Dutch Crunch Rolls

Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread! You can read the full challenge here.

I wasn't entirely successful I fear. The Dutch Crunch adhered to the rolls and browned, but it seems to have granules present that others don't appear to have in theirs. Perhaps I didn't beat it vigorously enough? Or I didn't grind the homemade brown rice flour enough? Either way the topping still contributed an interesting texture to the rolls and its flavor was reminiscent of beer bread.

Sadly, I didn't heed the storage instructions and, by the time I remembered I needed a photo of a sandwich,  mold struck rendering the remaining rolls inedible. Heed the storage advice, y'all, and refrigerate the bread if you don't devour it all within a day or two.

I ate my rolls with tuna salad prepared with tuna, mayo, hard boiled eggs, finely chopped celery and Arby's Horsey Sauce; it wasn't photogenic but it tasted good. For my second sandwich, I inverted the buns so the dutch crunch faced the tuna salad. The crunch disappeared but so did the tiny crumbles that made me fret making this change worthwhile. 

While I doubt I'll make Dutch Crunch Rolls or Bread again at home I'll definitely seek out the real thing whenever I make it to San Francisco. I need to experience an expert version to form a real opinion on it.

Soft White Rolls
Yields: approximately 6 rolls

1 tablespoon (1 packet) Active Dry Yeast
1/4 cup Warm Water (105-110º F)
1 cup Warm Milk (105-110º F) (I used skim.)
1 1/2 tablespoons Sugar
2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil (plus additional oil for greasing bowl)
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
Up to 4 cups All Purpose Flour

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer or large mixing bowl, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit for about 5 minutes to ensure the yeast proofs (the mixture should bubble or foam and smell yeasty).
2. Add the vegetable oil, salt and 2 cups of flour. Using the dough hook attachment or a wooden spoon, mix at medium speed until the dough comes together.
3. Add remaining flour a quarter cup at time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic. (I let the dough hook knead it for another 2 minutes.)
5. Place in a lightly greased bowl, flip once and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour, or until it has at least doubled in size.
6. Then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 6 equal portions to make rolls. Shape each portion, handling it as little as possible, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping. (or much longer if you're slow like me!) Turn on the oven to preheat to 380 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. Coat the top of each roll with the topping as described above.
9. Place the rolls in the oven on the middle rack for for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. Cool completely on a wire rack, then eat.

Dutch Crunch Topping 
Yield: sufficient for 6-8 rolls

1 tablespoons (2 packets) Active Dry Yeast
.5 cup Warm Water (105-115º F)
1 tablespoons Sugar
1 tablespoons Canola Oil
1/4 teaspoon Salt
3/4 cup Rice Flour (I used brown rice flour made my whirring up brown rice in the Vitamix. Since my flour was home-made I actually used approximately 1 1/2 cups of Rice Flour)

1. Once your bread has almost finished rising, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat vigorously with a whisk to combine. The consistency should be like stiff and spreadable, not runny. Add more water or rice flour as needed. Let stand 15 minutes.
2. Coat the top of each loaf or roll with a thick layer of topping. (I patted it out in my hand then placed it on the buns. It was that thick and rumor has it that this is necessary or you won't get the cracked effect.)
3. Let stand, uncovered, for any additional time your recipe recommends. With the Soft White Roll I chose to use we were advised that the rolls could go directly into the oven after applying the topping.
4. When baking, place pans on a rack in the center of the oven and bake your bread as you ordinarily would. The topping should crack and turn a nice golden-brown color.

Coconut Banana Bread

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles. You can find the full challenge and photos of (almost) everyone's quick breads here.

"Quick bread is called just that as it doesn't require kneading or rising time." (Epicurious via Lis) As is one of the few things I manage to prepare quickly and it lets me pass off cake for breakfast, quick bread is definitely one of my favorite things to make. This Coconut Banana Bread is adapted from Orangette's Banana Bread with Chocolate and Cinnamon Sugar, which has been my starting point for banana-based bread since making it in 2007.

