Make the Bread, Buy the Butter - Jennifer Reese [13]
1 pound dried chickpeas
Salt
1. Cover the chickpeas in water to soak overnight. Or, if you’re in a hurry, boil the chickpeas for 2 minutes, turn off the heat, and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours. (This is what cookbooks call a “quick soak.”)
2. Drain off the soaking water. Put the chickpeas in a medium pot, add fresh water to generously cover again, bring to a boil, and simmer gently until tender. This will take as little as 40 minutes or up to a few hours, depending on the age of the beans. Salt to taste only after the chickpeas have softened. Store in the refrigerator for 5 days, or freeze for longer storage.
Makes 7 cups
TAHINI
Store-bought tahini is plush and sand-colored, with a pronounced sesame flavor. Home-ground tahini is coarse, the flavor more muted.
Make it or buy it? Buy it.
Hassle: Easy
Cost comparison: Homemade: $0.15 per tablespoon. Indo-European brand imported from Lebanon: $0.15 per tablespoon.
½ cup sesame seeds
4 teaspoons olive oil
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Spread the sesame seeds on a baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes.
3. Cool. Grind with the oil to form a smooth, runny paste. Store in a jar in the refrigerator.
Makes ⅓ cup
CORNBREAD
Jiffy mix makes a fair cornbread. It’s not quite as lofty as homemade, you can’t tailor the sweetness, and it does contain partially hydrogenated lard. But the bread tastes fine and it’s marginally cheaper and quicker than homemade. That said, I’ve been baking my husband’s grandmother’s cornbread recipe for fifteen years, and I think of her every time I do it. She was lovely with a cloud of white hair and the gift of making everyone feel appreciated, from the smallest child to the most shy and awkward adult. She called recipes “rules” and she wrote out this rule for “Aunt Sally’s cornbread” for me in her own hand. Whoever Aunt Sally was, she was definitely a Yankee. This cornbread is sweet.
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Not as jiffy as Jiffy but quite easy
Cost comparison: Jiffy costs about two cents per ounce less than homemade. A piece of Jiffy cornbread: $0.18. A piece of homemade: $0.22.
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white or yellow cornmeal, whatever grind you like
½ cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Put the butter in a 10-inch pie plate and place it in the oven to melt.
2. Mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. When the butter has melted, take the pie plate out of the oven and swirl the butter around to coat the pan. Let it cool for 1 or 2 minutes, then pour the butter into the milk-egg mixture. Whisk to combine.
3. Whisk the liquid into the dry mixture—not too strenuously. A few lumps are okay.
4. Pour into the pie plate and bake for 25 minutes. When it is done, the bread will be slightly puffed and a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean. Serve immediately. Leftovers keep for a few days, covered, at room temperature.
Serves 8
NUTELLA
Delicious on toasted English muffins and by the spoonful, straight from the jar, homemade Nutella is nubblier than the Ferrero product, but also more hazelnutty and intense. I thought the recipe from the archives of the Los Angeles Times was so perfect I decided to teach the sixth-grade girls in my cooking class how to make it. They were very stoked—until they tasted it. They frowned. They were not pleased. So we added sugar and cocoa powder until we got the Nutella closer to the supersweet, fudgy, slightly waxy spread they know and love. I began to wonder if they would care if hazelnuts were eliminated entirely. Perhaps not. This recipe reflects the happy medium between my ideal Nutella and theirs.
Make it or buy it? Give it a try.
Hassle: