Brewing & Baking

HUEVOS HAMINADOS OR SEPHARDIC STYLE BAKED EGGS

2011-04-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

I get tweets, and more tweets and more tweets every day. But occassionally I find one I really have to investigate further. Such was the case with a picture of an egg decorated with a delicate leaf pattern appeared on a retweet by BlackStarSays at the Black Star gourmet website. The original tweet came from http://www.aglaiakremezi.com/articles/general/mediterranean-sephardic-connection-ukrainian-easter-eggs.html. In the recipe sited she uses an old nylon hose. But the recipe she was talking about was from her mother and she made them for Easter.

It piqued my curiousity about Sephardic Jewish traditions (even though we are Ashkenazi Jews) and how these egges were used. I love learning about traditions and foods especially at Passover time. So I had to start researching, and found the recipe (listed below) on Beth Israel Congregation (in Bath, Maine) website. The Beth Israel congregation had a great recipe for Sephardic Baked Eggs. It was on the page entitled Passover Recipes.

That Friday I was able to make a quick sojourn to our local East York Market where I hoped I would find the required onion skins at Dorothy's stand. Dorothy is one of my favorite ladies at the East York Market. She's been with this wonderful farmers market for more than 50 years now. She's missed a few Fridays, most recently because she broke her ankle. But usually I can find her smile and hug in her usual spot.

A few years back I had noticed that she had bags of onion skins for sale at her stand. "What do you use those for?" I asked Dorothy. "We color our eggs with onion skins" she explained. At the time I had just tucked that little tidbit in my mind. But when I saw the recipe I knew just where to do for onion skins! Sure enough, she had bags of the dried onion skins. I picked up a bag for $1.00 and told her I would let her know how my recipe came out.

I had also recently been to a hot sale at our local Salvation Army and found one of those great enameled cast iron dutch ovens for $15.00 (think Le Crusett knockoff at a fraction of the cost!). So with the onion skins from Dorothy, the right pot, and a few other ingredients listed in the recipe I found I was ready to try out Sephardic style Baked Eggs for our Seder this year!

Here is the link for more Passover recipes from Congregation Beth Israel

HUEVOS HAMINADOS OR SEPHARDIC STYLE BAKED EGGS

by Denise Tepler

18 eggs

brown skins from 10 to 15 onions

1/2 cup ground coffee

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

heavy covered oven-proof pan such as a cast-iron Dutch oven

Cover bottom of pan with onion skins. Lay whole eggs on top of skins and cover with another layer of skins. Sprinkle with coffee and salt. Drizzle oil over all. Fill pan with water to cover ingredients. Put lid on tightly and place in 250° oven to bake for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Traditionally served at a Sabbath Desayuno meal or on Passover on a platter with chunks of feta cheese and olives.

I placed a cilantro leaf on several eggs. Then wrapped each one in one of my hops bags. I keep at least a dozen hops bags in my beer making supplies that I buy at Mr. Steve's here in York, PA. You'd be surprised all the uses I find for them!

I put another layer of onion skins on top of the coffee grounds, salt and then drizzled on the olive oil. Then covered with water just like the recipe says.

Eight hours later, I have one messy pot. But the eggs came out beautiful!

The all brown one was one I didn't put a leaf on, just put it down inside without a leaf or a hops bag.

I couldn't resist having one for breakfast with cheese and olives! Pure heaven. The eggs are more tender than boiled eggs and have a slightly different taste.

This is a great recipe and I can easily see it being baked with cholent in the oven for Saturday lunch! Ummm Ummmm! I can also see it being a great egg recipe for any meal to wow our guests!

BTW...Ken loves them!

Puttanesca Sauce with penna

2011-04-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

About once a week or two weeks I have to have my freshly made Puttanesca sauce. This is a quick and easy dinner that is so flavorful!

Let me explain that first of all I don't really a lot of red sauce with my pasta. Oh, I make a great one and even can it up for my husband, Ken. He loves it. But once I made a fresh Puttanesca sauce my opinion changed!

I'll even make extra and have it on a good piece of my homemade ciabatta bread. I took some of that extra down to Denise, my neighbor Waneta's daughter, one day. She was up from Baltimore visiting her mom, and I had a feeling she'd like it. Of course Denise loved it! I didn't give any to Waneta to try because I make my Puttanesca sauce with anchovy paste and she really doesn't like that. LOL. But Waneta is a great neighbor and buys it for me if I ask her to pick it up!

Denise asked me for the recipe and I had to laugh...I don't use one! So the next time I made it I wrote it down for her, and I documented with pictures!

So this one's for you Denise. Now get Drew to make it for you and you'll be set for a romantic evening!

3-4 Tbsp olive oil
6-8 big vine ripened tomatoes, or about a dozen small ones, chopped (I don't even peel them)
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic or shallots (finely chopped)
1/4 cup chopped ripe olives (make sure to throw a few kalamati olives in), seeded and chopped
1/2 to 1 c good dry red wine (preferably homemade or good brand of commercial Chambourcine)
1 Tbsp Berkley and Jensen capers (from BJs warehouse club)
1 squirt Roland Anchovy paste

Put the olive oil in a large skillet, and bring to medium heat. Add the tomatoes, garlic (shallots), kosher salt, red pepper flakes and cook the tomatoes until soft. Be sure not to over salt. Remember you'll be adding olives, capers and anchovy paste with salt in them. Add red wine, and continue cooking.

Add chopped olives, capers and anchovy paste. Cook for another 5 minutes.

Pour over penna or spaghetti.

Sprinkle with freshly grated (on microplane side of cheese grater) parmesan cheese. You don't see the cheese in this picture because I wanted the sauce to show.

OK, Denise now it's your turn. Let me know how it tastes! BTW, do you know the story behind Puttanesca sauce? Hmmm very interesting!

Corn Muffins using Dannon Light & Fit Vanilla Non-Fat Yorgurt

2011-01-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

My husband, Ken, loves corn muffins and had been hinting for a few days about them. Then one morning I came downstairs and there was a recipe for corn muffins on the top liner from the Dannon Light & Fit yogurt container he had opened.

I looked it over and left it on the counter, wondering if he forgot to throw it in the trash or if it was an out-and-out hint that he wanted me to make them. Finally a few days later our schedules gave us enough time together for me to ask. He said it might be a good one to try. "OK. I'll give make them, but I wonder about them being too sweet," I replied.

I'm a gal who loves plain yogurt, not flavored sweetened yogurt. Ken loves vanilla yogurt though. The advantage with Dannon's Light & Fit is that it is not sweetened with sugar, so it fits into Ken's diet.

The recipe is simple, quick, and surprisingly not too sweet. The yogurt makes the corn muffins moist, which is a good thing! Also even when heated in the microwave they come out nice and soft, not tough.

When I posted a comment and picture on my Facebook page I had several requests for the recipe. So here it is!

Corn Muffins from Dannon Light & Fit Non-fat Yogurt

1 c yellow cornmeal
1 c all-purpose flour (I generally only use King Arthur)
1/2 c granulated sugar (I used 1/4 c sugar and 1/4 c Splenda granulated)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1-1/4 c Dannon Light & Fit Vanilla or Strawberry nonfat yogurt
1/4 c canola oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Ligghtly great or line twelve 2" muffin tins. I used my silicone ones...but even on those you still need to spray Pam.

In a bowl whist together dry ingredients. In another bowl whisk together eggs, goygurt, and oil. Then add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture, and stir the batter until it is combined.

Divide the batter among the muffin tins , and bake the muffins for 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Let the muffins cool in the tins on a rack for 3 minutes. Then turn them out onto a rack and let them cool completely...Yeah right like that's gonna happen in my house! Let them get cool enough to handle, split and slather with butter. That's what we do!

Next time I won't put them in the muffin tins...too much cleaning! Instead I'll just bake the batter in my cast iron skillet and then just slice wedges when it's cooled enough to serve.

If any of you try this recipe with the strawberry yogurt please let me know...would love to know what you think!

Broccoli four leaf clover buns...no scratch that... Zucchini, onion, rosemary & garlic bread

2010-08-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

I am diverting from my usual format for the HBin5 Bread braid which was scheduled for August 1st. So since I am posting this on August 8th...yes, I am late. My inspiration for swerving from my usual format for our bread braids is primarily time and free thinking writing. I finally had the time this morning to make read the other blogs from our HBin5 group and the time to compare what I had seen on tv recently. Hope you enjoy taking the trip with me.

I love baking bread, as anyone who reads this blog knows, and particularly love making no-knead breads from Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a Day by Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg. But theirs is not the only no-knead bread recipes or cookbooks out there.

Yesterday I was watching Chuck's Day Off on the new Cooking channel. Chuck is actually Chuck Hughes multitalented owner and chef of Montreal hot spot Garde Manger.

Chuck's Day off on the Cooking channel
Chuck Hughes bio

He featured a no-knead bread recipe that used a bit of a different technique that intrigued me enough to give it a go. The ingredients were pretty much the same though. He plopped the first rise dough ( he only gave it 50 minutes!) into bread pans gently so as to not deflate the dough and baked it at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. Usually I put the first rise dough (about 2 hours) into the frig for at least a day, and sometimes wait up to five days to use it based on my time constraints. Additionally when I bake the dough according to instructions in ABin5 or HBin5 I bake it at 450 for 30 minutes and add water to a pan in the oven at the beginning of the baking to steam the bread and give it a very crunchy crust..

So I decided this morning to incorporate several different things. As stated earlier I had missed the assignment date of August 1st for the latest HBin5 bread braid, due to time constraints. The assignment was four leaf clover broccoli and cheddar buns found on page 174. But Danielle, who did get the assignment done, pondered using zucchini in the dough instead. She had also used all purpose flour instead of whole wheat and all purpose flour. See Danielle's blog here

I decided to make the assignment in the following manner:

still used the HBin5 recipe on page 174 but used all purpose flour only and substituted zucchini instead of broccoli.
the substitution of zuchhini for the broccoli required an increase of 1 cup of flour. According to Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator cookbook, zuchhini is 94% water while broccoli is only 89% water. That 5% makes a difference to the recipe I found.
also added onions, garlic and a sprig of fresh rosemary (leaves only no stem)
added 1 tsp of dried minced garlic to the flour mixture
instead of putting the dough in the frig after the first rise, I put it into 2 bread pans and baked it for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
opted for baking the bread in loaf pans instead of forming into dough balls for the buns. This was primarily because this dough is very loose and wet if it hasn't been refrigerated. That would not be a bad thing if making a pizza by the way, but I wanted loaves of bread from this dough, not buns.
did not use a waterbath in the oven
used eggwash on the dough after sprinkling white and black sesame seeds on the top
instead of cutting the dough with a serrated knife, used scissors to cut into the dough after putting seeds and eggwash on top
did not use steam in the oven

The recipe calls for cooking the broccoli for only about 4 minutes. I found I needed to cook the mixture of zucchini, onions and rosemary about twice that amount of time.

