14 posts tagged “bread”
Tom and I are back from Vegas, and it's definitely with less money than which we went, but that's OK. We had a great time and ate very well - particularly at Alize and SW Steakhouse.
I know I've mentioned before that I really, really hate wasting food. As a couple who "shops the perimeter" of the grocery store much more than the aisles, it can sometimes be difficult to use everything up before it goes bad. Planning meals in advance is one way to combat that, but there are still things I always seem to have in overage, like parsley, sour cream and sometimes even cheese.
Before leaving last week, I found a large container of sour cream staring back at me from the fridge. Sour cream is so hard because 1. For some reason it is almost impossible to find a small version of sour cream in a lowfat variety and 2. It tends to be used (at least for me) more as a topping/condiment so it's not like I use a lot of it at one time, except on a rare occasion.
Being that it was the day before we were leaving, I also didn't want to make a huge batch of something that wouldn't keep well. So, I decided to make muffins because they are easy to freeze and eat later. I wrap the muffins individually in saran wrap and then pop them into a freezer bag. And, to take care of the extra basil I also had leftover, I decided to make some corn and basil muffins.
I might increase the amount of sugar in these the next time around. I don't particularly like overly sweet cornbread/muffins, but I think these could have used a little more sweetness. Other than that (and overbaking them slightly), these were a great use of that sour cream and basil! I tried to keep these relatively healthy by using whole wheat flour and olive oil instead of a ton of butter, but they are corn muffins afterall, and they do require at least some butter, don't you think? :)
Corn and Basil Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1.25 tsp. salt
freshly cracked pepper to taste
1 cup lowfat sour cream
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. butter (I always use unsalted)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. fresh chopped basil
1.5 cups corn
Preheat the oven to 400 and grease or line a muffin tin.
Combine the first 8 ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, eggs, butter, olive oil and basil until well combined. Add the flour mixture to the sour cream mixture, and mix until just combined. Fold in the corn.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tin and bake for about 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Nutritional Information Per Muffin: Calories: 172 / Fat: 8g / Carbs: 22g / Fiber: 2g / Protein: 4.3g
I've been so behind on my blogging lately, and even more behind on all the great blog events that have been happening. In fact, I was in bed the other day and when I should have been sleeping, I remembered that an Eat to the Beat deadline was approaching and I had no idea what to make. After just a minute or two, I remembered the song "Raspberry Swirl" by Tori Amos and decided that would definitely work. I love Tori Amos. I remember getting From the Choirgirl Hotel the day it came out and discussing it with one of my friends in high school. She liked "Raspberry Swirl" the best. I was hesitant. It was ok, but kind of...weird. But of course it grew on me, big time, and it's now one of my favorite songs on the album.
But anyway, back to Eat to the Beat. How had I not thought of this song before? I mean, it's not really about food (far from), but the title could easily be applied to food. It's definitely the easiest one I've thought of yet, and even easier to execute. Just think of something to stick a raspberry swirl in and be done with it. Right? Not so much.
See, my first idea was cheesecake bars which I ultimately should have just gone with. They would no doubt be tasty and the swirl would be striking against the white bars. But I had pretty much none of the ingredients for cheesecake bars, so I decided to make raspberry swirl blondies. In theory, these were a good idea (and tasty!) but in practice, not so much. First, as you know, blondies are golden in color. Second, I decided to mix some raspberry jam with a few tablespoons of batter which dulled the color way too much. And, while tasty, the blondies didn't look particularly pretty.
Then, I was home alone all weekend because Tom's friends were in town for a bachelor party. The weather was really awful and I was bored, so I decided to make something else raspberry swirled. A quickbread. This is ultimately what I will end up blogging below, but it wasn't really my first choice (err, at this point, even my second). Sort of for the same reasons as above--the swirl is not as striking. And, it's not terribly exciting or different from things I bake pretty much every Sunday--healthyish carbs to go with my eggs in my weekday breakfasts.
