|
|
 Cinnamon Brioche with almonds and honey 2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup warm milk
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
2-4 Tbsp honey
2-4 Tbsp finely chopped almonds
1. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt.
2. Slowly mix the warm milk, butter, cinnamon and 2 of the eggs into the flour mixture.
3. Knead until the dough is smooth. The dough is ready to rise when it is completely smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until it is doubled in size.
5. Transfer the dough from the bowl onto a floured work surface and punch it down a few times.
6. Press the dough out into a rectangle then spread with the honey. Sprinkle with almond pieces.
7. Roll up like a Swiss roll and place on a lined baking tray.
8. Cover the pan and allow the dough to rise until it is doubled in size.
9. Preheat the oven to moderately hot 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
10. Remove the dough covering, bake for 10 minutes. Turn the pan, and reduce the heat to moderate 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and bake for an additional 25 minutes, until the brioche is golden brown. Allow it to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, and then transfer it to a wire cooling rack.
 Thin "Pancakes" for Moo Shu Pork The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.
Makes 24-30 pancakes
Preparation time: about 10 minutes plus 30 minutes’ standing time
Cooking time: 45-50 minutes
Ingredients
4 cups (960 ml) (560 gm) (19¾ oz) all purpose flour
About 1½ cup (300ml) (10 fl oz) boiling water
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vegetable oil
Dry flour for dusting
Directions:
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Gently pour in the water, stirring as you pour, then stir in the oil. Knead the mixture into a soft but firm dough. If your dough is dry, add more water, one tablespoon at a time, to reach the right consistency. Cover with a damp towel and let stand for about 30 minutes.
- Lightly dust the surface of a worktop with dry flour. Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes or until smooth, then divide into 3 equal portions. Roll out each portion into a long sausage and cut each sausage into 8-10 pieces. Keep the dough that you are not actively working with covered with a lightly damp dish cloth to keep it from drying out.
- Roll each piece into a ball, then, using the palm of your hand, press each piece into a flat pancake. Dust the worktop with more dry flour. Flatten each pancake into a 6 to 8 inch (15 cm to 20 cm) circle with a rolling pin, rolling gently on both sides.
- Place an un-greased frying pan over high heat. Once the pan is hot, lower the heat to low and place the pancakes, one at a time, in the pan. Remove when little light-brown spots appear on the underside. Cover with a damp cloth until ready to serve.
 Herb & Garlic Brioche Total time: 3.5 hours
Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cooks’ September 2011 challenge, “Stock to Soup to Consommé”. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes! Brioche was one of the optional recipes.
2 cups (480 ml) (280 gm) (10 oz) all-purpose plain flour
2 teaspoons (10 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) active dry yeast
2 tablespoons (30 ml) (28 gm) (1 oz) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) (3 gm) salt
½ cup (120 ml) milk, warm
½ cup (1 stick) (120 ml) (115 gm) (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (1 gm) chopped chives
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (1 gm) chopped parsley
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (2 gm) Italian mixed herbs
1 teaspoon (5 ml) (2 gm) freshly crushed garlic
 Thyme & Rosemary Brioche Bread Bowls 1. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt.
2. Slowly mix the warm milk, butter, mixed herbs and 2 of the eggs into the flour mixture
3. Knead until the dough is smooth. The dough is ready to rise when it is completely smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until it is doubled in size.
5. Transfer the dough from the bowl onto a floured work surface and punch it down a few times.
6. Finely chop the fresh herbs and mix with the garlic.
7. Press the dough out into a rectangle then spread with the chopped herbs.
8. Roll up like a Swiss roll and place on a lined baking tray.
9. Cover the pan and allow the dough to rise until it is doubled in size.
10. Preheat the oven to moderately hot 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
11. Remove the dough covering, gently brush the loaf with the remaining beaten egg, bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to moderate 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and bake for an additional 25 minutes, until the brioche is golden brown. Allow it to cool for 5 minutes in the pan, and then transfer it to a wire cooling rack.
In my old-school Joy of Cooking cookbook, the instructions for brioche include “throwing the dough on the counter violently” (not even kidding). This recipe is so much easier. 🙂 I loved this brioche so much, I also made bread bowls for gumbo. If I hadn’t run out of butter, I’d have made something sweet, too. That’s next on the list.
 Appam, or hopper, is a rice pancake Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.
Total time: 12-16 hours.
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups (360 ml/300 gm/10½ oz) raw rice
1 ½ teaspoons (7½ ml/5 gm) active dry yeast
2 teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) sugar
½ cup (120 ml) of coconut water or water, room temperature
1 ½ tablespoons (22½ ml/18 gm) cooked rice
½ teaspoon (2½ ml/3 gm) salt
about ½ cup (120 ml) thick coconut milk (from the top of an unshaken can)
Directions:
 My edges weren't thin all the time, but it still worked out. 1. Soak the raw rice in 4 to 5 cups of water for 3 hours. I kept forgetting to do this, so I soaked overnight. Worked great. 😉
2. Dissolve the sugar in the coconut water or plain water and add the yeast. Set aside in a warm area for 10-15 minutes, until very frothy.
3. Drain the rice and grind it in a blender with the yeast mixture to make a smooth batter. You can add a bit of extra water if needed, but I did not. Add the cooked rice, and grind/blend to combine well.
4. Pour into a large bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for 8-12 hours. You not only want the mixture to rise and collapse, but to ferment. When it is ready, it will have a slightly sour and distinctly yeasty smell. Don’t worry–they are mild tasting when cooked!
5. Add the coconut milk and salt, and a bit of water if necessary, so that you have a batter that is just a bit thicker than milk. Notice how it bubbles after you add the coconut milk. I recommend test-cooking one before thinning the batter.
6. Heat your pan over medium heat. Wipe a few drops of oil over it using a paper towel. Stir the batter and pour in 3-4 tablespoons, depending on the size of the pan. Working quickly, hold the handle(s) and give the pan a quick swirl so that the batter comes to the top edge. Swirl once only, as you want the edges to be thin and lacy.
7. Cover the pan and cook for about 2 minutes. Uncover and check. The center should have puffed up a bit, and will be shiny, but dry to the touch. When ready, loosen the edges with a small spatula and serve immediately. These need to be served hot out of the pan.
The leftover batter can be refrigerated for a day or 2.
Wow. These are new and amazing to me, and I will be making them again and again. I enjoyed them so much, I was looking around for more.
 Friendship Bread and blueberry muffins Total time: 30-60 minutes, plus 7-10 days.
Friendship bread is that chain-letter-bread that you divide with your neighbors and continue to reap the benefits from over and over again. The concept is to take your starter, triple it, then share it with 2 people. You bake with your share, and they bake with their share in 10 days.
Starter:
3 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water, 3-5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Scoop out 1 cup for each of your neighbors. Keep the remaining for yourself. Some people store them in ziplock bags, others in small plastic containers. Either way you do it, this needs to be 3 separate starters. Store in the refrigerator 7-10 days.
For the next 7-10 days, either squeeze and massage your starter in its bag or stir it gently with a spoon, daily.
Day of Baking:
Frugal Fanny Style:
your starter dough
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
In a large mixing bowl, combine your starter, flour, milk, and sugar. Mix well. Scoop out two cups for two more starters for yourself. Continue to Hungry Hippo Style.
OR skip this step and move straight on to
Hungry Hippo Style:
your starter dough
1 cup flour
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
softened or melted butter
sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 325F.
Grease a loaf pan or muffin tin with soft or melted butter. Dust with sugar.
In a large mixing bowl, combine your starter and all the other ingredients. Beat until well blended. If you want to fold in fruit or other bread or muffin add-ins, now is the time to fold them in. Pour batter into loaf pans or muffin cups.
Bake 22-25 minutes until dark golden brown.
Planning/Party Patsy Style:
Do Frugal Fanny Style except only scoop out one cup of new starter for yourself. Double the ingredients in Hungry Hippo Style and make two loaves of bread or a loaf of bread and 12 muffins (pictured). If you bake them side by side, increase bake time to 45-60 minutes.
Is Stacie Amish? Does Stacie have Amish friends? Is it just the bread that’s Amish? How about none of it. Or let’s say yes to all of it, just for fun. It’s all Amish. Bring on the farm.
“Cuppy,” you ask, “what happened to the nice even numbers of 1 scoop this, 1 scoop that?!” I strangely found the original recipe too sweet. Yes, I thought something was too sweet. I blame La Niña.
Do you need to share this starter? No. Do you need to share the bread or muffins? No.
As of this post, I’ve used the same batter 4 times, and I have one in the refrigerator.
 Chocolate covered coconut candies. Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes, plus chill time.
Sometimes you feel like a nut…
2/3 c sweetened condensed milk (little less than 1/2 of a 14 ounce can)
1 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar
2 c shredded or flaked coconut
1 bag of your choice of meltable yummy chocolate
optional almonds
In a small food processor or blender, cut up the coconut into very fine pieces.
In a larger food processor or blender, combine milk, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from unit and stir in coconut.
