The Wooden Spoon

I'm a little over four months into my sourdough experiment. I've frozen the starter, left it on the counter and fed it every day, left it on the counter and ignored it for up to a week at a time, refrigerated it, damn near killed it, cursed it, and revived it by throwing most of it out and building it up again. The most important thing I've learned about sourdough bread is.... I don't like it all that much.

Put it on the list of things I'm probably supposed to like because I love food so much, along with duck, tiramisu, and sundried tomatoes. (Wait. Are those in or out these days?) It's just too sour. I know. It's supposed to be sour, what with it being sourdough and all. But, to my taste buds, it seems like a good way to ruin a great loaf of bread.

Unless it's frozen, you do have to pay attention to it. Depending on where it's store - in or out of the refrigerator - it needs to be fed regularly. If it's in the fridge, it should be at least weekly. If it's out, it should be fed daily. It's a good idea to give a sniff when you feed it to make sure it's not going bad. If it's pungent and earthy smelling, it's OK. If it develops an old, musty odor, it's best to throw it out.

Considering the required attention, I was unsure about whether it was worth it to keep the starter going. As an experiment it had been successful. Even though it almost died, I managed to get it healthy again. On a practical level, though, it was kind of a bust. I wasn't using it as often as I had expected, and it had become a pain in the ass to maintain. Also, I didn't like it, so that was something of a problem. The Queen of the Obvious finally realized she didn't have to use an entire cup of starter in one loaf of bread. Just a couple tablespoons would give it a hint of flavor, which I do like. I couldn't use the starter alone as a leavener, but God made packaged yeast for a reason.

So I'm still using it, and I've discovered a few things about starters in the process.

1. If you're going to use it as the only leavener, you have to use a lot - 1 to 2 cups - to get the bread to rise, and it takes longer to rise than if you use just yeast.

2. The starter will work best if it's fed 8 to 12 hours before you start your bread dough. You can stretch that time a little, but I wouldn't let it go past 16 hours.

3. If you're only using it to flavor the bread, it's usable for 24 to 36 hours after its last feeding. Just make sure to stir it well before you add it to the dough.

4. If you suspect it's going bad, but it hasn't gotten to the point where it's smell awful, you can revive it by throwing most of it out and adding some healthy starter to it. (This is a good reason to keep some in the freezer.) Pour the starter into a new jar, mix all the starter together, and give it a good healthy feeding, which is anywhere from 2 tablespoons to a cup of flour, depending on how much starter you have. Add water if it's too thick. Leave it on the counter and continue to feed it daily for 3 to 5 days. A small feeding will do. You can just throw a handful of flour in, and add water if necessary. The amount of water you use is up to you. I like to keep mine on the thin side because it's easier to work with.

5. If you want to revive a starter but don't have extra, the only way to do it is to start almost from scratch. Throw out most of the starter, pour what you've saved into a good sized bowl (big enough to give it some room to grow), and add some grapes to it. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap. You want it loose enough that the starter can get some air, but covered well enough to keep out any contaminants. (I'm convinced that my starter began to go south because it wasn't properly covered.) Then cover it with a couple kitchen towels. If your kitchen is cold, put another towel underneath the bowl. You need to keep it as warm as possible. Feed it every day for 5 days. That should be enough to revive it, but give a couple more days of feeding if you want. If it's not healthy again within a week, dump it and start over or give it up.

6. Sourdough enhances the flavor of salt, so reduce the amount of salt you use. I've always used a scant tablespoon. Now it's a bit scanter (more scant?).

The basics of getting a starter going are pretty standard: mix flour and water together, and add a fermenting agent to it. I've seen grapes suggested more than any other agent, so that's what I start with. There are probably a gazillion different theories for maintaining a starter, although there are a few standard practices for that too. Don't leave it out if you're not going to use it every 2 to 3 days. Keep it fed. Keep it covered.That's it. Everything else is going to depend on where you live, how warm your kitchen is, what kind of water you use, and some other variables I can't predict. You'll eventually figure out what works for you, even if what works for you is to buy your sourdough bread from the local bakery.

I started this experiment five weeks ago. Other than practically killing the starter within 72 hours, it's been going well. Instead of doing any more day by day rundowns (which would be boring as hell. Also impossible at this point), I'll just pass on what I've been doing.

