Olive Fougasse

I got Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for Christmas, and I'm on my fourth or fifth batch now.  It took a little adjusting to the idea of wet dough, but once I got the consistency right, everything has turned out excellent.  I love baking bread, but I can appreciate the time saving factor anyway, because it makes it so easy to make something every day.  The only drawback is that it makes me want to buy a bunch of stuff: a larger container so I don't have to keep making new batches, a pizza peel and baking stone (which I should probably have anyway), new flour canisters, cut bread serving platters...  Okay, maybe that's just me.

I made the Olive Fougasse from the olive oil dough.  It is excellent and beautiful, and even easier to make than some of the other breads.  It is basically focaccia bread with olives mixed it.  I took it to a gathering, and felt like a heel every time I said, "fougasse," but everyone liked it anyway.  

No Knead Bread

I know every time I post about bread, I say something like, "this is the best bread ever!"  So maybe I'm overdoing it?  But I recently tried this No Knead Dutch Oven Bread from Mother Earth News, and it is pretty awesome.   The inside is so moist, it's almost "eggy" - except there are no eggs in the recipe.  The outside is a gorgeous and crusty.  The only drawback I can think of is that you're limited to the round shape.  But I cut mine into fourths and then sliced the fourths, so it made nice triangular sandwiches. 

I've sort of ignored the no knead stuff for awhile, because I don't really have any problem with kneading.  It was interesting, and easy to do, so that was good.  But the dutch oven is the real cool factor. 

The recipe is basically a french bread recipe, and the dutch oven creates a similar steamy-heat environment of a bakers oven, so this made the best french bread that I've ever made, and perhaps the best bread altogether?

I'm planning on making all my bread in the dutch oven now.  You should too.  Here's a good video of Mark Bittman talking about no knead bread. 



you tube:

Hamburger Buns

After my recent experimentation with sandwich bread, I realized I needed a good hamburger bun.   So, I tried Julia Child's french bread recipe made into 12 small round loaves.   Her recipe is definitely different that white bread dough - much wetter, and a little different to knead.  But, whew.  It was awesome.  I mean, awesome. 

When I think of hamburgers, and I spend a plenty of time thinking about burgers, I rarely think about the bread.  But the truth is, I hate that soft white bread that most burgers are served on.  It gets stuck in your teeth, and has no flavor.  So, when we made these burgers, I realized that the bread part of the burger should not be forgotten. 

I have made this recipe several times since then, and it turns out it makes great sandwich bread too.  It's got such great flavor, and because they are buns instead of bread slices, you never have to worry about them falling apart.   My favorite sandwich of late is avacado.  Just mushed avacado on this bread.  Yep.  It's the new peanut butter.

This recipe only makes 12 buns, which we go through pretty fast.  I tried doubling the recipe and ended up with a sticky mess that (as Julia says) still made bread, but was too sticky to form into buns.  I'm playing around with the recipe now to try to figure out a way to make more at a time, and be able to knead it in my stand mixer.  I've been making all of our household bread the last couple of months, and it's been really exciting.  I'd love to get a recipe together that is easy enough to repeat on a weekly basis.  I'll let you know how it goes.   

Sprouting

John and I decided to give sprouting a try after he watched this you tube video:

We've been doing it about two months now, and it's super easy. I'm kind of amazed at how simply adding water to some very cheap lentils, you can triple their volume and their nutritional value, plus grow a fresh and tasty veggie - right on your counter!

Give it a try, but read a little first - sprouts from some beans (like kidney) can be toxic. Eek! All you need is a mason jar and a sprouting lid like the one here. They're pretty inexpensive, but if you don't have a health store around, the shipping is not really worth it. So you can make one following these directions (like we did).

They're great on salads, sandwiches, and - my favorite - burritos!

More Sandwich Bread

After I tried my regular recipe three times, I decided to try something different.  So I decided to try Julia Child's Pain de Mie (a good tutorial here).  It beat my last sandwich bread by a mile!

