Avocado Toast

“I love things that are indescribable, like the taste of an avocado or the smell of a gardenia.”
— Barbra Streisand

Avocado

It's officially summer.  And to top it off the weather must have heard the news as well because it finally turned into sunshine today.  Honestly I wasn't sure if it was going to happen.  I'm glad. It means good things all around.  Good vibes, healthy feelings, picnics, summer concerts, bathing suits, swimming, and maybe if you're like me library visits for summer reads.

 When I was a kid I lived between the pool and the library.  The summer reading program was more than an encouragement it was my earnings for the summer.  Two panes of glass stood between myself and the prizes that I would earn for reading 10 books.  Everything from free pizza and ice cream coupons, to new books, pencils, notebooks,etc.  The cache they had tucked away  inside the sliding doors of prizes was enormous for a 10 year old.  I don't know how they got the prizes?

Donations?

Freebies?

 All I know was it became my lifelong summer goal to win everything. {I'm not competitive, I promise.😉}

It's funny, it was a challenge for most kids to earn one prize.

Not me.

 Read 10 books and get a prize?  More like read 100 books and get 10 prizes. {Okay maybe I compete a little.🤣}

I was there every week sometimes twice a week collecting prizes.

 I knew the librarians personally and they never questioned my honesty of reading the books.  You had to fill out a slip with the title and authors of all of the books and then you would pick your prize.  It was so simple.  I confess I was and still  a readaholic. I may have to start the 12 step program soon for book nerds.

I am sure that for others, getting through 10 books took them all summer, but for me it was like someone was sitting around giving me free money.  Maybe that's why I like writing now?

 Reading and writing go hand in hand.

 I don't get free pizza now, but wouldn't that be nice?

 Instead I have learned to share. Share my recipes, my ideas, my dreams, my world.

Once a reader always a reader no matter if you like paperbacks, electronic, audio, or whatever form you choose reading opens worlds.

 Cookbooks are included in this list  and they are what helped me learn the odds and ends of cooking.  

Yeah,  there is youtube and all kinds of videos on how to do everything in the kitchen and don't get me wrong, I use them. Alot. You can't be a food blogger and not use them.

 I watch videos, but I still always go back to books.  I'm sure it's age related and what I grew up with but libraries and books will always hold wonderful memories for me. How about you?

I hope wherever you are you have a chance to visit a library this summer.  Maybe it will have to be a virtual library but either way books can open your world.

 After all Avocado Toasts probably became popular from some guy with his thick glasses and cup of coffee wanting to eat breakfast  simply and slowly all while reading his favorite novel that started with I once had a farm in Africa...

 I don't really know, but it might be the start of a great story don't you think?  I'll let you know when the book comes out...😉😉.

 Until then eat Avocado Toast🥑, drink coffee☕️ and Read a book in the sunshine, cause it's summer, and it's a good idea.

Ingredients

  • 1 Slice Bread
  • 1/2 Avocado
  • 1 egg
  • Pinch of cumin seeds
  • Pinch of nigella seeds*
  • PInch of Garlic Powder
  • Crushed pepper(optional for a little kick)
  • Butter
  • Maldon Sea Salt Flakes

Instructions

Step 1

Heat a small pot of water in order to poach egg.  You can add a little  white vinegar to the water to make the poaching easier if you prefer. Crack an egg into a separate dish and once water temperature reaches 110 degrees or starts to bubble slightly then stir water around into a small whirlpool and in center of whirlpool slide egg from dish into pot.  Allow to cook for 3 minutes and then remove with a slotted spoon.

Step 2

While egg is cooking toast bread and then when done butter and add pinch of garlic powder on top of butter.  Cut avocado in half ,save avocado pit in other half do not remove, slice Avocado and remove from skin this is easily done with a spoon.

Step 3

Place egg on Toast and avocado slices surrounding.  Top Avocado and Egg with Salt, Cumin seeds, Nigella seeds and optional crushed pepper.

Eat and enjoy...with a good book and a great cup of coffee.

TIPS

  • Nigella Seeds (aka black caraway) tastes like a combination of onion, black pepper and oregano (purchase above) You will love it!
  • Always Store Avocado leftover halves with the pit inside to keep longer
  • How to tell if an avocado is ripe:
  • Ripen avocados: Place in a paper bag and let sit on counter for 2- 5 days, to ripen even faster add an apple or a kiwi or two which gives off a gas that helps ripen
  • The egg poaching set from OXO works like magic, if you want a little extra help.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Nut Bread

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”
— Jim Davis, ‘Garfield'

Pumpkin spice Nut and Seed Bread

The one thing about having the gas off for three weeks is that I spent more time at our little neighborhood coffee shop eating their squash bread that I love.

