Blueberry Cream Cheese on Blueberry Muffin ブルーベリーチーズクリームのせブルーベリーマフィン

We are in local (meaning North America) blueberry season. We are getting quite good blueberries. So, besides enjoying them fresh or with yogurt, we are making the usual blueberry items such as blueberry pancakes, and blueberry muffins. My wife uses both whole and puree of blueberry to enhance the blueberry flavors of the blueberry baked goods she makes. One such example is the blueberry muffin shown on the right in picture #1. We call that muffin “double blueberry” because the batter includes both whole blueberries and blueberry puree. One of her recent innovations was blueberry cream cheese spread. Which, when spread on the double blueberry muffin as shown in picture #1 on the left triples the blueberry flavors. 

The picture #2 is a close-up of the blueberry cream cheese spread. She made blueberry purée and then mixed it into cream cheese. I will ask my wife to continue.

Ingredients:
1 package of fresh blueberries (amount is actually arbitrary)
1 8 oz. package of Philadelphia Cream cheese

Directions:
Put the fresh blueberries in a saucepan cover and heat on very low heat until the blueberries burst open releasing juice. Puree using a hand held immersion blender. Set aside to cool.
When the puree has cooled add the cream cheese to a mixer and mix until smooth. Add the blueberry puree. (The amount is arbitrary and to taste. The more puree added the stronger the blueberry taste). Mix until the cream cheese and puree are completely blended.

This is extremely easy to make. My wife got the idea for this because we had gotten some commercially made tubs of blueberry cream cheese. When my wife tasted them she thought they were pretty good but we were at the height of blueberry season why not try to make some blueberry cream cheese ourselves using fresh blueberries. This made a very nice spread to use on anything; pancakes, muffins, or bread. The main thing we discovered was that it takes time for the blueberry flavor to come through. When we first made it we could hardly taste any blueberry flavor and initially we were disappointed. But several days later the blueberry flavor was nicely pronounced making the experiment well worthwhile.

Chestnut olive oil bread 栗とオリーブオイルケーキ

This is a variation on the theme of  “olive oil cakes” that my wife has been making recently. Previous versions were: “almond olive oil cake” and “Hazelnut olive oil cake”. The hazelnut olive oil cake was gluten-free but since our purpose in making these cakes was to use various unusual nut flours rather than make gluten-free cakes, she added a small amount of AP flour in the almond olive oil cake which appears to make the cake more stable by preventing the center of the cake from collapsing after it cooled. This time, she added more wheat flour and the cake consistency is closer to “regular” cake. The chestnut flour gave a really nicely distinctive flavor. Next time, she said she might add chunks of prepared chestnuts.

Ingredients
2 cups firmly packed chestnut flour
1/2 cup AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (medium quality is OK)

1 cup sugar
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 20 cm 8" springform pan with olive oil then line with baking paper (parchment paper), then grease the paper. In a medium bowl, mix the chestnut flour, AP flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the olive oil, eggs and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes on speed 7 or 8 until it becomes pale and thick (like pouring cream or runny mayonnaise). Add vanilla extract and beat on speed one for 10 seconds. Add the Dry ingredients and mix in gently using a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes. It will puff up dramatically in the oven but it collapses as it cools. (This version did not collapse as much as previous nut olive oil cakes). Remove from the oven and allow the cake to fully cool in the pan before releasing from the springform pan. This is a rustic cake that has higher edges and a flatter centre.

This is a very distinctive cake. It has a moist dense texture and a deep rich nutty chestnut flavor. (The flavor is unique, in a good way, and very distinctive.) Because of the intense rich flavor a small piece goes a long way. We found it is particularly good served with a slather of blueberry flavored cream cheese. 

Bagel ベーグル

My wife was not into bagels but this dramatically changed after our recent stay at a hotel/B&B in California. It was a good comfortable accommodation. But essentially we did not see any hotel staff while we were there. There was no front desk and you communicate with the hotel owner/proprietor via digital communication and instead of a key you get a “code” which allows you to open the front door and your room doors during your stay. It had a spacious communal kitchen and dining room where we could self serve coffee, yogurt,  bagels/muffins, and fruit for breakfast. They had blueberry bagels and my wife really liked the bagel. While we were staying there we had bagel and cream cheese as a breakfast every day. So when we came back, my wife got a few varieties of bagels from Whole Foods and an on-line gourmet bakery to try. My wife thought these bagels were not as good as we had at the hotel. I reminded her that I did bake bagels many years go but felt it was not worth the effort since she was not particularly fond of bagels back then. Now since, she suddenly developed a taste for bagels I decided to try making some. As a trial run, I made 6 bagels (3 plain and 3 sesame, picture #1). They came out great with nice flavor and texture. (they were was slow fermented over night in the refrigerator) but the crust is a bit too hard and I thought I could improve on this.

The sliced surface shows irregular holes and a nice moist and slightly chewy texture (picture #2).

The original recipe came from the newly published King Arthur baking cook book called “Big Book of Bread”. The original recipe made 12 bagels but for this trial I halved the recipe and made six.

