Pecan roll redemption

After my orange bread debacle I wasn't sure what to make of my new Tassajara Bread Book, but yesterday I made some delicious pecan rolls from the book that assured me this one is a gem, indeed.  These rolls are loaded with butter, brown sugar and pecans, but they have whole wheat, so that must counterbalance all of the fat and make them good for you!  Hope you enjoy these as much as we did.  They're very best right out of the oven.

This recipe is easily adapted to making cinnamon rolls, if you're not partial to nuts.  Just stop before the pecans in the filling ingredient list.

Pecan Nut Rolls
From: The Tassajara Bread Book
Grade: A!  These are as good or better than any from a bakery in my opinion, and they don't even take as long to make as most yeast breads.

The recipe listed below makes enough rolls to fill 2 round cake pans - I cut it in half for just the two of us.

Dough:
1 cup lukewarm water
3 1/2 tsp dry yeast
3 tbsp honey or sugar
1/3 cup dry milk (regular milk works just fine, but you may need less water or more flour - or you can omit this all together for a grainier bread texture)
1 egg
1 1/2 cups white or whole wheat flour

3 tbs melted butter or oil
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sifted white or whole wheat flour
1/2 - 3/4 cup additional flour for kneading

Filling:                                                                     
1/4 cup melted butter                                              
3/4 cup brown sugar                                              
1 tbsp cinnamon                                                    
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
Stop here for just cinnamon rolls
1 cup chopped pecans
6 tbsp butter (for lining the pan)
1/2 cup brown sugar (also for the pan)

To prepare the dough, dissolve the yeast in water and stir in the honey, milk, and egg.  Stir in 1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup white and 1/2 cup whole wheat) and beat well (100 strokes if you're going with the Zen method).  Let the dough rise for 30 minutes, covered with a damp cloth (mine did not rise a very noticeable amount).

Fold in the butter, salt, and 1 cup of flour (I used 1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat).  Try to fold in and not cut through the dough.  Turn the dough out and knead on a floured board using extra flour as needed until the dough is smooth (5-10 minutes).  Let rise another 40 minutes (again, I didn't see much action in this time frame).

Roll the dough out into a square about 1/4 inch thick.  Brush with the melted butter and sprinkle with the brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins (if using), and pecans.  Begin at one edge and tightly roll up the dough like a jelly roll.  Have your cake pan(s) ready, each dotted with 3 tbs butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar.  Cut the log into 1/2-3/4" pieces and place in the cake pan(s).  Let the rolls rise an additional 20-30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F (375 for cinnamon rolls).  Brush the rolls with an egg wash if desired (for cinnamon rolls only).  Bake the rolls for 30 minutes (20-25 for cinnamon rolls).  Cinnamon rolls are done after baking and can be topped with frosting or glaze if desired.  For the pecan rolls, turn them out of the pan to reveal the tops already coated with a nice glaze.  Serve immediately!

Sugar and Spice

Last week I got a new cookbook! (Thanks Mom!) But not just any cookbook, a bread book.  Since we always have ripe bananas in our house, I decided to try making their banana sandwich bread, a nice departure from our usual banana quick bread.  But, I should have known that when something calls for the zest of not 1, but 2 oranges, you're not going to be tasting anything else...  Still, the bread had a wonderful texture and their method of making it is something I'd never tried before (the sponge method?) so I decided it was blog-worthy.  I can't wait to try some of the other tasty recipes (accompanied by equally tasty-looking pictures!) this book has to offer.

Also featured in this post: Gingersnaps!  I made these a while ago when my dad came to visit - my dad is the ultimate chocoholic but can no longer have chocolate.  I was looking for something that 1) did not have chocolate (I have very few recipes that meet this criteria to begin with...); and 2) could be made from ingredients I already had in my kitchen.  And as usual, when I'm trying to meet criterion #2, the Joy of Cooking made itself useful.  Though these gingersnaps were not actually crunchy, they had a great taste and went fast!

Gingersnaps
From: The Joy of Cooking
Grade: A-  Pretty easy to whip up, but could not get them crunchy.  Still, great taste!

This is the original recipe and makes 6 dozen cookies.

3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup dark molasses
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp orange or lemon zest

Combine dry ingredients.  Beat together sugar and butter, then add remaining wet ingredients.  Stir in the flour intil smooth.  Roll small 1" dough balls and place onto a greased cookie sheet.  Flatten the tops slightly.  Bake at 350F for 10-13 minutes.


Whole Wheat Orange Spice Bread (or "lightly spiced" Banana Sandwich Bread)
From: The Tassajara Bread Book
Grade: A- if you want an orange bread, C+ if you were hoping to taste any banana...  But a wonderful texture!


Caution: This recipe makes 2 loaves, something I always forget to check when making bread and before I know it, I'm elbow deep in way too much dough to handle.  So, I'd highly recommend cutting this in half.  Also, I have an extra loaf of this in my freezer if you want to save yourself the trouble...

