English Muffins–Take Two!

Ok, sorry for another delay in posting but I’ve had another drawback with my back.  Apparently it doesn’t want to heal as fast as I’d like it to so I’m back to moving very slowly.  I also require a brace for now and so my ability around the kitchen is a bit limited.  I’m still baking as you can see, just not as often as I’d like.  I thank you all for your patience with my healing, you have been great for coming back to visit!

Enough about my pity party, lets get on with why you are all here.  The sweets or in this case the savory treats!

I was watching my favourite TV channel last week, the Food Network and was watching the show, The Best Thing I Ever Ate.  One of the contributors, can’t remember his name, was in love with English Muffins from a bakery in Napa.  They used focaccia dough and thought that was pretty cool.  A couple days later I made pizza dough for dinner for the kids but they wanted something else and since I forgot to mention to Rob that I had made the dough, he offered them pasta.  So now I’ve got dough and I could just use it tomorrow or…

ooooh oooh that show used focaccia and pizza dough isn’t really that different.  Why not????  So I put the dough into the fridge over night and when I got up (way too early) I rolled it out and cut them with my circle cutter and let them proof.  Now this bakery also used butter in the pan instead of a dry pan with corn meal, so lets try that too!

I pulled out my cast iron pan (one of my favourite pans) and put it on medium-low heat.  I then coated the cut pieces of dough in corn meal and put aside.  Once the pan was heated, I added 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan and added 3 to 4 muffins.  They baked for 7-10 minutes until golden brown, then I flipped and baked again for 7-10 minutes.  I pulled them out of the pan and set them aside while I repeated for the rest of the muffins, about 18 in total.

I really loved my first attempt at English Muffins using the King Arthur Flour recipe, but these were hands down better.  The dough is so simple or you can even buy ready made pizza dough at the store but it’s the butter in the pan that brought them to a new level.  These were amazing.  My next door neighbour has started to call me Mrs Crocker.  I’ll take that as a complement thank you!  Rob even said they tasted like more

Recipe:

• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 pkg)
• 1 1/3 cup warm water
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar

1. In the bowl of a mix master with dough hook, add all ingredients.  Mix on low until combined and then increase to medium low and knead for 5 minutes.  If you don’t have a mixer you can do this by hand but you need to put your back into it
2. Once kneaded, coat with a little oil and place back into bowl and let rise for an hour.  Punch down and put into fridge over night.
3. Next morning, take out of fridge and knead until warm.  Roll out and cut into circles.  Dust with corn meal and let rise an hour.
4. Using a cast iron skillet (if you have one, if not no worries) put on med-low.  Add a tablespoon of unsalted butter and place 3-4 (depending on size of pan).  Fry for 7-10 minutes, flip and fry for another 7-10 minutes.
5. Remove from pan and continue making the muffins until all are fried.
6. When still warm, slice and smother with jam or butter.  Bet you can’t eat just one!
7. Enjoy!

These are without a doubt delicious.

Thanks for looking!

Gluten Free Banana Nut Bread

I’m on a GF kick.  Not because anyone in our house requires GF but because my best friend, who is, challenged me to make a good GF Banana Nut Bread.  And I love a good challenge. 

When I first started baking as a teen, I used to love making banana bread.  My only problem was that I could never get the bread to have the little brown flecks synonymous with banana bread.  Mine usually came out of the oven and white as snow.  It tasted great but most people would say it looked nothing like traditional banana bread.  It took me almost 10 years to finally get it with the flecks.  Now I have a great banana bread recipe but decided to tweak it with the request for gluten free.

I took out the butter and buttermilk and replaced with apple sauce and Greek yogurt. So if you take out the walnuts and chocolate chips, this truly would be a non-fat bread.  As it stands now it’s low fat! You could also use stevia or honey in place of the white sugar.

Recipe:

• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 cups GF flour (my fav is Cup 4 Cup)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Prepare two loaf pans and set aside.
3. In bowl of a stand mixer, combine all ingredients excluding walnuts and chocolate chips.
4. When just combined, remove paddle and fold in walnuts and chips.  If you mix too much, the bread gets a bit chewy.
5. Divide batter into two and bake for 30-40 minutes. Or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let stand 10 minutes and then remove from pan.
7. Cool.  Keeps wrapped for 4-5 days, or in freezer 3-4 weeks.
8. Enjoy!

This bread is fabulous! I gave one loaf to a friend who just had a baby and ate the other.  Yup all by myself.  Rob doesn’t like nuts baked into things plus he wasn’t here to complain about it :)

You could also use regular all-purpose flour but when Sapna gave me the challenge I was all over it!  So if you have a bakers challenge for me, I’m always up for it!

Thanks for looking!

English Muffins

There is just something about nooks and crannies!  Last weekend I had a craving for an English muffin and alas we did not have any.  I’ve also been watching Downton Abby and so have become a little nostalgic for all things British. 

