Try a New Mediterranean Dish

Many dishes of the middle east, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, have therefore gained prominence even in mainstream diets. A few years ago, no one would have known what you were talking about if you mentioned Humus, that delicious dip made from chick peas and olive oil.  Today, even people who are not ardent vegetarians enjoy this great break from our ubiquitous onion dip, made of sour cream with all of its transfatty acids from dairy products and chemical laden instant soup mix.

So let’s introduce a sort of cousin to Humus that is equally as healthy, delicious and easy to make. And like Humus, it has very few ingredients so you can put it together easily.

How to Make Baba Ghannouj

Ingredients:

• One eggplant
• Olive Oil
• Whole garlic, peeled and minced
• Lemon juice

Take an eggplant, cut it in half, rub it all around with olive oil and bake it in a 350 degree oven for one half hour. (Talk about easy!) Test it after a half an hour to make sure it is soft, and cook longer if necessary until the middle is soft and pulpy and can be broken easily with a fork. Let the eggplant cool so that you can handle it, and then scoop the meat from inside the skin into a food processor.

At first on low, then increasing speed as the pulp becomes creamier, process the eggplant “meat” until it is the consistency of oatmeal (or Humus, if you prefer that comparison). Once it is of the proper consistency, add minced garlic and lemon juice, stopping and tasting it gradually. Add more garlic and lemon juice, according to taste. Some people like a very garlicky Baba Ghannouj, others prefer it to taste more of lemons. Experiment until you find your perfect mix for your taste. Drizzle olive oil over the top before serving, and serve with pita bread and good black olives.

A delicious, low calorie, healthy snack or appetizer that your family and guests will love!

The Baba Ghannouj recipe has become the fantastic social gathering dip recipes, an old time Mediterranean recipe. Do a people search an invite your old time friends and high school buddies and let them taste this classic recipe, in Mediterranean style. It’s simple to prepare and will definitely capture their taste buds.

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This cookie recipe was invented while I was attending culinary school. It was around the holidays and I had a big test in baking class. I wanted to put a holiday spin on an old favorite cookie. I decided to try mixing fresh mint into the peanut cookie batter. To my surprise it tasted so refreshing and pleasant. The mint was just right and not over powering. I received an A+ on my test. The cookies were then served that night at the school restaurant. The customers seemed pleased as several of them raved and requested the recipe. I keep this recipe secret most of the time. I guess it was time to share it with everyone! That is how Honey Mint Peanut Butter cookies were born.

Holiday Honey Mint Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe makes 4 Dozen cookies

1 Cup Unsalted Butter

1 Cup Smooth peanut Butter

2 Cups White sugar

2 Eggs

2 ½ Cups all purpose flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

¼ Tsp Salt

1 ½ Tsp Baking soda

1 Tsp pure Vanilla extract

¼ Tsp ground Nutmeg

2 Tbsp finely chopped Mint leaves

½ Cup Powdered Sugar

½ Cup Honey

¼ Cup Honey

Directions:

1.)    Cream together butter, peanut butter, mint leaves, vanilla, ¼ Cup Honey and sugar. Beat in eggs.

2.)    In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Mix wet batter with the dry ingredients until well mixed. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

3.)    Roll into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet lined with non stick baking mat. Flatten each ball with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 10 minutes or until cookies begin to brown. Do not over bake.

4.)    Let cookies cool completely on a cookie cooling rack. After cookies are cool, with a fork drizzle honey over them. Then dust with powdered sugar.

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Be sure to measure your ingredients carefully. Use metal or plastic nested cups for dry ingredients like flour and sugar, and graduated glass or plastic cups with spouts for liquids. If you use the liquid measuring cup for flour you may get an extra tablespoon or more per cup, which could make cookies hard and dry. To measure flour, lightly spoon it from the canister into the measuring cup and level it with a straight edge of a spatula or knife. Do not tap or shake the cup to level it. When measuring brown sugar, pack it firmly into the dry measuring cup so that it holds its shape when it is removed.

