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bread

Multigrain Honey Bread

written by Ali

I know this super cool woman from my college days who runs her own backyard homestead, complete with a beehive with queen named Gladys. How awesome is that? On the days when I am gently banging my head against my desk and threatening anyone within earshot range that I’m quitting and going to raise goats, this particular friend often pops into my head. She has bees, she has a garden, and she has beagles. That totally sounds like the life.

Not too long ago, she put out an all call on Facebook for volunteers who would let her ship honey to them. I was quick to say “me, me!” (And yes, I was hopping up and down excitedly as I responded). I also promised I’d blog about it. So – weeks later than I should be, I’m blogging about it.

I’ve tried many different local honeys. I almost invariably pick up at least one jar from the farmer’s market each year. And each honey has a flavor distinctive of its terroir. This particular honey is incredibly floral. There’s a hint there that reminds me so much of Colorado – and especially the way my grandma’s backyard smelled in the summer time. I’m hoarding my jar. Aside from what I used in this recipe and one almond butter and honey sandwich made with this bread, the rest is going to be tucked away for the rainiest part of the winter. I’m not exaggerating that this is liquid sunshine.

So many thanks to Queen Gladys and her human guardian. Oh and she’s got a website for her honey of a company - Oh Honey. You can also find her on Instagram at threeglemom

Yum

Multigrain Honey Bread

Ingredients

1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast (one packet)
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted sesame seeds
1/2 cup rolled oats
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons flax seeds
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 1/3 cup unbleached bread flour

For Topping

2 tablespoons unsalted sunflower seeds
1 teaspoon flax seeds
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
1 egg

Instructions

Oven 350, 35 minutes or until internal temp reaches 190 degrees.

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November 5, 2018 0 comment

Baked Goods Breads Breakfast Holiday Recipes

Rosemary Garlic Crescent Rolls

written by Ali

This month’s Food ‘n Flix movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, inspired these rosemary garlic crescent rolls. Thanks to Amy from Amy’s Cooking Adventures for hosting this month!

So I have to confess - I’d never seen this movie before this month. Mostly my frame of reference for Steve Martin is his banjo music (don’t judge). Side note - his performance with the Steep Canyon Rangers as the opening act for Emmylou Harris was amazing! I’ve seen a few of his movies here and there through the years. But the combination of Steve Martin and John Candy just wasn’t that appealing to me. Still, Food ‘n Flix movies always provide great inspiration for food, so I thought I’d give it a try.

The movie plot is that an uptight business guy (Steve Martin) gets sucked into the over-the-top world of disaster that is John Candy’s character. Lots of loud humor and lots of catastrophes and then everyone becomes friends at the end. The food references mostly occur in diners. One scene really stood out to me though - Neal (Steve Martin) is desperate to rent a car. Edie McClurg is the obstructive rental car agent. She’s first seen on the phone, talking about Thanksgiving dinner. She mentions ambrosia salad, cranberries, and crescent rolls.

The crescent rolls sparked a full out search on Pinterest for what makes a crescent roll a crescent roll. When I finally figured out that the crescent roll has to do with the shape of the roll, I decided I needed to add home-made crescent rolls to our holiday menu.

My rosemary garlic crescent rolls are buttery, flaky, and full of rosemary and garlic. I froze half the rolls to accompany soups for lunch in December. We’ve nibbled on the remaining rolls - using them as a pre-turkey appetizer, as bread for turkey club sandwiches, and as an easy side for turkey chili. I appreciated the baking inspiration, even if I wasn’t a huge fan of the movie.

Yum

Rosemary Garlic Crescent Rolls

Ingredients

1/3 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active yeast
1 1/3 cup warm milk
5 tablespoons softened butter
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 egg white

Instructions

Combine the warm water and yeast in a large bowl. Let sit for a few minutes to ensure that the yeast is active and gets bubbly. Add the warm milk, softened butter, and egg and mix. Add the flour, rosemary, garlic and salt and combine so that the butter is well incorporated.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 6 - 8 minutes, adding a little bit of flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking.
Put the dough in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel. Set aside in a warm spot for 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until the dough is doubled in size.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough into a circle 15 inches across. Cut the dough into sixteen pieces (as you would a pizza or pie). Take each piece and roll into a crescent roll by starting by the wide end and ending at the skinny end, tucking it under. Place each roll on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Leave a little space between each. Cover with a clean dishtowel and set aside to rise for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees 20 minutes before the hour is up.
Combine the egg white with a tablespoon of water and beat until frothy. Brush the egg white over each roll. Bake for 20 minutes or until the rolls are golden brown.
Makes 16. Enjoy!

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November 25, 2017 5 comments

Baked Goods Breads Breakfast Farmer's Market

Carrot Cream Cheese Swirl Bread

written by Ali

I positively love my CSA because I’ve been challenged each week to come up with great recipes like this carrot cream cheese swirl bread. If you are unfamiliar with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), it’s a great way to get veggies and fruit direct from local farms. You pay for a share up front and then get a basket of produce every week for a certain period of time, usually over multiple months. I absolutely love the randomness of the CSA – we get whatever is in season and whatever grew happily on the farm for the summer.

Which also means that sometimes you end up with veggies that you might feel a bit “eh” about. Like carrots. And sometimes you end up with a lot of a particular veggie that you feel “eh” about. Like carrots.

We are on week 16 or so with our CSA. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, but I’m running out of inspiration for what to do with all the carrots. At the same time, here we are, nearly in October. It’s definitely time for pumpkin spice and pumpkin and warm and cozy foods. So this week, when faced with a whole bunch of carrots, I decided it was time to combine carrots, pumpkin spice, in some sort of comforting baked good. Thus, I made carrot cream cheese swirl bread. Honestly, how can you go wrong with pumpkin pie spice and cream cheese? Plus – carrots, which makes this a healthy breakfast food, right?

Ok, fine, carrot cream cheese swirl bread may not be a calorie conscious bread, but it’s super yummy first thing in the morning with a cup of coffee. I’ve been loving eating this while gazing out at the red and orange leaves on the trees. It’s an autumn color-coordinated bread.

Yum

Carrot Cream Cheese Swirl Bread

Ingredients

For the bread

1 ½ cup flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup oil
2 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cup grated carrots

For the cream cheese filling

½ package cream cheese (4 ounces)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine the dry ingredients, from flour through salt. Create a well in the dry ingredients and add in all ingredients from the oil through the vanilla. Stir in the grated carrots.
Make the cream cheese filling by combining the cream cheese with the sugar, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice.
Grease a loaf pan. Place half of the carrot bread in the bottom of the pan. Spoon the cream cheese down the middle. Place the final half of the carrot bread mix over the cream cheese.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean.
Makes 1 loaf. Enjoy!

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September 27, 2017 0 comment

Baked Goods Breads Lunch Recipes

Baguettes and French Kiss Sandwiches

written by Ali

This month’s Food ‘n Flix pick resulted in honeymoon nostalgia and these baguettes and French Kiss sandwiches. French Kiss is a lighthearted comedy from 1995, starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. The basic plot of the movie is woman (Meg Ryan) loses boyfriend to another woman, goes to Paris to track him down, meets a jewel thief (Kevin Kline) along the way, and then falls in love with the jewel thief. It’s a cute romantic comedy – the kind of thing that my husband plays video games through and mixes up with another cute romantic comedy (namely Runaway Bride) which we watched a few weeks after.

And maybe it’s because I’m equally a cynic, what I mostly thought about the movie after I finished watching it was – oh those simpler times in the 90s when a woman could safely run off with a man she barely knows after losing her passport and money to his family’s vineyard without fear of being murdered. Just saying. Still – what a vineyard!

My one challenge with watching movies for Food ‘n Flix is this – I watch them as a food blogger, which means I want them to slow down and focus on the food! It’s Paris – it’s France – show me beautiful food! There was beautiful food in this movie, just not enough of it that was up close and personal. So my inspiration ended up being less of something in the actual movie and more of Paris itself. What better way to celebrate Paris than with baguettes and French Kiss sandwiches?

