Bread

Finnish Oven Pancakes (Pannukakku)

December 2, 2010 by Rebecca 32 Comments

There is a certain type of weather that requires you to fire up your oven; To combine flour, butter, eggs, milk and various other good things and apply heat. There is something in the low temperatures or rain or snow that obliges you to create baked goods and then eat them. Since I am a slave to duty…

Finnish Oven Pancakes are a perennial forgotten favorite around our house. Perennial in that we make them semi-often. Semi-often in that I forget how simple a solution they are for last minute hot breakfasts, lunches or dinners until the children remind me. I make them often enough that I remember there are 4 ingredients and I think I remember the quantities, but infrequently enough that I have to consult my human encyclopaedia de cuisine: my stepmother. The conversations run like this.

(Phone rings and stepmother picks up the line.)

Val: Hello.

Me: Hi, Val. It’s me. I am calling because I’m making Finnish Oven Pancakes again.

Val: (chuckle)

Me: I forgot again. And I didn’t write it down again.

Val: (with the patience of Job) Four eggs, 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk, sugar, salt.

Me: Thank you and I love you.

Val: You’re welcome and I love you, too.

We have repeated this conversation about three times a year for about 16 years. It’s not that I make this three times a year. It’s that I make it in streaks, forget about it until the kids beg for it, smack myself in the head for having forgotten this recipe and hoist the phone to my ear once again. Thankfully, I have a very patient stepmother.

Thankfully, I say, because this is a recipe that should be added to your regular rotation and you deserve to know Val’s recipe. And thankfully, too, because finally, I am writing it out. Writing it out so that I can share it all with you, yes. But even more, writing it out means that I can stop annoying my beloved Val. Well, at least about this particular recipe. I’ll still call her for my knitting patterns, the-name-of-that-one-website-we-were-talking-about, the recipe for her oatmeal bread, that book title, which Mr. Bean episode had the hymn that they played while the Titanic was sinking, and the name of Hyacinth Bucket’s son. Like I said, Val is a very patient woman.

But about these Finnish Oven Pancakes. These fixtures of Finnish cuisine are prominent in many communities in the U.S. where there is a high population of Finn immigrants. The Upper Peninsula (Go, Yoop, eh?) has a huge Finnish community. They have graced us with all manner of cured fish and baked goods, but these? These are one of their best. Finnish Oven Pancakes the love child of pancakes and custard. They puff up like a Yorkshire pudding. They have structure -not wet, by any means- and texture, but they’re still soft. Ranging from not-at-all-sweet to good-and-sweet and everywhere in between, Finnish Oven Pancakes can accompany everything from a simple sprinkle of sugar and squeeze of lemon to jam to sweetened whipped cream and Nutella to sausage gravy to stewed venison to seared mushrooms. Not all together, of course, but all this is to say it’s a very flexible meal base.

My boys prefer it with a little shake of confectioner’s sugar or brown sugar and a lemon wedge squeezed o’er top. My husband likes it covered with sausage gravy like -as he is wont to say- “SOS, but much, much classier.”

It takes four ingredients; all of which will probably be in your pantry and/or refrigerator barring natural disasters or winter storms*. Eggs, flour, milk, and salt. Sugar is one-hundred percent optional.

*You will note that I don’t classify a winter storm as a natural disaster. That is because I’m from Michigan. We’re tough. No whining about snow here, people. Bring. it. on.

Finnish Oven Pancakes (Pannkakku)

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons (1/2 of one stick) butter, cut into three or four pieces
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk, preferably whole milk
1 pinch of salt
up to 4 Tablespoons sugar, optional
splash of vanilla extract, optional

Preheat oven to 400°F. When the oven temperature reaches about 300°F, place an 8- or 9-inch cake pan or 10-inch pie plate in the oven with the butter in it. The butter should melt, but not brown, while the oven finishes heating.

Place the eggs, f lour, milk, salt, sugar and vanilla (if using) in the carafe of a blender. Fix the cover in place and blend on high, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and even. When the oven is fully heated, and the butter is fully melted, pull the oven rack out far enough to work safely and pour the batter into the hot pan. Push the rack carefully back into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the oven pancake has puffed quite high and is a deep golden brown. You can test the doneness by quickly inserting a butter knife in the center of the oven pancake. If the knife comes out clean, the pancake is done.

Remove the pan from the oven, cut immediately (it will deflate some, so don’t worry!) and serve topped as desired.

Here are some topping ideas:

If you add the sugar to the batter…

Powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice
A handful or two of fresh or frozen berries
A sprinkle of brown sugar and drizzle of maple syrup
A dollop of fruit jam
Apples sautéed in butter and caramel sauce (oh help.)
A dollop or five of sweetened whipped cream

If you omit the sugar…

Sausage gravy and chopped green onions
Beef or venison stew
Gravy

Did you get a chance to read about my Wii Just Dance Kids giveaway? The sky has not fallen, I’m actually giving away a brand-spankin’ new copy of this great game. You have until this Sunday morning (the 5th of December) to enter. See here for details.

5.0 from 3 reviews

Finnish Oven Pancakes (Pannukakku)

Author: Rebecca Lindamood

Recipe type: Breakfast, Main

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 4

This high-rising traditional Finnish dish is a crispy exteriored cross between a pancake and a custard. Perfect for topping with both sweet and savoury goodies

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons (1/2 of one stick) butter, cut into three or four pieces
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk, preferably whole milk
1 pinch of salt
up to 4 Tablespoons sugar, optional
splash of vanilla extract, optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F. When the oven temperature reaches about 300°F, place an 8- or 9-inch cake pan or 10-inch pie plate in the oven with the butter in it. The butter should melt, but not brown, while the oven finishes heating.
Place the eggs, f lour, milk, salt, sugar and vanilla (if using) in the carafe of a blender. Fix the cover in place and blend on high, stopping to scrape down the sides if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and even. When the oven is fully heated, and the butter is fully melted, pull the oven rack out far enough to work safely and pour the batter into the hot pan. Push the rack carefully back into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the oven pancake has puffed quite high and is a deep golden brown. You can test the doneness by quickly inserting a butter knife in the center of the oven pancake. If the knife comes out clean, the pancake is done.
Remove the pan from the oven, cut immediately (it will deflate some, so don’t worry!) and serve topped as desired.

