I know of no other food that is as versatile as soy. In its natural state above, it resembles green peas. It can also stand in for milk (as soy milk), custard (as silken tofu), cheese (as firm tofu), meat (as tofu or tempeh), flour (as okara), nuts (as roasted soy nuts) and salt (as soy sauce or miso). High in protein, fiber and antioxidants but relatively low in fat, soy is a staple in my kitchen.

Dried soybeans

For the monthly themed cooking events, Is My Blog Burning and Sugar-High Friday, Reid at ‘Ono Kine Grindz has asked bloggers to make soy cuisine.

After making soy-sauce candied walnuts, I decided to experiment more with soy sauce in desserts. Soy sauce essentially tastes like caramel-flavored salt, so the idea isn’t too far-fetched.

For my first creation, I made chocolate caramels with soy milk and soy sauce. Out of my two experiments, this one seemed like the safest bet. As the Kikkoman website says, “Kikkoman Soy Sauce…..In Chocolate? Absolutely! Naturally brewed soy sauce can enhance more than just savory flavors — its salty brewed flavor depresses the extra sweetness typical of chocolate syrups and enhances the richness of the cocoa powder. It also helps to blend dairy notes and highlights the fruit top notes of the cocoa. The result: a deep, nutty, roasted chocolate flavor with a rich color.”

These low-fat caramels were tasty for what they were, but they were slightly grainy. I don’t know whether it’s because I used homemade soy milk, which naturally has pulp. Or perhaps the granulated sugar crystallized, in which case more honey was needed. Also, soy milk curdles at the slightest introduction of acid, which was in the natural cocoa powder. You may fare better with commercially prepared soy milk, which is smoother and has thickeners.

My candy also did not set up, even in the freezer. I’ve clarified the instructions, so cook the candy until it reaches the softball stage–248 degrees F. I think these would have tasted better with plain old salt, but if you’re adventurous, add the soy sauce in the end, so you don’t cook out its delicate flavor.

Chocolate Caramels

Adapted from The Soy Dessert and Baking Book

This is a great way to sneak nutrients into candy.

Ingredients:
½ c sugar
1 c vanilla soy milk
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp honey
2 Tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp soy sauce or 1/4 tsp salt

Method:
Line a loaf pan with greased foil.

Over medium heat, melt sugar in a sauce pan, stirring until it has completely dissolved and is light golden in color. Gradually stir in soy milk and bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10-15 min., uncovered. Add butter, honey and cocoa and salt (if you’re not using soy sauce) and continue boiling and stirring for another 10-15 min., or until mixture thickens (about 248F) and shrinks away from the bottom and sides of the pan. Stir in soy sauce (if using). Pour into the greased pan and cool 10 min. While still warm, cut caramels into approximately 18 pieces. Wrap in individual candy wrappers. The leftovers freeze well.

Now, what could possibly be weirder than chocolate and soy sauce? How about a dessert where the soy sauce doesn’t have “milk” or chocolate to hide behind? A dessert with just three ingredients? (Two if you don’t count the orange zest, which I didn’t use. Or one if you don’t count the sugar, which is mandatory in dessert.) It’s soy sauce sorbet, which Kikkoman features on its website, along with soy sauce chocolate sauce and soy fruit charlotte.

At first bite, the sorbet has an off-putting fermented flavor, but it gets better as you eat it. It’s the easiest way to make a refreshing “caramel” sorbet without having to caramelize the sugar. Serving it with chocolate sauce does double duty. The chocolate sauce offsets the sorbet’s saltiness, while soy sauce brings out the chocolate flavor.
The sorbet is slightly icy, like a granita. You can add more sugar if you want it smoother.

Now that my experiments are done, I declare soy sauce too weird to put in desserts. At least I tried. If you like Sam Mason-style desserts (ancho caramel or miso ice cream, anyone?) from WD-50, these might be up your alley.

