push in pie crust

This was the easiest pie crust ever.  My 5 year old helped me make it and was perfectly happy to do so.  (Not to mention capable.)  I found the recipe/idea in Family Feasts for $75.  I changed it to use coconut oil and couldn't help myself but throw in some bean flour.  Getting crazy with my experimenting lately.  It really had a great texture.
It was very odd to make because I mixed in all of the coconut oil first (before adding the milk) so that it wouldn't clump.  It seemed very moist and I honestly debated adding the milk, but each Tablespoon actually firmed up the dough a bit (I'm thinking because it solidified the coconut oil a bit.)  I thought it was kind of cool, but I'm kind of geeky in the kitchen like that.  :)
It's ease combined with the nice texture are winning it a 5 star from me.  I think this will be my go-to pie crust for any pie other than special occasions or further experimenting (like different grains.)


***Update 5/24/12 - I tried this today with whole wheat flour and coconut palm sugar.  I actually needed a bit extra milk but the resulting crust was very tasty.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour (I subbed out 2 Tablespoons regular flour for 2 Tablespoons pinto bean flour)
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2 Tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Toss flour(s), sugar and salt in the bottom of a pie pan.  Mix with a fork.  (Watch out, 5 year olds mix it right out of the container.  ;)  Add oil and mix through.  Add milk and mix again.  (If using another oil, you could certainly add the milk and oil together.  I just didn't want to with coconut oil.  My house is warm enough in summer that my coconut oil is always liquid and I wanted it mixed with the flour that way.)
2. Press dough around the pie plate with fingertips.  (I find that my palm works much better for the bottom of the pan.)  I didn't bother making a scalloped edge, but you can. 
3. If using the crust for a pudding-type pie, bake empty pie shell in an oven pre-heated to 425 for 10 to 12 minutes.  Otherwise follow directions of your recipe.

Quick wheat pizza dough

So I decided to do movie night with pizza as a bribe to get my kids to work really hard on cleaning the playroom.  They did a decent job helping and the room looks ton better so I had to make good on my promise (not to mention the meal I had planned for today was slow cooker, so when I made the bribe I really hoped they followed through.)  However, planning pizza on short notice doesn't work for our favorite pizza dough recipe, so I looked for a new one.  What I made was a cross between a quick recipe I had in a book and one I saw on Mel's kitchen cafe with my own twist of agave because I like to sweeten my wheat bread with agave.  I made a lot because typically my family can go through a lot of pizza.  We did end up with a decent amount of left overs, but DH is out of town, and DS2 didn't eat quite as much as he normally does - could be that we made some tasty smoothies to go with our meal. -Our new green smoothie ingredient thanks to that same DS- Ovaltine.   He got fancy when I wasn't looking yesterday. But, that's another post (maybe.)

Here's how I made the pizza dough today - It made 3 large pizzas.

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water
• 2 Tablespoons yeast
• 2 Tablespoons agave
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 5 1/4 cups wheat flour (more or less)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 500.  Combine all ingredients in a mixer.  Mix with a dough hook until smooth and pliable.  Let rest/rise while preparing sauce/toppings.
2. Punch dough down.  Divide into 3 balls.  Roll each out to desired size/thickness.  sprinkle a pizza peel with cornmeal.   Roll up the edge of the dough.  (this will form the crust when flipped over.)  Gently flip the pizza crust over onto the pizza peel.  Give it a shake to make sure it will slide - if not add more cornmeal underneath before topping.  Top pizza as desired.
3. Bake for 5-6 minutes.  (I did all of mine 6, but they were slightly overdone, so I'd probably do about 5 min 30 seconds or something.

English muffins

Brandon wanted me to make Eggs Benedict for either father's day or his birthday, and it just didn't happen on either of those days. (with home made English Muffins and everything.)  However, I did finally get them done.  We had wanted to try an Alton Brown recipe we had seen on Good Eats, but on the day we finally decided that we had time to do these we hadn't started the dough the night before.  However, we found another good recipe on The food network to try and it worked out great.  It is yet another Alton Brown recipe - just not the overnight one.   Just click on over to their site.  Brandon made the dough.  I scooped did the baking after it had risen.  I highly doubt he changed anything, so no need for me to post my version.  :)
I did like making them in fun shapes.  Everyone wanted the heart shaped one.

I definitely want to try these again.  They were not overly difficult.  I'd love to try them in a wheat variety.  I'm also pretty sure that this is from the muffin man episode and he did some flavored ones (like blueberry or something) that I'd love to try.  Certainly I'll think twice before buying them at the grocery store.  (Although I do need to get another set of rings.

crescent rolls

This is the roll recipe I used to make the chicken squares the other day.  I actually didn't change anything from the original recipe over at Mel's kitchen Cafe.  (I can't say enough good things about her site.  I love it.)  I did only use a 1/2 batch for the chicken squared and used the other 1/2 batch to make crescents.  I just rolled out all of the dough and cut it into 12 triangles (as opposed to Mel's 3 batches with only 8 wedges each.)
Here is Mel's recipe + my commentary.