I mentioned in my first post that I had tried creating and working with a starter twice before -  30 years ago, and 7 years ago - with no success. The first time I had no idea what I was doing, and the second time I had no idea what I was doing, and I made the mistake of following Nancy Silverton's method. I say "mistake" not because I think she has her head up her ass. She's made a name for herself and her bakery by producing what's considered the best sourdough to be found. I say "mistake" because she assumes the reader already knows something about baking bread. That's not a bad thing. I'm a firm believer in knowing the basics before going into something more complicated. It's not impossible to create and successfully work with a sourdough starter when you don't know much about making bread, but a starter can be tricky at the beginning. In 2003, I encountered a lot of problems while I was trying to get the starter going, and had no idea how to fix it them. I probably threw out more than one starter that could have been saved. I should have been working from a source aimed at beginners, but I thought Silverton was the first and last word on sourdough.

This time I was able to follow my instincts. After a few days of trial and error, I settled on a routine that's working for me. I keep the starter on the counter instead of in the refrigerator. I make bread every 2-3 days, and there's not much sense in taking it in and out that often. Plus, it's in a gallon jar, which takes up too much room in the fridge.  I feed it once a day, almost every day, with about 1/4 cup flour and a little water, enough to keep it on the thin side. I also give it a stir sometime throughout the day.

I remove some of the starter every few days. I do that to keep it fresh, not because it's gotten out of control and is spilling all over the kitchen. I've managed to strike a balance between a healthy, growing starter and The Great Flood of 2010. (I mean, Durham has enough problems. There's no point in making it harder to fix the streets. Although now that I think of it, dried sourdough starter is like concrete. Maybe they could use it to build some damn sidewalks.) I seldom throw it out. I either put it in the freezer or pour some into a mason jar and put it in the refrigerator.

I usually start my bread dough at night, so that morning I'll throw a cup of flour and some water into the starter. After I mix the bread dough in the evening, I give the starter another full feeding of 1 cup of flour and some water. In the morning I go back to the small feeding.

Although it's considered best to use starter 8-12 hours after a full feeding, I've made bread with starter that hadn't been fed for over a day, and there was little, if any, difference. I sometimes forget to give it a small feeding on the in-between days, and it hasn't suffered. Sourdough starters are like roses. Everyone thinks they need non-stop, meticulous care, when you just need to give them a little care on a regular basis. That doesn't mean it's not a pain in the ass sometimes. Starter is sticky and it dries fast. Putting a dough together takes longer, because even at its thinnest, starter makes the dough denser and harder to mix. I wash everything immediately after making dough or feeding the starter; otherwise, as I said before, you'll have concrete.

After I ended up with a dough that was so wet I could barely handle it, it occurred to me that I should use less water in the dough when I add starter to it. Of course that makes sense now, what with the starter being a liquid and all, but sometimes the brain - it is slow. The problem is it only takes about a tablespoon of water to send bread dough over the edge into too-wet territory. At that point you have to add a lot more flour (at least a cup) or deal with a sticky mess later on. I usually go with the sticky mess and, while kneading it the next day, add just enough flour to make it relatively manageable. It stays a sticky mess, but it also creates a great loaf of bread.

Here are some basics:

Bread rises more slowly when made with just starter. You can add yeast or a lot of starter, e.g. 2 - 2 1/2 cups of starter to 3 cups flour. Really, you can add as much starter as you want. Just keep in mind that, with a high ration of starter to flour,  the bread will have a strong sourdough flavor . You'll figure out your tolerance fast enough. I prefer just a hint of sour flavor, so I add about 1 1/4 cups of starter to 3 cups of flour.

You can also heat the water a bit if you want to give the dough a little push.

Add water a little at a time. You can start with 1/2 cup and go from there.

Sourdough starter produces a different texture than a regular dough does. I've been getting the elusive crackly crust the no-knead bread recipe promised and never fully delivered. It practically shatters when I first cut into it. By the next day, it loses the crackle, but the crust and the crumb are chewy and delicious.

Other than adjusting the amount of water you use, you shouldn't have to make any changes to the bread recipes you're using now.

That's it for now. Since this is The Never Ending Story, I'll be posting updates on my progress and any new info I stumble across.

"Feeding the Bitch" is more fitting than "Starting Again", or whatever the hell I've been calling these posts.

When last we spoke of our bubbly slavemaster (some time on Monday, Day 6), she was barely recovering from near death. Here's how she's doing, and how she got there.

Day 6, late evening. The starter was looking a little better, but not enough for me to feel confident it was going to come back. I took drastic measures. I removed 2 cups (about half) of the starter, and replaced it with 2 cups of bread flour, and 1 1/2 cups of water. I say drastic because I'd been conservative with the feedings so far. I gave it a good stir, let it sit for a couple hours, and gave it a look. It was looking OK, considering the state its been in, with some nice bubbles starting to form. I covered it and went to bed.

