Wontons

This is my fifty-second post for A Year From Scratch. We're going to keep on with the site, just at a slower pace. This is one a few recipes that's been on the list of projects since the very beginning, but that we just hadn't gotten too. Pity. It was pretty easy.

Ingredients!

This is going to make a pretty simple dough. Mix everything in a bowl until it comes together, turn out on a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth. About 3 minutes. Let the dough rest while you mix the filling.

The filling is pork, garlic, chives, salt, pepper and sesame oil (it adds a little spice). I'm not listing values here, or in the ingredients section because I just eyeballed it.

Chop all of that finely, and mix it with ground pork.

 You can also beat in an egg. It will help it stay together, and add a little flavor.

Halve the dough, and roll it out.

Once it's rolled out, cut the dough into squares.

It's important that they be square. Some of these weren't, and I couldn't fold them properly.

As you can see. These take some practice and finesse. All of these came out fine, in the end, but I wouldn't want to serve them at a party without more practice. Ideally, you want to fold the wonton in half diagonally, so it makes a triangle. Then fold the two side points together so the wonton is hugging itself.

Drop the wontons in hot oil, a steamer, or boiling water or broth.

When they're done, serve them with your favorite soup, noodles, or salad.

Ingredients:

1 egg

2 cups (250 grams) all purpose flour

1/3 cup (75 grams) water

1/2 tsp (a pinch) salt

Ground pork

pepper

Sesame Oil

Chives

Garlic

Ginger

Procedure:

1. Mix the flour, egg, salt, and water together in a bowl

2. Stir until everything comes together

3. Turn out on to a floured surface and knead until smooth

4. Let sit for 10 minutes

5. Halve and roll out the dough.

6. Cut it into squares, and fill with your favorite filling.

7. Fold the wonton diagonally, and pinch together. You may need to use egg wash.

8. Fold the two side points around the filling. 

9. Steam, fry, or boil until done.

Donuts - With Yeast, Without Holes

Mmmm, donuts. They're delicious, they're available on every street corner in Massachusetts, and they're actually not tough to make.

This dough is in some ways very similar to other doughs we've made in the past year. In other ways, it's very different. It is a yeast dough, with the main components being water, yeast, and flour. But we've also got a lot of fat, some egg, and the dough is fried, instead of being baked.

Being by putting your yeast in warm water. Then melt your some shortening. It's pretty easy to do this in in the milk you'll be using later. It won't mix with the milk, but it will make it easier to pour into the dough.

Once it's melted, let it cool off a little, so as not to kill the yeast. Pour the milk-shortening into the yeast and water, in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add in 1/2 of the flour, an egg, sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Beat until everything is well combined. Add the rest of the flour and keep on beating. Once it starts to thicken, switch to the dough hook and knead until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. It will be a soft dough.

Cover the dough, and let it double in size.

Turn out the dough on a floured surface, roll it out and cut out the donuts.

Feel free to make center holes. I didn't have a cookie cutter that was small enough.

Fry the donuts, a couple at a time, a minute per side.

Move the donuts to a drying rack to drain off any excess oil, and top with a little powdered sugar.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup milk

1/6 cup vegetable shortening

1 package instant yeast

1 egg, beaten

1/3 cup warm water

1/4 c sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

12 ounces AP flour

Frying oil

Procedure:

1. Let the yeast dissolve in the warm water

2. Melt the shortening in the milk, then let cool.

3. Mix everything but half the flour in a stand mixer, and beat until well mixed.

4. Add the other half of the flour and mix well again.

5. Switch to the dough hook and knead until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.

6. Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover, and let double in size.

7. Roll out the dough and cut your donuts out.

8. Fry in 360F oil for 1 minute on each size.

9. Drain of oil and cover with confectioner's sugar, or glaze.

Peanut Butter Cookies - On Creaming Peanut Butter

Brian and I got into a discussion on twitter about creaming peanut butter. We both thought it was possible, but disagreed on how much it would blow up my stand mixer. I decided to run a test. I would make two batches of peanut butter cookies, using identical recipes. One I would cream, one I would not. I would bake them side by side and see which rose more.