Ingredients

• 2 cups milk
• 2/3 cup yellow corn meal (I used ground popcorn with no problem)
• 1 ½ tablespoons instant yeast
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter (I used a frozen stick from my freezer -helped cool my corn meal mix)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 5 ½ – 6 cups flour (I used all 6 cups)

Directions

Heat the milk to just below a boil so bubbles are just appearing around the edges.  Add the cornmeal and cook and stir until thickened, lowering the temperature if needed so the mixture doesn’t boil (she has a lovely picture of the consistency here. Pour the cornmeal/milk mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl and let cool until lukewarm. (or be lazy like me and add frozen butter and let that melt in/cool your mix.)  Add the yeast, butter (If you weren't lazy) and sugar. Mix. Add the salt and eggs. Mix well. Add the flour gradually until a soft dough forms. Knead for 5-8 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl covered with lightly greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled.

Divide the dough into three portions and roll each into about an 8-10 inch circle. Brush the top lightly with butter. Cut into 8 wedges and roll each wedge up starting from the wide end so it forms a crescent roll shape. Place each roll on a lightly greased or silpat- or parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing about 1-2 inches apart to allow for rising. Cover lightly with greased plastic wrap. Let the rolls rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Brush with butter while still warm.

Deep dish pizza potpie + pizza dough recipe

Tonight's dinner was also inspire by $5 dinner mom.  I love her book.  Has some great ideas.  I didn't make as many changes to this one as the pasta salad from last night, but I did make some.
Warning - it is pretty time consuming - plan 2 hours - dough has to rise, sauce has to simmer, then it all has to cook in the oven.
It was pretty well liked by the kids.  Aaron is finally getting better at trying food and actually tried a couple of bites - of course he called what he as trying eggs (it was really cottage cheese.)  I was happy he tried that and sausage.  Hooray for small victories.
I'm also including $5 dinner mom's pizza dough or at least my adaptation of it.  It isn't my favorite for pizza - I have used it - not following her instructions to cook it first, top it and cook some more, but just like I always do - cook it at high temp with topping already on.  It is OK.  It is full of seasonings which I don't care for in a pizza crust.  I like my crust more smooth.  However, I don't mind using this for calzones, or in this case as the top of the pizza pot pie.  However, I made some changes in directions this time and had no problems with it so here is what I did today.

Ingredients

• 1 pound Italian sausage (we used homemade, took it out of the casings and fried it up in crumbles)
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 clover garlic, minced
• 1/2 large onion chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped (we used a few tiny sweet orange, red and yellow that we have - would have equaled 1 normal size)
• 2 14.5 oz canes diced tomatoes drained
• 16 oz. cottage cheese (original was ricotta but for some reason I forgot to buy it.
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 batch homemade whole wheat pizza dough (see below)

Pizza dough ingredients

• 1 cup + 2-4 Tablespoons water (I started with 1 - wasn't enough and poured more - not sure exactly how much, but I added a little 3 times, so my guess is 2-4 Tablespoons.)
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Mix all dough ingredients together in a mixer.  Let knead in the mixer for 6-10 minutes - until smooth and elastic.  Cover and let rise until doubled.  (that is it for the pizza dough - use it any way you like - for this I just let it rise while I prepared the rest.  It was ready when the rest was.)
2. In a saucepan, cook sausage -we crumbled it as we cooked it.  Transfer to paper towels to drain.  
3. In the same skillet melt butter (we didn't have any grease to clean our, or to even saute the onions because we were using a lean homemade sausage -you may need to adjust directions accordingly), saute onions, garlic, oregano, thyme, and Italian seasoning until the onion begins to soften.  Add bell peppers and saute briefly.  Add diced tomatoes and cooked sausage.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 20 to 30 minutes. (I worried this wouldn't simmer since I had drained the tomatoes, but it worked fine.)
4. Preheat oven to 375.  In a medium bowl, whisk eggs.  Add cottage cheese and Parmesan and stir to combine.
5. Pour half of the sausage filling in a 9 X 13 baking dish.  Pour cottage cheese over the top and smooth out to cover sausage layer.  Top with remaining sausage mixture - coating cottage cheese evenly.
6. Spray counter with cooking spray and roll dough into a 10 X 14 inch rectangle.  Carefully pick up the rectangle and place over the baking dish allowind 1-2 inches to flop over the edge of the dish.  Press dough alond the edge of dish to seal.  Cut 4-5 slits in teh top of the dough to vent.
7. Bale for 50-60 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling.  Remove and let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

Italian Bread sticks

I made these to go along with our spinach ricotta dumplings (recipe to follow) that I made the other day.  They were decent.  I particularly loved that they were quick - except for the twisting, and honestly, I quit twisting at the end because I needed to get them ready early enough to be eaten before scouts.  My last few were just a normal bread stick.  My only real change was omitting brushing these with oil and sprinkling them with salt.  I think I'd rather butter (or spray butter) them and sprinkle them with garlic salt or garlic and herb mix.)  I did that to my second bread stick and it was delicious.
I liked that these had a bit of Italian seasoning in them as well.  Gave them a good flavor.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons hot water (I actually used warm, I didn't want to kill my yeast, and my flour was warm because it was fresh ground.)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups white flour
• 2 teaspoons ground flaxseed 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon yeast
• 2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
• 2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the hot water with 1 cup flour (I didn't use super hot water because I was afraid of killing my yeast - my flour was freshly ground so it was also warm.)  Add the salt, olive oil, flaxseed, sugar, and yeast.  Mix together to make a "spongy" dough.  Let rest for 10-15 minutes.  Grease a baking sheet (or cover with parchment.)
2. Add remaining flour, and Italian seasoning, and Parmesan.  Knead until it is smooth.  (I just mixed it in my kitchenaid.)  
3. Divide dough into muffin-size balls.  Shape as desired - For an easy shape, just roll out like a bread stick  To make a twist, Roll balls into skinny, long pieces.  Let rest as you roll the rest of the pieces.  Go back and fold the pieces in half and twist together.
4. Let rise for 30 minutes in a warm place (I like my microwave - after boiling water in it for a minute)  Preheat oven to 350.
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes.  Baking time depends on thickness of breadsticks.  Mine took about 15 minutes.

