Sadly, my cooking/baking adventures yesterday left me exhausted so I didn't make banana bread today. That is ok, the bananas are currently in the freeze waiting till next weekend.
Also Anthony won't be around next weekend so that means more okra for me! Can't wait for the farmers market on Saturday.
In the mean time off to do readings for class and searching the internet for more baked goods to make.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Bagels for Sunday Breakfast
Yes! Redid the bagel recipe I had and this time they came out so much better. Can't wait to eat breakfast tomorrow.
Now for bed so I can be rested to do homework and go out and have fun tomorrow.
Again...here is the bagel recipe.
This recipe yields 10 bagels, adapted from Jo Goldenberg's Parisian Bagel
3 1/2 cups bread flour [I ran out of bread flour and used half all-purpose flour]
1 3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons, sugar
1/2 tablespoon, salt
1 1/2 cups, hot water (about 50 degrees)
3 litres water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg white – beaten with 1 teaspoon, water
cornmeal for sprinkling on the baking sheet
Instructions:
1) In a mixing bowl measure 3 cups of the flour and stir in all the remaining dry ingredients. Pour in the hot water, and stir vigorously with a plastic spoon for about 2 minutes.
2) Add the remaining half cup of flour, a little at a time, stirring by hand. When the batter becomes thick and heavy, lift the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured work surface for kneading by hand.
3) Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Add flour as needed if the dough is sticky in your hands.
4) First Rising: When dough is kneaded enough, place it in an oiled mixing bowl, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature until it has doubled in volume – about 1 hour.
5) Near the end of this rising time, bring the 3 litres of water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the sugar; then, reduce the heat and leave the water just barely moving – at a slow simmer.
6) When the dough has doubled in volume, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and punch it down with extended fingers to remove excess gas.
7) Divide the dough into 10 pieces (each will weigh about 34 ounces). Shape each piece into a ball. Allow the balls to stand and relax for a few minutes – then flatten each one with the palm of your hand.
8) With your thumb, press deep into the center of the bagel and tear the depression open with your fingers. Pull the hole open, pull it down over a finger and smooth the rough edges. It should look like a bagel! Form all of the bagels and place them on your work surface.
9) Cover the shaped bagels with wax paper or parchment paper. Leave them
at room temperature just until the dough has risen slightly – about 10 minutes (this is called a “half proof”).
10) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
11) Grease a baking sheet with shortening (or use a nonstick baking sheet, or line a baking sheet with “Silpat” or similar material) and sprinkle the baking sheet with cornmeal.
12) Into the gently simmering water prepared earlier, slip one bagel at a time (use a large skimmer, and gently lower them into the water). Simmer only 2 or 3 bagels at a time – do not crowd the pan. The bagels will sink and then rise again after a few seconds. Simmer gently for one minute, turning each bagel over once during that time. Lift each bagel out of the water with the skimmer, drain briefly on a towel, then place each bagel on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all bagels are simmered, drained and on the baking sheet.
13) Brush each bagel lightly with the egg white-water mixture.
14) Place the baking sheet on the middle rack of the preheated oven for 2530 minutes. When brown and shiny, remove the finished bagels from the oven. Place the bagels on a metal rack to cool.
Now for bed so I can be rested to do homework and go out and have fun tomorrow.
Again...here is the bagel recipe.
This recipe yields 10 bagels, adapted from Jo Goldenberg's Parisian Bagel
3 1/2 cups bread flour [I ran out of bread flour and used half all-purpose flour]
1 3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons, sugar
1/2 tablespoon, salt
1 1/2 cups, hot water (about 50 degrees)
3 litres water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg white – beaten with 1 teaspoon, water
cornmeal for sprinkling on the baking sheet
Instructions:
1) In a mixing bowl measure 3 cups of the flour and stir in all the remaining dry ingredients. Pour in the hot water, and stir vigorously with a plastic spoon for about 2 minutes.
2) Add the remaining half cup of flour, a little at a time, stirring by hand. When the batter becomes thick and heavy, lift the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured work surface for kneading by hand.
3) Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Add flour as needed if the dough is sticky in your hands.
4) First Rising: When dough is kneaded enough, place it in an oiled mixing bowl, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and set aside at room temperature until it has doubled in volume – about 1 hour.
5) Near the end of this rising time, bring the 3 litres of water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the sugar; then, reduce the heat and leave the water just barely moving – at a slow simmer.
6) When the dough has doubled in volume, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface and punch it down with extended fingers to remove excess gas.
