FF- Mashed Beans

I am about to introduce you to my newest frugal find-

Mashed Beans.

It's like mashed potatoes, but with beans. These can be made into refried beans, used in burritos, added to soup- whatever you come up with. I like mixing mine with salsa, cheese, rice and sour cream to put on a taco shell or just eat as is. Yum!

Cooking your own beans can save you cash, as explained in this Frugal Friday post by Healthy Family Cookin'. Dry beans are easy to store, easy to make, and good for you, which elevates them to Frugal BAM! status.

MASHED BEANS

1. Fill the crock pot NOT MORE THAN halfway with dried beans. Fill up the pot with water. You will find that the beans expand exponentially overnight.

The Beans: Pre-soak

The Beans: Post-soak

2. Cover with some more water and cook the beans. I prefer the low setting. Skim off any foam that develops, as shown:

The Bean Foam

3. When the beans are soft, like canned beans from the store, strain off the water and run them through a blender or food processor. I like to use the Kitchen Aid mixer.

Ready for use!

4. (Optional) Season the beans with salt, pepper or spices if desired. They will be pretty bland if you leave them as-is. 

From here you can 1) use the beans, 2) keep them in the fridge (but not too long- 2 weeks is pushing it) or 3) fill quart-sized baggies and stockpile in the freezer.

And remember- not too many beans before the Sunday morning service!

How To Make Soda Pop

 

I was originally going to title this "pop" since we are in Michigan... but for the sake of any readers from soda-drinking lands I put that in there too.

Making pop is really no harder than making tea. It does require some bottling equipment- at the least, it requires those re-usable sealing bottles. Ingredients are negligible. Here is my basic recipe, with a few tweaks.

Wild Grape Soda

Cost per recipe: $0.57

Ingredients:
1.5 cups wild grapes (free from foraging!)

'Tea' ingredients

1/4 - 1/3 cup raspberry cordial "jam" (purely optional, but the raspberries add a nice flavor)
2 cups sugar
3-4 cups water
Splash or two of lemon juice
1/8 tsp. yeast

Instructions:
1. Boil the water, sugar, and flavorings (in this case grapes and raspberry stuff) for 20 minutes. These can include, but are not limited to barks, berries and spices. Any juice will be added later, so set that aside.

Frothy and boiling!

2. Let the tea cool for 20 minutes.

3. Strain out the flavoring agents.

4. Put tea in jug and add cool water to level out the temperature so it's lukewarm (warm enough to activate the yeast, but not hot enough to kill it). Add lemon juice at this time.


5. Add yeast and agitate (shake) the jug. Top off with more lukewarm water.

6. Bottle and cap.

7. Let the bottles sit 4-14 days. My Wild Grape Pop sits for a week. Longer for for root beer, much shorter for teas with juice. Also keep the temperature in mind when fermenting; a batch of grape soda sitting in hot July temperatures is going to carbonize MUCH faster than root beer in the dead of January. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS do your fermenting in a cooler or other enclosed container to prevent injury and keep the mess contained if the pressure builds faster than anticipated and a bottle or two explodes. My most notorious explosion happened in the fridge about 2 minutes after I had put them in. It took out 2 of the glass shelves and ruined a lot of food. If one bottle has already exploded (as had been the case with the aforementioned batch) take heed and be extremely careful in your storage/disposal of the rest of the batch.

8. When you think a batch has carbonated sufficiently, open a test bottle. My bottles have always produced one of three results: 1) flat- keep the rest in the cooler, 2) no overflow but a satisfactory tongue-tickling sensation- put in the fridge or let sit one more day. 3) Volcano! Move the entire batch to the fridge right away!

I have found this a fun and exciting hobby. The varieties of pop you could do are virtually endless. Let me know if you try it and what you think!

How to Make Bagels

I'm excited today to introduce you to another branch of baking fun- DIY bagels! Use a basic recipe to create any flavor you like.

Bagel Recipe

1/2 oz. active dry yeast
2 cups warm water (not over 115 degrees)
1 TB salt
2 oz. sugar
2 lb. 2 oz. flour

Poaching liquid: 1 gallon of water + 2.5 cups sugar
Optional: egg wash & toppings (sesame seeds, etc.)

