Author: Chef

Source
Source: Raw notes label this recipe as America’s Test Kitchen (ATK).

Description

Ingredients

• YIELD Makes 1 starter
• TIME 35 minutes, plus daily restings until mature
• Why This Recipe Works
• by Andrew Janjigian
• Sourdough Starter
• Gather Your Ingredients
• 1 ½ cups organic bread or King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
• 1 ½ cups organic whole-wheat or rye flour
• Warm room-temperature (70- to 80-degree) bottled or filtered water
• Before You Begin
• *

Instructions

1.  The key difference between this starter and most others is scale.
2. Typical formulas start with several cups of flour, and you might churn through a few pounds before you can bake a single loaf of bread; this starter takes just a few teaspoons to get going and uses just a few cups total before it’s ready to bake with.
3. (Making a tiny starter is an idea that I came up with in April 2020, when flour and yeast were scarce due to the pandemic—I affectionately dubbed it “quarantinystarter." But I quickly realized that this is a smarter, substantially less wasteful approach to maintaining sourdough starter under any circumstances.)
4. For the best results, weigh your ingredients and use organic flour (which is richer in microorganisms than conventional flour) and bottled or filtered water (which is free of the chlorine in tap water that can kill those essential microorganisms) to create the starter.
5. Be sure to include white and either whole-wheat or rye flour in the bulk flour mixture; whole-grain flours are more nutritious than white flour and are more likely to contain the bacteria and yeast we want, making them ideal nourishment for the nascent culture.
6. (Once the starter is mature, you maintain it with just white flour; nonorganic is fine.) Once the starter is ready for use, it can easily be scaled up to the necessary proportions.
7. Note that the time frame of each step is approximate: How quickly your starter moves from one step to the next will depend on the flour you’re using to refresh it and how hospitable the environment is for yeast and bacteria activity.
8. Let visual cues be your guide and use the day count as a reference.
9. You'll need 2 small lidded containers, such as 4-ounce canning jars, and 1 larger lidded container, such as a 16-ounce canning jar.
10. For more information on making a starter, be sure to read this article.
11. CREATE AND PROOF INITIAL STARTER: Create bulk batch of flour mixture by combining bread or all-purpose flour with whole-wheat or rye flour in sealable container (weighing ingredients will become vital later, but volume is fine here).
12. Using spoon, mix 4 teaspoons (⅓ ounce; 10 grams) flour mixture and 2½ teaspoons (⅓ ounce; 10 grams) water in small jar.
13. Cover with plastic wrap or loosely with lid and let sit at warm room temperature (70 to 80 degrees) for 1 to 3 days.
14. Visual cue to move to the next step: Starter is bubbly, wet-looking (there might even be liquid pooled on top), and fragrant—even pungent.
15. REFRESH STARTER ONCE DAILY: Stir starter well and transfer 2 teaspoons (1/3 ounce; 10 grams) to clean jar; reserve remaining starter as backup in original jar and store in refrigerator.
16. Stir 4 teaspoons (⅓ ounce; 10 grams) flour mixture and 2½ teaspoons (⅓ ounce; 10 grams) water into starter mixture until no dry flour remains.
17. Cover with plastic wrap or loosely with lid and let sit at warm room temperature for 24 hours.
18. Repeat every 24 hours for 4 to 10 days.
19. Visual cue to move to next step: Starter is bubbly and fragrant less than 12 hours after previous refreshment
20. REFRESH STARTER TWICE DAILY: Refresh starter as before every 12 hours.
21. At this stage, in addition to saving leftover starter as backup, you can collect generations of backup starter in a larger sealed jar; store it in the refrigerator to keep on hand for use in other nonbread applications such as pancakes, biscuits, and crackers.
22. If at any point the starter activity slows down or stops altogether, return to refreshing the culture once daily.
23. Cues that starter is mature and ready for baking: Starter doubles or triples in volume within 12 hours of being refreshed and smells yeasty/bready/yogurty.
24. CHECK MATURITY/READINESS FOR BAKING: Conduct a “float test”: Place a blob of starter in a jar with water.
25. If starter floats, it’s producing and retaining ample amounts of carbon dioxide, meaning the yeast population has increased sufficiently.
26. STORE AND MAINTAIN MATURE STARTER: If your starter exhibits the signs of maturity and passes the float test, you can move it to the refrigerator.
27. Measure out 1½ tablespoons (1 ounce; 28 grams) starter and transfer to clean bowl (save any leftover starter in refrigerator as backup culture).
28. Stir 7 tablespoons (2 ounces; 57 grams) all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup (2 ounces; 57 grams) room-temperature (70 degrees) water into starter until no dry flour remains.
29. Place mixture in jar, seal it well but loosely, and let sit at room temperature until it has about doubled in volume, 3 to 6 hours (use rubber band around container to mark the mixture’s starting volume).
30. Once mixture has doubled, transfer jar to refrigerator.
31. Repeat process every 7 to 14 days.

