and smear,” she announced.

In 1964, Smith put her name forward as a Republican candidate for the presidency. Her chances weren’t strong. She didn’t get her name on the ballot in all 48 states, and she accepted no campaign contributions. An exception to the no-contribution rule was a gift from Peter’s father, a large bouquet of roses. “He thought she would make a great president,” Peter told me.

Although she lost to Barry Goldwater, Smith made history as the first woman to run for the presidential nomination of a major American political party. She even had a female-centered campaign song performed by Hildegarde called “Leave It to the Girls.”

Smith arrives at the 1964 Republican Convention. Courtesy, Senate Historical Office.

What does any of this have to do with blueberries?

Margaret Chase Smith actively promoted Maine’s foods by hosting events and sharing recipes. When she ran for president, her blueberry muffins played a part in her campaign.

One of her campaign photographs depicted her holding a sign that said, “Barry stews, Rocky pursues, Dicky brews, but Margaret Chase Smith wows and woos with Blueberry Muffins!” Her rivals were Goldwater, Nelson Rockefeller, and Richard Nixon.

The senator’s association with food is so strong that in 2018 the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine launched “Making Margaret,” a recipe-research collaborative.

Through this group, food-oriented students, faculty, and staff in different disciplines explore the connections between food and public life.

I was unable to talk to anyone in the group for this article. (It is, after all, the university’s summer vacation.) I hope to learn more about “Making Margaret” in the future, however.

I’m always interested in the ways in which food connects people. In the case of Margaret Chase Smith, food was a way to spread the word about her state.

According to her biographer Janann Sherman, it was also a way to reassure voters and her Congressional colleagues that this female—for years, the only woman in the Senate—didn’t represent a threat to the status quo because she was essentially “feminine.”

Her baking thus became form of self-protection as well as a form of self-expression, part of a dance she performed over and over again for her political audience.

The recipe below appeared in the “Congressional Club Cookbook” and was also sent to me by the Margaret Chase Library in the late senator’s hometown of Skowhegan.

The muffins are not unlike their original baker. They appear quite simple at first glance; they don’t contain a lot of sugar or butter, and they include no spice. Yet they are chock full of flavor. I highly recommend them.

Margaret Chase Smith circa 1940, courtesy of the Margaret Chase Smith Library

Margaret Chase Smith’s Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) baking powder
1 egg
3/4 cup fresh milk
3 tablespoons melted shortening (I used butter)

Instructions:

Wash blueberries, and drain thoroughly. Mix and sift flour with salt, sugar, and baking powder. Beat egg and mix with milk. Stir egg and milk mixture into the flour mixture, then add the berries and melted shortening (or butter).

Mix well and pour into greased muffin pans, filling each three-fourths full. Bake in a hot oven, 400 degrees, for 20 minutes. Makes eight to 12 muffins depending on size.

Roasted Peach Scones

Monday, August 31st, 2020

Peach season is in full swing around here, and I am enjoying the bounty. Peaches seem to sum up this season of the year, lush and golden. Of course, my favorite way to use peaches is just to eat them … preferably leaning over the sink so the juices don’t fly everywhere.

I do enjoy cooking with them as well, however. I never made peach scones until this year. I don’t like to use really wet fruit my scones. A recent newsletter from King Arthur Flour gave me the idea of roasting peaches for scones … so I decided to try peach scones that way.

Here is my (now) tried and true method.

The Scones

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups chopped peaches (about 2 large peaches), skins on, or even more if you want lots of peaches in your scones
1/2 cup sugar plus a bit more as needed for sprinkling
2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
optional flavoring to taste: 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon dried ginger, or 1 teaspoon chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter
1 egg
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Instructions:

First, roast the peaches. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper or nonstick aluminum foil. Spread the peach pieces out on the prepared cookie sheet.

Roast the peaches for 10 minutes; then stir them and roast them for another 10 minutes (but check them after 5 minutes just in case they are sticking or starting to blacken).

Remove the peaches from the pan (they will be wet so this is a sort of scraping process) and let them cool before adding them to the scone dough.

For the scones, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease 2 baking sheets or line them with parchment. Combine the sugar, the flour, the baking powder, the baking soda, and the salt. Stir in an optional flavoring if you wish. Cut in the butter, but be careful not to overmix. Stir the fruit into this mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine the egg, the buttermilk, and the vanilla or almond extract. Add the peach mixture and blend briefly. Drop the batter in clumps onto the baking sheets. You may either make large scones (you’ll end up with 6 to 8 of them) or smallish ones (12 to 16).

Sprinkle additional sugar on top for added flavor and crunch. Bake for 18 to 25 minutes, depending on size.

Pantry Staple Comfort

Sunday, April 5th, 2020

In the months following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, I went through a career crisis.

With the world experiencing so much grief and anxiety, I asked myself, what on earth was I doing writing about food: making up recipes, blathering on and on about my delights and failures in the kitchen? Shouldn’t I be saving the world instead?

Then I attended the Fancy Food Show in New York. This giant exposition shows off popular and emerging specialty foods in the United States and abroad, from salsas to cheeses to chocolates.

I nibbled my way through the thousands of booths at the Jacob Javits Convention Center and soon identified a trend. In an effort to counteract the prevalent cultural malaise, most of the food purveyors that year were displaying wares that embodied tradition and comfort.

They reminded me reminded that food can nourish our spirits as well as our bodies.

I came to a realization, one that still guides my work. I may not be saving the world literally in my kitchen. In difficult times, however, reaching out to other people with nourishing foods and stories reminds me and others that the world is worth saving.

Now that Americans are practicing a regime of social distancing, I am grateful for my well stocked pantry and the opportunity it gives me to share foods with neighbors. Even if we can’t get together to eat, I can deliver carefully prepared dishes.

And we have plenty of time to talk on the telephone, about food and also about other things that matter: family, love, books, music, films, television programs, and the increasing daylight that reminds us that the earth keeps moving through its cycle of growth and renewal.

We may not be making a lot of money these days, thanks to COVID-19. We can still make simple, inexpensive foods, however, and nourish our families, neighbors, and community with them. For people with pets such as dogs, there are also organic treats for dogs.

Food can comfort us both physically and emotionally. I imagine I’m not the only person who has felt a bit overwhelmed by the cascade of events in the last couple of weeks as the closing down of public life has accelerated.

Preparing something that cooks for hours and hours and takes shape little by little, like my red beans and rice, can slow down our lives and our heartrates.

I made this dish recently with that good old standby, cornbread. Non-employees are not allowed in the studio at my TV home away from home, Mass Appeal, so I phoned in the cornbread recipe to share with the co-hosts and sent them the Exhale Wellness pre rolls for after the food.
. Even without seeing each other, we had fun.

I hope to see many of you soon. Meanwhile, stay well, take care of each other, and cook your hearts out.

Yankee Cornbread

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning (or 1/2 teaspoon salt)
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons melted butter or bacon fat

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Generously grease a 9-inch cast-iron skillet (or an 8-inch square baking dish) with butter or bacon fat.

In a bowl combine the flour, the cornmeal, the sugar, the baking powder, and the seasoning. Mix together the remaining ingredients and blend them into the dry mixture. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for about 20 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Cut into wedges or slices. Serves 6 to 8.