Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Our breakfasts are pretty routine and simple, most days are yogurt, fruit and granola, or occasionally oatmeal.  Once in while we have waffles, although lately they seem to be a good dinner option.  And on Sunday's we usually have muffins, alternating though a few standards like banana, pumpkin, or cranberry.  A couple of weeks ago, I decided we needed something different.  Something a bit more decadent.  Since my lemon tree is back to bearing some great (and huge) fruit after a lean year, I thought Lemon Poppy Seed.  

Freakishly Large Lemons

And not the nasty lemon poppy seed muffins that are sticky, overly sweet and pre-wrapped at free hotel breakfasts (if we can remember back to those days), but bright and balanced.  And enough poppy seeds to make passing a drug test a concern.  So I googled recipes .. many were clearly lacking enough lemon and/or poppy seeds, or were more like a cake, needing to cream butter and sugar.   Then I stumbled on one from Sally's Baking Addiction that seemed close.. but it was Orange Lemon (and will someday try it when I have oranges around too).  So I made a few modifications in part to make if more like how I make all my muffins (I do this before coffee, so it needs to be something I can practically do in my sleep).  And it came out good.. very good. 

Wet Ingredients

Yes, the lemons are big

Dry Ingredients

Add dry to the wet

And Muffins!

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

 

2 cups all-purpose flour (can use about 30% whole wheat if you like)

1/3 cup oat bran

3 Tablespoons poppy seeds

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup granulated sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons lemon zest

3/4 cup buttermilk (or milk/yogurt combo)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Almond slivers, for sprinkling

Coarse sugar, for sprinkling 

Preheat oven to 400°F or 380°F convection bake. Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray. Melt the butter in a small bowl (about 1 minute in the microwave) so it has time to cool. 

 

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together until thoroughly mixed. Set aside.

 

In a large bowl, whisk the egg and granulated sugar, then whisk in melted butter, then lemon juice, lemon zest, milk, and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix together until no pockets of flour remain. 

 

Spoon the batter into the muffin pan, filling each about 3/4 of the way full. Sprinkle with coarse sugar and a few almond slivers. Bake for about 22 minutes, muffins should be browned and springy to the touch when done.   

Firecooked Ceramics and Biscuits for Two..

My latest endeavor has been setting up a website to sell my ceramics!  For the first 30 years or so of doing ceramics, I always said that my pieces fell into two camps: ones that I wouldn't sell, and ones that I couldn't sell.  Over the last few years though, I have been fortunate to have the time to more more on my craft and have had some excellent teachers that have helped elevate my work.  So while I have been making things for a while that I would and could sell, I'm finally taking the leap to actually sell them.  I have decided to go on-line (not that there are many other options in today's environment), and directly sell from a website I am setting up on Shopify.  There have been a bazillion tiny choices to make, a lot of learning to set up a store, lots of photographs; but I am getting close to a launch, hopefully next week.  I will use this blog to announce when my store opens, as well as Instagram (@firecooked) and Facebook (Firecooked Ceramics).  My website is firecooked.com, but it's not live yet. 

Meanwhile, I'm still doing a lot of cooking.  Looking forward to summer when I'm hoping we are able to gather in bigger groups, but for now still just mostly cooking for 2.  And because its winter (although what we call winter here is not the deep freeze that most the country is currently in), we are eating lots of soups and stews that I make in family size batches, and nothing helps elevate a bowl of leftover soup like a couple of fresh biscuits. 

They come together very quickly ... I normally have all the ingredients (and if I don't buttermilk, plain yogurt thinned with just a bit of milk works), and just cook in the toaster oven.  

The butter get squished into the flour like for a piecrust, add your liquid.  

Then pat, fold, pat, the cut into squares. No rolling pin or cookie cutters needed.

Pop them into the toaster oven (which I don't bother to preheat)

And fresh, warm muffins....

Biscuits for Two

1 cup flour (can be ¼ whole wheat if desired)
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons cold butter
3/8 cup (scant ½ cup) buttermilk

Oven: 425F  (can use a toaster oven)

Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl.   Cut butter into thin slices and drop individually into flour … toss as you are going so that all the butter slices are coated in flour.  With fingers, squish butter slices in the flour, until no large pieces of butter remain, but mixture still has some pea-sized lumps.   Add buttermilk, first mix together with a fork, then gently with fingers.  Knead a couple of times in the bowl to bring it all together into a ball (add a bit more milk if needed, but the dough should not be sticky.   Place ball on a floured surface.  Flatten a bit and fold over one way, then the other.   Pat the dough into a ½” thick square, and cut into quarters.   Place quarters on a baking sheet (does not need to be greased, parchment paper is optional).  Using your finger, wipe some buttermilk from the measuring cup and moisten the biscuit tops.   Bake for about 12 minutes.   Serve hot. 