So then I thought, of course. Angel food cake. A relatively healthier dessert, a pretty white canvas to work with, and a flavor that raspberry would complement. So, I mashed some raspberries that I figured I would layer in the batter and went by Alton Brown's recipe. But, alas, I don't have a nice tube pan with a removeable bottom. What I have is a tube/bundt pan that doesn't have a tube that raises above the edges and also which apparently hates me. So, after all the whipping and the sifting and the slow dolloping into the pan (and even the use of a small ramekin to help prop my pan upside down to cool when it came out of the oven), I had the hardest time ever getting the damned cake out. It finally came out...but, well, not all of it. Part of it stuck in the pan, making a not very attractive angel food cake. And, I had some air pockets in the cake too. So, although it tasted good, it looked pretty awful. Sigh.
And that's when I decided that this Eat to the Beat was obviously not as easy as I had so naively imagined. And after my share of raspberry swirled items over the last few days, I decided to say screw it and post the quickbread. The funny thing is I always look at blog events to make something sort of sinful and that I wouldn't normally make, but here I am making a variation on something I tend to make all the time. But, oh well.
Light Vanilla Quickbread with Raspberry Swirl
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt
1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup plain, fat free yogurt
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup raspberry jam
Preheat the oven to 350 and spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.
Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat the egg with the sugar until pale and smooth. Add the yogurt, vanilla, and oil and beat until just incorporated.
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture in 2-3 additions until just incorporated (don't overmix!).
Put about 1/2 of the mixture into the loaf pan, spreading evenly. Stir the jam vigorously to loosen it a little and then spoon it over the batter, but leave some space around all sides of the loaf. Spoon the remaining batter over the jam. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Nutritional Information Per Serving (1/12 of the loaf): Calories: 177 / Fat: 5g / Carbs: 30g / Protein: 3g
Sometimes I get recipe ideas from blogs. Sometimes from cookbooks. Sometimes, this food-centered brain of mine. And sometimes, from Seinfeld.
It's really weird how my mind works, especially as it relates to food and pop culture. A couple weeks ago, for some random reason, the Dinner Party episode of Seinfeld popped into my head. Do you remember that episode? The four friends are on their way to a dinner party and split up so that Jerry and Elaine are responsible for buying a chocolate babka and George and Kramer are put in charge of wine. Of course, hilarity/shenanigans ensue and the couple right in front of Elaine and Jerry (who happen to be attending the same dinner party) buy the last chocolate babka.
They don't know what they're going to bring to the dinner party when Jerry spots something he doesn't recognize and asks the clerk what it is. The clerk tells him it's cinnamon babka. Jerry tells Elaine they have to get the cinnamon babka but Elaine argues that, since the couple in front of them is bringing chocolate, she and Jerry will be bringing "the lesser babka." Oh, Elaine, you are so misguided!
Jerry: "I beg your pardon? Cinnamon takes a back seat to no babka! People love cinnamon. It should be on tables at restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, "Oh, this is so good. What's in it?" The answer invariably comes back, "cinnamon!." Cinnamon! Again and again. Lesser babka? I think not."
I totally agree with Jerry. Don't get me wrong. I love, love, love chocolate. But, even when I am in a restaurant and ordering dessert, I only go for the chocolate dessert about 5% of the time. I am a sucker for cobblers and crisps, tarts and cheesecakes, profiteroles and doughnuts. And, as far as I am concerned, anything with cinnamon and walnuts (or pecans) has to be good.
Here's the thing. I've never had babka. Truth be told, I didn't really even know what a babka was...but I knew I needed to have one. So I googled it and I was right. I did, in fact, need babka. And just as I was thinking this, I cruised through my Google Reader to see a Slate article about babka of all things. I took it as a sign.
So, for those of you who (like me) don't know exactly what babka is, it's something of a cross between a cake and a bread. The bread is sweet and brioche-like and it's filled like a coffeecake would be. I used a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, and it came out great. However, next time, I do not plan on making the pinwheel cuts before placing them in the pan and baking. Instead, I'll just cut the cylinder into two equal parts and then twist them and stick each in a loaf pan. The slices made the top of the cake look pretty but ultimately, they were more time consuming and allowed more of the filling to drizzle out, causing a bit of a caramelized crust on the sides that wasn't quite as pretty.
This is something best made on a weekend, or when you have two consecutive days off. I didn't get a chance to make it the last two weekends and wanted to use my sour cream within the next few days, so I did it on a Monday and Tuesday. Bad idea. It wouldn't have been SO bad, but I didn't realize the dough needed to rise a second time for 2.5 hours after it was rolled/cut (let this be a lesson to read instructions fully before making anything). So, it didn't even make it into the oven until about 9:45. I had to put it away still warm because I was too tired to wait for it to cool completely. I did sneak a slice before bed (of course! I mean, I had been waiting for it for two days!) and it was so great warm. Mmm.
Cinnamon and Walnut Babka
Cook's Illustrated
Makes 2 loaves
Dough
5.5 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 package (2.25 tsp.) instant or rapid rise yeast
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 cup water
4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool, and cut into tablespoons (16 pieces)
Filling
1.5 cups packed brown sugar
1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 cup raisins
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
Glaze
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 Tbsp. water
In a bowl, whisk together 4.5 cups of the flour and the yeast. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the sour cream, granulated sugar, eggs, water, vanilla and salt. Turn off the mixer and add the flour. Using the dough hook attachment, knead the mixture on low speed until the ingredients are evenly combined, about 3 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-low and knead until the dough becomes smooth, about 8 minutes longer.
With the mixer on medium-low, add the butter one piece at a time, leaving about 15 seconds between each addition. Once you've added all the butter, scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to knead until the dough forms a soft ball, adding the remaining flour 2 Tbsp. at a time until the dough is no longer wet and clears the sides of the bowl. The dough should be soft and sticky and you may not need all the flour (I didn't use it all).
Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10-24 hours (the dough will only rise slightly). Go to bed dreaming sweet thoughts of your babka.
Spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray and line them with overhanging parchment paper. Set aside.
Turn the cold dough onto a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into an 18x24" rectangle, about 1/16" thick.
In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the filling. Sprinkle the filling evenly over the dough. Then, roll a taut cylinder with the dough, pinching the end to seal it shut. Cut the cylinder into about 32 slices, 3/4" thick (this is what I would skip next time) and then, line the loaf pans with 2 rows each of the slices, next to one another. Cover the pans loosely with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for another 2-2.5 hours or until nearly doubled.
Adjust your oven rack to the middle lower part of the oven, and preheat to 450.
Make the glaze by beating the egg with the water in one bowl, and combining the cinnamon and sugar together in another bowl. Brush the breads lightly with the egg wash, and then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar.
Place the pans in the oven and then reduce the heat to 350. Bake the loaves for about 50-60 minutes (mine only took about 45 minutes and probably should have been taken out a minute sooner), turning once during baking, until browned and a thermometer inserted on the side registers at 190 degrees.
Transfer the pans to cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes. Using the overhanging parchment paper, remove the loaves from the pans and allow to cool completely on the racks before slicing.
I have quite a few bloggers from the group Tuesdays with Dorie in my Google Reader. As a result, every Tuesday, I tend to drool all over my keyboard from all the lovely looking Dorie Greenspan recipes the bloggers conquer that week. I am pretty sure my pants get tighter just from reading those blogs. I haven't joined the group because I don't bake often and there's a reason for that--I wouldn't be able to fit into my pants, or the desk chair in which I blog any longer :P
But, still, I wanted to try my hand at a Dorie recipe. I came across her recipe for Oatmeal Breakfast Bread on Cast Sugar, and it looked perfect. For one, it's easy. I love easy baking. Secondly, the ingredients were also pretty nutritious and things I always have on hand. It was a no brainer.
This recipe is fairly healthy as it is, but I did make some modifications to make it healthier, like replacing some of the AP flour with whole wheat and reducing the amount of sugar (but adding a tsp. of vanilla for some sweetness). I also made this into muffins rather than bread, mostly for portion control. I got 16 muffins out of the mix just barely, so if you are not as concerned with calories, I'd probably shoot for 12-14 slightly larger muffins. For the 16, they were about 180 calories per muffin with my modificatins (the recipe below).