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2/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cream shortening, gradually adding sugar
2. Add egg and vanilla
3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt
4. Combine flour mixture to sugar mixture
5. Wrap in plastic wrap, chill at least one hour
6. Roll out dough to 1/4″ thickness, cut cookies
7. Place cookies on lightly greased cookie sheet
8. Bake at 350 F for 12 minutes
9. Cool on sheet for several minutes, than transfer to wire rack
10. When cooled may be iced.

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You want to be sure you have enough turkey but have no clue how many pounds you need for the number of guests you’re going to have?

If you need only enough turkey to make it through Thanksgiving dinner: Buy ¾ to 1 pound per person.

If you want enough leftovers for the long weekend: Calculate 1 pounds (or slightly more) per person.

If you need a large turkey: Consider buying two 10- to 12-pound birds and roasting them side by side. Small turkeys cook (and defrost) much more quickly than super-size ones, and they tend to stay moister.

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In the cupboard

- Olive oil : the most perfumed of all oils, and recognized to be one of the most healthy (if not the most). Part of the “Mediterranean Food Paradox” , it is perfect for all salads, and can accommodate all by itself all vegetables and fish. It can be a dominating flavor in almost everything, if you so like…

- Vinegar : the most known is red wine vinegar. Many others are also good and a bit more original
like Reims vinegar or Vinegar with Provence herbs.

- Hot mustard : the most famous is from Dijon of course and it is the one you need to cook.
It is made of mustard seeds and vinegar and is
highly usefull in French Cooking.

- Nutmeg : it is a very precious spice because it perfumes many dishes with a delicate and original flavor. This is our favorite, you will notice it in many of our recipes. If you only have grated nutmeg, put more than if freshly grated.

- Onions : avoid sweet ones to cook – unless it’s specified on the recipe. Ours are about 8 centimeters (3 inches) large, brown outside, have a strong flavor and a strong smell when cut. So, be very careful
with your eyes when you slice them and prefer them cooked unless you like strong stuff !

- Garlic : one other base of the Mediterranean cooking ; it deserves its fame. It is very strong
when raw, so avoid it in your salads. But, when it is cooked, it is absolutely exceptional, and it is said to be good for health (blood pressure).

- Flour : regular white ; from wheat – not whole.

- Sugar : regular ; internationally the same
I guess.

Fresh Herbs
If you have a little time and patience, it is worth to grow herbs.
You do not need to have all the herbs on earth but just a few basic ones…
It makes all the difference (if you do not forget to water them !!!)

Basil : much used in the south of France and Italy ; Ok as a pot plant, it is a delight ! Fresh in your salads, chopped in a salad dressing, it is perfect cooked with meats or vegetables too. Preferably fresh but this is only possible during summer, it exists in small jars chopped and preserved in oil and the savor is very well restitued.

- Sage : its savor is so delicate and strong at the same time…it is perfect to flavor white meats and pasta. It needs to be cooked. Sage has its own “personality” and does not want to be mixed with any other herb.

- Parsley : most common, much used, it is Ok as a pot plant during the summer, but is very much fragile. Chopped fresh in salad dressings or cooked
in sauces , it is often used with chopped garlic (for escargots for example), or simply as a decoration.

- Sorrel : mostly used cooked, it spreads out a delicate sourness which is perfect with fish.
It really has its own “personality” too and the proof is that it is used to make an excellent soup.

- Coriander : this is our joker…not really necessary, and not the most classical, but it is lovely.
Its seeds are used as spices, but fresh, this herb is delicious. Perfect to perfume fish or salad dressing,
it is very much used in Chinese cooking also…

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How to Buy the Best Organic Foods

Americans spent close to $28 billion in 2008 on organic edibles, up from $1 billion in 1990, according to The Organic Trade Association. And organic foods remain an area of growth even with the rising cost of grocery items and tougher economic times. If you’re fueling these double-digit sales, you likely already have your reasons for buying organic. Even so, recent changes to America’s food buying habits―the rise of the local-food movement, increased awareness about foods’ carbon footprint (the amount of greenhouse gasses released when producing and transporting goods)―may leave you wondering where organic foods fit into a better-for-the-environment equation. If you’re not an organic shopper, perhaps you have questions about whether or not these products are worth their premium price tag. Here you’ll learn the lowdown.