Banana Bread

We eat lots of bananas at our house, but even so, we sometimes get caught with too many, and I need to find a way to use them up.  And people that know me, understand that I occasionally end up with bananas that have flown an extra 1000 miles or so. 

The overripe bananas usually get used in Sunday morning muffins (which is another recipe I need to add to the blog). But I consider muffins something eaten before noon, not dessert.   For dessert, I make this. Still, it's not too sweet, and great for snacks, or to take sailing, or to a potluck.  





It's also easy to make.  "Easy" is a bit relative.  What might be easy for me, it more challenging for you.  But this is certainly easier to make than most desserts, and quicker to mix up than the muffins I normally make.  One of the things that makes this easy is mixing the wet ingredients with an immersion blender. (And if you don't have an immersion blender, you should get one). So one blender cup, one mixing bowl.  No food processor, or other tools or bowls to mash bananas. 







Another thing that makes a recipe easy is a recipe that uses ingredients I already have.  Face it, I didn't plan for too many bananas.  So I haven't planned for anything special for baking them (of course, I assume everyone has flour, baking powder, soda, and eggs...).  And these type of quick bread recipes are not too fussy.  It will still come out good even if you make a few substitutions to use up what you happen to have in the house.  For example, I made this at my mom's...  she didn't have any whole wheat flour, so I used all regular flour.  No plain vegetable oil, so I used olive oil.   No buttermilk, so I used Greek yogurt thinned with a bit of milk.  Don't like any of the cultured milks? Any milk-like substance (soy milk, etc) will work.  It might taste a little different, but it will be good.  It will come out fine without the vanilla extract. In fact, the recipe that I used for inspiration called for oats (which was fine, but I didn't really like the texture), and no add-ins (like chocolate chips or walnuts).   One last tip:  when the bananas hit that speckled ripe stage, toss them into the refrigerator (this would be before the overripe all brown stage).  The skins will get dark, but the bananas will still be good for making bread for another week or so. 

  



Banana Bread

2 cups flour (I like best with half white whole wheat and half all purpose)
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
------------------------------------
2 medium ripe bananas cut into quarters
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt*
1/4 cup vegetable oil (or olive oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-------------------------------------
½ cup chocolate chips

* If Greek yogurt, use a couple of spoonful’s of yogurt plus milk to make 1/3 cup.

Preheat oven to 350F.   Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Put the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir to mix.

Put banana, eggs, milk/yogurt, oil, and extract in mixing cup of immersion blender, or in 1 quart measuring glass measuring cup.  Blend until mostly smooth  (don’t over blend, you don’t want a lot of air mixed in). 

Pour wet into dry, stir a bit, add the chocolate chips, finish mixing together.  Don’t stir too much.   Scrape batter into the prepared loaf pan. 

Bake for 55 – 60 minutes, until nicely brown and skewer comes out clean (you can also check with a thermometer, looking for 195 -200F)  .  Run a knife around the edge, and then turn onto cooling rack.   Let cool at least 10 minutes before slicing (an hour is better).   Once cooled, wrap loaf and store in refrigerator. 

And this is of one of my recent platters...  colored porcelain inlaid on dark stoneware.  

Bread Crumbs and What to do with them!

A new study about food waste came out this week, claiming that the typical American wastes about a pound of food per day.  And that the worst offenders were healthy eaters, because fruits and vegetables comprise 39% of the wasted food  (followed by dairy and meat).  What surprised me was that bread was not on this list.  I know I do better than most on using up fruits and vegetables, I have a lot of strategies ranging to buying really fresh product at the farmers market, to sweep-the-veggie-drawer recipes, like Pasta Whatever and Quesadilla's... just check the "Random Vegetable" link.   But it seems that I'm constantly tossing bread that is moldy or stale.  I know its in part because I buy bread that isn't loaded with preservatives, but the reality is that we just don't eat enough sandwiches or toast to go through a full loaf in a week or so. Or you get (or make) a nice "artisan loaf" to go with soup, and its stale the next day.    I do toss bread into the fridge after a few days, and it's still good for toast, but after about 10 days it's stale even for toast (and likely starting to mold).

So....  I have been trying a few new things.  First has been to get more proactive about making dry bread crumbs, which keep for a long time in the freezer.  But of course, this doesn't help unless you actually use the bread crumbs from the freezer.  I have a couple of recipes  that use bread crumbs, like Spinach Crusted Quiche, and meatballs (and hopefully will get around to posting that recipe).  But I needed more outlets for bread crumbs, because storing crumbs in the freezer for a year and then throwing out is not reducing waste.  I have managed to stumble across a few of recipes that use a lot of crumbs (by stumble, I mean I found one, then googled and found another 100 similar recipes, then pulled together the way that seemed best to me).  The first is a Bread Crumb Topping that you put on pasta or salads. This is something that really elevates a ho-hum salad or leftover pasta. The next is Oven-fried Zucchini.  Way back (we are talking about my college days) many people "discovered" that they liked zucchini when it was breaded and fried.  I will admit these are not quite the same, but they are quite tasty and actually pretty good for you.    How do you use bread crumbs?

First, let's cover making bread crumbs. You can use any kind; white, French, whole wheat, whole grain, seeded, etc., but I don’t like to use bread that is on the sweet side (> 2 grams sugar per slice according to the nutrition label), like a honey wheat or most of the whole grain breads.  Sugar will cause the crumbs to brown faster, which might be a problem in some recipes.  Plus I'm just not a fan of sweet tasting bread (and yes, I'm the crazy lady looking at the label of every loaf in the store).

Bread Crumbs

Leftover bread, preferably stale, torn into chunks.  Sandwich bread is fine as long as its not sweet.

Oven: 300F, convection if you have it.    Place parchment paper on a sheet pan (or pans, depending on how much leftover bread you have).

Place 1 - 2 inch chunks of bread into the bowl of a food processor, filling up to about half to three quarters full.  Pulse until broken up, go with longer pulses until the bread is in crumbs.    Put crumbs on prepared sheet pan.  Repeat if you have more bread.   Keep the crumb layer to less than a ½ inch.

Place pan in preheated oven.  Toss after about 10 minutes.  Then check every 5 minutes… goal is dry crumbs, not toasted crumbs.  It generally takes 15 - 25 minutes. Let cool completely.   If the crumbs are a bit big for what you want, give them another twirl in the food processor. Use dry crumbs within a few days, or put into freezer zip-lock bag and freeze, they are good for many months (at some point, they get that freezer taste).







Bread Crumb Topping

Good on pasta or salads.  But they don’t keep.  Use within an hour or so of making. This makes enough for 2 servings, double or triple as needed.  My inspiration for this recipe is from Melissa Clark of the NYTimes... that one uses anchovies.  Probably delicious, but haven't yet tried that!

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
½ cup dried bread crumbs
2 tablespoons fresh herbs (such as parsley, thyme, oregano) or 1 teaspoon dry Italian herbs
Optional:  1 tablespoon finely chopped preserved lemon or olives
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Warm olive oil over medium heat in small skillet.  Add garlic and red peppers, stir, then add remaining ingredients.   Cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently until the crumbs are golden.  Add lots of pepper, and maybe salt (if you are using preserved lemons or salty olives, you probably don’t need more salt).

Breaded Zucchini

Serves 4 … but 2 people can finish this off if they are hungry.

Zucchini – about 8 small or 4 medium or 2 large, ends trimmed

1 cup dry bread crumbs

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon Italian herbs

Good grind of pepper

1 jumbo or 2 large eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt

Preheat oven to 425F, use convection bake if you have it.   Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. 

If zucchini are small, just quarter (and maybe cut the quarters in half if you have long skinny zucchini.  If you have larger zucchini, cut into ½ inch slices. 

Mix the bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, herbs and pepper in a shallow dish.   Beat the egg(s) in shallow bowl 

Dip each piece of zucchini in the beaten egg, then drop into the crumbs.  Press crumbs on all sides.  This goes a bit easier if you have one “wet” hand for the egg dip, and one “dry” hand for the crumbs.  Place each coated piece on the prepared sheet pan.   Drizzle the coated pieces with the olive oil.  

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes, until brown and crispy.   No need to turn!  Sprinkle with salt when they come out of the oven.  Serve immediately with ranch or bleu cheese dressing, or marinara sauce.

Ranch Dressing

1 small clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
     Or use Greek yogurt and less mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dill or other fresh herbs
Few drops of soy sauce
1 – 2 drops of hot sauce
Salt and pepper

Place the garlic and lemon juice in a small bowl while you get the rest of the ingredients together… this helps tame the raw garlic.   Whisk everything together.  Chill until ready to use.  Keeps for a few days.

No-Knead Whole Wheat (or Rye) Sandwich Bread

Buying good bread seems harder ... and more expensive ... than it should be.  Making your own bread is cheap (the cost for ingredients for this recipe is less than 50 cents!) and good. But for most of us, baking bread, doesn't fit into our modern lifestyles.   Using traditional methods, there is the kneading (or cleaning of the stand mixer), then the "being around" for a good 4 or 5 hours for it to rise, punch down, rise again, form, rise again, bake.  So through some internet searching and experiments, I have put together the following recipe, which makes 1 loaf.  It takes just one bowl and no kneading. It's mostly whole wheat, although you can use all bread flour or a combination of bread flour and AP flour.  You can also use some rye flour for a change of pace. The flavor is nicely developed by the use of some sourdough starter and a long rise in the fridge, so you don't need to be around for 5 hours straight. You do need to be around a couple of hours for the final rise and bake, but that seems manageable, at least for me.  As with all yeast products, the rise time will vary with kitchen temperature...  if the kitchen is warm, the rise times will be shorter. 

Typical timing to make the bread: 
Before bed - get Blob (the sourdough starter) out of the fridge
Next morning - feed blob
Before lunch -- make dough (and replenish Blob)
After lunch - put dough and Blob in the fridge
The morning of the day you want fresh bread - get dough out and form loaf, let rise and bake...


Whole Wheat (or Rye) Sourdough Sandwich Bread

150 g sourdough starter (see below for care and feeding of a starter)

400 g water                          

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

100 g bread flour

400 g white whole-wheat flour, or 100 g rye flour plus 300 g www flour

1 ½  tsp salt

Olive Oil

In medium-large bowl, combine sourdough starter, water, yeast, and sugar.  Stir with a sturdy spoon (or dough whisk) to mix.   Add the flours and salt, and give a very good stir (a minute or so).  The dough will be soft and sticky.  Let rise at room temperature for about 1 hour, and then put in refrigerator for at least overnight, and up to 5 days. The dough will get more sour with more time.

When you are ready to bake, take bowl out of refrigerator.  Prepare a 9” x 5” pan by oiling (rub around about a 1 teaspoon or so of olive oil) and flouring.   Scrape the dough on to a floured surface (like the kitchen counter), then pat into a rectangle about the size of the bread pan. Handle the dough gently, with as little flour as needed to keep from sticking to hands and counter. Stretch the dough to 3 times the width of the pan (so about 9” x 15”). Fold the dough into thirds, like a letter. Turn 90 degrees, and stretch dough the long way, to (so about 5” x 27”), and fold into thirds.  Turn one more time, and do it again like the first time. When you are done, it should be about 9” x 5”.  Pinch the seams, and put into the pan, seam side down.  Cover and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 450 ^oF (this takes a good half hour, so start the oven 30 minutes after the bread is in the pan).   Use convection bake if you have it.

Score the top of the loaf with a sharp paring knife about ¼” deep, then place the pan in the oven and bake 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 ^oF and bake another 40 - 45 minutes.  Bread is done when crust is golden, internal temperature should be at least 190 ^oF (and 200 ^oF or higher is OK).

Unmold by turning out the loaf to a rack. Let cool completely before slicing.

Also... Sometimes I will make a smaller loaf in a 5 x 5 pan, this uses half the dough (and about 5 or 10 minutes less to bake). That is what I am showing in the pictures.  More work, but fresh bread twice a week!  

Care and feeding of a starter:

My starter is nicknamed Blob, and he’s been around for about 8 years now. It's what I use to make pizza dough too.  If you want some, just let me know!  These instructions assume you have some of Blob to start with.

Blob needs to be fed every week or two.  I use the following method so that I don’t have to throw any starter out (assuming I am making dough).   In between using, he stays in the refrigerator.  A couple of notes:  You want to use non-chlorinated water… tap water that has been through a filter is OK or bottled water.   This is what they call a 50% hydration starter, so you always use the same weight of flour and water.  I generally err to the side of too much flour.  

At least 6 hours before you want to make dough, pull Blob from the refrigerator to warm up (or do the night before).  After it’s up to room temperature (2 or 3 hours), or the next morning, add 1.5 ounces of all-purpose flour and 1.5 ounces of water, stir well to combine.  Let sit for another 3 hours or so, it should be nice and bubbly and ready to make dough.  After you take enough out to make the dough, add another 1 ounce of water and 1 ounce of flour, stir well, and let sit until its bubbly again (3 hours). If you have used more than 5 ounces to make the bread (including what you lose on the spoon), increase the amounts accordingly.   It’s ready to go back into the refrigerator.   Every so often, transfer Blog to a clean container. 

If Blob gets a little gray around the gills (like if he has been neglected for a few weeks), feed a couple of times, throwing out the excess. As long as it gets happy and bubbly again, its fine.  If it gets pink or other colored, I would start over. 

Crackers!

  

I always have great intentions of posting a recipe that would be great for the holidays prior to the holidays, and this recipe is great for entertaining, but is there really a season for crackers?  Not at my house. 

Crackers are definitely one of my vices in terms of processed foods.  I try to find ones that are "more healthy" ... low in sugar and have some fiber, but generally rationalize that I'm eating crackers with a big salad and that's OK..  Except when I'm having them with a nice piece of cheese.  It's a slippery slope.

And my favorite crackers are Rainforest Crisps.  They make a bunch of flavors, but the I go for the Original ones.  A little sweet, but not too bad, with lots of nuts and seeds.  The only problem is that they are $7 or $8 a package (and this is a 6 ounce package), and that you can only get them at places like Whole Foods or specialty stores.  And they go stale in about a week.  It's one thing to pay a lot for sustainably raised meat, but for crackers?? This just seems like highway robbery.

Then I found a bunch of "copycat" recipes on the web for these crackers.  Could it be?  Let me say there are a lot of them out there (see here for my inspiration).  Most of them are similar... it's basically a soda bread that you bake, then slice, then bake again.  (which reminds me, someday I need to find out if I can make good crackers from my Soda Bread when I have leftovers).  There are variations in how much brown sugar and/or honey used, plus a lot of variations in different add-ins (nuts, seeds, dried fruit).  I tailored the recipe to the nuts and seeds I usually have around, skipped the honey, and have discovered that (like my soda bread) yogurt can be interchanged with buttermilk.  

The only hard part about making these is making very even, very thin slices.  It helps to refrigerate the loaves to get them to firm up.  Also, this recipe makes a lot of crackers (and like the ones from the store, they do lose their crisp pretty quickly).  But, you can freeze the loaves (the recipe makes 4 loaves, each loaf makes about the same amount as a package of crackers), then just slice and do the second bake when you are ready for some great crackers!  

And the best part, each loaf costs about $1 to make.  One note.. If you use sesame seeds, buy them in 1 lb packages, NOT in the spice aisle at your local grocery store.  Places like Whole Foods or Asian markets have them, they are priced similar to other nuts.  They will keep forever in the freezer. 

And Happy New Years!

Crisp Seed Crackers

Makes over 8 dozen crackers.  

1 cup flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk or yogurt
1/3 cup brown sugar (or a little less)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitos)
1/4 cup sesame seeds or sunflower seeds
1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, or slivered almonds, roasted if desired)

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Spray 4 mini-loaf pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the flours, baking soda and salt. Add the buttermilk (or yogurt) and brown sugar, then mix with spoon until combined. Add the seeds and nuts, stir until blended.

Divide batter evenly between loaf pans. Bake 20 – 25 minutes until golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack.  When cool, wrap loaves and put into the refrigerator (this is an optional step, but it makes them easier to slice). You may also freeze loaves that you don’t plan to bake soon.

To make the crackers:  If loaves have been frozen, let them sit out for a half hour or so. Preheat the oven to 300° F.  Place a piece of parchment paper on a large sheet pan (one mini-loaf fills one sheet pan).