Ingredients (x1, make 6 bagels)
DOUGH (I weighed everything)
413 grams unbleached bread flour, plus more for dusting
8.5 grams salt
1.5 grams instant yeast
269 grams warm water
Yellow cornmeal, for dusting

Ingredients (x2, make 12 bagels)
DOUGH (I weighed everything)
826 grams unbleached bread flour, plus more for dusting 
17 grams salt 
3 grams instant yeast 
538 grams warm water
Yellow cornmeal, for dusting 

WATER BATH (this is the amounts in the original recipe)
1,816 grams (8 cups) water
42 grams (2 tablespoons) honey
18 grams (1 tablespoon) fine salt

Directions: (Although I tried to follow the original instructions, this is description of what I did)
Place all the dough ingredients in a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook and knead for 5 minutes after the dough ball is formed around the hook.
On the lightly dusted board, take out the dough ball and hand knead briefly to make a tight ball.
Place the dough ball in a lightly oiled bowl, turn over to coat all surfaces. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap.
Let it rise for 1.5 to 2 hours until the volume doubles (I used a bread proofing box at 85F).
I deflated and divided the dough into equal 6 portions by weighing (the total dough weighed 693 grams  for x1 and 1,379 grams*, so one portion was about 115grams).
I made balls and with the seam side down, covered loosely with a plastic wrap and then a dish towel and let them rest for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile I prepared a rimmed baking sheet line with a parchment paper and lightly dusted with corn meal.
I flattened the dough ball into a disk and pushed my finger through the center to make a ring and placed it on the parchment (#1 in the composite picture)
At this point, I placed another sheet of parchment paper on top and then covered with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap didn’t stick to the baking sheet so I taped the sides to the baking sheet. I refrigerated it overnight.

*Just for the heck-of-it I added the weight of all ingredients specified in the recipe and it equalled 1,384 grams. I then weighed the actual dough after the first fermentation and it was 1,379 grams. While interesting, the difference is minor and I attribute it to evaporation of water during the fermentation.

Next morning:
I was not sure if I should let the dough bagels come to the room temperature or immediately boil them. (The instructions were silent on this topic). So I did not warm up the dough rings and I boiled/simmered them 3 at a time one minute on each side (#2 in the composite picture)
I placed the boiled dough rings on the parchment paper. I placed 3 one sided on a plate covered in sesame seeds and left the other 3 plain (#3 in the composite picture).
I baked at 470F (in convection mode, the original recipe calls for 475F) in the upper 1/3 position rotating the baking sheet at 10 minutes and baked for total of 20 minutes (#4 in the composite picture).

As I mentioned the bagels came out nicely and my wife likes them but the crust is a bit too hard and chewy. (I am not sure that the convection vs regular oven made the difference?).

The second try
We finished the first batch and made the second with a few modification. I let the dough rings come to room temperature (let them sit for 1 hour) before boiling. Interestingly, in the first batch, the dough rings sank and then floated up to the top of the water after10 seconds or so but this time they floated to the top immediately.  I boiled each side about 30 seconds this time. I reduced the oven temperature to 450F and cooked them for 20 minutes.

The results were better. The crust was not as dark in color and slightly less crunchy but less chewy. The crust can be a bit less crunchy still.
The third try
I made the hole in the center smaller to make the body of the bagel a bit thicker. I let the dough rings come to the room temperature (let them sit for 1 hour) before boiling,  I reduced the boiling time for 20-10 seconds each side. I preheated the oven to 450F, reduced it to 400F just before putting the dough in the oven. I cooked them for 25 minutes. 

I could have made the holes a bit bigger but the all bagel did not flatten out too much. The crust is very crunchy but not too thick. The inside is not too chewy and lots of flavors. We are getting close to having bagel perfection (at least based on our opinion)

The fourth try:
This is my 4th try and this is definitely the best one. The modifications are as follows;
1. After overnight fermentation in the refrigerator, let it sit for 1 hour to warm up before boiling
2. Boil for 10 seconds each side
3  Bake at 400F for 25 minutes
4. Instead of attaching the sesame seeds on the surface, I kneaded the roasted sesame into the half of the dough (3 bagels)  after the first fermentation as per suggestion of my wife.

In the picture #4, upper three are plain and the lower three are with sesame seeds. Both came out well with nice thin crunchy crust and perfect inside which is not dry or too chewy. The size of the holes is just right and the bagels have nice height. It has good flavor and texture. The sesame ones have nice sesame flavor but because the seeds were mixed into the dough rather than put on top they did not come off. (Slight digression alert: We also sprinkled toasted sesame seeds on top of the cream cheese we put on the sliced and toasted bagel. Again this addition intensified the sesame flavor but the seeds stayed put.) 

The fifth try and our final recipe:
Although we thought the fourth try would be our last changes to the recipe, the crust was still a bit too chewy for us. So this time, I boiled the bagel 10 seconds on each side and baked it at 370F for 25 minutes, changing the level of rack and tuning 180 degree after 10 minutes. The bagels are bit pale but they have a nice thick crunchy crust and nice soft interior with a lot of flavor.

One more improvement is that we got the plastic covers for our baking pans. This system works much better than covering the pans with plastic wrap. There is enough space so that the bagels do not stick to the cover and I can stack the pans in the refrigerator saving space.

When we tried the fifth iteration, I baked the bagels in the morning. My wife also baked the Ricotta muffins.  We had both as a breakfast. Really nice!

Another try with further modifications:
The 5th version was good but the color was a bit pale. I tried 380F and used the lower rack touching the baking stone. This time the color was nice and crunchy crust is not too thick.

Matcha Almond Pancakes, 抹茶アーモンドパンケーキ

We like pancakes as a breakfast. Our all time favorite is buttermilk blueberry pancake when blueberries are in season. Another one we like is a green pancakes made with spinach and mint. We decided that the flavor comes from the mint but not the spinach so we modified the recipe to use just mint. We like the flavors as well as the striking “verdant”  green color. Recently, we saw a recipe for “matcha almond pancakes”. We both thought ‘we have to make this’. So here they are. A stack of matcha almond pancakes

They were quite good. We had this as a breakfast sitting outside on the patio with a cup of cappuccino and mango yogurt made with home-made yogurt with pureed and small cubes of champagne mango mixed in. These pancakes reminded us of the “Matcha green tea cake” we made a few times before.

Ingredients: (The original recipe indicated it makes 8 pancakes but we doubled the recipe and got only 7 pancakes)

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (68 grams) whole-wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (60 grams) almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 tablespoon matcha
1 cup (240 milliliters) whole, reduced-fat or plant-based milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon neutral oil, such as avocado or canola
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Maple syrup, for serving

Directions:
In a medium bowl, thoroughly whisk together the pastry flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt until combined. Sift the matcha into the mixture and whisk again to thoroughly combine.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, oil and vanilla until combined. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and stir just to combine. Do not overmix; it’s okay if there are some small lumps. Let the batter hydrate for 5 to 10 minutes. (The batter will initially appear quite watery but over the 5 to 10 minutes the flours thoroughly hydrate and it becomes thicker. Nonetheless it was still runnier than our usual pancake batters.)

Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat until hot. (To test, drop a dime-size amount of batter into the skillet and if it starts to bubble and brown right away, the pan is ready.)

Working in batches as necessary ladle the batter onto the skillet. Cook until bubbles form on top and the underside is nicely browned, about 2 minutes, then flip and cook until browned on the other side, and cooked through, 2 minutes more. Adjust the heat as necessary to prevent the pancakes from browning too fast before they’re cooked through. Transfer the pancakes to a plate and repeat with the remaining batter.

Serve with maple syrup.

These pancakes were quite good but not great. They were fairly thin in texture. The macha flavor really came through though. They reminded us of the macha cake we made previously. Next time we want a macha pancake we will try just adding some macha to our favorite buttermilk pancake recipe.

Addendum:Culinary grade vs. drinking/sipping matcha:

We have taste tested “Culinary” and “Drinking” grade matcha. Since we are not connoisseurs of matcha, we could not tell the difference. We bought the large can of “culinary matcha” from “Matcha Love” which is run by a Japanese tea company called “Ito-en” 伊藤園. For this type of cooking, this is quite good and reasonably priced.

Blueberry puree and pecan muffin ブルーベリーピュレー、ピーカンマフィン

This is another variation on the theme of blueberry muffins. When we got less than perfect (in terms of the shape/consistency and sourness) blueberries, my wife slowly cooked and then pureed them using the immersion blender. You could add sugar and the puree worked well when added to our morning yogurt.  My wife tried using blueberry puree in muffins and found that it really added a blueberry flavor in conjunction with the whole blueberries. 

At one point she found the whole blueberries were gone but she had more puree than she could use in the morning yogurt. She didn’t want the puree to go bad so she decided to made a blueberry muffin “sans” the whole blueberry but just using the leftover puree as the liquid in the batter. She made this blueberry muffin with the puree as the blueberry “representative” and the addition of pecans to see how it works.  As you can see below, the entire muffin turned sort-of purple.

Ingredients
1 cup toasted pecans).
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs room temperature
4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup combination of buttermilk and blueberry puree (i.e. however much puree is available combined with buttermilk to make 1 cup) room temperature

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
(Optional) finely grated zest of 1 lemon. We did not use this.

Directions:
To make the blueberry puree, bring 1 cup of blueberries to a very low simmer in a small saucepan. Cook until the berries have broken down. Puree using an immersion blended. Cool to room temperature.

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. Whisk 1 cup sugar and eggs in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk/blueberry puree, lemon zest (if using) and vanilla until combined. Fold wet mixture into flour mixture until just moistened (lumpy is fine). If the batter seems loose, let it mellow for 5 minutes, and it will thicken up (picture below).

Divide among 12 greased muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups) (picture below).

Bake at 425F until tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes (picture below).  Cool in muffin tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

This is not bad but blueberry flavor was not very strong. The amount of the puree you put in may be something to do with it but in it’s own right, this is a good muffin.