Notes

Here are some topping ideas: If you add the sugar to the batter… * Powdered sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice * A handful of fresh or frozen berries * A sprinkle of brown sugar and drizzle of maple syrup * A dollop of fruit jam * Apples sautéed in butter and caramel sauce (oh help.) * A dollop or five of sweetened whipped cream If you omit the sugar… * Sausage gravy and chopped green onions * Beef or venison stew * Gravy

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Bread, Breakfast Foods, Component Foods, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, kid food, Main Dish, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: dessert, Frugal Food, kid friendly, kids, quick and easy, quick meal, Vegetarian

Pretzel Wrapped Smoked Sausages & Cranberry Mustard

October 10, 2010 by Rebecca 36 Comments

I’ve made it to Challenge #4 in Project Food Blog from foodbuzz.com! I am having so much fun being part of this competition and I need to thank you so much for your continued support! The prompt for this challenge was: “Sure, you can take a pretty picture. But your task here is to go above and beyond and use photography to create a step-by-step, instructional photo tutorial. It could be anything from how to bone a chicken to how to make your favorite recipe, but your photos need to guide the reader through the steps.”

The only chickens around here are quite alive and would probably not appreciate having their bones removed just now, so I’m opting to share one of my family’s all-time favorite foods. Tighten up those apron strings and join in because this recipe is a must have for football or hockey viewing and upcoming holiday parties. Maybe you should make it just because you can. I’ve been known to do that…

A sausage in the hand is worth two on the fork. Or so I’ve heard it said.

That everyone loves finger food is one of the immutable laws of the universe.* Portable and filling, hand-held foods are a real kid, husband and crowd pleaser.

*The law -as written by me- states that any food that may be transferred from plate to mouth by way of hand or stick is exponentially more appealing and tasty than one which requires utensils or cutlery. I have yet to meet anyone who contests the law.

Soft pretzels and cocktail sized smoked sausages are in the upper echelon of snackery.* Soft pretzels at their best are a chewy, salty, satisfying contribution from the bread world. Cocktail sized smoked sausages offer a low-effort delectable umami punch in a cute little package.

*Their superiority is also an immutable law. I offer proof. What disappears first on a party buffet? If they are present, the answer is unquestionably soft pretzels and cocktail sausages. On another note, is snackery a proper word? If not, I claim this newly coined word in the name of Foodie With Family. I have a flag and everything.

These morsels? These are the cream of the crop. Pretzel Wrapped Smoked Sausages (with or without the divine Cranberry Mustard) combine the best of everything from the grab-and-go food world into two savory, chewy, dunkable, adorable-to-behold bites. And oh, what bites they are! This is far and away the most requested birthday, special occasion, just-because-I’m-craving-it recipe in my arsenal.

A word of caution… Make the whole batch. Don’t be tempted to halve or quarter this because you will eat more than you thought you would and so will anyone standing around you. That tray of pretzel sausages above was cleaned in 5 minutes flat. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about leftovers. But, leftovers -if, by some miracle, you have them- freeze beautifully when wrapped in foil and a resealable bag.

Don’t think for a moment, though, that in the presence of such glorious snack food that this Cranberry Mustard is a throw-away recipe. You have never had a mustard quite like this one before. Ruby-hued, tart, thick, and sweet with that mustard pop, it compliments everything from smoked sausages to venison to roast turkey. More unique than its lovely color is the fact that, unlike most homemade mustards that have to age for weeks, this one is ready to eat straight from the pan. May I make a suggestion that will have you naming your next-born children after me? Have Cranberry Mustard at your next Thanksgiving table. I have six words to say that will convince you: Leftover turkey sandwiches with Cranberry Mustard. I believe that says it all, no?

For a printer-friendly, photo-free version of these recipes, click here!

Pretzel Wrapped Smoked Sausages

Yield: About 76 pieces.

Ingredients for the pretzel dough (Ingredients and bread machine method from the Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook):

4 cups (1 pound and 1 ounce by weight) bread flour (High-gluten flour)
1 tablespoon malt powder or sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast

Ingredients for the pretzel bath:

2 quarts water
2 tablespoons baking soda

Additional Ingredients:

2 (14 ounce) packages cocktail-sized smoked sausages
1 egg white whisked together with 1 tablespoon of cool water until frothy
coarse salt

Optional:

melted butter for brushing the finished pretzels

To prepare pretzel dough with a bread machine:

Add all pretzel dough ingredients into the pan of the bread machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Program the bread machine for the dough cycle and press ‘start’. Allow the machine to complete the cycle.

This is how the dough looks when it is completed. If you are using one of the alternate dough preparations listed below, your dough should still be smooth and elastic like this.

To prepare pretzel dough with a stand-mixer:

Fit your stand mixer with a dough hook. Add all of the pretzel dough ingredients to the work bowl. Turn the stand mixer on using the lowest setting. Keep the mixer on ‘low’ for 6 minutes. After 6 minutes, remove the dough hook from the bowl. Cover with a damp tea towel. Allow the dough to rise in a warm, draft-free place until puffy and doubled in bulk; about 35 minutes.

To prepare pretzel dough by hand:

Add dry pretzel dough ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix lightly with a whisk. Add the milk and water to the bowl and stir well with a sturdy spoon until a shaggy dough forms. Turn out onto a lightly floured counter top and knead until a smooth and elastic dough forms. Place in a clean bowl covered with a damp tea towel. Allow the dough to rise in a warm, draft-free place until puffy and doubled in bulk; about 35 minutes.

To assemble the pretzel wrapped sausages:

Empty the sausages into a bowl for easiest access. Line 3 half-sheet pans with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper lightly with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

Turn the risen dough out onto a clean counter top. (Do not flour the counter top!) Use a bench knife or spatula to pinch or cut off a piece of dough about the size of a ping pong ball. Cover the bulk of the dough with a clean towel to keep it from drying.

Squash the piece of dough flat. Using the pads of your fingers and the palms of your hands, roll the piece of dough back and forth, gently moving hands away from each other. If you call on your play-dough snake making experience to get the right feel for the movement you’re on the right track.

Continue rolling the dough until it forms a long cord with a diameter of about 1/4-1/2 of an inch. Hold the end of the dough cord to the end of the cocktail sausage with one hand. Use the other hand to coil the pretzel dough around the sausage down to the other end.

Use a bench knife or spatula to cut the excess dough cord.