The batter for this is so light and airy. Make sure you don't overmix it (something of which I am frequently guilty, but luckily didn't do this time around) so that your muffins end up that way, too. These muffins are so tasty and I just love the streusel-like topping. It makes you feel like you are eating something worse for you than you really are and you won't miss all the sugar in the bread itself.
Oatmeal Breakfast Bread [/Muffins]
adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Makes 1 loaf or about 14-16 muffins
For the topping:
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. chopped pecans
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
For the muffins/bread:
2 egg whites
1.25 cups unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup flavorless oil (I used canola)
1/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup AP flour
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 cup dried fruit of your choice (I used raisins and cranberries as that's what I had on hand)
1 cup oats
Preheat the oven to 350 and place the rack in the middle of the oven. Lightly grease & flour a 9" loaf pan or about 14 muffin cups.
To make the topping, mix the brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon together. Set aside.
To make the bread, whisk together the egg whites, applesauce, oil, buttermilk and vanilla until blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together whole wheat and AP flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Remove about a teaspoon of the mix and toss it with the dried fruit. Stir the oats into the bowl with the flour mixture.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and using a rubber spatula, stir until just evenly moistened. Fold in the dried fruit. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan or muffin tins. Sprinkle the topping over everything. Bake for 55-60 minutes for the bread, or about 20 minutes for muffins, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
One of my cooking resolutions for 2008 is to cook with yeast. And I mean to actually do it myself, from start to finish, not just have the bread machine do all the work for me. Don't get me wrong, I like the ease of the bread machine but there are some things I feel are more conducive to traditional breadmaking and, in general, I think you feel a much greater sense of accomplishment after you first successful foray into yeast.
Today wasn't the day for that foray, but it's something a little closer. Baby steps, right? Today I decided to make rolls, which meant I used the bread machine for the initial kneading/rise but then had to shape the dough and let it rise again myself. The shape of these certainly didn't turn out perfectly but considering this was my first time working with a yeast dough, I think they tuend out fairly well.
I had a craving for pretzel rolls, so I decided to go that route rather than traditional dinner rolls. I first checked out the recipe for pretzels in the manual/recipe book that came with my Cuisinart bread machine, and then l checked out other pretzel and pretzel roll recipes online and came up with what is below. These turned out really tasty and soft. Cutting the dough into 8 equal parts would be great for dinner roll sized pieces, or your normal twisted soft pretzels. I cut the dough in 6 pieces and they were just a little too small for the sandwiches I made later on...though they still worked. If you want to use these for sandwiches, I'd recommend either doing 4 hoagie-type shapes, or just go with the 6 but make them a little longer and not as round/high as I made mine.
These can definitely be adapted to the traditional way of making yeast breads.
Pretzel Rolls
3/4 cup warm (80-90 degree) water
1 tsp. salt
2.5 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. butter, melted
2.25 cups + 1 Tbsp. bread flour
2 tsp. bread machine or active dry yeast.
2 cups water
2 Tbsp. baking soda
1 egg white
kosher or coarse sea salt for topping
Place the 3/4 c. water, salt, brown sugar, butter, flour and yeast into your bread machine pan fitted with the paddle, in that order (or in the order specified by your particular bread machine). Select the dough/pizza dough cycle and the small size loaf (1 lb.). Press start to mix, knead and rise.
When the cycle is completed, remove the dough and knead on a lightly floured surface for 2 minutes. Divide the dough into equal pieces and shape them how you like. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat. Cover them with a lightly oiled sheet of plastic wrap and let them rest for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425. Bring the 2 cups of water to a light rolling bowl on the stovetop. Stir in the baking soda. Carefully slide the pretzels/rolls one at a time. Leave the roll there about 45 seconds before flipping and boiling for 45 minutes on the other side. Pick them up with a slotted spatula and let the water drain that way or put them on a cooling rack.
After you have done that with all the rolls, place them on a parchment/silpat lined cookie sheet. Brush the tops of the rolls with the egg white and sprinkle them with kosher salt. Bake them for about 12-15 minutes or until they have turned golden brown.