New Blueberry muffin 新ブルーベリーマフィン

Although we generally like home delivery of groceries, the quality of produce can be a bit unreliable. Since it was high-season for blueberries, we ordered some and several batches arrived in good shape and were delicious. But the last time, the blueberries that arrived had a hard life. Many were smashed or extremely soft. We had to discard about 1/3 of them and even the ones we saved were bit too soft to eat as whole fresh fruit on yogurt for example. So, my wife just heated them up in a sauce pan (no water or sugar, just gently cooked) until they were the consistence of soft jam. The next morning, I pureed them using an immersion blender. The blueberry puree was pretty good. We added a teaspoon of it to our morning yogurt. Somehow the blueberry taste intensified in the puree and actually tasted richer than the whole blueberries we had been adding. My wife, then expanded the blueberry repertoire by making this new version of blueberry muffin using both whole and pureed blueberry. The blueberry puree made the muffin really good with strong blueberry flavor. The puree was added to the top of the muffin. The cut surface looks like only a few whole blueberries were added to but the distribution was somewhat uneven. Other sections of the muffins had plenty of whole blueberries. This is based on the recipe called “America’s test kitchen’s best blueberry muffins”.

Ingredients
1 cup of whole blueberries (or optional substitute toasted pecans).  

1 cup of blueberry puree.
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs room temperature

4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
¼ cup vegetable  oil
1 cup buttermilk room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract 

(Optional) finely grated zest of 1 lemon. We did not use this.

Directions:
To make the blueberry puree, bring 1 cup of blueberries to a very low simmer in a small saucepan. Cook until the berries have broken down. Puree. Cool to room temperature.

Whisk the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. Whisk 1 cup sugar and eggs in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous. Slowly whisk in the butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk, lemon zest (if using) and vanilla until combined. Fold wet mixture and remaining berries into flour mixture until just moistened (lumpy is fine). If the batter seems loose, let it mellow for 5 minutes, and it will thicken up.

Divide among 12 greased muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups). Spoon 1 teaspoon of the blueberry puree into the center of each mound. (First picture below) Gently swirl into the batter using a toothpick and a figure-eight motion.

Bake at 425F until tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes. (Second picture below). Cool in muffin tins for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

These were really good muffins with a very intense blueberry flavor thanks to the addition of the puree. The texture of the muffin was very tender with a nice fine crumb and faint vanilla flavor. The delivery of the smashed batch of blueberries was a “blessing-in-disguise” now that we have learned about blueberry blueberry puree and it’s flavor advantages. 

Addendum:
My wife was impressed by how the blueberry puree added a good blueberry flavor to the muffins. We had some left over puree but no whole blueberries left. So my wife decided to substitute toasted pecans for the whole blueberries. (Toasted pecans as a substitute for whole blueberries is not a substitute I would have made or let alone even thought of ) but this really worked. The picture below shows the result. It’a almost like two muffins in one. The top is blueberry muffin and the underneath is pecan muffin. And the blueberries and pecans really work well together. The pecans add a nice crunchy textural element.

Blueberry cake with miso crumbles ブルーベリーケーキとブルーベリー味噌クランブル

 We, especially my wife, have been exploring Western-style dishes using miso such as miso-peanuts butter cookie, miso maple syrup loaf, smothered chicken with miso and bourbon, carrot cashew spread with miso and avocado miso dressing. This is another one of these dishes made by my wife. The miso is in the crumbles.

This is a very moist and delicate cake/muffin with a nice crusty top. I can definitely taste miso.

I will ask my wife to fill in the ingredients and directions.


Ingredients:
For the crumble:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (3/4 cup for the crumble, 1 3/4 cups for the cake)
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 Tbs. Butter melted
3 Tbs. White miso

For the cake:
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (mentioned as part of the 2 1/2 cups above)
1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup whole milk greek yogurt
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 pint blueberries

Directions:
Mix the ingredients for the crumble until combined and set aside. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients (flour through baking soda) and set aside. In another bowl mix together the wet ingredients (melted butter through vanilla). Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Fold in the blueberries. Spread in a 9X13 pyrex baking dish that has been light greased with a greased parchment paper on the bottom. Spread the crumble over the top. Cook in a 350 degree oven for a total of 60 to 70 minutes. Start checking every 30 minutes and tent the top with aluminum foil if the crumble starts to get too dark. Cook until the top is firm and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for a least 2 hours. 

This is a very unusual cake (in a good way). The combination of the whole wheat flour, miso and brown sugar makes a sweet/salty/robust flavor we have never tasted anywhere else. The miso is very pronounced. The blueberries add a burst of fresh sweetness which helps bring the other flavors back into balance. The crumble is nice and crunchy. It complements the tender texture of the cake. And the cake is extremely tender. I had trouble getting it into a storage bag in one piece even after cooling several hours. I couldn’t slice or serve it until it had been in the fridge overnight. Even then we had to eat the slices with a fork or spoon. Nonetheless it is a nice bread with coffee in the morning.