Day 7, first thing in the morning. It had doubled in size and was bubbling away. It didn't smell like dirt anymore, but it wasn't smelling like sourdough either. I wasn't worried, since most of the original starter had been replaced by this time. I covered it and left it alone for another 4 hours. It smelled like regular bread dough, and looked nice and healthy. I decided not to remove any of the starter, and added 50 grams each of bread flour and water, gave it a good stir, and left it alone until late afternoon.

Yes! Still growing, still bubbling, and still smelling like bread dough. Periodic checks throughout the evening showed the same results. Before I went to bed, I just gave it a good stir.

Day 8 (today). It's grown so much that it's reached the top of the container; it's frothy and bubbling, and it smells like whole wheat bread. I've  stirred it down, removed half of it (which I put in the freezer), and fed it with 1 cup of bread flour and 3/4 cup of water.

I've been playing around with the amount I feed it because I'm seeing too much conflicting information about how much a starter should be fed. I'm of the opinion that it's better to feed it a little at a time, unless you're in full battle mode the way I was at the end of day 6. It needed a big meal to give it energy and jump start it again. The whole point to a starter is to give it time to grab ambient wild yeast and create more of its own. It's supposed to be a slow process. Removing half of it every time its fed, and replacing it with the same amount of new flour and water is going to dilute the starter by taking away too much that's developed the desired flavor and smell. In my original source, Ken Albala says to wing it. That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm following my instincts and winging it.

By this time, a starter is normally ready to use. But this one had a rocky start, so I'm going to continue feeding it for at least three more days. It's healthy enough to make a loaf of bread, but it's not smelling like sourdough yet.

More to come, later today or tomorrow morning.

Day 5, post-Mad Men. Mold. I found mold. It was just a small dot on the cheesecloth the grapes were wrapped in. Luckily, the mold was in an area that wasn't submerged in the starter. I examined the starter for more mold, but didn't find any. I'd like to call that a small victory, but it's more like a huge amount of luck It was looking kind of sad though, like beige sludge. I stirred it, threw out the grapes, and added more, wrapping them tightly in new cheesecloth and pressing them to release the natural sugar.

Someone sent me some info on a different method, one that follows many of the rules I've read before about getting a starter going. From that advice, I decided to feed the starter twice a day instead of once. I added 1/3 cup whole wheat flour and between a 1/4 and 1/3 cup of water. (That equals 50 grams of each ingredient) I covered it and left it alone overnight.

Day 6, first thing in the morning. The starter was looking a little better, and smelled more like sourdough than like dirt. There were some healthy looking bubbles. Not many, but enough to satisfy me. There was an almost indistinguishable layer of water on top.

I let it sit for another 3 hours, but checked it a few times during that period. It was looking healthy, but it wasn't exactly bursting with activity. I was smelling better, so that's a good sign. At 11:30 AM, I removed one cup of starter, gave the starter its first feeding of the day, again using 1/3 cup of flour (I used mostly whole wheat flour, but ran out and had to use a little bread flour too), and between 1/4 and 1/3 cup of water. Stirring it created a lot of bubbles, including some large ones, which is a good sign. It's covered up again, and I'll check it throughout. I think it's on its way back.

Instead of throwing out the cup of starter I removed, I put it in a mason jar and stuck in the back of the refrigerator. It's really cold back there, which will allow it go dormant without it freezing. (Although freezing is fine. I just want to see what it does in the refrigerator) If the starter I'm working on gives it up and croaks, I'll have some reserved to get another one going.

As usual, I'm running a bit behind on my posts. Here's the progress so far:

On Thursday (Day 2), I fed the starter with one cup each of unbleached bread flour and water. I checked it every few hours for progress. There were a few healthy looking bubbles, and the starter still smelled like wet flour.

On Friday, I added 1 1/3 cups each of unbleached bread flour and water. Periodic checking showed a lot of bubbles; also, by evening, the starter was beginning to smell like sourdough. There was a very thin layer of water on the top, but that's normal. It will separate when left alone for several hours.