Press coconut mix into a 9×13 pan. Spread it all out and press down to make it about 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate 45-60 minutes or until firm.
Cut firmed coconut mix into small squares or circles or whatever it is you’re looking to slather in chocolate. Press almonds into the tops if you so feel like it.
Slather in chocolate. Chill on wax paper in the refrigerator.
You know what these are… I can’t say their names. And I can’t give you an accurate count because I always eat a bunch of the coconut before it ever makes it to the chocolate.
 Braided egg bread Total time: Approximately 3 hours.
Adapted from the Joy of Cooking.
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 c warm water + 2 Tbsp warm water
4 tsp sugar + 1/2 tsp sugar
3 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
pinch of saffron
In a small bowl, combine yeast, 1/2 tsp sugar and 2 Tbsp warm water. Set aside 3-5 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a deep well in the middle of the flour. Pour in yeast mixture, egg, oil and saffron. Combine and beat well until all the flour appears incorporated and a ball of dough forms. Set aside 10 minutes.
Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and knead 6-10 minutes until smooth and pliable. Shape into a ball and place dough into a large, lightly greased bowl. Cover with a towel or saran wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).
Punch down (do it!) and turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into three pieces and roll each piece to form a tapered cylinder about two feet long. Braid them together and tuck in the ends. Place braided dough onto a lightly greased or lightly floured cookie sheet to rise (about an hour).
Bake in a preheated oven at 400F for 9 minutes. Turn the pan around and turn the heat down to 375F. Bake at 375F for 20 minutes or until darkly golden.
Some people like to brush their breads with egg to make them look pretty or develop a certain sort of crust. Eh… I guess it depends on if you’re trying to impress someone. We normally eat it so fast it doesn’t matter.
I like to put a brownie pan filled with water on the bottom rack of the oven when I bake this bread. Keeping the humidity up in your oven will help your bread to cook more evenly and keep the temperature in the oven from fluctuating too much. So I hear.
 No-Bake Cookies Total time: 10 minutes, plus chill time.
2 c brown sugar
1/2 c butter
1/2 c milk
3 c oats
1/2 c pb
2 tsp vanilla
Microwave milk on high for 30 seconds. Set aside.
In your largest mixing bowl that will fit in the microwave, microwave your stick of butter on high for 1 minute. Remove and add warmed milk and brown sugar. Stir well, until all the sugar lumps are gone (about 40 strokes).
Microwave the whole lot on high for 6 minutes. Do not stop, do not stir. Remove and add peanut butter and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Add oats and stir, stir, stir. Take a break and stir some more. You need to stir until it starts to feel stiff.
Scoop by the spoonful onto wax paper or other nonstick surface, 2-3 inches apart. Cool completely in the refrigerator (1-4 hours).
 Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with pecans and coconut. Total time: Approximately 45 minutes.
1/2 c butter (1 stick), softened
1/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c cocoa powder
1/4 c chocolate chips
1 tsp shortening
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 c coconut flakes
1/2 c pecan pieces
1 c chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 360F.
Whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
Melt 1/4 c chocolate chips with shortening in the microwave for one minute, stirring every 20 seconds. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugars with the butter until it appears light and fluffy (about 3 minutes by hand). Add egg and blend until smooth. Add cocoa powder and vanilla and blend until smooth. Add melted chocolate and shortening and blend until smooth.
Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated (40 strokes or less). Mix in coconut, pecans and chocolate chips.
Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet 3 minutes before removing to a wire rack or aluminum sheet to cool completely.
My first round is always 11 minutes exactly, and each successive round is 10 minutes after that.
 Pecan Oatmeal Cookies Total time: 1 hour.
Also known as “Vermont Maple Cookies”, these are eggless cookies!
1/2 c butter (1 stick)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 c maple syrup
1 T hazelnut syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 c boiling water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 c shredded coconut
1 c pecans, chopped or whole
1 1/3 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
I’ve separated the ingredients based on steps to make the cookies.
Preheat oven to 300F.
In a medium saucepan on low heat, combine first 4 ingredients and stir until butter is completely melted and well mixed. Remove from heat and pour into large mixing bowl.
In a coffee cup or glass measuring cup, add the baking soda to the hot water. It should bubble excitedly. This is a good sign. If it doesn’t bubble, it means your baking soda is old and yucko.
Add water and baking soda to sugar mix. Stir well. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir, stir, stir.
Measure 1/4 cup of “dough” for each cookie, with a minimum of 3 inches between each pile of dough on the cookie sheet. These will puff out quite large.
Bake 18-20 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack or aluminum sheet.
Makes about 20 cookies.
|
|
2 comments