Once I had it cooked I let it cool a bit, then pureed it and then let it cool again before adding to the flour, salt and yeast mixture. This was due to knowing the mixture was still too hot and would have killed the yeast. Even though I had added the 2 3/4 c of cool water to the veggie mixture it was still too hot and definitely needed to be cooled more to room temp. I was still worried about it being too hot so once I had everything mixed together (remember this is no knead) I left the plastic wrap off the top to let the heat dissapate from the dough more.

My one mistake was letting the dough rise for two hours the way we usually do in the recipes from AB and HBin5. By letting it rise 2 hours it had risen much higher and had alot of spring in it. That's usually a good thing...but was difficult to move the dough to the two breadpans!

As I tried to cut the dough in half to remove it easily I realized my mistake. I then used a spatula to try to lift the dough out of the bowl in one fell swoop..HA! I came out with a glob of very stretchy dough with so much stretch that I had to put it back in the bowl and try smaller portions! It was funny! It took me 4 "scoops" to get the dough into the first bread pan.

The rest of the dough went into the second pan a bit easier because I was able to pour it in. But since I had lost some of the spring in these maneuvers, I decided to let the bread rise again in the pans for about 30 min. I will say that at this stage the dough smelled wonderful already!

The dough rose beautifully in the pans as you can see in the pic below!

To make sure my bread gets baked thoroughly, I use an ACU*RITE (tm) meat thermometer. I put the probe in towards the end of the bake. ACU*Rite has an alarm that I set to 204 degrees and that lets me know when the bread has reached the temp I've set it to.

I noticed with these breads I had to let them bake for over an hour. That may be because I'm using bread pans that are larger. I used the entire 4#s of dough in just two bread pans. While the bread did not brown as much on the top as I expected, I took it out when internal temp reached the forementioned 204 degrees.

We needed to get to the gym for swimming so it had to cool longer than I usually let it...come on...who can resist cutting into bread fresh out of the oven. Sigh, in this case I had to.

The crumb was excellent and the vegtables' flavor was subtle but definitely there!

This picture does not do justice to the color of the crumb

When we returned I sliced off a nice bit and spread "Lemon Bag Cheese" that I made based on the recipe I found on our HBin5 leader's website. It's a great recipe and extremely versatile. In this case I had added fresh basil, rehydrated minced garlic, and sea salt. For Michelle's recipe click here: homemade lemon bag cheese.

Excellent lunch with a bottle of my homemade Hopdevil IPA! What a life eh?

To see what others did with their versions of this assignment click here:

HBin5 Bread baking group

HBin5 July 15th Bread Braid-- Substitute-Vermont Cheddar Bread from ABin5

2010-07-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

Assignment: REAL assignment was 1 full recipe of Gluten-free Cheddar and Sesame bread, pgs 244-245 of the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. The full recipe was to be made into:
1 loaf of guten-free Cheddar & Sesame Bread, and 1 Gluten-free Parmesan Bread Sticks
We can make substitutions, but share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.

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What I REALLY MADE: 1 full batch of Vermont Cheddar bread from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (ABin5) made into 1 loaf of same and 1 focaccia.

What this session was really about for me was honoring those in our group and highlighting what I have learned from just a few of them. I've been baking bread for umpty-ump years (you figure it out) but I am always delighted to learn new techniques and get new tips that help enhance my favorite passtime!

Our fearless leader Michelle said she understood that some folks are on a tight budget and tight time constraints. Therefore if we wanted (and I definitely did) we could make a cheddar bread from ABin5 instead of the costly Gluten-free assignment. Don't get me wrong...I want to make the gluten-free breads, but the cost of the gluten-free flours and searching them out just are not do-able right now.

If you turn to page 106 in the Abin5 book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois you'll see a great Vermont Cheddar cheese bread recipe. I followed the recipe except that I didn't have cheddar cheese labeled "Vermont". Instead I had some left over cheese that Wanetta (my neighbor and featured person in many of these posts) gave me before she went out of town to a family reunion. So I shredded that up and then tossed in an extra 1/2 c Kraft Parmesan (shaker dried kind).

The day before I started baking the bread, I had made Lemon Bag cheese. I procured the recipe from our forementioned illustrious leader Michelle's site: http://bigblackdogs.net/homemade-lemon-bag-cheese-and-whole-wheat-pocket-bread-2/ . One of the hints she gave is that when making the lemon bag cheese do not throw out the whey, instead use it for bread...seemed like a great idea to me so I substituted that for the lukewarm water. I'll post about the cheese later, but let me tell you it was so easy and so delicious! Thank you Michelle!

On my baking day I took out the dough and first made a focaccia that I topped with fresh tomatoes.

Then I made the rest into a loaf. I put on the dough chunks of fresh garlic, and fresh rosemary from my backyard. To shape this loaf I used a tip I found on Judy's blog (another HBin5 memeber). I've often flattened my dough and then rolled it tight to get a good shape to my loaves.

But I really liked Judy's idea! Go to her blog for her version of it!

http://judysbakeryandtestkitchen.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

Next I borrowed an idea from Nancy (yes! another HBin5 member) and used one of my baskets for the shaping of the bread. I floured the basket well first and then put the dough in to rise. Looks pretty in the basket doesn't it? Go to Nancy's site at: http://flour-recycler.blogspot.com/2010/05/cane-brotform-style-bread-... proofing baskets to see all the different types of baskets she uses. They are FUN!

OK at this point I have to say that I put way to much dough in my basket...it didn't look that way when it was still in the basket just before I inverted it onto a silicon matt...but as you can see it definitely was when it was done baking! LOL. I really should have taken a picture of the finished loaf next to the basket. It was twice as big as the basket. Very tasty though!

Looks like something one of King Henry VIII's cooks would do doesn't it?

But let me tell you it made great hamburger bread!

Those tomatoes are from my backyard!

Ken digs in.

That's "agua de sabor" in the glass...in this case it's watermelon water, very refreshing on a hot day!

Can you get any better than a hamburger like this! YUM!

To see what everyone else did with their dough...go to:

http://bigblackdogs.net/

Or click on the HBin5 symbol seen here on my page!

You'll be delighted with what you see and learn!

2010-06-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

July 1st Bread Braid with HBin5

Assignment:

1/2 Recipe of Whole Wheat Mixed Berry Bread, pgs 197-200

1/2 Recipe of Whole Wheat Banana Bread, pgs 200-203 (this one will be a post at a later time)

While we can not put the recipe on our blogs, due to our agreement with the authors of Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, we can share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.

I've been using Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois two books, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day since their books came out. I love the ease of the recipes, and the wonderful way they come out. I very seldom buy bread anymore.

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Substitutions:

Canned sour cherries for the frozen berries.

1/2c honey instead of 1/4c.

2 tsp almoond extract.

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OK, so the July 1st assignment is a whole wheat berry bread or muffins using frozen berries that are thawed out. I have about 1 cup of frozen raspberries which I refuse to use in a bread...they're for Ken to eat with some Splenda on them. So next I looked at the supply of dried berries. Not much there either, and the little there is needs to be saved for our trail mix we carry when kayaking.

But I did have 3 cans of sour cherries that I had just picked up at Ollie's one of our discount stores. I love sour cherries! I love a good sour cherry pie with almonds best. So why not make a sour cherry almond bread? Ooooh! Now that sounds good.

I mixed up the dough as instructed and it came out very good. Instead of 1/4 c honey I upped it to 1/2c because I knew with the sour cherries I would need just a bit more sweetness. Two cans sour cherries are just right. I reserved the juice from the second cup of cherries because I did not want to make the dough overly wet and this dough is very wet as it is.

Next day I took the dough out. It's a very moist, loose dough. So what to do with it? Still thinking about the cherry pie, I decided I HAD to take it a step further. LOL. So I rolled a section of the dough into a circle.

I spread ricotta cheese on the circle of dough, add some extra sour cherries (from a third can) and chopped almonds. The dough is so soft that I lift a quarter of it with my flat dough scraper. I go around lifting and laying the dough into the center, until I am all the way around. The I pinch the dough together to keep the fillings from bubbling out, I hope! I lift the entire thing with my dough scraper and place it gently in one of the big muffin silicone cups I love to use for small round loaves.

Ken couldn't wait once I took the cherry almond ricotta muffin out of the oven! Pssstt I didn't even whisper the word whole wheat to him! The bread was so tender and delicious! BTW no, he didn't use the raspberry jam next to the plate.

The filling is well distributed plentiful!

I made 6 of these huge muffins, and then decided I needed to try a loaf but decided I would fill it with ricotta, cherries and almonds also. But I remembered an episode of Everyday Italian : Giada De Laurentiis on Food Network. She explained how she loves ricotta cheese for dessert with a drizzle of honey. So that's what I did!

Again, I had to use the dough scraper to bring up each 1/4 side and continue all the way around.

Once I had it all wrapped up I gently lifted it with the scraper and dropped it into a loaf pan that I had rubbed butter on the inside. I brushed extra cherry juice on it just before I baked it. There was no reason to slash the dough that I could see.

The breads did not come out burned but they look like it in this picture. Also that white spot is ricotta trying to escape.

As usual I wanted to share the fun and flavors...so this time I took a few of the muffin loaves into the gals that work in the cafe in the building where I work. I always have a great time with the crew of the Coffee Company cafe. Even if I am not getting something to eat I stop in and we exchange laughs and jokes. When I told Bev and Carolyn that I wanted a picture of them "cheek to cheek"... meaning their two heads together...they immediately went into this pose! LOL.

They loved the bread and the filling! While they were waxing on about how good it was a customer heard them, and she ended up sharing in the bounty also!

Here is Carol, a customer of the cafe proudly showing her portion of my latest bread...I am still not sure what to call it!

Be sure to click on the HBin5 logo to view all the other blogs in our group!

June 15th Whole Wheat Bread w/ Olive Oil, Pizza and Ciabatta

2010-06-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

Assignment:

I full Recipe of Whole Wheat Bread Dough with Olive Oil

Pesto Pizza w/Grilled Chicken on the Gas Grill, pgs 213-215

1 loaf Seed Encrusted Pita Bread, pgs 223-224

Oven Baked whole grain Pizza w/Roasted Red Peppers & Fontina cheese

While we can not put the recipe on our blogs, due to our agreement with the authors of Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, we can share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.

I've been using Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois two books, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day since they books came out. I love the ease of the recipes, and the wonderful way they come out. I very seldom buy bread anymore.