Blueberry oatmeal muffin オーツ麦入りブルーベリーマフィン

This is my wife's continuing muffin project. We got fairly good blueberries. Since she has made quite few kinds of blueberry muffins, she wanted to do something different. She found this recipe for a blueberry muffin made with rolled oats.

Ingredients:
1 cup (240 Ml) milk
1 cup (80G) old fashioned whole rolled oats. (Steel cut oats, quick oats, or instant oats won’t work)
1 1/4 (156 g) AP flour
1 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1/2 tsp. Ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (115 g) butter melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup (120 ml) honey
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (190 g) blueberries

Directions:
Combine the milk and oats. Set aside for 20 minutes for the oats to soak up the milk. Mix the dry ingredients from the flour through the salt in a bowl then set aside. Whisk the wet ingredients from the butter through the vanilla together in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just to combine. Add the oats and any remaining milk and stir to combine. Fold in the blueberries. Scoop the batter into the heavily greased muffin cups. Bake for 5 minutes at 425 then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue cooking an additional 15 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in a center muffin comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes before taking them out of the pan.

The oats seemed to completely incorporate into the overall texture of the muffin which was very tender. (You wouldn’t know oats are included if you weren’t told.) The cinnamon flavor is not something I usually associate with a spring/summer dish (more a fall flavor). So that made these blueberry muffins very different from the usual. The blueberries are in season and were very good. They truly “made” this muffin. 

Panna cotta from homemade buttermilk 自家製バターミルクでパナコッタ

After my wife made buttermilk using the culture from "The culture for health" we were quite impressed with the quality of the buttermilk. My wife decide to make something using the buttermilk. Since we had some leftover blueberries she decided to use the newly made buttermilk to make panna cotta with blueberry sauce as shown in the first picture.

Ingredients
1 tsp. gelatin
1 1/2 Tbs. water
1 cup 4% milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

For the blueberry sauce:
1 cup of blueberries
1 tsp. Of sugar

Directions:
For blueberry sauce:
Put the blueberries and sugar in a small ceramic dish and cook them at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in the toaster oven until they form a thick type of blueberry jam.

For panna cotta:
Bloom the gelatin in the 1 1/2 Tbs. of water. Put the milk and sugar in a sauce pan and heat until the sugar is melted. Remove from the heat and use several tablespoons of the warm mixture to “temper” the gelatin until it is completely dissolved. Add the tempered gelatin into the rest of the milk mixture and stir completely. Let cool to room temperature. Add the buttermilk and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the containers. Tip the containers using a muffin tin to support them in order to get the beveled appearance. Cool in the refridgerator until the mixture becomes firm. Just before serving spoon in the blueberry mixture on top of the buttermilk mixture to bring the contents of the container even with the top.

This panne cotta turned out well. It was very creamy, slightly tangy and sweet with a vanilla flavor. The blueberries added a nice fresh blueberry flavor that went very well with the vanilla.

Raised Buckwheat Blini cooked in a “platar”

After making the blueberry buttermilk pancakes, my wife was leafing through the pancake section of the newer (1997 version) “Joy of Cooking” (JOC) cookbook when she found a reference to something called a “platar”. It was accompanied by a drawing of the device and the description; “a platar is a cast iron flat pan with seven round indentations each about 3 inches wide and 1/2 inch deep especially for making blini or other small pancakes”. A bell went off in her head. She immediately recognized the platar as the cast iron pan that has been floating around with our other cast iron griddles and frying pans for years. (Shown in the picture below.) 

We have had it for so long we are not sure how we acquired it and had no idea how it should be used. We vaguely thought it could be used to make biscuits but after some experimentation years ago we discovered that didn’t work. So it resided, taking up room, at the bottom of the stack of various sized cast iron frying pans in a drawer under the stove. She was absolutely delighted to finally find the purpose of the pan as well as the blini recipe on the next page of the cookbook. So this was our project one weekend.

Digression alert: At one time, we were into caviar and we made blini many times. We already had our platar at that time but obviously we did not know its purpose so we made the blini in a frying pan. By-the-way, we looked up (=Googled) the word “platar” and the only reference we could find was a listing in a forum where somebody who, like us, had read the section about platar in JOC asked what it was. The answers appear to suggest nobody knew. Although we could not find anything with the word “platar”, we did find a cast iron skillet that lookedexactly like our platar at Amazon.It was called “SIMLAY CO. Cast Iron Baking Pan”. The advertisement said it could be used to make many things; muffins, biscuits, eggs. Spoiler alert: We tried that years ago...somewhat less than successful. 

We did not have caviar the weekend we used the platar, but we did have "Ikura" salmon roe so we used that to top the blini. (We do not stock caviar but we do try to keep a supply of "Ikura' in the freezer).  The second picture shows the final (blini, sourcream, egg, ikura) dish with a garnish of chopped chives and marinated strawberries that we served that day for lunch. 

  

We had this with our usual second cup of coffee for the day; "macchiato". (The first cup was cappcino or more like cafe latte). 