A few important things:

I have a great warm spot to let my bread rise in, but Julia says that warm temperatures speed up the process at the expense of the flavor and texture.  I knew extra risings were good, but I didn't know about the temperature thing.  Wow.  So, this bread rises in a NOT warm spot, for almost double the time, with three risings.  The result is a close grain, flavorful bread.  Awesome.

Julia has you knead in the butter after the initial kneading instead of mixing it in the beginning.  I'm not yet sure why, but it was fun.

Also, this bread was baked covered by a pan with a brick on top.  So instead of a rounded top, it makes  regular square/rectangle for fancy sandwiches.  That was a lot of fun - I enjoy trying different bread shapes almost as much as bread recipes, and this made a neat sandwich slice.

Thumbs up for the best sandwich bread yet.

p.s.  If you bothered to read this whole bread post - you earned a head's up to a new pattern giveaway coming very very soon!

Sandwich Bread

After I posted about my grilled cheese sandwiches, a couple of friends asked me about my bread recipe because homemade bread doesn't always make great sandwich bread.  The recipe I used was the plain old "Basic White Bread Recipe" that you can find in most bread cookbooks.  They're usually pretty much the same - I found one similar to mine here.

And in fact, my bread was a little crumbly for sandwiches - even though it was great bread.  Which got me wondering - how do you make great sandwich bread?  A good sandwich bread should be soft, not crumbly or dense, and strong and flexible enough to support it's filling.  This week, I made the recipe three more times, after reviewing some good bread resources (see below).  Here are the three most important things I found for making your homemade bread a little less rustic, and more sandwich worthy:

1.  Give it time. Let the dough rest for a couple minutes before kneading.  This gives the flour a chance to absorb the liquid and prepares the gluten for kneading.  And then, be sure to give the dough plenty of time to double in size during the first rise.  Don't just go based on time.

2.  Knead until the dough is flexible enough that it springs back when you poke it.  Sometimes I stop when it looks smooth, but this can make it crumbly.  When in doubt, knead a little more.  You are more likely to under knead, than overknead. 

3.  Use bread flour or hard wheat.  I usually use half white and half wheat for a plain loaf like this, but I found swapping the white out for bread flour made a much nicer sandwich slice.

All three of these tips acheive the same goal - enabling the gluten to really develop makes a soft flexible bread.  My third batch made the best sandwich bread I've ever made, even getting the toddler-peanut-butter-sandwich seal of approval.  I've been enjoying the reading and baking so much, I think I'm seeing a lot more bread in the near future.  I think Julia's French Bread is next...

 

Beard on Bread, and Julia Child's chapter on yeast bread's are great resources.  And they are both illustrated beautifully.  Seriously, can I illustrate a bread book, please? 

Grilled Cheese

I love to make bread, but I rarely make plain sandwich bread.  I just don't usually think to do it.  But John and I are trying to stick to our budget a little better this year, so I've been paying more attention to my grocery spending.  I realized by the end of the first week of April, I'd spent two weeks worth on groceries, although really I had more than two weeks worth of food.  So, I'm trying to go until the end of two weeks before I go back to the store.  And then, oops, I realized we have no bread - so homemade bread was made in just a few hours without spending any more money. 

Grilled cheese may be my favorite sandwich.  I mean, I love a big fancy sandwich with sprouts and avacado and all that stuff, but grilled cheese is comfort.  And with homemade bread - mmm.  Sandwich success.

My mom reminded me a couple of years ago about when I was a kid, and I refused to eat grilled cheese unless it was made the way my best friend's mom made it.  I still make it that way:

Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Butter one side of two pieces of bread.  Lay one piece of bread, butter side down, on your skillet.  Next add two slices of cheese of your choice, then the other slice of bread butter side up.  cook over medium heat for two to four minutes depending on how dark you like it.  Carefully flip, and cook the other side.  I like mine a little burnt. :)

How do you fix your grilled cheese?

Colored Eggs

Easter is almost here, and we're getting ready by dyeing eggs.

A few people asked questions about our eggs so here's a quick summary:
We have six hens and one rooster. Two hens are bantams and give small eggs, while the rest lay extra large ones. It makes measuring interesting. We get almost 3 dozen eggs per week, which is a little too much for us, but not quite enough to bother trying to sell at the farmer's market. We've been sharing with friends, but we're also going to start making more egg dishes. When we move to our own land, we'd like them to be free range, but right now they have a pretty good size run in the woods. All the grass is gone, but we give the grass clippings from the mower when we can and cracked corn every day.

So here they are before. I wasn't sure how the colors would work with some of the dark brown eggs. It just happens that all the bantam eggs are lighter rose and green colors, so most of what I dyed are the small lighter eggs.

And here's a few shots of the after. Mom, L and I made them using yellow onion skins and turmeric, and one bowl where we mixed the two dyes together. Find instructions on Martha and here. It didn't make a true red, but a nice burnt sienna kind of color, and the turmeric a rich gold, and mixed together marigold - my favorite. Notice the un-dyed eggs in the back, one brown and one green bantam.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Another attempt at meals all three of us can eat during the day. I got this one from Wholesome Baby Food. There website is a great resource for baby food recipes, as well as good information about when to introduce what foods. Most of the information is available free on their website, but you can also buy a downloadable cookbook, which I think is a much easier way to browse and save the information.

This one was exciting for us, because J has just started eating wheat, which is making our lives much easier. L and I had ours with cinnamon and sugar on top, and we just ate them with our fingers. Awesome. The recipe is meant for baby, so if you wanted to make it a family meal, you'd need to double or triple it. As is, it made about 10 cookie sized pancakes.

You'll find the recipe on this page if you scroll down a bit. We haven't introduced eggs or dairy yet, so I used substitutions for those. Their book also has lots of information on varying recipes based on your child's needs, with a long list of egg substitutes for different needs, as well as chapters on other common food intolerances.

Garlic Bread

John likes this Garlic Bread Sprinkle he buys at the store, but I like to make my own. So, okay, I cheated a bit, and read the ingredients of his little bottle before I mixed up mine. His had corn syrup and vegetable oil solids that I was happy to exclude.

Here's my version:
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp turmeric
Add ingredients to small bowl and stir.

Don't you just love learning new ways to use seasonings? I usually only use turmeric when I make fried rice or Indian food. But this was really great. And it made it a pretty yellow, too, which doesn't hurt.

I fix my garlic bread like my mom taught me:
Place french bread on foil and slice. Brush each slice and the top of the loaf with a little olive oil (or butter), then sprinkle the garlic seasoning on each slice. Wrap it up in the foil and place in oven around 200. Leave it until your dinner is ready and then it's hot and ready to serve.

Rosemary Garlic Apples

During the last 48 hours, J has had a peanut butter sandwich, fish sticks, and chocolate chip cookie in her mouth. She's 8 months old.

After, a big sigh of relief that she didn't explode with some kind of deadly allergic reaction, I've taken this as a prompt to be a little more vigilant parent. With one very mobile baby, and a toddler who is very eager to help, I also have decided to try to fix more foods that are safe for both children to eat. I thought I had posted my favorite breakfast before, but can't seem to find it. But basically it's this:

Rosemary Garlic Apples (And Sausage)

Slice apples and saute them in a pan with minced garlic and rosemary (I used dried). When cooked, take them out and cook your sausage as usual (I prefer smoked, but you can use any kind) with a little apple juice. Once the meat is cooked, add your apples back to the pan, and heat through. Then serve hot. Or skip the sausage all together and just serve the apples.

This makes the best savory/sweet breakfast combo, yes, even better than chocolate meat. I made this for L and I recently, and decided to let J try the apples. She has been the most eager eater, and these apples are definitely her favorite. I've taken to fixing the apples alone, as a quick meal for the three of us.