7) Divide the dough into 10 pieces (each will weigh about 34 ounces). Shape each piece into a ball. Allow the balls to stand and relax for a few minutes – then flatten each one with the palm of your hand.
8) With your thumb, press deep into the center of the bagel and tear the depression open with your fingers. Pull the hole open, pull it down over a finger and smooth the rough edges. It should look like a bagel! Form all of the bagels and place them on your work surface.
9) Cover the shaped bagels with wax paper or parchment paper. Leave them
at room temperature just until the dough has risen slightly – about 10 minutes (this is called a “half proof”).
10) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
11) Grease a baking sheet with shortening (or use a nonstick baking sheet, or line a baking sheet with “Silpat” or similar material) and sprinkle the baking sheet with cornmeal.
12) Into the gently simmering water prepared earlier, slip one bagel at a time (use a large skimmer, and gently lower them into the water). Simmer only 2 or 3 bagels at a time – do not crowd the pan. The bagels will sink and then rise again after a few seconds. Simmer gently for one minute, turning each bagel over once during that time. Lift each bagel out of the water with the skimmer, drain briefly on a towel, then place each bagel on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all bagels are simmered, drained and on the baking sheet.
13) Brush each bagel lightly with the egg white-water mixture.
14) Place the baking sheet on the middle rack of the preheated oven for 2530 minutes. When brown and shiny, remove the finished bagels from the oven. Place the bagels on a metal rack to cool.
Okara etouffe and goat cheese tomato tart
So made okara etouffee and a goat cheese tomato tart for the house for dinner tonight. Gotta love the roommates who will put up with my wanting to party on Sunday nights, restless baking, and countless annoying habits. But I think they secretly love me for it. But, just to show them appreciation for their friendship thought I would make them dinner. Turned out ok, except had to cook the tart a bit longer as the first time I pulled it out of the oven and tried to serve it it sort of fell apart on me.
Anyway...here is the recipe for the goat cheese tomato tart and the okara etouffee. They are both really easy recipes so go out and try them as tomato and okara seasons are coming to and end. Now to make bagels for tomorrow's and Monday's breakfast!!! and perhaps another glass of wine. Also there goes my plans for doin econometrics reading. Oh well. At least I have something to show for my procrastination.
Note: did not use basi oil on the tart. Also made just regular pie crust and also put the sliced tomatos on about half way through the baking. Sorry no pictures of the etouffee.
OKRA ETOUFFEE
3 c. sliced okra
¼ c. cooking oil
1 c. chopped canned tomatoes
1 med. onion, chopped
1 med. green pepper, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Red pepper to taste
¼ C. cracker crumbs or crushed potato chips
Spread okra in greased casserole; cover with oil, tomatoes, onion, green pepper and seasonings. Cover loosely with foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour or until tender, stirring occasionally. Uncover; top with crumbs. Bake until lightly browned. Yield: 3-4 servings.
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
8 tablespoons butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons water, or more if needed
8 ounces goat cheese, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, heirloom variety
basil oil
sea salt
Combine flour and pine nuts in a food processor and process until well mixed. Add butter and pulse several times just until mealy and butter has formed small pea size lumps. Add water, a little at a time, pulsing until enough water has been added to allow the dough to form a ball. Do not over mix. Remove dough (dough will be soft) and using a floured surface shape dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour. Preheat oven to 350°. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll into a disk large enough to fill an 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Trim excess dough from edges and dock crust with a fork. Line tart crust with parchment paper and pie weights (or dry rice or beans), and then bake for 15 minutes. Remove paper and bake an additional 10 minutes; remove from oven and let cool slightly. If you used rice or beans, discard. Combine goat cheese, cream cheese, basil, eggs, salt and pepper in a food processor and process until smooth. Pour into tart shell and bake until set, about 15 minutes. While tart is cooking, lay tomato slices on paper towels to remove some of the moisture, replacing towels as needed. Remove tart from oven and let cool slightly, then top with tomatoes in an overlapping fashion. To serve, garnish tart slices with a drizzle of basil oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Anyway...here is the recipe for the goat cheese tomato tart and the okara etouffee. They are both really easy recipes so go out and try them as tomato and okara seasons are coming to and end. Now to make bagels for tomorrow's and Monday's breakfast!!! and perhaps another glass of wine. Also there goes my plans for doin econometrics reading. Oh well. At least I have something to show for my procrastination.
Note: did not use basi oil on the tart. Also made just regular pie crust and also put the sliced tomatos on about half way through the baking. Sorry no pictures of the etouffee.
OKRA ETOUFFEE
3 c. sliced okra
¼ c. cooking oil
1 c. chopped canned tomatoes
1 med. onion, chopped
1 med. green pepper, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Red pepper to taste
¼ C. cracker crumbs or crushed potato chips
Spread okra in greased casserole; cover with oil, tomatoes, onion, green pepper and seasonings. Cover loosely with foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour or until tender, stirring occasionally. Uncover; top with crumbs. Bake until lightly browned. Yield: 3-4 servings.
Heirloom Tomato Goat Cheese Tart
Serves 6
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
8 tablespoons butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons water, or more if needed
8 ounces goat cheese, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper
1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, heirloom variety
basil oil
sea salt
Combine flour and pine nuts in a food processor and process until well mixed. Add butter and pulse several times just until mealy and butter has formed small pea size lumps. Add water, a little at a time, pulsing until enough water has been added to allow the dough to form a ball. Do not over mix. Remove dough (dough will be soft) and using a floured surface shape dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for one hour. Preheat oven to 350°. Remove dough from refrigerator and roll into a disk large enough to fill an 11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Trim excess dough from edges and dock crust with a fork. Line tart crust with parchment paper and pie weights (or dry rice or beans), and then bake for 15 minutes. Remove paper and bake an additional 10 minutes; remove from oven and let cool slightly. If you used rice or beans, discard. Combine goat cheese, cream cheese, basil, eggs, salt and pepper in a food processor and process until smooth. Pour into tart shell and bake until set, about 15 minutes. While tart is cooking, lay tomato slices on paper towels to remove some of the moisture, replacing towels as needed. Remove tart from oven and let cool slightly, then top with tomatoes in an overlapping fashion. To serve, garnish tart slices with a drizzle of basil oil and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Classes on Friday? That's ok Sunday is Banana Bread!
I said in my last post that I would once again share my go to banana bread recipe. I can't say enough about this recipe. It is simply the best. I mean, seriously? It has butter and heavy cream. If your banana bread recipe doesn't call for heavy cream TS (tough situations - as my middle school shop teacher would say).
I'm also thinking about doing either another batch of bagels or trying croissants this weekend as well, but I have requests to do cinnamon roll cupcakes again so we shall see how much reading I can accomplish.
So here is the recipe. Seriously. Use this one. And if you haven't princessed yours up enough try a cinnamon strussle topping for it =)
Now to suffer through one more class...seriously Grad students aren't supposed to have classes on Fridays. Argh.
I'm also thinking about doing either another batch of bagels or trying croissants this weekend as well, but I have requests to do cinnamon roll cupcakes again so we shall see how much reading I can accomplish.
So here is the recipe. Seriously. Use this one. And if you haven't princessed yours up enough try a cinnamon strussle topping for it =)
Now to suffer through one more class...seriously Grad students aren't supposed to have classes on Fridays. Argh.
Thess’s Nana’s Banana Bread
» from Maria H’s Sphere
Ingredients:
- 5 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 egg whites
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe bananas (I used 2 cups, which was about 6-7 regular size bananas)
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- optional: 1/3 cup chopped walnuts and 1/2 cups raisins
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Use a non-stick 9×5×3-inch loaf pan. If you don’t have a non-stick pan, spray it with non-stick cooking spray or line it with two parchment paper sheets along the width and length of the pan. I prefer the paper route because it makes it so easy to take out the bread.
- Beat butter in large bowl with an electric mixer set at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add both sugar and beat well. Add eggs, egg whites and vanilla and beat until well-blended. Add mashed banana, beat for 30 seconds on high speed.
- Add all dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add this mixture to the banana mixture, alternatively with cream. Add walnuts and raisins, mix well.
- Pour batter evenly unto the prepared loaf pan. Baked until browned and toothpick inserted near center comes out clean; say about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 ins.
- Cool completely and serve. I would recommend that you bake this at night and allow it to completely cool and “rest” overnight.
Makes one 9′x5′x3′ loaf.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
s'more brownies and chocolate chocolate chip brownies
So currently there is a batch of brownies in my oven. I decided to procrastinate and not do the reading for my Race, Ethnicity, and Social Policy course, finish the reading I was supposed to do for my econometrics course today, or work on my master's project.
Anyway. Rave reviews from everyone on the s'more brownies from joy the baker. So thank you Mr. Will Carrol. Also just learned Monday as I was searching for recipes that Rachel Ray adapted Joy's recipe to do with a brownie mix that you can find here. I say go the old fashion way. I also saw this on the Food Network website...it is another s'more brownie with a graham cracker crust instead of cracker crumbles in them. Might have to try this instead of making rice krispy treats as I have chocolate, graham crackers, and marsh mellows still. Hahaha...I am so fat princessing everyone at school! Love it!
