I’ve said it so many times, I’m surprised y’all can’t read my mind at this point: Winter is the best reason to live in South Florida. Putting the exclamation point on that, is Strawberry Season. For the next couple of months, we will be awash in the sweetest, juiciest strawberries ever. And the prices are starting to come down as the crops increase. Just in time for Valentines Day.  They even look like little hearts, don’t they?

Tonight I’m teaching a strawberry jam class at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. I’m not just teaching these fine folks how to make a basic strawberry jam – oh, no! I’m showing them different things you can do with it, too. Now, for those of you not inclined to make your own, of course, you can buy it. In which case I would highly recommend one of Freakin’ Flamingo‘s excellent strawberry varieties, such as Strawberry Daiquiri or even Strawberry Joe. Oh, what? I shouldn’t get a plug in here? Please.

Anyway, one of the items on the menu tonight is Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes.  How many different ways can I adulterate adapt Abby Dodge’s delightful base recipe from Desserts 4 Today? Well, so far, I’ve done it 3 or 4 times. And I’ll do it again!  Abby doesn’t seem to mind.

Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes
(makes 6 mini cheesecakes) (Recipe adapted from Desserts 4 Today by Abigail Johnson Dodge)

 Ingredients:

1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened at room temperature
3 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
4 Tbs. strawberry jam

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 300º F.

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese with an electric hand-mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until incorporated. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl between each step.

Add the vanilla and the egg, beat thoroughly. Add the strawberry jam and mix completely.

Take a regular-sized muffin tin and place foil liners into 6 of the cups, then spray lightly with no-stick cooking spray. Alternatively, you can use reusable silicone cupcake liners without the cooking spray.

Bake for 15-18 minutes. The centers should barely jiggle when you nudge the pan. Set the muffin tin on a rack to cool completely, and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

Unmold onto serving dishes and garnish with a fresh strawberry and/or additional jam and/or whipped cream, as desired.

These uncomplicated little cheesecakes are light and creamy, and portioned to be the perfect ending to that special, romantic Valentines Day dinner. Or anytime you want a sweet bite at the end of a meal.

Even though it’s Yom Kippur and I’m not eating or drinking, that doesn’t mean that we don’t feed and water our pets – including our local wild yeast sourdough starter.

Last night, I fed Yeastie 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. unbleached all purpose flour and 3 Tbs. warm water. After about 2 hours, it looked like this:

Another hour after that, it hit the 20 oz. mark. I was very excited.

And here’s where we were this morning, before feeding:

I think we’re well on our way to the doubling that we’re looking for. Perhaps by tonight. So cool!

This morning’s breakfast (for Yeastie, not me) consisted of the same as last night: 6 Tbs (1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs) of flour and 3 Tbs of water.

How’s yours doing?

Today is Day 3 in my quest to create a wild yeast sourdough starter unique to my neighborhood.

Last night, at the 36 hour mark, I stirred down my starter mixture and added 3 Tbs. unbleached all purpose flour plus 2 Tbs. warm water.

This morning, now a full 48 hours into the process, it looked exactly like it did yesterday morning. So, I stirred it down again and this time, added a 1/4 cup of flour plus 2 Tbs. warm water.

I also transferred my infant starter into a 4 cup clear container (it’s actually the blender cup that came with my stick blender), and covered it with some plastic wrap, leaving a small gap in the back to allow any fermentation gases to escape.

I did this for 2 reasons: First, so that it would be more clearly visible; and second, so I could better measure the quantity of starter and any rise and fall. The latest feeding took the quantity up to just about exactly 12 ounces.

The photos below were taken about 3 hours later. As you can see, there’s not really much in the way of “rise” – at least, so far – but there’s some good, healthy bubbleage going on!

I invited my Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (HBin5) baking group buddies to join in this little project, and I’m happy to say that several of them will. One of the group, Elwood, who lives in Kentucky, reports that he’s been baking from a local wild yeast starter for about a year, now. Here’s Elwood’s story.

