Hamburger Buns

I was bored the other day and I decided to try making hamburger buns. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I made a basic dough in the bread machine, then pulled it out and shaped it into 6 or so rounds (maybe an inch thick?) and let it rise for 30 minutes. Once they were done I brushed the tops with butter and sprinkled on the sesame seeds (the sesame seeds didn't stick tho, next time I'll try an egg wash). And 10 or so minutes later, I had nice hamburger buns. Quite tasty too (if I do say so myself). I didn't take a picture, but I plan on making more tomorrow, so I will post a pic then.

Homemade Crispbread

So, I was at the grocery store yesterday and I was looking at the cracker section and the Wasa Crispbread looked especially appealing. But then I noticed the $4 price tag, which got me to thinking how hard could this be to make at home. Went home and googled crispbread and I found a few recipes (and all from European sites) which I compared to the ingredients list for the Wasa. The only thing I fixed on the recipe I used, was I used canola oil instead of butter. After baking for 8 or so minutes I let the crispbread sit in the warm oven overnight to dry out. I had a piece when I got up this morning, and it was pretty good! It would be even better with the addition of cheese/meat/etc. (or the Wasa site, they have tons of topping ideas!) And total cost was well under the $4 store price. Next time I make them I might experiment with swapping out whole wheat flour for rye, and I used sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, but pumpkin seeds would be good too. And apparently you can make sourdough crispbread too... hmmmm....

Crispbread Recipe
(I left the ingredients in grams and milliliters as I'm too lazy to convert it!):

150ml water, lukewarm
5 grams dried yeast
12 grams butter
1 tsp salt
115 grams all purpose flour
100 grams whole wheat flour, stone ground
60 grams mixed seeds

Dissolve yeast in the water.
Stir in butter, salt and seeds and whole wheat flour.
Add all-purpose flour and work the dough by hand for about 5 min on a floured surface. Place in a lightly greased bowl and let rise in a warm place for approx. 1h.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll out into thin sheets on a floured surface. Prick with a fork before baking at 475 degrees for 5-8 min. Let dry on an oven rack before storing in an air tight container.

Tasty Recipe: Moroccan Spiced Turkey Burgers

Just thought I'd post a recipe I made for dinner tonight. They were quite tasty and even got a 9.5 (out of 10) on Daren's exacting scale. I think they would also be good with ground chicken breast or ground lamb (if you have the $$$$).

Turkey Burger
2 lbs. ground turkey breast
1 TB cumin
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp paprika
1/2 TB ground coriander
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 TB curry powder
1/2 onion grated
1 garlic clove, chopped
Cilantro
Zest/Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt & Pepper

Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Form mixture into 4 large patties. Drizzle patties with olive oil and place on preheated grill or grill pan (or I used a George Foreman and it worked quite well). Grill for 6 minutes on each side until cooked thru. Place patties in pita bread and spoon on yogurt sauce(see below).

Yogurt Sauce
Plain Lowfat Yogurt
Curry Powder (to taste)
Cumin (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
Cayenne (to taste)
Coriander (to taste)
Cucumber, chopped

Whisk ingredients together and put aside.

More Sourdough...

Can you tell I've been bored lately? I am on a baking kick (again) and I'm so happy I get to use a starter that I started. With the success of my starter, I was able to take the knowledge and revive the 100 year old starter I had received some months back. It is happily bubbling away (and I'm even dehydrating some so I can keep it without the need to feed it) and doubling like it should. Yesterday I decided to make Sourdough Brownies (I'll post the recipe later) with the old starter, as it is used for its flavor and not for its leavening abilities. They came out really good! Its a surprising mix of sweet and a sort of fruity sourness. They were made even better with the addition of vanilla bean ice-cream and whipped cream. Tomorrow I plan on making more sourdough bread and sometime in the future I would like to try the Carrot Pineapple Sourdough Cake and Blueberry Muffins.... the options are endless with sourdough.

Sourdough and Lemon Meringue

In the last post I had made a sourdough bread (one in the oven and one in the bread maker). The one in the bread maker was good, but didn't really taste like a traditional sourdough. The ones that I made in the KitchenAid/oven did not turn out... AT ALL. Unless of course I was looking for a paper weight/brick. For some reason, my starter doesn't rise like it should. Since my starter was having issues, I decided to undergo making a starter (AGAIN). I have never had luck with starting a starter before, but I found a new recipe online that promised starter in 2 1/2 days (normally it can take up to a week or more). The new recipe also uses malt extract and one feeding of rye flour. Amazingly enough, the starter worked! Yesterday I moved the starter into its permanent jar and I kept 100 grams of starter plus fed it 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour. Prior to feeding it this evening, it had more than doubled (I'll have to take a before and after pic to show the growth, I think its pretty cool.) Last night I decided to re-try the San Francisco Style sourdough from my last attempt. The only problem I had was letting it rise at room temp. which I think was too cold, so this morning I put the loaves in the oven with the light on and they finished rising. As they baked, they rose up even more (a problem with the last loaves) and they blew out a little which is due to the fact that I didn't slash it far enough across the top. Once they were done, Daren and I had to perform a taste test (a thankless job I know) and it turned out really well!! A prominent sour flavor and a very crisp crust...made even better with the addition of some butter. Tomorrow I'll take a loaf to my parents for the final taste test.

Other than bread, I also made a Lemon Meringue Pie for Easter in the Kitchen Aid. It turned out much better than last time, and it would have set up nicely, but we couldn't wait for it to cool all the way. I should have made it in the morning to be ready by the evening, but it still tasted good (really how can you go wrong with a nice meringue), and was good the next day for breakfast (its good for you right? I mean a lemon is a fruit after all!)