Source
Source: Raw notes label this recipe as America’s Test Kitchen (ATK).

Description

Ingredients

• YIELD serves 10
• TIME 40 minutes
• Why This Recipe Works
• Easiest-Ever Biscuits
• Gather Your Ingredients
• 3 cups (15 ounces/425 grams) all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ¼ teaspoons table salt
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (optional)
• Before You Begin
• *

Instructions

1. We wanted to combine the ease of cream biscuits (which eliminate the step of cutting cold fat into dry ingredients) with the ease of drop biscuits (which skip the rolling and cutting) to create the easiest biscuits ever.
2. But the most obvious solution—increasing the amount of cream in a cream biscuit recipe until the dough had a droppable consistency—produced biscuits that spread too much and were greasy.
3. Instead of increasing the amount of cream, we found a way to increase its fluidity: We heated it to between 95 and 100 degrees, which melted the solid particles of butterfat dispersed throughout.
4. This made a dough that was moister and scoopable but that rose up instead of spreading out in the oven, producing biscuits that were appropriately rich and tender but not greasy.
5. These biscuits come together very quickly, so in the interest of efficiency, start heating your oven before gathering your ingredients.
6. We like these biscuits brushed with a bit of melted butter, but you can skip that step if you're serving the biscuits with a rich accompaniment such as sausage gravy.
7. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
8. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
9. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
10. Microwave cream until just warmed to body temperature (95 to 100 degrees), 60 to 90 seconds, stirring halfway through microwaving.
11. Stir cream into flour mixture until soft, uniform dough forms.
12. Spray ⅓-cup dry measuring cup with vegetable oil spray.
13. Drop level scoops of batter 2 inches apart on prepared sheet (biscuits should measure about 2½ inches wide and 1¼ inches tall).
14. Respray measuring cup after every 3 or 4 scoops.
15. If portions are misshapen, use your fingertips to gently reshape dough into level cylinders.
16. Bake until tops are light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking.
17. Brush hot biscuits with melted butter, if using.
18. Serve warm.
19. (Biscuits can be stored in zipper-lock bag at room temperature for up to 24 hours.
20. Reheat biscuits in 300-degree oven for 10 minutes.)

Source
Source: Raw notes label this recipe as America’s Test Kitchen (ATK).

Description

Ingredients

• YIELD Makes about 22 tortillas (Each 5-inches)
• TIME 2½ hours
• Why This Recipe Works
• Corn Tortillas
• Gather Your Ingredients
• 2 cups (8 ounces) masa harina
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups warm water, plus extra as needed
• Before You Begin
• *