Slice the loaves as thin as you can with a serrated knife. Place the slices in a single layer on sheet pan.  Bake them for about 15 minutes, then flip them over and bake for another 5 - 10 minutes, until crisp and deep golden.  Remove slices as they get done, the thinner slices will bake faster than the thicker ones.  Cool on rack.  Store airtight, they will lose their “crisp” in a week or so.

What’s in a name?

My diet doesn’t have a name. Like Atkins, or vegan, or gluten free. Something that you could easy say when offered the cake (store-bought with frosting that you suspect is made from Crisco and Ivory dish soap)  at the office birthday party… “I’ll have to pass… I’m on Atkins (or I’m vegan, or I’m doing gluten free now)”. Everyone understands (or at least acts like they do), some are even sympathetic. But what about me? To say “I don’t eat foods loaded with refined sugar and artificial flavors and colors because they give me a headache” is too much information; to say “I only eat cake made from scratch using real food ingredients” is too elitist; to say “I’m not hungry” is probably a lie. It’s not that I want sympathy (and I know I’m not getting any when it comes to how much I eat), I just don’t know how to not be rude in these situations. I usually take a piece, eat a little out of the middle, push it around my plate, and try to casually put it down out of site. It would be so much easier to say “I’m sorry, I’m on the cabbage diet… that doesn’t happen to be sauerkraut cake by any chance?”.

My brother posted a photo from Food Inc, which said:
EAT LESS CRAP:
C: Carbonated drinks
R: Refined sugars
A: Artificial sweeteners and colours
P: Processed foods

EAT MORE FOOD:
F: Fruit and veggies
O: Organic lean protein
O: Omega 3 fatty acids
D: Drink water

This is as close as I have seen to a short description of my diet. Maybe we could abbreviate it, ELC-EMF. Even shorter would be better. Maybe the “ELF” diet???
So if you hear me say “sorry, I will have to pass on the cake, I’m an elf”, you’ll understand.

Bread can be a wonderful, no-crap food. Do not mistake this for Wonder Bread, or for that matter, most bread (even ones that say whole grain) that you find in a grocery store. I like to have bread with soups, and last year discovered soda bread. The base is a traditional Irish bread, which just uses baking soda for leavening. It comes together fairly quickly, from things that I normally have around. This recipe was inspired by a couple of blogs, 101 Cookbooks and River Cottage, but I have cut the size in half. This is just the right amount for 2 of for dinner, with a couple of left over slices (which are pretty wonderful when toasted with a bit of jam). Use whatever nuts or seeds you have around. I generally use a mix of flour, about a 50g all purpose, the remainder white whole wheat. But if I have some rye flour around, I’ll use50g AP, 100g WWW, and 100g rye.  And really, its much quicker to weigh everything to make this!

Soda Bread

Seed mix (need 6 tablespoons total):
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
Other options: sunflower, poppy, fennel

Dry Ingredients:
250g / 8.8 ounces / 1 ¾ cups flour (all purpose and/or white whole wheat, or part rye flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt

210g / 7.4 oz / 7/8 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
A bit of milk or buttermilk or yogurt

Oven: 400F. Prepare baking sheet with a small piece of parchment paper.

Mix the seeds in a small bowl.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl with whisk, add all but 1 tablespoon of the seed mix . Add yogurt or buttermilk, stir. It should form a soft dough, just this side of sticky (see below for a picture).  If necessary, add another tablespoon or two of yogurt or milk. Put on a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for a minute, just long enough to pull it together into a loose ball but no longer (I sometimes just do thing with my hand in the bowl).

Put the round of dough on prepared backing sheet. Mark a deep cross in the dough with a sharp knife, about half way through. Brush with milk and press in remaining seeds. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes (for a double recipe, 40-45 minutes), until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

Cool on a wire rack. Best eaten while warm with butter, honey is optional. If there is some left over, makes great toast the next day. After a day or two, the pumpkin seeds will get a green layer… this is not mold, just a reaction with the baking powder. It’s still good to eat.

Sourdough !!

The latest adventure in my kitchen has been sourdough starter for making bread. Its kind of like having another pet in the house (one that does not mind the name "Blob"). So far I have done a Boule (this is the standard round sourdough loaf), baguettes, and lots of pizza. Starter takes routine feeding... which is why it makes sense for me, since I do pizza almost every week. I am still figuring all of this out, especially how much feeding is needed in excess of what I use (Roy thinks this is partly a scam to sell more flour, but he's not complaining).

