Daily Bread: Flatbread

Although the recipe recommended rice, something in me thought flatbread would be just the thing to have with our Indian dinner tonight. At first I figured I'd buy some, but I found a recipe online and decided to give it a try. It is not difficult, but it is not fast, so it is something I will probably rarely do. After you make the dough, you portion it out into little balls and roll them very thin.

Then you cook them on a hot griddle (or in my case a cast iron skillet) - interestingly, the griddle or skillet must be dry - no cooking fat added.

Cook on each side about 1-2 minutes.

Flatbread:
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
Thyme - the recipe said 3 tbsp fresh, but I only had dry, so I just added about 1 tsp.
3/4 cup water

Mix dry ingredients well, add water and stir to make a ball. Then knead about 5 minutes. Grease a bowl, put it in the bowl to rise - about 1 hour. Portion out, roll, and cook as above. The recipe said it would make 20, my first one was too small, so I made 10.

We served it with Chicken Korma, which reminded Rob of an old roommate and reminded me of this little West Indian restaurant over on 168th St...yum!

And Cucumber Salad, called for jalapenos, I omitted them because I knew that would make it too hot for the kids. They both liked all 3 dishes. The Korma could have been spicier for me, but really it tasted very good.

Daily Bread: Italian Sweet Bread

I tried a new bread recipe recently - we were having spaghetti and I...well actually I read this recipe and it sounded good and I thought spaghetti would go well with it! It did :) This little loaf is soft and the Italian seasonings on top really liven it up. The original recipe makes 2 round loaves, but I halved it and that was plenty for us.

Italian Sweet Bread
1/2 cup milk
1 egg (beaten and divided into 2 equal portions)
1 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
about 2 cups of flour
1 tsp yeast (instant if you've got it!)
1/2 tbsp water
Italian Seasoning

Combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and yeast and mix well. Stir in milk, 1/2 egg, and butter. Stir in enough flour to make a soft, workable ball. Knead about 5 minutes and let rise - 45 minutes should be enough. Press out air, make a ball and place in a greased cake round, let proof for 45 minutes. Add water to remaining egg, brush egg wash over the loaf and sprinkle with Italian seasoning. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until the internal temp is about 200 degrees. Be careful not to go over 212!

Note, if you are using regular old active dry yeast, you must use warm milk, that is the NICE NICE NICE thing about instant yeast - you can use cold milk or water and it still rises. This eliminates a problem I used to have because I had trouble getting the water or milk hot enough, but not too hot.

Daily Bread: Sweet Potato Biscuits

A big hit at a brunch we hosted recently - Sweet Potato Biscuits:

1 large sweet potato
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons milk

Scrub and pierce the sweet potato, then microwave on high for 10 minutes. Allow to cool a little before handling, then peel and puree in a food processor or blender. Measure out 1 cup and blend with brown sugar, lemon zest, butter, and milk.

In a seperate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Wisk to combine completely. Stir in the sweet potato mixture until it forms a ball. Roll out and cut into biscuits. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.

Daily Bread: Asiago Bread

I realized I'd gotten distracted by my 2009 goal of learning to make yeast breads, so I planned a couple of homemade breads into this week's meal plan. One was this loaf:

Asiago bread - and it's a pretty basic bread except it has cheese in it, namely asiago cheese, except I forgot that what I had in my cheese drawer was swiss and had to use that, but the recipe actually noted that you could use swiss instead of asiago. It turned out nicely with a very crispy, crusty crust, and it went great with the spicy bean soup, which is very tomatoey, so it was kind of an upscale grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup night.

Asiago (or Swiss) Bread

3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 package regular or fast-acting dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 1/4 cups water (bottled or filtered)
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons dried rosemary or thyme leaves, if desired
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups Asiago, Swiss or other firm cheese

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and water and mix well, cover tightly and let rest for about 1 hour. Then stir in oil, salt, rosemary and enough flour to bring the dough together (I needed a little over 3 cups total). Knead about 5 minutes on the dough hook then knead in about 1 cup of the cheese - the original recipe called for small chunks, but all I had was shredded, next time, I think I'll try chunks to see how it changes things). Form into a ball and place in large greased bowl, covered in a warm place until doubled (45 minutes to 1 hour).