Organic basics

• History: The organic movement, which gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s, was a reaction to growing awareness about the unintended environmental effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which can spread far from the fields where they are applied. Today organic farmers advocate maintaining a sustainable environment by using natural principles to maximize crop and livestock yield instead of turning to artificial and chemical methods.

• USDA certification: In 2002, the U.S. Department of Agriculture implemented uniform standards for American organic farmers and manufacturers. Organic foods must be grown or produced without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, and, in livestock, without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic foods cannot be genetically modified, irradiated, or cloned. Further guidelines govern specific foods. For instance, organic chickens must be raised with outdoor access.

• Growing market: In 1990, the United States had less than 1 million acres of organic farmland. By 2002, that number had doubled, and it doubled again in 2005, the most recent year for which USDA data is available. As organic farming has spread, it has adopted some of the principles that guide conventional farming. Today some organic farms are large-scale operations that manage thousands of acres. As farming has grown, so have market share, crop yields, and distribution channels. Organic-themed grocery stores, such as Whole Foods, have expanded around the country, and even mainstream food purveyors, such as Safeway and Wal-Mart, have developed organic brands. Organic food can now be found in every corner of the grocery store.

• Growing complexity: Organic certification does not cover many issues that have emerged as consumers have become more knowledgeable. Today organic food may be locally grown or it may be grown in a foreign country and shipped to the United States, resulting in a larger carbon footprint. Or it may be produced under less-than-ideal conditions for livestock or laborers. In response, some farmers are shifting to what is called “beyond organic” to practice sustainable farming, build a local clientele for foods raised in season, and provide a living wage to workers. Also, some farmers may follow organic principles yet forgo USDA certification. That’s one reason why you sometimes find uncertified organic goods at your local grocery or farmers’ market.

Nutrition and health

Farmers, food producers, and scientists debate whether organically grown and produced fruits, vegetables, meats, and milks are more nutritious than conventional ones.

The Organic Center (TOC), a nonprofit research organization in Foster, Rhode Island, recently issued a review of 97 studies on the subject to draw the conclusion that organic foods, on average, offer a 25 percent higher nutrient level over conventional ones. The premium may be an extra measure of a nutrient like vitamin C or higher levels of compounds like antioxidants, which are produced by plants to act as natural pesticides. The TOC is a pro-organic organization, so it’s not surprising they found a nutritional edge. However, their review is complemented by emerging research from independent scientists. For example, University of California at Davis researchers have found higher levels of nutrients in organic tomatoes, kiwifruit, corn, and strawberries grown side-by-side with conventional versions.

Because this research is preliminary, most -major public health organizations like the American Dietetic Association and the Mayo Clinic hold that an organic label is not an assurance that a food is nutritionally superior. What’s more, organic sweets and snack foods don’t warrant a nutritional halo just because they’re organic. In excess, fat, sugar, and calories can have adverse health effects, whether or not the food that contains them is organic.

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Baking Terms

Allumette: Any of various puff pastry items made in thin sticks or strips (French word for “matchstick”).

Almond Paste; A mixture of finely ground almonds and sugar.

Angel Food Cake: A type of cake made of meringue (egg whites and sugar) and flour.

Angel Food Method: A cake mixing method involving folding a mixture of flour and sugar into a meringue.

Baba: A type of yeast bread or cake that is soaked in syrup.

Babka: A type of sweet yeast bread or coffee cake.

Baked Alaska: A dessert consisting of ice cream on a sponge-cake base, covered with meringue and browned in the oven.

Baking Ammonia: A leavening ingredient that releases ammonia gas and carbon dioxide.

Baklava: A Greek or Middle Eastern dessert made of nuts and phyllo dough and soaked with syrup.

Batter: A semi liquid mixture containing flour or other starch, used for the production of such products as cakes and breads and for coating products to be deep-fried.

Bavarian Cream: A light, cold dessert made of gelatin, whipped cream, and custard sauce or fruit.

Beignet Souffl� (ben yay soo flay): A type of fritter made with �clair paste, which puffs up greatly when fried.

Blanc Mange (bla mahnge): (1) An English pudding made of milk, sugar, and cornstarch. (2) A French dessert made of milk, cream, almonds, and gelatin.

