Molasses dairy-free sticky rolls

First note: you can not make caramel with brown sugar and coconut oil. But, if you stir in blackstrap molasses and stir like crazy, you can make a syrup that solidifies into molasses candy as soon as it cools. I'm thinking Popsicle sticks and spinning it into lollipops...

For the dough:
- 2 cups organic white flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup sourgum flour
- 1/4 cup ground flax meal
- small handful granulated sugar
- pinch salt
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup warm coconut oil
Combine.
In another container, mix:
- 1 cup warm soy milk
- 2 tablespoons yeast
- 1/4 cup local raw honey

Combine and knead. Let rise until double. Could take 90 minutes.

Make caramel (see my note above)

Preheat oven to 350. Have daughter roll dough into rectangle. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans.

Roll and pinch ends closed. Shape into nice cylinder.

Put some "caramel" on the bottom of a cake pan. Slice into buns. Place buns in pan. Top with "caramel."

Now you're supposed to let them rise 30 more minutes, but I forgot.

Bake 30-35 minutes.

Cranberry orange bread

I decided to modify my cinnamon raisin bread into a cranberry orange loaf. I started with the Traditional White Bread from my 25th anniversary Betty Crocker cookbook.

CRANBERRY ORANGE BREAD
- about 2 cups whole wheat flour
- about 5 cups unbleached white flour
- 1.5 tablespoons local honey
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons (or did I use a tablespoon?) yeast
- 1 cup triple sec, heated (plus more for bowl)
- 1 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 cup raisins and craisins

Mix the wheat flour and 2 cups white flour with the butter, salt, sugar, honey and yeast. Add liquid. Stir thoroughly with wooden spoon.

Add fruit and enough remaining flour until the dough is elastic and not wet to the touch. Need ten minutes.

Sprinkle light amounts triple sec into the bowl (straight from the bottle), and drop the dough in. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

Now, my house is always low so I preheat my oven to 200, turn the oven off and open the door and let most of the hot air out. Then I put the dough in and close the door.

The dough is ready when it doubles in size. Push a finger in and if the indentation remains, it's ready.

Knead again. Grease two loaf pans. Divide dough in half. Make rectangles, roll them tightly and then tuck the ends under. Put them in the loaf pans.

Preheat oven to 425. Cover dough and let rise 30 minutes. Until they double. I place my loaf pan on the burner where the oven exhausts so that hot air will keep it warm.

Bake 15-20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Foccaccia

To use the ripe tomatoes my mother brought us from her garden, I opted to make a homemade herb foccaccia. As usual, there's the 'real' recipe and my modified version.

We're serving this for dinner with farm-fresh corn-on-the-cob and hopefully the last of the greenbeans from my garden.

I've had the original recipe for more than a decade. My notes say it originated with the VegList, a veg*n email recipe exchange list I belonged to when I first decided to learn to cook. I seem to remember a similar recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I guess I'll have to trust my memory.

Rosemary Foccaccia
from VegList
For the dough

• 1/4 ounce active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water, lukewarm
• 3 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 to 4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup fresh rosemary leaves, minced

Topping

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds onions, sliced thin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• fresh rosemary sprigs
  

Garden Foccaccia
Angel's version

For the dough:

• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (maybe a little less)
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground pasta and pizza seasoning

For the topping:
combine in food processor:

• close to 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons fresh chives

1 to 2 tomatoes, sliced
parmesan cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Combine water and yeast in bowl. Stir with non-metal spoon and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. If you're making Angel's version, prepare the pesto topping and refrigerate to give flavors time to meld.

3. Once the yeast is activated, add the salt and 2 teaspoons olive oil to the yeast and stir with the non-metal spoon. Add 2 cups of flour (if using wheat or rye, use one cup of wheat/rye and one cup white) and the herbs-- fresh rosemary for the rosemary foccaccia and the pasta seasoning for the garden foccaccia. Stir with a heavy wooden spoon.

