Homemade Bagels

I see so many people posting online about getting into baking and I love it!  The circumstances are unfortunate, but there's no better time to bake. I've always found baking so relaxing and satisfying. It gives you a sense of accomplishment, and delicious smells and tastes to enjoy. 

I've been extremely busy with work lately, so Matt has been doing all the cooking.  We've had some wonderful meals and I'm able to focus on work without worrying about planning and shopping. 

I finally had a real day off and decided to make these bagels. It's actually a 2-day process.  Make and shape the dough the first day, let it rise in the fridge for 24 hours, then boil and bake the second day.  

Warm fresh bagels just out of the oven are well worth the wait!  

We had them with plain cream cheese, but next time I'll add fresh chives or minced red onion.  

To make bagels you need a few special ingredients and items that may not be in everyone's kitchen.  They use bread flour (hard flour) not All-Purpose flour.  They also need instant yeast, not active dry or rapid rise yeast.  The recipe also calls for barley malt syrup.  I found one jar on Amazon.  It was expensive but I was going to go for it.  Unfortunately it was sold out by the time I tried to check out.  I used brown sugar instead and had a dark, crunchy crust on my bagels.

The recipe I used is from Serious Eats, by Stella Parks at BraveTart.  The method uses a Yukone, flour and water cooked on the stove to make the bagels brown and crisp. It's then added to flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a food processor with water to make a very stiff dough.  My food processor struggled a little because the dough was so stiff, but it came together in the end. 

The most challenging part for me was rolling out the dough balls. I had a hard time getting them smooth without seams. But the final bagels turned out ok.  

Poking the hole in the dough to make the bagel shape was the fun part.  The bagels then sit overnight in the fridge. 

Boiling and baking is quick and easy.  My bagels were dark golden brown after only 23 minutes in the oven. I also added Everything Bagel Seasoning to two of the bagels, and left the rest plain. 

The recipe makes just 8 small-ish bagels, which was perfect for us. The bagels turned out nicely.  I would like to try again with the barley malt syrup to see if it makes a difference.  

I recommend reading the whole story on Serious Eats before making the bagels. There's also a video.  But this was a very simple, satisfying baking project!

Pan Pizza

It's been a long time since I've made a new blog post, but I just had to share this amazing technique for making the best homemade pizza we've ever had!

I've tried many homemade pizza recipes. I bought a pizza stone and pizza peel, but still can't get the pizza to slide onto the stone easily. I've tried to make grilled pizza too. The homemade pizzas I've tried in the past are ok, but definitely better than delivery, and therefore not really worth the effort. 

But this recipe is different!  It's pretty easy, but if you make your own dough from scratch, it takes some planning. Instead, you could just buy pizza dough from a local bakery and make this in a flash!

The recipe makes a relatively thick-crust pan pizza that's a little greasy and unbelievably delicious.  Matt asked why he had to wait 43 years to try such a tasty pizza at home. 

You will need a cast iron pan.  Or two if you want to make two pizzas. You may be able to substitute a 10-inch metal cake pan, but I didn't try that.  

If you're making the dough from scratch it's very easy, but you need to start it the day before.  Mix flour, yeast, oil and water, let it rise and you're done.  Put the dough in the pan two hours before you bake the pizza for a final rise. 

I used a store-bought jar of marinara sauce as my pizza sauce, and it was just fine.  I topped it with only cheese and pepperoni, but you can use any toppings you like. 

Set the oven to its highest temperature and bake the pizza for about 15 minutes.  If the crust isn't browned on the bottom, use the stovetop to crisp it up for 2 minutes more.

The result is the best pizza I've ever made. It's highly recommended you try this!

Here's the recipe, adapted from Serious Eats.

For the crust:
2.5 cups (400g) bread flour
2 teaspoons (10g) kosher salt
1 teaspoon (4g) instant yeast
1 cup + 3 tablespoons (275g) water
2 teaspoons (8g) olive oil

Mix the crust ingredients in a large bowl until dry ingredients are incorporated. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 18-24 hours. My kitchen is cold, so I put the bowl in my turned-off gas oven overnight.  

For one pizza:
10-inch cast iron pan
Pizza dough
Olive oil
3/4 cup pizza sauce
225g shredded mozzarella
Pepperoni and/or other toppings as desired

Two hours before you want pizza, divide the dough into two equal pieces. (You can use store-bought dough or the recipe above.)

Form each half of the dough into a ball, adding flour to keep it from sticking to your hands or the counter.  If making one pizza, refrigerate or freeze the other half of the dough in a plastic bag. 

Spread a tablespoon of olive oil in your cast iron pan. Place the ball of dough in the pan and turn to coat with oil.  Use your hands to spread the dough into the pan, flattening it as much as possible to the edges of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for two hours.

Pre-heat your oven as high as it will go. Mine goes to 500 degrees, but if you can do 525 or 550, that's even better.  

The dough should have risen and spread to the edges of the pan.  Use your fingers to press the dough to the edges and pop any air bubbles you see.  

Spread the pizza sauce over the dough, all the way to the edges. 

Spread the shredded cheese evenly over the dough, all the way to the edges.

Top with pepperoni or toppings of your choice.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes until the top is golden and bubbling. 

Remove pan from the oven and use a spatula to lift the pizza and check the bottom crust.  It should be brown and crisp.  If it's still white, put the pan on a burner and cook over high heat for a minute or two until the bottom crust is brown and crisp.

Remove the pizza from the pan, cut into 6 pieces and serve.  

Enjoy!  

Happy Hour: Daquiri

What do you think of when you hear the word daquiri?  Is it a sweet, pink, fruity, frozen drink in a bulbous hurricane glass? Or maybe in a plastic cup at an all-inclusive resort or in New Orleans?  A lot of folks think a frozen strawberry daquiri is the definition of a daquiri, but what if I told you a classic daquiri is actually a sweet and sour cocktail made with just rum, lime and simple syrup?  It’s not even frozen!

Daquiris are one of the original basic cocktails.  It originated in Cuba. It is so simple, but the ingredients work perfectly together. If you think you don’t like rum, try this recipe. The lime balances out any harshness in the rum so the cocktail just tastes refreshing.

All you need for this simple cocktail is rum, limes and simple syrup. Simple syrup is very easy to make by mixing equal parts sugar and hot water and stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Store any leftover syrup in the fridge for a week – it can go moldy if you keep it any longer.

Classic Daquiri

Ingredients:

2 oz white/light rum

1 oz fresh-squeezed lime juice

½ oz simple syrup

Instructions:

Fill a shaker with ice and add the ingredients. Shake until chilled and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

*Bonus recipe: The Hemingway Daquiri

Daquiris and Cuba are synonymous with Earnest Hemingway. The Hemingway Daquiri was invented in Cuba to honour Hemingway, who was reputed to prefer a drink with less sugar and more alcohol content. This is a very different cocktail than the classic daquiri, despite very small differences in ingredients.  A tiny bit of grapefruit juice and Maraschino liqueur replace the simple syrup, making a much more complex cocktail with a tinge of pink. (Marshino liqueur is not very sweet, it actually tastes of bitter almonds, but adds a brightness and complexity to the drink.)

Hemingway Daquiri

Ingredients:

1½ oz white rum

¾ oz fresh-squeezed lime juice

¼ oz fresh grapefruit juice

¼ oz maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)

Instructions:

Fill a shaker with ice and add the ingredients. Shake until chilled and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Cheers! Enjoy!

Beer Travel: Rochester, New York

This post comes from Matt, the Beer Baron. Follow him at @geekcanuck

We were recently planning  a weekend getaway and mulling over our go-to list of favourite cities in driving distance, including Lexington, Chicago, Montreal, Detroit and Toronto. However, we’d recently been to most of them and were itching for a new adventure, so the Clockwatching Tart had the bright idea to visit the Finger Lakes region of New York state, specifically Rochester.

It didn’t take much online research for me to realize that Rochester has a very good craft beer scene and where there is craft beer, there is good food (as well as bearded dudes, pun-named beers, and sparsely decorated concrete tap rooms with friendly vibes). Just like that, we were off to Rochester!

The drive from London, Ontario to Rochester, New York is really only about three-and-a-half hours but with the border crossing, it was more like four hours -- which meant we were ready for lunch! Our first stop on the way in was the Rohrbach Brewing Co. Buffalo Road Brewpub.

The atmosphere inside was a bit of a throwback - less the aforementioned concrete tap room and more the wood-paneled, dimly lit and comforting bar you might remember from decades past. The service was friendly and the portion sizes were more than generous.