Wind the last bit of dough cord tightly at the end and pinch the loose ends into the dough coil. Don’t worry about perfection. You’re working with sausages and pretzel dough. Whether it ends up a perfect finished coil or not it will still taste like a dream!

Place, pinched sides down, on the prepared parchment lined pans. Let rise, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

To boil and bake the pretzel wrapped sausages:

While the pretzel dough is rising, preheat oven to 400°F and bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the baking soda to the boiling water. Carefully lower up to 8 pretzel dough wrapped sausages into the boiling water with your hands. Take care not to drop them from on high as that will cause the boiling water to splash. Allow them to simmer for about 45 seconds. The pretzel dough will become puffy and some ends may come untucked. As soon as you reach this stage…

…Use a slotted spoon to lift each piece from the water, drain and return to the pans. Brush each piece with the frothy egg wash.

Remember that the sausage is already salty, so use a light hand in sprinkling the coarse salt.

Bake the trays for 16 minutes each, or until the pretzels are a glossy golden brown. Remove from the oven. If desired, brush the finished pretzels with melted butter and cool for 5 minutes before transferring the pretzel sausages to a serving platter.

Cranberry Mustard

Adapted gently from The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Yield: A little over 8 ounces.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup yellow mustard seeds
1 1/3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
2 generous pinches ground allspice

Bring red wine vinegar to a boil in a stainless steel pan. Remove from heat, add yellow mustard seeds, swirl the pan and cover tightly. Let the pan sit at room temperature for about an hour or until the seeds have absorbed almost all of the red wine vinegar. Scrape the soaked seeds into a blender or food processor fitted with a stainless steel blade.

Process until most of the seeds have been crushed. Do not process until completely smooth as you still want a grainy texture with some whole seeds. Add the cranberries, Worcestershire sauce and water and process until the cranberries are finely chopped. Here is where you start getting an idea of just how gorgeous this mustard will be.

Use a silicone or rubber spatula to scrape the cranberry/mustard seed mixture back into the stainless steel pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil gently for 5 minutes.

Whisk in the sugar, mustard powder and allspice until completely incorporated. Simmer until reduced by third, about 5-10 minutes. Transfer into a clean jar with a tight fitting lid.

The mustard is ready to use immediately, but can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a month. This is the only mustard I’ve ever found myself sneaking by the spoonful straight from the jar. Yes, it is that good.

This is my fourth entry in Project Food Blog over at Foodbuzz.com. Did you like this recipe and the post? I’d appreciate your vote of support! Voting is now open. To show your support for Foodie With Family, you can click here or on the orange “Vote for Me” tab in the Official Project Food Blog Contestant widget in the upper right sidebar. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for getting me this far and for your continued support!

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Bread, Holiday Food, Instructional, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Meat, Party Food, Project Food Blog 2010, Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: kid friendly, kids, party food, Snacks

Corn Dog Bread

June 19, 2010 by Rebecca 9 Comments

Summer and corn dogs are like winter and hot cider; you just hafta.

What is is about corn dogs that is so appealing? Is it as simple as the whole “food on a stick” universal truth*? Or is it more complicated? Maybe it comes down to the crazy appeal of the hot dog itself. Perhaps it’s the hint of honey in the crispy-exterior, moist-interior cornbread. Could it be the cultural association of fairs and festivals and carnivals and summer fun in sultry heat? The vinegar bite of yellow mustard dripping down the corn dog? I don’t know. All I know is that when you say ‘corn dog’ I make like Pavlov’s loyal companions and drool.

Alas, having chosen to live in the middle of nowhere as I have done, I don’t often stumble across carnivals and their vittles. And I won’t settle for satisfying my corn dog cravings with an uninteresting box of frozen mystery hot dogs covered in cloyingly sweet cornbread batter*. The only solution is to take matters into my own hands.

*I know that fairs and carnivals probably aren’t serving up Zweigle’s or Nathan’s or Hebrew Nationals in their corn dogs, but somehow the ambiance of a fair makes up for it. I just don’t have the carnival barkers, brightly colored tents or enough tattoos to compensate at home.

Corn Dog Bread is the quickest, easiest, tastiest way to fill that corn dog shaped void in my psyche. Of course, being unable to restrain myself, I added a few flourishes to the corn dog bread that bring it more into my wheelhouse; stoneground cornmeal, candied jalapenos and chopped onions. But friends? If you want the real deal, the most honest representation of corn dogs without a stick that you can possibly get, just go au naturel; use good old yellow cornmeal from the round canister and ix-nay the jalapenos and onions. I won’t be hurt.

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that this is the ultimate in kid-of-all-age-friendly food. Cut up into squares, it’s easily tucked into a bag to take with you to baseball practice, on a picnic, at the drive-in theater or just out on the front porch enjoying that sweet summer breeze. And this is easily turned into a vegetarian-friendly entrée by swapping out the hot dogs for veggie dogs. Please ‘em all, I say!

Whichever way you make it, spicy or plain, serve with a plate piled with barbecue beans and coleslaw for the ultimate summer meal.

Corn Dog Bread

Scroll to the bottom for an easy-print version of this recipe!

Ingredients:

1 cup (4.25 ounces by weight) all purpose flour
3 cups stoneground cornmeal (15 ounces by weight) (You can use regular yellow cornmeal, but be sure not to use self-rising cornmeal here!)
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 Tablespoons honey
2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic (garlic powder)
1/4 teaspoon granulated onion (onion powder)
4 eggs, beaten
6 Tablespoons melted butter
2-1/2 cups buttermilk (Don’t forget how easy it is to make your own real buttermilk!)
8 hot dogs, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds (You can use leftover grilled hot dogs or fresh hot dogs; either is fine!)

Optional, but tasty:

1/2 a cooking onion, peeled and chopped finely
2 Tablespoons Candied Jalapeno or pickled jalapeno rings ~or~ 1 fresh jalapeno, sliced into 1/8-inch rounds

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, soda, powder, salt and sugar with a whisk. In a medium sized bowl or large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, melted butter and buttermilk. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and stir lightly until the batter has mostly come together but still has some small lumps (Grandma’s notes specify to use a whisk. I do what Grandma says. It’s always for the best.)

Fold the sliced hot dogs and onions (if using) into the batter gently just until combined. Scrape the batter into the greased baking dish and level the top. If using the jalapeno rings, arrange evenly over the top of the batter. Slide the baking dish into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and it tests done*.

