Pumpernickel Bread with Caraway, Anise and Orange - Faster, Easier, Precisier

Yeah, I know that "precisier" isn't a word, but I'm still trying to see what magic my new gadget, the Precise Heat Bowl, can perform.

To be perfectly clear, I paid my very own money for this thing. Well, okay, I might have had an Amazon gift card burning a hole in my virtual wallet. But still, this is not a sponsored post.

After messing around with ice cream, lemon curd, and yogurt, I decided to turn my attention to bread. I made corned beef in my pressure cooker (an Instant Pot, if you must know) and I wanted corned beef sandwiches on rye bread. That's how I roll. So I figured that I'd use the bowl for my bread dough. It's pretty cool in my house this time of year, so it just made sense.

For the liquid in this bread, I used leftover whey from making strained yogurt, but water is perfectly fine.

Pumpernickel Bread with Caraway, Anise, and Orange

1 cup whey (leftover from making strained yogurt) or water
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) pumpernickel flour (or any rye flour you have)
2 cups (9 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon anise seeds

Plug in the Precise Heat Bowl and set it for 110 degrees. Add the whey (or water) and orange juice and wait for it to come up to temperature. Add the sugar and yeast. Stir to combine. If you're not sure your yeast is viable or if you're using a brand other than Red Star (my preferred; it has small grains so you don't need to let it soften before continuing) let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes. You should see bubbles.

Turn the heat down to 100 degrees. Add the flours, salt, and olive oil.

Attach the bowl to your stand mixer and attach the dough hook. Knead until the mixture begins to be smoother and less shaggy. Add the caraway and anise seeds and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and stretchy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and place the cover on the bowl. Set the timer for 45 minutes. Check the dough when the time is up. It should have at least doubled in size. It will feel warm to the touch.

Sprinkle cornmeal on a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Remove the dough from the bowl and gently form it into a round or oval. You don't want to knead or smash it, just gently form it. Place it on the baking sheet seam-side down. Cover with plastic wrap.

Put a cup or two of water in the bowl and place the baking sheet on top of the cooker. This will help keep the bread warm and speed the rise. Check the dough after 15 minutes. You're looking for it to double in size, and if you gently poke the bread with a fingertip, the dent should stay or fill in slowly. If it hasn't risen fully, give it more time, as needed.

When it has risen, remove the plastic wrap and slash the top of the dough. You can spray the dough with water before baking, if desired. Bake at 375 degrees until nicely browned, about 40 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool completely on a rack before slicing.

Homemade Yogurt (KitchenAid Precise Heat Bowl)

Okay, you'll probably see a lot of recipes that use the Precise Heat Mixing Bowl because:

1) I spent a decent amount of money on this thing, and it wants to justify its existence in my kitchen.

and

2) I'm having fun testing it to see what works well.

and

3) I don't see a lot of recipe for it online. So I think it would be helpful for people to have some recipes to use.

and

4) Although the recipes here are written featuring the bowl, they could certainly be adapted for people who have fancy things like slow cookers or stoves. The advantage of this bowl over other sorts of cookers is that you can set an exact temperature. It makes sense for some things, and is just convenient for others. But still, the recipes can be made using other methods.

This time, I tackled yogurt.

I've made a lot of yogurt using a lot of different methods, mostly using low-tech methods like putting the yogurt mixture in a quart jar in the oven with the light on. Or putting it in a very-well-insulated container. Neither of those allow precise temperatures. So I figured I'd give it a shot in the magical precise bowl.

And, hey, it worked really well. Possibly the best result I've had so far.

Homemade Yogurt

1.5 liters* whole milk
1 7-ounce** container Fage Total*** yogurt

Put the milk in the Precise Heat Bowl with the cover on. Heat to 180**** degrees.

Turn the heat down to 110 degrees and wait for the temperature to go down. The bowl will beep a few times at first, but then it will stay silent. It won't tell you when it's down to 110 degrees, so you'll need to check it once in a while. You can remove the lid for faster cooling, and if you're puttering around in the kitchen, you can stir it a few time.

The milk will probably form a skin on as it cools. You can skim that off or whisk it in. Your choice.

When the milk is at 115 degrees or below, whisk in the yogurt. Set the timer for you preferred time. Four hours is about the minimum and will result in a very mild yogurt. I prefer 6-8 hours, which results in a yogurt that's a little more tart.

You can use the yogurt as-is, or strain it to make a Greek-style yogurt. I prefer it strained. A lot of people strain through cheesecloth or jelly bags, but I find that a fine-mesh strainer works just fine. I refrigerate the yogurt first, since that also helps it thicken a bit. Then I gently scoop the yogurt into the strainer and it doesn't fall through the holes. Obviously, if you push at the yogurt, it will go through the holes. So don't do that. Just lay it in there gently. As it thickens at the bottom, you can gently move the yogurt from the bottom to allow it to strain some more.

Once the yogurt is strained and is as thick as I want it, I put it in a bowl an whisk the heck out of it to make it smooth and silky because that's what I like. You could also use a stick blender, rather than hand-whisking. It will seem a little thinner after whisking, but will thicken again as it sits.

Depending on how thick you like your yogurt, you'll end up with about a quart of yogurt and a pint of whey (the liquid that drains). I use the whey instead of water when making bread, but you can discard it. Or use it in soup. Or ... there are a lot of other uses.

*This doesn't need to be super-precise. 6 cups of milk is close enough. I used Fairlife milk which comes in a 1.5 liter container, so it was a convenient amount for you. If you want more yogurt, you can use a half-gallon of milk.

**You don't actually need to use the whole container. It will work just fine with less. But I didn't need yogurt for any immediate use, and I knew I was going to have a lot of yogurt later. So I tossed in the whole thing. But if you're scooping out of a larger container, 1/4 cup will be fine.

***Use any plain yogurt you like as long as it has active cultures. I'd suggest reading the label and choosing on that's just milk and cultures. Thickeners and sweeteners and whatnot aren't needed.

****I've tried this heating to 160 degrees, which is what many commercial yogurt starters suggest, and the results were pretty much identical. Any temperature between the two should be fine.

Lemon Curd in the KitchenAid Precise Heat Bowl

You might have read my coffee ice cream recipe where I used the KitchenAid Precise Heat Bowl to cook the custard. That bowl is the latest KitchenAid attachment I bought, and of course I'm going crazy trying different recipes.

This curd is the first thing I tried, and I've made it several times since. It's really good.

The reason I chose curd as my first experiment with the bowl is that temperature is really important - it thickens at about 170 degrees ... but if you let the temperature get too high, you end up with lemony scrambled eggs. When I make lemon curd on the stove, I just stir and watch. It works most of the time.

But since the Precise Heat Bowl heats precisely, I figured that I could just let it do its thing, and the curd wouldn't overcook.

It all went swimmingly until I had the bright idea that I wanted to use the stand mixer to stir the curd while it heated, just like I'd stir curd by hand on the stove. First, I decided to use the paddle attachment. Oops. With liquid, it was quite splashy, even a the lowest speed. So I got smarter and used the whisk attachment. That worked much better.

I tried a couple different heating/stirring schemes before I figured out the fastest, easiest thing to do. One problem I ran into was that stirring lowered the temperature - or at least it thwarted the speed that the mixture heated, so it took a looooong time to get up to 170 degrees. For one thing, you can't have the lid on the bowl when stirring, so heat isn't retained. And I think the stirring itself was cooling the mixture.

Then I ran into another weird thing. According to the "back of the spoon" test, the curd was cooked. But when I tested with a thermometer, it wasn't at 170 degrees. I knew it wasn't the thermometer - I use a Thermapen and that sucker is always right.

I had to think about that for a while. I wondered if my bowl was defective. I thought about it some more.

And then I realized that the bowl doesn't measure the temperature in the center of the mix - it measures the temperature at the edges of the bowl. But that's not a bad thing, really, particularly when making curd. Just like when you're making ice cream and the paddle is scraping the frozen mix from the edges of the bowl to the center, when you use the precise heat bowl and stir, you're pulling the warmer mixture to the center. It cools off a bit there, but that's fine.

On the other hand, if you need the entire mixture at the same temperature, you could simply put the cover on and don't stir - or just stir once in a while by hand - until it all reaches the same temperature. But for curd, it doesn't all need to be the same temperature at the same time, and I have to say that just setting it up and letting it go was danged easy.

Dagnabbit.

What? Sometimes my inner cartoon character needs to have a word.

Lemon Curd

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 whole eggs
2 teaspoons very fine lemon zest
3/4 cup lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons)

Put the butter, sugar, and salt in the Precise Heating Bowl attached to your stand mixer. Beat with paddle attachment until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined each time. Add the juice and zest and mix until combined.

Remove the paddle attachment and put the cover on the precise heating bowl (you can leave it on the mixer or not, as desired.