4. Add another cup flour and stir as dough begins to form a ball. Turn onto floured surface and knead until soft and elastic. Add more flour as dough becomes sticky and difficult to work with. Knead for about ten minutes.

5. Oil a large bowl (with olive oil, cooking spray or butter). Place dough in bowl and flip to coat. Cover bowl with clean, damp cloth and place somewhere warm and free of drafts to allow to rise. It needs to double in volume. Should take about 90 minutes.

6. When it's done, punch down. Oil a 12 x 18 baking pan, including the edges. Place dough in center of pan and spread across the surface evenly. Cover with damp cloth again and let rise for 45 minutes.

7. While dough is rising, if making the rosemary version, heat two tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet and sauté the onions in the oil, turning to coat as they begin cooking. Cook about 15 minutes until soft but not burned. The oil should be absorbed. (I hate onions so I have never done this.)

8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. When dough is done rising, make indentations with your fingers in the surface of the dough. Lightly brush olive oil (for the rosemary version) or pesto (for Angel's version) across the bread. Sprinkle with salt if desired. (I don't)

9. If using the onions, spread them evenly across the dough now. I use fresh tomato instead, sliced thin. Raw. I brush the remaining oil/sauce over them as I place them. I also sprinkle parmesan cheese.

10. Bake for 30 minutes until dough is lightly browned. If using fresh rosemary as part of the topping, add in the last five minutes of cooking.

Rye rolls take two

My dad and his wife are hosting a picnic today, so, I knew I should bring something but I had no idea what. I'm not a cold salad person, and I don't have the ingredients for any of the cold salads I like. As usual, I'm plotting at the last minute.

My stepmom usually has burgers and corn and watermelon. I opted to make rolls. No one else will make bread, that's for sure, and it's nice and humid. Perfect for bread. My stepmom was surprised to get my call this morning with that news. Hopefully they turn out yummy.

I've taken to storing all my flour in the freezer. My luck lately has been far from good regarding the longevity of my flour. Also, this was my first batch of bread with the brick of yeast from Gayle. There's 32 ounces of yeast there. The date on the bag suggests "best by 2/2011" so it should be interesting to see how long it takes me to use it.

Verdict on batch two of the rye rolls: (recipe available via rye link)
Delicious when you follow the recipe.

Sticky buns

I wanted to make sticky buns today, so I started them before class and worked the dough after...I need to work this afternoon, so I plan to leave them in the oven and set the oven timer to have them cooking when we get home... These photos are from the last time I made them, which is probably a year ago. Yes, I'm serving these for dinner. Maybe with scrambled eggs. The base recipe is from the Betty Crocker cookbook.

Caramel Sticky Rolls
3 1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 packages yeast
1 cup very warm milk
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 egg

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
3/4 cup pecan halves

2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Phase 1: Mix two cups of the flour, 1/3 cup sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add warm milk, 1/3 cup butter and egg. Mix for one minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough flour to make the dough easy to handle.

Phase 2: Knead on floured surface for five minutes. Place in greased bowl and let rise about 1.5 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Phase 3: Heat one cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup butter to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add corn syrup. Pour into bottom of 13x9x2 pan. Sprinkle with pecan halves.

Phase 4: Punch down dough. Flatten into rectangle about 10" by 15" . Spread with two tablespoons margarine. Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle evenly over dough. Roll from the 15" side and pinch to seal. Shape as desired. Cut into 15 one-inch slices and arrange in pan slightly apart. Let rise 30 minutes in a warm place until doubled.

Final phase: Preheat oven to 350. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately invert onto heatproof serving platter. Let stand one minute until sauce drains.

How I changed it: I swapped out the chopped pecans for loads of raisins and golden raisins. I also used almond milk instead of milk, and applesauce instead of egg. And I got way more than the original yield, so I left the end of the roll a "loaf" and figured I'd cook it on it's own. And I omitted the corn syrup (just used water).