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Mix in the salt, sugar, and flour.

2. Let the dough relax in a warm place for one hour.

3. Break the dough in two pieces and roll out into a long rope. Cut into individual 9" pieces, which will become individual bagels. Do not use any extra flour during this part- the dough should be stiff and elastic enough to form without flour. To form the bagels: Overlap the ends of the ropes about 1/2" and press them firmly together against the table, rocking the dough back and forth with your palm to seal the edges together.

5. Put the bagels on a baking sheet lined with cloth to rise until they have almost doubled.

6. Bring the poaching liquid to a boil, reduce to a simmer and drop the bagels into the liquid. Poach for about 2 minutes. Set the poached bagels on a baking sheet with parchment paper. This is the time to add toppings if you so desire.

7. Bake at 450 degrees F about 12 minutes, or until the bagels are light brown. Flip them over and bake 8-10 minutes longer.

And there you've got it! Some nice chewy bagels. Oh- make sure to add some cream cheese. :)

How to Make Creme Brulee

 Want to impress dinner guests? Or teenage boys? Or just impress yourself? Get out the blow torch and make yourself some fancypants Creme Brulee (crehm brue-lay).

Ingredients:
32 oz. heavy cream
6 oz sugar (white)
pinch salt
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
5.5 oz. egg yolks (5-6 yolks) beaten
sugar for crystallization (I used turbinado)


Instructions:

Step 1

1. Cream mixture: Combine cream, 4 oz. of the sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring gently.

2. Vanilla bean: Remove from heat. Split the vanilla bean, scrape the seeds from the pod; add both seeds and pod to the cream mixture. Cover and steep for 15 minutes.

3. Egg yolks: Return pan to heat and bring cream to a boil. Combine the egg youlks and remaining 2 oz. of sugar and add to the hot cream.

Pre-baking; Step 4

4. Baking: Pick out the vanilla bean pod and pour custard 3/4 full into fancypants creme brulee ramekins, or just put it into little glass dishes like I did. Bake in a water bath (water halfway up the custard dishes) at 325 degrees F until just set; 20-25 minutes.

5. Refrigeration: Remove dishes from the waterbath and refrigerate until fully chilled.

Ready to light! Thanks dad!

6. Crystallize! Evenly coat each custard with sugar. I used turbinado sugar for this, but white sugar works just as well. Take your blow torch and melt the sugar to make a nice crusty coat. It might take some experimentation to get this right.

ALWAYS be safe with the blow torch. I borrowed my dad's from his shop. He showed me how to use it and I had him watch me the first time in case I messed up.

7. Serve right away! Preferably after you have impressed someone with your torchy kitchen skillz. If you refrigerate again, the liquid will soak into the sugar coat and make it soft- effectively ruining it.

SOOOO good!

Now I want to hear about YOUR impressive fancypants recipe from high places! 

How To Make Puff Pastry

Let me introduce you to puff pastry; friend of the butter-lover and wanna-be pastry chef.

Butter = love!

Puff pastry is an incredibly versatile dough that can be frozen and used when ready. The main idea is to alternate layers of dough with layers of butter. My recipe uses cubes of butter folded in the dough- a lot easier than the slab method Here is my recipe:

16 oz. flour (half cake flour is good)
1 lb. butter, cubed and chilled
9 oz. ice-cold water
1/4 oz salt

Add butter to flour and toss to coat butter. Combine the water and salt; add all at once. Mix on low speed until the dough forms a shaggy mass.

Look closely and notice huge chunks of unmixed butter.

  Cover the mix and put it in the refrigerator to let the butter get hard again (20 minutes). When this is done, roll out the dough into a square or rectangle. Fold like a birthday card and roll out again. Keep folding and rolling until you get the desired texture. The less you fold, the more puff you'll get. Fewer folds will give you a finer texture and more even layers.

Folded and ready for refrigeration.

Refrigerate as needed, when the butter starts to melt. After you are done folding, the dough can be baked at 350 degrees until golden (time varies depending on thickness, etc.).

I cut mine with a biscuit cutter, then folded in half.

Notice the layers?