Also, timing being everything – or maybe it’s just a case of “great minds think alike” (Ha!), I just discovered that Nicole of the popular blog, Pinch My Salt, has also just created a wild yeast starter, with day-by-day updates! Nicole’s journey started here a couple of weeks ago, although she used the “pineapple juice method”. Interestingly, even though she used different flour and started with juice rather than water, her daily progress seems to be tracking mine almost exactly, to this point. (Notice that I also stole Nicole’s rubber band marking idea!)

Seems like lots of us are in the mood for Sourdough!

Need to catch up? Click here to see how it all began on my Day One. Here’s Day Two.

Yesterday I began my quest to capture South Miami wild yeast in an effort to create a viable sourdough starter that is truly unique to my neighborhood. The goal: The ultimate in local and sustainable – a bread (or rolls or biscuits, etc.) that could only have been made right here, in my house, in my town. If it works and we enjoy the end product, I can theoretically keep this starter and continue to bake with it for years to come! Cool, huh?

If you’re playing along – and feel free to start anytime that’s convenient for you – or if you’ve done this before, please share your experiences or ask questions in the comments section. That’s where the conversation will take place. And if you’re blogging about your journey with us, let me know and I’ll link to your posts.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that, after 12-24 hours, some bubbles and/or a layer of clear or brownish liquid could appear on the top of your newborn starter. I began my starter at 8:00 a.m. yesterday, left it in my laundry room (the warmest room in my house), and went to check on it and give it its 12 hour feeding at 8:00 p.m. Sure enough, there was a layer of clear liquid floating on top! I stirred the liquid back into the starter, then stirred in 2 Tbs. of unbleached all purpose flour plus 2 Tbs. of warm water, covered it (leaving a gap for any gases to escape), and left it for the night.

This morning, at the 24 hour mark, it looked like this:

A creamy layer of bubbles had appeared during the night! Below that, was an amber colored layer of liquid. This layer of brownish liquid is commonly called “hooch”. Right now, the mixture smells more acidic than yeasty, but that should change as the “good” yeasts and bacteria edge out any nasties that might have been picked up during the collection process.

Click on the photos to see the process in more detail. I sized them a little larger than usual so the details can be seen more clearly.

I stirred the mixture again and fed Yeastie his breakfast of 2 Tbs. of flour plus 2 Tbs. of warm water. I felt that the mixture was too thin, so I added another tablespoon of flour. This seemed to bring it back up to the right consistency of thick pancake batter.

I realize now that, as the starter increases in volume, it will require more food to sustain it. So, tonight I’ll give it another 3 Tbs. of flour and 2 Tbs. of water. Tomorrow, it may require a full 1/4 cup of flour (4 Tbs.), but we’ll see.

I think I’m off to a good start, though. How’s yours?

Need to catch up? Click here to see how it all began.

Come play with me.

I’ve been reading a lot about wild yeast, recently, and I’m intrigued. Okay, let me backtrack. Ever since I tasted it in its own environment, well over 20 years ago, I’ve been fascinated by San Francisco sourdough bread. Until (relatively) recently, I was under the impression that the only place you could get good sourdough bread was in San Francisco. Many years ago, I even mail-ordered SF sourdough starter, but killed it. Or something. Now, with all this “homesteading” and “urban domestication” and “local/sustainable” stuff trending (and lord knows I’m not knocking it! or mocking it, either, for that matter!), people out there are not only baking their own bread, but making their own wild yeast starters, too! And they don’t even live anywhere near San Francisco!

I admit it. I’ve been a tad uninspired in the kitchen, lately. At least when it comes to making anything other than jam. I’ve been baking lots of soft whole wheat sandwich bread for the South Miami Farmers Market – mostly as a vehicle to give out jam samples – and there are some devotees who buy the bread and rolls I make on a regular basis. And that makes me happy. It really does. So, I got to thinking. What would a South Miami wild yeast sourdough taste like? And you, out there: What would a New Hampshire wild yeast sourdough taste like? Or Miami Beach? Or Arizona? Or Virginia? Or wherever you live? Curious?

