Recipilicious

Experimenting with bread recipes is one of the most fun, low-stakes ways to try something new and know you’ll still have something good to eat for dinner.  This, unlike my favorite Artisan bread recipe, includes some fat but works really well.

The author of Bake!, Nick Malgieri, provides the complicated, but ultimately satisfying recipe I include below in the interest of teaching us laypeople some established baking techniques, but doesn’t provide many suggestions on what to do with this bread.  I tried a straight-up loaf and some braided mini-loafs.  

Note: This bread needs to raise several times, so only start this if you’ve got some serious time to kill. Also, a thermometer can be purchased at any baking store (and most grocery stores) and is a must-have for any bread-baker. :)

Makes 1 3/4 lbs of dough

3 2/3 cups bread four (or unbleached all-purpose flour.  Soon flour into a dry-measure cup and level off)

1 1/2 tsp non-iodized salt or fine sea salt

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (not rapid rise or instant)

1 1/3 cups warm water (about 100F - no hotter than 110F)

1 tbsp olive oil, plus 1/2 tsp for oiling the bowl 

1. Mix the flour and salt together in a small bowl and set aside. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk the yeast into the water.  Wait 30 seconds, then whisk again to make sure all the yeast is dissolved.  Whisk in the oil.

3. Use a large rubber spatula to mix in half the flour to make a paste. Add abut half the remaining flour, mixing it in by repeatedly digging down to the bottom of the bowl with the spatula until the spatula is parallel to the bottom of the bowl and folding upward.  Add the last of the flour and repeat the folding motion all the flour is absorbed and there are no dry bits stuck to the side of the bowl. 

4. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes. 

5. Repeat the digging and folding motion in the dough using a clean rubber spatula.  Cover and let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes again. 

6. Lightly oil a bowl large enough to hold twice the quantity of dough you now have.  Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface.  Flour your hands, not the top of the dough, and pat the dough into a rough rectangle.  Fold one of the narrow ends of the dough over the middle, then fold the other end over to make three layers. Turn the dough 90 degrees so that the folded side is facing you and repeat the folding. Invert the dough into the oiled bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap.  Let the dough rise for 15 minutes, then repeat the folding. 

7. Lightly oil the bowl again if necessary and put the dough back in the bowl.  Turn the dough over so that the top is oiled.  Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until it has doubled in bulk, 45 minutes to 1 hour. 

8. Use the dough immediately. 

So, I know what you’re thinking. “What’s the deal, you said we’d get a French dressing recipe!” And you will, my friends.  But while I wait to scrounge up the dough (pun!) for ingredients, try this yummy sweet potato mash while you wait.

This is good for tortillas, a flat bread topping (this is how I plan to use it), or as a side unto itself.

Ingredients:

• 2 peeled, cubed sweet potatoes
• 2 tbsp water saute
• 2  diced onions
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 T minced fresh green chile
• 4 t ground cumin
• 4 t ground coriander
• 1 28oz can cooked black beans
• 2/3 C lightly packed cilantro leaves
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1 t salt

What you do:

Boil sweet potatoes until tender, drain and set aside.  Simmer onions, garlic, and chile with 2 tbsp water (until onions are translucent).  Add cumin and coriander and cook for another minute or two.

In a food processor (you can use a blender, it just takes some extra work), place sweet potatoes and onions; blend until smooth.  Add beans, lemon, cilantro, and salt and puree until beans are almost completely incorporated.

Place the mixture in a baking dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  (If you have other things in the oven at the same time, this can cook at other temperatures). In fact, I’m cooking mine at 450 with some yummy whole wheat flat bread!

Remove from oven and eat your heart out—this is a healthy, lowfat, and super-yummy food!

So… one of my favorite guilty pleasures is French Dressing (something I assume the French would find a less-than-favorable appellation).  Any recipe I could find for “French” dressing had, to my dismay, ketchup!  So, because ketchup doesn’t often make its way into my kitchen, and because it wouldn’t be very “from-scratch” of me to throw ketchup into a recipe, I dediced to come up with a ketchup recipe.

After researching the many ketchup recipes out there, I finally came up with this little ditty (which is just so much more delicious than store-bought ketchup):

Ingredients:

• 1 28 oz can stewed tomatoes
• 1 chopped medium sized onion
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup sugar (brown if you have it, but white will do)
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp salt

What you do:

Sautee onions in olive oil until translucent.  Simultaneously, drain and puree the stewed tomatoes.  Once the onions are ready, add tomato puree, sugar, vinegar, and salt in cooked onions and satuee until thick (about 1 hour).

Finally, pour ketchup into blender and puree until smooth.  Use to garnish your favorite veggie burger, or save for the upcoming French dressing recipe!

This’ll keep for about three weeks in your fridge. :D

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Here’s a healthy dessert… so sweet, you won’t believe there’s no processed sugar.

Ingredients

• ½ cup water
• 3 cups 1-inch pieces cantaloupe (about ½ cantaloupe)

Puree cantaloupe in blender until smooth; add water.

Freeze until firm (3 hours or overnight).

Cover and keep frozen.

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Unlike the Pavlovia, these are a sometimes-food.  They’re so good they’re bad.

Makes 20

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/8 tsp salt
• ½ cup vegetable shortening or butter
• ¼ + 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Extra sugar and cocoa for dusting

Directions:

Sift flour, cocoa, and salt. Then, place butter in large bowl and beat with whisk attachment until fluffy (at least 5 minutes). Add sugar and vanilla, and continue to beat (at least 2 minutes).  Combine ingredients, beat until well-mixed.  Place in freezer for ½ hour (until dough is firm).  Spoon dough and shape into circles.  Place on parchment paper lined pan and back at 325 for 20 minutes.  When cookies are cool, dust with sugar and cocoa mixture.  If strong enough, place cookies in a bag and shake with sugar and cocoa mixture for best result.