Bloom: A whitish coating on chocolate, caused by separated cocoa butter.

Blown Sugar: Pulled sugar that is made into thin-walled, hollow shapes by being blown up like a balloon.

Bombe: A type of frozen dessert made in a dome-shaped mold.

Boston Cream Pie: A sponge cake or other yellow cake filled with pastry cream and topped with chocolate fondant or confectioners’ sugar.

Bran; The hard outer covering of kernels of wheat and other grains.

Bran Flour: Flour to which bran flakes have been added.

Bread Flour: Strong flour, such as patent flour, used for breads.

Brioche: Rich yeast dough containing large amounts of eggs and butter; or a product made from this dough.

Brown Sugar: Regular granulated sucrose containing various impurities that give it a distinctive flavor.

Buttercream: An icing made of butter and/or shortening blended with confectioners’ sugar or sugar syrup and sometimes other ingredients.

Cake Flour: A fine, white flour made from soft wheat.

Caramelization: The browning of sugars caused by heat.

Cast Sugar: Sugar that is boiled to the hard crack stage and then poured into molds to harden.

Celsius Scale: The metric system of temperature measurement, with 0� C at the freezing point of water and 100� C at the boiling point of water.

Centi-; Prefix in the metric system meaning “one-hundredth.”

Challah: A rich egg bread, often made as a braided loaf.

Charlotte: (1) A cold dessert made of Bavarian cream or other cream in a special mold, usually lined with ladyfingers or other sponge products. (2) A hot dessert made of cooked fruit and baked in a special mold lined with strips of bread.

Chemical Leavener: A leavener such as baking soda, baking powder, or baking ammonia, which releases gases produced by chemical reactions

Chiffon Cake: A light cake made by the chiffon method.

Chiffon Method: A cake mixing method involving the folding of whipped egg whites into a batter made of flour, egg yolks, and oil.

Chiffon Pie: A pie with a light, fluffy filling containing egg whites and, usually, gelatin.

Chocolate Liquor: Unsweetened chocolate, consisting of cocoa solids and cocoa butter.

Christmas Pudding: A dark, heavy, steamed pudding made of dried and candied fruits, spices, beef suet, and crumbs.

Clear Flour: A tan-colored wheat flour made from the outer portion of the endosperm.

Coagulation: The process by which proteins become firm, usually when heated.

Cobbler: A fruit dessert similar to a pie but without a bottom crust.

Cocoa: The dry powder that remains after cocoa butter is pressed out of chocolate liquor.

Cocoa Butter: A white or yellowish fat found in natural chocolate.

Compote: Fruit cooked in a sugar syrup.

Confectioners’ Sugar: Sucrose that is ground to a fine powder and mixed with a little cornstarch to prevent caking.

Coulis (koo lee): A fruit or vegetable puree, used as a sauce.

Couverture: Natural, sweet chocolate containing no added fats other than natural cocoa butter; used for dipping, molding, coating, and similar purposes.

Creaming: The process of beating fat and sugar together to blend them uniformly and to incorporate air.

Creaming Method: A mixing method that begins with the blending of fat and sugar; used for cakes, cookies, and similar items.

Creme Anglaise (krem awng glezz): A light vanilla-flavored custard sauce made of milk, sugar, and egg yolks.

Creme Brulee: A rich custard with a brittle top crust of caramelized sugar. French name means “burnt cream.”

Creme Caramel: A custard baked in a mold lined with caramelized sugar, then unmolded.

Crepe (krep): A very thin French pancake, often served rolled around a filling.

Crepes Suzette: French pancakes served in a sweet sauce flavored with orange.

Croissant (krwah sawn): A flaky, buttery yeast roll shaped like a crescent and made from a rolled-in dough.

Custard: A liquid that is thickened or set by the coagulation of egg protein.

Deci”: Prefix in the metric system meaning “one-tenth.”

Dessert Syrup; A flavored sugar syrup used to flavor and moisten cakes and other desserts.

Devil’s-Food Cake: A chocolate cake made with a high percentage of baking soda, which gives the cake a reddish color.

Docking: Piercing or perforating pastry dough before baking in order to allow steam to escape and to avoid blistering.