I tried their Space Kitty Citra Double IPA and found it a little underwhelming. The most interesting beer I tried at Rohrbach was definitely their Rainbow Street IPA, which was meant to evoke rainbow sorbet through the use of milk sugar, raspberry puree, lime concentrate as well as tangerine and vanilla extracts. There was a lot going on and it was only lightly carbonated but the raspberry and lime came through clearly and it was a nice way to start our adventures in Rochester.
Final score: 2.5/5

Our next stop was AJ’s Beer Warehouse, which was the mostly highly rated local bottle shop on ratebeer.com - and for good reason. The shop itself was spacious, which isn’t as common as you might expect - some stores make you feel like you are going to knock something over any time you turn around. The staff also took the time to show me around and point out a lot of the most popular options from local breweries, which was a nice touch. They also had a very good craft cider selection, much to the delight of the Clockwatching Tart.

I focused on choosing mostly local beer from New York State, which also meant I was able to stick to my guns and not buy any Founders KBS. While KBS (and especially CBS) stouts are lovely, there is enough great beer in the world not to have to buy beer from companies who might not treat their employees particularly well. Of interesting note to Ontario beer nerds, there was a really prominent display of Collective Arts gose with guava, which was further proof of their goal to expand into the U.S. market.

I was more than happy with the little collection of local cans we left with. The only exception to the local can rule was a bottle of B.O.R.I.S. the Crusher, an absolutely wonderful oatmeal imperial stout from Hoppin’ Frog in Akron, Ohio that I discovered back during our early trips to Chicago. Final score: 4/5

After we checked into our hotel (the Hilton Garden Inn, which we chose for its pool and downtown location, but also had inexpensive parking and brightly lit hallways thanks to a large atrium), we walked to Fifth Frame Brewing Co., which immediately made us feel at home. It is the type of taproom you’ve encountered countless times if you visit many newer craft breweries. You feel relaxed but also excited at the possibility of finding just the right thing from the draft list. Thankfully, Fifth Frame didn’t disappoint in that regard. There was cider for the Clockwatching Tart and I had Bounce House, a triple-fruited gose with guava, mango and pineapple that was just wonderfully aromatic and alluring.

I followed that up with Pull Out Couch, a petite pastry stout with cocoa nibs and coffee that was really nicely balanced with lots of coffee up front. The coffee aspect was an important part of Fifth Frame, as they have lovely coffee bar and breakfast menu that tempted us to go back for breakfast (and cans of Bounce House to take home with us) the morning after. My only tiny complaint about Fifth Frame was that I couldn’t really figure out what their evening food menu was without looking at their website but overall it was fantastic.
Final score: 4.5/5

Dinner was proof of why the Clockwatching Tart and I travel so well together. She loves to map out places on Google Maps and make spreadsheets and itineraries; I just tend to just check out Ratebeer and be more spontaneous about things - but you definitely need both mentalities to have success. In this case, I think I just Googled “unique dining Rochester” and stumbled upon Nosh. A quick Lyft ride later, we were seated and had (very good) cocktails on the way.

I don’t normally show photos of myself in these posts, but this one is fitting as I feel the dish is absolutely perfect. As you might remember, I’ve become an absolute nut for sushi-grade tuna and especially poke bowls so it should come as no surprise that I ordered the Ahi Noshos, which were a take on nachos using wontons instead of tortillas and covered with ahi tuna, cucumber daikon, salsa, seaweed and tobiko (fish eggs). It was only $14 and it seems to me that it should be on every menu in North America (albeit in smaller portion sizes) in the coming years.
Final score: 4/5

A few years back, we discovered our first retro arcade / craft beer bar in Lexington, Kentucky and ever since then, I look for them whenever we travel. Thankfully, Rochester once again came through, this time with The Playhouse. There was a combination of older fare like Frogger and Donkey Kong and more modern titles. The place was swarming with kids but made up for it by having Caffe Americano, a double stout with coffee and vanilla from Cigar City Brewing, on tap.

We ended up spending most of our time at a sit-down racing game before retiring back to the hotel for a well-deserved swim.
Final score: 3/5

Before leaving Rochester, there was one last place I wanted to check out, the Genesee Brew House, which was equal parts museum, restaurant, pilot brewery, and tasting room. While not exactly a craft brewery, it was still an incredibly fun place to visit. We learned about the history of brewing in Rochester and checked out all the artwork on their cans and bottles over the years.

We also had a flight at the tasting room where we discovered something the locals clearly already knew: that the Genesee Ruby Red Kölsch is absolutely wonderful. The ruby red grapefruit was fresh and strong on the nose and the beer itself was just really light and balanced and approachable, earning it’s “beer of summer” moniker. They had only recently released it and we’d seen people with the little, yellow cans around town, but this was our first chance to grab some for ourselves.