Mid-bake time... butter is melting out, thus creating flaky crispiness!

All done! Took 15-20 minutes to bake.

 What I love about this recipe is that you can freeze the dough and then use it when you're ready. It thaws fairly quickly (an hour or so). You can bake as-is, cut out in different shapes, or you can make pockets with filling, or wrap around a hot dog or whatever! You can also make triangles and roll them up for croissants.

While all that butter is awesome, it costs me about $3 per recipe. Compared with 5-Minute Artisan Bread this is substantially more expensive, but for special occasions I don't think this is a bad price. I love the fact that you can get a great puff pastry with only four ingredients.

How to Make Mozzarella Cheese

Homemade mozzarella is a fantastic cheese for beginners. It only requires milk, salt, citric acid and rennet. No special starter cultures or bacteria or equipment required.

Mozzarella Cheese

Cost per recipe: $3.54

Ingredients:
1 gal. milk
1/4-1/2 tsp. Calcium Chloride (for store-bought milk)
1 1/4 tsp. Citric Acid Powder
1/4 tsp. liquid rennet or 1/8 rennet tablet
1/2 cup cool water, divided in half

Instructions:
 In stainless or enamel pot, place the cool milk. Dissolve the citric acid powder into 1/4 cup water and add to the milk (also add calcium chloride if using store bought milk). Stir well. Bring milk to 88 degrees. Mix rennet with the other 1/4 cup water and stir for 10 seconds.

Rennet & Citric Acid

Allow milk to set at 88 degrees for 15 minutes to coagulate [translation: make a big rubbery mass]. It helps to use a timer. After setting, the curd should be firm and when you dip your finger into the curds they will break cleanly over your finger. Whey will fill the depression where your finger has been. Cut into 1-inch cubes. This allows more whey to be released. Allow curds to rest for 10 minutes.

Cutting the curd.

Boil a teapot full of water to prepare for the next step.

Place the post of curds into a sink of very hot tap water and slowly bring the temperature up to 108 degrees. Save teapot of hot water in case you need to add additional water later. Curds will shrink during this process. Keep the curds around 108 degrees for about 35 minutes. [ I don't follow this to a T- I just bring it to 108, put it in the sink of hot water and let it sit.] Drain curds into colander for 15 minutes. You can save the whey with a bowl underneath.

Keeping it warm in the sink.

Draining the curds.

The curds must now be worked and stretched in a brine solution (2-3 oz. salt + 1 quart water).

Stretching like taffy!

Heat liquid to 150 degrees, more or less. Place curds into heated brine. Work quickly. ["Quickly" is a scary word, but don't panic. Just focus on pulling and stretching and not leaving too much in the pot to melt. It will take some time to get it stretchy- I find that soaking it in the brine for a few seconds before stretching can be helpful.] Using two sets of salad tongs (or spoons, or whatever you have), bring the curds out of the brine, pulling and stretching like you would taffy. When it's cooled down some, I just use my bare hands. It's still hot but I have more control that way.

Stretched and pulled- ready for cooling.

Once you have stretched and worked all the curds, place in mold (dish) to form a block. This cheese will become hard enough to grate. I try to let mine cool in a longish rope, so I can peel it apart like string cheese. So much fun.

Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

 

How to Make Butter

Due to some seasonal changes here on the farm, we had a boatload of extra cream. I volunteered to make it into butter, because butter is awesome. Also because I haven't had "our" butter in over a year and I really miss the golden color.

If you've got the right cream (like I had!) making butter is so easy. It involves 3 steps.

1. Beat/mix/whip cream it at the highest possible speed without making a mess.  Use a Kitchen Aid. Or, on a more massive scale, an industrial size Hobart mixer. With my massive batches I drape a bath towel over the massive mixer for maximum speed. Keep it mixing until there is a distinct splashing sound. Buttermilk! Mine takes less than 10 minutes- yours will probably take way longer than that.*



Step 1, completed.

2. Drain out the buttermilk and pour cold water into the butter globules. Squeeze it in between your fingers and mash it around like playdoh. Or, if you forgot to wash your hands, use a spatula or something to push it around the bowl (or just wash your hands). This "rinses" the buttermilk out of the butter fat. Butter will go rancid faster if there is buttermilk left in it.