Drained Weight: The weight of solid canned fruit after draining off the juice.

Dredge: To sprinkle thoroughly with sugar or another dry powder.

Drop Batter; A batter that is too thick to pour but will drop from a spoon in lumps.

Dutch Process Cocoa: Cocoa that has been processed with an alkali to reduce its acidity.

Eclair Paste: A paste or dough made of boiling water or milk, butter, flour, and eggs; used to make eclairs, cream puffs, and similar products.

Emulsion: A uniform mixture of two or more unmixable substances.

Endosperm: The starchy inner portion of grain kernels.

Extraction; The portion of the grain kernel that is separated into a particular grade of flour. Usually expressed as a percentage.

Fermentation: The process by which yeast changes carbohydrates into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol.

Foaming: The process of whipping eggs, with or without sugar, to incorporate air.

Fondant: A type of icing made of boiled sugar syrup that is agitated so that it crystallizes into a mass of extremely small white crystals.

Frangipane: A type of almond-flavored cream.

French Pastry: A variety of small fancy cakes and other pastries, usually in single-portion sizes.

Fritter; A deep-fried item made of or coated with a batter or dough.

Ganache (gah nahsh): A rich cream made of sweet chocolate and heavy cream.

Gateau (gah toe): French word for “cake.”

Gaufre (go fr’): French word for “waffle.”

Gelatinization: The process by which starch granules absorb water and swell in size.

Gelato: Italian ice cream

Genoise (zhen wahz): A sponge cake made with a batter containing melted butter.

Germ The plant embryo portion of a grain kernel.

Glace (glah say): (1) Glazed; coated with icing. (2) Frozen.

Glaze: (1) A shiny coating, such as a syrup, applied to a food. (2) To make a food shiny or glossy by coating it with a glaze or by browning it under a broiler or in a hot oven.

Gliadin): A protein in wheat flour that combines with another protein, glutenin, to form gluten.

Gluten: An elastic substance, formed from proteins present in wheat flours, that gives structure and strength to baked goods.

Glutenin: See Gliadin.

Gram: The basic unit of weight in the metric system; equal to about one-thirtieth of an ounce.

Granite (grab nee tay): A coarse, crystalline frozen dessert made of water, sugar, and fruit juice or another flavoring.

Gum Paste: A type of sugar paste or pastillage made with vegetable gum.

Hard Sauce: A flavored mixture of confectioners’ sugar and butter; often served with steamed puddings.

Hard Wheat: Wheat high in protein.

Hearth Bread: A bread that is baked directly on the bottom of the oven, not in a pan.

Heavy Pack: A type of canned fruit or vegetable with very little added water or juice.

High-Ratio: (1) Term referring to cakes and cake formulas mixed by a special method and containing more sugar than flour. (2) The mixing method used for these cakes. (3) Term referring to certain specially formulated ingredients used in these cakes, such as shortening.

High-Ratio Method: See Two-Stage Method.

Homogenized Milk: Milk that has been processed so that the cream does not separate out.

Hydrogenation: A process that converts liquid oils to solid fats (shortenings) by chemically bonding hydrogen to the fat molecules.

Icing Comb: A plastic triangle with toothed or serrated edges; used for texturing icings.

Inversion: A chemical process in which a double sugar splits into two simple sugars.

Invert Sugar: A mixture of two simple sugars, dextrose and levulose, resulting from the breakdown of sucrose.

Italian Meringue; A meringue made by whipping a boiling syrup into egg whites.

Japonaise (zhah po net): A baked meringue flavored with nuts.

Kernel Paste: A nut paste, similar to almond paste, made of apricot kernels and sugar.

Kilo”; Prefix in the metric system meaning “one thousand.”

Kirsch: A clear alcoholic beverage distilled from cherries.

Kugelhopf: A type of rich, sweet bread or coffee cake usually made in a tube-type pan.

Ladyfinger: A small, dry, finger-shaped sponge cake or cookie.

Lean Dough: A dough that is low in fat and sugar.

Leavening: The production or incorporation of gases in a baked product to increase volume and to produce shape and texture.

Linzertorte: A tart made of raspberry jam and a short dough containing nuts and spices.

