Bread. The staff of life. Probably the most recognizable foodstuff in the Western world… is really, really time-consuming and a little finicky.
I decided to make some healthier, mixed-grain bread. I’m no Atkins diet believer, but I do think it’s best not to eat too much white flour and add in some other healthy grains.
Note: to make this recipe, you need a mixer with a dough hook or paddle attachment.
To make one loaf, first gently mix one packet active dry yeast, 1 teaspoon honey and 1/4 cup warm (not hot) water in a small bowl and set aside. Also, soak about 3 tablespoons of bulgur with 1/4 cup of water in a small bowl and set that aside. When the yeasty stuff looks foamy (roughly 5 minutes) place it into your mixing bowl. Add in 2 tablespoons melted butter, 3/4 cup warm water and about 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey. Then, add in 3/4 cups white flour and one cup whole wheat flour, and mix with your dough hook or paddle attachment on low speed until it’s smooth. Then, add in the bulgur, 1/4 cups rolled oats (just plain old oatmeal), 2 tablespoons of flaxseeds and 2 tablespoons of raw sunflower seeds, as well as another 3/4 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour. Mix until it forms a rough ball, coming away from the bowl.
Butter a large bowl and set aside. Flour a surface. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Shape into a ball, transfer to the buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and put it in a warm place until it doubles in size (about an hour).
Butter a loaf pan. Punch down the dough (this is fun, you can pretend to be a boxer). Shape it into an 8 1/2 inch long (1/2 inch thick) rectangle. Fold over the two sides and make a seam, them put it seam side down into the loaf pan. Brush it with beaten egg whites or melted butter. You can also sprinkle more oats on top, which looks pretty. Put more plastic wrap over the loaf pan, and let it rise for another 45 minutes-hour. In the meantime, preheat to 450. When you’re ready to put the loaf in, drop the oven temp to 400. Bake 20 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake 20-25 more minutes.
Eat this write away, it goes stale fast. It is a LOT of work, but very tasty, especially toasted. I want to try it with some raisins or dried cranberries in it, I think that’d be awesome.
I love macaroons. Actually, I love what I have been informed are Jewish, as opposed to French, macaroons. French macaroons are these sandwich-type cookies:
I could take or leave this kind. They’re okay. The other macaroon cookies are popular at Passover because they can be made without flour, and have a history in the Jewish community, but they are also some of my favorite cookies. They can be made with ground nuts, but most often, with coconut. A lot of people don’t really like coconut, but I love it – it’s sweet, it’s moist, it has natural saturated fat, which is okay in small quantities and a lot better than animal-based saturated fats like butter. Mmm, butter.
Anyway, my coconut macaroon recipe makes them come out nice and moist, though, I should mention, has a little flour and is thus not Kosher for Passover (if anyone is interested, around Passover time I can try to amend these to make them flourless).
First, preheat to 325. Then, beat 2 egg whites and a tiny bit of salt with an electric mixture until soft peaks form. Slowly add in 1/3 cup sugar and beat for 1-2 minutes. Beat in 1 tsp vanilla. Add 6 ounces of shredded, sweetened coconut (I like Baker’s brand, which also originated walking distance from where I grew up), and 3 tablespoons flour. Mix thoroughly with a spoon or the electric mixer on very low speed.
I use my hands for this part (it’s easier), but make about two tablespoons of the mixture into a ball, and space these apart on a parchment lined sheet. Bake 18-20 minutes.
You could stop here. You’d have tasty macaroons. But I don’t like to stop. Once the cookies are cool, I melt up some chocolate, sometimes I add liquor, like Grand Marnier, if I’m so inclined. Then, I dip the cookies in the melted chocolate and let that thoroughly cool. When they’ve got chocolate, I’m pretty sure these are my favorite cookies of all time.
Here’s a special breakfast treat that is bound to impress others by the mere fact that it doesn’t come from a can with a chubby white man on the front. Homemade Cinnamon Buns, which would also make a lovely Christmas morning treat as well
Preheat to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, mix together 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp nutmeg. Set aside.
In a large bowl, stir together 2 1/2 cups flour, 2 tbs brown sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Briskly stir in 1 cup cream and 1/2 cup milk (I use skim to reduce fat content). Stir until the dough forms a ball, using your hands usually works better.