Ciabatta Integrale

This is the bread recipe I used for the previous sandwiches.  I had wanted to try a ciabatta and I found this recipe in my King Arthur Flour cookbook.  I had not done the pre-ferment overnight, and I only looked at page 1 and thought I only needed 3 hours of rise time, so I went ahead and started it in the morning.  Got all the way ready to bake it, and realized I needed another 2 hours of rise time - Oops.  I just tried to quick rise it in a steamy microwave.  It turned out pretty well.  I'm sure I would have had some better bubbles in there if it would have gotten it's full 2 hour rise, but sadly I didn't have the time.  Even with my mistakes, the bread was good, so it is definitely a keeper.  Just be warned - start the night before, then allow 5-6 hours for rising time.

Ingredients
Pre-ferment

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1/2 cup water
• pinch of instant yeast

Dough

• All of the pre-ferment
• 1 1/4 cups wheat flour
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached flour (oops, just noticed I should have used bread flour)
• 1 1/4 cups cool water
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon yeast

Directions

1. Mix the pre-ferment ingredients in a small bowl (2-3 cup).  Cover and let rest ovenigt at room temperature.
2. In a mixer, combine all dough ingredients.  (At this point, it says to stop and let the mixture rest for 45 minutes - I didn't -hadn't read ahead and incorporated that 45 minutes either.)  Knead at low speed for 10 minutes.  (This is a wet dough, it will never form a ball.)  Lightly grease a large bowl.  Scrape the dough into the greased bowl.  (I just scraped my dough to one side of my mixer bowl, sprayed it with non-stick spray, scraped it to the other side and sprayed that side - worked fine for me.) 
3. Cover and let rise for 3 hours, gently deflating and turning over after 1 hour, then again after 2 hours and again after 3 hours.
4. Let the dough rest in the bowl for 10 minutes while preparing 2 baking sheets lined with parchment (I only used 1.  I just placed my loaves side by side.  Next time I'd just put them on parchment on my pizza peel because I transfered it to the baking stone anyway.)
5. Grease hands, divide dough in half.  Leaving 1/2 in the bowl.  Gently stretch the other piece until it is about 10 inches long.  Place on parchment and continue to stretch and pat until 12 inches long and 3-4 inches long.  (Basically I did this all in one step.  I just took my dough and made it about a 12 inch log and sat it on the parchment.)  Repeat with other half of the dough.
6. Cover with greased plastic wrap.  Allow to rise until puffy (about 2 hours)  (or if you're me who didn't turn the page of the recipe, put in the microwave shelf, boil some water on the bottom shelf to get it nice and steamy, and put the bread on the top to have a nice warm rise in a reduced time.)
7. Near the end of rising, preheat the oven to 425.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.   (I took mine out at this point but the directions say) Turn off the oven, crack it open about 2 inches, remove ciabatta from pans and place directly on the oven racks.  Allow to cool in the oven. (I'm sure the directions would have yielded a bit different loaf, but like I said, the way I made it, was still good, and it was ready a few hours earlier.  :)

msemmen (Algerian flatbread)

This past 2 week's I've had the healthy bread in 5 minutes a day checked out of the library.  I have tried a few recipes from there - a broccoli bread - not super impressed, a German bread called vollkornbrot -I didn't care for that either, but Brandon said it tasted like it should.  I was so looking forward to trying this because it had rye flakes and wheat berries in the dough, but the flavor was not what I was expecting.  My favorite of all the breads I've tried in this book is this msemmen.  It was good.  I tried it with the spices written in the book but it was way too spicy. (I used 1 Tablespoon less oil on that batch. The next batch I didn't add any cayenne pepper, but mixed it in the same bowl.  That was perfect for me and the kids.  I did like that one.

Here is how I made it

Ingredients

• 1/4 lb master recipe (see below)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil (I used only 1 on the second batch)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (second batch I left this out)
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Dough

• 5 1/2 cups wheat flour
• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons yeast
• 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
• 4 cups lukewarm water

Dough directions

1. Basically mix everything together in a large lidded container until well combined.  Leave on the counter for 2 hours.  Put in the fridge overnight - Use as directed in whatever recipe.

Msemmen directions

1. Mix oil, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and salt in a small bowl.  Roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thick.  
2. Spread oil over the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edge.  Roll up into a log like you would a cinnamon roll.  Take the log and roll it into a coil.  Let rest loosely covered with plastic wrap for 20 minutes.
3. After the rest, roll the coil out flat until it is an 1/8 inch thick circle.  
4. I baked mine on my electric skillet like I do tortillas.  Bake 2 to 5 minutes each side until done.

chili-cornbread cups

These weren't on my menu, but I didn't put whatever I had on my menu in the slow cooker, so I flipped through the book and found these. I decided to sub out the 1-2 Tablespoons chili powder with 1 teaspoon chipotle powder and it was way too spicy for me. I made another chili which was way less spicy, but I was still not impressed with the chili. I did however like the cornbread mixture on top. I doubled it, but I also doubled my chili. If I try these again I would do my 3 bean chili on the bottom and this corn bread on the top. I liked that it had more cornmeal than the recipe I normally make. Oh, I did sub out truvia for the sugar. I used 2 teaspoons of Truvia. OK, I'll post the cornbread recipe.