I’ve done a bunch of research and I’m pretty sure I’ve got a fair idea of how this is supposed to work. And it’s pretty easy to do. You just have to remember to feed the little brat. Much like having another pet. Except you don’t have to walk it, clean its litter box, or change the paper in it’s cage.

Wild yeast is in the air. It’s everywhere, and as many places as there are in the world, every strain is different. And with few exceptions (and no, I don’t know what they are), they should all make some pretty decent bread. All you have to do is ask them to dinner. So I’m told.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to make my own local sourdough starter, and if it lives, I’m then going to bake with it. I’m going to post day-by-day instructions and pictures and progress (or failure) everyday over the next several weeks, and I’d like you to join me and play along. I started at 8:00 this morning. You can start now, or wait until you get home from work, or after dinner, or tomorrow morning. I’m no expert, but which of us is born one? Let’s share the learning experience!

Today is Day One

I hear that fall (or spring) is the perfect time to begin a wild yeast starter, and this is all you need to do:

Get a glass or plastic container (pictured is a 3-cup plastic food storage container) and rinse it well in hot water. We don’t want any soap residue killing off our microbial guests. In it, mix flour (I used unbleached all purpose) and warm water (I used my tap water). I used 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbs. flour to 1/2 cup warm tap water. I’m told that wild yeast loves vitamin C, so I added 1/8 tsp. of bottled lemon juice. Mix it up until the mixture is nice and smooth – you want it to be the consistency of thick pancake batter.

Now, take it outside – your yard, patio, balcony, or even the windowsill by an open window – and leave it there for about an hour (I left mine for 90 minutes, but then, I’m an overachiever). If, like me, you’re afraid something might fall into it, cover it loosely with a layer of cheesecloth, or even the container lid, partially opened.

Look! Bubbles! Did I manage to catch some yeastie beasties? Well, it’s really too early to tell.

Now, bring the container inside and cover it loosely with its lid, leaving a bit of a gap for any gases to escape, and leave it in a warm place. My laundry room is the warmest room in the house, so that’s Yeastie’s new home. (That green color is just the reflection from the tin my container is sitting on, not some ghastly malfunction.)

In a few hours (before you go to bed tonight, or when you get up in the morning), stir it up thoroughly, even if there’s nothing to see. My information says that, in 12-24 hours, you might see some bubbleage and maybe a layer of clear or brownish liquid on top. That’s perfectly normal and you should stir it all back together again before giving your starter its next feeding.

I’m going to feed my starter about every 12 hours for the first week, mixing in 2 Tbs. of flour plus 2 Tbs. of warm water, so that’s what you should plan on, too.

So, will you keep me company? Please feel free to let me know and, of course!, ask questions in the Comments. I’ll answer you there, too and if you post your progress on your own blog, I’ll link to it. C’mon! Let’s play!

It should be FALL, right? Even in Miami, it should be fall. It should be more like 80º, not 90º, but it isn’t. So to give Mother Nature a hint, I decided to bake Tamarin Cinnamon Apple Sticky Rolls. Tonight is also the beginning of another 7-day Jewish holiday, Sukkot. Since my mother is making a meat-based dinner, I decided to make these sticky rolls non-dairy.

Tamarin Spread (no, not tamarind-the-fruit) is named for a small monkey in the Brazilian rainforests, and is a creamy, slightly cinnamon-y concoction that’s making it’s way here from Belgium, where it’s known as speculoos (or spekuloos). Kind of. And it evolved from a Christmas wafer cookie. I’m still not sure how that happened. But now, it’s a smooth spread that’s lighter than peanut butter, and ever so flavorful. I won a jar of Tamarin Spread at Elle’s New England Kitchen about a month or so ago, under the condition that I develop a recipe using it. I’ve owed Elle this post for, oh, about 3 weeks now, and there’s no time like the present!

