White bread, hot out of the oven.
Slicing a whole wheat loaf.
Recipe and more pictures behind the jump!
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Sunday 20 May 2012
Soft Sandwich Bread
I have to tell you how easy and convenient it is to have homemade bread everyday. The technique for this bread is so easy that I am always giving out copies of the recipe. Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day is an amazing cookbook. The 5 minutes refers to the amount of work you have to put into it. That's it, just 5 minutes! I use my book several times a week. It has a bunch of different types of bread. The Soft American-Style White Bread (or as I call it, "Soft Sandwich Bread") being one of my favourites -- along with the Artisan Free-Form Loaf and Cinnamon Rolls made from Challah. I make the soft bread almost daily. It freezes perfectly, so we are never out of bread. I use this dough to make a regular loaf, and to make hamburger and hotdog buns. It's pretty versatile! I usually substitute some of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat, and because butter is expensive and I make this bread so often, I also substitute the butter for vegetable oil. I will include my changes in parentheses in the ingredient list. One other change I make is that I split the dough in 2 rather than 3 to make a perfect sized sandwich bread. I usually bake both loaves at once (no alterations to bake time is needed) and freeze one right away. If you freeze a loaf, just take it out and let it thaw before you cut it, and it will be just as fresh and soft as it was going into the freezer. You'll want to store this bread in a bag or sealed container to keep it soft. If you decide to make buns, start checking on them around the 25 minute mark.
Friday 11 May 2012
Easy Pudding Cookies
I made Triple Chip Chocolate Pudding Cookies for dessert tonight. They are yummy, and I love the convenience of pudding powder because I usually have some in the pantry and I'm low on cocoa. I got the recipe from Kraft.
Easy Pudding Cookies
Makes 42 cookies
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups flour
1 pkg. (6 squares) BAKER'S White Chocolate, chopped (I used a mixture of chips totalling about 1 1/2 cups)
Heat oven to 350°F.
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Add dry pudding mix; beat until well blended. Add eggs and baking soda; mix well. Gradually beat in flour until well blended. Stir in chocolate.
Drop tablespoons of dough, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets.
Bake 10 to 12 min. or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 min. on baking sheets; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Add dry pudding mix; beat until well blended. Add eggs and baking soda; mix well. Gradually beat in flour until well blended. Stir in chocolate.
Drop tablespoons of dough, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets.
Bake 10 to 12 min. or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 min. on baking sheets; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.
Beef Stir Fry
I made a beef stir fry for dinner tonight. It actually turned out spicier than I thought. I normally make everything really mild for the kids, but I added a little kick tonight because I thought they wouldn't even try it anyway. They actually did all try some, and none liked it. lol Charisma did the best job on hers.
Thursday 10 May 2012
Chicken and Beef Kabobs!
2 Meals of Kabobs.
The first night I marinated some chicken breasts, and added red pepper and onion.
I made a tomato cucumber salad (fresh basil, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, pepper, and chunks of feta).
And we had it with the new bread and white rice.
Another day I did beef kabobs. I sprinkled the beef with steak spice then coated the chunks in barbeque sauce. I alternated them on the skewer with zucchini, yellow pepper, and onion.
We had them with twice baked potatoes with a dollop of sour cream.
And more artisan bread with butter.
No Knead Artisan Bread
I tried a new recipe for artisan bread. The part that sold me was that it only uses a half teaspoon of yeast. I normally make the basic boule from my Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book, and that takes 1.5 tablespoons of yeast -- that's 9 times as much! I had to read it twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things, but yes, 1/2 tsp is all it needs! Though this new bread requires very little effort, it had to be planned farther in advance. I had to put it off for 3 days before I could finally mix the dough because it needs ~12 hours to rise and it just wouldn't work with my schedule. You'd want to make it in the evening or later, and be home for a few hours in the morning to finish it off. You also want to plan a nice meal to go with it. It's not really a sandwich bread, but it goes fantastic with soups or stews. We ate it with just butter. My whole family loved it. My 2 year old was screaming for some the next morning. I asked if she wanted peanut butter toast or cereal or anything else instead, and she was very insistent (as most 2 year olds can be!) that it was the new bread with butter she wanted.
Because I'm slightly crazy, I also took a video of the bread hot out of the oven so you can hear it crackling. Read to the end for that.