Turn it out onto a floured surface, and pat the dough into a roughly 9 by 13 inch rectangle. Brush the surface with about a tbs of milk. Sprinkle on the cinnamon mixture evenly.
Roll up the rectangle from the long side. Cut the log into 9 even pieces, and place the individual biscuits in a square baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes or so.
While they are baking, make a quick icing by mixing together about a 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar (more if needed) and 1-2 tbs of milk. Spread this on the biscuits as soon as they come out of the oven.
One caveat: EAT THEM WARM. They do not save well! They get dry and hard by the next day. But they are very tasty and not nearly as hard as they look.
So, I promised these, and I know it took me a while, but I’m finally blogging about them. I made some chocolate-mint cupcakes last weekend for a birthday party. To be honest, this isn’t my favorite flavor combo, but it’s popular, and I was able to make sugared mint leaves for the first time, and found the secret to making chocolate cake that doesn’t sink.
First, the mint leaves. These are easy, look pretty, and taste pretty good too. To make sugared anything, and specifically mint leaves, all you need to do is take an egg white, and then whisk it for a little bit. Then, take a pastry brush, and brush the surface of the thing you want to sugar with the egg white. Dip that thing into a small bowl of plain old granulated sugar. Let dry for at least 4-5 hours, or overnight. Looks pretty and sparkly, tastes like minty sugar. Makes a lovely, unique garnish. I’ve read about sugared mint leaves as a garnish for mojitos. Hmmm… mojitos.
Next, the perfect chocolate cake. Chocolate cake, particularly devil’s food, which generally involves cocoa powder, often sinks in the middle. And that sucks, because devil’s food cake is divine, despite the sinister name.
This is a slight adaptation of Shirley Corriher’s Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake. She and others discuss the difference between using Dutch process cocoa and regular cocoa. I’ve used both, and have to say, I’m not sure what the huge fuss is about, they honestly aren’t all that different, Dutch-process is a tad darker. But seriously, use whatever’s available. So, first, spray whatever pan you use (cupcake, round, whatever) liberally, bc chocolate STICKS. If you’re not doing cupcakes, use parchment. For reals, and spray that stuff as well. Also, preheat to 350. Then, in a heavy saucepan, and a big one as well, stir 2 3/4 cups sugar, 3/4 tsp salt, 3/4 cup cocoa powder, and 1 tsp baking soda. Stirring constantly, add a cup of boiling water (I took from the tea kettle), little by little. Stir it up briskly, bring back to a boil (it really bubbles up, hence the need for a big saucepan for mess prevention), shut off the heat, and let stand in the hot pan for at 10 or more minutes.
Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Add 1 cup canola oil (use something high quality, it makes a difference) and 2 tsp vanilla extract (another place to opt for the high quality), and beat on low speed with a mixer. Mix in 1 3/4 cups flour (Corriher uses bleached, I say “gross”). Then, mix in 4 egg yolks (take your lipitor, hahaha), 2 whole eggs and 1/4 cup buttermilk. Pour the (runny – caution – mess potential) batter into your pan(s), and bake for 20 minutes for cupcakes, more for larger cakes, until it passes the knife test.
Seriously, this is the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made. I am obsessed with adding boiling water to the baking soda as well as cocoa. Makes a big, big difference in consistency.
For frosting, I just make a regular buttercream (powdered sugar, butter, milk) with mint extract instead of vanilla. And a little green food coloring for effect. Then, I topped the cupcakes with the sugared mint leaves.
Okay, so I’ll admit that this is something I haven’t baked in a long time. But, at the moment, I am taking a much needed study break and being nostalgic about food, Christmas, etc. Because I love to bake, I bought a Holiday baking magazine (okay, a few special edition holiday food magazines… I may have a magazine addiction issue), but was thrilled to see a picture of my favorite Christmas cookies for childhood. My Grammy made these (and a slew of other cookies) every year, and let us kids help her. They are Candy Cane Cookies, and they look like this:
I had no idea as a kid, but apparently these are fairly popular. Here is my Grandmother’s recipe, exactly as she wrote it:
CANDY CANE COOKIES
1 c. soft shortening (half butter) 1 t. vanilla
1 c. sifted confectioners’ sugar 2 l/2 c. flour
1 egg 1 t. salt
1 l/2 t. almond flavoring ½ t. red food coloring
Topping: equal parts: crushed peppermint candy canes and sugar
Heat oven to 375. Mix well: shortening, sugar, egg, flavoring. Mix flour, salt and stir in. Divide dough in half. Blend red food coloring into one half. Roll 1 t. each color dough onto lightly floured board into a strip about 4 inches long. Place strips side by side; press lightly together and twist like a rope. Put onto ungreased baking sheet, curve top down for top of cane. Bake 9 minutes till lightly browned. Remove while still warm, sprinkle with mixture of ½ crushed peppermint stick candy and l/2 sugar. Makes about 4 dozen.
Success tip: make complete cookies one at a time. If all the dough of one color is twisted first the little rolls become too dry to twist.
Some modern revisions (I made these with Grammy circa 1989, and my mom apparently also made them with her as a child). One, you can buy soft shortening, no need to mix butter with regular shortening these days. I’ve seen people just use sanding sugar instead of crushed peppermint bits (which you can also buy, she used to beat the crap out of candy canes with a rolling pin).
The fun and kid-helper friendly part of these cookies was making the twists. She used to tell us to make “snakes” with the dough, and twist them together. Our versions and her versions looked a bit dissimilar… she was a perfectionist and would make beautifully shaped cookies, but it all tasted the same, and making these is still one of my warmest holiday memories.
What about you guys? What are your best food-related holiday memories? How about favorite cookie recipes?
Upcoming for December: This weekend, making chocolate-mint cupcakes with sugared mint leaves for a b-day party, and a promise of Hannukah Doughnuts (a non-traditional twist on Sufganiyot).
I love chocolate. I love pumpkin. I love pie. I had a helper. So I made a tasty pie, that would work well for Thanksgiving, but is not the regular old cold gelatinous pumpkin pie we’re used to.
First off, you make a crust. This has a chocolate shortbread press in crust, meaning no rolling out dough! In a bowl, mix together 4 tbs butter and 4 tbs sugar. My helper used a pastry cutter. I suppose you could also use a mixer at a low speed, but a LOW speed. Add in one egg yolk. Stir in 1 cup flour, 1 tsp salt and 2-3 tbs cocoa powder until dry and crumbly. Don’t over mix it. Press the dough into a 9-inch pie tin, getting an even layer on the bottom and sides. Put it in the freezer for 20 minutes, and pre-heat the oven to 375. Then, bake for 20 minutes. Let cool.
When the crust is cool, make the filling. Preheat to 325 degrees. Take one can of pumpkin, 1 cup heavy cream, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp salt, and either 2 teaspoons of pre-made pumpkin pie spice, OR 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 ginger, 1/4 tsp allspice, OR whatever spices you think would be nice, and whisk them together. Then melt 1/3 cup semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips. Separate out about a cup of the pumpkin mixture and mix it with the chocolate. Pour the not chocolatey stuff on into the prepared crust first, and then dollop the chocolate stuff on top and spread it around with a butterknife.
Bake for 70-80 minutes, rotating halfway through. Let cool, and refrigerate. Traditionally, pumpkin pie is served cold, but I don’t think you need to, I liked it room-temp.
Help and photo by certain special someone. (See people, first date cookies work).
A couple days ago, I decided to do a balls-out attempt at Thanksgiving Side Practice for dinner. On the menu was creamy broccoli soup, butternut squash in brown butter, green beans with shallots and breadcrumbs, roasted fingerling potatoes and pecan pie with cream cheese crust for dessert. Luckily, all of the recipes were successful. Today, I’m going to write about the squash, beans and potatoes, but expect upcoming posts regarding the soup and the pie.
All three of these recipes are from Martha Stewart. I need to branch out more, I guess, but I scoured Food & Wine (which IS were the soup is from), Real Simple, Body & Soul and Epicurius as well, and what’s nice is that Martha Stewart makes very simple recipes, which work better for my picky family, who will not eat a number of ingredients, including but not limited to nuts (all varieties), sweet potatoes, spinach, brussel’s sprouts, anything remotely spicy, ginger and nutmeg. So, I saw lots of great looking recipes, but they’d throw in one of those things and I’d nix it from the list of potential dishes. For example, this recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/creamed-spinach-and-parsnips looks incredible, but there’s no chance anyone in my family except me would touch a parsnip, and my mom’s not supposed to eat spinach. So for very simple dishes with few ingredients, I recommend Martha.
This is the squash. The recipe can be found here.
I followed it exactly, and fear copyright issues, so I’m not going to re-print it, but I want to make some notes:
1: The cooking times are off, it took longer than 6 minutes for the squash to caramelize, more like 15.
2. For a veg version, I used Imagen brand “No-Chicken Broth” instead of regular chicken broth, and it came out really well. I found it at Whole Foods, and it smelled exactly like regular chicken broth to me when I was cooking with it. Seriously. You won’t miss the chicken, and you can entertain vegetarians or, if you’re kosher, make it part of a dairy meal.
3. You can buy pre-cut, peeled and seeded squash at the grocery store. It saves a lot of time, and cutting, peeling and seeding squash is DIFFICULT. My mom had to go to the ER for stitches due to a squash incident once. It’s a short-cut that is totally worth it.
Next the beans. This is an ammeneded version of a recipe in this month’s Martha Stewart Living. First, boil water in a large pot, and prepare an ice water bath at the same time. Then, add a pound of green beans per every 2-3 people who are serving to the boiling water, blanch for a few minutes (4 or 5, when the beans get very green). Drain and pat dry. You can leave these beans out for a while, for timing purposes. When you’re ready for the next step, heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil per pound of green beans you made in a large skillet. Add one thinly sliced shallot (which are basically the same as a small onion) per lb of beans, and cook over medium heat until it is golden. Add beans, and cook them until they’re hot, a minute or two. Lastly, stir in 2 tbs of seasoned breadcrumbs per lb of beans. Serve immediately (before the beans get all floppy and cool). The breadcrumbs add a different dimension to regular beans. They’re pretty good. Try to get some very fresh and firm beans. Trimming is optional, depending on personal taste.
Lastly, I made fingerling potatoes. The recipe is http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/rich-roasted-potatoes
I only have some minor adjustments. Firstly, strangely enough, did you know there are many varieties of fingerling potatoes? Yeah, excessive. I had Russian Banana fingerlings. I’m not sure it matters. I also used more thyme than Martha recommends. It really infuses them with flavor. That’s important. Also, feel free to cook them a little longer than she says. Just check and make them as brown or not brown as you want them.
At the end, I think all of these are making it to my Thanksgiving table! Hurray!
As promised earlier this week, I made Brussel’s Sprouts with mushrooms with white wine. They were quite easy. First, cut the stems off two cups of brussel’s sprouts and halve them. Place them in a heavy skillet with 1 tsp lemon juice and 1/4 cup white wine (use a good quality dry variety). Cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. While they’re cooking, slice 8 or 9 mushrooms (I used cremini, but any variety will do). Add the mushrooms, as well as pepper and oregano to taste, cover, and simmer another 10 minutes. Voila, you’re done.
The end result, they’re pretty good, if I do say so. The Brussel’s Sprouts are infused with wine flavor, and the plainness of the mushrooms balances out the punchiness of Brussel’s Sprouts. And they are punchy, which is why a lot of people dislike them. Broccoli can probably be subbed in, and it would have a much milder flavor. Don’t be afraid to use a LOT of oregano, it really needs it.
These are a contender for a Thanksgiving side, though I might sub in broccoli. Brussel’s sprouts have a very strong flavor, and I think might not necessarily be a crowd pleaser.
Anyway, more Thanksgiving side dishes to come! Let’s get some good stuffing into the mix!
As I mentioned previously, I am going to be making Thanksgiving dinner this year. Because I’m not so much a cook as a baker, I’ve decided in the upcoming couple weeks, I’m going to try out side dishes to go with the meal until I find satisfactory starch-, green veggie-, cranberry- and stuffing-oriented dishes for the big day. Today, I tried out Creamy Potatoes with Herbs from the Low-Fat Good Food Cookbook, located on the shelf of the family I babysit for.
To prep, scrub (peeling optional) 4 medium-sized potatoes, chop into big pieces, and boil until soft and drain. While they’re boiling, preheat the oven to 350. Mash the potatoes in a large bowl. Then, with an electric mixer (amazing that I always find a way to use that mixer…), add in 6 ounces of Neufchatel cheese (found next to the cream cheese at the grocery store), 1/4 cup skim or lowfat milk, 1 egg, and about 1/2 tsp basil, thyme, and whatever other herbs you’d like (I added rosemary for good measure). Mix well. Then, stir in one diced green bell pepper. Spread into a sprayed 8 or 9 inch square pan and bake for 30-35 minutes (amazing that I baked the potatoes…)
The end result was okay but not amazing. The herbs were lovely. Really lovely. The potatoes were a little dry. I think part of the reason for this is that mashed potatoes, the famous American comfort food version, are usually made with lots of heavy cream and butter, and Neufchatel has about 16 grams less fat per ounce than butter, and 4 less than heavy cream. Hence, while the potatoes aren’t bad, they’re not what one really craves from mashed potatoes, especially on a holiday. And while in theory, the bell pepper should add some moisture, the contrast between the crunchiness of the bell pepper and the smoothness of the potatoes is kind of odd.
The verdict: these potatoes are an okay lower fat/calorie alternative for everyday, but not making it to the Thanksgiving table. I’ll try out another starchy recipe, perhaps using fingerling potatoes, a new thing of mine.
Coming later this week: Brussel’s sprouts and mushrooms in a white wine sauce. Will I be able to help rid Brussel’s sprouts of their bad name, or contribute to the stereotypes?
So, I have discovered the way to make perfect royal icing. This is the smooth icing traditionally found on cookies. I’ll be honest, I’ve never prefected it, and have struggled to find the right consistency. It involves very few ingredients, but comes out very well. You need confectioner’s sugar (aka powdered sugar), flavoring of your choice (many people love lemon juice, I prefer a VERY small amount of vanilla extract), and… raw egg whites. You stir them all together, finding the right consistency, using food dye for color or leaving it white, then put it in a pastry bag IMMEDIATELY (it hardens quickly), ice to make your desired design… something I personally need some practice at, seeing that I just realized that the raw egg whites make the perfect royal icing… and voila, it’s sweet, tasty, and hardens to a beautiful shiny finish.
So if it’s so perfect, what’s the problem. Well, the raw eggs of course. I have to say, I am skeptical of using and eating raw eggs. I’ve looked online for health guidelines, and here’s what I’ve discovered after weeding out some of the craziness (amazingly, there’s a lot of crazy health related information online).
1. Raw egg whites are NOT as bad for you as raw egg yolks, but still potentially contain salmonella.
2. The body cannot digest raw eggs.
3. Body builders like to eat lots of raw egg whites, but it can cause a biotin deficiency. I’m not sure what that means.
4. Fake egg whites don’t have as good a consistency for cooking, but lack the salmonella risk.
5. People who are allergic to eggs are usually allergic to the white, not the yolk.
So what’s my opinion? Well, I’m still a little wary of the salmonella risk, and the fact that it’s not digest-able. But, I also think that the tiny amount of raw egg white you’d get eating a cookie with royal icing is probably negligable. I also wish that the fake egg whites were better to cook with, because then I’d get perfect royal icing and not risk food poisoining. That being said, I think it might be a good idea for pregnant women and people with health issues to avoid the royal icing. But I’m not a doctor, unlike the many, many “experts” on the internet who seem to know everything about health and what to eat. For now, I think I’m going to continue to use raw eggs and work on my cookie decorating skills. What do you guys think? Am I crazy to consume small amounts of raw egg for the sake of prettily iced cookies. I mean, look at what you can do with royal icing:
That’s SO pretty! So pretty…. I swear, I’m gonna learn how to do that.
Also, I have a treat for you blog-readers and myself. As I mentioned previously, my dad had his knee replaced (he’s recovering now and doing better every day), and will not be able to make Thanksgiving dinner. He officially asked me to take over. I know that I’m the baker, not the cook, but what I figure I’m going to do is practice all my side dishes over the next couple weeks to see what I can make. The final meal will consist of turkey (which I won’t practice until I actually get home), stuffing of some sort, a green vegetable dish, a potato dish (no sweet potatoes, my dad and brother don’t like them), cranberry sauce, dessert and wine. It will only be my parents, brother and I, so I don’t need to go too crazy. But, I’m going to leaf through the magazines, websites and cookbooks, and try to bring some good recipes to you. And I will bake as many of them as possible, but you might also get to find out how Bakezilla tries to sautee, grill, fry, poach and cook in ways she is not accustomed to. I can’t promise there won’t be some flops, but hopefully there’ll be some winners. And, if there’s anything you can recommend, please do, I’ll try it out. Hopefully my thanksgiving table will look as good as these:
