Bread: French Bread

We make a lot of bread. This recipe Ryan found at The New York Times. When one remembers to make the loaf a day in advance of when you want it, it's not a difficult process.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

Directions:

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Other Notes:

• Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
• Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
• Yield: Single 1 1/2 pound loaf.
• Original Recipe

Breakfast: (Blueberry) Pancakes

You may have realized by now, my family loves pancakes. We have our go-to recipes, and we've just added another one. This one is by Colleen Patrick Goudreau and out of her 30 Day Vegan Challenge. 
One morning, Emilynn was complaining about lack of proper breakfast, so I whipped up these. They were so easy to whip together and make, even easier than previously stated easy pancakes. These will probably be my go-to recipe from now on because they only have items we always have in the house. Also, they had more taste than a lot of pancakes, and did not end up being heavy in my belly. 

Pancakes sans blueberries, with maple syrup on top

Ingredients:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (or whole-wheat pastry flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1 cup almond milk (or other milk: soy, rice, hazelnut, hemp, oat)
2 tablespoons canola oil (or nonhydrogenated, nondairy butter)
3 tablespoons liquid sweetener, such as apple juice concentrate, orange juice, or maple syrup
(½ cup blueberries)
Additional oil or butter for cooking (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, oil, and sweetener.
2. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and mix just until moistened; a few lumps are okay. Fold in the blueberries if using, but don't overstir.
3. Heat a nonstick griddle or saute pan over medium high heat. (You may add some oil or butter to the griddle or saute pan and heat until hot, but with a nonstick pan, you don't need it.)
4. Pour batter onto the griddle to form circle about 4 inches in diameter. Cook the pancakes for a couple minutes on one side until bubbles appear on the surface. Slide a spatula under the pancake and flip it over. Cook the pancakes on the other side for another 2 minutes or so. Continue until golden brown on each side, about 4 minutes in all. 

Other Notes:

• Makes ~8 pancakes

Recipe Book Review: The New Whole Grains Cookbook

Awhile ago, I decided I wanted to start posting reviews of recipe books. Why? Well, who doesn't have a pile of cookbooks on their shelves? We certainly do. Some are better than others. I do find I have a preference for ones with good pictures. Pictures of foods are definitely required and they cannot be drawings. Books that don't stuff as many recipes on one page is also preferable.

Unfortunately, sitting down to write a book review on a cookbook never made it to the top of the priority list. Until today. So, today I thought I'd start with a cookbook that started a huge change in the way I eat: The New Whole Grains Cookbook by Robin Asbell.

I first tried eating a more whole grains based diet after listening to The Nutrition Diva push it over and over again in her podcast. I picked up two cookbooks to learn how to cook with more whole grains than I have in the past. This being my preferred one.

The book is filled with lots of beautiful photos of the food in the recipes. This is a big selling point, so that one can look and decide if the recipe looks like something you want to make.

I went through and made nearly every recipe in the book. We tried lots of whole grains. The book is subdivided by food-type - that is, breakfast, breads, warm whole sides, cold whole sides, soups and dumplings, whole entrees, and desserts. Each section has between 8 and 15 recipes.

There is an introductory section describing a variety of grains, their history, and how to cook them. This is a nice overview and not terribly in depth. If you want a more in-depth explanation, look elsewhere.

As I mentioned, I made most of the recipes in this book over the course of several months. I gained quite a few keeper recipes, and there were quite a few things I made and we just did not care for it. And that's okay.

Overall, this is a 4 out of 5 star book. I will go back to it for several recipes and highly recommend it to anybody who is looking to expand their whole grain palette.

Dessert: Chocolate Cupcakes

I made the chocolate cupcakes with a frosting in mind, but the cupcake itself was so good, I decided to put it in the codex. The whole package (frosting and all) did not make the codex, just the cupcake.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar


Directions:

1. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
4. Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don't worry, this is right).
5. Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
6. Bake cupcakes for approximately 22-24 minutes.
7. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

Other Details:

• From Glorious Treats
• (makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes)
• Recipe source- Adjusted slightly from Hersheys.

Dessert: Red Velvet Brownies with White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I made these for a friend who's favorite cake is a red velvet cake. I didn't have time to make the red velvet cake I've previously posted when she came to visit, so I tried these. They were a hit with her and every one else.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz red food coloring or 2 teaspoons if you are using the gel kind
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

For the white chocolate buttercream frosting:
1/2 cup (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 oz good-quality white chocolate (not chips), melted
1 – 2 tbsp heavy cream
1/2 cup cream cheese

Directions:
To make the brownies:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8″x8″ baking pan.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes (mine looked like puffy snow). Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then stir in 2 teaspoons of vanilla. With the mixer off, add in the sifted cocoa (to avoid any lumps that sometimes happens with cocoa) and food coloring, then turn the mixer to medium and beat the two mixtures together until they are one uniform color. Slowly add in the flour and salt and mix on medium-low speed, just until combined. Do not overmix.
3. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir up the batter with a rubber spatula once or twice just to ensure all of the flour has incorporated from the sides of the bowl and there isn’t anything stuck on the bottom of the bowl.
4. You’ll want one uniformly colored (red) batter.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the brownies. Allow brownies to completely cool in the pan on a baking rack, about 45-60 minutes. For prettier brownies, remove the entire batch from the pan to a cutting board, cut into 12 bars, THEN frost, and serve.

To make the frosting:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until soft and fluffy then beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time; allow the sugar to mix in before adding the next 1/2 cup. Once all of the sugar has been added, beat on medium speed for 30 seconds and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the melted white chocolate and cream cheese and beat on medium speed until incorporated. (The original recipe did not include cream cheese, but it just wasn’t red velvet to me without the cream cheese frosting). With the mixer on low, add in heavy cream 1 tbsp at a time and beat at medium speed until the frosting has reached your desired consistency.

Other Details:

• Original Recipe from How Sweet Eats
• {Note: This makes a lot of frosting – I might try halving the frosting recipe next time} I actually did half it and it was good

Dessert: Bad Astronomer Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies

When Phil Plait started his Science Getaways site, he launched with some cookies. Which looked fabulous! So I made them the next weekend, but I'm only getting around to blogging about them now. They were really good, although I found the tone at the blog on how to make the cookies a little condescending. 

Ingredients:

4 cups (24 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. Combine 2 cups (12 ounces) chocolate chips and butter in a large microwavable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 30 seconds; stir and repeat until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Let cool slightly.
3. Beat eggs and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until it’s well blended and a little foamy. Add sugar and beat until thick and lighter in color. Add melted chocolate and butter and beat until blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. (Do not overbeat.) Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl and slowly add to the butter mixture, beating until blended. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips by hand (the dough will be very soft.)
4. Drop dough by rounded, heaping tablespoonsful 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees farenheit. Bake 16 to 20 minutes or until cookies are just cooked enough to hold together. They should still be slightly shiny on top. Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes and then move to wire racks to finish cooling completely.

Other Details:

• Original Recipe
• Makes about 3 dozen (depending on the size of your cookies – I got about 39, but Bad Astronomer got about 30

Dessert: Ultimate Peanut Butter Bars

I made these last summer when going through recipes I'd been holding onto waiting to make. They were a predictable hit at our house. The original recipe came from the side of a cereal box. 

Ingredients:
Crust:
1/3 cup margarine or butter
¾ cup milk chocolate baking chips
2 ½ cups crushed Cocoa & Peanut Butter Fusion cereal (or Reese's) (approx 6 cups)

Filling:
½ cup creamy peanut butter
4 oz cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoon sugar
12 oz frozen whipped topping, divided

Topping:

1 jar hot fudge flavored ice cream topping, divided
frozen whipped topping
¼ to ½ cup cocoa & peanut butter fusion cereal (optional)
¼ to ½ cup peanut butter (optional)

Directions:

1. To Prepare Pizza Crust: Preheat oven to 325ºF. Lightly spray bottom of a 11 x 13” pan with sides (alternately, if making as a “pizza”, use a round 12 to 14” pizza pan – deep dish with sides) with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium saucepan, combine butter and milk chocolate baking chips; warm over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and stir in crushed cereal. Using a flat surface, such as a measuring cup bottom, press the cereal mixture firmly over bottom and up sides of pan. Bake for 10 minutes; cool completely on wire rack.
2. To Prepare Filling: In a medium bowl, combine peanut butter, cream cheese and sugar. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and well blended. Mix in 2 cups thawed frozen whipped topping with spoon or spatula. Spread filling evenly over peanut butter crust and chill.
3. Topping: Heat ¾ cup to 1 cup of the hot fudge flavored topping in microwave 45 seconds; spread topping evenly over the chilled peanut butter filling layer. Refrigerate or freeze 2 hours. Just before serving, spread remaining thawed frozen whipped topping over chilled hot fudge flavored layer.
4. For decorative top, *heat an additional ¼ to ½ cup peanut butter in microwave for 40-45 seconds and drizzle over top layer of frozen whipped topping. Dip cereal pieces in additional heated hot fudge flavored topping and place randomly across top.
5. Chill and serve.

Other details:

• Makes 16 servings.
• *Due to differences in microwave ovens, heating time may need adjustment.
• Gotten from the back of cereal box.