A big part of my inspiration also came from all the memories that watching this movie brought up of Clay and my honeymoon nine years ago. We did a two week Europe trip – starting in Paris, taking a train to Amsterdam, and then flying to Rome and then home. My one regret, particularly from the Paris part of the trip, was that I was still a hard-core vegetarian, and even though I was drooling over every baguette with ham and cheese that Clay ate, I stuck to the baguettes with tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. No – I wasn’t suffering that much. But still, these baguettes and French Kiss sandwich are my attempt to recapture the days we spent in Paris and the glorious smells of the bakeries and the beautiful slow food that was everywhere around us.

The baguette recipe is adapted from a King Arthur recipe. I reduced the rise time without any negative impact on the taste of the baguette. I do use a starter, which I realize adds time and the need for advanced planning to make these, but I promise you, it’s worth it. The actual hands on time with these is minimal – 15 minutes at the most.

Yum

Baguettes and French Kiss Sandwiches

Ingredients

Starter

¼ teaspoon active yeast
½ cup warm water (around 115 degrees)
1 cup all purpose unbleached flour

Dough

1 cup warm water (115 degrees)
1 teaspoon yeast
All of the starter
1 ½ teaspoons salt
3 ¼ cups flour

For the French Kiss Sandwiches (for two sandwiches)

4 – 6 slices of Jamon Serrano (or prosciutto or thinly sliced ham)
8 thin slices of brie cheese

Instructions

Start the starter the night before. Combine all the ingredients for the starter in a medium bowl and stir. This should form a sticky dough. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside overnight – about 14 hours will do it, though the starter is forgiving.
To make the dough
Combine the warm water, the yeast, and all of the starter. Mix until the starter is mostly incorporated. Add 3 cups of the flour and the salt. Combine to make a shaggy dough and then knead the dough for 6 minutes on a floured surface. Add a bit of the remaining flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to you. Shape the dough into a ball and put it back in the bowl.

First Rise

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.

Second Rise

After 45 minutes, punch the dough down (deflate it). Cover it again and let rise for 1 hour.

Shaping the Dough and Preparing it for Baking

After the second rise, deflate the dough again and cut it into four even sections. (You can also divide it into two sections or six sections – depending on how many baguettes you want to make). Roll the sections of dough into rectangles and fold them into baguette shapes, placing the seam-side down.
Place the shaped baguettes on a lightly greased baking sheet.
[The baguettes may spread a bit during the final rise– so if you want more classically shaped bread, you can place the baguettes on parchment paper or a clean dishtowel and pull up a bit of parchment paper or dishtowel between each baguette to help it keep its shape. If you do this, when it’s time to bake, you’ll need to gently roll the baguettes onto a greased baking sheet.]
Cover the baguettes with plastic wrap and let rise for 50 minutes. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees 20 minutes before the end of the final rise. To get a nice crispy baguette, it helps to have a very hot oven.
Once the baguettes have completed the final rise, transfer them to the baking sheet (if you need to) and then place them in the oven. If you have a spray bottle with water handy, gently spray the baguettes, being careful not to spray your oven’s element. Bake for 20 minutes or until the baguettes are a golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Turn the oven off, crack open the oven door, and let the baguettes sit in the oven for 10 minutes after they are done. This helps get an even crispier texture on the outside.
Let the baguettes cool for at least 30 minutes. When they are cool, to assemble a sandwich, slice the baguette in half and place the brie and jamon on the baguette. Enjoy!

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This post is also linked to to #CookBlogShare at the Easy Peasy Foodie’s site. Check out all the great recipes!

January 16, 2017 29 comments

Baked Goods Breads Breakfast

Homemade English Muffins

written by Ali

Homemade English Muffins are one of the tastiest breakfast treats to make. They take a bit of time, but are absolutely worth it. With about two hours of your time, most of it hands off, you’ll have the fluffiest Homemade English Muffins. Who wouldn’t want a homemade English muffin, smothered in butter and jam?