That said I always halve the sugar, skip the topping, swap half the unbleached all-purpose flour for whole wheat and add a little salt every time I make it...at the minimum...so it isn't that much like the original. But I still credit Molly for my ongoing obsession with banana bread. This time in addition to the usual changes, I  worked in some coconut, a touch of coconut oil and papaya thinking tropical would taste as good as it would feel in February.

Other than the banana overwhelming the papaya, this Coconut Banana Bread didn't disappoint. It is moist and dense with a subtle sweetness and a touch of a crunch from the coconut. Best of all you can almost feel virtuous eating it as the refined sugar and added fat are minimal and there is plenty of fiber. Temperatures upwards of 70 degrees Fahrenheit might still be a ways away but at least I have this bread to comfort me.

Coconut Banana Bread (with Papaya You Can't Taste :/) 
1 Ripe Banana
1 cup Diced Papaya (I'm pretty sure you could use another banana or two in place of the papaya as its flavor wasn't really present.)
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 tablespoon Coconut Oil
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut (like this reduced fat one that I use)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a mixing bowl, mash the banana and papaya well with a fork or the back of a spoon. Place the tablespoon of coconut oil in a 9 x 5 loaf pan and melt it in the microwave. Pour it into the bowl and use whatever remains to grease the pan.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl and stir to combine. Then add the flours, sugar, salt, baking soda and coconut. Stir to mix.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake approximately 40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack until cool to the touch before serving (or it will stick to the bottom of the loaf pan and kind of fall apart...or at least that is how it worked for me after a mere 20 minute holding time.)

Biscuits and Buffalo Smashed Chickpeas

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens! He studied 288 websites' scone/biscuit recipes and the bakers' comments, then made 16 batches to perfect his recipe all  with the goal of "[us being] able to make a good if not great scone (biscuit)."

I don't really need words to tell you he achieved his goal - just look at my biscuits. They were golden, fluffy, and tender. I followed his basic recipe and tips to achieve success that had my Dad on cloud nine on the first try. The directions below tell you what I did for that first batch but I highly recommend checking out the full details of the challenge (and trying it right away). The next batch, also below, involved blue cheese, dill and a bit of whole wheat flour with the white.

I chose those flavors as I wanted to make a variation on Buffalo Chicken Wings with the biscuit toning down the spiciness of the Buffalo-style Smashed Chickpeas. The biscuit tasted pretty good, in spite of being precariously close to burnt, but I'm not giving proportions as it wasn't quite right. The filling, however, was awesomely tangy and addictive so the recipe for that is below. I expect to eat it for lunch often move forward with or without perfected Blue Cheese and Dill biscuits.

I also look forward to making more biscuits in the future...and my Dad looks forward to eating them.

Basic Biscuits (as made in the aforementioned first batch)
Servings: Eight 2-inch scones or five 3-inch scones

1 cup Self Rising Flour (Spoon into your measuring cup and level. Do not pack it.)
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
2 tablespoons Frozen, Grated Butter
1/4 cup Skim Milk
1/4 cup Heavy Cream (I didn't have whole milk, but I'm sure that would work instead of this 50/50 mix.)

1. Preheat oven to 475°F.
2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
3. Rub the frozen grated butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse sand.
4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed).
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, then lightly flour the top of the dough. Knead very gently 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth.
6. Pat the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for ~10 minutes. Then using a well-floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, stamp out without twisting six rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ~1/2 inch layer and cut two more scones.
7. Place the rounds spaced widely apart on a baking sheet. (At this point you can chill them in the fridge for several hours if you aren't ready to bake yet.)
8. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
9. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm.


Buffalo Smashed Chickpeas
Servings: 3-4 ... it really depends on how much you eat ... I ate a lot. :x

Inspired by Buffalo Chickpea Lettuce Wraps by Jenn at Jenn's Lifestyle and Menu Blog featured at Kath Eats here and created with reference to Chef Dennis, Food & Wine, Gourmet via Epicurious, and Food.com's Buffalo Chicken wing recipes.

My family doesn't brave the heat too well, so this recipe caters more to the tangy, vinegar flavor of Buffalo Chicken wings and doesn't really need blue cheese to tone down its spice. Feel free to alter the spices to suit your taste. I may give into my urge to add some Sriracha next time.