*A toothpick or cake tester stuck into the center of the bread will come out clean.

Slice into squares and serve warm or room temperature with the usual corn dog accompaniments -mustard, ketchup, and hot sauce- or not.

…Whatever you do, and however you make it, don’t forget those Barbecue Beans and coleslaw!

Corn Dog Bread

Author: Rebecca Lindamood

Recipe type: Main, Side

Serves: 8

Everything you love about corn dogs minus the stick. This is the taste of summer and fairs and perpetual youth.

Ingredients

1 cup (4.25 ounces by weight) all purpose flour
3 cups stoneground cornmeal (15 ounces by weight) (You can use regular yellow cornmeal, but be sure not to use self-rising cornmeal here!)
1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 Tablespoons honey
2 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon granulated garlic (garlic powder)
¼ teaspoon granulated onion (onion powder)
4 eggs, beaten
6 Tablespoons melted butter
2-1/2 cups buttermilk (Don’t forget how easy it is to make your own real buttermilk!)
8 hot dogs, sliced into ¼-inch rounds (You can use leftover grilled hot dogs or fresh ones; either is fine!
Optional, but tasty:
½ a cooking onion, peeled and chopped finely
2 Tablespoons Candied Jalapeno or pickled jalapeno rings ~or~ 1 fresh jalapeno, sliced into ⅛-inch rounds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, soda, powder, and salt with a whisk. In a medium sized bowl or large liquid measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, honey and buttermilk. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and stir lightly until the batter has mostly come together but still has some small lumps (Grandma’s notes specify to use a whisk. I do what Grandma says. It’s always for the best.)
Fold the sliced hot dogs and onions (if using) into the batter gently just until combined. Scrape the batter into the greased baking dish and level the top. If using the jalapeno rings, arrange evenly over the top of the batter. Slide the baking dish into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and it tests done*.

Notes

*A toothpick or cake tester stuck into the center of the bread will come out clean.

WordPress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

Filed Under: Bread, Breakfast Foods, kid food, Main Dish, Meat, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: cornbread, Frugal Food, kid friendly, kids, leftovers, party food, picnic food, quick and easy, quick meal, summer food

Homemade Naan

June 9, 2010 by Rebecca 8 Comments

Welcome to part IV of the series of component dishes to make the transcendent ‘Second to Naanwich’ that still has me obsessed almost three weeks after eating it. (Don’t forget to peek at Part I, Candied Jalapenos a.k.a. Cowboy Candy, Part II, Homemade Greek Yogurt and Cucumber Yogurt Salsa [Raita] and Part III, Homemade Ghee !) Tomorrow I’ll share the recipe for the Tandoori Style Grilled Chicken and directions for putting together the you-know-what!

You know how I feel about bread.(You can find proof is here, here, here, and here for starters.) It’s no mystery that I would do just about anything for a hot, fresh loaf of crusty bread. And I’m about to share with you one of the most instant gratification perfection breads you can possibly make; Naan*. We all know that bread is the closest thing to perfection in the food world, but this particular version of naan takes it one step closer; it’s fried. Can you think of something better than chewy bread that was fried in a pan with butter? I’ll give you a minute to think about it.

*The hard-working grandmothers of an entire sub-continent just collectively gave me the stink-eye for suggesting their dietary staple is a convenience food.

Still thinking? It’s alright. I’m not in a hurry. I’ll just nibble my naan here.

Got anything yet?

I didn’t think so. Bread. Butter. Fried. That’s really all you need in life.

There is an advantage to this version of naan; it uses the super versatile Master Bread Dough (that I’ve evangelized about many times before; here, here, here and here.) That means that you can satisfy your naan cravings -and believe me, they will occur- in mere minutes because the dough is parked in the refrigerator awaiting your beck and call and ghee and pan. In five minutes flat, you can be scorching your tastebuds on a perfect naan straight from the frying pan. That is serious convenience food. It makes me look good to whip up bread in about as much time as it takes to rip open a bag of chips and a container of dip. That makes me very popular with

This is a job for ghee. Sure, you could fry it in oil or plain butter, but there are a couple reasons that ghee is superior here. First, oil is just bland in this application. B-o-r-i-n-g. And that is a sin with bread. Go forth and sin no more.

Second, if you read my post on homemade ghee you might remember that I said turning butter into ghee raises the smoke point. That’s a very good thing when you’re frying bread. It gives you longer to cook the bread before it scorches. The result is naan that is cooked all the way through; chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside and a wee bit charred around the edges vs. carbonized on the outside and gummy on the inside.

This is good-for-the-soul food; happy-from-the-inside-out food. Do yourself a favor and make some today. I boss you around because I love you.

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Homemade Naan

The Dough recipe is reprinted from ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’ and the Naan recipe is gently adapted from the same source. This does make a lot of dough. You can use it to make the recipes found here, here, here and here or you can halve or quarter the recipe.

Ingredients for the Master Bread Dough:

6 cups warm (but not hot) water
3 Tablespoons Kosher salt (if using table salt, reduce to 2 teaspoons)
3 Tablespoons active dry yeast (or SAF Instant Yeast)
13 cups (3 pounds, 7.25 ounces by weight) all-purpose flour

Mix all ingredients together in a 12 quart bowl or container until an even but shaggy dough forms. You do not have to knead it. Simply cover loosely with plastic wrap or a lid. Do not cover tightly or this might happen to you! Allow the dough to rise for two hours at room temperature or until the dough has more than doubled in bulk. It may collapse back in on itself or it may not. Either way, after it has doubled you can either put it into the refrigerator to use within the next two weeks or you can use part of it immediately.

Ingredients for the Naan:

Ghee
Master Bread Dough
all-purpose flour

Dust the surface of the dough with a generous amount of all-purpose flour.

Pull up a portion of dough with your hands and use a sharp knife to cut off a portion about the size of a golf ball. Place on a clean, lightly floured counter top.

Use your hands or a rolling pin to spread the dough out as thin as you can get it. If the dough is fighting you a lot (i.e. springing back to its original form) you can let it rest for a couple minutes and tackle it again. It will stretch eventually! For the naanwiches, I stretched the naan to about the shape of a single chicken breast. That is totally unnecessary, but it made the sandwiches prettier and (I think!) easier to eat.