Soy Sauce Sorbet

Adapted from a recipe by Chef Michael Bloise, Wish at The Hotel at South Beach (Miami Beach, FL)

Yield: 6 cups

4 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce (or substitute 1/3 cup regular soy sauce plus 1/3 cup water)
4 teaspoons grated orange zest
2 Tbsp vodka (optional but recommended to keep the sorbet from freezing hard)

Stir together all ingredients until sugar is dissolved. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to manufacturer’s directions. Serving suggestion: Chef Bloise serves a small scoop of Soy Sauce Sorbet with ginger carrot cake.

IMBB27 and SHF20 round-up.

Add a dash of holiday cheer to a cookie buffet and the concept behind The Best Recipe, and you get a cookie swap. Traditionally, cookie swap parties are held shortly before Christmas and allow people to sample a plethora of cookies. Each participant brings several batches of their favorite cookies to share with others. The more people the better: you can potentially go home with 10 varieties of cookies!

For this month’s Is My Blog Burning, the cookie swap has gone online. If you need ideas for your holiday baking, check out Jennifer (of The Domestic Goddess) and Alberto’s (of Il Forno) round-up. Bloggers around the world are bringing their cookies and recipes to the table!

I’ve decided to combine a little bit of the old with a little bit of the new. First is a chewy chocolate chip cookie that has been a family Christmas tradition for a decade. The second cookie is a Su Good Sweets macaroon, enrobed in chocolate. If you like what you see, please vote for me by e-mailing cookieswap@gmail.com so I can win a free cookie book. Thanks!

As I’ve said before, chocolate chip cookies spurred my love for baking. When I was around 12, my mom and I whipped up a recipe that a co-worker had given her. It called for a half-half mixture of butter and vegetable shortening. Our kitchen was sparse and we didn’t have shortening. But we saw the word “vegetable” and figured we could substitute vegetable oil. (I still don’t have vegetable shortening in my pantry, but now it’s for health, texture and taste reasons.) Because of the oil, the chocolate chips refused to adhere to the glistening dough, which was an anomaly that we accepted.

At the time, we also didn’t own baking sheets, so we made our own by cutting paper grocery bags to size. To get them in the oven, we slid them off of a giant piece of cardboard much like a cook slides pizza off of a peel. As for cooling racks, we didn’t know that such things existed. Instead, we lined the stove with old newspapers and laid the paper cookie sheets on top. The newspaper sopped up extra oil that leaked through the grocery bags.

Despite these untraditional techniques, the cookies were delicious. Because they were made with 100% whole wheat flour, they were very different from the traditional Toll House variety. But they were good in their own right: chewy, soft and satisfying. We’ve made these year after year for the holidays. I remember baking these with my mom while Charlie and the Chocolate Factory played on TV (how’s that for dessert overkill?). The sweet smell of cookies would permeate the house.

Below is the original version, but Su Good Sweets uses all butter (and less of it) and a mixture of flours. Sorry, I can’t disclose all my secrets!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 3 dozen cookies

1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/3 c butter, at room temperature
1/3 c shortening (recommended substitute: butter or vegetable oil)
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c chopped toasted nuts (optional)
1 c chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375F. Mix sugars, butter, shortening, egg, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir flour and baking soda. Add the flour mixture, chocolate chips and nuts to the wet ingredients. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 8-9 min, or just until edges begin to brown.

Notes:

I recommend these chocolate chips:
Whole Foods 365 Everyday Value-Outrageous semisweet flavor. At 1.99 for 12 oz., it’s actually cheaper than the brands below and better! It has only the real stuff: cocoa liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla and soy lecithin (an emulsifier). Chocolate manufacturers often cheat by using cheap vegetable or milk fat and vanillin.
Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels-classic semisweet flavor with a bit of an acidic edge (which I like). The chips soften after baking, so they melt right in your mouth when you bite into them.
Mrs. Fields-slightly more multi-faceted flavor than Nestle’s.
Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips-a dependable brand with a smoother flavor than Nestle’s. Despite the fancy name and packaging, they rate at the bottom of the list.

