Things have been very busy lately. Between the end of the holidays and the winter sickness which accompanied it, along with the girls going back to school and encountering extra challenges, I haven't had much time for bread.
This is distressing. I have found myself frequently fretting that I am making no headway in my goal.
The other day, I went home with a recipe, fully intending to work on it. But when I entered my kitchen, what good spirits I had sank. The counter was covered in things and the sink had dishes--some left over from the previous busy evening and some from my girls' efforts at home. There was no way I could work on any bread until the kitchen was cleaned, so I set aside my plan and cleaned.
The next day, I came home again, intending to make bread, but something someone said popped my "happy bubble", as my kids call it. My husband noticed I wasn't exactly feeling my best.
"I have to make ****!" I told him as I changed out of my work clothes, throwing my sweater on the bed and snatching a t-shirt out of my drawer.
"No, you don't," he said. "Right now, you couldn't make **** with love."
He was right. I took a deep breath and turned off my smartphone display where I could see the bread recipe.
He offered to cook dinner for me, so I could work with the kids on their homework, instead of having to juggle both. As he looked in the pantry and began planning, he came over to where I was standing.
"Honey," he said. "I can make dinner, but there is one thing I can't make. Could I persuade you to make some of your strawberry muffins?"
How could I say no?
I mixed up the muffins as he worked on the main elements of dinner. Kids coming in and out of the kitchen smelled the muffins cooking and smilingly exclaimed, "Strawberry muffins!" Every so often, he would taste and offer me a taste of what he was cooking, so we could ponder together alterations in seasoning.
Dinner that night was a kind of stew over rice, with strawberry muffins. It was simple, hearty fare--good food for a winter evening. But more importantly, there was peace in the home and everything was made with love.
I am so blessed to have a wonderful, patient husband who works hard to serve in the family and keep peace in our home.
I will get back to making more new breads; I have plans for this weekend. (And larger plans in a couple of months . . . I heard someone is going to make a tandoor!!! I'm so excited I could jump up and down if it would do any good.) But I need to remember to keep it all in perspective.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Italian Christmas Bread
Last month, in between baking cookies, making candy, and generally preparing for the Christmas holiday, I felt it would be a shame not to take advantage of the marvelous breads out there specifically baked at Christmastime. Unfortunately, time got away from me, until I found myself on New Years Eve, determined to make one more bread before the year was out.
When it comes to traditional European holiday breads, however, I have a problem. You see . . . I do not like raisins.
Do you know how many traditional European holiday breads out there call for raisins??
I did finally manage to find a few raisin-free holiday breads, and this recipe for Italian Christmas Bread happens to be one of them. In addition to its lack of raisins, what attracted me to this bread was the selection of more unusual ingredients. Eggnog? Anise seed? Hazelnuts? I'm in!
I already had eggnog in my house, so that was easy, but acquiring some of the other ingredients was a bit of an adventure, as my shopping alternatives in this more remote area are rather limited. To get the hazelnuts, for instance, my Senior Master Kitchen Helper and I picked through the loose mixed nuts in the produce section at the supermarket, creating a mixed nut mixture which was 80% hazelnuts by weight and 20% other nuts so as not to totally freak out the cashier. Finding anise seed also proved a bit of a challenge, as there was none in the usual spice section. But when I happened upon the cheap bagged spices in the Hispanic foods section, looking for something else entirely, lo and behold, there was anise seed. (Yay!! Sometimes there are certain advantages to living close to the Mexican border . . . I can buy refills for some of my spice containers for very reasonable prices, indeed.)
This recipe ended up being more than just a flavor adventure, it ended up being a test of my general bread-making knowledge. You see, the recipe I found was intended for a bread machine. I do not have a bread machine, on purpose, as I do not like the crusts produced by bread machines. (Besides, square bread is unattractive.) But, given that the recipe consisted of little more than "put everything in the bread machine and press this button", I knew I would have to draw on my experience and a little speculation to make the bread successfully.
Ingredients
(For the bread)
1 cup eggnog, plus 1 Tablespoon eggnog (Alert! I changed this to 1 cup eggnog, plus a separate Tablespoon of lukewarm water.)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 cups bread flour (I had some sitting in my cupboard doing nothing, so I used it. Otherwise, I would have just used all-purpose.)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (I just used my normal yeast.)
2 Tablespoons anise seed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup hazelnuts, shelled (My husband actually shelled mine using a hammer. Isn't he great?)
(For the glaze--I'm including it doubled, because that's what I ended up doing.)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons eggnog
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread out the shelled hazelnuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove them from the baking sheet and let them cool. (Yes, you can turn off the oven now, as it will be a while before you are using it again for the bread.)
In the bowl of my stand mixer, I added the eggnog, sugar, salt, egg, and egg yolk, then mixed them to break up the eggs. (This is more easily done with the regular beater of a stand mixer or just by using a wisk.) I softened the butter in the microwave, which had to be done very carefully, as the Master Kitchen Helper and Junior Taste-Tester had managed to shatter the carousel plate and we were waiting for a replacement to arrive. Then the butter was added to the mixture and mixed in.
I added one cup of flour just to give the mixer something more solid to work with when I added the anise seed and cinnamon. I poured in the yeast mixture and started mixing with the bread hook, adding more flour in intervals until the dough cleaned up the side of the bowl.
In the mean time, I agonized. Should I have waited to add the hazelnuts until after the first rise? I found other recipes for breads with nuts or fruit which added the goodies after this rise, before shaping and rising the second time. Would the hazelnuts break up the texture of the dough enough to prevent the bread being able to form air pockets correctly? Would the nuts absorb too much moisture and end up tasting soggy? I finally stepped away from the computer and figured it was too late to worry about it now. All that was left was to wait and see.
And it rose!! (There was a serious happy dance going on in my kitchen at that moment.) The dough rose and fluffed up nicely.
The next big question was about the pan. I wasn't exactly sure how big a pan should be used for a recipe sized for a breadmaker. The picture someone had posted on the website showed bread which had been baked in something like a Bundt pan, but looking at the dough, I wasn't sure there was enough quantity to justify my baking it in a Bundt pan. However, there was definitely too much dough to fit in my normal 8"x4" loaf pan.
After staring at the dough for a while, I decided to break in one of the two new 10"x5" pans my husband had given me for Christmas. (He was so sweet: he called me the "Top Chef" in his life.)