Since I’ve been not allowed to do anything since my epidural shot on Thursday, my hubby set me up in bed with a constant supply of Canadian tea (because US tea is shyte) and Amazon Prime where I could watch the first season of Downton Abby.  Have you seen it yet?  Oh my, it’s a must.  There’s something about pomp and circumstance in the British aristocracy.  LOVE IT.  And Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) is in it, so it’s pretty awesome.  Also tons of actors where you don’t necessarily know their names but know them to see them.  ;)

Back to the English Muffins.  I went online and did a search and came to rest on a trusted bread recipe site.  King Arthur Flour.  I love their unbleached flour and decided to give their recipe a try.  My first shock was to find out that you fry the muffins on very low setting and not bake them.  So you can’t really start them and walk away, this requires your full attention.  I also just love fresh bread, there truly is nothing better.

I started the recipe Sunday afternoon before I realized I had to corn meal.  So I popped the dough into the fridge overnight and made a quick run to the grocery store to get the corn meal.

I followed the recipe fairly closely except I used honey instead of sugar and my goodness they were amazing.

Whilst laid up in bed after my needle on Thursday, Rowan brought me a snack of English muffin with butter and jam.  She kept helping me eat the other half of the muffin, so I required two orders or in the end just one full muffin, but when she went back down after the 2nd time asked for a muffin just for herself.  SUCCESS.  Honestly, if you can get the kids to eat whatever you make and they go back for thirds you’ve accomplished a lot!

Recipe:  as adapted by King Arthur Flour

• 1 3/4 cups lukewarm milk
• 3 tablespoons softened butter
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, to taste
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 4 to 4 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• white corn meal, for sprinkling the griddle or pan

1. In bottom of stand mixer bowl add milk, honey and yeast.  Allow the yeast to start to bubble.
2. Add remaining ingredients except corn meal and using a dough hook, turn on mixer until the dough is combined and pulling away from the bowl.
3. Place dough into greased bowl and let stand to rise to double it’s size.  Punch down and repeat.
4. Sprinkle surface with corn meal and roll out dough to 1 inch thickness and cut out 3” circles.
5. Let stand for 20 minutes on baking sheet. 
6. Heat frying pan on low heat. Once pan is warm, sprinkle with corn meal and “fry” 4 muffins at a time.  8 minutes per side, flip and another 8 minutes.  Check after 4 mins for colouring.  I had to increase the heat on the pan for the first batch to get the right colour but found the corn meal started to smoke a bit.  The rest of the muffins were perfect.
7. Once done, cool completely on rack.  Fork open and place in toaster.  Add butter and jam and enjoy!

These were superb.  Enough said.  And also a welcome comfort during a week of not so much comfort.

I hope you’ll try them, you may never buy another English muffin from the store.  I know I won’t.

Thanks for looking!

Croissants 101–so many layers, so little time

I love croissants!  I mean they are probably my all time favourite pastry. When Rob and I were in France 5 years ago, we would go to whatever local bakery in the town we were in and buy a half dozen with our coffees almost every morning.  I don’t know what the French do that make their pastry so much superior to anything I’ve had here, but they do!

So now I’m on the hunt for the best croissant recipe.

First off the croissant is so named for it’s distinctive crescent shape.  It is a dough layered with butter that’s been folded and turned several times to give the pastry it’s special texture.

The key to a really good croissant isn’t just the flakiness, but a combination of flavour, crispness, texture and number of layers.  The more layers, the lighter the pastry. 

There are many conditions to consider when making the ideal croissant.  So after making all these different recipes (some world renowned, some unknown) I’ve come up with a few determining factors:

• unsalted vs salted butter
• sugar vs honey
• using non-fat milk powder vs not using
• the number of “turns” 4 vs 5
• number of days to make, does more resting help or hurt
• temperature of the oven
• the water

I’m no expert and my tastes may be quite different than yours, but here’s what I thought of each recipe.  I just really really love croissants.

My first recipe I chose is from a Google search. Julia Childs recipes: as taken from Mamaliga.  Pros: small batch, easily workable.  flakey, buttery, very tasty, can be frozen before baked off.  Cons:  had to decrease temperature for second bake as the outsides were crispy but inside was not cooked.  I dropped the temperature to 400 degrees and they crisped up nicely and inside was cooked.  The croissants weren’t very big. Both Abby and I really liked the flavour but not the texture.

The second recipe I took from my awesome Bread book and included renowned pastry chef Michel Roux.  The directions were easier and included using non-fat milk powder. Pros:  larger batch, more butter, crispy and flakey.  Cons – flakes were thicker, couldn’t get the dough thin enough (could be due to pulled rib muscles), there was a lot of butter oozing, so a bit too greasy.  The flavour of these were Rob’s favourite.