I’ve always had a fondness for English muffins. Their craggy surface is just begging to be toasted and have a bit of butter drizzled over them. For years, I’d eaten store bought English muffins and wondered if there was a particular secret or trick to making them. English muffins were kind of like bagels in that regard - something made with yeast that was too complicated to make at home. Ok, so I haven’t made bagels yet, but when I made homemade English muffins a few years ago around the holidays, I realized they weren’t that hard at all.

There is a two-step process to cooking the muffins. The first step is to brown them on both sides in a cast iron or non-stick pan. Then, they bake in the oven for just a little while to bake all the way through. I don’t see the need to use English muffin rings, as the dough holds its shape.

The one difference is that homemade English muffins aren’t quite as craggy - there aren’t as many air pockets in them. Still, they toast up really well and have a nice, dense and chewy texture that goes so well with butter and jam, as well as holds up to various breakfast sandwich ingredients. They also are absolutely heavenly as the base for Eggs Benedict. These make a great weekend baking project, as well as a yummy treat.

Yum

Homemade English Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup milk
1 1/4 teaspoon active yeast
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon softened butter
1 egg

Instructions

Heat the milk until it is warm to the touch (110 degrees if you have a thermometer). In a medium sized bowl, combine the warm milk and the yeast and let sit for a few minutes.
Combine the flour and salt in another bowl. Add the flour and salt mix, the softened butter, and the egg to the milk and yeast. Combine until you've made a shaggy dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for six to eight minutes. You may need to add a bit more flour to keep the dough from sticking. Once the dough has formed a smooth ball, return it to the bowl and cover with a clean tea towel or plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm spot for an hour.
After the first rise, turn the dough out on a floured surface and divided it into 6 or 8 pieces (depending on the size you'd like your English muffins). Roll each segment into a ball and flatten slightly. Place the English muffins on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside and let rise for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Preheat a cast iron skillet or a non-stick skillet over medium heat. When your skillet is hot, add the English muffins, four muffins at a time (or more, if you have the room in your skillet). Cook the English muffins for 5 minutes per side (or until each side is golden brown).
Place each browned English muffin on the baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or lightly oiled). When all English muffins are browned, bake in your pre-heated oven for 10 minutes or until the muffins are a deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.
Let the English muffins cool slightly before splitting them open. Enjoy!

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December 26, 2016 1 comment

Baked Goods Breads Breakfast Farmer's Market

Pumpkin Date Bread

written by Ali

The October/November pick for the Cook the Books Club was Jessica Soffer’s Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots.

I had very mixed feelings about this book. It was well written enough for me to stay engaged and read it to the end, largely because I connected to the main character, Lorca, though throughout the book, I really, really found myself disliking her mother and her absolutely blase disregard for her daughter’s desperate need for her love. Full disclosure here - in another not too long ago life, I worked very closely with populations of both adults and young adults who were highly at-risk and often engaged in very risky behaviors, of which self-mutilation was often the least of it. I think that’s why I struggled with this book so much - I know that it takes a lot of perseverance for someone to save themselves and few get so lucky to find a Victoria, the other main character and a former restaurant owner, to help them.

Ok - now that that’s out there…the book was a feast of good food. After all, the entire focus is on how food can bring those who are desperately lonely together, and that particular theme resonates for me. I left the book with the feeling that food could transform Lorca’s life and make her into a resilient adult and that made me happy. It also made me happy to go flipping back through the book when I was done and think about what inspired me. I finally landed on a variation of date bread, because of this line of Victoria’s: “‘Date bread,’ I said. ‘From my country.’ Oldest trick in the book: bake something to make guests feel at home.” It is November, after all, and I’ve been in a baking mood. My pumpkin date bread relies on the flavors of the season with a good dose of pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin puree. The dates give it an extra punch of sweetness. It’s dense and chewy and goes really well with a cup of coffee in the afternoon.

This is also pretty easy to put together and makes a generous two loafs - perfect for having a loaf to eat now and one to freeze for later. Last, but not least, this is a low-fat pumpkin date bread, which gets much of its moist texture from unsweetened apple sauce and Greek yogurt.

