English Muffins

English Muffins

http://growingupgabel.blogspot.com

I've never been a big fan of English muffins. I went through a phase in my early 20s where I ate them instead of bagels (less calories, I think), but I didn't like it. My husband, however, loves English muffins. I am happy to buy them for him, but they are expensive and it's hard to find an organic version. I looked in to making them, but every recipe I saw called for English muffin rings and I just didn't see the point in buying something I could only use for one thing (well, I could use them for hamburger buns, too).

I was pretty excited when I found this recipe -- no rings and basic ingredients. English muffins are "baked" on the stove top in a frying pan or skillet. They are super simple to make, but they take some time so don't start them if you are in a hurry. They taste absolutely nothing like the store bought brand. They are much better!

English Muffins
1 3/4 cup warmed milk
2 teaspoons yeast
3 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
4-4 1/4 cups flour (white, whole wheat or any combination thereof)
Corn meal

Put milk, yest, sugar and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Allow butter to mostly melt. Add rest of ingredients. Mix until well combined. Remove bowl from stand mixer and fold dough over a few times while in the bowl. The dough will be sticky so you may need to use a tad of flour. Either grease bowl of stand mixer or lightly grease another bowl and allow dough to rise in a warm place for about an hour.

Punch down dough. Roll dough in to a rectangle on surface lightly dusted with corn meal. Using a 3" round cookie cutter, cut out dough. Re-roll and re-cut as needed until all the dough is used up. Place cut dough on cookie sheets and cover with a wet towel. Allow to rest for 20 minutes.

Warm a large pan (with a top) over low heat on stove top. Sprinkle pan with corn meal. Cook muffins for 6-7 minutes on each side, covered. Be gentle when turning so as not to deflate the muffins too much. Cool on a rack. These are freezable!

Macaroni Grills Rosemary Herbed Bread

Bread Machine Recipe for Macaroni Grills Rosemary Herbed Bread

http://idahofergusonfamily.blogspot.com

Bread Machine Rosemary Herbed Bread Like Macaroni Grill
Ingredients
• 1 cup water
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons rosemary
• 1 Tablespoon yeast
• additional rosemary to garnish

Directions
1. Place ingredients, according to manufacturer's directions into your bread machine.
2. (some call for all liquids, or all dry ingredients first, so know your machine) Set machine to "dough cycle" and wait. (This takes most machines about an hour and a half for a full cycle).
3. Remove from machine when cycle is complete and place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
4. Shape dough by hand, into a rectangular mound, spreading kind of thin, maybe an inch or two of thickness.
5. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size. (This is a good time to go ahead and turn the oven on to preheat and help warm the kitchen).
6. Brush with a little olive oil, sprinkle with rosemary and salt if desired. (This is the way its done at Macaroni Grill).
7. Bake at 375°F for 20-25 minutes until crust is golden and crispy. Bread is meant to be a flatter shape and not a high rising bread.
8. Have everyone tear their pieces of bread with their hands,and serve with olive oil flavored with fresh ground pepper.

World’s Best Honey Cornbread Recipe

by Crystal on January 20, 2011

moneysavingmom.com

World’s Best Honey Cornbread

• 2/3 cup sugar (I used turbinado.)
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream sugar and butter. Add in eggs, honey and milk and mix well.

Mix together flour, baking powder, corn meal and salt. Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients carefully. Do not overmix. Batter will be lumpy.

Pour batter in greased 11×14-inch baking pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Hamburger Buns

Hamburger Buns

/www.tasteofhome.com

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (110° to 115°)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough.
• Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place 3 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
• Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: 1 dozen.

Texas Flour Tortillas

Texas Flour Tortillas (adapted from The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison) homesicktexan.blogspot.com
Ingredients:
Two cups of all-purpose flour (can make them whole wheat by substituting one cup of whole-wheat flour for white flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of warm milk

Method:
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and oil.
Slowly add the warm milk.
Stir until a loose, sticky ball is formed.
Knead for two minutes on a floured surface. Dough should be firm and soft.
Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap for 20 minutes.
After the dough has rested, break off eight sections, roll them into balls in your hands, place on a plate (make sure they aren’t touching) and then cover balls with damp cloth or plastic wrap for 10 minutes. (It’s very important to let the dough rest, otherwise it will be like elastic and won’t roll out to a proper thickness and shape.)
After dough has rested, one at a time place a dough ball on a floured surface, pat it out into a four-inch circle, and then roll with a rolling pin from the center until it’s thin and about eight inches in diameter. (If you roll out pie crusts you’ll have no problem with this.) Don’t over work the dough, or it’ll be stiff. Keep rolled-out tortillas covered until ready to cook.
In a dry iron skillet or comal heated on high, cook the tortilla about thirty seconds on each side. It should start to puff a bit when it’s done.
Keep cooked tortillas covered wrapped in a napkin until ready to eat.
Can be reheated in a dry iron skillet, over your gas-burner flame or in the oven wrapped in foil.
While you probably won’t have any leftovers, you can store in the fridge tightly wrapped in foil or plastic for a day or so.
Makes eight tortillas.

Homemade Graham Crackers

Homemade Graham Crackers (Makes A LOT, depending on the shape you cut them in)

weelicious.com

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Butter, chilled & cubed
1/4 Cup Honey
1/4 Cup Water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a food processor or mixer combine the first 6 ingredients.
3. Add cubed and chilled butter to the mix and pulse/mix until it resembles coarse meal.
4. Add honey and water and continue to mix until it all combines.
5. Remove and shape the dough into a flat disk and place between two pieces of parchment paper.
6. Roll dough out until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into crackers or shapes.*
7. Place cookies on a Silpat or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
8. Cool and serve.

*To Freeze: After step 6, place the cut out cookie shapes on a baking sheet and freeze for 20 minutes. Remove, place in a Ziploc bag, label and freeze for up to 4 months. When ready to bake, follow steps 7-8, adding an additional 1-2 minutes baking time.

** If you have no Whole Wheat, you can use 1 Cup Oat Bran to 2 Cups AP Flour instead of what the recipe calls for and it works perfect!

Pasta Handkerchiefs

Fazzoletti (Pasta Handkerchiefs) With Chunky Pesto

Time: At least 1 hour

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

1 teaspoon salt, plus more as needed

2 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

2 cups loosely packed basil leaves, rinsed and dried

1/2 clove garlic, peeled, or more to taste

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, or more as desired

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish

Pepper.

1. Pulse flour and salt in a food processor once or twice. Add the eggs and yolks, and turn the machine on. Process just until a ball begins to form, about 30 seconds. Add a few drops of water if the dough is dry and grainy; add a tablespoon of flour if the dough sticks to the side of the bowl. Turn the dough out of the food processor, sprinkle it with a little flour, cover it with plastic or a cloth, and let it rest for about 30 minutes. (At this point, you may refrigerate the dough, wrapped in plastic, until you’re ready to roll it out, for up to 24 hours.)

2. Meanwhile, in a food processor or blender, combine the basil with a pinch of salt, the garlic and about half the oil. Process, stopping to scrape down the sides of the container if necessary, and adding the rest of the oil gradually. Add the nuts and cheese, and pulse a few times. The pesto should be well combined but still chunky.

3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Divide the dough in half. Turn one half of the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a large rectangle no thicker than 1/4 inch and ideally closer to 1/8 inch, adding additional flour sparingly as necessary. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

4. Cut into squares no larger than 4 inches across. Drop the squares into the water and cook until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, reserving a little of the cooking water. Toss the handkerchiefs with the pesto, some salt and pepper, and a spoonful of cooking water, if necessary, to thin the pesto. Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan.

Yield: 4 servings.

Homemade bagel recipe

Homemade bagel recipe. Make great handrolled water bagels, it's as easy as baking a loaf of bread!

By John D Lee

photo credit: tabacoa.com

photo credit: the freshloaf.com

photo credit: antarcticsun.com

Homemade bagels taste better!

I've made a lot of bagels in my time. I owned a bagel restaurant for years, and you would find me every bleary eyed morning kneading the dough and hand rolling all the fresh bagels for the day.

I've since gotten out of the bagel game (Yay sleep!) but I still love a great bagel.

People think that making outstanding bagels at home is really difficult, but it's really no harder than making a loaf of bread...and can be done within about an hour.

Don't be discouraged if your bagels look at bit funny at first, you'll get the hang of it in no time, and those curiously shaped bagels will still beat supermarket bagels hands down.

What makes a bagel different from other breads is the two stage cooking process. A bagel is first briefly boiled, and then baked. I worked the meat counter in a Jewish deli as a teenager, and as my boss would say, an unboiled bagel is just a roll with a hole!

Homemade bagel recipe

4 cups bread flour

1 Tbls sugar

1 1/2 tsps salt

1 Tbls vegetable oil

2 tsps instant yeast

1-1/4- 1-1/2 cups of warm water.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. You don't have to worry about soaking the yeast when you use instant yeast (most yeast sold these days is instant yeast). The dough should feel stiff, but add the extra water if it's really stiff, or you can't get all the dry flour incorporated.

Plop the dough down onto the counter, and knead for about ten minutes, or until the dough is uniform and smooth.

Cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls, and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Pre heat your oven to 425.

Now, take each of the dough balls and using two hands, roll it into a little snake on the counter. When the snake is longer than the width of your two hands, wrap it around your dominant roiling hand. The dough rope should be wrapped so the overlapping ends are together at your palm, near the start of your fingers. Now take the two overlapping ends, and use your palm to squish/roll these two ends together. Once the dough is fused, you should have a perfectly circular bagel-to-be! This is the only part of the process that can take a little practice before your bagels will look really professional. Don't get discouraged if they don't look perfect, it just takes practice!

Let your bagels rest on the counter for about 20 minutes, and meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil, and grease a large baking tray lightly. You can just rub a splash of vegetable oil and rub it around.

After the 20 minute wait, your bagels will start to look puffy, and it's time to get them boiling! Add them as many at a time as you can to your boiling water without crowding them. Boil for about a minute, turn them over, and boil for another minute. Take them out a let dry for a minute and then place them on your oiled baking tray. Repeat until all the bagels are boiled.

Add the tray to the oven, and after 10 minutes, flip the bagels over, bake for another ten minutes; and they're done!

Let them cool for at least 20 minutes, get the cream cheese ready, and feast on what's got to be one of the best weekend brunch treats possible!

You can add any toppings you like to these. To make sesame, onions, poppy seed, caraway etc. etc. bagels just have a dry plate ready with the seed or spice topping spread out on it. After the bagels have come out of the boiling water, place them face down onto the seeds, and then place the seed side up onto the baking tray. Bake and flip as for plain bagels.

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

Auntie Anne’s Pretzels

1 1/2 C. warm water
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast (1 1/2 pkg.)
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 1/8 tsp salt
1 C. bread flour
3 C. regular flour
2 C. warm water
2 Tbsp baking soda
To taste, coarse salt
2 – 4 Tbsp butter (melted)

Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often.

After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in oven at 450 for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Breadmaker: French Bread

Breadmaker: French Bread

To make a crusty French bread loaf I make the dough in the breadmaker but finish cooking the loaf in the oven, so that I can make bread sticks or a more rustic-looking loaf than would be produced in the breadmaker.



Ingredients

375 ml water
3 tsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tbs sugar
600g/ 4 cups bread flour
1.5 tsp yeast

Method:

1. Place into breadmaker pan in the order recommended by your breadmaker.

2. Place pan into your breadmaker, select the DOUGH cycle and start the machine.

3. When the machine is finished, remove the dough and punch down. Knead gently and shape into a rough loaf shape, or two long bread sticks. Place onto a greased tray and score the top with a sharp knife about 1/2" deep. Rest, and allow to rise for around 50-60 minutes, until it has doubled in size.

4. Glaze the top with milk, and bake in a preheated 200'C (180'C fan-forced) oven for 20-25 minutes, or until cooked and golden brown.

www.towards-sustainability.com

Pizza & Dough

I found this recipe through momadvice.com.

I feel that I have 'cheated' a little bit since this recipe calls for the use of a bread machine and some of my readers will not have bread machines. My advice, if you are looking for a bread machine, is to first look for one at a thrift store, they should have outlets available for you to plug in a try out the machine. Otherwise you can look for a local Italian grocery store who may sell fresh dough (locally, Cantoro's Market, 7 and Middlebelt), or you could pick up frozen pizza dough at any grocery store.

Most of the ingredients you should already have in your cupboards.
Ingredients: water, corn meal, olive oil, flour, onion powder, garlic powder, yeast, salt, baking powder and sugar (in the blue lidded container).

First I placed all of the dry ingredients into my bread maker.

Followed by the water and the olive oil.

The dough setting on my machine takes an hour and forty minutes... so plan well in advance.

This dough recipe claims to be a knock off of Pizza Hut's... I haven't eaten at Pizza Hut in years (and I didn't order one for a side by side comparison) but my husband (who prefers Jett's) said that this pizza had "great taste!"

The dough batch is enough for two medium pizzas, or a large pizza and bread sticks.

Toppings Side Note: I've made a few home-baked pizzas in my day, and so I've learned that a single (15-ish oz) can of pizza sauce can cover 3 pizzas. When I first open my can of sauce, I divide it into thirds and freeze the two remaining thirds for later date pizzas.

I also decided to shred my Mozzarella on the larger shred side of the grater. I used 2 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese on my pizza- and trust me, it was plenty!!!

We have purchased pre-made pizza dough from Cantoro's Market (really yummy) and just spread our toppings on top and baked the pizza. This Pizza Hut clone's recipe calls for parbaking the crust for 10 minutes BEFORE adding the sauce an toppings. PARBAKE: to prebake. Who knew?

Side Note: When rolling out/stretching out your dough, use floured hands and a floured surface... and if your dough is sticky, coat it will more flour.

I decided to only bake a single medium sized pizza (since it is just the three of us) and I packed the second half for the freezer! (We'll see how that turns out... my plan is to let it thaw in the fridge over night before I make my next pizza.)

This is what parbaking did to my crust. (If you peek at the upper right section of my crust you can see my 'crust band-aid,' my husband found a You Tube video on pizza dough tossing (as if...) and you are supposed to spread the dough out on the backs of your hands with your knuckles... again, who knew?)

Then I layered on our toppings, 'his and hers' style (I'm the Feta and tomato half :) ).

After baking our pizza for 10-15 minutes, this is what was pulled from the oven. Delicious!

Thick and crusty! The only thing that I'd do differently next time, is I would butter the crust edges a little bit before the final baking!

Recipe Recap: (baking temperature: 450*)
1 1/3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil (+ additional for parbaking step)
2 tablespoons of cornmeal
3 1/4 cups of flour (not bread flour, just regular flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of yeast

Homemade Pancake Mix

We normally keep a box of Bisquick on hand, but every once in a while my family has a pancake hankering after we have finished the last box on our shelf! So just in time for Christmas, I decided to share a 'pantry staples' version of easy pancake making... along with some tips from my pancake flippingextraordinaire husband!

This mix is simply made from flour, milk, and egg, butter, sugar, salt and baking powder. These ingredients should already be in your cupboards!

First, combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, mix well.

Next, in a separate bowl, beat the egg until it is bubbly!

Add the remaining wet ingredients with the frothy egg. (Milk and melted butter).

I add my secret weapon of pure vanilla extract! My husband brings me Haitian vanilla when he returns from his Raincathers trips! Haitian vanilla is POTENT! Yum!

Combine the wet and the dry ingredients, and this is what your batter will look like!

I need to mention a few key pancake pointers before I continue:

1. I am NOT the lead pancake maker in our home. I'm the lead dish washer!!! Dave is much more skilled than I am, but I LOVE you guys... so I persevered and 'pancaked it up' for your benefit!!!

2. Whether you make your pancakes on a griddle (like me) or in a pan, make sure that your surface is HOT!!! (300*- 350* if you are using a griddle). I accidentally unplugged my griddle without realizing it... so it wasn't super hot(again, this is why I'm the lead dish washer...). You can test the heat of the surface by splashing a little bit of water on the surface- and if it quickly 'dances' and goes up in steam... you're set to begin dropping batter onto the surface!

3. If your batter doesn't form perfectly round circles (like when your heat has been GREATLY reduced... or turned off), you can use the back of a spoon to help evenly spread out your batter!

4. Patience is a virtue.

Soon after dropping, your batter will begin to puff!

You will know when your pancakes are ready to be flipped on three accounts: 1. your batter will begin to bubble (let the bubbles pop!) and 2. your pancakes will stop steaming- you'll recognize this when you see it, and 3. the edges and eventually the surface of your pancake will begin to lose its shiny batter look.

Duh- lish!

This recipe makes between 8 & 12 good sized pancakes, and this recipe could easily be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled!

This, by far, is my favorite way to eat any pancake!!! I call this a pancake taco!!! No butter or syrup necessary (great for even the messiest family members!)!

Recipe Recap:

1 cup of flour

1 egg

3/4 cup of milk

2 tablespoons of melted butter

1 tablespoon of sugar

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

*1 teaspoon of vanilla*

Muffins

This is a simple and versatile recipe with ingredients that are most likely right in your cupboards! Flour, milk, sugar (in the lidded container), vegetable oil, baking powder, salt, an egg and something yummy to mix into the batter... I chose strawberries!

My son and I picked these strawberries last summer on a vacation up north...Mmmm, so yummy and special! Still frozen, I placed the berries in my food chopper.

I chopped enough for a cup's worth. The recipe that I am using (modified from Recipeczar.com) calls for just half a cup... but I prefer more yummy stuff!!!

***Keep in mind that you could use other mix- ins like blueberries, banana's or chocolate chips!

I wanted my muffins to have more of a breakfasty healthy-ness to them, so I added 1 1/2 cups of white flour and 1/2 cup of wheat flour... I'd just use while flour for more of a 'treat' type of muffin!!!

... and in goes the baking powder and the salt!

In a separate "wet ingredient bowl," I combined the milk, the egg and the oil.

Slowly, I added the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

Lastly, I added the strawberries- they looked so beautiful in my mix!

Since I was primarily baking these muffins for my son (he just turned two), I used my mini muffin pans- but otherwise I would have used a 12 sectioned regular sized pan for this recipe.

After baking for just 18 minutes... they were perfect!

I LOVED the pink hue of the strawberries!

And yes, my son enjoyed them... especially with butter!

Recipe Recap:

2 cups of flour

1/2 cup of sugar

1 Tablespoon of baking powder

1/2 Teaspoon of salt

1 Egg

3/4 cup of milk

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

1 cup of fruit or chocolate

Serving size, 12 muffins

Bake at 400* for 18-20 minutes!

Dinner Rolls

I recently found this recipe and couldn't wait to try it out! I have really been enjoying making yummy foods from scratch! The taste of a little bit of time mixed with effort has been delicious!

To begin making the dinner rolls, first add 1/2 C. milk to 1/4 C. of water, and add 2T. of butter. Warm these ingredients on the stove top (Do not boil! I just watched the butter chunks melt to know when the liquids were warm enough!)

While the milk, butter and water are warming, mix 3/4 C. flour, 1/2t. salt, 2T. sugar and an envelope of rapid rise yeast.

Add wet mix to the flour mix and beat for 2 minutes in your mixer.

Add 1/4 C. flour and beat on high for 2 more minutes.

Slowly, add 1C. of flour... I did this step 1/4 C. at a time!

Next, the dough needs to be kneaded! Generously flour your work surface, and knead for 8-10 minutes. *If you have never kneaded dough before, it is very simple! Smush the dough with the heels of your hands, pressing the dough away from your body. Then spin the dough 45 degrees and knead again!

Knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes.

After kneading, the dough needs to rest for 10 minutes. I made my dough into a ball, and then I laid a damp paper towel over the dough while it rested.

Then I cut the dough into 12 even pieces.

I should have taken more time to shape the dough into balls... next time!

The 12 dinner rolls need to be placed into a well greased round baking pan.

(I placed 9 rolls around the edges and three in the center!)

The dinner rolls now need to rise.

I covered my pan with aluminum foil and set the pan on our stove top with the burner on the lowest setting. The rolls need to rise for 30 minutes.

After the rolls have had half an hour to rise (the warmth from the burner really helps!), brush the tops with a little bit of melted butter and gently sprinkle with salt!

Bake the rolls for 20 minutes at 375*. Mmm, these rolls were delicious- even a little bit sweet!

I think that the next time that I make these rolls, that I will multiply the quantity. I am thinking that I will not allow the dough to rise, I will just roll into balls, after the dough has rested, and then freeze the dough for individual rolls for a later date. I'll keep you posted!

Recipe Recap:

2-2 1/4 C. all purpose flour

1 envelope yeast

2T. sugar

1/2t. salt

1/2 C. milk

1/4 C. water

2T. butter