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Substitutions:

5c WWW (white whole wheat) for the whole wheat

2c AP (All Purpose) for 2 c of the WW (whole wheat) measurements

Instead of pesto I used fresh herbs from my garden that will be listed out below

Thank you to all those who wished me luck on my final exam for the SQL class I completed mid-June. I got a B for the semester! Woohoo! Then shortly after that I had to travel to Pittsburgh for my job. So I am just now getting back to participating in the HBin5 Bread Braid!

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Pesto Pizza w/Grilled Chicken on the Gas Grill

When we made the Pesto bread back around St. Patrick's Day, I decided I didn't care for the pesto in the dough. So for this recipe I put fresh herbs in the dough when I first mixed it. I am very fortunate to have a few herbs growing in my back yard!

Clockwise from the top: thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano and garlic in the center. The garlic is the only herb not from my garden.

I also added a full cup of Kraft Parmesan Cheese (in the shaker).

Since I had mixed the dough using my Kitchen Aid mixer I let it rise in the bowl. Then transferred it to a Hefty Jumbo bag. I have been wanting to try this for a couple of years. A few years ago I stood watching the gals at one of the pretzel stands in a local mall. I noticed that the gal took her pretzel dough out of a plastic bag and then started cutting the dough into pretzel size chunks. Since my frig was packed I decided to give it a try this time.

As you can see in the two pictures above the plastic bag works great! It still allows room for the dough to expand and conforms to the shape of area alloted to it on the shelf. Of course it does look as though it was trying to slither down in the bottom picture! LOL.

The next day I made pizzas. I didn't try grilling the chicken or the pizza due to the thunderstorms in our area, plus I still had some roasted chicken in the frig to use up.

I warmed up about 4 ounces of goat cheese and spread it on the dough, then added sliced onions, mushrooms, black olives, and roasted chicken thigh pieces. I then sprinkled Reggiano parmesan cheese that I had shredded very fine, and finally topped it all with mozzarella. It only took 15 minutes to bake the two personal pizzas in a 500 degree oven. Wonderful flavor and crust!

Whole Wheat Bread w/Olive Oil Ciabatta

Ciabatta is one of my favorite forms of bread! Especially the way I make it. In this case I used a portion of the same dough I used for the pizzas. I flatten it out on a cookie sheet that I put a Wilton silicon mat. I usually spray the mat but I don't think it's really necessary. I do roll the basic shape out on the counter first, transfer to the silicon mat, and then press out the dough to fit the pan as much as I can.

Since I was using the herbed dough, the only thing I did to the ciabatta dough was dimple it with my fingertips when it had risen sufficiently, and sprinkle olive oil on the dimpled dough. Finally I sprinkle a bit of kosher salt on. Just before putting in the oven I score the dough into squares. This makes for easy breaking after it's baked. I do add hot water to a pan in the oven to get a good steam and nice crisp crust. You can see in the pictures below how nice and flaky the bread comes out. What a delicious bread!

I didn't have time to try the pita bread. That will have to come later.

Please be sure to check out the other bakers blog in our HBin5 group. Just click on the link below:

HBin5

Brunello Italian Wine ... Yes, you CAN do this Three!

2010-06-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This is NOT a technical article nor is it meant to be. I am simply demonstrating how I make wine using Wine Expert kits. I also make wine from "scratch" but will post about that later.

I keep forgetting how easy it is to make wine using the Wine Expert kits! It actually takes more time to write about it than to do it!

Be sure to read my first two posts on this subject before going on. You can go to:
http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2010/05/brunello-italian-wine-yes-you-can-do.html
http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2010/05/brunello-italian-wine-yes-you-can-do_16.html

I started the wine on 5-16-2010. Step one was completed on 5-23-2010.

Step 2 was completed on 6-3-2010. This involved "racking" the wine, which just means transferring it to a smaller carboy. So I transferred it using a siphon to a 6 gallon glass carboy.

But first you need to make sure you check the wine using a hydrometer. A hydrometer is an instrument used to measure the specific gravity (or relative density) of liquids; that is, the ratio of the density of the liquid to the density of water. In this particular case we are using it to help us determine the alcoholic content and how much of the sugars the yeast have absorbed.

For a more technical explanation go to: http://www.timswineblog.com/

So the first reading on the hydrometer I had was 1.093. After the fermentation "stops" the reading should be 1.010 or less. This is all explained in the kit instructions. Mine came in at 0.990 on 5-23-2010.

After sanitizing any of the equipment I use, including the glass hydrometer, I poured about 8 ounces of wine into a 12 inch tall tube. Then I recorded the number on the hydrometer that the wine comes up to. The fun thing about testing with the hydrometer is I can not put the wine that I tested back in with the rest of the wine. Oh darn! That means I have to drink it. ;-) Even though the wine is just getting past the fermenting stage I can begin to taste some of the notes of it!

If it matches the 1.010 or less on the hydrometer, you can transfer it to another carboy. In this case I used a six gallon glass carboy. To make it easier I used a syphon.

Here you can see there is space left at the top. Instructions say do NOT top it off at this point. This is because the yeasts have just been moved around and could now be active again.

So it's wait another 10 days.

After ten days, check the specific gravity again using the hydrometer. Again, I sanitized all my equipment before I began! I checked it again the next day to make sure that it is the same. If it is still going down, this means the yeast is still active. In my readings it was fine, and remained the same.

Then following the instructions I dissolved the contents of package package #2, the metabisulphite and #3 the package of sorbate in 1/2 c of cool water. Yes, I did remember to sanitize my scissors and the cup!

After carefully pouring this mixture in the carboy of wine I stirred it up for two minutes. I use a stirring rod that my husband, Ken, made for me. The stirring rod fits onto a standard electric drill. The stirring drives off the CO2 and disperses the stabilizers. I had to be sure to stir up the yeasts from the bottom.

Next I added package #4, the isinglass clarifier. Then I stirred again for two more minutes. If I didn't add this and stirred it up very well, my wine may not clear so it's an important ingredient and step!

That's it for this part which has been step 2 and 3. Next step will be bottling!

As I've said before, how is can you get?!

Sad tale with Happy dehydrator ending...especially for a person with diabetes!

2010-05-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer! This is not a medical article about Diabetes. This is simply a telling of our experience with my husband's diabetes and one way we keep him healthy and active.

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My husband, Ken, is a very active man. He thinks nothing of bicycling 20 miles, kayaking for four hours, or sailing for days! He and I both would rather be on the water, but anywhere outside is fine. Camping, is a great weekend for us...depending on where our campground is we'll either bike, walk, or kayak the time away!

About 7 year ago we were out bicycling on a section of the Rail Trail south of York. I was back at the car when Ken came dragging in. I mean really dragging, barely able to walk. I ran over to him and he panted out that he had hit a real sugar low on the trail!

Ken is diabetic. While he had eaten a good breakfast before we went out to the trail, he had overdone it and his sugar level dropped to a point that he had hit a hypoglycaemic low. For a diabetic this can be serious!

According to http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/diabetesbloodsugarlow.htm
Hypoglycaemia is a condition where the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood drops below a certain point – about 3.0mmol/l. This causes a number of symptoms such as dizziness, sweating, shaking and palpitations, that usually go away 10 to 15 minutes after eating sugar.

I took Ken immediately for some food at a nearby hamburger joint. Once his blood sugar was back up he explained that he had asked several people on the trail if they had any candy, a power bar or anything since he was having a diabetic low. NO ONE helped him. He was asking adults, and had explained that he had diabetes and they just ignored him! I was furious! How could anyone talk to someone in distress and not help? We weren't in New York City for pete's sake, we were on a biking trail, and Ken was dressed in biking clothes.

Ok, sure I can understand that he could have appeared to be inebriated, especially looking at the description of the symptons of a sugar low two paragraphs above. But still wouldn't YOU help out? Usually he didn't go out on any kind of excursion without a piece of candy or something to combat this type of event, but this one time he did.

After that incident, I read up on what was best to carry and I started dehydrating fruit for him to carry at all times, including even in the car.

On Amazon.com I found Mary Bell's Complete Dehyrdrator Cookbook. What a great way to learn about dehydrating! She lists each fruit and vegetable common in the USA, with an explanation of the water content of each, how best to prepare it and how to treat them to alleviate the browning for some fruits and vegetables.

My research showed that our local Walmart had the best price on a Nesco dehydrator. I couldn't believe how easy it was to get trays and trays of dedrated fruit for us to carry.

I started with apples, went on to strawberries (one of my daughter's favorites!), pears, bananas, cantalope, even watermelon! And speaking of pears...you haven't had good pears until you've had dehydrated Asian pears! Oh, talk about flavorful and sugary! Yummy! Those are Ken's favorite!

The great thing is this is something you can do with you kids to get them off those sugar filled treats! You cut the fruit and have them put it on the trays. You can even get them to pick out their favorite fruits, or go to the orchards to help you pick them!

OH! I forgot to mention the money you save over buying dehydrated fruits! For a 6 oz bag of dehydrated pear slices you'll pay more than $5.00! Plus you don't have any chemicals added to the fruits when you do them at home. I will sometimes use a mild lemon juice and water solution to stop my pears and apples from browning during the drying process, but no chemicals are used!

One more thing...it's best to use fruit that is just slightly overripe...the more ripe, the more natural sugar content and the better the final product is. So don't throw away those apples that are going soft, or that pear!

One of our favorites is an idea I got from one of our local orchards. They sell dried apples bits with cinnamon. A four ounce bag will set you back $4.50. I took gala apples, washed and sliced them and then tossed them with just a tiny bit of Splenda and a few teaspoons of cinnamon.

I put the pieces on the trays and turned the dehydrator on.

You don't want to over season fruit you are drying because the flavors intensify during the drying process.

Five regular size apples will dehydrate down to 5 ounces of dried fruit.

I don't peel the apples or pears either!

As you can see below, just about any fruit hits the dehydrator...red seedless grapes make the best raisins around! Papaya and strawberries are always a great addition to our trail or gorp mix!

You can also make some great fruit leathers. Simply put your fruits in the blender, add a bit of apple sauce and whir! Then pour onto sheets that fit over the dehydator trays.

Dried apples are great for pies in the winter also. Reconstitute them in a big of water, use like you would fresh apples...or add them to your favorite coffee cake or bread!

By the way there are many other types of dehydrators out there, as well as other ways of drying fruite. A recent episode of Good Eats had Alton Brown making a drying device out of a huge box fan and a few furnace filters! At one of the Amish farms you can visit in Lancaster, PA, you can see a smoke house type of dryer that requires a wood fire, and Dorothy, a Mennonite woman who has had a stand at the East York Farmer's Market for 50 years, uses the wood stove that heats her house to dry her apples. I've even just put apple slices on a cooling rack next to my gas furnace and dried the apples that way. So give it a try! It's easy, money saving and healthy!

Triple Lemon Chicken Piccata

2010-05-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

It was a stressful day, matter of fact a stressful week! Friday felt more like Monday! So tonight when I got home ALL I wanted to do was cook. I had been imagining the chicken piccata all day! But first I had to stop by the wine store.

What? "What was I doing in a wine store!" You ask? Believe it or not...I am out of white wine. Well, except for that small, lonely bottle of Gewurztraminer in the wine rack. But that is a wine too sweet for this dish. I wanted something with citrus notes, a bit of resin and a tad dry. So I hit the wine store and found a good reasonably priced 2008 Bolla Soave from Italy. Perfect!

Chicken piccata has become a favorite of ours. It's relatively inexpensive, quick and so full of a few of our favorite flavors...lemons, capers, and more!

I wanted to kick the lemon up a notch on this batch though. I have some lemon verbena and chives that I am growing and figured they would make a great addition to the dish.

Chicken piccata is one of those dishes that really stretches. I took two chicken breasts, butterflied them and then pounded them flat, dredged them in flour, and sprinkle with fresh ground sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Then pan fried them in butter with a touch of olive oil.

I put the cooked chicken on a clean plate, drained most of the butter off, then added the chives and lemon verbena. While the chicken had been pan frying, I had measured out 2 cups of my favorite chicken broth, College Inn Culinary Broth White Wine & Herb. Penzey's spices makes a great lemon extract, so I added 2 tablespoons of it to the juice from 3 lemons.

I also put 3 tablespoons of capers in a small dish. By the way...I drain most of the liquid out of my caper jar and replace it with balsamic vinegar.

I added the chicken broth to the pan, and brought it back to a boil, then added the lemon juice, lemon extract, and capers. After it had cooked down, I added the capers, and finally two tablespoons of butter after the sauce had reduced.

In the meantime I put on some angel hair spaghetti to boil. While the spaghetti was cooking I finely grated about 1/2 cup reggiano parmesano cheese. Once the spaghetti was done I drained it and tossed with the cheese and a tablespoon of butter. This is how alfredo sauce should be made by the way! No added milk or cream. Just fabulous cheese and a dollop of butter.

What were Ken and Scupper doing while I cooked? It had been a stressful day for Ken also, so he relaxed outside on the patio. Scupper had to lay on the grass and relax from his hectic day too I guess! LOL.

Right before serving I put the chicken into the sauce to warm it up but not overcook it.

Plating was easy...pasta with the ooey-gooey cheese, then the chicken next to it with sauce spooned on. A salad made of English cucumbers, tomatoes and avacados tossed with rice wine vinegar rounded out this fabulous meal! No dessert needed!

The wine was a perfect addition to the meal!

Brunello Italian Wine ... Yes, you CAN do this Two!

2010-05-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This is NOT a technical article nor is it meant to be. I am simply demonstrating how I make wine using Wine Expert kits. I also make wine from "scratch" but will post about that later.

If you haven't done so already, you will enjoy reading the lead-in to this article: http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2010/05/brunello-italian-wine-yes-you-can-do.html

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Ah...so glad you decided you HAD to know how to make wine and save lots of money!

First...do make sure you have sanitized everything. It actually takes me longer to sanitize than start the wine. That is the one caveat. Keep your equipment clean and sanitized. But you do that already when you bake bread right? Or any cooking? I mentioned this in my post on Pesach Mead (http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2010/03/pesach-mead-ezzie-way.html) %20about in March 2010.

You'll need a few supplies and can go to the Wine Expert website for an idea of what you need. Just click here to see Tim's blog (he's the lecturer I've heard 2 times now): http://www.timswineblog.com/hi-im-tim. If you want to contact Mr. Steve's to ask about his starter kits for making wine or beer go here: http://www.mrsteves.com/UpcomingEvents.aspx. Or make it a point to visit your local wine and beer brewing supply store

Once all is sanitized, open your wine kit.

Pull out the bags of the ingredients. In the case of the Brunello Italian it was packets 1-4, and four packages of chips to simulate aging in oak barrels. In this case it included: Oak chips, 2 packs of Toasted Oak, and one of French Oak.

Pour 2 litres of hot water in the bottom of the fermentor. Then pour in packet 1 and stir well for 30 second.

Add the juice...oh the juice. OMG the juice is so heavenly...you'll never look at Welch's again! The juices used in these kits are so rich, flavorful, and aromatic you'll just want to sit down and drink it! But don't! Pour it into the fermenter!

As you can see in these pictures of Ken pouring in the juice, he is bent over and carefully pouring it in. It's a heavy box so he gets to do this step!

Still pouring.

Then fill the bag that the juice was in with lukewarm water and fill the fermentor to the 6 gallon line.

You can use a different type of fermenter. I have several other fermenters some are plastic and some are glass and came from Mr. Steve's.

Stir for about 30 seconds or a minute.

Next open the oak chips packets and pour them in. Note: if using scissors to open the packets, make sure you sanitize your scissors!

Stir in the chips, getting them all submerged.

"Pitch" the yeast. This means open the yeast packet and sprinkle the yeast on the top. DON'T STIR!

In about 24-48 hours you will start to see some foaming action and smell a wonderful aromatic odor emitting from the fermentor. Ahhhh. Pure heaven to our noses! I keep my packets and labels taped to the top of my fermenter along with the instructions just to make sure I don't lose anything.

Now how long did that take? You spent 30 minutes or so sanitizing. And then MAYBE 10 minutes to pour the ingredients and mix them. That's it! Now you let it sit for 7-10 days. Then you will take a measure with your hyrdrometer. If it's to the correct reading you'll go to step 2.

I'll add more posts labeled Brunello Italian Wine Three and Four as I go through the next steps over the next 6-8 weeks. Each step is easy and doesn't take much time at all.

Brunello Italian Wine ... Yes, you CAN do this!

2010-05-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

OK! Listen up! WHY haven't you tried making your own wine yet? Times are tough, money is tight, and jobs are scarce! So again I ask again, "Why haven't you tried making your own wine yet?"

Ah, too complex you say? Bull.

Too expensive? Bull again.

No time? Triple bull! It takes less than two hours to get your first batch of wine going if using a kit.

However, I do suggest planning ahead. For instance if you want to make wine for your daughter's wedding (oh yes, you will want to trust me!), plan on starting the wine 3-6 months ahead, and even up to 1 year ahead. I'll explain more about this later on in this post. Think about it as you start looking at wedding facilities and reception halls...explain that you will be bringing your own "winery" wine. Oh yes, I am serious!

Making wine from a kit is far easier than making wine from the scratch...I mean the grapes. It's also easier than making beer, and only slightly more difficult than making bread...yes, even the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. So read on!

Last fall I attended (for the second time) a lecture by Tim, about how the folks of Wine Expert (a Canadian company) scour the world and select the juice they want for their kits. It was a "sold out" event (actually free, but there was standing room only. Spots were gone just 1 day after seat reservations opened)! The lecture was sponsored by Mr. Steve's where I buy my wine and beer making supplies here in York, PA.

Tim does a great lecture! He brings forth all manner of information of what makes a good vineyard a great place to grow grapes. He talks about how the weather, rain, drainage, type of soil, amount of sunshine come into play for fabulous wine grapes. We learn about the country, the terrain, the district, and the wide varieties of grapes. And he is funny! How can you not enjoy an evening like that?

Then we get to TASTE wines that are similar, but of course not as good as ours will be! LOL. We tasted wine paired with chocolate, fruit, cheese, etc. Sorry, no caviar! Darn! LOL. Think about that next time Wine Expert and Mr. Steve's! LOL.

Finally, we got to place our orders for these Selection International Series. Special warning here, no more of the Brunello is available (at the time of this post). These kits are strictly limited in number, another thing to keep in mind for that wedding! We've ordered kits from Wine Expert at these lectures before and have never been disappointed. They have other kits available year around too! Below are just a few of the types of wines we have made. With these more deluxe kits the labels come with the kits. We've used their regular wine kits also.

2009 was their first offering (special ordering) of Brunello Italian in four years! This is a wine that is deep, dark, and rich, with an abundance of dark fruit flavors, plum, a hint of cherry, and aged oak. So I had to buy 2 kits...one for drinking in 6 months or so (although their info says it's ready in 6-8 weeks) and one for setting back (once made) to age for a few years. Yes, we're that serious about this!

A good Brunello wine will set you back $49.99 a bottle and more. I paid $114.00 for each kit. One kit makes 33 (750 ml) bottles. So let's do the math...that's only $3.49 a bottle! And a little bit of your time.

Yes, there is a start-up investment of $100.00 for the supplies such as the fermenter bucket, a hydrometer (for measuring alcoholic content during the fermentation process), and a few other tools. But there are wine and beer supply stores that allow you to use their equipment and facilities for a few dollars more. This is especially popular for those wanting a fun group activity such as getting the wine bottled for a wedding!

As to bottles, I have only bought bottles one time, and that was when I wanted some blue splits (475 ml bottles). I usually just ask bartenders to save me some bottles and within a night or two I have plenty of bottles. I do try to bottle my wines into the proper shape bottles, but that's not necessary. I clean the bottles well, remove the old labels and sanitize them well before filling them. Again, $3.45 compared to $49.99 a bottle...isn't that worth your time? Not to metion the satisfaction of doing it yourself!

Many friends have certainly enjoyed my wines! Ha! you thought they only got bread didn't you? I gave a bottle of one of my wines to a friend. She wasn't listening well when I gave it to her. She drank it, then went around trying to find it in the wine stores in her area so she could buy more. Hello! I said I made it myself! LOL.

Another time I gave a bottle of one of a regular merlot to the V.P. at work as a Christmas present. He thanked me but didn't say anything for 6 months. I figured he probably thought it was not going to be good since it was "homemade." One day he came in, pulled me aside and said "I finally had the wine you gave me. I was sitting out by the lake and thought I would just have a glass of it. I finished the entire bottle! It was really good!" He had a touch of wonder in his voice! I was smiling all day, especially since he has a reputation of having very discerning taste!

And when my husband started his consulting business, we held a launch party and served our homemade wines and beers to our guests and they loved it!

I don't know how many people have asked to buy some of my wines, especially the Chocolate Raspberry Port! This is a... very... BIG... NO! NO! Federal regulations allow us to make 100 gallons per person in the residence. We can give it away, donate it (such as to a non-profit fundraiser), but sell it and you'll end up facing federal charges. But you CAN serve it at that wedding coming up!

Please understand, I am not bragging about my abilities in making these wines...instead I am bragging about how this company makes these kits so easy to use, and how you can save alot of money!