I started with one cup of peanut butter. For the creamed version I started beating on the 8 setting. And added 1 cup of sugar, one tablespoon at a time.

Once that was all incorporated, I added in one egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

For the non-creamed version I added in the same amount of all the ingredients, but just mixed by hand.

There was already a stark contrast between the two. The creamed dough was much stiffer.

I measured out six 40 gram balls of each of dough and placed them side-by-side on a baking sheet. I baked it at 375 for about 16 minutes.

Creamed dough is on the left, non-creamed dough on the right. The non-creamed dough was much more even, more evenly cooked, and tasted a little better. Neither rose appreciably, and neither rose more compared to the other.

If you want the fluffy peanut butter cookies that you often see with hersey kisses in the middle, there are tricks to use. First, add shortening or butter to the peanut butter, it makes it a better target for creaming. You can also add flour to the batter to get some gluten development and a better matrix to trap air bubbles during the baking.

In the end, they were both tasty, but the simple mixed version was a little better, mostly because the dough was less stiff. 

Scones, Blueberry Scones

And the baking journey continues. Scones don't have to be relegated to coffee shops. Nor do they have to be dry and unappealing.

As usual, pretty standard fare.

Crank the oven to 400F. Mix the sugar, baking powder and salt and flour in a bowl.

Cut the butter up and work it in to the dough with a pastry blender, a couple of knives, or your fingers, they work in a pinch. Get it? Fingers. Pinch?

Throw in the blueberries and mix everything up a bit.

Mix the milk, vanilla, and egg together in a measuring cup. You can use another bowl if you really want, but a measuring cup is easier. Combine with the flour/blueberry mixture and stir until it comes together. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead.

At this point you can roll out the dough and either cut it into triangles, or use a round cookie cutter. I opted for the latter.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tablespoons butter

1c blueberries

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c milk

1 large egg

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 400.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

3. Cut in the butter, then mix in the blueberries.

4. In a measuring cup, beat the egg, and mix the milk and vanilla.

5. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and stir until it comes together.

6. Turn out on a floured surface and knead.

7. Cut with a knife into triangles, with into rounds with a cookie cutter. Sprinkle the top of the scones with sugar.

8. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with butter, tea, and crumpets.

Latkes

It's almost Chanukah, and that means dreidels, gelt, and potato pancakes, or latkes.

There are all sorts of frozen latkes, which are basically glorified tater tots. There are mixes, which is more like a potato cake, than a potato pancake, and there are all sorts of really complicated recipes for them. But, we like simple and from scratch here. So simple and from scratch is it.

There should also be an egg or two there, but by the time I realized that the potatoes were shredded and the onion chopped.

On that note. Chop a clove of garlic, and the onion.

Wash off the potatoes, and shred it into a bowl of cold water. This will keep the potatoes from browning and help wash the starch off.

Heat up a pan with oil. Drain the potatoes, and ring them out, in small batches, by wrapping them in a dish towel and twisting. The drier you get them, the better. Mix with the chopped onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper.

Beat an egg, and stir it in to the potato-onion mixture. This will help bind everything together. 

Form the mix into patties and drop them in the oil. Fry on the first side for about 2 minutes, and then on the other side for another minute, or more depending on the temperature.

Since this isn't a deep fry, you're going to have to play the timing and temperature control by ear. If yo want to test the oil, drop a shred of potato in the oil, it should start bubbling immediately. Flip the latkes when they've browned on the bottom and hold together well. You'll lose a little bit, here and there, but overall they'll stick together.

Serve with some applesauce.

Ingredients:

2 Russet Potatoes

1/2 White Onion

1 Clove of garlic

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

oil for frying

Procedure:

1. Chop the onion and garlic

2. Shred the potatoes into a bowl filled with cold water.

3. Heat a pan with oil

4. Drain and dry the potatoes, and mix with onions and garlic.

5. Beat the egg, and stir into the mixture to bind it.

6. From patties and drop into the oil.

7. Fry 2 minutes or until browned and stuck together. Then flip and repeat.