I do realize that this week’s edition of Bittman Mondays is a little late…but it’s been a weekend.  You know when you have one of those weekends that fly right by you in a haze of activity?  Or one of those weekends when so many things happen, it takes way too long to wrap your brain around them?  Or one of those weekends when the thought of doing anything more culinary than boiling water seems a Herculean feat?  Well that was the kind of weekend I had…all rolled up into one.  So when it came time for Bittman Monday, I went on the hunt for pie…preferably with chocolate.  Because as we all know, a good pie crust and chocolate make everything so much better.

It was such a beautiful weekend that the very thought of doing anything trapped indoors (like pie baking) seemed wrong somehow.  I mean, here it was February and it felt like Spring!  Brunch was being served outside all over the city.  The line for froyo (oh I’m hip to the lingo the young kids are throwing down now) at Tangy Sweet went out the door in Dupont Circle.  And we won’t even discuss the odd mixture of children picniking with their parents alongside a band of young Asian guys break dancing to Grand Master Flash (if only I’d had the sense enough to capture their routine on film).  So you can’t blame me for not wanting to stay inside toiling over a pie, can you?  I mean, it’s not like I completely abandoned the kitchen or anything…just decided to have a fling with the outdoors instead.

But just as I had to when I was younger, I came in when the street lights came on.  And it was at that moment when I remembered this chocolate cream pie…and the fact that I hadn’t actually finished making it.  I made the crust on Saturday, so all I had to do was roll it out, bake it and make the filling.  Honestly, this ended up being one of the easiest pies I’ve ever made, right down to the instructions for the crust.  Sure I knew all about using beans, rice or pie weights to keep the crust from bubbling up during baking.  But I’d never heard about first placing a greased piece of foil over the crust before weighing it down with the aforementioned rice, beans or pie weights.  This prevents the weights from leaving indentions in your finished crust.  Even though the filling always covers up the indentions, the foil also prevents any moisture from escaping the crust during baking.  What’s left is a wonderfully flaky crust that is still sturdy enough to hold up to any filling.

As with almost all of his recipes, Bittman’s Cream Pie recipe is a master recipe that allows for variation.  I threw in two ounces of quality unsweetened chocolate from ACKC here in DC into the basic cream filling as it cooked.  The result was a rich and decadent pudding that could have easily been eaten on its own.  I followed the recipe faithfully and added the meringue topping but the next time I make it, I will be using a homemade bourbon whip cream instead.  Because as one of my good friends puts it, “What could be better than whiskey and chocolate?”

I was really hoping to present a triumphant dish for the very first installment of Bittman Mondays.  I wanted to wax poetically about these cinnamon buns…extolling their flavor and texture.  But it was not meant to be because these cinnamon buns were, well, awful.

Maybe awful is a bit harsh.  How about “they had the texture of sugared hockey pucks”?  These little suckers turned out hard, lacking any of the flakiness of a good, quality cinnamon bun (even Little Debbie did a better job than I did).  I sensed trouble right about the time I left the dough to rise.  The dough, a rich golden bread dough that Bittman kindly provides six different ways to use, required at least two hours of rising time.  However, by the one and a half hour mark, the dough had barely risen.  But my panic had risen to epic proportions.  I had no clue why it wasn’t rising, so I took a look back at the recipe.  I double checked all of the ingredients and went over it all in my head.  Had I used the right measurements?  Had I not followed the instructions step by step?  Then I looked at the yeast packet and it hit me:  I hadn’t used instant yeast.  Yikes!  I always have several packets of yeast around the house for baking bread, but one quick look and I realized it wasn’t instant.  Nope…just regular old active-dry yeast.  You would think such a thing really wouldn’t matter, right?  Oh how wrong you are!  Let me explain:

Active dry yeast is the traditional kind of yeast which requires dissolution (and a sweetener in most cases) before the dough is formed and kneaded.  Instant yeast, on the other hand, contains yeast enhancers, thus removing the need for dissolution in a liquid prior to the formation of the dough.  And this is where the problem occurred.  Bittman’s recipe doesn’t call for the yeast to be dissolved in liquid before the flour is added and the dough is formed.  Because of this, the yeast wasn’t activated when I formed and kneaded the dough.  No yeast activation, no rising of dough.  No rising of dough, no flaky goodness.  No flaky goodness, no happy Shaw Girl.

It really is a shame because I could tell the bread was rich and golden (as the name suggested) and the versatility of the dough was a bonus.  Bittman detailed six different variations on his basic recipe, including rolls, saffron fruit and nut bread and of course, these cinnamon buns.  And Bittman’s writing style made the directions a breeze to follow…if only I had followed them more closely.  Oh well…at least they photograph well, right?

Hopefully the next installment of Bittman Mondays will turn out better!

So I promised you guys a treat if you voted. And you were good, right? I mean the voter turnout was amazingly high, so you must have voted. Well, either way, I am not one to renege on a promise so here it is: Artisan Boule Bread! And let me just tell you, this is a treat of legendary proportions…because it’s not just about the bread. Oh no sir! It’s about so much more…

“Hello, my name is….”, well you don’t actually know my real name, do you? Well, if you did, at this point I’d say it, followed by “and I’ve become addicted to baking bread.” Yes, I have gone on a bit of a bread baking bender thanks to the Holy Grail of baking books, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Before a few days ago, I knew nothing of this book (which is truly criminal now that I know the wonders it reveals). But on Monday, I stumbled upon my new favorite blog Pete Bakes and saw his post for a European Peasant Bread, one of many delicious recipes in the aforementioned bible of bread baking (side note: Pete you get a huge virtual high five for pointing me in this book’s direction). The book sounded so intriguing (and the bread looked so good), I went out on my lunch break Tuesday to buy it. Best money I have ever spent…well except for when I bought Big Red.

The concept of the book is simple: make a wet dough that can be refrigerated and used for up to two weeks. Did I mention the dough requires NO KNEADING???? I didn’t? Well then I probably should mention it. All the master recipe calls for is unbleached all purpose flour, yeast, salt and warm water. That’s it. Throw the ingredients into your stand mixer (or if you don’t have one, simply mixing the concoction in a bowl with a wooden spoon works just as well) and mix until all the ingredients are incorporated. The dough is wet at this point (similar to the consistency pictured above) and requires at least two hours of rising time. Once it’s risen, put it in an air tight container and refrigerate until you’re ready to use it. Simple…easy peasy. I love you Zoe and Jeff (the authors of the book…not just some random people I’ve oddly declared my love for mid blog post)!

Not only is the master recipe amazingly easy to make, it is versatile. With this one recipe, you can make four loaves of different breads. You can make the boule, as I have done, or a baguette, a batard, breads with various fillings, even cinnamon rolls! And the book doesn’t just stop with a master recipe for a boule. There are bagels, brioches, peasant loaves, oatmeal breads…well you get the drift. And I think you can sense tons and tons of bread posts in Shaw Girl’s future. Yes, my name is Shaw Girl and I have a bread baking addiction.