So yes...there is also a batch of brownies in my oven right now. I call it chocolate chocolate chip as I have sprinkled some chocolate chips on top of the brownies half way through baking. I used this recipe from the famous James Beard which is stolen from Green Eats. I am also going to use the leftover milk chocolate cream filling that I used for my tartlets to cover the brownies once they come out and cool off. Oh what chocolate goodness. I can smell it from here as I write this entry.
Finally, have enough ripe banana's to make banana bread again! Yes! Love banana bread. Don't know what it is about it, but just love it. Especially my recipe I go to...when I make it this weekend will repost the recipe. It includes heavy cream. Hahaha.
Also will have to make buckeye's the following weekend for the first OSU game!
Ok that's it for now. The timer just went off for the brownies.
Anyway. Rave reviews from everyone on the s'more brownies from joy the baker. So thank you Mr. Will Carrol. Also just learned Monday as I was searching for recipes that Rachel Ray adapted Joy's recipe to do with a brownie mix that you can find here. I say go the old fashion way. I also saw this on the Food Network website...it is another s'more brownie with a graham cracker crust instead of cracker crumbles in them. Might have to try this instead of making rice krispy treats as I have chocolate, graham crackers, and marsh mellows still. Hahaha...I am so fat princessing everyone at school! Love it!
So yes...there is also a batch of brownies in my oven right now. I call it chocolate chocolate chip as I have sprinkled some chocolate chips on top of the brownies half way through baking. I used this recipe from the famous James Beard which is stolen from Green Eats. I am also going to use the leftover milk chocolate cream filling that I used for my tartlets to cover the brownies once they come out and cool off. Oh what chocolate goodness. I can smell it from here as I write this entry.
Finally, have enough ripe banana's to make banana bread again! Yes! Love banana bread. Don't know what it is about it, but just love it. Especially my recipe I go to...when I make it this weekend will repost the recipe. It includes heavy cream. Hahaha.
Also will have to make buckeye's the following weekend for the first OSU game!
Ok that's it for now. The timer just went off for the brownies.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sundays are for Brownies and Stir
So tomorrow will be making brownies. It has a three fold purpose: 1) Anthony will be back. 2) Ryan's birthday. and 3) Monday is the first day of classes. So I'll be making s'more brownies and either James Beard or Katharine Hepburn brownies.
But in the mean time, here are pictures of my two recent adventures: Sourdough bread and chocolate tartlets. The tartlets I just used the filling recipe from here and the crust recipe from here. It was fun cause I actually got to use my new tartlet tins that I got from Kitchen Works! Absolutely love this store.
Anyway. Also need to highlight this chocolate mud cake. Will have to make this some time soon!
But in the mean time, here are pictures of my two recent adventures: Sourdough bread and chocolate tartlets. The tartlets I just used the filling recipe from here and the crust recipe from here. It was fun cause I actually got to use my new tartlet tins that I got from Kitchen Works! Absolutely love this store.
Anyway. Also need to highlight this chocolate mud cake. Will have to make this some time soon!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Quick Update: Bread and Chocolate Tartlets
So this weeks adventures have included sourdough bread which didn't really taste like sourdough bread because my starter was only fermenting for 48 hours and chocolate tarlets.
The tarlets are chilling in the fridge. They came out a bit messy but I think they will be fine. Ryan's birthday is on Sunday so thought I would make him, Robby, and Kristine a little treat.
Will post about these adventures more in depth later. Next on the block either Saturday or Sunday is s'more brownies which will be a treat for people on the first day of classes.
Anyway. Now to get back working on my MP proposals and getting ready for my briefing on Friday with the NCCCS. Yah for going into work one more day. At least I'm going to go enjoy Little Ashes tonight. People should seriously go see this movie. It is supposed to be great!
The tarlets are chilling in the fridge. They came out a bit messy but I think they will be fine. Ryan's birthday is on Sunday so thought I would make him, Robby, and Kristine a little treat.
Will post about these adventures more in depth later. Next on the block either Saturday or Sunday is s'more brownies which will be a treat for people on the first day of classes.
Anyway. Now to get back working on my MP proposals and getting ready for my briefing on Friday with the NCCCS. Yah for going into work one more day. At least I'm going to go enjoy Little Ashes tonight. People should seriously go see this movie. It is supposed to be great!
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