Place a heavy-bottomed pan with a lid over high heat. I used a hard-anodized cast-aluminum pan, but cast-iron works really well here, too. When a few drops of water flung onto the pan from your fingertips skitter across the surface before evaporating, the pan is ready to use.

Spoon about 2 teaspoons of ghee into the hot pan and swirl to coat. Gently place the stretched dough into the pan and cover with the lid immediately.

Lower the heat to medium/ medium-high. Fry for one to two minutes before lifting the lid. This allows the underside of the bread to fry while the top side steams.

Lift the lid to check the bread. If the top is puffy and the underside is a rich golden brown around the edges and on large areas of the center, flip the bread.

Cover again and cook for an additional two minutes or until the second side is also a deep golden brown. Remove naan to a rack and repeat until you have the desired number of naans. These are best served within an hour of being made.

Don’t forget that tomorrow we make these:

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Bread, Breakfast Foods, Component Foods, Instructional, kid food, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars Tagged With: dough, Frugal Food, kid friendly, party food, quick and easy

One Hour Sandwich Bread

April 17, 2010 by Rebecca 22 Comments

Can you think of any scent more bewitching than that of fresh bread baking in the oven? It is nearly impossible to concentrate when I smell it. While the bread bakes my brain rummages through its box of all my favorite ways to eat a loaf hot from the oven; Should it be blueberry jam? Cold butter? Ginger marmalade? Or maybe a fried egg? A paper thin slice of salty ham? What sweet agony narrowing down those options. And what a marvelous way to pass part of a Saturday morning; luxuriating in the brown yeasty aroma of dough transforming into the staff of life and contemplating that new loaf’s upcoming rapid demise.

If talk of bread fires up your salivary glands the way it does mine, you are in luck today, my friends. I have a recipe for an astonishingly flavorful yeast bread that is ready to be loaded up with whatever makes your fancy take flight in one hour flat.

From start to finish, from its Alpha to its Omega, from the time you dip that first scoop of flour to the time it is removed from the oven you will have spent sixty minutes; and most of that will have been baking time. There’s no crazy trick to it, it’s simply simple.

And this is a sandwich bread that is the stuff on which dreams are built; mouthwatering flavor, magnificently chewy crust, fine crumb interior, able to be sliced Texas toast thick or whisper thin and capable of holding anything you want to pile or slather on it. Just take a look at it.

Want to look closer?

Well, sure! zoom on in…

If you have any fears about making yeast breads abandon them long enough to give this a try. Kiss those yeast-bread bogey monsters goodbye, because this is the bread that will change your life. You don’t need special equipment, or mad bread skills, or anything other than a big bowl and a spoon and a little counter space and the counter space is negotiable. I’ll give instructions for preparing this with a stand mixer, food processor and by hand. And please note that it is just as easy as can be in all three methods. I do believe it’s time to revamp that old cliché, “It’s as easy as pie.” From now on I’m going to say, “It’s as easy as One Hour Sandwich Bread!”

Remember, too, that a last minute loaf of bread can make the meal. It can be the difference between a lonely bowl of soup and a feast. And more than that, this bread turns humble pantry staples into a reason to look forward to dinner. And while the taste and ease are enough, there is also the low price tag to recommend it. A few cups of flour, salt, sugar, yeast, water and it’s bread! And let me tell you something else, a loaf of this wrapped in a new tea towel makes a fantastic hostess gift. Who doesn’t like a loaf of warm bread?

For a printer-friendly version of this recipe minus the photos and rhapsodic waxing about bread, click here!

One Hour Sandwich Bread

Adapted from ‘The Tightwad Gazette’.

Ingredients:

6 cups all-purpose flour (1 pound, 9.5 ounces by weight)
2 Tablespoons instant yeast (also known as Bread Machine Yeast)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon Kosher salt (if using table salt, reduce to 1 ½ teaspoons)
2 cups very warm water (about 120°F)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Mixing the dough by Stand Mixer (my preferred method):

Combine flour, instant yeast, sugar, and salt in the bowl of the stand mixer that has been fitted with a dough hook. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds.

With mixer running, slowly pour in the water and olive oil at the same time. Continue mixing on low until the dough comes together and becomes smooth, about 4 minutes. Remove bowl from the stand mixer, scraping any dough that remains on the dough hook into the bowl. Pull dough from bowl with your hands and form a smooth dough ball. Replace in bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Mixing the dough by Food Processor:

Combine flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor that has been fitted with a blade or dough blade. Pulse 10 times. With the food processer running, pour the water and olive oil into the feed chute. Continue processing until the dough forms a cohesive ball. Spin the dough ball 20 times and shut off the food processor. Remove the dough, form a smooth dough ball and place in a lightly oiled mixing bowl. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Mixing the dough by Hand:

Combine flour, instant yeast, sugar and salt with a whisk or fork in a large mixing bowl. Pour the warm water and olive oil into the flour mixture and use a sturdy spoon to combine into a shaggy dough. Use your hands to knead for 8 minutes*. After kneading for 8 minutes, cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.

*If you find it difficult to knead in the bowl, you can turn the dough out onto a clean surface to knead it. After kneading, just return the dough to the bowl and allow it to rise as instructed above.

Turn dough out onto a clean surface and divide in half. Form each half into a ball and place 5-6 inches apart on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or a silpat, or has been lightly greased. Use a sharp knife to slash the top of the loaf about ¼ of an inch deep. This allows the steam to escape the baking loaf.

To bake the loaves:

Arrange the racks in your cold oven so that one rack is on the very bottom and one is positioned in the center of the oven. Place the baking sheet with the loaves on the center rack and a bread or cake pan that is full of very hot tap water on the bottom rack. Close the oven and turn your oven on to 400°F. It is imperative that you start this in a cold oven! Set your timer for 40 minutes. That 40 minutes is all that stands between you and fresh bread.

The crust should be a deep brown and quite firm when you remove the loaves from the oven. Transfer the loaves to a rack to cool completely if you wish to slice them, or you can do like I normally do and cool one loaf while tearing the second one into pieces and slathering with cold sweet cream butter.

Filed Under: Bread, Happy Healthy and Wise, Healthy Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: food gift, Frugal Food, quick and easy, quick meal

Garlic Butter Crusty Bubble Bread

November 17, 2009 by Rebecca 23 Comments

I have an enduring love affair with bread. It’s not just the pure pleasure of pulling off a steaming heel of bread, slathering cold sweet cream butter over the top, sinking your teeth into the crumb and shattering the crust; although those are reasons enough to be devoted. Making bread; the process of measuring, mixing, kneading, waiting, shaping, waiting again and finally baking is -on its worst days- meditative and -on its best days- cathartic. But more wonderful than all of that put together is the delicious and painful anticipation while the bread bakes; the nutty, grainy, toasty smell of dough transforming itself into brown bread, and the impossible wait while the bread cools. I can never wait long enough.

I know very well that you should let the bread cool completely before cutting into it. I get around this problem by tearing into the hot bread with my bare hands. Throwing the bread from hand to hand until it’s cool enough rest in the palm is a skill I’ve developed out of necessity and a skill I’ve taught my family. Once the piece of bread reaches that temperature it is not long for this world. A fresh loaf of bread is shown no mercy in this home. And that is as it should be.

Bubble bread is the hard drug of the bread world; one experience with it is enough to hook you for life. There are variations enough on the theme to feed everyone’s addiction; chocolate, caramel, cinnamon, cheese, onion, dill, and on and on and on. But this particular take on bubble bread -Garlic Butter Crusty Bubble Bread- is our family’s favorite. Rolled in, topped with and baked in garlic butter and olive oil, and aromatic with Italian herbs this bread develops a crackly crisp deep brown crust all around and keeps an incomparably tender interior. Served as is, hot from the oven, it is a savoury and rich snack. Showered with grated Romano or Parmesano cheese and surrounding a warm bowl of marinara sauce it is second to none in party food or appetizers.

There’s more to this bread than just a pretty package and head-swimmingly delicious taste. It takes advantage of the versatile Master Bread dough from the original ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’ by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. In other words, the dough is ready and waiting in the fridge for a Garlic Butter Crusty Bubble Bread craving attack. And believe me. Once you’ve had it, those attacks will be frequent.

I have a confession to make. This bread is not low-fat or diet friendly. But sometimes, just sometimes, you have to feed the love handles and muffin tops to feed the soul. I, for one, am okay with that.

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Garlic Butter Crusty Bubble Bread

Ingredients:

About half a batch of Master Bread Dough (recipe listed below)
1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
3/4 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon granulated dried garlic
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus an additional 1/2 teaspoon for sprinkling
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
optional for serving, grated hard Italian cheese (Romano, Asiago, Parmesano, etc…) and a bowl of warm marinara sauce.

As with many good foods, this recipe starts with a stick of butter. Oh butter, I love you. Why do you treat me so badly?

Unwrap butter and place in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in the microwave until the butter is fully melted. There are days I’m tempted to stop at this step and just rub the melted butter into my skin. But that might encourage cannibalism.

Stir garlic, Italian seasoning, granulated garlic, the 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper into the melted butter. Set next to you on the countertop and turn your attention to the dough.

Dust the refrigerated dough in the bucket with a generous amount of flour.

Pull dough up from the center and use a sharp knife to cut off a portion that is between the sizes of a golf ball and plum. Please excuse my floury hands, folks, there’s just no way to get around it here…

Pull the sides down and under while rotating the dough to form a smooth ball.

On a clean counter, place the dough ball, seam side down, and gently cup the dough with your hand.

Rotate it in one direction on the counter while providing gentle and steady downward pressure. This will smooth the surface of the dough ball and make it tight.

Carefully deposit the dough ball into the butter mixture and turn to coat completely.

Use a fork to transfer the dough to a 9″ x 13″ pan. My pan, she has been well used and she works hard. She has permanent stains. Please don’t hold that against me.

Repeat until you have at least four rows of three dough balls. If you want very crusty bubbles of bread, stop here. If you prefer crusty tops with softer sides, cut off and roll six more dough balls and place them in the open spaces between rows. For this batch, I opted for crusty tops and soft sides. I’m unpredictable like the wind.

Do not crowd the dough to the point where you have to squeeze or mash them to the side to fit more into the pan. Drizzle any garlic butter mixture that remains in the bowl over the top of the dough. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt.

Allow the dough to rest while preheating the oven to 450°F (230°C or 8 Gas Mark). When oven is hot, place pan on a rimmed cookie sheet on the center rack and bake for 25 minutes, or until the top of the bread is deep brown. The cookie sheet is there to catch any butter that tries to escape. There will still be quite a bit of bubbling butter around the edges of the bread. This is a good thing.

Allow the pan to stand on the stovetop until the remaining butter is absorbed. Trust me. Much like the Borgs, it will be assimilated.

Serve warm, as is.

Or top with a generous amount of freshly grated hard Italian cheese and a bowl of warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Update: This post has been updated to reflect the removal of the 4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil from the recipe. While it was delicious with the oil, there was enough variance in people’s ovens that some ovens scorched the bread or overcrisped the bottoms of the rolls with the additional fat. The removal of the fat ensures a more even result. Either way, it’s good eats, folks!

Master Bread Dough Recipe

From the book ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’. Zoë François graciously allowed me to share this recipe.

Ingredients:

6 cups lukewarm water
3 Tablespoons instant yeast
3 Tablespoons kosher salt
13 cups all-purpose flour

Mix water, yeast and salt together in the bowl of a large stand mixer or in a 10 quart food-safe container. Add flour and stir until the mixture is uniform. You don’t have to knead, but you want everything uniformly moist, without dry patches. The dough will be wet and will conform to the shape of its container.

Cover with a lid that fits well, but is not airtight and allow to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours or until the dough collapses back in on itself. You can now refrigerate the dough for up to two weeks, using the dough whenever you need it or you may use it immediately.

Filed Under: Appetizers & Snacks, Bread, Breakfast Foods, Instructional, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Party Food, Rebecca, Recipes, Snacks, Vegetarian Tagged With: bubble bread, crusty bread, garlic bread, garlic butter, Italian bubble bread, party food

Asiago Herb and Garlic Bread

June 3, 2009 by Rebecca 56 Comments

Time is up on the giveaway. I will now retreat with my calculator and devise a highly scientific method of picking the winner. (Actually, the winner will be chosen at random. I thought I should probably mention that!) I will announce the winner later today, so please come back to see who the lucky winner is!