Before I added more flour and water on Saturday, the sourdough smell was stronger, and the bubbles were looking fine. Most of the thin layer of water had been absorbed overnight. I added 1/ 1/4 cups each of unbleached bread flour and water. As I checked it throughout the day, I noticed that there was a lot of water on the top, and there weren't many bubbles. The sourdough smell had weakened. By the end of the night, the bubbles were gone entirely, there was still a deep layer of water on top, and the starter was musty smelling.  I refuse to panic so soon in the face of a comatose sourdough starter, so I covered it up and went to bed.

When I got up this morning (Day 5), I took a look at the starter, expecting the worst. The good news is there was no mold. The bad news is the starter looked so close to death, it was probably heading towards a bright, shining light as its short life passed before its eyes. And it stilled smelled musty. Feeling pretty crappy myself, and with neither coffee nor my first cigarette in me yet, I still had the presence of mind not to panic. There was plenty of time for that later. It was only 8 AM, and I've been feeding this bitch every day at around 1 PM, so I had time to think about what to do.

It occurred to me that I had used too  much water yesterday, and those wild yeasties were drowning. The method I'm using says "On the third day, add flour and water again, a little more than before. Feed it every day." I read that to mean I should increase the amount of flour and water by a little bit every day, but I could have been wrong about that. I also hadn't yet discarded any of the starter, because it had been developing so well and I wanted to keep it strong.

When it was time for a feeding, I removed the grapes and stirred the starter. It was really musty, and the consistency of pancake batter, which I'm pretty sure isn't good. I removed a cup of starter, stirred the starter again, and added 1 1/2 cups of flour, and just under a half cup of water. It was still a little thin, but it looked better. I replaced the grapes and covered it again.

It's been sitting for just over five hours. I took a look at it a couple minutes ago, and it's looking better. There are a lot of tiny bubbles and a decent amount of larger ones. It hasn't separated, which I think is OK. At this point, it needs to readjust itself. It's still a little musty smelling, but there's also the faint smell of sourdough that says it's healthy.

I think it's on the right track, although I'm really winging it at this point. If you've read the method I'm following, you know Albala'a instructions are vague. I'm working from a book excerpt (The Lost Art of Cooking), and I don't know if some of the information has been edited. But I've done this several times now, and I sort of know what I'm doing. I'm trying to follow my instincts, for what those are worth.

I'll check the starter a few more times this evening, and I'll do an update either tonight after Mad Men (which takes precedence over everything), or tomorrow.

I've tried sourdough starters before. Once, about 30 years ago, when I had just begun making bread and didn't have a clue what I was doing. It wasn't long before it was moldy and dead in the refrigerator.

I tried it again about seven years ago. I used a Nancy Silverton recipe that was so precise and detailed it would have made Martha Stewart jump off a bridge. Silverton insisted that every step had to be followed exactly or.... well, hell. I don't know what would have happened. Maybe the Food Gods would rain wet bread dough down on me. After assembling the starter, it had to sit for a week. DON'T TOUCH IT!!11!!! For another ten days, it had to be fed three times a day, the water at exactly 70 degrees, or .... more wet bread dough, I guess. I was in my non-bread-baking stage at that point, and anything I had learned decades before had been lost in the ether of middle-age. So I was still clueless, and totally intimidated. Over a course of eight months, I made, scrapped, and started four starters before I finally decided it was easier to buy sourdough bread if I wanted it.

Since that time, I've gone back to baking bread, and I have a fairly good grasp of how yeast behaves, and what you can and can't do with dough. The most important I've learned is bread dough is highly forgiving. It's actually really hard to fuck it up. As long as the water's not too  hot, you should have something you can work with successfully.

But starters still intimidate me. Just thinking about making one make me anxious. WTF? A starter should not cause anxiety. It's essentially flour and bread left to sit for a while, collecting yeast from the atmosphere. So when I heard this guy on The Splendid Table recently, I decided it was time to face my fear.

I like his attitude.

Wild yeasts, or let's say ambient yeasts, are quite different from commercial bread yeast or Saccharomyces cerevisiae, literally “sugary fungus of beer.” The wild guys are sometimes a different species altogether, for example, in San Francisco it's S. exiguus, which apparently only thrives in the cold fog, just 90 miles from my house, but a completely different climate. Here it is blazing hot, usually still in the 90s in late September. This year, we had a strange summer and the grapes ripened really early, then all at once the weather changed, down in the 70s on October 1, with rain in the forecast. So I thought, time to catch some wild yeast.