However as much as I love walking up to have a slice, the $3.50 cost made my wallet slim.

So my mind drifted back to that little voice in my head that says: "You could make it yourself."

  I am more than well aware that part of eating out is the experience and I do love that they play soft jazz or sometimes classical which is my favorite at a coffee shop because then I can work without getting any songs stuck in my head.  

Side bar on songs stuck in your head...I learned a little known fact the other day from a friend that if you learn the words to the end of the song stuck you can remove it from your brain. Psychologists have even given a name to the phenomenon it's called an Earworm. 

Wierd, right? Something about our brain needing closure...made sense to me. So next time you have "Don't Stop Believing..." by Journey or "It's a Small World...by Disney look up the song lyrics and find out the end.

Okay back on topic, hope you don't have any earworms hanging out.😉  

After deciding I could make my own squash bread and searching around a bit since I knew the basic recipe was from Macrina Bakery a fantastic bakery in Seattle.  I decided to use their recipe as a base and make my own changes as per the usual.  I decided upon pumpkin instead of squash as it seemed a  simpler and I had some cans leftover from my pie making in the fall.  I added some spices I love that they don't include such as Garam Masala which gives it a spicy taste rather than just a cinnamon flavor and of course changed the nuts around to how much I had on hand and Voila!

 Pumpkin Nut Bread.

 I know it isn't autumn but this made my house smell so good and helped me have a little closure to the gas leaking scenario I had been dealing with.

  It also made me realize how much I had been paying for a slice of Squash Bread!

 A load of cash!

 Inspiration comes at a price though, so,  Thanks Macarina for the inspiration and thanks Seattle Coffee Shops for keeping me warm.  

Stay warm everyone spring is just around the corner.💐🌷💐

Pumpkin Spice Nuts and Seed Bread

 

Ingredients

Dry

  • 540 g or 3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour

  • 325 g or 1 1/2 cups sugar

  • 325 g or 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

  • 2 tsp baking soda

  • 2 tsp baking powder

  • 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg

  • 1 tsp cinnamon

  • 1/2 tsp garam masala

  • 1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

  • 1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds

  • 1/2 cup toasted walnuts chopped

  • 1/2 cup toasted pecans chopped

Wet

  • 1 can of pumpkin (15 1/4 oz can)

  • 4 eggs

  • 1 cup vegetable oil

  • 3/4 cup buttermilk (see tips if you don't have this on hand)

Instructions

Step 1

Toast your nuts and seeds in a cast-iron pan and  add nutmeg and a pinch of salt for some extra flavor in the toasting.  Watch the pan so as not to burn the nuts. Allow to cool!

Step 2

In a large bowl add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, garam masala and salt and mix with a whisk.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

  Grind using a mortar and pestle or Coffee/food grinder half of the nut and seed combo but make sure the nuts and seeds are not hot or it will become mush.

Add the ground seeds and nuts to the flour mixing with the whisk and making sure to set aside the other half for topping the bread.

Step 3

With a stand mixer and paddle attachment  place oil and sugars in the bowl and mix on medium speed for about 3-4 minutes. Add the canned pumpkin and mix again for a couple minutes.

Add in one egg at a time until each is well blended with the pumpkin and sugars and oil.

Step 4

Next slowly add in flour alternating with buttermilk until all is combined.  Do not over mix!  Just mix until combined each time you add flour, then buttermilk, then flour etc.

Step 5

I used mini loaf pans and made four loaves at a time.  You will need to oil the pan, you can use spray oil if you have it and if not use a paper towel and wipe with oil all over the pans. Fill pans 2/3 full!  Do not fill to the top or they will not bake properly, I know from experience! 

Top with Toasted Whole Nuts and Seeds before baking.

Pumpkin Nut and Seed Bread

Step 6

Bake in your preheated oven at 325 degrees F for 40-50 minutes. Before removing from oven check that the center comes out clean on a toothpick or wooden skewer. If not leave in longer.  If it seems to be getting to brown tent (like a camping tent) with foil over the top and keep cooking until finished.

Allow to cool in pan about 15-20 minutes then remove and place on wire rack.

Step 7

You can allow to completely cool and then wrap in plastic wrap and then foil and freeze for your next big brunch or just keep in the freezer to eat the next week!

Tips

  • No Buttermilk? Here is what to do: Mix 1 cup of milk and 1 TBSP of Lemon juice or White Vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes until begins to curdle. Strain with a sieve and you have buttermilk

  • Tenting the breads with foil is a great way to prevent too much browning

  • Garam Masala is an Indian Spice that you can blend yourself if you want it includes: cloves,cardamom,cumin,black peppercorn,coriander,cinnamon and nutmeg

  • Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds are know to help with cardiovascular health!