Here is a link to a picture of her corn bread cups - looks like her chili ended up saucier than mine - that would have been nice as well. The original recipe is on page 146 of the book.

The labels - mostly rating are for the cornbread and not the chili.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 4 teaspoons truvia
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions 

1. Just mix it all together and pour over chili - next time I will make these in my larger baking flour pots.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  25 minutes worked for my muffin tins and my smaller flour pots (pictured above)  I think it may take a bit longer for the larger pot, but I guess it would depend on how thick I pour the bread.

French Peasant bread

Here is another recipe from recipe shoebox that is sitting here up on my computer until I manage to get around to blogging it.  Sadly I've fallen far behind in the blogging lately - 3 boys in 3 different sports will do that to you.  :)
This bread was pretty simple and good.  It was an artisan type bread which DH loves, so he loved it.  Nice and crisp on the outside.   I've actually wanted to try it for a while, but never managed to.   I somehow had a bit of extra time and wanted a side to our soup, and this won.  Glad we tried it.  If you want some great pictures of the process, check out the recipe shoebox link.  It is great!

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs. dry, quick rising yeast
• 2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees)
• 1 Tbs. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 4-5 cups all-purpose flour  (NOTE:  this will not be firm bread dough, but if the weather is humid and the dough is really sticky, you may need to add up to one extra cup of flour)
• olive oil (for greasing the pan)
• corn meal (for pan)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted 

Directions

1. Place yeast, water, sugar, and salt in warm bowl and stir until dissolved.  Add flour and stir until blended, but do NOT knead.  Cover and let rise one hour or until double in size.  
2. Flour hands, remove dough from the bowl and place in 2 roughly equal rounds on an oiled cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal.  Let rise an additional hour. (NOTE:  I usually only let it rise 20-30 minutes and still love the way it turns out!)  
3. Brush the tops and sides of the rounds with melted butter and bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and cook an additional 15 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and brush tops and sides of rounds again with melted butter.  

papa john's pizza crust

Here is another recipe from Fast food fix.  She actually makes a Hawaiian bbq chicken pizza complete with home-made sauce.  I made that at a later date than this picture, but don't plan to include the recipe.  It would have been just as good (and easier) with purchased bbq sauce.

  This picture was just a day I decided to make pizza after noon, and our regular dough needs to be started before that so I tried this dough.  It turned out well.  The best thing I learned here was how to roll the dough like Papa John's (and I didn't even read it in the book, I just got the brilliant idea on my own (OK so really it wasn't all that brilliant, really I should have thought of it earlier, I just didn't.  I used to always try to roll it under.  This time I tried rolling it to the top and flipping the whole thing over onto the pizza peel.  Worked like a charm.  I made my dough this way the last 2 times I have made it.

Here is how I made the dough.  I found that I didn't need any extra flour that she called for, and I cooked it the way I cook all crust now.  I also doubled it for our family size.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup warm water 
• 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons olive oil

Directions

1. [If not using instant yeast, proof it in a small bowl (place water sugar and yeast in bowl, stir until yeast is dissolved, let rest until it starts to bubble.)]  If using instant yeast like we always do, place all ingredients in a stand mixer.  Mix with dough hook until dough is smooth and elastic.  (6-10 minutes depending on the mixer.)  Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
2. Preheat oven to 550.  Divide dough in half. Roll out half into a 14" circle (mine probably wasn't quite that large - I made as big as fit on my pizza peel.)  Let rest for a minute or 2.  (this reduces shrinkage of the dough when you transfer it to the peel.)   While you are waiting, sprinkle a pizza peel with cornmeal.   Roll up the edge of the dough.  (this will form the crust when flipped over.)  Gently flip the pizza crust over onto the pizza peel.  Give it a shake to make sure it will slide - if not add more cornmeal underneath before topping.  Top pizza as desired.
3. Slide pizza off onto pizza stone.  Bake for 5-8 minutes until cheese is melted and crust is golden.

whole wheat sandwich bread

OK, trying yet another wheat bread recipe.  While I love the one I have used, I preferred it when I only made 1 loaf at a time.  It seems to be getting too gummy lately or something.  Probably just too much gluten, but I don't want to mess much with it.  This recipe is from my  King Arthur Flour book.  It has the potato flakes like my favorite recipe so far, and it has Orange juice which I suspect acts like the vinegar in my favorite recipe.  It also has powdered milk like my favorite recipe.  It has more butter which I wasn't doing cartwheels over.  I debated cutting it in half, but for the first try of the recipe I resisted the urge.    I did swap out white sugar for agave because I like the flavor in my bread, and I reduced the salt because my favorite bread only uses 1 teaspoon, so I didn't figure I needed more.  I also upped the yeast to 1 Tablespoon just because I'm a lazy measurer, and wouldn't mind my bread rising a tinge faster.  So here is what I did.

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons orange juice (I squeezed some fresh)
• 1 cup warm water
• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 3 cups (12 o) whole wheat flour (mine was 13.6 oz, but I left it since I added liquid with the agave)
• 3 Tablespoons agave
• Heaping 1/2 cup dried potato flakes (1.25 oz.)
• 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk (1 oz.)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon yeast

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients in mixer.  Knead with dough hook for 10 minutes.
2. Let rise until double, about 1 hour.
3. Grease a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan.  Deflate dough and shape it into an 8 inch log.  Put in prepared pan.
4. Let rise until crowned about 1 1/2 inches over the rim of the pan (1-2 hours)
5. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes tenting with foil after 15 minutes.

Updated notes from 11/25 - I made this again and quadrupled  it yesterday.  I didn't have orange juice so I used 1/2 water and 1/2 cider vinegar.   Turned out great.  I did have to add a bit more liquid not sure if I added an extra cup of flour, or just needed the extra liquid because I also cut the butter in half.  I don't think I lost count of my cups, but at almost 10 I ran out of wheat and had to dig some out of the very back of my pantry (under my stairs)  Then I had to open the bucket and my bucket opening tool was nowhere to be found, so it is entirely possible that I was really on almost 11 cups not almost 10.  I'll have to make it again X 4 and see.  I added 1/4 cup more water.

Sooo, Ingredients looked like this today

1/4 cup cider vinegar

4 1/4 cup warm water (plus another 1/4 cup later when it was a bit too dry for my liking)

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes (1 stick)

12 cups whole wheat flour 

12 Tablespoons agave (3/4 cup)

Heaping 2 cups dried potato flakes (1.25 oz.)

1 cup nonfat dry milk (1 oz.)

4 teaspoons salt

4 Tablespoon yeast (actually I used 3 Tablespoons and 1 teaspoon I think because my bread rose a bit quick and then deflated a bit in the oven last time.  I still had a little bit of deflation on a couple of loaves this time, but not as bad as the last time.)

30 minute rolls

I have used this recipe in other recipes before, but never just made the rolls, or at least never posted it, and for some reason it was hard to find on real mom kitchen today, and I couldn't remember if it was exactly the same as the 45 minute cinnamon rolls or not.  So, I'm posting it here because I had some issues with it today as rolls and I need to write my notes.
I'll write out the recipe, then my notes.

Ingredients

• 1 1/8 cup warm water
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 Tablespoons yeast
• 1/4 cup agave (can use sugar or honey, I just like agave in my bread)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3 1/2 cups flour (today I used about 1/2 wheat, 1/2 white - had a bit of wheat germ thrown in the mix too.)

Directions

1. Mix first 4 ingredients and let rest for 15 minutes.  Add salt, eggs and flour.  Mix until smooth.  
2. Shape into rolls.  Let rise 10 minutes.  Bake 10 minutes at 400, until golden brown.

Notes:

These are Very sticky.  I had a lot of trouble trying to shape them, and I wasn't very good at making them the right size to make 12.....I was trying to shape with oiled hands - they were sticking in the pan.....  I ended up scrapping everything I did and, rolling everything in a ball, tossing it on a flour covered counter - rolling it around and cutting it into 12 pieces with my pastry scraper.  That worked well.

I also tried to bake these in a 9X9 pan today.  I wanted the shape of rolls cooked together for my sliders because it seemed like that was a traditional shape.  That did not work well with this recipe - they took forever to cook.  I finally took them out when they didn't seem jiggly, but they were still doughy.  Tasted great in the end, but massive troubles.  I wouldn't recommend cooking them in a 9 X 9 again unless you plan to double the cooking time, and possibly cover the tops so they don't burn.  If you want rolls that really are 30 minute rolls, shape them and cook them either separated on a cookie sheet or in muffin tins.

bolillos

Well, yesterday I tried my hand at some focaccia bread, today it is bolillos.  I just used a bunch of store bought ones in breakfast this morning, and now Brandon wants some for lunch.  I'm actually staying home from church today since I haven't been able to get rid of this silly fever I've had for days.  So, I figure why not babysit some bread.  The recipe for this bread looks very similar to the focaccia I made yesterday.  This recipe I found on food.com. I just made the recipe easier to follow - not so many steps. I saw the same recipe at another site, but liked that this site had ratings to read.
These turned out well.  They tasted just like a bolillo from the store except the bottom crust was super crispy, but I liked that.  Yum.

Ingredients

• 1 package (scant Tablespoon) instant yeast
• 1 1/3 cups water
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 Tablespoon lard or vegetable shortening, melted and cooled (I just barely melt mine so it isn't too hot to add 30 seconds in the microwave or so.  Today I actually spent a while looking for my dough hook, and it cooled too much and was solid again.)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/4 - 4 cups flour (I started with 3 1/4 cups and added a Tablespoon or 2)
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 teaspoon corn starch

Directions

1. Place yeast, water, honey, flour (start with 3 1/4 cups) salt and shortening in mixer with dough hook attached.  Mix on low-medium low speed for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic - adding flour 1 Tablespoon at a time if dough it too sticky.
2. Cover and let rise until double (about 1 hour.)
3. Divide into 10 balls (mine were close to 3 oz. each.)  Roll each ball into an oval about 5 inches long - tapering at the end if desired.
4. Place on a greased cookie sheet and let rise until doubled. (recipe said 25 min - my house was pretty cool and it took more like 45.
5. Meanwhile, (type up your recipe on your blog - just kidding, that is what I'm doing, but I'm headed to follow the rest of the steps right now.  :)  Preheat oven to 375.  Mix cornstarch and cold water in a small saucepan.  Heat until boiling.  Boil until thickened and clear (this is super quick.)
6. Brush rolls with cornstarch mixture.  Slash rolls down the center 1/2 inch from each end and about 1/2 inch deep.
7. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and sounding hollow when tapped.