Liter: The basic unit of volume in the metric system; equal to slightly more than a quart.

Macaroon; A cookie made of eggs (usually whites) and almond paste or coconut.

Malt Syrup: A type of syrup containing maltose sugar, extracted from sprouted barley.

Marble: To partly mix two colors of cake batter or icing so that the colors are in decorative swirls.

Marron: French word for “chestnut.”

Marshmallow: A light confection, icing, or filling made of meringue and gelatin (or other stabilizers).

Marzipan: A paste or confection made of almonds and sugar and often used for decorative work.

Meal: Coarsely ground grain.

Melba Sauce: A sweet sauce made of pureed raspberries and sometimes red currants.

Meringue: A thick, white foam made of whipped egg whites and sugar.

Meringue Chantilly (shown tee yee): Baked meringue filled with whipped cream.

Meringue Glace: Baked meringue filled with ice cream.

Meter: The basic unit of length in the metric system; slightly longer than one yard.

Milli-: Prefix in the metric system meaning “one-thousandth.”

Modeling Chocolate: A thick paste made of chocolate and glucose, which can be molded by hand into decorative shapes.

Molasses: A heavy brown syrup made from sugar cane.

Monosaccharide: A simple or single sugar such as glucose and fructose.

Mousse: A soft or creamy dessert that is made light by the addition of whipped cream, egg whites, or both.

Napoleon: A dessert made of layers of puff pastry filled with pastry cream.

Net Weight: The weight of the total contents of a can or package.

No-Time Dough: A bread dough made with a large quantity of yeast and given no fermentation time except for a short rest after mixing.

Nougat: A mixture of caramelized sugar and almonds or other nuts, used in decorative work and as a confection and flavoring.

Old Dough: A dough that is overfermented.

One-Stage Method: A cookie mixing method in which all ingredients are added to the bowl at once.

Othello: A small (single-portion size), spherical sponge cake filled with cream and iced with fondant.

Oven Spring; The rapid rise of yeast goods in the oven due to the production and expansion of trapped gases caused by the oven heat.

Pain d�Epice (pan day peece): A type of gingerbread. French name means “spice bread.”

Palmier (palm yay): A small pastry or petit four sec made of rolled, sugared puff pastry cut into slices and baked.

Parfait; (1) A type of sundae served in a tall, thin glass. (2) A still-frozen dessert made of egg yolks, syrup, and heavy cream.

Paris-Brest: A dessert consisting of a ring of baked �clair paste filled with cream.

Pasteurized: Heat-treated to kill bacteria that might cause disease or spoilage.

Pastillage: A sugar paste used for decorative work, which becomes very hard when dry.

Pastry Cream: A thick custard sauce containing eggs and starch.

Pastry Flour: A weak flour used for pastries and cookies.

Pate a Choux (pot ah shoo): Eclair paste.

Pate Feuillete (pot foo va fay): French name for puff pastry.

Patent flour: A fine grade of wheat flour milled from the inner portions of the kernel.

Petit Four: A delicate cake or pastry small enough to be eaten in one or two bites.

Petit Four Glace: An iced or cream-filled petit four.

Petit Four Sec: An uniced or unfilled petit four (“sec” means “dry”), such as a small butter cookie or palmier.

Phyllo (fee lo): A paper-thin dough or pastry used to make strudels and various Middle Eastern and Greek desserts.

Piping Jelly: A transparent, sweet jelly used for decorating cakes.

Pithiviers (fee tee vyay): A cake made of puff pastry filled with almond cream.

Praline: A confection or flavoring made of nuts and caramelized sugar.

Profiterole: A small puff made of �clair paste. Often filled with ice cream and served with chocolate sauce.

Puff Pastry: A very light, flaky pastry made from a rolled-in dough and leavened by steam.

Pulled Sugar: Sugar that is boiled to the hard-crack stage, allowed to harden slightly, then pulled or stretched until it develops a pearly sheen.

Pullman Loaf: A long, rectangular loaf of bread.

Pumpernickel Flour: A coarse, flaky meal made from whole rye grains.

Punching: A method of expelling gases from fermented dough.

