I’m not a baker.
I keep saying that. It’s a mantra in my life.
It isn’t to say I don’t bake. I make biscotti. I make cookies. I make cornbread.
But there’s a science to baking that I don’t really get. It isn’t just the fact that I don’t get that science, most of you know that I’m a diabetic. I can’t really do a lot of experimenting. Patricia can’t eat that much of it just while we train for the marathon, and like I just said, I can’t eat that much either.
It is the stuff like ‘Mix the yeast into slightly warm water.’ That means a lot of things to a lot of people. Like me? I love me a hot, hot shower. We’re talking water that the wife can’t stand. ‘slightly warm’ to me, might be hot to you.
And don’t get me started on ‘room temperature.’
Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago, we received a cookbook in the mail. The cookbook (this one in particular) and I have some issues, namely in their choice of typeface. Continue reading Easy Beer Bread
Rosemary Filone Bread
The tale of the biga is a long one. I’m hoping it will continue to grow longer and longer as I (and all of the other biga owners out there) bake many more loaves of bread. This weekend I decided to investigate a book that has gone neglected for far too long on our bookshelves. We received Local Breads from a friend over two years ago. I never used it because most of the recipes in it require the use of a pre-ferment (otherwise known as a biga). It’s no secret that I don’t [...]
 Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier Sauce Uff, this is a bit late, isn’t it.
How easy is this dish?
I’ve never made a bread pudding before.
The Mrs. has never made a bread pudding before.
This came out so well, we carried half of it to a party full of strangers where it received universal praise.
And the reason we only carried half of it was that we wanted to keep the rest to ourselves.
So yeah. This is easy and tasty.
Crispy topping, custardy innards, still-crispy apples, crunchy nuts, tart berries, buttery, sweet and slightly boozy.
I’d wager bourbon would work just as well as Grand Marnier, too. I just suggested to the Mrs. that candied bacon would be good in this dish too and well… while I can’t exactly describe the sound she made, it was one of pure, unadulterated food lust.
This dish, in its full size, is definitely a bit large for a couple. But, it is Valentine’s Day. It is meant to be a sweet day to spend with your sweet.
Continue reading Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier Sauce
 Sweet Potato 5 Spice Bread If you follow us on Twitter, you’ve probably heard mention of the biga. The biga is bubbling. The biga is happy. Biga, biga, biga, biga, biga! So what’s a biga? A biga is very much like a sourdough starter. It’s a starter that’s often fruitier, and nuttier than a standard sourdough starter. You can use part of your biga in place of (or in addition to) commercial yeast when baking bread. Properly cared for, and rergularly used, a biga can last a lifetime.
So how do you make a biga? Well, my biga started out with a pear from the University District Farmers Market. A friend of mine grated up that pear and used some of the natural yeast that’s on the pear to start her biga. She then added in some flour and water, and left the mixture uncovered to capture wild yeast out of the air. Every day she discarded half of the biga, fed it, kept it warm, and watched it grow. It grew from a white pasty mixture of flour and water to a living, bubbling entity.
Soon she started giving her biga cast offs away. Biga exchanges took place in dark alleys, at Farmers Market booths, and at coffee shops. The whispers grew of an amazing biga, one that could cause dough to rise not only until double in size, but five and six times… of a biga that still smelled like that one original pear, a biga so sweet, and yet so sour, that the sourdough it made was legendary. (So maybe that last little part didn’t happen, but it should have.)
Soon the friends she gave her cast offs to started giving away their cast offs. We think that some of those recipients have even given away their cast offs by this point. Five, six, seven generations of bigas are living and feeding in Seattle. All because one person bought a pear.
 Continue reading The tale of the biga…
 Christmas Bread Wreath On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me – FIVE GOLD RINGS! And Cook Local gives you a Christmas Bread Wreath.
Five gold rings. Such an extravagant gift. We thought that today’s post would be a no brainer. Golden. Rings. Doughnuts! I mean, who doesn’t love doughnuts? Well, ok. I know a few people who don’t love doughnuts. If you’re in the Seattle area, we really hope you’ll try our very favorite doughnut shop. That shop is Frost Doughnuts. They’re up in Mill Creek, and while that’s a bit of a drive, it is so worth it. Not only do their doughnuts absolutely rock, but they’re one of those companies that does Twitter right. We recommend their salted caramel doughnuts. They’ve been known to make eyes roll back in heads. The bacon-maple bar is also quite good as is the bourbon pecan doughnut.