Accordingly, I shaped the dough on a lightly floured board and placed it in the greased pan.
My research on converting bread machine recipes indicated that a good rule of thumb was to cook the bread for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, so this is what I did. (Closer to 40 minutes.) And at this point, I could return to the original recipe, where it said, "Remove from the pan as soon as it is done baking and cool on a rack." (This, I could do.)
When the bread was cooled, it was time to make the glaze. I started with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tablespoon of eggnog, as the recipe said. After mixing, I thought the glaze was too thick, but then I realized it was probably because the eggnog had just been taken from the refrigerator. So I decided to let glaze sit, covered with plastic wrap, for a while to get it up to room temperature.
I probably should have let the glaze sit and dry longer before cutting the bread, but I was in a hurry, so my fingers got just a bit sticky when I cut the bread. Surprisingly enough, the larger nuts sliced nicely along with the bread, so perhaps my concerns about having whole hazelnuts in the bread were unfounded.
I had cringed just a little when I had seen how much anise seed was called for in the recipe, wondering if it would end up tasting like licorice or something. But by the time the bread was finished, and even better, by the time it was a day or so old, I found the spice did not actually dominate the flavor of the bread. Between the cinnamon, the hazelnuts, the anise seed, and the eggnog glaze, there was a nice blend of flavors which actually seemed more subtle than I had expected.
My husband was a little disappointed in the flavor. After eating the "in your face" spice bread from the Netherlands, he felt the Italian Christmas bread couldn't hold a candle to it. But I actually preferred this one to the Dutch bread, mostly because I prefer a medium texture in bread to a more dense texture.
I took the bread to the community New Years Eve party as part of our contribution to the snack table (along with cupcakes, brownies, and cake balls dipped in chocolate my Kitchen Artiste in Training insisted on making from the round cake pop molds she got for Christmas.) Food was plentiful enough the bread wasn't all eaten (no surprise, really, as some people avoid bread on principle), but that meant my daughters and I were able to snitch pieces for snacks over the next few days. Yum, yum!
When it comes to traditional European holiday breads, however, I have a problem. You see . . . I do not like raisins.
Do you know how many traditional European holiday breads out there call for raisins??
I did finally manage to find a few raisin-free holiday breads, and this recipe for Italian Christmas Bread happens to be one of them. In addition to its lack of raisins, what attracted me to this bread was the selection of more unusual ingredients. Eggnog? Anise seed? Hazelnuts? I'm in!
I already had eggnog in my house, so that was easy, but acquiring some of the other ingredients was a bit of an adventure, as my shopping alternatives in this more remote area are rather limited. To get the hazelnuts, for instance, my Senior Master Kitchen Helper and I picked through the loose mixed nuts in the produce section at the supermarket, creating a mixed nut mixture which was 80% hazelnuts by weight and 20% other nuts so as not to totally freak out the cashier. Finding anise seed also proved a bit of a challenge, as there was none in the usual spice section. But when I happened upon the cheap bagged spices in the Hispanic foods section, looking for something else entirely, lo and behold, there was anise seed. (Yay!! Sometimes there are certain advantages to living close to the Mexican border . . . I can buy refills for some of my spice containers for very reasonable prices, indeed.)
This recipe ended up being more than just a flavor adventure, it ended up being a test of my general bread-making knowledge. You see, the recipe I found was intended for a bread machine. I do not have a bread machine, on purpose, as I do not like the crusts produced by bread machines. (Besides, square bread is unattractive.) But, given that the recipe consisted of little more than "put everything in the bread machine and press this button", I knew I would have to draw on my experience and a little speculation to make the bread successfully.
Ingredients
(For the bread)
1 cup eggnog, plus 1 Tablespoon eggnog (Alert! I changed this to 1 cup eggnog, plus a separate Tablespoon of lukewarm water.)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 cups bread flour (I had some sitting in my cupboard doing nothing, so I used it. Otherwise, I would have just used all-purpose.)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (I just used my normal yeast.)
2 Tablespoons anise seed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup hazelnuts, shelled (My husband actually shelled mine using a hammer. Isn't he great?)
(For the glaze--I'm including it doubled, because that's what I ended up doing.)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons eggnog
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread out the shelled hazelnuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 5 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove them from the baking sheet and let them cool. (Yes, you can turn off the oven now, as it will be a while before you are using it again for the bread.)
When my hazelnuts cooled, I decided to very coarsely chop them, figuring that whole hazelnuts in the bread might be challenging to deal with.
As I was going to need to dissolve my yeast, instead of just throwing everything into a bread machine, I substituted 1 Tablespoon of lukewarm water for that extra Tablespoon of eggnog in the recipe and used it for dissolving my yeast. I figured that one Tablespoon less eggnog in the recipe was probably not going to make as much difference as adding extra liquid. To be honest, it might not have been a terribly big deal to just add the extra Tablespoon of liquid, as the actual amount of flour added when mixing in a stand mixer depends entirely on how much the bread wants to take that day. But I was feeling a little nervous when I made this recipe, knowing I was calling upon my experience instead of following directions and not knowing if my results would be acceptable.In the bowl of my stand mixer, I added the eggnog, sugar, salt, egg, and egg yolk, then mixed them to break up the eggs. (This is more easily done with the regular beater of a stand mixer or just by using a wisk.) I softened the butter in the microwave, which had to be done very carefully, as the Master Kitchen Helper and Junior Taste-Tester had managed to shatter the carousel plate and we were waiting for a replacement to arrive. Then the butter was added to the mixture and mixed in.
I added one cup of flour just to give the mixer something more solid to work with when I added the anise seed and cinnamon. I poured in the yeast mixture and started mixing with the bread hook, adding more flour in intervals until the dough cleaned up the side of the bowl.
I was not exactly sure when I should add the hazelnuts. The recipe said to add them to the bread machine between Knead Cycle 1 and Knead Cycle 2. What on earth are these knead cycles? So I guessed. After I had mixed the bread enough for the gluten to activate, I added the nuts. This proved to be very interesting, as they wanted to just stick to the outside of the dough and required a certain amount of coaxing to get them to mix inside. I finally accomplished it with slow mixing and frequent stops to scrape the dough off the bread hook with a spatula, before allowing the bread hook to pick up the dough again.
Finally the dough was placed in an oiled bowl, twirled around, then turned over so the oiled surface was on the top.
Not knowing how long it would take to rise, but knowing a bread dough with eggs takes longer to rise than one without, I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and a dishtowel, then placed the bowl on a mat on the back of our pellet stove.
In the mean time, I agonized. Should I have waited to add the hazelnuts until after the first rise? I found other recipes for breads with nuts or fruit which added the goodies after this rise, before shaping and rising the second time. Would the hazelnuts break up the texture of the dough enough to prevent the bread being able to form air pockets correctly? Would the nuts absorb too much moisture and end up tasting soggy? I finally stepped away from the computer and figured it was too late to worry about it now. All that was left was to wait and see.
The next big question was about the pan. I wasn't exactly sure how big a pan should be used for a recipe sized for a breadmaker. The picture someone had posted on the website showed bread which had been baked in something like a Bundt pan, but looking at the dough, I wasn't sure there was enough quantity to justify my baking it in a Bundt pan. However, there was definitely too much dough to fit in my normal 8"x4" loaf pan.
After staring at the dough for a while, I decided to break in one of the two new 10"x5" pans my husband had given me for Christmas. (He was so sweet: he called me the "Top Chef" in his life.)
Accordingly, I shaped the dough on a lightly floured board and placed it in the greased pan.
I covered the pan with plastic wrap and towel again and allowed it to rise in a warm place.
 |
| Looks like I didn't quite make my loaf evenly. |
My research on converting bread machine recipes indicated that a good rule of thumb was to cook the bread for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, so this is what I did. (Closer to 40 minutes.) And at this point, I could return to the original recipe, where it said, "Remove from the pan as soon as it is done baking and cool on a rack." (This, I could do.)
When the bread was cooled, it was time to make the glaze. I started with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tablespoon of eggnog, as the recipe said. After mixing, I thought the glaze was too thick, but then I realized it was probably because the eggnog had just been taken from the refrigerator. So I decided to let glaze sit, covered with plastic wrap, for a while to get it up to room temperature.
I placed a plate beneath the rack on which the bread sat to catch drips, then drizzled the glaze on the bread. When I was finished, I decided it needed more glaze, so I mixed up a second batch and drizzled most of that, as well.
I probably should have let the glaze sit and dry longer before cutting the bread, but I was in a hurry, so my fingers got just a bit sticky when I cut the bread. Surprisingly enough, the larger nuts sliced nicely along with the bread, so perhaps my concerns about having whole hazelnuts in the bread were unfounded.
I had cringed just a little when I had seen how much anise seed was called for in the recipe, wondering if it would end up tasting like licorice or something. But by the time the bread was finished, and even better, by the time it was a day or so old, I found the spice did not actually dominate the flavor of the bread. Between the cinnamon, the hazelnuts, the anise seed, and the eggnog glaze, there was a nice blend of flavors which actually seemed more subtle than I had expected.
My husband was a little disappointed in the flavor. After eating the "in your face" spice bread from the Netherlands, he felt the Italian Christmas bread couldn't hold a candle to it. But I actually preferred this one to the Dutch bread, mostly because I prefer a medium texture in bread to a more dense texture.
I took the bread to the community New Years Eve party as part of our contribution to the snack table (along with cupcakes, brownies, and cake balls dipped in chocolate my Kitchen Artiste in Training insisted on making from the round cake pop molds she got for Christmas.) Food was plentiful enough the bread wasn't all eaten (no surprise, really, as some people avoid bread on principle), but that meant my daughters and I were able to snitch pieces for snacks over the next few days. Yum, yum!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Dutch Spice Bread
Every so often, the children's magazine published by our church contains recipes, and each time, the kids beg me to make something from it. Very rarely, I do.
So it was no real surprise to hear the Master Kitchen Helper beg me to make something--anything--from the list of recipes included in the December issue. With a sigh, I looked at the magazine she held spread before her and started evaluating the offerings.
"Actually, kiddo," I finally said, "I think we can make something this month."
"Really?!" she asked me.
"Yep, and it can count for 'Around the World In 80 Breads'."
She was a little puzzled until I pointed to the recipe called "Dutch Spice Bread". "If it's Dutch, it's from a European country called the Netherlands," I told her. "That means it can count."
Excitedly, she helped me go through the ingredients and wrote down the one we were missing--dark corn syrup--on the shopping list.
And a few days later, we met in the kitchen to gather the ingredients and make our foray into Dutch holiday bread.
Ingredients:
1 cup dark corn syrup
I began by following the instructions. I added some of the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mixed. Then I added some milk and mixed. When it finally looked like I would spill if I tried to actually mix anything more, I poured the mixed portion back into the bowl with the rest of the flour mixture, added the rest of the milk, and mixed it.
Voila!
The girls wanted to eat it right away or take it to the Christmas party that evening, but I reminded them the recipe said to wrap the bread in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and let it stand for 24 hours. "Sorry, girls," I told them. "We'll be tasting this bread tomorrow."
The next day, I finally pulled out the bread knife to slice the bread. At first touch, I was astounded how hard it was to cut, because of the density of the bread. This was somewhat disturbing, and I wondered if it would really end up being as good as it looked and smelled. But I remembered the description in the magazine had said parents hung up slices of this bread on strings at birthday time for the children to try to eat blindfolded, so it stood to reason it would necessarily be a dense bread. The real test would be when it was handed to the taste testers at lunchtime.
As it turned out, everyone enjoyed it. They liked the flavor, although the kids enjoyed it better with butter, as the recipe suggested. (They firmly declined trying it with the other option--cream cheese.) My husband really appreciated the flavors of the spices, saying it was one of the best spice breads he had eaten.
All in all, it was a good experiment. I'm not sure we'll end up adopting the tradition of blindfolding our children and hanging slices over their heads, but we will probably end up making it again next year at Christmastime. (If I can squeeze it in between all the other things I'm already scheduled to make each year at Christmastime . . . I was so busy making cookies, candy, etc., I didn't have a lot of time to try new breads!)
So it was no real surprise to hear the Master Kitchen Helper beg me to make something--anything--from the list of recipes included in the December issue. With a sigh, I looked at the magazine she held spread before her and started evaluating the offerings.
"Actually, kiddo," I finally said, "I think we can make something this month."
"Really?!" she asked me.
"Yep, and it can count for 'Around the World In 80 Breads'."
She was a little puzzled until I pointed to the recipe called "Dutch Spice Bread". "If it's Dutch, it's from a European country called the Netherlands," I told her. "That means it can count."