Puree: A food made into a smooth pulp, usually by being ground or forced through a sieve.

Retarding: Refrigerating a yeast dough to slow the fermentation.

Rich Dough: A dough high in fat, sugar, and/or eggs.

Rolled-in Dough: Dough in which a fat has been incorporated in many layers by using a rolling and folding procedure.

Rounding: A method of molding a piece of dough into a round ball with a smooth surface or skin.

Royal Icing: A form of icing made of confectioners’ sugar and egg whites; used for decorating.

Rye Blend: A mixture of rye flour and hard wheat flour.

Sabayon: A foamy dessert or sauce made of egg yolks whipped with wine or liqueur.

Sacristain (sak ree stan): A small pastry made of twisted strip of puff paste coated with nuts and sugar.

Saint-Honore: (1) A dessert made of a ring of cream puffs set on a short dough base and filled with a type of pastry cream. (2) The cream used to fill this dessert, made of pastry cream and whipped egg whites.

Savarin; A type of yeast bread or cake that is soaked in syrup.

Scaling: Weighing, usually of ingredients or of dough’s or batters.

Scone: A type of biscuit or biscuit like bread.

Scone Flour; A mixture of flour and baking powder that is used when very small quantities of baking powder are needed.

Short; Having a high fat content, which makes the product (such as a cookie or pastry) very crumbly and tender.

Shortbread: A crisp cookie made of butter, sugar, and flour.

Shortening: (1) Any fat used in baking to tenderize the product by shortening gluten strands. (2) A white, tasteless, solid fat that has been formulated for baking or deep-frying.

Simple Syrup: A syrup consisting of sucrose and water in varying proportions.

Soft Wheat: Wheat low in protein.

Sorbet (sor bay): French word for “sherbet,”

Sorbetto; Italian word for “sherbet.”

Souffle: (1) A baked dish containing whipped egg whites, which cause the dish to rise during baking. (2) A still-frozen dessert made in a souffle dish so that it resembles a baked souffle.

Sourdough: (1) A yeast-type dough made with a sponge or starter that has fermented so long that it has become very sour or acidic. (2) A bread made with such a dough.

Sponge: A batter or dough of yeast, flour, and water that is allowed to ferment and is then mixed with more flour and other ingredients to make a bread dough.

Sponge Cake: A type of cake made by whipping eggs and sugar to a foam, then folding in flour.

Sponge Method: A cake mixing method based on whipped eggs and sugar.

Spun Sugar: Boiled sugar made into long, thin threads by dipping wires into the sugar syrup and waving them so that the sugar falls off in fine streams.

Staling: The change in texture and aroma of baked goods due to the loss of moisture by the starch granules.

Stollen: A type of sweet yeast bread with fruit.

Straight Flour: Flour made from the entire wheat kernel minus the bran and germ.

Streusel (stray sel): A crumbly topping for baked goods, consisting of fat, sugar, and flour rubbed together.

Strong Flour: Flour with a high protein content.

Strudel: (1) A type of dough that is stretched until paper-thin. (2) A baked item consisting of a filling rolled up in a sheet of strudel dough or phyllo dough.

Sucrose: The chemical name for regular granulated sugar and confectioners’ sugar.

Swiss Roll: A thin sponge cake layer spread with a filling and rolled up.

Syrup Pack: A type of canned fruit containing sugar syrup.

Tempering: The process of melting and cooling chocolate to specific temperatures in order to prepare it for dipping, coating, or molding.

Torte: German word for various types of cakes, usually layer cakes.

Tulipe: A thin, crisp cookie molded into a cup shape.

Tunneling: A condition of muffin products characterized by large, elongated holes; caused by overmixing.

Turntable: A pedestal with a flat, rotating top, used for holding cakes while they are being decorated.

Two-Stage Method; A cake mixing method, beginning with the blending of flour and high-ratio shortening, followed by the addition of liquids. Also called the high-ratio method.

Vacherin (vah sher ran): A crisp meringue shell filled with cream, fruits, or other items.

Wash: (1) A liquid brushed onto the surface of a product, usually before baking. (2) To apply such a liquid.

Water Pack: A type of canned fruit or vegetable containing the water used to process the item.