Pizza for Lunch

So by the time I returned from taking my daughter to the library, I opted for pizza for lunch with a winter salad. Except now that I'm 75% through the preparation, my blood sugar is out of whack making it near impossible to prepare a nice winter salad. Hopefully, we can have that for dinner maybe to accompany a quick boxed mac n cheese. I'm  working late again.

With my preschooler's help, I made a hybrid Quick Pizza Dough, combining a quick recipe with a more standard recipe, both from Veglist, a veg*n recipe email list I used to belong to years ago when I was learning to cook.

A note about yeast. If you plan to make a lot of bread products forget the individual packets. Get the jar. It's in the refrigerator/dairy aisle. Even if it says it's for bread machines or whatever... it works. And if your house is cold and drafty and your bread won't rise, place it on top of a warm oven or preheat your oven to about 150 degrees, turn it off, let some of the heat out and stick the dough in there for a while. Not too hot or it will cook, not rise.

Note on pizza sauce: I do use pre-jarred. Specifically Wegmans. And there's a reason why. I read labels, and Wegmans Chunky Pizza sauce offers 15 % RDA vitamin A and some calcium and some iron in every serving. Nothing in a can had nutritional value. (Plus it tastes good.)

Note on cheese: This is one of those items that I will keep some preshredded pizza blend cheese in the house. I usually get it at Aldi's, and I make sure the cost is pretty darn close to what I pay for the block. I say it's so I can make a quick easy meal, but I could grate my own cheese quick while the dough rises for the crust.

On to the recipes...

This is what I made today:

Today's Pizza Crust

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix:

1 cup hot tap water;

1 teaspoon yeast;

1 teaspoon honey;

1 teaspoon olive oil;

Separately:

3 cups flour (only because I accidently used TWICE the water I was supposed to; if you're into wheat, substitute up to half with wheat flour);

1 teaspoon salt;

italian seasoning;

garlic pepper;

1 tablespoon sesame seeds (I get mind at the mediterranean deli);

Combine, knead, adding flour as needed so it doesn't get sticky. Let rest about 15 minutes (I put mine in a towel on top of the preheating oven). Grease pan lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle on some cornmeal and some sesame seeds. (I one heard the cornmeal helps get the bottom of the crust that genuine texture.) When dough is ready, spread in pan. Top as desired. Bake 15-20 minutes. My daughter's favorite toppings-- broccoli and black olives. Neither of which we used today.

 

PS-- it ain't pretty, but my daughter was in charge of the sauce. When you have a four-year-old cooking, pretty isn't on the menu.

Why did I ever use a bread machine?

I live very close to a bread factory. Really. I do. When the wind blows just right, you can stand on my back porch and smell baking bread from the yard. When we drive by, our daughter always says "I smell toast. We're almost home." And it's true. It's a good thing. The neighborhood could smell like sewage or something. I think my college roommate once lived not-quite-close enough to a coffee processor. She couldn't smell it from her house, but she'd drive by occasionally.

We don't eat much bread because we don't do processed lunch meat. If you don't consider sandwiches the staple lunch, bread loses a lot of its necessity. That said, my neighborhood Giant Food Store makes a multi-grain sandwich bread that makes the GREATEST toast ever. So I indulged, about a loaf a month. Until the price reached $4.50/loaf.

Then I started with the bread machine. My results were unpredictable. One loaf would fall flat. One would be perfect. One would be sticky. Now years ago I tried making bread by hand and had the same problems. The recipes all came from my Betty Crocker cookbook and Betty had disappointed me.

And then one day I wanted a baguette. But I didn't have the car. (We only have one in our family.) And I could walk to the grocery store. But the kid... wouldn't. It's too far. I wanted that bread so bad...

So I looked on the internet...

And found a simple recipe.

And now, about six months later, I have finally made a baguette that resembles French bread. The shape has improved. The outside crisp and the inside soft. And bread is indeed an art. Funny thing is... today is the first time I deviated significantly from the original recipe.