Set the heat to 165 degrees. Stir a few times during the heating process, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

When the temperature reaches 165 degrees, remove the cover. give the mixture another stir, and attach the whip attachment to the mixer. Set the temperature to 170 degrees and then timer for 5 minutes. Turn the mixer on to the lowest speed.

The temperature will initially go down a bit, but will slowly rise to 170 degrees at which point the bowl will start counting down the time.

When the time is up, transfer the curd to a container. Let it come to room temperature, then refrigerate.

Note: I usually strain curd to make sure there are no lumps, but this was silky smooth. You can strain it, if you like.

Mardi Gras King Cake Coffee Whole-Egg Ice Cream

I love making ice cream. I love eating ice cream. I love the richness of custard-based ice creams.

However, I'm not fond of separating eggs. It's not that I hate to do it, but it annoys me that it leaves me with the other half of the egg that I need to find a use for. So, I thought, why not make ice cream that uses the whole egg?

I mean, why not?

There's actually a pretty good reason why not.

The problem is that whites and yolks cook at slightly different temperatures, and it's pretty hard to regulate temperatures precisely on a normal stove. So if you leave the egg whites in, there's a greater chance you'll get curdled egg bits.

There are probably other reasons, but that's the one I'm addressing here. The magic way to use the whole darned egg.

You see, I just got a new gadget: the Precise Heat Mixing Bowl that works as an attachment to a KitchenAid mixer. It also which also functions as a stand-alone cooker. Note: not a freebie. I paid actual money for this. It cooks things to ... you guessed it - precise temperatures.

I experimented with it a bit with other recipes, boiled some water, and then decided to give whole-egg ice cream a whirl. I mean, why not? What's the worst thing that could happen?

Usually I make ice cream in warmer weather, but some recipes just NEED to be made in cold weather. Like this Mardi Gras Coffee Ice Cream. The idea was prompted by the receipt (free, this time) of some Mardi Gras King Cake flavored ice cream.

And then I was staring at that mixer thingie and wondering if it would actually work.

Turns out, it did.

If you don't have the magic mixing bowl, I suggest using just the yolks and cooking you mix on the stovetop as you would for any custard-based ice cream. Like this Butterscotch Ice Cream. Or this Salted Butter Pecan Brittle Ice Cream.

If you do have the mixing bowl attachment thingie, or you're thinking about getting one, this is a recipe you might want to save. Oh - and if you're thinking about buying it, keep in mind that this is an accessory that is not universal. There are different models for the tilt-head and bowl-lift mixers.

Mardi Gras King Cake Coffee Whole-Egg Ice Cream

1 cup milk (plus more as needed)
1/4 cup Mardi Gras King Cake flavor ground coffee
2 cups heavy cream
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar

Combine the milk with the coffee grounds and let it steep for at least a few hours, or overnight in the refrigerator. The longer it steeps, the stronger the coffee flavor will be.

Strain the grounds out of the milk with a small strainer, then strain again through a coffee filter or paper towel to get out the sediment. Discard the grounds and sediment. The coffee grounds will have absorbed some of the milk, so add more milk to the coffee-flavored milk
so you have 1 cup.

Combine all of the ingredients in the Precise Heat Mixing Bowl. Whisk well to make sure the egg is completely broken up, then continue stirring to make sure the sugar is dissolved.

Set the heat on the bowl to 165 degrees and put the cover on. Let it come up to temperature, stirring occasionally.

When the bowl attains the 165 temperature, remove the cover, attach the bowl to the stand mixer and attach the whisk to the stand mixer. Turn the mixer to low.

Set the heat on the bowl to 170 degrees and the timer to 5 minutes. If you like, you can drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer and bowl to help retain the heat.

You'll see that the temperature will begin to drop. That's because it's measuring the temperature of the bowl, and the mixture in the center is likely to be cooler. You're also introducing cooler air as you mix. Don't fret, the temperature will begin to rise. When it reaches 170 degrees, the timer will start counting down.

When the time is up, remove the bowl from the stand mixer. The mixture will be thin, but it will thicken as it cools.

Refrigerate the mixture until it's fully chilled, then churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

I received samples of coffee from Community Coffee Company, but was not required to use it in a recipe. However, after my neighbor told me multiple times how much she liked it, I figured I'd do something creative with it. The flavor isn't super-strong to the point where you're wouldn't want to drink it every day. It's got a hint of cinnamon and vanilla that's very pleasant.

And to repeat ... no, I didn't get the bowl for free, and I was not paid, coerced or cajoled into publishing a recipe. I think I'll be doing even more recipes for it, since there aren't tons of them available, and so far I'm having a whole lot of fun with it.