Want a fun, low-fat dessert?  This is just the ticket. It’s light, it’s sweet, and just sticky and thick enough to be super decadent.

Ingredients:

• ¼-1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 ½ tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp granulated or caster sugar

• 4 egg whites
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp corn starch
• 1 cup caster sugar

Directions:

Mix blueberries, vanilla extract, and 1 tbsp sugar; set aside allow to defrost a bit.  In a large bowl, beat 4 egg whites until soft peaks form; then slowly add sugar.  Beat until stiff peaks form.  Fold in vinegar and corn start.  Line a large baking pan with parchment paper and preheat oven to 250. Using the meringue, shape to a 7” circular shape (like a cake); in the middle of “cake” should be a soft well.  Bake for 1 to 1 ½ hrs (until shell is dry and meringue has taken on a soft cream color).  When out of the oven, fill well in pavlovia with blueberry mixture. Serve warm or cold.

I’m back!  Back and more from-scratch than ever!

To usher in my return, here’s a recipe for Whole Wheat Bread courtesy of the wonderful authors of “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.”

Makes enough for at least four 1-lb loaves. The recipe is easily doubled/halved.

Ingredients:

• 7 cups whole wheat flour (or substitute whole grain spelt flour, see page 12)
• 1 ½ tbsp granulated yeast, or 2 packets (decrease to taste, page 15)
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• ¼ cup vital wheat gluten
• 3 ¾ cup warm water

What you do:

1.Mixing and Stirring Dough: Whisk together flour, yeast, salt, and vital wheat gluten in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded, not airtight, food container

2. Add the water and mix without kneading, using a spoon, a 14 cup food processor, or a heavy duty stand mixer—this can also be doe with a hand mixer if need be. You might need to use wet hands to get the last bit of flour to incorporate if you’re not using a machine.

3. Cover (not airtight) and allow the dough to rest at room temperature until it rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used immediately after the intitial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use it over the next 10 days.

5. On baking day, dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-lb piece (grapefruit size).  Dust the piece with more flour  quickly shape into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four side, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

6. Allow the loaf to rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap, on a pizza peel prepared with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper for 90 minutes (40 minutes if you’re using fresh, unrefrigerated dough). Alternatively, you can rest the love on a silicone mat or greased  cookie sheet without using a pizza peel

7. Thirty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450 with a baking stone placed in the middle rack. Place an empty metal broiler tray on any other rack that wont interfere with the rising bread.

8. just before baking, use a pastry brush and paint the top with water. Slash the loaf with ¼ inch deep parallel cuts, using a serrated bread knife.

9. Slice the loaf directly into the hot stone (or place the silicone mat or cookie sheet on the stone if you used one). Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, until richly browned and firm. If you used parchment paper, or cookie sheet under the loaf, carefully remove it and bake the loaf directly on the stone or an oven rack two thirds of the way through baking. Smaller or larger loaves with require adjustments in resting band baking time.

10. Allow the bread to cook on a rack before slicing and eating.

Yum!  Hope you like it!

This recipe is meant to compliment the stuffed tomato recipe, but I’m sure it is good on its own.

Serves 4. 144 calories per serving.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium parsnips
• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp pepper
• cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Skin parsnips and potatoes, then cube them (try to get uniform sized pieces so that they cook evenly).
3. Cut tomato into cubes as well.
4. Combine tomato, onion, parsnips, and potatoes in a baking pan; mix in sugar and pepper; spray with cooking spray.
5. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Well, this is the last of my tuna! (Expect canned salmon recipes next, I still have some cans to get rid of.) Regardless, I was trying to think about recipes that would help me cut down on my empty carb consumption (since I’m Italian and that’s about ALL we eat when you exclude meat from the equation). So, I came up with this recipe and it is SO good.

Serves 4.

110 calories per serving

Ingredients:

• 2 medium/large tomatoes
• 2 5oz cans tuna, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Halve tomatoes and remove insides (it’s easiest to carve a “heart” with a paring knife as deep as possible without piercing the tomato’s skin and working the inside out slowly).
3. Dice cashews.
4. Combine tuna, onion, cashews, rosemary, and sugar.
5. Pack tuna mixture into empty tomatoes.
6. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Well, since I’m making everything from scratch these days, I hadn’t had a real cookie in a long time so I made these.  To make this recipe a little more vegeterian I excluded butter and used vegetable shortening instead (crisco); worked great! You can also use soymilk and imitation eggs for yummy vegan cookies!

Makes 15 “Oreos”.

Each cookie: 100 calories.

Oreo Filling: 142 calories.

By extension then, each oreo has 342 calories.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cookie:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg (room temperature)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water or coffee

Vanilla Filling:

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar (granulated sugar will work too, just makes a slightly “crunchy” filling—I like it)
• 1-3 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place oven rack in center of oven.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking power & soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (a hand mixer works best, but I do this by hand as well).
4. Mix the skim milk and water/coffee in a small cup and alternately combine flour mixture and water/coffee mixture to butter and sugar (begin and end with flour).
5. Next drop heaping tablespoons onto prepared baking sheet (spread at least 1” apart. Shape cookies like discs).
6. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until tops of cookies spring back when lightly pressed. Cool on wire rack.
7. Meanwhile, beat shortening until soft and creamy gradually beating in sugar.  Beat until light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes).  Then, gradually beat in vanilla (to taste) and corn syrup.  Continue to beat until filling looks like mayonnaise.
8. To assemble, spread a heaping dose of sugar mixture onto a cookie and top with another cookie.  Repeat and enjoy!