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Candy corn pizza, quick pizza crust

Here is another item that I forgot to post, but as I'm adding pictures (soooo far behind I know.)  I found this picture.  I wanted to make this "pizza" as a side to go with my dinner in a pumpkin.  It was simple pizza.  I had made the crust to be eaten on Oct. 30.  We had trunk or treat, and a million things to do, so I pulled out an old recipe I had for a quick pizza crust from a friend of mine back in college.  I made the crust and then we ended up not having time to make the pizza before the trunk or treat so I refrigerated the dough and made it as a side to our Halloween meal.  It was tasty.  I don't suggest refrigerating the dough, it grew bigger than the container and then got dry spots.  But it was still workable.  The dough is great in a pickle though if you need a good pizza crust quick.  I didn't follow the regular directions on the dough - I cooked it how I always cook pizza which is with the oven as hot as it will go on a pizza stone for 8 minutes (giver or take 2 minutes.)  I'm just writing out the recipe for the dough.  

To make candy corn pizza with this crust (or any other crust), just add mozzarella in the middle and cheddar on the outside.  You could also do a gouda in the middle for yellow.  That would be fun, but we didn't have any.  We did try one with feta for the white and that was good too.  Heat until cheese is melted.

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 Tablespoon yeast
• 1/2 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon oil
• 2 cups flour

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in water.  Add salt, oil and flour.  Mix, knead for a few minutes until smooth.  
2. Spread on a greased pan.  Let rise 5-10 minutes.  Add toppings.  Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes. (When I cooked this as candy corn pizza I baked it like I do all pizza crust  now - for 6- 8 min at 550 directly on my pizza stone.)

focaccia

Today I'm making hamburgers and the recipe calls for focaccia bread.  I have never tried making that type of bread, so of course I was up for the challenge.  I looked at a recipe from Tyler Florence and a couple on allrecipes.com and decided to mix a couple of the recipes I saw on allrecipes.

This turned out delicious.  Simple enough to make

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup warm water
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup unbleached bread flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 Tablespoon  Oil, + more for the pan and top
• Chopped fresh rosemary (I  used maybe 1 teaspoon or less - I just chopped until it was nicely covered)
• Shredded Parmesan (I used a Tablespoon or 2 - I just sprinkled until it was nicely covered.

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a mixer with dough hook on until a smooth dough forms that no longer sticks to the side of the bowl when being mixed.  (I actually had to add about 1 Tablespoon of flour so it would not stick to the side of the bowl.  Do not add too much flour.  The dough was still a pretty sticky bread dough.)
2. Lightly oil the bowl turning dough to coat.  Let rise until double about 45 minutes.  
3. Lightly oil the bottom of a baking sheet (I used about 1/2 teaspoon.)  Turn dough onto baking sheet and spread to about 1/2 inch thickness (I made about a 10 inch square - more would have made it very thin, and I wanted it for a bun.)  Lightly oil the top of the bread - I drizzled another 1/2 teaspoon on top and spread it around with my fingers.  
4. Use the end of a wooden spoon to dimple the top of the bread every 1 1/2 inches or so.  Sprinkle with rosemary and Parmesan.
5. In a cold oven, place a broiler pan or other shallow dish on the bottom rack of the oven.  Boil some water (1 cup or so) and pour into the dish.  Place the bread on the center rack of the oven.  Close the door and let bread rise in the oven 20-25 minutes.  Turn oven on to 375 and bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned on top. (I took mine out at about 22-23, and should have left it the full 25.)

no knead multigrain bread

So, I saw this recipe over at our best bites and wanted to try it because I love trying different breads, especially multigrain, and it was made with a different method which I thought would be new and interesting.  This bread was very different to make.  I wasn't too fond of the difference because to me it was hard to do.  I know how to make bread the normal way, and I know how to make bread with a biga and a soaker.  I have both of those methods down and don't have to look at the instructions multiple times, but this I was always looking to see what I had to do next.  It was cute that on the website she had made it a giftable little jar, but I don't think I'd give this to anyone.  It seems like too much work to have to follow.  I'd rather give the loaf already made.  I cook, and I had trouble with this loaf - 2 cups water was too much - I only used 1 3/4 and it was very watery dough - I added 1/4 cup wheat flour and it was still fairly sticky dough.  I don't like a bread that I don't know the texture of the dough.  I probably would have to be shown the right consistency.  My only clue from Our Best Bites was that the book had said stiff.  Even with all of that, I have reserved the book at the library to check it out.  Maybe it can give me more guidance.
The actual bread was pretty good.  I think my crust got a bit overdone because I forgot to turn my oven down 5 degrees when I put my bread in (yet more strange instructions.)  The seeds had a really toasted flavor which added nicely to the bread.
Here is the simplified version of how to make it.  It is still a ton of info.    See Our Best Bites for the details, and how to put it in a jar if you're into that sort of a thing.
I like this particular picture because it shows a couple of things - how dark my bread got, how thick the crust got (both my mistake) and also how crumbly it was.  Partly my fault, and partly because of all of the seeds on the bread.  It did make a mess to cut it.