Back Into the Kitchen

Yes that's right... I'm back again. I've been cooking/baking since my last post, but I just haven't found the time to document it. Since December we have made countless loaves of bread in the bread maker (rye, wheat, white, chocolate nut, sweet, etc.). And Daren has discovered he can make a mean pizza dough in the bread maker. (Severely cutting back on his pizza budget in the process!) He makes so much pizza dough, that I haven't used the bread maker much myself these days.
About 2 months ago, I attended a Sourdough class and got 2 starters (both around 100 years old and one actually came from Alaska). We have made sourdough pancakes (mmmm sooo good!!) and the other day I made sourdough bread in the bread maker (it was also quite yummy, which is why it is no longer in exsitence). And tonight I am trying a recipe for a "San Francisco Style Sourdough", which I made in the KitchenAid and is currently undergoing its 12 hour rise. Tomorrow I will bake the loaves in the oven so I can compare the oven made bread to the bread machine loaf. And I also decided to try making a sourdough pizza dough (currently working in the bread maker, so I will have to post the results later).
Other than that, we are gearing up for Spring/Summer, hopefully the arrival of some friends from California in July and lucky them, we will have Sourdough Pancakes, fresh baked bread, and homemade ice-cream (so we have the carb group covered), being able to plant a garden (we have started the seeds indoors and the plants have already begun to sprout), and of course planning ahead for the County Fair in August. I have a lot to look forward to, and I see lots of cooking in my future.... Till next time!

Woooh! Christmas was good to me...

Christmas was very good this year. Not only did I spend an ENTIRE day with my mom (and the stand mixer of course) making delicious Christmas cookies, I also got a Bread Maker and an ice-cream maker for my KitchenAid. First to try was the Bread Maker, and I decided on Rye Bread (we have pastrami and swiss so it was a natural decision). Went to Pilgrim's (our neighborhood natural food store) for the Rye Flour, the caraway seeds, and the powdered milk (which was nice to buy in bulk as its fairly expensive). Then picked up the remaining ingredients, including a 5 lb. bag of King Arthur Bread Flour (yes I splurged a little), and since I was there I grabbed ingredients to make ice-cream (carb central at my house!). Got home and added everything to the bread maker pushed the button and voila! 3 hours 43 minutes till fresh bread. When the bread finally got to the baking portion the whole house started to smell sooooo good! There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh-baked bread. Well, I walked upstairs to check on the bread and noticed something was missing from the countertop. Walked into the living room, and saw the puppy had destroyed the ziploc bag of bread flour (yes the one I splurged on!!) so there was 5 lbs of flour EVERYWHERE (including all over the puppy) The other dog followed me up and next thing I know he was eating the flour too! So both dogs have flour plastered to their fur... kicked both dogs outside and cleaned up the mess. Meanwhile the bread had finished so I had set it to cool. Let the older dog back in the house (he's in a big barking phase!) and I went to take the vacuum back downstairs. I barely reached the bottom of the stairs when I remembered the bread. I ran up the stairs only to find the cooling rack was EMPTY. Yep the dog grabbed the entire loaf of bread and ran as fast as he could. Finally I was able to get the bread back, but it was ruined at this point. I don't think the dogs appreciate the fact that I didn't kill them that night! Since I was out of flour I decided to chuck the bread making idea and move on to the ice-cream. ('Cause really is there anything ice-cream can't fix?) The recipe I used called for a whole vanilla bean, but since I'm the kind of person who uses turmeric instead of saffron (it costs how much????) I substituted vanilla extract. I made a custard out of whipping cream, whole milk, vanilla, sugar, and 6 egg yolks. I could have just eaten it like that but I was good and put it in the fridge to chill for 3 hours. Finally the 3 hours were up, and it was time to make the ice-cream. Fitted the (chilled for 15 hours) bowl onto the mixer and set up the dasher and turned it on. Poured in the vanilla custard mix (and oops I forgot the mint extract) and let it mix for 20 mins. At first I didn't think it was working, but right around 18 mins in it started to look like ice-cream. The last minute of mixing I added in chocolate chips (next time I will use minis), and then it was done. Most of it I put in a container in the freezer to harden, but I did take a little for a taster. WOW! It was really good... Way better than that supermarket stuff! I can't wait to try and make some other ice-creams, and also sorbets and sherbets. Our house will be the place to be this summer!

Feeling better since the ice-cream came out so good, I vowed to make bread the next day (and let it cool WAY up high away from naughty dogs). This time I bought the cheaper (Gold Medal) bread flour and luckily I had enough of everything else so I didn't need to spend too much more. If it's possible, I think the house smelled even better with this loaf. Let it cool on top of the fridge, and then it was time to slice (with the dogs standing by drooling). I used the new electric knife Daren got for Xmas (yay for electric knives!) and cut it into sandwich size slices (it actually looked like store bought bread). I cut off a larger chunk of the bread butt* for a taster, placed a small piece of pastrami on it and YUM! Thankfully it was worth all the effort. The dogs also got small pieces to try and they loved them (although the dogs love most everything, so they aren't very good taste-testers). I made Daren a pastrami/Swiss/garlic mayo sandwich for lunch with the still slightly warm bread. Daren can be quite picky (and also brutally honest LOL) so he was a good (if ever so slightly biased) tester. Whew! Even he liked it! Next up for the bread maker is a 10-grain bread (a mix I bought pre-packaged at the store) and who knows what else... I see a lot of bread making in my future....

Till next time....