Excitedly, she helped me go through the ingredients and wrote down the one we were missing--dark corn syrup--on the shopping list.
And a few days later, we met in the kitchen to gather the ingredients and make our foray into Dutch holiday bread.
 |
| I think the hand is the Junior Taste-Tester. |
1 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
Preheat the oven to 325°F (163ºC). Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with butter or shortening.
Put the corn syrup, brown sugar, and egg into a mixing bowl, and mix them well.
In another bowl mix the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
Preheat the oven to 325°F (163ºC). Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with butter or shortening.
Put the corn syrup, brown sugar, and egg into a mixing bowl, and mix them well.
In another bowl mix the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
I realized when I was about to mix everything together I had goofed: I had put the dry ingredients into the larger bowl. There was no way I would be able to add the flour mixture and the milk alterately to the egg mixture, as the recipe said to do. However, never fear, this recipe is not "rocket science," or they wouldn't be including it in a magazine geared toward children. This just meant I had to be a little tricky.
I began by following the instructions. I added some of the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mixed. Then I added some milk and mixed. When it finally looked like I would spill if I tried to actually mix anything more, I poured the mixed portion back into the bowl with the rest of the flour mixture, added the rest of the milk, and mixed it.
Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake the bread for 80–90 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. I ended up baking it closer to 90 minutes than 80.
Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove it and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Amazingly enough for me, who has recently had inexplicable trouble with banana bread breaking apart, it came out of the pan very nicely. (How can someone mess up banana bread? Ok, ok, so I ended up with the dreaded crack in the middle of the top . . .)
The girls wanted to eat it right away or take it to the Christmas party that evening, but I reminded them the recipe said to wrap the bread in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and let it stand for 24 hours. "Sorry, girls," I told them. "We'll be tasting this bread tomorrow."
The next day, I finally pulled out the bread knife to slice the bread. At first touch, I was astounded how hard it was to cut, because of the density of the bread. This was somewhat disturbing, and I wondered if it would really end up being as good as it looked and smelled. But I remembered the description in the magazine had said parents hung up slices of this bread on strings at birthday time for the children to try to eat blindfolded, so it stood to reason it would necessarily be a dense bread. The real test would be when it was handed to the taste testers at lunchtime.
As it turned out, everyone enjoyed it. They liked the flavor, although the kids enjoyed it better with butter, as the recipe suggested. (They firmly declined trying it with the other option--cream cheese.) My husband really appreciated the flavors of the spices, saying it was one of the best spice breads he had eaten.
All in all, it was a good experiment. I'm not sure we'll end up adopting the tradition of blindfolding our children and hanging slices over their heads, but we will probably end up making it again next year at Christmastime. (If I can squeeze it in between all the other things I'm already scheduled to make each year at Christmastime . . . I was so busy making cookies, candy, etc., I didn't have a lot of time to try new breads!)
 |
| Why my 2nd daughter is called the Kitchen Artiste in Training . . . |
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
English Muffins With Promise
I love English muffins. (No surprise here, as I love bread . . .) But as I live rather far from grocery stores, the times I have been able to buy them have been few and far between. So I decided to try to make them.
The first recipe I tried worked fine, from a "did a successful bread result which resembles somewhat an English muffin" standpoint. But the recipe did not result in exactly what I wanted, which was a spongy texture with nooks and crannies. It was interesting to me in that I was cooking a twice-risen, cut-out yeast dough on a stovetop (which was a balancing act, temperature-wise), and it produced delicious bread. But without the nice nooks and crannies, I felt something was missing. It just didn't seem like an English muffin.
I posted this discouragement on Facebook one day, and a friend responded with a link which ultimately led to a recipe Alton Brown demonstrated at Food Network. This recipe required some special equipment: English muffin rings. Wow . . . English muffin rings? I had never heard of those. (It said an alternative was to cut both ends off tuna cans, but all the tuna cans I found couldn't be opened on the bottom with a can opener . . .) The next time my husband took me to lunch in a town with a cooking supply store, I discovered the coveted rings.
I dusted off the website and did some thinking. The basic idea behind this recipe was very similar to the "no-knead" bread I had done before, except this recipe only required a 30-minute rising time, rather than 12 hours or so. And yet, Thomas' used to advertise that their muffin dough spent 18 hours in rising. (My husband reminded me of this when he listened to my description of the recipe and said, "It sounds like a pancake.") I decided it was unlikely to hurt my results if I left the dough rising all night. (And if it worked, the prep time in the morning would be just about nil.)
Unfortunately, the long rise version still didn't produce the results I wanted, so I reluctantly decided to go ahead and <sigh> follow the directions . . .
Actually, there were a couple of possible reasons for this . . . one being that I followed the directions too well in another area. The recipe said to use 2 scoops of a #20 ice cream scoop for each muffin. Well, exactly how big is a #20 ice cream scoop? I have no idea, but all my ice cream scoops are about the same size, so I tried two scoops of that, which ended up being way too much batter per muffin. Instead of ending up with 8-10 muffins, I ended up with 6, and that was only because the last two muffins were made with a single scoop each.
Accordingly, I tried again later on. This time, I only rose the dough for a half hour (ok, a little longer, because I started out in a colder room, which wasn't very effective, then moved it to sit on the cooler part of my pellet stove, which the yeast really, really liked.) And this time, I only put in about a scoop of dough, wiggling it around a little to allow it to fill the inside of the rings (on the bottom, anyway.) Interestingly enough, the end size of the single-scoop muffins was fairly close to the end size of the double scoop ones (no wonder, considering a baking sheet was placed on top of them while cooking . . . the poor double scoop ones were smished and didn't have room to rise), but even more interesting, some of them resulted in reasonably decent crannies.
The most difficult part of the whole enterprise was again, the temperature. My first group of muffins in the batch turned out much better than the next group, cranny-wise, which I attribute to the fact the griddle hadn't heated up quite as much. I think I'm going to really have to turn down the griddle once it heats up, for the best results. Also, when checking for crannies, really do wait for the muffins to cool. (I know, it's hard . . . it's really hard, because you want to check the results immediately and see if you are doing it right.) It just works better.
All in all, I like the recipe. The texture was soft and spongy, the muffins toasted up nicely, and I sometimes did get crannies, which gives me hope I can eventually learn to produce a more consistent muffin. No wonder Alton Brown recommended cooking them on an electric skillet! (Too bad for those of us electric skillet-less people . . .)
So enough of the editorializing and on to the recipe!
Remove the lid and flip rings using tongs. (Good luck keeping those muffins inside the rings if you do this only with tongs. I used tongs and a spatula.) Cover with the lid and cook for another 5-6 minutes or until golden brown.
Place the muffins on a cooling rack, remove the rings, and cool. Split with a fork and serve.
The first recipe I tried worked fine, from a "did a successful bread result which resembles somewhat an English muffin" standpoint. But the recipe did not result in exactly what I wanted, which was a spongy texture with nooks and crannies. It was interesting to me in that I was cooking a twice-risen, cut-out yeast dough on a stovetop (which was a balancing act, temperature-wise), and it produced delicious bread. But without the nice nooks and crannies, I felt something was missing. It just didn't seem like an English muffin.
I posted this discouragement on Facebook one day, and a friend responded with a link which ultimately led to a recipe Alton Brown demonstrated at Food Network. This recipe required some special equipment: English muffin rings. Wow . . . English muffin rings? I had never heard of those. (It said an alternative was to cut both ends off tuna cans, but all the tuna cans I found couldn't be opened on the bottom with a can opener . . .) The next time my husband took me to lunch in a town with a cooking supply store, I discovered the coveted rings.
I dusted off the website and did some thinking. The basic idea behind this recipe was very similar to the "no-knead" bread I had done before, except this recipe only required a 30-minute rising time, rather than 12 hours or so. And yet, Thomas' used to advertise that their muffin dough spent 18 hours in rising. (My husband reminded me of this when he listened to my description of the recipe and said, "It sounds like a pancake.") I decided it was unlikely to hurt my results if I left the dough rising all night. (And if it worked, the prep time in the morning would be just about nil.)
Unfortunately, the long rise version still didn't produce the results I wanted, so I reluctantly decided to go ahead and <sigh> follow the directions . . .
Actually, there were a couple of possible reasons for this . . . one being that I followed the directions too well in another area. The recipe said to use 2 scoops of a #20 ice cream scoop for each muffin. Well, exactly how big is a #20 ice cream scoop? I have no idea, but all my ice cream scoops are about the same size, so I tried two scoops of that, which ended up being way too much batter per muffin. Instead of ending up with 8-10 muffins, I ended up with 6, and that was only because the last two muffins were made with a single scoop each.
Accordingly, I tried again later on. This time, I only rose the dough for a half hour (ok, a little longer, because I started out in a colder room, which wasn't very effective, then moved it to sit on the cooler part of my pellet stove, which the yeast really, really liked.) And this time, I only put in about a scoop of dough, wiggling it around a little to allow it to fill the inside of the rings (on the bottom, anyway.) Interestingly enough, the end size of the single-scoop muffins was fairly close to the end size of the double scoop ones (no wonder, considering a baking sheet was placed on top of them while cooking . . . the poor double scoop ones were smished and didn't have room to rise), but even more interesting, some of them resulted in reasonably decent crannies.
The most difficult part of the whole enterprise was again, the temperature. My first group of muffins in the batch turned out much better than the next group, cranny-wise, which I attribute to the fact the griddle hadn't heated up quite as much. I think I'm going to really have to turn down the griddle once it heats up, for the best results. Also, when checking for crannies, really do wait for the muffins to cool. (I know, it's hard . . . it's really hard, because you want to check the results immediately and see if you are doing it right.) It just works better.
All in all, I like the recipe. The texture was soft and spongy, the muffins toasted up nicely, and I sometimes did get crannies, which gives me hope I can eventually learn to produce a more consistent muffin. No wonder Alton Brown recommended cooking them on an electric skillet! (Too bad for those of us electric skillet-less people . . .)
So enough of the editorializing and on to the recipe!
Ingredients:
1/2 cup non-fat powdered milk (I didn't have this, so I used full-fat powdered milk.)
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt, divided (Half goes in the initial batter and half goes into the batter just before cooking.)
1 Tablespoon shortening
1 cup hot water
1 envelope dry yeast (with my yeast, a little under a Tablespoon)
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup lukewarm water
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Non-stick vegetable spray (I didn't have this, either. My cookware had dire warnings on the box if I used spray, so I stopped buying it years ago. I ended up using shortning, which was messier, but effective.)
In a bowl, combine the powdered milk, 1 Tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening, and hot water. Stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. (The shortening does not need to melt.) Let it cool.
In a separate bowl, combine the yeast, the 1/8 teaspoon sugar, and the 1/3 cup of lukewarm water and let it sit for about 5 minutes, until the yeast is dissolved. Then add it to the powdered milk mixture.
Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with a wooden spoon. (Nope! Not using a stand mixer here. Not necessary.) Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
Preheat the griddle to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. (Here's where it gets difficult for those of us having to use a stove. Think sort of cooler medium griddle . . .) Place the metal English muffin rings on the griddle and coat lightly with vegetable spray. (I greased my rings before placing them on the griddle.)
Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the mixture and beat thoroughly.
Although the recipe did not call for it, I sprinkled cornmeal on my cooking surface. Using a #20 ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops into each ring. Cover with a pot lid or cookie sheet and cook for 5-6 minutes. (I found my regular ice cream scoop worked fine, with only one scoop. Grease the cookie sheet used to cover the rings. Trust me.)
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| This picture is actually showing some with 2 scoops--too much batter. |
Remove the lid and flip rings using tongs. (Good luck keeping those muffins inside the rings if you do this only with tongs. I used tongs and a spatula.) Cover with the lid and cook for another 5-6 minutes or until golden brown.
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| I think my griddle was a little warm here. The color came out darker. And, yeah, too much batter . . . |
Place the muffins on a cooling rack, remove the rings, and cool. Split with a fork and serve.
The muffins in this last picture are from my second attempt, using only one scoop of batter, first batch cooked, when the temperature was still cooler. You can see the color is not as dark as the others, but more importantly, look at the inside! The texture is spongy, and there are plenty of places for melted butter to hide. I still haven't perfected this, but I can see the light, and they are delicious enough for me to want to continue working on it.
From start to finish, including "resting" time, these only take about an hour, so it's a simple thing to whip some up in the evening and have them all ready to toast in the morning. The hardest part is telling the kids they have to save them for breakfast.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Okregly Chleb Kartoflany
Nope, I can't pronounce it either. It's a Polish potato bread.
This is one bread recipe I found by simply browsing recipes from around the world. The deciding factor in my choice to make it right now was the large amount of leftover mashed potatoes in my refrigerator.