Everyone needs a go-to recipe. I mean the kind of recipe you can rely on when you’re hosting unexpected dinner guests in a couple hours and can’t get to the store. Or the sort of recipe that rescues your hiney when you’ve spent the entire day on one subject with the kids (for my fellow homeschoolers) or running around to five hundred million different places (for everyone) and haven’t spent two minutes thinking about dinner. I’m talking about the recipe that can be made entirely from pantry staples. I refer to the chameleon recipe that goes with everything. I am telling you about (drumroll please…) Asiago Herb and Garlic Bread.

We’ve been doing standardized testing this week for the big boys and lemme tell you, they’ve not been thrilled. They stress over questions they don’t know even though I’ve told them repeatedly that they are expected to miss things on a standardized test. I have no idea whatsoever where they got their perfectionist tendencies. I am so sanguine and never, ever obsessive compulsive over results.*

*I’d like to throw an idea out there for any braniacs or creative types who read my blog. Could someone PLEASE come up with a ‘Sarcastic Font’ that could be used universally? And then could you do the work to get it accepted, recognized and widely used? It would be so much easier than italicizing every other word when I’m trying to force my keyboard to drip sarcasm… Thank you!

During testing week, the boyos require a little more, er, understanding. They’re cranky with themselves, crabby with The Evil Genius and me, and absolutely foul-tempered toward each other. I’ve only found two things that ameliorate some of the short fuses; food and one VERY effective threat*. Both approaches need to be used for either of them to work well. The food has to be served much like Chicago style voting; early and often. And the threat? Well, don’t judge me until you’ve walked a mile in my Crocs, but I threaten to make them sit on the couch facing each other while holding hands and singing, “Kumbaya”. It works like a charm. (Another friend recently informed me that she made her now grown sons hold hands in a circle while reciting, “How blessed it is when brothers live together in unity.” I’m keeping that one handy for future reference.)

Oh, how the food flowed this week… And by the time we got to evening before last, the cupboards were showing the strain. Naturally, I hadn’t planned anything for dinner and I realized this at 3 o’clock. ACK!

The inspiration for this bread comes from a recipe that I’ve been preparing for years: Cuban Bread (from ‘The Tightwad Gazette: Volume II’, Amy Dacyzyn). This recipe always appealed to me because it is prepared, rested, baked and ready to stuff in my face in an hour and a half. It has a simple, honest bread flavor that just happens to be very budget friendly. And that made it the perfect candidate to accompany a quick, monstrously huge pot of spaghetti last night. But last night, simple honest bread just wasn’t cutting it for me. I wanted something spectacular… And messing with the recipe yielded one of the most delicious breads I’ve ever had. Ever.

The addition of indecent quantities of Asiago cheese, Italian herbs, and garlic turned humble Cuban Bread into the most gorgeous brown, cheese-crusted and cheese-studded, herbed, garlic bread I’ve ever had the pleasure of tearing apart with my teeth. We consumed all but five slices of the bread in less than twenty minutes. It was so good that I dreamed about it. The next morning I used the remaining slices of bread to make “Toads in a hole” for breakfast. Then I started another batch of the bread. It was done and out of the oven just in time to send a loaf home with my kind-hearted and prolific-gardener friend, Deb, who brought some extra seedlings she had started for our garden.

I don’t want to hear anyone saying, “But I don’t bake bread!” This bread is so easy to make that it is almost impossible to mess up. I’m serious. You can mix it by hand, in a stand mixer or in a food processor. There’s no preheating the oven or multiple rises to this bread. It is as easy as it gets. But, oh, the payoff!

I refuse to tell you how many batches of this bread I’ve made since Monday. We’ve eaten it plain (if such a loaf can be called plain), buttered and/or as toast. You’ve never tasted such toast as that made with this bread, I tell you! My backside is evidence of how many slices of this bread I’ve consumed while sitting at the table proctoring tests…

…But tests are now done! I’m in proud Mama mode with both the kids and this bread. If you’ve just finished up the school year drop me an email or find me on Facebook. I’m there. Even if only to freak my kids out a little. No kids? Send me a picture of pets, your favorite book or a loaf of freshly baked bread! I love you hear from you all.

And I’m in the mood for celebrating. I’m going to whip up another batch of this bread but I’m feeling pretty punchy and I’m not sure that’ll suffice. Hey! A giveaway might just do it… So, to celebrate the end of this round of schooling, the end of testing and the discovery of Asiago Herb and Garlic Bread I’m going to give away a bunch of goodies!

This Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized 12″ Everyday Pan with Lid! This is my favorite pan in my kitchen. I use it *gasp* everyday! Were those Calphalon folks clever when the named it or what? It can’t be beat for versatility and it’s heavy enough to stop an intruder when applied to the intruder’s head. It’s suitable for stovetop, oven and broiler cooking. I make spaghetti sauce, baked fish, bacon, and all other sorts of things in it. Since it’s hard-anodized it’s non-reactive and it doesn’t absorb or impart odors or off flavors.

…and since I’m still feeling giddy, I’m also giving away a copy of the book that inspired the heaven-sent bread: The Complete Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Dacyzyn. This book is the last word in thrifty living. While no one really expects to adopt EVERY suggestion in the book, there are countless tricks and common sense approaches to cutting the fluff from a budget. It’s an awfully helpful and nice resource to have on the shelf.

While I’m at it, I’ll throw in one of my favorite, low-tech kitchen gadgets: The Oxo Pastry Scraper (bench knife). This little thing separates bread dough, cleans up gummy countertops, helps remove recalcitrant pastry crust or cookie dough from surfaces and whacks a calzone in half in less than two shakes of a hummingbird’s wing.

Want to enter? Details are after the recipe!

For a photo-free, printer-friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Asiago Herb and Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

6 cups all-purpose flour
1- 1/2 cups plus 2/3 cup grated Asiago cheese, divided
2 Tablespoons dry yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon dried Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon dried Rosemary
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (adjust up or down according to heat preference)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic (optional)
2 cups hot tap water (around 120-130 degrees)
4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided, plus a little for the bowl

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, 1-1/2 cups grated Asiago, yeast, sugar, salt, Italian seasoning, rosemary, red pepper flakes, onion and garlic powder.

(If using a food processor, simply add those dry ingredients to the food processor bowl and pulse 5 times.) Pour in the hot water and stir 100 times (That is equal to 3 minutes with a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. If using the food processor, drizzle the water in while the machine is running until the dough forms a ball.)

Knead the dough for 8 minutes (If using stand mixer with a dough hook, allow to mix on low for 4 minutes. If using the food processor, allow the ball to spin 20 times.) Form the dough into a rough ball.

Drizzle some olive oil into a bowl. I just carry on using the mixing bowl of my stand mixer. Feel free to dirty another dish, though…

Place dough into the bowl and flip over, so both sides are lightly coated with olive oil.

Cover with a damp tea towel or paper towel.

Allow to rise for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, the dough will be puffy.

Punch down dough.

Divide into two equal pieces. Form the dough into rounds. To make a nice tight ball, pull the top of the dough over and down the sides of the wad of dough. Then, tuck under the excess. Voila! Tight dough balls! Place about 6 inches apart on an ungreased, rimmed baking sheet. Gently pat the dough rounds down so they are relatively flat on top.

Use a sharp knife to slash an ‘x’ about 1/4″ deep over the tops of the loaves.

Drizzle each loaf with about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.

Then top each loaf with about 1/3 cup additional grated Asiago. Really pack that cheese on there. I wouldn’t judge if you decided to go with more like 1/2 a cup…

This is DEFINITELY one time when less is NOT more! (Go on. Put more cheese on that dough!)

Place baking sheet in a cold oven over a cake or loaf pan filled with hot tap water.

Set oven to 400°F. As soon as you turn the oven on, set your timer for 40 minutes. Begin checking the bread when the timer goes off. If it is still light colored, pop it back in the oven. You may need as much as 10 more minutes.If bread is a gorgeous deep golden brown, remove it. See this loaf? It’s perfect in every possible way except for one. That one is that I haven’t eaten it yet.

Remove the bread and serve hot, warm or room temperature. This is one bread that tastes great any way you slice it!

How to Enter the Contest

To enter, just try making the bread and leave me a comment about how it turned out for you. If you plan on making it, what will the bread accompany? Or if messin’ with recipes is your style, tell me how you made the bread your own. Or if you hate bread, feel free to share. Just leave a comment!
One entry per person via comments. However, should you choose to mention this wee contest of mine in your blog, email me or leave a comment with the link and I’ll throw your name in the hat a second time.

Important Bits and Pieces

The contest ends 12 noon EST, Monday, June 8, 2009.
There will be a maximum of two entries per person. Righty?
My family cannot win these prizes. I think everyone in my family has these already, anyway!
This is a contest sponsored by yours truly. No corporations or authors were exploited, harmed or otherwise injured in the course of this contest.

Filed Under: Bread, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Vegetarian Tagged With: asiago cheese, homemade bread, quick yeast bread

Crispy Seared Mushroom and Asiago Puffs

May 11, 2009 by Rebecca 4 Comments

We’ve been spring cleaning like crazy around here lately. It’s so invigorating to be able to open the windows after having them firmly shut since November. And even though I hate doing laundry, there is something incredibly peaceful about hanging the first couple loads of clothes and sheets and towels on the line. Everything is fresh and crisp and the pile of laundry has dwindled to a less shameful height.

In the middle of all this frenetic cleaning my attention has turned to my freezers. They are, in short, an abysmal mess. Last Fall’s organization campaign, complete with manifests of the contents therewithin, came apart midway through the second week of December when I realized I had stashed all my Thanksgiving leftovers on top of my carefully stacked piles of this and that. Shortly after that I added several turkey breasts and some frozen peas that I had purchased on sale and it was all downhill from there. I’m in the beginning stages of clearing out the freezer to make room for this summer’s bounty.

A few days ago I decided to really crack into the frozen wasteland that is my chest freezer and make a difference. Stashed in among the frozen detritus was a half used box of puff pastry. I sat it on a cabinet to the side of the freezer while rummaging around and trying to make sense of the mess. By the time I had done enough (translation: my fingers were too stiff to pick up and move anything else) it was time to get cracking on dinner and the puff pastry had thawed to the point where it wasn’t re-freezable. I figured this was as close to a sign from God as I was going to get about that evening’s dinner plans.

Keeping with the rummaging theme, I scoured the fridge and found a container of leftover seared mushrooms á la Pastor Ryan on the Pioneer Woman’s Website, (If you have never made these you MUST make them this very instant. I’ll wait right here while you do it. *tapping desk… tap… tap…* Okay, ready? How awesome are those? I think they just may be one of my favorite things to eat. Ever. Thanks, Ryan!) and a biggish hunk of Asiago cheese. Because the mushrooms are already seasoned and cooked with shallots, salt and pepper, most of the dish was already done. Sometimes food just makes itself, doesn’t it? The mushrooms, Asiago and puff pastry made the most beautiful and delicious crispy, savory accompaniment to beef stew. Not to be forgotten was the warm, self-satisfied glow of not wasting food and almost, maybe, perhaps, kind-of beginning to clean my freezer. Cleaning never tasted so good!

*If you happen to have some crispy, crumbled bacon or pancetta handy it would not be out of place in these puffs. I didn’t have any and these tasted simply wonderful. But boy, if I’d had bacon…

For a photo-friendly, printer friendly version of this recipe, click here!

Crispy Seared Mushroom and Asiago Puffs

Ingredients:

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
2 cups seared mushrooms
1 cup grated Asiago cheese
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Optional, 1 egg beaten with 1 Tablespoon water for a glaze.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

On a lightly floured countertop, roll the puff pastry sheet into a rectangle that measures approximately 10″ x 12″.

Evenly spread the mushrooms on the puff pastry to within an inch or so of the edges.

Sprinkle the Asiago cheese evenly over the mushrooms and grind pepper over the top to taste.

Roll both edges over the mushroom and cheese filling toward the center like you’re rolling up a double scroll.

When both rolls reach the center, press together firmly enough to get them to stick, but not firmly enough to squish the works.

Transfer carefully to a cutting board and cut into 1″ slices.

Lay, cut sides down, on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.

Cute. Aren't they?

Don't discard the ugly ones. Those are the cook's tax. You skim that 10% right off the pan into your mouth. You earned it.

Don't discard the ugly ones. Those are the cook's tax. When they're done baking just skim that 10% right off the pan into your mouth. You earned it.

If using the egg glaze, brush the pastry before baking. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove tray from oven and allow puffs to cool for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.