Food and… | J.R. Johnson

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Very Much Lemon

Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, baking, Bundt topography, cake, dessert, recipes on September 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I like lemon. And lime and yuzu and orange, but very much lemon. Which is why I want to give a shout-out to King Arthur’s 2017 Recipe of the Year and my new favorite lemon cake. The hardest thing about it is prepping the pan. (After years of fighting with the challenges of Bundt pan topography, I opted to try this spray. Success!)

Click through to the recipe for details and step-by-step instructions. I record my version here for ~~next week when I make this again~~ culinary posterity.

Lemon Bliss Cake Recipe | King Arthur Baking

Ingredients

Cake

227g salted butter, room temperature
397g sugar
5.25g table salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
9.5g baking powder
360g all-purpose flour
227g milk, room temperature
3g lemon oil

Glaze

80g lemon juice
149g sugar
1/8t lemon oil (forgot to weigh this)
a couple drops of Fiori di Sicilia

Icing (optional, the cake is good with or without it)

170g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
pinch of table salt
42g lemon juice

Bake at 350F for 60 minutes.

* I bought the specialized ingredients at King Arthur so I’ve included those links, but you can find these items elsewhere. I do appreciate the fact that King Arthur is an employee-owned company with an extensive free recipe collection and a hotline for baking emergencies!

*My version of the original King Arthur recipe*

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Happy Brunch Day

Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, brunch, Thoughts on August 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

There’s a storm rolling in so I’ll make this brief. Also, we’re stuffed after a fun brunch with waffles, fauxmosas, BLTs and good friends. How good?

They brought chocolate croissants.

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”

― Linda Grayson

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Sourdough Sandwich Bread, the Embiggening!

Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, baking, bread, food, recipes, sourdough on August 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

My favorite sandwich bread recipe makes two loaves. That’s just enough for Mr Man to eat most of a loaf the first day, and then polish off the second loaf over the next day or two. Making this bread isn’t hard but it does take up most of a morning, and it would be nice if the results lasted a bit longer.

Given that, I’ve adapted the recipe to make three loaves and include it here so I won’t misplace the random scrap of paper I used for my calculations. (Yes, that happens a lot!)

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Even More Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Ingredients

Levain

192g flour
192g water
66g sourdough starter

Dough

946g flour
75g sugar
22g salt
8.4g instant yeast
85g butter, softened
573g milk (70° to 80°F, I microwave for 63 seconds)
the ripe levain

Instructions (abbreviated*)

Mix the levain ingredients the night before and let rise
The next morning, mix and then knead together all of the dough ingredients (~12 minutes)
Let the dough rise for 1 to 2 hours, until ~doubled in size
Divide the dough into three, shape into loaves, let rise in buttered 9″ loaf pans until ~1″ above rim
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes at 375F

* I’ve memorized this recipe by now, but for more details see the original post. And apologies for not converting these measurements back into cups etc. but my bread needs to be shaped!

Enjoy!

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*Not quite the BLTs we’re planning, but close enough! Photo by Dimitri on Unsplash*

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A Day Today

Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, meh, Thoughts on July 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Some days all you can do is make a quadruple batch of cookies. So that’s what I’m doing.

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A Spicy Rabbit Hole

Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, food, history, Thoughts on June 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I stumbled across a spice mix yesterday and ended up going down a rabbit hole of seasoning mixes, chefs and surprises. Did I collect a list of Burlap & Barrel wants that will keep my wish list going for the foreseeable future? I did. And did I learn some interesting and fun facts about cooking with spices that are new to me? Also yes.

For example: I didn’t recognize hing at first, but it’s also called perungayam or asafoetida, which I have heard of but never cooked with. It’s used in Indian and other recipes and is good for people who can’t or don’t want to use onions and garlic. (B&B’s tasting notes equate 1/8 teaspoon of the spice to one whole onion plus six cloves garlic, so yeah, it packs a punch.) I happen to be a mite sensitive to alliums so I decided to explore more. Which led me to this in-depth article:

Asafoetida’s Lingering Legacy Goes Beyond Aroma — Whetstone Magazine

Devil’s dung. Seytan tersi. Merde du diable.

In English, Turkish, French and a whole host of other languages, the monikers for asafoetida are so deeply unflattering that you’d wonder why anyone would want to consume or cook with the spice at all. Its most commonly used English name is just as unambiguous. Derived from Farsi and Latin, asafoetida simply translates to “stinking resin.”

So what is asafoetida, and why is it so divisive?

If you aren’t one of the millions who already use this particular spice, read on for more, including an interesting detour through Afghanistan and Iran with Alexander the Great. Because even kings have to eat!

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Fiori di Sicilia Cookies

Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #thingsthatmakemegonom, cookies, food on June 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I have discovered a new cookie recipe, and liked it enough to want to share the recipe. I don’t usually like soft puffy cookies, but I really like these.

Here is the original recipe with detailed instructions over at Serious Eats: Fiori di Sicilia Cookies Recipe.

My version, slightly different and in metric.

Recipe Notes:

Doubles well.
Fiori di Sicilia: this brand has the best flavor I’ve found so far but in Canada it may be easier to find this version.
Lemon oil: I like this brand but whichever you choose, look for an oil without added water or alcohol.
I also broke down and bought a big pack of pre-cut parchment paper sheets. These were pricer than the industrial sized-rolls from Costco (there are also cheaper pre-cut options), but the increase in my parchment-related happiness was very much worth it.

Reviews:

“Omg these are the best!!” (Mr Man)
“You have crafted a cookie that managed to defeat COVID!“ (friend on the mend, happily!)

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Sadly, I do not have a picture of the cookies. We ate them.
Photo by Isabella Fischer on Unsplash

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Baking Today

Posted in Food and..., Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts, Writers on May 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can’t put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.”

― Erin Bow

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A Summer’s Day

Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, hot!, Thoughts on May 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Today was the first afternoon that felt like summer. What a perfect time to resurface this recipe for a lime freeze!

(And also a perfect time to lounge around drinking said lime freeze. Just saying.)

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Got the Munchies?

Posted in Food and..., Holidays, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, AI, inspiration on April 20, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Maybe AI can help:

Food Mood — Google Arts & Culture

Get inspiration for your next meal and create new recipes mixing influences from two cuisines, generated with the help of Google AI.

I decided to mix Ireland and Sweden. On the face of it, at least, the basic concept of baked salmon and mashed potatoes wasn’t terrible (although the AI-generated image was a little off base).

Or break out the chips. You do you.

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