I'm Rebecca Lando.
I'm an award-winning writer, producer, and editor and upcoming cookbook author based in New York City.
In 2009 I launched Working Class Foodies, a cooking show that creates affordable meals from local, seasonal, and/or sustainable ingredients. Working Class Foodies is a part of YouTube Next Chef and airs on NBC New York's Nonstop Foodies.
I wrote, produced, and edited FilmFan, an award-winning weekly movie review show, for MSN from 2010-2011.
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WORKING CLASS FOODIES
Become a fan of WCFoodies!
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Cookbookin’!
Here’s just a tiny part of what Brendan and I have been up to the last couple of days.
Buy all the eggs, make all the challahs. I am truly only a Jew culinarily.
Some anonymous office genius brought in a batch of homemade brownies with fucking peppermint patties in the middle. Total husband/wife material.
Season 3, Episode 1: Soft Pretzels!
Perfect for your favorite fall activity, whether it be catching an MLB playoff game, drinking beer with your pals, or as a different, healthier alternative to cake or cupcakes for a birthday party.
These really are so simple, I just made two half-batches: I folded fresh rosemary and thyme into one portion of dough, and cocoa powder and cinnamon into the other. The herbed ones will be topped with sharp cheddar and paprika, and the cinnamon ones will get a nice dose of sugar on top.
How would you make these pretzels? And what would you pair them with?
We’re baaaaaaaaack!
These bars are so easy to make, it’s almost like cheating. Of course, they’re also so tasty that I have to exercise tons of will power not to eat more than one per sitting; although the sugar and almost all the fat comes from healthy sources, like honey and peanut butter, these bars are still super-rich.
Even if you’re not going hiking or camping, the Peanut Butter Oat Bars make a fantastic brownie/cookie/cake alternative for a Memorial Day cookout, or even as an alternative to that store-bought energy bar you eat before or after the gym.
Here’s the recipe. Enjoy!
This week’s episode: Flatbreads with Chef Brendan McDermott, previously seen in our Knife Skills & Chicken Tagine episode.
Flatbreads Recipe: PDF Download | Chicken Tagine Recipe: PDF Download
Brendan’s Moroccan Flatbreads Recipe: PDF Download
Last week, Chef Brendan McDermott showed us all some basic knife skills while making a chicken tagine. The dish was amazing; a filling, satisfying meal in and of itself. But I left out one of the best parts.
We devoured the roast vegetables and the succulent chicken, but our bowls were not empty: there was a good 1/2 inch of pungent, savory pan juice waiting to be scooped up. And that’s where Brendan’s Moroccan flatbreads come in.
We started the flatbreads before we began prepping the tagine. Actually, we started the flatbreads while Brendan was serving us homemade breakfast (he is the nicest guy in the world). 2 quick hours later, both the breads and the tagine were ready to eat. I hope you can imagine what the kitchen smelled like: the musty sweetness of fresh bread; the rich earthiness of roast vegetables; the slight tinge of Middle Eastern seasonings. The late afternoon sun filtering in softly through the open window. (Okay, that part doesn’t really have a scent, but atmosphere is important.)
I loved that Brendan split the flour to include whole wheat. It gave the flatbreads a gorgeous, rustic brown color and a much sweeter, grainier scent. Whole wheat also gave the bread a better chew and a more well-rounded flavor. Sesame seeds would be good mixed in - or, toasted, and sprinkled on top. You can cut the bread into thin matchsticks or batons and dip them in hummus. My mom wanted to know if they could be used for sandwiches, and I think so: oil them, grill or broil them, and load them with leftover roasted or grilled vegetables, soft cheeses like burrata, mozzarella, or tallegio, peppery greens like arugula or watercress, and a hearty aioli.
I used to be wary of baking bread, so I understand the hesitancy, even though I don’t understand why we’re often so slow to approach bread baking. It’s now one of my absolute favorite activities, so much so that I intentionally (and maddeningly) keep my flour stores low so I can’t bake off a loaf every time I feel like it. Not even kidding.
Not to sound crazy, but there’s a wonderful, rare connectivity to food that I only feel when I bake bread. The time it takes, all of it passive: waiting for the yeast to bloom; waiting out the first rise; waiting out the second; and, hardest of all, waiting for a loaf of bread to cool before ripping into it. The way I’ve learned to feel through my hands when a dough is the right consistency, when it’s been kneaded enough, when it’s risen its full and is ready for the oven. The hollow thud when I tap the underside of a loaf to gauge whether or not it’s done baking; that first crackly crunch as I rip apart a fresh loaf of bread.
If you’re still hesitant to try bread baking, let me appeal to your practicality: making this flatbread won’t cost you more than $1.50. A loaf of bread or package of flatbreads at the store will run you at least $2.50. Simple economics says, give it a shot. The only thing you have to lose is a couple of cups of flour.
Unless, of course, like me, you become a bread-baking fiend and find it next to impossible to stop baking. There is that slight risk. But it’s a risk worth taking.