My father-in-law Bill gave me his recipe that he got from the Canadian Living Magazine March 1987.  Pros: I really liked this dough, much easier to work with, not as stiff.  the dough rose a lot more.  very flakey. larger batch and got 18 decent size croissants.  Cons: the dough is really sticky at first and when baked the pastries didn’t hold their shape as well. This batch had good flavour, very buttery. Abby and I liked these ones.

Attempt four I went back and tried Michel Roux’s recipe again.  Now that the ribs aren’t quite so sore.  I got the layers thinner this time.  I really like the flavour on these.  Pros: These are closest to the flavour I remember from France.  Crispy and flakey with a doughy center.  Cons: Stiff dough makes it hard to roll.  This recipe also has the most butter folded in, so when baked they are greasier. 

I recently read that one of the reasons croissants here don’t taste the same as in France is because of the fat content of the butter. Butter in the states is around 80-82% whereas in Europe, butter typically contains 82-84% butterfat.  This greater proportion gives the butter a richer taste than American butter.  You can buy European butter but haven’t seen it yet in my journeys.

I love croissants and so do my girls.  I wanted to make some more but I have no resistance to them and if I see them I eat them.  So without further ado, here’s the recipe I recommend,… My father-in-laws:

• 1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
• 1/2 cup skim milk powder
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp dry active yeast
• 3 2/3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 lb butter – cold
• 1 egg

1. Mix together water, milk powder, sugar and yeast.  Let sit until foamy
2. In bowl of a standing mixer, add flour, salt and shortening.  With fingers, rub in shortening until combined.  It should look like oatmeal.
3. Pour in yeast mixture and using dough hook, knead until dough holds together.
4. Turn out dough onto floured surface and knead for 1 minute.  Don’t over knead at this point.
5. Place dough into greased bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled.  About 2 hours.
6. Punch down dough and cover.  Refrigerate for up to 4 hours.
7. Roll out dough into a rough 18” x 10” rectangle.
8. Flatten out butter into 5” square.  It’s easiest to slice the sticks into halves and lie them side by side.
9. Place butter over 2/3rds of dough and fold unbuttered dough over and then fold again.  Like a tri-fold pamphlet. 
10. Roll out dough into a 24” by 12” rectangle and tri-fold again.  Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll out again and re-fold.
11. Wrap in plastic and stick back into fridge for 45 minutes.  Repeat to complete a third and fourth turn in rolling and folding.  Put back into fridge for 30 minutes
12. Roll out to 24” by 12” rectangle again.  This time trim to make a proper rectangle.  Using a rotary cutter, make triangles.
13. Roll up triangles starting at base and rolling towards tip.  Form into crescent shape and brush with egg wash.
14. Stick into fridge overnight.
15. Pre-heat oven to 450.  Re-wash croissants with egg.
16. Drop temperature to 400 and bake until crispy brown and beautiful.
17. Let cool for 10-15 minutes.
18. Enjoy!  I bet you can’t eat just one :)

Thanks for looking!

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Making Bread–Challah

This is one of my all time favourite breads in the world.  So what is it?  Challah is a traditional Jewish braided loaf that is used in several holidays.  It is a yeast-risen egg bread that is usually braided using three to six braids.

We grew up with Challah.  Not because we are Jewish, but because we lived in an area of Toronto that was largely influenced by Jewish culture. Some of the best bread in the world was made at our local grocery store and among them, Challah.

So when I started baking in high school, it was one of the first breads, other than my grandmother’s, I ever made. 

I was planning on another croissant recipe today but since I didn’t have non-fat milk powder on hand, I decided I’d make this one.  The recipe was also in the same bread book, so it didn’t take much convincing.

Don’t you just love the small of bread rising?  I mean if I could smell through my swollen sinuses, it would be divine in here :)

Rowan helped in today’s adventure.  She mixed the yeast and honey as well as helped out with kneading the dough.  Such a good helper!

Now the trick to this bread is the use of Saffron.  Now, not everyone will have it on hand as it’s really expensive for such a little amount but it makes the difference between a good Challah and an excellent Challah.  Trust me, I’ve made it both ways.  Also use the best honey you can for the sweetness.  I only had Billy-Bee brand, which is not bad but would usually make it with a higher quality brand.  Use honey you would eat straight up.  If you don’t like the taste of honey, the bread will have that undertone.  Now since I like all honey (its always in my tea), the flavour won’t hinder the bread, I just recommend when baking anything, you use the best ingredients for the best taste!

Recipe:

• 1/4 tsp saffron crumbled
• 1 cup boiling water
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 pkg dry yeast (2.5 tsp loose)
• 4 3/4 cup unbleached flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 eggs beaten
• 6 tbsp melted butter cooled

1. Pour boiling water over saffron and let sit until luke warm.
2. Add honey and stir until dissolved.
3. Pour honey and saffron mixture into bowl with yeast.  Make sure you sieve out the saffron strands (trust me, they are bitter when you bake them and no one wants that!)  Let stand for 5-10 minutes or until foamy
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook (trust me this makes a world of difference on your arms but can be done by hand) add flour and salt.
5. Pour in eggs and butter and mix until completely combined.  About 5 minutes.  If too sticky add 1 tsp flour or if too dry add 1 tsp warm water.
6. Put out on counter and knead for 10 minutes.  Use your arms girls!!!  Press down, push out and pull back, rotate, repeat!  The dough should be smooth and elastic.
   
   
7. Let rise in warm place until doubled.  About 1 to 2 hours.  It’s coolish out here so closer to 2 hours.
   
   
   
8. Punch down and knead again.  Let rise again.
9. Divide dough into the number of braids you like to use.  Since I only know how to braid using 3 strands, that’s what I’m doing.
   
   
   
10. Braid and let rise again.
    
    
    
11. Brush with egg wash and bake at 400.  Re-brush with egg wash at 10 minutes and then continue to bake until the most beautiful golden brown (about 40mins) and when flipped over and tapped, it makes a hollow sound (trick from my grandma)
12. Enjoy.  Bet you can’t eat just one slice!

Thanks for looking!

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

So I was in the kitchen with Rob and he asked when I’d make my grandmother’s bread again.  hint hint

As much as I love this bread, I thought I’d try something different with it.  Now don’t worry, I made the basic bread, but with one loaf I added a cinnamon swirl to it and OMG it was good!

Ok, so my great grandmother’s recipe is here.

Now what I forgot is that is rises a lot. I mean a lot a lot :)

I made the dough in the morning and came back after two hours and it was overflowing the largest bowl I own.  It looked like someone threw up dough all over my oven.  Sorry I forgot to take a pic, but you’ll see what I mean in a minute.

So this time I didn’t just punch down and let it rise again, I decided to just cut out pieces and put into loaf pans.  Now here’s the crux of my problem.  When it rose again, it almost tripled in size, leaving me to think I could have made a few more loafs of bread.  Sorry the next pic is so bad, I used my cell phone as I couldn’t find my camera.  The loaf on the left is the cinnamon swirl.  See how much it rose!!!

Now with one of my pieces, I rolled it out to about 1/2 inch thick and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.  There’s no measurements of how much because your taste probably varies.  I like it with a more cinnamon flavour.  I then rolled it back up and put it into loaf pan and let it rise.  I should have made two loafs out of this one loaf, my bad.

When the loafs had all risen, I heated the oven to 350.  I then basted each loaf with butter and on the cinnamon swirl loaf I sprinkled more cinnamon/sugar.

Then not thinking and assuming I knew the recipe I just baked. They took a bit longer than normal and the lower crusts weren’t as golden.  However, they were damn good.  Especially the cinnamon swirl.  When I cut into it after 15 minutes out of the oven, the sugar was still runny.  OMG it smelt and tasted divine. Even the next day it tasted just as good!

So please, go and make this bread just be mindful how much it rises!

Thanks for looking!

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Grandma’s Homemade Bread

I found my Gran’s recipe box and started going through it and found some amazing recipes.  One of which is my favourite from when we were kids.  Whenever we would visit she would always have fresh bread in the oven.  A favourite memory when I was young was having her teach me how to make her mother’s bread recipe and I’d like to share it with you.  Here’s the original card.  Gran passed away 1995 so it’s pretty old and pretty precious to me!

That’s the actual card.  I changed the crisco to butter and you need much less flour.

Recipe:

• 2 pkgs yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 cups cold water
• 10-12 cups all purpose flour

1. Combine yeast, warm water and sugar and set aside.
2. Scald milk, butter, sugar and salt in large saucepan.  Add 2 cups cold water
3. Start by adding 6 cups of flour to milk mixture and mix together.
4. Add yeast and continue to add flour until dough becomes not sticky.  I used about 11 cups of flour.
5. Knead dough for 5-10 minutes. Let your frustrations out…go to town on it.  The more you knead the better it is!
   
   
6. Grease a large bowl and place dough in center.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise 1.5 hours
   
   
7. Punch down and let rise again.  This doesn’t take as much time, about half.  45mins
   
   
8. Punch down and divide into loaf pans.  This recipe makes about 5 loaves of bread. 
9. After final rise in pans, brush with butter and sprinkle with salt.
   
   
10. Bake at 450 for 10mins, drop heat to 350 for 35 mins.

I made 2 regular loafs and 1 mutant loaf (I may have added too much dough to the pan) and then some knotted buns!  Those were so much fun to make with gran!

Don’t worry about making too much, they will all get eaten.  Hopefully not all in one sitting, but I won’t judge :)

Thanks for looking!

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