Not recommended:
Hershey’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips-flat flavor that resembles milk chocolate.
Guittard Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips-they may make gourmet chocolate, but their chocolate chips aren’t as rich as Nestle’s.
Pathmark supermarket brand-an ideal ingredient list (cocoa liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla and soy lecithin) and cheap price attracted me to this product, but it was waxy and almost fake tasting. It wouldn’t surprise me if the real ingredients included vegetable fat and vanillin.

Although everyone loves chocolate chip cookies, the cookie that most people ask me to make is the French-style macaroon. While the American version consists of coconut and is often dry and mealy, the French version uses ground almonds and has a chewy bite underneath a crisp shell. They are “roll-your-eyes-to-the-back-of-your-head” good.

The only complaint that I’ve gotten about my macaroons is that they have a short shelf life. As such, I cannot ship my macaroons, lest someone wants to pay for overnight delivery. In my latest attempt to prolong the shelf life, I dipped my macaroons in chocolate (thanks to David Lebovitz’s blog for the idea!). I figured the chocolate would create a barrier to keep the cookies moist.

In my experiment, I ate one cookie every day and studied how the texture degraded over time. Yes, it’s hard being me. Sadly, the cookies still dried out after two days, but a fresh macaroon dipped in chocolate is even better than the original. These giant orbs are as decadent, if not more addictive than truffles!

Chocolate-Covered Macaroons

Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Cookies and Brownies

Makes 3 dozen sandwich cookies, about 1 1/2-inches wide

Ingredients
7 ounces blanched almonds (1 1/3 cups whole or 1 2/3 cups slivered)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
3 to 4 large egg whites
A variety of jams, frosting, lemon curd, caramel sauce, Nutella, fudge sauce or ganache (a half-half mixture of cream and melted chocolate)
12 oz. of dark chocolate (chocolate chips are not recommended, as they have less cocoa butter than regular chocolate)

Equipment
2 cookie sheets, greased, or lined with parchment paper

In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the almonds and sugar. Process until the almonds are very fine and the mixture is beginning to pack together around the sides of the bowl, at least 3 minutes. Add the almond extract. With the processor on, gradually add only enough of the egg white to form a ball of dough around the blade. With the processor still running, add only enough additional egg white so that the dough has the consistency of very thick, sticky mashed potatoes and no longer forms a ball.

Pipe or drop rounded teaspoons (equivalent to 2 level teaspoons) 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Smooth the top of each cookie with a moistened pastry brush or your fingertips. Let the cookies stand for 30 minutes before baking them.

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies barely begin to color. Rotate the pans from front to back and top to bottom about halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Slide the parchment onto racks. Cool the cookies completely before detaching them from the parchment.

Spread the filling on the flat side of half of the cookies and top with the remaining cookies.

Drop the cookies into melted tempered chocolate. Couverture, or covering chocolate, is easiest to use because the extra cocoa butter makes the chocolate more fluid. This chocolate is not to be confused with confectionery or compound chocolate, which has vegetable fat and is not as rich. One way to temper is to melt 3/4 of the chocolate (9 oz. in this case) on top of a double boiler and add in small pieces of the reserved chocolate until the mixture registers 88 F on an instant-read thermometer. Use an immersion blender to smooth the mixture and circulate the good crystals. Tempering is done so that the final product has a good gloss and snap. To test the temper, spread some chocolate on the tip of a knife-it should set up within a minute.

If you plan on consuming the cookies right away or don’t mind occasional white streaks in the coating, simply drop the cookies into melted chocolate.

Roll the cookies around until all sides are coated and fish them out with a fork. Place on wax or parchment paper to harden. Consume within two days.

If you have leftover chocolate, grab everything in your cupboard and start dipping! Or, mix with milk to make hot chocolate. Or, pour it onto parchment paper to harden and use for another time.

