In an ideal world, I’d test all of Reinhart’s recipes before the end of the year. This goal is looking less and less likely, but I’m not really disappointed. With patience and repetition, I’ve gained insight into the "feel" of various doughs—very important because each type of bread has different qualities prior to baking. The better you get at identifying and aiming for these characteristics, the better your final product. Within the next several months or so, I anticipate quantitatively adjusting Reinhart’s formulas to my own specifications; I’ll post the results when I’m comfortable with their accuracy. NB: Remember most of these adjustments are specific to the environmental conditions of my location: temperature, humidity, etc.

Meanwhile, I am making progress through the book. After pizza crusts, I decided to turn my attention to the sweeter bread varieties in preparation for the holidays. By Christmas, I will probably have added Hutzelbrot, Stollen, Brioche, and/or Boston Brown Bread. This past week, however, I took a crack at Reinhart’s Graham Cracker formula. I ran two trials and a third is scheduled next week. Here are the results thus far:

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I left for Pennsylvania with the notion of having a kitchen-free “vacation.” But when I arrived at the McHenry residence, I could hardly help myself; bordering the back of the house was a patch of elderberry bushes loaded with ripe fruit—and it was all going to rot if I didn’t do something! Sacrilege! I’d never cooked with or tasted elderberries, so preparing this fresh hand-picked fruit was also a rare opportunity and adventure.

Harvesting the berries was simple enough with a little maneuvering and the right equipment. I wore long jeans, my trusty ol’ jogging shoes, a hat, and a fitted long-sleeve jacket to protect me from the surrounding brush and its creepy-crawly inhabitants. Sharp clippers did the snipping, and a rake brought the taller bunches down to eye-level. No comments from the peanut gallery about short Asian people, please.

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Gale Grand has a decadent recipe for Peanut Butter Pie. I made 1.5x the original recipe for both the filling and the crust, but added my own twist with a thin layer of ganache—and not just any ganache either, but a dark chocolate espresso ganache. The flavor was spectacular! The nutty crust and intense chocolate-espresso were the perfect complements to the creamy peanut-butter filling.

For an interesting variation, try Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake or Chocolate Espresso Peanut Butter Bars, the latter with a cream-free peanut butter spread similar to Alton Brown’s peanut butter pie filling.

The Crust

The crust tastes similar to nutter butter, but with a crunchier crumbly texture and better flavor. Perfect. Chocolate lovers: resist the urge to replace the graham crackers with a chocolate crumb. The chocolate will come later and in style.

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Emeril Lagasse’s Best Ever Coconut Cream Pie made with Alton Brown’s homemade coconut milk and a Whole Foods Whole Wheat Crust. Absolutely scrumptious. A few remarks about the procedure:

1. The shredded meat of two coconuts was sufficient for my purposes (see No. 3).
2. Eight ounces of fresh coconut meat, one cup of whole milk, and one cup of coconut "juice"—the water inside the coconut—made just slightly less than 1.5 cups of coconut milk. (Yes, I know, it's not exactly Alton Brown's recipe—but hey, Alton Brown's recipe isn't exactly traditional either.) Next time use 9 oz of shredded coconut and 2.25 cups milk-water.
3. Cheesecloth works great when it's time to squeeze out the milk. Also, I didn't toss the leftover coconut from the milk process, but included it in the pie (one cup). I'm not sure if using fresh coconut would make much difference, but if I get a third coconut next time, I should toss the used coconut and use fresh flakes.
4. A video on YouTube suggests exposing the coconut to an open flame keeps the brown skin attached to the shell.

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