Weak Flour: Flour with a low protein content.

Whole Wheat Flour: Flour made by grinding the entire wheat kernel, including the bran and germ.

Young Dough: dough that is under fermented.

Zabaglione: An Italian dessert or sauce made of whipped eggs yolks and Marsala wine.

Zest: The colored outer portion of the peel of citrus fruits.

These terms you must know in order to get familiar with French baking.

If you pick up a slice of bread and examine it closely, you can see that it is full of air holes. This makes it spongy and soft. You will also see that bread is moist. If you let a slice of bread sit out on the counter for a day, you will realize just how moist fresh bread is! Bakers use two simple facts of life to create soft, spongy, moist bread:

• First, they use the fact that yeast (a single-cell fungi) will eat sugar, and from the sugar create alcohol and carbon dioxide gas as waste products. The carbon dioxide gas created by yeast is what gives bread its airy texture, and the alcohol, which burns off during baking, leaves behind an important component of bread’s flavor.
• Second, wheat flour, if mixed with water and kneaded, becomes very elastic. The flour-and-water mixture in bread becomes stretchy like a balloon because of a protein in wheat known as gluten. Gluten gives bread dough the ability to capture the carbon dioxide produced by yeast in tiny flour balloons.

You can perform a few experiments to better understand how bread works.

This weeks assignment:

Follow this recipe and leave a comment and tell me how it came out and if you thought this was a challenge.

French Bread

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1. French Cooking Lessons-Week 10
2. French Onion Pissaladière – French Onion Tart
3. French Cooking Lessons- Week 12

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They spend all day surrounded by delicious food. A rotund belly was not only a sign that a cook was eating well, it suggested that he or she would feed us well—there was something comforting about James Beard’s plumpness and Julia Child’s hulking physique. still, we have many large-scale icons in the culinary world. Mario Batali, Ina Garten, Paula Deen, and Paul Prudhomme all seem to like to eat food as much as they like to prepare it. There is something unabashedly charming about Deen’s insistence on heaping another spoonful of lard into a pan, cheerfully agile in her curves.

as American diets have moved toward healthier, farm-fresh ingredients, a new crop of svelte chefs have risen through the ranks. Culinary stars like Eric Ripert, Anthony Bourdain, Jamie Oliver, Top Chef’s Sam Talbot, and Food Network starlets Cat Cora and Giada di Laurentiis have shown that it’s possible to fire up the grill without putting on the pounds. But it takes discipline.

Here is how they do it!

1) Taste, Don’t Gorge

Nibbling their most fattening dishes is a key trick chefs use—they test a forkful and move on. To be successful as a chef, you’ve gotta try the food.

2) Exercise Is Key

It should come as no surprise that all the chefs we spoke to are fastidious about working out. Exercise is of utmost importance when it comes to staying thin, but short of being able to actually get to the gym, try to remain on your feet for as much of the day as possible. Even standing up at your desk while you type helps. Consider investing in a standing desk.

3) Build a Routine

Aside from knowing the night’s menu, a chef’s life is wildly unpredictable. There is no “average day,” so many chefs find it useful to establish some eating and working habits that never change. Draft an eating routine and stick with it, without exception. Temptation will always be present, as a chef who has worked a 12-hour shift on an empty stomach can attest to.

4) Indulgence Is Necessary

Don’t deny your cravings—even the most accomplished chefs binge on store-bought ice cream and refined carbs. But do keep them in moderation, and make sure everything stays in balance.

5) Don’t Feed Your Stress

The No. 1 danger that every chef we spoke to mentioned is not the pans of delicious food that surround them, but the stress of cooking it. Even professional chefs who have nuanced relationships with food often eat out of stress or emotional strain. It’s important to consider why you are putting something in your mouth. Has the pressure of work caused you to reach for the Doritos, or do you really want them?

6) Sit Down to Eat, and then Eat Healthy

It sounds like a no-brainer, but meals should not be eaten on the go; there is no way to truly tell what you are eating or if you are actually full when you are dashing around. When you do sit down to eat a real meal, garnish it with healthy chutneys and vinegar-based sauces, rather than heavier options that rely on butter, oil, and cream.

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