Instructions

1. While supermarket tortillas are convenient, they pale in comparison to homemade versions.
2. Luckily, making them is easier than you might think.
3. The ingredient list is short, the dough is forgiving, and you don’t need a tortilla press.
4. Pressing the dough between a zipper-lock bag that has been cut open at the sides prevents it from sticking to the pie plate.
5. Distribute your weight evenly over the dough when pressing.
6. Using a clear pie plate makes it easy to see the tortilla.
7. A tortilla press, of course, can also be used.
8. You can find masa harina in the international aisle or near the flour.
9. Cut sides of sandwich-size zipper-lock bag but leave bottom seam intact so that bag unfolds completely.
10. Place open bag on counter and line large plate with 2 damp dish towels.
11. Mix masa, 1 teaspoon oil, and salt together in medium bowl.
12. Using rubber spatula, stir in warm water to form soft dough.
13. Using your hands, knead dough in bowl, adding extra warm water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough is soft and tacky but not sticky (texture is like Play-Doh).
14. Cover dough and set aside for 5 minutes.
15. Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering.
16. Using paper towel, wipe out skillet, leaving thin film of oil on bottom.
17. Pinch off 1-ounce piece of dough (about 2 tablespoons) and roll into smooth 1 1/4-inch ball.
18. Cover remaining dough with damp paper towel.
19. Place ball in center of open bag and fold other side of bag over ball.
20. Using clear pie plate, press down on plastic to flatten ball into 5-inch disk, rotating plastic during pressing to ensure even thickness.
21. Working quickly, gently peel plastic away from tortilla.
22. Carefully place tortilla in skillet and cook, without moving it, until tortilla moves freely when pan is shaken, about 30 seconds.
23. Flip tortilla and cook until edges curl and bottom surface is spotty brown, about 1 minute.
24. Flip tortilla again and continue to cook until bottom surface is spotty brown and puffs up in center, 30 to 60 seconds.
25. Place toasted tortilla between 2 damp dish towels; repeat shaping and cooking with remaining dough.
26. (Cooled tortillas can be transferred to zipper-lock bag and refrigerated for up to 5 days.
27. Reheat before serving.)

Source
Source: Raw notes label this recipe as America’s Test Kitchen (ATK).

Description

Ingredients

• YIELD Makes 4 pieces
• TIME 1½ hours, plus 16 hours resting
• Why This Recipe Works
• Homemade Naan
• Gather Your Ingredients
• ½ cup ice water
• ⅓ cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 cups (10 ounces/283 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• Before You Begin
• *

Instructions

1. We wanted a light and tender naan that could be made without a tandoor.
2. We started with a moist dough with a fair amount of fat, which created a soft bread that was pleasantly chewy, but the real secret was the cooking method.
3. While we thought a grill or preheated pizza stone would be the best cooking method, we discovered that they cooked the bread unevenly.
4. A much better option was a covered skillet.
5. The skillet delivers heat to the bottom and the top of the bread, producing naan that is nicely charred but still moist.
6. This recipe worked best with a high-protein all-purpose flour such as King Arthur brand.
7. Do not use nonfat yogurt in this recipe.
8. A 12-inch nonstick skillet may be used in place of the cast-iron skillet.
9. For efficiency, stretch the next ball of dough while each naan is cooking.
10. In measuring cup or small bowl, combine water, yogurt, 3 tablespoons oil, and egg yolk.
11. Process flour, sugar, and yeast in food processor until combined, about 2 seconds.
12. With processor running, slowly add water mixture; process until dough is just combined and no dry flour remains, about 10 seconds.
13. Let dough stand for 10 minutes.
14. Add salt to dough and process until dough forms satiny, sticky ball that clears sides of workbowl, 30 to 60 seconds.
15. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute.
16. Shape dough into tight ball and place in large, lightly oiled bowl.
17. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 16 to 24 hours.
18. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees.
19. Place heatproof plate on rack.
20. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and divide into 4 equal pieces.
21. Shape each piece into smooth, tight ball.
22. Place dough balls on lightly oiled baking sheet, at least 2 inches apart; cover loosely with plastic coated with vegetable oil spray.
23. Let stand for 15 to 20 minutes.
24. Transfer 1 ball to lightly floured work surface and sprinkle with flour.
25. Using hands and rolling pin, press and roll piece of dough into 9-inch round of even thickness, sprinkling dough and work surface with flour as needed to prevent sticking.
26. Using fork, poke entire surface of round 20 to 25 times.
27. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering.
28. Wipe oil out of skillet completely with paper towels.
29. Mist top of dough lightly with water.
30. Place dough in pan, moistened side down; mist top surface of dough with water; and cover.
31. Cook until bottom is browned in spots across surface, 2 to 4 minutes.
32. Flip naan, cover, and continue to cook on second side until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes.
33. (If naan puffs up, gently poke with fork to deflate.) Flip naan, brush top with about 1 teaspoon melted butter, transfer to plate in oven, and cover plate tightly with aluminum foil.
34. Repeat rolling and cooking remaining 3 dough balls.
35. Once last naan is baked, serve immediately.