As my eldest daughter made the mashed potatoes this Thanksgiving, instead of me, they were especially well-suited to this purpose. When I make mashed potatoes, I put in butter, milk, salt, pepper, and maybe garlic. When she made the mashed potatoes, she put in a little butter and kept the whole thing rather dry. (I resisted the urge to insist she make them my way.) There were a lot left over, and the thought came to me while spooning it all into a container and putting it in the refrigerator that this would be the perfect opportunity to try out one of the many potato bread recipes I had found and bookmarked. (I figured the negligible amount of butter in them wouldn't affect the recipes too much.)
This was the first one I found which gave me the measurements in terms of mashed potatoes, instead of in terms of potatoes. <shrug> Hey, it makes life easier.
The recipe, as written, only makes one loaf, but I doubled it when baking. I figured if I was going to go through three rises and a 45-minute cooking time, I was going to make it more worth my while by at least making two loaves. (Besides, it used up more of those mashed potatoes.)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons butter, softened (I goofed here and used 3 Tablespoons.)
3 cups flour, divided
1 large egg, beaten
1 package active dry or instant yeast (about 2.25 teaspoons) Do not use rapid rise yeast.
4 Tablespoons warm water
1 teaspoon salt
Scald the milk and place it in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the mashed potatoes, sugar, and butter, and mix by hand.
In the mean time, dissolve the yeast in the water and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.
When the milk mixture has cooled a bit, add 1 1/2 cups flour and the egg, mixing by hand until well combined. (By hand? Face it, the bowl of my stand mixer does not lend itself well to hand mixing. I used the regular beater of my mixer until well combined. )
Add the salt and the yeast mixture to the potato mixture and mix well.
Cover the bowl and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours. (Yep, you read that right.)
It's actually rather amazing what happens to this soft mixture after 1 1/2 hours. It rises, all right, but it's one step shy of being almost a liquid. (If you jiggle the bowl, it swishes just a little.) I believe this is called a "sponge". My daughters had way too much fun jiggling the bowl and watching the dough move.
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| Remember, this batch is doubled, so the bowl is extra-full. |
Place the bowl on the stand mixer and attach the bread hook. Add that last 1 1/2 cups flour, mixing as you would normally for a yeast dough.
Place the dough in a greased bowl (twirl around and flip so the side of the dough exposed to the air is also greased.) Cover it and allow it to rise until about doubled. This took about a half hour for me in a warm location.
Punch down the dough, form it into a round loaf, and place it on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until about doubled. (Again, about a half hour for me.) In the mean time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. (Yes, it is unusual to have a bread baking at this low a temperature.)
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| Before the rise. |
With a sharp knife, cut a shallow "X" into the top of the loaf and sprinkle lightly with flour.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes. For the giggles of it, I spritzed water into the oven when I put in the bread, because I felt like trying for an extra-yummy crust. The original recipe says the bread is done when ". . . an instant-read thermometer reads 190 degrees." I have never before used a thermometer on my bread, but, just in case there was a trick to this bread, I went ahead and checked it after 40 minutes, when the bread looked done to me. No trick. It was 190 degrees. Next time, I won't bother to take the measurement.
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| Sharpen your knife, or it won't cut risen dough well. |
Bake in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes. For the giggles of it, I spritzed water into the oven when I put in the bread, because I felt like trying for an extra-yummy crust. The original recipe says the bread is done when ". . . an instant-read thermometer reads 190 degrees." I have never before used a thermometer on my bread, but, just in case there was a trick to this bread, I went ahead and checked it after 40 minutes, when the bread looked done to me. No trick. It was 190 degrees. Next time, I won't bother to take the measurement.
As I removed the bread, I was almost overcome by the absolutely wonderful roll-your-eyes-in-the-back-of-your-head-in-ecstasy smell. I tried to wait for it to cool--I really did--but the Senior Master Kitchen Helper (who had been dubious at the idea of mashed potatoes in bread) and I finally couldn't stand it anymore and decided we just had to see how it had turned out.
We couldn't stop with one slice. The crust was crusty, the interior was extra-soft and fluffy, and the smell was decadent. Good thing we made two loaves . . .
As far as I'm concerned, although it takes a little extra time, this recipe is definitely a keeper. I feel sort of badly my husband is on travel and didn't get the chance to taste it, but that means I have the excuse to make it again soon.
Craving attack!! Gotta go get another slice . . . be right back . . .
Craving attack!! Gotta go get another slice . . . be right back . . .
Monday, November 28, 2011
Hiivaleipa (Finnish Round Loaf)
Some years ago, I picked up a used book at a library support book sale. It's old. You can tell how old it is by looking at the original price on the cover: $1.95.
Actually, it's not as old as I thought it would be, which just goes to show I have no idea how book prices have changed over the years. This printing is from 1973, when I was . . . oh, who cares? I was 4.
It's a Sunset cookbook, entitled Sunset Cookbook of Breads, and it is actually a nice collection of recipes from around the world, starting with the very basics. (Although, strangely enough, it does not include a Southern-style biscuit recipe . . . No matter. I have at least two other books with that one.)
At any rate, while looking for potentially appetizing recipes to try, I stumbled on Hiivaleipa, a Finnish bread. This interested me for a few reasons: 1) it's Scandinavian, and I've been having fun with Scandinavian stuff lately, 2) my sister's husband served a mission for our church in Finland, several years ago, 3) it is round, and 4) it uses rye flour. (Actually, the recipe can use whole wheat, but I thought it would be more interesting with rye.)
Time for the ingredients!
If you are mixing by hand, roll up your sleeves. Measure the 1 1/2 cups hot water into a large mixing bowl, then stir in the butter, sugar, and salt, and allow it to cool to lukewarm. Add the yeast mixture. Stir in the rye flour with a wooden spoon and beat it for about a minute. Add 2 cups of the all-purpose flour and blend. Turn it out on a floured board (the other 1/2 cup flour) and knead it for about 10 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, or until the surface is "satiny" (according to the directions . . . how is a bread dough surface "satiny"? I'd say until it's smooth and has a dull shine, perhaps, but a better measure of finished kneading is whether or not it the dough holds it shape fairly well and doesn't stick to your fingers overly much.) The directions in the book say to place the dough in a greased bowl and brush the top with salad oil, but I think that's silly. It's too easy to miss places on the dough when you're brushing. I prefer, instead, to put some oil in a bowl, then place the bread dough on it, twirl it around, greasing both the bowl and the dough in the process, then flip the dough upside down, so the oiled side is up.
This loaf can be either sliced or cut into wedges which are then cut in half and buttered. For this first fresh loaf, I decided to cut wedges for my junior taste-testers.
The verdict? All four junior taste-testers thoroughly enjoyed their wedges with butter, eating them down to the last crumb. (Me, too.) It was nice to have a flavorful bread with a bit of variety in grain, for a change. The next day, we sliced the remaining loaf and served it as an evening snack, along with meats and cheeses, to the family, including the senior taste-tester, who has declared the bread to be a "keeper".
It occurred to me, which hadn't really occurred to me before, that this bread might benefit by adding some humidity in the baking process. According to what I have researched, the humidity in Finland is substantially higher than our desert climate. (No real surprise there.) Next time, I think I will spritz water into the oven at the start or put a dish of water on the lower rack. Could end up with something even better.
Actually, it's not as old as I thought it would be, which just goes to show I have no idea how book prices have changed over the years. This printing is from 1973, when I was . . . oh, who cares? I was 4.
It's a Sunset cookbook, entitled Sunset Cookbook of Breads, and it is actually a nice collection of recipes from around the world, starting with the very basics. (Although, strangely enough, it does not include a Southern-style biscuit recipe . . . No matter. I have at least two other books with that one.)
At any rate, while looking for potentially appetizing recipes to try, I stumbled on Hiivaleipa, a Finnish bread. This interested me for a few reasons: 1) it's Scandinavian, and I've been having fun with Scandinavian stuff lately, 2) my sister's husband served a mission for our church in Finland, several years ago, 3) it is round, and 4) it uses rye flour. (Actually, the recipe can use whole wheat, but I thought it would be more interesting with rye.)
1 1/2 cups hot water
2 Tablespoons butter or shortening (I used butter.)
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 package yeast, active dry or compressed (With my yeast, that's a little less than a Tablespoon.)
1/2 cup lukewarm water (for the yeast)
3 cups whole wheat or rye flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or more . . . Naturally, the actual number will vary depending on the humidity of the room and whether you are mixing by hand or with a stand mixer.)
Oil (to grease the bowl in which you will be rising your bread)
Mix the yeast in the the 1/2 cup lukewarm water and allow to stand for about 5 minutes.
If you are using a stand mixer with a bread hook, measure the 1 1/2 cups hot water into the bowl and add the butter, sugar, and salt. Mix it up a bit, which will both help the butter to get soft (probably won't melt all the way) and help it to cool down a little. Add about 2 cups of the rye flour and mix. Add the yeast mixture and mix, then put in the rest of the rye flour. Add all-purpose flour and mix until the dough starts cleaning up the sides of the mixer as you go. For more detailed directions on mixing a yeast bread in a stand mixture, see Mixing a Yeast Bread In a Stand Mixer. When it's finished mixing, add a little oil in the bowl and allow the mixer to turn the dough around the bowl once to grease it, then remove the bread hook. Twirl the bread dough around to make sure it's nicely oiled, then flip it upside down, with the oily side up.
If you are mixing by hand, roll up your sleeves. Measure the 1 1/2 cups hot water into a large mixing bowl, then stir in the butter, sugar, and salt, and allow it to cool to lukewarm. Add the yeast mixture. Stir in the rye flour with a wooden spoon and beat it for about a minute. Add 2 cups of the all-purpose flour and blend. Turn it out on a floured board (the other 1/2 cup flour) and knead it for about 10 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, or until the surface is "satiny" (according to the directions . . . how is a bread dough surface "satiny"? I'd say until it's smooth and has a dull shine, perhaps, but a better measure of finished kneading is whether or not it the dough holds it shape fairly well and doesn't stick to your fingers overly much.) The directions in the book say to place the dough in a greased bowl and brush the top with salad oil, but I think that's silly. It's too easy to miss places on the dough when you're brushing. I prefer, instead, to put some oil in a bowl, then place the bread dough on it, twirl it around, greasing both the bowl and the dough in the process, then flip the dough upside down, so the oiled side is up.
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| Before rising. |
Cover whichever bowl you are using for your rise with a slightly damp cloth and allow it to rise in a warm place until about doubled. For this recipe, it can take about an hour.
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| After rising. |
Punch down the dough and knead it lightly on a lightly floured board, then divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a round loaf and place it on a lightly greased baking sheet. Press each round down with your hands until the dough is about an inch thick.
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| After shaping, before second rise. |
Cover again with a damp cloth (or damp paper towels) and allow to rise about 45 minutes or until nearly doubled.
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| After the second rise. |
Bake the loaves in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the crust is lightly browned.
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| Smells so good!! |
This loaf can be either sliced or cut into wedges which are then cut in half and buttered. For this first fresh loaf, I decided to cut wedges for my junior taste-testers.
The verdict? All four junior taste-testers thoroughly enjoyed their wedges with butter, eating them down to the last crumb. (Me, too.) It was nice to have a flavorful bread with a bit of variety in grain, for a change. The next day, we sliced the remaining loaf and served it as an evening snack, along with meats and cheeses, to the family, including the senior taste-tester, who has declared the bread to be a "keeper".
It occurred to me, which hadn't really occurred to me before, that this bread might benefit by adding some humidity in the baking process. According to what I have researched, the humidity in Finland is substantially higher than our desert climate. (No real surprise there.) Next time, I think I will spritz water into the oven at the start or put a dish of water on the lower rack. Could end up with something even better.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Holiday Crescent Rolls
Crescent rolls at holidays is a long-standing tradition in my family. While I didn't like being assigned to make "normal bread" as a teenager, I would raise my hand to make the crescent rolls at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Seeing they had a willing vict- . . . I mean volunteer in the family, the rest of the family usually stepped aside and let me do it. (They tossed in a little flattery to make sure I would continue to want to take on the task . . . either that, or they actually liked the way I made them.)
I've continued this tradition in my own family. It's a good recipe for Master Kitchen Helpers or Kitchen Artistes in Training to help in the shaping, as it involves painting butter with a brush, dividing circles with a pizza cutter, and rolling triangles of dough before putting them on baking sheets. All sorts of fun to be had which doesn't require a lot of precision. (I mean all sorts . . . especially since we double the recipe, which is the maximum my stand mixer can handle at a time.)