Back to the plan. Doughnuts. Ok. Flour – check. Sugar – check. Other ingredients – check. Doughnut pan – <crickets>. Doughnut pan – <crickets>. Doughnut pan? Bueller? Bueller?
Well, we don’t own a doughnut pan. And given that our kitchen is sort of overflowing with pots and pans as it is, we didn’t want to buy a doughnut pan. Plus, we try to provide recipes that you can make with very little special equipment. So back to the drawing board. What we came up with was delicious, simple, and will make a beautiful presentation for your Christmas table.
Continue reading 12 Recipes of Christmas – Christmas Bread Wreath
 Rosemary Breadsticks Coming up with the Twelve Recipes of Christmas wasn’t the easiest thing. First of all, listen to the song. Bear with me for a minute.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping, 10 lords a leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking, seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.
Swans, geese, birds, hens, doves, and a partridge. All birds of some sort. Then you’ve got drummers, pipers, lords, ladies, and maids. Not exactly great for cooking inspiration. So we hope you’ll bear with us as we interpret the song somewhat liberally.
We need to ask one other forgiveness. We’re going through the song sort of backwards. We’re starting with day 12 and counting down to day one. Along the way we’ve got desserts, a bread, appetizers, breakfasts, and main dishes. Stop by every day to see what we’ve chosen to represent the various verses of the song and let us know what you’re cooking for the holidays.
Continue reading 12 Recipes of Christmas – Rosemary Breadsticks
 Nightwatch Stuffing Ever since I started cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I’ve been searching for “my” stuffing recipe. Mom’s stuffing was always good and of course it had that “I grew up with this” charm, but I wanted my own recipe. (Mom’s uses items that are decidedly not local, so that’s another reason to find my own recipe). I’ve tried several different recipes, and so far, this is what I’ve come up with. This recipe (or a close approximation) will be what we use for our local Thanksgiving this year.
We’ll also have John’s Merme’s stuffing, which uses Bell’s Poultry Seasoning. Luckily, Bell’s is from New England, and that’s exactly where his parents are flying in from in just a few days. So we’ll ask them to bring us a box.
Soon after my dear, sweet husband introduced me to beer, I decided that one of my favorite beers was Nightwatch from Maritime Brewery. I like my beers dark and toasty. But lucky for us, Nightwatch is a local beer so it fits in very nicely with any Thanksgiving planning. The second component to today’s stuffing is a bag of stuffing mix (read: stale baguette pieces) from Tall Grass Bakery. You can pick up a big bag of stuffing mix at the University District or Ballard Farmers Markets this weekend for only $5. Add in some carrots, celery, an egg, and a bit of seasonings, and you’ve got yourself some stuffing.
Continue reading Nightwatch Stuffing
 Freshly sliced Pumpkin Hazelnut Bread Last Friday was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the leaves were turning all sort of bright fall colors, and it was cool enough for me to switch to my long sleeved running shirt and consider digging out my knit cap. After a very pleasant 4 mile run, all I wanted was to bake. Luckily, with the day off, I could indulge that desire. I have a weakness for bread, particularly sweet breads like zucchini bread. Since I had a big batch of pumpkin puree leftover from the Winter Luxury pumpkin I picked up from Local Roots Farm, I went on a search for a pumpkin bread recipe.
Continue reading Pumpkin Hazelnut Bread
Mr. Cooklocal here, and let me apologize right off the bat. There isn’t going to be a recipe here. This isn’t about the what, so much as the how.
This is the greatest thing since sliced bread!!! No, wait, it *is* sliced bread. Sorry.
One of the many, many cookbooks on our shelf is the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which is actually a review copy, so, there we go, ethic folks, getting that out of the way right off the bat.
While the title isn’t exactly correct, since it really takes a bit more [...]
Doesn’t the above equation sound good and exceedingly simple? Well, it’s unfortunately slightly more complicated than that, but only very slightly. After a very long week (can you say exhaustion? no? you’re too tired? me too), we came home tonight ready to kick back and enjoy our weekend. But the other day, I mentioned a new recipe to John involving Pyramid Brewery’s Apricot Weizen. He was immediately intrigued and vowed to make it at his next available opportunity.
So tonight, we made Apricot Beer Bread. This was about the easiest bread we’ve ever made. This is a [...]
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