I recently found myself feeling grumpy and fluffy. Yes, fluffy. Meaning, that delightful feeling that typically accompanies the end of winter when you realize your cuddle bunches are more cuddly than you'd really like.
Accompanying this sentiment was a vast disappointment in the local weather. It's been winter for forever and on the first day of spring we had snow. In March. And we have been cooped up for far, far too long and is a bit of warm weather so we can go outside too much to ask?
I moped. But then I decided to make a meal and mope no more.
I wanted something to banish the fluffy feeling . . . something fresh, but a touch on the hardy side (it is forty humdingin' degrees out. . . still). Something with green, and warm, and something with bacon. Something perfectly crunchable and light but filling. Fortunately, bacon spinach salads were created for just this purpose.
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| BACON. Bacon is all I see in this picture. |
And the remedy for cold-weather angst? Fresh bread. There are few things that will lift a mood like the smell of baking bread.
Sadly, my bread got a bit overdone, but the inside was still fluffy and delectable.
In other news, I think the process of making bread was the most cathartic thing about making this meal. Bread dough made with yeast is a living thing. It's warm and moist and springy and very much alive. It entails a certain amount of respect, and if you treat it well, it rewards you with sustenance. It's beautiful.
For dessert, I decided on lemon biscotti and tea, a fitting remedy to a cold, inky-blue winter evening.
Helpful Tips:
The recipe for Fool-proof Hard Cooked Eggs is splendid. The eggs turned out soft, not dry and . . . icky, for lack of a better word.
You can also use red onion in place of the shallots.
For the bread, feel free to use a bread machine to mix, knead, and do the first rise. It makes the process fantastically simple. The King Arthur Baker's Companion says that a bread machine does the best job kneading and mixing the dough. After using one once, I'm pretty convinced they're right.
For the lemon biscotti, you can substitute the zest of one large lemon in place of the lemon oil.
And the biscotti is tremendous with Starbuck's Vanilla Rooibos tea. Tremendous, I tell you.
Wilted Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
Minorly tweaked from The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook
6 ounces (6 cups) baby spinach
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Pinch salt
8 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 shallots, sliced
3 Foolproof Hard-Cooked Eggs, peeled and quartered
Place spinach in large bowl. Stir vinegar, sugar, pepper, and salt together in small bowl until sugar dissolves; set aside.
Cook bacon in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 5 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper-towel lined plate. Pour fat into heat-proof bowl, then return 3 tablespoons fat to the skillet. Add shallots to skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes; stir in garlic until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add vinegar mixture, then remove skillet from heat; working quickly, scrape bottom of skillet with wooden spoon to loosen browned bits.
Pour hot dressing over spinach, add bacon, and toss gently with tongs until the spinach is slighty wilted. Divide among individual plates, arrange egg quarters over each, and serve.
Foolproof Hardcooked Eggs
4 large eggs
Place eggs in medium saucepan, cover with 1 inch water, and bring to boil over high heat. Remove pan from heat, cover, and let sit 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fill medium bowl with 4 cups water and 1 tray of ice cubes. Transfer eggs to ice water bath with slotted spoon; let sit for 5 minutes. Peel eggs.
White Bread 101
The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion
3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) butter
1/4 cup (1 1/4 ounces) nonfat dry milk
1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) potato flour, or 1/3 cup (3/4 ounce) potato flakes
1 1/8 cups (9 ounces) lukewarm water
Combine all the ingredients and mix and knead them together - by hand, mixer, or bread machine - until you've made a soft, smooth dough. Adjust the dough's consistency with additional flour or water as needed; but remember, the more flour you add while you're kneading, the heavier and drier your final loaf will be. Cover and let the dough rise for 1 hour until it's puffy (though not necessarily doubled in bulk).
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface and shape it into an 8-inch log. Transfer the log to a lightly greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan, cover the pan (a proof cover works well here), and let the bread rise until the outer edge has risen about 1 inch over the rim of the pan, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Uncover the pan and bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes, tenting it lightly with aluminum foil for the final 10 to 15 minutes if it appears to be browning too quickly.
Remove the bread from the oven, take it out of the pan, and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. After 15 minutes, brush it with butter, if desired; this will give it a soft crust.
Traditional Italian Biscotti
Adapted slightly from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter
1/4 cup (1 5/8 ounces) vegetable shortening
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 375.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar, then add the eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the bowl midway through. Beat in the vanilla, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the flour, 1 cup at a time, until you have a cohesive, well-mixed dough.
Transfer the dough to a work surface (We don't bother to flour the surface; the dough is sticky, but is easily scraped up with a bench knife or dough scraper). Divide it into three fairly equal pieces and shape each piece into a rough 12-inch log. Transfer each log to a parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches between them; you may need to use two baking sheets. Wet your fingers and pat the logs into smooth topped rectangles 12 inches long x 2 1/2 inches wide x 7/8 inch thick.
Bake the logs for 20 to 25 minutes, until they're beginning to brown around the edges. Remove them from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 300F.
Gently transfer the logs to a cutting surface and use a serrated knife to cut them on the diagonal into 1/2 inch -wide slices. The biscotti at this point are prone to crumbling; just be sure to us a slow, gentle sawing motion and accept the fact that some bits and pieces will break off.
Carefully transfer the slices, cut sides up, to a parchment-lined or ungreased baking sheet. You can crowd them together, as they won't expand further; about 1/4 inch breathing space is all that's required.
Return the biscotti to the oven and bake them for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, quickly turn them over, and bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until they're very dry and beginning to brown. Remove them from the oven, cool completely, and store in an airtight container.
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