When I was young, I didn't like biscuits. How anyone can not like flaky, buttery packets of calorie-laden deliciousness, I will never know, but I suppose I was a strange kid. I would devour dandelion greens, okra and calamari by the bowlful. But biscuits? Nope. Every once in a while, my grandma (yiayia) would take me to KFC, where I would get my meal and she would order a coffee and a biscuit. Plus, she'd eat the biscuit that came with my meal. Obviously, yiayia knew what was up. I haven't been to KFC in ages but I guarantee that if I went today and someone tried to swipe my biscuit, loved relative or not, they would be swatted away--and not nicely.
The only biscuits I've made at home before tonight were the ones in a box from Trader Joe's :) I don't eat biscuits often because, these days, I could eat a dozen myself and that's probably something I shouldn't do. But today I ate healthy and went to the gym, so biscuits were definitely in order. I decided to make the fluffy biscuits from Cook's Illustrated and they turned out...well, fluffy. And buttery. And good.
Fluffy Biscuits
Cook's Illustrated
Makes 1 dozen
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup plain cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/4 lb. unsalted, chilled butter cut into 1/4" cubes
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup buttermilk; additional if needed (I used an additional 2 Tbsp. or so)
Preheat the oven to 450 and position your rack in the middle of the oven.
Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a mixing bowl or the bowl of your food processor. With a pastry blender or the steel blade of your food processor, cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse meal.
If mixing by hand, stir in the buttermilk with a spatula or fork until the mixture is a soft, slightly sticky ball. Add more buttermilk if necessary. If using a food processor, add the buttermilk and pulse process until dough gathers into moist clumps. Remove and form into a ball.
Lightly flour your hands and divide the dough into twelve equal portions. Lightly bat a portion of the dough back and forth until a ball forms, and then pat lightly with cupped hands to form a rough ball. Place formed dough rounds 1" apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush dough tops with melted butter. Bake until biscuit tops are lightly brown, about 10-12 minutes.
Mmmm, gingerbread. I love it. Love gingerbread crusts, gingerbread men, gingersnaps, and regular ol' gingerbread. So when I saw this recipe from Joy of Baking for gingerbread scones, I had to try it. I figured these would hold up better in tins than gingerbread and I wouldn't have to roll them out/cut them like I would with cookies. Plus, I got another chance to use my mini scone pan. I made this dough about 2 weeks ago and froze it, so all I had to do was stick it in the fridge the day before and then knead and bake.
I can't begin to tell you how great my kitchen smelled when these were baking. I was ready to just plop one out of the pan and eat it half way through the baking process. And luckily, the taste lived up to the smell. I will definitely be making another batch next week!
Gingerbread Scones
Joy of Baking
Scone Dough
1.75 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground ginger
1.5 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
1/3 cup dried cranberries or cherries (optional)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2.5 Tbsp. unsulphered molasses
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Egg Wash
1 egg
1 Tbsp. milk or cream
extra oats for sprinkling
Maple Glaze
1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar
1.5 Tbsp. real maple syrup
1-2 tsp cream or milk (I probably used close to 3)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and position your rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or if you are using a mini scone pan, grease lightly with butter or oil spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, oats, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the dough with a pastry cutter (or use your food processor on pulse) until the mixture looks like course crumbs. Stir in the lemon zest and cranberries, if using.
In a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk, molasses, and vanilla extract. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture, just until a dough comes together. Don't overmix.
Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently four or five times. Pat the dough into a circle, which you cut into 6 triangles, or roll into a square the size of your mini scone pan and then cut into 16 pieces, placing each piece individually in the pan.
Beat together the egg and cream to make the egg wash, and then brush the mixture over the scones. Sprinkle the scones with some rolled oats.
Place the baking sheet in another baking sheet (didn't even bother with this) and bake for about 20 minutes or until done.
Once they are cooled, make the glaze by combining the confectioners sugar, maple syrup and milk/cream. Add cream until you get an icing consistency which can be drizzled over the scones.
I didn't make any changes to the recipe other than make mini scones instead of full sized ones. I used dried cranberries since I had them on hand but I love dried cherries even more, so I might do that next time. I did leave out the optional lemon zest because I didn't have a lemon on the day I made the dough. I recommend the maple glaze. It's really tasty and gives the scones just a little added sweetness.