I started with starter from King Arthur Flour. There are several sources on the web, but this one was fresh (not dried) which made it easier to get going. If you want to start, just ask and I will give you some! While this might seem generous on my part, it's really just insurance that if I my Blob should fail for some reason, I could start again with one of the son's of Blob. I keep Blob in the refrigerator, using a small casserole dish that someone got us for our wedding. For ongoing care and feeding, I'm following the directions (pretty much) from King Arthur, the biggest difference is that I'm weighing the water and flour (so instead of a 1/2 cup of water and 1 cup of flour, I'm using 4 ounces of water and 4 ounces of flour, weighed directly in the casserole. **

For actual bread baking, I have been getting guidance from the Chocolate and Zucchini website (she keep's her starter at room temperature, which requires daily maintenance... the refrigerator is much more my speed). Here is the Boule recipe link for the loaf I made, for "various flours" I used about 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 white whole wheat flour (and no added gluten). Notice this recipe is a 1 - 2 - 3 ratio.. 1 part starter, plus 2 parts water, plus 3 parts flour. And salt.

The real reason I wanted starter was to make pizza dough. I've been making my own for a while (most every Friday), but wanted to take it up a notch. And the starter makes really, really good pizza. The texture is a bit lighter than the yeast based dough, and there is a slightly (just a bit) of the sour taste. I used a combination of my previous recipe, plus the above Boule recipe for Pizza, still following the 1-2-3 ratio:

Pizza Dough from Starter

5 ounces starter

10 ounces: ~1 tablespoon olive oil + water

15 ounces flour: ½ unbleached & ½ white whole wheat

1 teaspoon sea salt (if using kosher salt, use more)

Weigh starter, liquid and flours into a bowl, mix until well combined. Let sit for 30 minutes or so. Add salt and knead 10 minutes, adding just enough flour to handle (dough will be sticky, take care to keep soft and not stiff). Make 2 or 3 balls, place in oiled bowl. Let rise for 4 hours at room temperature, then make pizza. Or put kneaded dough in a Ziploc bag (that you have put a little oil in) and put in the refrigerator for up to a week (I think the dough is best at 2-3 days). Take out and let come to room temperature (you can hurry this by putting into a bowl of warm water) .

I have yet to try grilled pizza yet (most weeks I just use the oven), but have no reason to believe it would be a problem. It seems that maybe I need to do another entry on pizza toppings (including some of my recent try's... caramelized onion and goat cheese, potato and bacon, grilled peppers with 3 cheeses, as well as the basics (salami, mushroom, red pepper and onion).

You can also use the leftover dough to make baguettes.

** I can thank Sharon H. for getting my the cookbook "Ratio" by Ruhlman which teaches all sorts of ways to use your scale in the kitchen.

Bread for stuffing and other Thanksgiving comments

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with all the traditional fixings   ... but we are slowly losing the tradition of cans and packaged foods. And I think we have started a new tradition of smoked chicken wings for lunch (Lou's new specialty).

 

A big hit was the new version of Green Bean Casserole, using the recipe from Alton Brown.  We did all the parts the night before: blanched the green beans, made the mushroom soup part, and cooked the onions.  (Did you know that the first ingredient of the fried onions that you buy in a can is palm oil... yuck).  The only tricky part is the onions.  Don't cut too thin (go for ~ 3/16 of an inch) and try to cut evenly.  And don't get too brown the first time, as they will get browner on the casserole (especially in the turbo-charged convection oven).  We cooked in a 9x13 casserole dish, for about 20 minutes after the turkey came out of the oven. 

Not so big a hit were the brussels sprouts, even sauted with a bit of bacon (and finished with a little cider vinegar).  Roy, Sharon and I loved them, everyone else, not so much.  At least Bridget had fun slicing them with the Cuisenart!

Also a note on a deconstructed turkey:  You can do a big one this way: we did a 23-pounder.  Using the turbo-convection oven, when started at 400F for 20 minutes, then 325 it was done in about 2 1/2 hours (we dropped the temperature to 300F towards the end so it actually cooked for almost 3 hours).   I started at the higher temperature because I was a little late getting it into the oven, I had figured on 3 1/2 hours (which might be right for a normal 325 oven).  As always, everything cooks evenly.  We just had to use an extra pan because both legs didn't fig into the roaster.

