Brent P. Newhall's Blog
Cooking – Oct 2009

12 Oct 09 – Gingerbread Hot Cocoa Mix

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My Mom still fills a Christmas stocking for me every year. It's the same stocking I've had since I was little, one that she knitted for me herself (and it's the biggest one, of course). Every years, she fills it with candy, bags of tea, and goofy little things. Last year, one of the things in it was a box of gingerbread hot cocoa mix.

It was delicious. I wanted more, and while my first impulse was to head online to buy it, I thankfully stopped and remembered that I make my own regular hot cocoa mix, so why not try to replicate this deliciousness myself?

I flipped over the container to the ingredients list. Besides the cocoa, sugar, and multi-syllabic wonders of modern chemistry listed, I discovered the two magic seasonings: ginger and cinnamon.

Well. That made sense.

So, here's a recipe for gingerbread hot cocoa mix. Dump all of the following into a container and shake, shake, shake:

Note that you may have to use a whisk or something similar to break down clumps of the confectioner's sugar. Just look at the mix for clumps; if you see any, whisk away.

To make normal hot cocoa mix, skip the last two ingredients and add a little cayenne pepper.

May it comfort you on a cold day.

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10 Oct 09 – How to make bread of any size, in any form

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I've blogged before about my nascent bakery business and the process for putting ingredients in a bread machine. Now I'm going to share the secret formula for bread.

Really.

It's 3 parts water, 5 parts flour, a little yeast, and a little salt.

That's it.

What about the punching down and the rising and all that? That's easy: 2-400. Mix it, let it rise, then "punch it down" (push it into itself). Do this a total of 2 times. Then put it into a 400° F oven until it's golden brown and delicious.

You now know the Secret Formula. Use small amounts of water and flour for a small loaf, or a lot of water and flour for a large loaf. How much yeast is "a little"? Oh, maybe 2 teaspoons for a large-sized loaf. But it doesn't really matter that much.

That's part of the secret: Bread really isn't as finicky as most people suggest. Keep to that formula, and you'll have great bread.

What about variations? Fine; just add them to that formula, or replace if it's similar to an existing item. So, if you want whole wheat bread, just replace some of the flour with whole wheat flour. If you're adding lemon juice or syrup, count that as part of the water. But if you're adding seeds or raisins or whatever...just add 'em.

Hey! You can now bake all kinds of bread. Congratulations!

I'm always here to answer any questions you may have, too.

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5 Oct 09 – Cooking and The Flavor Bible

Cooking is hard. Well, no, the actual act of cooking isn't particularly hard; it's the knowledge. How long does an omelette need in the pan? How hot should the pan be, and within what range? All that stuff.

Plus, once one moves on in one's cooking life from rotely following recipes, one is confronted by the bewildering jungle of choices known as flavor. What goes with what?

Along comes The Flavor Bible to help. Simply, this is an alphabetical list of flavors along with their accompanying flavors. So, if you're making an apple dish, flip to the Apple section for a list of flavors and ingredients that pair well with apples (caramel, raisins, cinnamon, etc.).

Interestingly, each section is accompanied by the names of dishes from famous chefs using that ingredient. No recipe; just "Baked Pear Torte with Caramel Sauce." Not only does it make your mouth water, the mind responds with, "Now, how would I make that?" Perfect.

Of course, if you always want to follow the recipe, this book is pretty useless. But if you like to experiment, this is manna from heaven. You can learn the basic process for, say, making a cake, and use The Flavor Bible to come up with dozens of variations without ever touching a cookbook.

I'm definitely glad I bought it.

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