So let's get started! Go to the next post titled: Brunello Italian Wine ... Yes, you CAN do this Two! There you will be able to follow the easy process!

May 15th Bread Braid - Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

2010-05-14T18:52:00.000-07:00

Assignment:

I full Master Recipe

1 loaf of Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf, pgs 62-63

Turkish-style Pita bread with black sesame seeds, pgs 66-67

Whole Grain Garlic Knots, pgs 64-65

While we can not put the recipe on our blogs, due to our agreement with the authors of Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, we can share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.

I've been using Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois two books, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day since they books came out. I love the ease of the recipes, and the wonderful way they come out. I very seldom buy bread anymore...sorry Wegmans!

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Substitutions:

WWW (white whole wheat) for the whole wheat

for once I did NOT switch the AP (All Purpose) and WW (whole wheat) measurements

I've given up trying to get my husband, Ken, to eat whole wheat bread. But I love it so much I make it for me and my neighbors and co-workers. LOL

Due to all the studying I had to do for my final exam I did not have time to try round up black sesame seeds, and make the pitas or the garlic knots.

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Instead I did an experiement with the basic recipe and the method I formed the loaves and raised them.

I started with my favorite way of forming the bread. I flattened out a 1 pound ball of dough into a rectangle (ok, roughly that shape), then starting at one end I roll the dough tightly.

I then put formed a one pound ball into a regular loaf shape and put it into a bread pan.

In the picture below you can see that a 1 pound loaf does not fill this bread pan even after rising. Since it's difficult to slash with a knife, ne impossible, I use a pair of scissors.

I've come to love Julia Child's meticulous methods and found that she rose her baguettes in a floured dish towel (the old fashioned kind with the tight weave such as I've used below). She would form the baguette, and then lay it in the middle of the floured dishtowel, then fold the towel in half. She would then hang the towel from a drawer and allow it rise. I did not make this baguette long enough, but you get the idea.

Months ago I also tried the towel method hung up in my laundry room. That was a hoot! I didn't hang it on the drawer because it was a seeded oat bread that was very heavy and I was afraid it wouldn't hang from the drawer without falling.

Here I am doing my best imitation of Julia Childs during an Oscar night celebration at work. I wondered around the two floor call center like this saying in a loud boisterous voice "Bon Appetit!" It was hilarious! I could tell the folks that didn't cook or watch cooking shows! They had NO idea who I was imitating and when I told them they went "Who's that!" Such peasants! LOL.

Once the baguette had risen sufficiently, I gently rolled it onto the cookie sheet. I sometimes use a cookie sheet instead of my baking stone just because I want to get everything on one surface easily and not have to transfer it. I honestly find it comes out very well indeed.

There is something so satisfying in seeing the bread pop open as soon as you slash it. It's as if it is giving a sigh, like us women when we remove that tight pair of panty hose, or tight girdle (now called fancier names by marketing departments. Watching the dough bloom before it even hits the oven is proof to me that the loaf will be a winner!

As you can see below, they are all winners! The baguette on the right is the rolled up version.

Lower centrer is the one I hung in the dishtowel.

Upper center is just an oval loaf let to rise in the pan and you can see how it spread out

and sort of flattened out.

The left loaf is a bowl shape but you can see the lump on the right hand side.

So which method or rising and shaping do I like best? I prefer the rolled baguettes best with Julia Child's method second. I like the bowls more than the oval shapes. Next I am going to try one of our other HBin5 member's method. Old Pop (http://oldpopsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/errata-in-last-post-i-offered-with.html) uses pieces of wood to give the rising loaves a higher support. I think his loaves come out well with that method also.

As I've said, Ken won't eat whole wheat bread, but Waneta, my neighbor, will! It happened to be Mother's Day so I took her down a loaf. It also happened that Don, one of her son's, was in town.

So I took him a small loaf also.

Don is an interior designer, and he set the beautiful table seen below.

Waneta had to cut into her loaf as soon as the picture above was taken.

Don then got a piece and started contemplating the taste and crumb. He declared it an excellent loaf!

I've got to say this is one of my favorite breads and I will continue to make it!

Be sure to stop by Big Black Dogs (http://bigblackdogs.net/) to find the links to the other great bakers' versions of these great recipes!

I made a full recipe

Pesach Mead, the Ezzie way (Follow Up)

2010-05-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, March 14, 2010, I wrote about making Pesach Mead, a honey alcoholic beverage that is a good substitute for beer during Pesach (Passover). http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2010/03/pesach-mead-ezzie-way.html

The "beer" wasn't fully carbonated in time for Pesach, but it was still very drinkable. We have been enjoying it and sharing it with neighbors and friends. We have some of it left...but bottles of it go quickly when brought out. Recently we were visiting some neighbors who own a beer distribution store here in Pennsylvania. When he tasted the Pesach Mead he immediately claimed the rest of the large bottle for himself. We did have to warn him that this stuff is 8.7%. Since we were sitting at HIS house he didn't care, he didn't have to drive! LOL.

Ken, my husband and favorite label designer, did a very good job coming up with a label that represented the history of this mead type beverage.

Mexican Egg Bake

2010-05-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors Barb and George inspired me to make this recipe. When I told Wanetta's daughter Denise, I would be making it again, she asked for the recipe. Hmmm. No real recipe. So just for Denise I had to document this recipe and decided to share it on my blog.

Barb and George were just returning from a sojurn in Florida and I decided to surprise them with my favorite Mexican Egg Bake waiting on their kitchen counter for them! They've had this before and always love and appreciate it!

I started making this about 10 years ago. But the original recipe was a strata, a wonderful egg and bread dish that is a great use of stale bread! You can refrigerate the strata mixture over night and then bake in the morning, in time for company for breakfast or brunch!

But one day I had some corn tortilla chips that were just getting crushed in the bag and some left over salsa. Why not try them in the egg mixture I thought!

I started with the usual egg custard type mixture of 2 c milk and 4 eggs. But this recipe doesn't call for cornstarch (which you don't really need for a custard anyway). I've found this recipe and the strata to be so adaptable you can use just about any leftovers for it.

Grease or use Pam on an 8"x x 8" baking pan, or aluminum foil pan.

Crush up enough corn tortilla chips to measure about 1 1/2 c.

Beat together 4 eggs, then add 4 c milk (I use whole milk, but you can use 2%).

Spread the chips in the bottom of the pan.

Have on hand your favorite salsa and some sort of Mexican cheese blend (shredded).

For this recipe I had a left over mixture of chicken, onions and manchego cheese from making enchiladas a few weeks before. I had put the chicken mixture in the freezer. So I just thawed it out and spred in it the pan on top of the chips.

We love spicy salsas. Sometimes I make my own, but sometimes I just pick up a good hot salsa or a good chipotle salsa at Sam's Club, Costco or BJs. In this case I had two kinds of salsa on hand.

Then I put about 6 big soup spoon fulls of salsa over the the mixture.

Next I poured the milk and egg mixture. I then took a fork and gently mixed it all up in the pan. On other occassions I have mixed all the ingredients except the chips in a big bowl and then poured it in the pans. It really does not matter how you do it.

NOTE: At this point you can put this in the refrigerator overnight, and then go to the next step in the morning.

Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Check the egg bake by inserting a clean knife. If it comes out clean, it's ready for the final step. If it doesn't come out clean, bake for another 10 minutes, check again, etc until done.

Sprinkle a 3 or four blend of shredded Mexican Cheese (jack cheese, sharp cheddar, manchego, etc) on the top and bake for another 10 minutes to melt the cheese.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. This recipe can be easily doubled or quatrupled for a large crowd. You can serve this with a side of sour cream, a green salad, beans and rice, or just the egg bake.

I served the Mexican Egg Bake to Ken, my husband, for breakfast with a side of papaya.

Great way to start the day!

May 1st HB in 5 Bread Braid, Milk and Honey Raisin, and Chocolate Espresso Whole Wheat Brioche

2010-05-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Assignment:
1/2 recipe Chocolate Espresso Whole Wheat Brioche, pgs 294-296
1/2 recipe of Milk and Honey Raisin Bread, pgs 270-271

We can make substitutions, but share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.
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Milk and Honey Rasin Bread
Substitutions:

I made a full recipe
Instead of 4 1/2 c AP and 4 3/4 c of whole wheat
I used 5 c AP and 3 c WWW (white whole wheat for whole wheat)
For the raisins I used my home dehydrated seedless red grape raisins
I also soaked my raisins in warmed up homemade port (just enough to cover, then drank the port after the raisins were plumped up!)

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I only did the Milk and Honey Raisin dough this time. I will make the other recipe later. I'm still in SQL class, and most of my "spare time" is spent studying. I have only 2 more weeks to go in the class so at this point I am studying hard for the final! Will be glad to be done with it and back to doing what I really love, baking, cooking and blogging about it and exploring more cultures.

As I have said before, I let the dough tell me what it wants to be. In this case it wanted to take on those high calorie sugary breakfast pastries with a healthier approach. I love the cheese danishes and sugar content is way too high.

I love the tenderness of this dough! I did have agave syrup (bought at Costco recently) to try in it. I love agave syrup! It's a different taste from honey. But frankly I can't see that the agave syrup made that much of a difference in the taste. Since agave syrup is still expensive, I would opt for the less expensive honey next time.

Here I've added my homemade raisins that I had soaked in port

I tried a variety of shapes, all worked well! I call the ones on the bottom of the pan "papooses" as they remind me of the papoose that the Native American women carried their babies in.

The papooses have a mixture of mascapone cheese, walnuts, and more raisins.

All of the shapes above have mascapone cheese instead of cream cheese.

All shapes were a great success!

As usual, I shared some with neighbors and took some into the office. That's one of the things that I love about doing a full recipe...4 pounds of dough makes for alot of sharing and BIG SMILES!

Be sure to check out what others did with our May 1st Bread Bread at:

http://bigblackdogs.net/welcome-to-the-10th-hbinfive-bread-braid/

Rack of Lamb smothered in Nut Brown Ale mustard and fresh from the garden Rosemary

2010-04-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

As I have said before I am a big fan of Sam's club, Costco and BJ's. One of the biggest reasons is at Costco and Sam's club you can get rack of lamb and lamb chops (from Australia) for a mere pittance of what it costs at the local grocery store. Oh sure, if I was able to buy a whole lamb and have it butchered it might be cheaper...but for that I would need a bigger freezer which I don't have.

Anyhow, recently I broke down and bought a package of two racks of lamb at the local Sam's club. I decided that this would make a fabulous Shabbas dinner for Ken and I.

But I have to tell you that rack of lamb or lamb chops always reminds me of my friends Janet and Vivian. Both are adventurous travelers and a real kick to join! We're always laughing and having the best time together.