Shape dough into a footlong football shape, place on a greased cookie sheet, cover liberally with flour and then loosely with plastic wrap - stick in a warm place for another hour (or until doubled).

Then spritz the loaf with water, sprinkle with flour, slash it longways and put the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese down the middle. Bake in a 450 oven for 10 minutes, then drop the heat to 400. Bake another 20-25 minutes or until the inner temp is between 200 and 210 degrees (mine took only 20 minutes). Allow to cool for 30 minutes before cutting.

This loaf turned out really good considering I forgot to add salt and oil. :)

Daily Bread: Easy Doughnuts

In no time at all, I made these doughnuts yesterday:

I used a soda bottle cap to mark the hole in a counter-whop biscuit, cut it out with kitchen scissors, fried in hot oil for about a half minute per side (until golden brown), drained, glazed, and served. It was fast. And while they didn't taste exactly like the ones from the Publix bakery, they average about $.06 each (compared to $.67 at Publix) and you can eat them nice and hot.

Daily Bread: Pillow Soft Rolls

Although my Nanny's rolls are very good, I've been experimenting with some alternate recipes because I like to avoid trans-fats when possible and her recipe calls for shortening. These are actually from a cookbook she gave me for Christmas a few years ago and I used her stand mixer to make them. They are extremely good - better than that even - I told Caleb they were "Mary Poppins" Rolls - practically perfect in every way! I made a few changes to the Taste of Home recipe and I made a half batch (a full batch is way too much for us), so I'll list what I used.

1-3/4 to 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 packages instant dry yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp)
1/2+1/8 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter, melted

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Stir in sour cream and water; beat until blended. Beat in egg until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. Knead with dough hook for about 5-6 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise about 1 hour (til doubled).

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; roll out to 1/2-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter. Using the dull edge of a table knife, make an off-center crease in each roll. Fold along crease so the small half is on the top; press along folded edge.

Place in a greased 9 in. x9 in. baking pan, allowing edges to touch. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 25 minutes. Brush tops with butter. Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Yield: 10-12.

The original recipe can be found here. I didn't have sour cream, so I used the yogurt, which is fat free, so I can't image how good these things are with full fat sour cream!

9/17/09 **Amendment** I've made these rolls a few more times and have found that I actually get a BETTER result using the non-fat plain yogurt than with sour cream.

Biscuit Revolution

I have blogged before that I had reached contentment with my biscuit making, but I was wrong - I have found a method that is easier and produces a better biscuit. Basically I have combined the Joy of Cooking biscuit recipe with the Alton Brown method of making biscuits.

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp very cold butter
3/4 cup milk (I use whole because that's what Annalise drinks)

Preheat oven to 450.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt and sift or stir thoroughly with a whisk. Cut in butter (Joy of Cooking says 4-6 tbsp, but this is what I use every time - I have tried many options for cutting in the butter, but here is what I like now - I freeze the butter and then grate it with my cheese grater into the flour mixture. After that just stir it up and rub it in a little with you finger tips.) Pour milk over everything and stir just until all the milk is mixed in.

Set it aside and prepare pan and get a big sheet of parchment paper (not waxed paper). I wait until this step to prepare my pan because the flour needs a few minutes to absorb the milk - very important!!! Then I dump everything out onto the parchment paper and fold the paper over the lump and press into a rectangle - usually the dough is so sticky that there is no way to avoid adding more flour, but the parchment does not stick so bad as my fingers :) then unfold the parchment and using the parchment fold the two sides in - like folding a letter or a wallet. Press it down into about the same size as it was and then repeat - make a wallet, then the rectangle - then STOP! No more. Dunk your biscuit cutter in flour and then cut out the rounds (they will be STICKYYYY) and bake for 12-15 minutes.