Finally, here is the recipe for the stuffing.  Last year I discovered that Pepperidge Farms stuffing (which is what our family ALWAYS used) had one of my banned ingredients (don't even remember if it was HFCS, hydrogenized oil, or MSG) so I made my own bread using the bread machine (where you don't care there are stupid holes in the bottom from the paddles).   I'm always surprised at how long it takes for the bread to dry, especially considering that if you leave a slice of bread out you are making a sandwich from it is crispy in 15 minutes.  If you don't have a bread machine (I suspect that mine is on its last legs), there should be no problem making like normal bread, would just follow the steps for any whole wheat bread recipe. 

Herb Bread for Stuffing

2lb loaf, make 20 ounces of stuffing (lots)

¾ cup milk 

2 tablespoons butter

¾ cup warm water

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups bread flour

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon rosemary, finely chopped

½ teaspoon sage

Black pepper (a couple of good grinds)

2 teaspoons yeast

Heat the milk and butter together in the microwave until the milk is just a little warm, and butter is soft and starting melt.  Put everything (in order) in the bread machine and start.  When done, let completely cool, preferably overnight.  Slice into cubes, about ½ inch square.  If the crust is particularly heavy, remove some of the crust, but otherwise leave on.  Spread the cubes on a large sheet pan, and let dry for a couple of days.

Stuffing

Bread Cubes 

½ ounce dry mushrooms, reconstituted in ~ 1 cup boiling water. 

8 ounces (1 package)  mushrooms (sliced)

1 large onion (diced)

2 stalked celery (diced small)

½ to 1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup butter

2 cups turkey broth

¼ cup of chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, sage, etc).

Place the bread cubes in a large mixing bowl.  Stain the dry mushrooms, reserving liquid.  Chop and add to stuffing.  Saute the fresh mushrooms, onion, and celery with salt in the butter, add to the bread cubes.

Add mushroom liquid to bread cubes, careful to not get any grit at bottom.  Mix the cubes, add a cup of turkey broth (slowly pour around the top).  Stir and taste.  Add another ½ to 1 cup broth.  Cubes should be just moist, not soggy.    Ready to go in / under turkey, or in a separate casserole dish to cook (if cooking separately, put a bit of turkey fat and / or skin on top). 

Festive Food… Strata

Here is a good dish that is good for brunches, potlucks, or even just to deal with leftovers.  It a strata, or savory bread pudding.  Basically, eggs, milk, bread, with ham, cheese and a green vegetable.  What’s great about this is  you put it together ahead of time, and can serve either hot or room temperature.  And of course, very pretty.   For this time of year, use broccoli, along with prosciutto (get the imported kind from AJ’s).  For a springtime brunch, use asparagus. Use a good grating cheese, Parmesan or what ever you like (or have), plus (what make it really festive)  real prosciutto.  AJ’s is a good source, get the imported Parma…  it’s expensive, but you only need a bit.

Also, for a less festive occasion (but still real good food), use a leftover bread, some leftover chicken or sliced ham, a leftover (or thawed frozen) vegetable…  use about 1/3 of the recipe and cook in 5x9 loaf pan.

The Gadget:  a scale (digital or not) to figure out quantities.

Asparagus (or Broccoli) and Prosciutto Strata

1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths
   OR ~1 ½ pounds broccoli crowns, use just the florets (1-2 inch pieces)
¾ pound crusty, artisan-style bread, cut into 1-inch cubes (1 loaf or a little less)
3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into ½-inch strips
5 ounces parmesan, asiago, or ramono cheese (or a blend), shredded
½ cup chopped chives
6 large eggs
3 ½ cups milk (2% or whole)
Zest from 1 or 2 lemons
½ teaspoon salt (less if you cheese is particularly salty)
½ teaspoon pepper

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add vegetable of choice and cook until bright green and barely tender, about 2 minutes.  Drain and rinse with cold water.

Oil a 9x13 pan (spray with Pam).  Spread half the bread cubes, top with half the prosciutto, vegetable, cheese, and chives.  Repeat with remaining bread, prosciutto, vegetable, cheese and chives.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until blended.  Add milk, zest, salt and pepper and whisk to blend.   Pour evenly over the layered ingredients.  Cover and chill at least one hour, overnight is OK.

Pre-heat oven to 350oF.  Bake strata uncovered until set and top is lightly browned, 40 to 50 minutes.  Serve warm or room temperature.