Viv on the left, Janet on the right

Janet retired about 10 years ago, after 30 years of working for the city of Anchorage. She wasn't about to sit around in a rocking chair, she was much too young for that. So she took a summer job working for Princess Cruises. Thank you Janet! We have reaped so many rewards of her job as her friends over the years. Vivian's been on several cruises with her. I went on a cruise with her back in the spring of 2001, during which we visited Puerto Rico, went through the Panama Canal and up to Costa Rica on the Pacific side. Janet, Viv and I, have also had many fun trips to some of the Princess lodges in Alaska.

One of my fondest memories was a weekend we took a room at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge. See it here at http://www.princess.com/learn/destinations/alaska/highlights/wilderness_lodges/kenai/index.html

Janet arranged it so we had a cabin right next to the hot tub. This was a real bonus as it was mid-January, the temp was -5F, and we couldn't think of a better time to go hot-tubbing! After chasing out some raucious kids by playing Dean Martin music on OUR little boombox, we laughed and joked about our frozen hair as steam rose around us in that marvelous outdoor hot tub! If you've never hot tubbed in minus farenheit weather then you haven't lived a full life! What a time we had! After a good long soak we ran back to our cabin and dressed for dinner.

On the menu that night was a lamb chop smothered in mustard and rosemary. Well, that was something I had never had, so of course I had to be adventurous and order it. Oh, what a delightful dish that was! I was over the moon for the rich aroma of the lamb joining the fresh resiness from the rosemary. The heat of the mustard hit my tongue and made a wonderful unforgettable combination!

The rest of the weekend we ate in the cabin, having brought all manner of goodies with us. I'm glad we did, because I kept savoring that meal in my mind and developing the recipe based on what the waiter said, and what my tastebuds told me about the ingredients. We also couldn't afford to eat at the restaurant every nite of our visit!

So this past Friday I made sure I had plenty of my latest batch of Nut Brown Ale mustard, picked a few big branches of rosemary from my herb patch out back and started.

Click here for the recipe for the mustard: http://brewmaven.blogspot.com/2009/11/nut-brown-mustard.html. If you don't want to make your own mustard you can use any mustard you like, but a nice whole grain, or a brown mustard goes very well!

Make sure the lamb is dry.

Strip several branches of rosemary of their leaves and chop very fine. I had about a 1/2 cup of chopped rosemary.

Rub about 3 or 4 tablespoons of mustard on the lamb, making sure you get the ends if doing a rack of lamb. If doing chops, rub the mustard on both sides. If you are using a good whole grain mustard you just put a thin layer on because the whole grain mustard is usually much spicier and has more heat.

Roll the lamb in rosemary leaves, coating evenly all around. Sprinkle with a bit of sea salt.

I baked these racks in my convection oven at 350 degrees and used a Accurite probe thermometer to cook them to a temperature of 155 degrees. Lamb should be cooked to 160 degrees for rare, but remember that meats continue to cook once removed from the oven. According to Emeril Lagasse the meat will cook another 5 degrees after being removed from the oven.

Ken's plate

We had our rack with boiled turnips, corn, salad, and homemade challah (egg bread). The challah had been in the freezer for a few months, but because I bake using the "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" method...it still tasted fresh as the day I baked it when I warmed it up. I added cantalope for dessert.

My plate

What a fabulous way to bring in Shabbas! If we had gone out to a restaurant for this dinner it would have cost us $75-100 for two dinners. I paid less than $19.00 for the rack of lamb, which carved into 8 lambchops each. All totalled our dinner cost less than $22.00 for the two of us! Although I will say, at a restaurant we wouldn't have to do our own cleanup! LOL!

Thanks Janet and Viv for the added great memories!

Borrowing from other and homemade birthday presents

2010-04-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

First let me say two things...

Happy belated Birthday to Wayne (Wanetta's hubby)!

and

Thank you Michelle at:
http://www.bigblackdogs.net/2010/04/potato-chip-cookies.html

You may well wonder why those two things go in one blog...easy to explain!

Last weekend was Wayne's birthday and I was so bogged down with a political discussion group meeting at our house (thank you Todd Platts, PA Representative for coming!) and school and work, that I didn't have time to remember it was Wayne's birthday!

But I did remember that he really loved a Pecan Sandies recipe I had made a few years ago. It was an unusual but very good recipe that included crushed potato chips as one of the ingredients! My sister had given me the mix nicely packaged in a canning jar. I simply followed the instructions, made them and shared them with several neighbors, including Wayne. Then awhile later Wayne wondered if I had anymore of them, he really liked them! I didn't at the time and because the dry ingredients were all mixed up in the canning jar, the recipe only said what the measurements were for the wet ingredients and directions went from there.

Last week I was checking out Michelle's site http://www.bigblackdogs.net for the latest HBin5 bread braid blogs and feeling sad because I hadn't had time to participate in the April 15th bread braid. Michelle is a great leader of this wonderful group of bakers. We bake recipes from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois 2 times a month. It will take us 2 years to go through the entire book. You should check it out for some great interpretations! http://www.bigblackdogs.net/2009/10/announcing-hbinfive-new-baking-group.html

Getting back to the cookies lo and behold, there was the recipe for the Pecan Sandies using potato chips. Michelle calls them Potato Chip cookies, I still call them Pecan Sandies, and Wayne calls them delicious!

So I bought a bag of generic chips (Lays potato chips), and pecans and made a double batch. I decided to made a double batch because I knew my hubby, Ken, and I would like some also!

But when I told Ken to keep his hands off the potato chips that they were for Pecan Sandies he looked at me like I was crazy! "You can't use potato chips in cookies!" he said with a snort. I smiled and said "oh yes, I can, and you will love them...matter of fact you had them 2 years ago and loved them." He still didn't believe me and made several other comments. I just shined him on...I know what I know.

So after a morning of volunteering with "Comcast Cares Day" (April 24th) during which we cleaned up, mulched, and painted over at Sunset Park in Dover, PA, I made two batches of the "potato chip cookies", aka "Pecan Sandies."

This is a great recipe to make with your children by the way, or grandchildren, or as a project with a scout troop, etc. Have the child(ren) smash up the potato chips with all the gusto that they can! What kid wouldn't love that?

I won't put the recipe here. Instead follow this link to Michelle's blog for that!

http://www.bigblackdogs.net/2010/04/potato-chip-cookies.html

Below are the pics of the results...by the way Ken LOVES these and was happy to eat his words...literally! LOL.

Sandies ready for baking. Michelle says to bake them until the Sandies are nicely browned...I found that to be about 10 minutes when I used a teaspoon to drop them onto the parchment paper. Waxed paper didn't work as well as the parchment paper.

Who wouldn't love this basket of cookies for a birthday present, belated or not!

Wayne immediately heated up a cup of coffee and sat down to enjoy his present.

His wife, Wanetta, didn't wait...she just dipped her hand in the basket grabbed one and started eating! LOL.

April 1st HBin5 Bread Braid

2010-03-31T18:41:00.000-07:00

Assignment: 1/2 recipe of Carrot Bread, pgs 157-158

1 loaf Olive Oil Spelt Bread, 96-97

We can make substitutions, but share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Carrot Bread

Substitutions:

5 c AP, 1 1/2 c WWW (white whole wheat for whole wheat)

½ c spelt instead of wheat germ

Dried cherries

6 oz coconut milk

1 c coconut syrup (sugar free) in place of 1 c of the water

Blended the shredded carrots, water and coconut syrup together

After the way I felt about the red beet bread last month, I approached this recipe with concern. But I have made quick carrot breads before and of course I love carrot cake. So I felt that luck would be with me on this one. And besides…with adding 1 cup of coconut, how could it be bad?

I loved the bread, as did my co-workers and neighbors! But as my fellow HBin5 members pointed out it was difficult to taste the coconut. I had read their comments before I started this loaf, so I figured I’d be smart and add the coconut milk, and the coconut syrup. Even with that extra boost of coconut, I didn’t really taste the coconut. I think the wheat flour, even www, and the spelt flour just overwhelm the delicate taste of coconut.

But what to do with the dough. Come on baby, talk to me…what do you want to be? What would make you sing as you bake in the oven?

Suddenly I got the answer, cinnamon rolls AND monkey bread! Great. Wonderful. Inspired I said!

So I set out to make them. The cinnamon rolls were really nutmeg rolls. The recipe calls for 2 tsp of cinnamon which I did put in. But when I rolled out the dough for the cinnamon rolls, I decided that nutmeg would be better. I spread on real butter, brown sugar, crushed walnuts, and raisins and dried cherries. Rolled it up and sliced them up and put them in my springform pan.

This is the best nutmeg I've found. It's very flavorful!

Next was time for the monkey bread. I just took gobs of dough, rolled them around and put them in the bundt pan. Then I poured more coconut syrup around the dough balls.

Both the cinnamon rolls and monkey bread came out great. I did pour MORE coconut syrup on the monkey bread after I took it out of the bundt pan put the chunks of it in a container to take to work. That finally gave it more of a coconut flavor but still not as much as you would expect. No problem though. All of it was gone, gone, gone very quickly.

Monkey bread from the bundt pan on the left, nutmeg rolls on the right from the springform pan

mini monkey bread on left and cinnamon roll on the right. I used giant muffin (silicone) pans for these.

I will make the Olive Oil Spelt Bread on the 15th. It was way too close to Pesach (Passover) to make it for this braid. Since we don’t eat bread, pasta, drink beer or anything else with grains during this time of year it really limits my baking…but it’s only 8 days! So it’s matzah for now.

I’m looking forward to reading what my fellow HBin5 others did! If you would like to see also, just click here! http://www.bigblackdogs.net/

Pesach Mead, the Ezzie way

2010-03-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This is NOT a technical article nor is it meant to be.

I haven’t made much beer lately, what with working full time, taking a college class in SQL, participating in the HBin5 bread braids, surviving a long snowy winter, etc. And worst of all my SQL class is EVERY Wednesday. This means I am missing my South Central PA Homebrewer's Association meetings which take place on the last Wednesday of every month! Wah, big WAH!

But this weekend I had to get busy with a special libation I call Pesach Mead (Passover Mead). I made this brew 2 years ago, and while it was OK, it wasn’t great. So I decided to work on the recipe a bit and give it another go this year.

My interest in this began when Ira, one of my fellow brewers in our Central PA Homebrewers Club (and Jewish) mentioned that he had found out that Jews in Eastern Europe made a form of mead with hops for Pesach. Well, that’s all it took for me!

On the internet I searched high and low for references and recipes. I really didn’t find much information! But I did find a microbrewery in NY called Ramapo Valley Brewery that made a Passover Mead. Unfortunately I had no idea where to find it here in York, PA and didn’t have time to go to Philadelphia or Baltimore to look further for it.