This time, I had my Kitchen Artiste in Training helping me, but by the end, the Master Kitchen Helper and the Junior Taste-Tester had also joined us. Everyone wanted to get in on the fun.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 Tablespoon shortening
3/4 cup lukewarm water for yeast
1 Tablespoon yeast (with mine, a little less)
4 1/2 cups flour (Well, you know how flour in yeast dough recipes goes . . . probably a bit more than this.)
Butter for brushing. (You can use margarine if you want.)
Scald the milk (can be done in the microwave--makes life easy) and stir in the sugar, salt, and shortening. Cool the mixture to lukewarm. (The shortening does not have to melt.)
Mix the yeast in the lukewarm water and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes until dissolved.
If you are using a stand mixer with a bread hook, mix it all together as in Mixing a Yeast Bread in a Stand Mixer. I start by putting in about 3 cups of the flour, then adding the milk mixture. After it has mixed somewhat, I add the yeast mixture and continue with the flour until the dough is cleaning up the sides of the mixer bowl. Then I drizzle oil into the bowl, allow the bread hook to carry the dough around the bowl a couple of times, then stop it, remove the bread hook, and flip the dough over.
If you do not have a stand mixer, start with the yeast water in your bowl, then add the milk mixture, and add half of the flour. Beat it until smooth, then add the rest of the flour. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. Then place the kneaded dough into a greased bowl and brush with shortening. (I've never done that . . . place the kneaded dough into a well-oiled bowl, twirl it around a couple of times so the dough on the bottom gets nicely oiled, then flip it so the oiled side is on the top. Who wants to mess with brushing shortening when this is so much easier?)
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about one hour. Punch down the dough and turn it out on a lightly floured board. Divide the dough into three equal pieces.
Roll pieces (one at a time, of course, or you'll run out of room on your board, unless you have a very, very large board) into circles about 9 inches in diameter. (Mine always end up larger. Remember as you roll, the elastic dough will try to shrink, so you'll have to roll them larger if you want them to end up with 9-inch diameters.)
Brush with melted margarine (No way!! Butter!!).
Cut into 8 pie-shaped wedges. A pizza cutter is an excellent tool here, but only if you roll your dough out on a board, instead of the counter.
Roll up tightly and seal the points.
Place on greased baking sheets, with the points underneath, about 2 inches apart. Curve each roll to form crescents. (We don't curve them very much, but it works.)
Cover and let rise until doubled. (About an hour . . . if you find yourself a nice warm spot, it might be less. I always shoot for a half hour if I can help it.) Brush with melted margarine (Butter!!) on the tops.
Bake in an oven which has been preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 13-15 minutes.
Because I end up with so much help, my crescent rolls rarely turn out with the most beautiful shapes. But the fun we have, dancing in the kitchen to Pandora stations while taking turns in the shaping process, outweighs any desire I have for picture-perfect rolls. After all, the true value of holiday traditions is the time spent together and the memories made as families.
I've continued this tradition in my own family. It's a good recipe for Master Kitchen Helpers or Kitchen Artistes in Training to help in the shaping, as it involves painting butter with a brush, dividing circles with a pizza cutter, and rolling triangles of dough before putting them on baking sheets. All sorts of fun to be had which doesn't require a lot of precision. (I mean all sorts . . . especially since we double the recipe, which is the maximum my stand mixer can handle at a time.)
This time, I had my Kitchen Artiste in Training helping me, but by the end, the Master Kitchen Helper and the Junior Taste-Tester had also joined us. Everyone wanted to get in on the fun.
 |
| Pretty basic ingredients. |
Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 Tablespoon shortening
3/4 cup lukewarm water for yeast
1 Tablespoon yeast (with mine, a little less)
4 1/2 cups flour (Well, you know how flour in yeast dough recipes goes . . . probably a bit more than this.)
Butter for brushing. (You can use margarine if you want.)
Scald the milk (can be done in the microwave--makes life easy) and stir in the sugar, salt, and shortening. Cool the mixture to lukewarm. (The shortening does not have to melt.)
Mix the yeast in the lukewarm water and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes until dissolved.
If you are using a stand mixer with a bread hook, mix it all together as in Mixing a Yeast Bread in a Stand Mixer. I start by putting in about 3 cups of the flour, then adding the milk mixture. After it has mixed somewhat, I add the yeast mixture and continue with the flour until the dough is cleaning up the sides of the mixer bowl. Then I drizzle oil into the bowl, allow the bread hook to carry the dough around the bowl a couple of times, then stop it, remove the bread hook, and flip the dough over.
If you do not have a stand mixer, start with the yeast water in your bowl, then add the milk mixture, and add half of the flour. Beat it until smooth, then add the rest of the flour. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic. Then place the kneaded dough into a greased bowl and brush with shortening. (I've never done that . . . place the kneaded dough into a well-oiled bowl, twirl it around a couple of times so the dough on the bottom gets nicely oiled, then flip it so the oiled side is on the top. Who wants to mess with brushing shortening when this is so much easier?)
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about one hour. Punch down the dough and turn it out on a lightly floured board. Divide the dough into three equal pieces.
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| I suppose I should weigh these, especially as they are thirds. |
Roll pieces (one at a time, of course, or you'll run out of room on your board, unless you have a very, very large board) into circles about 9 inches in diameter. (Mine always end up larger. Remember as you roll, the elastic dough will try to shrink, so you'll have to roll them larger if you want them to end up with 9-inch diameters.)
Brush with melted margarine (No way!! Butter!!).
Cut into 8 pie-shaped wedges. A pizza cutter is an excellent tool here, but only if you roll your dough out on a board, instead of the counter.
Roll up tightly and seal the points.
Place on greased baking sheets, with the points underneath, about 2 inches apart. Curve each roll to form crescents. (We don't curve them very much, but it works.)
Cover and let rise until doubled. (About an hour . . . if you find yourself a nice warm spot, it might be less. I always shoot for a half hour if I can help it.) Brush with melted margarine (Butter!!) on the tops.
Bake in an oven which has been preheated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 13-15 minutes.
Because I end up with so much help, my crescent rolls rarely turn out with the most beautiful shapes. But the fun we have, dancing in the kitchen to Pandora stations while taking turns in the shaping process, outweighs any desire I have for picture-perfect rolls. After all, the true value of holiday traditions is the time spent together and the memories made as families.
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| Fluffy!! |
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