The Jewish holiday Sukkot (or Succos), translates as “Feast of Tabernacles”, and commemorates the Jewish people’s 40 years of wandering in the desert between being released from bondage in Egypt to finally being permitted to enter Israel, their new permanent home. We are supposed to build a kind of impermanent dwelling outdoors, with a roof made of branches or palm leaves (depending on what’s available in your area), so you can still see the sky through it, and eat all of our meals during the next week there.

Sukkot is also a harvest holiday, akin to Thanksgiving, and fruit and/or nuts in some form is usually on the table. Tying all three events together is a piece of cake (no pun intended – sort of ) with this version of sticky rolls, spread first with a layer of Tamarin Spread, and then with a buttery chunky layer of apples cooked with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Tamarin Cinnamon Apple Sticky Rolls

For the Dough:

1 envelope (or 2-1/4 tsp.) yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm soy milk
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
4 Tbs. Smart Balance Light spread
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

I mix this with my stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook, but you can certainly mix it by hand if you care to.

Preheat the oven to 350º F.

Put the yeast in a large bowl and pour the warm (between 110º-120ºF) soy milk over the yeast. With the mixer running on low speed, add the sugar, Smart Balance, and eggs. Start adding the flour, one cup at a time, followed by the salt and vanilla, and mix until a soft, cohesive dough is formed. The dough should not be sticky, but feel smooth and silky. This should take about 5-7 minutes.

With either a bit of oil or non-stick cooking spray, grease the bowl and form the dough into a smooth ball. Put the dough ball into the bowl, turning it over a bit, so the surface is completely oiled. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel, and put it in a warm, draft-free spot to rise. Allow to rise till nearly doubled, about an hour.

For the Filling:

6 Tbs. Smart Balance Light spread
6 Tbs. organic brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1-1/2 cups apples (peeled, cored, and chopped in roughly 1/4″ dice)

1/2 cup Tamarin Spread

Melt the Smart Balance in a small frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the brown sugar and cinnamon, stir to combine, and heat till bubbly. Add the chopped apples, toss to coat, and reduce the heat to medium. Allow to cook for about 15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens and makes “strings” when you lift your spoon out of it. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.

To Assemble:

Grease a 9″ x 15″ baking pan and set aside.

Roll the dough out to a 15″ x 10″ rectangle. Spread the Tamarin Spread evenly over the surface of the dough, to within about 1/2″ from the edges.

Spread the apple-brown sugar mixture evenly over the Tamarin layer. With the long side facing you, carefully roll the dough over the filling mixture, jelly-roll style. Slice the roll into 12 (relatively) even slices and place in the prepared pan, touching each other. Cover the pan with plastic wrap, and put it in your warm, draft-free spot. Allow to rise for another 30 minutes.

Remove the plastic wrap and bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before serving.

*Notes:

Can you make these babies with dairy milk and butter? Hell, yeah! As I may have mentioned before, I keep a kosher kitchen and so does my mom. If she were making a dairy or neutral meal, I would have used milk and butter in a heartbeat. Using the soy milk and Smart Balance Light has the dual benefit of making this non-dairy and vegetarian. Can you make this recipe without the Tamarin Spread? Of course. The filling just won’t have that subtle creaminess.

*Disclosures: I won a jar of Tamarin Spread in a giveaway on the Elle’s New England Kitchen blog. Everyone entering the giveaway did so with the proviso that if they won, they would commit to creating a recipe using the product. I have received no other consideration, nor have I received any consideration in any form for the use of Smart Balance Light. I buy it and use it because it is non-hydrogenated, non-dairy, vegan, and for its specific stated healthy properties. I recommend it on those grounds for anyone needing a butter or margarine substitute. That’s my opinion.

I’ve been a slug with my challenges, lately, but I’m going to try to pick it up and not fall too far behind. To review, Michelle over at Big Black Dog, organized a group to bake from the book by Dr. Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe François, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

I’m late with this one, but I couldn’t resist this last assignment: Making a full batch of the Master Whole Wheat Bread, and making a Moon & Stars loaf and Cinnamon Raisin Bagels!

That’s my Moon & Stars Bread up top, there. Yes, I know. It looks pregnant. I have no idea why. It shaped up very pretty and smooth, but when it rose during the resting period and then again in the oven, it developed that peculiar notch-looking indentation near the top and then kind of bulged out a “tummy.” Oh, well. It tasted really good – MJ rated it “two thumbs up”!

Then I moved on to the bagels. While I haven’t been actively participating in the group over the last couple of months, I have been monitoring the conversations. I have to admit to being a little fearful when approaching the boiling stage. Would they fall apart? Would they become terribly misshapen?

Taking no chances, I boiled the bagels in a large stockpot, two at a time. I sprinkled whole wheat flour on the greased baking sheet. In the future, I think I’ll try the traditional corn meal, instead.

Not bad for a first effort. They taste very good, but were still a tad on the dense side.

Oh, and a side-note: Don’t try to recycle the boiling water by cooking pasta in it. Not pretty.

It finally came off! After weeks of rejection by every commercial venue down here you can think of, and acceptance with open arms by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Miami leg of the National Food Bloggers Great American Bake Sale to benefit Share Our Strength, happened this past Saturday! That is, with a lot of help from my friends.

Sweetness Bake Shop donated dozens of delicious mini-cupcakes (red velvet sold out fast!). Thanks, Stephanie!

Our good friends at Dunkin’ Donuts South Florida (@DDSoFla on Twitter) were kind enough to donate dozens of doughnuts and boxes o’ joe (coffee) for us to sell, and believe me, the coffee was especially appreciated.

Friends Astrid W., Kristin H. (also known as “BooBoo” to my very long-time readers), Lynne (Miz Shoes of Girlyshoes), and Paula (of Mango & Lime), and I, baked into the night, resulting in dozens of cookies, brownies, biscotti, rugelach, healthy muffins, quick breads, and so much more! A couple of my co-workers even contributed baked goods (“Sheila, I need you to bake me about a half-dozen banana breads.” “What?!?”)

I even got a volunteer baker referred to me by Tasha of That’s So Yummy, who was running her own GABS in Orlando! Shana lives about an hour away in Broward county, baked some wonderful cookies and brownies, and then drove them all the way down to us. Thanks go out to both of them, too!

This little ladybug landed on my shoulder and stuck around for nearly an hour – a sign of good luck, right?

And good luck we had, too! After threatening us with rain that never materialized during the day, we had a very good day, indeed. Counting the donations, proceeds from our raffle (see previous post), and food sales, we were able to put $748.00 in the mail to Share Our Strength! If you include online donations, that’s a total of $828.00! Not bad for a week-and-a-half’s notice, eh?

Thanks to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, our intrepid volunteers, and wonderful donors! Next year will be even better!

(Photos by Paula Nino, Renée Joslyn, and Lynne Cohen. Additional photos from our day can be found by clicking here.)

For more information, or to donate to my team (and we will happily accept your money, thankyouverymuch!), click here and visit my team page. To find a bake sale near you, click here

Rumors to the contrary, I have not disappeared off the face of the Earth! For the last couple of weeks, I have been immersed in baking and jamming in preparation for the National Food Bloggers Great American Bake Sale to benefit Share Our Strength.

After a few episodes of tearing my hair out to find a location, and being led down the proverbial garden path more than once, guess what? I should have gone down that garden path to start with – Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, that is! I should have known that an organization that emphasizes education and children’s programs, would be familiar with SOS and might have a natural affinity for an event such as ours. I am thrilled and honored that Fairchild agreed to host our bake sale!