So I plunged in and found what sounded like a decent mead recipe on page 338 in The Complete Joy of Home Brewing 3rd Edition by Charlie Papazian. I’ve used this book since beginning to make beer about 4 years ago.

In the ensuing 2 years I’ve found some good discussions and a great article that appeared in the Philadelphia Jewish Voice that actually gives a recipe for Pesach Mead! But I’m sticking with Charlie’s recipe although I kicked it up a notch. In the original recipe it calls for a light honey which is what I used 2 years ago. But this time I decided to use a full flavored raw Buckwheat honey. I also only used 1 ½ oz of hops and ½ oz of that was dry hopped the last time. This means that the ½ ounce was simply added to the fermenting beer, not during the boil. (If you have not made beer this will make sense soon I promise.) This time I put all the hops in the boiling brew. Also instead of using leaf hops I used pellet hops. These look like little rabbit pellet food. But the pellets in this case are dried and compressed hops. Thanks to Marty at Mr. Steve’s Homebrewing supplies for the help in picking out the best hops for this!

But let me briefly explain why I wanted mead for Pesach. During the 8 days of Pesach Jews do not eat anything that is leavened. This means no bread, pasta, etc. Grains of any kind are completely off the menu for these 8 days. We do eat matzah but to be completely kosher for Pesach it has to be made within 18 minutes so that the matzah does not rise.

Since grains are off the menu, so is beer. Now, yes, we can certainly go without beer for 8 days. We do it frequently without even thinking. But for me I love to try traditions of our forefathers/foremothers and I was quite intrigued with the idea of making mead to replace beer.

When I make beer and wine I often tease my mother-in-law, Bea, that I am channeling her father. He owned a malt and hops store in Boston for many years. Sadly, no one saved the recipes he gave his customers and made for himself! I’ll bet he had a great mead recipe too! Darn!

So here is what I did today. But before I give the recipe let me explain the one thing that is the most important thing that brewers do. Everything that will be touching the brew must be cleaned and sanitized, I mean everything. So I spend an hour or two cleaning all my equipment, the buckets, the siphon, the stirring spoon, the hydrometer, the steel kettle I use to boil it in, etc. I also clean the counters, the sink, etc, with a mild bleach solution. Then I am finally ready to start.

I have a great big sink in my laundry room which I use for cooling down my wort (the boiled solution of beer or mead). I put in 1 or 2 bags of ice just before finishing up the boil on my wort. But because the boil on the mead is only 15 minutes I went ahead put the ice in the sink and then started on the recipe.

Pesach Mead Recipe

Ingredients for 3 gallons:
7 pounds raw Buckwheat honey
1½ tsp gypsum
1/8 tsp Irish Moss
1 ounce Amarillo hops
1 ounce Hallertau hops
1 tsp bitter orange peel (dried)

1 package Red Star Champaign yeast (approximately 1 tsp)
2 gallons spring water (you can use tap water, but I prefer spring water that has no chlorine taste or smell)

I had to drive to Sonnewald health food store to find this great raw Buckwheat honey!

It is very dark and so flavorful!

Add the honey, gypsum, Irish Moss and Amarillo hops, and bitter orange peel to 1 ½ gallons of water and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Add the 1 Hallertau hops and continue boiling for another 10 minutes.

After turning off the stove I immediately put the pot into the ice bath and covered it loosely with foil to keep the wort from being contaminated by anything in the air. I let the wort cool to below 80 degrees.

Once the wort had cooled I siphoned it into a beer brewing bucket, then I added enough spring water to bring the mixture up to 3 gallons. Ken aerated the wort for me by using a long rod with a cross piece at the end of it. By the way Ken made this device for me. The rod is attached to a drill. He started the drill slowly and then got faster with it to stir the air back into the wort.

When that was done, I drew off about a cup of the wort and put it to the hydrometer test. I’ll take another measurement when the brew is done fermenting. This will help me determine the alcohol content.

I next “pitched” the yeast, which just means I sprinkled the yeast on top of the wort. No you don’t stir it in like you would into dough. It will slowly soften and begin devouring the sugars in the honey.

I put the lid on the bucket and added the airlock which allows the bubbles to escape and prevents the fermenting brew from bubbling out of the bucket.

Any wine, mead, or beer takes patience.

Now I wait for about a week for the yeast to eat up all the sugars. Then once it stops eating and forming bubbles, I will bottle it and hopefully it will be ready for Pesach.

I’ll update this post when I am ready to start bottling the mead.

If this post has intrigued you enough to want to learn more about making beer you can locate your local brewery supply store. Also I would suggest watching Alton Brown’s episode on how to make beer. Here is the link to his recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-brew-recipe/index.html

Special Note about the yeast. Red Star does make kosher for Pesach yeast. But you have to buy it in 1 kilo and more bags. Their champagne yeast that I used is kosher, but it doesn’t say it is Kosher for Pesach. I used it anyway. I wouldn’t know what to do with a kilo (2 pounds approximately) of Champagne yeast!

Note the kosher symbol in the lower right hand corner.

They have a great website at http://www.redstaryeast.com/science_of_yeast/story_of_yeast.php
which gives the history of yeast, how it is formed, and how they manufacture it for brewing and doughs. Yeast used for doughs is the NOT the same as yeast used in brewing. Even the yeast used for beer is not the same as the yeast used for wine. Don’t ask me to explain…go to their website and look at the information.

Some great links to learn more:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/384032
Good discussion on yeast certified Kosher L’Pesach (although from 2007)

http://www.kosherblog.net/2004/04/01/spiritual_spirits/
another good discussion but again, old.

http://www.pjvoice.com/v45/45900food.aspx
Great article from the Philadelphia Jewish Voice, dated April, May 2009 contains recipes for Mead, Concord Grape wine and Wine, all for Pesach. Also some standard Pesach recipes for potato knishes, Carrot Candy and Beet Preserves.

http://www.rvbrewery.com/html/about_us.html
Ramapo Valley Brewery in Suffern, NY. RVB is the only kosher certified brewery in the United States, and certified to produce Kosher for Passover beer.

March 15th Bread Braid with HBin5 Part Doce (II)

2010-03-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

But I decided to give this dough another try and made a full batch this time. I have a question for you readers…does your dough talk to you? Does it tell you WHAT it WANTS to be? Well, mine do. This one though was acting like a person with multiple personalities! It wanted to be this, it wanted to be that!

So I listened and here’s what I made:

Chicken Pesto rollups:
I deboned the thigh and leg of a roasted chicken, chopped the meat up and added a few ounces of some smoked turkey that a friend had given me. I mixed that up with the last of pesto in the jar (the pesto for this full batch was a commercial pesto). After flattening out a section of dough, I cut it into 4” wide strips, and put about 3 heaping soup spoonfuls of the chicken mixture on the dough. I folded the short ends inward, then carefully pulled the long ends toward the center and pinched them shut. Then I carefully picked it up and turn it over and placed it on the oiled cookie sheet. I repeated this process until I had used up all of the filling. But the last one I formed more like a Stromboli, or pocket sandwich or empanada…whatever you want to call it. Then I set those aside to rise for about 30 minutes.

Personal Pizza:
Next I rolled out about 5 ounces of dough into a personal pan pizza size. Using my Misto, I misted the dough with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), and sprinkled shredded mozzarella cheese. Thinly sliced tomatoes and sliced black olives went on next and I finished with fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt. That went into a 500 degree oven for 25 minutes or so. It made a delicious breakfast for me and brought back wonderful memories of my time in Seattle!

I used to order pizza from Pagliacci’s and it was delicious! During Pesach, many of us Jews do not eat anything that is leavened, so no bread, no pasta, etc. At the end of Pesach (Passover), I think every Jew was calling Pagliacci's for rapid delivery! We’d practically yank the pizza out of the poor delivery person’s hands when he/she showed up at the door! LOL.

http://www.pagliacci.com/index.shtml

Ciabatta:
Finally, I decided to wrap mozzarella with dough, making a healthy snack, but the last section of dough spoke to me…it REALLY wanted to be ciabatta! So I rolled out a big rectangle, and placed it on the last oiled cookie sheet. But I wanted a few sandwich buns so made four of those as well! Since I ran out of room on the cookie sheet, I pulled out two of my large muffin size silicone forms and put the last of the dough in them. I set those aside to rise also for about 30 minutes. I flattened all four sandwich rolls down to spread them out more and make them more sandwich roll shape instead of dinner roll shape.

By now it was time to pop the Chicken Pesto rollups in the oven at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. First I brushed them with beaten egg. I’ve had this type of treat at Sam’s and Costco for lunch before and felt that I could do better, and frankly, I did! LOL. The rollups and the Stromboli came out wonderful!

Next it was time to prepare the Ciabatta for the oven. I again spritzed the ciabatta with EVOO, then taking just my fingertips I quickly and forcefully poked indentations in the dough. This time I did not put anything else on top, no salt, no olives, no rosemary. The four rolls I brushed with beaten egg and then using a scissors, I cut into the dough for an area for it to bloom. I often use scissors like this if the dough is not high enough for me to slash with a serrated knife.

The ciabatta and sandwich rolls came out great!

While I like this dough, I think I would be more inclined to make the guacamole and salsa dough on a regular basis. The guac-salsa dough delivers more of the flavor.

But the sandwich rolls I made with the Pesto dough will make a delicious sandwich with fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and thin slices of tomatoes…which is one of my favorite summer sandwiches!

Since Pesach is rapidly approaching...it's time for me to switch gears and work with a libation.

Watch for my next post on making Pesach Mead, a great substitute for beer during Pesach.

March 15th Bread Braid with HBin5 Part Uno (I)

2010-03-14T08:38:00.000-07:00

Assignment: 1/2 recipe of Avocado-Guacamole Bread, pgs 160-161
1/2 recipe Pesto Pine Nut Bread, pgs 98-99,
We can make substitutions, but share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Avocado-Guacamole Bread
Substitutions:
4 c AP, 3 1/4 c WWW (white whole wheat for whole wheat)
Added 2 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Added 1 ½ c chipotle salsa
3 tbsp sliced pickled jalapenos

I love any kind of Mexican food…as I’ve mentioned before we were sailing along the Pacific Mexican coast for 9 months on our way to Panama a few years ago. We stopped in many ports and coves, enjoyed so much wonderful food, both peasant and haute cuisine types. One of our favorites were empanadas. These wonderful stuffed doughs ran the gamut from savory to sweet, and were always best from the places the locals frequented.

