IDEAS IN FOOD

Driven By Dough

My morning starts at around 3:15 am. From then on, I have my head down and am running non-stop for about 12 hours. I have my eyes on the path in front of me and block out the rest of the world as I strive to create.

 

The other day a regular customer asked Aki if we were closing. He overheard a conversation in Wawa that made him think that this was a possibility. She told him it was a baseless rumor and not true. What is true is that we have a small, tight, hard working staff that makes magic on a daily basis. It's hard. It's really hard. And when people ask me how's it going, I don't bother to sugar coat it. My blunt answers when sharing the hardships of creating on a daily basis and the insane unpredictability of our business flow has probably led to the rumors of imminent shut down. When we have too many doughnuts left over, we are crushed. When we run out of doughnuts early customers are disappointed and we are too, because we want everyone to get what they came looking for. Finding a balance between sales and leftovers when it comes to a perishable product is a delicate balancing act. We need to sell out every day in order to make money, but, we are also here to make people happy.

 

Two years into our current location, we are creating more different items than I ever imagined. Besides doughnuts, we have tapped into our dough driven creativity and incorporated a focused selection of naturally leavened breads (sourdough, focaccia, and bagels) and pastries. We continue to evolve and refine our croissants and their derivatives. Cinnamon rolls on the weekends are developing their own following. We (finally) brought back American Noodles in the form of take home noodle kits for two, designed to make dinner simple and delicious. It's a constant evolution at the shop.

 

With that in mind, here is our current line up:

 

The Doughnuts

Crullers

Angel Pillows

Chocolate Yeasted

Vanilla Yeasted

Cloud

Hot-Cake

Condensed Milk

Not Quite Vegan

Lemon Cake

Apple Cider

Super Cake

Dark Knight

Chocolate Babka

Brown Sugar Babka

Savory Zeppoli

Meltaway Bars

 

Naturally Leavened Breads: Sourdough, Focaccia, Cinnamon Rolls, and Bagels, with rotating fixings like brown butter cream cheese, egg salad, and more.

 

Croissants and Croissant Hand Pies

 

Pasta Kits: fresh pasta and sauce for two

 

If any of that piques your itnerest, come see us at the shop!

800 Edison Furlong Rd., Furlong, PA 18925

Iterations and Improvement

We need to be willing to try. Failure shows a direction. It shows we have an opinion and a vision.

Lime Pickle Mafaldine

Well, here goes. Let's see if the spaghetti sticks.

As many of you know we were at the forefront of utilizing pasta extruders in the kitchen 15 years ago. We have continued to quietly work, develop and share our work. As we dive head first back into the world of noodles I am looking to share our recipes and creations.

First up is our Lime Pickle Mafaldine. We paired this noodle with brown butter chicken bolognese and a Calabrian cucumber condiment in our second American Noodles Pasta Kit.

So here goes, rough and ready to be explored:

Lime Pickle Semolina Pasta Dough

600 grams water

125 grams Indian Lime Pickle Condiment

2000 grams semolina flour

600 grams lime pickle water (30%) water plus a potentially a little more

Put the lime pickles and water in a blender. Puree them together until the mixture appears smooth. Strain the lime mixture through a fine meshed sieve. Reserve for making noodles.

Put the semolina into the pasta machine and mix to distribute in the hopper. With the machine running drizzle the lime pickle water into the machine. Mix the dough for 6-7 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough after four minutes. It should begin to resemble course streusel. Squeeze the dough together in your hand. Break the dough apart. If it breaks cleanly the dough has enough water. If it crumbles, add additional water in 20-gram increments. Once the dough is the right consistency let it knead in the machine for a few minutes. If you are in a hurry you could begin extruding immediately but it's better to let it rest for in the machine for 10 minutes for ideal hydration.

Monday Morning Musings

It's 3am ish. I'm halfway through my first cup of coffee. Groundhog day celebrations are now a thing of yesterday. I have missed writing and collecting ideas. I have missed teaching and connecting ideas. Our time together is precious and easily mistreated. My body is weary but I don't want to miss the fleeting moments in the day. But as I dither about, searching for the right choice, the digital world withers away my time and the days are gone. 

It's ironic, because for years, and now into today I, we, depend on connecting through the digital space. And I loathe its heavy weight that buries original ideas and turns us into consumers of excessive shock and wonderment while simultaneously pointing out our inadequacy.

I can't seem to figure it out. And unfortunately or not, I have never been able to figure it out. I have looked back through our archives, and occasionally my musings turn to this darker side. And then I remember and reflect. We have always created for ourselves. It is wonderful when we can connect with others and share ideas and experiences. But, Ideas in Food is our path. It's great when people cross it, walk along it and even acknowledge its existence.

But we are here, creating to create. We are here searching for delicious. We are here collecting and connecting.

There will be more to come as I continue to unpack what I want to consume and create.

Questioning Creativity

I sat, wondering, what is all this for? We used to create as we searched for discovery. Now creators make shit happen to make money on the hamster wheel. We consume creativity like popcorn at the movie, eating handfuls but not thinking about what is going in our mouths.

I wonder what we need, from an artistic side to a life sustaining side.

It's Complicated

We created. We photographed. We wrote. We shared our thoughts.

Our website has become a jumbled ball of yarn caught in antiquated technology and expensive solutions. We have worked to try and unwind the ball of yarn and restart the creative machine of Ideas in Food. Somehow, it feels like the obstacles continue to tell us to just move on.

I am not ready to do so.

I will continue, to the best of my brain power to work on bringing life back to the space.

I am not sure it will work. There is so much noise, and clickable content available that original thought is often tapped like a maple tree, the source of the syrup being completely ignored.

Small steps will begin the journey.

Pulled in All Directions

I have so many ideas. I do not have enough hours or even hands to make them happen. I want to make and create so much more. The pull in all of these directions keeps me cemented in place creating nothing.

Perhaps one idea will begin to pull harder.

Naturally Leavened

We have been having more than our fair share of fun exploring the potential of using a stiff sweet starter in dough from panettone to brioche.