Pretty on the Inside

The title for this post comes from a song by one of our favorite bands, Ceann.  The dishes in this post might not look like they're worth your time (I'm a cook, not a photographer...) but they are delicious!  The first is a favorite from my childhood, despite the fact that it contains mushrooms, and the second is one that, apparently, was part of everybody else's childhood but I've never had before.


Mom's Beef Stroganoff
Adapted from: My mom's recipe
Grade: A!  Easy as any pasta sauce, but with a wonderful velvety texture.  Perfect comfort food.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Adapted from: The Joy of Cooking
Grade: B+  Surprisingly good flavor, but a little labor intensive.

Mom's Beef Stroganoff

3/4 lb white button mushrooms, sliced
3/4 minced onion
3 tbsp butter
1 lb ground beef
1 can (10.5 oz) condensed beef broth (I didn't have this on hand so I disolved a cube of chicken bullion in 10 oz water)
2 tbs ketchup
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp flour
1 cup sour cream (I also didn't have this on hand - instead, used 3/4 cup + 2tbsp plain yogurt + 3 tbsp butter + pinch of sugar to taste)

Sautee the mushrooms, onion, and 3tbsp butter on medium heat until onions are translucent and mushrooms are soft.  Remove and set aside.  Brown the meat and drain the fat, then add in garlic, salt, ketchup and 2/3 of the broth and simmer covered for 15 minutes (medium heat or so).  In a small bowl, blend the remaining broth with the flour (add one tbsp at a time, stirring constantly to keep a smooth texture).  Add the flour/broth mixture, as well as the cooked onions and mushrooms, to the pan and cook on medium high heat (boiling) for 2 minutes (I found I only needed about 45sec-1 min), stirring constantly.  Stir in the sour cream (or yogurt, butter and sugar).  This was always served over egg noodles in my house, but I didn't have those either so it went onto regular spaghetti.  Scrumptious!!



Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
We got a head of Savoy cabbage in our Boston Organics box last week and I didn't know what the heck to do with it, since neither of us really like cabbage.  But we both loved this dish!  Although, next time I make this, I'm not going to bother peeling off all those leaves, but just do what they did on Iron Chef tonight, and stuff the entire cabbage head!

For the cabbage leaves:

16 quarts water
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 head Savoy cabbage

For the filling:
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup white rice (I only had brown)
1/2 cup water
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (oh please, we never use just 1 - 3 at least!)
salt and ground pepper

For the sauce:
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine (always Pinot Grigio at my house)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 cup water
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 gingersnaps (I used a pinch of ginger and some sugar)
juice from 1 lemon
2 chunks sour salt (okay, I don't even know what this is so I obviously didn't have it on hand, but the cookbook says it's citric acid so I just put in extra lemon juice).

Bring the water and salt to a boil.  Cut the core out of the cabbage (don't cut the cabbage in half to do this like I did!  You end up with smaller leaves to stuff) and place the head in the boiling water, stem sides of the leaves down.  Boil ~5 minutes, then remove the outer leaves.  Repeat this until you get most of the good leaves, then soften the remaining cabbage for use in the sauce.  I laid the leaves out on a hand towel to dry/cool, and you're also supposed to cut out the spine - I manged this for some, but ended up losing a few leaves...

Mix the filling ingredients in a bowl and combine with your hands - it's the only way for meatball-type fillings, in my opinion.  Spoon about 1tbsp of filling into the base of a leaf, fold the right side of the lef over, roll up, then fold the left side of the leaf in.  That's about as well as I can describe it because I didn't really get it myself and my rolls weren't too much to marvel at...

Chop up the remaining cabbage and heat it with the oil and onion in a pot.  Cook over medium heat until golden-brown, then add the wine.  Simmer on low heat for 5 minutes and add the rest of the sauce ingredients.  Bring the sauce to a boil, then add the rolls seam side down.  Add water as needed to cover the rolls.  Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours on med-low heat, shaking the pan every 30 minutes to prevent sticking.

The good thing about this recipe is it made a lot of rolls, so we had dinner and lunches for a few days from all our efforts.

Weekends are for Waffles

This is one of my favorite recipes to make on a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning.  The great thing about this recipe, besides the wonderful taste, is that it's pretty versatile, like most of the recipes from this cookbook.  I've made it as waffles or pancakes, with whole wheat or white flour, with blueberries or strawberries, etc.  Any leftovers are good as new later in the week if you reheat them in the toaster.

Berry Good Waffles
From: Going Wild in the Kitchen by Leslie Cerrier
Grade: A!  Very easy to make and always delicious!

I often cut this recipe in half since there's only 2 of us - makes about 3 waffles.

