food – Ben There Shot That

Making Bacon

I bought some Prague Power #1 a few months ago because I wanted to make sausage. Bacon ended up being the first use. Turns out it borders on the easy side of straightforward. I ended up buying a whole pork belly from Costco for about $30. One third of it became rellions from the recipeContinue reading “Making Bacon”

Filled King Cake

I finally tried out a cream cheese filling for my king cake recipe. Recipe is below. It makes enough for two king cakes. I rolled out my dough pretty thin, smeared the filling along an edge, and rolled it over to seal in the filling. Then I dusted the dough with cinnamon and finished rollingContinue reading “Filled King Cake”

More Quarantine Pizza

April saw my love of pizza fire up and May has kept that fire going. I have kept using the classic New York Style dough from Serious Eats. It continues to be incredibly consistent and bakes well. I tend to vary the flour between all AP, 50/50 AP and 00 flour, and all 00 flourContinue reading “More Quarantine Pizza”

Quarantine Pizza

I went into this week craving pizza and since I was working from home I could do whatever timings I wanted. The theory was to make a single sauce and try out different dough recipes. I kinda followed that but ended up just making some damn good pizza. Saturday, 4/13 Make sourdough dough from TheContinue reading “Quarantine Pizza”

Sourdough Timelapse

Social distancing and the shut down of all the outdoor parks have made entertaining myself a little more challenging lately. So here’s a timelapse of my sourdough levain rising from 9-5 last Sunday. See if you can spot where my camera battery diet. This was a mix of 20g starter, 100g AP flour, and 100gContinue reading “Sourdough Timelapse”

First King Cake of 2020

This post is a continuation of last year’s, where I developed a new recipe. I followed my suggestion of more commercial yeast by doubling to 1/2 teaspoon. This dough creates a light fluffy, perfectly textured bread. It is slightly eggy and sweet and just melts away in your mouth without being the sugar bomb likeContinue reading “First King Cake of 2020”

Experiments With King Cake

This week’s king cake recipe was more successful than the first. It is the cinnamon roll recipe from The Perfect Loaf, but I have added commercial yeast. I think I will continue to up the commercial yeast quantity. My next goal is to get the inner layers to proof and puff up some. Recipe IngredientsContinue reading “Experiments With King Cake”

Food Thoughts Week 2

Lots of great food this weekend, and it is only Saturday. Friday – soft opening of Marumen, a new ramen restaurant in Sterling. Braised chicken, broth, fried mushrooms, kimchi, and pickled eggs. That bowl was empty when I finished, and we’ll definitely be back there. Saturday is a snow day, so naturally I baked someContinue reading “Food Thoughts Week 2”

New Bread Recipes

This weekend saw me try two new bread recipes, one a boule of artisan bread, and the other an enriched dough. For my sandwich bread this week, I made the Field Blend No. 1 from Flour Water Salt Yeast. I have wanted to make more breads from there – I’ve only successfully made the PainContinue reading “New Bread Recipes”

Spaghetti Carbonara

This week was spaghetti carbonara because it’s simple, easy, and I already had leftover parm from cacio e pepe over the weekend. And Bon Appetit did a great video and we all know I get my food ideas from Youtube. ISO 1600 | f/2.8 | 1/50 | 24mm I am a firm believer in carbonara notContinue reading “Spaghetti Carbonara”