1 14.5 ounce can Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 tablespoon Olive Oil
3 cloves Garlic, minced (~1 heaping teaspoon)
1 1/2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
2 tablespoons Red Pepper Hot Sauce
2 tablespoons Tomato Paste
large pinch Cayenne Pepper
3/4 cup diced Celery

1. Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add minced garlic and cook stirring occasionally until it begins to turn golden brown.
2. Add chickpeas and stir.
3. Add vinegar, hot sauce, tomato paste and cayenne. Stir until combined. Using the back of the spatula or spoon to press down the chickpeas to smash some of them.
4. Remove from heat. Stir in the diced celery.

Char Sui and Char Sui Bao

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious! And I'm only a week late telling you about it.

Sara performed exhaustive research: testing marinades, grilling, searing and baking and baking char sui and then making several variations on buns: baked, steamed and vegetarian. You can see all of her work here. I used her alternative marinade without red food colouring or maltose and made the I-don't-want-to-go-to-the-store substitution of Sherry for Shaoxing Cooking Wine. As Sara said grilling gave the best result, I had my Dad work his magic on the pork with a result so beautiful that I was almost sad to dice it to create the filling for the buns.

The hardest part was figuring out how to steam buns without a bamboo steamer. Ultimately, I used a vegetable steamer insert in a large stock pot removing the lid as quickly as possible when steaming finished and drying it before replacing it over the next batch. This minimized condensation droplets hitting the buns and prevented unsightly blemishes. It also made me feel a bit like a magician!

This challenge took some time, but was surprisingly easy and my buns tasted just like the cheap, tasty, steamed buns I used to purchase in NYC's Chinatown. I highly recommend it; the recipes I used are below the photos and Sara's other variations can be found at the above link.

December 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Christmas Stollen

Merry (Belated) Christmas! It is a peaceful snowy day here in Virginia and I am taking advantage of it to organize, read, watch movies and maybe venture over to see the Osipenko household. Usually I would bake too but I'm content snacking on the leftover Stollen from Christmas Eve. At least until I make snow cream this evening; my bowl has been collecting flakes since last night for that delicacy. :)

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration. You can find all the details and the recipe here.

When Mom heard about the challenge she enthusiastically started reminiscing about her great-grandmother making it on rainy days during her childhood. I was less excited as Stollen's comparison to fruitcake concerned me, but I followed the provided recipe using homemade candied orange peel, dates and cranberries for the fruit and substituting orange for all the lemon. Also! I skipped the rum as we have underage family members. I have to tell you the end result was a pleasant surprise. It looked and tasted great - very moist and tender with a fruity flavor.

This recipe is worth the time and numerous dirty dishes! I will be making it again in loaves. Thank you for a great challenge, Penny.

 The yeast was out of control! I had to get a bowl for the overflow. 

 I love candied citrus peel, so it was shame to have this all go into the bread. Candied 

grapefruit and lime peel and ginger will be next and they will be eaten on their own.

 This was 24" x 17" i.e. HUGE.

Clearly, I am delighted to be cutting the finished product.

You can see the swirled layers and yet it doesn't fall apart when you eat it.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread

One of my favorite treats growing up in Richmond, Virginia was fresh bread from Montana Gold Bread Company in Carytown. Going to get new pointe shoes at Ellman's inevitably ended with a thick, sample slice and a few loaves coming home. When I saw Cassie from How To Eat a Cupcake and Flour Child Bakery post this Cinnamon Swirl Bread I was brought back to their Cinnamon Swirl Bread and bookmarked the recipe confident that I could bring a version of Montana Gold's bread to my Brooklyn kitchen.

My only changes to the recipe were spreading a bit of canned pumpkin between layers in lieu of raisins  (because what isn't pumpkin good in?), rolling it up without the topping and having to unroll it (oops) and letting it rise overnight in the fridge, which didn't hold it back in the least as this bread was a prodigious riser. I'm not kidding. It's strength buckled my silicon loaf pan.

The resulting loaf was an excellent likeness to the one in my memory -- light and fluffy in texture and slightly sweet. It was great on its own fresh or toasted with a bit of butter later in the week. To get a feel for it imagine the texture and size of Texas Toast only replace the garlic and butter with a sweet swirl. My only change next time will be having more space to roll out the dough, so there will be more of a swirl in my end result! You've got to try it.

Other excitement: I have two new readers! Thanks for signing on y'all. I also ran my first 8k this past weekend; thanks to a friend's pace setting skill there were no stops or walking breaks and we finished in 58:20. I didn't think a 5k outside was possible much less an 8k. :)

Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Bread
From Joy of Cooking via How To Eat A Cupcake
Yield: 1 loaf

1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) Active Dry Yeast
3 tablespoons Warm Water (105 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit)
1 cup Milk (full fat or nonfat both are fine, heat to  low-fat milk, warmed 105 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit)
6 tablespoons Melted Unsalted Butter (keep one tablespoon for finishing)
3 tablespoons Sugar
1 large Egg
1 teaspoon Salt
3 1/2 to 4 cups All-Purpose Flour

Filling:
1/2 cup Pumpkin
2 tablespoons Sugar
2 teaspoons Cinnamon

Finishing
1 Egg
Salt
1. Combine yeast and water in a large bowl or bowl of mixer and stir. Let stand for five minutes until yeast dissolves. Meanwhile, oil a large bowl.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, except for the flour and the aforementioned teaspoon of butter, and mix for 1 minute on low speed. Add the 3 1/2 cups of flour a 1/2 cup at a time, until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl yet sticks to its bottom. If needed, continue adding a tablespoon of flour at a time until you reach the right consistency.
3. If using a mixer with a dough attachment, switch to it and knead for about 10 minutes on low to medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic. If kneading by hand, sprinkle the counter with flour and knead the dough until smooth and elastic.
4. Place the dough in the prepared bowl and turn it over once to coat. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled in volume.
5. Open the can of pumpkin and scoop out 1/2 cup in a small bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar for the filling.
6. Grease an 8 1/2” x 4 1/2” loaf pan. Melt the reserved butter. Punch dough down. Roll the dough into an 8” x 18” rectangle about 1/2” thick. Brush the surface of the dough with the 1 teaspoon of the melted butter. Sprinkle all but 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon sugar over the dough and spread the pumpkin as evenly as you can over the surface. Starting from one 8” side, roll up the dough and pinch the seam and ends closed. Place seam side down in the pan. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in volume, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk egg and salt together and gently brush over the top of the loaf. Sprinkle the top of the dough with the remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake until crust is deep golden brown and the bottom of the sounds hollow when tapped, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove loaf from the pan onto a cooling rack. While the bread is still hot, brush the top with the remaining melted butter, then let it cool.
8. Once cool, slice and enjoy.

Grape Focaccia with Rosemary

On September 19, I impulsively bought New York State Concord Grapes thinking I'd try Deb at Smitten Kitchen's Grape Foccacia with Rosemary. While I threw them into sauce for sauteed pork then, I didn't attempt the recipe until last weekend and that only happened because the grapes were showing signs of shrivel! This was my second attempt at a Foccacia-style bread and while it went better than my first where the dough ended up like dinosaur skin it just didn't live up to Luca of the Cavatappo Empire's.

The focaccia's flavor is delicious and the unexpected combination of grapes and rosemary satisfies your desire for sweet and salty in one bite, but it's lack of levity made me think of pizza dough. At first I thought it the density might have come from my mistakes following the recipe -- adding 6 tablespoons of oil to the dough instead of 2 due to poor reading and leaving it in the fridge to rise for almost 14 hours -- but Deb's pictures while much more stunning than mine reveal the same height.

I want my focaccia to be thick and fluffy, so I'll have to keep trying other recipes. Plus halving and seeding all those grapes was too tedious for my taste. It was more fun to be less lady-like and to enjoy them by popping them in my mouth and spitting out the seeds.

Homemade Baguettes: Attempts 1 and 2

My current infatuation is attempting to make artisan bread, which all started with baguettes. Back in June Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny chose pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge. Swamped with moving I skipped it but the thought of making baguettes at home stayed with me and now I've made them twice using their suggested recipe.

Perfecting baguettes is a work in progress but even my imperfect results were pleasing with their crispy exterior and chewy interior with the requisite pockets from air bubbles. This is the perfect project for a long weekend. There's a 50/50 chance of happening again this weekend for me (SO excited to have the extra day off!) and I'd recommend that you try making baguettes too as the bread's delicious - though it goes away all too quickly.

While the recipe can't be halved I have discovered that you can bake the loaves about 5 minutes short of being done, let them cool to room temperature, wrap 'em up and freeze them to finish at a later date. It's the fast way to have baguettes handy and the amazing smell of homemade bread in a short amount of time. Otherwise plan to time out the 19 hour recipe very carefully. My only other note so far is that the second rise can take place for 4-6 hours in the fridge; for me this method resulted in the bread holding its shape better and it let me go out to play.

Almost the full Gossip Girl Season Premiere Spread -- I made everything but the cheese myself! The only thing missing is the improvised cake mentioned here (without instructions as it needs refining).

I suspect my serrated knife isn't as sharp as it needs to be since cutting the slits into the loaves 

distorts them even more than my initial handling!

Soft Pretzels

When someone says a recipe is a fun weekend project you should take them seriously. Do not start making soft pretzels at 8 p.m. on a Monday, especially not after watching the Oscars in Harlem the night before and getting home at 12:45 a.m. They will smell heavenly but you will be tired and hot because keeping the oven at 450 degrees this long is woah.

I would have put this project off but I had committed to making the pretzels for tonight's volunteering last week. And when I commit I really commit. Even though as I write this I'm up later than I would like I have to tell you the pretzels were fun to put together and easy.

The dough rose beautifully and just kept rising. It had this fantastic smooth, elastic texture that I could have rolled out for hours and I might have done so while trying to get the pretzels perfect only it was so late that I was saved from my perfectionism. I used parchment paper instead of greasing the pans, which made clean-up a breeze, and kosher salt instead of pretzel salt as I already had it.

These are delicious, at least as good as Costco's soft pretzels. I highly recommend you make them on a weekend!  My only caution to you is don't over poach the dough. Over poached pretzels will end up sticky/uncooked on the bottom and a little creepy though still tasty if you remove the doughy layer.

When I read the entry's comments I noticed that someone had wrapped veggie hot dogs in the pretzel dough and made stuffed pretzel bites. Yum. I might have to try that next or a soy-ginger glaze or a cheese-green chile filling like a jalapeno popper or pb&j...there are endless possibilities!

Mezze with Homemade Pita, Hummus and More

Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

The 2010 February Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid. You can download a PDF with the challenge details and other helpful information here. Michele really did her research and provided lots of optional recipes in addition to the required homemade pita and hummus. Thanks so much for your hard work, Michele!

This challenge was nice as you could do the minimum or get really creative and it could be done in advance for leisurely entertaining. Of course, I didn't plan correctly and there was nothing leisurely about my experience. I started at 4 p.m. Saturday before last and didn't finish until 8:30 p.m. I mean why would I want to spread the work out over several days when I could exhaust myself cramming it into one action packed night? :) Thank goodness Jeff allowed me to change plans and came to me. I'm not sure what I would have done with all the food without him. 16 pitas for one girl?! Even with his help, I was able to take leftovers to a Superbowl party Sunday, eat them all week and STILL have 3 pitas left as of tonight (2/13).

My pitas were mostly pocket-less. Those with pockets were significantly lighter and more enjoyable, even though the others still tasted good. I'm not sure why so few puffed. I used the same methodology throughout but it must be some technicality. I will definitely try pitas again with a quarter or half of the recipe. I have a feeling getting the pitas to puff takes practice. Do any other Daring Cooks have tips? If so, please share them!

As for the hummus, it was a bit raw for my taste between all the lemon juice and the garlic's bite. The hummus also needed more extra liquid than in past recipes. I love making my own hummus but I'll probably stick to the basic recipe I have scrawled in a notebook somewhere in my room or this AMAZING cilantro-lime hummus.

The provided Cucumber Raita recipe was enjoyable; I always had wondered what went into it. I'm certain I'll revisit it perhaps amping up the cumin since I love it so much. Cumin is about to be my first non-baking related spice to have ever used up, which seems like a milestone in the kitchen.

I also served cubed feta, a simple salad with roasted beets and a pearl barley salad loosely inspired by this complicated and wonderful Eggplant Barley Salad. The roasted beets were very fresh and bright with the zest of one lemon, juice of half a lemon and fresh parsley; I thought of this simple recipe when I threw them together. For the pearl barley salad, totally trying to remember now as I was lazy and didn't outline promptly, I cooked the pearl barley and set it aside to cool. While it was cooling, I sauteed ground lamb in water, then set it aside to drain. Next I added onions, cumin and coriander to the same pan and sauteed until the onions were translucent. Finally I combined everything together with some freshly chopped parsley, quartered and seeded cherry tomatoes and, when I realized I omitted salt, some crumbled feta to compensate. It could use some work but it wasn't a bad variation and it took a LOT less time.

As for the three leftover pitas? They are so going in the freezer for the moment. Don't get me wrong. It was a great, tasty challenge but I have mezze fatigue. I'm certain I'll be back to them sooner rather than later though as they are fun to put together and make a healthy, portable meal.

 

  

  

Why I felt the need to put silverware in everything is beyond me since, hello, the joy of mezze is scooping up food with the pita and eating with your hands.

Burger Buns

Before heading to Nagshead, goat cheese lentil burgers were back on the menu and I needed bread or buns. I didn't have milk or yogurt, so I spent some time seeking a recipe online. King Arthur's Beautiful Burger Buns were a good fit for my needs. Gosh, I love the internet.

They were simple to put together and held up really well against the prosciutto, mozzarella tomato and basil sandwiches I actually ended up eating all week. I could make the sandwich the night before, wrap it in saran wrap and leave it in the fridge with minimal deterioration. There is nothing worse than mushy food, so this was great!

The buns are slightly sweet, have a very fine i.e. messy crumb and a dry texture. While practical and good, I will probably continue to seek a different recipe for buns. I'd like a bun that makes less of a mess when I'm eating it.


Happy Labor Day!

Pizza Bianca

The hours spent making Pizza Bianca were tedious and fraught will concern. Nothing seemed to be going right. I probably should have halted the production when I couldn't find instant dry yeast, but once I get an idea I stick to it until the bitter end.

I halved the recipe, substituted active dry yeast decreasing the water to reflect the water used to proof the yeast, and struggled to get the dough to come together. I resorted to adding tablespoons of water until a mass formed. I think it took around four. The process is a little bit fuzzy as it was so drawn out.

In the end, I escaped a cooking disaster and the dough rose nicely, twice as required by the recipe. When the second rise finished at 1:00 am I really was not in the mood to eat Pizza Bianca, so I decided to go out on a limb and let it sit overnight. If I let dough sit overnight again, I will cover the dough with saran wrap to prevent it from drying out instead of using a clean dish towel. My Pizza Bianca looked a little like dinosaur skin, but tasted great.

Soft Yogurt Sandwich Rolls

This weekend I overcame my fear of yeast and made traditional bread from scratch i.e. bread involving yeast. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought, but it was much more time consuming. I never thought I would get out of the kitchen.

As promised this recipe for Soft Yogurt Sandwich Rolls turned out soft sandwich rolls with a nice texture that holds up to moisture. However, they were a little sour for my taste. I wouldn't rule out making them again but there might be a better roll recipe out there for me. Regardless, the rolls smell delicious while baking, which my roommates loved. The flour explosion also got me to clean behind out movable "counter" and I think they appreciated that too.

My only misstep was purchasing regular yogurt, so I had to drain it with cheesecloth into yogurt cheese to have the appropriate texture for the recipe. I recommend avoiding that step.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits

Today I impulsively purchased buttermilk at Green Market. As I don't like to drink it I had to find things to make with it. I saved this southern-style buttermilk biscuit recipe a while ago, but was out of all-purpose flour. I found a whole-wheat biscuit recipe, but did not have enough butter on hand.

I ended using the first recipe substituting whole-wheat flour and a 1/2 cup of almond meal for the white flour. It worked out pretty well. The biscuits are fluffy, filling, and have a nutty flavor. I've been enjoying them plain as they have enough flavor that I don't need to add anything, which makes them great for rushing out the door in the morning (I'm always late).

