Creamy Italian Shells

Skip the story and go straight to the recipe.

This is probably one of my wife's favorite meals, and we have it 2 or 3 times a month. I have to admit, I am not the original creator of this recipe concept, but it's so simple that I feel that I can post it here. (I also make a couple changes, enough that I think I can call it my own.)

The story goes that my wife wanted something for dinner, but wasn't really sure what. I went through my kitchen, and came up with this:

We have had it before, and really enjoyed it, so I thought, here goes. I looked on the package for the directions, and my eye fell on the recipe printed on the back for “Creamy Garlic and Roasted Pepper Pasta.” It had garlic, red bells peppers, and chicken. Sounds good, yes, but my wife was anti-chicken at the time. The idea sounded good though, so I went through my fridge and came up with a bell pepper (purchased for cheese steaks), and some mushrooms (about 6) nearing the end of their life.

 I diced the half the pepper and tossed them into a skillet with a little oil and a pinch of salt, then turned my attention to the mushrooms. From those I removed the stems (which are really woody), and cut the caps into little wedges. Once they were all dispatched they too went into the pan. When the mushrooms were done I took the pan off the heat and turned my attention to the pasta.

Red Velvet Drop Cookies

Last week I was asked by a co-worker to make some cookies, specifically red velvet cookies. I agreed, because who can say no to a change to bake some cookies? Anyway, after some consideration, I decided that I didn't want to go through the hassle of rolling out and cutting cookies at work because I would have to bring additional flour, a rolling pin, and my cutters, not to mention only having a half hour for lunch. So being the food scientist that I am, I was confident in my ability to convert a rolled cookie dough into a drop cookie dough, so this morning I weighed out all the ingredients, stuck them in my lunch box, and went to work.

While driving, I thought about the best way to make a drop cookie dough, and came to the conclusion that I would just increase the amount of buttermilk until the consistency was right for scooping. It turned out that I needed 4 times the amount of buttermilk, but the cookies was pretty tasty. Oh, I also baked them in a convection oven set at 350°F, but I think that it would also work the same in a regular oven set at the same temp.

The result was a moist, puffy, cake-like cookie that would be the perfect accompaniment to a tall glass of milk. For a picture tutorial, please see my red velvet cookie recipe.

Versatile Bread Dough

This post is to enlighten readers on the versatility of bread dough. I am not talking about the stuff that you buy in the freezer section of your favorite grocery store, but rather making minor changes to a master bread dough recipe to fit any of your needs. This isn't as complicated as it may sound, and knowing these tricks will change your bread baking experience forever.

I have been baking bread as long as I can remember (which is only about 8 or 10 years old). I started following recipes exactly, and needing a new recipe for every type of bread or roll I attempted to make. This is how most bakers start out: following recipes as written, making few (if any) changes. I baked like this until I read a Swiss bread cookbook, and my baking was changed forever.

What made such a difference, you may ask? Well, it was quite simple: the author used one bread recipe to make 8 different types of bread, another recipe for 6 types of bread, and a short "textbook" on bread-making in general. It wasn't until then that I realized that all bread recipes are basically the same, with a few minor modifications based on the target application.

The reason why this revelation changed my baking so dramatically was that it allowed me to focus on my bread-making technique instead of worrying about following the recipes. Now, I rarely look for a recipe when I want to bake. Instead I just take my master recipe and modify it a little to make what I want. What follows is my master recipe, followed by some of my modifications.

Red Velvet Cookies

I have a bone to pick with red velvet. One does not simply make red velvet by adding red food coloring to an otherwise vanilla batter and call it good. Red velvet is so much more than it's color. Of course, I can't really blame anyone for this mistake because there is so much misinformation out there on what red velvet actually is. So, to set the record straight, and for my own peace of mind, I am going to set in stone (or bits and bytes) what I firmly believe red velvet to be.

After searching the internet for many red velvet recipes in an attempt to come to some sort of consensus, I concluded that red velvet is a mildly chocolate cake with background notes of both vinegar and buttermilk, also containing some form of red food coloring to heighten the already-present red anthocyanin present in the cocoa powder. There, I've said it. Red velvet is first and foremost a chocolate product. True, it is not as chocolaty as an Oreo©, but it is chocolaty nonetheless.