Pumpkin Date Bread
Makes 2 loaves

3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree (or 1 15 ounce can)
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup chopped dates

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the dry ingredients, from the flour through the white sugar in a large bowl and mix. Combine the wet ingredients, from the pumpkin puree through the eggs in a small bowl and mix to incorporate all the ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing just enough to incorporate all the dry ingredients. Add the dates.

Divide the batter between two bread pans that have either been buttered or that are lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a knife or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to Cook the Books Club - I’ve had so much fun developing recipes based on the last two challenges. I’m looking forward to more reading and cooking in the future!

I’ve also linked up with this month’s tea time treat challenge, which is all about comfort food (and what’s more comforting that fresh bread?). Check out the wonderful hosts of Tea Time Treats: Lavender and Lovage, Travels for Taste and Jo’s Kitchen. Lavender and Lovage is hosting this month, so be sure to check out all the recipes for Tea Time Treats here.

November 7, 2016 10 comments

Main Dishes

Open Face Meatball Sandwiches and Home Made Sub Sandwich Rolls

written by Ali

I’m at that time of the year when I’m working frantically to use up everything that I canned from last year to make way for the upcoming produce season. Last year, I canned nearly one hundred pounds of tomatoes. By no stretch of the imagination was this particularly intentional: we planted eighteen tomato plants last year with the intention of trying to grow around sixty pounds of tomatoes. However, we got the plants in late in June and by August, I had no faith that they would ever bother to ripen, so went and picked around fifty pounds of tomatoes to can at one of our u-pick farms.

Given that here in the PNW, we have a growing season for tomatoes into late September, it should have been obvious to me that the tomatoes I’d grown would all ripen up right around the first part of October, leaving me with slightly more than fifty pounds of home grown tomatoes with which to content. I was glad for the surplus, though. With the u-pick tomatoes, I’d made Bloody Mary mix and ample jars of marinara. With the home grown tomatoes, I made basic diced tomatoes, so I have my bases covered for all recipes that involve marinara, as well as using diced tomatoes to make soups, stews and, chicken tikka masala.

This recipe is part of the effort to use up the canned goods before August rolls around again. It’s a bit of a two in one, though really, the meatball sandwich component takes minimal work compared to the rolls.

Sub Sandwich Rolls
Makes 6 rolls

1 cup warm water
2 ¼ teaspoons yeast (one package of active yeast)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon salt
3 ½ cups bread flour

In a medium sized bowl, combine the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let sit for about 10 minutes while the yeast becomes bubbly and creamy.

In a small bowl, combine one cup of the flour, the butter, and the salt. Crumble with your fingers until the butter is mixed in and creates small crumbs. Add this mixture, one egg, and the remaining flour to the water and yeast. Stir to combine.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead the dough for six to eight minutes. Return the dough to the medium sized bowl and cover with plastic wrap or several tea towels. Place in a warm spot in the kitchen and let rise for an hour.

After an hour, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the dough into six equal pieces and shape into sub sandwich shaped rolls. Place these on a parchment covered baking sheet and cover with several tea towels. Let rise for another hour.

Beat the remaining egg with about a tablespoon of water. After the second rise is complete, brush the rolls with the egg and water mixture. Bake the rolls for 30 minutes or until the tops are golden brown and the rolls sound hollow when tapped.

Open Face Meatball Sandwiches
Serves 2

Four freezer meatballs
1 16 ounce jar of marinara sauce
4 slices Swiss cheese
¼ cup shredded parmesan or Asiago cheese
2 sub sandwich rolls

Combine the marinara sauce and meatballs in a small saucepan and simmer until both sauce and meatballs are heated through. Slice the sub sandwich rolls in half and place one slice of cheese on each half (cut the cheese slices in half to get full coverage on each roll). Cut each meatball in half and place two halves on each piece of sub roll. Spoon marinara over the top and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

February 23, 2016 0 comment

...and a little cocktail, too

bread

Multigrain Honey Bread

Rosemary Garlic Crescent Rolls

Carrot Cream Cheese Swirl Bread

Baguettes and French Kiss Sandwiches

Homemade English Muffins

Pumpkin Date Bread

Open Face Meatball Sandwiches and Home Made Sub Sandwich Rolls

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