I was recently asked somewhat incredulously, "You make all J baby food, don't you?" And it caught me a little off guard. It's a little odd to me that even though most people "make" most of their own food (by make, I mean prepare, of course), it's so unusual for someone to make baby food. So, let me just clarify. I don't slave away, pureeing lots of little jars of goo. At dinner time, I make sure I include something in our meal that J can eat. And when we sit down at the table, I take some lima beans out of our soup, or rice from our stir fry, or apples or carrots or whatever, and drop it in the little baby food mill, and voila.

This does mean, that she gets seasoned food, which is fine by me. I don't give her anything too spicy or salty, but the girl loves garlic. Of course, we are also big fans of those puffs that dissolve in your mouth - which is so convenient when you go out. I'm not opposed to pre-made baby foods, but I definitely think this simple little food mill is worth more than it's very low price. (Thanks, Tara!)

Pate Choux

John gave me Mastering the Art of French Cooking for Christmas. I was inspired, as was half of the population, by Julie and Julia to give it a try. At first, I thought the book was a bit intimidating, but I think it's just because there are illustrations instead of photos. It makes it seem very scientific. Once you get going, it's actually really excellent because she tells you everything, so you can't go wrong.

I made the puff shells (pate choux) stuffed with cream of quail as well as these cheese puffs (pate fromage). I love popovers, and these are similar and very satisfying. I made them back in January, and am only getting around to posting it now, so I whatever profound thoughts I had, I've forgotten. How's this: these were really cool, but make sure someone is watching the kids while you're cooking!

I am eager to try them again filled with ice cream - perhaps that will be a fun summer treat!

Romanian Cheese and Ethiopian Coffee

The first year we were married I asked John what was the best thing he'd ever eaten. He told me that when he was in Romania many years ago he had some really wonderful fried goat cheese. Thanks a lot, I thought to myself. But after a little googling and a trip to Ada's, it turned out to be a simple recipe - now our Valentine favorite. The recipe is below.

But what is in my lovely Hazel Atlas mug? African Skies fair trade coffee from Just Love, a company that uses proceeds to help an Ethiopian orphanage and families adopting not just from Ethiopia, but from anywhere in the world. If you buy from this shop, you can support our friends in their Ethiopian adoption.

Romanian Fried Goat Cheese
11 to 12 oz Goat Cheese, chilled
1 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp rosemary
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup flour
1 large egg beaten
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs (I always use the cornflake kind)
1/4 cup olive oil

Our cheese comes in wedges which I sliced into about 8 or 9 thick slices. Mix the garlic, rosemary and salt and pepper. Put this in a bowl, and then put the flour, egg, and bread crumbs each in their own bowl. Dip the cheese in the garlic mixture, then the flour, then the egg, then the bread crumbs, coating evenly with each. Chill in the refrigerator.

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a skillet on medium high heat. When heated, cook the goat cheese about 2 minutes per side or until a pretty golden color. It's best to eat them hot, but they reheat pretty well, too.

Snow Ice Cream

Hope all of you in the southern US are enjoying the snow. We're mostly enjoying it from the window since the little ones have the sniffy noses, although we did tromp around a bit.

If you still have any clean snow in your yard, you may want to try snow ice cream. My sister blogged about this during the Christmas blizzard, and I thought I would second that. My mom made this for us when we were kids, and as I am typing this I'm wondering how a person would learn such things before the internet.

But, I digress. I don't have a formal recipe, although I found one here. I worked it out through trial and error, so here's my best guess: Collect a medium size mixing bowl full of fresh, clean snow. Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 TBSP of vanilla, and stir. Then add milk until you have the right consistency, about 1 cup. It's best to just eat it up right away, I think.



On a side note, my camera decided to only focus on things really close for awhile, which is why all the pictures are blurry. This happened during Christmas as well. After a time, and certainly not by my efforts, it just went back to normal. Anybody know why?

Crazy Amazing Banana Chocolate Waffles

A little Christmas Eve fun. Crispy outside, soft inside, crazy good. I think they're yummy plain, but butter and maple syrup are good, too. I started from this recipe. Below is my version.

John is spending the day in the garage finishing the girls' Christmas gift, so I'm making christmas-y crafts and waffles inside with L. Who knew being a mom at Christmas would be as much fun as being a kid?