I’ve personally made strawberry jam, two different types of biscotti, my signature Framboise Brownies, lemon sweet rolls and even some strawberry sweet rolls (using my own jam!). If I get the time, I may even make some marmalade! But it’s not all about me – seven very talented local ladies are baking with me: Miz Shoes (of Girlyshoes), Paula (of Mango & Lime), Stephanie (of the newly-opened Sweetness Bakeshop & Cafe), as well as good friends Kristin H. & Astrid, and two of my co-workers.

We’ll be having a raffle, too! This fabulous full-size quilt, lovingly handmade by Tante Leah Handmades (a/k/a, Miz Shoes):

A beautiful Bromeliad plant, donated by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (the Bromeliad Show & Sale is happening that weekend at the Garden, too!); and a basket of my Framboise Brownies, together with a bottle of the elusive secret ingredient – Pacific Rim Framboise Wine – and the recipe, are all items being raffled at our bake sale!

For more information, or to donate to my team (and we will happily accept your money, thankyouverymuch!), click here and visit my team page. To find a bake sale near you, click here.

Passover starts tomorrow (Monday) night, beginning a week of probably the most food-centric holiday on the Jewish calendar.

To mark the passing of our ancestors from bondage to freedom, and the haste in which that was accomplished (read your Exodus, people… No, the Bible, not the Leon Uris novel!), we are prohibited from eating anything leavened. No yeast breads, no cakes or cookies with baking powder in them. In fact, we can’t even use flour that hasn’t been strictly supervised in its milling and processing by trained rabbis, to make certain that it hasn’t come into contact with anything that might have inadvertently begun the rising process. So, no flour.

While our kosher food companies have worked diligently over the years to provide us with acceptable options and alternatives, there’s no getting around one thing: If you’re going to get through Passover, you’re going to break a lot of eggs. Literally. Eggs are the primary source of the lightness and rise of just about every baked good we prepare this coming week, so don’t schedule a cholesterol screening till, oh, I don’t know, maybe the end of April!

Did I say Passover is a food-centric holiday? Maybe I should have said, egg-centric. (Get it? Fine. Never mind, then.) I’ve warned you – so don’t flip out when you see all the eggs in anything I post over this coming week!

Let’s begin with the iconic Sponge Cake. There’s nothing like a slice of light and fluffy Sponge Cake, torn into hunks and dipped into your glass of sweet Passover wine, to finish off a big meal, like a Passover Seder! This recipe is my annual go-to, and I’ll give you a couple of notes at the end.

Passover Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

9 eggs (at room temperature & separated)

1 1/2 cups sugar (divided)

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup matzo cake meal

1/2 cup potato starch

Method:

Preheat oven to 325º F. Prepare a tube pan by greasing and “flouring” with some of the cake meal. Alternatively, if your pan has a flat bottom, line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper, cut to fit.

In a large bowl, at increasingly high speed with an electric mixer, beat the egg whites till soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar and salt, and continue beating until very stiff peaks form.

In another large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar, until thickened and lemon-colored. Beat in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Fold into the egg whites along with with the matzo cake meal and potato starch, making sure that everything is completely blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about one hour, or until a cake tester or wooden skewer, comes out clean. You may need to add up to another 15 minutes baking time, depending on your oven.

Invert the cake over a rack to cool completely before removing from the pan. It may remove itself, but if it doesn’t, just run a thin-bladed utensil, such as a knife or cake spatula around the outside edge and around the tube.

Notes:

You can substitute any citrus for the lemon. Orange juice is quite nice, and this time, I used lime.

To lighten up the sugar content (I know. At this point, why bother?), I also substituted Splenda for Baking for the sugar.

Save some $$ and do what I did: Buy a bulk package of the Splenda and in a zip-top storage bag, measure out a one-to-one ratio of Splenda and sugar, and mix vigorously. Make sure to shake up the bag before every use, as sugar is heavier than Splenda and will settle to the bottom.

Happy Passover, everyone!

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