Aug/0921
Dan’s French Bread
There’s nothing like fresh baked bread for noshing, with salads and pastas, french toast and pb&j’s. MMM. Dan has been experimenting with our favorite bread of the french baguette variety for over a year now and has come up with a delicious recipe that he’s finally sharing with us!
If you haven’t made bread before, don’t be scared! This isn’t as time consuming as it may seem. You just have to stick around the house while it’s rising. And once you do it a few times, it’ll be second nature.
A few items that will help make this bread come out perfectly:
a stand-up mixer
unbleached bread flour
active dry yeast
a baguette pan (we use this one from Williams-Sonoma)
Dan’s French Bread
Total prep time with two 45-60 minute rises: about 2 hours
Baking time: 25 minutes
2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
5 cups + 3 tbsp unbleached bread flour
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white (optional, for shine)
Combine water, sugar and yeast in your mixing bowl and stir by hand a few times. Let sit for 5 minutes, until a little frothy. Here you’re proofing the yeast, to make sure it hasn’t gone bad. Add the flour and salt to the bowl and mix on low until just incorporated. Turn mixer up to medium speed and let it kneed the dough for 8 minutes. Check the dough after 2 minutes; it should be moist and elastic, but not stick excessively to your fingers. If that is the case, add a little more flour.
Remove the dough from the bowl temporarily, and coat the bowl with a non-stick spray. Put the dough back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rise for 45-60 minutes at room temperature, or until doubled in size.
Remove the dough from the bowl and punch it down (gently kneed it with your hands to release excess air). Sometimes, just pulling it out of the bowl and moving it around in your hands will do the trick. Don’t fold it or work it too much here. Divide the dough in two equal parts with a dough cutter or sharp knife - but don’t tear the dough.
Next you’ll shape the baguettes. Gently stretch each section of dough, or allow gravity to pull part of it down out of your hands, to form two long baguettes the length of your baguette pan. Spray the pan with non-stick spray and lay the dough baguettes into the pan. Cover with a towel and let rise for 45 minutes. At this point, pre-heat the oven to 400-425 degrees. 400 for a softer crust, 425 will give you a crunchier crust.
If you’d like a shiny crust, lightly brush the egg white wash onto the baguettes before popping them into the oven. If you’d like a rustic crust, leave off the wash. Take a sharp razor blade or knife and make one long slit down the center of each baguette, about 1/8″ deep. Be careful not to press down onto the bread too much, so as not to deflate it. The slit allows for expansion in a controlled way, and also looks mighty nice.
Bake for 25 minutes. Put baguettes immediately onto a cooling rack and let cool for as long as you can wait to slice into it. Ryan and I usually whine right away and Dan cuts us off a piece while it’s still hot. With a little butter - oh the yum.
Aug/09262
Peach Clafouti
Written by Cris, Special Contributor
There are few things I will turn the oven on for during the summer, this clafouti (cla-foo-tee) is one of them. Sweet summer fruit is delicious enough, but sometimes I want something rich and sinful. Being health conscious creates some guilt, adding fruit to the mix gives me a reasonable excuse to indulge. I have tinkered with this recipe over the years, reducing both sugar and fat, while upping the fruit. Friends have enjoyed all versions and liked the lighter ones just as much. The fruit would sometimes sink and disappear, so now I cut the peaches into thick slices, 3/4″ thick, so they will not be buried under the batter. My lighter version is so full of sweet, healthy fruit that I feel good about treating myself and others.
Peach Clafouti
1/2 cup (one stick) butter
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 Costco sized peaches, peeled and sliced (about 3 cups)
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
2 tbsp raw sugar
Put butter in 13×9-inch baking dish in 350-degree oven till melted, set aside.
Whisk flour, sugar, salt (skip if using salted butter) and baking powder in large bowl. Add milk and vanilla, and whisk until blended. Pour batter over melted butter and cut through a few times with a rubber spatula. Make sure to push batter into corners of the pan.
Drain any juice from peaches and place slices evenly over batter, dot with blueberries next. Don’t worry if the fruit sinks.
Bake at 350 degrees until top is browned, about 50 minutes.
Sprinkle with raw sugar for a nice crunch.
Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream or a little whipped cream. Heaven!
Jul/090
Jenna’s Cream Cheese Pastries
These scrumptious little things are dangerously good, especially with my strawberry jam. If you make them small enough, you could probably pop a dozen or so in your mouth in a few minutes and then you won’t feel so good about yourself, now will you? Make them for a bake sale or a party and people will adore you. Jenna became my hero in 6th grade because of these little devils.
Cream Cheese Pastries with Strawberry Jam
(credit goes to Jenna Blackford)
You’ll dirty just: 1 mixing bowl, the beater or 1 wooden spoon, 1 measuring cup, 1 baking sheet
4 Tablespoons of room-temp butter
4 oz of cream cheese (1/2 cup)
3/4 c sifted all purpose flour
6 Tablespoons of your favorite preserves or jam
Blend cream cheese, butter and flour thoroughly til mixture forms soft dough. Be sure to incorporate all the cream cheese into the flour - you don’t want any clumps of cheese.
Place dough on large sheet of wax paper; cover with second sheet. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick between the two sheets. Chill in fridge for 20 minutes.
Heat oven to 425.
Peel off wax paper. Cut dough into 2 inch squares. Spread 1/2 teaspoon jam on each square. Fold corners to middle; overlap ends and pinch together very well. The jam will fight its way out, so secure those edges well.
Place on ungreased sheet. Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly before removing from baking sheet.
Jul/090
Banana Nut Bread
Banana bread has long been a favorite of mine. My grandma Barbara used to make it with me all the time (when I was very little she’d let me mash the bananas and that was the coolest thing ever). The smell of it baking in the house is unbeatable. I can’t wait til it’s cooled to eat it - I always cut into it within a few minutes and eat at least a few slices right away.
This recipe is a standard for me - I adapted it from a number of recipes with twice or three times as much sugar and butter. I wouldn’t reduce those items anymore, personally, but I guess it could be done! But why, it’s already bread!
Banana Nut Bread
3 ripe bananas (the riper, the moister the bread!)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
2 oz. butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Cooking spray for the baking dish
Preheat oven to 375°F
Sift flour and baking soda together and reserve.
In another bowl, stir sugar, eggs, vanilla, and butter until well incorporated. Add flour, and stir until smooth.
Mash bananas with a fork and stir into batter. Then add nuts and stir well.
Coat a loaf pan with spray (or other baking dish if you don’t have a loaf pan) and pour in batter. Bake for about 45 minutes. The banana bread is cooked when the tip of a knife comes out clean and dry (although it will come out wet if you’ve stabbed a banana!).
Let cool off for about ten minutes and then remove from baking dish.
May/090
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Not to be confused with Dan’s Ginormous Chocolate Chip Cookies, these are a flatter cookie but with so much substance. Great brown sugar crisp and the dough freezes amazingly well. Be sure to thaw each frozen cookie before baking.
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Preheat oven to 325 convection.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together:
2 cups of flour
½ teaspoon of Baking Soda
In a second bowl, beat together:
¾ cups melted salted butter (one and a half sticks)
½ cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
Then add:
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla
Beat until creamy.
Then, combine the two bowls and beat just until combined.
Add 1 ½ cups chocolate chips. Stir just until mixed.
Use a ¼ cup measuring cup to heap the batter into cookies onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake these giants for 16 ½ minutes. Let cool on the sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.