Well, on to the point of this post. The internet is riddled with red velvet in the form of cakes, cupcakes (shudder), brownies, crepes, pancakes, waffles, cake-mix cookies, etc. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with these things (except for the cupcakes. I don't like cupcakes), but I don't have a great love for any of them. What I really wanted was a cookie that I could roll out and cut into shapes, like sugar cookies. And don't you dare tell me that I can just put red food coloring into a sugar cookie. Didn't we already go over the fact that red velvet is chocolate at heart? No, I discovered that if I wanted a rolled red velvet cookie I would need to make my own recipe from scratch. So I did.

One more comment before I begin; it took me many tries to come up with this recipe, mainly because I wanted to get a good amount of chocolate flavor without making the cookie too brown. The solution is to use black cocoa, which is highly dutched or alkalized cocoa, in conjunction with natural cocoa powder. If you don't want to buy black cocoa you could probably get away with just using normal dutched cocoa, but please do not just use natural coca by itself. The flavor just isn't the same.

—Sam

Pita Bread

The other day I was talking to my older sister, and somehow the conversation turned to baking, and from there it turned to the topic of tonight's recipe: pita bread. I only really have one memory of pita growing up, and it just so happens to be of my sister eating a pita stuffed with sprouts and other stuff. A stuffed sandwich: I thought it was the coolest thing ever. In the years that followed I didn't give pita much thought, until I served an LDS mission in Switzerland, and was introduced to the Turkish food Doener Kebap, which is very similar to a Greek gyro. Both of those sandwiches are a pita stuffed with meat, vegetation, and sauce, and are some of the most delicious foods in the world.

So, back to the point of my story. My sister shared with me a recipe for pita, which has since become one of my favorite bread recipes, and I made it five times within the first 3 weeks. Each batch makes 10 discs of deliciousness.

Pita Bread

Step 1:

Dissolve 2 1/4 tsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar in 1/2 cup lukewarm water.

Allow to sit for 15 minutes, or until very foamy.

Step 2:

In the bowl of your mixer combine 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour and 1 tsp salt.

Step 3:

Add the yeasty water to the flour, along with the remaining 1/2 cup water. Mix well with dough attachment.

Step 4:

Knead on medium speed for 10 minutes.

Step 5:

Gather dough into a ball, cover, and let rise for 2 hours.

For pictures and further instructions on making dough please refer to my pizza dough recipe.

Before you start working with the dough, preheat your oven to 500°F. It may seem like a very high temperature, and it is, but it is the key to making your pita have a pocket in them, which is what we want.

After rising, the dough will look like this.

Step 6:

Gather the dough into a ball.

I often weigh the dough when I am going to be dividing it so that each piece is the same size.

Step 7:

Divide the dough into 10 equal-sized portions and roll each one into a ball. Store the balls under a plastic bag so they don't dry out.

Step 8:

On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 5" disc, 1/4" thick.

Resist the urge to make larger pita by rolling the ball into a larger circle. Doing so will make the dough too thin, and will create a cracker upon baking.

Step 9:

 If you are using a pizza stone, move it to the bottom rack.

Arrange three dough discs on the stone (my sister does up to 5 on a cookie sheet).

Step 10:

 Bake for 4 minutes, then flip and bake for another 2 minutes.

After about 2 minutes, the pita will seem to inflate. This is good: this is what creates the pocket in the middle of your pita. Mine often then pop and deflate while in the oven, but they still have a pocket.

Step 11:

 Remove to a rack and consume, or let cool and bag for up to a week at room temperature.

Pita Bread

1 cup lukewarm water, divided

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Dissolve the sugar and yeast in 1/2 cup water. Let sit for 15 minutes, or until very foamy. Combine flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the yeast mixture and the remaining water and mix with dough hook until combined, then increase the speed to medium and knead for 10 minutes. Gather dough into a ball, cover, and let rise 2 hours. Preheat oven to 500°F and move rack to lowest position. Divide the dough into 10 equal-sized pieces, and roll each piece into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 5" disc, 1/4" thick. Arrange 3 at a time on a pizza stone or cookie sheet. Bake for 4 minutes, then flip and bake an additional 2 minutes. Remove to a rack. Enjoy warm, or place in an airtight container for up to a week.