2 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour (the original recipe calls for whole wheat pastry flour, but I don't use that because someone in our house won't touch the stuff...)
1 tsp baking powder (the original recipe calls for 2 tbsp - you only need this much leavening power if you're using only whole wheat flour, or if you want to have some really crazy looking pancakes...)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk (original calls for apple juice)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla (original calls for 4 tbsp vanilla, but like I've said before, I'm not made of money and 1 tsp does just fine)
1 cup blueberries (frozen works as well as fresh)
1 tbsp honey

I love this cookbook because the instructions for most recipes are the same as this one - mix everything in a bowl.  So easy!  Then just spoon onto your griddle, pan, whatever (I use nonstick spray for every batch) and cook to desired doneness.  Best with maple syrup, of course!  If you're using strawberries or any other berry you like, just make sure the pieces are as small as blueberries, or else you'll have trouble keeping the waffles/pancakes together.

Love = bread!

One of these days I should give up the charade that this is a "cooking" blog and acknowledge that it's actually a baking blog.  Here are a few recipes from the last couple of weeks that have been lingering on my desktop, waiting to be shared.

Oh, and by the way, here is this week's excuse for not blogging more often:

 

We've been renovating our bathroom.  Like, down to the studs.  This is why we can't have nice things...

Focaccia with onions
From: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
Grade: A- (Not too hard to make, though time consuming like any bread, with a nice texture and taste.  Added points for having lots of fun slapping the dough around!)

Dough:
2 1/2 tsp dry yeast
2 c lukewarm water
6 1/2 cups all purpose flour (unbleached is always preferable)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp salt

Topping:
2 tbsp exta virgin olive oil + 1/4 cup for the emulsion
4 cups very thinly sliced onion rounds
2 tbsp water (for emulsion)
1 tsp salt (for emulsion)

Amaranth Bread

This is a first for me and the blog - I attempted my own bread recipe for this entry!  Well, I suppose it's not such a big deal - I just made some substitutions to the recipe for quick-rising white bread in the Joy of Cooking, but still, it counts as an original creation!

That said, it needs some tweaking, so I'm open to suggestions for how to improve this bread.  My assessment of this bread was, "It tastes like it's healthy," which was probably true but not what I was going for.  However it's hard (at least for me) to find good recipes for whole wheat breads, so I figure I'll keep fidling with this one a little more.

I also wanted to experiment with amaranth, a grain I'd heard of before but never worked with.  It is very small and round and the Joy of Cooking claims that you can put it into bread raw; however, I didn't realize that when you do this, it's basically like you're adding seeds, and the stuff comes off and gets everywhere in the kitchen every time you touch the loaf.  So perhaps I need to cook it first next time...

Amaranth Bread
Adapted from: The Joy of Cooking (Quick-rising white bread)
Grade: B (definitely healthy, but could be a lot tastier with softer texture)

The original recipe makes 2 loaves, so I cut that in half and subbed some of the whole wheat flour and amaranth for 1 cup of bread flour. 

1 1/4 tsp yeast
1/8 cup warm water
2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup amaranth, uncooked
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup warm water
1/2 tbsp melted butter
some honey (I don't remember how much but I was trying to replace the 1 tbsp sugar)
1/2 tbsp salt

Dissolve the yeast in water in a bowl and let stand for 5-10 minutes until nice and bubbly.  Add 1 1/2 cups bread flour, the remaining water, butter, honey, and salt and mix.  Add the remaining flours and amaranth in increments until the dough comes together and is moist but not sticky.  Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, incorporating the sunflower seeds in small amounts.  Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with saran wrap, and let it rise 1 1/2 hours. 

Grease your loaf pan.  Punch the bread down and form it into a loaf.  Let it rise in the bread pan, covered with saran wrap, for another 1 1/2 hours.

Bake the bread for 10 minutes at 450F, then for another 30 minutes at 350F, or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.  Let cool on a rack before cutting (the sunflower seeds and amaranth made this loaf a little harder to hold together).

On another note, we had an epic fail in the meringue department this evening.  I was quite put out about it, but vowed to buy a dozen eggs next time I'm at the store and keep trying until I get it right.

Homemade Pasta

Sorry for the long absence - turns out it's a lot harder than I thought to get my computer and my cookbooks in the same place.

This has been a pretty carb-heavy week, but I'll start with the project I was most excited about - homemade linguine.

We made two types - regular, for lack of a better term, egg pasta, and spinach pasta (hence the green color).  On paper this process doesn't look so hard, but it took us a good hour or two to get it right.

The recipe and instructions come from a new cookbook I got for Christmas: "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking," by Marcella Hazan.  I'd give it a B: the wow factor was fun, but it was a lot of work to make and didn't have any particularly noticeable taste.

Yellow Pasta Dough
1 cup unbleached flour
2 eggs

Green Pasta Dough
1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 eggs
1/2 lb fresh spinach, cooked*

*To prepare the spinach, rinse with cold water, discard stems, and place in a pot.  Add 1/2 tsp salt and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 5 minutes.  Drain well, then squeeze the spinach gently with your hands or a towel to remove as much water as you can.  Chop finely.