Description

Ingredients

• YIELD Serves 10 (Makes one 9-inch loaf)
• TIME 2½ hours
• Why This Recipe Works
• Ultimate Banana Bread
• Gather Your Ingredients
• 1 ¾ cups (8 3/4 ounces/248 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• 6 large very ripe bananas (about 2 1/4 pounds), peeled (see note)
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup (5 1/4 ounces/149 grams) packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• Before You Begin
• *

Instructions

1. We added banana flavor without introducing too much moisture to our banana bread recipe by microwaving the fruit and draining it.
2. We then simmered the banana liquid in a saucepan until it reduced and incorporated it into the batter.
3. We used brown sugar instead of granulated and swapped out oil for the nutty richness of butter.
4. Toasted walnuts gave our banana bread recipe a pleasing crunch, and a sixth banana sliced thin and caramelized on top of the loaf gave our banana bread an enticingly crisp, crunchy top.
5. Be sure to use very ripe, heavily speckled (or even black) bananas in this recipe.
6. This recipe can be made using 5 thawed frozen bananas; since they release a lot of liquid naturally, they can bypass the microwaving in step 2 and go directly into the fine-mesh strainer.
7. Do not use a thawed frozen banana in step 4; it will be too soft to slice.
8. Instead, simply sprinkle the top of the loaf with sugar.
9. The test kitchen’s preferred loaf pan measures 8½ by 4½ inches; if you use a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan, start checking for doneness five minutes earlier than advised in the recipe.
10. The texture is best when the loaf is eaten fresh, but it can be stored (cool completely first), covered tightly with plastic wrap, for up to 3 days.
11. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
12. Spray 8½ by 4½-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
13. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in large bowl.
14. Place 5 bananas in microwave-safe bowl; cover with plastic wrap and cut several steam vents in plastic with paring knife.
15. Microwave on high power until bananas are soft and have released liquid, about 5 minutes.
16. Transfer bananas to fine-mesh strainer placed over medium bowl and allow to drain, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes (you should have ½ to ¾ cup liquid).
17. Transfer liquid to medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until reduced to ¼ cup, about 5 minutes.
18. Remove pan from heat, stir reduced liquid into bananas, and mash with potato masher until fairly smooth.
19. Whisk in butter, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla.
20. Pour banana mixture into flour mixture and stir until just combined with some streaks of flour remaining.
21. Gently fold in walnuts, if using.
22. Scrape batter into prepared pan.
23. Slice remaining banana diagonally into ¼-inch-thick slices.
24. Shingle banana slices on top of either side of loaf, leaving 1½-inch-wide space down center to ensure even rise.
25. Sprinkle granulated sugar evenly over loaf.
26. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, 55 to 75 minutes.
27. Cool bread in pan on wire rack 15 minutes, then remove loaf from pan and continue to cool on wire rack.
28. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Source
Source: Raw notes label this recipe as America’s Test Kitchen (ATK).

Description

Ingredients

• YIELD Makes 12 Biscuits
• TIME 50 minutes
• Why This Recipe Works
• Best Drop Biscuits
• Gather Your Ingredients
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces/283 grams)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ¾ teaspoon table salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (cold)
• Before You Begin
• *

Instructions

1. We wanted a drop biscuit recipe that would offer a no-nonsense alternative to traditional rolled biscuits, with the same tenderness and buttery flavor.
2. Replacing milk with buttermilk intensified the flavor and improved the texture of our biscuit recipe.
3. Allowing melted butter to clump in the buttermilk added height, since the water in the butter expanded and evaporated in the oven.
4. 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly (about 5 minutes), plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits
5. If buttermilk isn't available, powdered buttermilk added according to package instructions or clabbered milk can be used instead.
6. To make clabbered milk, mix 1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and let stand 10 minutes.
7. A 1/4-cup (#16)
8. portion scoop can be used to portion the batter.
9. To refresh day-old biscuits, heat them in a 300-degree oven for 10 minutes.
10. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees.
11. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in large bowl.
12. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps (see photo below).
13. Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl.
14. Using greased 1/4-cup dry measure, scoop level amount of batter and drop onto parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet (biscuits should measure about 2 1/4 inches in diameter and 1 1/4 inches high).
15. Repeat with remaining batter, spacing biscuits about 1 1/2 inches apart.
16. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes.
17. Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter.
18. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.