With the leftover buttermilk, you can make biscuits or use in baking or any number of cool things I have yet to find out. Buttermilk has a greyish color, like this:

Rinse it three or four times, or however many times it takes for the cold water to run clear.

3. Pack it all into a mold. Or if you're making it on a massive scale like me, just form it into balls, cover with plastic wrap and pop in the freezer.



* I use an extremely hard-to-find cream. The milk comes from grass-fed cows, which gives my butter its bright yellow color. Fresh-from-the-cow warm milk gets separated into cream and skim milk by a special piece of equipment that uses spinning disks to separate skim milk and heavier cream by weight. The cream is separated twice to produce a "double cream", which is available in the UK but not in the US. The closest to double cream here in the states would be heavy cream or whipping cream, but it is not the same as double cream and nowhere near the thickness of double cream from our farm.

Because of this I cannot guarantee that your butter will be as easy to make or taste as good as mine, but there are plenty of other people that make butter without my fancypants cream.

If you find a good source of cream, let me know!

5-Minute Artisan Bread

Whenever I feel the need to make bread, I use this recipe. It is super easy and fast, and makes a nice fresh-out-of-the-bakery-looking loaf.

 Basic Bread Recipe

3 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast 
1 TB salt
6 1/2 cups flour 

Instructions:
1. Mix all ingredients (I usually do yeast & water, let sit for 5 minutes, and then add everything else).

Adding the yeast.

Adding some extras.

The finished dough.

After everything is mixed, add flour until you get a shapeable texture.

2. Shape loaves. Big rolls/buns turn out well, as do log-shaped "French" loaves. You can use a pan (grease it first), but I like the artisan-like look of just baking on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

3. Add toppings and garnishes. Cut some slits and the top of the bread so it can 'vent'. This is best done with a serrated knife.

I like to put an egg wash on my bread before it bakes. An egg wash is just an egg (or a white or a yolk- depending on what color you want) mixed with some water and then spread across the top of the bread with a butter brush. An egg wash helps seasonings and toppings like poppy seeds stick to the top of the bread. 

Ready to bake!

I'll normally do let it rise 30-80 minutes, depending on my schedule. If I really don't have time, I'll just stick it in the oven and bake.

4. Bake in a 350 degree oven until golden brown on top. Sometimes I also brush some melted butter on the top, though it's not necessary.

Enjoy!

My best find in the bread-baking world in the last year has been this 4-ingredient recipe from the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". I borrowed the book from the library, but you can get the master recipe (with details and a tutorial!) here.

The authors recommend making a big batch of dough and then refrigerating it until needed.  One thing to keep in mind: leave some room in your container for dough expansion. You're supposed to refrigerate the dough and then punch it down later. I refrigerated my dough and came home from work to discover that it had exploded over all my other projects. Nice, huh?


Anyhow, if you're not as cheap as I am, I would highly recommend buying the book as a reference. I tried one of their recipes for brioche when I had the book, and it was excellent.

How To Make Yogurt

Making your own yogurt at home is ridiculously easy. All you'll need is:

Ingredients:

1 quart milk
2 TB yogurt w/cultures (I use Stonyfield Organic)

Instructions:

1. Heat milk to 180 degrees F.
2. Let cool to 105-116 degrees F.
3. Add yogurt starter.
4. Set in a small cooler. Cover the jar with hot tap water, using boiling water for the last inch or so.
5. Leave in the cooler overnight to incubate; refrigerate in the morning.

Buy some starter yogurt with LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3: Add starter cultures.

Step 4

And there you have it: how to make your own homemade yogurt. When it first comes out of the cooler, or even after it's been refrigerated, it will be watery and the whey will continue to separate. I will be honest with you here: while fresh-made yogurt is always great for using in recipes or for soaking, the texture is sometimes weird and watery, and if you use non-homogenized milk there will be a layer of chunky cream on the top. I don't like to eat it this way.

Fresh yogurt- still needs some cosmetic work.

Find out HERE how to make your yogurt thick and creamy, like what you'd buy from the store.