Ingredients

• 3 cups unbleached white bread flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (I ended up using 1/2)
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour (I made this myself - ground brown rice in my wheat grinder.)
• 2 Tablespoons rolled oats
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons flax seeds
• 2 Tablespoons cornmeal (accidentally added this to my dough and ended up using 4 Tablespoons oops - like I said, the directions confused me.)
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• scant 2 cups ice water - more like scant 1 3/4 cups for me.

Directions

1. Mix sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and flax seeds together.  Place 1 1/2 Tablespoons in a small bowl and mix with the cornmeal. (Reserve this for tomorrow.)   Place remaining seeds in a large bowl.
2. Add remaining ingredients to the large bowl and stir or whisk to combine.  Place ice in water at least 30 seconds before measuring to cool.  (Not so sure how important this step is - your going to put it in the fridge.  Next time I'll probably just measure out of the little button on the front of my fridge.  It comes out a bit cold.)  Add enough water to bring all of the dry ingredients together, stirring vigorously and scraping down the sides of the bowl.  The dough should be "stiff"  (I measured out 2 cups and added about 1 3/4.  That made a dough that was too wet for me so I added another 1/4 cup wheat flour.  I'd suggest starting with no more than 1 3/4 cups water to make sure it isn't too wet.  My dough still wasn't particularly "stiff.")  Brush dough with oil and cover with plastic wrap.
3. Now for the tricky part - the multiple timed rises.  Rise 1
1. Refrigerate for 3-10 hours
2. Continue to let rise at room temperature 12-18 hours
4. Rise 2 - Generously oil a 9 X 5 inch loaf pan.  Sprinkle 1/2 of the cornmeal/seed mixture in the bottom of the pan and gently shake it to coat the bottom and part way up the sides of the pan.  Punch down the bread (or stir with a rubber spatula) and turn into prepared pan.  Brush the top lightly with oil and smooth out into the pan.  Brush with water.  Sprinkle the remaining seeds/cornmeal mixture on top of the bread.  Make a 1/2 inch slash down the center of the bread using an oiled knife.  Allow to rise again using one of the following options -Bread should rise to 1/2 inch above the edge of the pan.
1. regular rise - 2-4 hours at room temperature
2. quick rise - 45 min to 2 hour in microwave (boil water in a microwave safe dish until it gets nice and steamy - add the bread - close the door and let the bread rise in the warm, steamy environment.  DO Not turn on the microwave) 
5. The Baking -  
1. 15 minutes before baking time, put your oven racks on the 2 lowest positions.  On the bottom one place a broiler pan (or other shallow baking dish)  Preheat oven to 450.
2. Place bread in oven and reduce heat to 425 (bolded because I missed it and it made my loaf very dark and thick crusted.) Add one cup of water to the broiler pan.  Bake bread on the next rack up for 35-45 minutes or until nicely browned.  (at the higher temp, I did 35 min.)  
3. Cover with foil and continue baking for 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the thickest part comes out with just slightly moist particles clinging to the bottome portion (or the internal temp registers 204-207.)  (I stuck my thermometer in the bread when I added the foil, and cooked it until it reached 205.  I did lower the temp of the oven at that time, and it took about 15-20 minutes, but that was with my mistakes.)  Remove loaf to a cooling rack.  when cool enough to handle, take out of the pan.

everything bread

This recipe was marked in my Taste of Home magazine as one I wanted to try, so I decided to make it to go with out tuna salad last night.  I did some altering of the recipe to suit my tastes, and make it a bit healthier.  I also skipped the first rise and just let the dough rest.  It still turned out well.  DH loved the salt on top (I actually halved the salt and still didn't like it, but I know I'm not a salt fan.)  I wasn't a fan of the caraway seed which I had also halved from the original recipe.  DH said it was the salt and onion that made this for him, so next time I'll probably leave the caraway seed off altogether.  Even at 1/2 teaspoon I thought it took over too much of the flavor because it is so strong of a seed.  Other than that, I really liked the bread.  I think I may have left it in just a tad long.  I was looking for a hot pad, but also thinking it had to look darker because the picture in the magazine did.  I'd take it out right at the 22 minute mark next time as well.

Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
• 3/4 cups warm water
• 1 cup warm milk (I used skim)
• 2 Tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg, separated
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse seas salt or kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon dried minced onion (I only had chopped, but I crushed that with my mortar and pestle)
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

Directions

1. In a large bowl or mixer, dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add the milk, butter, sugar, egg yolk, salt and wheat flour.  Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.  Stir in enough of the flour to form a firm dough (It took all 2 1/2 cups for me yesterday.)  Knead until smooth. (by hand or in a mixer -5-8 minutes depending on mixer/by hand.) 
2.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top.  cover and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour.) (I did skip this step.  I just let it rest for 5 minutes, separated it into 3, rolled them a bit, let them rest, and rolled them all the way out.)
3. Punch dough down.  Turn onto a lightly floured (or greased) surface;  divide into thirds.  Shape each into a 20 inch rope.  Place ropes on a large greased baking sheet and braid.  Pinch ends to seal and tuck under.)  Cover and let rise until doubled (I boil water in my microwave and then stick my bread in there when it gets all steamy to let it rise.)
4. Combine egg white and water.  Brush over dough.  Combine salt, onion, and seeds;  sprinkle over bread.  Bake at 375 for 22-28 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.  (that was easier said than done because it made a nice large loaf.