This is the simplest thing to do. Put out some food, and the babies find it. They like to eat flour. Simple as that. They're also usually already on the flour you buy. If you have some grapes around, the powdery stuff on the outside is exactly what you're looking for; that's yeast. You can chuck the grapes into a flourand- water slurry and let them go. Whole wheat flour works well, and rye even better. You can use both. Raisins work fine, too. Let the flour, water, and fruit, if using, sit outside or on the counter uncovered for a day. On the second day, cover loosely with a kitchen towel, but never seal with plastic wrap, which prevents the living yeast from breathing.

Just wing it. OK then.

I put a starter together in five minutes, using a cup of flour - a half cup each of whole wheat flour and all purpose white flour - approximately 3/4 cup of water, and some grapes.  My kitchen is already cold, which means it might take a bit longer than usual to get a working starter.

 Right now the starter is sitting uncovered on the counter close to the stove (for a little extra warmth), looking around for ambient yeast. Considering I've been baking bread 3 times a week for the last five years or so, there's got to be a load of those little buggers floating around the kitchen. I'll be documenting the progress, if not every day, than every 2-3 days.

The last time I said "this will not defeat me", I was making baklava for 90 people. The baklava won that war, and I ended up ordering it from a Chapel Hill bakery. But bread is in my comfort zone. I might lose a battle or two, but I will win this war.

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And that didn't take long. I checked out a version of Silverton's recipe, and she says to wrap the grapes in cheese cloth, and press them a little to release the natural sugars. I pressed on them first, only to discover they have seeds. I fished out the seeds, then pulled the grapes out and wrapped them up. Now they're back in the starter. On a good note, I'm already seeing a few bubbles.

A few years ago, I was at my sister's house for  Christmas. We were  making dinner on Christmas Eve, and she handed me a recipe and said "You know how to make polenta, don't you?" I said I knew you had to work very quickly with it or it's useless. She said "Good, make this." It came out perfectly, which is such a rare thing, it's become one of my favorite dishes to make in the fall and winter.

It's a baked polenta, with butter and parmigiana-regiano.

Polenta Baked with Cheese
makes 6-8 servings

2 cups yellow cornmeal
6 cups cold water
2 tsp salt
1 cup grated parmigiana cheese
4 tbls. butter, cut into 1/2" dice

Gradually but vigorously mix water in cornmeal to remove lumps. Add salt. Bring to a simmer. Whisk, then stir with wooden spoon, as mixture thickens into a heavy mush. Continue stirring for about five minutes. (It has a tendency to stick to the  pan, so keep this as low as possible.)
Cover pan and put into larger pan with simmering water. Cook for 45 minutes, stirring often, adding water as necessary. Be careful with the simmering water. You only need a tiny bit; otherwise, it will overflow. Be sure it doesn't boil away.
Pour polenta into pie plate or other dish. Smooth out. Dot with butter and sprinkle with cheese. Let chill at least one hour, until firm and cold. Sprinkle with a little more cheese.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

It needs 15-20 minutes to set up. I think it's best when it's still warm or just at room temperature, but you can also serve it cold. Reheating is a little tricky, because it can burn. I like to let it come to room temp before putting it in the oven. Reheat at 300-325 degrees, and check it after 10 minutes. Sometimes you just have to poke your finger into it to check the temperature.

I usually makes this for dinner parties, and it tends to disappear while my back is turned.

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Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 40-48 cookies

These are my favorite cookies. The first time I made them, I accidentally used two tablespoons of vanilla instead of two teaspoons.I looked at the recipe a half dozen times, thinking that's a lot of vanilla, but I was sure that's what it called for. Too late, I realized my mistake. I made them anyway, and they're so good I've continued to make them with two tablespoons of vanilla.

My recipe is based on Ina Garten's Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I've made a few changes to it. Here's the original. And here's mine.

• 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbls pure vanilla extract; or 2 tbls brewed coffee; or 1 tbls each of vanilla and coffee
• 2 extra-large eggs at room temperature (large is fine if that's what you have)
• 2/3 cup good unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 pounds good chocolate, coarsely chopped; or milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Cayenne pepper to taste (about two shake from the jar)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the vanilla, then the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix well. Reduce mixer to lowest speed, add the cocoa and mix again. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and add to the dough with the mixer still on low speed, until just combined. Fold in the chocolate.

Drop the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using a 1 3/4-inch ice cream scoop or a rounded tablespoon. Dampen your hands and flatten the dough slightly. Bake for 11-14 minutes (the cookies will seem underdone). Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
 

I tried them once with two teaspoons of vanilla and they weren't as good. Too dry, and they got stale faster. I use real chocolate because I hate white chocolate.

I'm going to be live blogging a little experiment. I was talking to my internet gay boyfriend a couple days ago about how much we both love the custard in the clafouti I wrote about in my previous post. We think it would be a great idea to make just the custard. I'll make a few changes to the recipe. To start:
 
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp. fresh orange juice
substitute half the white sugar with brown sugar
decrease the milk 1/2 tsp

Before pouring the batter into a pie dish and putting it in the oven, I tasted the batter. I couldn't taste the vanilla or the orange. I added another 1/2 tsp of both vanilla and orange juice. The vanilla was fine (although you could certainly add more if you like a strong vanilla flavor), but I still couldn't taste the orange juice. In increments of 1/2 tsps., I increased the orange juice to 2 tbls. I could probably add another tsp., but I'm stopping there for now.

Because I decreased the milk by only 1/2 tsp, and used more orange juice than I expected, the batter was looking pretty thin. I added another 2 tbls. flour and whisked it until the batter was smooth and looked like it does when I make a clafouti.

OK, I'm now at two stumbling blocks. I'm treating this like a creme brulee, and I'm not sure what temperature to bake it at. The first thing I did was check the King Arthur's Flour Baker's Companion (the book in which I found the peach clafouti recipe), because they'd have a creme brulee recipe, wouldn't they? No, they don't. This has to be my biggest pet peeve about cookbooks. It doesn't matter what I'm looking for, I can't find it in my favorite cookbooks. Maybe Mark Bittman should change the name of his most famous book from How to Cook Everything to How to Cook a Lot of Things, but Nothing You'll Be Looking For.

My second stumbling block is whether I need a leavener. With the orange  juice, I've added more acid to the batter. Should I use baking soda to counteract it? I'm going on a search. I'll be back in a while.
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OK. Bittman totally come through for me. (This does not negate my previous complaint. I'm still more likely to not find what I'm looking for) He has a recipe for creme brulee and for baked custard; and I found a recipe for custard pie in The Baker's Companion. I don't think I need baking soda, so I'm going to leave that out. On Bittman's recommendation, I added a tsp. of orange zest. All the recipes recommend baking at 300 degrees in a water bath (something else I suspected I would need).

It's in the oven now. I'll check it in 35 minutes, and get back to you soon.
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At 35 minutes, it wasn't quite set, but it was starting to turn a lovely brown on the top. I gave it another 10 minutes, and it's looking perfect. It's cooling now, and it's all I can do not to dive into it.

Part way through this, it occurred to me that it would be just as easy to use a regular custard recipe. After I'm done with this test, I'd like to make a standard custard and compare the two. What I like about this one is I can use 2% milk, which is what I usually have in the house. I'm assuming the flour helps to thicken the custard and set it up. Standard custards don't call for flour, and are made with cream and/or whole milk, neither of which I keep around.

Tasting is next. I'll fill you in then.
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Well I ate a lot of custard today. First, I let it cool for 45 minutes, then tasted it. It had set up fairly well by that point, but it was still a little uneven. The orange overpowered everything else in the custard; also, I think I didn't need the extra 2 tablespoons of flour, because it was already really stiff.

I put the custard in the refrigerator, where it sat for 2-3 hours. Logan and I tasted it, and we both felt that the orange was still overpowering. The texture was consistent throughout by that point, and hard enough that he used a knife to cut it.

I let it sit out for a few more hours, and we tasted it again. The orange had mellowed and I could taste the vanilla. The flavors had melded together nicely by that point, and the texture had improved. However, it's firmer than I wanted or expected.

Here's the full recipe I used today:

3/4 cup + 2 tbls. unbleached, all purpose flour
2 1/2 tbls. packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tbls. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
Scant 1 1/4 cups  milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbls orange juice
1 tsp orange zest

Thoroughly butter a 10" round pan (a pie plate works perfectly) or 6 5-oz custard cups.

Preheat oven to 300.
Start a pan or kettle of water to boil, to prepare a water bath.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, and salt. In a large mixing bowl or a standing mixer, combine the eggs, milk, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla. Beat until thoroughly combined. Gradually add the flour mixture into the milk, eggs and vanilla, smoothing out the lumps. Pour batter into pie plate or cups.

Prepare a water bath by placing a towel on the bottom of a baking dish, or any oven-safe vessel large enough to hold the pie plate or custard cups. Place baking vessel into oven, and place pie plate/cups into the baking vessel. Pour boiling water into the baking vessel, enough to cover the sides of the pie plate/custard cups up to about 1" from the top. (You can put the pie plates or cups and the boiling water into the baking vessel before you put everything in the oven, but you're just asking for a huge, and possibly painful, spill.) Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.  Remove the baked custard from vessel and place on a cooling rack. Let it rest on the cooling rack long enough for the custard to set up, about 45 minutes. It can be served warm, cold, or at room temperature.