Happy Baking and Eating!

 

 

Thomas Keller's Brioche

“All sorrows are less with bread. ”
— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

It started with the pan & a trip to San Francisco.🌉

 Thanks to a tip from a favorite blogger 101cookbooks  on where to go to find a few special finds for the kitchen.  I am not talking your everyday williams&sonoma or sur la table not that I don't love those as well but this place is unique, vintage, old and just down right a find.  

I had something else when I read about this shop specifically a vinegar pot with the perfect spout, still hunting for that (another story for another day) but nonetheless I was rewarded on my treasure hunt to this beautiful brioche pan.

I say Hunt because that is what you have to do at Cookin' it is a treasure for cooks looking to find that perfect something.  Yelp reviews were all over the board on this place and it was unique to say the least.  The owner was gone in Paris I believe shopping for more finds, although not sure how she could honestly fit anything else in the place but to each his own.  And better for those of us not visiting France on a yearly visit.

 The man who read the paper and glanced up as I asked questions occasionally seemed to also know the shop like the back of his hand.  It would have made for a great mystery novel.  Shopper enters store and finds a body under stacks of Le creuset pots that have not moved in about 10 years or something along those lines.  I have been binge watching Hercules Poirot way to often.

- I digress.

So after about two hours of scouring,

I found the pan,

and another pan 

and well way too much to discuss in one blog.

Deciding upon the brioche pan didn't take long but the real question was how do I make brioche?

I have never made it before.  I have a friend who loves it and a husband who says "aah, it's okay" when I flaunt my discovery at him later that day.  It seemed like a challenge for the baker in the kitchen and I wanted to be that or maybe I just wanted to use the gorgeous mold and say I DID IT.  Either way, it's done and frozen and will be coming back into something else again soon. 

Bread Pudding?

Croutons?

French toast?

I think the list will continue onward but until that happens I leave you with the perfect Brioche recipe from Thomas Keller's Book Bouchon.  

You can't go wrong and I should know it was my first attempt:) Score!

 

Tips:

  • Start this dough the day before you want to make it, as it so needs to rest

  • Use a thermometer to test the bread you want the inside to be 190 degrees

  • If getting too golden on top lightly cover with foil until done baking.

  • Spray a little water in the oven to get that perfect golden crust.

thomas keller's-brioche3.jpg

Recipe from Thomas Keller's book Bouchon

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup water (110-115 degrees Fahrenheit)

  • One 1/4-ounce package active dry yeast

  • 10 1/2 ounces (2 cups) All-Purpose Flour

  • 1/3 cup sugar

  • 2 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

  • 6 large eggs, at room temperature

  • 20 tablespoons (10 oz) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, at room temperature, plus butter for the pan

Step 1

Combine the water and yeast in a small bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes, then stir until the yeast is completely dissolved. Set aside.

Step 2

Sift together the flours, sugar, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the eggs and beat for 1 minute at low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.  Slowly add the dissolved yeast and continue beating at low speed for 5 minutes. Stop the machine, scrape any dough off the hook, and beat for another 5 minutes.

Step 3

Add about one-quarter of the butter cubes at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition. Once all the butter has been added, beat for 10 minutes more.

Step 4

Place the dough in a large bowl dusted with flour and cover with plastic wrap. Set the dough aside in a warm place until doubled in size, about 3 hours.

Step 5

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured work surface and gently work the air bubbles out by folding the dough over several times while lightly pressing down on it.  Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

NEXT DAY

Step 6

The dough is now ready to shape. Generously butter your brioche pans or if you don't have one a 8 1/2-by-4 1/2 inch loaf pans.

Step 7

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, divide the dough in half and shape it into two rectangles that fit into the pan or shape to fit in your brioche pans.  Check out this video on how to shape the head for brioche pans. Place the dough in the pans.

Step 8

Let the dough rise uncovered in a warm place until it is about 1/2 inch thick above the top of the pans, about 3 hours.

Step 9

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit

Step 10

Bake the brioche in the center of the oven until it is well browned on top and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, 35- 40 minutes.  Mine took closer to an hour as I did not divide the dough but remember just use the thermometer to check the temp inside. Remove the brioche from the oven and immediately turn out onto a wire rack.

Step 11

If serving immediately, let the breads cool for 10 minutes, then slice.

If serving within a few hours, wrap the hot bread in aluminum foil and set aside at room temperature until ready to use. To freeze wrap the hot bread in foil and promptly freeze. The bread can be frozen for up to 1 month; when ready to use, reheat (without thawing and still wrapped in foil) in a 250 degree oven until heated through about 20-25 minutes.

Happy Baking & Bon Appètit!