Wheat bread 2

So I finally ventured away from my wheat bread recipe and tried something new.  I have wanted to try a new recipe for a long time, but I really like my recipe so I haven't attempted it.  I have really wanted to try the bosch recipe (found here on page 27) ever since I got my bosch, but I have never had Dough Enhancer.  Another reason I haven't tried something different.  I saw that Mel and My kitchen cafe  had made it without the dough enhancer.  I also liked that she let the yeast sponge for a bit, and I was very curious to try her method to cook the bread - putting it in a cold oven.  The bread I make has multiple dough enhancers, so I decided to try my hand at bosch bread - upping the yeast like mel did, letting it sponge like mel, and baking it like mel, but I added 2 Tablespoons of buttermilk powder, 2 Tablespoons of potato flakes, and 2 Tablespoons of vinegar.  The resulting bread had a wonderful texture.  It was nice and soft.  I prefer the flavor of my other bread a little bit, but this was still very good.    I ended up adding all 15 cups of flour, and making 5 loaves (but one of my pans is a 1.5 lb pan.)  Here is what I did.

Ingredients

• 6 cups warm water
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons instant yeast
• 2 Tablespoons salt
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten
• 2 Tablespoons buttermilk powder (or powdered milk)
• 2 Tablespoons potato flakes
• 2 Tablespoons vinegar
• 12-15 cups whole wheat flour (fresh ground is best if possible)

Directions

1. Mix warm water, yeast and 8 cups flour in the bowl of a bosch.  Stir to combine.  Let sit to sponge for 10-15 minutes.  (I got the rest of my stuff together while I was waiting -ground the 2nd half of my wheat, and got out the rest of my ingredients.)
2. Add salt, oil, honey, gluten, buttermilk powder, potato flakes, and vinegar.  Mix to combine.  Add flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Continue mixing for 5 -8 minutes.  
3. Spray loaf pans with cooking spray.  Spray hands and counter with cooking spray.  Turn dough onto counter and divide into 5-6 pieces.  Put into prepared loaf pans.  Cover and let rise until they are 1 inch over the pan.  (This time I actually sprayed my loaves with cooking spray and covered them with plastic wrap.  I really like to make my microwave a proofing box by boiling some water in there and then when it is nice and steamy, putting the loaves in there.  I wasn't sure all of the loaves would fit, and I didn't want to get out the microwave shelf and try it today, so I didn't, but usually, that is what I do.)
4. When bread is risen, place in a cold oven.  Turn oven on to 350 and bake for 38 minutes.  

This baking method worked pretty well.  I wish I would have rotated my bread at about 32 minutes and maybe left them a total fo 40 minutes so that they would have been more golden everywhere, but part of that is also my pans.  I love my chicago metal loaf pan, but I only have 1.  It turned out much better than my pyrex pans or the silicon pan I have.  I have the 1.5 lb size, but I think I will order some in the 1 lb size so they will fit into bags a bit better.  They really are a great loaf pan.  I think next time I will also get the nonstick so I can use them to bake the 5 minute a day type bread.Chicago Metallic Professional Nonstick 1-Pound Loaf Pan

pumpkin spice bagels

I made these bagels for breakfast today.  Yum!  I may never buy bagels again.  I had attempted bagels once before with disastrous results and because of that I've steered clear of them for a while.  These however were so tasty.  Just the right amount of chewiness, plus a lovely pumpkin spice flavor.  I ate mine with maple nut bagel spread. Yum.  The only thing I may possibly change for another time in making these is to lessen the cloves or nutmeg.  (Actually I think I accidentally added too much nutmeg in the first place.)  I think the bagel itself is fine with the spices used, but with the bagel spread, I think it would be better just a wee bit milder.  I found this recipe in my taste of home healthy cooking magazine this month.  They actually had you make them in the dough cycle of a bread machine, but I didn't feel like pulling mine out so I just made them in the mixer.  Just as easy - actually easier because my bread machine is buried in the back of my pantry.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup plus 2 Tablespoons water, divided (I used warm water)
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I may have used 1 teaspoon, but would cut back.)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 package (1/4 oz.- scant Tablespoon) yeast (I use instant
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tablespoon cornmeal

Directions

1. Mix and knead water, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, flour and yeast in a mixer. (5-10 minutes depending on your mixer.)  Cover and let rise 1 hour.
2. Turn dough onto a lightly greased work surface.   Shape into 9 balls.  Push thumb through centers to form a 1 inch hole.  Stretch and shape dough to form an even ring.  Flatten rings slightly.  Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 400.  Fill a Dutch oven 2/3 full of water (I filled mine only 1/2 full, and I waited to fill it until after the 10 minuter rest.)  Bring to a boil.  drop bagels, 2 at a time into boiling water.  Cook 45 seconds; turn and cook 45 seconds longer.  Remove with a slotted spoon; drain on paper towels.
4. Whisk egg white and remaining water.  Brush over bagels.  Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal.  Place bagels on prepared pan.  (Directions said 2 inches apart, but they wouldn't all fit with that much space in between.  I just made all 9 fit on 1 cookie sheet.0  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  (Mine took 20.)