Garlic Knots

Yes I said Garlic Knots!!! I used to eat these with my family when we went to Rockaway Beach, NY to see my aunt Nancy. We always went to this pizza shop and as I was making the garlic oil for these knots the smell took me back to that skinny shop where we would eat basket after basket...

This recipe was pretty easy, I used the same basic method of making the bread as I did with the Povitica Cinnamon Swirl Bread. So again I made the dough and went for a stroll with Lauren. We tried on some clothes, drank iced coffee, and wandered around Chestnut Hill in the sun. When we got back it was time to form the rolls and throw them in the oven.

I love the smell of yeast. I found this recipe on a blog called White On Rice Couple. It makes a pretty sturdy little knot, the ones I remember were a little more flakey and light and oily, mine are more crusty on the outside. I didn't have parsley- because I didn't know that Jenn has tons of it growing in her yard, so I used chives in the garlic oil instead. I also threw a little parmesan cheese in there too just for fun.

Ingredients:

DOUGH
1 3/4 c Warm Water
1/4 c Olive Oil
1 t Sea Salt
1 T Sugar
1 1/2 T Active Dry Yeast
approx. 5 1/2 c all-pupose, unbleached Flour

GARLIC OIL COATING
1/8 c Olive Oil
2 T unsalted Butter
4 cloves Garlic, finely crushed
1/4 c finely chopped fresh Chives
Sea Salt to taste

plus extra Olive Oil and Flour for making the knots

Directions:

Combine water, 1/4c olive oil, sea salt, sugar, and active dry yeast in a large resealable container or bowl. Mix to dissolve yeast.

Add flour. Mix to incorporate flour, cover, and set in a warm spot to proof until doubled in volume (usually 1-3 hrs depending on initial water temp and warmth of proofing area). (A sunny table outside on a warm summer day is perfect for proofing!)

Chill the dough for a bit (will keep fine in fridge for several days if you want to make the dough ahead of time) to make it easier to handle (this can be skipped if you don't have the time) then set up your knotting station. Put out a large wooden cutting board and oil liberally. Grab a rolling dowel or pin and oil. Grab a pizza cutter or something similar to slice dough in strips. Put container of flour within easy reach. Line several sheet pans with parchment paper or silpats and place within easy reach.

Oil your hands to help keep dough from sticking to them. Divide the dough in two parts to make it easier to handle. Take the first half, slap it onto the oiled board several times to flatten. Using the dowel, spread into an even rectangle approx. 5"x16" and 1/2" thick. Slice the rectangle into 1/2"x5" strips.

Rotate the board 90° and sprinkle dough strips and board with flour. Taking the strip nearest to you, roll it back and forth to create an even rope. Tie into a knot (over, under, and through) and place on lined sheet pan. Place knots about an 1 1/2" apart. At first it may seem awkward making the knots but with a little practice it will become easy. Flour is your friend to help keep the dough from sticking to itself while forming the knots.

Continue making the rest of the knots with the second half of the dough. After each sheet pan fills up, cover with a dry sack towel, and place in a warm, draft-free spot to rise.

Preheat oven to 400° F

After knots have doubled in size (or about the time it takes the oven to preheat), take off dry sack towel and place sheet pans in the oven. Bake for approx. 12-15 min. or until golden.

While knots are baking, make garlic coating. Gently warm olive oil, butter, and garlic in a small saucepan (if you like your garlic with less of a bite, cook it for a few minutes in oil/butter mix until soft & slightly golden). Re move from the heat and once the mixture has cooled a little transfer to a large bowl. Once mix has cooled a few minutes add a little parm and the chives.

After removing knots from oven, while still warm, place knots in the large bowl and toss with garlic coating. Season with sea salt to taste.
Best served warm, but still good when at room temp.

Cinnamon Swirl Povitica Bread

Remember those cinnamon swirl pinwheel snack cakes that your mom used to put in your lunch when you were little? I used to unroll them before I ate them. Well this bread is exactly like that.

I made the dough, went to the coffee shop for an hour to do some work, walked over to the new Green Street Consignment and got a pair of AG Jeans for $24.00, then went home and made my bread. The dough needed 90 mins to rise so I had plenty of time to do some shopping, and since I had to leave my mom at the consignment shop because she was taking so long to try on dresses, I ended up rolling the dough out all by myself- my first adventure with yeast was a huge success!!

I found this recipe on Brownie Bite's Blog. I added raisins to the filling and I'm thinking next time apples or chunky applesauce in there too. Or some kind of a coffee cake crumble filling. There are a lot of possibilities. I also added some extra cinnamon, right before I rolled up the dough in a spiral. Ooooh I should have sprinkled some on top before I put it in the oven too!! Next time...

Ingredients:

ACTIVATING THE YEAST:
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1/4 teaspoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast

FOR THE DOUGH:
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
2 cups all-purpose flour, measured then sifted

FOR THE FILLING:
1 1/2 cups walnuts, ground or chopped
1 1/2 cups raisins
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

FOR THE TOPPING:
1 egg, beaten (to brush onto the dough)
Mixture of demerara (or any raw sugar), cinnamon, and cardamom


Method:

ACTIVATE THE YEAST:
In a small bowl, stir 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp flour and yeast into 2 TBS warm water. Cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to stand for 5 minutes until bubbly.

MAKE THE DOUGH:
In a medium saucepan, heat the milk to just below boiling , stirring constantly. Allow to cool slightly.

In bowl of mixer, add the scalded milk to 3 TBS sugar and 3/4 tsp salt until combined. Add the beaten egg, 1 TBS melted butter, and the yeast mixture. Add 1/4 cup of the sifted flour. Stir until combined. Slowly add small amounts of the remaining flour (1 3/4 cups) until the dough begins to clean the bowl. (I had to add a couple more tbsp of flour to really get the dough to pull together).

Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead, continuing to add small amounts of flour until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. Place dough ball into a greased mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel. Let rise in a warm place for 90 minutes or until doubled in size.

Go shopping

TO MAKE THE FILLING:
In a bowl, mix together the walnuts with sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom.

In a saucepan, heat the milk and butter to boiling, and then pour over the nut mixture.

Allow to cool slightly and then add egg yolk and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Allow mixture to come to room temperature.

ASSEMBLING THE DOUGH:
Turn dough out onto a floured surface and with a floured rolling pin roll out dough to a rectangle approximately 10×12 inches. Continue rolling until dough is very, very thin. Occasionally lift the dough and sprinkle extra flour on your surface as needed to prevent sticking and tearing.

Spread nut filling over the top of dough, leaving a little room around the edges. Spread raisins on dough as well. Shake some extra cinnamon on there while you're at it.

Carefully and slowly roll the dough up like a jelly roll. Starting at the center, gently pull the log toward the edges to make it slightly longer.

Using a 9×5 loaf pan as a guide, create an S-shape with your dough that will fit inside of the pan.
Thoroughly grease your pan and lay the dough inside. Then brush with a beaten egg and top with raw sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom.

Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes. Turn down oven temperature to 300F and bake an additional 45 minutes. Add an aluminum foil tent to dough if it starts to brown too quickly or too much. Bread is done when it is a deep golden brown, begins to pull away at the edges, and has a hollow sound when you thunk on it.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before removing from pan. Slice with a serrated knife. Sometimes it’s easiest to turn the loaf upside down before cutting.

Bread Lessons

I've been trying to find time to get my mom to teach me how to make bread for a while now. Since I just had a big test on Thursday I am prepared for a less stresses-out weekend- I usually ease up on the studying the weekend after a test and then dive in again on Monday. Cumulative final May 2nd- only a few weeks to study everything I learned this semester!!

But back to baking... This is how I relieve stress- pounding dough, chopping chocolate, beating butter. Baking is the most amazing creative outlet I know. Sometimes I clean stuff, getting totally dirty in the garden is nice when it's really sunny out, or painting and drawing are also fun things that I do to de-stress and tire myself out. (I drink a lot of coffee) I have mastered cookies and muffins and a few weeks ago I made my first pie, but anything involving yeast- I have avoided. That's probably why I made yeast-free cinnamon rolls the other day.

There's no more avoiding it!! I have wanted to make "Monkey Bread" forever now. The smell of cinnamon sugar in the air... Conquer your fears and open that packet of yeast!

I have a recipe for "Povitica Bread" from Brownie Bites that I'm going to attempt, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Photo Credit: Apple Pie, Patis, & Pate

Muffin Thursday: Pear Almond Chocolate Spice Muffins

Christmas has come early!! Muffin Thursday has arrived a whole day early this week. Instead of studying for a huge test that I have tomorrow- I can't look at my notes anymore I'm going insane- I decided to make cookies and these delish muffins. From Pastry Affair, these muffins have the perfect balance of spice and cocoa powder.

Unfortunately I was halfway done the recipe when I realized my mom didn't have any cardamom, so I changed the recipe to ginger and nutmeg. And I threw in some allspice and extra cinnamon. I'll try to remember all of the changes I made. I also halved the sugar. Remember- muffin not cupcake. I think this same basic recipe would be really good with cranberries and walnuts or chocolate chips and hazelnuts instead of the pear and nuts. The basic batter recipe is really easy and lends itself to a lot of different flavor possibilities. It's easy to take cake recipes and make them into muffins by backing off on the sugar and changing the bake temp from 350 to 400 and the bake time from an hour to around 25 mins.

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2-3 pears, diced (I used Red Pears)
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put muffin papers in a 12 cup muffin pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder until cocoa is dissolved.

In another small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil together. Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract. Alternatively add the flour and cocoa mixtures, mixing gently between additions. Don't mix too much. Using a spatula, fold in the diced pears and chopped almonds.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

And now back to pretending to study.

Salted Black Sesame Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I've been meaning to try this recipe for weeks now. I found it via Taste Spotting on Joy The Baker's Blog. Soy sauce in a cookie? With black sesame seeds? Yes please!!

Next time I'm going to use a full tsp of soy sauce- at least- because I really didn't taste anything with just 3/4 tsp. The black sesame seeds are fun- something a little unusual. Marie found them at Whole Foods in the International isle. For the chocolate I cut up the body of a medium-sized dark chocolate bunny that my aunt Barbie gave me for Easter, but I saved the head for later. Thanks Barb!! This dough was supposed to be fridged for 45 mins before baking- in my world that means in the freezer for about 10 mins while I wash the dishes. Same difference. And mine took more like 15-18 mins to bake, we liked them more golden.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 to 1 teaspoon soy sauce (don’t be scared)
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
1 cup dark chocolate chips

about 1/4 cup black sesame seeds for rolling and a few of shakes of coarse sea salt for topping

Method:

Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside and we’ll preheat the oven after we chill the dough.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the butter mixture with a spatula. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat on medium speed until mixture is fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and soy sauce. Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients, all at once to the butter mixture. Beat on low speed until just combined. Stop the mixer, add the sesame seeds and chocolate chunks, and fold together with a spatula until well combined. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 45 minutes. (Or 15 mins in the freezer like the impatient baker that you are).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place about 1/4 cup black sesame seeds in a small bowl with some sea salt.

Scoop cookie dough by the heaping tablespoonful into your hand. Roll into a ball, and toss around in the black sesame seeds. The dough balls don’t need to be completely covered in seeds, just coated well. Place on prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 12 minutes (or longer if you want them more golden), until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven, allow to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container. Cookies will last for a day or two. The oils on the seeds can tend to go rancid. These cookies are best eaten within a few days. That shouldn’t be much trouble!

Marie's B&W Photo Wall

My mom wanted to share her black and white photos with us. They have a food/baking theme to them. She has them mounted on a wall in her mango-colored kitchen.

Thanks Mom

Awwwww...

I just found this picture of my mom and grandma baking!! They are so cute. When we go visit, my grandma has usually made a box of betty crocker cookies for us to nibble on. Such a sweet lady.

Croissants

The other week my mom made croissants- chocolate filled and plain- from scratch. The method involved a lot of rolling dough and freezing the sheets but the end result was well worth it. They had the same flavor and lightness as the croissants I remember eating when I was a kid. Good job Marie.