I am sure there must be many interpretations of macchiato but our interpretaion is a single shot of espresso topped with 1 tsp. of frothed cream.

As usual my wife made the batter for the pancake and I cooked it. Since I have never used a platar, it was a learning experience. The blini came out better in the later batches. I ask my wife to provide the recipe.

Ingredients:
For Blini (makes about 21 blini)
1 1/2 cup milk
4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) butter
2 tsp. yeast
2/3 cup AP flour
2/3 cup buckwheat flour
2 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

For Blini (recipe X2) (mix in the 6 cup pyrex mixing cup so the batter can be poured rather than scooped into the cooking cups.) 
3 cup milk

8 Tbs. (1 stick) butter
4 tsp. yeast
1 1/3 cup AP flour
1 1/3 cup buckwheat flour
4 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. salt
6 large eggs, lightly beaten

For topping (everything is to taste and depends on the number of pancakes being served. Also anything can be used. This is just what we came up with.)
sour cream (to taste)
2 eggs, scrambled
1 Tbs. Ikura (salmon eggs) or caviar
Chives finely chopped

Note: Use smallest ladle, Don’t make them too thick.  (Or conversely make them thick enough that they can be cut in half horizontally. That will shorten the cooking time).

Directions:
For the Blini: Melt the butter in the milk. Let it cool to about 105 to 115 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients (yeast through salt) in another bowl. Pour the cooled milk mixture over the dry ingredients mixing until just combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in volume (about 1 hour) (#1 in the 3rd group of pictures). Once it has risen either make the pancakes immediately or refridgerate covered for up to 24 hours. (We made the batter after dinner and refridgerated it over night). If refridgerated let it stand at room temperature for 20 minutes (#2). Then deflate the batter and whisk in the  eggs lightly beaten.

Now, I am providing the details of how I cooked blini in the platar. This is for our future reference because this requires some finesse. First, I took out the planar and washed it with hot water (no soap), dried it by heating it on the stove and coated each of the 7 wells with olive oil using a paper towel (#3). I preheated the pan on low flame for 5 minutes then used a small ladle (second smallest ice cream scoop) add the batter, half filling the wells (#4). I continued to cook until the surface of the pancake showed bubbles and looked dry (5-7 minutes). Then came the challenge of flipping them. According to my wife,  the directions in the JOC said flip the pancakes over using a skewer. But that proved entirely too simplistic. After some experimentation I came up with a method of loosening the blini by running the tip of a dinner knife around the perimeter of the well, then inserting the knife tip under the bottom of the blini to pry it loose. Then with the knife under the blini and a bamboo skewer inserted into the top I flipped it (#5). As I repeated the process I got better and could flip the pancake without damaging the side. But I noticed that the 6 wells surrounding the center well had uneven heat and only the outer half got browned (#5). So with the next batch, I released the blini before they were ready to flip and turned them180 degrees in the well then cooked them for a few more minutes before flipping them over. In the next batch, the first side was more evenly browned (#6).  In any case, when all was said and done, we had at least a few perfect blinis (#7= top and #8=bottom).

I topped one of the “perfect” blini (#1) in the 6th set of pictures, with sour cream (#2), scrambled eggs (#3), "Ikura" salmon roe and finely chopped chives harvested from our herb garden (#4). 

 

This is the height of decadence. The blini had a soft thick texture and a very pleasing robust rustic flavor from the combination of buckwheat flour and yeast. The sour cream, eggs and salmon caviar were an excellent combination with complementary creamy texture. The burst of saltiness from the ikura at the end of the bite was a perfect finale. This is how we will be making blini in the future. Next stop crumpets in the platar. 

Blueberry pancake v2 ブルーベリーパンケーキ V2

We always associate fresh blueberries with early summer, although they are now available year-around because they are also produced in South America. One way we enjoy blueberries is by making blueberry pancakes. Recently my wife was talking to her sister, and mentioned that we had just enjoyed blueberry pancakes for breakfast that day. Her sister asked for the recipe and my wife said it was in "The Joy of Cooking" (JOC). (This cookbook is a quintessential fixture of American kitchens and has been continuously published since 1936.) Sometime later her sister mentioned that she had made blueberry pancakes and they were really gourmet because of the addition of cornmeal and lemon zest. My wife was confused because  the JOC recipe she was familiar with did not include cornmeal or lemon zest. As a matter of fact there was no recipe in the pancake section of her JOC that mentioned those two items. So she went back to her sister and asked how she had calculated the amount of cornmeal to substitute for the regular flour called for in the recipe. Her sister replied that she had just followed the recipe in the cookbook. Then it dawned on my wife that her sister was using a different edition of JOC than the one my wife was using. It turns out that my wife's blueberry pancake recipe is from the 1980 edition and the recipe her sister used was from the 1997 edition, (which my wife also has). (I think the newest edition is 2019)**. In any case, my wife decided to try the 1997 edition blueberry pancake recipe her sister had used.

**Digression alert. We basically stuck with the older version of the cookbook because it was the one we were familiar with and particularly once we noticed that some of our favorite recipes from the old cookbook were not in the new cookbook. From an esoteric point of view, I particularly missed the section on how to prepare wild game that was in the old cook book. Although I may never have to use the knowledge that grey squirrels taste better than red squirrels because red squirrels are quite gamy in flavor or that squirrels should be skinned while wearing gloves to prevent possible tularemia infection, it is nice to know such information is available.  Not to mention the "must have" recipes for opossum, porcupine, raccoon or muskrat. 

As before, we "install" the blueberries individually rather than mixing into the batter to ensure even distribution. My wife is in charge of preparing the batter and I am in charge of cooking it.

Here I asked my wife to take over.

Ingredients:
2 cups AP flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
8 Tbs. (one stick) butter melted
4 large eggs separated
3 tsp lemon zest

Directions:
Mix the dry ingredients flour through salt in a mixing bowl.
Mix the wet ingredients, buttermilk through the 4 egg yolks in another bowl.
Add the lemon zest to the wet ingredients.
Whip the 4 egg whites until peaks are stiff but not dry.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.
Carefully fold the whipped egg whites into the batter.
Put a teaspoon of olive oil in a frying pan then scoop a ladle full of batter into the preheated pan and cook until done flipping once.


These pancakes, like the previous version, are very good. Both are nicely fluffy and have a pleasant mildly sweet taste with a lovely burst of flavor from the blueberries. This version has the addition of a mild lemon flavor. We didn't detect any addition flavor added by the cornmeal. Both recipes make a mighty fine pancake.

Almond flour doughnut muffin アーモンド ドーナツ マフィン

This another one of my wife's muffin projects. The original recipe came from King Arthur Flour website but she replaced some of the wheat flour with almond flour. I am not sure whether she just wanted to use the almond flour before it gets stale or to reduce the carb in this muffin or make it more gluten free. I am not sure why it is called "doughnut" muffin.

Wifey's response: The blueberry and strawberry muffins I made used pulverized almonds mixed with flour as their base. I have some almond flour which is past its "best by" date but it was still ok because we were freezing it. But when the available freezer space was reduced due to the demise of our main refrigerator, the flour wasn't frozen for a while. So, I had an increased incentive to use it up. I got to thinking maybe I could use almond flour along with the pulverized almonds in muffins by substituting the almond flour for some of the wheat flour. But I wasn't sure what proportions should be used for the substitution--100%? So I did a web search. According to the King Arthur site almond flour can be substituted for 25% of the flour in non yeast products. For yeast products, however, because almond flour does not contain gluten substituting it for the wheat flour would inhibit the rise. So, according to the instructions, instead of substituting for the wheat flour, you add 1/3 cup almond flour per cup of wheat flour. For example, if the recipe calls for 3 cups wheat flour you would use 3 cups wheat flour plus 1 cup almond flour.  While investigating percentages I found a whole bunch of recipes using almond flour. One of which was this doughnut muffin. They called it a doughnut muffin because apparently they thought if tasted like a cake donut. Sorry you asked? 

Nice texture and flavor.

Ingredients
4 tablespoons (57g) butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbs. molasses
2 large eggs
1/4 cup (50g) vegetable oil
79.75 g almond flour, plus 239.25 g All Purpose flour (or 319 g wheat flour)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 to 1 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, to taste
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup (227g) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin.
In a food processor, cream the butter. Add the sugar and molasses and continue creaming. Add the eggs and continue creaming. With the processor running add the vegetable oil and mix until smooth. (This can also be done in a stand mixer.)
In another bowl add the flours and combine with a whisk. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt.

Add the vanilla to the milk.
Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture alternately with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.
Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.
Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they're a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean. Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes then remove from the pan.

This is a very nice muffin. Although it included a fairly large amount of nutmeg the flavor was very mellow and pleasing. The texture was fine and tender.  Although the recipe described it as tasting just like a cake doughnut fresh out of the oil I might not go quite that far in characterizing it that way. Nonetheless this is certainly a good muffin for breakfast.

Strawberry Almond muffin ストローベリィ アーモンド マフィン

This is one of my wife's muffin projects. She made a very similar muffin using blueberry but this time she used fresh strawberries.

The strawberries don't show up on the cut surface as well as the blueberries did in the blueberry version of this muffin. The strawberries lost their color but the strawberry flavor came through.

The basic muffin recipe came from “Pastry from La Brea Bakery”.

Ingredients:(for 12 muffins)
1/2 cup (3 oz.) almonds deeply toasted. (The toasting is what gives the muffins a rich flavor)
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick plus 2 tbs. (5 oz.) butter
3 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs. plus 1 tsp baking powder
>3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup chopped strawberries.

Directions
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade pulse the almonds until they are the texture fine meal. Add the butter and cream until smooth. Add the sugar and process until fluffy. Add the eggs and cream until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the vanilla to the buttermilk

Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk mixture.  Fold in the strawberries (above). Put the batter into a greased muffin tin (below). Bake at 350 degree for 20 to 25 minutes.