So when I saw the ingredients required in this dough, I couldn’t even think of making a bread with it at first. But, I will say, the very first thing I thought of with this dough was a wrap. I tried making some with the ½ recipe but they were awful. I couldn’t get the dough to roll out well. I’m not sure if it was because I had originally used the Pesto dough or not.

What I did was make a full recipe of the dough for the Pesto dough which calls for spelt flour as well as whole wheat and all purpose. After mixing the dough, I then split it apart, in half, and added the pesto to the first hal. In the other I added the guacamole which I made by mashing an avocado and adding a cup of chipotle salsa I bought at Sam’s. I was very surprised that the avocado stayed bright green. Yet, the pesto (homemade last summer from basil I grew) turned brown due to oxidation.

Anyway, as I said the wraps were a dismal failure (no pictures). The pesto dough did do well made into pitas. I’ll talk about those in the next segment.

But I didn’t want to give up on the Avacado-Guacamole dough. So I mixed up a full batch of the recipe but added 1½ c chipotle salsa, and 2 c shredded sharp cheddar. Then I couldn’t resist adding 3 tbsp pickled jalapenos to add that extra kick. The dough rose beautifully, and felt much resilient and very workable.

In the morning I mixed the filling:

From a roasted chicken debone and dice 1 breast, 1 leg and thigh, put into a bowl and add the following, then mix it all up:

1 c chipotle salsa
9 oz frozen corn
1 small can green chilis, chopped
One 14.5 oz can black beans
8 oz. queso fresco (Mexican cheese)
Fresh cilantro

I weighed out 5 ounce lumps of dough and formed them into balls. Then let them rest for a few minutes. At first I tried using my turnover shaper that my sister had given me a few years ago. But the rolled out dough stuck to the form. I then switched to just forming the empanadas by hand. After I rolled the dough out into a round about ¼” thick, and brushed it with beaten egg around ½ of the round edge, I put about 3 spoons of filling it in, then folded over and pinched the edges together.

The filling recipe made 12 empanadas before I ran out of filling. With the last of the dough I made 5 rolls that will be perfect for chicken sandwiches or hamburgers. After letting them rise for about 30 minutes, I brushed the tops with a beaten egg, and baked in a 450 degree oven for 30 -35 minutes. While there was a bit of leakage out of a few of the empanadas, they all came out beautiful and delicious smelling.

I let them cool for about 10 minutes, and then cut one in half and put on a plate.

Again harkening back to our time in Mexico, I could only think of serving the empanada with tropical fruits. So I cut up a perfectly ripe papaya and placed about ½ c of it on slices of pineapple. But wait…it wasn’t a perfect meal yet!

Agua de sabors were a big part of our days in that tropical heat in Mexico and Central America. The “water of the day” as it translates was whatever fresh fruit was available…watermelon, papaya, mango, guanabana, banana, passion fruits. Another big favorite is rice milk laced with cinnamon. The first time I was offered rice milk I thought it was made with milk and declined it since I am lactose intolerant when it comes to straight milk. But then I learned that it is made by cooking rice in about 2x the amount of water you would normally use to cook rice, and you can add a vanilla bean to it. After the rice is cooked you blend it until very smooth, strain it and then add more water to taste. Once I learned THAT’s what rice milk is I drank it every chance I got. Here in the states I’ve usually bought rice milk but it’s loaded with sugar! So I’ll be making my own soon now that I’ve found a good and easy recipe for it.

http://www.recipezaar.com/D-I-Y-Rice-Milk-51109

OK, back to how rice milk enhanced this meal, I simply poured rice milk into a glass and sprinkled a bit of cinnamon on top. What a wonderful breakfast this was! Even Ken loved the empanada!

Wanetta and Wayne, and another taster, Rosalind also loved the empanadas…in fact all three said they wanted them again, soon!

One final note:
Since I was in the mood for agua de sabors, I decided to use the last of the pineapple, some of the papaya, some rice milk, and blended it with ice and a bit of Splenda. What a refreshing drink! I sometimes throw in some soda water but this time thinned it with just regular water. We drink this type of concoction a lot during the hot days of summer.

See part II to see how I had fun with the pesto dough!

March 1st Bread Braid with HBin5

2010-02-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

March 1st Bread Braid with HBin5

Assignment: 1 full recipe of 100% Whole Wheat bread with Olive Oil, pgs 81-82, 1 loaf

1 loaf Aloo Paratha, pgs 225-226,

1 loaf Southwestern Focaccia w/Roasted Corn & Goat Cheese

We can make substitutions, but share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.

-------------------------------------------------------------

100% WW Bread with Olive Oil

Substitutions:

4 c AP, 3 c white whole wheat for whole wheat

Added ¼ c chopped fresh rosemary; 1 tsp minced dried garlic,

¼ chopped pitted green and kalamati olives

SPECIAL NOTE: Due to being ill for a week, I did not make the second recipe. Also because I wasn’t up to going to the grocery store for other ingredients, I made an Italian version of the Aloo Paratha. When I started the dough I wasn’t into a full blown viral infection thank goodness or else I would have no bread to blog about at all. I had the dough sitting in the refrigerator for a week before I could utilize it.

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Despite the snow my wonderful rosemary bush (now 4 yrs old) is still a great source for fresh leaves! So as I was making my WW with Olive Oil dough I decided it needed the fresh rosemary, garlic and olives. I put this combination in my semolina bread and it’s one that I thought would be good in this recipe.

Once I was well enough to work with it, I decided to just work with some fresh mozzarella that needed to be used up and some roasted chicken. I thought it would make a good combination in the “Aloo Paratha” format and I didn’t have to go to the grocery store for anything. I softened more of the minced dried garlic by soaking it in water and then sprinkling on top with some kosher salt and parmesan cheese.

Ken dipping Italian version of Aloo Paratha in pasta sauce.

That's my homemade New Zealand Merlot that he drank with it.

That turned out to be a good idea since it made a nice dinner for Ken. But even though he liked it, he still complained about the whole wheat…and no, he wasn’t even sure it had whole wheat in it…he is just punchy about whole wheat at this point. LOL. To appease him, at the time I was writing this there were plain hamburger buns and hot dog buns in the oven baking for him from the master recipe in ABin5!

I also decided to make some ciabatta squares. I rolled out the dough flat, and cut into 4” wide strips. Then I let that rise on the cookie sheets. Just before baking I poked it all over with my fingertips, brushed on olive oil, and sprinkled with kosher salt. Finally I used my dough scraper to score the ciabatta into squares for easy splitting.

Great open-faced breakfast sandwich, fresh tomatoes and aged white cheddar cheese on ciabatta square.

I had enough dough left for two more loaves! I wrapped the last of the fresh mozzarella into dough that I shaped into a log. Just before baking I brushed it with a beaten egg, sprinkled with kosher salt, and then slashed deep enough to expose the cheese inside. While it looked very good when it came out of the oven, a lot of the cheese had escaped. Sigh. Oh well! It is still very good for toast and sandwiches.

Mozarella rolled into WWW with Oil dough (L) and Italian style Aloo Paratha (R)

Lastly I decided to practice again with the wheat leaf pattern.

Considering how sick I have been this week, I am quite happy with what I was finally able to produce!

2010-02-14T12:07:00.000-08:00

Waneta, my neighbor did it to me again! When I told her I was making red beet buns (see previous post) she pulled out a recipe she had cut out of the Omaha World Herald for Red Beet Chocolate Sheet cake.

Waneta and Wayne used to live in Omaha, NB, and Waneta still really misses it. They take the Omaha World Herald to keep up with the politics and the friends they left behind. I’ve met a few of their friends who have come out to visit and can see why they miss them so much!

Matter of fact I have a ball with Lee and Mardel when they come out. I even got Mardel making bread from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book. Mardel also gave a copy of the book to her granddaughter as as a gift. Good things do travel from region to region, and cook to cook!

Anyhow, one of the regular articles in Waneta's paper, The Amish Cook's Baking Book By Rhonda Stansberry, a World Herold Staff writer, features some good recipes! Just click on the following link to see more! http://www.omaha.com/article/20100127/ENTERTAINMENT01/701279935

The recipe Waneta handed me was a great way to use up the extra beets I had grated up for the Red Beet Buns! And frankly, tasted better than the Red Beet Buns I had made! (see previous post)

There is one note about the recipe...although it is called a sheet cake, you bake it in a 9" by 11" cake pan.

Red Beet Chocolate Sheet Cake

Serves 8-12

1¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

1½ cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1½ cups cooked and puréed fresh beets (or 12-ounce jar)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sifted powdered sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch cake pan and set aside.

Mix together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside. Combine the sugar, eggs and oil in a large bowl. Stir vigorously (those who use electric mixers can use one here on medium speed for 2 minutes). Beat in the beets, melted chocolate and vanilla.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the beet mixture, beating well after each addition. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean — 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan. Cover and let stand overnight to improve the flavor. Dust with powdered sugar.

Let the cake cool completely and store in a sealed container or cake safe. The cake will stay fresh for three or four days.

Test kitchen notes: I used whole pickled beets, draining and discarding the juice and puréeing the beets in a food processor.The chips can be melted in a micro- wave-safe bowl about 1 minute, stirring quickly afterward until they are smooth.

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I found the recipe a bit confusing as you don’t see the directions to melt the chocolate until you read the test kitchen notes!

I had already shredded the beets since I was using left over beets from the Red Beet Buns recipe. So I cooked them in the microwave. I found I needed to add some water to the beets to puree them. But that made no difference to the cake flavor or texture. Very delicious!

We were in the middle of the big snowstorm of Feb 6^th when I was baking this. Chip, another one of our neighbors, was a gem to use his snowblower to clear out the walkway to Waneta and Wayne’s front door. So I had to take some of this cake over to him before I took the rest to Waneta and Wayne!

February 15th HBin5 Bread Braid Part II

2010-02-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

Red Beet Buns

Substitutions:

1 c WWW (white whole wheat) instead of 2 c WW

3 c AP (all purpose flour) instead of 2 cups AP

1 ½ tbsp kosher salt instead of 1 tbsp kosher salt

Sadly, this is one recipe I WON’T make again. This is the ONLY recipe I haven’t liked so far in the HBin5 book. And I can’t really say why it is not good. I followed the recipe and was really looking forward to the flavor of the beets as a matter of fact as I love them! But ick!

I purposely made the buns flatter as I was anticipating using them for sandwich buns. Sitting on top of the buns is the small loaf of bread I made with the rest of the dough.

I was very surprised that I didn’t like the buns as I had made a Red Beet and Chocolate cake from the leftover shredded beets and it came out delicious!

I’m wondering if the main difference is that the beets were cooked for the Red Beet Chocolate cake and not for the Buns. And Ken’s reaction was VERY negative to the buns! Sigh, alas, alack!

I’ve included the cake recipe and pics on the next post.