A Tale of Two Doughs, and Other Notes

Saturday night, I made chocolate shortbread. The dough was pretty much made of flour, butter, and cocoa powder. The dough was ultimately kneadable, but was unbelievable soft -- I felt like my dough ball might explode at any moment and leave me nothing but a mess.

Sunday, I made bagels again. My food processor gave up about five seconds into the kneading, so I had to knead by hand. The aim, in the words of the recipe, was a dough that was "tough and elastic". I certainly achieved that.

I cannot imagine two doughs being more different. As I put it on Twitter, if the shortbread dough was a person, it would give flowers to strangers. The bagel dough would take your lunch money -- and then beat you up anyway.

The oddest thing was that after rising and resting, the bagel dough had become very soft and pliable - not delicate like the shortbread dough, but a delight to form into rounds.

I made this particular batch mostly as a gift to a friend from work, a native of Baltimore. He emailed me that they were delicious, much better than he had frankly expected.

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A week or so ago, I had an emotional experience that brought me face to face with the fact that I -really- want something sweet with my lunch. That being the case, it made more sense to make my own treats. I was attracted by the "bar" category because of the portability factor. I really don't want something I have to carry in yet another plastic container. My first effort was the "Oatmeal Butterscotch Bars" recipe from the "America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book."  I was alarmed when I put the batter in the pan: it was quite thick, and I expected it to either burn or turn out dry. In fact, they were really good - and a fabulous way to end a lunch.

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In the last twenty-four hours, I have made eggs four times - three shots at a poached egg and a batch of hard-boiled eggs. The three poached eggs each were made by slightly different methods. The last one worked pretty well, except that I think I want the yolk on my poached egg to be firmer than most people. (My method of choice is to add a splash of vinegar to the water, bring the water to barely simmering, then stir the water in one direction before carefully adding the egg. The recipe called to simmer it for 4 1/2 minutes: I'll try longer than that next time.)

The hard-boiled method was more successful. Put the eggs in the pan, add enough water to cover by an inch, bring to a boil, cover and remove from heat for five minutes. Then you put it in ice water for 5 minutes. The texture of the cooked eggs was great, there were no green rings around the yolks, and they were easy to peel.

As a self-taught cook, I often find that I need to go back to something that's very basic.