The recipes both noted the need for something with a sharp metal edge to cut the biscuits or you would interfere with the biscuits ability to rise. Turns out we only have a star cookie cutter, so I present to you my finished product.

Lime and Raspberry Bread

I made this Lime and Raspberry Bread on Monday night and finished it by Friday morning. It was that good. As one would expect, the flavor is very lime. The texture is like a good cake - light and very moist. Perfect.

While the recipe's author suggests dusting them with flour to prevent bleeding, I didn't bother. I had already squeezed 12+ key limes to get the 3/4 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice, my hands were HURTING and I just wanted to be done. Besides skipping that step made the batter really pretty; it had deep pink swirls like tie-dye. Why did I have key limes instead of regular limes? Well, the roast chicken left a surplus that I had an insatiable need to use.

If I weren't in the middle of making whole-wheat buttermilk biscuits right now, I might make a new batch using the other half of my bag of frozen raspberries and squeeze bottle lime juice.

bill's Coconut Bread

This first time I made bill's Coconut Bread, I ate it all before I could remember to take a picture. See, I have a thing for coconut. Freshman year of college a boyfriend's mom was an international stewardess and introduced me to Ferrero Raffaello candies. They are creamy, perfect candies that apparently caused me to make the same face making out did. Ahem. Next it was Edy's Coconut Sorbet by the pint in a single sitting. Writing this makes me what to sneak into the kitchen for my fourth sliver of the day, but I will resist as bedtime is soon.

Our refrigerator has been broken for almost three weeks now. I'm constantly challenged to make things I can eat quickly without buying perishable items that will need storage since to get the fridge fixed, when and if the part comes in, the whole thing must be unplugged for 48 hours. Remembering this recipe made me slightly less bitter about having to use my last two eggs and some butter just in case the call comes this week.

The bread is just as good as I remembered, obviously. It is dense, thoroughly flecked with finely shredded coconut, and not overly sweet. When toasted with butter it literally melts in your mouth. If you like coconut, you must try making this as it is pretty simple given what it provides. FYI, caster sugar is equivalent to superfine sugar in the US.

P.S. I really need to get better at taking pictures of my food, eh?

Lemonade, Banana Bread with Chocolate, Cinnamon, & Sugar, and Salad

One of my favorite activities in NYC is wandering around Green Market tasting the fresh fruit and when finally hot enough buying an ice cold peppermint tea, apple cider, or today raspberry apple cider to enjoy with a sun-warmed piece of bread. It feels so luxurious.

Today I felt inspired and actually bought fresh veggies while sauntering. Orange, purple, and yellow carrots, which surprisingly all taste the same. Red romaine lettuce. Fresh beets. Apricots. Zucchini and summer squash. I couldn't wait to come home and eat.

I even had a new peeler, purchased from the infamous carrot man, to peel the vegetables. Unfortunately, I peeled my finger a little bit too, but that will heal with time. It did a great job and my salad, as you can see, was the prettiest salad I have ever made. I even made the dressing myself using the proportions described here. Not bad.

I also made homemade lemonade with a mint-lemon simple syrup. The lemonade was more labor intensive than I expected. I probably won't make it again, unless I am having a few people over and it can be served all at once. That said I think the syrup will be divine in a glass of tea, so I plan to try that sometime this week while scrambling to consume it before its untimely demise.

My other treat was making banana bread! The grocery store across the street always has the overripe bananas on sale for a $1.00 for 8 or something, so I walked over the buy a bundle. I came home to discover that I purchased plantains. I'm not sure what I am going to do with those...

Luckily, I had frozen a previous batch and was still able to move forward. I find it interesting that this recipe doesn't call for any liquid, really, butter, or oil. As you would expect, this bread isn't the sticky sweet, moist version of banana bread. It is much lighter, but still completely addictive. I can't wait to try it frozen as described in the blog entry. I also think it would be an excellent gift, if I bought cute little loaf pans to bake it in.

How is it that the result of every baking and other adventure results in my wanting to purchase something new that I don't have space to store in my apartment! Damn consumer culture!

P.S. The bread is amazing frozen! We'll see if I can make it last for a week.