Logan says this particular custard needs the fruit in order to shine. I agree that it isn't as good on its own as it is with the fruit, but that could be due to the changes I made. If I were to make this again, I would use the amount of flour called for in the original recipe (3/4 cup), use 1 tbls. orange juice, and reduce the milk by 1 tbls.

Anyone who's eaten my food knows I'm not a complicated cook. I like simple food done well, and by simple, I don't mean a professional chef's idea of the word, which can include a multitude of ingredients, many of them hard to find. I mean beef stew (I put St. Julia's boeuf bourguigon recipe in the simple category. It's just beef stew with lots of wine), a great red sauce, roasted pork loin and vegetables, pan fried catfish with a salad and homemade bread.

And, although I'm not an idiot when it comes to cooking, I am a fan of the idiot proof recipe. Here are three of my favorites: an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert.

MARINATED OLIVES (adapted from a recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything):

1 jar of queen-sized green olives
1 tsp. vinegar (red or white wine, or balsamic)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Red pepper flakes to taste (I use two good shakes from the jar)
3 or 4 sprigs of fresh thyme, or about 1 tsp dried. (Oregano is also good, but you can use any compatible herb you want.)
2-4 garlic cloves, crushed with the side of a knife, and peeled
1 or 2 bay leaves

Drain olives and place in a small bowl or a container with a lid. Combine vinegar, oil, red pepper, and herb, if it's dried. Pour over olives, and mix. Add garlic and bay leaves, and herb if it's fresh. Cover, and allow to marinate for at least 6 hours, and up to a couple weeks.
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RAW TOMATO SAUCE (adapted from a recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything):

To make right before serving:

4 medium to large fresh tomatoes
juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
2-4 garlic cloves, crushed with the side of a large knife, and peeled
1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste (I use kosher)
Red pepper flakes to taste (I use 3 good shakes from the jar)
1/4-1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
At least 1 cup fresh basil, cut, torn or chopped, depending on how fine you want it. Use as much as you want.
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 bay leaf
Freshly grated parmegiano reggiano cheese
1/2 - 1 lb. pasta: linguine, fettucini, spaghetti, even angel-hair if you're a masochist

Put a large pot of water on to boil, and cook the pasta.
While water is boiling and pasta is cooking, core tomatoes and cut into medium-sized chunks. Don't discard the juice and seeds. There's a lot of flavor there. Put in a large flat-bottomed bowl, and add lemon juice, basil, red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper. Mash with a potato masher to the consistency you want, but do not puree. (Bittman says you can use a fork instead of a potato masher. I tried that. Seriously, I love Bittman, but sometimes he has his head up his ass.) Add bay leaf and pine nuts.

Drain pasta, and pour onto sauce, mixing thoroughly. Serve with parmegiano reggiano.
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To make several hours ahead of time (this results in a slightly stronger, and I think better, sauce)

Core tomatoes and cut into medium-sized chunks. Don't discard the juice and seeds. There's a lot of flavor there. Put in a large flat-bottomed bowl, and add lemon juice, red pepper flakes, salt, and black pepper. Mash with a potato masher to the consistency you want, but do not puree.  Add bay leaf. Allow to sit for at least 1 hour. I usually make 3-4 hours before I cook the pasta.

Right before you start the pasta water, add the basil and the pine nuts to the sauce. Cook and drain pasta, and pour onto sauce, mixing thoroughly. Serve with parmegiano reggiano.

This is a really flexible recipe. You can increase or decrease it as you want. You can use more or less pasta, depending on your mood. I usually make closer to a half pound for Logan and me. That leaves us with some extra sauce for later, when we add more pasta or just have the sauce with some homemade bread.

You have to use fresh, in-season tomatoes for this; however, if you make it ahead of time, it's a good recipe for less than fabulous tomatoes. Marinating them for a few hours will soften them up a bit and give them more flavor.

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PEACH CLAFOUTI (From The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion):

3 cups (2 lbs) sliced peaches*
1/3 cup (2 3/8 oz) packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (3 oz) unbleached, all purpose flour
1/3 cup (2 3/8 oz) sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups (10 oz) milk
3/4 tsp vanilla

Thoroughly butter a 10" round pan (a pie plate works perfectly) or ovenproof skillet. Arrange the peaches on the bottom of the pan and sprinkle with the brown sugar.

Preheat oven to 375.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. In a large mixing bowl or a standing mixer, combine the eggs, milk and vanilla. Beat until thoroughly combined. Gradually add the flour mixture into the milk, eggs and vanilla, smoothing out the lumps. Pour batter over fruit, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. (The original recipe says to bake it for 35-40 minutes, but it always takes an hour in my oven. I suggest that you start checking it at 35 minutes, but use your judgment.) Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. This can be served warm or at room temperature. Just let it rest long enough for the custard to set up.

*You can use sliced strawberries or quartered apricots instead. You can also add blueberries to the peaches, but you need a lot. The flavor of the blueberries can get lost if you don't have enough.

According to the Baker's Companion, you can use any of the following fruits: sweet, dark cherries, apples, pears, and plums. However, the recipes differ depending on the consistency and flavor of the fruit. It shouldn't be hard to find recipes if you do a little research.

"Clafouti" sounds fancy and complicated. I mean, it's a French recipe. But the French make peasant food too. If you can cut up some fruit and make pancake batter, you can do this.

Ever since I discovered Jim Lahey's recipe for no-knead bread, I've been messing around with it. First I started kneading it a little, because it seems unnatural to make bread without at least a minute or two of kneading. I also added sugar to it for a while, but the bread stuck to the pan. When my oven done broke down, I made bread on the grill. It wasn't a raging success, but it wasn't a total failure either.

After burning the hell out of six fingers and both thumbs when I picked up a screaming hot pan just out of a 500 degree oven, I stopped heating the pans before baking the bread. My pain-killer addled brain can process just so much information, and it only took a ten second distraction for me to forget that I needed pot holders. Then I spent a week at the beach in a house without a decent baking dish, so I baked the bread on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. I think Frank Zappa would not disagree that desperation and panic are actually the mothers of invention.

Here's my current bread recipe. This has to be put together the night before you want to bake the bread.

3 cups bread flour (You can use all-purpose, unbleached flour, but bread flour absorbs more water, which results in a crispier crust. Protein levels and all that complicated scientific crap)
1.5 - 2 cups water
1 tsp. yeast
1 scant tbls. salt (I use kosher salt. Use what you prefer)

Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl, then add yeast. Add water a little at a time, until it's damp but not too wet, i.e. it shouldn't stick to your hands when you touch it. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise overnight. DO NOT KNEAD.

In the morning, stir down the dough. DO NOT KNEAD. Cover again, and let rise for 2-3 hours. After it's risen, sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface, pour the dough on the flour, add a little flour on the top if it's sticky, and squeeze or gently knead just long enough to deflate the dough, no more than 2 minutes. As you're kneading, add some flour a little at a time, to keep the dough from getting too sticky to handle. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes. Gently knead dough for about 30 seconds, return to bowl and let sit for at least 90 minutes, and up to three hours.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (aluminum foil will also work), sprinkle it with cornmeal, and pour dough onto sheet. The dough tends to have a mind of its own, but you can reshape it by wetting your hands and gently moving the dough around until it looks presentable. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes.

If you prefer to use a bread pan, line the pan with parchment paper, sprinkle with corn meal, pour dough into pan and bake at 450 degrees for 55 minutes.

When bread is done, immediately remove it from pan and let cool on a rack. I know it's hard to resist breaking into it right away, but it should sit for a least an hour. If you cut or tear into it before that, it can collapse, dry out, or both.

The point to this bread is flavor developed from a long, slow rise, a crisp outside and a light crumb. If you prefer a denser bread, i.e. no holes, knead it for three to five minutes instead of just a minute or two.

You can make this with whole wheat flour, but it won't be as light. If I want to add some whole wheat, I usually add a couple tablespoons at the beginning, or use it when I knead the bread. That gives it a little more body and flavor, but doesn't change the texture of the bread.

I know I'm probably the last person in the developed world who still kneads bread by hand, but seriously, if you need to use your standing mixer for this, and you don't have a physical disability, you should just buy your bread at the grocery store or a bakery. There's no real trick to kneading by hand, and if you put this dough in a standing mixer, it will overprocess. A lot of bread recipes call for up to 15 minutes of kneading. Believe me, after making bread for 30 years, I promise you there's not a bread in the world that requires more than five minutes of kneading at a time. If you're making more than two loaves, you get a pass. Just do it gently.