adventures with butter and an attack of the midnight munchies

      Shortly before hearing Gwenyth Bassetti rave about baking as almost an art form, I decided to stop taking baking shortcuts and bask in each part of the process.  I was off to a good start: allowing butter to soften to room temperature, only peeking in the oven every ten seconds minutes so as to prevent heat from escaping, and mixing things by hand when I could.  I smiled to myself while baking those oatmeal cookies, hair pulled back, flour dusting my nose, and Johnny Flynn crooning from my iPod. I had finally learned how to exhibit patience in the kitchen!

      Or so I thought. Then came yesterday, when I decided to bake a quiche for a small dinner get-together. I had taken the butter out of the fridge before I had left to run errands, assuming that it needed to be softened for the dough. I got back about an hour and a half before everyone was supposed to arrive, actually read the directions this time around instead of skimming over them, and realized that I was not only supposed to have left the butter in the fridge, but the dough was supposed to be chilled for an hour prior to baking. Whoops.

      So, I did what any determined person does without a get-a-grip-glass-of-wine: I decided to abandon my no shortcuts rule and just run with it. Earlier in the day, I decided to mix these two recipes. I basically made the pate brisee from the leek and mushroom quiche, chilled it for, ohhh, twenty minutes, flattened it by hand into a pie pan (I have no tart pan. I know. Galette and quiche without a tart pan? What the hell kind of baker am I?), trimmed the edges, and mixed the spinach and leek and mushroom filling recipes. Basically, leek and mushroom quiche with goat cheese and parmesan sprinkled on top. And ohhh man. It worked! Definitely a recipe to hold on to and keep tweaking.

      After we demolished the quiche,(and two bottles of wine, split between four people) we wandered over to a dangerously-close-to-my-apartment frozen custard joint and gorged ourselves yet again. After stumbling back to my bed, I slept for a few hours before I woke up, bright eyed and ready to go, at 4am. I know. I don't know what the hell happened, either. All I know is that I wanted french toast, and I wanted it bad. So, I made myself french toast. I don't know where I found this one, but it's very simple: a couple slices of bread, a few eggs, a bit of milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and if I have it on hand, a couple pinches of orange zest and a liiitle orange juice. I was one of the no-milk scrambled eggs kids,(I've had friends who always had scrambled eggs with milk poured in, and friends who didn't), and I still don't put milk in my plain jane scrambled eggs, but with French toast, I like to play. Fifteen minutes later, I was a happy (albeit considerably more sleepy) camper.

Leek and Mushroom Quiche Adaptation

• Ingredients for the Dough:
  
  
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
    
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar
    
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, chilled and cut into small pieces (as I mentioned earlier, my butter was softened. I'm sure it makes a difference, perhaps a flakier crust, but it still produced a pretty solid quiche)
    
  • 3 tablespoons water
    
  Ingredients for the Filling:
  
  • 1/2 cup water
    
  • 1 to 2 leeks, sliced
    
  • 1 tsp salt
    
  • 3 tablespoons butter
    
  • 8 - 10 cremini mushrooms, sliced
    
  • 1 tablespoon marsala cooking wine
    
  • 3 eggs
    
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
    
  • 1/4 grated parmesan
    
  
  
• Directions:
  
  
  1. You'll be making the dough first. I did this by hand, but you can use a food processor if it suits you. Combine the flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter and mix until it resembled coarse meal.
     
  2. Add the water, mixing it in thoroughly between tablespoons. Keep mixing the dough until it's smooth and pulls together. Be sure not to add too much water: just because you want the dough to pull together (ie, not be crumbly) doesn't mean you want it to be sticky.
     
  3. Form dough into a ball, flatten into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Chill for an hour. (or, if you're like me and don't plan ahead, twenty minutes)
     
  4. Half an hour before you're supposed to take the dough out of the fridge, you can get started on the filling. (Referring to the filling ingredients) Start by boiling the water, two tablespoons of the butter and salt over medium-high heat. Add the leeks and let boil until the liquid has almost evaporated. Turn heat to low and let stew for 20 minutes, until leeks are tender (I taste tested to be sure, and then had to cut myself off after I polished off a spoonful or two). Put leeks aside in a bowl.
     
  5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter to the pan you were using for the leeks, along with the mushrooms, marsala and salt to taste. Cover pan and cook over low heat for 8 minutes. Uncover and raise heat to a boil until liquid is completely evaporated and mushrooms are beginning to saute in the butter. Stir mushroom mixture into leek mixture.
     
  6. At this point, you can take out the dough and either roll it out between two pieces of plastic wrap, or hand-flatten it, into a tart pan. If you're like me and only have a 9" pie pan, the dough won't go to the top. That's fine; just means that, when you pour the filling, be sure to leave a little room at the edges for crust and to ensure that your quiche doesn't explode in the oven. Trim the edges.
     
  7. Beat eggs, milk and goat cheese in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in leek and mushroom mixture. Pour into the pastry shell and sprinkle parmesan evenly over the top. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until edges are golden brown and the filling is set. (I did a wiggle test: grab the edge of the pan and wiggle a little bit. If the filling still moves, leave the quiche in the oven for five to seven more minutes)
     
  
  

Easy Peasy Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast

• Ingredients:
  
  
  • 2 slices bread (I used Trader Joe's California Protein)
    
  • 3 eggs
    
  • 1/4 cup milk
    
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
    
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    
  • 1 tablespoon orange juice (optional)
    
  • 1/4 teaspoon orange zest (also optional)
    
  • powdered sugar, to taste
    
  
  
• Directions:
  
  
  1. My stove heats up pretty fast, so I usually get the eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon in the bowl, not yet whisked, before I lightly grease a skillet and heat it over medium-low.
     
  2. Whisk the egg, milk, vanilla and cinnamon mixture. The cinnamon will be clumpy. Don't worry: it'll still get into the French toast. Soak the bread, one at a time, in the mixture.
     
  3. Place soaked bread on skillet for 3 - 5 minutes per side. It'll be time to flip the toast when the side on the skillet is golden brown. I also listen to the crackling: once it really stops frying, it's probably ready to turn over. But best to check it as well.
     
  4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and you're good to go!