A Cost-Effective Luxury: The Bread Machine
Here’s the breakdown:
A loaf of 365 Whole Grain Bread at Whole Foods is $4.99
- 5lbs of King Arthur Bread Flour is $4.69 and assuming 4 cups per pound, 23 cents per cup
- 3lbs of Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour is $3.79, or 32 cents per cup
- A 4oz jar of Fleischmann’s active dry yeast is $7.39 or 21 cents per teaspoon
- 2.5qts of honey was $27 or 17 cents a tablespoon
- 16oz Bob’s Red Mill Oat Bran is $2.39 or 60 cents a cup
- 16oz Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats is $2.39 or 60 cents a cup
I did not include olive oil or salt because those are pantry staples I would have otherwise and buy in such bulk their costs would be extremely minimal.
Based on my whole grain recipe using the above ingredients, a loaf of whole grain bread comes to a mere $1.50, or a savings of $3.49. Even if I switch to the more expensive local flour, I’d still only be spending about $2.05 per loaf.
So, to sum up: a bread machine seems like an unnecessary appliance and actually is if you don’t use it, but if you use it exclusively (with the exception of that one week when you accidentally threw away the paddle in your fit of rage due to how disgusting amaranth flour is) for bread and combination of its other capabilites such as pizza dough (which costs 81 cents) its actually a useful investment. You can also consider the fact that homemade bread is almost always healthier to increase its relative worth. Additionally, it will take you less hands on time to make bread in the machine than it would to run to the store and buy some.
(via Run Fast. Eat Slow)
We switched over to exclusively making our own bread at the end of January (I didn’t remember that it was that long ago, thanks, Tumblr!), and have since received a few questions about whether it is more cost effective. I’d like to calculate it based on our recipes, but love the above breakdown. Even if we are just breaking even, the quality of the bread is so much better and I don’t know how I ever lived without a bread machine.
On that note, for lunch I’m about to try the curry and peanut bread that I made last night. I’m a little nervous about how it will mix with peanut butter and jelly…
But what’s the cost of the bread machine?
Today’s episode of Working Class Foodies is actually all about flatbreads (yay for perfect timing!)
We made 2 huge flatbreads, more than enough to feed 4 people. Total cost? Under $1.50 total, and under 35¢ per person. And that’s using a mix of King Arthur & local organic flour.
To each her own, but personally, I hate bread machines. I love the feel of mixing the dough by hand; it’s the first and best way to know when your dough is the right consistency. Not to be a hippie, but you really create a connection to your food when you make it by touch, by yourself. And bread is such a personal thing, why wouldn’t you want that connection?
From a practical standpoint, I don’t see the point of a bread machine, either. Why pay for a unitasking appliance when your hands can do it for free?
Season 2 of Working Class Foodies kicks in today with Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day.
Excellent for sopping up all that Guinness you’ll be pouring down your throat on Wednesday.
So we made gingerbread men. Or, in Kit’s case, killer gingerbread bunnies.
These must go well as hamburger breads…
PartyBrot (German party bread)
Follow the link for recipe.
Thanks to Flagrante Delícia
Marry me, PartyBrot.
Classic recipe for gingerbread men from 1940a Gourmet magazine:
Into a bowl sift 2 3/4 cups cake flour. Add 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1 scant tablespoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon each of cloves and ginger, both ground, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sift the mixture. In another bowl combine 1 cup brown sugar, 2/3 cup dark molasses, 1/2 cup butter, 1 beaten egg, and 1/4 teaspoon allspice, and mix all together well. Stir the brown-sugar mixture into the dry mixture and knead until all the flour has been worked in. Divide the dough and roll it, half at a time, into a sheet 1/3 inch thick. Cut out the gingerbread men with a floured cutter. Transfer the forms to a buttered baking sheet and use pieces of seedless raisins and candied fruits or nuts to make the eyes, nose, and mouth. Bake the gingerbread men in a moderately hot oven (375° F.) for 12 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. The gingerbread men may be hung on the Christmas tree.
more Gourmet’s Favourite Cookies, 1941-2008
via Gourmet
One of as many as 6 treats I’ll start making tonight:
- Classic gingerbread men
- One-bite chocolate chunk & tonka bean cookies
- Lemon dream bars
- Cranberry oat bars from this episode of Working Class Foodies
- Goat’s milk sea salt caramels
- Tonka bean caramels
@Kit1232
Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio iPhone app is now available for $4.99 in the iTunes store, previously mentioned here.
Via eatmedaily
Coming soon is the iPhone-ified rendition of Michael Ruhlman’s book Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking (Amazon). The app features all 32 of the “critical ratios” that “form the backbone of the culinary arts, with instructions,” a calculator, an ounces to grams converter, recipes, and for that extra quotient (math joke!) of social networking, ways to share recipes on Facebook and Twitter.
Can’t wait to check this out…
I cannot wait for this.
GPOYW 2: with the first bread I ever baked, 01/2007
Mark Bittman’s No-Knead Bread - The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work, NY Times, November 8, 2006
Via Evan Kleiman’s(nice voice) interview with Bittman on this weekend’s Good Food podcast. And going on my tocook
I have done and I have loved. The bread, that is, not Bittman or Kleiman.