It’s a shame what Jeffrey Steingarten has done.  The Vogue food writer’s two versions of lobster souffle take 10 hours to prepare, enough to scare away even expert cooks.

For Is My Blog Blog Burning 20: Has my Blog Fallen?, Kitchen Chick sought to convince people that souffles aren’t so difficult to make after all.  Souffles are simply custards that have been leavened with beaten egg whites.  Although souffles are notorious for collapsing quickly, souffle cakes are easy to make because they’re meant to be served in their non-peak state.

The chestnuts in this low-fat "su-fle" (ha ha, get it?) cake add wonderful creaminess.  You won’t taste the chestnuts unless someone points them out, but they definitely contribute to the cake’s texture.  On the first day, it resembles chiffon cake but on the second day, its flavor develops and resembles mousse.  Your patience will be rewarded!

Chocolate Chestnut Souffle Cake

adapted from Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts by Alice Medrich

Ingredients:
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
1/2 cup plus 1/2 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chestnut spread (sweetened chestnut puree) (picture)
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp rum
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tarter or 1/2 tsp vinegar or 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 to 2 tsp powdered sugar, for dusting
vanilla ice cream, vanilla frozen yogurt, whipped cream, creme fraiche, sour cream, or sweetened pureed cottage cheese (optional but recommended)

Instructions:

1. Position the rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350F.  Place a round of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan and grease the sides.
2. Combine the chopped chocolate, cocoa and half of the sugar in a large mixing bowl.  Pour in boiling water and whisk until the mixture is smooth and chocolate is completely melted.  Stir in the chestnut spread, egg yolks, rum and vanilla.  Set aside.
   
3. Combine the egg whites with the cream of tarter, lemon juice or vinegar.  Beat at medium speed until soft peaks form.  Gradually sprinkle in the remaining sugar and continue to beat at high speed until stiff but not dry.  Whisk the flour into the chocolate mixture.  Fold in a quarter of the egg whites.  At this point, you don’t have to be too careful because you’re just lightening the chocolate so it will be easier to combine later.  Then, carefully fold in the remaining whites.  (Cut a spoon or spatula into the bottom of the bowl and plop the chocolate on top of the whites.  Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat until no white streaks remain.  The batter doesn’t have to be perfectly uniform in color.  When in doubt, err on the side of undermixing so you keep the volume in the whites.)  Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.  Bake until a skewer or toothpick inswerted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, about 30 to 35 minutes.  Cool torte in the pan on a rack.
   [Rise...]

   It will sink in the center as it cools.
   
   [...and fall]

   Cake may be prepared to this point and stored, covered at room temperature or refrigerated for 2 days or frozen, well wrapped, for up to 2 months.

4. To serve: Slide a thin knife or spatula around the sides of the pan to release the cake. 
   Remove the sides and bottom of springform or invert cake onto a platter.  Remove the paper liner from the bottom and turn the torte right side up.  Dust with powdered sugar and serve with a dollop of dairy, if desired.

Notes/tips:

• While this cake did not taste low-fat, I didn’t think it was rich enough.  I used mildly sweetened chestnut puree and forgot to add the cocoa, so your results may vary.
• For a milk chocolate-flavored cake, use unsweetened chestnut puree and do not add cocoa.
• You may make your own chestnut puree by boiling canned roasted chestnuts with enough water to cover and brown sugar (I used 2 Tbsp for 14 ounces of chestnuts.  My puree was slightly sweet but not like a confection.) for 45-60 minutes, or until most of the water is absorbed and the nuts are soft.  Puree the mixture with 1/2 tsp vanilla in a food processor until creamy.
• I’m not big on garnishes, but a dollop of a plain dairy product really enhances the chestnut’s creaminess.  Regular yogurt is not recommended though, because it’s too tangy.
• Eggs are easier to separate when they are cold (the yolks are less prone to break), but the whites whip better when they’re at room temperature.
• Cream of tarter, an acid, stabilizes the whites to insure against overbeating.  You’ve overbeaten the whites when a white glob floats on top of a watery mess.  For a couple bucks, you can buy one ounce of cream of tarter, a uni-tasker.  Or, you can buy a big bottle of vinegar for less than a dollar and save it for a ton of other uses.    Simply substitute twice the amount of vinegar or lemon juice for cream of tarter in all of your whipped egg white recipes.