I decided to use the last of the "poultry rub" herbs I bought the other day on some bread that I thought would go well with our meal of--you guessed it--soup! This bread turned out great! It was nice and crusty and very flavorful--though I'd probably up the amount of fresh herbs a little to 1/4 cup next time.
Bread Machine Garlic Herb Bread
Makes 1.5lb. loaf
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
3 cups bread flour
3 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh herbs (I used rosemary, thyme, sage and marjoram)
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
3 Tbsp. nonfat dry milk
1.5 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1.5 tsp. bread machine yeast
Place the ingredients in your bread machine in the order listed above (or as required by your bread machine). Set to the white bread cycle, and put the crust on light or medium.
Between having several recently married friends and spending some time on newlywed chat boards, I have heard some awful stories about mothers-in-law. I'm pretty hard-pressed to join in on these discussions because I truly have a wonderful mother in law. Actually, I have pretty much won the in-law lottery--and I'm not just saying that because some of them occasionally read my blog :-)
Since our families don't live in Chicago, Tom and I didn't meet each other's families for about 4 months after we started dating. Nevertheless, about 2 months into our relationship, my husband stayed with his parents for the weekend, and when he came to see me Sunday night, he came bearing a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread with a sugary glaze--my favorite. That loaf of bread was made especially for me by none other than my (now) mother-in-law. Sending the man I love back to me with tasty treats? This is a woman after my own heart! It also made me laugh because this sounds like something MY family would do (seriously, folks, no matter if I am traveling by plane, train or automobile, I have never NOT had my grandmother tried to send me home with spanakopita, oregano, and dolmades for myself and/or Tom).
Since I've been making soups and stews on Sundays, I decided it would be nice to make breads on Sundays, too. So I went to my mother-in-law for her bread-machine cinnamon raisin recipe (and she also gave me a garlic herb one, which I plan to try out next week). I adapted it slightly, and the recipe is below. I set the bread machine to a medium crust and I'm not sure why, but it definitely was closer to dark than it was to medium. I should have set it to light, so I am putting that in the instructions below. My mother in law's recipe did specify a light crust. I guess you should always listen to your mother-in-law :)
Cinnamon Raisin Bread for the Bread Machine
1 lb. loaf
3/4 cup water
1 Tbsp. butter
2 cups bread flour
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 3/4 tsp. bread machine yeast
1/2 cup raisins
Add all the ingredients except the raisins in the order specified by your bread maker. Set it to a 1 lb./small loaf with a light crust, on the sweet bread cycle. When the mix-in tone sounds, add the raisins.
Today, I decided to use my mini scone pan for its intended use--to make mini scones, of course. :) I don't bake often since I don't particularly like to and since I don't really need to eat what I make. The good thing about a mini scone pan is that it exercises portion control. So, you can make a batch of scones the old-fashioned, fatty way and not feel *too* badly about eating one.
I found a recipe for mini orange-currant scones on Williams Sonoma and adapted it for dried cranberries. I made it ever so slightly healthier by substituting half the flour for whole wheat and using half and half in place of cream (since I had it on hand). These end up being 145 calories and 7g of fat a piece.
Orange-Cranberry Scones
adapted from Williams-Sonoma
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 egg
1/2 cup half and half
zest of 1 orange
granulated or turbinado sugar for sprinking
Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a mini scone pan.
In a food processor, combine the white and wheat flours, sugar, baking powder and salt and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles pea-size crumbs. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the dried cranberries.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, half and half and orange zest until blended. Add to flour mixture. Using a fork, stir to form large, moist clumps of dough.
Turn the fough out onto a lightly floured surface and press together with your hands until the dough comes together (I added about a Tbsp. of water to help it come together). Roll out the dough, flouring as needed, into a 9-inch square, about 3/4 inch thick.
Cut into 4 equal-size squares, then cut each square diagnolly into 4 triagles. Press each triangle into a well of the prepared pan. (Alternatively, you could just make 6-8 regular-size scones by cutting the dough witha biscuit cutter or into wedges, after rolling it out). Sprinkle each scone lightly with sugar. Bake until the scones are golden, about 25 minutes.
Invert the pan onto a wire rack and lift off the pan. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