Banana Chocolate Waffles
1 cup wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking cocoa
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
1 cup banana, mashed
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 - 1 cup chocolate chips

Blend flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa and sugar together; set aside. Beat egg yolks and milk together; add flour mixture, stirring until just blended. Fold in banana and melted butter; mix well.

In a small mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff and peaks form; gently fold into batter. Add chocolate chips to taste (I made these a second time, and realized I originally told you to put in way too much chocolate - wishful thinking, I guess!). Bake on a waffle iron until the steam stops (or almost stops if you're a little impatient).

Christmas Bread

I am making a second batch of this incredible bread today. I was making some as gifts, and then John and I ended up eating too much - so now I have to make more. I chose this recipe because it's Christmas-y, and new, and I had all the ingredients... who knew it was going to be the most wonderful bread I've ever made. That's probably because of the buckets of butter and eggs in it, but that's what makes it Christmas bread, I suppose.

Traditionally, it's made with a cross on top, which I didn't do because I've been wanting to make gift bread this way for as long as I've had this bread cookbook. You tie the loaf with a brown paper ribbon before the second rise, and then replace it with a real ribbon after it's baked.


After looking online at other Christmas Bread recipes, I realized this version is maybe a little simpler than most. Here it is, with my changes in the loaf style:

Christopsomo (or Greek Christmas Bread)

blend:
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water

Combine:
1/2 cup scalded and cooled milk
1 cup butter
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons crushed anise
1 tsp salt

Add yeast mixture and gradually add 6-7 cups unsifted flour.
Knead for 10 minutes on floured board
Let rise 2 hours or until double.

Punch down and divide into 6 small balls. Brush butter around outside, and tie each ball with a strip of brown paper (the same width as your ribbon - for small loaves like mine use a skinny ribbon) and place on greased baking sheets. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled. Bake 30-45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Serve warm, or toasted with honey.

Photography Setup

I've been putting some new things in the shop, and I always think my photo set up is kind of goofy. My itty bitty kitchen converted to an itty bitty studio. he he.

Fall Blessings: Eggs!

You may remember we got some chickens last spring, including quite a few roosters we don't know what to do with. But we're enjoying their crowing. The oldest chickens are bantams and they started laying last week. Bantams, if you don't know, are smaller than regular chickens. In turns out, their eggs are, too. Their about half the size of our store bought eggs. I'm not sure what the rule for cooking with them actually is, but I use twice as many as the recipe calls for.



We have about 6 hens now, so soon we'll have more eggs than we know what to do with. I see lots of omelets in our future.

The Return of Chocolate Meat

When I first woke up on Tuesday, I was excited about the chill in the air because I miss the cool weather. But then after John came out of the shower and the smell of his shampoo blended with the smell of L's oatmeal - it hit me. It was one of those memory sensory things. This time last year (and this time 3 years ago), I was in the throws of morning sickness. It's unfortunate that the cold weather immediately reminds me of that icky feeling (and seriously, can we throw out that shampoo, yet?).

So I thought I should do something drastic. I went to the kitchen for the solution - I needed something hot, something that smelled savory, something totally indulgent, something that I couldn't bear to eat in that first trimester. I didn't plan it. It just emerged from my skillet:

That's right. Turkey bacon on whole wheat toast with chocolate gravy. It was good.

Belgian Waffles

I helped John make Belgian Waffles last weekend for a party. This is one of John's specialties, although I've never had them before.

I'm sold. These are wonderful. Unfortunately, I'm not sure where the recipe came from, so I'm not going to share it (mine is photocopied from a Belgian food cookbook, and my recipe is called "Sugar Waffles from Liege"), but I'm sure you can find one at the library or online.

It's a pretty odd recipe, with two batters that you mix at the last minute. It doesn't feel anything like waffle batter, instead it makes a really sticky goo. But it bakes wonderfully, and tastes perfect. No syrup needed. The only unusual ingredient is pearl sugar, which John ordered online, but you might be able to find if you live in an urban area. Definitely worth a try.