The recipe I followed was adapted from Jim Lahey’s My Bread. It was doubled to make a 2.5lb loaf. After the initial overnight rise, I split the dough in half. I shaped one loaf and re-covered the bowl with the remaining dough. After 1 hour, I shaped the second loaf and then baked the first loaf. When the first loaf was done baking, the second loaf was ready to go into the oven and the dutch oven was already hot. I actually found the 2 loaves to be too much for our family of 5. When I make it in the future, I will reduce it by half to make just one loaf. You can freeze this bread, but that would soften the crust.
Basic No-Knead Bread
6 cups bread (recommended) or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2 teaspoon instant or active-dry yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 2/3 cups cool water
In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
Lightly flour your hands and a work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and, using floured fingers, tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.
Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with enough flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises; place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran. Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425-450 degrees. Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats. When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel; flip the dough over into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
Cover and bake for 40-50 minutes. Uncover and continue baking about 5-10 more minutes, until a deep chestnut brown. The internal temp of the bread should be around 200 degrees. You can check this with a meat thermometer, if desired.
Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
Because I'm slightly crazy, I also took a video of the bread hot out of the oven so you can hear it crackling. Read to the end for that.
The crust is absolutely perfect. It's crunchy on the outside, and airy yet chewy on the inside.
The recipe I followed was adapted from Jim Lahey’s My Bread. It was doubled to make a 2.5lb loaf. After the initial overnight rise, I split the dough in half. I shaped one loaf and re-covered the bowl with the remaining dough. After 1 hour, I shaped the second loaf and then baked the first loaf. When the first loaf was done baking, the second loaf was ready to go into the oven and the dutch oven was already hot. I actually found the 2 loaves to be too much for our family of 5. When I make it in the future, I will reduce it by half to make just one loaf. You can freeze this bread, but that would soften the crust.
Basic No-Knead Bread
6 cups bread (recommended) or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2 teaspoon instant or active-dry yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 2/3 cups cool water
In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
Lightly flour your hands and a work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and, using floured fingers, tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.
Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with enough flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises; place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran. Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425-450 degrees. Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats. When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel; flip the dough over into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
Cover and bake for 40-50 minutes. Uncover and continue baking about 5-10 more minutes, until a deep chestnut brown. The internal temp of the bread should be around 200 degrees. You can check this with a meat thermometer, if desired.
Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
This is the dough the next morning after rising.
After shaping.
Fresh bread!
Wednesday 2 May 2012
Homemade Croutons
We go through a lot of bread. It is not uncommon for there to be 3 partial loaves on the counter at any time. I bake a new loaf almost daily. We can't always eat every last piece before it starts to go stale, and fresh bread always goes stale faster than store bought. I like to save the 3-day old stuff for croutons. You don't have to use homemade bread though. Those bookends nobody wants would also work for this.
This is more of a method than a recipe. You can customize it for your tastes and desires.
Ingredients:
5 or so pieces of bread
vegetable oil
seasonings
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Cube your bread into bite sized pieces. I go with approximately 1cm cubes.
Lay the cubes in a single layer onto an ungreased baking sheet. Spritz the cubes with oil. If you don't have an oil spritzer, you can hold your thumb over the bottle's opening and gently shake the oil out over the bread. Shake on your seasonings --- my favourite combination is Italian Seasoning, garlic powder, pepper, and celery salt. Only one side of the bread has been seasoned, so now scoop your hands into it and gently toss to coat all sides. Spread the cubes back down in a single layer.
Bake for 10 minutes. Stir, and bake for another 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Bake time will change depending on how dry your bread is starting out, and what size the cubes are.
This is more of a method than a recipe. You can customize it for your tastes and desires.
Croutons
Ingredients:
5 or so pieces of bread
vegetable oil
seasonings
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Cube your bread into bite sized pieces. I go with approximately 1cm cubes.
Lay the cubes in a single layer onto an ungreased baking sheet. Spritz the cubes with oil. If you don't have an oil spritzer, you can hold your thumb over the bottle's opening and gently shake the oil out over the bread. Shake on your seasonings --- my favourite combination is Italian Seasoning, garlic powder, pepper, and celery salt. Only one side of the bread has been seasoned, so now scoop your hands into it and gently toss to coat all sides. Spread the cubes back down in a single layer.
Bake for 10 minutes. Stir, and bake for another 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Bake time will change depending on how dry your bread is starting out, and what size the cubes are.
All done!
Croutons aren't just for Caesar salads, so try out new combinations. Enjoy!
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