The ground-up toasted almonds gave nice rich nutty flavor and texture to the muffin. The strawberries lost their color and shrank when the muffins were cooked leaving spaces around them. Although the strawberry flavor is there, we both agreed that if you are adding fruit, blueberry is better.

Blueberry almond muffin ブルーベリー アーモンド マフィン

My wife was binge baking different kinds of muffins one weekend. She claimed she was into making muffins because she finally found the secret to baking in muffin tins. Even though the recipes universally call for filling the cups 3/4 full, as far as she was concerned, this resulted in wimpy muffins. According to her, the secret is to OVERFILL the cups. That way the batter rises above the cup and you get nice caps such as the ones shown on the muffins below. Since we had rather plump and sweet blueberries, she made these blueberry almond muffins. This was the last batch she made on "binge" weekend. (This will have to be the last for a while since we are running out of freezer space for baked goods). Among the many blueberry breads and muffins she has made, this is one of the best. She found this recipe in the "Pastries from the La Brea Bakery"

This is a bit unique because it includes pulverized almonds. (Pulverized is not as fine as "almond flour" you can buy and gives it a bit of texture). The big plump blueberries were quite nice.

My wife fit all the batter into the muffin tins which made a nice big top.

Ingredients:(for 12 muffins)
1/2 cup (3 oz.) almonds toasted.
3/8 cup sugar (a total of 3/4 cup of sugar is used; half goes the nut mixture half goes into the creamed butter mixture, #3)
1 tbs. grated orange or lemon zest
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs. plus 1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick plus 2 tbs. (5 oz.) butter
3/8 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cup buttermilk (#2)
2 cups blueberries (#3) or 1 to 1 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, nectarines, peaches or pears.

Recipe doubled (makes 24 muffins)

1 cup (6 oz.) almonds toasted.
3/4 cup sugar (a total of 1 1/2 cups of sugar is used; half goes in the nut mixture half goes into the creamed butter mixture, #3)
1 tbs. grated orange or lemon zest (or 1 tbs. vanilla)
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbs. plus 2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks plus 4 tbs. (10 oz.) butter
3/4 cup sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups buttermilk (#2)
4 cups blueberries (#3) or 2 to 2 1/2 cup chopped strawberries, nectarines, peaches or pears.

Directions:
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the almonds, the fruit zest and half of the sugar (3/8 cup) and process until it is the consistency of a fine meal (#1 above).  In a separate bowl mix the flour, nut mixture, baking powder, baking soda, salt (#2). In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter. Add the remaining sugar (3/8 cup) and cream until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and whip until frothy (#3). Pour in the buttermilk and mix until completely incorporated. Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Fold in the blueberries (#4). Put batter into a greased muffin tin(#5, 6). Bake at 350 degree for 20 to 25 minutes (#7).

These are indeed very nice blueberry muffins. They came out really moist with a nice crunchy top. When my wife took the muffins out of tin, the texture was so tender they started to collapse under the weight of the generous tops. So she had to cool the muffins upside down (#8). Once they cooled, however, we could stand them right-side-up. The almond flavor was very subtle--just a slight nuttiness. But a nice lemony flavor came through.  This combined with the sweet and juicy blueberries was a winning combination. She can make these again (once some space opens up in our freezer.)

Nectarine bundt cake ネクタリンバントケーキ

We received a gift for New Year which was a one-year-membership to Harry's & David monthly fruit club.  Although some of it is a bit hit-or-miss, most of the fruit was excellent.  This month was Dulcevida nectarines. A card with the recipe for nectarine pound cake came with the fruit. (It specified the use of a bundt cake pan, so it could be classified as a bundt cake). In any case, my wife made this cake one day using the last three nectarines.

We cut a wedge to taste.

I added fresh blueberry and mint sprig just for a photo shoot.

This is a quite good cake. Nice fresh nectarine taste.

Ingredients:
For fruit
2-3 nectarines (she used 3), peeled, pitted, and cut into slices.
2 tbsp, AP flour
2 tbsp light brown sugar (my wife used white sugar with molasses)

For cake batter
3/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cup of AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz lemon yogurt (my wife used plain yogurt with the addition of lemon extract)(lemon zest would also work)
1 egg
1 egg white

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a 10 inch Bundt pan and dust with flour (My wife only had an 8 inch bundt pan, so she made additional cakes using some mini Bundt pans she had).
Blend 2 tbsp flour and brown sugar together, add nectarines and toss until well coated. Place the mixture in the bottom of the pan. In a bowl mix the the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a mixer, cream the butter and white sugar. Add the egg and egg white and blend until mixed. Add the vanilla, yogurt and lemon flavoring (or lemon zest) beat for 3 minutes at medium speed. Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and mix until combined. Distribute the batter over the nectarines (the recipe said pour the batter over the fruit. Don't know what they were using but pouring was not an option. The batter came out very thick and stiff and had to be dolloped into the bundt pan.) Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.  Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a wire rack and cool completely before serving.

The cake is not too sweet and is very moist. The nectarines are nicely sweet and refreshing. This is a good cake. We can eat this even for breakfast.