The cans were sold out, but the next best thing was amazing deal on a filled growler along with two pint glasses for only $20, which I happily said yes to.

The Brew House itself is located right on the Genesee River and its High Falls, which made the stop all the more worthwhile.
Final score: 4/5

To cap off our trip, we were in a Wegman’s picking up a few things for friends and I stumbled upon 12-packs of the highly sought-after Ruby Red Kölsch. Given its close proximity to home, ease of getting around the city, emerging craft beer scene, good food, and location at the heart of the Finger Lakes region (spoiler alert: nearby Geneva, New York is adorable and awesome too), Rochester has now been added to my list of go-to cities.
Final score: 5/5  

  

  

Road Trip - Chicago Style!

I have been very lax in updating this blog recently, but now that the spring weather is here I will try to get back on track by talking about our trips so far this year.  We’ve been to Chicago, Las Vegas and Toronto in 2019 and we’re planning another short road trip soon!

Over the Christmas holidays we took a trip back to Chicago.  We like travelling over the Christmas holidays because we’re usually off work, and often lucky to have mild enough weather for a road trip.  

Chicago is a 6 hour drive for us, which is definitely manageable, but this time we decided to break up the trip with a stop in Kalamazoo, Michigan for a night to check out all the new craft beer places in the city since our last trip way back in 2013. There are a lot of changes!

We stayed at a hotel close to downtown and walked to the new HopCat Kalamazoo first.  HopCat has really expanded over the years from their first location in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you see one on your travels, it’s an excellent place to try local craft beer.  The Kalamazoo location is huge and in an old train station. We made it in time for happy hour and had some delicious beer, cider and snacks.

Next we checked out Bell’s Eccentric Cafe.  Last time we were here, it was just a bar with a food counter, now they’ve expanded to a full service restaurant as well as the bar.  Their beer is some of the best in North America, and we featured it in the Beer Baron’s first post on this site!

We had some more snacks and beer and moved on to the Kalamazoo Beer Exchange where they have a stock ticker and beer prices rise and fall throughout the night.  It’s a cute concept.

The next morning, we decided to make one more detour before Chicago and visited the famous 3 Floyds Brewery in Munster, Indiana, about 45 minutes outside Chicago. We picked up some precious bottles and had a really spectacular lunch in their busy brewpub. The food was outstanding and the staff was super friendly.

Finally, on to Chicago!  On the way into town we stopped at Marz Brewing in the up-and-coming Bridgeport neighbourhood near White Sox stadium.  The brewery is gorgeous and the beer is fantastic. It’s a great community place.  

Our hotel on this trip was the brand new Aloft Chicago Mag Mile.  We like Aloft hotels - they’re a little bit modern and usually have a bar and live music in the lobby on weekends.  This one was perfectly located and an easy walk to Michigan Avenue and all Chicago attractions. One of the reasons we love Chicago, other than the amazing food, drinks and shopping, is that hotels can very cheap!  Our hotel was less than $90 USD per night in the perfect location. In the winter and spring on weekends, we’ve gotten some amazing hotel deals in the city.

On our first night we walked to Headquarters Beercade River North.  Matt loves an arcade bar and this is one of the best we’ve ever been to.  The games are FREE to play and they have a great beer and cocktail selection.  

Afterwards we tried Rick Bayless’s new speakeasy, Bar Sotano. We’ve enjoyed his Chicago restaurants, Frontera Grill and Xoco in the past, so as soon as we heard about this new addition we made a reservation!  We’re so glad we did. The entrance is in an alley behind the restaurants and you check in at the front desk before being led behind a curtain and down the stairs (sotano means basement in Spanish).

The drink menu was spectacular and we tried several cocktails, including this mango cocktail served in a plastic bag!

The food menu is mostly small plates but Matt had the burger, which we were shocked to find was one of the best we’d ever tasted!

The next day we did a little walking and shopping and stopped by Millennium Park to visit the bean.  Matt had a Chicago Dog in the park.

That evening we hadn’t made plans but wanted to try one of Top Chef Stephanie Izard’s restaurants.  We ended up at the Little Goat Diner, We sat at the counter and had some amazing food!  Matt had the tallest burger in history!

We also checked out the Chicago outlet of one of Matt’s favourite San Diego breweries, Ballast Point, and played some more video games at Emporium Fulton Market.   The perfect end to a fun and filling trip.