Extreme Cooking Blog

Can’t get enough of these. So much fun to bake – even more fun to eat.

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Just discovered that I can use my iSi whipper to make pancakes. These were the fluffiest ones I have ever had – just used my standard buttermilk batter. Had some trouble finding just the right consistency. The ones shown in the video were not the best. A later batch that was more aerated was awesome.

Continuing to use the panini press. We’re loving it. For brunch this morning we made croque madame from slices of a boule I just baked.

The filling included ham, cheese, a béchamel sauce, dijon mustard. Topped with a fried egg. My taste buds have been humming all day.

Totally unexpected. I was making a puree of celery root and apples which involves cooking poaching them in milk. It must have been something in the celery root, but at the end of the poaching, the milk had completely seprated into clear whey and fluffy white curd, redolent of apple:

I was scratching my head trying to figure out what the heck had happened when my precious wife walked up, tried a piece of the curd and immediately announced “Blintzes”.  (She is a million times brighter than I am). I made the crêpes, so she doctored up the curds with some plump raisins and egg:

Fried in butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. WOW!

I’ve never been a big fan of biscuits, but my wife considers them an essential breakfast staple. I’ve tried through the years to help her relive the biscuits of her youth and have consistently failed with all kinds of scratch recipes and mixes- too dense, too flakey, too sweet, too tall, too flat, too hard, too too ….

This week I received some varieties of biscuit mix from Pioneer. Made the buttermilk ones today and finally, yes finally, got a “just right”. I also used the same mix for a batch of pancakes. Now, I am very, very proud of my made-from-scratch buttermilk pancakes based on a recipe from Marion Cunningham. Guess what? These were better. And easier. And probably less expensive. Just add milk and eggs.

New York City. 1964 World’s Fair. No idea why I was standing in a long line at the Belgian Pavilion. All I remember is a paper plate appeared in my hands with the largest waffle I had ever seen topped with whipped cream and strawberries. And permanently seared into my memory was this mélange of flavors and textures.

Later on I would try to reproduce this experience with a standard waffle maker, but the results did not live up to expectations. It was only a few years ago that I bought a waffle maker capable of cooking the thick, large-holed variety that I finally reconnected with 1964.

I use the KitchenAid Pro Line Waffle Baker which bakes up waffles that have an ultra-thin layer of the crisp on the outside and a light, soft, moist interior.

I like the recipes from Dorie Greenspan’s Waffles: From Morning to Midnight especially for the batter. She has all kinds of batter variations beyond the basic ones:

• Cinnamon Raison Whole-Wheat
• Carrot
• Crispy Cornmeal
• Banana Oatmeal
• Whole-grain sourdough
• Blueberry yogurt
• …. you get the idea

The book has a number of interesting toppings and ideas for “dinner” waffles, but to fill a whole book (this one has over 200 pages), Greenspan has really to had to reach and many of these creations just don’t work for me such as “Smoked Salmon and Dill Waffles”.  Anyway, today I made some basic Belgian waffles with whipped cream and strawberries. Here is a little video: