admin – Austin Food Journal

Windowpane

Pretty dramatic, huh? This was a difficult picture to take of myself. The strands in the dough are the gluten strings. If the dough is mixed properly, these gluten bonds hold the dough together when forming the pizza crust (called a windowpane test). If not, it tears and you look like an idiot. Pizza parade. […]

Wicked Coals

B&B makes wicked good coals. Central Market sells their product or you can order direct. Oak and Mesquite, Mesquite, Hickory Chips and Chunks…hell, they will even sell you firewood.

Pasta In Three Steps

Five eggs, four cups of flour with chopped herbs. Let the dough ball rest in the refrigerator for an hour. I roll and cut the pasta with a bull-nose attachment on a KitchenAid mixer. Then drop it into a big rolling pot of this. Pretty easy pasta.

Good News

If you were a fan of Cafe 909 in Marble Falls, I have good news. Mark and Shelly Schmidt (who closed 909 and I thought were heading to Houston) are now at Annie’s Cafe and Bar on Congress Ave. If you ever had a chance to make the journey to Cafe 909, you know it […]

Alternate Uses

The cold ferment pizza dough is a hit (see posts below). The bonus is, the same dough makes wicked focaccia. You need to let it rise longer and cook it at a lower temperature than the pizza. But, other than that, same dough, two uses. Pictured above is a rosemary and artichoke version, waiting to […]

Slow Roast

By the heat of things, I could probably save time and money by cooking dinner on the sidewalk in front of our house. But, because of sanitation and grackle issues, I am sticking to my kitchen. Above is one of our main-stays: seared chicken which is finished cooking in a pan sauce of white wine, […]