Barquillos

There are several things [including cooking] that regular folks should leave to the professionals. Making barquillos (wafer rolls) is one of them. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to make them. Oh, probably because I'm obsessed and nutty. Also because I have a small bottle of hazelnut extract and I wanted to try it in barquillos. I have to admit the hazelnut flavor is very yummy but making them although not too complicated takes forever. The wafers don't wait and have to be shaped as soon as they come out of the oven.

I divided one recipe into 4 and added ube, buco pandan, and mango flavorings and the hazelnut extract with a sprinkling of cocoa powder. I baked two at a time in my toaster oven that's why it took so long to finish. Spreading them really thin was also tedious although by the fourth wafer I got more adept and was able to finish each round of dough thinner and quicker too.

Well, at least now I know it's not worth making them and I'll just buy from the store. Not only are the barquillos made by Filipino bakers very thin, they are uniform in size and I can honestly say yummier than mine. And most important, they're not terribly expensive so why bother. Unless I want the barquillos flavored with say lychee or orange blossoms. Nooooo.;p

Barquillos
½ cup butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or other flavoring
2 egg whites
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Draw 4-inch circles 2 inches apart on parchment paper, flip the paper and place on a cookie sheet.
• In a standing mixer bowl with the paddle attachment, cream butter with sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in egg whites until smooth. Stir in the flour.
• Drop 1½ teaspoons of the dough onto the baking sheet then spread thinly with a small offset spatula.
• Bake one sheet pan at a time until wafers are brown along edges. Remove wafers from the baking sheet, one at a time, using a spatula or kitchen turner. Roll each wafer around the handle of a wooden spoon until edges overlap. Cool seam side down on a wire rack until crisp all over.

one recipe makes about 2 dozens 4-inch barquillos

Baked Corned Beef Spaghetti à la Noynoy

For dinner tonight I had a weird pasta dish, baked spaghetti with corned beef, the recipe I got from the online edition of the Philippine newspaper Inquirer. I was checking the latest results of the presidential elections and naturally my eyes gravitated towards the Food section and found an article on the candidates's favorite recipes . Two of [the presumed president-elect] Noynoy Aquino's favorites are Libby's corned beef and his mom's Swedish meatballs. Reggie Aspiras, one of the newspaper's food columnists, wrote the article and created a recipe based on those favorites. The dish is baked spaghetti with Purefoods corned beef and for crunch and the must-have yellow color she added canned corn. I thought at first the flavor combination is odd but it actually works, it's quite delicious. Thank you Reggie for the recipe. The only thing I will alter should I make it again is to layer the spaghetti and sauce so there's sauce in the middle.

The future president might want to try this pasta dish, he'll probably like it.

Baked Corned Beef Spaghetti à la Noynoy
adapted from a recipe by Reggie Aspiras

1 pound thin spaghetti, cooked al dente and drained (reserve some of the water)
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1½ cups sliced onions
4 tablespoons chopped garlic
3 cups fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
3 cups shredded corned beef or 2 cans Purefoods corned beef
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 can whole corn, drained
sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
cream cheese bechamel
1 cup each shredded mozzarella and Parmesan

• Combine oil and butter. Saute onions until caramelized. Add garlic. Add tomatoes and Italian seasoning. Add corned beef, cook for five minutes. Add corn and pasta, toss to combine. If you find the mixture too dry, add a little bit of pasta water. Season to taste.

• Transfer pasta to a baking dish. Top with cream cheese bechamel. Finish with grated mozzarella and grated parmesan. Bake in a pre-heated 350°F oven for 30 minutes or until cheese has melted and the top slightly golden.
  

Cream Cheese Bechamel
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
3 cups fresh milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup cream cheese
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
sea salt and ground white pepper to taste

• In a saucepan, melt butter, whisk in flour. Slowly add milk, stirring frequently. Add cream and cream cheese and cook, stirring frequently until smooth and has thickened slightly. Remove from heat and add parsley, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

The Filipino grocery store in my area does not sell Purefoods corned beef which is not a problem because I prefer to cook it myself anyway. There are seasoned corned beef in grocery stores, all you do is add water, boil, and shred. If you can't find seasoned corned beef, here again is the recipe.

Corned beef:
2 pounds beef brisket
2 tablespoons sea salt
1 tablespoon pickling spice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, quartered
¾ teaspoon pink salt, optional (if you prefer the cooked meat with red hue)
water

• Put brisket in a pot large enough to accommodate the brisket. Add the rest of the ingredients and enough water to cover meat. Bring to a boil, cover, turn heat down to medium, and boil for 2 hours. Remove cooked meat and transfer into a plate. Leave until cool enough to handle. Slice the brisket across the grain into 1½-inch strips. Shred the meat using 2 forks or with (gloved) hands.

Mellow Bakers: Miche, Pointe-à-Callière

Woohoo, I finished baking all 3 May 2010 MellowBakers breads with Miche, Pointe-à-Callière. I made a very small baby-size, 1 pound 10 ounces boule knowing I'm the only one who's going to eat it. Sour breads are not very popular around here. Besides, I didn't want to get disappointed if the bread turned out inedible.

It was a pleasant surprise when I cut open the bread to find it has a moist chewy open crumb as Jeffrey Hamelman promised. And it is also not too sour, at least to me it isn't, and has a smokey flavor that I really like. I hope the flavor gets even better just like Peter Reinhart's Miche recipe. I give Hamelman's recipe one point higher than PR's because of the beautiful open crumb.

Miche is a sourdough starter-raised bread that takes 2 days to make. A sourdough build is prepared 12 hours before and mixing, fermenting, shaping, second rising, and baking takes approximately 6 hours. This bread needs a baker's full attention as it has to be folded 3 times during fermentation.

I was not expecting too much from this bread as it was slooow in growth and super wet. I kept peeking while it was rising and didn't notice it getting any bigger and after 2 hours I poked it and it was ready. I was still suspicious and thought it wouldn't hold its shape when I inverted the basket on the peel [with a piece of parchment paper], but it did. And it had an oven rise of 1 inch and less than an inch all around. I'm very happy with the recipe, it's worth making again. Thank you Messrs. Hamelman and MacGuire.

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Mellow Bakers: Corn Bread

I love Jeffrey Hamelman's yeast Corn Bread, the second of 3 recipes I have baked for the MellowBakers May 2010 breads. The bread is slightly sweet and has a crunchy crust which is so good for elaborate sandwiches, or simply buttered, or spread with jam. I made a loaf with half a recipe using limed cornmeal and another half recipe with regular yellow cornmeal and the dough is formed into rolls. They are both yummy and I can't tell the difference in flavor.

This recipe is a 2-day bread requiring a 16-hour poolish. The next day the cornmeal is softened in water for 15 minutes before mixing with bread flour, water, olive oil, yeast, and salt. After fermenting, the dough is formed into whatever shape is desired, let rise, then baked in a steamy 460°F oven. In other words, it's a very simple recipe to do.

very nice with lemon curd


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