Tagged with: IMBB # 20 + Souffle

This month’s theme for Is My Blog Burning is "I Can’t Believe I Ate Vegan!" (the idea is to trick someone into eating delicious vegan food) but it might as well be called "I Can’t Believe I Ate Dog Food!"

Instead of preparing human vegan food, I fulfilled an unusual order for my bakery, Su Good Sweets.  Marlon, a vegan coworker, also has vegan dogs, but he’s dissatisfied with the chemical-laden vegan dog foods on the market.  So, he hired me to bake dog food.  The steps involved mixing pounds of flour, rolling out the dough and baking it twice.  I got to practice my pie crust, biscotti and crouton-making skills all at once.

Well, did Marlon’s dogs know the difference?  Yes, but in a good way.  Marlon was pleased that the smell wasn’t as strong as conventional dog food, and it kept his dogs’ teeth clean.

Since the dog food was also human grade, I tried the finished product.  It’s bland, but I’d snack on it if I were starved: it has a healthy balance of whole grains and protein.

No Soy Kibble

adapted from Vegedog
(Maintenance Only)

Makes 3 1/2 days’ worth of food

1/3 cup (2 oz. [80ml/50g]) yeast powder
2 Tbs. (25ml/32g) Vegedog™
4 tsp. (20ml/18g) baking powder
3/4 tsp. (4ml/4g) lecithin granules (picture)
2/3 tsp. (3ml/4g) salt (this could be omitted and replaced with soy sauce)

Thoroughly mix the above ingredients before adding the following ingredients.

6 1⁄2 cups (2 lbs. [1550ml/915g]) whole wheat flour
1 1⁄3 cups (7 oz. [330ml/200g]) vital wheat gluten (75% protein) (picture)
Mix all ingredients together.

1. Preheat oven to 325°F (160˚C).
2. Add the above dry ingredient mixture to:

1⁄3 cup oil (70ml/65g)
4 cups (700ml) water (as necessary)
1 1⁄2 Tbs (20ml/25g) soy sauce (if salt was omitted from the dry ingredients)

For more flavor: Substitute a sugar-free prepared pasta sauce for the water or add tomato paste along with any necessary water.

3. Stir with a large strong spoon to form soft dough.
4. Flour your hands and counter. Knead the dough well until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into two halves. Roll out each to fit a large cookie sheet (12”x17” [300 x 400mm]). Work the dough into the corners and prick with a fork to prevent bubbles.

Bake for 20 minutes.
5. Turn the sheets and rotate them from top to bottom.
6. Bake for 20 more minutes (don’t brown the edges). Remove from oven.
7. With a large chef’s knife cut each slab into 9-12 parts on a cutting board by cutting horizontally into three strips, and then each vertically 2 or three times. Cut each resulting rectangle into kibble sized pieces (like a miniature checkerboard) by cutting first in one direction, and then the other direction. Toy breeds like small sized pieces, and larger breeds will like much larger pieces.
Hint: a small cushion strip placed on top of your knive can protect your palm as you press down. An auto door edge protector cut to size works well.
8. Place kibble pieces on cookie sheets, breaking apart pieces that stick together.
9. Dry the kibble in a 325°F oven for about half an hour. Hot sunshine works as well. The pieces should be brittle and not yield to finger pressure.
10. Refrigeration is unnecessary for properly dried kibble. Store in covered containers for convenience. Some dogs may prefer kibble slightly coated with mashed vegetables, sauces, and yeast.

Nutrition info: Protein 24.2%, Fat 8.1%.

Thanks to Sam at Becks & Posh for hosting the event!

Tagged with: IMBB # 19 + Vegan